Page 78 of Myths and Shifts

Every eye turned to us but that was just because they were nosy, so we both ignored the patrons. After giving the woman who owned it a wave, I went toward the other mages and dragons who were involved in the medical field in some way and Daddy sighed before heading over…oh.

To Wren…and his something.

It was the confused Daddy guy.

It just got more and more interesting, and for the first time, I regretted actually having a role that needed a meeting.

“Gentlemen.” Originally Mrs. Phillip had technically been part of our team, but thankfully we didn’t have to deal with her anymore. “Good morning.”

Everyone at the small table nodded and returned my greeting, but they were too distracted to do much more than that. They were focused on the fun stuff like Daddy talking to Wren in a frustrated whisper and the naughty men at the back of the diner who seemed to be trying to decide what people did with a spreader bar.

How they’d been allowed to bring that into the diner I didn’t know, but the emergency room doctor who liked to frown as much as Daddy seemed to know what it was. “For fuck’s sake.”

Yep.

“I don’t want anyone to explain it to me.” The tall man who was the most nervous nurse I’d ever met shook his head. “I’m good not knowing. But I just. It’s not appropriate, is it?”

His name always escaped me but luckily it didn’t matter because the doctor shook his head. “No. It’s not.”

“We’re just going to ignore it, though. It’s not important for this meeting.” Besides, in about ten seconds we were going to be the most interesting thing in the room. “What is important is deciding who we’re sending through the portal.”

We were not going to let the group as a whole make that decision.

The room went so silent we could’ve heard a pin drop.

“I don’t care what they think.” Wren’s voice held a decisiveness I hadn’t heard from him before. “I’m an adorable squirrel and he’s my mate.”

That was the Wren I knew…and it explained a few things…and it also gave everyone in the room enough gossip to last for at least the rest of the day.

“There are squirrels too?”

Oops. Our nervous nurse was never going to recover.

“Don’t explain that either.”

It was going to be an interesting day.

****

“So…” Daddy hadn’t managed to eat anything while we were at the diner, so I handed him the breakfast sandwich I’d gotten to go. “Couple of bites.”

Then we’d get him out of his shock and hopefully ready for the next meeting. All I was currently getting through the bond was stress and surprise and a few fuzzyStar Trekimages.

Daddy had a very good imagination, but I wasn’t sure what was going on unless Wren had decided to share some kind of new kink. I didn’t think that was reasonable, though, because no one would’ve let us leave without asking more questions.

The only ones we’d gotten were about squirrels and the spreader bar…and of course…their thoughts about who should go through the portal and how that would work.

It was good to see that the locals agreed with our plans so far, but it was frustrating we didn’t have more plans. Daddy especially didn’t like that part, but we were making progress. He didn’t seem to remember that part until he ate the sandwich, though.

“Your meeting.” Stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, he blinked and came back to life. “I didn’t catch most of it. Wren was. His. That.”

Wren’s mate was what?

“It’s his mate, right?” My question was simple enough that it got a nod from Daddy right off the bat. “It’s good he found his mate. We’re going to start there. Your family can’t be too frustrated because it’s a mate bond. That’s the most important thing. Period.”

Even my family couldn’t complain too much about that.

Being able to focus on one thing at a time seemed to help Daddy and he took a breath that made him steadier. “Yes. That is the most important thing. Wren has a mate. He has a mate that seems to be nice. He was nice when we met him.”

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