Page 14 of Mated in the Stars

“Do you know what true-mates are?” Teddy asked, stepping around the green scale guy. “Give us space, Xav. We’re not pigs. He doesn’t want to eat us.”

“F PIG!” The baby shouted as he climbed up Teddy.

“Quit that,” Teddy whispered to him.

“You’re not my mate, Teddy,” I shook my head.

“No, but I think you are--- I think you were my mom.”

“I don’t know who you have me confused for, buddy, but I think you might need to see the healer. If there isn’t one here, I can recommend a few good ones,” I said, crossing my arms.

“He means in a past life,” the elf said.

“Oh, that shit. Yeah. Don’t care about it,” I shrugged. “I think---”

Teddy’s expression fell apart before he shoved it back together all in a single beat of his heart.

“I mean, obviously, I’m sorry your mom isn’t around anymore. I don’t think I was her but I’m not out here to figure out who I used to be. I know who I am. I’m Nelum: Son of a spell hunter and a chicken farmer. I guess you could say I’m a traveler of sorts now but I’m definitely no one’s mother. I’m not even anyone’s carrier. No babies in here.” I pointed to my torso.

“Do I?” Xav asked the elf.

What the hell had I missed? Did he do what?

“Yeah, I guess so, Xav. It’s for the best,” the elf nodded and a second later I was flat out on my back staring up into thepurple canopy of the trees unable to budge a muscle. I should’ve stabbed him when I had the chance to. It would’ve saved me a lot of trouble.

“NO KILL!” the baby shouted. “NO KILL! SAY SORRY! SAY SORRY!”

“Shhhhh…. Buddy. It’s okay. Minter, baby, it’s okay,” Teddy held tight to his squirming and now wailing brother.

It wasn’t my fault I couldn’t open my mouth and tell the little guy that I wasn’t dead yet.

“Well, what are we going to do with him now?” Selt asked. “It’s not like we can just leave him out here. If the spell wears off, he’s gonna haul ass and never come back. His mate is here even if it isn’t Fred and Elio.”

“Dad’s gonna kill us if this is Mom,” Teddy said, still trying to soothe Minter.

Maybe I liked his dad more than I knew. Not enough to be his mom but enough that when I stabbed all these assholes (minus the baby of course) I’d spare him.

“If he kills them all there will be no one left for us to stab,”my dragon chimed in with his two cents.

At least whatever Xav the green scale did to me didn’t put the asshole out. He sat inside his inner sanctum licking his paw fur. I guess that was another bright side to this damnable place. If these dragons were scaly the winters probably didn’t get too bitterly cold around here.

“Are we staying?”My dragon asked.

I wasn’t sure. If our mate was here, maybe. If that’s what the star parasite on my chest meant, maybe.

“Not a parasite,”my dragon shook his head, tossing around his straw-colored neck mane.“Just a scale without fur. A naked scale.”

That was probably my luckiest break today.

“Should’ve stayed in bed or just eaten eggs for dinner,”my dragon sighed.

We were both tired of chicken eggs with ninety percent of our meals.

Chapter Eight

Fred

When everything was said and done, I locked Izora out of his own clinic. Our tiny egg sat in an incubator meant for just this sort of occasion. Elio laid out on the table still naked with his stitches exposed to the air. He breathed easily, still dozing from whatever Izora used to help him relax. I watched his chest and belly rise and fall. His orange star scale glowed as he healed up. The stitches were the sort that draconic bodies gobbled up when they were no longer needed. Scales were already popping up around them.

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