Page 30 of The Manny's Fiery Dragon Bond

“Hey, you started the conversation.” Tavian wrinkled his nose at his brother.

“I absolutely did not.” Eryndor shook his head. “You’ve taken it too far, like you always do.”

Eryndor went to ball up a napkin and toss it at his brother. In some ways, their sibling bond was no different when they were teens.

“Ah,” Ollie said, giving a glare to both of them. “You guys can have fun later, after the kids go to bed, but right now you’ve got little eyes watching. Let’s keep the sibling rivalry down to a minimum.”

I hadn’t thought of that. We didn’t need three little ones throwing things at the table. That was for sure.

“Sorry,” they both mumbled, the almost-fight petering out before it even started.

Kier covered his mouth with his hand, laughter bubbled out of him. “He really is like a stepdad.”

The blood drained from Ollie’s face as he looked around the table. “No, I was just… because of the…”

“You’re fine, Ollie,” I said. “They think they are funny. They aren’t.”

Tavian went to open his mouth, probably to say that he was funny, and I stopped him with a glance. There’d be plenty of opportunities for Ollie to experience the joy of their sibling antics. Today was not going to be that day.

“It’s not like that. I’m not your dad—” Poor Ollie was so flustered.

Eryndor shrugged. “You kind of are…”

“Should we call you like Pops? Or Da? Dad 2.0? Young Dad?” Tavian asked.

“I like that one. Let’s go with Young Dad,” Eryndor said.

Great. Now they were conspiring together. Their intent was to make Ollie feel like one of us, and I got that. But being dragons, they wouldn’t understand the age issue. Not fully. I didn’t even, and I was the one mated to him. For us, the huge age difference was something we were used to in our daily lives. We were constantly around people far from our age. That wasn’t true for Ollie.

“My goodness, you guys are going to be the death of me,” I said.

“That’s our purpose in life.” Eryndor winked.

Ollie still looked like he might be a bit sick. I placed my hand in his.

“You sure everything’s okay?”

He grimaced. “Yes, sorry, just—” He put a hand to his stomach. “Excuse me for a moment.”

Ollie ran from the room, and before I could fully get up, Tavian’s arms were wrapped around me. “Dad, I didn’t realize—congratulations!”

Next thing I knew, Eryndor’s arms were around me the other way, from the other side. “I’m so happy for you!”

It took me a few seconds to piece together what they were saying. “You think it...?” I asked, afraid to get too excited, in case I was wrong.

Both chuckled.

“Yeah, we think… Actually, we know.” Eryndor stood back. “Now go. Go to him.”

I was out of the room so fast, standing in the bathroom doorway as my mate was looking up at me, his face still a little green.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin dinner.” He had no clue yet.

“You didn’t,” I assured him and grabbed a washcloth, cooling it off with water before handing it to him. “Trust me, you didn’t.”

“Wait outside. I don’t want you seeing me like this.” Poor guy was embarrassed and still hadn’t figured out what the rest of us knew.

He came out a minute later, his face looking normal again.

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