Page 40 of Delinquent Dette
“Wasn’t much of a culture to begin with, frankly.” Gaspard stood and tucked his handkerchief away. “See to your Dette. I’ll come by tomorrow to check on you two. Bastien has first call so if you need someone before ten a.m., he gets first ring. Okay?”
Sten nodded. “Thank you. You’re a good Drake. Always have been.”
“You think so? Hmm. I could improve, too. For too long, I pressured Frikka without even asking him why. And he had reasons, and I just assumed.” Sten took a deep breath and exhaled long and hard. They’d been young with their first clutch, far too young to raise one. He’d been in love and little else. They survived, but barely.
“We all make poor decisions. We treated Hallr like an amorous pariah for so long… We couldn’t see past a Drake speaking to a Dette, our Dette. We treated Ryan like a possession and assumed the only reason a Drake would speak to a Dette was for sex. We’re no better.” Gaspard rubbed at his neck.
“I knew he’d do it. He promised he would. Remember Cairn Dior, the Dette he was so infatuated with as a child?” Sten hid a chuckle under his breath.
“I do. So long ago, it seems but a blink. His interaction had us all on edge, but he had so much love to give, even then. And he did find his tiger lily, didn’t he?” Gaspard shook his head.
“Cairn is technically Leo’s uncle, you know?” Sten smirked and Gaspard froze.
“I didn’t realize. Sacha or Gabriel?”
“He and Sacha are half-brothers.” Sten frowned. “Through their Dette father, I believe.”
“Ah. It’s a good thing that our dragons can smell close blood because the way we passed Dettes around would be havoc.” Gaspard sniffed indignantly. “Not that the Slangs got the memo.”
A grave moment of silence passed before Sten shook his head. “I know there is a Dette council, but we do need a program to check on pups as well. Since more are being born, and Hallr is having less control over who can supply them to Dettes, we don’t want more Eamons cropping up.”
“About the only good thing that came out of that man was Powel. And that was only because he got away from him.” Gaspard stood and stretched. “Instructions are sent to your phones. Rest well and he can eat when he’s ready.”
Sten nodded and glanced over his shoulder at Frikka. “See if we can get Suyin and his pups over in a few days.”
“Will do. We’ve already asked for volunteers and he already agreed to break Frikka’s nesting.” Gaspard waved him off and saw himself out.
Before Sten would bring pups into his nest, breaking Frikka of any lingering territorial rage, he wanted a day or two with the two of them, alone and learning the voices of their young.
They would not have words or thoughts yet, only a binary of happy or distressed, but Sten crawled over and lay next to Frikka and their eggs, falling in love all over again with two little happy souls linked to him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Frikka
Noises and new scents roused Frikka from his Draconic nap. His tail whipped as he guarded his eggs a little more sternly.Intruders.
Frikka hissed as the vault door pried open and froze when the yip of two excited little Dette pups met his ears.Baby? Babies?Frikka nosed his eggs around and kicked blankets, something in his lizard brain telling him to make room in the nest for pups.
Two little, blue Long dragons came galloping down the steps, chirping happily as they ran to the side of the nest, tails wiggling madly as if asking permission to come in. Pups loved nests, their Dette father’s the most, but any nest would do. Frikka snorted at them and gestured the pups into the warmth of his belly. Cold pups simply wouldn’t do.
Any pup was a Dette’s pup if they were in their nest, after all, right?
Frikka licked at one of the little Dettes. Callum. Yufei snuffled around and rooted under a blanket, his little chubby tail sticking out with a happy wiggle.Babies.
The key, they’d figured out, to make things more successful, was to put as many pups in their nest as there were eggs. Part of their dragon brain snapped out of their nesting fierceness, and they became happier Dettes.Hello, little ones.
New nest. Good nest,the one snuggled under a blanket said.
Kisses!The other one turned his cheek to Frikka’s licks and flopped onto his back with a chirp of delight. Pure endorphins rushed through Frikka’s brain and, as if everything came to a peak, he shifted, throwing on a pair of shorts with frantic movements before snuggling up to the new pups with his eggs.
“Kisses! Yes. Hello, Callum. How are you two? You comfortable, Yufei?” Frikka sighed as the other pup rooted under the blanket, careful of the eggs before snuggling up to Frikka, too.
Good!Yufei chirped and wiggled, giving Frikka a happy little nip.New cousins! Are they Drake or Dette?
“I don’t know, yet. They won’t know until they hatch.” Frikka picked Yufei up and cradled him. He was a year and a half old, still in his awkward little chubby-pup stage. His older cousins, mainly Leo’s, were leggy and thinning out as they were working hard to grow. Storm was the worst of them, stretched thin like a little string bean.
We’ll find out come hatchday!Callum beamed, little tail wiggling.I don’t remember last hatchday… But it’s gonna be fun!
