Page 63 of Her Dragon Daddy Disaster
“Lydia?” I asked, trying to stay relaxed and not give anything away.
It was a coincidence. Just a coincidence of names, that’s all. It had to be. A popular dragon name.
“His great love,” Yolandi said with a smile of remembrance. “I still remember the day he came home. Marched right through the front door to the dinner table and declared to the whole family she was his mate. Quite the spectacle.”
“I can only imagine. Levi does have a way of making a scene.” I worked to quell my stomach. The churning grew worse as the storm built inside me.
“Now, of course, he’d been fawning over her for weeks, months even. This was no surprise to any of us, we all saw it coming from a mile away, truth be told. Of course, we had to act all surprised as if it wasn’t the most logical thing ever.”
Cocking my head, I asked her why that was. After all, if it were so logical, then why hadn’t they worked out?
“They were just perfect for one another,” Yolandi said with a warm smile. “She was tall, and they fit well together, you understand? Similar desires in life as well. And the way she made him happy! That’s what any mother wants to see, you understand.”
My eyes flicked over to Jakub. My son and his father were currently being surrounded by the men of the family. They all were displaying various shades of dragon scales rippling up and down their arms, while Jakub darted from person to person to examine.Probably asking them if he was going to have their color of scales or not.
“I do understand,” I said with a certain gravitas I would never have dreamed possible until I had a child of my own.
“That I believe,” Yolandi agreed, reaching out to pat my knee. “Only those of us who have become parents truly know the depths of happiness we wish for our offspring.”
“Agreed.”
“That, however, is not the way it played out, unfortunately.”
I wondered if Yolandi understood the insult she gave me with that statement. Judging by the far-off look in her eyes, a much darker shade of brown than her sons, I doubted it. She was lost in her own memories instead.
“So, what did happen?”
“She chose his best friend instead.”
“Malakai.”
Yolandi nodded. “Have you met them?”
“Yes.”
Not only had I met them, but I’d seen the way Levi had acted around them. Around her. The unnatural stiffness, the eyes that looked anywhere but at her. The way she said his name and pierced that bubble of personal space ever so subtly.
I hadn’t known the history between them. But now I did. Why did Levi let her act that way around him? Was he even aware she did it?
Or does he like it?
“Poor Levi, he was hit really hard by her choice,” Yolandi went on, interrupting my train of thought.
“It was his best friend. I would be hurt, too. Betrayed, perhaps.”
“A very human thing.”
I arched my eyebrows. There was no insult in her voice, but a simple explanation. “I don’t follow.”
“Humans get together based on emotions. Feelings. Desires of the genitals.”
I fought back a blush. Did she know about Levi’s and my initial reason for getting together? Did dragon families talk about that sort of thing? I hoped not. Just thinking about Levi telling his mother what he’d done to me was unsettling. If he’d actually done so …
“Dragons don’t?” I asked, thinking back to how Levi had called me his mate. It was his reason for bringing me to the island and keeping me there.
“Of course not. Has Levi not explained this to you?”
I sort of shrugged uncomfortably. “Not really?”
