Page 39 of The Emerald Boa's Lover
“That our this Vekna boy is going to look at our daughter and-” The front door bell rings and the moment has arrived. “Well? Let’s meet the boy, shall we?” I march towards the front door, but Dal reels me back with his tail around my waist and goes to the door first. Probably so the first parent the kid meets isn’t the one who is practically frothing at the mouth.
“G-good morning sir.” I fold my arms and hang back as Dal lifts up on his tail to make a good show of intimidation towards the younger male. Good.
“Good morning. I am Dalahan. Suzu’s father.”
“A pleasure to meet you sir.” I raise a brow. The owner of that soft voice sounded rather timid. Also good. “I’m Vekna. I-I have come to introduce myself, and then I hope to escort Suzu to the Hokesh festival.”
“I am aware.” Dal answers, and I grin. Goooooood. He’s giving off serious don’t mess with my daughter Dad vibes. “Come in Vekna, and let me introduce you to her other father, and then you can tell us more about yourself.”
“Thank you sir.” Okay, still sounds timid, but he’s being very polite. Some of my daddy wolf hackles are lowering. Dalahan moves out of the way and an Ucfeni slithers inside our home. He is pale pink, has dark pink ridges on his head like horns that travel down in an elongated V to the tip of his tail. His eyes are magenta and he smiles wide enough for me to see his gums. “You must be Charlie. A pleasure to meet you sir.” He offers me his hand, a very human gesture I notice, and I shake it. “Suzu has told me a lot about you both.”
“Has she told you what I do for a living?” I smirk, and behind him Dal is waving his hands in an X telling me not to do it, and to behave myself.
“You are a doctor.” Vekna nods with pride and his tail coils around himself. I notice he’s wearing a solid dark pink wrap-around skirt to match his eyes, and he is wearing a brown leather satchel on his left shoulder. “And Dalahan, sir, are an architect and business owner.”
“Yes I am.” Dal slithers over to my side and puts his hand on my shoulder. “Of course, you’re 16, so you don’t have a profession yet. What do your parents do?” Vekna’s neck scales darkened magenta pink, and he twisted both hands nervously around the strap of his satchel.
“Oh. I wasn’t expecting you to ask me that right away.” He chuckles nervously. So he bloody should.
“Well we have? Is there a reason you don’t want to tell us?” I press.
“Oh, well, it’s just that you might treat me differently once you know, and erm, I just wanted you to meetmefirst,not…the son of my parents.” His tail coils around himself a bit tighter, really nervous, and he looks up at the hole in the ceiling. I know Suzu is peering down at us, but she’s too smart to come down and draw fire just yet.
“Regardless, I’m going to need to know who they are in the event that for some reason, my daughter doesn’t come home safely and in one piece. So who are your parents please?” He closes his magenta eyes and sighs.
“You might as well tell them!” Someone calls out from outside the house and Dalahan lifts up on his tail in alarm.
“Who’s that?”
Chapter 30
Epilogue part 2 of 3
Still Charlie.
“Oh no.” Vekna’s left eye twitches, and he pales. “They followed me.”
“They who?” I fold my arms, seeing that whoever ‘they’ were, Vekna hadn’t planned on them tagging along. Was he in trouble? He looked mortified. “Dal?”
“On it.”
“Oh no, please don’t—” Vekna begged, but he wasn’t fast enough. Dalahan swung his head out of the front door and did a double take.
“Good morning sir!”
“Good morning.”
“Hi.”
“Charlie?” Dal blinks and looks back at me in surprise. “There are three more of them out here.” Vekna cups his hands to his face and whines with embarrassment.
“My stupid hatch mates followed me…oh no.” He paled even further and tried to make a break for the door. “What are you doing here?! If we’re all gone then it won’t be long before—”
It was a flurry of scales and colours as many bodies slithered into my living room. Dal moved in a green blur to coil around me protectively, and below the access hole to guard our children.Fourpale pink teenagers poured into the living room, three of them hissing around Vekna, and then two more people came in as well. One I instantly recognised. He was a massive King Cobra, dwarfing everyone else in the room, and was even bigger than I remembered. His hood was wide and he hissed both quietly, and with rage.
“Forgive our presence, but our clutch slithered off without permission.” He directs at me and Dal, and then focuses on hissing at his children. “Do you have any idea how worried we were to find all four of you missing?” He chided the four pink teens, and I gawked with a smile on my face. Namely, because I was drawing the dots together about just who was in my living room.
“Prince Izule?” I ask curiously, and as he looks at me he lowers a human woman, ten years younger than me, to stand beside him. “Billie?”
