Page 91 of Magic and Mayhem

Somehow in the low light at the back of the house, he looked even larger. But ignoring that for the time being, he also looked darker in color.

“Kenzie the cutie, you look even more beautiful every time I see you.” Which hadn’t been often, but we were going to work on that. “Look at how tall you are.”

The praise had him wiggling and stretching out his wings, clearly bragging about how wonderful he was. “Yes, and your wings are so wide and they look so soft. You know, I think it’s time that I figure out if they’re as soft as they look.”

Yes, and I was going to make my feet keep moving forward.

They didn’t seem to agree with that plan, but I made them work through sheer force of will. I tried not to show that to Kenzie, though, but as I stepped closer, he sank to the ground and lowered his head so he was looking up at me.

“No puppy dog eyes when you’re the size of a large SUV, cutie.” My ridiculous order had laughter teasing at the back of my head again, and I finally started to question whether that was real or my insanity getting louder.

He was a dragon…and his mother had called us mates.

Having something new to focus on and analyze kept me from thinking too much about the fact that I was basically going up to pet a dinosaur.

He was prettier than a dinosaur, but yeah, I could see the resemblance and it gave me even more to think about.

From what I’d been able to piece together, the gate between our worlds had been around for as long as his world had had written records. It just hadn’t been until a few hundred years ago that they’d explored it and figured out Earth was on the other side.

That told me there’d been more than just people who’d been going back and forth, but I left that question for another time too. I had dragon riding lessons to worry about and that had to take precedence over wondering if Kenzie was related to dinosaurs.

But trying to remember the dinosaurs I’d seen in books was a wonderful distraction, and it kept the scared chompy mammal portion of my brain occupied until the adventurous side had reached out to pet Kenzie.

My dragon boyfriend.

“Fuck, Kenzie, you’re a dragon.” I wasn’t getting any smarter about what to say to him, but he didn’t seem to mind. The echo in my head laughed again and even Kenzie’s eyes were filled with delight as he looked up at me.

Puppy eyes on a dragon.

Since the world just kept getting more and more fascinating, I kept stroking his head and decided to get a few more questions out there. “This is probably going to sound insane, but I’m petting a dragon, so I’m not going to obsess over that part.”

More echoey laughter had me rolling my eyes. “Yeah, insane, but I think you’re in my head, cutie.”

Kenzie blinked, looking curious but not as confused as he should’ve been.

“Kenzie, do some dragons and their mates hear each other in their heads?” It should’ve been just another insane question the human asked but Kenzie nodded.

Great.

“I’m assuming you didn’t know that could happen with us?” And his head went up and down again.

Before I could continue on the yes or no game, he scrunched his eyes closed.

Daddy?

For fuck’s sake.

The echo sound was definitely a word that time and sounded much closer.

“Yes, Kenzie? Are you in my head?”

Boo. Daddy, can we have cake when we’re done flying?

Yep, Kenzie was in my head.

“Yes, good dragons who don’t drop their Daddies definitely deserve cake.” My dry response had more giggles filling my head. “You definitely heard me.”

Yes, Daddy. Mom said mates used to do this but I don’t know many people who can do it now.

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