Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70014 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I was not the one who needed to wiggle.
“Thank you, Daddy.” My sweet but slightly cheeky response got another grin from the previously cranky dragon.
He didn’t call me out on it, though. “Silly boy.”
When I managed not to roll my eyes, he chuckled and climbed out of the car. “I’ll open your door.”
He liked doing that, so I nodded and waited patiently because I liked it too…and the whole thing seemed to have him in a much better mood by the time he opened my door with an adorable flourish. “Your walk, my dear.”
Boyd was feeling so silly as we headed away from the car, he even laced my fingers through his and swung our hands back and forth as we started wandering the path around the park. It had a natural, slightly overgrown look that always made me feel like we were walking through the woods instead of just a few blocks from the library.
“I made my way through more pages of that diary I was telling you about and a few things came up that I didn’t understand.” A lot had come up, actually, but one step at a time. “Theresa, the woman who was writing the diary, said her husband told her they were mates.”
She’d been over the moon about it but hadn’t gone into detail because she’d been a human in the early eighteen hundreds who’d known all about dragons.
“You mentioned that in the beginning, but I can’t remember if you gave me any details.” He was a constant distraction, so I couldn’t be faulted for not remembering what he’d said when we’d first talked about dragons.
Boyd had been telling me there really were dragons, so a bit of a fuzzy memory was to be expected. “I remember you saying something about mates being able to hear each other’s thoughts and…and that’s about it.”
Was that it?
“Theresa is making it sound more mystical than practical, though. That’s not just becoming spouses? Is it a genetic phenomenon between dragons and humans? What about two dragons? Where do mages fit in all this? Do they not get mates? Is that why they always seem like they’re offended?” When I had to take a breath, Boyd started laughing.
“Is it my turn yet?” He leaned over and kissed my head, grinning wider as I rolled my eyes. “My memory isn’t as good as yours. I’m just a dragon.”
My snort made his laughter even worse. “I just have questions.”
And he had to keep his clothes on, so it was a good time to ask them.
“The oldest books and texts in the library might have more accurate information, but from what I was told, we used to have stronger magic and everyone had mates.” As he spoke, he started swinging my hand again and got a bit of a distracted professor look that was so cute I wanted to throw myself at him.
Yep, we needed to spend more time in public so I couldn’t get distracted.
“Now, that might be just old wives’ tales that were embellished as they were passed down, but I don’t think so.” Frowning, he looked at the path in front of us, but I knew that wasn’t what he was seeing. “I remember my great-grandfather being alive when I was very little and his dragon was substantially bigger than most I see now, and when he was telling stories, it really sounded like he and my great-grandmother could mindspeak to each other in their human forms, but I don’t think I’ve met anyone alive around here that can do it.”
Well, that just added more questions to my research list.
“It’s not something that I remember ever getting clearly explained, but he was incredibly old when I was born.” Still looking thoughtful, Boyd rubbed his fingers against mine. “I wish I’d have asked more questions, but my family was never big on history or the past.”
He looked like that still frustrated him.
“They’re more live in the moment kind of people or live in this world kind of people?” The idea that they’d come through a portal to Earth was still incredible, but I could see where the details of it would fade unless people fought to keep it alive.
Boyd actually stopped to think about that for a split second before he kept walking. “Both, in some ways. From what I’ve heard and read, my original ancestors who were trapped here actually liked it. They were teenage siblings who’d come over for what we’d see as a badass field trip.”
God, that would’ve been insane.
“And they liked it here?” I was missing something.
“Yeah.” Boyd gave a shrug as he turned us down a path that would eventually circle back to the car. “Family gossip says their biological parents weren’t great. I don’t know anything beyond that, but they seemed to have seen it as a fresh start and the rest of the family going forward took that viewpoint.”