I laughed. “Good. I hope he has both, and gets into all kinds of trouble so his dad can run to his rescue. I love watching you fawnoverhim.”
Dante grumbled and pulled me closer, rubbing my hair. “Shutup.”
“Anton, at what age did Dante and Lorenzo start shifting?” I asked hisfather.
“Hm,” Anton said, rubbing his chin in thought. “Well, Lorenzo is older, so obviously he started first. I think he was about Noah’s age, actually.” He chuckled. “Scared me and your daddy half to death. He just sprouted wings in the middle of his feeding time, scared us and himself. Made us drop the food all over thefloor.”
Lorenzo blushed, but smiled at the fondmemory.
“Daddy,” I murmured, trying out the word on my tongue. “That’s your word for your omega-father,right?”
“Yes.” Anton smiled. “The boys always called me dad, and your father ‘daddy. When they were young, atleast.’”
I glanced to Dante in anticipation. He was already on the same wavelength as me. He curled his arm tighter around me. “Let me guess. You want to use those sameterms?”
“Ido.”
“Sure thing. Anything for you,daddy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, it’s not as cute whenyousayit.”
“Da!” Noah cried as he wrapped his armsaroundRuby.
“No!” Dante whined. “Not her, she’s not da!I’mda!”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Dante turned into such a brat over his own child. It was hopelesslyendearing.
He shuffled over to Noah and Ruby and gently plucked his fingers off her. She shifted back to human form and watched Dante fuss withamusement.
“Da,” Dante said to Noah seriously while pointing at himself. “Me, da. Dad.” He pointed at me. “Him,daddy.”
“Da.”
Dante pointed to Ruby. “AuntRuby.”
“Dooby.”
Dante sighed. “Kid, you’re killingmehere.”
We all laughed. Dante carefully placed Noah back on the floor, and he instantly began crawling back towards Ryu with determined movements. Ryu’s eyes lit up. Still in his serpentine dragon form, he slunk low towards the ground to make himself smaller - and therefore less scary. Although, so far, Noah had no fear of anyone’s dragon form. Dante in particular was really glad, and proudofthat.
Ryu made a playful growl in the back of his throat. Noah stopped and put his fingers on Ryu’s snout, which looked like a strange combination of lizard and cat. Noah stroked the streaming fur on the top of Ryu’s head and grabbed onto hishorns.
Ryu laughed. “Thattickles!”
“Da,”Noahsaid.
Suddenly, Noah grabbed Ryu’s long whiskers and yanked on them. Ryu let out a yelp of pain. Startled, Noah stumbled back onto his bum andblinked.
I rushed in and picked up Noah. “Okay, dear, that’s enough bugging your aunts and unclesfornow.”
When I took Noah in my arms, he began fussing and grumbling. He shrieked and slapped hischubbyarms.
“I love when he gets feisty,”Dantesaid.
I frowned and tried to cradle Noah in my arms, but he wouldn’t let up. He flapped his arms and grumbled and kicked hislittlelegs.
“Noah, what areyou-oh!”
