“Yup.” That weird sensation wriggled in my belly again. “My brother’s name is Aurum.”
Mylo nodded, since he had no reason to think I was lying.
“And you’re actually a dragon, huh?” he asked.
Right. He’d never watched the show, so everything was new to him. The Dragonfate Games were so popular now that it seemed strange a fellow shifter would be shocked to meet a dragon. But I remembered back before it was a reality, one of the purposes of the show was to remind society at large that, yes, dragonsdidexist.
“Sure am,” I said proudly.
“Wow,” Mylo murmured. “I’d never seen a dragon in my life, then I saw you two on that stage. You were amazing.”
I grinned. “Yeah, you were so amazed, it knocked you on your ass.”
Mylo’s cheeks flushed a deep shade of red. He dropped his gaze submissively. “Right...”
Shit, did I hurt his feelings?
“Hey, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” I said.
Mylo didn’t look up. A shadow crossed his face, like he was caught up in a storm of bad feelings.
I knew I had to interrupt his spiral before it got worse. I put my finger on his chin and lifted it, forcing him to look at me. His brown eyes watered. Ugh, I didn’t want him to cry.
“I’m not making fun of you,” I promised. “Actually, I thought it was cute.”
“W-what?”
“I said it was cute.”
Mylo stared into space. Was he having an out-of-body experience?
“Um,” he said hesitantly. “Is that why you were glaring at me?”
I tried not to wince. He’d noticed that, huh? I didn’t glare at him because he’d done something wrong, or because I didn’t like him. I glared because I was confused and annoyed at myself for finding a total stranger cute. But now that we’d spoken, we weren’t strangers, so it was fine to think that about him.
But I couldn’t explain all of that to Mylo. “I wasn’t glaring at you. I had sand in my eyes,” I lied. Again, that yucky sensation swirled in my gut. I had to change the subject. “Anyway, what kind of shifter are you?”
He shook off his daze. “Oh, I’m a black-footed ferret.”
“A ferret? One of those masked little weasels?”
“Er, yes.”
I would never have guessed by looking at him. Most of the time, shifters’ human forms hadsomekind of tell about their animal species. Alaric kept his cat’s odd eyes, Poppy had his wolf’s fluffy white hair, Matteo had a hooked nose and sharp eagle eyes, Taylor was big and strong like a tiger...
Ferrets were long and slim, like furry tubes. But Mylo was short and chubby. I guess his dirty-blond hair kind of resembled the pale part of a ferret’s fur.
Mylo blushed again as I looked him over. He shuffled uncomfortably. “I know, I don’t really look like one...”
Shit. I had to stop making him feel bad by accident.
“Actually, you do,” I argued. “Ferrets are cute. And you’re cute.”
Mylo stammered. I didn’t know why he was so shocked. It wasn’t supposed to be a huge compliment or anything—it was just the truth.
“Thank you?” Mylo finally managed to say.
I snorted in amusement. The way he turned everything into a question was cute, too. Dude was way too nervous. I hoped he would relax soon.
