Dray squeezed my shoulder. “We’ve got this.”
We walked down the path hand in hand, and Mom raced toward us. She pulled me into a hug while Dad shook my mate’s hand.
“You must be Dray.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”
The conversation between Dray and Dad was stiff and formal, so I suggested a tour of the house. My folks hadn’t seen the place in years. But just as we got inside, a knock at the door interrupted us. Dray opened it and his Dad, Pops, Garrett, Aunt Raine, and Anderson charged in.
“We brought food so you don’t have to cook this weekend.”
Dray made the introductions as I checked to make sure no one was showing their scales or fangs.
“Pax, when are you going to lay your eggs?” Anderson was checking out my flat belly. “I can’t wait to have dragon cousins.”
“Eggs? Dragons?” Mom looked from me to Dad.
My legs gave way, and I sank onto the couch.
Aunt Raine grabbed Anderson and hugged him tight. “We haven’t talked to him about… you know… the birds and the bees.” She gave a nervous laugh. "Hence the eggs thing.”
“He has a very active imagination.” Dray shot his cousin a look.
“Why don’t we have something to eat?” Pops suggested and bustled into the kitchen. “I made my grandpa’s special recipe.”
“Dragon-breath peppers.” Anderson grinned and folded his arms.
Oh gods, more dragon references. I was wishing I hadn’t finished all the vanilla ice cream because I needed to put something sweet in my mouth.
“It's just a name,” Dray added. “For spicy peppers.” He laughed. “It’s not actual dragon breath.”
My parents shared a look, and a knot of tension formed in my belly. I hoped I wasn’t going to be sick.
But as Dray was telling my folks about his business, Uncle Noel walked in.
“Hello.” He stopped and sniffed. “Do I scent humans?”
“Humans?” Mom squeaked.
“Just regular old humans.” Dray glared at his uncle.
“Not shifters,” Anderson piped up.
“Shifters?” Dad looked at me as if he wanted me to explain.
“Night-shift workers.” Garrett had finally come to the rescue. “At the plant. Outside town. They have very different schedules from us day-shift folk.”
“There's a plant outside town?” my dad asked. He was an engineer, and that piqued his interest.
"Yep. It’s a big one too, and it makes things.”
My head shot up because Dad would want Garrett to explain further.
“What things?”
And there it was.
“Plant things.”
