The entire room turned to look at Betty, who sat on the edge of her desk sipping her coffee. She was amazing—she looked like a pin-up drawing, curvy and lush, brightly colored and pretty—but she was one of the fiercest dragons around, or so Talon insisted.
Talon and Kami had to deal with her a lot. Kami said he would have totally fallen for her if it weren’t for Reno.
“Betty has a point. So does Jack. So does Cerran. Cerran, Jack, would you two please work together and come up with some sort of a plan? I’ll have Skye help you. Skye has been trained in diplomacy.”
Lake nodded. “He’ll be brilliant at it. I’d offer to help, but I have four thousand children.”
Boone grinned, the look wicked. “Not only that, we’re about to have four thousand and one.”
There was a huge chorus of congratulations, and he had to admit, he was petty enough to want that for himself.
Soon, hailee. I promise.
He glanced up at Talon.What if I can’t?
Then we adopt orphans from another keep. Several of our friends here have done just that, including my brother.
Mercury blinked. There was still a lot of children he hadn’t met. But he knew that was true. Cerran and Triton and Elowyn had a little girl who had been some sort of real source of contention at another keep. Kind of like him. Jack and his mate, he knew had a lot of children who were special, like seers.
I hope we can have ones of our own, but I would be willing to take other children too, especially if there were ones like me.
“And we’ve lost them,” Kami said, grabbing his attention back. “They’re now having some sort of lovey-dovey mental talk.”
Talon grinned, squeezing him. “We are at that. Is this meeting over now that we know that Jack and Cerran are going to do all the work for the time being?”
“I’ll help,” Betty said. “I’ve got some contacts.”
“Perfect.” Boone slapped his hands on his thighs and stood up. “Who wants to go spar?”
“I think I would rather go have a meal with my mates.” Triton stood as well, winking at Talon and him, which made Mercury feel incredibly included.
“Kami, we have that thing.” Reno jerked his head toward the door.
Kami’s eyes widened. “Right. That thing. We really need to go do that thing. We’ll see you guys later.”
The room started to empty out, and it was finally only Jack, Cain, and the two of them. Jack smiled at Mercury, which made him want to hide a little bit again, but it wasn’t nice to do that because the man was being kind. “Don’t worry about it, Mercury. We’re going to figure this out.”
“Thank you.” Talon held out a hand to Jack, who shook it. “I appreciate your help on this, alpha. And you, seer. Very, very much.”
“That’s our job.” Jack clapped Cain on the shoulder and then headed out of the room.
Cain gave them both a gentle look. “I think the two of you should go spend some time together, just alone.”
Talon lifted Mercury into his arms, making him gasp because he felt like the world had just shifted under him. “I think that’s a perfect idea. Are you feeling up to going home and enjoying ourselves, mate?” Talon headed out of the room so Cain didn’t get to hear the rest of their conversation.
“That depends on what you mean by enjoying ourselves,” Mercury said. “If you mean ordering more milkshakes, I’m not sure I want to do that.”
“I had something more physical in mind,” Talon told him, winding his way down the hall toward their apartments. “I think you’re up to it now.”
“Do you now?” Mercury chuckled because he did feel up to it and, even if he hadn’t felt up to it, he was done with this just sitting and staring and drinking milkshakes nonsense.
At least he didn’t have to wonder whether or not Talon found him attractive. That was obvious. Talon was always looking at him, touching him, doing things to make him feel wanted and included.
“I do.” Talon hurried them down, almost flying through the hallways, and he held on, laughing, both at the eagerness and at the sheer fun. Talon was so strong, and he knew he was light, so his mate could just go like the wind.
“Soon we’ll go flying. Then we’ll talk about how fast you go. I bet you’re like a streak of lightning.”
He chuckled. “I hope so, but not now.” Right this second, he was very interested in doing something that had absolutely nothing to do with his wings.
