When we’d first arrived in Shifters Sanctuary, I found myself practically bowled over by the knowledge that I had sired an alpha unicorn shifter during my time spent in California almost forty years earlier. Dexter, full of cheek and smarm and mischief, had known. Hell, both dragons had known, but it had been Dexter who took delight in throwing Micah and I together without warning.
That had been an awkward affair. At the time, nobody had been particularly happy with the British dragon for his handling of the situation, myself included.
Still, I sighed and rolled my eyes. “You were forgiven before I left. You know that.”
His lips turned down and he glanced away, muttering, “I’m second-guessing a lot of things, Serge.” Before I could ask what the hell that meant, he continued, still disturbingly morosely, “I just wanted to make sure that you and I are alright. You’ve become” —he paused, as if searching for the right word, his long, straight nose scrunching up— “a friend. And I don’t really have many of those these days, so…I am trying to be better.”
The magic in my veins practically tingled, as though I needed any additional reason to be on alert with this man. Stopping in place, I frowned. This was all quite out of character for him. “Dexter,” I all but demanded his complete attention, speaking his name firmly, but softly, “what has happened?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Which is actually the problem, I suppose. But…no. Nothing.” He forced a smile, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “I’ve just had a long day and I’m feeling out of sorts.”
“Dexter…”
“So, we’re good?” he cut me off with feigned brightness. I didn’t want to let the topic go, but after weeks spent observing him with Sage, I didn’t think pressing him would get me anywhere. “Because I do feel a bit guilty for using you and Micah to get under Brandt’s skin. In my defense, though, we got to see your genuine reaction and that made the pack trust you, so…”
Despite my concern, a bubble of incredulous laughter burst out of me in a short huff. “We are fine,” I assured him, sounding mildly exasperated even to my own ears. I concentrated on calming my tone. “I won’t lie: it did make me sad to have a child —a son— in the world, but to have discovered so far too late.”
Micah was a good man, though. He was kind and calm by nature, and he bore me no ill-will for my unintended absenteeism. However, he was firm that he saw me as nothing more than a surprise relative: a stranger caught up by a twist of fate, and not someone he would ever form a close bond with.
Micah had grown up happily with his horse-shifter parents, the people who had begged for my assistance to help them conceive and carry a child to term. Despite the rituals involved at the time, I genuinely hadn’t considered that my participation would override Micah’s father’s…but The Magic worked in mysterious ways sometimes.
Dexter grimaced. “I apologize. I wasn’t thinking about your feelings. Or his. I…” his lips pulled into a rueful smile, “well, let’s just say that’s on brand for me.”
I shook my head. “Given that, when we met, Micah had only recently become a father himself” —to three beautiful unicorn-scented daughters— “I can’t blame him for not wanting to deal with my arrival in town. He had enoughgoing on in his life. He didn’t need extra drama in the form of a biological father seven centuries his senior…and I wouldn’t have known how to fit him in my life, either.”
“And now?” It sounded like the question pained him to ask.
Shrugging, I answered, “I was, at best, a sperm donor. A magic donor, too, I suppose. And at seven-hundred-years-old and counting, it would be strange to try to be a father. I have made peace with The Magic and with the situation as a whole, Dexter, and so should you.”
We were approaching the main road, and I belatedly realized that I didn’t have any place to stay for the night. I knew the Alpha would offer me a spare room in the morning, but when The Magic had insisted I take flight immediately, I hadn’t thought any further ahead. Distractedly, I reached out and squeezed Dexter’s shoulder, flinching at the electric shock I received.
“Be kind to yourself,” I said gently, removing my hand and flexing it.
He rolled his shoulder, then frowned at me. “Where are you staying?”
Never one to lie, I waved vaguely in the direction of the Alpha’s home. It was a large homestead on a farming plot, and I knew I could shift back into my unicorn form and sleep comfortably in the stables for the night, if nothing else. But, as I opened my mouth to state as much, Dexter snorted and rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, I thought so. That Magic of yours doesn’t really help with the details when it throws wrenches into plans, does it?” He hefted my satchel higher on his shoulder and jerked his chin in the opposite direction to my intended destination. “You can come stay with me and Sage. He’ll be happy to see you again,too.” There was another flash of some undefinable sense of melancholy before his features shifted into a lascivious smirk. “Besides, it won’t be a hardship to share my bed with you.”
My traitorous cock jerked at the flirtatious words, but I forced myself to appear unaffected, falling back into step with him as he led the way. Pebbles crunched pleasantly underfoot as we walked side by side. “I’ll take the couch.”
“We don’t have one.”
I found that hard to believe. “The floor, then.”
“At your age?”
“I’m spryer than I appear.”
“Oh, that isexactlywhat I am counting on, Serge.”
“—the hell, Dex?”
I came to consciousness at the hissed question, cracking a bleary eye open to find myself wrapped around a delicious, toned torso. The torso jiggled with a muted laugh.
“It actually isn’t what it looks like,” Dexter’s low, English-accented voice rumbled through his chest. “He flew in late last night and I offered him a place to stay. More’s the pity: I would have happily taken this particular flying horse for a ride.”
A strangled noise came from somewhere near the foot of the bed.
