“The usual lilies or something different?” The young man looked up at the fidgeting Greg next to Sacha and narrowed his eyes.

  “Actually, a dozen peonies, if you have them.” Greg cleared his throat, and the boy brightened.

  “Absolutely! Those are my favorite! Just let me do this real quick.” He spent a few minutes ticking boxes before cramming a stack of papers into a fax machine, swearing prolifically under his breath about how antiquated his supplier was.

  The young man rounded a counter, pulled a bucket of peonies from a shining fridge and trimmed them up a little before papering and ribboning them. “No charge today. You’re in here all the time and you look like you’re nervous.” He straightened his hair back from his face and yanked his ponytail holder out with a sigh of relief. A flashback shot through Greg’s mind of the scrawny little kid with his long mop of red hair, sitting naked in Leo’s crate.

  “There we go.” He rocked on his feet and waved at an employee in back to take over. “Kirsten, I’m heading out. You alright to close today, or would you like me to come back at closing to help?”

  “I got it under control, Leo. You get home to your—” Kirsten paused and glanced at Greg nervously for a moment. “You have fun at home with the family.”

  That name grabbed Greg’s attention. Leo?

  Sacha smiled halfheartedly as Leo bounded out of the front door, Sacha in tow. “Ride up to the estate with me. You can have Hallr drop you off tomorrow.”

  “I don’t want anyone stealing Phyllis,” Leo huffed. Sacha stared at the car for a lingering moment then back at Leo, and he shrank. “Yeah, alright.”

  “So, Leo, you know Greg already?” Sacha asked and Leo paused, looking back at Greg with a strange expression that melted into sweet care.

  “So, you… You’re Leo? My little Leo?” Greg’s face brightened as his smile spread wide.

  “Not so little, now,” Leo grumbled, and Sacha pursed his lips, pointedly looking away. Leo’s head settled under Sacha’s chin. They had certain similarities between them, and Greg kicked himself that he didn’t notice it before.

  “Come on, ride with us.” Sacha shrugged his shoulder, and Greg followed obediently.

  Chapter Seven

  Sacha

  Greg didn’t have any idea what to say or do but stuck with stunned silence as they got back in the car and rode to the house. Sacha had tried his best to explain dragons and shifters to him. The Drake and Dette situation, their magic. He didn’t have the scope to understand what it meant to be a dragon.

  As far as Greg understood, Sacha’s son, Leo, was the boy that ended up in his car’s kennel. He had no mental connections for Leo the person and Leo the dragon.

  As they entered the house, Leo shouted his welcome. “Honey, I’m home!”

  “Welcome home, Annie!” Hallr stuck his head in from a row of sliding glass doors and eyed the guests, a look of surprise and then recognition passing through his sweet blue eyes before he looked back at Leo so sweetly. Sacha didn’t mistake the hooding of his eyes and the warm look passing over Hallr’s face for anything other than what it probably was. He cleared his throat to make sure Hallr remembered his company.

  “Annie?” Greg asked.

  “Little orphan Annie,” Leo said, rolling his eyes. “He’s Daddy Warbucks.”

  “Or ‘Asshole,’” Hallr supplied helpfully. “Depending on the amount of ranch dressing involved.”

  Leo gagged and paled before running off. Greg’s eyes went wide. “He really is my little Leo.”

  “Mine,” Hallr grumbled before taking a calming breath. “You’ll have to excuse him. He’s delicate for the next few weeks.”

  “I think he had that reaction before. He got into the trash when he was a wee little baby and got a packet of bad ranch dressing, not that the stuff is good to begin with.” Greg chuckled.

  “Well, now I know why he hates the stuff so bad.” Hallr huffed and cringed at a shrill sound like an air-raid siren at a pitch only dogs could hear, the kind only generated by children in the throes of delight, likely doing something they weren’t supposed to.

  “Ganpa Sacha!” A little redhead with glittering green eyes and a short crop of strawberry-blond hair bounded into the room, arms spread wide. A blue-eyed, dusky-blond boy followed, bouncing with joy. Both of the children were naked, and Hallr grumbled.

  Sacha caught one and Hallr the other. “Storm, dammit. Where’s your clothes?”

  “Iunno.” The boy shrugged as Sacha plucked the little redhead up and glanced around.

  “Scales or shorts, you know the drill, boys. We’re not running a nudist colony here.”

  “Uncle Leicester says, he says that pants are for the pro-le-tar-iat and we shouldn’t be confined by people’s lack of restraint,” the boy in Hallr’s arms, Storm, said proudly.

  “Storm… Do you even know what the proletariat is?” Hallr sighed painfully.

  “It is the bourgeoisie lower class.” Storm rolled his eyes like it was the simplest thing in the world.

  “Oh, my gods…” Hallr sighed, losing an age-old argument as Sacha walked off with the redhead.

  “I’ll grab him an outfit while I’m getting Cinder dressed.” Sacha waved a hand before bouncing off.

  “Thank you!” Hallr shouted back and a reticent Storm stared up at him before shifting, his mass stretching out and bulking into a dog-sized flailing baby dragon that Hallr settled to the ground. He stared up at the newcomer, Greg, with bright and curious eyes a middling teal color, and blinked.

  Sacha returned, Cinder on his hip, dressed in a pair of elastic shorts and a baggy shirt.

  “Well, hello there, little buddy.” Greg leaned down and extended his hand, wrist turned down as if he were approaching a dog. Cautiously, the golden Dette padded a step closer and Hallr raised a brow, curious. Hallr, personally, didn’t have any human servants, all shifters of one variety or another. Likely, Storm had never met a human before.

  He sniffed, his snout bobbing as he tasted the air a few times by gulping and tilted his head sharply at Greg. A sharp question rang in Sacha’s mind, a plea to the adults. What is?

  “Human,” Hallr said out loud, drawing Greg’s eyes up as Storm got close enough to nibble gently on Greg’s hand. He eyed the flowers and whined anxiously as Greg reached into the bundle and pulled a single stem out and handed it to the pup, who snatched it by its stalk and took off running with delight, bouncing about happily.

  “Leo used to do the same thing with daisies and stuff as a pup.” Greg stifled a laugh as Storm worried his head back and forth until a shower of petals exploded around him. Then he proceeded to roll in the mess, wriggling his body from side to side in the spread of petals.

  “Marten!” Hallr’s shout carried down the hall as a harried-looking gentleman in a sagging and torn shirt came bustling out. His jeans bore grass stains and worse. “Can you get one of the girls to clean that up for me? We’ll take over the pups now.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Marten sighed.

  An army of children bustled out from a room, swarming around Hallr with joyous shouts as Leo returned, eyes watering. “If anyone says the salad dressing word again, they will eat Brussels sprouts for a week.”

  A collective shudder went through the children and Hallr.

  “He’s been on a Brussels sprouts craving for the past few days,” Hallr explained to Sacha and Greg.

  “Now, boys, line up. Hug time!” Leo kneeled down and opened his arms as one at a time they ran up to get a lingering hug from Leo.

  “Branden,” Leo said, smoothing back strawberry-blond hair from a little round-faced boy in the same elastic shorts as the rest, at least the ones that weren’t scaled up.

  “Aren, there we go.” Leo gave a little blond boy with bright-green eyes a kiss on the forehead. “Avery.” Leo hugged and snuggled against an auburn-haired little boy with silvery eyes and a serious expression.

  “Alright, Tomas! Yep, you get in here.” Leo hugged the little blue-eyed ginger and sent him scampering on.

  “Storm,” Leo called out, and the gold-scaled little dragon climbed up on Leo, licking his face and nuzzling up under his chin. “Having a scales day?” The dragon chuffed in response. “Good boy.”

  “Alright, Cinder?” Leo looked up at his little clone clutched tightly to Sacha’s hip. “No love for me today?” The little one hesitated for a minute. He was a few inches shorter than his brothers but had a streak of mean that glimmered in his eyes. Sacha sat him down and he came to accept a begrudging hug before running back to “Granpa Sacha.”

  “Rune,” Leo said, plucking up a little black dragon for a snuffling hug. “And Ulrik.” Leo snatched up a boy not quite as small as Cinder. All elbows and knees. He clung to Leo desperately and whined, his blond hair sticking up in all directions. “Shh, what’s wrong, boy?”

  “Stranger,” Ulrik whined, glancing at Greg.

  “That’s right. He’s a stranger.” Leo patiently waited for Ulrik to relax a bit before plucking him up on his hip. “This is Greg. He’s a human that took care of me when I was a little pup.” Ulrik blinked wide blue eyes up at Greg and chewed his knuckle. Leo stepped to the side as an attendant came through, sweeping up the remnants of a peony.

  Ulrik waved a sheepish hand before turning his head into Leo’s chest. “Come on. Let’s all go out back and play. Mister Greg hasn’t seen me since I was your size,” Leo said, waving the kids to follow him.

  All the noise and chaos halted the second Leo demanded it, and they filed out in a line.

  “They’re so well-behaved with him.” Greg strolled out with Sacha at his side.

  Sacha chuckled as the boys all went out in the grass to play with a ball, kicking it about before Leo and Hallr stripped their clothes. Greg startled at first, but the gestures seemed practiced and nonsexual, natural to the core. The kids didn’t even turn their heads, nor did Sacha even blink. Greg politely looked elsewhere but jumped when their space suddenly filled with the shapes of two enormous dragons. At sitting height, Hallr was probably eighteen or twenty feet high, while Leo sat up at maybe twelve or thirteen. He nuzzled into Hallr’s neck.

  “You said you guys live a long time. Is Leo not fully grown yet?” Greg asked quietly, and Sacha pursed his lips.

  “Leo is a Dette and is predisposed to being smaller than a Drake.”

  “You weren’t kidding when you said he was gravid with another. Woo,” Greg added, eying Leo’s full belly. He could barely tell when Leo was in human form, but the low sway of it in dragon seemed obvious.

  “Hah, yeah…” Sacha turned his head and coughed, giving Greg a hint to back off the tender subject. Leo stretched out and approached Greg with a curious head tilt. His icy-blue eyes focused down on Greg with feral recognition, and he bounced on his feet playfully, wincing as his belly jostled. Hallr nudged his side and up his neck to soothe him, and Greg laughed as he remembered his flowers. He held them up to Leo’s dragon.

  “I know you gave these to me, and I feel silly now, but I remembered how much you lov—” Greg halted as Leo nipped the bundle of flowers happily and bleated out toward the children and scrambled off, flowers in his maw and thumped his tail as eight small pups chased after him eagerly.

  Leo laid the offering of flowers down and gingerly took one before shaking his head and worrying the flower until petals rained. The rest of the pups excitedly grabbed one and flung their flowers about, rolling in the pretty scent of it. Leo purred happily and nuzzled over his pups as they played.

  Leo craned his neck over to Greg and huffed, beckoning him over.

  “I didn’t know you were mentally a human,” Greg said, staring at a limp tug rope in his hand. “It seems silly, but this used to be your favorite toy.” Leo’s eyes lit with delight.

  “The dragon and Leo are separate creatures. They share consciousness and the dragon is just as smart. I think his dragon recognizes you,” Sacha said, escorting Greg into the fray of dragons. Leo took the toy gingerly from Greg’s hands and extended it to a pup. Tomas, a little clone of his father in his scales, jumped and snapped at the other end of it. He hung off, digging his teeth in as he wriggled and flapped his wings against Leo’s pull. He made a warbling, angry snarl.

  Leo thumped his tail and happily leaned back, drawing the end of the toy back into Greg’s control so that he could play with Storm.

  Greg was gentle and patient with the pup, delight flashing in his eyes as Aren and Ulrik came around, swapping spots for their turn at the rope.

  Hallr, black as midnight with his flame-blue eyes, narrowed his gaze warily at the human, trusting his Dette’s judgment.

  “Hallr! I think this about proves it, don’t you?” Sacha settled down nearby with Greg and his antics to play referee in case the pups got a little out of hand or Leo got snippy. Hallr nodded and huffed.

  “I can’t believe they’re all people. They’re actual children and Leo…that little boy in the kennel… I’d have adopted him so fast if I knew.” Greg’s breath hitched as he swallowed back tight emotions.

  Cinder scampered out from beneath a bush, tackling Sacha’s legs with his claws out, and growled until Sacha flicked his nose. “Hey! I’m bigger than you,” Sacha growled back and Cinder bristled. He clicked his jaw a few times, chewing over his tongue a bit before making a noise somewhere between a burp and a retch. “Leo! Hallr!”

  Both of the dragons looked over in time for Sacha to pluck Cinder up, aim him away from the others, holding him as a jet of flame spewed from his mouth with a hissing spray. Cinder, startled, fidgeted and hiccupped before sparking another flame. He tried once more before curling and yawning, flopping over sleepily in Sacha’s arms.

  The rest of the baby dragons watched with curiosity. Delight flashed in their eyes. Before that, only Storm had made fire.

  Leo’s dragon sighed heavily and grumbled. He leaned over to Sacha and took Cinder by the nape of his neck, giving him a tug. Cinder plopped down on the ground, still asleep, wearing his human skin. Leo huffed again.

  Ulrik opened his mouth, gagging himself as Branden sniffed his mouth and investigated. Leo spit a lick of flame between them in warning, not enough to hurt them but to scare them. Leo nipped each of their necks angrily.

  “Ow! Papa! Ulrik was gonna make fire,” Branden whined.

  “Yeah? And how would you have fared with a shot of flame at your face? Hmm?” Sacha intervened.

  “Oh…” Branden looked at his feet and sighed.

  “Yeah, ‘oh’ is right. Now go put your pants on and sit on the sidelines to think about what you did. You, too, Ulrik!” Sacha slapped his thigh, and the boys scattered obediently. Leo snorted in approval. Cinder stuck his thumb in his mouth and curled up tighter. Making flames could wear a pup out fast.

  Hallr bounced over into the fray of pups, bleating a cheerful noise as he rolled around in the flowers, too, and sneezed, sending a flicker of flame out as he did so. Yips of laughter spread among the pups as they played, and Sacha sighed. Cinder woke up from the noise and blinked up at Sacha.

  “Granpa Sacha. How come we don’t has peepaws like my friends?”

  Frikka, Hallr’s Dette father and Gabriel both left for the mountains to be wild. Sacha twisted his lips. A reminder that they needed to treat their Dettes better, should have always treated them better.

  “They just haven’t had time to come visit you yet. Soon though. I promise.”

  Chapter Eight

  Sacha

  Sacha reclined in his seat. First class treated him well as he made his way to inland China, where the last of their colonies existed. In his lap, he carried the sealed bags of nest blossoms securely stowed in an urn under the guise of being his “late wife’s ashes.” Smuggling plant materials was forbidden, but legalities didn’t really matter when one had as much wealth as Sacha.

  He’d spent most of his childhood, pup years and beyond, stacking coins and trading. He had a keen sense of investment only surpassed by Hallr, an upstart that seemed to have King Midas’s legendary touch. Everything he touched turned into gold, but the things he really wanted always escaped him. Hallr craved a family, something to spend his vast wealth on. Tragically, Leo didn’t seem interested in gold, like most dragons. He enjoyed Hallr’s horde, had accumulated a nice bit of wealth for himself, impressive for only just under five years.

  Lamely, Sacha slept through most of the journey, thinking back on those days before Gabriel left.

  Twenty-five years ago

  “He’s barren. I won’t sit another heat with him. He’s too much work and not a single viable egg. This was our last year with him. We’re getting another Dette.” Duke, one of Sacha’s denmates, another Dior, stared Sacha down challengingly. Their den didn’t couple, merely rotated with Gabriel, who by every year grew more and more bitter.

  “Is it any wonder he hasn’t laid? We’re treating this like a business transaction. I see Gabe, and he’s so lonely,” Sacha pleaded. “I’ve been reading Hallr’s—”

  “And you want to take the word of that menace?” Duke thrust his hand out. “The Dette’s own father agreed we could send him back! They’re already searching for a new Dette for us since Gabriel is incapable of producing eggs. He’s barren.”

  “I don’t think he’s incapable!” Sacha pleaded.

  “Fine. Take him all to yourself! It’s not like the Dior consulate will let him back. I doubt that if you wanted to take him as a mate, they’d even put a price on him! I think they’d hand you a few gold just to take the worthless boy.”

  Sacha had tried. Gabriel’s father would only wait a season and put him in yet another den to be abused for a few more years. And Gabriel, with as broken of a spirit as he had, would go along with it.

  “Fuck you. I’ll take him. I’ll claim responsibility! I’m going to give him that one more heat. I’ll follow all the stupid things that Hallr has theorized, and I’ll prove you wrong! Hallr is onto something!”