Settling down at the long wooden table is done in tense silence. Al’s harshly thrown glares at A.D. have him repeatedly tugging at his collar while Min pops the cork on a bottle of Goblin’s Brew, which she explains is basically a much stronger red wine than humans could ever concoct.
Chinese food gets spread out and passed around in the same uncomfortable soundless nature. For the beginning of the meal, all that’s really heard is Minnie’s slurping and chewing and cranberry juice sipping.
Her carefree behavior does what children unconsciously do best.
It severs some of the strain in the room.
“This is the first time I didn’t beat Auntie Ana at hide-and-seek,” Minnie acknowledges between egg roll bites.
“Technically, you still beat her,” A.D. playfully points out. “You didn’t beat me.”
She happily giggles while I reach for my glass. “Well, this definitely explains why I can never find you until a reward is offered."
“Minnie knows she’s not supposed to play with her shifting like that,” Min sweetly scolds her daughter from across the table. “Not with Sleepers.” Her bright blue eyes cut to me. “No offense.”
“None taken.” After a gulp of a beverage that’s not nearly as good as Leprechaun’s Breath, I ask, “Why didn’t you guys tell me about any of this shit? Shifters? The Fog? Better booze?”
Al laughs at the last comment during a headshake. “Dad would be so proud of the fact his only daughter drinks better than all of his sons.”
“Oh, he so would.” We share more snickers before I inquire, “Was…was he a shifter?”
Al quickly shakes his head. “Nah. Then we would’ve been born that way, too.”
“Duh.” I roll my eyes over my own idiotic question. “Are any of our brothers Fate Mated?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” he replies and scoops up a bite of fried rice. “But that doesn’t mean ish. If you don’t know by now, The Goddess of Fate kind of does her own thing, on her own time without giving a flying F to what a being wants.”
A.D. grumbles some dragon version of “amen” that indicates he absolutely gets it.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Min? Or Min, why did you not tell me about you?! Thought we were close!”
Min pulls her silky blonde hair to one side of her adorable, tiny-features face. “It doesn’t quite work like that. Just because you want someone to know, doesn’t mean they get to know. Even if you tell them everything, show them everything, as soon as they go to sleep, they won’t remember. It’ll be like a dream-”
“That they can’t quite place. Yeah. I got that speech.”
“Tethers for Sleepers are hard to create. It’s like The Great Ones wanted the two realms connected but not for them to all be one in the same.” She wedges a small shoulder bounce between her statement. “Nonetheless, I’m so glad you know! This is so exciting! You have no idea how much I hated having to keep this side hidden from all of you!”
Al gives his mate a loving look. “You hated how much it hurt me to keep anything from them.”
She returns the expression. “That too.”
“How did you two meet?” A.D. ponders, his efforts to join the conversation well-received by me. I slide my non-beverage holding hand onto his thigh to express my appreciation over him trying to connect to my family the way I’ve spent many meals connecting to his. “It’s gotta be a more romantic situation than ours.”
Al instantly cocks his head in curiosity. “What exactly happened between the two of you?”
“Can I have more please?” Minnie chimes in, pushing her empty plate forward to indicate where the food should go. “And more juice?”
“Someone’s hungry,” Min playfully points out while adding more food onto her daughter’s plate. “All that shifting and hiding made you extra hungry, huh?”
She rapidly nods her head.
“How about we take your plate to the living room and let you watch a little T.V. while Mommy and Daddy get to know Auntie Ana’s Fated Mate?”
“He’s a dragon…” Minnie coos utterly impressed. “A dragon, Mommy. He could eat us when we’re shifted.”
“I could,” A.D. proudly acknowledges, “but I never would.” He waits for her blue eyes to meet his hazel. “Mice don’t taste as good as rutabagas.”
“What’s a rutabaga?” Minnie excitedly questions at the same time she gets up to follow her mother into the other room.
“Gross,” I retort, getting a snicker out of my brother.
Min’s rearranging of Minnie in the next room provides a perfect opportunity for A.D. to quietly push, “Eat, Tiny Toes. You haven’t really eaten since breakfast.”
“Technically-”
“M&M’s don’t count.”
“They’re candy. And candy is food. So, they technically count.”
“You haven’t eaten anything of sustenance since 8:24 this morning. And I don’t like that. And Gold doesn’t like that. And you know it’s bad when we are agreeing on something.”
“How do you know when I last ate? You left while I was still drinking coffee.”
“Spiked coffee that you think I didn’t know was spiked,” he teasingly reminds. “And I told you. I have an incredible sense of smell.”
On a gag, I remove my hand, set down my glass, and shovel a few spoonfuls of general Tso’s chicken into my mouth.
There are noticeable pleased grumbles that sound more like purrs out of A.D., yet instead of hiding them like he did when we first met, he lets them be heard.
Known.
He happily allows the world to hear how I make him feel.
Fuck, it’s weirdly romantic.
Once Min has returned to Al’s side, he winds an arm around her lower back and tugs her closer. To my surprise, A.D. instantly does something similar.
“Please don’t whip your dicks out at the dinner table,” I teasingly implore.
“That’s definitely an after dessert, post four shots of Leprechaun’s Breath type of activity,” Min agrees after a giggle.
“Gonna take more than that to get a good buzz.” A.D. nonchalantly states and reaches for a pepper off my plate. “We tossed back almost an entire bottle our first night together.”
Al’s growls of disapproval have me explaining, “He means the first night we met. The one where he had to explain everything to me.”