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“This is Hawk; don’t irritate him. This. Just. I.” Pretty in Purple closed his eyes for a second. “As charming as you are, you can just tell the beaver that everything’s fine.”

Oh, the dragon chimera thought he was charming.

“We’re going to control them, the vampires, should they show back up,” purple added.

The dragon, and this one was solely a dragon, stared him down.

Orion just stood there. He wasn’t worried. He meant them no harm, so they wouldn’t harm him.

“Apparently, there’s a beaver shifter. I think this is his lawyer.”

That huge head turned so the dragon could stare at the purple one. “Cullen, what is going on?”

“I just told you, Hawk, there’s apparently a beaver shifter who has ancestral lands close by. This is his lawyer. He was making sure that we weren’t vampires.”

That head swung back to him, teeth gleaming. “Do I look like a vampire to you?”

“Well, you’re kind of pointy in the teeth area, and you’re red, which is usually, you know, associated with vampires. At this point, though I’ve never seen a vampire dragon hybrid, and… You know that that’s just kind of nauseating to think about. So let’s not do that. Think about it, I mean.” He tried a winning smile.

“See, it’s totally a lawyer.”

Orion shook his head. “I’m not a lawyer.”

“You talk like a lawyer.”

“Well, I do know quite a bit of Latin, but I’m pretty sure that I lack some of the sharkish aspects of a lawyer.” That seemed reasonable.

“Lawyers are sharks?” Hawk asked, and Cullen—it was so nice to have a name to go with the face—snorted.

“All monkeys wear pants.”

Orion blinked. “I’ve seen plenty of monkeys without pants.”

Cullen rolled his eyes. “Old TV reference.”

The big guy growled. “They have many of those.”

Orion let an eyebrow rise. “Monkeys?”

“In jokes.”

“Ah.”

“Ugh. You two are bonding?” Cullen sighed. “It figures.”

“Might as well bond with the big guardian.” Orion let his grin widen. “All the better to get to you, pretty.”

“I’d argue and say I wasn’t pretty, but it would be a lie. I’m fucking gorgeous.” Cullen snarled.

Orion nodded, happy to agree. “Fascinating. Fabulous. Fantastic.”

“I bet you’re good at Scrabble.” It was Hawk who snarled now. “Go away. We won’t bother the beaver.”

Orion wasn’t sure why that was so funny, but it was, and he snorted.

And he also wasn’t sure what that sound did for Cullen, but those eyes got huge.

“You’re a unicorn.”