Page 10 of Delinquent Dette (Empty Nests #7)

Sten

Being a hermit had its advantages. He didn’t have to see anyone, have to fool with Drakes or their shitty business.

The only other dragons he ever saw were his sons: Jasper and Peter.

Hallr had stayed in the new world and continued pissing off dragon society in his papa’s name.

Torsten had returned to the homelands and had seated the Nordic dragon council, too busy to fool with his depressed father.

Jasper and Peter came around, but they relied on Sten for protection during their heats. He was a Drake that wouldn’t touch them. Their scent did nothing, as was proper.

Jormun had met his mate in another Drake, a Finnish male, and kept to himself.

“Father.” Jasper, who had lived with him all that time, knocked on his office door and gave him a hopeful smile.

“What is it, child?” Sten stretched and scratched at his scraggly beard. It’d grown wild and unruly, a few months—years overdue for a trim.

“I got a notification this morning from the Illinois estate.” Jasper held a tablet in his hands and walked over, showing the stooped and lean figure of someone at the entrance. Frikka.

He was too thin, face gaunt and eyes hard.

“It looks like he took something in a sack out of the secondary vault.” Jasper panned through a few images and brought a genuine smile to Sten’s face, the expression so foreign, it nearly hurt.

“It appears so.” Sten rested his fingertips on the screen as if he could touch him, jumping when the image disappeared and popped up a home screen of sorts. He missed being able to touch pictures without wild fuckall happening. He huffed.

“I sent word to Sile Long, and he says it looks like he’s back.” Jasper pulled up a train of emails that Sten panned through. He’d gotten a new identity.

Sten studied the emails and took a deep breath. “We know where he’s been going?”

“About that. Hallr sent a letter a while back saying he’d found the nestblossoms and I just figured it was another pipe dream, but it looks like he really did it this time.

Enough that he’s been given a council seat and they’re giving blossoms to single Dettes as medicine.

” Jasper pursed his lips and stared at his feet.

The sweet Dette looked so much like Frikka but had none of his venom or mischief.

He was all sugar and innocence and had horrible luck with Drakes that didn’t understand no .

Though, those Drakes often turned up missing or dead.

Sten wouldn’t complain, though. He likely knew who was behind it.

“Maybe I should call Hallr… Do you have his number?” Sten drummed his fingers over his desk and leaned back.

He’d not talked to him in a dozen years.

Not talked to Frikka in much longer. Sixty years?

It was a wild spring when Frikka dropped by for his heat and left before Sten was fully awake. Typical.

“I can get it.” Jasper waved his fingers over the tablet, tapping away. Maybe he would pay Hallr a visit. See how he was faring.

A few minutes later, Jasper wrote digits on a piece of paper. A new number—likely a cellphone. Things were changing so fast, but it was easy to pretend it was another time when he lived like he did. Poland was great and all—no dragons. No council. It was easy to help Dettes there.

Sten thought about it for a long moment before pulling up his phone, dialing the country code and Hallr’s number.

“Hello.” A short greeting on the other end distracted Sten after two rings. Laughter from children—many of them—roared in the background.

“Hallr, my boy!” Sten greeted his son and earned an exasperated sigh.

“Yes, Papa is here. Can you please come get him?” Hallr knew what Sten wanted.

“Ah. On my way. Be there in a few days.” Sten hung up, sighing heavily as Jasper gave him a wary look. “I’m heading out.”

“I’m heading into the cellars in a few days, likely. Be nice to Papa. I’d like to see him.” Jasper offered a half smile and Sten nodded, heading out to get his things together.

In the old days, he’d have flown. In this new world? First-class flights were easy to come by.

***

America hadn’t changed much since he left. More and less industrialized. The air was cleaner, at least. He landed at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport and rented a car.

The drive. He made it in silence but had half a thought to stop by a human mall while he was at it.

He needed his beard trimmed, some new clothes, and perhaps a bottle of wine to be polite.

That was still the right thing to do? He asked the stylist while getting his trim and was assured that a bottle of wine wouldn’t go amiss.

Maybe some flowers. And for Frikka? He’d taken care of that before he left home.

A single gold coin. He’d held onto it for so many years.

Continuing after his sojourn, he made it into town and set the GPS to take him by a flower shop. Snapdragon. The only one in town.

The moment he pulled into the parking lot, the scent hit him. Rich, heady flowers that reminded him of the mating flowers he’d gotten from India all those years ago.

Two Dettes stood inside the building leaning on a counter, one with a pallor of Vritra mixed with Dior, and the other… If Hallr hadn’t menaced the Dette already, Sten would have been surprised.

He swallowed hard and entered, a cold sweat prickling his skin. The two Dettes glanced up at him and he expected fear or defensiveness, but got only a smile. The little red-haired Dette beamed. Tiger Lily. “Here for nestblossoms?”

“No.” Sten stared at the blue beauties in a vase on the counter.

“Oh. Anything else I can help you with?” The little Dette wiped his hands on an apron with colorful little pup prints all over it.

Sten faltered, English still thick on his tongue. “I do not know what I want. I need flowers—What do I give if I have not seen my son in a very long time?”

The redhead squinted, head tilted. “Nidhogg or Nielsen? Thinking Nielsen, you guys have that whole fucken’ icy-blond vibe.”

Sten stuttered. For such a small creature, he had a big mouth and no fear. “Nielsen.”

The other Dette eyed Sten warily, and the scent on him came off strange. He flinched as if Sten might comment, but he had more manners than to do so. A Dette’s scent was their business until a Drake made it theirs. With their consent, of course.

“My lover has come back to the area, too. It is many years since I saw.” Sten swallowed hard.

“Oh gods,” the Vritra Dette whispered. “Sten?”

Sten nodded quickly and a look of realization turned the redheaded Dette’s face into a wash of relief. “Cheezus, you came just in fucken’ time. Frikka is driving me nuts. Love him to death, but the pups are just too much with him.”

“Pups?” Sten’s mouth went dry. “Frikka has pups?”

“Uh, no. Mine and Hallr’s… I’m Leo, Hallr’s mate?” The Dette gave Sten an odd look and his earlier assumption had been right. Hallr had menaced the Dette.

“I am not up to current date on the news. I talk to Hallr only infrequent.” Sten stumbled over his words again. “I did not know he mated.”

“Oh boy. Bastien, can you hold down the fort and close up?” Leo waved at the strange Dette and gestured for me to follow him into a back room as he gathered his things. “You can drive me home and I’ll fill you in.”

“You will get into a car with a strange Drake?” Sten stepped back nervously.

“Uh, yeah. I have GPS on my phone.” The little Dette typed away on his phone before grinning up.

“And Hallr knows I’m on my way. Nielsens have always been good Drakes to me, and if you and Frikka didn’t kill one another, then you must have the patience of a saint.

Honestly, I kinda figured Frikka had killed you and buried you somewhere. ”

Sten snorted. “Not for the lack of trying.”

“Sounds about right.” Leo escorted him out and hopped into the passenger seat of Sten’s car, gesturing for him to turn back on the road. “So, you know Frikka is there. What else?”

“This is why I came. Hallr asked me to get him. He didn’t say much, and I did not ask.”

“Aww. Sweetheart. He cares about me.” Leo sighed and smiled. “We have pups. I’m Dior. I was raised by humans—”

“That explains much. Hallr, he is good to you? You will tell me if my son is bastard, yes?” Sten held onto the steering wheel as he went out onto the road.

“Oh, he’s a bastard, but he’s alright. It’s a love thing. Nobody paid a penny either way for us.” Leo shrugged. “Well… I dunno if it started as love. We mated one another like an hour after we met or something? I was out of it.”

Sten choked. “He is a bastard. Frikka won’t like that.”

“It’s a whole story I don’t want to tell my father-in-law. He found me out wandering in the woods in spring, trying to hide out.” Leo waved his hand. “My dragon said mine, and I was like, whoa, what’s this little voice? And then I was his.”

Sten nodded along. “And you have pups? How long have you been mated?”

Leon tilted his head. “Five years, almost six. Yep, nine.”

“Gods, Dette! Nine in a single clutch?”

“No, we had eight in a single clutch. Luka, our ninth, was a singleton. Little Drake. One egg.” Leo snickered.

He’d never heard of a Dette going less than thirty years between clutches.

“It’s something to do with the nestblossoms. But, oh! If you don’t know you have kids, you really will get a kick out of Luka. Half the Nidhogg clans are frantic over it.” Leo grinned.

“Why?” Sten swallowed hard. Only one thing would make the Nidhoggs want a Nielsen Drake.

“He’s got the cutest little pearl belly and underwings.

Like a little tuxedo.” The sweet smile and huff of laughter the Dette made showed how little he knew about how highly that particular color pattern was regarded.

“Of course, it’s bound to happen what with him carrying the two-tone trait and me carrying a color-shift variant. ”

“Color-shift?”

“Oh, I’m Dior, but my scales are silver. My brother, same clutch, also Dior, solid black. My parents’ next clutch, they had a white in there, too.” Leo laughed like it was no big deal.

It was a huge deal, though.

Frikka had suffered so much for the very future that he was about to see.

More pups than could be counted.

A silver Dette.

A king’s scales.

And freedom for Dettes.

So, when Sten finally arrived, he parked in a circular drive, and the moment he stepped out of the car, it was like no time had passed at all.

The clothes were different. The hair had been shorn. But it was Frikka.

“Bastard,” Frikka called out, but Sten didn’t care. He ran, scooping the menace into his arms and held him as tight as the Dette would allow. “I knew you’d be here, eventually.”

“You know a lot of things, Dette,” Sten whispered into his ear. “It’s just like you saw in your vision. Isn’t it?”

There was silence, a shudder, and tenseness in Frikka’s body that melted for a fraction of a second. “And so much more.”

The hug went on, a reunion so long in the making. “Is this what you’ve searched for? Are you whole?”

Frikka pulled back and gave Sten a long stare, his blue eyes full of a hardness they didn’t have when he was a jarl’s son. “I am healing.”

Sten reached into his pocket and pulled out a single gold coin. “I’ll always ask. Never had another. Never will.”

From one breath to the next, it was as if all joy melted from Frikka’s face as he pulled away. “Leo! It is wonderful you are home. Come. I wish to show you what I have taught Cinder of his magic.”

“Now come here, Dette! We were having the moment!” Sten followed after as Frikka stormed off, leaving him there holding a coin while Leo stared with wide eyes.

“Leo, do you hear that whining noise? It is like the mosquito. It buzzes about, sucking the life out of me.” Frikka waved his hand and pointedly ignored Sten.

Perhaps it was too soon to present a coin. Sten always did, and Frikka always took it but never offered a mark. This time? Sten stood there, gold in hand, watching his love walk away. He’d gotten everything he wanted…

Except for his pups…

Sten pocketed the coin and dutifully followed through the house and into a backyard teeming with children.

There were the nine pups he’d been told to expect, and several more. All of them—Dette and Drake—played with one another, rolling about in the grass, digging holes in a lawn far too manicured for Sten’s liking.

“Sorry, Sten.” Leo patted his arm.

“It is okay. He has his grandpups, and I can watch him be happy. First time in very long.” Sten strode out and caught his son’s gaze, and rather than the rakish grin and jovial mischief they often shared, the greeting was a nod of respect exchanged. “You did it, boy.”

“I did. We did.” Hallr shrugged toward all the pups as Leo stripped and shifted. A gorgeous silver Dette, smallest adult dragon he’d ever seen, joined the pups in mischief.

“How did a Dette that small hold that many pups?” Sten had the good sense to whisper as he met with Hallr.

“He held them very well. He’s perfect.” Hallr grinned, the expression familiar—one of a Drake madly in love.

Sten had been that fool once, still was. “How is your papa?”

Hallr frowned. “There was a lot that you never told me. Leo is special, and he can talk to a dragon like calm over rough waters. He’ll help far.”

“I don’t think you just get over what he went through.”

“What you both went through.” Hallr gave Sten a tight hug.

“Frikka can calm storms and soothe the wind. He can tell the rain to stop and heal the flesh. He sees a future and cannot stop it. But there is a reason why he can calm the storm.” Sten smiled as Frikka held aloft a little ginger-haired Dette child.

Chaos glistened in the little one’s eyes. “Frikka is a storm.”