Page 25

Levi

Like we'd planned before the attack, Finn spent the week at my place, but moving his stuff in on Saturday had to be postponed because someone decided it was time for me to meet the clan in one of their customary get-togethers.

According to Finn, the parties were organized with or without a good reason, depending on the members' mood.

This party was a joint "Welcome Levi to the clan" and "Welcome the new baby dragon to the clan" celebration, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. Or a lot.

I'd asked Finn to tell me everything about all the members, but after a while, I'd started losing track of who was who, so I was aiming to stick to the people I'd already gotten to know and branch out from there.

"There are a lot of people here," I murmured as I scanned the grounds. The party was held at the packland, and despite the large area, the place looked packed. Was the whole damned town a part of the clan?

"There's Dad and Papa. Oh, they're talking to Nash. Come on. He might have some news about the asshole."

Finn's dad had kept us in the loop about Nash's investigation, and apparently, we weren't the first gay couple he'd attacked in Mistvale. The other couple had been human, and they were still at the hospital.

Raiden had felt terrible when he found out, and Finn had gone over to his place to assure him we didn't blame him. The poor guy had issues of his own to deal with, after all, and it didn't matter if you were an old-as-dirt dragon when you were worried about the well-being of your kid.

We made our way through the crowd with Finn introducing me to various people, some whose names I forgot as soon as the next person was introduced. At this point, I might need a flow chart of some sort to keep track of everyone.

"Finn! Levi! Glad you could make it. Levi, this is Detective Nash. He's been working on your case."

"It's nice to meet you," I said, shaking the man's hand.

He was human, but there was some supe in his blood.

Shifter, maybe? He seemed to be in his late forties, and he was a big, intimidating-looking man save for his warm smile.

His eyes were green, but far paler than Finn's, and nowhere as beautiful. Or maybe I was just biased.

"You too. Glad you're doing better. I do have some news about your attacker. "

"Is it good news?" Finn asked, making him smile.

"Good for us, yes. I ran his prints and then had some tests done on his bat. He's done this before, quite a few times. Three of his twelve victims died, and quite a few were permanently injured. He left quite a lot of evidence, so it'll be an easy conviction."

I frowned, not liking the thought of someone like that coming so close to my mate.

"If there was so much evidence, why wasn't he arrested before?"

Nash shook his head. "He targeted small towns for the most part, and we're not really good about sharing details with other towns. Plus, he usually took off before he could be investigated, so nobody even had a suspect in mind."

"And I'm guessing not all of the cops who got the case were interested in solving a hate crime," I said, making him wince.

"Yeah, that too. But we have more than enough evidence now, and if all goes well, he'll be in jail for the rest of his life."

"That's good," Finn said, leaning into me, and I wrapped my arm tightly around him, holding him close.

We chatted with the detective for a while longer, then moved on to talk to someone else.

Finn introduced me to Cam and his three mates—they'd returned just in time to witness the hatching of Cam's new sibling—and the relief and happiness I felt at seeing Micah thriving and so clearly loved felt amazing.

Ravenshire might have tried to break his spirit once, but Mistvale had saved him, just like it had saved my mate, and maybe me too.

Over the next few hours, I talked to more people than I ever had in a single afternoon.

I met shifters, mages, the unicorn I'd heard so much about, a merman-siren—I hadn't even known there was such a being—and many other supes I'd never come across before.

Most of them seemed to be directly connected to the clan, but some were just supes who lived in Mistvale and had ended up being invited by one of the clan members.

I hadn't realized it was open to non-clan members, but I liked it.

Finn told me it originally hadn't been like that, but over the years, these parties had turned into a place for the supes of the town to meet and interact with other supes without worrying about human presence.

The humans who were here already knew about the supernatural world.

"How are you doing?" Finn asked as he leaned into my side, and I smiled up at him.

"I'm loving it. There are so many people! I don't think I'll be able to talk to them all today."

Finn laughed, shooting me an amused look. "Yeah, I don't think you will. But this is the first of many such parties you'll have to attend, so you'll have plenty of time to get to know everyone."

Like it did every time Finn mentioned our future together, my heart skipped a beat, and I leaned up, pressing a soft kiss on Finn's lips. His eyes twinkled as I pulled away, and he cupped the back of my neck and pulled me back in .

We kissed like we were the only people there, and everything and everyone around us just faded into nothing until all I could feel was Finn's warmth against me, and all I could hear was the soft sound of our lips brushing, and all I could taste was him.

A wolf whistle popped our bubble, and suddenly everything rushed back in. I pulled back, smiling when I saw the completely expected blush darkening Finn's cheeks.

I had no idea who'd whistled, but Finn seemed to know instantly as his eyes flicked to Cam, who waggled his brows at him. Finn flipped him off, which surprised and delighted me. Were there sides to Finn I had yet to discover?

Finn

We grabbed some food, then got dragged into different conversations. At some point, I lost track of Levi, but if there was any place we were safe in this world, it was right here, so I didn't worry.

When I finally managed to extricate myself from a riveting conversation between Miles, Mateo, Neel, and Paxton about interior decor—Miles and Mateo were helping Neel and Pax with the renovation of their B&B—I started looking for Levi. With all the people around, it took me a minute to spot him.

Levi was way on the other side of the crowd, talking to Raiden.

Raiden had brought his eggs and hatchling with him—he probably didn't want to leave the eggs at home since they could hatch at any moment—and sat in a chair with a huge basket on a small table in front of him, William—his mate, and Cam's bio dad—in a similar chair beside him.

I didn't think they'd moved much at all, but I was glad they'd still shown up.

I had no idea what Raiden and Levi were talking about, but it looked serious, and I wondered if I should leave them to it.

Levi glanced up, and as if he could sense my gaze, his eyes latched onto mine almost instantly, a bright smile lighting up his face. He waved me over, and I smiled, then started making my way through the crowd to him.

I had to stop and talk to someone a few times, but Raiden and Levi were still chatting when I reached them.

"I'll drop by sometime this week," Raiden was saying, and I glanced curiously between them. Before Levi could explain, though, my eyes fell on Raiden's basket, and I sucked in a breath.

"Oh my God," I murmured, leaning down to peer at the baby dragon nestled in between four eggs. "They're adorable."

"Aren't they just?" Raiden asked happily, and I glanced up at him.

"You don't know the baby's sex yet?"

"Dragons don't have a sex," Raiden said with a shake of his head, and I blinked. I knew that, didn't I? I was pretty sure Cam had told me at some point.

"Right, I forgot. Sorry," I murmured, my eyes still on the little one. They were a little bigger than a newborn kitten, maybe closer to a two-week-old kitten. They didn't have any scales yet, and they peered at me with pale blue eyes as they flexed their tiny wings.

"They can't fly yet, right?" I checked, suddenly worried they'd fly into this crowd and get themself hurt.

"No, that will take a few months," Raiden said, his voice dripping with fondness.

"I'm guessing this one's gonna be like his big brother," I mused, making Raiden and William laugh.

"They do seem like a troublemaker," William agreed, and I smiled.

Both of them looked so happy, and I was delighted for them.

My conversation with Levi about having kids returned to the forefront of my mind, and I wondered if I would feel just as happy.

We couldn't have bio kids of our own, but that didn't really matter to me.

Having a blood connection hadn't made our birth parents love us the way Dad and Papa loved us with no blood tying us together. Love was only as strong as you made it, and I would love any kid we ended up adopting with my whole heart, just like Dad and Papa loved me and my siblings.

"Would you like to hold them?" Raiden asked, making my eyes jerk to his.

"Really? What if I hurt them?"

Raiden chuckled. "They might be small, but they are still a dragon, Finn. They'll be fine."

I swallowed hard, and nodded mutely as Levi slid his arm around my waist, giving it a light squeeze. I leaned into Levi as Raiden picked the baby up from the basket, and placed them in my cupped palms.

"Oh, I can't believe I didn't ask. Have you named them yet?"

The baby peered up at me as their little claws grabbed onto my thumbs, their tiny wings making little flap-flap noises as they moved them.

Raiden and William shared a glance, and it was Will who answered me. "Cam named them Veron, after his mother, Veronica."

I loved everything about that. The fact that they'd asked Cam to name their child—Cam could be serious when it was needed—and that he'd named them after his mom. I knew he'd lost her very early, and that she'd meant the world to him.

"It's a lovely name," I murmured as Veron chomped on my thumb, the gummy bites making me chuckle.

Once I'd had my fill, I returned Veron to their basket and thanked Raiden and William profusely for letting me hold them.

"You look like you want to go to my place and start trying to make a baby," Levi teased once we were out of Raiden's earshot, and my cheeks heated up as I shot him a warning glance. Raiden might not be able to hear us, but we were still surrounded by supes.

Evidenced by the fact that none other than my dad found his way to us a few seconds later, his eyes wide as they flicked between us. "What's this I hear about making babies? "

I groaned, then smacked Levi's arm. "See what you did? He will never let this go now."

Levi didn't look the least bit apologetic as he explained everything to Dad in great detail, and Dad's smile widened the more Levi talked.

"Stop talking, Levi," I grumbled, and he finally stopped, though he'd already told Dad everything from the fact that we might want kids someday to how enamored I was with Raiden's baby.

"I would love to be a grandpa," he said after a pause, and I groaned. "Maybe Pops? I'll have to discuss this with Jai."

"It's not happening anytime soon, Dad. Don't hold your breath," I warned, and he chuckled.

"We'll see. When you are ready, though, let me know. I've been doing a lot of research, and I've made a few contacts at various adoption agencies. They will contact me whenever there's a supe kid up for adoption."

"Wait, what? When did you start looking into this?"

Dad gave me a sheepish smile, then searched the crowd, probably looking for his other half.

"We were going to tell you once we had something solid.

Since you're all grown up now, we were thinking about adopting again.

I hate the idea of supe kids having to live with humans and suppress their supe sides, or worse, get punished because of it.

Every kid deserves a shot at a normal childhood, don't you think? "

Instead of answering, I stepped out of Levi's hold and threw my arms around Dad, giving him a tight hug. I wasn't sure if I'd ever really told him this, but as I hugged him, I whispered the words I'd been silently saying to him and Papa since I was thirteen. "Thank you."