Page 19 of The Dragon’s Emberlinked Mate (Dragon Flight Academy #3)

Emmen

Not every person seeking admission into the academy had private meetings with me. There weren’t enough hours in the day for that. However, it was recommended by Lord Malric that I meet with Gilbert Costen directly.

Gilbert was a new parent. His sister and her mate had passed away, and their children were now in his care. The oldest, a dragon, and the twins, a dragon and a wolf. It was the oldest that was seeking admission into the academy.

The amount of responsibility thrust upon him as he was grieving his sister was enough to make any shifter crumble.

“You understand why I absolutely will not tolerate any sort of prejudice against non-dragon shifters,” Gilbert said. The man had been no-nonsense since the moment he arrived. He had yet to crack a smile.

“Of course,” I promised him. “Now, I can’t promise that they won’t experience any comments from students, but I can promise that my staff won’t tolerate it, and if they overhear it or have any reports of it, we will deal with it promptly.”

I’d love to be able to promise I had the magical cure for childhood meanness, but it would be a lie. He didn’t need lies or platitudes. He needed honesty and assurance that his nephew would be taken care of here.

Gilbert crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know if that’s good enough.”

“Mr. Costen, I can’t control the beliefs of every student that comes into my school.

I, and the other staff, can help guide them in what we believe to be the right direction.

We have several non-dragon shifters on staff.

One of our flight leaders is an eagle shifter, mated to a dragon shifter.

The Lord of the clan is mated to a mouse.

His son is mated to a wolf. Even they have experienced some prejudice, but we have dealt with it quickly and used that as teachable moments for our young students.

You will not find a clan more accepting of non-dragons, whether they are humans or other shifters. ”

I could only hope that he heard the sincerity in my words and didn’t think I was giving him platitudes.

“Unfortunately, that’s what I thought about my previous clan. Clearly, that proved to be a mistake.” No wonder he was so on high alert. I would be too in his situation.

Gilbert explained that their clan had kicked them out upon learning that his sister was mated to a wolf. They had lived without a clan for many years, but now that his sister and brother-in-law had passed away, he needed the support of a clan to help with the children.

“Charles still struggles with having lost his parents. The twins remember them, but they seem to have processed things better than their older brother. However, they need better guidance as well. I most certainly don’t know how to teach a wolf shifter anything.”

We both stood, knowing that this meeting was coming to a close.

I had no idea what his plans were, or what his decision would be.

According to Zayne, Charles had quite the talent for flight.

He would do well on our teams. His academics could use some work.

He hadn’t scored high enough on the entry exams to qualify for a team, so he’d need tutoring.

It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had students who needed extra assistance.

Malric had explained to me that he wanted the Costen family to join the clan because Gilbert was a talented investor, and we could use his expertise.

I wanted him to join the clan because it seemed as if the man’s family could use the support of a clan that actually cared.

But what we wanted didn’t matter. Only they could decide if this was the place for them.

We walked down the hall. The sound of my mate’s laughter reached my ears, but then another sound accompanied it — one I didn’t expect to hear. Little children.

“Is that the twins?” Gilbert said. “They were supposed to be outside with their brother.”

We followed the sound until we reached the teachers’ lounge, where Rhythe was sitting at the table with the two young children, spreading an assortment of peanut butter and a chocolate hazelnut spread onto animal crackers.

“Now, you can’t tell anyone about this stash, because I hid it away so no one would take it. Not even my mate.” My mate was a mischievous one.

“You hide things from your mate?” the girl asked.

“Just food.” Rhythe shrugged.

The girl laughed. “We should make dragon-shaped animal crackers. And wolf ones!”

“That’s brilliant,” Rhythe said. “I’m gonna tell that to Ollie. I bet he’d like a mouse-shaped one.”

“Who’s Ollie?” the little boy asked.

“My friend I was telling you about, the mouse, mated to Lord Malric. I’ll bet the two of them can make it happen. And I’ll be sure to tell him it was your idea.”

“Really?” The little boy’s eyes went wide.

“Why not, it’s a great idea.”

“Kids,” Gilbert said. “What are you doing in here? You were supposed to be with your brother.”

Both twins gasped and looked at their uncle. “We were hungry, so we came inside, and we found a vending machine, but all it had was books. Charles is still flying around.”

Rhythe chuckled. “Seems they were in search of a snack. So, I hope you don’t mind I found them one.”

“Found them one or took out your secret stash, mate?” I laughed. Rhythe would know I was joking, but the others might not without that laugh.

He ignored me, but his cheeks were the perfect shade of pink. He’d heard me all right.

“They said they weren’t allergic to anything. We only had a few crackers so far.”

“It’s fine.” Gilbert reached out a hand, and Rhythe shook it. “I’m Gilbert.”

“I’m Rhythe. And apparently, I’m going to start an animal cracker business with your twins here.”

These kids had been through so much, but you wouldn’t know it from the way they were chatting up my mate and downing snacks.

Gilbert chuckled, the first time he’s shown any emotion besides contempt since arriving. “Well, it seems we made the right choice by coming here then. Commander Emmen, why don’t we return to your office and finish the enrollment paperwork?”

We hadn’t even started the paperwork. Only five minutes earlier, I’d been sure he was going to walk away, at least for now.

“Of course,” I said. “I’d be happy to. Rhythe, did you need anything from me?”

“No, I’m just about done for the day, but I can hang out with these two if you two need to do paperwork.”

“Perfect.”

“Can’t you stay and have snacks?” his niece asked.

“Why don’t I go get the paperwork and we can do it here over secret snacks?”

“That sounds perfect.”

I went back to the office and grabbed a folder filled with the admittance papers.

And when I got back to the conference room, Gilbert was on the floor with his niece and nephew, making animal crackers covered with peanut butter and hazelnut spread dance around the air and then popping them straight into their mouths.

He might not have signed up to be a dad, but he was filling that role so beautifully.

Seeing that, I was now more determined than ever to make sure that his oldest nephew had not only a full scholarship to provide for all of his classes, books, dorms fees, tuition, and the activities that he wanted to participate in, but that we would provide him with the best of tutors.

It had become my mission to give him all the opportunities we could to help him come out of this trauma on the other side having reached all of his goals and dreams.

The school had the money, our fundraiser had been successful, but if they didn’t choose to spend it here, I had the money.

Gilbert wouldn’t have to know where it came from, but it would be there waiting for him.

I’d need to run it by my mate, of course, but the way he took the younger kids under his wing, I doubted there would be any argument from him.

“I brought the fun stuff.” No one thought of paperwork as fun, or if they did, I had yet to meet them.

“Thanks.” He took it from me and started filling it out, his niece and nephew now peppering my mate with questions about what he did for the school.

“For the school, I suppose, mostly I'm just here and talk to people. That’s my mate.” He pointed to me.

The twins giggled.

“I’m working on a super-secret project that’s not really that secret at all.”

Both kids begged him to tell them what it was.

“There’s no need for begging. I’ll gladly share, but it’s gonna be boring.” Neither child looked like they believed him. They were smart.

“I’m helping make an app, one that will help mommies and daddies find people to help take care of their kids when they work or if they have to go to school or anything like that.”

“You—” Gilbert put his pen down. “Can you tell me more about that?”

As animated as my mate was feeding the kids animal crackers and chatting about what kinds of animals needed to be created next, it was nothing compared to watching my mate talk about the app.

He was in his element.

And if Gilbert’s enthusiasm was any indication, the app was going to be successful.