Page 36 of The Emerald Boa’s Lover (Operation Colonise #3)

Still Charlie.

“Oh no.” Vekna’s left eye twitches, and he pales. “They followed me.”

“They who?” I fold my arms, seeing that whoever ‘they’ were, Vekna hadn’t planned on them tagging along. Was he in trouble? He looked mortified. “Dal?”

“On it.”

“Oh no, please don’t—” Vekna begged, but he wasn’t fast enough. Dalahan swung his head out of the front door and did a double take.

“Good morning sir!”

“Good morning.”

“Hi.”

“Charlie?” Dal blinks and looks back at me in surprise. “There are three more of them out here.” Vekna cups his hands to his face and whines with embarrassment.

“My stupid hatch mates followed me…oh no.” He paled even further and tried to make a break for the door. “What are you doing here?! If we’re all gone then it won’t be long before—”

It was a flurry of scales and colours as many bodies slithered into my living room.

Dal moved in a green blur to coil around me protectively, and below the access hole to guard our children.

Four pale pink teenagers poured into the living room, three of them hissing around Vekna, and then two more people came in as well.

One I instantly recognised. He was a massive King Cobra, dwarfing everyone else in the room, and was even bigger than I remembered.

His hood was wide and he hissed both quietly, and with rage.

“Forgive our presence, but our clutch slithered off without permission.” He directs at me and Dal, and then focuses on hissing at his children.

“Do you have any idea how worried we were to find all four of you missing?” He chided the four pink teens, and I gawked with a smile on my face.

Namely, because I was drawing the dots together about just who was in my living room.

“Prince Izule?” I ask curiously, and as he looks at me he lowers a human woman, ten years younger than me, to stand beside him. “Billie?”

“Charlie?” Billie asks, holding Izule’s hand and giving me a very analytical once over.

“We came for our children. We will go soon.” She tells me, matter-of-factly as always.

It’s been years since I’ve seen her in person.

I tend to keep tabs on her through Hannah.

Even though Hannah, Tumva, and Esme live in Eskalona, the sisters keep in frequent (scheduled) touch via com-call.

I take hold of Dalahan’s hand and swallow a lump in my throat.

“Don’t rush off on our account. It’s nice to see you.

” She blinks at me and then turns to look up at Izule.

She looks a little older, sure, but otherwise, Billie hasn’t changed a bit.

A block fringe of brown hair, a short bob, rounded glasses, leggings and a long-sleeved dress with a cartoon animal on the front.

She’s the same Billie. Only, she’s in mum mode, from the way she takes a decisive step forward, and the four pink teens line up before her.

Izule lifts up on his tail behind her, arms folded over his chest, and glaring down at his children.

They are silent, and I mean silent. Not a hiss.

Not a single tail-tip flicks. They are still and wait for their mother to speak.

Damn. I want popcorn.

From this angle I can see the V lines from Vekna’s horn ridges to his tail-tip, and he’s second in the row.

To his left is a larger female, with similar markings, but her lines are wavy and her horn ridges are more defined.

To Vekna’s right is another male. He has no markings whatsoever.

Pure pinkish white. On the other end of the row is another female, even larger than the first, and she has three dark pink lines, the central one starting from her forehead and joining the V shape from her horn ridges to the tip of her tail.

I wonder if they’re in alphabetical order?

Or hatching order? Absently I notice Utozi and Suzu slither down behind me and Dal.

Our son comes to my right, and Suzu moves to Dal’s left.

“I gave consent for Vekna to be excused from his royal tutor to socialise with a new friend today.” The four pink teens nod once in creepy unison.

“I did not give consent for the rest of you to leave as well.” The larger female on Vekna’s left put her hand up. My God, this is priceless. “Yes Ulana?”

“As the first hatched, I followed Vekna out of concern for his safety. We have never met this friend, and he may have needed my support.”

“I see.” Billie nodded once. “Unnecessary. When Vekna told me who he was seeing, I ran a background check to ascertain a character profile on Suzu, and with your father, deemed she was a smart, kind, trustworthy sort of girl, with sensible parents. Therefore, consent was given. Your interference was not required, nor did you seek consent first. You are grounded.”

“But—” She started to argue, but Izule hissed, and Ulana hung her head forward. Billie nodded, and then looked to the other two Ucfeni. “Layat and Prexa.” They raised their heads. “Do you have a sufficient reason to supply?”

“No mother.” Layat, the boy, spoke. “There is no point giving lies or excuses, so you might as well ground us as well.”

“We were just curious about the girl Vekna wanted to meet.” Prexa added.

“I see.” Billie shook her head, hands still on her hips.

“Then as Layat has deduced, you are also grounded.” Three pink heads now bowed forward.

This is hilarious. I can’t wait to call Hannah later and tell her all about it.

What are the chances? The four Coral Sweepers I emergency evacuated over a decade and a half ago are now rebellious teenagers, are Billie and Izule’s children, and one of them wants to date my daughter? ! Honestly, where is my popcorn?

“None of this is comely behaviour for the royal family.” Izule added with his deep and smooth voice.

“Now apologise to Charlie and his mate for the inconvenience.” The three turned and bowed their heads, each apologising on cue to me and Dal.

“And to your mother?” Izule hissed. “You made her worry when she couldn’t find you. ”

“Sorry mother.” Ulana raises her arms. “May we hug you?”

“No.” She wraps her arms around Izule’s left bicep. “But once we are home, you may. I would welcome it then.”

“Yes Mother.”

“Ulana, hold your mother’s hand for me. I need a moment with our hosts.

” Izule transferred Billie’s hand to their eldest daughter’s hand.

Ulana lifted up on her tail, widened her shoulders, and put on a stern expression.

If she’d been a Royal, her hood would have widened.

I think Ulana is a daddy’s girl. I’m still smiling when Izule sways on his long thick sandy brown tail towards us.

He puts a hand on Vekna’s shoulder and guides his son to follow him.

Dal tenses, but I stroke his arm to calm him.

“I apologise for this incursion.” He flattens his hood and bows his head to us, and Vekna bows as well.

“They are going through a rebellious phase at the moment. It’s hard to keep siblings apart when they are young, and we haven’t especially tried to make them part, but Vekna didn’t want his hatch mates around as he went on his first…

” Izule glanced down at Vekna, whose neck was looking very dark pink with embarrassment.

Suzu was also blushing dark blue at her throat as she peered around Dal to smile at him. “…outing with a young female.”

“Yeah. I can see that.” I chuckle and put my hands on my hips. “So, Prince Izule? Your son came to introduce himself to us first before he planned on taking Suzu for an ‘outing’.”

“I have raised my children to be respectful and adhere to my level of expectation. If a young man wanted to socialise with one of my daughters, I would expect to meet them first as well.” His hood widened with pride.

“Vekna is a good boy.” He clapped the boy’s back, and oh my God, he looked like he’d start glowing, he was so embarrassed.

“He is studious, lives in the royal library, trains alongside his mother on computers so he is as good as she is at coding, and is a gentle soul. He will one day make for a very caring, dedicated, and compassionate mate.” Vekna lowers his face into his hands.

“But not for a very, very, very long time.” Izule looks down at his son, who looks like he’d rather like a hole in the ground to swallow him up.

“Vekna is a good boy. You can trust him to be a gentleman with your daughter.”

“Oh good.” Dal adds, and Suzu’s tail-tip is flicking with excitement.

“Had we been talking about Layat? Well, then he would be on a leash.” Izule glances comically over his shoulder at his other son.

“He somehow takes after his uncle Halas. Very quick-witted, and will one day charm his way into many skirts.” I snorted into one of my hands, unable to contain my mirth.

This was just too funny! “Ulana is like me. She’s a keen hunter.

A protector.” He rumbled with pride, and then shrugged at us.

“Prexa is counting down her days to independence. She is adamant that one day she is going to choose a worthy male and become his Queen. But of course, he’ll have to get past me first.”

“I hear that.” I add, feeling the protective Dad vibes, and would have fist bumped the guy, if I knew Izule would know what to do with a fist bump. “Dal?”

“Yes?”

“I think that Suzu and Vekna should be alright going to the Hokesh festival.” Dal chuckled and rested an arm across my shoulders.

Suzu gasps and hugs us both in turn, before bashfully slithering over to Vekna.

Awwwww little lamb. Look at him? He’s smiling and so timid, as Suzu takes his hand decisively and yanks him towards the exit.

“Thank you Dad! Daddy! We’ll be back in 4 hours.”

“You’ll be back in 2!” I counter.

“3?” She tries.

“1?” I threaten.

“2 hours it is!” She slithers at speed with Vekna in tow out of the house and towards her 2 hours of freedom for her date.

Izule and the rest of the royal family, Billie included, leave our living room. Uzoti declares that he is going to the archery range so he doesn’t have to think about his sister on a date. Fine by me. Because that means one thing.

“Hey Dal?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we suddenly alone together?” I give him a filthy smirk and he licks his scaly lips at me. Oh yeah, we’re on the same brain wave. “Race you to bed?”

“Carry you to bed.” Dal pounces on me and I don’t even mind that he’s carrying me over his shoulder as he quickly scales our home.