Page 7 of These Little Heirs (Moonscale Heirs Duet #2)

Teal

“Are you trying to tell me Morvan DiSea has no control over his own actions? Are you implying that you’ve bespelled him into doing your dirty work?

” Clarence asked me, his voice growing deeper and louder with each syllable that slipped over his angry tongue.

My grandsire was already red in the face.

He was that way when I showed up and came through the backdoor right before my grandparents headed out to the jail to talk to Morvan.

“We arrived exactly when I planned to,” my dragon chimed into my thoughts.

“It’s my operation,” I said again not bothering to answer his asinine questions.

“I tried to tell you that we needed more green space. I tried to let you know that we needed to focus more on growing food and restoring the pollinators to their prehuman-historic numbers. You wouldn’t listen to me.

You brushed me off by saying people could tell you if they needed help.

I told you and you brushed me off. So, what the hell did you say to those who might not be your heir? ”

“It’s not about heirship,” Medwin cut in and I bit the inside of my cheek.

My grandcarrier was the second to the last person in the world I wanted to hurt.

The first being my carrier. “This is about so much more than that! If it got out that you were undermining your grandfather at every turn…” His face paled and his words trialed off.

“Lots of people already know, don’t they? ”

“Yes! And there hasn’t been a coup! This isn’t a coup!

There isn’t going to be a bloody coup! I don’t want your jobs!

You told me to plant trees! You told me to see what I could do, and I did!

That winter your babies were born you told me to do it!

” I tossed my hands in the air feeling more like a teenager than I had in a long time.

“If being part of this family means leading the land and the people on it, I’m doing that!

I’m restoring the land! Yes! I started with your favorite golf course because you pissed me off, but I figured you’d see sense sooner that way!

What are you charging Morvan with? Because it should be my charge. ”

“Trespassing,” Clarence spat out the word.

“Because you can’t find a law that says it’s illegal to plant seeds anywhere, can you?” I smirked.

“What do you want me to do? I gave you the chance to make a difference within the framework of tradition and---”

“Tradition and change aren’t compatible! Do you even hear yourself? Do you read the articles that come across your desk or do you crinkle them up and use them to hide your shinys?” My hands trembled like Cobalt’s had when he caught Odie’s anxiety.

“Do not talk to your grandfather like that!” Medwin cut in. “Shinymania is a real medical condition!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, begging my dragon not to set anything on fire. Meda and AJ were upstairs with their nanny. I needed everything to stop for a minute. I needed them to see that for years I’d done this now and the numbers were improving. Neither of them had been harmed.

“You’ve practically driven him crazy, Teal!” Medwin said. “You--- I’m proud that you want to make a difference…

“No, I want to make a change! A real and lasting change! A change before it’s too late and we’re having to hand pollinate our food.

Numbers have crept back up since human governments died but not enough.

We have enough land and hands to feed everyone.

Frost Moonscale would never have charged someone for food! ”

Clarence sat down on the sofa and tossed his hands up into the air. It wasn’t the first time I used that line on him and it wouldn’t be the last.

“What’s up, everyone? Just coming to turn myself in,” Indigo walked into the room.

“Go home!” Clarence and I snapped at the same time, and I cringed. The old bastard was the last person I wanted to sound like.

“I did it. I bullied Morvan into it. He might be a jumbo lizard but I’m bigger,” Indigo shrugged.

“And why would you have me believe you did it?” Clarence asked.

“To see if I could. I was bored. Besides, our carrier is going to love it when he finds out. It’s in our blood, Grandpa.

He’s an ag engineer. It’s in our blood,” Indigo said and tossed his hands back.

I had just enough time to stuff my fingers into my ears before he let out a howl that set Meda off upstairs.

Out of all of us, Indigo’s vocal cords were the best for howling.

He carried on the sound drowning out my thoughts and what anyone else might say.

“Pack living is in our blood. I did it because I missed Heartville. I did it because you need a large sample size for an experiment. I did it –”

“He did not do it,” I rolled my eyes and stuffed my fingers back in my ears before he howled again.

“Stop that!” Medwin sighed. “That isn’t helping anyone! You cannot annoy us so much that Morvan isn’t in trouble!”

“Wanna bet?” Indigo smirked. “I got him into this mess I’ve got to get him out of it.”

“It’s my fault, Dad,” Sunny said, from the kitchen doorway and Medwin plowed through both me and Indigo to get to his second born like he hadn’t visited him two weeks ago fon Starscale 2. Sunny hugged him and spun him around in circles until Medwin slapped at him demanding to be put down.

“It’s my fault,” he said again. “We encouraged them.”

“You don’t really believe in a cashless society, do you?” Clarence rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“No,” Sunny shook his head, and I turned to face him head on because I was pretty sure he did.

“No, I don’t,” Sunny said again. “I believe we don’t need to make money off food.

I think we could really change how everyone sees you if we didn’t make money off food.

That’s all. It would be good for your reputation, and it would show the world that we’re that bloody prosperous, Dad.

Seriously,” he said, joining Clarence on the sofa.

“Not only have we rebuilt from the war but we’ve rebuilt so much everyone is eating for free.

Then they’re spending their money in other parts of the economy.

Then when we make sure all of our people are eating for free, we send the excess to other groups because we’re that recovered.

That’s how much that stupid hate group can’t keep us down. ”

I blinked. That was not the plan. That wasn’t --- We hadn’t really talked about how we’d present it to Clarence if we were ever caught. Had Sunny been planning this all along?

“So, you can’t keep Morvan locked up. Seriously, you can’t. It’s bad publicity.”

“They trespassed and ---”

“Were the factories using those fields? Did they need them or was it just extra space?” Sunny cut him off before he could get started again.

“No but---”

“So? What? Did he embarrass the guards? Morvan is fast. He’s always been a fast little shit, huh?

What? Are we going to punish physical prowess now?

That’s not a good look. You want fast and strong dragons.

That’s why we’re going to feed them for free.

Hell, you can even say it was Teal’s group that talked you into it.

If you don’t want the headache of having to set it up, make Teal do it as a punishment. ”

“Teal might be busy soon,” Medwin said.

“Doing what?” I turned toward where he leaned against the wall.

“Stuff. You’ll see. Important stuff,” Medwin shrugged.

My heart skipped a beat. Did he know what else Morvan and I did?

“Your pheromone blocker spray is starting to wear off, Teal,” Indigo patted my shoulder. “Grandpa is trying to be nice and not say you’re in a rut aloud. I’m not as nice.”

I laughed because what the hell? At this point the world had already turned upside down and I was going to have to figure out how to distribute food and stuff without money involved and ensuring fairness.

“No, you don’t,” Indigo shook his head. “Not alone at least. Remember my food management degree and all that. If not me, our carrier would jump on the chance to help set this up.”

“We’ll get started on it while you three are busy, though,” Medwin said.

“I’m not going to be in a rut forever,” I chuckled.

“Are you sure you don’t have anything else going on? Like something extremely private that we can celebrate with a feast later?” Medwin asked and I blinked.

“What are you talking about, Grandpa?” I asked, crossing the room to stand next to him while Sunny finished smoothing things out with Clarence.

“Nothing. Have you met Ciro yet?” Medwin asked me.

“Yes,” I nodded. “Shit! Did one of them tell you?”

“Tell me that you met your mate? How long did you think you could keep it from us?” Medwin grinned and pulled me into a hug.

“Grandpa, I think you’ve gotten your wires crossed,” I blinked, hugging him back. “We almost hooked up before I got the call about Morvan, but we didn’t respond.”

“What?” Medwin pulled away, looking up at me.

“You know I’m going to meet my true-mate in a lift while delivering a baby and all that,” I laughed.

“Things change when old men get more insight and meddle,” he said carefully.

“He’s not my mate. We’d have known by--- Fucking sugar cookie!” I swore.

“Watch your mouth!” Medwin batted my arm. “I don’t know what that’s a code word for but do NOT call me a sugar cookie or a fucking anything!”

“Not you, Grandpa,” I said, rubbing my arm. “He smells like a sugar cookie.”

“Oh,” Medwin said and then frowned.

“Who told you what?” I asked.

Indigo joined us and I told him over our triplet link to go home to his family. It was useless. He wasn’t going to leave me on my own until Morvan was free and he was sure Clarence wasn’t going to change his mind and rip my wings off or some such nonsense.

“I went over to have tea with Xenos and meet his new baby. Adorable by the way. He told me that your mate was a liger who went to school with your brothers’ mates and who had parents who died fighting in the war.

It was like a bloody scavenger hunt to figure out who it was.

It’s him. I mean, it’s him unless I missed something,” Medwin rambled as my heart skipped beat after beat. On-skip-on-skip.

“He was pretty torn up when you left,” Indigo said. “And it explains why you stole his---”

I slapped my hand over Indigo’s mouth before he could say another word.

It didn’t matter that I hadn’t stolen his underwear.

Medwin was the last person in the world who needed to know that I kicked anyone’s dirty underwear under the sofa and then told the man in question – an omega – to search me for them.

“Go home!” I said. “Go home before I bite you! I have stuff to figure out here and---”

“It sounds like you have stuff to figure out at home,” Indigo countered.

“I could wait around to make sure Morvan gets home alright. I might be a new sire but you’re in a rut.

You’re probably more likely to throw a punch than me.

If I get arrested and can’t go home to Robin, I’ve really fucked up. You’ll just jack off in jail and—”

I slapped my hand over my brother’s mouth again and didn’t let him wiggle away this time.

If we’d been anywhere else in the world, I probably would’ve let him by with it but our grandparents’ home was no place to talk about ruts.

Indigo licked my palm, and I grabbed him around his middle and flipped him onto his back, narrowly missing the antique coffee table.

“Boys!” Our grandcarrier snapped and we both froze.

“One of us,” Indigo whispered, a laugh still pulling at the corners of his lips.

“You’re lucky you’re one of us or I’d descale you and wear them as a hat,” I frowned down at him but held out a hand to help him up.

“Go home and find out if he’s right,” Indigo said once he was on his own two feet again. “Seriously. Yes, I miss Ambry and Robin, but someone has to make sure Morvan gets set free. Just pick up some cherries on your way back, please.”

“Do you really have this? It could take a while. Clarence waffles on doing good deeds. He could go back and forth a lot,” I warned him.

“I’d rather sit here and wait and maybe take a swing at him rather than let Morvan down.

We didn’t ask to be born heirs but that fact that we did means we’re in a unique place to swing our privilege around as swords and shields when we need to and that’s more often than our grandparents would care to admit. ”

“I got it. Believe it or not, I don’t want Robin to grow up in a world where he needs to pay forl food to eat, okay?

If Grandpa’s right about Ciro being your mate stay and figure it out.

If he’s not but he’s still willing to hook up, just be careful, okay?

I know Cobalt’s all uptight right now but that’s because Odie is uncomfortable.

He might not be vibrating from his anxiety anymore, but I think he’s picking up his mate’s discomfort nonetheless,” Indigo sighed.

“Leave it to the horn ball extraordinaire to be the empath.”

We both rolled our eyes and our brother flipped us off over our triplet link.

“Now go! Seriously, if you don’t get more excited at the idea of meeting you’re mate I’m going to slug you!” Indigo said, playfully pushing my shoulder. I hugged him goodbye and slipped out the door while our grandparents were still distracted by Sunny.

“I’m educated in the right field for this anyway!” Indigo shouted after me.