Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Suck?
The negative association was clear but the subtleties of the meaning were lost on me. The diner men had not used that word. “From what I understand, we do not have diseases in the same way humans have them. It may be that our magic influenced that during our evolution.”
Sighing, he shook his head. “Mages probably fucked with that kind of stuff so long ago we don’t remember. It’s probably like the flowers and that shit just stuck.”
The flowers, yes.
“That may be.” It was more helpful than influencing the out-of-season growth of plants, however. “If it was, that information was lost.”
He did not seem to mind my lack of knowledge. “We weren’t lost, though. That’s amazing. Wait. Were we forgotten? That was what I meant.”
I appreciated the way he thought to clarify his words, but I had to admit to disliking the need for it. Isolated humans did not have an extensive vocabulary. It was what the diner men called a learning experience.
“You were not forgotten, my mate.” Never. “My people have watched for you for generations.”
It was one of our greatest tragedies that they had been separated from us and the most painful lesson that children should’ve never been sent that far away…especially not without more skills and supervision. “We did not know what to expect but finding you happy and thriving will please my people more than you know.”
Nearly every family had a member who had been lost and our society had never recovered in some ways.
One moment our children had been learning to grow and thrive and the next there was a great hole where they had once been. Many families had never moved past the grief and generations suffered in silence.
“So they’re going to be happy to meet us?” Looking hopeful and nervous, Wren curled his body into mine, pressing his face against my neck. “Everyone’s been thinking about the practical stuff, but it’s hard not to think about the people aspects.”
People aspects indeed.
“Our government has kept the news quiet until more information was gathered, but this will bring joy beyond measure, my mate.”
Just as finding my mate had brought me.
My mate.
Chapter 5
Wren
That was so…
Not knowing what to say was so weird it cleared some of the emotion running through me and I wrapped my arms around my mate.
My mate…hmm…
“Daddy?”
He stroked my back, making a soft hum that sounded like something he’d practiced. “Yes, my mate?”
“What’s your name? I’m going to call you Daddy most of the time but I need to know your actual name to be able to introduce you to people when we get to that point.” I needed to figure out when that point was, but somewhere between after we’d fully mated and before that Canadian lady dragged us through the portal seemed like a good plan.
From what I’d heard she was a force of nature and the diner men were still deciding if there should be a Team Bulldozer. I couldn’t decide if I was excited to meet her or was just going to hide because she’d be too much to deal with.
“Oh.” He was still and nearly silent as he thought and forgot to pretend to look human, going so quiet it was almost like seeing a predator in the woods. “You are right. I did not make introductions.”
Before I could tell him that was alright, he huffed. “The locals skip that step as well unless they are gathering information.”
Giggling, I nodded against him and gave him attention me wiggles. “They’re pushy and nosy and I love it. They’re so funny.”
I could hear the smile in his voice as he went back to stroking his hands over me and nuzzled the side of my head like he was supposed to. “They have been unexpected. Klynn does not appreciate them.”
Daddy’s friend sounded a bit like Pierce and I couldn’t wait to meet him to get to be nosy too.
“I am called Toman. My name is Toman. Yes. That is better.” His grumbles as he got the wording right had me trying not to laugh. “I came with a small party through the portal. However, our third member went back through again to share our first information.”
“You’ve got a wonderful name, Daddy.” Toman. Toe-Man. My man. My Daddy man. My Daddy Manny. “That’s close enough to a human-sounding name that we won’t confuse the diner men.”
They had enough on their plates figuring out kinks and age play, so we didn’t need to add anything else.
“They appear easily confused.” Daddy was so funny but the best part was how serious he was. “I am glad my name will be easy to say, however. I did not expect the names your people took to have changed so much.”
Oh.
“Um, well, there were locals that I’m told our people spent a lot of time with but the next wave of outsiders who moved here after us were Scottish.” Hmm. “From a land across the Atlantic Ocean called Scotland. We took a lot of their names after we mated and married them and started having kids.”