Page 36 of No Potions Needed

With my interest piqued by the new information, I cut our conversation short and headed straight for Dern’s room. He sat up in his bed, dressed for the day, staring at the door.

“Finally,” he announced when I walked in.

“Rian said Ormund left.”

“Don’t make it sound so final. He went to check on some things. He still has a life you know,” Dern rolled his eyes at me. “I knew you’d come by because you’d want to give the lovebirds some time alone. I figured that would leave me time to tell you about the birth of my boys. I hadn’t planned on telling any of you because it’s not important to the story overall but figured you’d be the sappy sort of pup who’d enjoy it. Being the third wheel has to suck.”

“It doesn’t exactly suck,” I said, taking up my normal seat and taking my laptop out.

“You wouldn’t have said exactly if it didn’t suck,” Dern pointed his finger at me. “Of course it sucks. You had two friends here and now they’re swapping spit and humping each other. That doesn’t leave much room for you.”

“I’m happy for them,” I said, the fur on the back of my wolf’s neck bristling.

“Two things can be true at once. Now do you want to hear about my pups or not? Either I can tell you the story or we can argue about how butt hurt you are. I don’t care which we do, really. It’s sort of entertaining how upset you are that I pointed it out. Did I break some unspoken rule? I don’t do well with those. So, any rule you want me to follow you’ll have to tell me about.”

“Just get on with your story, Dern,” I said, managing to keep the growl out of my voice.

“One second. I’m getting there, pup,” Dern sighed. “Besides them humping like bunnies are you alright?”

“I’m fine. My carrier is pregnant again. They’re going on vacation to some little village in Europe. I’m not worried exactly. Preston is doing fine withmyshop.”

“Ah, the first time you’ve felt so unneeded. That sucks even more,” Dern nodded. “It’s good for you, though. You’re going to travel a lot soon. You’re going to see more worlds than anyone ever imagined. That’s where Ormund is. He’s off in the Other World making sure someone else is going to uphold their end of a deal he made a long time ago.”

“About your kids?” I asked.

“No, our boys are fine. They’re a happy lot with their mates and descendants and all,” Dern shrugged. “I’ll see them soon enough. Do you want me to make the kid bring you cake or something?”

“I’m fine, really, Dern, but thank you.”

“It sucks not knowing, huh?” he flashed me a sympathetic look that made me want to growl. I didn’t need a pity party. Plenty of people walked around without meeting their true-mates every day. Besides, if I really wanted to meet mine, I’d talk to Othoni’s parents. I’m sure they’d help me out.

“It’s as it should be,” I said, squaring my shoulders. “My carrier knew about my sire for a long time before they ever met. It was nothing but a headache. Of course, you know that, you old hound. You know that because you tell everyone it’s a headache to meet your true-mate.”

“It is. Aren’t you seeing that with them? Everything is changing for them. Besides, I’ve seen how Othoni looks at you. If Teddy doesn’t flip him over and take care of business soon, he might eat you,” Dern laughed.

“Eww! Don’t talk about my friends like that.”

“You can’t say it hasn’t crossed your mind, Mori,” Dern crossed his arms, but a playful glint danced through the old wolf’s eyes. “Seriously. Calm down. I knew your grandpa before I knew your carrier. We crossed paths a few times here and there. He’d have laughed his ass off at that.”

“It would be funnier, if I wasn’t friends with both of them,” I admitted.

“Kid, this hard time will pass. Then others will come. Life isn’t like the ocean with waves. It’s mountains and valleys. You climb and think the top is alright but then it’s fucking cold. You think crossing the valley will be easy and then the fucker floods on you and you’re barely keeping your snout above water. If you don’t learn to laugh and relax, you’ll see your door early.”

“I refuse to believe life will always be hard,” I frowned.

“Naive hope never saved anyone, pup, but that’s okay. I think it’s a sign that your parents did well in protecting you. I was that kid before. Do you want to see my scar?”

He didn’t wait for me to answer. Instead, he hiked his shirt up and pulled his pants low enough on his hips that grey pubs showed.

“See, it’s right there.”

I leaned over and sure enough there was a cut right where c-section scars formed if one would show up. Though, most of the time the skin healed so quickly that scars didn’t have time to form but whatever they cut Dern with had torn him asunder.

“They had a metal they used for surgery that made it so the flesh didn’t heal. Whenever they did a surgery they’d make their cuts and then have to cut off extra strips of skin when it was time to close things up. It was horrible. The peck didn’t do that to me of course. That’s why healing took so long. Kaladar refused to carve me up again. Instead, he had healed the poisoned skin.

“Have they given you lunch yet?” I asked.

“Yeah but it was crap. I didn’t eat it. Dinner might be better.”

---