Page 58 of Stealing Jia

“This is Adoz, the Draconic I rescued from Threll.”

Dad held out his hand for Adoz to sniff. “I heard they can produce fire.”

“Adoz’s fire came in handy when that idiot Rodan started shooting up his own engine room.”

Dad brows knitted together. “What were you doing on a Rodan ship?”

“Blowing it up,” Bey answered.

Huh? He understood English. “I prefer to call it, evening the odds.”

“Trayon let you port in the middle of a space battle?” Father’s voice rose an octave.

My spine stiffened. “I’m an adult, I didn’t ask for permission. I did what needed to be done.”

“Surely you know where a Jones female goes, chaos soon follows.”

Dad and I glared at Bey.

The doors slid back to reveal the rest of my family. One look at Trayon and I bit my lip to keep from laughing. He seemed a bit frazzled and if I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he had come straight from the battlefield. His armor was a bloody mess.“Who won?”

Trayon gave me the stink eye.“Who do you think?”

“You are a formidable warrior, but the evil twins are sneaky.”

“The children rigged several bowls of worms over the door.”Trayon gestured at his armor. “When I walked in, the contents fell on me.”

My dad snickered.

“How long did it take you to catch them?”

“Not long,”Trayon said.

His super speed did come in handy. It had taken me an hour to catch the little brats.

The evil twins popped out of Trayon’s tentacles. “Momma Jia! We found you.”

“You did. Have you been playing with the blood worms again?”

They hid in Trayon’s tentacles.

My mate let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Have you told Father Trayon you’re sorry?”

LeeLee peeked at me.“No.”

I tapped the table.“Come down here and apologize, now.”

LooLoo and LeeLee skittered down Trayon’s arm and leaped on the table. “We sorry,” they said in unison.

“Your access to the food processors has been revoked,” Trayon growled.

LeeLee peered up at me. “What mean?”

“No more bloos-bloos or mealie bugs.”It was a struggle to keep from laughing.

“Him mean,”LooLoo cried.

---