Page 55 of Earth-Bound

Joe was watching us and I realised that Dee and Dum were stroking their hands down my arm and over my head and my—

I leapt away from them. “Excuse me!”

Dee grinned. “Don’t worry, Terrund, you’re not my type.”

“Yeah, we’re happily mated,” said Dum.

I tugged at my britches where they’d been fondling me, trying to straighten my clothes out and regain some equilibrium.

Dee was eyeing Joe. “We just wanted to see what he’d do.”

“Yeah, he’s not happy that we touched you,” said Dum.

“He’s not the only one,” I muttered, backing away from them.

To my delight, Joe inched nearer to me. I wasn’t sure he was aware he was doing it but he stood beside me, facing Dee and Dum.

The two dragons grinned. “Now we’ve got your attention, we want to show you something.”

Joe sounded wary. “What?”

“Our dragons.”

“So you know we’re telling the truth.”

“And you’ll believe us.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t eat you.”

Dum slipped off his jacket and let it fall to the ground. I stared. He was undressing in the open, about to shift.

Luckily, that was as far as he got. I let out a breath of relief when, from behind him, his mate shouted, “Hey, Dum, stop that right now.”

Matty stormed over, looking flushed. Anthony and Cuthbert trailed behind and I knew Cuthbert had fetched them out of the basement, sure that Dee and Dum were about to do something that needed to be restrained, and quickly. And he’d been right.

Dum spun round and whined, “But I’m helping.”

“You’re not helping.”

“Joe needs proof that magic exists and what’s better proof than a dragon shifting in front of him?”

Matty raised his eyebrows. “Maybe something a bit less scary? Some kind of proof that won’t make him pee himself with fear, perhaps?”

Dum grumbled, “He looks pretty tough. He probably won’t pee himself.”

Matty drew level with him and stood before his mate, glaring up into Dum’s face. Dee was right beside them, looking on with glee as Dum got a telling-off.

“You’re not shifting, Dum.”

“But… I’m helping.”

“It’s still a no.”

“Not even to help two fated mates?”

“No, because you’remyfated mate and I’ve told you before that I don’t like you getting naked in front of other people.”

Dum grinned and pounced on his mate, myself and Joe apparently forgotten.

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