Page 16 of The Dragon's Perfect Omega
"I think he might be the one," I said.
"The one?" Finn stopped and sat on the bed with me, suddenlya lotmore interested in Zim. "You mean he might be your fated mate?"
I held my hands up, not wanting my friend to get too excited. "Hecouldbe. I don't know. There's definitely something drawing me to him. It's like..."
"Like your dragon reacts to him?" Finn asked, eyes growing wide. He was totally into this conversation now. "Dude, I know exactly what that feels like. When I first met Ryan, I kind of wanted to sink my claws into him. I mean, not really, of course, because I would never hurt him, but you know... I wanted to make him mine."
"And you did." It had taken a while, but the two of them had found their happily ever after in the end.
"Yeah." A dreamy smile took over Finn's face. It was too cute, the way he still got all googly-eyed when he thought about his mate. After a moment, he snapped out of it and came back to the present. "I'm only surprised you two didn't do anything last night if you're truly fated mates."
"He's got a few... issues to work through," I said carefully. I kind of pained me that I couldn't tell Finn exactly how I knew this because no dragon could know of my abilities, but there was nothing I could do about that now. I'd simply focus on explaining the situation to him in simple words. "I believe he was raised in a very homophobic environment and he's still suffering the consequences from that. And to top it all off, his parents are anti-dragon too."
"Wow, that sounds rough," Finn commented.
"Yes. I think he's definitely interested in me, but there's all these things holding him back, you know? So I figured I'd stay a little bit longer to give him more time to get used to me and the idea of us being together."
"You really think a day is gonna make much of a difference, though?" My friend seemed skeptical. I couldn't blame him.
"No, it might not." I sighed. "I just don't know what else to do right now."
Finn's feature drew together in thought. After a moment, his face lit up. Clearly, he'd had some sort of idea. I felt a little bit apprehensive. Finn's ideas were either brilliant or they led to total chaos, and too often, it ended up being the latter, so I braced myself when he spoke. "Why don't you invite him to the island?" he suggested.
"To the island?" He couldn't be serious. I couldn't just invite Zim to the island after knowing him for two days.
"Fan tickets," Finn said next. "You know how we have this lottery going among our fans?"
I remembered. Everyone who had bought our latest album was entered into the drawing. The grand price was tickets to see us play at Solstice on Dragon Island. It was a highly exclusive invitation. We'd only been authorized to invite five winners, max.
"We haven't announced the winners yet," Finn said.
"You want me to manipulate the outcome?" That seemed highly questionable.
"Only a little bit. Give Zim a signed album as a parting gift. Slip a winning ticket inside."
"The winning tickets have already been distributed."
"Don't be so difficult," Finn complained when I kept shooting his idea down. "Make this one personal. It's a bonus prize. We'll still have the other winners come."
"We're only allowed five people."
"He won't be on the island by invitation by the band but by yours. I'm sure we can swing it. Solstice is still two weeks away. You can’t tell me your ambassador father can’t make it happen. The elders love him."
He had a point. "I'll try."
"Really?" Finn grinned at me. "Great. I can't wait to meet your fated mate. I mean, meet him for real. Not for a few minutes before he runs away blushing," he teased. "You two should work on that."
"It was a difficult night for him." I saw a lot more potential in Zim than he had shown us last night at the bar. I couldn't wait to tease that out of him. To see his true colors, as cliché as that sounded.
"Okay, okay. I'll go easy on your man." Finn gave me a smile. "Enjoy your tour today. And keep me up to date on everything."
"Thank you." I'd tell him to keep me up to date as well, but I knew he would anyway. Finn loved to send everyone pictures of his son. His poor mate had had to send him photo updates every day of our tour, and Finn had forwarded them to all of us. In his defense, his toddler really was adorable. "You're gonna tell Zed what's going on?"
"Oh, yeah, sure thing."
"Enjoy your tour." There was a mischievous glint in Finn's eyes as he said that. He almost stuck his tongue out when he finished with, "And everything that comes after."
I whacked him over the back of his head. "Little shit."
