Chapter 21

Chapter

Twenty-One

CALLISTO

When I open my eyes there is a large naked man standing over me chewing on an apple.

I jerk back, startled, as he scratches his bare ass and gives me a kick. "Oi, Papa, I'm fucking hungry. This apple tastes like shit," he says in an accent I'm not accustomed to hearing around here.

"What the fuck?" Silas says as he grabs for his sword.

The tawny-haired man glowers at him with golden eyes before turning back to me. "What the fuck is wrong with your face? Are you going to feed me or what?" Then he chucks the apple at Silas, reaches down and picks me up like I weigh as much as a loaf of bread, and carries me over to Dandelion's nest…

Where the fuck is Dandelion?

He stuffs the brush into my hand. "Get that spot on my back, I can't reach it."

"What the fuck…"

I slowly look over at Silas who seems way less concerned about the fact that a naked man has stuffed me onto his lap than I would wish. He seems more thoughtful than anything as I'm over here holding a brush and making weird noises as I try to remember how language works.

"Oh? No longer my papa now?"

"Ha… ha ha…"

I brush the naked man. I have no fucking idea why, but I start brushing him as everything comes slamming right into my head. "Dandelion?"

"What?" he asks, face scrunching like he could even remotely be confused about why I'm so goddamn startled right now.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" I cry as I jump off his lap.

"You're kind of shit at this," he tells me before looking at Silas. "Didn't you hear that I'm hungry?"

"Oh, I heard," Silas says.

"I'm going to go feast on those chickens if no one feeds me. It pecked me. Look." He holds his hand out to me like I'm just going to kiss the pain away.

I point at him as he grabs me and puts me back on his lap. He tilts his head like Dandelion did when he wanted me to get his neck a little better with the brush.

"Ha…" I give his neck a little flick of the brush. "What the fuck is this?"

"Is what?" Then he scrutinizes me for a moment with his golden eyes. "Hold on… you really thought I was a beast?"

"I sure as fuck didn't think you were a person ," I growl. "You tried to murder me ."

"Eh. But I didn't, did I?" He gives me a pat like that solves everything.

"I've sat on you. And lay on you… and rubbed my face all over you. I gave you belly scritches ."

"You still can," he says as he gives his stomach a pat like he's inviting me to just start scratching on his muscular stomach.

Silas quickly comes over and tries to pick me up—I guess belly rubs on a muscular naked man is his tipping point—but Dandelion pins me to him. "Oh no. Is he your papa? I don't think so."

"Are you really going to test me?" Silas asks as he gives him a look.

Dandelion stares at him for a long moment before dragging me in close. "Papa, are you going to let him treat me like this?" he asks me. ME ? Treat him like what? I fucking rode around on his back! I declared him my mount! I brushed him, saddled him, and I even gave him kisses! I booped his nose . And here he's this big burly man?—

Silas and I did that in front of him .

I believe I'll just die of shame and embarrassment right here. "We were so naked in front of you."

"Oh yes. It was quite frisky, but where the fuck was I supposed to go? I thought you two frisky men just wanted someone to watch but I didn't. I tried to sleep but it was quite loud."

Kill me now. "I didn't know you were a person . Excuse me while I crawl in this hole," I say as I try to drag my body away. There has to be a hole somewhere.

"Have you still not gotten me anything to eat?" Dandelion asks Silas while dragging me back to him and stuffing the brush back into my hands like I'm just going to continue the grooming session. And as far as grooming goes, as a human his hair looks absolutely horrific from where I'd been just hacking away at the mats! I didn't know I'd have to be faced with the atrocity I'd done! I was just like "Oh, he's an animal, no one will notice or care," and now it looks like I just started hacking away at the hair on his head!

"There has to be a hole somewhere," I say.

Silas laughs. "I told you not to sit and lie on him."

My head snaps around to Silas. "You knew ?"

He shrugs. "Knew? No, but I knew he had a lot of magic for just some ‘mount.' He was also highly intelligent."

I find one of Silas's shirts which I pull over my head. It's not quite a hole but it's good enough. "You saw so much."

"I saw it all," Dandelion admits.

"Why didn't you shift before now?"

"I couldn't shift with those runes on my legs. Hell, haven't been able to shift in years! Boy, does it feel nice! Look at these hands! Look at them! I can grab things!"

Dandelion shows this by grabbing my foot and dragging me back to him. Of course Silas is just standing back and letting this happen.

"Save me, Silas."

He shakes his head. "You made this bed."

"Yeah, well now I'm horrified and embarrassed," I say, which makes Dandelion laugh as he just plops me down on his naked lap and sets his chin on the top of my head.

"I used to be like nah, I hate people. But you won me over, Papa. Now let's sit tight while this one feeds us," Dandelion says.

"I… I know I sat on your lap and lay on you and did all that before, but it's rather awkward with you… as a human."

"It is?" he asks, confused by this. "You also sat on his lap, and you were naked then."

Thankfully, I'm clothed now. "R-Right…" But that was… because Silas is sexy and I wanted to do… things with him. How the hell do I explain this without wanting to disappear? "This is different."

"Hmm… Nah. It's fine," he decides while staring expectantly at Silas.

"Is there a reason you can't feed yourself?" Silas asks.

"Oh, I did! But Papa here tore it out of my mouth! He even choked me a little as he did it."

"I didn't choke you!" I say as I longingly look at Silas. "Save me."

"Dandelion fought against you treating him as a pillow and bed for quite a while and you still bullied him into it. I see this as karma," Silas decides.

"Karma shouldn't be this naked."

Silas helps by tossing a shirt on Dandelion's lap.

I give Dandelion a desperate look. "What if you shift back and I'll brush you then, eh? Ha ha?"

Dandelion shakes his head. "Nah, nah. I like these fingers. Look at 'em!"

"I'm looking," I say as he shows them off to everyone willing to look.

"I will go find you something to eat and you two just stay right there," Silas says, enjoying this far too much.

"You should be jealous ," I hiss.

"He clearly doesn't see you like that, so I'm just enjoying the ride," he says as he goes over to the bag he'd just brought back and hands Dandelion some dried meat. He eagerly chews on it.

"Ah, let me see what else we have for you," I offer, seeing it as an opportunity to scurry off.

"What's your name?" Silas asks as I rummage around in the bags. I don't know what the fuck I'm looking for but it's an excuse to not deal with that… issue.

The large man just shrugs. "I guess it's Dandelion."

"Before that."

"Eh. A slaver named me as a child, and I didn't like it very much. I hated it when he'd call me. Still gives me chills hearing it since I knew it meant he was coming for me." He shudders and I'm reminded of all his whip marks and scars—many of which are much more noticeable on his human body. He even has marks on his side, and I can't help but question whether it was from someone spurring him with pointed spurs. "I've had a lot of names, but they were all given by people who enslaved me or beat me. Dandelion is the first name given by someone who didn't hurt me!"

I try not to let the horror show on my face.

"You couldn't have given him a better name?" Silas mutters.

"I'm sorry," I whisper. "I can give you a name that… fits you a bit better."

Dandelion looks over and cocks his head. "Nah! It's my favorite name yet!"

"Okay… I'm sorry for poisoning you."

"Eh, I attacked you first. I assumed you were like the rest," he says as Silas gives him more food. It at least seems to keep his hands occupied so they're not snatching me. "And I thought you were evil. But boy oh boy, what the fuck are you?" He stares at Silas who quickly looks away.

"I am nothing," Silas responds.

"That ain't nothing! After Papa went diving off that cliff and you faced off with those men—you're fucking terrifying!"

Silas doesn't seem to like where this conversation is going, so I clear my throat.

"Uh… Dandelion… do you have a home to go back to or something?"

He stills. "You're getting rid of me?"

Now I feel like a massive asshole and why ? "What? NO! I just… like didn't know if you had family or something that you missed and wanted to go back to."

His stare is making me feel uncertain as he says, "No. Nothing like that. If you just want to get rid of me…. That's fine. I… I'd really like it if you didn't take me to a sale, though." And then he slumps onto his side like I've just rejected him.

In horror, I look at Silas, who shrugs. "You created this."

"HOW?"

Dandelion seems too dejected to even eat.

I sigh and walk over to him before kneeling down. "Hey, I'm sorry if it came off that way. I was wanting to help you. I didn't know if there was something you were wanting. I would never ever take you to a sale."

"Something I want?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't know, but I like it when you sleep on me," he says as he drags me on top of him.

"Okay, but this is like… you know… weird when you're a human."

"Why?" he asks.

"Uh… you know… You should only… like… Um, Silas, help me?"

Silas sighs and finally seems to forgive me for my prior… deeds of cuddling with the murder mount because he comes over.

He clears his throat. "While it might be normal to cuddle something you believe is an animal, you generally only do intimate things like this with people you really care about."

"Huh… alright," Dandelion says as he snatches Silas and pins him on top of us as well. "It's a good thing I care about both of you, then!"

"Let go of me!" Silas growls, but Dandelion is fucking strong . He might be malnourished, but his muscle makes up for it.

"Not so funny now that you're involved, huh?" I say to Silas.

"Why's he so fucking strong? He's half starved. He shouldn't be this strong."

"You two make me laugh!" Dandelion decides, then closes his eyes like he's going to sleep through our misery.

"I didn't know," I whine. I manage to slip out of Dandelion's grip, but he's determined not to let Silas go. "Have fun."

"Have fun, my ass. We're getting rid of this thing," he growls.

"How could you say that? He's still so cute."

"You've learned nothing ," Silas grumbles as he twists and pulls, but Dandelion is dead to the world. "I will kick your ass out of this party if you don't let me go."

Dandelion huffs but lets Silas go. Why the hell wouldn't he listen to me like that?

Silas looks over at me with wide eyes. "What have you done?"

"Oh yawn. I'm tired. We should probably go back to sleep. We only have a bit before it's dark and we have to leave. Yep. That's what we should do. Way over here," I say as I hurry back over to my blanket and get under it.

Silas follows me and climbs in next to me. "I told you that you were babying him."

"You could have mentioned that he was a person!"

"I never considered that he was a person, I just knew he was surprisingly intelligent. Thought at most he could maybe understand human language," he says.

"I don't know whether to be embarrassed or horrified or a combination of both."

"Well, you're now ‘Papa.'"

"Fuck," I whisper.

Silas starts laughing before tucking his face against me to hide it lest we wake up the sleeping tiger… man.

I lie awake for a while, a flood of memories just running through my mind of all the embarrassing things I did in front of Dandelion because I thought he was an animal .

"I peed in front of him," I whisper.

"It's fine. He peed in front of you too."

"That doesn't make me feel better," I say. "You and I… fondled each other in front of him."

"That… is kind of regrettable but it's over and done with."

"I cooed to him while rubbing his belly."

"You did that a lot."

"I kissed him and pulled on his tail and rode on his back, and one time I dried my wet hands on him. I told him how much he smells."

"Sounds tragic."

"And did you see what I did to his hair ?"

"It looks awful."

"I'm too embarrassed to sleep."

"The most tragic part of all of that is you named him Dandelion."

"And he loves it," I whisper.

"He could have been named Titus."

"I know. I just… thought he was cute, and it was cute…"

Silas tucks his face against the blankets as he laughs.

"Shh, stop laughing! We'll wake him up and he'll make me lie on him again! It's so awkward and naked."

That just makes Silas laugh harder, so I'm forced to smother him a little to quiet him down.