26. Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

Garrick

E very spare moment I'd had over the last week was spent staring at Oakley.

My Oakley.

My son.

It was hard to believe that this angry, full-grown adult person was the sweet and happy little baby I'd cradled in my arms. The son I'd held nearly all day long, every day until… until he was taken.

The sweet baby that had trusted me to keep him safe.

A trust I clearly hadn't deserved.

Crushing grief tightened my chest as I watched the young dragon. I'd failed him. I'd failed him for twenty-five years, and now I had him locked up in a condo, held here against his will. Was I failing him again? Should I let him go? Or was I keeping him safe?

I didn't know. I didn't know what the right thing to do was.

"Stop staring at me," Oakley suddenly ground out between clenched teeth.

The sound of his voice was so startling I nearly dropped the bowl I was holding. Those were the first words he'd spoken to me since the first day he'd been here. He'd spoken plenty to others, including Tan, but not a word to me. Mostly, he told the guards to go to hell or fuck off.

Tan, who was sitting at the kitchen island, sucked in a deep breath. He hadn't allowed me to come here alone, just in case my son attacked me. I wanted him to be wrong about that. I wanted to say that Oakley would never do something like that, but the truth was that he probably would. So, even though I hated it, I let Tan guard me while I was here. It was better than having one of the other guards stand in here with me.

I opened my mouth to reply, but Oakley put down the book he was reading to glare at me and said, "Just leave. All you do is stand there, staring at me. Just… just leave me alone."

I shook my head. "I'm sorry. I just… I still can't believe you're really here. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

He snorted and shook his head. "Yeah, right."

"I know you don't believe me, son, but I'm trying to help you."

He snorted, but it was humorless. "Right. The man who kicked me and my mom out and stole all our money wants to help me. Uh-huh. Real believable, asshole."

I inhaled sharply. "Is that what she told you?" That absolute bitch.

He scowled. "Of course she told me what happened."

"Oakley, I didn't kick you out. I never would've done that. I love you. I wanted to… I wanted you here with me."

He stared at me with a strange expression on his face. "I don't believe you." Of course he didn't. He had no real reason to, and if Sylra had been filling his head with lies about me for twenty-five years, I couldn't really blame him. It was going to take a lot to get him to see the truth.

"Your mother kidnapped you. You were stolen from me, and I've spent twenty-five years searching for you. And, by the way, I never stole anything from Sylra. I was King of Sedoba before I ever met her. Trust me, I never have and never will need money from that thieving—"

Tan murmured, "No name-calling, Gar-Bear. It isn't helping, and you'll only upset him."

I knew he was right, but it was really difficult to hold my composure when we were talking about the woman who ruined my life.

"And why should I believe you?"

I was going to answer Oakley, but Tan spoke first. "If you would look at the flashdrive I gave you, you'd know he's telling the truth. Your father's been searching for you since Sylra kidnapped you. I put all of the evidence together so you'd see the truth."

There were video recordings of things, voice recordings of Sylra threatening me and trying to ransom Oakley over the years. There were files, receipts, and so many other things. He even managed to pull footage of her fleeing the tower with Oakley and the blood witch the night she'd kidnapped him—I hadn't even known that footage existed. Roman had kept it after all these years. Roman and Tan had pulled as much evidence together as they could to show Oakley the truth.

I appreciated the effort, but considering that Tan had given it to him three days ago, and he hadn't said one word about looking at it, I wasn't holding my breath. No way was it going to work. I honestly didn't think anything would.

"All of that can be faked."

Tan stared at the young, stubborn dragon in disbelief. "Do you really think I'd go through all the trouble of faking that shit for you? What the hell would be the point of that?"

Oakley shrugged. "You'd do anything to get me on your side."

Tan groaned, and I realized for the first time I was seeing true frustration from him. Like bone deep annoyance and I-want-to-wring-his-neck frustration. If the situation wasn't so horrible, I'd probably find it funny.

I got it. We'd been trying to get Oakley to look at the flashdrive for days. We'd been trying to tell him the truth. And all we'd gotten was silence and attitude. Well, I'd gotten the silence. He hadn't had a problem with giving my viramore attitude every time we were here. I felt bad, but Tan was trying so hard.

Tan said, "What exactly do you want from me to prove to you that it's the truth? Did you even look at it?"

Oakley hesitated, but he finally gave a single nod. "I looked at it. I read everything and watched the videos."

That alone felt like a huge win, not that it helped much with this conversation.

Tan smiled at him, most of his frustration dissipating with that one sentence from Oak. "Good. I'm glad. What questions do you have? We'll answer anything you want."

Oakley stared straight ahead for a long time. I didn't think he would respond, but after an excruciating five minutes, he finally, very quietly, asked, "What are you planning to do with me?"

I blew out a long, quiet breath. "Oak, I… I just want to keep you safe."

"You want to keep me prisoner."

"No. That's the last thing I want."

He waved his hand around, encompassing the condo we were standing in. "This might look like a nice home, but it's still a prison. You won't let me leave. I'm your prisoner."

I flinched, but I didn't know what to say to that because he was right.

Tan said, "We're keeping you here until we know you're not going to attack one of us or any of our citizens. You're dangerous, Oakley, and we can't risk it."

His nostrils flared, and I could tell he was frustrated and pissed off. "Then let me leave. I'll go home."

"No." I said it with a growl before I could stop myself, and my poor son jerked back like he thought I was going to hit him. I softened my voice as much as I could. "I can't let you go back to that cult. I'm sorry, but it's not happening."

"It's not a cult."

I didn't bother to argue with that because I couldn't change his mind, not with a simple argument. Only time and exposure to the outside world would help with that. "I'm sorry, son."

"Stop calling me that."

"I'm sorry. I just… you're my—"

"That's not what I meant." His voice went a bit quiet. "I know you're my… my father, but I'm not… I don't like the word son ."

My brow furrowed as my chest tightened. Oakley called me his father. That was huge. "Okay, what do you prefer then?"

He sighed and rubbed at his face before making eye contact. "I'm nonbinary and would appreciate you using they/them pronouns. And maybe using kid or child or things like that would be better… please."

I stared blankly at Oakley for a few seconds while my brain recalibrated. I… hadn't expected that, but I was so fucking happy he—fuck, they—told me. "Okay. Got it. I'm sorry I was using the wrong pronouns before. Thank you so much for telling me." I wished I could give them a hug. Scales, I wanted to hug that kid so bad.

They stared at me for a few seconds. "Just like that?"

My brow furrowed. "Of course. I'm glad you told us."

Oakley's gaze moved from my face to Tan's. "What about you?"

Tan looked surprised to be asked. "I'm happy to use whatever pronouns you like. Sorry about misgendering you."

Oakley waved that away. "Don't worry about it." He— they , fuck, that was going to take some getting used to—stared at us for a long moment. "I really thought you'd be mad or just ignore me."

I bit back the is that what your mother did that wanted to come out, and instead, said, "I respect you, Oakley, and I always will. I want to make you happy." I love you .

They gave me a nod. "Thanks. That, um, that went better than expected."

What had their mother said about us to make them think we'd be so cruel?

Three weeks passed with Oakley stuck in their condo, and I felt terrible. I was wildly relieved to have them here, but they were still very distant. They were so close, yet they felt just as far away from me emotionally as they'd been the past twenty-five years. They still wouldn't really talk to us about the evidence Tan had given them, but I'd been told they were constantly looking it over when we weren't there with them. I hoped that was a good sign.

We'd given them access to television and the news, but not to anything where they could get a message out to anyone. We hadn't garnered enough trust for that yet.

It was so slow-going that I was getting frustrated. I wanted them to understand and believe us. I wanted to talk to them without them being so damn angry at me.

I wanted to pull them into a hug so badly.

My little baby was here, but they were still so far away from me. It was breaking my heart.

Tan stood from his desk, walked over to mine, and pulled on my chair until I was facing him. Then he stepped forward in between my legs and pulled me into a hug. Since he was standing and I was sitting, my face was against his belly, so I wrapped my hands around the back of his thighs, nuzzled into him, and breathed in his scent.

He didn't say a thing. He just held me for a long moment.

Finally, I asked, "What was that for?"

"You looked—no, felt—like you needed it."

I tilted my head up so my chin was resting on his belly. "Thank you."

"Anytime, Mr. Dragon Breath."

I snorted and kissed his stomach. "You have ridiculous nicknames for me."

He poked my cheek. "That sounds like a challenge, Sir Roasts-A-Lot."

"Definitely ridiculous."

"If you say so, King Toasty Toes."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, but a small smile quirked my lips.

"I see your smile, Mr. Flapjack Firebelly."

I couldn't help but laugh at that one, and he grinned at me. "Where are you even getting these?"

He shrugged. "I'm a genius."

I snorted again, and I realized that he'd distracted me enough from my sad thoughts that I felt a little bit… happy. I kissed his belly. "Thank you, Sir Silver… Fingers—I'm not good at that."

He burst out laughing, then bent down to kiss my lips. "We can't all be good at everything."

I pushed his shoulder jokingly, then pulled him back into a longer kiss. If it wasn't so late, I would've picked him up and carried him upstairs, but my alarm went off, telling us it was time to go down to Oakley.

I sighed against him. "I'm sorry."

He leaned back with a furrowed brow. "For what?"

"Having to cut this short." I waved a hand between us.

He grabbed my chin and pecked my lips. "Don't be. Spending time with Oakley is the most important thing for us right now."

He'd said us . I couldn't express how touched I was by that.

"You aren't mad that we've been down there so much?" We went down for lunch and dinner on work days. Then on the weekends, we'd been spending nearly all day there.

"Of course not. Garrick, they're your kid that you've been searching for twenty-five years for. Of course I'm not upset about spending time with them. I only wish they'd give us more of a chance."

I sighed. "Me too."

"I think the only way to do that is to keep talking to them as much as possible so they can see that you're kind and caring. I know it's frustrating, but I think time is the only answer."

With a nod, I kissed his belly, then stood up and hugged him to my chest for a long moment. When we parted, he smiled at me, and I sent him one back before we closed our laptops and headed downstairs to cook dinner.

Oakley didn't acknowledge us when we walked in, but since I was cooking dinner, Tan walked into the living room, and I heard Oak say, "You don't have to keep doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Coming here. I don't need either of you."

I started getting ingredients out, and Tan took a moment before he responded. "Maybe, maybe not. But I know your dad needs you."

This time, it was Oakley who took a beat to reply. "Did he… is everything…" They sighed, sounding frustrated. "Is what you showed me… really true? Did he really… want to keep me?"

My heart felt like it froze in my chest, and I knew I stopped breathing.

"Yes, Oakley. Your dad's been fighting to get you back since the moment you were gone. He loves you, more than you know. He's missed you so much and really wants to have a relationship with you. And I know I already said this, but, Oak, he really, really loves you. I can feel how much through our bond."

Oakley didn't respond after that, but I heard a few sniffles.

Tan said, "So… I know it's probably difficult to believe some of the stuff about your… about your mother. But I want you to know that I understand, and if you want to talk about it, I'm here."

"How could you possibly understand?"

"Well… my, uh, parents were… really bad and, um, abusive, so I basically lived with my friend's family in middle and high school. My parents… hit me sometimes. They either acted like I didn't exist and forgot I was even there, to the point that they'd forget to feed me a lot. Or they'd take out their anger on me." He cleared his throat, and I could feel how difficult this was to talk about for him. I appreciated him telling Oak more than he knew. "Anyway, they were well known in the local witch community as bad news, so most everybody stayed away from me in school and stuff. Until this wolf shifter named Remi came and sat with me at lunch, and well, he kinda just took me under his wing after that and even took me home with him. I stayed with his family as much as I possibly could, and they were always happy to have me there. So yeah, Oakley, I understand what it feels like to have parents who… do bad things and who hurt you."

Every time he brought up his parents, it made me want to hit something. He'd told me these things before, but it still made my gut churn listening to it now.

Fuck, I really needed to hold my viramore right now.

"I'm okay, Gar-Bear, really."

I could feel the truth of his words, so I tried to reel it back in and took a calming breath so I didn't charge in there so I could protect my viramore from past hurts—which made no sense at all, but I still wanted to do it.

Oakley said, "I'm sorry your parents did that to you."

"Thanks. I'm okay now, and I have my chosen family, plus Garrick in my life, so I'm really lucky. He's a good man, Oakley. I know… I know it's hard to know what to believe, but I hope you can tell that your dad has a good heart."

Oakley sniffled a little again, and I couldn't stop my feet from moving. I walked out there to check on them, but they wouldn't meet my eyes, and when I stepped closer, they hopped off the couch and ran into the bathroom.

"Are you alright?" I asked Tan.

"I'm fine." He didn't want to make a big deal of it, so I did my best to respect that.

"Thank you for talking to them."

"Of course." Tan squeezed my hand, and inside my head, I heard him say, "I think they still need time, but that was a good sign—really good, honestly. It's going to be okay."

"You really think so?"

"Absolutely, Sir Scale-ington."

Even though my heart felt heavy in my chest, that made me snort.

I leaned down to kiss Tan's cheek, then walked back into the kitchen to finish dinner, praying that my viramore was right and that Oakley would soon come around.

Please… please let them come around.