The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 482

Chapter 482: An Overprotective Dragon Dad

DRAKENFELL — JUVENILE DRAGON TRAINING YARD

"His bedtime is sundown," Finnick said. "Onyx prefers his blanket over his tail. He will test you and chirp. If you give into it once, he will be up the rest of the night."

Elara stared at him.

"He gets one snack after dinner. Dried venison, cut into strips, small enough that he doesn’t choke. Give Avalon the same but slightly before. If Onyx finishes first, he will attempt to steal Avalon’s. Intervene immediately or the theft will establish a precedent and the precedent will become policy."

"Fin."

"What."

"Onyx is in good hands. Hale will read them a bedtime story and Onyx will sleep just fine."

"I know that." Fin’s jaw shifted. The shifting was the involuntary tell of a man who knew his instructions were excessive and whose knowledge was losing to his instincts and whose instincts were screaming that leaving his dragon overnight required a briefing packet and possibly a signed liability waiver. "I am providing supplementary information."

"You are providing a bedtime manual for a dragon. You have been talking for four minutes."

"Three and a half."

"Four."

Fin looked at her with the expression of an Alpha King whose authority had been challenged on a scheduling technicality and who was choosing, with visible effort, to concede the technicality rather than extend the briefing.

"Don’t worry," Elara said. Her voice softened. The softening was genuine because the ridiculousness was genuine and the genuine was coming from a man whose protective instincts had been extended to a juvenile dragon and the extending was unexpectedly endearing. "He’ll be going to sleep on time with Avalon. I promise."

Fin nodded. Once. The nod was the nod of a man releasing custody and whose releasing was costing him something he would never admit to and whose never-admitting was visible in every tendon of his neck.

Elara approved. She would never say it out loud because saying it would embarrass him, and embarrassing Finnick Shadowclaw was a project with consequences. But the dragon-dad energy was hilarious, and the hilarious was going straight into the vault of things she would tell Serena later.

Onyx and Avalon stood on the training yard in perfect formation. Side by side. Straight spines. Wings tucked. Tails aligned. The picture of discipline that both dragons had learned to perform when adults were present and whose performance was directly correlated to the speed at which adults would leave.

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