Free Smitten by Vivienne Savage Page A

can’t make me! He’s a stupid baby, and playing with him isn’t fun anymore when Mom visits Aunt Marcy and Uncle Teo.”
    With a grandmother’s patience, Ēostre listened as Astrid listed the younger dragon half-breed’s crimes against her. Javier had only turned seven recently, and was prone to childish behavior Astrid no longer found acceptable at her older age, even if he had an older child’s mental acuity. “I see. I see. Do you want to know what I think, little one?”
    “Yes!”
    “The next time he is mean to you on the beach, I think you should punch him in his nose, sit on him, and rub his face in the sand. And then do you know what you should do?”
    “What?” Astrid asked, hanging on to her every word.
    “Call Mahasti and tell her to take you home, but not before you tell Javier everything you have said to me. You tell him he has hurt you, and that you refuse to come play with him again until he learns better manners. That when he feels able to apologize, he must come play with you at your home. This way you do not have to argue with your mother and father because you have talked to him about how he has wronged you.”
    “But he’s only seven,” Astrid said. Her brow knit again. “I can’t punch a seven year old.”
    “But he is half-dragon, and thus stronger than any other seven year old. Chloe and Marcy have raised the both of you as humans, but what they do not realize is that they must also raise you as dragons. We do not deal in corporal punishment and spankings, but we do warn our little ones with nips when they cause harm. He doesn’t realize his own strength and must learn the hard way to be gentle.”
    “Okay,” Astrid said without a complaint. “I love you.”
    “I love you, too.”
    “Can I ask you something else?”
    “Of course. You may ask me whatever you want.”
    “Um, this isn’t for me. It’s for a friend,” Astrid began. “But you give the best advice and it’s always better than what Daddy or Mom says to do.”
    Laughing all the while, Ēostre settled on the cozy loveseat in front of the suite’s flat screen television. “What does your friend need to know?”
    “If someone likes a person, but that person doesn’t know it, how should someone tell them?”
    The question caught Ēostre off guard. Had Astrid already developed a crush on Javier? Technically, she had reached the physical age in which most powerful dragon parents considered finding mates for their children, and Saul hadn’t looked any older when Fafnir made arrangements with Maximilian. He and Brigid been intended since her birth.
    No, of course not. The boy is too young, Ēostre determined. At seventeen, Astrid resembled most twelve-year-old girls, but Javier barely passed for five despite inheriting his father’s massive height. Maybe she’s met someone at one of those homeschool support groups Chloe takes her to.
    “By being as honest as possible, sweetling. If you like someone, you must always tell them unless some greater reason exists for why you shouldn’t.”
    “Like if they’re already married or mated?”
    “Exactly,” she said. “Because it is never right to usurp another dragon’s mate. Unless that mate is horrible and their cruelty has been witnessed by three people. Then in accordance with our laws, anyone may intervene to challenge. If they are soul bonded, one may never challenge at all.”
    Astrid became quiet for a moment, then she said, “Dragon laws are weird.” Her small nose scrunched.
    “Do you find such a law confusing?”
    “Well, yes. Daddy doesn’t hit my mom or anything but the other day, while we were watching a movie, she told me some husbands hit their wives because they’re big babies who don’t know any better. And she said the wives stay with them because no one sees what’s happening and they’re afraid to get help.”
    “That is true,” Ēostre said sadly. “And it has been true since the dawn of time when humans first began to couple with