Page 29 of Outnumbered

“Pretty sure any hybrid except Caleb would cry after a royal welcomed them to the clan,” Riddick said.

Silverowl frowned. “You need an elven name as well, don’t you, Riddick?”

Riddick’s smile turned a bit sad. “My parents didn’t want to give me one since it would expose what I was.”

“How have we been brothers for this long and you never said anything?” Caleb growled. “Dad would have given you an elf name the first day you came to play if you had asked!”

“I didn’t want to take advantage of our friendship,” Riddick said with a shrug.

Leona laughed and shook her head. “You lot are so alike! Now I see the other issues you’re running into. How old are all of you?”

“Twenty-eight,” I said.

“Twenty-nine,” Caleb answered. “Shouldn’t you know that, Auntie?”

She rolled her eyes and ignored him, looking at the others.

“Twenty-nine,” Riddick answered.

“Thirty,” Branson said.

“You old man!” I gasped.

He growled, but it was clearly fake.

“Twenty-seven,” Triston answered.

“Aw, the baby of the group,” Leona teased. “Well, that makes sense. In your thirties is when you embrace more of yourself and stop having as much self-consciousness. Don’t get me wrong, even at …” she paused “… thirty-nine, I still have it.”

Thor choked on his beer and started coughing loudly.

She turned to glare at him.

“Sorry, you’re right, not a day over thirty-nine,” he choked and cleared his throat.

“The point is, after interacting with you all, we’ve noticed a few things that we know will get better the longer you’re together and the older you get. Like Caleb’s jealousy.”

“What? I’m not jealous,” Caleb argued.

“You made her think you were mad at her because you thought another guy might also be connected to her,” Leona reminded him.

He flinched and side-eyed me. “You told her?”

“I talk to her about a lot of things,” I said while examining my drink, which was almost empty. That made me frown.

Triston looked over his shoulder at me, stood, grabbed my glass, took Leona’s empty glass as well, and walked out of the room.

“He’s definitely my favorite,” Leona said which earned growls from Thor and Caleb. “See!” she shouted.

“How do we fix the self-conscious issues?” Branson asked.

She smiled softly. “Have you all considered therapy? Individual and couples?”

That had us all blinking.

“We can recommend ours to you. She’s fantastic and really helped us out,” Thor said.

“You go to therapy?” Caleb asked him.