Page 27 of Alpha Dragon’s Mating Contract (Babies For Broken Dads #3)
STRANGE BODILY CHANGES
Walren yelped in surprise. I just breathed fire.
Across the kitchen, all the chefs turned to look at him.
Walren gulped.
“Walry-babe?” Raptor was approaching him, all wide-eyed. “Did you just...?”
Walren looked at the half-eaten pepper, then at Raptor.
Things were adding up quickly in his mind—because this had happened to him before. When he was pregnant with Zebbie.
Oh, gods. Am I really pregnant?
More importantly—dragonets were rare, and highly sought after on the black market. By breathing fire in front of people he didn’t know... Had Walren just endangered himself and his babies?
“Raptor,” Walren breathed, afraid of someone overhearing him. “Do your staff know about—”
Raptor’s gaze sharpened. “You’re safe here,” he whispered back. “You breathed fire! You...”
With his other hand, he trailed his knuckles over Walren’s belly, a soft, awed look in his eyes.
Reality crashed into Walren then.
I’m carrying Raptor’s baby. Oh no.
Raptor growled, looking so pleased that Walren swayed a little.
“What’s going to happen now?” Walren mumbled, afraid of speaking too loudly in case someone overheard.
Raptor pulled him close, Zebbie sandwiched between them. He brushed his fingers through Walren’s hair and rubbed his back. “We should discuss this, but not here.”
“Not right now,” Walren whispered. “I need to—to think about it.”
When Raptor drew back, his gaze was soft. “Okay. Take as much time as you need, sweetheart.”
He held onto Walren, only letting go when Walren nodded and leaned away.
“Just say my name if you need me,” Raptor murmured, rubbing Walren’s back one last time. “I’ll come to you as soon as I can.”
Walren nodded, still trying to believe everything that was happening.
In a daze, he watched the chefs work. He blinked when his stomach rumbled, looking around the kitchen. Do I want to finish the pepper here?
It still looked delicious. Just that it was too risky for him to breathe fire again.
He was considering a nibble anyway, when Raptor placed some noodles and fried dumplings in front of him.
“You looked hungry,” the alpha said, his lips twitching into a smile.
Walren flushed. “What does ‘hungry’ look like?”
Raptor didn’t answer his question. “Be careful, it’s hot.”
Walren was already popping a dumpling into his mouth. The dumpling was stuffed with diced mushrooms and cabbage, and it was delicious. He moaned. “It’s so good.”
“Good.” Raptor grinned and eyed the pepper. “I just know when you’re hungry. If you need to munch on that pepper, do it in the office.”
“But your paperwork—”
“The office itself is fireproofed. Maybe not my purchase orders,” Raptor said dryly. “But if you aim it at the ceiling, you’ll be fine.”
Walren digested that information. Raptor caught his hand and squeezed, before returning to the stove.
A while later, Raptor showed up with a third plate and a sippy cup.
“Mashed potatoes and water for Zebbie,” the alpha explained. “No seasonings added.”
Walren’s heart swelled. “Thank you.”
Raptor grinned, saluted, and went back to work.
As he slurped down his noodles and fed Zebbie, Walren couldn’t help but watch the alpha. Unlike the head chefs on TV, Raptor was nice to his staff. The kitchen ran smoothly as they fulfilled the orders, all of them working together like a well-oiled machine.
What would it be like, to be part of that machine? To feel like you belonged?
When only the half-eaten pepper was left, Walren fidgeted. He really wanted to try breathing fire again.
And he also wanted something to drink.
“May I have some tea?” Walren asked.
Raptor filled a teapot with hot water and came over. “I’ll do you one better,” the alpha said. “Tea’s in my office.”
Why wasn’t the tea in the kitchen? Confused, Walren grabbed the pepper and checked that Zebbie was secure in his chest carrier, before trailing after the alpha.
In the office, Raptor shut the door and made a beeline for a large wooden chest in the corner. Walren had seen it several times, but it hadn’t occurred to him to peek inside until now.
The moment Raptor lifted its lid, the scent of tea filled the office. All kinds of tea had been crammed into the chest: paper-wrapped blocks, fancy vacuum-sealed bags, and even some in plain brown packaging tied with twine. All of it looked expensive, or rare.
Walren’s jaw dropped. “You’re letting me try that?”
“Of course. Is there something specific you’d like to sample?”
Walren’s eyes glazed over. There were too many varieties, and he knew very little about them. “Uh. Something green? Something that tastes like grass.”
Raptor hummed thoughtfully. “Tell you what. You’ve enjoyed the Japanese green tea we serve at Nood’s Good, so we’ll go with a variation of that. Have you had Gyokuro? ”
Walren shook his head. “What’s that?”
Raptor picked up a vacuum-sealed bag. “It’s the most expensive kind of green tea, shaded for three weeks before harvest to boost its umami flavor. This bag in particular is competition grade.”
“Sounds really expensive,” Walren said. Umami was a good flavor to have in food, right? It was found in things like mushrooms and parmesan cheese. So the tea had to be really good, if it was full of umami.
Right?
Raptor scooped some deep green leaves into a teacup, before pouring a long, thin stream of hot water into another cup. When that hot water had cooled further, Raptor poured it into the cup with the Gyokuro leaves.
“Gyokuro shouldn’t be steeped in very hot water,” Raptor explained. “This helps to draw out its umami flavor, while keeping away the bitterness.”
He set it aside to steep, and grabbed a different bag of tea from the chest.
“Dragonwell from China,” Raptor said. “Another famous green tea.”
He got some Dragonwell steeping, then filled a third cup with plain water. “Here. This is for cleansing your palate.”
Walren drank the water, before sipping the Dragonwell tea. It was sweet and nutty, and it tasted like heaven. “This is amazing.”
Raptor grinned. “Have some water, then try the Gyokuro. ”
Walren hesitated when he picked up the cup of Gyokuro. It smelled... different. Then he took a tiny sip, and recoiled.
“This tastes like seaweed,” he said, aghast. “Like you just dumped me into the ocean, and I’m splashing around stuck in a seaweed forest. Oh, gods.”
He set down the cup and drank the rest of his plain water, before drinking the Dragonwell tea to get that seaweed flavor out of his mouth.
Raptor bit down his smile. “You were fine with the seaweed in your ramen.”
“Yeah, but not in my tea, ” Walren wailed. “How is that competition grade? ”
“With competition grade Gyokuro, the farmers try to pack as much umami as they can into the leaves. Unfortunately, this ends up with the tea tasting like seaweed.” Raptor laughed and stole Walren’s cup of Gyokuro, sipping it slowly.
He seemed to enjoy it. Walren could only watch with a mixture of horror and awe.
“Nope,” Walren said. “Just no.”
“Now I know what to avoid, if I want a chance at kissing you.”
Walren froze, his breath snagging in his throat. Raptor had just said that.
He looked up to find the alpha watching him, Raptor’s lips twitching up at the corners.
For a long time, neither of them said a word. The air between them felt thick, full of promise.
And Raptor didn’t take his words back.
Raptor wants to kiss me? Walren tried to breathe. He cleared his throat awkwardly. “I, uh. I’m not sure what to say to that.”
“You don’t have to. It was just an observation.” Raptor set the bag of Dragonwell tea on the desk, and closed the wooden chest. “I should get back to the kitchen. Help yourself to the tea. Yell for me if you need anything.”
“I... Okay.” Walren’s heart skipped when the alpha stopped in front of him, those large fingers curving carefully over the back of his neck. Raptor squeezed him lightly; Walren’s breath snagged again.
Raptor must’ve heard it. His gaze darkened ever so slightly. “I’ll check back on you in a bit.”
He left the office, and not even fire-breathing could distract Walren from the ghost of Raptor’s touch on his skin.
“I’m pregnant,” Walren said some time later, when Zebbie was napping and he was talking to himself in the office. “I’m pregnant with Raptor’s baby.”
It still seemed so impossible, after everything he had gone through to conceive his son. What were the chances?
He pulled out his phone and hesitated. He had sighed when his friends had tripped and fallen onto alpha cocks, and gotten themselves pregnant.
Walren was disappointed to find that he was no different.
He sighed and spun around in Raptor’s plush chair, before opening the chat conversation with his friends.
NotAWalrus
So...
KillianKillsDreams
So???
MathlinHatesMath
Hi Walren
NotAWalrus
Hey Mathlin! They added you to the group chat!
MathlinHatesMath
(smiling emoji) Yes
HocusPocus
Did something happen, Walren?
KillianKillsDreams
Obviously something happened. Walren always does weird crap and then comes back like “Oops I did something”
I say that with a lot of love, Walren, but you also eat all the flowers you can find, even when they’re not yours
ESPECIALLY when they’re not yours
NotAWalrus
Uhhh... I kind of ate more than that this time.
KillianKillsDreams
SEE! What did I tell you!??!?!?
IvoFivo
Oh nooooo. What did you do, Walren?
NotAWalrus
pouts
So I may or may not have signed a contract with Raptor
Nat-urallyBig
Does this have to do with you needing to “not get pregnant”???
NotAWalrus
Thing is, he wants my baby if he manages to knock me up
I don’t really want to give him my baby
KillianKillsDreams
But that’s unlikely, since you had so much trouble conceiving Zeb
NotAWalrus
Yeahhh... That’s what I thought, too
KillianKillsDreams
........
Nat-urallyBig
That’s what you THOUGHT.
Past tense
KillianKillsDreams
Are you saying what I think you’re saying?
IvoFivo
Holy
When you said you were in trouble... You really meant TROUBLE
HocusPocus
Walren, did my spells fail??
NotAWalrus