Page 20 of Courted by the Sabertooth (Mori’s Mementos #3)

Nic

Moonscale London

If anyone would’ve told me that one day a sabertooth tiger and a tiny kitten would do morning laps in our pool, I’d have asked if they were drunk.

Yet that was exactly what became a part of our daily ritual as days turned into weeks.

Beal was an early riser as was the tiny yet-to-be named kitten.

Each morning, my mate would sneak out of bed with the kitten and go for a swim.

The kitten would do his best to swim around the pool but always ended up riding on Beal’s back by the end.

They’d both leave the pool when Raiel woke up and cannon balled into it before anyone ever made coffee.

He’d become a part of our daily lives almost as much as the kitten had.

I never thought naming a pet would be so difficult but knowing that the orange fluff ball communicated directly with my mate meant he had to have a good name.

Heck, I understood half of what he said, and I didn’t want to stick him with a name he hated.

In the end it was Beal who named him one morning while he dried off and I sipped my espresso by the pool

“What do you think about Neal?” Beal asked.

I opened my mouth to answer but stopped short because he was talking to the kitten who had grown considerably since I first woke up with him asleep on my chest. The kitten cocked his wet head from one side to the other and then agreed to take on the name that was our names squashed together.

“Do you like it?” Beal asked me. “I know I said you could name him but he’s getting to the age where he should know his name.”

“I do,” I nodded, truthfully. “I think we better start thinking about baby na—”

I never got to finish the sentence and talk about how indecisive big lifelong choices like that made me because Beal scooped me up and spun me around in a circle. He kissed me hard and spun me around again. I laughed nearly dropping my empty espresso cup.

“Wait! Should you be drinking so many of those? One of the books in your mum’s library said to limit caffeine while you’re pregnant. I know dragons don’t always have to with eggs but—Do we know if it’s an egg or a kitten?”

“Am I pregnant?” I blinked up at him.

“Aren’t you? Why else would we need to start coming up with baby names?” he beamed, and my heart plummeted into my stomach.

“Because I had such a hard time picking a name out for Neal,” I said and bit my lip, hating to disappoint him.

Beal dropped to his knees and for a second, I thought he might shift and run off in disappointment.

We romped multiple times a day for the first two weeks we were together in the house.

Even now, nearly a month together our habits hadn’t changed that much, especially on the nights Raiel went to work at the Raven’s Perch.

Only Beal didn’t run away. He sniffed my stomach and stuck his nose right up against my belly button. The kitten wound between us. He too wanted to sniff my belly button to double-check whatever Beal was doing.

“You are, though,” he said, dropping onto his heels a second later.

“What?” I blinked. “Are you sure? I mean, I haven’t had any signs.”

“I’m pretty sure, mate. I’ve wondered for the last few days but thought maybe it was wishful thinking, and I figured you’d let me know soon.”

I paced back and forth. Now I wanted another espresso more than ever.

I too had read a lot of the current literature, albeit online and not in the library.

Egg pregnancies didn’t require quiet as much caffeine restriction, but it should be cut to nothing after the egg hatches if you planned to chest feed – which I did.

“I wished you drove,” I crinkled my nose at him.

“I can still run to the store.”

“The last time you did two people fainted. The ghost cat rumors still haven’t died down,” Nic frowned.

“Not my fault that dragons are bigger weenies than I thought.”

“Don’t say the W word!” I said because Neal was now up on his leg mewling up a storm. “See the little ginger monster you created!”

“There aren’t any hotdogs right now,” Beal laughed but there was no convincing the kitten.

He headed toward the kitchen to microwave a hot dog for the cat and part of me wanted to scold him. The other part knew without a doubt that he was going to make a great dad.

I could’ve gone to the pharmacy myself, but I didn’t like leaving the house with Mum out cold.

I’d left a few times for urgent work matters but made Beal promise not to leave the house while I was gone.

Our mating link made it almost like being there, but it still left me uneasy.

What if Sharon Claudis wanted something else from her?

What if she showed up and I wasn’t there to save her?

Eventually, I’d help Beal get his license but for now the pharmacy delivered and that was good enough for me.

I bought a few different tests and toyed with the idea of seeing if I could get a home visit appointment scheduled just in case I was pregnant like Beal thought I was.

I never had reason to ask my mum if she had morning sickness when she was pregnant with me.

So, I wasn’t sure what to expect the signs to be since everyone was so different.

Two hours later, we stood in the bathroom watching the timer while Neal wound between our legs and mewed about how I was so big that I would probably be able to carry sixteen kittens.

“Sixteen is the biggest number he knows,” Beal chuckled, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me in close. “We’ve been working on his counting.”

“With treats, I bet,” I teased him but our hearts pounded hard and fast as we waited for the timer to sound.

It cut through the room and Neal ran out like a cartoon cat, leg over leg.

Beal laughed but I buried my face in his chest because I couldn’t look.

Over the last few hours I’d become really invested in the idea that we were having a baby.

If we were wrong, I didn’t know if I could stomach the disappointment.

“So?” I asked.

“There’s a little baby wrapped up in a red blanket,” Beal said.

“YES!” I screamed into his chest.

Neal sprinted back into the bathroom and meowed at the top of his lungs, high pitched and celebratory as Beal picked me up and spun me in another circle as he did earlier that day.

“We’re having a baby!” He shouted.

“CONGRATULTIONS!” the neighbor bellowed over to us.

“Is that the guy who owns the old ragdoll cat?” Beal asked, still grinning and I nodded.

“THANK YOU!” I bellowed back to him and laughed again.

Beal stole a kiss, and I ran in to tell Mum but she was still out cold in her dragon sleep despite all the noise we made. Neal climbed up onto her back and made biscuits, but she didn’t stir.

“I’m sure she’ll wake up when she becomes a grandma,” Beal said and pulled me in close to kiss my temple.

I hoped he was right. I was having the time of my life, but it felt so unfair that she was missing out on so much of it.