Page 32 of Our Haunted Omegas (Moonscale Heirs Duet #1)

Indigo

Truth be told, I was relieved that we didn’t have to banish the murder dog. In a macabre way it was sort of cute and if it protected Odell, it would protect Ambry too, right? At least, that was my theory. They were as inseparable as my brothers and me. So, it checked out.

The nest in the top floor of the tower became the place we all hung out.

No one was pregnant yet. As far as we knew anyway, the nest gave us a place to gather.

It was a bit of a walk from the cabin, but the exercise was good for everyone.

As we began to fall into a rhythm together, Teal coming and going as his projects needed him, Cobalt and I took to early morning flights.

While spending time with our mates was fun and important, so was stretching our wings.

He and Teal had come a bit closer to blows than I liked.

Sure, it wouldn’t be the first time it happened.

We’d all fought at some point, but we were too old for that shit now.

We had mates to take care of and projects to keep going.

The time for childish skirmishes had passed.

The murder dog changed shape a bit each day as time drifted by moving us on its current ever closer to the feast day.

It grew bigger and took on the appearance of having shaggy fur until it looked like an Irish Water Spaniel.

It was a beautiful dog even if it was murderous and had no firm shape.

It took on whatever form it needed to follow Odie around when he wasn’t looking.

In between trying for a baby, hanging out with everyone, and our morning flights, I negotiated with my parents and grandparents.

The whole Reve thing had me on edge. It wasn’t so much the fact that he was dead as it was the fact he managed to be a total creep without us knowing.

Who else might sneak onto the property while the feast went on and linger after it was over?

If things worked out I’d have an egg or a pregnant mate soon.

My dragon wasn’t as hotheaded as Cobalt’s but that was changing where Ambry was concerned.

Eventually, everyone gave in and said that if we were willing to make the drive, they’d host it at Moonscale Manor.

I hated the idea of being locked in the truck again for that long but it was better than having our nesting grounds invaded again.

We had planned to wake up early that day but not as early as Ambry shook me awake. It wasn’t a gentle nudge. It was a full body shake that made the scales of my joints rise up in case I needed to fight.

“Fight or love?” I murmured, patting around until I found him standing up on my side of the bed. “Or sleepwalking?”

“I need your eyes,” he said, tugging on my hand until I relented and allowed him to pull me upright into a sitting position. “I think I found something.”

“Another murder dog or dead body or?” I said, trying to blink away the fog of sleep. “I was dreaming that you showed me---”

“Now isn’t the time for dirty talk,” Ambry shook his head.

“Shit. This is serious. Who am I killing?” I asked as my eyes shifted to my dragon’s.

“No one. Not yet anyway. Not because of this. Do you think Teal will kill me that I was playing with his thingy?”

“His what!?” I asked, unsure of what thing Teal slept through my mate playing with.

“His little wand thing. The butt wand?!”

“Oh, the ultrasound wand. Probably not. I mean unless you scanned your testicles. He doesn’t like when people play with it like that,” I said.

“I don’t want to know which of you decided to look inside your testicles.

Nope. I can live my whole life without knowing that.

I was playing with it because I had a dream that I laid fifty eggs.

I know. I know. That’s an anxiety dream.

No, I’m not afraid of laying eggs. I grew up in Moonscale London.

I know how it works. Am I afraid of laying fifty eggs at once?

Absolutely. Except I also know that’s impossible.

Anyway. I got up to get something to drink and maybe a snack. I didn’t make it that far, though.”

I swung my legs off the bed and reached for the machine.

“It’s not showing anymore,” Ambry frowned at the machine’s screen as he handed it over to me. “Do you know how to do it?”

“Everyone does these days. You did it, didn’t you?”

“True,” he said and shifted his weight from foot to foot.

“I can wake up Teal, if you prefer that he does it,” I offered.

“No. I’m… I think I saw an egg,” Ambry whispered.

“And you’re upset because there wasn’t two of them?” I arched a brow and tugged his pajama pants down low on his hips.

“No. I…. Is it too soon? Can eggs form that quickly?” Ambry asked and I nodded.

“If you were in a fertile spot, they can. The true-mate response magic does a lot of the work. Let’s see what’s going on here.”

“What if it’s not an egg? Or an embryo?” Ambry asked.

“Do you feel sick? I know bad stuff doesn’t always make you feel sick but if it doesn’t look like an egg we’ll have Teal look.

Even if ---” I stopped when Teal padded in, eyes barely seeing, through our cracked bedroom door.

He dropped to his knees beside Ambry and turned my mate to face him.

My brother pressed his ear against Ambry’s belly and pressed in close.

My mate blinked and reached for my hand as if Teal’s ear grew a spike.

“Thingy,” he said, groping around for the ultrasound-mini.

I handed it off to him and he sank onto his heels.

“I could lay down or---” Ambry offered but Teal shook his head and made a sleepy grunt. “We could wait until you had coffee.”

“’sfine.” He mumbled barely making sense. “Don’t tense.”

“I’m trying not to,” Ambry said and bit his lip.

“It’s okay,” I said to him and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. I ran my thumb in circles over his soft palm as my brother blinked his eyes open wide enough to look at the machine’s screen. A sleepy grin pulled at the corners of his lips. It was an egg.

“Egg. No shaking. No stirring. No making my nibling into an omelet.”

“Nibling?” Ambry looked to me.

“It’s the gender-neutral term for someone who is your sibling’s kid.”

“Easier as a plural noun too,” Teal yawned and stretched out on the floor with his head on his arms. “Will make print outs later. Sleep for now. Lots of sleep.”

“You have about half an hour before we have to get moving if we’re going to the feast,” I yawned.

“Sleep. Shush. You shush. You too,” Teal mumbled. “Doctored. Now sleep.”

“When he’s like this I sort of want to lay on him,” Ambry blinked at me.

“It’s from Co and me but go ahead. I think I’m going to get a shower and make some calls.”

“Calls?” he arched a brow.

“I need to tell Clarence so he can up security and tell everyone to back off. My dragon—”

“Not around anyone except us. Maybe dad. Maybe Medwin. Not alone with anyone who didn’t come out of an egg sack.

No one. Trust no one. Get the murder dog!

” My dragon rambled loud enough to pour over our mating link and Ambry nodded his understanding.

Whenever my dragon stopped speaking in proper sentences he was on the verge of burning someone alive or at least making a decent go at it.

I didn’t want to deal with that if I could help it.

Everyone at the party should be family or security but that didn’t mean much to my dragon.

Ambry was a fleshy wolf that any of my draconic relatives could step on and squish.

I lingered in the bedroom until Ambry made up his mind about what he was going to do. In the end, he did lay down, trying not to giggle, on top of Teal.

“Safe there,” my dragon whispered into my thoughts and then and only then was I allowed to go wash my ass and get the day started.

After I was cleaned and dressed, I texted my carrier the good news first. While my parents would’ve been supportive no matter who we told first, I knew he’d feel a bit left out if he didn’t know before my grandparents and I couldn’t do that to him.

Besides, I wanted both of my dads to know they were about to be grandpas.

Then I sent Clarence the code word text.

He put so many security protocols in place that he had a code word for everything.

After that, I switched my phone to silent and tiptoed down the hall to Co and Odie’s room.

I pressed my ear against the door. Co was awake and watching Odie sleep.

I poked him gently on our link careful not to wake up the others.

“Congratulations,” he thought back at me. “Are we calling off the trip?”

“I considered it, but I want them to meet our family. They’re family to each other now too. It only seems right that everyone get to meet them. My dragon isn’t pleased with the timing.”

“That’s why I asked,” Cobalt said, saving me from stating the obvious. “I don’t know if I could do it.”

“You could. We’d be there with you. So, you could.”

“Odie’s going to try putting the harness and leash on the murder dog today,” he said.

“Don’t let Teal hear you call it that. It’s an Irish Water Spaniel, don’t you know?” I teased.

“He’s calling it Guardie. Mostly because we had to call him something. He’s becoming more and more dog like.”

“Guardie works. At least we’ll have a name to tell the others.”

“Is Teal going to be Ambry’s doctor or do we need to find another one to come live out here?” Cobalt asked.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t have much of a chance to talk to him afterward. He’s tired. Teal’s conked back out too. It’s going to be a long drive.”

“Can you put the coffee on? I’m stuck under Odell and I want to let him have these last six minutes of sleep before he needs to get up?”