Page 16 of Singing the Dragon’s Heart

Chapter

Sixteen

R eno waited for Kami to stop puking, and to get all cooled down and everything, before asking. “Hey, love, want to go visit Kayla and her omega?”

“What’s her name?”

“Who?”

Kami blinked at him, a little toothpaste on his lower lip still. “The omega.”

“Oh! Anara.”

“Sure.” Kami gave him a tired grin. Bless his heart, the morning sickness was kicking his ass. But he was eating fine later in the day. He was just so sick before noon… It made him a little gray.

Reno hated it.

Oh, he loved a pregnant mate. Loved Kami. But he felt so helpless. He hated not being able to action something out of existence. Especially when it was Kami suffering.

He got Kami bundled into a sweater and some soft pants, because he was freezing all the time now—hormones and a desert upbringing—and they headed to see the omega and her stone.

Anara was recovering really well. Way faster than the healers had expected. And Reno had the idea that it was because Kami had matched a stone to her. Exactly. He hadn’t just taken a stone from Cain’s collection and shoehorned it to fit enough that the bearer could survive.

Not that he would bitch about that. Cain had saved lives. A lot of them.

But this—shit, this was a breakthrough.

He took Kami’s hand in his, frowning at how cold it was. “Maybe we should stop and see the midwife, love.”

“Rowan?” Kami glanced at him sideways, eyebrows up. “Why?”

“I don’t like how you’re freezing all the time. And now you’re cold to the touch.”

“I do feel really chilly.” Kami let go of his hands to rub his arms. “But, I mean, it’s already turning to fall here. Where I grew up, it would be two more months.”

“Yeah, but what if it’s just like, a hormone imbalance?”

“Maybe…” Kami nodded after chewing his lip for a few seconds. “Okay, yeah. We’ll stop and see Rowan if he’s not busy.”

Relief flooded him. “Thanks, baby. I appreciate it. I know you get impatient.”

“Me?” Kami snorted. “Only every day. But not with the bean here.” Kami put his hand on his belly. “He or she has no choice but to depend on me to shelter them in this body, you know? So I have to take that responsibility carefully.”

“So do I.” He stopped Kami to kiss his mouth, sharing how proud he was of Kami for letting this whole situation roll off him some. He knew it had to be hard.

They wandered down toward the lower levels of the keep where the medical center was. It was nice to be able to go in a non-emergency sort of way, if he was honest.

Rowan was kind of the de facto head of the medical unit down here, at least he was going to be that until they brought somebody else in.

Someone would come.

If nothing else, he’d figured that out. This keep was building itself in a wild manner, and Reno thought Kami was a part of that somehow.

The magic had made it happen.

As soon as they opened the doors, a cheery-looking young dragon came up to them, her face wreathed in a smile, iridescent scales shimmering. “Can I help you?”

“We’re hoping to see Rowan, if he’s not busy.” Reno tried on a good smile. “My mate’s pregnant, and he seems very cold to the touch.”

The little dragon frowned at them, tilted her head. “All right, come on in, and have a seat in the waiting area, and I’ll tell Rowan you’re here. You’re Reno, yes?”

“Yes, and this is my mate, Kami.”

“So pleased to meet you.” She beamed at Kami.

The waiting area was a little room with six chairs and a coffee table. It wasn’t even a very big coffee table. There was a deck of cards on it, though, so obviously people stayed here and waited.

Kami grinned at him. “This is adorable.”

“Isn’t it?” He grinned at Kami. “It’s like we’re trying to be real. Look at us, we’re a grown-up keep. We have a waiting room.”

Kami’s chuckles filled the air. “Oh, this keep is something else, I mean. It just started with Dex and Jack?”

“Yeah, for all intents and purposes.” Reno shrugged. “Cain had a home here, a very well-appointed home, but all of the insanity started with Dex. Cain found me when Dex was still pregnant. We were the first ones—me, and I hired Boone and Durango. We went out and started rescuing.” Things had changed so much in such a little amount of time. Jack and Dex’s Felicity was not a baby anymore. Hell, she was, if not a young lady, then a precocious little girl. Hell, even Eyv’s littlest one was walking around and trying to talk.

“How long has it been?” Kami asked, and he shrugged.

“Well, Felicity is almost seven. So, I’ve been here six years, a little more than. Feels like longer.”

“What were you doing before?”

He grinned at his mate, who was beginning to relax, hands warming up. “Gathering up bachelor alphas who got tossed out. I helped Boone and Durango find each other. They had gotten magicked into the human world almost 2000 miles from each other. But things just really started exploding here, so I was glad I was running a team.”

Reno paused to gather his thoughts. “It was Lake’s keep who changed things—we have the former head of a keep, their entire complement of young seers, twenty of their warriors…” Not to mention their big fancy fucking stone and Leilani who was connected to the gods.

It was insane.

“Yeah. It sounds to me like they imploded.”

Reno snorted. “Toxic design, man. I mean, like I said, not all old keeps are bad at all. But that one? The old guard had a stranglehold, and they were not about to lose it.”

Kami snuggled up in his lap suddenly, freezing against him, so Reno wrapped him in a hug. “Talon talks about it sometimes.”

“Yeah. He and Triton had it bad.”

Kami’s teeth were chattering so much it was ridiculous, so Reno leaned in, blowing warm air over his mate.

Almost immediately. Kami relaxed, and the pale kind of went out of his face.

“All right, that felt really good.”

Reno nodded. It did to him too. Anything that he could do to make it better, had him feeling ten thousand feet tall.

Rowan appeared in the doorway, a mass of dark hair and huge black eyes. “Congratulations are in order, I hear.”

“That’s what they tell me,” Kami said. “God knows, I’ve been puking.”

“Oh, that’s so much fun. Hey, Reno, how’s it going?”

“He’s cold all the time, like icy cold to the touch.”

Rowan nodded like it was no big deal. “Come on, let’s go to my office where we can speak. But, Reno, I’m glad you brought him down. I can help, if nothing else, with the nausea.”

Kami’s eyebrow arched as they stood. “I thought it was perfectly normal.”

“So is bleeding really bad when you get cut. It doesn’t mean we don’t put a bandage on it.” Rowan cracked his ass up.

“I mean, if you like puking, it’s not going to hurt anything for sure. You can totally vomit all you’d like, but I do have some teas that will be amazing. You drink it before you sit up in the morning with a straw, cold or hot, whichever you prefer. Then there’s a tea you can drink throughout the day. It’ll just kind of balance some of the more crazy wild hormonal surges.”

Kami beamed at Rowan. “That sounds amazing. What about the cold?”

“Well. I’ll be honest, I’ve never had a stone-singer pregnancy, but I have been through a number of fire-drake pregnancies, and their omegas tend toward chilly. I think it has to do with how much energy the baby is pulling. And also, just so you know, the chances of your baby blowing sparks is pretty big. You’ve got a fire-drake alpha and the cold.”

“So what do I do?”

“Warm baths, warm clothes. Reno’s presence will help. Have him hold you and focus some energy toward the baby. Some focused thought energy toward the baby, Reno. It’ll help. It’s just he—or she, of course—is just grabbing to build up his fire power. I will say that while uncomfortable, it’s not hurting you at all. And it’s not hurting the baby either, I’m sure if it.”

Rowan’s words made both him and Kami relax.

“Honestly, though. Warm foods, spicy foods, thick socks, warm baths. Hot springs. Lots of hot tea. All of those things will make you less uncomfortable.” Rowan beamed at them. “At some point midway through the pregnancy, that should ease, and the baby’s energy will be more focused on getting bigger instead of getting hotter. And then all of a sudden, I bet you’re rolling around in the snow outside.”

We should have come earlier, Kami admitted. I feel so much better.

Me too. I really do.

Good. I love you, Kami told him.

Ditto.

Kami smacked his arm, and he laughed, relief making him a little giddy. I love you too, sweetheart.

“Let me mix up those teas,” Rowan said. “I mix them to order, because the fresher the ingredients, the better.”

“Thanks so much,” Reno told him. “That’s really a good deal.”

“So this is all your fault, you big lug,” Kami said.

“Looks like it. Sorry, babe.”

“Shit, that just means you’re super strong.” Kami stroked his chest. “That bodes well for the kid.”

“It does.” And now that he was less worried that something was wrong, he and Kami could both relax and enjoy the pregnancy more. Or at least that was what Boone and Durango told him.

Kami leaned on him. “Is it okay if all this is really fucking weird?”

“Yes. All the other omegas on earth can be Zen. You’re my omega, and we feel how we feel.”

“That’s the best thing you’ve ever said to me, I think.”

It was his turn to pinch Kami gently.

“Omega abuse! Omega abuse!” Kami dissolved laughing when Reno gave him a raspberry on his neck, and the staff who had come running groaned and left them.

“As long as you’re okay, baby? I’m okay with whatever weirdness is going on.”

“I would say ditto, but I’m really looking forward to that tea. If I could stop puking…”

“We could take over the world. Muahahahaha.” He rubbed his hands together while evil laughing.

Kami chortled. “I would just settle for conquering a tour of this damn keep.”

“Done. As soon as you’re up to it. The whole thing.”

“Good deal.” Kami leaned on him some more. “But not until after the tea.”