Page 22 of The Dragon’s Emberlinked Mate (Dragon Flight Academy #3)

Rhythe

When the idea of ClutchCare first began to form out of the idea that we needed to make things easier for new parents of dragons to find childcare, I never expected it to get as big or to move as fast as it had.

But the more people we mentioned it to, the more the excitement built and the more people offered to help.

It had taken on a life of its own, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

And today I was in my nest with my three eggs, putting on the final touches before we officially launched the app.

I appreciated that Ollie was willing to come here to work on it with me. He traveled farther than anyone else, and he brought a perspective that we needed. That, and he had grown to become a really close friend. I enjoyed our time together.

Some omegas were able to leave their nest in the care of others, or travel with their eggs in a specialized travel nest. And maybe if we had lived someplace where I could put them in the back of a van, I might have considered that option.

But flying down with them just wasn’t working with my anxiety.

It was hard enough to watch when my brother came with his kids in their car seats. I just couldn’t do that with the eggs.

Thankfully, not once did anybody push for me to do so. I did talk to my mate once about the possibility of an all-terrain vehicle as a way to travel with them, but I was halfway through asking about it when I realized they would be jostled far too much for it to be a viable option.

Instead, I was staying put. One of the people that worked with my mate told him about nest desks, and he’d had one custom built for me. It allowed me to work while being snuggled with my eggs. It was genius.

We opted for a two-sided model. It was perfect. It allowed my mate and me to dine together, and when I was working, it made it possible for two of us to have our laptops going at the same time. It was an interesting way to desk share.

It wasn’t only Ollie and my brother who helped with the organization part of the project. Between the three of us, we were really at the finish line.

There weren’t enough thanks or enough gold for the dragon students who helped with the coding.

We’d had a few people run through the app to try to find any bugs that needed fixing.

We discovered there were students who loved finding those kinds of glitches.

I had a feeling they were also pretty skilled hackers, not that I asked.

That wasn’t the kind of knowledge I wanted. Plausible deniability and all that.

Those students spent a week trying to break the app, giving us suggestions and then trying to break it again. They had given us two thumbs up. It was ready.

And that led us to today, launch day. All we had to do was wait for everyone to get here. It was a good thing our home was huge because we weren’t limiting the launch to the three of us and our mates. So many other people put in their everything. They deserved to be here too.

Was it over the top to have a work celebration/app launch in my nest room? Absolutely. Was I going to let it stop me? Not even close.

In a perfect world, we wanted the app to be good to go before the eggs hatched. Somehow we managed that, but barely, if Vexus was to be believed. His last visit, he gave us four days max, and we were on day two.

They needed to stay put for one more evening. If not, everyone was going home and the launch would wait. It might disappoint some people who’d pre-signed up, but so be it. Family came first. It was kind of the entire point.

One by one, everyone arrived. My parents, the computer students, my brother’s mate, Ollie’s mate, my mate, Zane and his mate, and a few others.

I hadn’t bothered to dress up and was relieved to see most of the people had thrown on joggers and t-shirts when they arrived.

Had we been at the academy, there’d probably have been suits and dresses. This was better.

Chef had made an array of hors d’oeuvres and beverages, and they arranged for it to be set up in the corner of the room for everyone to enjoy. Other than that, the only thing I did to prepare was place a blanket over the nest, giving my eggs privacy.

I wasn’t hiding them or protecting them from danger, not that a blanket protected you, but it gave that vibe.

It was more that this time in the nest was a treasure, and I wasn’t sure if they’d want to share that with this many people.

Obviously, my family and friends that were in here had already seen them, but the students we were working with were not friends, and it seemed a step too far.

Or maybe my hormones were still a mess and I was overreacting… probably a little bit of both.

Pip had the computer, AKA the powerhouse, ready to go. It wasn’t actually called that, but I had dubbed it so. It was going to be what we did our launch from. The back of it was covered with stickers from all his young, and it kind of brought everything into perspective.

This wasn’t just about the work. It was about family, about our youth, about being the community we all needed.

We sent out an email and text to all who signed up, letting them know that it was going live at 6pm, and now it was clock-watching time. Even with the excitement of the guests, time dragged on, the anticipation building.

After forty-two years, or an hour, the final minute came. We counted down… nine, eight, seven… until finally we reached the moment of truth, one.

I had Ollie press the final button, and there were cheers as every single one of us, looking at our apps, watched, waiting to see how well it worked.

I wasn’t sure about anyone else, but for me, that first minute had been filled with fear that it would all crash.

My mate must’ve sensed it, his hand never leaving my shoulder.

But it didn’t crash, despite the traffic flowing in.

We’d let the people looking for manny positions set up their accounts early.

They’d already had their background checks, their profiles were pretty, all of their resumes at the ready.

What this launch did was allow them to be visible and for the fathers and mothers to sign up as potential employers.

There was a ton of activity on the site and on the app. Pip turned the computer around for us all to see. It was impressive.

We didn’t expect the kind of numbers a highly anticipated pop album would bring, but we had a goal set of having at least one dragon from every clan in the country to sign up. And two hours later, we achieved the goal.

That was when my mate put an end to the party. “Thank you for coming, everyone, but my mate needs to sleep, and our eggs need a little less activity so they can get theirs as well.”

Obviously, the eggs themselves didn’t sleep, but our young inside them did. One by one, everybody said goodbye until it was just the two of us left.

He climbed into the nest beside me.

“I’m so proud of you, mate.” He kissed my cheek. “You went from an idea to something that is going to change lives in such a short period of time.”

I wasn’t sure about the changing-lives part, but it was going to make them better.

“I had a lot of help.”

“From people who saw your vision.” That was so on-brand for my mate, to find a way to turn everything into a compliment for me.

“You know I want to be watching the numbers, the stats.” More than anything. Not seeing them was killing me, but my mate had the staff take my phone as well as my work computer away with the dirty dishes.

“I do know this. But let’s say they’re great. What can you do about it?”

“Nothing.”

“What if they’re horrible? What can you do about it?”

“Nothing.”

“And what if something goes wrong? What are you going to do about it?”

“Contact IT.”

It was so like my mate to go and be so logical.

“There you go. And that’s why IT is working tonight. They’re checking on it, and if there is an issue, they will fix it.”

“Will they call me?”

He shook his head. “What will you be able to do from here?”

“Fine.” I wanted to argue with him, but it was hard to argue with logic that was sound.

I grabbed a shower, and after my mate had his, settled into his arms, told the eggs a bedtime story, and dozed off before I got to the happy ever after.

I woke the next morning to discover that ClutchCare was the most successful shifter app launch of all times, and that there were already interviews being had.

ClutchCare was a success, and it was something I never would’ve dared dream about trying if my mate hadn’t believed in me and given me the chance.

For someone who thought they were wandering aimlessly and not much use to anyone, I sure had managed to accomplish a lot. But my biggest accomplishment of all was starting a family with my mate… my best friend, my cheerleader, my one true love, and my long-time secret crush turned everything.

This was right where I was meant to be.