Page 19 of The Dragon’s Stormwoven Bond (Dragon Flight Academy #2)

Pep

Given the sheer number of eggs that I had growing inside me and the fact that we were sure one of them was going to be twins, I was feeling pretty good.

The potential twin egg happened to be nestled in the middle of the rest of them.

How Vexus could tell that, I wasn’t even sure.

But I didn’t question it for fear he would tell me it was the size.

I’d seen enough eggs in my life that I knew they weren’t tiny. An egg with twins? Yikes. It was going to be huge. That was a given. I didn’t need Vexus highlighting that for me.

He kept a close eye on my pregnancy. I continued to work, not wanting to fall behind. My work was important, although most people I knew had no idea how true that was. My clutch would always come first, but while my physical limitations were pretty low, I was going to keep on trucking.

Aside from my stomach getting in the way and having to alternate between standing and sitting depending on how the eggs were nestled, I was good as always.

I never thought the eggs would move as much as they did, but apparently, as the little dragons inside grew, they shifted and changed, until some days it was like I had a mess of eggs rolling around inside me.

Was this how humans felt when their little ones stretched inside them?

I caught myself in the mirror one day when they were exceptionally active. I looked like something out of a horror movie, where the robots were working their way out of me or something equally violent. It was ridiculous and I loved it.

Still, thanks to the very close monitoring, we pretty much knew the exact day that I was going to lay the eggs.

I wasn’t sure if knowing was a good thing or not.

Having a countdown messed with my head more than I cared to admit.

And if the timing was wrong, it was going to hit me hard. I knew this about myself.

I woke up on egg day ready to take on the world.

I was determined to get as much done as possible before they arrived.

I knew once they were laid, I would want to spend every moment nestled against them.

And as much as I planned to work from the nest, the reality of having them there was going to change that in ways I couldn’t quite plan for.

The first thing I did was go through my emails. I wanted to make sure that everything had been answered and that no one was waiting on me for anything. I also needed to set an away message.

My team had their work orders in place, and I had some busy work to get me through the time I’d spend at home once the eggs were laid. Probably. We’d still have to see how distracted I was going to be by my sweet babies.

Once they were laid, I’d be glued to the nest. I caught a glimpse of that when the nest first came home. But it wasn’t as if I had babies to care for—yet. I’d simply sit in the nest and have them close to me.

I kept trying to convince myself that I could work through that, thanks to the desk Valen had made for me. My mom told me not to put too much pressure on myself and to do what came naturally. I should’ve asked her what that looked like for her.

Still, on the off chance that work was the last thing on my mind, I didn’t want anyone relying on me to do anything too important. That had been my mate’s idea when he saw me pacing mid work-home-life-balance freakout. Pregnancy hormones were no joke.

Next, I made sure that the fridge and freezer were stocked. I ordered groceries, had them delivered and put away thanks to some of the lovely couriers we had for the staff at the academy. Goddess knew I wasn’t going to be cooking anything.

After that, I made sure that the house was clean. I didn’t do anything with chemicals and nothing that required me on my hands and knees, but I still managed to find a lot to do. The house hadn’t been dirty by any means, but try telling that to my beast.

I spent so much time running about getting things situated that I barely noticed when I had begun to drip with sweat. The dripping of sweat was what made it so I didn’t realize that I had copious amounts of slick sliding down my legs—a sign that it was time to call my mate.

A shadow loomed in the front yard, blocking the sunlight from getting into the house. I looked outside to see Valen’s dragon flying overhead and landing in the backyard. My mate was home.

I smiled and put a hand over my tummy. It was as if the eggs knew that their father was close. Butterflies danced in my stomach like tiny beats of dragon wings. I ran out to the porch. Or more accurately waddled there.

Valen stood on his hind legs, flared his nostrils on his long snout, and flapped his wings mightily. The air ruffled my hair. It was a fantastic display, but one that was a bit out of the blue. His dragon was showing off spectacularly. Odd.

“Mate!” he shouted in my mind. “You’re in labor.”

And that explained why he was like that. I wasn’t sure he was right, though. I hadn’t felt a single contraction yet.

I cocked my head to the side. “What do you mean? I think I would know if I was in labor. Sure, the eggs will arrive today, but we’re hours away from that.”

He shifted to his human form, then jogged to me and swept me into his arms.

“You’re leaking slick. And it has nothing to do with me. Well… not—never mind. Let’s get you inside to the nest.”

It was then that the sensations finally hit me. The movement I kept feeling in my abdomen, the slickness on my thighs—it wasn’t sweat. Or at least not completely. The eggs were coming.

“We need to call Vexus.” I attempted not to freak out. It was one thing to be told the eggs were on their way, quite another to be in labor. Hypothetical egg laying and actually going from being pregnant to having them safe in our nest were two very different things.

“I saw him when I was on my way here. He was walking. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find him here shortly.” He scooped me up and carried me inside, kissing me sweetly before setting me down again.

“Are we ready?” I asked, knowing full well that they were coming ready or not.

“More ready than we’ve ever been, mate. You and me, we’ve got this.”

If only his confidence held power. Hours later, me and him did not got this at all.

I was shouting non-stop because the pain was getting to be a bit much. Other omegas had told me how euphoric it all felt to have the eggs slip from their bodies, to be caught by their mate’s hands. I held onto that, because I needed a light at the end of the pain.

My eggs all seemed to want to come at one time, sideways instead of the normal way.

Or maybe they’d doubled in size as they’d been rotating all day.

Or maybe they weren’t egg-shaped at all and I was about to give birth to rectangles.

Whatever it was, they weren’t slipping out the way I wanted them to.

An hour later, Vexus laid a hand over mine. “Pep, that first egg is lying sideways and blocking the way for the rest.”

He stated my biggest fear. I’d thought I was being ridiculous, not that I was right.

“If we cannot get him out naturally, we’ll have to consider a C-section.”

The dragon inside me roared at the idea, but I knew it was time. We needed to make that call. My goal was healthy babies. How that looked didn’t matter to me. Not really.

“Valen,” I said, grasping for his hand.

“What do you need, Pep?”

“Can my family be here? This is going to be a lot.”

Having a C-section for a dragon wasn’t typical. I knew from what I had heard that it needed to be done by a dragon’s claw. Not just any scalpel would do, because our bodies would heal too quickly.

“Valen… you’ll have to do it,” Vexus said. My poor mate. It might’ve been exactly what I needed, but putting me through pain was going to hurt him more than it was going to hurt me.

He nodded. “I know.”

“We don’t have much time, but we have enough time to wait for your parents and brother to arrive, if that is what you want,” Vexus said.

I nodded. “I do.”

My brother arrived first, less than a couple of seconds after Valen dialed my parents’ number. My twin knew what I needed. He’d sensed it through the bond, and he was here ready to help in any way he could

I was scared—more scared than I’d ever been, and having him by my side, holding my hand, giving me the support I needed so that my mate could do what had to be done was everything.

My pain intensified, and I did exactly what my babies needed despite my parents not being there yet. The decision made, everything moved quickly. Tears were flowing down my face as my brother slid in behind me, holding my hands and hugging me close.

“Close your eyes, Pep. Close your eyes. You’re strong. You’re the father that these babies need, and you’re the mate Valen needs. Right now, you need to be strong. You need to be still. Breathe with me.”

I took in a deep breath, patterning my breath with his, again and again.

A searing pain spread across my abdomen.

It was deep, so deep, but I continued to follow my brother’s guidance, careful not to look, holding back my pain as much as I could, knowing my brother was taking a lot of it from me through our bond.

Vexus and Valen were talking, but I didn’t understand a word of it. My focus was on my brother and his instructions. He was right. I needed to be the mate Valen needed as much as I needed to be the father our children did.

“It’s time to go with your mate.” My brother kissed my temple. “I’ll stay here with your beautiful eggs. Keep breathing.”

I wanted to argue, but my body… it was so weak, and the next thing I knew, I was being picked up and moving away from my eggs. It hurt again. Only this pain wasn’t the pain of my body being torn in two. It was the pain of leaving them.

“We need to get you outside, and you need to shift. The babies are fine. They’re with your brother. You trust him more than anyone, more than even me.”

That phrase would come back and hurt me later, knowing that I’d made my mate feel that way. But for now, it gave me comfort.

Once we were outside, Valen forced my shift, his power flowing through our mating bond and demanding it. But even in my scales, it took a lot to stand. He forced me to shift again and again and again. To skin. To scales. To skin. To scales. To skin. To scales.

I didn’t even know how many shifts later, I stood up on my feet, my body weak but doing well-ish. It wasn’t ideal, but I couldn’t be away from them anymore.

I climbed in my nest, looking at my beautiful eggs ,and wondered which was the cause of our traffic jam. Valen took my brother’s place, sitting across from me, the smile on his face mirroring my own.

Somewhere through all of this, my parents had arrived. My family was here. My eggs were here. My mate was here. All was right in my world.