Page 24 of The Dragon’s Stormwoven Bond (Dragon Flight Academy #2)

Epilogue

Valen

“I see Char. I see Ember. I see Auden. I see Brenton. And I see you, Blaze.” I pointed to each one as I counted them in their car seats.

Pep and learned early on that if we didn’t have little ways to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be at all times.

Dragonets had a tendency of getting into mischief here, there, and everywhere.

We sing-songed their names often as a way to account for each one.

It often had them in giggles. Worked for us.

“Papa?” Ember asked.

“No, Papa’s not here, but he’ll be at the Games.” Ember was a grandpa’s girl. She had him so wrapped around her finger. It was absolutely adorable.

Eryx was a doting grandfather for all of them, but she had a way to turn his traditional—and by traditional, I mean stubborn—ways, and his sometimes grumpy demeanor into a teddy bear.

“I think that’s everything,” Pep said from behind the van and then shut the doors.

We had a lot to carry with us this year to championships. We had all of the kids’ clothes and diapers and snacks, but we also had to have the travel nest.

Even though they had cribs at home that they sometimes used, they much preferred the nest, especially in times where they were away from home, most often at their grandparents’ a whole next house over.

Eryx and Katrina were bringing that with them, this van no longer able to hold it now that we had five car seats.

I shut the side door after telling each of our children that we were about to go, then climbed in the driver’s side seat, Pep my co-pilot beside me.

This year’s championships were extra far.

It was going to take us two days to drive, and we were making a family vacation of it.

Sadly, my brother-in-law wasn’t able to come.

He didn’t say why, and I didn’t push. I learned pretty early on that he was an open book about things he was willing to share, and the rest—he was quiet about them on purpose.

This was our first long trip with the kids since they’d hatched, and we had a game plan, including a list of stops along the way not only for restroom breaks but for diaper changes and feeding hungry bellies.

Halfway to our final destination was a hotel owned by a dragon I’d once worked with back in the last century, making it the ideal stopping point

We sang dragon songs along the way, including ones from both of our childhoods and ones we made up ourselves about our five little dragonets. The kids laughed along, some of them practicing a couple words as they “sang.”

It was fascinating to me how quickly they could go from not even a thought in our head, to growing in my mate, to being cozy in their eggs awaiting hatching, to being dragonets/newborns, to sitting, then crawling, then toddling, and now saying words.

This adventure we called parenthood was wild and amazing and fabulous, all wrapped up into one.

The first day of our trip, we made it to each of our planned stops without any tears from either the kids or me.

The hotel we stayed in was nice enough, but the kids didn’t get a lot of sleep, thanks to a wedding that got really loud on the property.

I wasn’t sure why a human wedding was at a dragon hotel, but it might as well have been a rock concert with all the noise.

Which made the next morning rough. I choked down my third cup of coffee and we left. I knew the day was going to be difficult before we pulled out of the drive. The kids were past tired. So far past tired they were probably in another country.

We stopped more often, trying to make this a not-so-miserable experience for them. Each one was harder than the one before. The kiddos needed sleep… badly.

After the third stop, Katrina and Eryx offered to take the twins in their vehicle. That way they could stay together. They were just like their father and uncle, two peas in a pod who hated to be apart. And we worked hard to respect that.

Char and Blaze even held hands in their sleep.

It was adorable, but also, on occasion, a little bit scary, because they were always planning something.

They were the first to get into cabinets, working together in ways that kids never do, to find a way to climb up on the counters.

Their goal? Applesauce. Those two would do anything for applesauce.

Katrina teased my mate more than once that this is what happened, and it was karma for all that he and his brother had done as kids. But there was such affection in her voice. She loved it.

The mood of the van definitely changed that second day after the twins were with their grandparents. It made the rest of our trip a thousand times quicker.

Finally, near dinner time, we pulled into the event hotel. No one would be trying to check in not knowing that it was the Flight Games Championship. There were signs everywhere.

When we checked in, at first they didn’t have our connecting rooms. Pep held onto me, looking at me, pleading with me silently.

We needed those connecting rooms if we had any hope of making it through this weekend.

We loved our children even more than each other, but loving them and being able to handle them on our own were two very different things, especially when it was in a new-to-them environment.

When I first mentioned going to the championship with me and my team, Pep didn’t want any part of it. He loved me and was supportive, but getting the kids here and keeping them happy was a lot to ask. And work was still pretty intense.

It wasn’t until Eryx and Katrina offered to come and be our second set of “parents” to help that he agreed. He was excited for it, but also, it was stressful.

The first night at this hotel went really well, though. The kids got good sleep. Me too. But I had to be up early to meet the team. I kissed my mate on the cheek, telling him I’d see him later. “Call if you need anything.”

I’d have to send it to him by text too, because his only response was a grumble. I thought it was about seeing me later, but it was so mumbled together I wasn’t quite sure.

I opened the connecting doors so that Katrina and Eryx could hear the kids if they woke and for some reason my mate didn’t, or possibly he was in the bathroom or something, and then I met with my team.

This year’s team had two new members because my previous seniors had graduated. The dynamic was different, but the results were just as strong. There was a good chance we were going to win.

The preliminaries were the first on the docket, and we passed with flying colors… or more accurately, flying dragons, I suppose. The second event, we did a new-to-us routine. It wasn’t perfect, but we scored well enough to skip the next round altogether and go straight to the final.

This was the one my mate and in-laws and everyone else here to support us were planning on attending. I kept an eye out, worried that they wouldn’t make it in time, but they did, thanks to two double strollers, some baby slings, and three adults.

They sat behind us, and Pep gave me a quick kiss as we were called to the field for our final round.

The routine we were doing for this round had been inspired by the day that the flight team moved our nest. Between the wind and a couple of items falling out, they’d had to think quick that night—and they did beautifully. The safety of our nest had been the priority at the time.

But that wasn’t necessary here. There was no nest. They could go as fast or as dangerous as they wanted, or rather as I allowed.

The formation was beautiful. They performed it with a single piece of rope instead of a nest, but anyone in the audience who had ever had a clutch would know exactly what we were trying to achieve.

And when they landed, the crowd roared… roared louder than I’d ever heard in all my years.

This particular event was significantly larger than the one I won last time, and I wasn’t sure how the rest of the day was going to go. But it didn’t matter. Trophy or not, my team had brought it and were feeling as great about their performance as I was.

There were a ton more events throughout the day, and I watched a lot of them, but also, I took the time to hang out with my family. We played in the grass behind the hotel, took to the air, and ate at one of the outside seating areas.

I looked around at my entire world, everyone that mattered to me, with one exception, here… my best friend and his mate, my mate, and our five beautiful children. I’d waited for moments such as these for centuries, and now that they were my reality, I savored every last second of them.

“You’re thinking too much.” Pep leaned into my side. “What’s taking up all your real estate up there?” He tapped the side of my head.

“You.” I took out my messy bun, letting my long hair blow in the wind, the way my mate enjoyed. “How wonderful my life is now that you’re in it. You know, the same thing I think about every day.”

He blushed, and I loved that I still had that effect on him.

“That’s not what I was thinking about.” He brought his lips to my ear and whispered exactly what he was thinking about, and now it was my time to blush.

“I love you, omega mine.”

“I love you, my sexy dragon. I love you.”