Page 34 of The Emerald Boa’s Lover (Operation Colonise #3)

Hatching day

Dalahan.

Two weeks later.

I am blissfully asleep when Charlie takes hold of my shoulders and shakes me. I hiss, snapping my eyes open, pull him into my arms and coil my tail protectively around him.

“Dal, calm down.” I am half asleep and looking around for the reason Charlie has woken me up in the middle of the night, when he takes hold of my cheeks to force my eyes to his. “Come on! It’s happening.”

“What is?”

“They’re hatching. Come on.” He wriggles out of my coil, only because I’m half asleep and haven’t got enough grip on him, and my brain finally catches up.

Charlie stumbles out of our bed, replaced a long time ago by a bowl of pillows now we were going to be nesting down together with younglings soon, and I track him in the dark to a bedside lamp.

I squint as he turns it on, and drag my bulk over to the edge of the bed. “Dal! Get your ass out of bed.”

“I don’t have an ass.” I smirk.

“Fine. Get your pouch, and the rest of you, out of bed.” He barks, and I chuckle as I slide lethargically out of the bowl.

I check the bedside clock and see it’s a little after 2am.

No wonder I’m so tired. Charlie probably hasn’t been to sleep, from the way he’s bouncing on his feet as he runs around the nest room.

I coil my tail to rest on and wait for Charlie to finish arranging everything he needs for our hatching.

I smile, happy for him to take the lead as he kneels in front of me and the incubator.

Two pale blue eggs are showing signs of hatching alright.

In the lamp light above them, I see the larger of the two eggs bulging to the side.

The egg nearly rolls over from the energy the hatchling is showing, so I use my tail-tip to move it back upright again.

“Towels, two of, bracelets, two of, camera, ready, sling, got it.” He reels off what he needs, taking off his shirt, and I am ululating with joy.

Once again I have to move the vigours egg back into the correct position as it nearly topples over.

A moment later, and a little blue face practically punches through the eggshell.

“Wow, good morning.” Charlie chuckles and holds the brown towel in his hands like he’s ready to catch the hatchling.

I lean over Charlie’s shoulder to ululate softly and the hatchling wriggles out of the egg towards us.

Charlie catches the little one and is weeping with tears of joy.

As am I. “Why hello. I’m your Dad.” He declares with pride, wiping the clear egg fluid from the hatchling’s face.

I scent them, confirming my suspicion from their size, that this one is a boy.

“And I’m your Daddy.” We agreed on names a week ago, to make it easier for the younglings to know which parent they wanted to speak to. “He’s beautiful.” I confirm the gender for Charlie, who places a little bracelet around his wrist with a 1 on it.

“He looks like a blue viper. Cobalt blue” Charlie finishes cleaning him and gives me a tender kiss. My heart melts. “What shall we call him?”

“Uzoti?” I offer, hugging Charlie from behind and sliding my chin and neck along his to flick my tongue towards the hatching. His back is a rich blue shade, and his underbelly and face are more cerulean. Charlie takes a picture on his camera for later.

“I like that. Uzoti.” Charlie kisses me, and then leans down to kiss Uzoti’s head.

The second egg hatches, but the little one rests with their face in the hole they’ve made.

I can tell Charlie is getting impatient as he puts on the sling and snuggles Uzoti into it.

I peer down the sling to see Uzoti’s little hands and one of his cheeks are pressed happily to Charlie’s pecks.

Hissing softly in his sleep. He closely coils his blue tail and will sleep for hours now.

Warm against Charlie’s chest and sheltered in the sling.

“Come on.” Charlie talks to the second egg, a second towel ready to go.

“You can sleep in my sling. Come on now.” I chuckle.

He’s so impatient. If he wasn’t a doctor and aware that there is a risk of shock if he extracted the hatchling from the egg too soon, he totally would.

10 long minutes later, our second hatchling slides out of the egg and into Charlie’s waiting hands.

“Finally. You kept your daddies waiting.” He chuckles and I ululate happily.

I know right away from how long the hatchling is, she’s female.

I confirm it by scenting her once Charlie has wiped away the rest of the egg fluid.

“A girl?” He also notices how much bigger she is than the first hatchling. He takes a picture of her as well.

“Yes.” I hum with thought as he checks her over, giving her the second bracelet, before kissing her and securing her sleeping form in the sling. “How about Suzu?”

“Aww that’s cute.” He agrees and leans back in my coil, content it was now over and he had both our hatchlings safely in his arms. I carry him, no, them, back to bed and we all settle in the coil of my tail.

I plump pillows around him so he can’t tip or roll over, and kiss him.

“Uzoti and Suzu. Our babies.” Charlie wipes away a tear quickly and we cuddle together.

“I’m excited, and terrified. Is that normal? ”

“I hope so, because I feel the same way.” I chuckle and slip my head over his shoulder and into the sling to stare at them. Charlie laughs and strokes my neck and watches me stare at our babies. “They are sleeping. And breathing.”

“Both excellent things.” He chuckles. “They’re so small…”

“I’m going to have to watch them all night.” I decree.

“Agreed. How about we take shifts?”

“I’ll take the first one.” I get right in there.

“No way. I’m not going to sleep now they’ve finally hatched!”

“Well my head is in the sling so…?” He snorts and I shrug behind him.

I ululate softly at our hatchlings. I hadn’t planned on us having a clutch so soon into our relationship, but this was clearly meant to be.

I wouldn’t change a thing. After longing for this for so long, I finally have a man I love with every single scale of my being, who loves me just as much, and we have two beautiful little ones to pour our love into.

The two of them have naturally coiled together, snuggling each other, as well as Charlie’s warm chest. Such a beautiful sight.

“Are they okay?”

“Of course.”

“Then why are you still in there?” He chuckles and tries to tug my shoulder to make me come out of the sling. I pout and pull back to look at Charlie.

“But they’re so cute in there. I want to curl up with them in your sling.”

“Maybe later.” He winks at me and settles down in my coil. “Since you want the first watch so bad, have at it. I’m sure we’ll be sleep deprived before long, so we better stock up on sleep while we can.”

“Rest well Charlie.” I kiss him again and watch him as well as our hatchlings. My heart is full and I ululate soothingly for my little family.