Page 22

Chapter 22

Ollie

D ragons were smart creatures, and they knew no omega wanted to be away from their nest for long. And out of that understanding, someone had invented a contraption much like a baby sling, but for eggs. It worked perfectly. I could fit my egg snuggly against me when I went to work, which meant my dearest daughter was never alone.

At first, I’d been worried. What if I cracked my sweet daughter’s safe home? But then Mal came home with an ostrich egg. At first, I was confused, and then he gave me a challenge—break it.

He had me drop it, bang it against the counter, wear it in the sling and bump into random things. The egg was solid, nothing at all like a chicken egg. It wasn’t until I took out actual tools that I made any progress, and even then, it had taken a lot of work.

“See… broken.” I beamed at my success. Break wasn’t exactly the right word. I had chipped it, but close enough. Chipping our egg wasn’t a matter of wasting an egg that might eventually become food, it was harming our daughter, and I refused to let that happen.

“And how much effort did it take to manage that?”

I gave him my best stink-eye. “Not the point. It still broke.”

“And guess how many times harder a dragon’s egg is than an ostrich egg?”

I knew it was a trap, and I still walked into it, asking him for an answer. Five hundred percent stronger. It was 500% stronger. How was that even possible? But one thing was for sure, it made me feel better about carrying her around, but added a new fear to my plethora of new dad anxieties—how would they get out? Mal insisted they just did and not to worry about it.

That was so much easier said than done. But for now, the knowledge made my daily life exponentially easier. Staying home when I knew there was so much to be done would’ve been torture. My clan needed me, my grandbabies needed me. That still took a bit to get used to.

Our daughter’s three niblings got to know her very well. She joined in for every story time with the triplets, something her father and I both insisted on. He was a huge proponent of early literacy. It was one of his passions.

The kids babbled to the egg endlessly, asked it to play, brought it stuffies, and cuddled it frequently. And as adorable as that all was, all of it paled in comparison to their chirps. One day they started chirping at her, mimicking their father’s dragon, and a few times I could’ve sworn she chirped back—she communicated with them. How I wished I’d gotten that on camera.

“Those four are going to be trouble,” Kier said one night as we looked at the four of them nestled together in the triplets’ nest. We were playing music in the background, and they were “singing along” with the singer. They didn’t come close to getting a single word right, and that somehow made it more precious.

He wasn’t wrong about them being trouble. But what adorable trouble it was going to be.

Watching them spend the day together was always a delight. The three toddlers were so enamored by her. They snuggled around the egg like she was one of them. They babbled and played and brought her toys as if she could play with them. One of the kids was touching the shell at all times. And they knew how to be gentle. The three of them rough-housed outside of the nest all day, but when they were near the precious egg, they knew it.

It was a wonder to behold.

“We are going to be in so much trouble,” I agreed.

“I know. Isn’t it great?” He laughed. “We were hoping that they would get some siblings, and it turned out all they needed was an aunt.”

“We are going to be on our toes, that’s for sure. May the dragon scales help us all.”

I stayed for another hour before heading home and making dinner. I was dead on my feet. For whatever reason, today was the day all my being on the go caught up to me. If it weren’t for me knowing that Mal was going to be hungry when he got home, I’d have skipped dinner all together and gone straight to bed.

“It’s time we get some rest, sweet girl.” I bit back a yawn. “We can wait for your father in the nest.”

I nestled my egg into her spot in the home nest. Exhaustion weighed me down like I’d carried bricks rather than my egg. I might not have been carrying an egg in my body anymore, but chasing the triplets around all day and managing my additional responsibilities as mate to the clan leader took brain power that I wasn’t used to and was exhausting in its own way.

Each day I fielded questions and made decisions about things that I’d never considered before. All while wiping noses and changing diapers. I’d never considered myself great at multitasking, but even I was impressed by all I had been able to juggle lately. It wouldn’t be this way for long, though. Once our little girl was here, priorities would shift.

For now, all she needed was to be protected and talked to. But soon enough there would be feeding and diapers and naps and bathing and soothing. And she would come first. That was my non-negotiable.

“How about I tell you a story.” I snuggled in beside her. “Once upon a time there was a little mouse. His entire life he grew up wondering if he could ever do big things, if he could ever make a change, and then one day he met a dragon… a really, really, really old dragon.” I laughed at my own joke. “And they fell…”

I didn’t remember falling asleep or even shifting into my mouse form, but that was how Malric found me when he got home—a sound asleep bundle of fur in the sleeve of my shirt. Had it been anyone else who found me, I’d have been embarrassed, but this was Mal, my Mal, and he could and would see me at my worst and my best, and he would love me completely through both.

He shifted to his dragon form and lay beside me. Had we been in my old place, that wouldn’t have been possible. Heck, it wouldn’t have been possible in any house I had ever lived in before moving to this clan.

But Mal’s home was ginormous, as was this room. When I first saw it, I thought the sheer size was a waste, but now I understood the reason.

My little mouse body was the size of one of his claws, and he always curled his tail just right so I could nestle on top of it, snug and safe with my dragon. His scales radiated heat thanks to his fire power. Not all dragons could breathe fire, but mine could.

I hadn’t been kidding when I told him I wanted to build a little basket so he could take me flying. I should probably bring it up again, now that I was no longer pregnant. We could use it once the baby hatched.

Eventually, we had to shift back. I smiled as my mate lay there, naked as the day he was hatched. His form never ceased to steal my breath away. In the days of old, they’d have made a statue of him. I kinda hoped they’d bring that tradition back… only I wouldn’t want to share it with anyone else because he was mine.

“How was your day at work?” I asked.

“Great. Yours?” He trailed a hand over my shoulder, eliciting a shudder from me.

“Our grandchildren are devious little creatures. I think they’ve figured out how to communicate with our egg.”

“Probably,” he said. “I do recall my boys having a language all their own when they were young. It’s precious that they will be so close to their… aunt.”

I grinned. The family dynamics were unique.

“More gifts arrived today,” I added. That wasn’t a surprise to anyone. Our little daughter was beyond cherished by the clan.

Malric sighed. “I’m not sure I have the energy to open them right now, mate. Maybe later.”

“I put them with the others in your office. We’ll go through them tomorrow. Then we need to work on another round of thank-you notes.”

The thank-you cards were an endless task, one that never seemed to decrease thanks to their generosity. I’d made the mistake early on, by writing full-on letters to each person who sent a gift, and now I was stuck doing the same for all of them, not wanting to risk “picking favorites.”

“Indeed,” he said, lacing his fingers through mine. “My hand is still tired from the last one.”

“Same.” I snuggled in close. “I missed you all day.”

“You should visit me.”

It was something I’d considered numerous times, but the thought of making it happen overwhelmed me.

“I would, but it’s hard to bring all the kids and our egg. Maybe next week I can arrange it. I’ll see if Tanya and Brent can help.” They were two individuals who were now “my team.” They had their own space at Dragon Headquarters where they took in complaints and requests from clan members that wished to speak with me. They were a lifeline, that was for sure.

So far, we had set up countless dinners and a few conference calls to discuss everything, from familial disputes to re-aligning out strategic goals to better meet the needs of our members. It was all very businesslike. And then there were the days when it wasn’t at all like a business. Like last week when I’d met with a family that had recently lost their omega grandfather, and we’d spent hours together talking about his life and the family he left behind. It was those moments that were the hardest, yet the most fulfilling.

“True. Maybe I should work from home.”

“Or maybe we’ll just have to make the most of the time we do have.” I ran a finger down his chest.

Malric’s grin turned sly, and he pulled me to my feet. I went to grab clothes, but he stopped me.

“You won’t be needing those, mate.”

As much as I loved that idea, it would have to wait. “I have food for dinner. I whipped up a casserole at—”

Then he was kissing my neck. “It can wait.”

And indeed, it could. All it needed was a reheat.