Page 30 of These Little Heirs (Moonscale Heirs Duet #2)

Ciro

An hour later, I came back into the bedroom wearing just my bathrobe to find that Teal had set up several snack plates on the bed. He was reclined against the headboard, reading a book and eating from a bag of cheese puffs.

“Feel better?” he asked, setting his book aside after fumbling around for a few seconds to find his bookmark.

“My stomach does, yeah,” I nodded, taking up my normal seat on the bed and grabbing a cracker.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d be hungry but I’m a dragon and food improves most things,” Teal shrugged.

“It does, though, doesn’t it?” I chuckled. “How are you?”

“I shouldn’t have been surprised,” Teal frowned.

“He didn’t want to talk to me and I kept pushing it but it was like I couldn’t stop myself.

I didn’t know if he was okay or not. We went from talking nearly every day to him just disappearing and I didn’t know what to do.

I still don’t. No one prepares you for friendship breakups and it sucks. ”

“I hope he comes around,” I said, picking up another cracker.

“But you don’t think he will,” Teal sighed.

“I don’t,” I shook my head. “I still hope he does, though. Not just for you either. For his own sake. Imagine hating the only person who gives a real damn about how you feel and the person you’d normally talk to about it. That has to suck, mate.”

“I’m right here. He knows that. He’s the one who doesn’t want me.”

“I hope he comes around.” I said it again because I wasn’t sure what else to say about it. Even golden retrievers turn feral when their hearts are broken, I guess.

“Do you still want to do the ultrasound tonight or do you want to wait until the morning?” Teal asked.

“Are you asking because you’re tired or are you really asking if I want to wait for the others to be up?”

“But I’m not too tired to do it. Ultrasounds are easy,” Teal shrugged.

“You know I love them, right?” I said gently. “I really do but some things don’t need an audience.”

“Okay,” Teal nodded, and I let out a silent sigh of relief that he didn’t put up a fight about it.

“Are you okay with that?” I asked him.

“I am,” he nodded again. “They can see the print outs. I meant it when I said I’d help you enforce boundaries, mate. It’s different with them because Odie and Ambry were already some sort of bonded pair. You survived by being on your own.”

“Have you ever wanted to be part of a group and didn’t know if you could actually manage it?” I asked, stretching out as he moved the snack plates over to the dresser.

“I didn’t know that I could start the warehouse group, but I don’t think that’s what you mean. I’ve been around people I don’t fit in with before but when it comes to these guys, I’ve been one of them forever. You’re one of them by proxy – just however much you want to be.”

“However much it’ll all let me,” I shrugged.

“They’re not going anywhere. So, take your time,” Teal said, settling in on the bed and turning on his portable ultrasound machine.

“I’m glad they aren’t. You need them.”

“You need them too,” Teal said a second later with the wand pressed against my belly. “At least you will when these three are born.”

“Three?” I blinked. “Give me that thingy!”

He handed off the little machine with its even smaller monitor. I counted the jellybeans on the screen over and over.

One-two-three.

One-two-three.

Three-two-one.

Two-One-Three.

Yep. Baby One, Two, and Three were all there.

No matter how many times I counted them, nothing changed. I was having a litter. Somone call Medwin Moonscale and tell him to buy a catnip farm because we were all going to need it. Teal and I were having triplets!

“Yeah, you really have to stick around. I’m going to be so fat and make you carry me around and I’m going to eat people if they get in my way and my claws are going to get so damn long!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said and leaned over to nuzzle into my neck. “That’s a promise.”

***

The next day at lunch when Teal passed out sonograms of our triplets no one was surprised that I was pregnant.

We all scurried around the subject, but I hadn’t once denied it.

I even cut back on caffeine as a preventative measure and tried to get used to not rolling over onto my back in the middle of the night.

The last one sucked more than not living on catnip infused coffee all day.

“Triplets,” Odie said, placing a hand on his stomach as if he had prophetic sympathy symptoms for me.

“It could happen to any of us,” Ambry said as if it was an omen of grave things. “Look at these three giants, hard to believe they were once little Moonscale heirs.”

“These are the little heirs now,” Cobalt said, holding both babies to his chest letting the others eat first. “Well, these two and the three potatoes Ciro is growing.”

“My kids are not potatoes!” I hissed, but there was no passion behind the sound.

“Kittens look like potatoes when they loaf out. At least domesticated kittens do.”

“My kittens are feral,” Teal said.

“I believe it. Are you going to name them after Feral?” Indigo laughed.

“The guy who owns the bar?” I asked.

“The first-mate of the Guardians of Glitter Bomb territory,” Teal added on. “But no that wasn’t a hint at names.”

“Are you going to keep the blues?” Odie asked.

“Maybe,” I said. “We haven’t talked about it.”

“We’ll get the cribs built today. We bought a bulk dozen of them,” Cobalt said. “We can go ahead and get that out of the way. We’ll set them all up one but if they all sleep together, it’s whatever. Just each kid should have their own bed.”

“Are we overstepping?” Odie asked in between bites of his pulled pork sandwich.

“Not at all,” I shook my head. “We appreciate the help. I was going to ask if we needed to build another nursery or---”

“You’re one of us,” Indigo answered before I even finished the question.

“We talked about it last night and that’s going to be our answer every time you ask that question in a different way,” Ambry said.

“Seriously, you’re one of us. Eat the cheesecake that’s in the fridge.

Drink the sodas. Use up the last of the milk.

This is your home too. Leave your socks in the corridor or something. ”

“I’m trying,” I managed a smile.

“Try harder!” Indigo teased.

“Guys! At Moonglow he already left his underwear under the---” I put my hand over his mouth.

Everyone knew the story, but it hit in a weird way, and I didn’t want to be turned on in front of Teal’s family.

They might be okay walking in on each other all the time but now that our mating response had settled down, I wanted something of a private sex life.

“Teal?”

“Yes?” he mumbled against my palm.

“Bedroom or I bite you!” I hissed and we ran off leaving our plates half-finished.

Inside our bedroom, I dropped to my knees and made quick work of his fly.

Then I sucked on him as I might’ve done the night before if my pregnancy hormones hadn’t kicked up and knocked me out in a surprise boxing match.

I held onto the thick, muscular globes of his ass as I devoured him and didn’t let up until he came in my mouth.

“That’s what you get for being an underwear thief!” I panted, leaning back on my heels when the job was done.

“Crime does pay!” he laughed, bending over to give me a long, hard kiss.

“Only sometimes. I won’t always be the judge!”