by Minerva Howe
He stroked over the swollen belly, tracing Ollie’s birth line. “My babies.”
“Yes.” Ollie watched him, those gorgeous eyes glinting with blue and silver facets. “I’m happy. I really am, E. I know I was all boohoo, but I can hear them. I can.”
“I shall have to start singing to them.” They could hear him then, and he wanted them to know his voice.
“Read to them.” Ollie winked. “If you sing, so will Tyson.”
That had him laughing out loud. “He’s far more pleasant singing than shouting.”
Oliver laughed with him, then gasped, hand going to his belly, his eyes going wide. “Eagan!”
Panic hit him. “Love? What is it? What’s wrong?” He moved Ollie to lie on the bed instead of sitting so he would have less pressure on his belly and back.
Oliver took his hand, placed it back on his belly, and there was movement, a distinct rolling under his hand.
“Ollie!” He snatched his hand away, then put it there again, unable to resist. “Heavens. They’re dancing.”
“I think they like pancakes.” Ollie just grinned at him. “Actually, I think it was your laughter. I think they felt that.”
“You think so?” He stared down at Ollie’s belly in wonder. “I can’t believe we felt them move.” They would have to let everyone feel later.
“I do. They know their father.”
“Mmm.” Eagan stretched out with Ollie, spooning him. “I want to know everything.”
“Oh, you’re warm. I like it.” Oliver snuggled right in.
“No more sitting on the balcony when it’s so cold, hmmm?” He petted Ollie, then pulled the blanket over them, their very own cocoon.
“No?”
“No, my mate gets cold because he’s keeping my babies warm.” His babies. He couldn’t quite believe it, so Eagan kept telling himself the words over and over. His life was going to change very much.
He held his world in his hands—the babies, his Oliver. This was all he needed in all the world. One of the babies moved under his touch, pushing at him, as if she—or he—had heard him.
Somehow he believed they had. His babies were listening.
He grinned so wide his dragon teeth tried to manifest. The urge to hide Ollie in his den was huge, but that wouldn’t be fair to anyone.
“We can’t go anywhere right now, mate.” Ollie chuckled. “And if I’m only half the size I’m going to be? Whoa. Buy more coconut oil.”
“Much, much more. And Lyle will have to cook bacon for us at his house.”
“Good idea!” Ollie’s chuckles shook the bed. “He can just bring me some every morning.”
“Yes, on a silver platter.” He chuckled softly. “We’re so lucky.”
“We are. I just need to remember that. We’ll go have supper with everyone later, right? I’ll be better by then.” Ollie burped delicately.
“So will Dev. He was bad in the mornings, starving by the afternoon.” Assuming this pregnancy was like the last.
“Then dinner. Will you tell everyone?”
“Once we have a nap, yes. We’ll all have ice cream for dessert while we watch movies.”
He knew Ollie loved that so much. They had a wonderful time as a family cuddled together and laughing.
Everyone will be shocked and pleased. I know it.
They will. He closed his eyes, his soul too full to be contained by his human body. Some of his dragon had to come out.
So we’ll be dragons. I’m not afraid, Eagan.
I’m glad my love. I want to be my true self with you again, with your dragon alongside me.
He could feel Ollie’s wish for that, deep in his bones. All the good things were coming.
They just had to let them happen.
13
Ollie held his belly, half afraid he would tumble over forward as he headed down the stairs. He was getting huge, and he was hungry.
So hungry. So it was two a.m. Sue him. He needed food.
He flipped the light on in the kitchen and heard a growl. Devon sat at the kitchen table, arm around a pizza pan with an all-veggie pizza on it, half a piece hanging out of his mouth.
“Seriously? I’m going to cook an entire pound of bacon. Two. Maybe three.”
“Go for it,” Devon said around a mouthful of food. “Make coffee too. Then I can be like a Roman at a feast.” Devon munched harder, the piece of pizza disappearing like it was mouse a Komodo dragon had it in its mouth.
“Are you allowed to have coffee?” He wasn’t. He was on decaf.
“No. But the smell of it might make me puke. Might not. You never know. I feel like I might be losing my mind this time, and I know what’s happening!” Devon wailed.
“Dev!” He gingerly moved the pizza out of the way so he could hug Devon without his friend thinking he was trying to steal it. “You’re just really hormonal. I was there two weeks ago.”
“I wasn’t ready! I’m not a good enough dad to do this.” Devon clung to him.
“What does Brand say?”
“He’s poo-pooing me. He says I’m a great dad.”
“You are.” Ollie sat Devon back down, then handed him a piece of pizza. He would just get some ice cream for now. “You really are. I know Arielle seems hard, but she’s a dragon! And think of me! I’ll have two at once! The same age.”
“We’ll have four under two together, Ollie. Four. And Arielle is…wild. I was…I wasn’t trying. I didn’t think I could get pregnant on the spring equinox!”
“Hey, I didn’t even know I was a dragon, and I got knocked up on the solstice! With twins! We need to do more research!”
“We do.” Devon’s eyes glowed for a moment, the distraction working. “We need more source material. I think the moms thought they knew the answers, but I think it’s like an Agatha Christie mystery. Or like that Ninth Gate movie. Someone is lying or has spread the information around in more than one source to keep it safe.”
Ollie gave up and stuffed a pizza slice crust first into his mouth. “So where do we start?”
Devon blinked. “First we eat. I’m just so damn hungry. Then we start looking for sources. Even online.”
“Fair enough. I want peanut butter cookies.” And maybe another pizza.
“We can make those ones with just peanut butter, eggs and sugar,” Devon said. “They take no time.”
“And we can put another pizza in?”
“Shit yeah. Lyle filled the freezer yesterday. I crave.”
“Okay. I’ll go get some pizzas, and you start the cookies.” Six should do it. The dragons would smell the cookies and come down. That was okay. They probably deserved to know that he and Devon were about to start an onslaught of research.
Possibly that Devon was losing his mind.
Did they have dragon nannies?
Ollie grinned as his pair tripped a light fandango in his belly. Maybe they needed to look into that. Someone the babies couldn’t eat…
Surely Tyson knew a gargoyle.
He was giggling as he toddled along.
“What?” Devon asked around more pizza even as he broke eggs.
“We need a nanny.”
“Can you imagine? Arielle would gnaw on them.”
“That’s why I was giggling.”
“Youwah sic mah.” Devon chewed. “Sick man.”
“I am. Maybe a giant prehistoric birdman.” He started unwrapping pizzas.
Devon cackled. “Pterodactyl shifter? I like it. I mean, if there are dragons and vampires, why not?”
“I think they’d hold up to Arielle.”
“Yes, but what about your beasts?” Dev teased.
“My beasts are going to be born with perfect manners and smelling like roses.” He rubbed his belly when someone kicked. “Look.” He raised his shirt, and a little concerted dance happened under his skin.
“Your poor belly.” Devon came over and touched him, and the babies shifted and rolled. “Hey, guys. Are you listening in there?”
“The
y love when Eagan reads to them.” He couldn’t really see his birth line anymore. “I just hope they know they have to be fully cooked.”
“Like cookies!” Devon winked before turning back to the stove. “I give the old men maybe five more minutes.”
“Less for Ty. He loves cookies.”
Sure enough, Ty followed his nose in only seconds later.
“Are the babies moving?” Ty asked. “Can I feel?”
“Of course, brother.” He took Ty’s hand and put it on Kynan.
“Oh.” Ty’s crystal gray eyes went wide, and he grinned. “Hello, little.”
The answering kick was sharp and sure.
“Wow.”
“Right?” Oliver chuckled. “They hear so well.”
“I can’t wait to meet them,” Ty said, bending to kiss his cheek. “Ah, cravings at two a.m. I missed this.”
“Because you love food,” Devon pointed out. “Cookies in five.”
“Pizza in eight. Can someone pour me a glass of milk, please?”
“I will,” Ty murmured. “So, what are you two plotting?”
“What?” Devon blinked innocently.
“You mean the nannies or the research on fertility dates?” He wasn’t going to pussyfoot around, dammit.
“Nannies…” Tyson poured, then handed him a glass of milk. “Hmm. I can see the value.”
“Thank you.” He drank deep. “I was thinking gargoyles. Do you know any?”
“Not offhand.” Tyson said it drily. Then he sobered. “Not that I couldn’t find one.”
“Wow. You really are amazing.”
Tyson flexed. “I know.”
“I was just thinking, four dragonets under two.” He looked into Tyson’s face, seeing the worry there.
“That’s a lot.” Tyson chewed his lower lip. “I need to get my house ready. We need to get farther from towns. Not forever. But for a while. And I know people.”
“Do we need to move? Eagan loves his things, more than the house, I think.” At least he thought so.
Devon stared at Tyson. “What did the moms do?”
“I was old enough to help by the time Eagan came along, but we were…remote back then. It was easier to get away from people.” Tyson sighed. “And we were years apart. Really. This is like, a new evolutionary step. You see it in the sediment story all the time.”
“We need to protect them. I can’t imagine Danger Mouse in a preschool.”
“No. No, that would be a very bad idea. But it does beg the question of logistics.” Tyson shook his head, then sniffed. “The cookies are ready.”
The timer dinged, and Devon laughed. “Good nose.”
“Anyway, we’d keep all the properties,” Tyson said. “But we might need to go to mine for a few formative years once we have four.”
“Or six.” Eagan’s hands slid over his shoulders. “How would we make the moves, brother? I’d be happy to come and build something in the mountains, or here, to raise all our families together.”
“I think Tyson’s compound would be safest,” Brand said. “The town isn’t growing much, but with the casinos, there’s more people all the time. I’m not willing to give up my house, but Lyle and his wife can keep it up, along with a caretaker, when we’re not here.”
“Are we bringing our library, Brand?” Devon asked. “We can’t do without it.”
“We are.” Brand smiled. “And I know Eagan will bring his most important pieces.”
“I will. Stella and her wife can maintain the house and we can go there when Ollie needs his city time. Oh, thank you.” Eagan took a cookie from Ty.
“We have until June for these two, September for the next. If I leave soon, I can start altering wings for you both. The snows will be heavy by September though, so I’ll need you both ready to move in a month.”
Oliver held his belly. “I need a cookie.”
Eagan went and got him one. “You know you won’t be doing the heavy lifting, love.”
“I know. I know.” Oliver looked into Tyson’s eyes. “And it’s important to all be together. More important than anything. We’re a family.”
“We are. We need the shelter of the mountains. Caves. This much I remember.”
Devon gnawed on half a pizza, clearly stressed. “A month. Oh my God.”
“We can do it. At least the initial move,” Eagan soothed. “The library. The nurseries. A toddler bed for Arielle.”
“Pizza freezer,” Tyson murmured.
“Ice cream freezer,” he countered. “And things for the babies. Heavy clothes.”
He looked to Devon, and Eagan nuzzled him, trying to comfort Ollie. “We’ll send them with you, Ty, and then meet you in a month.”
“No.” Ollie shook his head. “I don’t want you to miss seeing them grow.” He put a hand on his belly again. “And I can organize things.”
“Right now, we’ll be fine here,” Devon said firmly. “Brand and Eagan can go to Denver every few days to work on things and then come home at night. We cooperate.”
Tyson nodded. “I’ll have to bring in a crew of workers. I’ll get a team that’s not local, but it will be better not to have two pregnant men around.”
“Fair enough.” Brand sighed. “Start with the children’s spaces, please. Arielle’s never left this house.”
“I will make her a perfect space. I think children’s rooms in each wing, yes, and then a vast common area to share.”
Devon put more cookies in the oven. “All Ty will have to do is tell our girl she can see his real workshop.”
Now Brand chuckled. “This is true.”
“I want it packed too. The workshop. I’ll need it if we’re spending twenty years in the main house.” Ty shook his head. “We should have done this when we knew Oliver was pregnant.”
“Coulda shoulda woulda,” Devon said. “As is, we’re going to have to roll Ollie in.”
Ollie flipped him off. “Hot tub. At the very least.”
“I’ll put in a huge one so we can work on the pool,” Tyson said, grabbing pizza.
“Oh, you’d really put in an indoor pool?”
“I would. Even if we have to put in a breezeway from it to the house.” Tyson munched. “How are these so good?”
“Crack. It’s totally crack.” Devon snarfed up another pizza.
“Better put in a few more.” Brand moved to grab a couple out of the freezer.
He grabbed himself a cookie, nibbling away and pondering the move. A month. Lord.
He knew Eagan would never completely abandon his Denver mansion, but it would be lovely to not be worried while the children were vulnerable. Not that Arielle wouldn’t tear a vamp apart with her bare hands. He grinned at the thought of his Danger Mouse, attacking the world, defending her cousins. His babies beat a tattoo inside him, and he grunted.
“You should go get Arielle,” he told Devon. “I think she’s crying.”
“What?”
“Your daughter? The Danger Mouse? She’s—”
Her wail split the air.
Devon tilted his head. “Huh. Be right back.”
“I’ll get her, sweet,” Brand said, and he was off like a flash.
Devon looked at him. “Did you hear her?”
He stroked his belly. “They did.”
“Wow.” Tyson actually stopped chewing. “Seriously?”
“Yep.” At least that’s what he figured. How the fuck did he know? “Have you and Brand and Eagan ever heard each other?”
“Yes.” Eagan nodded. “When you were taken, Devon, for example.”
“But we’re brothers.”
“And Danger Mouse is stunning,” he shot back.
“So are you,” Eagan pointed out. “Who knows what this next generation will do, so close in age, so closely raised?”
Brand carried Arielle in, and she immediately started grunting and reaching for Ollie.
“Hey, baby girl. C’mere.” He took her, and she moved until she could rest her cheek on his belly. The
re she calmed right away, cooing happily.
“See?”
Devon sat on Brand’s lap once Brand settled. “Definitely more research.”
Ollie fed Arielle a tiny bit of cheese, and almost lost a finger. “And more pizza.”
Eagan thought he might lose his mind.
Why had he agreed to help renovate Tyson’s house and move his and Brand’s essentials while he and Brand had pregnant mates? Why?
Having the furniture they needed from his house shipped was easy. Having Oliver’s apartment, the books from Brand’s home, and the two nurseries and Arielle’s room was a challenge.
Keeping two pregnant mates happy during this process? That was hell on earth.
Ollie seemed torn between crying and the silent treatment, while Devon was verging on feral this time around. He kept growling and snapping his teeth. Oliver spent a huge amount of time caring for Arielle, while Brand and Devon packed books. Arielle was occupying herself with talking to the twins. For hours. He worried that they would pop out already speaking. It did seem as though they had a twinspeak that they shared with Arielle.
Devon was making Brand crazy too, refusing to take it easy. They kept finding Devon in the library, sorting books, putting all of the volumes that mentioned dragons together to start a new special collection.
He wanted to sit and bask, to spend time with Oliver and his babies, but there was simply too much to accomplish.
Tyson had been busting his ass, working like a fiend to get things well started, and everything was…off. They had become so accustomed to the rhythm of their life, and Eagan was getting a bit grumpy himself.
He found Brand in his study, packing it up, methodically filling boxes.
“We’re taking tonight off. You have an hour.”
Brand glanced up, his gray eyes lighting. “We are?”
“Yes. Call Lyle and ask what he can do for hastily assembled fine dining that still manages to have lots of cheese.” They would feed their mates, and then they would go spend time in the hot tub. Then he was hoping Ollie would let him make love to him.
“That is an amazing idea.”
“It’s necessary. Our mates need care.” He knew this like he knew his own name.
