by TJ Cross
"Dragons are... not meant to be born in mammals, so through the magic of our bond, our child will have to make do with being seeded into your body. But even without an egg, you're still fine to carry a dragon child. For all intents and purposes, in your body he'll be human," Gurney explained, sliding into bed and removing his jacket, slipping it to the floor.
"So nine months, then," Brandon said, absorbing everything his alpha told him.
"Not quite. A dragon doesn't need that long. In fact, he could be born in a matter of days, even weeks. Your body determines how fast he grows. The process is accelerated because if it goes on too long, the heat inside your body might end up accidentally consuming you. So that's something we can control, and even properly determine an optimal time for you to deliver," Gurney said, his voice immediately switching into the calm, measured words of Dr Keller.
Brandon nodded, then laughed, shaking his head. "That makes a lot of sense, because I was about to mention that I feel like I've got a pretty damn noticeable baby bump already... and it's not like I'm in my second trimester or anything."
"Trimesters aren't something applicable to dragons," Gurney pointed out.
"Yeah, I get what you mean. So... I don't know. I can't go on like this, though! I'm a man with a baby bump inside me, Gurney. With a swollen belly. Not a beer belly, but a baby bump. Do you know how ridiculous I'd look to everyone else?" Brandon said, exasperated.
Gurney positioned himself so he was sitting right in front of his omega, his eyes darting down to the baby bump. He reached out with his hands, holding the bump, feeling the tense skin of Brandon's belly, full now with the womb that had emerged magically inside him.
"You don't look ridiculous in the least," Gurney said authoritatively, holding Brandon by his chin so he couldn't look away. "You look incredibly beautiful. Nobody could possibly think anything other than that, knowing that you're so wonderful. Knowing that you're carrying a dragon inside you."
"Guess we're going to have to figure out names real soon, if this pregnancy really is going to be moving as fast as you're saying," Brandon said sarcastically, shrugging. "It's still a lot to accept, my love. I want the baby. I really do. But you know that I've got to think this through."
"You've had a few days to think it through so far," Gurney tested. "What do your instincts tell you? Not just your human instincts, afraid of being ostracized from a world that wouldn't understand you; your dragon instincts. The ones given to you by your child, by the seed inside you."
"My instincts tell me I should keep the baby. That I'm happiest with you, that I would be a great dad, that you'd be a great dad, and that I should pursue happiness," Brandon confessed.
Gurney tilted close towards his omega, hugging him tight. The feeling of the young man's belly against Gurney's body filled him with so much joy. The future he had in mind with Brandon and with their child -- or maybe even children -- was one he wanted so greatly.
Yet it was still Brandon's choice to make. That was what truly mattered.
"Your fear comes from you not wanting to be saddled down with a child for the rest of your life," Gurney suggested. "That's entirely normal, my love. A surprise pregnancy makes everyone feel this way. Not just shifters, too."
"Ugh, I guess you're right," Brandon said with a small, wan smile.
"I can't imagine a life in which I don't get to spend it with you. I want to be with you, Brandon. I want to be your alpha... I want to get married to you. And I want to raise our child together. This is why it's important for you to search your own feelings, for you to decide what will be best for you, for me, and for our child. These are early days, it's true, but it's not as early as you'd think," Gurney said.
Brandon closed his eyes as he contemplated all his fears. "I'm so young, though."
"Which means you'll still have your whole future ahead of you. Nothing will be taken away, nothing will be deprived at all. I've already made more money than I'll ever need. We're financially secure. If you'd like to go to work now or in the future, you can. You know this, because you already are."
"Starting to hurt my back though," Brandon joked. "Carrying a powerful dragon spawn inside me while I'm moving inventory at work."
"After the birth things'll go back to normal for you," Gurney offered.
"I want to be with you," Brandon said. "And I'm convinced you're right. The best possible future is one where we keep the baby. I'm so happy to be pregnant, you have no idea. And I'm so sorry I keep complaining about the smallest things, my alpha. You understand what I'm going through. Thank you."
Gurney smiled, looking straight into Brandon's eyes. "I love you," he murmured, instantly feeling lighter as he expressed the truth of his feelings for the young man.
"I was hoping you did," Brandon said, immediately blinking back tears. He held Gurney's hands, bringing them down to the omega's baby bump, both waiting patiently in search of a heartbeat, a kick, anything to indicate that the baby inside was just as happy as they both were. "I love you, too, Gurney. I love you so very fucking much."
And with that, Gurney felt an eruption of fireworks in the form of pure, exquisite joy inside Brandon's belly, the multi-colored elation coming from the baby inside his omega. They were going to be a family.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Brandon
Zara visited him every day when he was alone at Gurney's apartment, a new friendship ritual taking place as she brought increasingly bizarre orders of Chinese takeout from Brandon's favorite restaurant.
"You're having the squid this time," Zara said, scrunching up her nose in disapproval. "Can't you just have something normal? Here, have some of my General Tso's chicken."
She pointed the takeout box in his face, but Brandon was not game. This had been the latest of the strange ways the pregnancy had manifested for him, imbuing him with cravings that for some reason centered purely on Chinese food.
"Maybe you're a Chinese dragon," Zara suggested. "I mean, dragons figure pretty heavily in their mythology. Can't hurt, right?"
"Gurney is Welsh," Brandon said, laughing. His friend had been a very welcome presence in his life, filling up the time in which Gurney went to work. He was always at work, though, and it made Brandon a little sad knowing that they only had a few hours together each day, unless Brandon chose not to go to work.
"They've probably got really bomb as fuck Chinese food back in Gurney's little village near Cardiff or something," Zara shrugged. "Maybe the day will come when you get to visit the ancestral homeland."
"Travel's really not something I've ever thought much about," Brandon confessed. "And with Gurney working so hard, even now that he's going to be a father in just a few days... it's weird, I feel like he should be taking it easier. Instead I hear he's been literally pouring his heart and soul into his work. One of his doctor friends even confided in me saying she's worried he might be way overworked."
"Sounds like he's trying to channel something out."
Brandon nodded. "God, I hope he's not having second thoughts about the baby. I made the decision to keep it, and I made the decision that we should be a family together. It's what he wants. But if that's the case, why does he have to be so... I don't know. Hard on himself?"
"Some alpha dominant guys always feel like instead of coping or confessing they're feeling vulnerable, they go hard as fuck into whatever it is they're passionate about," Zara said. "I remember when I was about to get married to this guy, James, and he was like a big-time BDSM dominant... really serious about his shit, man. Anyway, he kinda worked himself into a breakdown because he was feeling nervous about getting married. Maybe this is a very similar case."
"Well, we are getting married," Brandon said. "I'm not too crazy about a shotgun marriage, so I think the nicest thing would be for our wedding to be sometime a few years from now, like with our son there and present and able to watch his dads commit to each other in love and matrimony. Maybe when he's five or something."
"That's really sweet," Zara nodded. She
raised an eyebrow immediately after, though, adding, "Son? You haven't even done an ultrasound yet, I thought. How do you know it's gonna be a son?"
"Huh," Brandon realized, knowing that he hadn't just said 'he' out of force of habit or a default assumption that his child would be male. It was something else, a feeling. "That's right, Gurney's supposed to head home soon and pick me up for a visit with the sonographer. Had to get one who had a machine that could do exotic shifters. And I guess I'm just guessing here. Might not be a son."
"Could be a daughter. A badass female dragonling," Zara said, nodding enthusiastically at the idea. "If it's a girl, I want to be godmother."
"Pretty sure you're going to be godmother regardless of the gender," Brandon pointed out.
Zara helped Brandon up, her eyes widening in awe as she realized just how visibly pregnant Brandon was now. His clothes reflected his new maternal state, wearing a loose grey t-shirt and shorts, a scarf to keep him warm.
Despite the size of his baby bump, Brandon felt small -- it was like his height and bearish size was now discounted in the presence of his very large belly, making him seem like stout and squat instead of tall and built.
But I feel great, and I feel like I'm looking even greater, Brandon thought. He was cherishing every moment of being pregnant, almost hoping it could last longer. Just having a child inside of him filled him with so much happiness that he was surprised now that he had ever been reluctant about carrying the baby to term.
He and Zara finished their meals and were washing up when Gurney came home, cutting a dashing figure in his dark grey suit. It had been a meeting sort of night rather than a surgery one, he explained before heading to work. He came home, looking glad to see that Gurney wasn't alone.
"Hey, Zara," he said.
"Dr Keller," came Zara's response. "Hey, I'm just imposing, I know, but... you're taking Brandon to the ultrasound, right? Do you think I can come?"
Gurney shot Brandon a look, wanting to know how he felt. Brandon smiled and nodded, shrugging as he spoke. "Zara's going to be our little boy's godmother, might as well acquaint her with him from the very beginning."
The dragon laughed. "Our little boy? Is this your instinct, or just wishful thinking?"
"I'm fairly confident, yes," Brandon said.
"Well, we're about to find out."
They packed into Brandon's Land Rover, one of his many cars -- Brandon had been poking around in the garage and was surprised to find a heavily-modified street racing car in the garage, wondering why a doctor would need such a hotrod -- and drove to the hospital, Zara sitting in the back while Brandon sat passenger right by his alpha.
"I love you," Gurney whispered to his omega as they drove, always open to telling him how much he mattered to him. It made Brandon feel so loved, knowing he was taken care by a dominant, alpha male dragon who was not in the slightest afraid of his feelings.
Most human males found that sort of thing a weakness, intimidated by the possibility that they might be powerless under the spell of love. But in Gurney's case, he thrived. Brandon noticed that the longer they were together, the more they seemed to build and build upon their relationship together.
Jessica, Gurney's colleague who was making waves in the world of medicine as the first human specializing in shifters, greeted them at the hospital reception area. "Nancy's ready for Brandon in room 121. I'll be joining you too, this is a great moment for me as a doctor."
"I haven't told Brandon yet," Gurney added, causing Brandon to twist his head sharply to look curiously at the dragon.
"Told me what?"
"Well... this being a historic moment for the hospital, I thought I'd offer Dr Herrera a chance to be the one who delivers our child," Gurney said, beaming.
"Oh," Brandon said.
"You don't look pleased!" Jessica said, laughing embarrassedly as she noticed the way his face went blank.
"It's just that... I always thought you would do it," Brandon said, looking towards his alpha.
Gurney cleared the tension in the air by laughing, squeezing Brandon's shoulders as he spoke. "I would hardly be the most appropriate or impartial doctor, my love. You'll be in Dr Herrera's amazing hands. You know, the same day I met you, I actually helped supervise Jessica in the operating room when she helped deliver another child born of male pregnancy."
"Oh, that's good then," Brandon said emptily, still racking his head to see if he felt alright about having a stranger -- well, not so much a stranger, but a friend of his alpha who he had not had much of a chance to get to know yet -- be the one to hold his baby first.
"Let me be the first one to reassure you that not only did Jessica do a great job, she was so good that my presence in the room was absolutely unneeded. There was nothing I couldn't have possibly done better," Gurney said, happily praising his friend as they entered the ultrasound room.
Jessica and Nancy, the sonographer, had a conversation together while Brandon stared down at the ultrasound machine. Gurney was close by, and so was Zara, meaning his little world was complete.
"I'd really like you to be there all the same," Brandon said, looking down at his baby bump. Nancy started fiddling with the ultrasound gel, waiting for Brandon to get ready.
The omega got seated where he was supposed to, reaching with his hands out to both Gurney and Zara, each flanking him on opposing sides. Jessica helped lift his shirt to expose his baby bump, taut and healthy, so Nancy could begin.
By the time the hum of the machine dominated the room above the friendly chatter of all the people in the room, Brandon felt a lot more at ease, relaxing as Nancy pressed the ultrasound against the belly... providing an image on the screen.
Brandon began crying as soon as he could see the formation of a shape inside him. He didn't need Nancy to say where the baby was, his mind could make out the monochrome pattern on the screen that shifted as the transducer moved. "Oh my God, he's beautiful."
"He?" Nancy laughed, moving the transducer until it gave a clear image of the two growing legs inside him, and the space in between. "Brandon, let me be the first to congratulate you -- you're having a girl!"
Gurney threw his hands in the air, yelling in delight. "A girl!"
Brandon was confused. He had been so sure it was going to be a boy! He stared at the screen, watching the baby inside him move ever so gracefully, and then blinked back tears as he looked to Zara, and then Gurney.
"A girl, I'm having a girl," Brandon said. "We're going to have a beautiful baby girl, my love."
"I've never been happier," Gurney replied, hugging his omega. They watched Nancy turn to the machine, tapping at the keyboard until it began printing images from the ultrasound scan.
"These are for you two," the sonographer said, grinning as she handed them copies of the clearest image from the scan. Seeing it in black and white like this, Brandon was struck by how real their daughter was inside him, how the belly bump and the cravings and the strange mood swings could have all been a fantasy for all he knew... but this printout made it look so real.
"Let's start talking due dates," Jessica said. "Nancy, you've never worked on Chosen shifter fetuses before, have you?"
"First one," the sonographer quickly confessed.
"Gurney and I met earlier tonight to discuss how many days we'd give before the operation. A C-section, in this case, of course... I don't think we've got the resources or the know-how to successfully deliver a soft birth here. Are we in agreement, Dr Keller?"
The dragon nodded, speaking on both his and Brandon's behalf as he took over now. "The way I see it, it's really just a matter of making Brandon as comfortable as he needs to be to have everything in motion. We're on the verge of being ready to operate. Dr Herrera recommended Monday, but Brandon, if you'd prefer to carry our daughter for a day or two longer, we can probably wait until Wednesday without any complications."
