“Now, keep in mind that you are still very early in your pregnancy. This may not show enough for us to determine if there is more than one baby. Then again, it has happened. Let’s just see what we see, and we’ll go from there,” the doctor said from where she stood watching
At first, everything just looked blurry and swirly, like some sort of abstract art in black and white. Then it began to clear as the tech centered in on what she wanted to see. There they were, two clear little beans side by side. Two, but not three.
“Thank goodness, we might just survive this, after all.”
The doctor laughed a little as the tech made markings on the screen with what looked like some sort of laser pointer and printed out different copies. She handed one to Liam, who looked down at it lovingly. He could see his two little beans, and he was already in love with them.
It was a thought that made Dawn proud as she watched him, reading his thoughts and experiencing the joy in his heart. As for her, she was excited and happy, but she was also scared. They had planned on waiting a while. If this is the way it was going to be, then this is the way it was going to be.
They left the doctor’s office chattering away about what they needed to do to get ready for the babies. All thoughts of the past were out of their minds as the future came looming heavily toward them. Dawn knew that she would not be this calm once she had thought it all through or once she’d had a chance for it all to sink in. For now, all she felt was elation, though.
By the time Saturday rolled around, she was so excited to tell her mom that she could just pop, but she had decided to wait. The group of women that had been invited were all thrilled to be helping her. Dawn tried on dresses that she knew wouldn’t fit as well in three months, finally selecting one with a full A-line skirt that would hide her growing bump when the time came.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I thought you wanted one of the mermaid style dresses?” her mom asked.
“I did, but I changed my mind. I don’t think it will suit my shape.”
“What are you talking about? You have the most perfect figure eight shape. Most women would sell their souls for your body.”
“Yeah, but it won’t be like this at the wedding. A dress like that won’t fit it.”
“What are you talking about? Is Liam forcing you to eat as much pizza as he does?” Liam’s mom asked.
“No,” Dawn laughed, turning toward them and smiling.
“She’s pregnant,” Penelope said quietly, as if marveling at such a fact.
“Yes, and I will be a bit rounder by the wedding,” Dawn told them.
“Oh, my God!” her mother squealed. “A grandchild? How wonderful is that?”
“Pretty wonderful, but they are going to need both grandmothers to help.”
“They?” Mrs. Donnelly said aloud, as if trying words on for size.
“Yes, they. Twins.”
The women all squealed loudly, including the two sales clerks that were helping with the dress. Dawn turned toward them and smiled. “I’ll take this one.”
“Fantastic,” one of them replied, escorting her back to the fitting room to get back into her own clothes.
When Dawn returned, the women were all talking excitedly. They each hugged her enthusiastically when she returned.
“When are they due?” her Aunt Barb asked.
“Not for a while. I’m only about five weeks along right now, so we have a long while to go.”
“Well, I think this calls for a celebration then. Let’s go find a castle and celebrate as if we are all royalty.”
That is exactly what they did. An hour later, they were all settled into a meal at a nearby castle that had a lovely outdoor lunch venue. It was a beautiful spring day, and they enjoyed the crisp air that sang through the limbs of the trees that stood all around them as they looked across the partially decayed stone walls that marked the edge of the castle grounds.
Dawn tried to imagine what life must have been like in a place like this. She had seen glimpses of it from time to time when she had touched some of the oldest members of the village that had lived in times she could only dream of. Not all of it was good, but she still was mesmerized by it. If she had lived back then, she wondered if she and Liam would have been a prince and a princess, or mere servants. Then she put that dream aside, knowing it had no place in the life of a woman who was about to have children of her own.
“What will you name the babies?” Penelope was asking.
“I don’t know. We haven’t really talked about that just yet. We don’t even know their sexes. We still have a lot to sort out before we even get that far with things.”
“I suppose so. I just don’t know that I could be more excited for you,” Penelope added.
“Next week, we’ll have to make an appointment to go try cakes for the reception,” Liam’s mother said.
“Liam will want to come for that,” Dawn laughed.
“Of course he will. I’m glad you are the one feeding him now. I don’t know where he even puts so much food,” his mother laughed.
“Me either. He never gains an ounce. I can see now that we’re going to look like Laurel and Hardy when I get bigger. He’s going to stay just as skinny, while I get as round as a beach ball.”
“You’ll be the most beautiful beach ball in Ireland,” her Aunt Barb replied.
“I don’t know about all that. As long as the babies are healthy, I won’t care if I look like that marshmallow man from Ghostbusters.”
They all had a good laughed and finished their meals before heading back to the car to return home. It was one of the best days Dawn had experienced for a while, and she was glad that she had allowed them to talk her into it.
When she arrived back home, she discovered that even more surprises awaited her. Liam had made a slew of appointments for them for Sunday to go look at houses.
“You don’t waste any time, do you?” she laughed.
“Well, I figure that you will not want to be house hunting when you are many months along, and we’ll want to get settled in before then, too.”
“I guess we are house hunting tomorrow then,” she laughed.
“I think we were so busy working on the business that we just pushed everything else to the side. It’s time to get serious about the rest of it. Did you find a dress today?”
“I did, and Mom is going to make us an appointment for next weekend to go taste cakes.”
“Taste cakes? What for?”
“We have to select what flavor we want for the wedding cake and also for your groom’s cake.”
“Sounds plausible. I can’t complain about going somewhere to eat cake for a while.”
“I didn’t think you would,” she laughed.
“I don’t know about you, but I could use a nap,” he told her.
“I’m right there with you,” she replied.
“A nap it is then,” he told her, pulling her up and toward the bedroom.
“Why do I have the feeling you have ulterior motives?” he asked.
“Because you can read my mind and know exactly what I’m thinking.
“Yes, I can, and it’s not very nice at all. It’s very, very naughty.”
“Are you complaining?”
“Me? No way!” she laughed, allowing herself to be pulled inside their bedroom.
Liam made love to her so tenderly she thought she was going to cry. His lips trailed down her skin, now so sensitive that she could hardly handle his touch against it. She moaned as he went down on her, lapping at her already soaked folds until she was moaning his name over and over again.
“Fuck me, Liam,” she begged, desperate to have him inside of her.
She had already noticed a surge in her hormones. She had always wanted Liam, needed him, but now she craved him in a way that she couldn’t fathom. It was as if she couldn’t get him inside of her quickly enough, her body impatient with his soft caresses and wanting him to stop tormenting her.
/> “Patience,” he said.
“I have none,” she replied, tugging at his shoulders to pull him upward, positioning him on top of her. Liam smiled down at her as she bit her lip and looked into his eye, repeating her earlier plea. “Fuck me, Liam. Fuck me until I scream.”
“I think I like this pregnancy thing. I may just have to keep you knocked up all the time,” he laughed, forcing his way inside her dripping pussy. He drove into her slowly, but deeply, rolling his hips to hit all the spots that he knew drove her wild as she clawed at his back and bit into his shoulder.
She felt like a wild animal, unable to get enough as she enjoyed every inch of him again and again. Their bodies forming a perfect part of moveable parts that interlocked in all the best ways. It felt like music that only they could hear as the rhythm reached a climatic ending that left them both sated and breathless.
Liam rolled to one side and then lay his hand on her belly, touching it softly as he kissed her cheek and curled up against her. This was perfection. They had already come so far and overcome so much. They had saved each other at different times, and now there was nothing left for them to do but just be happy, raising their children together until they were old and gray and had grandchildren of their own. Dawn smiled into the darkness. Perhaps she and Liam had died on those rocks, and this was their heaven.
CHAPTER 26
Three months later, Liam Donnelly and Dawn McCord walked down the aisle together in front of the entire village of their clan members. It felt like the most wonderful day of her lives so far as they stood before the minister and recited their vows in front of people that loved and cared for them.
It felt like a dream as they shared their first kiss as man and wife and then made an exit from the large pavilion as everyone tossed bird seeds over their heads. They climbed into a limo decorated with streamers and cans with tons of shoe polished words indicating that they were just married.
Heading to the airport in Dublin, they climbed aboard a flight that was bound for St. Lucia where they would spend a week on their honeymoon. Dawn still couldn’t believe all of this was happening. It was as if she was lost in a dream that she never wanted to wake up from.
“Are you happy?” Liam asked as they strolled along the water outside their bungalow.
“Are you kidding? I’ve never been happier,” she replied. “I have everything any woman could ever hope for.”
“I just don’t want you to ever be unhappy. You mean everything to me, and I can’t wait to share the rest of our lives together.”
“Aren’t we already well on our way with that?” she asked.
“Almost. Just one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
“The house we looked at on that Sunday after you went dress shopping? Remember it?”
“Which one? We saw several.”
“The one that is done in an American colonial style just outside the village.”
Dawn smiled. She remembered it well. They had both fallen in love with it, but it was seriously overpriced and need some refurbishments even beyond that.
“I remember that they want way too much for it.”
“Correction. They wanted too much for it.”
“Oh? What changed.”
“Divorce, apparently. He left with some woman from his office, and she doesn’t want to be there anymore.”
“That’s sad,” Dawn replied.
“It is, but it is also our good luck. She also wants it off her hands as soon as possible. She is willing to meet our price if we can close within the month.”
“I don’t know. It’s a beautiful house, and I really love it, but do we want to move into a place with that kind of bad karma under its belt?”
“It’s not our bad karma. It’s just a house. We will make so many wonderful new memories that the house will be as happy as we are.”
“I do love that house.”
“Then, we want it?”
“Yes, we want it.”
Liam pulled her to him and kissed her on the forehead.
“You are the most beautiful woman on the planet. I’m never going to let you down. I promise you that.”
“I know you won’t, Liam. You never have.”
“Yes, I did once. On those cliffs. I wasn’t able to protect you. Instead, I ended up on that rock, broken and bloody while you had to save both of us. Then, I wasn’t there when you had to face the people who wanted to punish you for it. I left you alone to fend for yourself.”
“You were hurt, Liam. You didn’t run. You fought, but he just hit you too hard, too fast. There was nothing you could have done any differently. You’re a dragon, not an alley cat. Your body doesn’t move like a ninja in the dark when you are that size. What else could you have done?”
“I don’t know. I just keep playing it over and over in my head. I keep wondering what I could have done differently. It plagues me. I hate that you are stuck with knowing you had to kill another dragon. It is not in your nature to kill. You are a healer, full of compassion, and I know it pains you.”
“It does, Liam, but you know what would have pained me more? Having you die on that rock because I couldn’t do anything to change it. You are the center of my universe, and you always will be. Do you remember laying there together?”
“All too vividly. I was terrified,” he replied.
“We both were.”
“I wasn’t afraid I was going to die. I could have accepted that, but I was afraid that you were going to die instead. If he had killed both of us, I could have spent an eternity roaming the heavens with you, but if I had died without you, I knew I would spend centuries waiting for you to join me. If you allowed yourself to be drained to give me a chance at life, I would have spent the same here on Earth, waiting to join you in the heavens.”
“We were lucky. Kergot telling us about that bottle saved us. What are the odds?”
“I don’t know. I think that sometimes we have some intervention from above that helps us with whatever life throws our way.”
“Perhaps. You could be right. The odds of having the bottle even after shifting and losing the pants it was in have to be crazy ridiculous.”
“I guess we will know someday, but hopefully not for a very long time. You and I still have a lot to share in this life and the life of those little beans you are carrying around.”
“I think they are a bit bigger than beans by now. They are approaching halfway done here soon.”
“Do you think we’ll be good parents?” he asked.
“I think we will be incredible parents,” she told him, stopping to look out at the way the moon created shimmers of light against the rippling tide. “How could we not be when I can know their every thought, their every pain? It’s truly a gift what I have. It took me a while to realize that. It felt like such a burden for so long.”
“Will it still be a gift if these children share your abilities? You’ll never be able to bluff a single thing with them. Neither of us will.”
Dawn turned back toward him, wide-eyed. She had never considered that possibility. What if they were like her? They say you reap what you sow. She would quickly learn what her parents had gone through all those years of dealing with her.
“You shut your mouth!” she chided.
“Best be prepared. It could happen.”
“Jesus. I’ve never even thought about that, but you are right. They will still be part human, and who knows what they will be capable of. Don’t one of the Higgins brothers have children that can shift into multiple creatures?”
“Yes, but I think their mom is part tiger shifter.”
“Right. I think you are correct. Wow. I just realized that our village has gotten crazy with all these variations. Can you imagine what our ancestors would have thought? All those laws they made to keep the bloodlines pure for dragon shifters, and now we have all sorts of anomalies floating around.”
“Be careful how you use that word, my little anomaly princess.”
&nbs
p; “Now I’m a princess? I thought I was a turd.”
“Well, you know, I can’t go around calling the mother of my children a turd all the time,” he laughed, pulling her close to him as they turned and walked back the way they had come to go to their bungalow.
CHAPTER 27
It was no wonder that Dawn Donnelly gave birth to a set of twins on a cool fall day during what might have been the worst storm of the year. What was curious was that no one was prepared for what happened during those final moments of her pregnancy.
“Okay, Dawn. We’ve got one baby, and we’re gonna need to get another one before we’re done,” the doctor told her.
It was rare to have twins naturally in a lot of places these days. Most doctors liked to keep the stress on both babies and the mother low, but in Dawn’s case, she wanted to keep it as natural as possible, and she was well suited to manage a natural delivery rather than starting off at a deficit with two new babies and a C-section that would limit her mobility.
“Okay, push for me,” the doctor told her.
Dawn panted, keeping her breath as even as possible as the delivery took place. Liam held her hand, though he probably regretted it based on the way she was about to squeeze his into each time a labor pain hit.
“That’s good. That’s good. Just one more, and we should be good,” the doctor was saying.
Dawn took several short breaths before a longer one, then pushed. She felt relieved as the second baby presented itself and the doctor cut its cord, but her relief was short lived as another pain nearly doubled her over.
“Something’s wrong,” she said. “Something’s wrong.”
The doctor handed the baby off to one of the pediatricians on call for the birth and began examining her again. Dawn felt frightened. What if something horrible was wrong? What if she died here on the table and left two motherless babies to be raised by a single father? How would Liam cope with that?
“Okay, Dawn. Just stay calm. Your monitor is going crazy because your heart rate is up, but it’s not because something is wrong. It is because you are panicking. I need you to calm down for me while I see what is going on.”
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