Fire & Ice

by Alice Brown

  “I’m fine, Adrian! I’m glad to see you and your brother are back, though.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight, as if she never wanted to let go. That was when their father decided to interrupt their homecoming, speaking to both of his sons telepathically.

  'Congratulations, my sons! Soon to be fathers! You two do need to know that last night she had some horrible nightmares about you leaving her, and her being exiled off this land. I think a lot of her nightmares came from the fact she found out her friend, Angel, is fully mated, and she is worried, because you have not mated with her. She is afraid you are just stringing her along.'

  Both brothers took a close look at their mate’s face, and although she was trying to put on a show that all was well and full of smiles, the dark circles under her eyes and the worry lines in her forehead told a different story.

  Aiden grabbed hold of Evangelina’s hand and pulled her over to him. “Mate, did you not sleep well last night by chance?” He ran a thumb under her eyes across the dark half-moon discoloration.

  Once again, she tried blowing it off. “It’s nothing, Aiden. How was your training? Did everything go okay?”

  Aiden opened up the link to his brother. 'Let us take this up to our room. Our mate is soon to find out that when we ask her a question, we want the entire truth. She is also going to realize once and for all what she means to us. She is already carrying our baby. We need to go ahead and mate her and show her, and the rest of Dragonose, that she is our mate. The Princess of Dragonose.’

  Fadri cut in before Adrian had a chance to respond. 'You don’t listen too well. I told you she was carrying our younglings. As in plural, numbskull.'

  'Oh…oh!' Aiden groaned silently to his brother as the full impact hit him.

  'She is carrying twins?' he now verified with Fadri.

  Fadri stood proud and tall; his chest puffed out in pride. 'Yes, she is. And it gets better, boys…she is carrying twin females.'

  'Twin…females?' Neither brother was sure who asked for verification; they were both in shock over the news their dragon had just delivered. They both looked down at their mate simultaneously, and went into immediate action.

  Aiden reached for her first and had her swung up in his arms before she had any time to protest. Adrian reached over and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, then gently ran his fingertips across her cheeks, as he gazed down at her adoringly.

  It took until they reached the door for Evangelina to find her tongue. “Aiden, put me down, I can walk!” she exclaimed, frustrated when he seemed to be ignoring her as they walked out of the office and headed down the hallway. “Where are we going?” she tried again to figure out what they were up to.

  Adrian was the one to respond to her. He reached over and grasped her hand lightly. “We are going up to our room for privacy.”

  Evangelina couldn’t help the sudden knot that developed low in her stomach, nor the wetness that escaped from her channel. She glanced up to see both men’s eyes smoldering.

  Adrian reached around his brother, and their mate, to open the door for them when they reached their room. Entering last, he kicked the door shut and followed them over to the bed. He watched as his brother lay their mate ever so gently on the end of the bed.

  Aiden stepped back after placing Evangelina on the bed and placed his hands on his hips. “Now, are you going to tell us what we want to know, or am I going to turn you over my knee and spank that gorgeous bottom of yours until it is red?”

  Fadri was up and pulling on his chain with all of his might. 'Aiden Barrymire, you will do no such thing as to hit our mate, especially not in her delicate condition! You should be ashamed of yourself! She should be put on bed rest with her feet elevated and pampered throughout this pregnancy! What in the hell has gotten into you? The dragon was just short of blowing fire out of his nostrils by the time he finished.

  Adrian witnessed the whole thing and tried to calm their dragon down. 'Fadri, Aiden would never hurt Evangelina! He just wants her to know she can’t keep the truth from us.'

  Evangelina watched with fascination as the two men’s bodies seemed to be pulled together by an unseen force, and then one second they were standing beside the bed talking with her, the next she was staring at their dragon, Fadri.

  “Sweet mate, please do not get upset over what these two numbskulls try to tell you. I’ll protect you, even from them if I have to.” That was as far as he got before he winced and two very naked men were standing before her again. They were breathing hard as if they had just run a great distance.

  Before either man could catch their breath, she heard Adrian state, “Oh, shit, not again!” and once again watched the brother’s bodies come together and Fadri reappeared in front of her.

  “I am sorry about that, love. These men are acting like cavemen today. Now, I want you to rest. You are not to worry about a thing. I’ll bring you whatever you need. You just take care of yourself in your delicate condition.”

  Something about his last words made her stop and think. Delicate condition? What is he talking about?

  “Fadri, I’m not sure I’m following you. What do you mean...” That was as far as she got when Fadri suddenly disappeared and both naked men appeared in front of her again, breathing hard as if they were doing manual labor.

  The transformation from man to beast, back to man again continued for the next ten minutes. Finally, a sharp knock sounded at the bedroom door, with King Thoran himself walking in and assessing the situation.

  Evangelina looked from the spot she wasn’t really sure if man or beast would appear from one moment to another and then up to the king. “Can you help?”

  “Fadri, calm yourself. Now!” Although the king spoke in a stern voice, he never raised it. The dragon turned and looked at the king, as if just now realizing he was in the room.

  “Your Majesty,” Fadri bowed deeply before the king. “It is my duty to protect her from one and all. She is in a delicate state and must not be placed under any stress what-so-ever until the younglings are born. Surely you can see I am merely trying to protect my mate?”

  “Wait a minute! Younglings? What are you talking about, Fadri?” Talk about falling down the proverbial rabbit hole. They had her so confused she didn’t even know which way was up at the moment.

  Fadri turned and looked at his mate with love and happiness showing in his eyes. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about a thing, love. I’ll take care of everything. Now, you climb into bed, or would you like me to go warm up some bath water for you? You could take a bath and then climb into bed,” he offered with a grin on his face.

  Evangelina held her hand up. “No, I am not going anywhere until you explain things to me!”

  “Mate, please, it does you no good to get this upset. Please, I beg you, calm yourself and I will explain everything.”

  Evangelina huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Fadri leered down at her breasts, which were pushed upwards by the movement. He could not wait until they grew due to the wee ones nestled safely in her womb.

  “Fadri, I am waiting,” she warned.

  “Okay, okay,” Fadri started. “So, you know the other day when you and Aiden made love and then you made love to Adrian…” he started.

  Evangelina held out her hand to stop him. Sighing deeply, she prayed for patience. “I don’t think King Thoran wants to hear about his sons’ sex life. Can you just skip over that part?”

  “I have a better suggestion,” King Thoran stated as all eyes fell on him. “Fadri, I want you to let the boys take back charge, go back inside where you need to be, and not give them such a hard time.”

  When Fadri went to argue, the king held his hand up. “I assure you they are not going to hurt her. But it is their job to break the news to her. Now, release them!”

  A second or two later both men appeared before her, naked and very aroused.

  “Boys, you have some explaining to do, and unless you plan on trying to fight
your dragon again, I suggest you find another way of showing her the important stuff other than how you started off with.”

  King Thoran turned on his heel and walked out of the room, leaving Evangelina staring at her two very aroused and naked men. She raised her hands to take them both in hand, but they stopped her.

  “Baby, there are a few things we need to talk about and explain before this goes any further,” this coming from Adrian.

  “What was Fadri so upset about? And why was he trying to order me to bed?”

  Both men dropped to their knees in front of her, each holding a hand in their larger ones. “Because you are pregnant. You are pregnant with twin girls,” Aiden replied.

  “Pregnant? No, there is no way. I mean, we just had sex, like what—forty-eight hours ago? There is no way he would know if I was pregnant,” she fumed.

  “Love, you are forgetting our dragons have enhanced senses. Plus, Fadri has healing elements, so he can tell immediately if something isn’t right. He probably smelled the change in you.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Evangelina stared at the two men as if they had each grown an extra head. “You’re serious? I’m really pregnant? With twins?” She couldn’t quite wrap her head around it all.

  “Yes, love. You are really pregnant with twin girls.” Adrian couldn’t help the smile that was spread across his face.

  “Do you know how important this is?” This came from Aiden, who also was grinning from ear to ear and looked like a little boy on Christmas morning.

  Evangelina shook her head. Just her luck she gets knocked up by two men. On top of that, she wasn’t even sure which one was the father, nor did she know exactly where she stood with these two men. After all, she had just learned yesterday from Angel that when a dragon shifter finds their mate, they mate mark them, in which a small replica of the dragon appears on the mate’s skin, usually the shoulder area. Her men had told her she was their mate, had told her that they loved her, but they had not marked her. She just couldn’t help but let her old fears come roaring back to life. She was deathly afraid they didn’t love her, let alone want her. They were royalty for crying out loud! Suddenly a hand waving in her face got her attention.

  “Baby, baby, Evangelina!” Aiden called, trying to gain her attention.

  She drew in a deep breath as she leveled a glare over to Aiden. “Don’t baby me, neither one of you. So now you’ve got me knocked up, congratulations. I guess you have plans just to keep me locked up tight inside the castle carrying your children, while you two go out and do whatever the hell you want.”

  Both men stared at her for a moment in disbelief. Did she not get it? Did she not understand what she meant to them? Did she not realize what carrying, not one, but two female younglings in her womb meant for their race?

  “Mate, I am trying to rein in my temper and give you some leniency, but I believe you owe us an explanation as to your outburst. Since when have we ever acted like you were not the one and only woman for us?”

  Evangelina’s temper was at a boiling point. Give her some leniency, her ass! “Aiden Barrymire, you can just continue reining in your temper! You tell me you want me as a mate, promise I’m all you and your brother ever want, get me knocked up, yet fail to mate mark me. I do believe it is you who owes me the explanation, mate!” she spat at him.

  Both men climbed up on the bed, on either side of her, bringing her down with them as they stretched out on the bed. “I don’t want to lay down! Let me up, you two Neanderthals!”

  Adrian climbed on top of her, gently using his body weight to hold her down, while being careful that he did not apply any pressure to her stomach. “We want to explain to you why we made the decision to wait,” he told her as he pinned her hands up above her head with one of his.

  Much to her embarrassment, Evangelina felt tears rush forward, sliding down the corners of her eyes and cheeks. Aiden reached up and caught several on his thumb. “Baby, please don’t cry. Please just give us a chance to explain.”

  She couldn’t help it. Tears came so hard she lost sight of her men. She barely realized that Adrian was no longer on top of her holding her down but was now on her side, being cuddled into Aiden’s arms. Adrian was nestled in close behind her, massaging tiny circles in her back and whispering words of endearment in her ear.

  “Baby, please don’t cry. God, darling, you are tearing a hole in my chest. I hate seeing you upset like this. Please, baby, just give us a chance to explain. I promise we will spend the rest of our lives trying to make you smile every day. We don’t ever want to see you like this. Aww, come on, baby, please? Shh, everything is going to be okay, I promise.”

  Her tears finally started to ease up, until she was just wracked with the occasional sob. Both men kissed her face, telling her how much she meant to them, how much they loved her. Then why had they not mate marked her? Was she not good enough? What was wrong with her?

  Still feeling sad, she allowed both men to wrap their bodies around hers. Their warmth felt good. If she couldn’t have them forever, she’d take what she could get for the time being. At least until she figured out what she was going to do.

  Adrian started the conversation from behind her, “Baby, we love you. We love you more than either of us knew was possible.”

  “But obviously I’m not good enough to be mate marked,” she whispered sadly into Aiden’s shoulder.

  She felt a pair of arms wrap around her even tighter as Adrian responded, “Not good enough? No, baby, you have it all wrong. Aiden and I decided not to mate mark you, because we knew we were leaving for a few days. We were afraid that once we allowed Fadri out enough to mark you, he would refuse to leave you, which would have resulted in a fight with him similar to the one you just witnessed.”

  “Baby, Adrian and I are planning on mate marking you, we had always planned on it. We just wanted to wait until after we got back from training so we can spend some time with you afterwards,” Aiden finished.

  She glanced up at each of the men’s faces with tear-stained, swollen eyes. She knew she must look a mess, especially after her crying jag, but she had to be sure. “So, you really want me as a mate? Or do you just want the females I am carrying?” Self-doubt was still plaguing her.

  Aiden flipped her over on her back. “Listen carefully, baby, because I know we have said this before, but I want you to get it this time. We. Want. You. We love the fact you are carrying our young, and are over the moon ecstatic that Fadri is telling us they are females, but, baby, we would love you just the same even if you weren’t able to bear us any young. You are it for us. You are our mate, and I promise you, Adrian and I will spend the rest of our lives proving our love to you.”

  He brought his face down and kissed the end of her nose. “Now, I think a little body worshiping is in order while Adrian explains what all is involved in the mate marking.” He reached down and had her shirt pulled over her head before she could complete a thought.

  Running his hand up her calf, he thanked his lucky stars she was wearing a long skirt today. Tugging down on the skirt, he had it off with very little effort, leaving her in her sexy bra and panties.

  Adrian moved her hair over to the side, running kisses up the side of her neck as his fingers found one of her nipples and started playing with it through the lace of her bra. “Now, baby, in order for the mate mark to take, we both have to be inside of you at the same time.” She suddenly felt her bra give way and looked down to see one of Adrian’s hands had turned to one of Fadri’s, complete with claws. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.” He grinned and shrugged as she watched the claws retract and turn back into fingers.

  Aiden was raining kisses across her stomach, and talking to the tiny life forms now growing inside of her as if they could hear him. He stopped and looked up at her. “What Adrian is trying to say is that we wanted to make sure you were ready to take both of us at the same time. And we would not do something like that, especially knowing it was your first time, only to turn
around and disappear the next morning.”

  “Oh,” she responded to his explanation. Now that they had explained things, it had made sense to wait until they returned.

  Aiden continued his trek on lower on her belly, and when he reached her panties, he released Fadri enough to be able to rip them to shreds. He grinned back up to her unrepentantly. “I will buy you some new ones.”

  “Brother, I have a better idea. How about we not buy her new undergarments, that way she’ll have to go without. Just think of how easy it will be to take her,” Adrian proposed as he watched his brother.

  Aiden separated her legs and grinned over to his brother. “I like your line of thinking, bro.”

  “Now, wait a minute!” Evangelina exclaimed. “I can’t go braless! These boobs are going to get even bigger than what they are now, and I’ll end up sagging to my knees.”

  “Hmm, brother, we may need to start walking around behind her to hold those luscious tits up for her while she is pregnant.” Adrian grinned down at her as he flicked a nipple with his finger.

  “Ha ha, very funny. I don’t think the king is going to like the excuse that you can’t do your job or train, because your mate is pregnant and you have to walk behind her to hold up her boobs!”

  “Trust me, that will not be an issue anyway, but we will talk about that a little later. Right now, I’m in the mood for a bit of Evangelina.” He ran his finger through her slit and then held it up for his brother to see. “I think all this talk has our mate horny, Adrian.”

  He then made a show of placing his finger in his mouth and sucking all of her juices off it. “Damn, brother, her taste has changed a bit. She is even sweeter than she was before.”

  “Sounds like Aiden has hit the jackpot, baby,” Adrian said as he ran his tongue up the side of her neck and nipped at her earlobe.

  Aiden grabbed Evangelina’s hand and brought it down to her slit. “Let Adrian taste your juices, baby. He is going to love it.” She watched as Aiden directed her finger through her slit, making sure it was covered in her juices, and then watched as he brought her finger up to Adrian’s mouth.