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Amethyst Storms (Primordial Protectors #1) 17. Chapter Sixteen 55%
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17. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Alex

Exhaling, I waited for my mate to bring the midwife to the bedroom while I mentally went over the checklist of questions that had kept me awake for a chunk of the night. It would have been far more difficult to keep still if our dragon hadn’t wrapped himself around me in my mind and kept up a steady stream of rumbling purrs until I’d settled, even if I’d barely napped. There were just so many things to prioritize and while I knew that realistically, we had months before I’d lay our clutch, I wanted to have a hand in every shred of the planning, particularly the space where our nest would be erected.

Our dragon had some clear ideas, too, that were right in line with mine and he’d clued me in about a very special and unused space adjacent to Ionus’s office that would allow my mate to handle all that he needed in order to keep things running as he did, and would give me the opportunity to not only be close to him but learn more about what he did and the full scope of his role among our people.

Our people , how odd it was to think those words.

That was imperative to me, though I could not pinpoint exactly why it had suddenly become so necessary. It was likely a mix of hormones and my need to have something to focus on while all the new information I’d been given swirled around in my head, coupled with the growing flashes of unease I’d picked up from everyone as Gramps and Emerson stitched together pieces of the past through the information they shared. Slumbering dragons were an unknown and unpredictable factor. There would be no way of knowing if they were friends or foe and I, well, I was worried that what had drawn me here in the first place would draw others if they happened to wander within range of what I’d sensed.

And still I had no words to describe it to my mate. The best I could liken it to was a sound, like a low hum, that squirmed through my belly and coiled around my spine, tugging until I’d followed it back to the source.

Only I didn’t know if it had been the presence of the stones, the presence of other dragons, or the presence of my mate that had been what called to me. I shared every thought with our dragon while I sat on the edge of the bed, occasionally squirming and wishing they’d hurry up.

Fortunately, I got my wish less than a minute later, when Ionus entered with a striking woman with long, swirling skirts and brilliant white streaks woven through her red braid. The bright smile that made her eyes sparkle instantly put me at ease, as did the air surrounding her, an equal mix of tender compassion and unflappable confidence. I’d always followed my instincts, they’d saved me on more than one treacherous climb, and right now they screamed that she was a safe person to be utterly and completely honest with. Which would mean revealing a few things that even Ionus didn’t know yet.

He’d need to. I owed him and our growing family to give every shred of information about my past history with my heats, so she’d know if there were any concerns we’d need to watch out for as the eggs continued to grow inside of me.

“I’m Sarah, your midwife,” she said as she approached the bed. “And you must be Alex. Congratulations on your new development. I understand that you have questions you’d like to ask and a few concerns regarding your overall health.”

“So many questions,” I said as she settled into the chair Ionus had pulled up beside the bed so we could talk. I’m glad that we were doing it here, in a space I’d already grown completely comfortable in.

“Then let’s start with the first and work from there,” she said. “Don’t feel like you have to limit yourself, either, this is a new experience for you. You are allowed to feel nervous, uncertain and off balance. If anyone questions that or tries to tell you that you have no reason to worry about something that your body is trying to tell you, just send them to me, or hand them a bottle of ketchup and tell them to go have that conversation with your dragon.”

“What’s the ketchup for?” I asked, glancing between her and Ionus.

“Dipping sauce after he broils them,” she replied with a wink.

Laughing let the tension finish melting from my neck and shoulders. Had she known I needed something to help finish settling me down or was that just her natural personality? Either way, she was awesome, and I was ready to spill my guts.

“Ionus was the first alpha I ever shared a heat with,” I began. “Before we met, I handled my heats with some pretty extreme ice baths and cold-water immersion techniques. I’ve never been very social. I prefer rocks to people so keeping clear of others during my heats was always easy, but they’d grown more intense in the last two years, and closer together.”

“Which meant more times in the ice, basically shocking your body into terminating the heat in order to keep you healthy and encourage you to warm back up.”

“Yeah.”

Nodding, she looked thoughtful as her fingers rubbed at one of the beads on the bracelet she wore, a beautiful turquoise woven with thin silver strands of metal.

“What about the heat that saw you conceive?” she asked. “Did you take any steps to shut it down before mating with Ionus?”

“A long, cold shower and trying to, you know, pleasure myself a little to take the edge off,” I explained. “It hadn’t fully hit yet, so I was more like trying to stave it off so I could leave before it did. I’d have come back when it was over, though. I wasn’t trying to abandon my mate and our mating, when it happened, was totally, one thousand percent consensual.”

I’d rushed to explain that last part, not wanting her to worry about my mate’s behavior at the time.

“As eager as my mate and our dragon were, they were completely honorable and honest with me beforehand,” I said as I glanced over at him and saw him preening a little, the way our dragon was doing in my head.

“He’s a good dragon that way,” she said, flashing Ionus a smile, too. “As for your question about potential damage to your body, I can tell you that others have experienced the issue you described, with more intense and longer lasting, more difficult to curb heats, the longer that they engaged in that sort of activity, but I have not encountered a case where it caused any damage to the future young. What I have encountered is increased instances of multiples and in dragons, eggs that were uncommonly thick, which just means they take a little longer to hatch.”

I’d opened my mouth with a panicked question about if that would mean they wouldn’t hatch, only for her to put my soul at ease before I could utter it. Who knew a simple shake of the head could calm me so much.

“Emerson said eggs when he scanned me,” I blurted. “And that the scanning wouldn’t have hurt them any, especially because they have the protection of their shells.”

“And he’s right,” she explained. “The body scan would not have harmed them any.”

“Would falling hurt them?” I asked in between nibbling my lower lip.

“Not unless it was an extremely serious fall that did damage to you internally, then they can be harmed. But an accidental slip and fall isn’t as serious, though still something you’ll wish to avoid.”

“Do I have to eat raw meat now? I don’t mind medium rare, or even a hint closer to rare than medium, but I don’t know if I could just bite into a cow and start chewing.”

Giggling, she shook her head at me, but never once did I feel ashamed for asking. “You may wish to increase your meat intake some, since protein is one of the most important nutritional factors in a dragon’s diet, and yes, the rarer the better, but you do not have to go so far as to consume raw foods if that isn’t comfortable for you. You could try tartars and ceviche, both use the acidity in citrus, shallots and onions to help cure the meat so it isn’t completely raw, and of course, you will want anything you eat to be as fresh as possible, especially in those dishes, to reduce the risk of being contaminated in any way.”

I nodded at that, because Gramps had made both before and they’d been amazing. I knew he’d make them for me if I asked, especially if Ionus was able to get some venison or goat meat. I loved both, though we were only able to get it sporadically, through one of Gramps’ longtime friends, a former climber who now ran the meat locker where we got the bulk of our food from.

Wait, could he be a dragon, too? So many questions, instances in my past that now had me wondering who was or wasn’t one.

“Is it too soon to learn how many eggs I’m carrying?”

“Not at all, we can absolutely take a listen and feel to see what we can learn, though I can’t promise that there won’t be an egg hiding behind the others that proves to be a surprise to all of us until it decides to make itself known.”

“But it will still grow okay, right? It won’t be crowded or get broken?”

“Oh, Alex, no, you will lay them long before they would be too crowded by the confines of your body to have room to continue growing,” she explained. “In about three months’ time, actually. The bulk of their growing takes place in the nest where you and your mate can tend to them together. It really does allow for greater bonding between both parents and their offspring because both of you will play a huge part of the process of nurturing them as they reach the stage where they’re ready to hatch.”

So I wasn’t meant to be an incubator. Ionus had said as much but having her confirm for me that nesting was a process both parents were meant to be involved in definitely made my dragon’s thoughts about the placement of the nest ones we needed to discuss with Ionus the moment our visit with Sarah was through.

“How often will I need to see you, before I lay them?”

“We’ll meet once a week to ensure that they are growing equally, and as you get nearer to laying them, I’ll visit two to three times a week, and of course be on hand when they are ready to come out. You’ll also have the ability to video chat with me as often as you’d like and you can always call, or text any question or concern that comes to mind whenever you feel that there is something you’d like to discuss. Your young will sense any shift in your emotions as you carry the eggs, but they will also pick up on the energy and emotions of those around the eggs while they are growing inside of them. It will be best to keep far away from anything that causes you fear or anxiety and of course you’ll want your nesting area to be well away from loud noises and any sort of commotion or chaos. Don’t let things fester to the point of getting angry or frustrated if there is an issue between you and your mate. Dealing with things swiftly will restore harmony and balance to not only your household, but your eggs, who won’t want to hatch if the atmosphere around them is unsettled.”

Everything she said made sense. I might not know how to care for an infant yet, but I knew that some people played soothing music to babies in utero while others read to their bellies, sang, and even held whole conversations with the infant inside just to get them used to their voices before they were born. As excited as I was to do so, I was equally excited to be cuddled up with our dragon’s tail wrapped around me and our nest of eggs while I read from one of the many, many books Ionus had in the library.

And now we’d be able to add more.

I’d definitely want music in the nesting area, too, maybe a smart speaker, so we’d have limitless options to listen to while we cared for them.

“Are you ready to lie back and let me have a look?” she asked.

“Yes, please.”

As I scooched back up on the bed and got settled in, I instantly reached for Ionus’s hand. He laced our fingers together and stood, peering at me as Sarah eased my shirt up with warm hands and placed them on either side of my belly. She had a soft touch and the energy that flowed was like a gentle stream of water washing over me. My eyes locked with my mate’s gaze and held while we waited, our breathing falling into sync as our dragon joined us, a steady presence in our minds. It was so hard to be patient, but I was grateful that she used her hands and the natural energy she’d been gifted with, rather than cold metal and machines.

“Well, you two really knocked it out of the park,” she replied. “There are three eggs present, though one seems to have more than a single lifeform inside of it. I believe that one of your eggs contains an extremely rare phenomenon among dragons.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“True twins,” Ionus murmured, awe in his voice.

“Wait, does that mean we can expect four young?”

“It does,” she replied. “Our people have not been blessed with a case like this in a very long time. Leave it to you, Ionus.”

Of course, our dragon preened and went to singing as he pranced about, rather pleased with himself.

We know who is really to thank for that.

His rumbling voice made me smile and I promised to thank him properly once he was free to emerge. I could feel his pleasure at Sarah’s revelation and the sheer joy emanating from Ionus. After hearing Gramps’ story and knowing that my mate had waited far longer to find me, I couldn’t imagine everything he was thinking and feeling in this moment. Three eggs, four infants, the Fates had truly rewarded his faith indeed. Giving his hand a squeeze I tugged him close, until I could lean up enough to press our lips together.

A sweet kiss passed between us, then I grinned and let out a little giggle. “I think we’re gonna need a bigger nest than the one you might have had planned,” I murmured as I stared into the depths of his amethyst gaze. “And our dragon already has an idea of where he’d like to put it.”

Does he now, my love? You’ll both have to show me.

He’d switched to speaking in my mind as he pressed our lips together again, our kiss stretching on until Sarah cleared her throat. I was blushing as I lay back to look up at her.

“Now, as I was saying earlier, protein will be extremely important to the development of your eggs, as will calcium, that’s what will ensure that their shells continue to grow hard and strong. You’ll need that more than ever now, because one will have to increase enough to support the two growing inside of it.”

“Does that change the timetable any of when I’ll lay them?”

“It’s likely that it will, but I won’t speculate by how much until I brush up on the notes previous midwives had made. I’ll have an answer for you both before the end of the day. For now, eat when you are hungry, rest when you are tired, and let your mate pamper you as much as he’d like, it will be good for you both and not just for the babies. You have a new bond. It’s easy to get so overwhelmed with preparations for little ones that couples forget to take time for themselves. You won’t want to let that happen, trust me, it’s harder to bridge the gap as time goes by then it is to never let the gap form in the first place.”

I’d heed her wise words, and my dragon’s request for the nest to be in the hidden space beyond Ionus’s office, trusting that he’d explain the reasons further once we were alone.

“So, unless you have any more questions for me, I’ll see you next week,” Sarah said as she passed a slim, square book to Ionus.

“What is this?” he asked as he turned it over, one eyebrow lifting as he cocked his head.

“A nutritional guide for expectant dragons,” she explained. “And I’d advise preparing an assortment of small snacks for your mate each morning that he can nibble on between meals. Meats and cheeses are wonderful options, just make sure everything is as natural and unprocessed as possible.”

“Yay!” I declared. “I love charcuterie!”

“Charcuter—what?” Ionus muttered, glancing from me to Sarah and back again.

She just patted him on the shoulder and giggled as she headed for the door. “Read the pamphlet, Ionus, and pay careful attention to the photos in the back, they’ll not only tell you what charcuterie is, but how to set up a tray for your mate that plays to whatever he happens to be craving that day.”

She waved as she headed for the door, while I grinned at the enthusiastic way Ionus flipped to the images, already so curious and concerned, in full protective mate mode that I hope he wasn’t a frazzled mess by the time the eggs came. Of course, our dragon just grinned then and reminded me not to worry, that dragons didn’t get flustered, unlike humans. Then our loveable, cheeky little shit of a cocky ass dragon had the nerve to wink at our Ionus. Man, did I love the hell out of both of them.

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