Mated in the Stars (Starscale Mates #6)

Chapter Nine

Elio

It was nearly a week before I felt like a dragon instead of a mushie kite again. The whole week felt as if everyone was play acting some script that I knew nothing about. They were polite and friendly. Too polite. Too fucking friendly. They spoke in soft, regal tones and pretended that’s how they always spoke to each other. What the fuck was I going to do about it? Maybe I was still high from the surgery? Maybe my adrenaline all gushing at once had fucked up my brain.

I lounged inside our nest and watched our egg grow bit by bit. It had only picked up an inch or so in that first week, but Izora wasn’t worried. If it was growing that meant it had most likely gathered up all the nutrients it needed to survive. I needed my baby to survive. I wouldn’t be okay otherwise. How could I? How could any of us? Old people died. Sometimes sick people went through their doors, but hatchlings were so new and tiny, they should never die. Maybe none of us should since we all started as hatchlings too.

I cried a lot that first week. I wasn’t sure if it was worry, stress, or my hormones still running wild. Was this what my inner beast wanted to be protected from? Did he know something was wrong with our egg? With us? Izora said everything was fine now. I’d be able to have more eggs in the future, if I wanted to. He’d like me to have a lot more ultrasounds than I did this time around if there was a next pregnancy.

Fred spent that week irritated with everyone except me, Minter, and Teddy. He barred both Sunny and Selt from the house in a move that I suspected was more his dragon than him. Still, I let him get on with it. I tried to get Teddy to tell me about the guy who came through the door but instead he only told me the hilarious story about the pig who almost had the guy for dinner before Teddy sent it back through the door. Teddy was so much like his sire. He’d play the hero for anyone given the chance. If Fred was right about him eventually running off with his true-mate, I’d miss him when he was gone. Something was off about Teddy this last week but maybe my c-section was too close to home. He’d already lost his mother. Was he afraid of losing me and his youngest sibling too? I didn’t ask him because that would’ve been rude.

Slowly but surely, I moved around more and more as my appetite returned. Our egg stayed inside the nest surrounded by heating pads and blankets. We kept it shined and polished. From looking at it, you’d never know that it had a hasty and critical entry into the world outside my body.

Marsin stayed in the guest room and Uncle Hush dropped by every day. My parents called morning and night, and I spent hours on video call with them. I had never felt so surrounded by family in my life. I sorta liked it even if all my muscles and joints ached from lying around too much. Eventually, I made my way to an everything shower while Fred sat with the baby. I hadn’t been out of his sight very often, but he had gone out into the backyard and talked heatedly with Teddy a few times since my c-section. I could never quite discern what they were speaking of but sooner or later someone would let me know what the fuck was going on. It was too bad that Fred wouldn’t let Sunny come inside. He’d have told me.

Minter wandered into the bathroom after I was clean, dry, and in my pajama pants working product through my hair. He looked up at me with big eyes as if he too had been being quiet because someone told him too. I wouldn’t be that dad. Not the dad that used the baby to find out the distressing information. That shit was never fair to hatchlings.

“Teddy’s mum is a boy,” Minter said.

“Huh?” I blinked at him.

Surely, he’d heard us speak of Lotus here and there. Fred and Teddy both had framed photographs of her too. He knew she wasn’t a boy.

“Lotus wasn’t a boy, baby,” I laughed. “She was a beautiful lady.”

“She a boy now. Get mad when Teddy calls him mum.”

“Who told you this?” I asked, my eyebrow twitching in annoyance. It seemed way too heavy of a thing to tell my baby.

“He told me he was no one’s mommy,” Minter said, wrapping himself around my leg.

“Who told you?”

“Nel-um,” Minter whispered. “He’s a shhhh!”

“A shhhh?!” I asked.

“You gotta go shhh about him,” Minter said.

“Fred Moonscale,” I called from the bathroom. “What is our baby talking about?”

“Shit,” Fred swore under his breath.

“Don’t swear!” I called back.

“Don’t wake up the egg!” Fred called back as if our egg could really sleep.

“What have you been keeping from me?” I walked out of the bathroom into the nesting room, dragging the leg Minter clung to behind me.

My heart pounded in my ears and I forced myself to let out a long, slow breath. We didn’t yell in front of Minter. Hell, we did our best not to yell at each other ever. Our first meeting had been too violent – too draconic almost – for all that shit.

“I haven’t met him. So, I don’t know if he is who they think he is,” Fred said, meeting my gaze. “Want me to call Teddy to come get Minter?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I want you to tell me what’s going on. I’m not some fragile flower! I had a surgery! A surgery that hurt my brain more than my body! I don’t need all of you tiptoeing around me!”

“Tippy-claws! Tippy-claws!” Minter called out and I smiled despite the anger churning in my belly.

“Someone came through the door. The guy Teddy told you about. The one who was either hunting or being hunted by that fire breathing boar. Teddy thinks he’s Lotus. He wanted me to meet him as soon as it was clear you and the egg were okay. I didn’t, though.”

“Why not?” I asked, barely able to not screech the words at him. “If he is Lotus, he’s probably afraid and alone and---”

“He’s not alone. He’s staying at Sunny and Laken’s house. Hasn’t even tried to go back to where he came from apparently. This guy – Nelum – doesn’t think he was Lotus. Though, does admit to weird memories around Teddy and his star is yellow. The same star that disappeared from the Star Room according to Tritus. So, I don’t bloody well know what’s going on with him. Lotus is dead. If this guy was Lotus, he’s not Lotus as I knew her. He might not even be her but what I do know is that you -my very alive and very here mate- needed me. That our toddler needed me. I couldn’t go off half-cocked for someone who might not even be her. If he is, we’ll meet him together. If he’s not, we’ll find a good therapist so that Teddy stops calling him mum.”

I almost laughed at the last part but if Teddy called this guy mum, there was no doubt in my mind he was Lotus or at least he had been.

“How are you feeling?” I asked Fred once the steam was out of my sails.

“I’m not sure how to feel. Relieved. I’m relieved you and our egg are okay.,” he said after considering the question for a long, silent second. “About her? I miss her everyday and I think this has just hammered home that I’ll always miss her. The man they’re describing sounds nothing like my Lotus. I’m not even talking about his appearance. Sure, Lotus learned to fight after she helped Lee turn over Grady Moore but she’d never have chased a pig around like that.”

“I think she would’ve if that’s how she could feed her babies,” I countered.

Fred let out another long breath. I hated times like this. I didn’t know what to say and that killed me. It plain fucking killed me. I could’ve died right there on the spot if not for Minter still wrapped around my leg. Fred smelled like grief and I hated myself for not knowing what to say.

“Don’t be like that,” Fred rubbed the bridge of his nose. “This feeling and me are old friends.”

“I think, if this guy is our guy, you’ll feel better after we meet him.”

“He nice. He eats bacy all the time if you let him though. Lakey says,” Minter added. “He’s a nice mummy.”

“Carrier,” Fred said.

“Mummy carry.”

“Close enough,” Fred sighed. “Close enough. You should get some rest. I’ll make something to eat. Do you need help getting back into the nest?”

I didn’t think I did but I let him lift me and Minter into the nest anyway. Everyone had times where they needed to feel useful. I loved that dragon to death but didn’t know what to say to let him know that somehow all this would turn out alright. If Teddy was right, like I believed he was, it would really be okay. It would sort of be a miracle. Somehow we all beat the odds over and over to be together all at once while we were alive.

I curled up with Minter who passed out almost as soon as his little head hit the pillow and gazed at our egg until I passed out too.