The Accidental Dragon Baby (Babies For Broken Dads #1)

4. Alphas Don’t Build Nests

4

ALPHAS DON’T BUILD NESTS

“Want to tell me what that was about?” Uriel set Ivo down on the apartment floor, pinning him with a pointed look.

Ivo shifted back into a man and slouched. “I didn’t want him to see my face.”

“Why not?”

“Would you?” Ivo gestured helplessly at his blind eye.

Uriel opened his mouth. Except he paused and looked down at his own scarred hands, and didn’t answer.

“I don’t know,” Uriel said finally.

“If he can’t accept your scars, I’ll bite him,” chubby Nat growled.

Ivo cracked a smile. “Thanks, Nat. Anyway, it’s done. That should keep my heat bearable until it goes away.”

Uriel gave him a long look. “He seemed concerned about you.”

Ivo tried not to get his hopes up. Before he could answer, Uriel pulled out his phone.

“Huh.” The mage glanced at Ivo. “Ace wants to know if you were really in heat. There’s an urgent matter he wants to speak with you about.”

Ivo squirmed. What could Ace possibly want with someone like him? “It can wait, right?”

“I don’t know,” Uriel said. “Maybe not.”

Ivo shook his head. “If it’s really important, he’ll ask you again.”

Uriel frowned. “I’ll check back with you in a couple days, see if you want to talk to him then.”

“Okay,” Ivo said. He didn’t think he was going to take Uriel up on it, though.

Ivo was going stir-crazy. His friends had gone out a few hours ago, and it had just been him and Mary alone in the apartment ever since.

“I need a change of scenery,” he muttered, glancing longingly out of the windows.

Mary squirmed and kicked in his arms, babbling happily.

“I guess you don’t mind staying in here, as long as I keep you fed and clean,” Ivo said drily. She smiled and stuck her fingers into his nose. “Ugh!”

Mary gurgled with infectious laughter. Ivo sighed.

He needed to feel real grass beneath his toes. Maybe roll around in it. The single square of artificial turf he had was... really miserable. It smelled like plastic and dug uncomfortably into his skin, and it was the first thing he’d bought with the money his rescuers had given him, that he hadn’t spent on food and clothes.

Two blocks away, there was a park whose scents came through the window occasionally. If Ivo bundled Mary up and hurried over...

No one would attack them in the ten minutes they were out, right?

Ivo debated with himself for the longest time. In the end, his animal urges won. He wrapped Mary up in a loose blanket and left a note on the fridge.

Then he scurried down the stairwell and burst out into bright daylight, breathing in the scent of asphalt. He reached out as far as he could with his hearing, making sure the sidewalk was empty behind him as he hurried toward the park.

His ache grew sharper, the closer they got. In fact, it almost reminded him of his heat.

His heat had mysteriously faded after last night. In its place was an urge to build a nest in the grass and trees, to surround himself with sweet leaves near a gurgling creek.

Ivo’s teeth hurt with it. The moment he reached the park, he kicked off his shoes, moaning when he felt the soft grass between his toes. “Feels so good. Can you smell the plants, Mary? Don’t they smell so amazing?”

He held her face close to some flowers. She sneezed.

“Guess not,” Ivo said, tucking her close to himself. He wandered through the small park, jumping at the little sounds. He had to walk slowly, lift his feet carefully in case his messed-up depth perception made him trip on the tree roots.

When he found a shady spot under a large tree, Ivo set Mary down, pulling up handfuls of grass so he could start surrounding himself with it.

“You shouldn’t be doing that in a public park.”

Ivo jumped violently. When he looked up, he found a huge person towering over him.

He yelped and grabbed Mary, shoving himself against a tree.

The man held up his hands as a sign of peace, and stepped back.

“It’s me,” the man said. “Remember?”

It was Ace.

Ivo’s heart stuttered. “Oh.”

Ace was beautiful in the sunlight. His black hair looked soft, and his jaw was just as strong and stubbled as the first time Ivo had seen him. His eyes were a beautiful gold, piercing Ivo’s soul. Ivo had to wrench his gaze away; he wanted to touch Ace’s broad shoulders and lush pecs to feel their sheer strength beneath his fingers.

It seemed so impossible that they were on either side of a flimsy restroom wall last night, knotted together after the best sex Ivo had had in his life.

“What’re you doing here?” Ivo blurted. Then he felt silly because this was a public park.

Ace’s smile curled his toes. “Same as you, I assume.”

“You want to make a nest, too?”

Ace blinked. He looked at Ivo more closely. “Is that what you’re doing?”

“I’m not telling you unless you make one.”

Ivo could’ve smacked himself right after. Who even said that to an alpha?

Ace hesitated. Then he stepped across the tiny stream with his long legs, and sat down in his own clump of bushes. “Is this a good spot for a nest?”

Ivo nodded. “You have shade, grass, and water. I think you could build one there.”

Ace closed his fist around some grass, hesitating again. He watched as Ivo tore out clumps of tall grasses and scattered them around himself in a large circle. Then Ace stood, snapping some twigs off his tree.

“What’re you doing?” Ivo asked.

“Making my own nest.” Ace sat down and broke the twigs into smaller pieces, arranging them around himself in a circle. He stood and snapped off more twigs, and added them to the pile. His nest bulked up considerably.

“It’s not fair,” Ivo muttered. “You’re so much faster at building your nest.”

“That’s because I have big hands.” Ace laughed his low, rumbling laugh, and Ivo’s breath snagged.

Ivo’s own grass was a flat layer around him. He couldn’t pick much of it at a time; the grass was fibrous and hurt his hands.

“What’s wrong?” Ace murmured.

“It’s slow,” Ivo said, looking around. “I don’t think there’s enough grass here.”

The dragon was quiet for a second. “Tell you what,” Ace said slowly. “If you’d like, I have a place where you can make your own nest. There’s enough tall grass, there’s shade, and even a tiny creek just like this one.”

Ivo met his eyes warily. “You’d let me stay there for a while?”

Ace nodded. “However long you want. Your nest isn’t safe here. This is a public park; anyone could walk up in a heartbeat.”

Ivo’s stomach squeezed. “Yeah.”

“The place I have is—” Ace stopped when someone else stepped into view, someone just as large as him.

Ivo recognized the man. Crush was hairier than Ace, his canines longer than a regular human’s. He’d been part of the rescue team last week.

Crush was holding Ivo’s sneakers in one hand. In his other hand, he held the sparkly black shirt that Ivo had been wearing last night.

At the bar. Where Ivo had abandoned his clothes.

Crush’s gaze snapped onto Ivo; he opened his mouth.

Of course he knew—Crush was a wolf shifter. He’d sniffed out Ivo’s secret identity, and he was about to tell Ace.

Ivo must’ve paled, because Crush paused.

Crush raised his eyebrows ever so slightly. And Ivo shook his head, just a tiny movement.

The wolf shifter tossed Ivo’s shoes over and turned to Ace. “Need more time tracking this scent.”

Relief flooded Ivo. He hid it by scooping Mary into his arms.

“Damn it,” Ace muttered. “Why wasn’t there some sort of ID on his clothes?”

“Maybe he handed it off to his friend,” Crush said dryly. “Can’t trust that your wallet will stay in your pocket when your clothes go flying.”

Ivo blushed. That was exactly why he’d given Uriel his wallet.

Ace didn’t notice his discomfort, though. He grumbled under his breath, and Crush looked as though he was stifling a laugh.

“Maybe you need to look around more carefully,” Crush said.

“I’m looking,” Ace growled.

“I see you making a dick instead of looking,” Crush replied.

“Making a dick?” Ace asked incredulously.

Crush gestured at the nests. “Big round balls on either side of a flowing stream. It just keeps coming.”

“Oh, gods,” Ivo whispered, mortified.

When he chanced a look at Ace, he realized that Ace’s ears were turning pink.

“Shut up,” Ace muttered. “That wasn’t—I was just giving Ivo space.”

“Very chivalrous,” Crush agreed. “Anyway, I’ll try sniffing around again tomorrow.”

He waved and disappeared through the trees.

“Who are you looking for?” Ivo tried to ask innocently. Ace remembers my name!

“Someone—” Ace sighed and looked down at his half-formed nest. “It’s nothing.”

It didn’t seem like nothing. But as far as Ace was concerned, Ivo had nothing to do with the omega at the bar last night.

If Ivo wanted that information, he would have to sacrifice his secret.

He wasn’t willing to do that.

So he changed the subject. “Did you change your mind about the—the place I could nest?”

Ace blinked himself back. “No, no. You’re still welcome there.”

“Okay, I—”

Mary leaned out of her blanket and grabbed Ivo’s big toe. Then she tried to gnaw on it. Ivo tried futilely to wriggle out of her grip. “Mary, no! I have dirt on my toes! Please don’t eat dirt.”

Ace snorted, cracking a tiny smile. “How old is she?”

“Eight months.”

Ace’s eyes softened as he watched Mary. He glanced around them. In a lower tone, he murmured, “She’s special, huh?”

It was why Mary and Ivo had been captured—Mary was a dragon. But she was also two different species; Ace and the other rescuers had said that the kidnappers were on the lookout for dual-species babies, or babies who were a rare species.

Mary was both of those.

And suddenly it seemed incredibly stupid for him to bring her out here.

Ivo squirmed. “Can we, um, go to your place so I can start building my nest?”

“Of course.” Ace stood easily, stepping out of his own nest. He stared at it for a moment, then kicked the twigs aside so it didn’t resemble a nest anymore. “You should do the same with yours.”

It hurt Ivo to destroy his nest. He hugged Mary to himself, wobbling as he tried to kick his grass circle apart.

Ace was next to him, suddenly. He grasped Ivo’s elbow with his large, warm fingers and steadied him. “I’ll do it.”

Ace crouched, a hulking figure next to Ivo. He scooped up the blades of grass and swept them into the bushes with his hands, treating Ivo’s broken nest with a lot more respect than his own.

Ivo gulped, his heart fluttering.

Ace stood. He looked into Ivo’s eye and asked gently, “Ready to go?”

“Y-yeah.”

Ace didn’t touch him again. He walked on Ivo’s right side where Ivo could see him, leading Ivo to a nearby parking lot. When they stopped next to a sleek navy SUV, Ace hesitated. “I don’t have a car seat because I wasn’t expecting to drive a baby around. You’ll have to sit in the back with her.”

“That’s fine,” Ivo said gratefully. “I appreciate you doing this.”

Ace cracked a smile and opened the door for them.

And Mary shifted, turning into a tiny baby mink in Ivo’s arms.