The Dragon, the Bear, and Their Sugar Glider Omega: M/M Shifter Mpreg Romance

Chapter Twenty-Two

The day was lovely. No usual San Diego marine layer to gray-up the sky.

But even with the promise of sunlight, Clay was slow to get out of bed. He’d piled up all the pillows like a barrier around him in our custom, oversized bed.

“Clay. Clay.” I tickled the top of his head. “Time to get up.”

“No. Not today.” He turned over onto his stomach, head facing away from me.

“Are you feeling sick?” I sat on the edge of the mattress, reaching over the pillows to rub his back.

“Just want to curl up somewhere safe and wait.”

“Wait for what?”

“Babies.”

It had not been a difficult pregnancy so far. Clay was young, healthy, and doing well.

“Aw, sweetheart. They’re not coming yet.” Were they? I realized how little I actually knew about sugar gliders and their young, let alone sugar gliders who mated with dragons and bears.

“But soon. They will be here soon.”

How soon? “Do you feel any cramping or pain?”

“No. I just want to nap for a while.”

“That’s okay. You can do that.”

I stayed to comfort him a little while longer then left him dozing and went to find Armel.

My bear mate was in the kitchen putting away the clean dishes from the dishwasher. He loved his kitchen and took over most of the kitchen chores and duties, including cooking some very fine meals. Which was a good thing because all I was good for was cooking hot dogs and buying already-baked chickens. That, and making soup from a can.

“Hey, Arm. I can’t get Clay up. He’s got all the pillows around him like a barrier, and he says he just wants to curl up somewhere safe and wait for babies.”

“Is he nesting?”

“That would make sense since the midwife thinks he’s carrying at least one egg.”

“We can let him be for now. Make him comfortable. In a while, we can bring him lunch in bed.”

“Like breakfast in bed. Yeah,” I said. “We can eat with him.”

“We can talk to him then and find out what his needs are. Maybe he craves something special and different. I’ll do everything in my power to give it to him.”

When lunchtime came, we brought Clay a special tray with delicious food. It even had a water glass with a flower in it.

Clay had cute bed hair sticking out on one side. He wore my favorite of his boxer shorts, pink with little squirrels all over them. They rode up his lean-muscled thighs nicely as he sat up straight to accept the tray.

“Thanks. I have the best mates in the world.”

Armel sat next to him in the bed. I brought up a chair to face them both. We all dug into the hot ham and cheese sandwiches Armel had made, and crunched on fresh fruit and homemade fries, again thanks to Armel.

Clay was practically inhaling the food. “I didn’t realize I was so hungry.”

“We want to talk to you, too,” I said. “How are you feeling?”

“Just one of those tired days.”

“Right.” Armel raised his eyebrow at me. “Do you think you might be nesting?”

Clay frowned. “Not sure. I’ve never done this before. Wild sugar gliders live in multiple nests, but we keep our babies in our pouch until they’re old enough to come out.”

“But you have at least one egg,” I reminded him.

“I know.” He put his hand on his stomach.

“Dragons have nests. It would make sense that you might feel an instinct to make one.”

“If I do make a nest, can I use some of your pens?”

I sat back. It was something I’d never considered before. The only people I’d ever allowed to touch my hoard had been my mates, and of course they could utilize them however they wanted. My chest swelled, and my eyes filled with tears of joy for my family. “Yes. I’m honored that you’d want to.”

“I want the candy cane one for sure!”

We all laughed.

“That reminds me,” I said. “I have a pen I got when I first arrived here in San Diego. I got it from one of the customers at the bar. I’d forgotten but now I remember. He was an omega sugar glider and his mate was some sort of bird. The pen had his business info on it. He was an insurance salesman or something like that. I completely forgot. I’m going to go find it and see if I can find his number.”

“Why?” Clay asked.

“If he has kids with a bird, he’d know firsthand about being a sugar glider with eggs. Maybe he’d be willing to give us pointers about what we can expect and if you might have any special needs?”

Armel spoke with his mouth full. “That’s a great idea, Rome.”

As soon as lunch was over, I went into my hoard room. So many pens. Too many.

Never too many.

I spoke to my dragon aloud. “You’re right. There’s some space left on some of these shelves for more.”

I immediately spied the candy cane pen Clay had specifically requested. My dragon had no qualms about letting him have it.

I remembered the pen the sugar glider customer gave me was a clear blue one. My mates and I had actually arranged the hoard by color, so I started searching there. Many pens I had were of the swag sort—free promotional materials. One of the most popular colors was blue. And tons of them had writing on them.

Methodically, I went through every single one. About twenty minutes into my search, I found what I thought was the right pen. So many free pens had websites only on them. But much to my delight, this one had a phone number. And a name. Elias.

In seconds, I had my cell out and was calling the number.

The other end picked up right away. “Hello?”

“Is this Elias?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t know me, but we met once and you gave me a pen. My name is Rome. I’m a dragon shifter mated to a sugar glider who is carrying my egg. I remembered you had a bird mate.”

“Yes. All of that is true.”

“And that you’re the omega.”

“Yes.”

“If I could be so bold to ask, do you have kids?”

“Yes.”

“Did you gestate an egg?”

“This is all very interesting. Is your mate pregnant with an egg?”

“Yes.”

“Indeed, I did gestate a beautiful flamingo egg.”

“Did you feel the urge to nest?”

“Let me tell you, those were some interesting times. And my needs seemed to change day to day.”

Then, he told me everything I needed to know.