Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
PAX
I wandered into the spare room that was now the nursery.
“This is wrong.” It was right for the baby but not for me. The placement of the furniture and the colors we’d painted the walls were for our little ones.
But I needed to prepare for the birth, so I had to make a nest.
“We need to move everything.” I sipped my tea as Dray cleared away the breakfast dishes.
“Move what?” He glanced around the kitchen.
“The cribs and the changing tables. It’s all in the wrong place.” We may have to repaint the walls just for the next little bit.
“I thought you were happy with the layout.”
I told him I needed a place to nest.
“Babe.” He had tears in his eyes, and he wrapped his arms around my bump and nuzzled the tattoo. “I didn’t dare believe this would happen to a human.”
We spent the rest of the morning moving the furniture and replaced the curtains with ones from a third bedroom.
But when I stood back and studied it, it still wasn’t right. That was an oops.
Heaving myself up the stairs, I wandered around the turret, my safe space when I was younger. I caught Dray’s wince when I said the turret would make a much better nest. He hefted the cribs up there and the soft furnishings, but I stopped him before he lugged up the dresser.
“I’m sorry.” I burst into tears and put both hands over my eyes. “This isn’t right for my nest either.” I put my head on his shoulder and howled. The turret should have been where our babies came into the world, and I was sad and frustrated that it wouldn’t be where I’d lay my eggs.
“It’s alright.” He kissed the top of my head. “Wherever you decide, we’ll make it the best nest in the history of dragon nests.”
But as my tears spilled onto his skin, they streamed over his tattoo with its flames and scales. Flames and scales. Those two words were in my head, trying to tell me something.
“I know, the clearing. That’s where I have to build my nest.”
“Pax, that’s where I was hatched, and Garrett and Anderson and everyone else in my family.”
I elbowed him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because a nest is personal to the pregnant omega. You’re the only one who can make the decision.”
My mate drove us to the clearing. As soon as I got out of the car and breathed the air that hinted of smoke and ashes, the doubt was washed away.
“This is it.”
Dray explained the eggs would need shade and temperature control, and most of all, protection, which his family could provide. I placed my hands on my bump and whispered to my eggs that no marauding coyote would come within a hundred yards.
“But if you’re not okay with my family being here, it’ll just be you and me.”
I told him I’d love them to be with us. I was a little sad that my family couldn’t be here, but the consequences of letting them in on our secret would be catastrophic, not only for our family and community, but for the world.
Everyone arrived as I was wandering around scouting out locations.
After I identified the place, Dray and his dad planned a structure that would be built at the edge of the clearing. It would be part shelter and part nest. There’d be space for me to move around and plenty of light, while protecting me and the eggs from sun, wind, and rain.
They used cut wood piled in the clearing, and it went up quickly. I could have gone home or to the office, as there were invoices that needed sending, but nothing was more important than witnessing the building.
Pops got food from the café, and Aunt Raine brought blankets and pillows. Garret hollowed out a depression in the soil where I’d lay the eggs.
“Dragons like the eggs to be close to the earth.”
Everyone checked in with me at each stage, making sure I was comfortable with the progress and that I was okay to squat over a hole when laying the eggs.
I’d been saying for months that I had eggs, and they had to come out and eventually hatch, but with the nest close to completion, the reality hit me.
Eggs! Me, a human, had eggs inside me, and when the time was right, I’d lay them.
I asked Dray’s dad how he knew what to do regarding the laying of the eggs.
“Your body will tell you. Much like a human’s will let them know the baby is ready to be born.”
Stephen arrived and gave me his favorite stuffed dragon. “The babies will know they’re dragons when they see the toy.”
I hugged and thanked him and said I’d keep it close by.
Over the next few days, I arranged and rearranged the blankets until they were the way I wanted them.
I sorted through the supplies the family had bought, that included water, crackers, fruit, and cereal bars.
My folks texted, asking how I was, and I sent pics of my bump, omitting the essential detail that I was carrying eggs.
Dray boiled water over a camping stove, and the family brought meals three times a day. His dad took over his projects so we were able to stay here and forget about the rest of the world.
I couldn’t sit still. I paced around the clearing and went back to the structure and sat in the nest. But five seconds later, Dray would have to help me up, and I’d go and pee in the porta-potty Dray used on construction sites.
I rubbed my bump and talked to the eggs as my mate held my arm and we wandered around the clearing. Dray pointed out scars on the earth where first-time shifting dragons had had an oops.
“How are you feeling?” We were watching the sun set and he was rubbing my back.
“As though something is about to happen.”
He took my hand and placed it on my belly. “Maybe it won’t be long and we’ll see our eggs.”
We’d discussed how we’d manage if I laid twelve eggs, but Dray assured me his family had small clutches.
“Sometimes there’s just one egg, as in Anderson’s and also Stephen’s case.”
That night I couldn’t sleep. I woke my mate, and we took another walk around the clearing perimeter. It was a full moon, and I’d read that people and animals' behavior changed at that time of the month. Maybe it would encourage our eggs to get moving.
But a sharp pain in my belly had me gripping Dray’s hand.
“I need to get to the nest.”
“Now?”
He’d been so calm before, and now his voice had risen a decibel or five hundred.
The walk to the structure was never-ending, and when we got there, my mate helped me strip down. He phoned his folks, but by the time they arrived with Aunt Raine, I was kneeling in the nest.
“Your body will tell you what to do.” Aunt Raine and Dray’s dad were on one side of the nest, with Dray on the other.
The pressure was intense, and Dray breathed with me as I whined and panted.
“I can feel one egg.”
There was a lot of discomfort, but my body was taking over as Raine had said. And it felt right. I grunted and clawed at the blanket beneath me while Dray murmured encouragement.
“The egg is coming.”
Raine was behind me with a cloth, and I grunted as I squeezed out the egg.
“It’s so beautiful.” My mate kissed my brow and wiped the sweat with a cloth.
Raine placed the egg beside me. I stroked the shiny hard shell while Dray rubbed his cheek over it.
“That’s our baby, Pax. And you kept them safe all these months.”
I couldn’t stop the tears, and some spilled onto the egg. Dray hiccuped and sniffed, and his tears fell onto the egg and mingled with mine. The full moon peeked inside the structure, and our tears glistened on the shell.
The second egg came fast, but I wasn’t done. I delivered the third one as the moon slid lower in the sky. All three had threads of gold and silver trailing over the shells. They were our children, and whether in egg form or babies, I never wanted them out of my sight again.
Dray kissed me. “You laid three impossibly beautiful eggs, and I’m so proud of you.”
We lay down and curled around the eggs because I needed to be in contact with all three. Raine and Dray’s dad covered us up and went to make tea. Pops arrived with food, and everyone praised me and admired our eggs.
“I’m staying right here other than to go to the porta-potty. I can’t bear to be away from them.” I stroked one, then a second, and the third.
“And neither am I.” My mate pulled me close as we admired our babies.
It would be a week or more before they hatched, but we’d keep them safe and warm until they were ready to meet us.