Chapter Sixteen
Ralph
Time moved so fast since we found one another and moved in together. Trace’s grams had not been gone too long, but the house was already feeling neglected, and we used a lot of our spare time fixing it up and planting a garden—basically making the house our home. We replaced a lot of the furnishings with ones from our place or Trace’s, but we kept all the family pictures just as she’d had them. Craig and I even added some of our own, and soon there would be a new collection.
Already, we had a photo up with the three of us and Lion, who was a whole lot less of a neighborhood cat now and more a family pet—although he did visit a few of the other houses just to see what they had to eat from time to time.
Dragon’s Landing had welcomed us, and Cyrus and Boen, his mate, had become good friends. They recommended their midwife who had experience with pregnant shifters, something we thought might be a good idea since our human omega was carrying a child with at least some shifter DNA.
She gave Craig a clean bill of health, but since she did not have an ultrasound machine, she could tell us no more than that there was more than likely a single baby and that there were no signs for concern.
“I still think I need to get a job,” he argued yet again one day. “I don’t want you two to have to support me.”
“You more than pull your weight around here just in taking care of us,” Trace argued back. “And you’re carrying our young. That, in the shifter world, is a full-time job.”
“If you find a job you want to do, we’ll make it work,” I added, not for the first time. “But not just because you feel like you need to bring in money. We have enough.” I finished my coffee and stood up. “That said, I am heading for the office. Coming, Trace?”
“I’m with you. We’ll see you at lunchtime, omega ours.” He kissed Craig and headed down the hall. I did the same, settling behind my half of the partner desk we’d bought at an estate sale and hunkering down for the morning. Since I worked with headphones on, I didn’t hear the commotion until my stomach rumbling let me know it was time to eat.
But when I pulled off my headphones, thumping and banging filled my ears.
“Trace.” I tapped his side of the desk to get his attention, and he pulled his headphones off too.
“Lunch?” he asked before freezing. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”
Together, we left the office and padded down the hall in search of both the source of the noise and our omega.
“Craig?” I called just as an extra loud crash sounded from upstairs.
“That sounds like it came from our bedroom,” Trace said, already on his way up. “Craig! Where are you?”
I followed Trace and together, we made the top landing and darted down the hallway to the master suite. We’d combined two bedrooms and the adjoining bath into a comfortable and spacious area, but it currently sounded like it was being torn down by construction workers.
Or one pregnant omega. He was so intent on pushing furniture away from one corner of the room that he didn’t even look up when we came in.
“Oh, he can’t do that,” I growled, stomping over to where he was trying to drag an antique armoire somewhere. “Craig. What are you doing?”
“I need to get it ready,” he panted. “They’re coming.”
“Who is coming?” I lifted him off his feet and carried him over to the bed where I pushed him gently down to sit. “Whatever you need, we can do it for you.”
“I have to do it.” He tried to stand, but I held him in place. “Please, they are going to be here soon.”
Trace already had his phone out. “I’m calling the midwife.” He went out in the hallway and spoke in a low voice then came back in. “She says to do whatever he wants.”
“We already said we would!” I replied. “But what does it mean?”
“He’s nesting. She says that means he’s going to lay an egg. And she will come anytime if we need her, but she seems to think he’ll be fine either way.”
Sure, I knew dragons had eggs. I just didn’t know a human could produce, carry, or lay them. But for the next few hours, we moved furniture and piled nearly every pillow, blanket, comforter, and bolster in the house in the corner under our omega’s direction. If we slowed down, he struggled to his feet, wanting to help. But by four o’clock, we had managed to create a mountain of softness, approved grudgingly by Craig.
And we’d completely forgotten to each lunch. Craig waddled over to the nest and sat down.
“Let’s go down and eat,” I suggested.
“You two go, and I’ll wait here,” he said. “I need to be on the nest.”
He didn’t even seem fazed by the fact that he was most likely going to lay an egg, so we went to the kitchen and made some sandwiches, then brought them back up and picnicked in the bedroom.
At bedtime, Craig insisted on staying on the nest while we slept in the king-sized bed a few feet away. Or we did until a loud cry had us both rocketing out from under the covers and falling to our knees at his side. Our omega was struggling to get out of his pants, which we helped him with.
“It will be all right, omega,” I reassured him. “We can get the midwife.”
“No. Stay with me.”
“I’ll just grab my phone,” Trace said, but Craig reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Stay, both of you please.” He was struggling to rise, and we both helped him into a squatting position where he bore down, grunting, perspiration flowing off his forehead and soaking his shirt. “Don’t go.”
“We’re right here.” The midwife had said he should be fine. Trying to leave his side was going to cause more harm than good, it seemed. “We aren’t going anywhere.”
Suddenly, he let out a loud cry, and underneath him lay an egg. But not like any egg I’d ever seen. It was much larger, blue, and looked like it was covered with sparkling crystals. It was beautiful. And it held our child.
“Well done, omega,” Trace said, stroking strands of sweaty hair back from Craig’s face. “No dragon could have done better.”
Of course, once he was settled, we did call the midwife who, after she listened to the details, confirmed that everything had gone beautifully and she would stop by in a day or so just to make sure he was healing well from the delivery.
What she couldn’t tell us was how long it would be before the egg hatched, due to the mixed parentage that could change some factors. So, we all settled in to wait. Trace, me, and an omega who refused to leave the nest and the egg for more than five minutes at a time.