Chapter 15
SILVER
I expected it to be packed, or already spoken for, but Melvin met us on the front stoop with a smile and handshakes for the four of us.
"Welcome to your new home!"
The entryway split off in three directions.
The kitchen was on our right, and the living room was a few steps down to our left.
Ahead was a hallway with a single door on either side, opening up again before another door to the back yard.
My dragon wanted to inspect the yard, but first, I had to judge the kitchen against my standards.
While I could bake in subpar conditions, I wanted my home to have the most up-to-date magical technology, ensuring consistent baking temperatures and minimal pollution.
This kitchen had it all. It was almost as advanced as the bakery.
The only difference was the size. I couldn't fit ten cookie sheets in the oven at once, but four?
No problem. I was so smitten with the kitchen, I didn't want to follow Hart and his family into the rest of the house. I worried they would hate it.
My fears never materialized. Encke loved the spacious living room and the huge picture window overlooking a line of pristine snow-covered bushes that blocked the wind and the view to the other houses in the neighborhood.
Both of Hart's parents laughed at the tiny dining room, only big enough for a bench nook or a six-person table.
"You'll never have to host a Comet family dinner," Norris, Hart's papa, teased.
"I doubt they'll ask." Hart didn't seem bothered by the admission. He'd come a long way from the first time Bopp had called him a Large Omega Lover.
Across from the small dining room, we found a large den. At the back, an open stairway went up. On the second floor, we found three bedrooms, each bigger than the last, and all with gorgeous views of twinkling lights in the distance.
Back downstairs, we had one doorway left, or so I thought. Beneath the stairs, we found another. "This house has a basement?" I asked Melvin.
"It does." He grinned. "It's perfect for a growing family."
The basement was unfinished, its walls and window wells protected from the frost and snow with a magical barrier. Each wall had an egress window, which meant we could have up to four more bedrooms.
I reached for my belly, placing my hands protectively over the place where our eggs were developing.
Dragons often had clutches of two, three, or four.
How many would we have? It would be hard for a midwife to tell until I laid them, thanks to the hard protective shells.
When I asked my dragon, he was cryptic. "Dragon and not dragon," he said.
That meant we were having more than one, then, with some dragon and some not dragon.
I patted my belly. Though I wished for a small clutch, I found myself asking the goddess for healthy babies, instead.
Finally, it was the moment my dragon had been waiting for.
We walked out the back door, into the winter wonderland we'd seen from the first floor's picture windows.
I'd mistaken the bushes along the back of the house for the property line.
Instead, we found a large yard lined with bushes, a living privacy fence.
The open space was large enough for me to shift and lay our eggs.
Already, I wanted to shift, curl into a ball, and spin in circles until I'd carved a birthing bowl into the snow, soil, and rock below.
"This is perfect," I whispered when Hart approached. He slid his arm around my waist, and we stood side-by-side in peaceful silence.
"What do you think?" Melvin asked from the doorway behind us.
"We'll take it," Hart called over his shoulder. He leaned in and whispered, "If I can't afford it, I'll ask Santa for a raise."
I already knew I had more than enough saved in my bank account, but my alpha still believed he needed to provide for me. I didn't want to hurt his feelings. "We'll do it together," I said instead.