20. A Dragon’s Most Precious Treasure
20
A DRAGON’S MOST PRECIOUS TREASURE
Ace held his breath until Ivo nodded, his eye wide and curious.
“Why haven’t you shown it to me before?” Ivo whispered. “It’s been weeks.”
Ace blushed a little. “Everyone talks about how dragon hoards are full of gold.”
“But...?”
“But mine isn’t.” Ace huffed. “In fact, it’s a hoard of the most useless thing.”
Ivo blinked and waited for Ace to elaborate. Ace’s face warmed further; he wrapped an arm around his mate and tugged him to the centermost room of the mansion, sealed by a set of double steel doors.
Ace breathed a stream of fire onto the sensor by the doors—first a warm orange flame, some hotter white flames, then orange, white again, and the hottest blue flames.
The sensor blinked green. The heavy steel doors slid open with a hiss, and Ace held his breath.
Rows upon rows of bookcases crowded the room. Like Harvey had said, there was barely space in here for Ace’s dragon self to spread his wings.
Ivo’s eye lit up. The next moment, it clouded with confusion, and he took a careful step forward. “Wait. What... are these?” He stopped in front of the nearest bookcase and picked up a thick book. “A Comprehensive Guide to Windongs 1998? Your Introduction to McApple?”
“They’re old computer manuals.” Ace scratched his head sheepishly. “Most of these operating systems are no longer in use.”
Ivo stared. “And you... collect them?”
“Most people have thrown these manuals away,” Ace said, puffing out his chest. “These books are now rare. ”
“And obsolete,” came Harvey’s voice from elsewhere in the mansion.
“Shut up,” Ace muttered. He ushered Ivo deeper into the hoard, past several bookcases that he occasionally came in to admire. “I love computers. I’m terrible at understanding them, but every time a new operating system was invented, I would buy the manual in the hopes that it would be the one that spoke to me.”
“Did any of them speak to you?” Ivo asked, wide-eyed.
Ace shook his head. “At this point, if any of these manuals spoke to me, I’d think it was possessed.”
Ivo stifled a giggle. “But you use a computer for work.”
“The most idiot-proof one,” Ace said dryly. As a CFO, all he used were the same old finance programs. Until they self-installed their horrible updates. “Twice a week, I call tech support for help.”
“I might be able to help,” Ivo said slowly. “I took some computer classes in school.”
Ace’s heart swelled. “Oh, yes. I would love it if you could help. In fact, you could help me from my lap.”
Ivo coughed lightly. “I don’t know. We might get... distracted.”
“You’d be helping me with my... hard drive.”
Ivo groaned into his hands.
“I know! I could build you a nest here,” Ace said, ideas springing into his mind. “Surrounded by a low wall of computer manuals. And we could have a nest in my office, made with cushions, and a nest in the kitchen, made with your favorite food!”
Ivo laughed, his cheeks turning pink. “I don’t know, wasn’t I supposed to stay put in one nest?”
“If all the nests have everything you need, I don’t see why you can’t hop from one to the other. In fact, my desk could be on the edge of the office nest.” Ace rubbed Ivo’s belly; it seemed rounder every time he saw it. And... maybe there were more heartbeats than he had expected. “There’s something I want to talk to you about.”
At his serious tone, Ivo looked up. “What is it?”
“We tracked down Watsonator’s various operations,” Ace said solemnly. “We found a few mink coats.”
Ivo breathed in sharply.
“What do you think we should do with them?” Ace asked.
Ivo swallowed hard. “I think... I think you could donate them to animal shelters. The baby animals are cold a lot of the time, and mink coats are good at keeping them warm.”
Ace’s heart swelled. He hugged Ivo close and nuzzled his hair. “We’ll do that.”
Ivo’s smile wobbled. “Thanks.”
Faintly, Ace heard Mary calling out for her dad. He scooped Ivo into his arms and brought him upstairs, to the nursery. Mary was using the bars of her crib to pull herself to her feet.
“Do you think she wants to see my hoard?” Ace asked.
Ivo looked pensive. “I don’t know. Do you have children’s books in there?”
“Not yet. But I’ll find something that she might like. C’mon.” Ace waited for Ivo to scoop Mary into his arms. He brought the two of them back into his hoard, where Mary eyed the shelves crammed with books.
Ace loved her so much, his heart could burst. He sat Ivo on a comfy couch and gave him the most colorful computer manual he could find. “Do you think she would like that?”
He held his breath as Ivo opened the book in front of Mary. It was filled with dense lines of text, but when they got to a page filled with colorful rectangles, Mary tried to grab them.
Ace sniffled a little. When Ivo looked over, Ace frowned. “I’m allowed to sniffle!”
Ivo gave him a knowing smile, blushed, and looked back down at Mary.
Ace hid his silly grin by stacking up computer manuals around the couch. Harvey answered his summons with piles of thick blankets; Ace laid them over the books to cushion their hard edges.
“Now you have a nest here, too,” he said proudly.
Ivo laughed and climbed onto the blankets with Mary. With them all cozy like this, surrounded by Ace’s hoard... it was the best sight ever.
“You make me never want to leave,” Ivo admitted.
Ace did a small victory dance. Mary saw him and wriggled her little body too.
Haltingly, Ace asked, “Would you like to walk the Circle with me?”
“What’s a Circle?” Ivo’s eye widened.
“Dragons have a magic Circle in their flight. When we walk it together, we bond as mates. For life.”
Ivo’s breathing hitched. “Y-you want to? With me?”
“ Yes. What part about all this says I don’t want to?”
Ivo ducked his head, a tiny smile curving his lips. Shyly, he said, “I would love to.”
Ace’s heart soared. He slid his hand over his mate’s belly, listening to the flutter of heartbeats. For a moment, he thought about asking Ivo if he knew. Then he paused, and reconsidered.
Maybe Ivo wanted to be surprised instead.
Ace’s pulse synced with the heartbeats—one of his for every three of the little ones, because his heart didn’t need to pump as quickly as a baby’s.
He quietly drew his hand away and watched Ivo, waiting for him to notice it.
When Ivo didn’t, Ace quietly pulled out his phone, and put in more purchase orders.
“We’re late! Why do we have so many... things... in our bedroom?” Ivo puffed, one arm wrapped around his belly. He gestured wildly at the boxes of diapers along the walls, overflow from the nursery.
“Sweetheart.” Ace helped him back to the bed. “Don’t exert yourself. You’re about to pop!”
“Well, yeah! I should’ve popped a week ago!” Ivo pouted. “We were supposed to be done with this before our bonding ceremony. I don’t want to be walking the Circle with a baby halfway out!”
Ace pursed his lips. “This is the part where someone might say, ‘Hold my beer.’”
“Oh, gods, no.” Ivo whined. “Don’t jinx it. Besides, babies don’t drink beer.”
“Anyway, we’re already a week delayed. The baby can hold on for a bit longer, right? They wouldn’t just show up in the middle of the ceremony.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Ivo hissed.
“Believe strongly enough, and it won’t happen.”
Ivo grumbled under his breath. “My belly is huge. There’s no more space for my lungs to expand properly. I’m out of breath just going to the bathroom.”
“You didn’t want the bottle to pee into,” Ace pointed out.
“It’s all your fault for making me swell up like this.”
“You came extra hard when I said I was breeding you.”
Ivo glared. Ace pretended to zip his lips, but he couldn’t ignore how hot Ivo was when he got all angry like this.
Ace settled for rubbing Ivo’s belly and kissing his temple. “Why don’t you rest, and I’ll get the things ready for our flight?”
“Fine.”
Ace triple-checked that they had everything. When they were ready, he brought Ivo and Mary to the backyard and wrapped them in a giant comfy blanket. Then he shifted into a gleaming onyx dragon. Harvey turned into a large pterodactyl, gripping Cartbreaker with his clawed feet.
As one, they took off into the night sky, Raptor trailing along behind them.
Ace, Harvey, and Raptor sang lullabies throughout the journey. It took a few hours; the chilly winds buffeted at them, and Ace had to take pit stops for Ivo to stretch his legs.
“Nothing’s coming out yet,” Ivo said. “But I think my belly squeezed.”
Ace exchanged a look with Harvey and Raptor.
“Better pick up speed,” Raptor said.
The three of them sped up; Ace gave an internal sigh of relief when he spotted his flight’s ancestral home tucked into the side of a mountain.
When they landed in the brightly lit cobblestone courtyard, the huge front doors burst open, and dragons swarmed out of the mansion.
“They’re here!”
“Where’s the baby?”
“Shush! Give them some space!”
Ace gently set down his bundle of Ivo and Mary. Then he landed next to them, and uncovered the bundle to show off his passengers. “Family! This is Ivo, the loveliest mink I’ve ever seen. And this is Mary, his sweet child.”
The dragons crowded around them, necks craning, eyes glowing red. When Mary saw them, she shifted into a tiny purple dragon, spreading her wings. Everyone cooed.
“Welcome to our family.” Ace’s dads, Thomas and Sen, stepped up and helped Ivo to his feet. Then they hugged both Ivo and Ace, and leaned in to coo at Mary.
Mary belched smoke in their faces; Ivo squawked.
But Ace’s dads only grinned.
“She’s adorable,” Sen said. He was a gleaming golden dragon, a little smaller in stature than Thomas.
Thomas was a large onyx dragon—Ace and Raptor had taken after him. He puffed up when Mary coughed some flames onto his snout. “Hello, Mary! That was an amazing little display. We’re all so excited to meet you!”
Ivo stared at everyone and stepped closer to Ace, a little overwhelmed. Ace hurried to wrap his wing around his mate.
“Give us space,” Ace said. “Psst! Shoo! I want to bond with him before—”
Ivo grunted, hugging his belly. “Another contraction.”
Ace froze. “Do you think we should wait, or...?”
“I think we have enough time, if we make the ceremony quick.”
Ace gathered Ivo and Mary into his arms. He led the way through the mansion to the very back, where the wall opened up into a large cavern. Flickering wall sconces lit up the place. In the middle of the floor was a series of concentric circles carved into smooth rock. Simple drawings and Roman numerals filled the spaces between each circle, their edges worn by countless feet over the centuries.
This is amazing,” Ivo breathed.
“The Circle was carved by my ancestors,” Ace murmured reverently. “Generations of dragons have bonded with their mates here.”
Ivo shivered. Ace handed Mary over to Harvey, and took Ivo’s hand.
“Remember: when we walk the Circle, we have to have one foot on our own circle at all times, and our hands have to be joined.”
“Foot on ground, holding hands. I can do that,” Ivo said.
They waited for all their guests to arrive in the chamber. A hushed silence fell.
Ivo tensed again, drawing a sharp breath. Another contraction.
“Are you sure?” Ace asked worriedly. “We can wait.”
Ivo rubbed his belly. “I—I think we have time.”
“Okay.” Ace kissed his temple and led him to the Circle. He took the outermost circle, standing on Ivo’s left—because that was where Ivo’s blind spot was, and Ivo trusted Ace to protect him there. “Ready?”
Ivo took the next largest circle, pressing his foot carefully against the deep groove. “I’m ready.”
Ace breathed in deeply. In a booming voice, he said, “Once for luck.”
They walked together, slow steps because Ivo could not see his feet—he had to navigate the groove with his toes, and Ace made sure to hold him steady.
Halfway through the first lap, Ivo tensed; he clutched Ace’s hand tightly.
Worry whispered down Ace’s veins. “We could still stop now. But we shouldn’t stop when we’ve activated the Circle.”
Ivo shook his head. “I think we have time.”
“Okay.”
They kept walking. The moment they completed the first lap, all the circles glowed a faint blue, and a light breeze swirled through the chamber.
“Twice as a promise,” Ace rumbled.
Two steps later, Ivo froze. “I think my water broke.”
Everyone gasped. Ace fought down his panic. They still had two more laps to go. When he looked down, he saw a droplet of clear fluid trickling down Ivo’s leg. “Fuck.”
“I don’t think you’re supposed to say that during your bonding ceremony,” Harvey whispered loudly.
“Keep going,” Thomas said.
Ace straightened his shoulders. “C’mon, sweetheart. We can do this. I want to be your mate.”
Ivo blushed bright pink, and they kept walking.
Twice more that lap, contractions hit Ivo, each stronger than the last. When they completed the lap, a gust whipped through the chamber and died down.
“Three times for a future well-told,” Ace said, glancing worriedly at his mate.
Ivo was waddling more awkwardly now. “I—I think I can feel our baby descending,” he gasped.
“Double fuck,” Ace said. “C’mon, take bigger steps.”
“I don’t want to open my legs so wide! What if Ace Junior falls out?”
“I’ll, uh. I’ll catch.”
“You can’t let go of my hand!”
Ace reached over with his other hand and bent forward slightly so he could reach under Ivo. Then they took another step, clumsy and awkward.
Ivo groaned. “I bet no one else in your family has done this ceremony so awkwardly.”
“You can use this to compete with Telos and Mav’s next birth; they’re going to make theirs dramatic,” Raptor said helpfully. “Yours might be the reigning champion though.”
Especially when they took a few more steps and liquid flowed out, right before a small, round head bumped against Ace’s fingers. “Fuck! I feel our baby!”
“Don’t step off the line,” one of Ace’s dads called out.
“Damn it.” Ace made himself look at where he was placing his foot. Ivo reached behind with his other hand, grasping onto Ace as he helped to support their baby.
“This was the worst idea,” Ivo mumbled.
“Half a lap to go,” Ace said. “C’mon, we can do it!”
They stumbled forward together, Ace’s attention bouncing between their feet on the circles, and the newborn being pushed out onto his hand. Ivo gripped his other hand so tight that his knuckles ground together.
“Oh gods, oh gods,” Ivo panted.
“Another step,” Ace said to him. “C’mon, almost there. You’re doing so great, sweetheart.”
They had roughly six more steps to go. Except Ivo’s body tensed again, and their baby slid fully out of him, onto Ace’s hand.
“Fuck,” Ace said, trying to balance their child without dropping him. Their baby boy was so tiny.
His siblings snickered.
“Hey, Alexander,” Ace said. “You came out at a very... interesting time. Welcome to our family.”
“Hey, Al. I’ll welcome you properly in half a minute,” Ivo groaned. “Gods, now we can finish the ceremony.”
Except his body tensed again, and his eye grew wide. “Why do I—Why—”
His gaze flew up to meet Ace’s. Ace bit down a sheepish smile. “You didn’t question why we had so many doctor visits.”
“You knew and you didn’t tell me!” Ivo cried.
“I was waiting to see if you’d figure it out. Are you angry?”
“Well, no.” Ivo glowered, but he rubbed his belly with his free hand. “Fuck. We’re not prepared.”
“I did. I’ve ordered two of everything.”
Ivo sagged with relief. “Oh, good.”
Ace kissed the side of Ivo’s head and held Alexander against Ivo’s chest for warmth. “Let’s finish this up. We’ve got another young one to welcome.”
They took the next steps quickly. The moment they completed the third lap, all of the circles flared a brilliant blue, and magic swooped from Ace’s body into Ivo. Ivo glowed briefly; half of Ace’s lifespan had been transferred to him, so they could grow old together.
Ivo’s eye widened. “The hair at your temples turned grey.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard that would happen.” Ace’s heart swelled. “We’re officially mates now. With a baby.”
They turned to face each other, sharing a sweet, lingering kiss. Ace kissed down Ivo’s throat to the crook of his neck, and bit down hard enough to break skin. Ivo shuddered against him.
“Mine,” Ace growled. “All mine.”
“Yours.” Ivo bowed his head, his ears turning pink. Ace accepted a towel from one of his brothers and helped to clean up Alexander.
“He’s so perfect,” Ace whispered, stroking their son’s head carefully. “Just like you.”
Ivo blushed. “Just like you, too.”
“Good.” Ace dropped a kiss on Al’s forehead; Ivo gathered the baby boy into his arms and kissed him when he wailed.
“I can feel the next one coming out.” Ivo tensed up again.
“I’m here to catch the little one. Keep walking if you want,” Ace said.
“At least we don’t have to hold hands right now,” Ivo muttered. But he walked, and Ace followed at a crouch.
The second baby didn’t take long; Ace caught their little girl, holding her up to show Ivo how beautiful she was.
Everyone around them cheered. Ace only had eyes for his little family.
“Hey, Lucida,” he said, nuzzling her cheek. “You’re just as perfect as your brother.”
Ivo took one look at them, and burst into tears. “They’re both perfect.”
“So are you.” Ace pulled them all against his chest, brushing Ivo’s sweaty hair away from his face. “C’mon, let’s show Mary her new siblings.”
“About Mary,” Ivo said, looking up. “I was wondering if... you’d like to be her dad.”
Ace cried a little. “Yes. Yes, sweetheart. Yes. Three babies in a day. That’s—That’s incredible. I love you.”
He hadn’t intended for the words to slip out, but he knew he meant them with all his heart—had meant them for a long time, now.
Ivo’s smile was breathtaking. “I love you, too. All of you.”
When Harvey stepped up with Mary, Ace gathered his family into his arms, and kissed them all. “I have the most perfect life.”
“Same here,” Ivo said, tears in his eye. Ace pulled him closer and kissed him again.