Chapter 36 #2
Win sat in my chair before I could, and when I pouted at him, he pulled me onto his thigh. Since I was too tired to get another chair, I decided to allow it, and I focused on the dragon egg while he texted his sister and Lyric.
The last time I’d been awake, it’d been covered in many cracks, but it hadn’t actually broken open yet. Now, there was a nice chunk missing from the top, and I was pretty sure I could see a claw.
The claw moved, and I gasped at the same time as Ace. He let out that excited noise again that made Odin, Goliath, Sola, Clucky, and Confetti all come over to us.
So now the poor baby dragon had an entire crowd just… staring.
Lyric showed up in their pajamas—griffins all over their pants. Clearly, they were excited to get their baby griffin tomorrow, but they hadn’t wanted to miss this either.
They pulled a chair into the living room and took up residence beside Winter. The twins remained where they were, seated on the arms of the big armchair, as close to the nest as they could be without being inside it.
“This is so exciting,” Lyric whispered.
Win said, “It really is. Are you going to record it like we talked about?”
“Psh. Like you have to ask.”
The baby dragon’s claw moved again, and I watched in amazement as it pushed another big chunk of the eggshell off. The shell fell into the nest, and now, I could see a whole scaly arm—or leg. The scales were a shiny green and were reflecting the soft light in the living room.
I’d been told to keep the light dim when the hatchling first came out of the egg so it wasn’t such a shock to the system.
Maggie and Nash showed up too, and I was glad they made it before the dragon fully hatched.
Maggie pulled a chair in from the dining room, but she ended up sitting on Nash’s thigh like I was on Win. We shared an eye-roll before she said, “I can’t believe we’re actually watching a real dragon hatch.”
“Me either,” Nash said, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her shoulder. “Thank you guys for letting us be here for this.”
That made me smile at him, and Chaos said, “Psh, of course you were invited.”
Win and I exchanged a look, one filled with surprise and fondness for the teenager.
God, we really needed to find a way to make them stay here.
I couldn’t let them just… live on the street the way they had been.
I hated the thought of them being out in the cold.
I hated the thought of those two wonderful kids not having anyone in their corner.
But they had me now. Me and Winter.
Shaking off those thoughts, I focused on the dragon egg again. Gah! A freaking baby dragon!
I sat on the edge of my seat—or rather, on Win’s leg—and watched every little movement as the baby pushed piece after piece off itself, revealing more and more of its pretty green scales and little spikey spine.
When he finally pushed the last large piece off, revealing his head, I couldn’t contain my gasp.
It was the most adorable damn thing I’d ever seen in my life.
Big golden eyes blinked up at us, a wide and rounded snout made him look cute rather than fierce, and his little nubby horns on top of his head reminded me of a baby goat’s horns.
His green wings were curled up behind him, and his entire body was covered in amniotic fluid and whatever other fluids were inside an egg, making him look wet and shiny. I’d need to clean him off.
His eyes blinked some more before they focused on me.
I stood up, moving closer to him, pushing my empath magic out and toward the baby—calmness, happiness, safety—and I whispered, “It’s okay, sweet baby. You’re okay. You’re safe.”
He let out a small whimpering sound that made me think he was about to start crying—I could feel the fear—so I grabbed one of the blankets and slowly moved in close. I continued pushing my magic toward him.
Calmness, happiness, safety.
You’re safe here with us, sweet baby. I promise you’re safe.
Carefully, I wrapped the baby up and pulled him to my chest. His fear began to settle, my hold on him offering comfort. I grabbed a towel from the pile I’d put next to the nest earlier and began cleaning the baby.
And still, I kept up a steady stream of my magic because I didn’t want him to be scared.
Winter kissed my head and whispered, “I’ll go make a bottle.” I had plenty of formula in the kitchen to prepare for this moment.
“I’ll help,” Maggie said, following her brother.
“Thank you.”
I couldn’t look away from the blinking eyes that were staring up at me.
The poor thing was kind of just taking things in in wonder, but he was surprisingly not fearful now that I was holding him and pushing my magic into him.
I was so excited and happy that he was here, that he was okay, and I knew my own feelings were bleeding into my magic.
Still, I would’ve thought not having another dragon around would make him scared, but he was doing alright, thank goodness.
Aeson came up beside me with another towel and asked, “Can I help?”
“Of course.”
He wiped the baby’s feet off, and his golden eyes watched Aeson intently.
“He’s so cute,” Ace said, his voice still soft. “It is a he, right?”
“I… I honestly don’t know how to tell, but… I think so? That’s what I’m… sensing, I guess.”
“I’m sensing he’s a boy too.”
I glanced at him. “Really?”
Aeson nodded and shrugged. “Don’t know why, but I am.”
“Same.”
Lyric and Chaos brought over the small tub filled with warm water, and Nash brought over more clean towels and a few big blankets. Ace and I gave him a quick bath, making sure to keep him warm the entire time.
By the time that was finished, Win was back with the bottle, so I sat on the couch with my arm propped on the armrest, holding the hatchling like he was a human baby, and offered the bottle.
He didn’t know what to do at first, but as soon as I rubbed a little of the formula over his lips and he licked it, he drank the bottle down quickly.
He fell asleep after that, and Aeson took a turn holding him.
Winter sat beside me and nudged me with his shoulder. “It’s like you have a real baby in the house.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Yeah, it really is. What am I going to do now? He can’t be left alone for like… months. Am I supposed to take him to work with me?”
Win grimaced. “I… don’t know, sweetheart, but we’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“You really… you’re really okay with this? Like… this is going to change everything. At least for a little while.”
Wrapping his arm around me, he tugged me in. “Of course I’m okay with it. I want to help, sugar butt. I’m here. You’re not doing this alone.”
I stared into his ice-blue eyes for a long moment, taking in his expression, his sincerity, his passion, his affection for me, and my chest filled with more warmth than it ever had.
This man truly cared about me, and he was ready to take on anything with me.
It was a miracle, honestly.
Only… there was one more thing that might change his mind.
I stared at the kids, Lyric, Maggie, and Nash, who were all taking turns holding the baby dragon. The kids who didn’t have a home.
I turned to Win with a sigh. “Soooo… I have another question… another thing that might, you know, change things. Do you think…” I trailed off, biting my lip, unsure of what I was trying to ask.
“Do I think what?”
I sighed again and buried my face in my hands before glancing at the teens to make sure they couldn’t hear us. “Do you think we could get the kids to stay here?”
He stared at me for a few seconds before a slow smile spread over his face. “I… was wondering when you’d ask that.”
I blinked. “What? Really?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I kinda figured you’d want to foster them.”
I stared at him for a long time before slowly asking, “And you’re okay with that?”
His eyes widened in shock. “What? Why wouldn’t I… I mean, of course I’m okay with that. I want to help those kids too. I just… I’m not allowed to foster them.”
My brow furrowed. Huh? Why wouldn’t he be… oh. Shit. He was technically an ex-con. “Oh.”
He snorted. “Yeah, oh. Actually, if you’re going to officially foster them, you probably can’t tell them I’m here all the time.”
“You really think that would matter?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
I took a deep breath. “Okay, well, I still have my fostering license, and I even have the emergency foster certificate. So I should be able to take them in immediately without making them go to a home or something first.”
“I didn’t know you had your license. Don’t you have to renew it every year?”
“Yeah, I… after Laney, I just… kept renewing it.” I couldn’t even explain why exactly, but it had never felt like a big deal.
All I’d had to do was get CPR certified every year, take the online test, and pay a fee. I guess I wanted to be prepared in case I ever ran into another Laney, and… well, it was a good thing I had because the twins needed help.
The only problem was trying to get them to accept it.
“Alright, so what’s the plan? How are we gonna convince them to stay here?” Winter looked so earnest, so willing and eager to help the twins that it made my heart melt.
Right at that moment, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I’d fallen hard for the man in front of me. I’d fallen so far, so deep that there was no getting me out of it.
And for once, I was happy for the fall.