Chapter 16
TYREL
As Paul had told me, I found my mother in the sitting room. She greeted me with a sweet smile that I knew from experience was fake and asked me to take a seat and did I want tea?
"No, thank you." I sat in one of the arm chairs across from her.
"You were in quite the hurry to get back here from the clinic…"
"I was."
She turned a tea cup in her hands. "Don't think nobody heard the noise from Adrian's room, darling."
"I wasn't thinking that for a minute." He had been quite loud, but I'd enjoyed every sound that I could pull out of him.
"So you freely admit that you've broken our agreement not to sleep with the applicants? What do you suppose the others are going to think of you now that you've slept with one of them?"
"I never agreed to anything, Mother. I only quietly went along with your plans for my own reasons. Besides, I care not what they think. I've made my choice."
"Is that so? Did your reasons, as you call it, not include securing an heir? Are you fine with letting the family fortune go to your brother?"
Mother did not speak of my brother very often. Sometimes I thought it hurt her to hear his name, so she must have been quite upset to bring him into this now.
"Rest assured that I don't plan on doing any of the sort."
"And yet you've picked Adrian."
"So I have."
"He'll not give you a child. Even the drugs won't take effect fast enough."
"I don't need drugs. He doesn't need drugs. He only needs someone not to be an asshole to him."
My mother raised an eyebrow at me. "And you're saying that someone is going to be you?"
I'll admit she had a point there. Up until meeting Adrian, I'd thought all humans were the same, and my opinion of them had been low, but I could change my views.
Also, there was that thing Michael had mentioned…
I didn't believe it myself, of course, but I was curious to hear what Mother had to say on the subject.
"How do you feel about the concept of fated mates?"
Mother raised an eye brow at me. "Fated mates?" she asked in a tone that indicated I was being a little bit silly.
I shook my head. "Forget about it."
"Are you trying to say you believe this human is your fated mate?"
"I'm not trying to say any such thing. I was only wondering if there was any truth to the stories."
"Please, Tyrel, our forefathers might have believed so, but it's become an antiquated notion."
"In theory, could a dragon's mate be human?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment. "The human omegas carry some dragon blood in them."
"Perhaps they're all supposed to be with dragons, then."
She laughed. "I never thought you'd come to me with such a topic."
"Me neither." But things had changed a bit over the last few days. "In any case, I've made my choice. You can send the others home."
"Are you sure, darling? We might have to send for them again in a few weeks when you realize your chosen partner cannot give you a child."
"That's not going to happen." I stayed firm.
"Very well, but don't say I didn't warn you."
I stood. "Do compensate the others adequately." They were just human, but they were still good people.
Mother nodded. "I suppose I can also make preparations to return to our island, then."
"Yes." We both smiled at the thought of going home.
This place wasn't bad, but it wasn't where we belonged.
Here, we couldn't be who we truly were. I couldn't wait to go back and show Adrian what I looked like when I left this human shell behind.
I had a feeling he'd be the first human I couldn't scare.
When I returned to Adrian's room, I was pleased to see that he was still naked, the way I had asked him to be. He could follow orders so well when he wanted to.
He gave me a cautious smile as I closed the door behind myself. "How'd it go?"
"I've told her that I've made my choice—and it's you."
He blushed a little as if he hadn't already known. As if I hadn't already left my marks all over him.
"And she's accepted that?" he asked.
"She must. She knows that she can't force my hand, no matter how much she'd like to do so.
" I approached the bed, sat behind him and rested one of my hands on his belly where I hoped new life might already be growing.
"There's one thing I haven't told you yet.
Something you would have been told in due time if we hadn't rushed into this. "
"What's that?" He didn't sound concerned as he leaned back into me.
"Carrying a dragon child is not the same as carrying a human child."
"How is it different? Will it be born looking like a dragon?"
"No." I chuckled. "No, that's not the problem. But the pregnancy will go faster and require more of your energy. That's why I sent William away and why I think Zane is too thin to carry. The little one would eat him alive."
"What exactly do you mean when you say faster?"
"Four to five months."
"Damn."
I laughed at the incredulous sound he made. "Now you see why our offspring take a lot out of humans."
"Should I be worried?"
I placed a small kiss on the back of his neck and heard him sigh softly.
"No. I would never have tried to get you with child if I didn't think you could take it.
I merely want you to know what's about to happen to your body.
You'll likely start showing around two months.
" And for some reason, I couldn't wait to see him like that.
The mental image alone made something within me, my most dragon part, want to growl possessively.
It was a ridiculous feeling that I didn't indulge, but it was there all the same.
He laid his hand over mine. "You'll have to buy me new clothes."
"Whatever you need."
He turned his head to kiss me. This time I almost did growl. Something about him made me lose the tight control I usually had on my animal instincts. As if his soul was calling out to mine and woke a part of me that I'd laid to sleep after I'd driven my father away.
"Do you really think this is going to work out? That we're going to have a child?"
I moved my hand from his belly to his cock, wrapping my fingers around the base. He was already starting to harden for me and the thought of sinking myself into his tight heat again made me respond in kind. "We could always make sure," I suggested.
"I guess we should."
We didn't exchange any more words after that.