Epilogue
Iris was by my side, arm wrapped around me, staring out at the crowd of humans going about their lives the way I never thought they’d be allowed to.
“It still doesn’t feel real,” I murmured.
Her arm squeezed. “But it is, and it’s because of you.”
I side-eyed her with a sassy look. “Um, I think you mean it’s because of you.”
She opened her mouth, but Blade was suddenly in front of us, on his knees with his hands on my stomach, whispering, “Hey, little dragon miracle baby. Daddy Snarls is on his way because he found out I let your mommy venture into town after promising my days of defying him were long over.”
I didn’t have time to respond because I was suddenly cradled in said Daddy Snarls’s arms. Blade had taken a direct kick to the chest and was on his back, laid out with a mischievous smirk on his face. The humans and dragons around us froze in fear.
It didn’t matter how many months went by, but my dragon still struck a menacing figure whenever he was in the city. It didn’t help that this was the second time in two weeks he'd done this in public.
“Love,” he snarled under his breath, “the little one is due any day—”
I dropped my arm around his shoulders and put a hand on my huge and round stomach. “And last I checked, I wasn’t your captive,” I retorted with a smirk of my own.
His jaw clamped shut, teeth grinding. Dark hair fell all around his eyes and his powerful body was covered in scales. He was on the edge of transformation because he was a goddamn worrywart. “It’s not safe—”
“If I called to you, would you come?” I asked, catching the two dragons nearby failing to hide their amusement. “If me or the baby were ever in danger, do you think I wouldn’t call you?”
“I only—”
“Daddy Snarls,” I cut in, giggling. “It’s fitting.”
Onyx’s eyes danced with barely contained rage. Not at me. Never at me. His accusatory stare shot off the direction of the one he blamed for every new nickname I claimed as my own over the last year. The dragon who’d quickly become something of a friend and confidant when Iris wasn’t available.
Blade offered his brother a one-shoulder shrug. “She’s my beloved sister, Daddy Snarls. I’m hers to command.” His eyes caught on the dragon Onyx brought with him. “Boris was in on it, too.”
Boris cursed under his breath when Onyx shot a glare at him over his shoulder. The blonde-haired warrior acted like he couldn’t care less what anyone else wanted, but he always came through for me. He’d been another surprise friend and confidant I hadn’t expected.
The warrior at least had the good sense to look apologetic, unlike Onyx’s brother. “Forgive me, Boss.”
“You know how precarious her condition is,” he growled at the two, ignoring my annoyed sigh.
My big snarly dragon was all rage and wrath until I touched his face and gave him a kiss in apology. “I wanted to make sure the new little ones in the community were doing well. You know how rare it is to have so many born in one month. Their mothers need support the same way I will.”
“You’re due any day, little Moon Beast.”
“I’m aware. It’s me who’s carrying around this little energetic demon every day,” I argued, readjusting in his arms again. I was never comfortable. The last week had been nothing short of torture.
He clicked his tongue in chiding. “Iris and the other females can tend to them. You’re always putting yourself last, love. It’s bloody maddening.”
My eyebrow rose and I brushed the line of his scruffy jaw with my thumb. “Takes one to know one, Daddy Snarls.”
He huffed but didn’t argue. “I’ve asked Iris and Blade to oversee the faction in my stead.
No more sneaking off. I’ll be your shadow until I deem you safe and supported.
It’s been made painfully clear to me that you’ve enchanted too many in our faction to trust you wouldn’t find a way to evade my orders again.
My dragon is very angry with you, little beast.”
“You both are overprotective brutes, you know that?” I complained, sensing his dragon’s irritation. “But I can’t help but love you for it.”
True to his name, it was nothing but snarling complaints all the way back to the castle.
It’d been renovated to be something of an educational haven for the new young and human community who’d never been given access to any kind of learning.
As it turned out, when you give a species freedom and support, their population thrived.
Iris and I dedicated the past year to cultivating the new dynamic in our faction for its betterment.
Dragons and humans alike had become inseparable.
Positions were given on merit, not what or who they were.
The dragons of old were ousted or chose to pledge allegiance to the new ways, and while it hadn’t been easy, it was infinitely happier. No one could argue otherwise.
The sectors had grown together instead of dividing.
More effort was put into universal actions to make each sector thrive the same way as the main city had.
And in the last few months, we’d even become friendly with allied dragons and wolf shifters, inviting them to travel in and out of our lands at will.
Onyx said it reminded him of the utopias built in the years before the Fall, but better.
My stomach squeezed the way it had the last two days, burning enough to notice, but not enough to call attention to it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hide anything from my overprotective dragon.
“Are you in pain, love?”
“Just the normal squeezing and burning,” I mumbled, holding my rock-hard stomach. “It’s been doing this for a few days, so I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“What?” he growled, eyes shifting down the corridor to where our room was. “Days? Why have you not said anything? The doctor—”
“Is busy enough with the new influx of pregnancies, Onyx.”
I hissed when the burning and squeezing came again, sooner than I was used to. Then it held on for longer, hurting worse. I breathed through the pain, exhaling to keep focus. I’d been tortured for so many years, undergone torment of all kinds, so this was nothing I couldn’t handle.
Onyx’s expression changed, and without waiting, he dashed down the corridor, past our room, all the way to the wing where we had several doctors. His hand touched my stomach as I exhaled another hiss, and his crazy ocean eyes searched the room.
“Where’s the doctor?!” he roared, causing everyone to freeze when the beastly tone of his voice hit.
The pain that came next was debilitating in a way nothing ever had been.
It constricted from the inside, and it felt like someone had taken a knife and cut me open with it.
It was a haze of voices as I was put on a bed and fussed over by the doctor who’d traveled from one of the sectors to work in the castle only a few months prior.
She’d worked alongside several dragons familiar with our interspecies breeding and the pregnancies over the decades. Her insight into our bodies had helped them learn better techniques, and their joint venture had made it safer to deliver the babies within our faction.
“When did this start?”
“A few days ago,” I whispered, the pain never pausing.
“Bloody fucking hell, I shouldn’t have left her. I should’ve fucking stayed,” Onyx growled, hands brushing through his hair in irritation, as he paced back and forth.
The doctor nodded to a few others and checked me.
“She’s fully dilated. This baby is coming fast, so I need you out of the way.
Go keep your mate focused. Hold her hand,” she commanded the leader of the Sky Demons, because in here she was in charge, and he knew it.
He walked over to the head of the bed as she whispered directions to the few around her.
“Maze,” she said in a soft, gentle voice, “I’m going to need you to push. Dragon babies come quickly. Your body, like its gestation, is altered, so it doesn’t happen the same way. You need to push now.”
Everything felt like it was going impossibly fast and incredibly slow all at the same time. I did what she told me, as if my body knew what it needed to do. I pushed hard and didn’t breathe. I let her words guide me.
Onyx held my hand and touched my head, soothing me with words I didn’t hear.
I was focused on the feeling in my body.
The pain. The desperation to meet the little one who I’d only found out about a few months prior.
Dragon babies gestated shorter than humans did, I was told, and I’d been given so little time to come to terms with it.
But what I knew was that I’d love this baby the same way I loved this impossibly kind and formidable male.
I couldn’t let myself see the fear in Onyx’s eyes, knowing that dragon births had a very high maternal death rate, even with the advancements we’d made.
He’d begged me not to keep it. He’d pleaded with me not to risk it.
He didn’t want to lose me, because even with our mate bond, there was no guarantee I’d survive or that my body would heal itself if anything went wrong.
And then I heard the baby’s wail.
The doctor handed a little wriggling form wrapped in a blanket to the person next to her. “It’s a little girl,” she said, a tear streaming down her face. “A little girl dragon.”
Onyx watched the swaddled babe as they brought her over to me. The doctor continued to work below me, but all I saw was her.
I caught my dragon’s gaze, smiling. “It’s a little girl, Daddy Snarls.”
His eyes were misty as he beamed a smile at me, nodding. “She’s as perfect as you are, little Moon Beast.”
“What should we call her?” I asked as the doctor cleaned me up.
His head tilted. “You’ve done all the hard work, love. I think it’s only right you choose the name.”
Nodding, I peered down at her sweet little face. “Adora.”
His throat bobbed, a tear escaping down his cheek. “My mother’s name?”
“It’s perfect, don’t you think?”
He dropped a kiss on both of our foreheads. “It is.”
The room cleared, and the dragon next to me breathed a grateful sigh. I’d delivered our little dragon miracle safely, and she’d have the best life we could offer because we’d never stop fighting for a better future.
The End.