Chapter 14
Konrad
Iwas over being pregnant. I could not see my feet or, more importantly, my own shaft.
I struggled to help Egon in the kitchen because my stomach was in the way.
I could barely get up from the chair at times, and if I ended up on the floor for whatever reason?
Forget it. I was not getting up without Aleric’s help.
I sensed one baby, heard one heartbeat, but my size argued with that.
I was the size Dad had been all those years ago when he was carrying the twins.
Did that mean I simply couldn’t hear the other baby?
My dragon was insistent that there was only one baby.
One very large dragon. Aleric would have a strong son, he told me.
I had to agree. But I was already tired of being pregnant.
My mate made up for it though. He was sweet and attentive and realized I was uncomfortable.
He continually rubbed my back, my feet, my legs, everywhere.
Of course, that usually ended the same way that caused the pregnancy—with his knot locked inside me.
Not that I would complain about that. Never.
But I missed the privacy the cave had provided.
Not that I wished to trade it for the comforts of the cottage.
Egon had been amazing, and Ferdinand was welcoming from the start, but it took me a bit longer to warm up to him.
I took what Egon had said to heart and discovered that Ferdinand was a whole lot like my own mate.
Well, actually, the other way. Aleric was much like his alpha father.
I wasn’t sure why that meant I struggled to be as open with him as I was with Egon and Aleric.
Ferdinand was a somewhat more intense version of my mate, but when I discovered he had a sweet spot for sweet bread, I raided the honey jar and made it for him.
Egon simply smirked at me and nodded in approval.
“Konrad, are you wishing to dust the floor with flour?”
I glanced at the floor, but all I could see was my protruding stomach. I took a few steps back and growled in frustration. That was how I usually ended up on the floor. The flour from baking ended up on my stomach, then dropped to the floor.
“I will clean it up for you.”
“No, Egon. It is my mess. I should be the one to do it.”
“But I’m not the pregnant one. You are.”
Egon came at me with a cloth in hand, and when I went to take it from him, he held it away, then dropped to his knees to clean up the mess.
I started to join him, but a harsh look from him had me stopping.
Instead, I went to the chair on the other side of the worktable and sat down, frustrated.
It was much more difficult to work while sitting but certainly safer.
I could see the work area, and my stomach didn’t get in the way.
Egon stood back up, took the cloth to the tub, and rinsed it out before hanging it on the peg on the wall.
“I vaguely remember being pregnant with Aleric. I felt as big as our hut. Ferdinand made the mistake of making a joke about our son entering the room minutes before I did once.”
I gasped. Egon looked at me and chuckled as he nodded.
“Once. He slept outside for a week. I might have stayed mad longer if I hadn’t gone into labor.”
I was not going to laugh. I truly wasn’t.
Until Egon snorted. That was what broke it for me, and I started laughing.
Egon joined me, and we were still laughing about it when Ferdinand and Aleric returned from wherever it was they were continually disappearing to outside.
There was only so much firewood that needed to be chopped, and we had more than enough food to feed us, so I figured they were spending time flying, enjoying the freedom of doing so during the daylight hours.
That was something I couldn’t wait to experience again.
“What is so funny, mate?” Aleric asked me as he crossed the room and stood next to me. Immediately, his fingers threaded through the curls on my head, and I closed my eyes for a moment before I looked up at Aleric and smirked.
“Your father sleeping outside for a week because of a comment he made to Da when he was very pregnant with you.”
Ferdinand gasped and looked at his mate, then at their son. “Son, do not make the same mistake I did. We do not speak of such things.” Ferdinand looked honestly worried about his past blunder. I felt bad for him.
“What did you do?” Aleric seemed quite concerned about what his father had done.
“It is in the past, son. We will not speak of such things ever again.” Ferdinand gave Egon a stern look, but he was not having any of it. He put his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow at his mate.
I sighed. My own parents had been like Aleric’s at times. Sure, my alpha father was a stickler for tradition and was overly protective, but the love he had for my Dad was undeniable. Thinking about that made me remember them during those moments and how much I missed them.
“Come walk with me?” Aleric asked, holding out his hand.
I took it, allowing him to help me up from the chair.
When I went to let go, he gripped my hand tighter.
I smiled at my mate and allowed him to lead me to the door, where he stopped and grabbed my coat.
I slipped my arms inside while he held it for me.
It no longer closed in the front below the top three buttons, but it was better than nothing.
We left the cottage, and I had to squint against the bright sun shining off the snow that covered everything.
There was a narrow path from Aleric and Ferdinand’s traveling back and forth, and I had thought it would lead to where they went to shift.
I discovered it went out behind the cottage and over into the cluster of trees not far away.
I followed behind Aleric, holding on to his hands as he held them behind his waist. We walked maybe ten minutes, Aleric’s pace slow—something I was thankful for. My mate knew that my balance wasn’t what it normally was, and the snow didn’t help.
When he stopped, he pulled me around him, and I could only stare in shock.
“What do you think?”
My mouth dropped open, and Aleric chuckled.
“I take it that is a good look. Do you like it?”
I was staring at the shell of a cottage.
I looked at my mate. “Is it ours?”
“It is. We won’t have glass for the windows until after the baby comes. Same goes for the cookstove. We can bring our bed from the other cottage, but we will have to furnish the main room. Do you want to see inside?”
Did I? Was he being serious? He was building us our own cottage.
“Of course I do.”
I let Aleric lead me through the doorway and into the large rectangular structure that was the shell of our very own cottage.
Realization hit. “Is this what you and your father have been doing? You’ve not been out flying around for hours at a time?”
“We do fly around, yes, but most of our time has been spent here working on the cottage. It won’t be ready before the baby arrives, but when the temperature warms up, we could be here on our own. I hope you don’t mind staying with my fathers for a bit longer.”
They were building us a cottage. “Wait. You said glass. Where did you…how?” Egon had glass in his cottage windows. It was a nice addition and allowed light in from outside in the long winter, whereas the houses in my village all had to have the windows boarded up.
“The same way Da got glass for his cottage windows. When he and Father were gone for a few days last month?”
I nodded.
“They not only purchased you some clothing and the cloth for new things but ordered the glass for the windows. A stove and tub as well.”
I couldn’t believe I was going to have such luxuries in my own cottage. They had done that? For us?
“Why didn’t they say anything?”
“Because to them, it isn’t a big deal. You are family. You are my mate, and although they would be perfectly happy with us never leaving the other cottage, they understand we would like our own place.”
Aleric’s family, mine now, had been so welcoming and accepting. From the very beginning, they’d accepted me, treated me as one of their own, and did whatever they could to help me settle here.
I took several deep breaths and leaned back into my mate when he wrapped his arms around my shoulders.
“They love you, Konrad. Just as I knew they would. Hindsight being what it is, I should have already had a place of my own. We have been here many years, but I never bothered to work on my own place.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Aleric was quiet for a moment, and I knew he was collecting his thoughts. “I did not think I would stay here, to be honest.”
That shocked me. I turned and looked at my mate.
“I only came for the same reasons you experienced. There were so many people there. I knew it was best to leave. Safer. My father dreamed of a place. A mountain to the west. Here we are. But there was nobody here, and since I did not find my mate here as I’d hoped, I didn’t think it necessary.”
I looked out at the mountain through the cracks in the logs of the cottage. We were certainly on top of a mountain.
“I had a similar dream to Father’s. One that was of a gorgeous man with icy-blue eyes, and he needed my help.
Even in my dream, my dragon recognized you as my mate.
I dreamed of you chained to a wall. A voice, soft and feminine, called out go to him.
I left as soon as I could. You already know this though. ”
I did. He had shared it with me before we flew across the ocean. I had no idea who had sent him those dreams, but I was thankful they had.
“What are your plans for the house?” I asked, hoping to pull my thoughts away from the time I’d spent chained and in captivity.
Aleric looked at me. “I was thinking we could do it a lot like the other cottage. At least for starters.” Aleric turned me to the right. “I was thinking we could put our room over there.” He spun us around to face the other side. “Then we could put the baby’s room over there.”