Grimbold
“It’s… um…” Everard faltered, peering at the ultrasound screen in his office.
“What?” Grimbold asked, frowning.
Harrison squinted at the image on the screen, adjusting his glasses up and down his nose. “Oh, my goodness!” he exclaimed. “It’s a dragonet! This is very exciting!”
Walter burst into tears that quickly developed into sobs. While Everard looked uncomfortable, Harrison seemed confused, and the lizard in the ridiculous white jacket ran and hid under the room’s chair, Grimbold scooped Walter up into his arms. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry. What’s wrong, sweet boy?”
“Dih-Dih-Dih—” Walter had a hard time speaking through wet hiccups.
“Disgrace?” Everard asked.
“Ev! For shame! You know better. Use the correct word,” Harrison admonished his mate. He looked like he’d have swatted Everard on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper had he such a thing in his hand.
“The one having difficulty with the correct word, cream pie, is our chrysanthemum here.”
Grimbold sat on the exam table with his shirtless and gooey—from ultrasound gel—mate on his lap. “It’s a child, Walter. Not a Disgrace. He’ll never go to the Pedigree. He’ll grow up and be whatever he wants to be, and maybe he’ll find his dragon mate one day.”
“Or she,” Harrison said happily.
“Wha-what?” Walter asked, craning his neck to see the omega.
“Your child. The dragonet. It might be a girl. I believe these things can go either way.”
“My child?” Walter asked, looking deeply into Grimbold’s eyes and waiting for something.
“No, sweetheart. Our child. Ours.”
Walter nodded then, a little jerkily. “O-Okay. Our child.”
* * *
Once the news got out that their father had mated and said mate was gravid, his sons trooped by to pay their respects. Reynard and his very peculiar omega, Alistair and Ignatius, and even Hugo, who looked at Walter’s increasing stomach with a combination of envy and pain, and did not stay long.
The last to visit were Sebastian and Peregrine, but only because Perry had been ill. He still looked fragile, even as he smiled at Walter and held both his hands.
“I’m beyond delighted to meet you, Wally,” Perry said. Sebastian grunted in agreement.
Walter gazed at Perry with openmouthed wonder. “I thought Vadim was the loveliest omega I’d ever seen, but you’re by far the most beautiful.” Then he clapped a hand over his mouth.
Perry smiled and kissed Walter’s cheek, then sat. “You’re far too kind. I look dreadful. I've not felt right for weeks.”
“But you’re well now, I trust?” Grimbold asked.
“I wouldn’t let him come here until Everard assured us he was well,” Sebastian said. “We had to know if what he had was contagious or not. It’s very rare for him to get sick.”
“And I’m much better now.” Perry patted Sebastian’s hand. “How are you, Wally? Are you well?”
Walter paused, as if weighing his words. “I’m better,” he finally said. “I wasn’t sure at first, but—”
Perry nodded his head, making his loose curls bob. “I understand, darling. Truly I do. You never expected anything at all, but then you think you’re with egg, and it turns out you’re with child.” His smile wobbled a slight bit. “But your mate is a fine man and he loves you.”
Walter looked at Grimbold. “He does?”
Before Grimbold could say a word, Perry took Walter's hand and squeezed it. “How could he not?”
How, indeed?Grimbold thought.
