A hatchling? I sobbed because that was my baby. Our baby, mine and Larkin’s. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes to prevent any more tears spilling out.
“The timing is a disaster,” I choked out.
Larkin and I had been mated for such a short time, and we were hiding our relationship. The cup final was coming up, and I was a firefighter who couldn't fight fires while I was pregnant. Ahhh.
My dragon didn't give a damn about fires and a competition. His role was to protect the life that was growing inside me.
“Okay.” I wiped my eyes and caught sight of myself in the mirror. Yikes, I was pale, with red eyes and a pregnancy test in each hand. “I have to tell Larkin.”
Not bothering with a text or a call, I headed to his place. This news wasn’t something you gave from a distance.
Larkin's truck was outside his place, so he was home. I left the engine idling as I wondered how my mate, a man who liked order and routine, would react to me dumping his news on his lap.
Larkin opened the door in a t-shirt and jeans with a cup of coffee in one hand. His face lit up before he frowned.
“Percy, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?”
“Can I come in?”
He stepped aside, and I walked past him into the apartment that smelled of coffee and him. I didn’t sit, this was a stand-up moment, but I did dig the car keys into my palm.
“I'm pregnant.” There was no easing into it or dragging it out by saying how much I loved him.
Larkin's coffee cup paused halfway to his mouth.His dragon was in his gaze, and he must have roared because Larkin’s body shook. Unless he was horrified. That was a possibility.
He was very still, not frozen but what he did when he was thinking. I'd witnessed it at the trailhead when we'd negotiated the rules and at the restaurant. Larkin examined an issue from all sides.
But I had two positive pregnancy tests in my jacket pocket and a dragon who was in nanny mode, and the silence was unbearable.
“Please say something.” I was the guy who joked and deflected and who filled silences with noise. But this wasn't a joke, it was my life and the baby’s. And I was waiting for the man I loved to catch up.
Larkin put his coffee cup down and pulled me to him. He wrapped his arms around me, and I rested my head on his chest and inhaled his scent. This was a good sign, though he hadn’t said anything yet.
“Pregnant,” he whispered into my hair.
“About a couple of weeks, give or take a stir-fry.”
He laughed, and we swayed together. I kept thinking of how his coffee was getting cold. When he pulled away, he cupped my face and peppered kisses over my cheeks before placing both hands on my belly.
“We can't hide our relationship any longer,” I whispered. "Not with me being pregnant.”
“I know.” He lifted my shirt and placed his hands on my bare skin. I wished we could stay like that and not have to face reality.
“And I can't compete in the last competition event.” That was the part I'd been dreading almost as much as telling him. I was Station 9's best competitor and pulling out would raise questions I wasn't ready to answer. But answering them was better than putting the baby at risk.
“We'll tell them the truth after the finale like we planned.”
“Larkin.” It was bad enough we’d been sneaking around, but telling a fib just didn’t sit right, and it didn’t sound like my mate. Besides, we might not make it that long. “I threw up at the station twice this week and cried at a dog food commercial. Briggs and Hallie are already suspicious.”
He grinned. “Dog food?”
“It was a very cute dog, all soft, warm, and cuddly, and I howled when he wolfed down the kibble.”
My mate kissed me again, but he was so careful, as if I’d become fragile.
“My dragon’s nanny-ing the baby.
The egg,my beast corrected me.
