I held him close. “I’m here. I’m here for you, and Kirin, and for any eggs and hatchlings to come. I don’t plan on going anywhere.”
A sob caught in his throat. “I need you. I love you. You can’t leave me.”
“Never.” I stood, taking his hand in mine. “C’mon over this way. Sit with me on the couch.”
As soon as I settled on the cushion, Ladon curled up beside me, resting his head on my lap.
I ran my fingers through his hair until his whole body seemed to relax. Then I heard his soft snoring.
Carefully taking my phone out of my pocket so I didn’t wake him, I called Nancy’s diner and ordered dinner to be delivered. My mate needed to rest because he was eggbound. I was going to be a father.
Chapter Nineteen
Ladon
Two months later…
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Blaze took my hand in his and kissed the back of it.
I nodded as I rubbed my expanded belly. “I’m not feeling like I can fly right now, and I’m still worried about what a shift will do to my egg.” All the other dragon shifters from Cloudhaven had assured me both me and my egg would be fine, but I still worried. I wasn’t anywhere near as graceful changing forms as them since I hadn’t shifted for so many years. “I’ll be fine here. I’ll wait for you all to come back.”
“You ready, big guy?” He turned to Kirin who was harnessed up, ready to fly with the dragons without the ability to do so. In a few more years, he would experience his first shift back to his dragon form and learn to use his wings, but until then, he wore a harness and a helmet and was carried by Blaze.
“Yep.” Kirin knocked his fists against his helmet. “I can’t wait to fly again.”
“Okay, stand back for a moment.” Blaze removed his clothes and handed them to me before he shuffled out into the clearing, needing room to shift without knocking anyone over the edge of the cliff. Once he was on his hands and knees, his back arched and his skin rippled.
Kirin stood beside me and held my hand, watching him shift with wide eyes. “I can’t wait until it’s my turn to do that.”
“Soon enough,” I assured him, though when it happened, I was sure it would feel too soon. He was already growing up too fast.
Blaze’s face elongated as scales popped up all over his body. Wings split his back open and flapped around while claws grewon the tips of his now-webbed toes. In less than a minute, he was in his dragon form, beautiful golden scales with darker edges and a long, muscular body. He’d told me that the day he rescued us from the sinkhole, his shift had happened much faster, but he hadn’t been thinking about changing forms, only getting to me.
As he swung his neck around, I held my hand out to his face. He blinked, his long eyelashes fluttering in the gentle breeze. “Take care of him.”
He nodded before flapping his wings and hovering just above the ground.
I moved Kirin under him to attach my son’s harness to Blaze’s legs. It wasn’t the first time my mate had taken my son flying, but it was the first time from atop a cliff. There were other dragons already flying over the valley below. It was an end-of-summer tradition, though we’d never participated before with Blaze being on shift the previous years we’d been in Cloudhaven and me not trusting anyone else to take Kirin.
Once I was satisfied with their connection, I kissed Kirin on the head and rubbed Blaze’s scaly belly. “Okay, you’re good to go.”
Quickly rushing off to the side, I watched as they flew over the edge of the cliff, Kirin whooping with glee as he soared with his arms spread out under Blaze. They joined the other dragons with their children, weaving amongst them as the kids waved and shouted to each other.
A sudden pang twisted in my stomach. Yes, I was jealous at not being with them in the sky, but my envy had never felt so intense. I groaned when the feeling came again, bending over and holding my belly.
“Are you okay?” Garret, one of the mates of a firefighter from the same station as Blaze, came over and rubbed my back. “You’re really pale.”
“Not sure.” I sat on the ground with his help and tried to breathe through the pain.
“How long have you been eggbound?” He rubbed my shoulders and used Blaze’s shirt to wipe my forehead.
“A couple months.” I winced through another sharp pain. “Doctor tested me at the beginning of the summer.”
Garret shook his head. “You shouldn’t be out here. You should be at home, nesting. You’re going to lay your egg anytime now.”
“But I felt really good today. I didn’t want them to miss this.” Both had been talking about it for weeks, and after a string of days where I hadn’t had much energy, I believed I was finally feeling better from whatever ailed me.
He gripped my shoulder. “Well, you need to get home, or you’re going to lay your egg right here. I don’t think you want to incubate it on the side of a cliff.”
