My hand slides to her face, cradling her jaw with reverence I have never shown another living thing. I kiss her slowly, my gratitude making my hand tremble.
“Thank you,” I breathe against her lips. “For my child. For all of them.”
She touches my face and smiles, and I close my eyes at the rush of love that pushes against my ribs like an inflatedballoon.
“Stay with them,” she says, pushing herself carefully to her feet, leaning on the counter for balance. “I should wake Kelan and Darial,” she says. “They’ll want to know.”
“Are you sure? I can go.”
“I’m actually fine.” She smiles. “You take care of them. Keep them warm.”
She moves slowly toward the bedroom, and soon I hear footsteps rushing back. Kelan arrives first, wide-eyed, and naked. Darial follows, his hair messy and his face stunned.
They stop in the doorway, staring at the three eggs in my arms.
Aura approaches behind them, pale but radiant.
For a moment, none of us says anything.
Then Kelan crosses the room in two strides and drops to his knees beside me, trembling hands hovering before he dares touch the black shell. Darial sinks down on the other side, awe written across his face as he reaches to touch the golden one.
“They’re… okay?” Darial whispers.
“Yes,” I say. “They are.”
Kelan’s composure fractures first. He rises and pulls Aura into his arms with a rough, shaking breath. He buries his face in her hair, inhaling deeply, as if to reassure himself she is real and whole.
“You carried my heir,” he murmurs, voice thick. “You endured this for us.”
He cups her face and kisses her hard, then again, and then more gently, his thumb wiping away her happy tears.
Darial joins them, sliding a hand around Aura’s waist, pressing a kiss on her temple.
“You’re extraordinary,” he says quietly. “You rewroteour fate.”
He lowers to his knees and presses his lips to her abdomen where the swell had been. “Thank you for my child.”
We all gather close, each of us holding what we’ve created together. Their warmth fills the room, and something inside me that I didn’t know was missing falls into place.
I pull Aura between us, careful with the eggs, and we sit in a circle on the kitchen floor, dragons, mate, and new life at the center. Our foreheads touch hers. Our hands find her skin. Aura watches us with our eggs, tears in her eyes, but smiling.
“This,” she says, voice thick with emotion. “This is the happiest I’ve ever been.”
A gentle, full silence settles around us.
Then her expression softens, becoming thoughtful and a bit wistful.
“I need to see Ahya,” she says quietly. “I need to see my daughter. I need to talk to her parents.”
I look up at her, then at the egg in my arms, then back again, and I understand why she’s telling us now. Ahya is family, and too much remains unresolved. Our mate is becoming a mother again, and it’s natural for buried feelings to rise to the surface. I don’t know what it’ll mean. Will she want to take the child from the wolves? If she did, I’d support her, but I’d regret having to fight good men and destroy the heart of a good woman. There is no easy way to separate when love is involved.
I look at my mate’s beautiful, glowing face. Her hands rest on her belly, as if she’s surprised it’s no longer round. In my arms, my egg pulses slowly, like a resting child’sheartbeat. I lift it to my lips and kiss the shell gently as love rises inside me.
Aura needs to face everything she’s kept inside about Ahya. She must make a choice that will affect all of us, and I’ll be there to support her, no matter what she decides.
“We’ll go,” I tell her. “When you’ve rested and you’re ready. We’ll go together.”
This time, she won’t need to face it alone.
