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And now my mate was pregnant, carrying one egg or more.

“Tell me again how a human can carry eggs and not a live baby?” My mate was on the sofa staring at the nest I’d made so long ago.

I shrugged. I wasn’t an expert on dragon biology. “Both carrying a live baby and eggs means the omega looks after their little one both before and after birth or hatching.” I wanted Sheridan not to feel as though he was missing out on a life-changing experience.

“I’m not disappointed.” He leaned over and grabbed my hand. “It’s cool.” He side-eyed the nest. “But we have to improve that.”

Sheridan told me to ask my beast if we could toss out the old nest and begin again.

Yes, please.

We built the new one together. My mate bought a duvet from the secondhand shop and washed it. “Good as new.” He sniffed it. And my dragon ordered me around, insisting I buy brand-new blankets and pillows.

But I need not just soft things, but objects from the hoard must be in there.

I explained that Sheridan didn’t want to lay eggs on top of a marble and a chipped mug, but my beast poo-pooed that suggestion.

It has to be things of ours before we met Sheridan.

I did my best to point out my beast’s needs to my mate, and he patted my arm and told me to go ahead.

“I’ll avoid the sharp edges.”

Into the nest went a gray stone from the riverbank, a length of blue cloth, and the soldier from the shelf. Sheridan buried the stone under the duvet and wedged the soldier between two pillows. The light caught the dragon ring on his hand, and I bent over and kissed it, still unable to believe this was my life now.

“The soldier will make a good guard, making sure no one interferes with the nest.”

Word went around the building that we were building a nest, and the tenants lined up at the door. Clover left a basket of soft and yellow things she’d knitted outside the door. Mrs. Munro sent an email, telling us how to build the nest, and Rudy noted that my parents would have been proud had they known about my mate and pregnancy.

I doubted that was true because they’d turned their back on me, along with the rest of the flight.

Indigo appointed herself supervisor of the whole operation, and she came in most days after school to check on the progress. She had Marmalade roll around in the nest to prevent Pierogi from claiming it as his own. She decided the gray stone was boring, but as my dragon had chosen it, she allowed it. She asked Sheridan questions about the eggs and hatching that he couldn’t answer, and I did my best to fill in the blanks.

“Are you going to be a good dad?” She was perched on the edge of the sofa, and that question was directed at me.

I took a breath and gave her a hug because Indigo had experience with an absent omega father.

“I’m going to try, but I’ll never leave Sheridan or the baby, not ever.”

She nodded. “That’s good.”

By the end of his pregnancy, Sheridan couldn’t get comfortable anywhere but in the nest. He’d lie there in the evenings after work with the soft things tucked in around him. I’d sit beside him and my beast would eye both the door and Pierogi.

My mate tugged my shirt.

“What?”

“Are you expecting a horde to race through the door and dismantle the nest?”

My dragon tensed at the word horde until I explained the difference between that and his hoard.

“Dragons guard things. That’s what they do.”

“Okay, but I’m pretty sure Pierogi isn’t going to mount a rebellion.”

You never know. My beast wasn’t convinced.

Sheridan patted his belly. “Tell me it’s going to be okay, even if you aren’t sure.”