Page 21 of Hoarded By the Dragon

Will our kid listen at doors? I internally groan. In this whole getting attached business and my confidence that I can actually raise a child, I forgot one very important fact.

I was a terror as a kid. Always getting into places I shouldn’t have and knowing way more than I was supposed to. Is this karma?

Kalos narrows his eyes and looks like he wants to snap me in half, but he opens the door wider, and I enter the office.

There’s a heavy masculine energy to the room. All carved wood, bookcases, and dark walls.

“Well?” Kalos prompts.

I really can’t stall much longer. “I’m pregnant.”

“Congratulations.”

I’m thrown off for a moment at his quick and decisive tone.

“It’s yours.”

I can’t watch his expression, so I glance at Ben whose mouth drops open in shock.

There’s no shock from the dragon. He laughs. It’s not the warm laugh he’d given against my skin that night, this is cruel and sharp. “Your boldness truly knows no bounds.”

He doesn’t believe me.

I shrug momentarily at a loss for what to say. I’d anticipated disbelief, but not this confident cruelty.

“It’s true—”

“You return to the scene of your crime and proclaim the impossible. Perhaps you do want me to call the Council to report you.”

I blink, and terror flashes through me. If the Council takes me into custody, I’m not going to last long.

My heart starts to race, and it’s harder to breathe. It’s been difficult to keep calm, but when I get stressed, I lose more body heat. Body heat I can’t afford to lose. It’s already hard to keep my eyes open. My fingers are past numb, and I’d put on lipstick to hide the blue tint to my lips from passersby before coming here.

It hadn’t taken long after discovering the pregnancy to recognize that the little terror in my belly is doing something to throw my temperature off. It’s not just my temperature. It sucks heat away from everything. Hot baths only stay that way for a moment. The hand warmers in my pocket lasted an hour instead of the twelve they proclaim.

My shivering keeps me awake at night. I throw up anything I try to eat that isn’t above room temperature.

And it’s only getting more severe.

“You don’t understand,” I say, trying to keep calm. “I need help—”

“Perhaps go to the actual person who got you with child then and leave me alone,” he ends on a growl. The laugh is gone. His posture is casual, but his eyes show a banked rage I can’t even begin to understand.

My vision goes blurry at the edges.

“Do you think I want it to be yours?” I whisper. There’s the flicker of something in Kalos’s gaze, but I’m trembling with anger that I wish would give me warmth. “I haven’t slept with anyone else for the last year. If there were any other candidates, I’d go there first. I know exactly what you think of me because you told me so.”

“It’s impossible—”

“I don’t care!” I cut him off. The edges of my vision are getting darker, and it only makes my fear worse. “It doesn’t matter how it happened, I only know it did and that something is wrong.”

Kalos’s posture changes. He almost looks worried. The room shifts back and forth, and I blink to dispel the sway. Fuck. He’s finally taking me seriously, and now it’s too late.

“Let’s have you sit down, and Ben can get you something. Maybe some water or something to eat,” Kalos starts, but his voice starts to dampen, and I hear him curse as the darkness at the edge of my vision claims me.

7

KALOS

---