Page 26 of Hoarded By the Dragon

Kalos takes the bag of food from Ben. “Give us a moment. When I leave for the meeting, I want you to take Katarina to her place so she can pack up what she’ll need for the next few days.

“You’re not bringing me to the meeting?” Ben asks.

“I need you to get her settled and keep her safe while I’m occupied.”

I raise a brow at that, expecting Kalos’s assistant to balk at being assigned as my watcher, but Ben nods solemnly. “Whatever you need.”

He leaves, and Kalos strolls toward me with the food. “I thought you may be hungry when you woke up.”

“It’s been hard to keep things down. It was trial and error to figure out that I can’t eat cold food.”

Kalos sits and nods, bringing out a Styrofoam container that smells like heaven from the bag and handing it to me. “That nausea shouldn’t be as bad now that you’ve received a surplus of heat.”

He gives me a fork, and I open the container. I don’t know what the food is, but it looks to be slow-cooked beef or pork. My mouth fills with drool, but the very scent of the food is spicy, and my shoulders slump.

“Uh, I don’t eat spicy food.”

Now Kalos grins. “You may want to try it before saying that.”

I hesitate, and Kalos takes the food from my hands. My body leans toward him to take the food back on instinct, even though I know I can’t handle the heat it’s going to dish out.

He takes my fork and digs into the dish before raising it toward me. “One bite.”

I blink at him and bend forward, gingerly accepting the bite as he feeds me.

Fucking heaven. “Oh my God!” I moan.

Kalos laughs, and I almost choke at the compelling sound of his delight, but manage not to.

“The babe will like most spices. It’s a chemical heat and provides you what you’ve been craving,” he says.

He seems to remember himself and hands the food back to me. I accept it greedily, taking another bite of bliss. The flavors aren’t what I’m familiar with, and there’s the slight burn of spice that had always been too much for me to eat, but it all blends together on my tongue. The joyous response of my body to the food is almost as good as the taste. It’s like every bite sparks happiness. I’m most of the way through the container before my craving releases me.

“Thank you,” I say. “It’s been challenging to anticipate the symptoms of this.”

Kalos looks away for a moment before returning his gaze to mine. “I didn’t mean to cause a child. I’m sorry you’ve suffered because of it.”

Embarrassment rages at what I have to admit. “It takes two to tango. I had an amulet to ward against pregnancy, but it wasn’t charged.”

Kalos shrugs as if I didn’t just admit to being the reason why I’m pregnant.

“The amulet shouldn’t have mattered. Dragons only procreate under specific circumstances and those weren’t met. As far as what I know, it should have been impossible.”

“Oh.” It’s not my fault. Not in the way I’d assumed it was.

This is a little more like fate. I’m not much of a believer in fate, but it’s hard to ignore the writing on the wall. I don’t want to call this bad luck…

“A miracle then,” I say.

“A miracle.” Kalos looks at my mouth, deep in thought, before shaking himself. “I need to prepare for my meeting. Ben will take you to pack what you need to be comfortable here.” He hesitates. “We can talk about more permanent changes tonight at dinner.”

And I’ve been dismissed. The abyss of my future gapes before me. Everything in my life is going to change. My baby’s life depends on my ability to be watchful and adapt to this situation.

9

KATARINA

The duffel bagI have open on the bed is only halfway full of personal items. Ben already teleported a suitcase of clothing to the guest room where I’ll be staying. Apparently, he’s the rare type of paranormal that can make portals and use them.

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