Page 32 of The Dragon's Flamebound Mate

It was Saturday. Our day off—sort of. We didn’t have practice until later. Since the team was doing so well, we didn’t need to push so hard, but we couldn’t let up on their conditioning. I knew part of the reason we slowed down on Saturdays had more to do with the team wanted me to have rest than anything else, but the truth was that they needed it too. If they got too hyper focused on winning, they were going to make careless mistakes. Finding some balance was essential.

“I’m fine,” I said, leaning into his embrace.

“Vexis will be here soon to do the ultrasound.”

I hummed with pleasure, both at his touch and the prospect of knowing what our clutch was going to be. The ultrasound would give us an approximate size of the eggs, as well as how many there were. There was the off chance that inside one egg, there would be two babies, but I couldn’t let myself think of that. As it was, this whole growing a dragon clutch was pretty overwhelming,

“Any guesses?” I asked. “On how many and all that?”

Zayne chuckled. “I mean, it’s somewhere between one and five.”

So very not helpful.

“Gods, it better not be five.” We’d survive if it was, but goodness gracious, that would be intense during those early days when they wanted to eat every two hours.

Clutches were usually around three eggs. My own clutch was just two. Five? That would require us buying a bus or something. Did they even make strollers large enough?

“How many were in your clutch?” I crossed my fingers that it was only two.

We hadn’t talked much about his siblings, mostly because work took up most of our time, and when we did, it wasn’t the tiny details. I knew how many siblings he had, but not how many were in his actual clutch. If it was one, that would give us a better chance of not five.

“Four. It was a rather large one, plus there were twins.”

I counted it out on my fingers. Five. Yep. There were five of them. I was doomed. With my luck, I was going to have five eggs all with twins, and suddenly, I’d have two flight teams in my own household.

“I really need to meet your siblings.” Selfishly, I wanted to hear about what my mate had been like growing up. My brother and I were rather close, but our childhood had been unique in that he was a dragon and I was an eagle. We didn’t have the typical dragon upbringing in many ways. I wouldn’t change it for the world, though. Not once was I made to feel less-than by my family because of my eagle. Other dragons, that was a different story.

Zayne had introduced me to his parents via a video call, and he’d added me to the family text chain, where he and members of his family included random updates. As a rule, I hated group chats. But with this one, I got to see glimpses of the people who helped my mate become the man he is today. It was fun and sometimes confusing to watch them banter away.

Being that they were all so long-lived, it seemed that they had grown apart over the years—not in a bad way, they all just lived different lives and were spread all across the world. I understood the why, but I found it a touch sad. Maybe I shouldn’t. They all appeared happy enough.

“They’ll visit. They’re excited for my first clutch. I know it seems like they aren’t a big part of my life, it’s just—”

“I get it,” I said.

“My parents usually come to at least one competition.”

I hadn’t known that, and it warmed me. How sweet to come support your child’s team even when they were centuries old. They were going to be amazing grandparents, that was for sure.

“That’s exciting.” I was glad that the team was going to be worthy of them. I was more than my job, but having them see the product of the hard work their son and I did felt important.

“And they’ll definitely be here to visit our clutch. They visit all of the clutches. They love being grandparents.” That didn’t surprise me, not one bit.

“Mine will as well.” I glanced back at the nest. My brother’s clutch was still young, and I couldn’t talk to my folks without hearing them gush about their grandkids. I loved it. And soon… soon they would do the same about our clutch.

“The nest looks beautiful, mate. You did a fantastic job.” He kissed my cheek.

“Thanks, but it’s missing something. I just don’t know what. I’ve been trying to figure it out and getting nowhere fast.” The feeling had been plaguing me for hours. I couldn’t rest until my nest was perfect, and for some reason, my eagle had determined that our nest needed something… I just didn’t know what. It would be nice if my eagle would just tell me already.

We had soft blankets, big fluffy blankets, small blankets that would fit an infant. There were blankets of varying materials: fleece, silk, satin, cotton. There were trinkets of varying sizes and even some toys that Zayne’s father had sent. And pillows—we had those galore.

Yet even with all of that, it was not complete.

“I might have an idea,” Zayne said. He stepped out onto the back deck and grabbed something off the table. When he brought it in, I realized it was a feather.

“Is that one of mine?”

He nodded. “You dropped it when you shifted last time. I picked it up. I thought it might look nice in here.”

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