Page 45 of The Dragon's Flamebound Mate

Chapter 23

Ash

Aswonderfulasthecompetition was, I was happy to be home, with our regular nest and everything going back to normal.

The Games were invaluable. They showed us how much progress we’ve made, gave us the confidence and encouragement we needed to move forward, and mended some bridges I didn’t realize I needed mended so badly. The experience helped us grow as a team, and it showed us just how much our eggs were loved. It had been more than I ever could’ve dreamed of.

But regardless, coming home—that’s where it was at. There was something magical about being in the space that we’d created for our family.

Normal wasn’t truly normal, though, and never would be again. We were about to enter a new era of normal, and I couldn’t wait. We had a clutch about nearly ready to hatch, and we were about to take on our new role as fathers.

We barely had the eggs settled back in their true nest before Zayne and I made the easy decision to take time off until the eggs hatched. We’d been working nonstop and wanted to spend this time together, just us. We’d have visitors, of course. Our little ones were loved, and I had a feeling we were going to have a lot of random visitors.

“Is it weird I want to somehow use the little nest too?” I grabbed the back of my neck, trying to release the tension that had been building up there. It was great to have them in their regular nest, where we could snuggle around them—but also, the travel nest had been an important part of their time on this planet, too.

“We could put it inside, but then we can’t wrap around them.” Zayne named my only hesitation. “We could take it apart and weave it through the permanent nest?”

“Then what happens next time?”

It was way too soon to be thinking about another clutch, but also, we’d discussed having a large family, so ignoring that wouldn’t be helpful, either. And given our careers, moving clutches was a very real possibility no matter when we planned to grow our family. Besides, a travel nest was a good thing to have on hand, even if it was just lending it to his brother or another member of our community.

“Exactly.” His arm came around my shoulder. “Maybe we need to add more pillows.”

We definitely didn’t need more pillows. As it was, we could open a pillow shop and not run out of stock for a year.

We both circled around the nest, hand in hand, as if the answer would just pop out at us, and then… it did. A loose piece caught my eye, and I reached down and wove it in. It was something I’d done a bunch of times before and would continue doing. Only this time, it gave me an idea.

“We can do both.” I grabbed my mate’s face and kissed him hard before running to the junk drawer for a pair of scissors.

It wasn’t difficult to fine a piece loose enough to unweave until I had a long piece about a yard long. Zayne watched me, not saying a word, but I could tell he wanted to ask why I was deconstructing our travel nest. Not that I was going to take any more apart.

Weaving it into the full-size nest took no time at all, and now they were in both nests at once and we had room to snuggle them.

“You, my sexy mate, are a genius.” Zayne helped me climb inside and followed after.

We lied down with them in between us, our joined hands resting over them, giving them warmth. We took turns telling different dragon and golden eagle tales that were passed down from generation to generation to teach our history in a child-friendly kind of way. And also, in a way that wouldn’t get us into trouble if humans overheard them. We didn’t need humans knowing our histories.

I don’t know which one of us fell asleep first, but I felt more rested than I’d been in weeks when we woke. The sun was just beginning to set and the light coming in through the window was stunning.

“Our clutch is so beautiful.” I ran my hand over each of our eggs, “It’s going to be weird when they’re gone.”

I couldn’t wait to meet our little ones, but these eggs had been part of my life too. It was going to be difficult to have them not there when I first woke up in the morning or as I fell asleep. Once of my childhood friends had their shells in a shadowbox on the wall. Maybe we needed to consider something like that. I hadn’t heard of it being a dragon thing, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be.

“Do you hear something?” Zayne asked, and at first, I thought he meant maybe the dragonets were starting to move in the shell, the first sign of hatching.

But then I heard it too, someone was on our porch.

“Vexis.” Zayne shook his head and climbed out of the nest and out the door.

“Hold on, little ones.” I kissed one shell, then the other, before climbing out of the nest and going out to the porch, where I saw my mate sitting with Dr. Vexis.

“Did you come to check on the babies?” I asked.

“No, I came to see if you guys needed time to shift.”

Oh.

It was a weird thing for a doctor to come and offer, but it also sounded like a pretty good idea. In fact, it sounded absolutely amazing, my eagle already itching to get out.

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