Page 47 of The Dragon's Flamebound Mate

Vexis looked up. “It looks like that was exactly what you needed.” He stood and promised to finish his talk later.

How could there be more? We were gone for hours.

“I’ll see you both tomorrow… mid afternoon work?”

“Do you think the eggs are hatching that soon?” We still had time by my account, but he was the doctor and had just spent time with them, so he’d definitely know better than me.

“Soon, but not that soon. I’ll be by every day so the two of you can fly. It will be better for you both not to hold back your shifts.”

We thanked him, and then after he left, we climbed in the nest to be with our clutch, where we told them all about our flight.

Epilogue

Zayne

Eversincethatfirstday back from competition—back when we were given our reprieve to go fly—Vexis had either come himself or sent someone in his place to make sure we had time to take to the skies. Although sent might not be the best way to describe it. From what I understood, there were people fighting over the chance to be the one with the eggs, and more than once a group came.

My beast wasn’t one who lived to hunt—not really—but during this time, every single day he hunted. My mate’s bird did, too. It wasn’t necessarily our plan when we walked out of the house, but our beasts always took over and found a creature that needed to be added to our menu. I suspected it had to do with the primal need to provide for our young, who were coming anytime now according to Vexis.

Of course, our time in the sky wasn’t exclusively about hunting. We also played, and honestly did a little bit of work, because that was who we were. But we always had fun and came back rejuvenated, ready to tell our eggs all about what we’d done while we were gone.

And while we were enjoying our time in the sky, our clutch heard stories about college life—far more about biology and hygiene than they probably were ever going to need in their lifetime—and even had some picture books read to them. Jay went so far as to describe the pictures as he went along. He was going to be a great father someday.

Today was different. As the time for us to fly approached, my dragon started to get antsy. From antsy he turned ornery, and now he was full-on holding me back.

“Zayne.” Ash reached up and cupped my cheek. “Something feels off with you. Are you alright?”

“I—don’t— I’m fine. It’s nothing.” I didn’t sound so sure, and I wasn’t. “But... let’s not go today. My dragon’s really pushing against that.”

“Oh, phew.” He rubbed his thumb along my cheekbone. “I thought it was just me. My eagle’s like, ‘stay in this nest and do not move.’ It’s not like him. Do you think that means—?”

He looked to each egg and then back to me.

Could it be? Were the eggs going to hatch today? We’d been told it could be any day now—that we would get to meet our young within the week. We were looking for any hint that it might be time and saw them where they didn’t exist. But this was the first moment that I suspected we really had a sign that it might be time.

And when Vexis showed up and we declined his offer to fly, he smiled bright. “All right. Out of the nest.”

I did not like that idea. Not one bit. Neither did my mate, his dragon close to the surface. But this was Vexis, and we trusted him or he wouldn’t be here.

Reluctantly, we both climbed out, neither of us going very far.

He took out a stethoscope—but not with the standard head. Instead, it had more of a wide cone tip, and he put it over the egg. It looked like something out of an old cartoon more than modern medical equipment. I supposed that was probably where they got the idea for the cartoon ones—finding one that had been tossed away and thinking it was ridiculous and could be a bit.

He listened to our first egg, then our second, then back to our first, and again to our second. Not saying a word, just listening. The silence was getting to be too much when he finally took them out of his ears and gave us a nod.

“I suspect we’re looking at about four hours. You’ll meet your little ones soon.”

Four hours.We had four hours to be ready to meet our children.

Ash’s jaw dropped, worry filling his face as if we weren’t already prepared.

We had cribs and bassinets, clothes that were washed and folded and put away. Diaper stations throughout the house, even though it wasn’t large by any means—but just in case. You never knew when they’d need a new diaper.

We also had two pumps and plenty of bottles so that we could both take turns with night feedings. There were toys and books—pretty much anything and everything that was considered baby gear.

Car seats? Check. Baby wraps? Check.

Slings? Check.

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