Page 30 of His Unicorn Alpha
“Does that mean you’re moving to Shifters Sanctuary?” Eric asked him without any tact. “Joining our pack?”
I didn’t have time to tell my brother that he was out of line because Micah was already nodding. “Yes. I don’t think I could move back to New York now. Not with this bond.” He rubbed at his chest, where I knew he could feel the link between us. I felt the same inside me, too.
“But…you dislike small-town life,” I argued softly. “And then there’s your work. There aren’t many calls for makeup and hair artistry here.”
Micah shrugged, and his pretty long hair swayed with his movement. “So maybe I need to travel interstate occasionally. This will still be my home base.” His expression became uncertain. “Unless you don’t want me here.”
I couldn’t call what we shared ‘love’. Not after barely knowing him for a day. But I still felt affection for him: a draw from our fated connection which I couldn’t quite explain, but which felt right regardless of its inexplicability. “I most certainly want you here,” I confessed, feeling vulnerable despite knowing that he had just told me exactly what my omega wanted to hear. WhatIwanted to hear. “I want to get to know you as my mate. As the father of my children. But I only want this if you truly do, too. If you can be happy with a life here.”
“My bet—alpha,” he corrected himself with a bewildered sounding chuckle. “Man, that feels weird to say. Anyway, my alpha has felt settled here since I arrived. I wasn’t happy in New York. Especially not after coming here for the wedding at Christmas.”
I frowned. “We never met. It is strange that you felt the pull of the bond even without any sort of encounter to spark it.”
“Can we move back to the living room so I can ask questions about all of that?” Eric prodded, reminding me of his presence. I had gotten so wrapped up in my discussion with Micah that I had forgotten we had an audience.
A suddenly gleeful, invested, and hyper-curious audience.
“Should you maybe eat or drink something with electrolytes in it or something?” Micah fussed at me as we followed my brother back down the short hallway. “All that throwing up might make you dehydrated, right?”
“Oh, I like this one,” Eric declared, pushing me to sit before he headed into the kitchen on the other side of the cozy combined living and dining space. “Good thinking, Micah. Looks like the alpha urge to protect and nurture is already kicking in. Or is that just your usual personality?”
Eric opened my refrigerator and barked a laugh, likely at the multiple bottles of ginger beer I had accumulated. Sure enough, he pulled a half-empty bottle of the amber colored liquid froma shelf and twisted the lid, releasing a hiss of effervescence. He found me a glass and filled it, then returned the bottle to the refrigerator before bringing the glass to me. I sipped at it and immediately felt the remaining turmoil in my belly begin to fade.
Micah seemed to be considering Eric’s question, and he shrugged. “I wouldn’t say I’m any more nurturing or protective of people than most. But when I care about people, yeah…I can be, I guess.”
Eric hummed and tugged his phone from his pocket. I knew he was opening his notes app, ready to ask us plenty of invasive questions.
He looked up at us expectantly, fingers poised over his keypad. “So, first thing’s first; the pull between you. You say you felt it before you met?”
Micah nodded while I shook my head. “I didn’t feel it until we saw each other across the parking lot the other day. Before that…no. I didn’t feel any need to seek him out.”
“But you, uh, you said yourself that you couldn’t wait to get those embryos implanted, right?” Micah suggested cautiously. “What if that satisfied the instinct for you? Because I started feeling it after I was here for Beck and Ollie’s wedding. Not in the same way Beck and Ollie talk about being desperate to find each other again, but after I left, it was like…like this itch under my skin. Like I had to turn around and come back, but I didn’t know why.”
“I can see the logic in that argument, actually,” Eric straightened in his seat, his eyes taking on their usual gleam when it came to his research. He turned to me, “And it would also explain why you didn’t stop to think a bit more rationally before you acted. Some part of you was being driven to be bred by your alpha in whatever way was available to you.”
I was not going to argue with him. It might have been selfish of me, but if it meant that he would feel less hurt by justifyingmy actions in such a way, who was I to tell him it was unlikely? Besides, I could also see the logic and, looking back, I could acknowledge that my irrational behavior was out of character. Ihadfelt as though I needed to act urgently. While I wasn’t certain it could be all attributed to the pull towards my mate, it was possibly a contributing factor.
I nodded. “It is possible, yes. I was not thinking clearly once I realized they were my ovum. My eggs.”
I felt Micah’s amusement travel over our bond before he snickered out loud. “Dragon eggs,” he said, by way of explanation.
I felt fondness for him even as I groaned. “Please tell me you are not under the impression that my kind lay eggs.”
“Well, I’m notnow. But I was obsessed with the mythology of dragons as a kid.” His cheeks flushed pink. “I was actually kind of disappointed that I didn’t get to see you or Eric shift when I visited.”
Concentrating on sending him back my continued feelings of fondness and some reassurance, I told him, “I will gladly shift for you, Micah. And I would very much like to meet your horse, too. In my human form as well as in dragon form.”
The pride and excitement which radiated back at me was adorable.
Eric cleared his throat and eyed us both. “This is fascinating,” he told us. “You’re practically strangers, but you’re already so comfortable with one another. How does the bond feel?”
“Good,” Micah answered. “It feels…right. Like it was a piece of myself I didn’t know was missing.” He scrunched his nose. “Whichshouldbe weird. Like you said, we were strangers a few hours ago. And now…”
“Now we are deeply connected,” I finished for him. Then I looked back at my brother. “It feels right, however we are stillboth autonomous. We will have to work towards maintaining an amicable relationship.”
“Just amicable?” Micah asked teasingly, and I snorted.
“That was my chosen euphemism, yes.”
