Page 43 of His Unicorn Alpha
“That’s ominous.”
“That’s parenthood.”
Before I could respond, Brandt brought Cam back to his father. “I wish to continue playing, however Micah and I have plans to shift and meet each other in our shifted forms for the first time.”
Rex grinned. “How’d you get that past Eric? He’d want to observe something that huge, wouldn’t he?”
“He would,” Eric himself appeared behind us and Brandt stifled a groan as his brother approached. “Especially because you’re the first mixed-breed alpha-omega pairing. It only makes sense for someone to be there to document the occasion so we have a record of it.”
“And on that note,” Rex propped Cam on his hip and dipped his Stetson, “I’m out. I think this little guy’s ready for a bath and a nap anyway. Say bye-bye to Uncle Brandt and Micah and Eric, sweetheart.”
Cam waved and smiled. “No!”
Brandt chuckled.
“Seriously, though,” Eric arched an eyebrow as he looked between us, “you weren’t really planning on doing this without asking someone to take notes, were you?”
“I can take my own notes,” Brandt responded almost petulantly.
Having grown up as an only child, I’d never experienced what it was like to have a sibling, and it was amusing to watch Brandt interact with his youngest brother. Even though they were hundreds of years old, they really did seem to behave like pre-teens when they were together.
Will our three be the same?
The thought reminded me that I hadn’t even had a chance to see what adding the middle brother, Sage, into the mix did for their dynamic.
“Well, I’m coming with you,” Eric declared in the same sort of tone. “You’re too close to the situation to present an unbiased account.”
Brandt scowled, but I placed a placating hand on his shoulder. “Just let him, sugar. I want to see you shift.”
“Besides,” Eric added cheerfully, “it will be interesting to see if you feel the same sort of lethargy in shifted form that the other omegas reported during their shifts. Of course, you’re only just in the early stages of your second trimester, so we should definitely get you to shift at least once a week to monitor your energy levels across the rest of your pregnancy.”
Brandt gave me a baleful look. “He never switches off.”
“Maybe he needs an alpha of his own.”
“Gah,” Eric shook his head, and if I wasn’t mistaken, his already pale tone seemed to turn a little whiter. “No. Nope. Not for me. I’d rather just observe and record data. I don’t need the lived experience.”
Interesting.
I shared a glance with Brandt who winked back, then teased, “Are you afraid of mating, little brother?”
“Of course not,” Eric turned his nose up, his mop of blonde hair flopping backwards with the movement. “But not every omega wants the whole ‘picket fence with an alpha and two point three pups’ lifestyle. They shouldn’thaveto want it to be taken seriously, either.”
I felt a little guilty for being so amused at his refusal of a mate. “That’s fair,” I told him, nodding. “Your designation shouldn’t determine your life goals or your dreams. If you don’t want an alpha and kids, that’s not a bad thing.”
“But it is not wrong to want them, either,” Brandt defended his own feelings, and I took his hand, bringing it to my lips so I could brush a soft kiss over the backs of his knuckles.
“Not at all, sugar.”
“Anyway,” Eric shook out his shoulders. “Are we doing this thing or not? I have appointments in an hour.”
Brandt was magnificent. His dragon form washuge. At least the size of a small building, when you included his thick, scaled legs and his massive, spiked tail, not to mention his enormous head.
He had made me stand half a field away from him as he shifted, but as soon as his transformation was complete, I hurried towards him. The closer I got, the bigger he loomed.
His scales were a dark, blood red color. I had seen them before, of course, when they had framed his face during our mating, but to see the effect on the entire, massive dragon was something else. They glinted red in the sunlight, but would probably appear black at night time. His face was adorned with pearly-white spikes, running along his snout and in the space I would call his eyebrows. Larger versions of the same spikes traveled in parallel lines down his back, trailing into a singular line down his tail and clustering near the tip. His tail alone would be a deadly weapon.
As I approached, I noticed that his eyes were just giant versions of the eyes I was becoming so familiar with: deep, soulful brown orbs that I could drown in if I let myself. And thenthere were his wings, which he extended, presumably for me to properly see them.
