Page 53 of His Unicorn Alpha
Considering I was just about to walk into the exam room with Brandt so we could see our babies on Eric’s ultrasound machine, I turned to face the new dragon with amusement and irritation in equal measures. He stopped short when he saw me, and I could see that he was sizing me up, his sharp gaze traveling from my feet to the top of my head, while Brandt exasperatedly greeted, “Hello, Dexter.”
I made no secret of the way I eyed him over in kind. He wasn’t quite as tall as the others, but the way he stood —shoulders back, chin raised— told me he thought highly of himself. I supposed he had every reason to: he was attractive. Slender, wearing a tailored suit, with an angular face and perfectly styled blonde hair.
“Bran,” he practically purred at my mate, smiling toothily as he oozed smarm, “you naughty boy; you should have said that you found yourself an alpha.” He dropped his gaze to Brandt’s belly. “There’s something in the water in this Podunk town, isn’t there?”
From the reception desk, I was almost certain I heard Damon growl, and that suspicion was confirmed when Dexter turned to face the desk and said, “Now now, kitty. Behave.”
“Dex,” Eric cut in with a bite of authority, “leave Day alone. Go wait in my office. I’ve got an appointment to finish first, then you can tell me everything you’ve discovered.”
“Spoilsport,” Dexter sighed dramatically, but he headed past us and down the short hallway to Eric’s clinic office.
“He’s a handful, isn’t he?” I asked, watching him disappear into the room in question.
“He is, but he’s all bark, no bite.” Eric said. “Now,” he beamed and practically bounced on his heels with excitement, “let’s go see your babies.”
“Oh my God,” I muttered as the first of three humanoid forms appeared on the black and white computer monitor. It was curled up, but there was no denying the slope of its spine, the shape of its head and face, nor the tiny little hand flexing in the black space above a rounded little belly. “That’s a baby.”
“What did you think was in here?” Brandt asked. “Eggs? Dragons?Winged-foals?”
“Shut up,” I replied without heat, unable to tear my gaze away from the screen. “I just…this is…” Stopping to take a steadying breath, I tried to calm my suddenly frantic heartbeat.
That was a baby.
A real baby.
Hard proof that in a few months’ time, I really was going to be a dad.
“And here’s number two,” Eric said cheerfully, moving the transducer across Brandt’s belly and showing another curled up humanoid form on the screen. This one was kicking a little foot in the black area surrounding it.
“Oh my God,” I repeated, with only a tiny bit more panic in my voice.
I had missed Eric’s twelve-week ultrasound, and with everything else that had happened in the couple of months since, neither Brandt or Eric had organized another one until his scheduled twenty-week scan. It was my understanding that, because he was carrying multiples, there would be a few additional scans in the leadup to their due date, just to stay on top of any potential issues that might pop up.
“This one’s looking good, too,” Eric told us, “so let’s visit baby number three.”
As the wand moved again, I watched the screen. Sure enough, a third little body appeared within seconds.
“Is it…smaller than the others?” I asked quietly, finally shifting my gaze away to observe Eric’s face.
He was frowning a little, which I didn’t think was a great sign. I watched as he used his other hand to take screenshots and measurements, little yellow numbers appearing on the screen as he worked.
“Yeah,” he eventually answered, sounding distracted. “This one’s a bit smaller than their siblings…but it’s not unusual in multiples for one or two to be undersized.”
“Undersized?!” I repeated with concern, then I looked down at Brandt for reassurance.
He was frowning at his brother. “Is it still within a healthy developmental range?”
My gaze swung back to Eric, catching the minute downturn of his lips. “…Yes. But only just, Bee.”
“What…what does that mean?” I demanded of both of them, not liking the unspoken conversation that seemed to be taking place between the two men of science and medicine. I didn’t have that background. “Can we fix it somehow?”
“We just need to monitor them all a bit more closely,” Eric answered me in a tone that felt almost like practiced reassurance. “We can’t really treat them from outside the womb.”
“So, what does that mean, exactly?”
“We would be looking at an early delivery,” Brandt answered calmly. He looked at his brother. “We should buy incubators, just in case. And—”
“I know,” Eric’s tone was the most serious and soothing I had ever heard it in relation to either of his siblings. “And we will. As soon as we wrap up here, I will arrange it.”
