Page 56 of His Unicorn Alpha
Kissing his forehead again, I replied, “Always, sugar.”
Chapter Nineteen
The guilt I felt over my reaction to learning that none of my children would be dragons was difficult to shake off. Even though Micah assured me that my feelings were valid, it still felt wrong to feel any kind of disappointment regarding my babies. My daughters.
I was going to have three daughters.
Three unicorn daughters.
At least, I could only assume they would be unicorns. It was unlikely that they would be horses when Micah was clearly not really a horse shifter. Not that I understood quite how that worked, though, considering he had thought himself a horse for his entire life prior to releasing the mystical hold on his alpha and its abilities.
I did not enjoy not understanding the fundamentals of what had kept his unicorn form hidden, just as I did not like that we were still in the dark about how to unlock or release someone’s alpha side without the presence of a compatible mate. I understood that it was a mixture of science and magic, but the fact that it had been three years since Beckett and Oliverhad accidentally unlocked Beck’s alpha and we were no closer to having answers was frustrating.
Cuddled up in my alpha’s arms, I grumbled when my phone rang, disturbing the peaceful silence. However, my disappointment and irritation melted away when Eric started speaking when I answered the call, not even waiting for me to say ‘hello’.
“Bran, get back to the clinic. Dex found something.”
“Does this say what I think it says?” my brother demanded the moment I stepped into his office. He pointed at the computer monitor and I leaned over his shoulder to read the scanned page on the screen.
It was handwritten, in spiky, cursive writing that, at first, seemed to be little more than scribbling. But then words began to jump out at me from the jumble in an unexpected mixture of Hungarian and Romanian. I let my greedy eyes scan the page from the start once my brain knew what it was looking at, and I felt my heart rate increasing as I read.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, and Eric sat back in his seat with a wide, satisfied smile.
“So it does?” he prodded, “My language skills are a bit rusty when it comes to reading. But…it basically affirms our theory, doesn’t it? That there’s a spell we can perform to unlock an alpha who hasn’t yet presented as one?”
“Yes, and there is mention of pheromones…well, what we know now to be pheromones,” I pointed at a sentence which essentially referred to unexplained scent signals between potential mates, “which appears to be key in the spellcasting.”
“Do you think we could replicate the pheromones synthetically? Rather than having to find an alpha’s potential or compatible mate, could we replicate a generic attraction pheromone to trigger them?” Eric started taking notes on his phone as he was talking, his eyes bright with excitement.
I did not blame him; I felt just as invigorated and eager to learn.
“Possibly,” I answered, considering the science behind his idea. I leaned in closer to the screen. “Are there more pages?” I asked. “More information than just the confirmation of our theories?”
“Yes, but nothing on the specifics of the magic,” Eric sounded disappointed. “It’s more an account of watching the spell cast on an infant born to shifter parents, without a mark and without the scent of a shifter.”
He looked up at me and I immediately understood. “Beck, Rex, and Brandi,” I nodded. “It does not explain Micah, though.”
“No,” Eric agreed, “but what if, like anything, the…let’s call it a gene? What if it has mutated…er, or evolved over time? What if it’s the same thing, only because he was born to mixed species of shifters, it presented differently due to different biological makeup?”
“How would we determine if that is the case?”
“Well, we’ve been testing their blood for DNA connections and chromosome anomalies…but maybe…” he started typing on his phone screen again, “I think we should invest in a mass spectrometer.”
“Oh, of course,” I wanted to facepalm. “A mass spectrometer would isolate known and unknown compounds, whereas thekaryotype testing is performed under microscope…” I groaned. “How have we not considered this before?”
“We were too focused on the magic component itself. One of those ‘can’t see the forest for the trees’ things, I guess.” Eric sounded rueful. “But with a mass spec, we might also be able to isolate the shifter gene…maybe even genes for our specific breeds…”
“What, so we could attempt to genetically engineer dragons?” I asked, attempting to ignore the renewed swirling emotions over the babies I carried. Giving my head a quick shake, I pinned my brother with a pointed stare. “Eugenics is a dangerous path to travel down, Eric.”
“It’s just a theory,” he defended, then turned his chair to face me fully, causing me to take a couple of steps back. “But, while we’re on the topic, how are you feeling? And I mean really.”
“I am fine.”
His blonde eyebrows tilted inwards as his eyes narrowed. “Bran, come on. I know you’re going to love your kids no matter what, but some part of you was desperately hoping for a dragon and, unless our species has evolved significantly…”
“Perhaps it has,” I mused, considering all the other changes we had become aware of over time. “Female alphas exist now, where we have no record of them doing so before. Perhaps the magic itself has changed and evolved.”
Sitting back in his chair, Eric observed me in silence for a moment. “That is a valid point. But, Bee, the likelihood—”
