Page 82 of The Dragon's Perfect Omega
My mate smiled through his exhaustion. "Teagan," he said on an exhale. For a minute, he looked almost relaxed, but then it seemed his body reminded him that we weren't done here yet.
Fortunately, baby number two seemed to be in a rush to hurry after their sister. Not ten minutes after the birth of the first one, the doctor was holding the second one in his hands. "And another girl," he announced.
Two girls!
"Adrian's gonna kill us," I said to my mate, lips stretched into a grin.
"Nah, I think he's happy with his family." He fell back into the pillow, a tired smile on his face. "And I'm happy with mine."
"So am I." I gave him a quick kiss before the nurse placed Teagan and Sage on his chest. Both of them were born with full heads of dark hair and tiny noses that begged to be kissed. They looked so adorable together. "Can you believe we're parents?"
"Sure can!" Zim gave an amused huff. "It was hard enough getting here! And listening to you ramble about melons."
Laughter bubbled out of me. I'd completely forgotten about the melon and my disastrous shopping trip. It seemed so inconsequential now. If these little girls were what I got in exchange for giving up my dragon form, every second of frustration was worth it. "I'm sorry about that. I just wanted to distract you."
Zim forgave me. "I guess it worked, at least a little." He studied his babies with so much love in his gaze that his next question came totally unexpected. "So, who's bigger? The babies or the melon?"
"I think both babies combined might beat the melon," I admitted.
"See? I win." He grinned at me.
"Sure you do," I conceded.
But looking at my girls and my mate, I knew I had won too.
More than I ever thought I would.
Epilogue
ZIM
Exactly one yearafter the twins were born, we were celebrating their first birthday. I didn’t want to be like my parents and make a big event out of every little thing, but surviving the first year of raising twins? That was worth a party.
Lowen and I invited all our local friends.
Kylan and his family, who'd just moved here, arrived first, carrying a huge gift bag full of picture books for the girls.
"I'm afraid my princess has moved on to reading Wikipedia for fun," he told me in passing.
"Wikipedia is fun," I agreed. Mecca was a smart little girl, and if our twins grew up to be like her, I wouldn't mind at all. So far, they seemed to have more in common with Adrian's boys, though. Little trouble makers. World champions at throwing things to the ground and watching their parents pick them up.
But I could never stay mad at them when they smiled at me.
After Kylan, Michael and Mecca settled in the dining room, the other members of Lowen's band arrived in tandem. Finn's mate was carrying so many presents he nearly vanished behind them.
"You're making your mate carry all that?" Lowen asked.
"He insists."
"I'm fine!" Ryan insisted from behind the pile of presents. "You'd just have dropped everything three times on the way here."
"Probably true." Finn rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, leading his three-year-old son into the house with the other. The kid stared at everything with wide eyes until Zed's daughter Allory whispered something into his ear that made him giggle.
"Thank you so much for coming," I said to Ryan. "And all the presents."
"Don't worry about it." Ryan waved me off. "To be honest, a lot of it is stuff that Sky has outgrown."
"Still, thank you." I was glad to have so many friends on this island. Raising twins was hard, but it would have been even harder without all the amazing support we got. Ryan had brought us meals forweeksafter the babies were born.
