Page 79 of The Dragon's Perfect Omega
"This wasn't... I'm not sure if it was useless..." To be honest, I didn't know how to feel about it at all. But maybe Lowen could help me make sense of it? It was one of those nice things about being with him; I didn't have to keep things secret anymore. "If it was a vision, it was a vision of my parents when I was a baby. They talked about... I think they were making the decision to hide my omega status."
"That's what you saw?" He pulled me to his chest, embracing me from behind, hands resting on my belly in a manner that I couldn't help but find comforting. My dragon was going to protect me and my babies. Even if the enemy was a nebulous vision.
"Yeah, my mom was wondering if they were doing the right thing..."
"It's too bad you couldn't talk to them and tell them no."
"I know," I sighed. If I'd been corporeal in the vision, I might have... what? Punched my dad? I wasn't sure. In frustration, I ran my hand back through my hair. "It's just hard to know what to feel because they're notvillains, you know? They're myparents." I let out another breath. "I think they did want the best for me. They've just been reallyreallystupid about it."
"That's one way to put it." Lowen kissed the back of my neck, almost distracting me from the topic at hand. "Think you're going to make up some day?"
I shrugged. "I don't know yet. For now, I need to focus on other things. Like my children. And you." I turned to touch my lips to his for a brief moment.
Lowen smiled. "You can always focus on me if that makes life easier for you."
I had to laugh. "You'd love that, wouldn't you?"
"Maybe!" He pulled me into a kiss and that ended our conversation as we shifted our focus to other activities. If there wasanythingthat could take my mind off my parents, making out with a hot dragon certainly qualified.
38
Lowen
The closer Zimgot to his due date, the crazier—and more urgent—his food cravings seemed to become. The next supermarket was a good ways away from the house—near the harbor—and I still couldn't shift so I preferred to leave the grocery runs to my mom, but she was out with friends, and—one week from his due date—Zim insisted that he needed to have French friesnow.French fries and a million other things we didn't have.
"You don'thaveto go to the store for me," he said, but the suffering look he sent me along with those words clinched my fate. I would have done anything for him. Especially since I was still trying to convince him that temporarily losing my dragon form didn't bother me.
And so off to the store I went, like a good mate and provider of the family. Walking there took me about an hour. Not too bad, really. Not being able to fly sucked, but I could handle it. I was still a dragon. I was in good shape. I could take whatever life wanted to throw at me.
Inside the store, I looked at my hastily scribbled grocery list. I noticed halfway through it that my mate wanted all the heaviest things the store had to offer. Naturally. No matter. I was a dragon.
Hear me roar!
I picked up a large bag of frozen fries—because they didn't have any small bags—and a bottle of canola oil to deep-fry it. Next on the list was a tub of salted caramel ice cream, followed by milk, tart apple juice and lemon soda. I opted for the large bottles because I wasn't a wimp and my mate deserved it. Besides, it was always cheaper to buy in bulk. The last item to go into my cart was a humongous watermelon. If Zim wanted a watermelon and I'd walked an hour to go get it for him, he was gonna get the biggest I could find. It was only logical.
This one had apparently won a prize at some sort of fair. It was the perfect gift. All round and green andheavy.The thing must have weighed at least twenty pounds.
But I could carry it.
The problem was carrying it along with all theotherthings. Somehow I managed to make everything fit in a bag at the register, but then I realized that walking an hour to the store also meant walking an hour back the other way.
This no-shifting thing really sucked.
How did humans manage to put up with this sort of bullshit all their lives? When even something as basic as getting groceries turned into a chore.
Sighing to myself, I took my bag and left the store with it. At least I was still more or less immune to heat, or this wouldreallyhave sucked.AndI had my muscles. Not gonna lie, though, they started to burn after about half an hour or so of switching the bag from my right to my left hand and back again.
And while I was immune to the heat, I realized looking into the bag that not everything I'd bought was.
The treetops above me provided some shade, but apparently it wasn't enough to keep the ice cream from turning into soup.
I groaned.
That very moment, the bag in my hand decided it had worked for long enough and finally broke under the weight of all the objects I'd stuffed inside it.
Really now?
Letting out a long sigh, I watched the prized watermelon roll away from me and set out into the world as milk spilled onto my food from a broken carton.
