Page 13 of Having the Dragon's Baby

“Get over here, you.”

Christina had spotted him while she held the second baby in her arms. They were both her children. She motioned for him to cross the threshold, and that was when Rachel looked up.

She had been enchanted by the child in her arms, her eyes sparkling like gems. Her beauty was obvious to anyone who looked at her, but it was the substance underneath that beauty, that contagious element of her hope and joy, that really pushed Marcus over the edge.

It would be a beautiful tumble, and he was already halfway there.

“Marcus, come hold this one’s sister,” Rachel said, whispering but exuberant. “I have held babies before, but never anything like this.”

Marcus moved across the room to Christina, who was standing next to Rachel in the rocking chair. The baby was asleep while the one Rachel held cooed and yawned, stretching out its miniature arms while everyone applauded. It was a wholesome sight that made Marcus feel like he was in a dream.

“Come, she’s not made of glass,” Christina said, taking her daughter under the neck and slipping a palm beneath her bottom. “Support her head, then use the other hand here.”

Marcus felt a wash of unease move through his body for the first time in years. It wasn’t his territory to care for the babies. He was the leader of the den, making the rules as both king and political leader. Feeling his hands shake slightly when holding them out, palms up in the air, was a humbling and strange sensation.

“You can do it,” Rachel murmured, swaying the baby boy back and forth.

He grinned at her, her charm an endless sea. He was going to have to be okay with holding babies if he wanted to have a few of them … and if he wanted to gain Rachel’s affection. Christina guided the baby’s head into his big hand.

“Her name is Sandra, and that is Gerald,” Christina said softly, eyes big as she crooned over her newborns.

Marcus held the child, which did indeed feel like he was holding a glass vase. But to him, it was something far more delicate. He was holding their future as a thunder. He pulled little Sandra in close to his chest, cautiously taking a seat so as to not upset the baby.

Rachel snickered next to him, little Gerald awake in her arms and wiggling with excitement. Rachel was literally glowing. Marcus could feel the pheromones of her maternal instinct seeping from her pores, creating an aromatic bouquet of wonder. It overwhelmed him to the point of considering handing the child in his arms back to Christina.

Then Rachel licked her lips, her bowed lips a flawless shade of cherry red, and gazed down at Gerald, whose arms were stretched out in amused delight.

“I can’t stop looking at him. There’s just something so … enchanting about them.”

You are the one who is enchanting.

It was then that Marcus saw through time like an interstellar wormhole had opened up. He saw Rachel, just as she was, holding a baby in her arms in that very spot. Except, she would be holding their child, and they would have her remarkable eyes and brave spirit.

It took a lot to do what she was doing. Jumping into an unknown world and agreeing to take a life inside of her without really knowing the person she was going to share it with. That was a fierce boldness Marcus admired.

The thought and image hit him like a punch to the gut. Sitting with Sandra drooling against his chest, he wanted it right then more than anything in the world.

Rachel made silly faces at Gerald, and he let out a singsong giggle that made everyone in the room laugh along. Rachel widened her eyes, pursed her lips, and stuck out her tongue, a natural entertainer.

“He already loves you,” Christina chimed in.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Rachel said, her eyes still glued to the baby.

They sat with the twins for a few minutes longer. When Sandra began to fuss. Christina took her children from the alpha and his potential mate and cuddled them back into their cribs, enfolded with soft blankets and love. Christina had a glisten in her eye when Marcus passed by while Rachel was still chatting with the other women and saying farewell to the twins.

“What?” Marcus said.

“You know what?” Christina returned, giving him a friendly elbow. “I can see you’re smitten. We all can.”

“Is it that obvious?” Marcus glanced at Rachel.

Christina then tugged at his arm the way a young child would. It peeved him slightly, so he turned back to her, kind of irked.

“What was that for?”

Her big, round blue eyes darkened with a midnight blue flicker, one only observed in dragon shifter types, but only for a moment. He knew what she was going to say before it came out of her mouth.

“Don’t screw this up, Marcus. I know you’re the alpha, and it's your decision…”

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