Page 19 of Dragon Daddy Protector

My hand came to my stomach again. It was still so hard to believe that I was carrying a child. It almost didn’t feel real yet.

“The problem is,” Jax said, leaning forward, “we can’t just waltz into the government registration office and say you’re a newly turned dragon shifter. It would blow up, and we may as well announce to the world what Tomas is up to.”

“But what if that is the best course of action?” Lucas said. “We’ve been biding our time, waiting to figure out what Tomas was up to. But what if we went to the government? They could be the ones to take him down, and this would all be over.”

The idea sounded like a dream come true, but I could sense Evan’s resistance to the idea immediately. He looked at me as he shook his head. “No.”

Jax and Lucas turned to him as he placed his palms on the table, a glint in his eyes that dared anyone to counter him. “That makes sense only on the surface. When you look deeper, who knows what that means for Mariah? Tomas might be the slimiest bastard of them all, but we know the government isn’t always clean. They might see Mariah in the same way Tomas does—as a scientific anomaly. I won’t risk handing this over to someone who might use it for their own benefit.”

My stomach twisted. That outcome could be far worse. At least with Tomas, we knew what we were dealing with.

“We don’t need to worry about that,” Jax said, reaching for his laptop and flashing me a sly grin. “I have a better solution.”

“Jax…” I had a feeling his solution was highly illegal. His chuckle only confirmed it.

“What are you thinking?” Evan didn’t seem in the least concerned about breaking the law.

“I can forge some documents for Mariah, have her listed as a shifter from birth, then I can get into the system and replace all records of her old birth certificate with her new one.” He spoke like it wasn’t hard at all.

“You can seriously do that?” Lucas asked. If I didn’t know Jax, I’d have been skeptical, too.

“Listen.” Jax glanced between us, looking like the cocky, self-assured version of himself I’d met all those months ago. It was good to see a glimpse of the old Jax through the lingering guilt, even if part of me was concerned about messing with shifter laws. “There’s a reason my father wanted me around, and it’s not for my charming sense of humor. My father only surrounds himself with the best, and I’ve never been caught. This wouldn’t be hard,” he said.

“Do it,” Evan said, grinning. “This is why we waited for you.”

“Can I see a copy of my birth certificate?” I asked.

Evan reached for my hand, giving it a squeeze. “That’s the other thing I want Jax to help with.”

I turned to Evan, sensing the hesitation, but it wasn’t hard to follow where he was going. “We need to find more information about my parents.”

Evan nodded, watching me carefully. “I don’t want to put more on your shoulders, Mariah, but the more information we have, the stronger we’ll be going up against Tomas. We can’t afford for him to take us by surprise again. We have an idea of what he’s up to, but we don’t know the full story.”

I took a steadying breath. I’d known this was coming. Ever since Evan and I talked in the park after my doctor’s appointment, I knew we’d have to look deeper into my past. It wasn’t like anything could be more life-altering than finding out your bloodline was comprised of shifters, and that was how you were turned into a dragon.

“What do you need to know?” I asked Jax.

Jax exchanged glances with Evan. “Evan said the shifter DNA is on your father’s side. Do you have any more information?” He turned his laptop toward me, and I saw he’d already pulled up a copy of my birth certificate. It only had my mother’s name listed.

I shook my head. “I never knew my father. Never even knew his name. And my mother… well, I haven’t seen her since I was a kid.”

“Is there anyone who might know where your mother is?” Lucas said. “Maybe we could get her to give us your father’s name.”

My thoughts drifted to my aunt as I locked eyes with Evan, but I shook my head. Even if my mother had contacted my aunt in the years since I’d left, which I highly doubted since she’d taken off before I was ten, I wouldn’t reach out to that woman for anything. Not after everything she’d said and done over the years… and everything she hadn't. The trauma, the heartache, the lies. It wasn’t worth it when I knew we could track my mother down another way.

“There’s no one.” Those words might have hurt to say only a year ago, but that wasn’t my truth now. I had a family of my own. It made it a lot easier to face what we were dealing with when I knew what it was like to have nothing, and then to find everything I ever wanted.

“No worries.” Jax gave me a sympathetic smile. He understood family trauma all too well. “I have plenty of resources. I’ll see what I can find, then we can go from there.”

“Sounds good,” Evan said, rising from the table. “Lucas, do you have time to discuss the financial reports this morning?”

Jax left to do what he did best, and Lucas rose and moved toward the large desk on the other end of the office. “Yes, I was hoping we could fit that in.”

Evan pulled me into his arms for a hug and kissed the top of my head. “I’ll find you when I’m done?”

I nodded, my dragon rising up within me as I rested my head on Evan’s chest. But this time, there wasn’t any anger or rage, and no whipping, wild emotions. She needed the comfort of Evan’s arms as much as I did.

“Hey.” Evan put his fingers under my chin and tipped my head up. He stared into my eyes with a hint of wonder like he was feeling something different as well. “You okay? Did talking about your mother upset you?”

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