Page 76 of Accidentally a Dragon Daddy

I’d just finished setting the backpack down when my mother bustled into the tiny front hall, her silver-gray hair swishing wildly as she gestured for me to come to her so she could wrap me up in her arms.

“Lena, Lena, Lena,” she said, squeezing tight.

“Hi, Mom,” I whispered back.

“What brings you here?” she asked, taking me by the shoulders to look at my face. “I thought you were going back with that big, strong dragon-man.”

I could see the unspoken concern on her face. Neither of my parents had been comfortable with the concept as they’d told me repeatedly at the surprise party Damon had organized for me.

“I was,” I said. “I did, I mean.”

My mother peered through her glasses at the front door behind me as if expecting Damon to walk in. Her eyebrows rose in question.

“We should go in,” I said with a sigh. “There’s a lot I need to tell you.”

Their eyes met, hearing the weighty undertones to that sentence, but neither protested. We made our way into the tiny sitting room at the back of the house, with the large window looking out into the yard. It was a cozy house, with all the necessities and none of the frivolities of modern housing.

My mom made us some hot chocolate, and I waited on the couch until she was seated as well, all three of us holding steaming mugs.

“Do me a favor?” I asked, looking at them both. “Set the mugs down? Out of immediate reach.”

“Is it that bad?” my father asked immediately, doing as I instructed.

My mom looked unsure, but she followed her husband’s lead.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, wringing my hands. “I hope not. But it’s certainly shocking, I think.”

They waited, silent, while I gathered myself.

“I …” My first attempt failed as I trailed off into silence, the words refusing to come.

I frowned at the floor. It wasn’t as if anything was going to change by delaying the inevitable. Better to just get it over and done with now before—

“I’m pregnant,” I said, looking up sharply, forcing the words out before I could think them over again. “With Damon’s child.”

My father sucked in air in shock.

“A dragon baby?” my mother asked in a rather higher-pitched voice.

“Yes.”

She shook her head, blinking rapidly behind her thick glasses. “Can that … are you … do you have to sit on it?”

I frowned. “Do I what now, Mom? Why would I sit on it?”

Her fingers were rubbing back and forth rapidly as she hummed and hawed. “Well, you know, when chickens … they—”

My father couldn’t hold it any longer. He threw back his head and howled, whole belly laughs shaking him and the couch.

“My lord, Margaret!” he bellowed through tears, his face bright red. “She’s not birthing a goddamn egg!”

He stopped laughing abruptly to frown at me. “Right?”

I smiled. “No, that’s not how it works,” I confirmed wryly, watching the relief spread across his face and return to humor as he chuckled to himself, shaking his head at my mom.

“Oh, dear.” My mom looked away in embarrassment. Then her head whipped back to me. “So, you’re going to have a human child?”

The implications of me being pregnant abruptly sank in with both of them.

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