Page 65 of Accidentally a Dragon Daddy

“We will,” he said. “But first, we have an appointment to keep. One you asked for.”

I frowned, wondering what he meant. “An appointment? With what?”

“A doctor,” he said, turning his snout back to look at me, yellow dragon eyes on either side of his head twinkling in the sunshine. The oval pupils seemed to dance and laugh.

It was amazing how quickly I’d gotten used to seeing the dragon as Damon. I knew it was him, of course, but ascribing his mannerisms and personality onto an entirely different form shouldn’t have come as easily as it had. Yet there I was, seeing human emotions on a dragon face.

“Oh, right,” I said. “I’d totally forgotten.”

“I’m not sure what else they’ll be able to do to confirm your status, but hopefully, it’ll be enough to convince you.”

“Yeah.” What else was I supposed to say, I wondered, after he gave me a strange look before resuming his flight.

My mind was still back home. With my parents, brothers, and sister. My friends. All the people who had turned out for the surprise party. All the people I couldn’t tell I was pregnant. If I was.

Maybe I would find out I wasn’t carrying a baby. Then I wouldn’t feel so bad about not telling my parents. The guilt eating away at my insides would slowly fade and dissipate.

Ha. Not gonna happen. Face it, you know you’re pregnant. You can feel it. You’re just scared.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t visit a human doctor,” he added as we started to descend, his wings spread wide, catching the air as we slowly banked in large descending circles. “I know you would have preferred that, but I’m sure you can understand why we can’t have your government knowing you carry a hybrid baby. The ceasefire is still too new. It needs time to settle before such news is broken.”

“Yeah.”

Again, what more could I say?

We landed on the roof of a long, rectangular building. Damon shifted swiftly after I dismounted. He held out his hand to me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked a bit stonily when I didn’t take it, staring at it instead. “Did I screw up? Should I not have gathered your family? Or told your sister about your condition? I’m sorry if I overstepped, Elanya, but I thought—”

“It’s not that,” I told him hurriedly. “I’m so grateful you went to all that effort, Damon, I truly am. Please don’t ever think otherwise. It was so incredibly nice of you. I—I appreciate it. Really.”

“Then, what’s wrong?” he asked in a gentler tone. “Why won’t you hold my hand?”

We both knew he was asking about a whole lot more than that.

“I want to,” I told him, meeting his eyes, hoping he could see in mine I meant it, that I was telling the truth. “But I’m nervous. Terrified, if I’m being honest.”

His face softened. “Elanya …”

I gave him a wry half-smile.

“I thought you wanted to be a mother?” he asked. “Did something change?”

“Nothing changed,” I said, shaking my head. “I did. I do. It’s not that. It’s just that this is, you know, not how I hoped it would go down.”

“Is it the fact I’m a dragon?”

“It’s because I’m alone,” I told him. “Your sister is a maniacal bitch. Sorry, but it’s true. So maybe you don’t have the experiences to understand. To me, my family is everything. They’re my best friends. They were all there for me when the doctors said I wasn’t ever going to conceive naturally. They shared my pain. They forced their children upon me to ensure I was always around for everything.”

“They did seem pretty great,” he agreed.

“Exactly! Which is why I always imagined, in my dreams, that if I did have a baby, it would be with them there.” I paused, looking away. “With my husband at my side. Everything would be warm and fuzzy. I’d have a pregnancy glow the entire time. Girls would be jealous of how good I looked with a giant belly. My husband would ogle me every chance he could when he wasn’t busy resting his head on my stomach or talking to our baby. That’s what I dreamed it would be like.”

I didn’t tell him about the other thoughts. The ones that worried I’d made a mistake returning to the Dragon Isles. That perhaps I should have tried to raise my child at home. After all, nobody knew if a dragon born and raised outside of the magic of the Isles would become a shifter. Maybe they would always be human.

How was I going to be a mother here, without any examples? I wanted my family with me. And I was scared I’d chosen wrong when I picked Damon over them because he was the father.

“So, you’re mourning the loss of your dream,” he said, processing what I’d said. “Because reality isn’t matching up to the perfect scenario you’d constructed in your head.”

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