Page 20 of The Sapphire Dragon's Missing Mate

“Oh, anytime. I don’t know why this hadn’t crossed my mind before, but now that it has, we have it in our pocket.”

“We aren’t going to need it again, though. The babies are close. Very close.” And I couldn’t wait to meet them.

Stone helped me change into my pajamas, less because I needed to and more to be nice. When I was all settled, we each lowered one of the eggs back into the nest.

“I think I felt our baby move.” Which didn’t make any sense. There couldn’t be any room for them in there.

“Do you think it’s time?”

“Only one way to find out.”

Stone tucked the laundry cart in the corner and snuggled on the nest with the eggs and me. We watched and watched and watched the eggs.

Nothing.

An hour went by.

Nothing.

We finally decided I’d been imagining things, and he took the cart back and started on dinner. My poor mate had been working so hard. He did not only his own work but also took over mine, everything except for the paperwork which I could do here, that was.

Stone said he didn’t mind, and I believed him. There was no reason for me to believe otherwise. But also, he had to be getting tired, and that would get better once the babies were here.

We were having his famous grilled cheese for dinner. Famous around here, anyway. He was able to cook it on a large griddle attachment for the grill and would sometimes make it for the guests. Word had been getting around to the point a couple of reservations requested the Grilled Cheese Package for their stay, which didn’t exist. But they were that good, and I’d been craving them.

And then I saw it. An egg moved. It wasn’t my imagination. This was happening.

“Stone, it’s time.”

“Time?”

“Time!”

He came in a minute later with the grilled cheese. “We’re going to need this. The midwife said it could be a couple of hours from the first movement.”

We sat there, telling our babies what wonderful dragons they were and watching as one little move became two, became three, and eventually there was a crack in one, then a crack in the other. The crack became a little hole, and then a shell popped off.

Sitting there, looking at us, was our first little dragon.

I wanted to reach in and say hello, to greet him with my touch. But, as soon as they were held by their parents, baby dragons shifted into their baby form, and they were still too far in the egg. The odds of our baby getting hurt were too great. I needed to be patient.

I sucked at patient.

Eventually, the shell fell away, and our first little dragon looked around. He was stunning—the same sapphire color as his father.

I looked to my mate. “He’s...he’s you.”

His eyes were filled with tears.

Our little dragon hopped over to me, and, when I picked him up, he shifted for the first time into his human form, letting out a gorgeous cry. I never thought I’d think of a cry as beautiful, but I did. I helped him latch on, getting his first meal as we waited for his sibling.

The second egg inhabitant didn’t mess around. It was as if once they heard their brother cry, they went to town and had that egg open. Less than a minute later, he was out. Our second little dragon was a ruby color and he, too, was looking for his meal.

“They’re beautiful.” I looked down at our two sons, both of them eating happily.

“They’re perfect.”

We’d already picked out some names. We decided to call the first after my uncle Tyler and the second after my father, Ryler. It saddened me that Stone didn’t really have anybody to name them after, since he wasn’t sure about his adopted dads after all the dreams, but we all had each other now, and that was what mattered.

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