Page 54 of Meet Me in the Stars

“Boring?” I laughed. “Maybe because you slept the whole time. Now, you’ve seen all the nesting towers. Which one do you think would be best?”

“The south facing tower. It gets the most sun.”

“South it is,” I nodded. “Now we just gotta wait until the pack gets here.”

“We can start without it,” Fred offered up. “Well, maybe. Depending on how many household items made of fabric you’re willing to give up.”

“What do you mean? That’s just padding. We at least have to wait on the frame.”

“Nope. We can do that with that stuff too. Maybe some branches if you want to do it the easy way,” Fred said.

“You’re teasing me,” I crossed my arms and looked up at him.

I had to squint and then borrow my dragon’s eyes because the high noon sun was raining down on us. A purple haze danced across Fred’s face.

“I am not,” Fred crossed his arms, mimicking me.

“Why would you do all that work? Doesn’t anyone have an official job of making them?” I asked, leaning in because I was curious on how society functioned without safe nests for babies.

“Umm… I’m sure some dragons buy premade nests or frames, but I’ve never dealt with them or knew anyone who has.”

“You know what. I still think you’re teasing me, but I’m gonna play along with this. Give me an hour to gather up fabric and I’ll meet you in the south nesting tower. You can put your eggs where your mouth it.”

“And I will,” Fred smirked.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Fred

There is almost nothing in the world nearly as satisfying as watching a pregnant mate stretch out in a nest you built with your own two hands. Well, almost, because the look on Elio’s face was somewhere between shock, amazement, and delight that I actually erected a nest without anything from the pack that was yet to arrive. It took a lot of braiding and twisting, but I had a lot of practice and not just for my own egg brats. Sometimes building nests was a whole family ordeal, but I always enjoyed building my own.

“What do you think, carrier?” I asked, raking my eyes down his nude torso to his hips and legs clad only in leggings in a shade of orange that perfectly matched his scales.

“It’s comfy. I’m impressed. I really did think it was some tall tale. I knew our ancestors built their own nests in the wild, but didn’t think anyone still did it.”

“Huh. Really? You said we could gather the stuff in the wild,” I said, leaning on the edge of the nest to look down at him.

“We could, but they’d still send us a frame,” Elio laughed.

“We don’t need a frame,” I smirked, and Elio rose up onto his knees and leaned on the edge of the nest with his elbows. I stole a long, slow kiss before he pulled me into the nest with him. One kiss led to another and then I slid my hand down his pants. We would’ve kept going, but somewhere below someone called for Elio.

“Ignore him. It’s just Marsin. I’d rather have your hands down my pants than to hear whatever he wants to tell me right this second.”

“Elio!” Marsin called up again.

“I’m going to make him feel really bad about this,” Elio smirked. “Really bad. I’m all pregnant and trying to rest and he’s yelling for me like the sky’s falling on his head.”

“Eh, it might be important,” I said, rolling over onto my back and willing my dick to go down. “Do you want me to go down and see what’s up?”

“You’re hard too,” Elio laughed.

“Yeah, but I’m not pregnant.”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT?” Elio bellowed without warning me.

I flinched but laughed anyway.

“WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A COOKOUT! YOU SHOULD EAT! ALSO I THINK SONNY HAS TALKED ME INTO INSTALLING A POOL, BUT I CAN’T DO IT ON MY OWN! I DIDN’T WANT YOU TO BE MAD AT ME!”

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