Page 21 of Stripped to the Scales

“Feeling any better?” I asked him, still squatted down in front of him.

“Feeling like I’m about to act like an entitled prick,” he said, his eyes closed.

“Want me to go over and wake up Izora?” I asked him.

“That’s the entitlement.”

“He’s a doctor. They get up at night if someone needs them,” I said, smoothing his hair back from his face. “He wouldn’t want you stuck in here sick if he could help it.”

“Nothing but time is going to help this one, mate,” he said. “Are you excited? We never really got around to the baby conversation, did we?”

“I am,” I grinned. “I’m a bit worried about you right now. I feel the need to raid the clinic for saline bags and whatever you guys use for this sort of pregnancy sickness.”

“There are orange gummies in there. Do you really know how to use a saline bag?”

“You don’t?” I blinked at him. “They teach us that in high school. It’s basic first aid. If a natural disaster or something comes along everyone should know such things.”

“True,” he nodded. “I guess they don’t think that way back home.”

“Come on,” I picked him up. “I’m taking you to the clinic to see what we can do. Do you think Izora will be mad at me pawing through his stuff?”

“Probably not, unless you break something.”

“Then we’ll just have to be careful,” I said and kissed him on the forehead.

***

Thirty minutes later, Castor was asleep on the little sofa in the clinic. I’d hooked him up to a saline bag and managed to find the gummies he told me about without ransacking the place. I sat on the floor in front of the sofa, stroking his hair and marveling at the fact we were going to have an egg. Castor was right. We hadn’t discussed it, but the mating link took care of that. At least, I figured that’s what happened, because he hadn’t told me he wanted a baby, but I knew he did. Even now asleep, he smelled content and happy with our life.

I fell back asleep too, leaning against the sofa with my head resting against my mate’s side. It wasn’t the most comfortable position but I wasn’t about to leave my mate alone in the clinic and go back to bed.

“Morning,” Castor’s voice broke through my dreams of flying with him by my side.

“Someone knows more than I knew about,” Izora’s voice came into focus a moment later.

“Apparently, high school teaches them how to do this,” he said lifting his arm.

I sat up, yawning and stretching. My feet were all pins and needles, but I managed to get myself upright to stretch it out while Izora and Castor talked about what happened before our nap in the clinic. Izora double checked my IV work and changed out Castor’s saline bag, just in case.

Once we both had enough of our wits about us, I helped Castor move onto the examination table. Everyone had heard about the photos he could take of eggs before they were born. It wasn’t that impressive when I first heard about it. Now that it was my egg in question, I wanted him to hurry up and get to it. I didn’t need to know how the machine worked. I just wanted to see the shell that housed the little life we conceived.

There was a bit of noise and Izora pointed at his little screen in his hand.

“Hmmmm….. I’m glad I’ve ran so many tests on the atmosphere and how it might affect other shifter types, Captain,” Izora said a second later. “Your great grandmother was a wolf, if I remember correctly.”

“She was,” Castor nodded, squeezing my hand.

“I think that’s the gene that decided to pop up,” Izora said. “This is a jellybean, not an egg.”

He showed the screen to Castor who nodded his agreement. I was about to ask what their sugary candies had to do with our baby when I glanced down at the screen. Our baby definitely looked like a jellybean and not the tiny eggs I’d seen in other people’s photos.

“Alpha?” Castor asked, glancing at me.

“Yes, mate?”

“Are you okay? Does this change anything?”

“Don’t sound so uncertain like that,” I said. “It hurts my insides.”

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