Page 93 of Ember's Claim

If she’s dead set on extras after this pregnancy… She’ll have to sweet talk one of the others. I cannot go through this again.

Several hours of pushing later, Ember delivers our egg. It’s stretchy and soft—completely unlike a chicken egg—but Nadia tells us that it’s normal.

“…the egg will harden over the next few days. Can you imagine trying to deliver a hard shell?” Nadia chuckles as her hands swirl with her shadows. She slowly moves themover Ember’s stomach. “Everything feels good to me. Your contractions have stopped. We could try to get you in at the clinic in Haven. They have an ultrasound machine?—”

“No,” Ember says firmly. “My wolf is content. She doesn’t want to leave the nest.”

“I agree. It’s best to keep your wolf calm. If there was a problem, I would insist on you going in, but everything seems to be going really well.” Nadia smiles, pulling her hands away and shaking out her shadows.

Emerson leaves to call Ember’s family, and Nadia gives us a bunch of information before heading out.

Ember cradles the egg to her bare chest, smiling down at it, despite how exhausted she looks. “Shit, it’s probably time you call your mom. She’s incubated eggs twice. Also, this is her first grandbaby.”

“It’s still an egg.” Lorcan chuckles. “But, yes, I agree. Call Grandma, so she can put our mate’s mind at ease.”

“Are you sure you’re up for company?” I ask.

Ember nods. “Moms don’t count as company, and I really do have a bunch of questions for her.”

I tug my phone out, calling Athos. He answers on the first ring, and I chuckle. “Can you siphon Mom over?”

“We’re already dressed,” he says in his thick accent. “See you in approximately two minutes.”

I snort and hang up. “All right, we might need to readjust the sheet. They should be here?—”

Athos and my mom appear in a shimmery bluish-silver cloud of smoke right as Lorcan tucks the sheet around the top of Ember’s chest.

Athos waves. “I’m not going to stick around this time, but congratulations.” He turns to smoke and promptly disappears.

My mom’s hand flies to her mouth as she blinks, like she’s about to burst into tears. Compared to a human, she looks nowhere close to old enough to have a grandchild.

Ember waves. “Come on over. We have so many questions.”

And with that, my mom promptly bursts into tears.

It’s wild to now have an egg to keep safe and warm. All while Ember grows larger with each passing day.

Lorcan currently has the egg strapped to his chest. Ever since the little guy developed his dragonfire, it’s been necessary for us to take turns.

Anders and Ember help sometimes, but if it starts to heat up, they have to pass him off.

Ember was kinda losing her mind, wanting to know the gender, and Lorcan finally broke down and explained that his magic could tell.

“So, names,” my mate says, resting her head on my chest as she flips through the notebook lined with possible names. “We can ignore these pages. Do we want to stick with the letter of your first name, like my dads tried to do?” She snorts. “Well, except for Arsyn and Chaos.”

I shrug. “It’s hard to come up with V names.”

“Mmm, I’ve got a few. Vaughn, Valen, Virgil…” Lorcan offers, teasing his hand over the silver shell. Everyone who has seen it has been amazed by its color. Mine and my sister’s shells were blue and green.

“Valen is nice.” Ember flips the page and scribbles down that option.

“Victor, Von, Valor. Okay, Vis kinda hard,” Anders says.

“Vaughn or Valen. Valor is good too.” I shrug.

Ember tilts her head, grinning up at me. “Maybe we should wait to see him to decide.”

I know she’ll never hold out until that long, but I smirk and bring my hand to her cheek. “That works for me.”

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