Page 84 of The Aurora Marelup Complete Saga Omnibus

On his way past me, Alaric hands Dimitri my juice, who in turn offers me the straw. I take a nice long drink of the sweet, cool pineapple juice. I feel Alaric’s hand on my hip as he bends to see what Klaus is looking at. Here I am on all fours, in labor, and the guys are having a meeting staring at my hoo-ha. “Everything is okay love, we see the baby’s head, that’s all,” Alaric says, then comes forward and kisses my temple. The twins go back to rubbing my lower back, each of the guys keeping some form of contact with me at all times.

“Angel, I’m going to need you to push and hold it real soon, okay?” Klaus’s German accent is still sexy, even though I feel fucking gross and tired.

Dimitri nuzzles my cheek then kisses it. “You can do this, baby girl. If you can take out a horde by yourself, you can push out one baby.” I smile at Dimitri’s encouragement as I hear the other guys back up his statement.

I’m tired, I won’t lie. I feel one of the guards enter the cavern, and I start to draw some dragon energy from him. Right now, I need it more than he does. I hear Alaric say the man is down and to release him. I release him quickly and push hard again on the next contraction.

I feel my baby slide free from my body, but I don’t hear any noise from it. I turn quickly to see what’s wrong, and then I see it. My baby was born as her animal; Tiamat is the cutest little thing. She has almost pure white scales that are edged in fur. Her front legs are typical dragon hands; her hind legs have wolven paws for feet. Tia’s tail is mostly dragon in shape, but it has fur along the underside of it. As a matter of fact, her underbelly scales have more fur on them than the scales on her back. I reach down and pick up my daughter, holding her tightly to me. Tia’s eyes are like mine and her father’s silver orbs with a black slit in the middle.

CHAPTER 71

Aurora

February-

I am in complete awe of this beautiful little girl in my arms. My father’s dragon comes ambling over and lowers his large head to look at the baby. Tia attempts to blow fire at her grandfather. She blows a small plume of frost flames that are quickly snuffed out. I can’t help but laugh at the tenacity of my daughter.

Alaric moves off the island and shifts to his dragon, lowering his head to Tiamat. My brave little girl slides off my lap and onto the ground. She walks wobbly over to her father. Alaric opens his mouth and without hesitation Tia climbs in to lie down on his tongue. I’m kind of jealous; I will never have that part of the dragon connection with my daughter. I watch Alaric and Nicodeamus with Tia, playing on the ground on the other side of the pool.

Slowly, I move and climb into Jayce’s lap to rest and watch my newborn dragoness play with her father and grandfather. I’m in shock when I suddenly feel another contraction out of nowhere. Dimitri assures me it’s normal for my body to expel the placenta from my body. I shrug and look around, over by where I was before is Tia’s placenta.

“Guys, Tia isn’t an only child!” I scream before doubling over from the force of the contraction. Jayce is in panic mode, Dimitri is white as a sheet, and Klaus is holding another juice for me like it’s no big thing. Dominik comes running back in from the cavern that we have deemed the bathroom.

Alaric shifts back to his human form and carries Tiamat back over with him. This baby is coming much faster than the first one, and that scares the shit out of me. I feel like I’ve barely had time to rest after the first baby, and now surprise, there’s a second one in there. Klaus switches out with Dimitri. The twins are on baby watch; Dimitri and Alaric are at my sides, comforting me. The cool water feels freaking fantastic running down my spine as I rock back and forth with each contraction.

I open my eyes to find Tia looking up at my face from underneath me. I can’t help but smile through the pain at my baby girl. I shift my arms to my gauntlets, and Tia moves to go investigate my scales. When her nose touches my scales, I feel her frost move over them slowly. That’s my girl. She may have grandpa’s fire. But she can freeze a fucker like her momma.

Eventually, I feel my second baby slide free, and I hear it cry out. I can just see a small plume of blue flame. Okay, we have a mostly frost dragon hatchling this time. I move so I can see my child and it’s beautiful. I make sure to shift my hands back so I can handle my new baby. I’m saying it because one, I wasn’t expecting this one. Second, how do you sex a baby dragon? Alaric picks up the baby, flips it back and forth, earning him a blast of blue flames in his face. He smirks as he shifts his eyes to his dragon’s, and the baby settles down. “He’s going to be a tough one,” Alaric says and then tilts his head, looking at me, waiting for me to catch on.

“Aren’t all babies hard, though?” I say, not catching his drift in the slightest.

“Aurora, love, I know you’re tired, but you have a son to help me name,” Alaric says, passing the new baby over to me.

I smile, looking him over and nuzzle his face.Hisface! I look up in shock, from the baby back to Alaric, then to the guys, finally back to my son. He’s almost exactly like Tia, except he has more wolven features than she does. His front hands look like my shifted ones: heavily armored gauntlets with long white talons. His hind feet are all wolven. He also has less fur adorning his scales than Tia does.

Like his sister, his stomach and underside of his tail are covered in my white fur, thick armor scales protect his chest and belly underneath the fur. For the most part, his face is all dragon until you get to his eye shape and his ears. I smile softly and grumble at my son; his little tail whips about excitedly.

“Ladon Uther Kraus. Named after the legendary thousand-headed dragon, and after the original Pendragon from King Arthur’s court.” Ladon blows more blue flames, celebrating being named, and then proceeds to slip from my hands, chasing after his sister. The two babies play-wrestle back and forth. They are just about equal in size and strength; that is until they start blowing fire at each other.

At this point, Alaric intervenes and I just lay back, resting against Klaus. “Well, that explains why I felt like I was going to explode.” I motion to my babies and rub my stomach. I notice I’m still bleeding, so does my father.

“Aurora, you need to shift. I think the babies’ scales and claws cut you up a little on their way out. I can bathe you in my flames to help heal you faster.”

The guys all freeze looking at me, only now noticing the small, steady stream of blood running down my leg. I stand and stretch before walking to the middle of the cavern. I look back at my babies and smile before I begin my shift.

Slowly, I shift my body to that of my beast, making sure everything moves and rearranges in perfect order. My animal has grown in size again. Her frame is more muscular and defined. I’m easily ten foot now. My arms and legs are as thick as tree trunks. I swing my great wolven head around to look at my body, I now have heavily armored scales on my paws up to the bend of my knee. Next, I raise my hand and examine my gauntlets; they have become more aggressive-looking. My scales have sharper edges to them than they had before. My talons are still long, hooked, and razor-sharp. I have the urge to try something new. I reach down deeply as I probe my father’s knowledge.

Nicodeamus’s eyes light up as he senses what I’m searching for. He shifts quickly and demonstrates how to breathe fire; his flames bathe me and help accelerate my healing process. I tilt my head several times before that familiar sound of the ignitor clicks can be heard.

My mates leap back as my beast breathes fire for the first time; I freeze everything in the flame’s path. My babies leap towards me, and I lower myself down onto all fours, greeting them as my animal. We sniff and lick at each other as we get to know each other. My mates are concerned as to what this will mean for me. As far as I’m concerned, today is just another day, and I’ve acquired another weapon to help me on my journey.

I lock eyes with my children, and as I shift back I force their shift to happen along with mine. Both children’s transition to their human is rather effortless. I don’t have to use too much Alpha influence to help them assume their other forms. I now have two chunky little cherubs sitting there looking at me. Having been born in their dragon form gives them an advantage. They have the trunk control of an older baby. I am truly amazed looking between them as I move to pick them both up.

I snuggle my babies to my breasts and both latch on, feeding immediately. Softly, I yawn, and immediately Dimitri and Alaric are at my side to guide me over to where Jayce and Dom have set up a place for me to rest. I snuggle in, holding both babies, watching them feed from my breasts. Now I really must work on hunting down those that may bring my children harm. First, I need to make sure the Ice Palace is sorted before moving on to my next target.

The guys all gather around, looking at the twins in my arms. Both babies have platinum blonde hair and grey eyes. Tia has flecks of green in her eyes, like Alaric. Ladon has blue flecks like Nicodeamus and I do. Both babies have my birthmark on their wrists; it’s a white crescent moon. The twins finish feeding, and I pass one off to Alaric and the other off to my father after he sits down. I smile softly, looking at my little family that I’ve made. The rest of the guys gather around the babies, excited to get a closer look at them.

I slowly remove myself from my pillow palace and head to the water surrounding the island. My father said it has regenerative properties. To be brutally honest, I feel like I was just put through a shredder. Slowly, I swim lazy laps around the island, letting the water work its magic. Under the water, I notice movement, so I dive and go after it. It’s a large catfish. Apparently, there’s a small feeder stream that it must have used to get here. I surface, drawing in a deep breath before hunting the catfish. Two attempts later, I’m finally able to sink my talons into its flesh.

---