He made hot chocolate too, with a generous dose of ground peppers in it.

Ivo lit up when Ace brought him the food. “But what about you?”

“Gotta go. I have a new nest to build.” Ace brushed his fingers through Ivo’s hair. He grabbed some tools and set off for the far side of the property, where the grass grew lush and thick.

Ace tried to make himself focus on cutting the grass, instead of what Ivo was doing with the food.

Ivo squawked a few minutes later. When Ace looked up, he found Ivo breathing a tiny ribbon of orange fire.

Because Ivo was pregnant with a dragon baby, his spice tolerance had shot all the way up. Spicy food made him breathe fire now.

Ivo looked over at Ace accusingly. “You did this on purpose!”

Ace grinned and shouted back, “Did you like it?”

For a moment, he thought Ivo might say no. Ivo’s face flickered through a few different expressions. Then he relaxed, and just looked begrudging. “Yes. That was crazy.”

Ivo took another sip of hot chocolate, and breathed fire again. The flames lit up his face beautifully.

“Damn it,” Ivo said, laughing. “This is actually kind of fun.”

Ace let out the breath he was holding and grinned, sweeping his scythe through wide patches of grass.

“So,” a voice rumbled.

Leathery wings flapped next to Ace, unleashing gusts so strong that they scattered the grass he’d just cut.

Ace scowled deeply. “Hey!”

Raptor landed with a thump and folded his wings, regarding Ace with a bright red eye. His dragon form was identical to Ace’s, all gleaming black scales. “I noticed that you stopped raiding my fridge.”

Ace let go of his irritation—because he hadn’t told his twin the news. “Rap, you won’t believe it. I found him! Remember the omega at the bar?”

Raptor’s eyes gleamed. “Yes. Hassel told me you have a visitor.”

“It’s Ivo.” Ace’s chest puffed out. “He’s the one who slipped away.Andhe’s pregnant.”

“Oh?” Raptor grinned toothily; stark envy flickered across his face.

Raptor didn’t talk much about it, but he had a medical condition that Ace didn’t. His hormones went out of control sometimes, in a way that made him urgently need a bed partner. Often, he got rough in bed, and it chased away his potential mates.

They tried not to talk about it.

“I put a dragonet in his belly.” Ace checked that his twin was fine with this news, before doing a silly dance. “I’m gonna be a dad!”

Raptor fell into step with Ace, doing the same dance but as a dragon. “I get to be godfather!”

Ace paused in his dancing. “Do you need to be godfather if you’re already going to be an uncle?”

“Both. I want both. I’ll be your dragonet’s goduncle-father.”

“I don’t even know what that is, but sure.” Ace began dancing again. He paused, though. “I need you to do something for me.”

At his tone, Raptor shifted back into a man. “What happened?”

“We were attacked earlier, while we were shopping, but that’s not the important part. You know how Ivo has scars all over his body?” Ace waited for Raptor to nod. “He was captured by a poaching ring a few years ago. They were taking his fur and experimenting on him. He managed to escape but couldn’t free the other captives.”

“Fuck. Where were they?”