Page 25 of Overbooked at Dragon's Landing

I didn’t know how he could tell the difference between the two, but he’d had his share of the yummy goods over the past few months. They’d taken to offering their muffins to-go, and we’dbeen buying them pretty consistently the entire last half of our mate’s pregnancy. They were delicious.

“Did you want a muffin?” I called to Craig.

I’d bring them in there for him, but I wanted to give him a heads-up that I was home.

Ever since he laid the egg, he’d been nervous, nervous, nervous.

“I could protect our baby when they were inside me, but this…so many things can happen.” He’d said that multiple times. And every time, I wanted to be able to say,No, you’re wrong. It’s just as protected now. But that would be a lie.

It wasn’t.

Yes, it was strong—stronger than an ostrich egg. And it had somebody watching it around the clock. Usually Craig. But, after a lot of convincing, he’d take a shower and let the two of us watch over it instead.

This was pretty typical for this part of the pregnancy. Although, technically, my mate was no longer pregnant, he’d laid his egg. But it was an extended part of pregnancy, and my family, at least, referred to it as being included.

I walked in with the basket, and my mate was asleep. No wonder he hadn’t answered me.

He was wrapped around the egg, quietly snoring.

I snatched the blanket off the bed and covered him, kissed his forehead, and sat on the other side of the nest, watching him sleep and whispering a story to our baby—about a prince and a dragon, where the dragon saved the day.

Two hours later, my mate groggily opened his eyes, not fully awake.“How long has he been here?”

“For a while.”

His eyes zeroed in on the basket ,and I picked it up. “I have muffins.”

A flicker of movement caught the corner of my eye, but when I turned, there was nothing. The muffins were all but forgotten. “Did you see that?”

Craig sat up fully. “I guess…maybe it was nothing.”

“Stay right here. I’m going to get our wolf.” I ran to the office where Ralph was working and yanked him out.“We gotta go. I think it’s time.”

And that began the three-hour stretch of what we would later affectionately refer to as Hatch Watch.

It was a really bad name.

First, there were a few movements. Then rocking. And then, if we listened carefully enough—the echoing sound of tiny claws scratching at the inside of the egg.

And then finally—finally—a crack.

Then two.

And then the shell fell away.

Our beautiful dragon, was here.

We didn’t pick her up right away. When we did, she would shift for the first time—and we wouldn’t see her dragon again until our daughter hit puberty.

“Are you ready?” Ralph whispered.

We both nodded and Craig reached down and picked up our daughter, who shifted into our baby girl for the first time.

“She’s beautiful,” Ralph breathed.

Craig brought her to his chest, and she began to suckle. “What should we name her?”

We’d been talking about names nonstop, but none of them seemed to fit. But now that she was here and we could see her, it was time to decide

---