Page 10 of Mated in the Stars

“You’re right. HE should see this whole door thing. I’ll let Teddy know—”

“You should stay! You came all the way and ---” Elio spoke until he was sick again.

“I’m not sending you home alone. I’m not sending you anywhere without me,” I shook my head.

Marsin looked back and forth between me and his sick brother unsure of what to do. Teddy poked me over the family link but I didn’t have an answer for how he or anyone else could help.

“Let’s get him inside the caster tent,” Izora said a moment later as if he teleported next to us. Since moving into the mushie forest with his wild born mate the man snuck around like a thief in the night without making a sound.

“I don’t want to interrupt them,” Elio shook his head.

“Liatris won’t mind,” Teddy said, walking up without Minter.

For point two seconds I almost grabbed him by the ear and demanded to know where Minter was.

“He’s with Sunny,” Teddy said before I got the words out of my mouth. “He started screaming about how the baby couldn’t get out of his egg. Sounded like something you said Duke would say when you were getting close. Well, sort of. It reminded me of those stories.”

“Into the tent,” Izora said, scooping up Elio and it took all my might not to grab him up by his belt loops and launch him into the sun after taking back my mate.

“Fred!” Elio said, grasping at the air to reach me.

“I am invoking healer’s privilege,” Izora shouted over the crowd. “Under Starscale Flight Law the crowd is to part for a healer in route to treat a patient or who is transporting a patient.”

The crowd moved as one all murmuring about who had already managed to get hurt. Liatris poked his head out of the tent at all the commotion and then tore the flap open to motion Izora and us inside.

“Alpha!” Elio squeaked as Izora laid him out on the pile of blankets on one side of the tent. He shoved up his shirt with one hand while pulling out his portable ultrasound machine with the other. Somewhere close by Teddy shook. Flashes of Lotus surrounded by doctors played through his memories. I dropped to my knees beside Elio wishing I could tear myself apart to be in two places at once. Someone else stepped into the tent behind Teddy and I suppressed a growl betting good pizza and beer that it was Selt. Sunny’s hair came into view, and I let out a sigh. Yeah. I still hadn’t forgiven the other asshole.

“The baby’s with Laken and the twins,” Sunny announced.

“Give us some space, please,” Izora said as his mate, Nycto, poked his head into the tent to see what was going on. “Everyone clear out, please! Nycto, love, please tell Castor that someone will need to prepare the OR back on the ship.”

“The OR?” Teddy asked as Sunny pulled him out of the tent and out of the way.

“Don’t!” Izora said as my fingers reached out to grab him. “Fred Moonscale, you tell that overgrown glitter bunny inside you to sit his ass down and let me do my job. It is very rare that a dragon shifter needs anything near a c-section but that is the case here. The egg has descended but from my calculations isn’t going to come out naturally due to its size and the angle its chosen for its decent. I’m sure this has happened before even here.”

“Yeah,” Elio nodded. “My grandpa had a ---” he said and screwed up his face trying not to vomit again.

“You be sick if you need to,” Izora said. “We’ll get you something on the IV when we get back to the clinic.”

A voice cut through the murmurs outside. It was Hush Starscale himself finally making an appearance and clearing out the crowd – telling them all to go home and they’d receive a newdate for the ceremony when an egg and carrier weren’t in an emergency state.

“No,” Elio frowned, tears welling up in his eyes. “Fred!”

I loved my name on his lips but not like this – not scared and desperate and looking at me for answers.

“Medwin Moonscale chose Izora to be the healer aboard the Medwin 2 because he thought he could put Sunny back together if something happened to him. Medwin is the pickiest son-of-a-bitch about doctors that I have ever met. I swear that upon every song I’ve ever danced to. He’ll get our egg out safely.”

I didn’t add on then we’d have to figure out how to get the egg from the ship into the nest. That was a problem we’d have to take care of later.

“I don’t even feel like--- I’m not in pain,” Elio stumbled over his words.

“I think we caught it earlier than we usually would,” Izora said, pushing the tent flap open. “Fred. Marsin. Figure out which one of you are carrying him.”

“I can fly!” Elio objected.

“I will,” I said.

Running Glitter Bomb and Green Bay back on Earthside meant I’d dealt with my fair share of vomit, and I wasn’t sure Marsin had ever been puked on in his life. Besides, brother or not, Marsin wasn’t as good of a flyer as I was. Most of the dragons here never flew through combat zones. Not the younger ones anyway. Marsin didn’t argue with me as I scooped up Elio.

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