Page 16 of Mated in the Stars

“I’ll take it as a good sign that your modesty is coming back. Er… Wait. You’re Starscale. When did you get modesty?”

Elio laughed and I had to grab his hands to stop him from wrapping them over his belly. I grabbed one of Izora’s scrub tops from the cabinet and laid it over Elio’s midsection.

“Thank you. I’m not shy. It was just getting cold. I forgot he was out.”

“You’re high, babe,” I said.

“High like at the club,” he laughed. “Do you remember that time you and Ruben ate the shrooms? Hey! Who’s Ruben?”

“Someone I used to know,” I laughed. “And I do remember that. I was there.”

“What about when you and Feral crashed your granddad’s car because he was an idiot? Like you did it on purpose. Right through his new building. That’s what he got for tearing down housing to build his stupid bank ---”

“I remember that too,” I grinned.

“What about when you thought Canton was a drug lord before you figured out, he actually grew food and was just an eccentric rabbit farmer?”

“I know my life, mate,” I laughed. “I lived it.”

“Good. You haven’t forgotten. Minter is--- I don’t know. Something about pigs. F the pigs?” Elio blinked.

I laughed and covered my mouth. My kids – all of my egg brats – were too young to remember that human phrase. Something was getting lost in translation over the flight link and it didn’t help either of us that Elio was high as a kite.

“What did the pigs do? We eat the pigs! I bet the pigs on the farm are all like F the farmer and the dragons!” Elio giggled. “It still sorta hurts to laugh. I hate this! Fred! It itches. Itch me! Alpha!”

I kissed his forehead and grabbed his hands again before he could start scratching.

“I love you, Elio. I’m sorry it’s itchy and you’re sore but for now, I’m gonna keep ahold of these. You can’t scratch or squeeze yourself or whatever.”

“I’m not trying to scratch my balls, Fred,” he rolled his eyes. “It’s the cut that itches.”

I got him some water and helped him sip it. Not long afterwards he fell back asleep muttering about F-ing pigs and F-ing parasites. Whatever Teddy had gotten up to, I hoped he was having fun because when Elio felt better there would be hell to pay for teaching Minter the phrase ‘F the pigs.’

Chapter Nine

Elio

It was nearly a week before I felt like a dragon instead of a mushie kite again. The whole week felt as if everyone was play acting some script that I knew nothing about. They were polite and friendly. Too polite. Too fucking friendly. They spoke in soft, regal tones and pretended that’s how they always spoke to each other. What the fuck was I going to do about it? Maybe I was still high from the surgery? Maybe my adrenaline all gushing at once had fucked up my brain.

I lounged inside our nest and watched our egg grow bit by bit. It had only picked up an inch or so in that first week, but Izora wasn’t worried. If it was growing that meant it had most likely gathered up all the nutrients it needed to survive. I needed my baby to survive. I wouldn’t be okay otherwise. How could I? How could any of us? Old people died. Sometimes sick people went through their doors, but hatchlings were so new and tiny, they should never die. Maybe none of us should since we all started as hatchlings too.

I cried a lot that first week. I wasn’t sure if it was worry, stress, or my hormones still running wild. Was this what my inner beast wanted to be protected from? Did he know something was wrong with our egg? With us? Izora said everything was fine now. I’d be able to have more eggs in the future, if I wanted to. He’d like me to have a lot more ultrasounds than I did this time around if there was a next pregnancy.

Fred spent that week irritated with everyone except me, Minter, and Teddy. He barred both Sunny and Selt from the house in a move that I suspected was more his dragon than him. Still, I let him get on with it. I tried to get Teddy to tell me aboutthe guy who came through the door but instead he only told me the hilarious story about the pig who almost had the guy for dinner before Teddy sent it back through the door. Teddy was so much like his sire. He’d play the hero for anyone given the chance. If Fred was right about him eventually running off with his true-mate, I’d miss him when he was gone. Something was off about Teddy this last week but maybe my c-section was too close to home. He’d already lost his mother. Was he afraid of losing me and his youngest sibling too? I didn’t ask him because that would’ve been rude.

Slowly but surely, I moved around more and more as my appetite returned. Our egg stayed inside the nest surrounded by heating pads and blankets. We kept it shined and polished. From looking at it, you’d never know that it had a hasty and critical entry into the world outside my body.

Marsin stayed in the guest room and Uncle Hush dropped by every day. My parents called morning and night, and I spent hours on video call with them. I had never felt so surrounded by family in my life. I sorta liked it even if all my muscles and joints ached from lying around too much. Eventually, I made my way to an everything shower while Fred sat with the baby. I hadn’t been out of his sight very often, but he had gone out into the backyard and talked heatedly with Teddy a few times since my c-section. I could never quite discern what they were speaking of but sooner or later someone would let me know what the fuck was going on. It was too bad that Fred wouldn’t let Sunny come inside. He’d have told me.

Minter wandered into the bathroom after I was clean, dry, and in my pajama pants working product through my hair. He looked up at me with big eyes as if he too had been being quiet because someone told him too. I wouldn’t be that dad. Not the dad that used the baby to find out the distressing information. That shit was never fair to hatchlings.

“Teddy’s mum is a boy,” Minter said.

“Huh?” I blinked at him.

Surely, he’d heard us speak of Lotus here and there. Fred and Teddy both had framed photographs of her too. He knew she wasn’t a boy.

“Lotus wasn’t a boy, baby,” I laughed. “She was a beautiful lady.”

---