Page 30 of Iced Heat

“Unless something is actually expected to be wrong, we don’t mess around with groping you too much,” Riz explained pickingup their sonic device from the shelf it rested on. “We’ve heard all about well-omega exams. We do have something like that here, upon request or we might suggest them if something seems off, but you feel healthy over the flight link. You feel like two healthy dragons.”

They aimed the sonic at Sequin’s stomach and the delightful ding-ding hit back at us all.

“Definitely an egg,” Riz said.

They cocked their head to the side and studied Sequin for about sixty seconds.

“Yeah, unless you just want to double-check everything, I don’t think we need to do the full hands-on examination,” they said when they finished considering my mate’s health over the flight link.

“We wanted to ask you about genetics,” I said.

“I’m not sure how yours will pass on,” they said, leaning back against their desk. “I promised you’d retain your ability to sire but not that you’d make icy babies.”

“Not my genetics,” I explained. “Vulpine degenerative disease.”

“Oh. We’ve read a lot of literature on that one and I’ll be happy to run the blood panel once the baby hatches but at this moment I’m not sure there is testing we can do. I understand that Earthside doctors could perform some of the tests while you were pregnant if you were expecting a live birth but breaching the membrane of a dragon egg is unheard of.”

“That I’d take someone’s head for,” I shrugged.

“I know nothing is certain until blood tests are done but I’d like to think we’d feel the baby’s energy if something like that was brewing,” Riz frowned and squinted at Sequin’s stomach. “We’re usually pretty good at picking up issues in dragon hatchlings before their eggs are ever laid. That’s the longest part of our apprenticeships. We spend so much time with our headspressed against pregnant bellies while more experienced healers shake their heads and tut because we can’t hear the soon-to-be hatchlings as clearly as we hear already grown flight mates.”

“That makes me feel a little better,” Sequin said.

“It should and if a flight member were born with such genetics, we would do everything within our power to aid them. We’d find or make a match and attempt to replace those genes. We’ve done it with a few of our own genetic disorders. It doesn’t always work but it does more often than not, and you can try it more than once,” Riz explained.

Sequin blinked. Of course he blinked. His carrier and grandfather had passed from the disease.

“We’re not sure if it would work on someone who wasn’t on our link,” Riz added. “But you are and your hatchling will be.”

After Riz took down enough information to register us for our nest pack, we left and walked a few blocks to a ground cow sandwich shop. Sequin mentally giggled at the menu items.

Ground cow with cheese.

Ground cow with cheese and pickles.

Ground cow with cheese, pickles, and tomatoes.

Until I visited Earthside I didn’t know such places existed that didn’t call their meats by what the meat was. Ground cow was a burger to my mate. I ordered for him after he told me what he wanted, to save him the embarrassment of giggling about ordering a ground cow sandwich with all the fixings. We also had some fried potatoes and I ordered a basket of purple strawberries because I figured the baby needed something healthy.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met a doctor who was that nice,” Sequin said. “And I’ve met a lot of doctors.”

“Riz is good. I interviewed a few before I found them and no, before you ask, I didn’t pick them because they’re non-binary.I picked them because they had the highest cold tolerance. My self-healing abilities all come with some icy side effects and can’t tell the difference between surgery and attacks.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Sequin said and bit into his sandwich.

“I’ve bled ice a few times on them,” I shrugged. “The first time I had a paper cut was on the world where I met Liatris. Thankfully, I was alone, but hail stones shot out of the cut.”

“Damn! Thankfully that hasn’t happened while I’m having a good time with your back,” Sequin chuckled.

“I think my magic knows the difference between you shredding up my back while I’m knotting you for the third time in a day and an attack.”

“I hope so. I don’t think knotting is an effective battle method. Though,” he bit his lip, “I think you knotting me would probably keep me from going to battle.”

“I know,” I nodded. “It’s the only effective way to lock you up and keep you still.”

He ran his toes up my leg under the table and the conversation turned to how much of his Earthside stuff he planned to move over. At first, he wanted to bring nearly all of it, but we liked the idea of going back and forth between the worlds. It was unlikely my mother would locate me but if she did, having a house somewhere else to meet up at if we got separated wasn’t a bad thing.

By the end of that week, our Starscale house was ready. It was a big stone house not far from the ship or where Fred lived with his mates. Inside, the house was furnished and our nest pack waited for us to put it together. It was the beginning of something real. Something so real that I never imagined I could actually have when I blew off the planet of my birth.

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