Page 36 of Purple Protector

“I’m not sure what you expect from me,” Palmer said. “I’m a doctor. I wasn’t trained by a dragon healer, and your bodies are very different from ours.”

“But not that different.”

Palmer looked Birch up and down. “Could have fooled me,” he muttered.

He wasn’t wrong. Even though dragons had a humanoid form, they weren’t human. Aaron just had to look at Birch to know that. Birch’s tail was wrapped around his waist. He had patches of dark purple scales scattered all over his body. His eyes were a dark purple and slitted, and of course, there were the fangs and claws. The fact that he and the other dragons didn’t wear clothes made how different they were from humans even more obvious.

Aaron swallowed. He and Birch hadn’t done anything in bed yet. It wasn’t that Aaron didn’t want to, but his life had been all over the place recently, and he’d been happy with going to bed and falling asleep in Birch’s arms. He would also be happy if they did more, but part of him was hesitant because he had no idea what to do and how to make it good for Birch.

He eyed Palmer. Maybe Palmer could give him some tips. Otherwise, he’d have to ask another dragon, and he wasn’t sure he’d have the guts to look Marlin in the face again after he did. There was no way he could ask Killian, and those two were the dragons he was closest to apart from Birch.

By the time he reached the infirmary, Aaron felt he was about to explode or start screaming—possibly both. He barely waited until the door was closed behind them to turn to Birch. “Tell me,” he ordered.

Birch rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know how much attention you’ve paid to me and my body, but you might have noticed that it’s different these days.”

Aaron blinked. Where the fuck was Birch going with this? “What are you talking about?” Aaron had paid attention to Birch’s body—how could he not when Birch looked the way he looked—but he didn’t know what Birch was talking about.

Birch pointed to his stomach. Aaron looked down at it, frowning when he saw a dark line. It hadn’t been there a few days ago, right?

“That’s the sign that Birch is fertile,” Palmer explained. He was leaning against one of the beds and had crossed his arms over his chest. “As you might know, Aaron, dragons of both sexes can get pregnant. They don’t have a regular cycle like humans, and frankly, I couldn’t tell you how their cycle works because I haven’t studied it, but I do know that they know they’re fertile when this line appears on their stomachs.”

Aaron blinked. Birch was fertile? That meant he could get pregnant.

Aaron had to reach for the closest bed. “Oh my God. I’m not ready to have children. I mean, I want kids, but it’s too soon. We barely know each other. I guess that in a few years, we can make beautiful babies, but now? I just moved in with the clan. I have no idea what I’m doing half the time. I can barely take care of myself, let alone a child.”

Birch put his hands on Aaron’s shoulders and squeezed. “Breathe. I’m not telling you we need to have kids right now. There’s an easy way to avoid having kids, you know.”

Right. The two of them hadn’t had sex yet, so Birch couldn’t be pregnant.

Aaron’s shoulders slumped. He was relieved, even though he did want kids. In a few years, hopefully, the two of them would have settled down and could have a conversation about it, but right now? Aaron wouldn’t know what to do if Birch told him he was pregnant.

Palmer cleared his throat. “And even if you were to be doing something that might result in a pregnancy, there are ways to avoid that. I can give you birth control, Birch.”

Birch didn’t hesitate. “Please.”

“You’re lucky that even though I’m not trained to heal dragons, I like to learn enough that I talked to several of your healers.” Palmer moved toward one of the closets on the side of the room. “This is something that I’ve already seen happen often. Don’t you people keep track of your cycles?”

“Not particularly.”

“Well, maybe you should start.”

He dug into the closet for a moment, and Aaron took the opportunity to lean closer to Birch. “Even with the birth control, we’re not doing anything that can get you pregnant.”

“You might want to rethink that,” Palmer said without even looking at them. “Unless I’m wrong, Birch will have a heightened libido until he’s not fertile anymore.”

“It doesn’t mean we have to do anything about it,” Birch said.

Palmer finally turned and moved toward him again. “It doesn’t, but remember that Aaron isn’t a dragon. I’m not going to explain to either of you how sex works between two human males, but I don’t think I need to.”

Aaron was going to die of embarrassment before he and Birch could have sex. He just knew it. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

Palmer grinned at him, clearly satisfied with having embarrassed him. “Now go. I have more important things to do than talk to you about the birds and bees, and I’m pretty sure you do, too.”

Aaron had never left a room so quickly.

Chapter Thirteen

AARON HADN’T BEEN ABLE to stop thinking about what Palmer had said. He’d thought about it yesterday afternoon while he and Birch relaxed on the couch and watched movies. He’d thought about it when they’d gotten into bed and had gotten to sleep the way they always did. He was still thinking about it this morning when Birch had insisted that he wanted to talk to Killian just to make sure everything was going well.

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