Page 54 of Emerald Waves
“Please, no.” Was she insane? I’d never thrown up as much in my life as I just had.
“I’m sorry honey but you must. You can’t deprive the new Denarius baby of sustenance.”
Record scratch.
Brain broken.
Rewind.
Replay those words.
New. Denarius…
“Oh fuck.”
Caro jumped up and cheered so loudly there was no way the rest of the clan hadn’t heard him. Sure enough, moments later the door downstairs flew open and hit the wall, likely damaging it. Good thing the contractor was headed to our house next. Several sets of feet stomped up the stairs and then our bedroom door burst open and in came the rest of the Denarius brothers.
“Brother, what happened?” Odem asked, having somehow been the first one here.
“Emerson is pregnant!” Caro happily shared as I slunk under the covers and buried myself beneath them.
“Rescue sex on the pitch for the win!” Odem shouted.
Please, goddess, let the earth swallow me whole now.
“Emerson,” Raven whispered. “This is a good thing, isn’t it?”
I wanted to say yes but my nerves had me second guessing it. Did I want to be a father? Yes, though I didn’t have much interaction with kids outside of Alex and Ionus brood and even that wasn’t often. Guess I found another research project to dive into.
“That was one hell of a way to get out of a meeting, Emerson.” Shit, Ionus knew. Fucking Caro likely told him. Thirty days without sex ought to get the point across that some shit must stay between mates.
Who was I kidding. After the first time we mated it was like he’d opened the flood gates and more times than not I was the one initiating coitus.
“Please don’t ever tell our child the event surrounding his creation.” Though I mumbled beneath the linens, dragon hearing caught the words loud and clear. Their laughter rang out, bouncing off the walls of what I once thought of as a massive master suite. With five large dragons, even in their human forms, the room was a broom closet.
“What?” Caro chided. “It was magical.”
“My mate wasn’t too happy when he ran outside to see what had caused the earthquake only to find his best friend being taken on the pitch by his mate.”
How could I ever face Alex or Ionus again after that?
But on a side note, not only did I finally have a friend, but a bestie.
A flurry of squealing flesh landed atop me on the bed. “Oh, my gawd! Oh, my gawd! Oh, my gawd!” Alex chanted, “My bestie is preggers!” He ripped the covers off my face and pecked away, kissing my cheeks and forehead.
“Yes, and you’re dancing all over your bestie’s tumultuous gut.” And egg, though I couldn’t quite bring myself to admit that yet. “Just. Finished. Vomiting.”
“Sorry. Sorry. I got so excited when Ionus told me that I ran right over.” Alex was much like me, as in we’d been humans for so long we tended to forget to utilize our dragons more often.
“Who is watching your zoo?”
He chuckled. “Gramps, Great-Gramps Drakemyre and his clan. Takes all five of them to keep the twins from burning the place down.”
“It’ll be lovely when they learn to contain their errant burps,” Ionus shook his head as Caro laughed. “Just you wait, brother. Your turn is next.”
“I’m hoping this one is more the bookworm like it’s daddy,” Caro winked at me. Even after all these weeks together, he still had a knack for making me blush with the simplest of gestures.
“I’m gonna make you, well,” Alex paused, “Ionus is gonna cook you this fantastic soup he made for me when I was preggers. Was about the only thing I could keep down the first few weeks.”
