Page 25 of Matched By the Dragon

“Morning,” I said, trying to sound less worried than I felt as the sun peeked above the horizon properly.

“Morning,” he said.

He walked over and squatted down where the cubs were working together to try to get a leather pouch filled with jerky out of a pillowcase I tied closed with a knot.

“Hey, buddies,” he said and they both looked up at him. Resin went straight for his pocket. Clyde laughed and pulled out two beef sticks. He opened them and held one out in the direction of either cub.

“They remember the last time they saw me at the hospital,” he laughed.

“He’s their doctor too. Comes all the way out here to see them,” Brad said into my thoughts. “Well, Alby and his grandkids too, but still, it’s really nice of him.”

“How long has he had morning sickness for?” Clyde asked me while the kids chomped on their beef sticks.

“It started a little over an hour ago.”

“This the first time?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Is this your first time with a pregnant mate?” Clyde asked.

“Yeah, but I don’t think I’ll bite you,” I shrugged.

“Good. I bite back,” he laughed. “I know it’s a common problem midwives and doctors have, but I’ve been bitten by more omegas than alphas. They know they can get away with it because they’re the only ones with reasons to bite usually. Being pregnant can be scary. Giving birth is a battle with the death gods. So they can bite me. If you bite me, I’m going to take a chunk out of you. Not a huge chunk. Something you can easily recover from and still help out around the house, but it’ll still hurt.”

“Are you being extra with this because I’m a bear?” I blinked at him.

“I find establishing consequences for crossing boundaries early in professional relationships is the best way to go about things. It also helps in Star’s territory, because let’s say a sire did bite me. So, I bite him back of course. Then he gets whiny and decides to report it. Star’s first question will be why did I bite you and then he’ll ask if I warned you about biting me. That’s enough for him. He’ll shrug it off.”

“Heck,” I laugh, using the least ‘cuss word’ word that comes to mind. “Is it that much of a problem?”

“Eh, more with alpha midwifes than omegas, but some omegas get bit too. If an omega health care worker comes to check on Brad and you bite them – I’ll kick your ass so hard that Star will have to put you back together to find pieces of you to burn alive.”

“Clyde, stop talking like that around my babies,” Brad warned from the door. “And stop threatening my mate. Durin’s one of the most chill guys you’ll ever meet. When I met him, I whomped him in the shin with my walking stick.”

“Well, you’re cuter than me. So you have cute privilege and I don’t,” Clyde teased as the cubs took the last bites of their beef sticks from his hands. “Is everyone coming in for the ultrasound or are we on our own?”

“I want Durin there,” Brad said.

“Come on, ruffians,” I said, scooping up the boys.

Inside once the door was shut, Brad took off his shirt and folded it up all nice and neat like he was buying time. He smelled nervous. I had a million questions I wanted to shoot at Clyde, but didn’t want to make this about me. It wasn’t about me. I could search the internet later or call the midwife hotline with my questions.

“You can ask questions, alpha,” Brad said sitting down and leaning back against the sofa arm. “You know how an ultrasound works, right?”

“I…” I almost started in talking about Liza and her disease. She had plenty of ultrasounds but never a happy one like this.

“I don’t mind explaining,” Clyde said, setting up his little portable machine.

“I poked a sore spot by accident,” Brad said, biting his lip.

“My late mate had the bear liver disease, and it was a lot,” I said, saving Brad from having to choose between being mysteriously vague and not saying anything at all.

“Oh,” Clyde said. “My condolences.” He smelled like he meant it. “Well, you’ll be happy to know that while Brad was in the hospital he was checked for that gene. As far as modern blood work can tell, he doesn’t have it. I take it, you’ve been checked as well?”

“Yes,” I nod, sitting down with the boys in my lap. They squirmed to get down, but I held onto them.

“If you’re holding onto them for comfort, ignore me, but if you’re holding onto them because you’re afraid, they’ll get in my way, don’t,” Clyde said. “The more you let kids interact with stuff the less they’re afraid of it.”