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“I feel like a fucking whale,” Uriel growled.

“This was not my intention when you told me to fill you up,” Bruiser said sheepishly next to him.

“You may have gone overboard on the filling,” Ace said solemnly.

Uriel and Bruiser turned and shot him identical glares.

Ace held his hands up. “Okay, I’ll shut up.”

“You never do,” Nether said dryly.

They were all at Ace and Nether’s flight’s ancestral mansion, where Bruiser had spent a significant number of his growing-up years. The flight didn’t have to show up for their bonding ceremony, but to Bruiser’s surprise, all of them were here—Ace and Nether’s brothers, all six of them, as well as their dads, Thomas and Sen.

Raptor, Ace’s twin, eyed Uriel’s belly. “So, you’ll be walking the Circle today?”

Uriel gave him a narrow-eyed look. “How many of you have placed bets on us? Again?”

All of them raised their hands.

Bruiser sighed. “It’s just a regular pastime at this point, isn’t it?”

“Along with the pickup lines, yes!” Hunner yelled, perched on their cart, Rover, as it raced by.

“I have written you a song just for this occasion,” Griff said proudly.

Uriel tried not to wince. Griff’s songs were just as terrible as the pickup lines in 699 Pickup Lines For Your Wriggly Heart Muffin. “Um, thanks, Griff.”

Griff beamed.

Bruiser hurried Uriel past his adoptive family—as much as he could, anyway, with Uriel waddling now that he was so close to his due date. Then Bruiser sighed and swept Uriel into a bridal carry, taking him up the stairs so no one could offer to read them a pickup line.

“You know there’s no escaping the pickup lines, right?” Uriel asked.

Bruiser gave a long-suffering sigh. “Hope springs eternal.”

“Like your cum,” Hunner whispered loudly.

Several people snickered around them.

Bruiser scowled and brought Uriel to the back of the mansion, where a deep cavern had been carved into the side of the mountain. Uriel looked around. It was a majestic place, with high ceilings and wall sconces that lit the place with dancing firelight. In the middle of the cavern, a set of wide concentric circles had been carved into the floor. Their edges had been worn smooth over the centuries, and between each ring were carvings of different things—Roman numerals, drawings of people and animals.

“This is the Circle,” Bruiser said. “I’ll take the outermost circle, and you’ll have the next-biggest one. Remember to hold my hand, and have one foot on your circle at all times.”

Uriel narrowed his eyes. “I can’t even see where I’m walking, with my belly this huge.”

Bruiser purred, rubbing Uriel’s belly. Their baby gave a tiny kick in there, almost out of space now that they were so close to the due date. “You’ll be able to feel the grooves with your toes. I’ll walk slowly.”

“You’d better,” Uriel said.

“You know your threats only turn me on, right?”

Uriel rolled his eyes.

Slowly, Bruiser’s family filled the cavern. The dragons had shifted into their dragon forms, and their mates accompanied them in their human shapes. All of them kept to the edges of the cavern, leaving ample space around the Circle.

“Ready?” Bruiser asked, taking Uriel’s hand.

Uriel breathed in and out, the enormity of the ceremony finally settling on his shoulders. “You know I love you, right?”