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“They’ll eat when they shift,” I promised. The basics were something I knew from my original brood. “Until then, magic is what keeps them sustained and strong.”
“Do they ever eat in dragon form?” Avi asked. “Do you? Now I have all these questions I never thought I’d have to ask.”
Levi snorted. “We don’t eat in our dragon forms. Cadmus said he probably could, but he’s not the hunting type.”
The thought of raw animal meat made me want to gag a bit, but I held it back. “I’ll stick to human eating as well.”
Niko laughed at that. “Speaking of which... Youneedto eat.”
“You didn’t give your body any time to recover,” Avi reminded me. Their worry was so heavy I could scent its sharp aroma in the air.
“I did recover while I was knocked out. Guys, I’m a dragon. I didn’t undergo a c-section or push out a whole human baby,” I argued. “We’re built differently.”
“That you are,” Kane said with a wolfish grin that had me laughing. Then the dragonling puffed out a smokey snore that expelled tiny embers. Kane gasped as his shirt erupted in flames, and Levi snatched the sleeping baby away so Kane could slap himself until the flames went out. “Okay, okay, note to self: baby dragons cause fire.”
“Why do you think we lived in stone strongholds?” Levi mused. “Hell, I bet Farren was raised in a castle.”
“I was,” I confirmed. “We even had a throne room and all that shit. It was unnecessary.”
After that, we were quiet, simply watching our babies sleep while we gathered strength from each other. Seeing my mates so captivated by our little dragons made my soul swoon. My mates were unmatched. Each day, they fought to find a new balance and refused to give up. If that didn’t scream fated mates, nothing could.
“She’s Anya,” I said as I pointed to the dragon curled on Levi’s chest. She had spines down her back, the only marker that kept them from being completely identical.
“I was thinking about Avery,” Levi admitted. “It was my sister’s name.”
“Avery and Anya. I like it,” I said slowly, testing the names out loud.Yes. They’re perfect.“Welcome to the world, babies.”
ChapterSeventeen
Farren
The parking lot was empty save for a single man running from two tiny dragons. It had only been a week, but our dragonlings had doubled in size and were giving Avi a run for his money. They were playing some mix of hide and seek and tag, though I had no idea how they’d agreed on the rules or the way a winner was actually decided.
“Anya! Avery!” Levi’s voice called before he popped out from behind a stack of crates. He stood there long enough for them to see him, then rushed off to hide in another spot.
“Oh my gods, they’re cuter than I imagined!” Quinn squealed as she approached us. The sun was finally out for once, and it was warm enough that we could enjoy it. Her men walked behind her with more gift bags than I could count. She noticed my gaze and gave an uncertain laugh. “Uh, I may have gone overboard. With how busy you guys have been, I thought this could help. I heard you guys haven’t had a chance to shop or set up a baby room.”
I winced. “We haven’t. But they’re going to be this way for another two weeks, I hope, which gives us a tiny bit of wiggle room to get on it.”
“Well, we got you a jump start,” she promised.
I pulled her into a hug. “Thank you, that’s so sweet.” My voice cracked as I squeezed. It was humbling to know how many people cared about our girls. Not only did they have a ferocious brood behind them, a grandpa who would kill for them, and fierce parents, they also had amazing friends like Quinn and her coven in their lives.
Maxon was right behind her, so my eyes landed on the wolf as I stepped away from the hug. “Any word?”
He shook his head at my question. “Tell her, Quinn,” he ordered, and my friend shrunk down at the response.
“He left town,” she said slowly. “I don’t know what happened, but he’s in hiding. Something caught him off guard or wounded him. He looked awful in the vision.”
“Where did he go?” Niko asked. His voice was hard, and I jumped at the fire in his tone. I hadn’t realized he’d gotten so close to us.
“I don’t know,” she admitted, “but I know it was on a coast. There was sand and an ocean.”
“That gives us time,” Kylan said firmly. “We can set barriers, traps, the works.”
“We prepare like we already planned,” Maxon agreed.
“I can help with that,” a voice called out. How the man had heard from that far away, I had no clue. He was a creep, that much I could tell, and the way he strutted up with cool confidence was a huge red flag. He was lithe and tall, a lecherous grin on his angular face. His cheeks were slightly sunken, but his eyes were sharp and cold.
