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She blurted, "Will I be forced to mate him?"
"I honestly don't know, Kaylee. It's possible Finn can work out a deal with the DDA for you to live on Lochguard with your bairn. Unless…"
Her voice trailed off and Kaylee asked, "Unless what?"
"Unless Maelon wants to claim his child. Then I'm not sure what will happen. Nearly always the dragon-shifter parent is given precedence over the human one. Which means you'll have to mate him to stay with the wee one."
The thought of having to mate a dragon-shifter just to have a claim on her child, like in the days of old when men always had the rights over women, made her angry.
It's just a taste of how the dragon-shifter world is different from the human one, Kaylee. You'd better get used to it since you'll have a little dragon baby soon enough.
She took a deep breath, trying to tame her anger. After all, she might be getting ahead of herself. The dragonman might not even want a child. If that was the case, she could live on Lochguard near her sister and their children could grow up together.
Except she didn't know what this Dr. Maelon Perry would want. There was no way around it—she'd have to talk to him.
Before she could change her mind, she said, "I need to see him."
There was no confusion about the him in question. Layla nodded and glanced at Gregor. The dragonman nodded. "Aye, I'll fetch him. But are you sure you want to do this now? You might want to rest first. I'm not sure how Maelon will react to the news."
Kaylee shook her head. "No, I want to do it now. If I wait, I'll just keep thinking about what-ifs, and it'll drive me crazy."
Layla added, "Besides, Kaylee needs to get a shot of dragon's blood as soon as possible. The father's works best, aye?"
Kaylee jumped in, "But Gina didn't have the father's blood for her first pregnancy. And she was fine."
Layla replied, "Aye, but I think that's because Fergus was her true mate, and so his blood helped her." She paused and then asked, "Did Maelon kiss you?"
She mumbled, "No."
That had been one of the rules of the masquerade—no kissing on the lips. Which made sense since a kiss could set off a mate-claim frenzy for a dragon-shifter and that would've disturbed the secret party.
Gregor went to the door. "Aye, well, let's talk to Maelon and go from there."
Once the door shut, Kaylee asked Layla, "Do you like him?"
"Maelon? Aye, well enough. He's come a long way, that's for sure. He doubted Sid's abilities at first, but I think having his clan leader mated to someone like Delaney has changed his mind about females quite a bit." She opened her mouth to ask more questions, but Layla shook her head and beat her to it. "I think it's best if you talk with him to make judgments for yourself, aye?"
With a sigh, Kaylee muttered her agreement. And as she waited, she shifted in her seat, wondering about the dragonman who had changed her life forever.
ChapterThirteen
Dr. Maelon Perry was going over some of Trahern's notes when there was a knock on the door. Trahern frowned, but didn't bother to check who was there.
To some, the male's behavior would be strange but Maelon had known Trahern nearly his whole life. Before moving to Stonefire, Trahern had lived on Snowridge in Wales, where they'd both grown up.
While odd at times, Trahern was clever and one of the few minds who kept up with Maelon's own. He didn't realize how much he'd missed the other dragonman until he'd been gone.
The knocking increased in volume, and Maelon went to answer it; on the other side of it stood Gregor. Even if they hadn't known each other long—only since Gregor's mate had managed to get them all to work together for medical research—the male was nice enough and competent. However, his eyes were flashing rapidly, full of a mixture of emotions Maelon couldn't make out. "Yes?"
Gregor said, "I need you to come with me."
His tone was a bit sterner than normal. "Why?"
"Just come with me, aye? There's something I need to discuss with you."
He was about to say he was busy when Maelon's dragon spoke up.Something is wrong. Don't argue for once.
I don't argue for the sake of it.
