AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And that included Kai’s ahevamai.
Outside, clan members were putting the finishing touches on the décor for the celebration while at the same time, other workers hauled carts piled with heavy boulders across the grass, weaving around the tent poles and tables filling up with freshly cut fruit. These men were here for an entirely different purpose: the construction of themahinuigate, in an underwater cave located in the middle of the main house’s courtyard garden.
There was a shout and a crash as two of the workers knocked into a table and dropped their cart, spilling the rocks along with two dozen cups of pineapple juice. Enry, the human shaman and flight mate to Kai’s betrothed, scampered out from the main house, waving his hands at the workers.
“No, no!” he cried. “I said to go around the party grounds, not through them.” He saw me and bowed his head. “I’m so sorry, Ari.”
“It’s not a problem,” I told him. “You shouldn’t be stressing yourself about this in your state.”
Though my experience with pregnancies between humans and terrestrial dragons was practically nonexistent, I could tell he was close to delivery. What had only recently been confirmed for me, thanks to a very long conversation with Eli, whose knowledge of healing was far broader than mine, was that Enry would be laying an egg. This was beyond my expertise—fire dragons, ice dragons, and the others were different in that way from sea dragons. Our omegas gave live birth.
“I know, but we’re so very close,” Enry said.
“You can take one day off,” Kai said in a much gentler tone than I was capable of. “Especially a day like today, yeah?”
Enry nodded. “Yes, of course. You’re right. I should be attending to Visir.”
He bowed to us and hurried away, disappearing into the house.
“Poor guy,” Kai said. “He hasn’t seen his mate in, what? Two months?”
I waved my hand and directed several of the workers to take care of the table and the rocks, then called over two Blue Fin clan members to refill all the drinks.
“You ought to be getting ready,” I said, turning to Kai. “Everyone will be here soon.”
“Think I have time to sneak down to the beach?” he asked with a grin.
“No. Don’t even think about it.”
“But I already did.”
“Kai,” I growled. “Just go and get ready.”
“Okay, alright. Damn. Yes, sir.”
I turned and walked through the ceremony grounds, taking time to double-check the work. I felt more irritated than usual at being called “sir.” It was another one of Kai’s jabs, of course. He knew exactly what to prod to piss me off, and this one went back to when we were just children. My cousins would always tell me, “Yes, Father,” or “Right away, Dad” whenever I was made to take charge. I didn’t enjoy being the bad guy and calling the shots, but someone had to do it.
Instead of turning back, I decided to walk off my sore mood and continued along the path through the fruit groves and gardens until I’d gotten to the foot of the beach and the main house was far behind me.
The bright blue water washed against the white sand with a gentle roar, and I felt the tempting call of its openness. It seemed I was spending less and less time in the ocean these days. Too much to attend to, too many responsibilities.
I squinted as a dark shape appeared flying over the water to the south. Sunlight shimmered on green scales. It was Istil, Visir’s cousin, and I immediately tensed up.
A forest dragon omega, Istil was sharp, with a wild energy that reminded me of a hunter whale—playful with a dangerous bite. He could go from the most disarming laugh to slitting a wild boar’s throat with his claw—something I’d witnessed firsthand. He was completely different from anyone I’d ever known on the island, and to be perfectly honest, I didn’t quite know what to make of him, which ended up in me acting stiff whenever he was around.
I was so caught off guard that for a moment I was confused about what he was doing here until I saw my cousins Makoa and Leo swimming below him.
“Yo, brotha!” Makoa shouted, shifting to human form as he broke the surface and rose from the water like a glistening statue.
Leo came up behind him with a starfish stuck to the side of his face. He carefully peeled it off and dropped it back into the water. He was always making new friends.
Istil swooped overhead, then slowly descended towards the swirling sand beneath him like he was sitting on a pillow of air. He shifted gradually to his human form, his green scales pulling back to momentarily reveal flashes of bare skin—a collarbone, his shoulders, abs—before being covered by his reappearing clothing. I had no idea whether he was intentionally doing it to be provocative or whether the theatrics were just a side effect of his personality. He hovered several inches above the ground, then hopped off his invisible cloud and dug his toes into the sand.
“Well, well,” he said, smiling at me. “A welcome from the good healer himself. Ari, you didn’t have to.”
“It was pure coincidence,” I said and adjusted my glasses. A nervous habit, one of the few I’d retained from my childhood, despite my father’s efforts to rid me of it.
Makoa grappled my shoulder with a tree trunk of an arm. “Let me guess. My brother managed to get to you yet again?”
