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Everard smiled, and it was one of his rare genuine ones. “I think you might be the last person I could ever fool, Perry, so here it is: I’m a little worried about your blood pressure. It’s higher than I’d like.”
Perry clutched Sebastian’s hand tighter. His heart beat hard and fast, like that of a captured bird. Sebastian closed his eyes and thought of cool, still, silent things, pushing them through their mate bond. A clear pool of water with a surface like glass. An immovable boulder in a misty field. A vast forest untouched by time. It did the trick. Perry’s heartbeat began to slow and his breathing evened out.
“Good.” Everard nodded at Perry. “That’s exactly what I’d like you to do. We need to keep you calm, well-rested, properly nourished, and hydrated.”
“I am very calm, I assure you,” Perry said primly.
Both Drake brothers harumphed in unison.
“I’m not ordering bed rest,” Everard continued. “At least not yet. But if your blood pressure doesn’t stabilize, that will happen. So take care of yourself. That is an order.”
“I will see to it,” Sebastian vowed. “Now tell us about the babe.”
Next to him, Perry tensed, but Everard did not notice and advanced the conversation. “Do you wish to know the sex?”
Sebastian opened his mouth, but Perry jumped in before he had a chance to speak. “No.”
“That sounded very… ah… decisive,” observed Everard.
“It is. I don’t wish to know.” Perry dipped his chin. “It’s too soon.”
He was thinking, Sebastian knew, of the heartbreak they’d suffered over the babes they’d lost, each one conceived in love, each one dearly wanted by both fathers, and each one never having survived long enough to draw a breath on his or her own. Most were lost quickly, but some had lingered long enough for Everard to tell their sex, and their passing was all the more painful for it.
“Things are different now,” Everard said gently. “It’s been a good century since your last dragonet pregnancy. Not only has modern medicine come quite a long way since then, but I am a more skilled doctor as well. Just because things have always been a certain way doesn’t mean that they can’t change.”
Perry bit his lip and nodded, his right hand cupped protectively over his nonexistent bump.
“However, until you decide you’d like to know, I’ll respect your wishes.” Everard folded his hands on top of his desk. “At two months since conception, it’s too early to determine the sex, anyway, but I’ll keep my future findings to myself. In any case, male and female markers are inconsequential. What I have yet to share is far more important.”
Perry’s shoulders tensed, causing Sebastian to bristle. “Well, brother?” he barked. “What is it?”
Everard rolled his eyes. “Really? Put your hackles down, Sebastian. I wouldn’t dream of announcing bad news so casually. I am a man of integrity, you know.”
“And a dragon of chaos.”
That brought a sparkle to Everard’s eyes. “How very fortunate it is that my dragon does not have a doctorate. Now, allow me to share my findings from today’s examination. So far the baby is healthy, if a bit small for their gestational age, and there are no abnormalities I can detect. For the moment, all is well.” Everard tapped his hands on his desk. “If this was a normal pregnancy, I’d expect to see you back here in three weeks, but I’m going to shorten that to two. We’ll have to be careful as to when we schedule our appointments, as per our longstanding agreement, my delightful butternut squash remains unaware of Perry’s pregnancy, as do the rest of the family. In any case, it will be a slight inconvenience at best, and I will do my utmost to maintain confidentiality,” Everard shot Sebastian a pointed look, “despite my… what did you call it the night of Reynard’s little disaster, brother? ‘Enormous mouth’?”
Sebastian met his gaze with narrowed eyes but did not deign to give him a reply.
Everard was being modest.
“Enormous” did not begin to encompass how large his mouth really was.
“But that said,” Everard continued when Sebastian did not reply, “I will do everything I can to see that this pregnancy goes as smoothly and as secretly as possible, and when it comes time for you to deliver, I will make sure both father and child are safe.”
Perry sat very straight in his chair and folded his hands anxiously on his lap. “Do not give me false hope, Everard. My heart simply cannot take it. How can you be so certain we’ll reach that point when I’ve never been able to keep a pregnancy beyond six months?”
At that, Everard smiled, although it was tired and strained. “Much has changed over the last decade, Perry. Dragons are finding their mates and clutches are being laid. What was once thought impossible has been achieved. In comparison, seeing you through a pregnancy should be quite simple. As long as you heed my word, I will take care of the rest, and we will put this impossibility behind us together.”
* * *
On the drive home in the back of their limo, Perry lay cuddled in Sebastian’s arms. “Everard is worried,” he said. “He puts on a brave face and plays up his confidence, but I can tell. He was entirely too nice. He only gets that way when he’s afraid of something he can’t control.”
“We will do everything we can to save this one,” Sebastian promised. “You’ve borne two clutches. There is no reason you can’t bear a babe as well.”
Perry laughed. “You can’t just growl and expect the universe to bend to your will, Sebastian. Life doesn’t work like that. Not even our lives, which are magical, I will admit.” The humor faded from his face, and a sad little frown took its place. “There is something wrong with me,” Perry admitted in a small voice. “There has been since the beginning, perhaps stemming from my injury all those years ago. Magic can only go so far. I don’t believe this is something even Everard can fix.”
Perry’s plaintive voice, trying its best to be strong, tore Sebastian in two. “You are perfect,” Sebastian said into his mate’s silken hair. “From the very first time I ever saw you, you were perfect.”
