I was pregnant!
I'd never wanted to be. How could I have? Before Maks, it had never been an option-but he'd changed everything. He was giving me every single thing I'd ever dreamed of, including the things I had never let myself want. Everything.
Even the impossible things.
The love in me was too big. I didn't have words. But we were bonded now, so I didn't need them. The fire rekindled in Maks's eyes as everything I was feeling spilled through that connection between us.
"You're … okay with this?" he asked.
Sharing things through our bond was still new to both of us. I could tell that he felt it, but I knew he needed to hear me say it, too.
"Do you want my baby, love?" he pressed, taking my face in his hands and searching my eyes to confirm the truth.
"Yes. Oh, my God, yes, Maks. I do, and it's … amazing. I can't even-"
I was babbling, trying to wrap my mind around this new, magical reality. But this time he was the one to cut me off. He crushed me to him, kissing me until I was breathless and then somehow flipping me over so that I was under him before I even realized we'd moved.
And I felt his happiness, too-I heard it-his thoughts in my mind and his joy in my heart as his body covered mine. He touched me everywhere, loving me with his hands and mouth and lips and tongue, until thoughts of the pregnancy and magic and dragons were all pushed aside and there was only him, moving over me, thrusting inside me, making me his-again and again-until long past the coffee got cold.
19
~ Maksim ~
After two weeks of having Devin all to myself in Wisconsin, it was time to bring him back to Washington. We'd have to leave again once his pregnancy started to show, but he had a job and a life and friends to explain his absence too, and the changes in his body were still subtle enough that no one but me would notice them yet.
I'd flown us into a remote part of Capital Forest to avoid having to deal with compelling humans to forget that they'd seen me. It was where I'd originally intended to bring Devin to show him my dragon. Doing it in Dane's backyard had meant that the other dragon had had to visit the neighbors after we left to ensure that they forgot anything they might have seen. I'd forewarned him in a note when I'd dropped off his car, but I knew he was still going to give me shit about it.
We'd made our way to the parking lot where Dane was going to pick us up, and my mate was biting his lip the way he did when he was thinking about something-which always made me want to bite it, too.
Devin was like a drug. I couldn't get enough of him. I pulled him against me and kissed him, and he laughed in that sexy little breathless way that I knew meant he would be climbing all over me in about two seconds … which was exactly what I wanted. But instead of wrapping himself around me the way he usually did, he put a hand on my chest and pushed me away.
"I just saw headlights," he said, looking over my shoulder. "Do you think it's Dane?"
I hoped it wasn't. If it were anyone else, I could compel them to leave us alone.
It was. I sighed, willing my cock down, and turned to face my oldest friend.
"Thanks for coming to get us," I said, ignoring Dane's knowing smirk. "Are Wes and Elise with you?"
"No, I dropped them off at Devin's house. Wes is going to help Sarah get dinner ready for us." Devin had stepped out from behind me, and Dane directed his next comment to my mate. "Congratulations, from both of us, Devin," he said warmly. "Wesley is excited to see you again. He and Anik's mate, Mikkel, can go on about the joys of pregnancy for hours, but it's been over five hundred years for Mikkel. I know Wesley is looking forward to hearing how you're doing."
Devin beamed. Despite some morning sickness, he was thrilled to be pregnant. I knew he'd been looking forward to talking with Wes about it, too. Any mention of the baby that was growing inside him made him glow, and he was so fucking beautiful that I couldn't tear my eyes away.
Dane was still talking to my mate about his pregnancy, but I wasn't really paying attention. I was thinking about Devin's excitement about the baby. He'd talked to Sarah almost every day while we were in Wisconsin, but of course he hadn't said anything to her-even though he'd grilled her about every detail of her own pregnancy.
He wanted to respect our secrets, but I knew that Sarah and Luke were like family for him, the way Dane was for me. The two of us may not have become the kind of dragons who saw humans as disposable and coldly used them for their own ends, but we'd also spent centuries keeping our secrets from the people that we lived among. Keeping our distance. But things were different now. Neither one of us was quite so alone, and I was discovering that I liked it that way.
Dane was mated, and his mate's human brother knew about us, too. They were family, as much for me as for him, even if it wasn't by blood. We had also met the dragons to the north, and despite the distance, had become close to them. And now I had Devin, and I didn't want to force a distance between him and the people he cared about. I was tired of living a life so separate.
Like Wes had said to me once, I hadn't often been alone in my life, but now that I'd found my fated mate, I realized that I'd been lonely and hadn't even known it.
I didn't want that for the man I loved.
"We're going to tell them the truth," I said out loud, interrupting the conversation I hadn't been paying attention to.
"Tell who?" Dane asked.
Dev smiled, glowing up at me. He squeezed my hand, hearing what I meant through our bond. "Good," he said. "Because Sarah had morning sickness, too, and I want to ask her what she did about it."
"Where are your glasses, honey?" Sarah asked Devin after she'd finished hugging him. "And your coat? It's cold out."
He pushed a finger toward the bridge of his nose, a habit he still hadn't broken, and glanced over at me with a raised eyebrow. We hadn't exactly decided how to tell Sarah and Luke that I was a dragon and that Devin was pregnant, and the answer to her question was tied to both those things. I shrugged. I would back up whatever he wanted to do.
"Uh, I don't need them anymore, Sare," he said, flashing me a quick smile. "I'll tell you about it over dinner."
She pulled him into the kitchen, and the sound of his happy laughter mingled with her and Wes's voices, making me smile. Ty walked out of the kitchen, holding a couple of beers. He took one look at me and started laughing.
"Dude, you're in deep smit." He winked and handed me one of the bottles. "What is it with you dragons and your fated mates? Turns you all soft and cuddly."
He was right. "You're just jealous, Ty," I joked. "You know, Ben still isn't mated … "
"Stop," he said, holding up a hand with a strained laugh. "Even I know it doesn't work that way."
"Work what way?" Dane asked, joining us.
"You guys and your fated mates. I've already met Ben, and clearly I'm not it for him. You guys knew, like, the minute you fucking saw your men."
Dane gave Ty a weird look. "Which is good," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Since Ben is a guy. That would be awkward, straight boy."
"I know, right?" Ty said, taking a drink. "Totally not my type. I'm gonna go check on dinner. I think Wes is making his lasagna."
I'd had Wesley's lasagna, and the man could cook. It used to be one of the many little things that made me jealous of what Dane had found. As we gathered around the table, though, I realized that those feelings were completely gone. I kissed the back of Devin's neck, loving how it made his skin flush, then sat down beside him.
He was the only thing I needed.
"I need some of that lasagna," he said, reaching toward the center of the table for the dish. "I've been hearing amazing things, Wes."
"Careful, Dev!" Sarah blurted, coming halfway out of her chair and reaching a hand out to stop him. "We just pulled it out of the oven. It's-"
"Hot!" he yanked his hand, back, shaking it with an embarrassed laugh. "Of course it is."
"Oh, honey. Let me get some ice." Sarah was already headed to the kitchen.
"It's fine, Sare," Devin called after her.
But she was already back. "I did the same thing earlier," she said, holding her hand out and showing an angry red burn mark. "It still stings." She grabbed Dev's hand and then crinkled her brow in confusion. "Was it the other one?"
"No, it … Sarah, it's already healed." He swallowed, looking both nervous and excited to share his news with her. "Remember I said I have some things to tell you?"
She had both his hands in hers now, flipping them over again and again as she looked for signs of the burn. Of course there wasn't one. Now that I'd given Dev my fire, my dragon's powers flowed to him and he healed as quickly as I did.