Chapter 33 - Nic

"Lex." My eyes fill with tears when I spot Lex. Worry is etched deeply on his face.

He rushes forward and takes my arm gently, not wanting to disturb the IV line running through my arm. I'm apparently very dehydrated and need a lot of fluids. The forefinger of my other hand is attached to a probe that is monitoring all my vitals. The ‘beep beep' of the machines would have driven me crazy under normal circumstances, but I am so, so thankful for it now after the deathly silence of the cave.

"I'm so glad you're okay. And the baby."

My head jerks up to look at him when he mentions the baby. He doesn't appear angry. On the contrary, he is smiling and there is a look of such tenderness in his eyes that my heart tumbles in my chest.

"I was a fool and an idiot, Nic. See, I knew I loved you, but I stubbornly made myself believe that I was doing the right thing by vowing to remain single for the rest of my life. Will you forgive me for being a jackass?"

Did he just say he loved me? And he wants to marry me?

"You… you love me?" My eyes are round and my mouth hangs open.

"Yes! I think I've loved you since the very first time I saw you. Do you love me, Nic?"

His brows knit as he waits for my answer. I want to say ‘of course I love you', but the words just won't form. There's a memory waiting to resurface. Why can't I remember?

"Nic?" he prompts. I look at him and then it hits me. He is dressed in a black wet suit from the neck down. The dragon turned into a human dressed in black. But Lex is not a dragon!

"Lex… in the cave… I thought I saw a dragon," I chuckle nervously. I'm waiting for him to laugh and say that I'm imagining things, that the trauma has affected my brain, but he doesn't.

Instead, he sighs and leans forward.

"What you saw wasn't your imagination," he says with the most serious look on his face.

"But… but… how? I don't understand…"

"I am a dragon shifter, Nic."

"Dragon shifter," I say in a strange voice. It feels as if I am having an out-of-body experience.

"Yes. Shifters have evolved alongside humans. Of course our numbers are greatly diminished, especially of us dragon shifters, but we very much exist."

I feel like I've entered some alternate reality. It can't be true! I almost wish that this was some kind of a sick joke, but I know Lex would never play such a mean trick on me. Besides, I did see it with my own two eyes.

"You are a dragon," I say dully.

"A dragon shifter. Human most of the time, but my soul is melded to a dragon's soul," he says with a small smile.

So that means… Oh dear Lord, the baby! Our baby!

"Lex… the baby…"

"Will be a dragon shifter. The shifter gene is a dominant one."

I am growing a dragon inside me. In nine months' time, I am going to push a dragon out of my vagina. My breath starts coming in short gasps and the monitor alarm starts blaring crazily. A nurse rushes to my room.

"Sir, I must ask you to leave. The patient's blood pressure is shooting up!"

Lex looks like he might protest, but after a few seconds, he shrugs, places a gentle kiss on my forehead, and turns to leave. Before leaving, he places my handbag on the chair he just vacated.

I deliberately force myself to look at my handbag and concentrate on it. So they found my handbag. It is my favorite one. I'm so glad they found it. See? It's easy. I can spend the months to come concentrating on the trivial. Of course, I won't be obsessing over growing a dragon in my womb. Holy fucking hell! I am growing a dragon!

"Deep breaths. Try to relax," the nurse says, pushing a drug into the IV line to sedate me.

"Do you have something that will make me wake up nine months later?" I attempt to joke, before falling into a deep sleep.

I wake up sometime in the night to find Lex dozing in the chair next to my bed. The chair is too small and he looks terribly uncomfortable, but he chose to sleep in it so that he would be near me. He loves me! My heart feels so full of joy. But the joy is quickly replaced by anxiety. I have a dragon in my womb!

I wish I could talk to somebody about this. Obviously, it can't be Mom or Penny, because I don't want them freaking out. The answer comes to me in the early hours of morning. I slowly turn over and reach for my handbag.

Pulling out my phone, I shoot a fairly long text to a number I've never texted before. Surprisingly, I get a reply almost instantly. I know what I must do now.