Chapter Eleven

Keir

Iris seemed nervous at first, but once she boarded the jet, she looked around and smiled a little. “Wow, is this what all private jets look like?”

“I don’t know about all.” I chuckled. “But we find it comfortable. Have a seat.”

“Thank you.” She settled on a leather bench seat. “Do I need to put on my seat belt?”

“Yes.” I sat on her right. “Just like on any plane. Takeoff and landing or if there is any turbulence. Our pilot will tell us when it’s all right to take them off.” He reached around me and pulled the belt over my lap. “Is it comfortable? I don’t want to hurt the baby.”

“No, it’s fine.” She leaned back with a sigh. “So what are we doing with my car?”

Nix sat on her other side and fastened his belt. “We’ve paid for a year’s storage in a city a few hours away. Simon will drive it there and leave it.”

“What about my phone?” She looked from one of us to the other. “Will I get it back?”

“By now, it’s had the battery taken out and been run over by Simon. Then he’ll throw it in dumpster.”

“All right.”

She fell silent as they lifted off and reached altitude. When they leveled out, Madden gave them the word that they could unbuckle, but I suggested Iris stay buckled when she was seated.

Then I got up and came back with her new phone. “It’s a modified smart phone. You can use it for most things, but if something is blocked, don’t try to get past it, all right?”

“Okay.” She laid the phone in her lap and chewed on her lip. “Could I have a drink?”

Nix glanced at me. “Oh, we don’t really—”

“Of course. What would you like?” The look on my fellow dragon’s face was priceless. I’d always been adamant that we not eat or drink on the plane except for water. The fridge was stocked with more, however, by the maintenance service.

“A soft drink? Ginger ale?”

“I’ll see what we have.” Pregnant females often asked for ginger ale to settle their stomach I remembered. Luckily, we did have some, and I popped a can and poured some over ice in a glass. Returning to her side, I handed her the glass and sat down. The flight was only a couple of hours, but this was our first time in person with Iris, and there was a lot to be said.

Unfortunately, she was feeling unwell, nauseated, so instead of the conversation I had planned, we just sat with her and held her hands. She’d been through so much in such a short time. When we landed, we helped her off the plane and into the front seat of the car. Nix drove, and I rode in the back.

“Nix, I don’t want to be rude, but how did you get that scar?” He had one he usually didn’t like to talk about, but I sat back and listened to him tell our mate about how he’d been injured years ago when we were just hatchlings. It had been an accident, a stray claw, but it had never quite healed as it should. And he never would say whose claw because he was just that loyal.

We’d put some time in getting her room ready, and I was dying for her to see it. Hoping she’d love it. My dragon was already changing mate every time my glance landed on her.

“You have a lovely home,” she said, so formal I was a little shocked. “But would you mind if I took a nap? I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, and I’m awful tired.”

“Not at all,” I replied. We escorted her to the suite upstairs then stood back for her reaction. We were not disappointed.

“Oh, it’s so lovely.” Iris walked around the room, touching the furniture and the soft things like the draperies and comforter. “And big, just for me?” Then her cheeks colored. “Oh, of course it’s not just for me. I mean…if we…if you…” She buried her face in her hands. “I’m sorry. I am just tired.”

“Of course you are.” Nix put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her to him. “You’ve had a long day. Come down when you’re ready, and we’ll have dinner.” We left her to rest and went downstairs to prepare the food. The scent of her in the mating suite was almost more than I could handle. Since we were rejected, we’d chosen to remain celibate, not something easy for young, healthy dragons but the right choice.

Her scent, and that of the bear, mingled due to her pregnancy, but it wasn’t enough to put off my dragon. He was not her mate. And I couldn’t help but agree.

We spent time preparing a green salad and corn on the cob along with grilled meats, our specialties, and then we sat down to wait.

Iris napped for over three hours, but when she came down, her eyes were still shadowed, her skin a little pale. Was she still nauseated? “Hi,” she said, not meeting my gaze. “I hope I didn’t keep you from eating your dinner.”

“Not at all,” I hastened to reassure her. “Come sit and if you’re feeling up to eating, we’ll fix you a plate.”

“Starving.” She gave us a rueful grin. “It seems I’m either sick to my stomach or ravenous. This baby inside me has full control of my body.”

When we were all seated with our plates, Nix brought up the elephant in the room. “If we are going to protect you, we need to know who from. Since you were never formally mated or married, there was no record.”

“No, it was never formal. Which I’m grateful for now, although there was a time…” She shrugged. “Killian, as you have no doubt realized from my scent, was a bear. He was also a bully who never wanted me unless I didn’t want him.” She started and seemingly could not stop. As we sat, clutching our forks, our mate told us a tale of abuse that had my dragon ready to flame him.