Chapter Twenty-Four

Iris

“It’s perfect.” I stood in the nursery doorway, taking in the gorgeous room we’d all set up together. A smallish area off our suite, where we could hear her if she cried in the night. The guys had been all set to go pink, but I’d never loved the color and with the confusion of everyone thinking she was a boy, I wanted something more neutral, something we could add to when she expressed her own likes and dislikes. The dragons said the confusion lay in the fact she was strong and powerful and that alpha males didn’t always recognize that females could be those things. Even my males, although they’d been pretty happy when I bit Killian. We hadn’t heard what happened to him, although his father, the alpha, had let us know, once again, that he was at our service should we need him. I didn’t mind her knowing her grandfather, one day, if that seemed appropriate. Especially if she was a bear shifter, as seemed likely. But her bio dad, if he still lived, would never again come near any of us. He also reiterated that fact, just didn’t say what it meant.

For now, I was glad to be able to get ready for our little girl’s arrival. Her crib was all made up with the softest, sweetest bedding, her dresser filled with folded onesies and tiny T-shirts and all the cutie-pie things a baby needs. We were ready, and Cari the healer said it could be any day now.

“Mate?” Nix said from behind me. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.” I was ready to give birth, and my mates were going to give me one last thrill as a woman without a baby to watch after. “I am so excited.”

I let him help me downstairs, chuckling inside at the idea that I was going to climb on a dragon and fly away with my current body shape. Cari said it was all right, though, as long as I felt up to it.

Watching my mates shift was one of my favorite things to do, and for one reason or another I hadn’t managed the ride until now. I stood to the side of the yard watching them undress. I’d decided long ago that leering at one’s mates was acceptable. Especially since they preened under my regard and often things turned spicy later.

Keir stripped and shifted first, and Nix waved me over where he helped me climb aboard his friend. They had arranged a sort of harness that I could hang onto, and we were going up to the sky. To the clouds. To share their experience for the first time. I was ready to fly away on the wings of dragons.

I shifted in my seat. I’d touched my mates, caressed their scales, and learned their dragon forms by touch, but they’d never felt like this before. “I’m going to slip off. How did he get all wet?” Maybe it was something that happened for a minute or two after shifting?

“He’s not wet.” Nix looked at me as if I’d lost touch with reality. “I just put the harness on and he was…whoa! What is that?”

“I told you.” I stood in the stirrups that were part of the harness and looked beneath me as best I could around my belly. “Wet. Dripping. Is something wrong with him? Is he leaking because I’m so heavy?” I had gained a whole lot with this pregnancy, although the healer said for carrying a cub, I was fine. “I broke him!”

“Mate.” Nix held out his arms. “Get down for a minute.” He helped me off and looped an arm as far around my waist as it would go. “Keir, shift please. We have a thing happening.”

“Will he be okay? I feel terrible.”

“Iris, there’s not something wrong with Keir.” Nix kissed my forehead. “Really don’t you know?”

Keir appeared in his human form and reached for his shorts. “What did you guys spill on me?”

“You’re both in denial.” Nix reached in his pocket for his phone. “Keir, why don’t you get Iris upstairs. I’m calling Cari.”

“Why? I feel fine.” Okay, even a woman denied a dragon ride could figure things out eventually. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.”