20. Dominic

Chapter 20

Dominic

“ D o you have everything ready?” Drew asked.

I nodded in response. “We finished the nursery a couple of weeks ago, and that was really the last thing that we needed to finalize. It’s like Frederick says; it isn’t as if we can’t just use magic if we discover we are missing something.”

“Let me tell you, that is the best thing. When you’re doing middle of the night when you are trying to feed the baby and all of a sudden she decides she needs to burp and ends up puking everywhere. I probably would have screamed more than once, if not for Sebastian. He came to the rescue more than once. I can’t imagine how much of a struggle it would be if he didn’t have magic.” Drew shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong. I know there are a lot of paranormal that don’t have magic. I’m just incredibly spoiled now that I’m mated.”

I threw my head back and laughed. After I finally calm down, I shook my head at the cheetah shifter. “I have no doubt that Sebastian very much enjoys spoiling you at every opportunity.” We were probably what most would consider an unlikely pairing when it came to friends. But I certainly considered Drew my friend. He was incredibly sweet, and I knew that he absolutely had a side to him that you did not mess with. I had seen him with his father-in-law on a couple of occasions, and the older warlock most certainly respected Drew.

“I tried to spoil him back. I can’t do it in the same way, but he seems as if he is not too terribly upset about it.”

“One does not have to have magical powers in order to be able to spoil someone. It certainly helps, but is not a requirement.”

“I know, I just feel like no matter how hard I try sometimes, I can’t do it nearly as well as he can.”

I shook my head. “Do not feel as if you are less than, simply because you do not have the same abilities. You are putting in the effort, I am Sebastian knows that. That means a lot to him. sometime, it is the effort more than the end result. You do nice things for him?”

Drew nodded his head.

“Has Sebastian complained?”

“No.”

“Then why are you feeling as if you are lacking when it comes to being able to spoil your mate?”

Drew let out a deep sigh. “I don’t. Well, for the most part, I don’t. Every so often, old insecurities pop back up, and that’s one of them. Always feeling inadequate. Feeling as if I’m not enough, or not doing enough. Look at his family.” Drew looked at me with wide eyes. “Frederick has the same family. How did you integrate yourself in with them with so much ease?”

“What makes you think it was easy? True, it was. But that is because the only person that I really cared about, was Frederick. Sure, I wanted his parents to like me. In the end though, even if they didn’t care for me, it wasn’t going to change the fact that we were fated to be together. It is just you and Sebastian in your relationship. Having his parents and his brothers in your extended circle is a bonus.”

“I never thought of it that way. I know that Sebastian has been saying the exact same thing to me since the beginning.” Drew shook his head. “Why is it that it seems to be so much clearer coming from you?”

I smiled. “Most likely because on some level, your subconscious is telling you that Sebastian is only saying those things because he is mated to you, and you feel as if he has no other choice. Nothing could be further from the truth, but that does not stop your brain from telling you that is how things are.” It took me some time to get over the fact that Frederick’s family was such more prominent than mine was. There was nothing I could do about that. One could not change who their family was. I was of course, not going to let Drew know that, because that would only cause issues with what I was trying to get him to understand.

“Speaking of family,” I said. “Have you heard from Eli?”

Drew started shaking his head. “No. I know that he has wanted another baby for some time now, and he stopped taking suppressors a couple of months ago. I fully expected him to go into heat then, but I guess it takes a little bit of time for them to come out of your system. The last I heard, Rainier had the twins, and they were, checking in on Benjamin and Eli every day or so."

The family was certainly going to be growing. I had finally met Caspian, and I absolutely felt for the warlock. His pregnancy had been wretched, whereas mine had been nothing but easy. Not only that, but Caspian was mated to a dragon. Dragons had one of the longest gestations, and although he had been pregnant for longer than I had known Frederick, he wasn’t going to deliver until around the same time I did. And if Eli caught during his heat cycle, he would most likely give birth before both of us. It was frustrating as well as fascinating.

“Do you think they’ll have more?” Drew asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders because I honestly had no clue. Personally, I would love at least two. But I would be absolutely over the moon with the one and only I was carrying.

“Have you and Eli not talked about how many children do you want?”

“No. I try to hang out with him when I can, but Maverick and Spencer are so hyper. Eli never gets much of a chance to talk with me because he’s too busy running after the boys. I know he loves it, and honestly, I can’t wait until Flora is mobile. But I also know that I see that now, and when she’s surfing, the furniture and getting into everything, I’m going to wish that she wasn’t walking yet. That’s just how things are.”

“Don’t rush things. They grow up fast enough as it is.” I looked at little Flora as she lay in Drew’s arms, fast asleep.

“What about you?” I asked “Are you and Sebastian planning on having more?” I was sure I already knew the answer to that question. Drew adored his daughter, and he absolutely was a natural when it came to being a parent.

“Yes. If we can, we are hoping to have more. You?”

“I am knocking on three-hundred quite hard. I’m not sure I will be able to have more. We were quite surprised that I ended up pregnant this time.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Sure, if you had been with Frederick for a century or two, I could understand and accept that. But you just met him. That means you get lots of fertile years.”

I chuckled at the seriousness of his expression. “We would like more, we will be happy with this little fella. I never expected to find Frederick, let alone have a family. Being an only child, and not having a large family to grow up around, always made me desire a large family. Then one and a half centuries went by. Next thing I know, I’m two hundred, and I’ve given up on having either. Fate had other plans for me, and I’ll be happy with whatever I’m gifted.”

Drew let out a dreamy sigh. “Just think though. Even if neither of us ever have more than one, they won’t know what it’s like to grow up alone. Your little guy is only going to be a few much younger than Flora. Sure, they’re not siblings, but they’re going to grow up together, and will have a sibling relationship.”

That had not been lost on me at all. More than once, I had thought about that very thing.

Flora started to squirm, and then fuss. “Do you need anything for her?”

“No, Sebastian is on his way home anyway. He reached out to me just now to let me know that his meeting was over, and he would be home within a few minutes.”

“Do you want me to walk you next door? I asked “I could send you over there, as well. The choice is yours.”

“It’s literally next door. If you stand on the front porch and watch me walk over, you can let Frederick and Sebastian know that you saw that I safely made it home.”

I understood why it was that Sebastian was overly cautious with his One. He didn’t want anything to happen to either him or their daughter. It made sense when he was overly protective. I was certain that if I wasn’t it, warlock myself, Frederick would be much the same.

Drew and I got up from where we were relaxing in the back room. By the time we had walked through the house and arrived at the front door, Flora had decided that it was most certainly time for her to be fed. I stepped outside with Drew, and watched as he hurried from our house to his. He waved back to me and then disappeared inside, closing out the cold.

I returned inside, wondering if Frederick would be home soon or not. They weren’t always in the same meetings, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to return home at a much different time than anyone else. Sometimes he was later, but lately Frederick had been working, shorter hours. I had asked him about it, but he simply said it was because the council did not have nearly enough for everyone to do at the moment, and since I was carrying our child, he was only too happy to dive out when they could leave.

Frederick hadn’t reached out to me, and I wondered if it was because he was still stuck in meetings. Promising myself that I wouldn’t bother him too much, I was the one to push out toward him.

“How has your day been?”

Moments later, I felt Frederick pushback through our bond. “It’s the same as it has been. There was this massive need for enforcers, and I think that they either over hired, or they need more assignments. I have to finish securing the bakery, and then I will be on my way home to you.”

I wasn’t sure what that was all about, but I would be sure to ask him when he arrived home. Why would he need to secure the bakery? Had something happened that I hadn’t heard about?

“Be safe,” I told him.

“Always. I have so much to come home to, but there is no threat here on Treasure Ridge. I’ll explain once I get home.”

I felt the same. I had so much in my life now that I had Frederick. I reached down and touched my growing stomach. I didn’t necessarily look massively pregnant, but I wasn’t going to. That was one of the bonuses of being tall with a long torso. My body distributed the pregnancy quite well, and although my pre-pregnancy pants were uncomfortably tight, I could still wear all of my shirts.

I was relaxing in the lounger when Frederick came home about ten-minutes later. He smiled at me as he approached, and the first thing he did, like always, was lean down and give me a kiss.

“How was work?”

“About how it’s been going. The council has decided that because Elizabeth had helped Malorie, she and James can no longer be trusted.” Frederick sat down beside me with a heavy plop. “I get it,” he said with frustration in his voice. “I understand that Malorie is their daughter. But she is throwing away their entire future.” Frederick looked pointedly down at my stomach before he met my eyes again. “I don’t know how I would feel if I were in her shoes. Would it be wrong of me if I turned my back on our son if he chose to go down that path?”

I shook my head at him. “Malorie did not choose to go down that path alone. Think about it. Marco is her fated mate. What type of person does one have to be in order for you to be paired with someone as horrible as Marco Gallo? Do people like him get paired up? What happened there? I didn’t think the fates would do that. Maybe that’s something that should be brought up the next time they have a meeting with them.”

Frederick’s eyes widened. That was certainly something to ponder. Since when did evil get paired? Had he been chosen for Malorie long ago? What was the end game for those two? Unfortunately, we all had more questions than answers, because nothing made any sense when it came to the direction things had gone.

Frederick sighed before he fell over and placed his head in my lap. I smiled as I reached down and started running my fingers through his hair.

“I’ll ask. I’m sure someone’s already brought that up, but don’t know what to make of anything having to do with them. Nothing makes sense anymore, and all I end up with is a headache when I have to think about Marco.”

I applied a bit of pressure and gently massaged my fingers into his scalp. Frederick moaned and I smiled. I’d do whatever I could to help him. If that was offering head massages and toe- curling orgasms later, then I’d happily oblige. All I knew for certain was Marco needed to be found and dealt with before we all could truly relax.