Prologue

Fred Moonscale

2 Years Ago

"You know it's time, Fred."

I squeezed the bridge my nose the way I'd have liked to squeeze the doctor's throat. It would be a simple thing to wrap my fingers around here and squeeze the life out of him until the last micro-second. Then and only then maybe he'd know how I'd feel.

"Don't do that," Doctor Relik Stonner shook his head.

He was shorter than me and wore glasses that made him look bug-eyed. He was intelligent and innovative and on the Moonscale Flight link with Lotus and me. Everyone said he was the best in his field, but if that was the case his field wasn't good enough.

"Killing me or attempting to, won't go over well for you," he laid his tablet down and met my gaze. "It's time to accept it. We've done everything we can. We've asked everyone we can. Hell, we've asked some people she didn't want us to, Fred. Let me do my job."

"I've been letting you do your job---" I started to roar but fell silent as my wife and true-mate, curled into her fox form on the other side of the glass.

"Fred," Relik sighed, his brow furrowed. "Let me do my job. Let me keep doing the research. Let me make the calls. Let me do all that. You've done great. You've moved research into Vulpine Degenerative disease miles ahead. You've probably extended the lives of young people who are diagnosed with it by a hundred years."

I opened my mouth to ask me what good that did me when it wasn't helping her.

"What if it's your grandkid or great grandkid or something in the future?" Relik asked. "Don't sell yourself short. Grief and failure are two things us dragons never deal well with. You didn't fail her. No one failed her, Fred. She wanted it kept quiet. It has been. She wanted to live the years she had without everyone getting their panties stuck in their butt cracks. Those were her exact words if I remember correctly. We've done that. Even now, we've done that. She's not dead yet. Let me do my job and you start focusing on spending as much time with her as you can. She's steadily losing a couple pounds a month. That's always the beginning of the end. We'll do our best, but now it's time to start thinking about the present and being with her."

I should've punched him right in his mouth. Lotus and I had barely been apart since her diagnosis almost twenty years ago. We had mostly good years, contrary to the popular rumors. Everyone has to run their mouths when they sniff out the fact someone wants a little fucking privacy.

"She says she still feels good," I countered instead of knocking his lights out.

"That's a good thing," Relik nodded. "Seriously, a good thing. We want her to feel that way for as long as possible. That's all any of us want, Fred. Think about it? We all fight against death day in and day out with medicine, clean water, shelter, watching each other's back, and more. We're always fighting against that inevitable end. One day each of us will walk through that door again, but every day we fight against it. We bar the windows and doors as if we can keep death itself out. We are never going to win that fight in the end. So, at some point we have to quit fighting. We have to accept that the door is close, and we have to enjoy the time we have left."

I drew my fist back, my muscles coiled for the punch. My phone vibrated in my pocket. It was my and Lotus's first born, Teddy. I let out a long, slow sigh. The kids didn't know yet. Their grandfather had and lived with the disease as an Alpha and somehow the old fucker was still alive, even if he used a cane to get around now. They'd all been tested for it as soon as they were old enough. Thankfully, our three egg brats tested clear of the gene. Probably thanks to the draconic they inherited from me.

"Look, I gotta take this. Poke the Hemlock-Knight doctors again. Don't tell them who, but see if they've come up with anything. Maybe call Michael Lawngry again too. Hell, call the temples and tell them to start praying at this fucking point," I said and turned away from Relik Stonner without saying goodbye.

"Kiddo," I answered the phone forcing a smile on my face.

Teddy was more than old enough to be off on his own, but like his siblings he lived on the family estate that was somehow spared from the war against the crazy hate group, Mudanes Before Magic. I liked having the kids nearby in their own homes. It made Lotus's day every time she spotted one of them out of the window or they crashed in on our dinner. I'd have strangled Frost himself if that's what it took to keep her around.

"The sprinkler isn't coming on and the gardener isn't answering his phone," Teddy said.

"How yellow is the grass?" I asked, leaning back against the wall, aching because soon his problem wouldn't be the grass at all. Soon, they'd have to know.

"Not yet, but it's getting there," Teddy said.

"Text the gardener. He hates calls," I laughed. "Hates to talk to people most of the time, but he gets the job done. Tell him I'll pay him after hour rates if he'll come in today."

"Thanks, Dad."

"Anything for my egg brats," I teased him and ended the call.

When had we started calling them that? I couldn't remember. It was probably something Lotus came up with.