Chapter Ten

Axlin

Over the next few weeks, I settled into the Medwin 2 with my mate. Our lives wove together along with the crew and Fred's family. Castor and I woke together every morning. We spent our every free minute that we didn't need to devote to our jobs together. Some days Castor accompanied me to work and watched from the crowd. He hung out with Melon and Casimir who swore they weren't an item and they probably weren't. It wasn't uncommon for dragons to have a favorite playmate for a while before the chemistry fizzled out. Whatever they did when we weren't around improved Casimir's mood. Maybe that was just the fresh start he so desperately needed even if he wouldn't admit to it.

Life was smooth sailing between work and intimacy with Castor. A few afternoons a week we helped Marsin and Elio go through all the emails sent in by our fellow flight members. Some were rubbish. Some the others thought were promising. Sometimes I wondered if the elves just didn't like us. Maybe it came from some ancestor of ours eating one of them or something. I didn't think elves would taste good, but how was the first wild dragon to try one supposed to know that?

Everything changed when I woke up to Castor retching in the bathroom before the purple sun even popped up above the horizon. He'd cut back on coffee and hadn't a drop of liquor since the night Casimir stole his drink. We hadn't talked about it, but we both knew you could only go in bare so many times before you had an egg on the way. Morning sickness wasn't the most common symptom of pregnancy here, but looking back I knew it wasn't the first my mate showed. He was emotional. Every good thing made him teary eyed and if not for the respect he held from his crew they might've teased him about it. Sure, he would've knocked their lights out if they had, but I was glad it hadn't come to that.

Without bothering to turn on the bedside lamp, I clambered into the bathroom half asleep as Castor flushed the toilet and sank onto the floor against the wall. I turned on the tap and found a washcloth to clean up his face with. I worked in silence, tending to him, grateful he hadn't chosen this moment to suddenly not accept help.

"Feeling any better?" I asked him, still squatted down in front of him.

"Feeling like I'm about to act like an entitled prick," he said, his eyes closed.

"Want me to go over and wake up Izora?" I asked him.

"That's the entitlement."

"He's a doctor. They get up at night if someone needs them," I said, smoothing his hair back from his face. "He wouldn't want you stuck in here sick if he could help it."

"Nothing but time is going to help this one, mate," he said. "Are you excited? We never really got around to the baby conversation, did we?"

"I am," I grinned. "I'm a bit worried about you right now. I feel the need to raid the clinic for saline bags and whatever you guys use for this sort of pregnancy sickness."

"There are orange gummies in there. Do you really know how to use a saline bag?"

"You don't?" I blinked at him. "They teach us that in high school. It's basic first aid. If a natural disaster or something comes along everyone should know such things."

"True," he nodded. "I guess they don't think that way back home."

"Come on," I picked him up. "I'm taking you to the clinic to see what we can do. Do you think Izora will be mad at me pawing through his stuff?"

"Probably not, unless you break something."

"Then we'll just have to be careful," I said and kissed him on the forehead.

***

Thirty minutes later, Castor was asleep on the little sofa in the clinic. I'd hooked him up to a saline bag and managed to find the gummies he told me about without ransacking the place. I sat on the floor in front of the sofa, stroking his hair and marveling at the fact we were going to have an egg. Castor was right. We hadn't discussed it, but the mating link took care of that. At least, I figured that's what happened, because he hadn't told me he wanted a baby, but I knew he did. Even now asleep, he smelled content and happy with our life.

I fell back asleep too, leaning against the sofa with my head resting against my mate's side. It wasn't the most comfortable position but I wasn't about to leave my mate alone in the clinic and go back to bed.

"Morning," Castor's voice broke through my dreams of flying with him by my side.

"Someone knows more than I knew about," Izora's voice came into focus a moment later.

"Apparently, high school teaches them how to do this," he said lifting his arm.

I sat up, yawning and stretching. My feet were all pins and needles, but I managed to get myself upright to stretch it out while Izora and Castor talked about what happened before our nap in the clinic. Izora double checked my IV work and changed out Castor's saline bag, just in case.

Once we both had enough of our wits about us, I helped Castor move onto the examination table. Everyone had heard about the photos he could take of eggs before they were born. It wasn't that impressive when I first heard about it. Now that it was my egg in question, I wanted him to hurry up and get to it. I didn't need to know how the machine worked. I just wanted to see the shell that housed the little life we conceived.

There was a bit of noise and Izora pointed at his little screen in his hand.

"Hmmmm….. I'm glad I've ran so many tests on the atmosphere and how it might affect other shifter types, Captain," Izora said a second later. "Your great grandmother was a wolf, if I remember correctly."

"She was," Castor nodded, squeezing my hand.

"I think that's the gene that decided to pop up," Izora said. "This is a jellybean, not an egg."

He showed the screen to Castor who nodded his agreement. I was about to ask what their sugary candies had to do with our baby when I glanced down at the screen. Our baby definitely looked like a jellybean and not the tiny eggs I'd seen in other people's photos.

"Alpha?" Castor asked, glancing at me.

"Yes, mate?"

"Are you okay? Does this change anything?"

"Don't sound so uncertain like that," I said. "It hurts my insides."

"It's an important question. I haven't seen anyone except dragons on this world and we're pretty sure our baby is going to be a wolf."

"Well, mostly a wolf," Izora interjected. "In the past, we've seen a lot of hybrids. Dragon genes like passing on some scales and wings even if the primary gene is furry."

"Is that okay?" Castor asked.

I didn't realize he was asking me and not the doctor until they both looked at me.

"Is our baby okay? Will a wolf pregnancy hurt him?" I asked the doctor.

"Your baby is perfectly healthy at this stage of development, and I happen to know the captain is in exceptional health. He can handle a full-term wolf pregnancy. That's about three moon cycles give or take," Izora said, and I let out a long sigh of relief.

Castor laughed, relief flooded over his scent.

"Not every dragon would be okay with this."

"With a baby?" I blinked.

"Well, I didn't know how you'd handle it," Castor admitted.

"This is our baby," I said, almost putting my hand on his belly.

"Will the flight accept them?"

"Why wouldn't they? They're our kid. They're one of them already. I bet their star scale has already popped up over in the Star Room."

A sob tore from Castor and I hugged him despite the doctor's presence and all the stuff hooked up to him.

"Are you upset?" I asked.

"No, I'm just relieved. I thought the baby would be a hatchling. I didn't even consider this possibility."

"They'll be the first wolf born on world," I whispered to him. "That's an incredible thing! We never warred with any wolves. It was the stupid humans that made it impossible to live on Earthside."

Izora let out a soft chuckle before excusing himself and leaving me to tend to Castor's emotions. He cried out his relief against my bare chest while I thought of all the stuff I didn't know about wolves or wolf pups. I'm sure someone had a book somewhere. It was probably in the storage area at the Star Room. I'd probably need to learn to howl too, so that our baby would know how to do that. Fred was married to a fox before. Did they howl? Did he know how to howl? Would he teach me if he did?

"Don't get ahead of yourself, babe," Castor laughed, pulling back. "I know how to howl. It's a sound most dragons can make as far as I know. Babies are babies. Ours will come out without a shell, but they're still a baby. Hell, before their born we'll be able to tell what they'll come out as too."

"Everyone is going to want to see our baby photos," I grinned and stole a kiss as I wiped away his leftover tears.