Chapter Twelve

Tonight, in his arms, I instantly fell asleep. I didn't actively concentrate on not dream walking or use any of the methods my grandmother taught me to avoid it. Not because I was intending on popping into my mate's brain or anything like that, but I simply forgot. It had been a long day, and my body was just so exhausted. More tired than it should be. But after a week of cleaning up the mess, I could barely stay awake.

When I found myself awake, sitting in a field I'd never been to before, I instantly recognized it as a dream. It was realer than the ones I usually had, and my brain was definitely more "awake" than normal. A sense of guilt washed over me as Stone came into view. I was invading his space.

"There you are." He waved me over. "You've been gone a while."

"I have?" I'd just gotten into this scene, or so I thought. Maybe I hadn't, or possibly I was filling the role of myself in a dream that had already started. I should've paid far more attention to my grandmother than I had.

"Yeah, you have. The babies need you."

"The babies need me?" I looked left, and we were no longer in the field.

Now we were in a house I didn't recognize, looking down at two bassinets. Each one of them had a baby in it, or at least a baby form. I couldn't see their faces or fingers. Everything that was covered by their sleepers was crystal clear. The rest? It was barely out of my view. It wasn't that they were missing like in an old horror movie. I just couldn't tilt my head to the correct angle to see them.

"Who are these babies?" I asked.

He looked down at me, "Honey, don't you know?"

I shook my head, "No, tell me. Were they lost in the storm?"

"They're ours, my love. They're ours."

The scene changed again before I could say anything more about that. I wasn't sure if I left his dream or he left mine, or maybe we hadn't even been sharing it in the first place. It was so confusing.

But I was back at the cabins this time. For some reason I was grabbing pillows out of the storeroom like my life depended on it. That wasn't even the weirdest part. I was insisting that they be hung up on a clothesline…a clothesline we didn't have. I was going to have to build it. and in the way you only can in dreams, I instantly knew how to accomplish the task.

"Do you need some help with that?" I looked over to see one of the regulars from the cabins standing there. A kangaroo who hadn't been around this season yet. Dream me didn't care that he was coming in a couple of weeks. Dream me decided I needed to see him now. Dreams were weird.

"I don't know. I really don't know." None of this scene made sense. Why was I messing with our stock of pillows and a clothesline of all things. I wasn't sure I'd ever even used one before. If I had, it would've been when I was a small boy.

"I remember when I was expecting my first one." The kangaroo was looking at my belly.

When I dropped my glance to see what he was looking at, there was no mistaking what it was. I was pregnant. Not even a little bit, either. I was super-duper mega pregnant. My belly was the size of a small island.

"What the fuck?" I willed myself awake.

It didn't work.

I tried again.

It didn't work.

Finally, I attempted one of the little tricks my grandmother taught me about staying out of people's dreams, hoping that would keep me out of my own. It worked, and I was back in bed, eyes open, wondering what the heck that was about.

I climbed out of bed and padded toward the kitchen to get a drink.

"Where are you going?" Stone asked sleepily.

"I need a glass of water." I walked to his side of the bed and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Go back to sleep."

He didn't say anything, and I went on my way. I got my water, but when I came back, he wasn't asleep like I assumed he would be. Instead, he was sitting up looking far too serious. He had been in the dream too. There was no other explanation.

"Did you have a dream?" I sat on the bed beside him, intertwining our fingers.

"Yeah. Were you there—I mean you were, but was it you-you or imagination you?"

"I don't know. I think I was there. In my dream, we had children." And also I was pregnant, but he hadn't been there for that part, so I was going to ease into it.

"Twins?"

"Twins." Adorable twins. I'd been too scared to pick them up during the dream, afraid that if I did, I'd be holding a faceless baby or something equally disturbing.

"It's weird. I don't know if it was my dream or yours." He pulled me into his arms.

"Does it matter?" I asked. In a way it sort of did, I supposed. But also, not really. We just had to come to an agreement on what we were or weren't willing to do when it came to dream walking—you know, the ground rules.

"No, I suppose not." He kissed the top of my head. "But the dream… I think it was more than just a dream."

"Meaning?" Did dragons have some dream lore I hadn't learned about yet? It was impossibly possible.

"What if...could you be pregnant?"

"Pregnant? Do you think?" I'd never considered dreams literal, but that didn't mean they couldn't be.

"There's one way to find out." Stone got out of bed, held his hand out for mine, took it, and led me outside. "My dragon is the best one here to ask." He brushed his lips against mine and ran a few feet away before taking his scales.

Just like the other times I'd seen his beast, my breath was stolen. He was a magnificent creature.

His dragon sniffed me head to toe. I giggled nervously. Why would a dragon be smelling me up and down? But when he shifted back, Stone wrapped his arms around me and twirled me. I knew the answer before he even said the words. "We're going to be parents!"

" Are you sure?" I wanted it to be true more than I'd ever wanted anything. But I refused to get excited until there was no question about it, I was going to have a baby…possibly twice in this instance.

"My dragon is positive."

"But it's so soon." I wasn't born yesterday. I understood pregnancy could happen the very first time. But it was sooo fast. "I guess I should put my notice in. I don't want to be traveling when I'm too far along."

"You probably shouldn't be leaving any time soon." He at least had the decency to look uncomfortable saying it.

"Excuse me? I'm not a barefoot-in-the-house kinda guy." Or maybe I was—I literally did not wear shoes in the house--socks if it was very cold—but that wasn't what I meant and he had the kindness not to point that out. I hadn't really figure that out yet…or any of this. "I mean I don't know what I mean...ignore that outburst." Understatement of the year.

"Never be sorry for sharing how you feel." He cupped my cheek. "We'll figure all this out, I promise you."

"And I promise you the same respect for you you so graciously give me." He deserved far more. He deserved everything.

"The eggs should arrive in only a few weeks. It's best if we just stay here. We'll find my brothers, we will, but our babies come first."

"Did you just say eggs?" For some reason, it just now registered.

"Yeah."

"I'm human," I reminded him.

"And you're carrying two baby dragons."

I put my hand on my belly, "Two? Are you sure?"

"My dragon is." His dragon was helpful in so many ways.

"So you're saying in a couple of weeks."

He shook his head. "A few."

"I'm going to lay eggs like a chicken?" Yes, my brain was still catching up to all of this.

"Not like a chicken, honey. Like a dragon. You're going to lay eggs like a dragon."

Because that made it less terrifying…oh wait, except it didn't.