Chapter Fifteen

With our two beautiful eggs in the nest, I learned that some things were instinctual even if you were not born a dragon. Or at least they were for my mate because Arvin not only constructed the beautiful nest—which he did have Pinterest help for—but he also laid those eggs like a champ.

"You know, I thought I might be disappointed to have eggs instead of actual babies to cuddle." He said this while stroking one of the eggs, so the words didn't hold much sting. "But then I forced myself to realize that I would never have had the babies this fast, so having them here in their shells is bonus time with them."

"And you're a lot more comfortable, with that hard belly gone."

"I am flabby," he said, patting his middle. "You're right."

He was perched on top of the nest right nest to our two magnificent eggs. That meant my desire to leap up and fling my arms around him and swear I did not mean anything like that was thwarted. It was too risky. I hadn't seen his belly since he laid the eggs anyway. He hadn't even left the nest except for quick races to relieve himself and had not showered. He had changed into clean clothes a few times, but I wasn't there when he did. "Mate, looking at you sitting there with our eggs, you're the hottest thing I've ever seen. I imagine it takes a little time for your tummy to get over being stretched out with two very large eggs, but if it never did, that wouldn't change my opinion of you in the slightest. Look what you made." I waved toward the gleaming shells. "And you did it without having any dragon DNA or parts of your own somehow. You should be very proud."

He stroked first one shell then the other, preening. "I am, actually. They look well, don't you think? Healthy?"

"I was raised with otters remember? Last time I saw anything dragon egg related was when I pecked and clawed my way out of my shell, and my memories of being a newborn are nonexistent." I drew a breath. "But, that said, I can't imagine any eggs looking better. They're shiny and clean and, speaking of which, wouldn't you like to take a quick shower and maybe outside for a breath of fresh air?"

He shrugged, still focused on the eggs. "No, I'm good. Hungry though."

"Want to go to the kitchen and have something? I can watch the eggs while you eat a snack."

"But you always bring me my food here." His gaze flicked up, piercing me. "Why do you want me away from them? Do you want to take over?"

"No, that's not it." Arvin's phone rang, and I picked it up. "Hi. Cabin eight. Be right there." I hung up. "They need a sink cleared. What do these people put down them anyway?"

He chuckled. "Anything. Everything. And it's not even usually the kids. The parents just stuff things down and figure the garbage disposals can handle it."

"But we don't have garbage disposals in the cabins."

"No we don't." He rolled one of the eggs a quarter turn. "Does that side look dull?"

"Not at all." I left him to go unclog the sink. Since he'd laid the eggs, he couldn't do his job because that would have involved leaving the nest. While my stock trading, which I still did every day although not as many ridiculous hours, would easily have supported us, we wanted to stay here at least until the babies came, and that meant the job had to be done.

By me.

I'd never considered myself particularly handy, but before Arvin settled in with the eggs, I'd shadowed him and helped him enough that I could manage most of what needed to be done. That first week seemed to have brought most of the storms, so at least I hadn't had to do roof repairs or anything big like that. Yet.

The family of bunnies who were staying in cabin eight had filled the drain with carrot trimmings—a very stereotypical choice, I thought. But as I lay on my back under the sink, loosening the trap, my annoyance at having to leave my mate in his stinky state faded back a little. The rabbits were so apologetic, and I'd heard my mate complain many times that his boss was so cheap, he refused to put in garbage disposals. Among other things. Arvin often said, if he owned this place, he'd do such and such improvements. He could make a success out of it with his hard work and great ideas. But, as he also said, he wasn't the boss, and we could only do what we could do. He did not want us putting money into someone else's property. So I did my best to help. Until the moment the eggs were laid, he'd argued with me and not wanted me to do his job as well as mine, but he seemed fine with it now. As a dedicated omega daddy, he was doing exactly what he should be.

Well…maybe not exactly. As I finished up with the drain and put my tools back in the box, I was trying to figure out a way to get my beloved mate to take a shower. He was ripe, and that couldn't be good for him or the babies. How would he feel if they hatched and then held their little noses and said, "Pee-yew!"

Walking back to our cabin, I had no ideas at all. He was dedicated to exactly what he should be, and he was eating and drinking, so those things were all in line. Parma had warned me that this might happen, but she hadn't had any really great ideas about how to fix it. Trudging past the kitchen I spotted the case of premium wipes we'd picked up at the big box store a few towns over when we were buying baby things.

Maybe?

I tore the box open and pulled out a half dozen packages. They were supposed to go in a dispenser, but this was not the time for that. I carried them to the bedroom. My mate was asleep, curled around the eggs. A vague image of cleaning him up while he slept flitted into my mind and was rejected. He'd notice for ,sure, and he needed his rest. Amazing how much energy it could take to fuss over things.

So I settled myself on the chair by the window and waited for him to wake up. The restful atmosphere in the room as well as doing two separate jobs had worn me down, and the next thing I knew a couple of hours had passed and my mate was awake, watching me sleep.

"Hey, alpha." He was sipping a bottle of water from the cooler I'd stashed next to the nest so he wouldn't get dehydrated while I was off fixing things. "You needed that rest. Thank you for putting up with me."

"Thank you for taking such good care of our children." I blew him a kiss. "Hungry?"

"Not right now."

He looked so grungy, and he smelled worse, but I could help at least a little. "How about a sponge bath."

"You have a sponge?" He looked skeptical. "You're just trying to get me in the tub."

"Nope." I picked up the packages of wet wipes from the floor next to the chair. "I think if you use enough of these, you will feel refreshed."

"But they're so expensive," he protested. "Do I offend you that much? Am I that stinky?" He sniffed his underarm and winced. What will the babies think?"

"And you 100 percent can't take a shower? Not even a super-fast one just so the babies smell you all nice and clean?"

He looked from me to the bathroom door and back again and then, bam! He was running for it. "Sit on the nest and don't take your eyes off them."

"There's clean clothes in there for you," I hollered after him.

I sat down by the eggs and had a great chat with them about their awesome omega daddy who loved them so much, and in about three minutes he was back. There was no way he could have done a great job in that amount of time, but he was wearing different pants and pulling a shirt over his damp hair, and he seemed so much more relaxed.

"You look good with them," he said, chewing on his lip. "Maybe I'm being selfish, keeping them all to myself?"

"Selfish? Never. But I did enjoy having a turn to hang out. If you want to do this again tomorrow? I'm all in."