24. Damon

"I think we need two cakes," George said very adamantly. "It's only fair. I don't have to share my birthday cake. Why should Ember and Devlin have to share theirs?"

He had a point, but also, we were a family of five, and the two of them had only a handful of teeth. We very much did not need two full cakes.

"We could do cupcakes," Nicholas suggested, coming in and putting his phone between us. We were planning the babies' first birthday party. They wouldn't remember it, but George insisted. I looked down at the phone. My mate had found the most magnificent confections.

"She makes them locally. Her cupcakes are gorgeous. And she has a theme you can order that have all different creatures, including dragons."

"I like cupcakes. They are baby-sized, too." George was almost right. These weren't tiny cakes, but for sure smaller than the full-sized ones he'd just been asking for.

"Should we get all dragons or should we mix it up?" I asked.

"Why not mix it up?" Nicholas replied.

"I think we should mix it up." George agreed. "I want a unicorn for me."

"I didn't know you liked unicorns." Nicholas clicked add to cart. We'd have to pick them up, but the ordering was completely online from what I could see.

George shrugged. "I don't know if I like them as much as when I was little… I used to think I was one," he said, which caught my attention. He'd never mentioned that to me.

"What do you mean you used to think you were one? Like, in make-believe?" I asked.

"Sort of. I don't know. I wished that one day I was just going to be a unicorn, and then I learned that didn't happen… We should get a mermaid too. Uncle Sandy likes mermaid movies."

And just like that, he changed the subject.

"We should also get the one with the edible glitter on it over here." He tapped the screen. "I don't know what that's supposed to be, but I want that one too," George said, and just like that, we continued our conversation about the cupcakes.

But his unicorn comments never really left my mind.

Later that night, when George and the babies were asleep, I sat down with Nicholas and asked him point-blank, "When George said he always thought he was a unicorn, could that be a thing?"

"You caught that too," Nicholas said. "I don't know. Maybe. Unicorns are different. I've never met one in real life, but from what I understand, they sort of blend with society. You know how George can see if there's another shifter in the room?"

I nodded. I didn't understand it, but I'd witnessed it firsthand.

"You can't do that with a unicorn, not even George. They are protected like that. The lore is that the goddess made them invisible like that to protect their horns. I guess we'll find out when he turns ten."

"Ten? I thought you said the twins wouldn't shift until they were older," I said.

"Dragons, yes. But unicorns, if he is one, might be different," Nicholas replied.

"So what do we do?"

"Love him. Raise him. Playfully nurture him in the ways of shifters. You know, be his fathers."

"Same as we do for our twins." It made sense. "I'm not a unicorn." And if there was one in the family, no one had ever mentioned it to me. But then again, I hadn't mentioned my mate being a dragon to them, so I wasn't sure how valid an argument that was.

"No, you're not. But maybe, just maybe, his sperm donor gave him more than just his human side."

It would explain why he panicked. If he thought me being pregnant would mean he needed to mate me, someone he didn't love, that had to be terrifying. Didn't make it less of a dick move, but I understood it a tad more.

"Is there any way to know for sure, other than waiting until he's older?"

"Not really."

"We wait until he's ten."

We decided not to tell him about our conjecture. There was no use getting him excited for nothing. And for all we knew he could be George, the human, like we always thought. But it was good to be prepared, just in case his tenth birthday rolled around and he was suddenly sprouting hooves.

We finalized the order for the cupcakes, ordering far more than we needed.

After tidying up the house, we sank onto the couch to watch a movie until our bedtime. It was a pretty normal evening, especially considering I just found out my son might be more than human.

The birthday party came upon us quickly. It was wonderful. Just like our wedding, it was just immediate friends and family, some people from work, and that was that. It was nice for us all to get together, and the cupcakes were delicious.

Our guests oohed and ahhed over the babies, and I was pretty sure the babies didn't get put down a single time, much to their chagrin since they had just started toddling. They got far more birthday presents than any child should ever have, and George even got a few. It was a beautiful day, and one of many birthday parties to come.

Year after year we celebrated our kids' special days. The children grew like weeds. We added a couple more girls—Farah and Starla—making our family complete.

And then it came time for George's tenth birthday. This time, we didn't plan a party. We told George we were going to go on a trip—a special birthday trip—later that summer instead. And we were going to. He'd wanted to go to one of the big amusement parks for a long time, and the kids were finally at the age where there was something for each of them there. He thought it was a great idea. My parents weren't overly impressed by the lack of party, but it wasn't like we could tell them the real reason why—that their grandson might sprout a horn and hooves.

The night before his birthday, we sat down with him and told him that tomorrow might be a big day, or it might not be. No matter what happened, he was no longer the imaginative child who saw the magic in all things. Nope. We got the typical tween eye-roll followed by a comment about how silly we were.

Although, I wasn't sure if he believed it because his eyes sparkled and he practically skipped back to his room. Please don't let us have gotten him excited for nothing. I couldn't bear to see his heart broken.

The next day, as we all hung out in the backyard enjoying the fresh air, Nicholas set up disc golf and a bubble maker. Everyone was having a blast.

But then George ran up to me saying his clothes were suddenly getting too tight.

Nicholas jumped into dad mode, taking over because I was so far outside my element I didn't even know where to begin. Nicholas led him away from us and told him it was time to take his clothes off. He said a lot more than that, but I couldn't hear the words and spent my time trying to distract the others.

George did as he said and just in time for his beautiful unicorn form to emerge. His beast neighed, trotted around in a huge circle, then came over to me and dropped his head against my shoulder.

"It's nice to meet your unicorn." I leaned my head against his. "You're beautiful."

He did Nicholas's shoulder, and then his siblings all ran up, wanting to pet him. I wasn't sure they fully understood what was going on, but we'd tell them soon enough.

"Want me to shift with you?" Nicholas asked, and George's beast nodded.

My mate called forth his dragon, and the two of them ran around, my mate staying on the ground. He was a much more elegant flier than he was a runner, but he made do. They ran around a while then came back.

Nicholas shifted back first and talked George through his shift back to his human form. The first thing he said was, "Maybe that saddle prototype I designed wasn't for your dragon after all. Maybe it was for me."

George threw on his clothes and started playing with his siblings. There would be much conversation later, but for now, he was just enjoying the fun of the day, basking in the knowledge that he was a unicorn.

I grabbed my mate's hand.

"That was... wow. All of this, and our family is... wow. I'm so glad I called the wrong number that day." I brought his hand to my lips and gave him a kiss. "I wish there was a way for the reason I called not to have happened, that we just met at a coffee shop, but I will never once regret meeting you. I love you, my dragon."

"And I love you, mate. I love you."

Next in the series…

Sometimes the wrong number is the exact one you need.

When I bought my house, I promised my grandfather that I would always have a landline. He might be gone, but the phone remains, just where it always was. When it rings in the middle of the night, I jump out of bed to answer it. The last time this happened, the news on the other end wasn't good. At least now it's either a scammer or a wrong number. No bad news comes from that, right?

Before I can say, "Hello," the person on the other end starts telling me, through sobbing tears, that they need me down at the station with bail money for Grams. I try to tell him I'm not who he thinks he is, only to have the line go dead.

I could go back to bed. Nothing's stopping me, but also… Grams is going to be in that cell for a long time if someone doesn't let the man on the other end of the phone know he got the wrong number. It has nothing to do with the way his voice had my beast perking up. Nope. Nothing at all.

Wrong Number, Right Unicorn is a sweet with knotty heat MM Mpreg romance featuring a human whose grandmother thinks it is a good idea to moon a policeman when he helped her reach the all-night pharmacy, the unicorn he accidentally calls for help, true love, fated mates, an adorable baby, and a happy ever after.