Dragon Eggs Under the Tree (Starscale Mates #4)

Chapter Thirteen

Stellan

Before meeting Brender, I didn’t know if there was really room for anyone else in my and Saer’s life long term. Didn’t know if I was really willing to make room for someone who’d only have to leave and confuse my baby again. Only, Brender fit right into our life in most ways.

He didn’t move in with Saer and I overnight. We took our time packing up his most important items and moving them over bit by bit. He left a lot of stuff there for Oliver who he’d never want to leave high and dry. While we packed, Saer spent time with his new uncle who surprisingly I didn’t have to tell not to show my baby the bloodiest of his video games. Oliver even picked up a few hatchling-friendly games to play with him. That’s what Saer did while back home, Brender and I climbed up into the attic with his paper mache eggs and all the gifts we planned to stuff inside once the time came.

We spent a long afternoon painting the eggs together, chatting about our lives and what our future might look like. Fortunately, we both wanted big families and both had some college level training in early childhood development. Before I decided I liked working more with books than people I thought I might be a teacher too. Brender became a teacher after he retired from fighting. Though, he almost started out as a teacher. It was a bet that made him enter the arena the first time where he discovered he was a natural fighter. The fame went to his head a bit like it would most dragons and he stuck it out for decades, living it up before retiring to the quieter life of teaching.

I stuck to the traditional Yuletide colors and themes for the eggs I painted. Brender spent most of the afternoon painting a beautiful ocean scene with a big ole ship on it. Then we packed away all the presents and closed up the eggs. They’d stay tucked into the attic for safekeeping until it was time for the ‘wild dragons’ to lay them under the yuletide tree.

More snow came in each day as the purple sun wandered further from our worlds. It’d circle back around like it always did each year bringing in the warm, humid kiss of spring. I for one, didn’t mind the long winters. There was something satisfying about the chilly air and the holidays closing in that made me feel on top of the world.

When we weren’t secreting ourselves away playing ‘wild dragons’ we spent almost all our time with Saer. Not all of our time. We did make it a priority to spend time alone each day. When Saer’s separation anxiety showed up all bets were off but with two of us around it seemed to ease up a bit more every day. Sometimes I wondered if it bothered him or his dragon that he was adopted. If the separation anxiety came from knowing his birth mothers handed him over to me so willingly. In the end, I didn’t ask him, couldn’t ask him, but as it faded away as Yuletide grew closer, I started to doubt that it was ever rooted in that and more rooted in the fact that Kevin had disappeared without saying goodbye to him.

A few days before Yuletide, the library where I worked had a hatchling-friendly Yuletide party and we bundled Saer up and invited Oliver along. Much to Brender’s surprise, he agreed to come along. I secretly suspected that his dragon made him act like a real ‘grownup’ around Saer. While the man might be immature, the dragon within him was like most dragons and put the wellbeing of the future of our flight first.

All the kids were given mini paper mache eggs full of candy and little bobbles for the trees. Saer chose a blue one because it was the same color as the sea. Sooner or later, I had a feeling we’d have to buy the kid a boat. For all the harm Kevin did, he helped Saer find something he really cared about.

After the party, Brender sprung another surprise on us. We were going with him and Oliver to some mystery location on 2.

“What?” he asked over our mating link when my eyes went a bit too big and gave away my suspicions. “You never said to warn you that I planned to kidnap you!”

“Where are we going? Not the ocean, I hope. I know he loves it, Brender, but it’s too cold for him.”

“Not the ocean. I promise. Not the ocean. I don’t think I could get Oliver that far from land. He gets seasick if the waves start going. This is more of a calm waters situation. Not many dragons who don’t live on 2 know about it.”

“Fine. I’ll trust you. This time. Still a heads up would’ve been nice,” I said, but couldn’t manage to scowl at him.

“I love you too,” he laughed.

“Me too!” Saer said, squeezing my hand with his little mitten clad one.

Chapter Fourteen

Brender

Saer spent the ride to 2 pumping my brother for information. There were a few times I thought the hatchling would outsmart him, but somehow, against the odds, Oliver kept his big, fat mouth shut, and the secret was safe. He danced from foot to foot as we disembarked and headed to the car.

“You have a car?” Stellan asked as I unlocked the door.

“Yes, and I have a booster seat too. That last one’s new though,” I admitted. “Had Oliver pick it up the other day.

“You never told me – about the car.”

“You never asked. I don’t use it a lot. Last time I used it was to haul boxes to the station,” I said, winking at him, hoping he knew what boxes I referred to.

“Is that why you kept randomly picking up Saer the other day? Were you trying to figure out how much he weighed?”

“Caught red clawed,” I shrugged. “The guy at the garage assured me it was the right size and model.”

It turned out the guy at the garage was right. Saer fit perfectly into his booster seat. Cars weren’t all that popular on any of the Starscale worlds but they did have their perks. While most people flew or walked anywhere a few of us had cars. It was more a novelty than anything else but I was a gladiator once. Who could blame me for being sucked into the lavish lifestyle it provided?

Oliver wasn’t thrilled about being dumped in the backseat with Saer. Shotgun was usually his spot but he knew better than to argue with me on this one. Unless Saer needed Stellan in the back, he’d ride up front with me within touching distance. We never really took a mating moon. Saer was too young to understand us being gone for a week or more. Stellan couldn’t have stood it either. So, our mateship was new and that meant the magic lingered, demanding us to be as close as possible whenever we could.

I drove with one hand on the wheel and the other on his leg. Not too high up. I wasn’t sure how much of the front seat was in view from the back but there on his knee – touching him, touching me. Enough to ease the constant tug and pull of the magic still burning hot between us and our inner beasts. His hand rested on mine. I drove and he listened to Saer try to guess what the surprise might be.

“Is it a giant boat just for me?”

“What would you do with a giant boat, buddy?” Stellan laughed.

“This an early Yuletide present,” I cut in before the conversation could circle back to Kevin.

We’d sent him off a Yuletide card with a note that it was mostly from Saer, and no one was trying to butt into his life with his new mate. We hadn’t received a reply back yet but Saer spoke of him less and less as if sending the card gave his little heart and brain some closure. I didn’t mind hearing about Kevin being lost at sea – except for when it upset the baby.

“Already?” Saer asked, his little mouth hanging open in happy disbelief in the rear-view mirror.

“Yeah! Well for you and your dad.”

He broke into singing “Jingle Tails’ a holiday song about the flight of the wild dragons on the way to lay their gifts eggs. His little voice ringing through the car made the drive pass by in the blink of an eye. The good parts of life always did that. They were here and gone and whispering in your memories.

“Are you gonna blindfold us?” Stellan teased when I announced we were near our destination. Anyone born and raised on 2 would’ve known where we were headed by now but thankfully for me Stellan and I didn’t share a birth world.

“I might consider it later,” I teased him and squeezed his knee.

I swung the car into the very corner of the landing lot. Most businesses weren’t fond of cars, but I’d called ahead and asked about it after booking our day trip. It was hard to get in this time of year and I was a not-so-good flight member and used my past fame to secure the spot on a day where the establishment was usually closed to the public.

“What is it?” Saer asked, trying to wiggle out of his booster seat.

“You’ll see,” I grinned. “Okay, buddy. We have to talk about car rules. I should’ve done this before we left. We all stay in our seats with the belts on until the car is off. I don’t turn the car on unless everyone is in their belt.”

“Okay. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. You didn’t know. Now you do. Cars aren’t toys. They can be fun but it’s like you wouldn’t ride a rollercoaster without the bar.”

“I might,” Saer laughed.

“Oh no you wouldn’t!” Stellan said, his scent going worried for half of a second.

“Let’s go in. We want to be on time to have our whole slot,” I grinned at Stellan and squeezed his knee again.

It turned out that the booster seat buckles really were as childproof as the guy at the garage promised. Neither Saer or Oliver could figure them out. I ducked in the back to free him before he scrambled into Stellan’s arms hesitant about his new surroundings.

“Is that a cave?” Stellan asked him, pointing out a big looming mouth in the wall of a mountain not far off.

“I think so, Daddy,” Saer squinted in the distance.

“I’ll check us in and make sure there’s not anything new we need to know,” I said and ducked inside the tiny brick building where the dragons who managed the cave system worked. I was in and out with a life vest for the hatchling in under two minutes, but Saer had squirmed from Stellan’s arms and was bouncing from foot to foot excited for his surprise.

“You gotta put this on over your coat, buddy,” I said, squatting down and holding up the bright yellow life vest. “I know you can swim but I don’t make the rules here and when you visit other people you have to follow their safety rules.”

“Okay. Why yellow?”

“So we can see you if you try to float away,” Oliver teased him.

“You might float away! I won’t float away!” Saer said as I helped him into the vest.

When I was finished, Stellan flashed me an apologetic grin before double checking all the straps and buckles. Then with the baby between us we walked toward the cave with Oliver on our heels.

Steam billowed from inside the cave, making the entrance foggy. Saer gripped my hand tighter as we stepped through it into the cave proper. The front cavern was dry or at least didn’t have a hot spring warmed river running through it like the rest of the cave system did. It was damp and water dripped from the ceiling onto the stack of inflated, yellow rafts that would carry us down the river and around to the back entrance of the cave.

“Are those boats?” Saer asked, his eyes darting in every direction taking in the cave walls and their purple-ish moss along with the yellow boats.

“Sort of,” I nodded. “Rafts but they work the same as boats. It’ll be a sort of slow ride, though.”

“It’s toasty in here,” Stellan said, shrugging off the shirt he wore to the party.

My eyes raked over him before I forced my mind back on the adventure at hand. I made a show of double-checking all three rafts I figured we’d use.

“One – two – three –” Saer counted the rafts and frowned at me.

“Four comes next,” Oliver pointed out.

“One – two – three – four,” he counted us before dragging another raft over for me to inspect it.

“You don’t want to ride with me?” Stellan asked.

“I want my own boat,” Saer said, looking at me with those big-hatchling eyes for help.

“We can tie him between ours,” I offered up as a solution. “That way he can’t float too far away.”

Saer frowned at me as if I’d betrayed his trust in the most ultimate way possible. The hatchling was breaking my heart in pieces.

“Buddy, let’s try it with you tied to us this time. If it goes okay next time maybe we won’t do it that way. You gotta help me here. I don’t want to be in trouble with him either. If it helps, we’ll tie Oliver to us too. That way no one gets lost, and we’ll be tied to you too.”

“Okay. All tied up,” he nodded and sprinted over to where ropes lay under a clear, waterproof tarp.