Dragon Eggs Under the Tree (Starscale Mates #4)

Chapter Seventeen

Stellan

The morning of the day before Yuletide I woke up with a to-do list circling my brain and Brender’s warm body spooned in behind me. Everything was perfect. I sniffed the air automatically checking on Saer. My heart skipped a beat. Pregnancy usually increased sense of smell. It didn’t decrease it. So why wasn’t I smelling my baby? I sniffed again – hard. Hard enough to wake up Brender.

“Did someone fart?” he mumbled in his sleep.

“Alpha!” I said and reached behind him to slap him on the arm to wake him up properly. “The baby!”

His hand went protectively over my belly.

“No! Saer!”

“Huh?” he blinked, sitting up, sniffing the air too.

We both reached out to the baby over the family link, but he wasn’t there. If he was, he’d somehow closed himself off from the link. That wasn’t something most hatchlings could do. Without speaking, we scrambled from the bed. I raced toward his bedroom and Brender made toward the kitchen and the rest of his house.

“SAER!” I bellowed not caring if my voice carried on the cold winter wind and woke up the whole damn neighborhood. A second later, Brender bellowed too. His voice bounced around as if it came from the front yard.

“STELLAN!” He called my name a second later. “He’s left! Footprints and all! I’m going after him.”

“Where would he go? Why would he leave us? He doesn’t even like to use the bathroom alone!” My heart skipped several beats.

“I don’t know!”

“GUYS!” Someone shouted inside my head who wasn’t Brender. “GUYS!”

“WHAT? OLIVER! WE’RE SORTA BUSY!” Brender snapped at his brother as I placed the voice.

“Saer’s here! He just knocked on the door and said you guys didn’t need him anymore? What the fuck is going on over there?”

“I don’t know!” Brender snapped, worry still making him sound hateful. “We’re on our way! Don’t let him leave! Don’t make this worse!”

“Shit!” he sighed, turning to face me once I caught up to him. “Do you want me to just go? Do you feel okay to go?”

“I want my baby!” My lip quivered more than I liked as I said the words.

Brender pulled me into a tight hug.

“What happened? How did he go all the way over there by himself?”

“I don’t know, mate. Do you think he heard us talking about the egg last night?”

“What would that matter? Why would---” I stopped midsentence. “Does he really think we’re trying to replace him or something?”

“Get dressed. We’ll find out. Thank the fucking ancestors Oliver answered the damn door this time.”

***

I didn’t breathe easy again until I was running up the walkway at Brender and Oliver’s house. The door was unlocked and partially open but neither of them answered when Brender called out for them. Even when I smelled my baby, my heart skipped a beat! Anything could’ve happened to him while he made his way from our house here! Sure, he was surrounded by flight members but who didn’t stop a hatchling traveling alone at night? Or hell, even early in the morning? Minding your own business was one thing but this was insane!

“They’re in the living room,” Brender said.

I didn’t think his link with his brother was so strong, but I’d been wrong before. Hell, they had to be close for him to put up with the almost Yuletide tree massacre.

“Guys!” Oliver said, standing up from the sofa, his brows furrowed as if nothing had been cleared up since we’d spoken on the phone. “I didn’t know what to do. He just showed up here and said that and I called you even tho---”

He kept talking and I left Brender to listen to whatever rambled over his tongue and I went straight for my baby. Saer was curled up on the sofa, his wings out and tucked over his head. I patted his leg until he peeked out from between his floppy wings.

“It’s okay,” he frowned, and his lower lip quivered.

“Baby, will you sit up here and tell me what’s going on? You can’t take off and leave the planet like that without telling anyone,” I said, managing to keep my panic out of my voice.

He shook his head and sniffled, breaking my heart even more.

“Buddy?” I said, almost cooing the word.

“It’s okay,” he shook his head again.

“What’s okay? This isn’t okay. You not telling me you’re sad doesn’t sound very okay, buddy.”

“You’ll have a baby of your own now. You won’t need me.”

“What?!” I asked and then forced my voice level again. “I’ve had a baby of my own for some time now. Over four years in fact. So, what’s this all about?”

Saer sighed and pointed at my stomach like it stole his lollipop and dropped it down the toilet.

“This baby will be your brother or sister. I know we should’ve talked to you about how this might happen, but we didn’t want to get your hopes up in case it didn’t,” I said. “Us having another baby doesn’t mean that we don’t love you. Parents need their children because they love them. So, we do need you.”

“But what about when the baby comes?”

“Then too. More than ever,” I nodded. “I love you so much! You’re always going to be my first baby.”

“I wasn’t in your tummy.”

“Well, this baby isn’t in Brender’s tummy. He’s still going to love them,” I said. “Tummies aren’t the end all be all of being daddies.”

“You were never in my belly either,” Brender said from the doorway, startling us both. “Or Uncle Oliver’s belly.”

That last part earned him a little laugh from Saer and I let out a relieved breath.

“We love you, baby. You’re our baby. You’re always going to be our baby. Even when you’re so old that when we say you’re our baby, it’ll be annoying.”

“Never annoy me,” he shook his head, yawning.

“I love you,” I said.

“Love you too. Go to sleep now?”

“I think you need a nap after running away from home like that. You scared us, Saer. We didn’t know where you were and anything could’ve happened to you on the way here. What if Uncle Oliver wasn’t home?”

He yawned. He was four. Of course, he didn’t have an answer for that mystery, and I didn’t push the subject. We’d just have to keep a better eye on him. Maybe I’d put the baby monitor back in his room or something. Saer crawled into my lap and I hugged him tight to my chest.

“I’m sorry,” he yawned. “I didn’t want to--- Didn’t want to be in the way.”

“You’re never in the way. Your home will always be with us baby. Even if we get so old that all our scales turn grey and dingey.”

I talked on but Saer had passed out cold in my arms. This wasn’t the last time I’d have to reassure him that no one could take his place but it was a start.

“Thanks for answering the door,” I said to Oliver when he brought through a wooden tray filled with coffee and all the stuff that made the bitter brew good.

“Only one cup for you, mate,” Brender said, joining me on the sofa.

“Was little man right, then?” Oliver asked.

“You’re gonna be an uncle again,” Brender nodded.

“About time. You guys were slow enough about it, huh?”