Dragon Eggs Under the Tree (Starscale Mates #4)

Chapter Eighteen

Brender

The night before Yuletide, Saer slept in bed with us. He’d needed a lot of extra attention all day but I couldn’t begin to imagine how much overhearing the news of the new baby had rearranged his world. The three of us spent most of the day at Oliver’s house (when did I start thinking of it as that and Stellan’s house as home?) going over all the good parts of having a younger sibling. I wasn’t sure Saer was excited at the prospect of being an older brother but at the very least he accepted that we were not nor would we ever replace him.

His conking out with a death grip on Stellan meant that I did most of the work in putting the gifts under the tree. A few hours of quiet while arranging the next morning was exactly what my inner beast needed after our rude awakening that morning. I also made a mental note that whatever was said in the house was probably heard by any little ears awake enough to listen in.

“We were a gladiator. We can handle two hatchlings and Oliver,” my dragon yawned inside his inner sanctum. “Besides, Oliver is sorta growing up. Another few decades and he might even be a grown-up. Saer might beat him to it but that’s okay.”

I laughed. He’d always teased Oliver, but he was still exceptionally young for a dragon. Our lives weren’t survival based as our ancestors’ were. We could afford to spend our second and third decades doing fuck all that contributed to society. We’d do that later in life while younger dragons took their turns at doing fuck all.

After ensuring everything around the Yuletide tree was perfect for the next morning, I made my way into the kitchen. Stellan and I had planned to spend the evening drinking ‘adult’ eggnog and enjoying each other’s company but that was before we found out he was carrying an egg. So, I poured two glasses of eggnog and ‘held’ the adult part for a later date before heading back upstairs. Stellan managed to free one arm to take his glass.

“He’s still holding tight,” he said over our mating link.

“Better than running away,” I pointed out.

“Definitely better than that. Did you remember to shove the pig roast into the slow cooker?”

“Yep. Got the presents out too. I even left footprints outside for the wild dragons,” I nodded at him, and we almost clinked our glass together before thinking better of it.

“Thanks for bringing this up. It’s not Yuletide without it.”

I nodded, swirling the vaguely purple eggnog around the glass. It wasn’t the same without the rum, but such was the life of a parent. I glanced at Stellan’s flat belly and wondered how much he’d show before he laid his egg.

“Not that much, if I’m anything like the others in my family. Seriously, my aunt laid an egg and I saw her the day before and didn’t even know she was carrying. It was insane.”

“Then we better get signed up for the pack soon, huh?” I grinned at him.

“I still have the nesting room set up from when Saer first came.”

“Do you think he’d have a problem with sharing?”

“Eh, you’re right,” Stellan let out a long, slow breath. “I’ll ask him first. It wouldn’t be the end of the world to build another nest but I really like that one. It came out really well. My dragon was rather proud of it.”

“It looked awesome when I saw it during the vows,” I nodded.

“It is awesome. It’s the best. Are you okay with using it if Saer is?” he asked me but his eyes were already drifting shut.

Reaching over him and Saer, I turned off the nightstand lamp.

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you didn’t help build it. I know it’s usually an activity for mates to do together. If you want to build another one so you partook in it, I’d get it.”

“We’ll take a look at it to see if it needs any maintenance and fix it up if it needs it. You’re too fond of it for me to go around changing everything. Besides, carriers have usually chosen nesting spots. They’ve done it throughout history.”

“Yeah, we never let alphas push us around like some other sort of shifters in the old stories from Earthside.”

“You’d eat them. If I become like some of those guys feel free to disembowel me and feed me to the hatchlings,” I yawned.

“They’re not cannibals, dude.”

“Dude, huh?” I laughed.

“Yep. Dude. I’m tired.”

“Night, babe.”

“Night. Love you.”

***

“MORNING!” Saer’s voice cut through the fog of sleep approximately point two seconds after we dozed off.

The early morning sunlight peeking around the edges of the curtains did little to convince me that we’d actually slept all night.

“MORNING!” Saer shouted again, projecting his voice a little further this time. “YULETIDE!”

It came out as ‘ul-tid’ but we knew what he meant. Stellan grabbed him up and pulled him down for a hug. Saer cackled with more energy than anyone ever actually had after they turned twenty. Maybe it was the fully grown scales that weighed the rest of us down.

“Yuletide,” Stellan nodded and kissed the baby on top of his head. “Happy Yuletide.”

“Happy Yuletide,” Saer nodded back at him.

He poked me in the shoulder and I grunted the holiday greeting too. Usually, I was up early for work, but this was unusually early these days.

“Yesterday exhausted you too,” Stellan teased me over our mating link.

“Buddy, do you want breakfast or presents first? There’s pear jammie,” I grinned.

“Eggs!”

“I’ll make eggs,” I nodded at him. “And coffee.”

“Wild eggs!” Saer cheered and I fought off the urge to hide my head under the pillow.

“Come on then. Let’s go crack some eggs. I’ll put some coffee on,” I said, getting out of bed to get a head start on them to have enough time to do the latter.