The Unexpected Yuletide Baby (Starscale Mates #3)

Chapter Five

Clarence

Back in our younger days, anybody who was anyone attended our Yule Eve parties. Moonscale Manor was the place to be if you wanted a holly jolly good time. Now, the guest spots were usually reserved for family and close friends. Gone were the occasional strippers and Yuletide lap dances and up were way too many trees, decorations, and stockings with the names of every child, grandchild, and further out decedents we had. Sometimes I missed the old days occasionally but those were live hard/die young days. These were make merry memories days and I was still enjoying the change of pace.

Indigo, Cobalt, and Teal arrived with bluer hair than ever, but I made a point not to comment on it. I was old after all and Medwin was determined for neither of us to be ‘old’ today. It didn’t look that bad. They wouldn’t be hiding out in nature any time soon but as a fashion choice, I’d seen and probably made worse myself as a young dragon.

“Then you better ensure no wars start,” Medwin said.

He was already in the ballroom fiddling around with the huge monitor that would broadcast Sunny all the way from Starscale 1. That was the best we could do to invite him home for the holidays. He spent the better half of his last phone call to us ranting about paper mache eggs being used instead of wrapping paper or gift bags. I suggested he introduce them to a simpler method, but Medwin shot me a dirty look. They could do whatever they wanted but if I visited, I wouldn’t spend a week in the kids’ craft room to make gift wrap.

“You’ve all gotten taller,” I said in lieu of a greeting to the triplets – our first arrivals.

“Or you’re shrinking,” Cobalt laughed.

He looked so much like some blue-haired Cade that it took me back in time. Cade and Eston wouldn’t make it to the party this year. Eston was pregnant again. That poor wolf was always pregnant.

“Poor wolf my ass,” Medwin chimed into my thoughts. “From how I heard it the babies are usually his idea.”

“I’d hope so. I’d hate to lose Cade to Nicky burning him up,” I chuckled back to my mate.

I gave the triplets a short tour of the setup for the ballroom with the huge tree and gifts shoved into almost every spare nook and cranny of the floor and the buffet style meal set out on heated stones in the dining room. The liquor carts wouldn’t come out until the littlest ones were fast asleep or perhaps not at all if Medwin didn’t want anyone to imbibe around our egg. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that myself.

The boys filled me in on their lives and latest love interests – none of which they brought to the party. I didn’t blame them for that either. It was a family event now but occasionally photographs ended up in gossip rags and I wouldn’t want to deal with that if I were them. None of them sounded radically invested in these love interests of theirs anyway.

“So the egg?” Indigo asked when a lull hit our conversation.

“Is still an egg,” I nodded. “I think the hatchling is waiting for a more exciting time to launch themselves into this world.”

“Maybe they don’t want to come out,” Teal shrugged.

“Was that a jab?” I arched a brow.

He cocked his head to the side and shrugged.

“Did they make you come here?” I asked him.

“Not particularly,” he shook his head.

“Have I already done something to offend you?” I arched a brow.

Teal was the most sensitive of the group. He had always been. Not that I’d ever tell his parents, but personality wise he reminded me of my smartass firstborn son. Something had to hide all his squishy parts.

“No,” he shook his head.

“You two are excused,” I said to his brothers.

Only then did I consider that perhaps that was their plan all along.

“What’s going on?” I asked Teal once his brothers and the army of decorations Medwin hired were out of earshot.

“Nothing.”

“Lies. All lies,” I said, leading him out to my favorite courtyard. “I noticed Roget is not on your arm tonight. As I recall when I attended his birthday party at that pizza place in New Hemlock, you couldn’t pry him off.”

“He met his true-mate,” Teal said, studying a falling snowflake as if his life depended on it.

“Do I call the assassins or leave it alone?” I asked.

“I can never tell whether or not you’re joking.”

“I’m not,” I shook my head. “It’s a rather serious question. Give me the word and he, him, or both are gone.”

“Leave them alone,” Teal groaned and I hid my relief. I would’ve done it for him. I would’ve done anything for Cade’s kids, but Bobby Hemlock would’ve never let me hear the end of it. Neither would Teal’s parents for that matter.

“And should I leave you alone too?” I asked him.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Grandpa?”

“Should I offer solutions, ramble about fate, or leave you to drown in the snow?”

“I don’t think there is a solution.”

“Time and space are often the solution to most problems you’ll encounter in life.”

“And? Should I launch myself into outer space like Uncle Sunny?”

“No,” I shook my head. “You could come and do a year here. Your brothers have in their respective times. Spend a year learning the ins and out of leadership here. Make friends and network a bit more. Perhaps you’ll be here when Sunny and them return. Hell, if you want real outer space, I’ll get you a job on the ground crew of Starscale Search. Or you can just live in the guest house and have wild orgy parties or read all the books in---”

“I’d love to as long as you stop rambling. Yes, to any of it. They’re already expecting puppies!” he growled tossing his hands up.

“I’ll arrange with your parents to have your stuff droned over. You won’t have to do a thing.”

“It seems so much like cheating,” he said, dusting off one of the concrete benches and sitting down.

“I can see why their meeting would make you feel that way.”

“No. Just being able to run away and not have to deal with it. Not everyone can do that.”

“Do you have friends you want to bring? A charity that needs donations? Something along those lines?” I said, patting my pocket to ensure I had my checkbook with me.

“No,” he shook his head. “Just in the larger picture I guess.”

“So, you want to work in equality? You can do that. Just so you know any member of our flight who needed passage home would receive the same treatment as you. Maybe not living in our guesthouse. Your grandcarrier would eat them up at the moment but we would aid them, Teal.”

“I know.”

“Have you been talking to Sunny again?” I asked him.

“Well you have to admit the cashless society thing sounds good, doesn’t it? I mean, New Hemlock is pretty much that too.”

“Perhaps when they return, they’ll be able to explain it to us. I think it’s different for them, Teal. They’re one flight. There’s no one else there. New Hemlock is funded by family money. If things are in short supply or can’t be made, they’re bought on the outside. It’s not exactly cashless. Someone has the cash. Someone is making it.”

“I know,” he sighed, looking like he wouldn’t mind melting into the bench along with the snow.

“Outside of trying to rewrite our whole flight culture and economy is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” I asked him.

Before Teal had a chance to answer two voices clashed – one inside my head and one shouting from the upstairs window overlooking the courtyard.

“Mate!” Medwin’s reached me the first and the loudest.

“GRANDDAD!” Cobalt shouted from the window. “HE’S SICK!” he bellowed.

“Shit!” I swore under my breath and flashed Teal an apologetic look but the younger dragon had already started for the back door. I sprinted past him. If Medwin had managed to catch something contagious, my immune system stood a better chance of not catching it than our grandchildren’s did. I was older and besides, Medwin and I had been glued together at the hip. If he was sick, the odds were, I was already exposed.

“I think it’s morning sickness,” Medwin gasped over our mating link.

I wound between decorators and other party workers and attendees. Back in our day, I’d have knocked them to the bloody moon to get them out of the way if they stood between me and my mate. I tried to be kinder these days but my patience were quickly failing me.

I reached the bathroom just off the ballroom where a frightened looking decorator guarded the door. He was a young dragon. Younger than our grandsons even.

“He said not to let anyone in,” he spat out the words.

“I am his mate and you’re okay. Teal, get him some water and sit him down,” I said, nodding at the worker. “Don’t let him back up until he’s out of shock. Medwin can be ferocious when he wants to.”

Teal took the worker away and with the use of one of my dragon’s claws I picked the lock on the bathroom door and slid inside. Medwin had stripped down to his socks and underwear, fearing making a mess of his party clothes. I almost asked how he managed to get everything off and hung on the back of the door before he got sick but thought better of it. The answer was probably magic of some sort.

“I think it’s ---” he sighed and stopped to cover his mouth.

I locked the door behind me and waited patiently for his stomach to play nice with both of us again.

“Clarence, this is---” he stopped again.

He sat on the side of the wide claw tub he insisted on installing decades ago when they were in fashion. Now, the tub was mostly used by our younger grandchildren who loved it for all the floating toys that fit inside its deep basin.

“Should I call the doctor?” I tried over our mating link.

“I think this--- No, actually, I’m pretty bloody sure this is morning sickness,” he said over our mating link and pointed to the sink counter with the hand that wasn’t covering his mouth. On the edge sat a bottle of peach shaped morning sickness gummies that we always kept on hand. When you lead a flight, you never knew who would show up at your home pregnant and it was always best practice to be prepared.

I had to proceed carefully. The gummies worked on nearly any sort of upset stomach barring a stomach bug. I bit my lip and waited for Medwin to draw his own conclusions. My sperm had never let us down when we tried to conceive but they weren’t time travelers. Our only unprotected night was last night. It took longer than that for something to show on any test or in the symptoms.

“GRANDPA!” Teal’s voice bellowed through the house and Medwin pointed for me to go.

He might be sick but there was fear – real and tight and too high-pitched – in his voice.

“Teal?” I called out, unlocking the door and pushing past the crowd gathered outside the bathroom. I stopped by a particularly tall decorator and told him I’d hold him personally responsible for anyone who went into that bathroom without my mate’s consent.

“GRANDPA!” Teal called again.

I homed in on him over our family link. He was with his brothers and--- someone one else too? They were in the nesting quarters. I shoved another decorator out of the way and sprinted up the winding staircase and down the hall into the nesting room. Our egg lay on its side in the nest.

“We didn’t---” Teal said and I let out a long sigh of relief.

“I know you didn’t. Which one of you feels brave enough to go inform your grandcarrier that our egg shall hatch soon?”

They played some three-way version of rock-paper-daggers while I climbed into the nest. A single little pinky finger was already poked out of the egg. Cobalt and Indigo disappeared from the room to go tell Medwin and Teal climbed into the nest with me. I flashed him a smile – the best one I could – while concentrating on both the hatching egg and on my ill mate.

Fifteen minutes later, our hatchling hadn’t made much progress, but Medwin entered the nesting quarters, looking both disheveled and put together. His shiny green Yule tie was loose around his neck, and he was paler than I liked seeing him but under no configuration of stars could he miss the hatching of our third child. Cobalt and Indigo entered a moment later but stayed by the door as if they were guarding it.

“Has anyone told Sunny?” Medwin asked.

I shook my head and handed him my phone to try to call him. Sunny wasn’t on the monitor for another hour but perhaps he could make an exception for this prestigious, once in a lifetime occasion. While Medwin dialed him up, I tickled the freed pinky of our third born child. It was a tiny finger with a tiny crescent of a fingernail. No discernable details about the rest of the newborn attached to it.

Teal held up the phone for Sunny to watch and Medwin stretched out on his side, still looking pale and on the verge of being sick again. Reaching out, I smoothed the hair away from his face.

“It’s morning sickness,” he reiterated over our mating link.

“I hate to say this. I’m going to be alpha-plaining or whatever the kids are calling it these days but last night we didn’t use a condom. Just last night. Unless you’ve been hoarding away your own supply of my jizz, we’re not pregnant yet.”

“I think we are. Maybe not from last night. Maybe that night we were tired and you came on my ass or that night you stayed in a bit too long or maybe a condom leaked or something. I know I’m not an expert. Three times does not an expert make but this is morning sickness. My dragon agrees.”

A thumb poked out of the shell and both of us startled back to attention. Inside our baby cooed. Then cried. They were growing frustrated. This part of a hatching egg always broke my heart. It would be so easy for Medwin or I to rescue our baby and free them from the egg but they had all the strength they needed.

“We’ll get everyone eating,” Indigo said from the doorway.

“Is that okay?” Cobalt double-checked.

“I think it is,” Medwin said. “I don’t think anyone plans to come charging in here. I’ll eat them if they do.”

“I’d like to stay,” Teal said.

“And you’re welcome to. You’re holding your uncle.”

I glanced at the screen, but Sunny was eating a sandwich. He waved and I nodded at him. Teddy said something in the background and a moment later Fred appeared too. Fred used to be legendary at our Yule Eve parties. Left the whole damn place covered in glitter. Medwin bitched until well after new years, but it was worth it.

“I am pregnant, Clarence,” Medwin said pulling my attention back to the current Yule Eve. “Do I need to pee on whatever device it is now to prove it to you?”

“I do have my portable ultrasound in the car,” Teal said

“I always forget you went to medical school,” I said. “You never talk about it.”

“I don’t really do much with it,” he shrugged. “I just wanted to say I went to university for something useful. Besides, with how many babies are born all the time it’s only a matter of time before I’m stuck in an elevator to deliver one.”

“Remind me to never get into an elevator with you,” Medwin chuckled.

“What am I missing?” I asked, looking back and forth between the two.

“Liam Moonscale-Hemlock has ‘seen’ me stuck in an elevator delivering a wolf pup,” Teal said.

“Ah, yes. The Seer. Good kid. Try to avoid elevators, huh?” I laughed.

“I’m ready for it,” Teal shrugged. “Have this theory that’s how I’ll meet my mate.”

“Well, that would be an up-close-and-personal introduction,” I chuckled as another thumb broke through the eggshell.

“So close,” Sunny said on the screen.

“They would be,” I teased, knowing he meant the baby was close to figuring out their way out of the egg.

Teal and Sunny both rolled their eyes at me. I could live with that. Regardless of what Medwin said, I was old. My humor predated them.

“Did you tell him?” I asked Medwin, not bothering to hide what I was talking about from the kids.

“No but they probably know what morning sickness sounds like,” Medwin shrugged one shoulder.

“We do,” Teal shrugged, looking so much like Medwin in that moment.

“And I will take you up on that offer after the baby is out.”

“Teal’s going to be staying with us for a while. He needs a bit of a break from New Hemlock.”

“Oh, I heard about Roget and that guy,” Medwin frowned.

“It is what it is,” Teal sighed.

“Want me to call the assassins?”

“Are you two missing the wars and battles or something?” Teal laughed.

“No, but, no one messes with our kids and grandkids. Not even fate,” Medwin grinned.

“Thanks, I think, but no assassins, okay?”

“Alright,” Medwin nodded. “Let us know if you change your mind.”

“I will let you know but I’m not going to. I don’t think killing them off is going to help anyone.”

A whole foot broke loose from the shell and we all startled back to attention. While I was certain Medwin and I would survive raising two kids together I wasn’t sure the rest of the world would. Having a egg in the nest or a tiny hatchling in the house always put both of our dragons on edge. The assassins weren’t a lie. We had them aplenty. Even these days. We had once tried to swear them off but then Ginger Barrel and her little hate group happened. Never again would we retire our assassins.