The Unexpected Yuletide Baby (Starscale Mates #3)

Chapter Nine

Clarence

That year we did skip hosting a New Years party. The triplets went to some local celebration while Medwin and I lounged around our nest with Acadian. We hadn’t made it to a proper doctor yet and toyed with the idea of letting Teal take the reigns since Medwin’s last midwife had retired some years ago.

“Perhaps you could take one for the team and have the baby in an elevator so that he can meet his true-mate while he’s at it,” I teased him.

“Perhaps you can carry the next baby and have it on live television,” Medwin shot back.

“You know, if I could, I would. Just to call your bloody bluff.”

“You would too. You’re such a showboat,” Medwin laughed.

He lay with his head resting on my belly while Baby Acadian nursed. I ran my fingers through his hair and named off a few more midwives I’d heard of.

“They’re all so young. Too young. Besides, you don’t give a live birth to an inexperienced doctor. Anyone can do an egg laying. This thing could get turned any which way. They might come out ass first or feet first or try to wave hello before they poke their head out. Hell, I might need you to build a whole hospital just for me if I don’t shut up about the possibilities.”

“I will if that’s what it takes to make you feel comfortable. I’ll even kidnap the oldest practicing doctors I can find. Maybe I can fly in Philip McCoy. That damn bear delivered babies during a war. I’ll commandeer Bane Hemlock. I’ll---”

“I don’t know who would be the best choice. Maybe the doctor will just tell me to shift and then the baby will shift. I’m a lot bigger than a wolf pup.”

“Maybe,” I nodded.

“I am most certainly bigger than a wolf pup,” Medwin laughed at his own joke, and I laughed too.

“We have to choose a doctor soon. It’s more complicated when the baby isn’t forming inside a protective barrier.”

“I know that.”

“Shall I hold auditions?”

“Yes, because I’m not disrobing in front of our grandson. The younger generations may be more progressive, but I’ll never be that progressive.”

So began the interviews. Seventeen interviews and a week into the process, I realized how moody my mate was. He wasn’t a snob, but he was definitely picky about who saw him naked. I couldn’t blame him. Giving birth wasn’t a laughing matter. None of the interviewees had set off any alarm bells inside my head. Though, my dragon wasn’t particularly fond of any of them.

“We could stay in New Hemlock, and you could have the baby there. Dara is there,” I offered one afternoon as I watched Medwin undress for a shower. “You know Dara. You like Dara even and he’s not a spring chicken.”

“We just got the boys here, though. I don’t think we should take them back there around their exes.”

“Bane Hemlock is there too,” I offered, despite knowing this wasn’t going anywhere.

“You’ve taken the classes.”

“I have and if it comes down to it I’ll deliver this baby. I just think we need a neutral third party to run tests and ensure everything is going according to plan.”

“People had babies for eons without doctors,” he countered, walking into the bathroom.

“Yes, but that didn’t always go well for them, did it?” I followed him into the bathroom. “So, we have to pick someone.”

“I can’t pick just anyone, Clarence!” he tossed his hands up.

“I’m not saying to pick just anyone! That would be absurd but every midwife we talked to was highly qualified!”

“Then you get naked in front of them and have them look up your ass!” he roared.

“If it meant you didn’t have to I would!” I roared back. “I don’t like it when you feel like this, and I can’t do a damn thing about it! Now we have to decide something before my dragon really starts kidnapping people! If you want to raise Acadian and this baby in relative peace kidnapping is not the way to go about it!”

Medwin let out a long, slow breath and two smoke rings followed it out of his nose. He crossed the room in long strides and grabbed my collar. My dick was hard almost instantly. The look in his eyes was frustrated, but hungry.

“You listen here, you overgrown brute,” he growled at me. “There will be no kidnapping while I’m pregnant. No luring doctors off with promises of rare diseases, no hostage holding, no war starting of any sort! Here’s how today is going to go, I am going to undress you and drag you into the shower with me. Then I’m going to fuck you – fuck you properly,” he said, and I felt my face burn bright from the fire tickling the back of my throat. “Then I’m going to take my shower. Afterwards, we both know you’ll want a nap. I’ll have worn you and that overgrown beast inside you out. Then once I know you’re not going to drag me and the entire flight into some war over a kidnapped doctor, I’ll review the doctors we’ve already interviewed and reconsider them.”

I opened my mouth to speak but he claimed it in a hard kiss and pulled me toward the shower. When Medwin was with child there was no arguing with the man and it was sexy as hell.

Chapter Ten

Medwin

Clarence napped with the baby asleep on his chest. I flipped through the digital files and recommendations of all seventeen people we interviewed. They were all younger than I liked. A few were straight out of university. Moonscale Academy boasted a prestigious medical school. A medical school I often bragged on. I should’ve trusted the doctors that created it, right?

Yes. Yes, I should’ve.

Did I?

I wasn’t sure.

It had nothing to do with the school but everything to do with how new they were. I knew I wanted a home birth. That was non-negotiable. I wasn’t going to be trapped inside some strange building – whether or not we funded it – with a bunch of strangers wandering around doing Frost didn’t even know what while I pushed out a baby. I’d eat someone. How did anyone have a baby in a hospital? I supposed it was supposed to be about community. Well, I didn’t want the community anywhere near me while I gave birth. Mostly for their own protection.

“All of our hospitals honor the wishes of patients who wish to have home births. Unless the house is unsafe, they get what they want,” my dragon reminded me. “We will have the baby at home. They’re not going to try to stop us. They’re not going to make us do anything. That’s not how our hospitals operate. That’s not how any doctor who gets to stick around conducts themselves. Besides, would you want to drag a laboring dragon into the hospital? I’m not even that brave. Well, maybe if they’d die otherwise.”

It was a long-winded way to say that I was acting irrationally. I was always a bit irrational when I carried. Although, it wasn’t the word I liked to use. I always acted on instinct when I carried. My instincts overreacted due to evolution and hormones but who’s to say they wouldn’t save me? They had saved me, Sunny, and a food delivery guy in the past. I let out a long breath and waved away the smoke ring that came out with it.

I looked through the files again and considered cheating and checking their flight member files. Most patients wouldn’t have access to those. They were private but I could access them from any secure phone, tablet, or computer. I wanted to see who had birthed children. I figured they’d be the kindest and most understanding. It wasn’t something we allowed people to discriminate based on but was this discrimination?

“Is what discrimination?” Teal called from the corridor.

For a moment, I feared I had spoken aloud but he’d picked up the stray thought over our family link. Setting everything aside, I pulled my shirt over my head and tiptoed out into the corridor with him. I promised Clarence I’d pick someone, but it was time for a snack break. Pregnant and carrying dragons needed plenty of frequent snack breaks.

I explained the situation in its entirety to Teal as he walked with me to the kitchen. For a long moment, he wrapped his head around the dilemma, and I stared into the fridge before settling on cheese sticks, strawberries, and the jar of pickles.

“I hope that’s not all going on a sandwich,” Teal laughed.

“Not this time,” I teased him.

“I went to school with Marria. She’s a good person. She’s probably the oldest of the bunch. She had a toddler when I met her. So that would check your ‘had a baby’ box. We didn’t stay in touch or anything but if she was good enough that the hospital recommended her to you, she’s probably still good at what she learned.”

“Do you think I’d like her enough to deal with her every day?” I asked, opening the jar of pickles while he washed the strawberries.

“Every day?” Teal asked. “I’m not sure you even like dealing with grandpa every day. Every day breeds contempt. Be around anyone long enough and you’ll have a fight with them. I’d know. Just look at dumb and dumber that I shared an egg sack with.”

“Eww! Don’t say egg sack. We aren’t spiders!” I shook my head and shook away the visual his words provoked.

“Fair enough but you know what I mean.”

“I do. They can’t be too bossy, though or I’ll fire them. They can’t be too much of a pushover either, though, or I’ll ignore them. Still they have to know when my no is final and not push me on it or I will fire them.”

“There’s really only one way to find out,” Teal said, popping a ripe, red strawberry into his mouth before passing me the bowl.

“I know but that’s the hard way,” I frowned.

“Give her a chance. If you don’t like her you can post my baby pictures online or something,” Teal offered up.

“That would be a security breach.”

“Not as bad as when someone hacked Cobalt’s phone and his dick pics leaked.”

“If I ever find the who, they’re going to eat their own dick. Privacy is the right of every shifter.”

“I told him not to have his dick on his phone,” Teal shrugged. “I agree with you but you gotta have a brain about it.”

“Eh, that’s the whole thing, though. Privacy is a right.”

“I don’t trust hackers to respect that but I look forward to discovering your recipe for cooking someone’s dick.”

“While it’s still attached. No one messes with my babies or my babies’ babies and gets away with it,” I shook my head. “You call Marria up for me?”

“Absolutely. Anything to make you and grandpa quit arguing about how you have to choose someone.”

“Thanks, kiddo.”

“Anytime and thanks for trusting my opinion on it.”

“Medical school must’ve taught you something. You should eat too. You’re still growing.”

“Dragons potentially grow forever.”

“I know. So, I’m right. Make yourself a sandwich or something,” I pointed at the fridge.