Dating A Dragon (The Mating Game Book 2) (11 page)

Orion was able to put his legal skills to good use when Humphrey’s clan tried to claim the two ice dragonlings from Cadence’s hatchlings. It turned out that when the Elders had created the law five hundred years earlier, they’d written it in such a way that it had been assumed that a dragon would have either all ice or all fire dragonlings. The law was written in such an unclear fashion that Orion was not only able to argue that all the hatchlings should remain with his clan, but was able to get the law overturned.

Dr. Hamill’s clinic was taken over by the Elders, who made the formerly private clinic public, and subject to continuous monitoring. It turned out that Cadence’s blood was so fertile because of her wolf shifter ancestry; something about hybrid vigor, which Cadence didn’t really understand.  However, it helped steer their research.  Their experiments with a serum made from Cadence’s blood showed an enormous amount of promise in helping infertile dragons to conceive. Laetitia’s daughter was finally well on her way to delivering a healthy clutch of dragonlings – three, in fact.

The fire and ice dragons continued to fight, but with much less venom then they had in the past. Darlene even helped to plan a baby shower for Laetitia’s grandlings. Of course, she also froze Laetitia’s half of the tourist booth into an ice cube when Laetitia had the nerve to tell a group of visitors that South Lyndvale had better restaurants, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Orion and Cadence made their bedroom into a giant nursery, with four cribs. No nannies for them; they were strictly hands on.

In a visit to the Garrison nursery, Daisy and Ryker got a quick education in the raising of a dragonling.

“Do you actually have cages on top of your cribs?” Daisy said to Cadence. “And why are there bars on the window?”

“Look,” Cadence said, pointing at Estelle, her ice dragonling daughter. Estelle flapped her tiny wings and rose a foot off the ground before landing on the soft carpeting with a thud. She let out a dismayed squeak and looked around in confusion.

Orion knelt down beside her and stroked her head. She shifted back into human baby form and reached for him, and he scooped her up in his arms.

“Good. Lord. They can fly already?” Daisy gasped, clutching at Jasper, who was watching the dragonlings with an expression of fascination. “And I thought I had problems with Jasper shifting and chasing the cat. Oh, and marking the furniture.”

“That’s my boy,” Ryker grinned proudly.

“In my day, we didn’t use carpeting,” Cynthia snorted. “We let them fall right on the stone floor. How else are they going to learn?” She was sitting across the room from them, trying to persuade fire dragonling Donavan not to set the tapestry on fire.

“In her day, dinosaurs roamed the Earth,” Cadence whispered in Daisy’s ear. Daisy strangled on a snort of laughter.

“What was that?” Cynthia asked suspiciously.

“I said that I don’t want them to hurt themselves when they fall to Earth,” Cadence called out to her.

“I’m on to you,” Cynthia said, but then she looked down at her grandson and her lips curled in a tiny smile.

Fire and ice dragonlings Katherine and Lucas both flapped their wings, made it a foot into the air, and then rammed into each other. They fell onto the carpet and sat there indignantly icing and flaming at each other with tiny puffs of snowflakes and flame. At the same time, Jasper managed to set the tapestry on fire, and Cynthia jumped to her feet and began beating out the flames with her hands.

“A little help here!” Cynthia called out with annoyance.

“Oh, looks to me like you’ve got it, mother,” Orion said with a grin curling his lips.

“Four of them. Four! It’s total chaos!” Daisy marveled.

“It’s a good chaos,” Cadence said with a smile, and she walked over to help Cynthia put out the fire.

THE END