Fire & Ice (22 page)

“Damn, she tastes good,” he said as he sat up and licked the trace of her blood off his lips. “I wonder what her dragon is going to look like.”

The usual process for a dragon shifter was to bite their mate. A small replica of their dragon would be left on their mate’s shoulder. Only the twins were not sure how that was going to work with them. Would it just be one dragon with two heads on one shoulder? Or maybe she would have one head on each shoulder.

They didn’t have long to wait to find out. Their mate’s skin on her shoulders started rippling before their eyes, and soon they were looking at duplicate tattoos of their dragon, one on each shoulder. Both images were of their complete dragon, including the two heads, one fire-orange in color that represented Aiden; the other an ice-blue representing Adrian.

Adrian inspected the tattoos on her shoulder where they had marked her. “She still looks a little swollen and red around the bite sites. Let’s get Fadri to heal these for her.” Quickly joining hands, they allowed Fadri to rush forward, only too happy to be of service to his mate.

The ice-blue head that held the healing power within leaned down and sniffed both shoulders. His lizard-like tongue danced across her skin as she slept on, completely unaware of what was going on. Then he inhaled and breathed out slowly, carefully, just enough to allow the healing elements to seep into her skin without freezing his mate.

Once he was finished, he sat up and looked down at his sleeping mate, who was carrying twin female dragons deep within her womb. Even though she was human, the dragon gene was dominant, so even though her children’s dragon would not come to them until they were a bit older than most Dragonose children, both girls would be able to shift into dragon form once they hit puberty.

He wanted to pamper his mate. He wanted to go out and hunt fresh meat for her, pick some berries, and bring her an offering fit for a queen. He’d even swipe some of that famous Wheadirskon bread she so loved. He wanted to see her resting throughout her pregnancy, and waited on hand and foot, and he would gladly do that for his mate. Unfortunately, his human counterparts were not on board with his idea.

They seemed to think that in this day and age a woman could walk around and do most anything she wanted while she was pregnant. What part of “delicate condition” did they not get? She was carrying twins, for crying out loud. Twin females who could very well be the saving grace of the Dragonose race. Didn’t they understand that?

As he felt the pull from the brothers to give up control, he sighed down at his mate. “I’ll protect you, sweets. I’ll protect you from everything and everybody.”

A moment later the two brothers sat back down on the bed; each stroking their sleeping mate’s back or hair.

“We must have really worn her out. I hope we weren’t too rough with her,” Aiden said as he ran his hand down her naked spine.

“I don’t think we were, but we will have to be more cautious the further along in pregnancy she gets,” Adrian replied thoughtfully.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve never felt this way. I love her so much my chest hurts to think of anything happening to her, and I am having all of these emotions battling it out with my possessiveness and protectiveness. For the first time in my life, earlier today I honestly wanted to cut Fadri out of my life I was so mad at him, and it was all because he was coming between me and my mate. Once I calmed down, I realized she is his mate also, and he was just exercising his right to protect her too. And then I thought about the fact that having Fadri in our corner, helping to keep her protected, is a good thing.”

“Yeah, if you think about it, Fadri was just displaying his protectiveness and possessiveness. After all, she is his mate, too. So as hard as it is sometimes to deal with him, at least we have an extra layer of protection when it comes to her safety. And if you think Fadri is bad now, just wait until those twins are born!”

Their father’s voice came through loud and clear in their heads. '
Boys, I need a moment of your time. I have a few things to say to you, but I don’t want to take the chance of any extra ears hearing. As you know, our people seem to repopulate with males over females at a very high number. To make matters worse, I’ve been looking into things and believe we might have another problem on our hands.

'For whatever reason, none of our females born on this land have made it past the age of two years. Almost all have been pronounced dead shortly after birth. What concerns me is our nursemaid that usually sees to most of our deliveries has disappeared, and I’ve received word from our neighbors about activity between their land and ours. We are working on setting up a covert operation to try to see what is going on, but something smells wrong with this whole situation.

'We haven’t seen or heard from the Raptorians in some time now, and that makes me nervous. The last thing I want is your pregnant mate in harm’s way, should we come under attack.

'I want you to instruct your mate to keep her pregnancy quiet, and for you two to do the same. As much as it hurts me to say this, I think it would be a wise move to leave Dragonose until after the babies are born. If there is even the slightest chance of foul play here, I want no chance of my granddaughters
being involved. If the three of you leave on the pretense of an extended honeymoon,
that will give me time to find out what is going on.

'Tell my new daughter-in-law that I will miss her dearly, but it is her and the wee ones’ health and well-being I am thinking of. I know you will want to leave as soon as you can. You have my blessings. Be well, my sons.'

Aiden looked over at his brother. “We’re leaving in the morning.”

“I want to stop in that little maternity store and pick up a few things,” Evangelina said, gesturing over across the street to a small maternity clothing shop. They were back on Earth, and she had spent the last few days going through her apartment. Most everything she owned ended up in the dumpster, but the brothers had promised her they would buy her everything she needed. They helped her clean up, turn in the keys to her place, and close everything out that was in her name.

The morning after they had mated she had been surprised that both men were adamant they return back to Earth at once. When she questioned them, they refused to give her any answers.

“We will tell you everything as soon as we are back on Earth. Please just tell everyone we are going on an extended honeymoon, and do not say anything to anyone about being pregnant. Your safety is at risk. Now hurry up and pack what you need. We need to leave immediately,” Aiden instructed her.

She had hurried to pack a bag with a few changes of clothes, since she knew they had to travel back with her men changing over to dragon form.

She had found the ride on Fadri’s back through the portal exhilarating, even if it was a little scary. Once they had landed, they had set about to tie up any loose ends of both hers and their security company. They also made plans to do some traveling over the next few months.

The brothers had explained why they could not return to Dragonose right now, and although she already missed it, she understood. She was glad the king was looking out for her and her babies.

As they pulled over to a parking spot, Adrian jumped out of the backseat and opened her door for her. “You go on ahead, sweetheart. Aiden and I have to grab a few items from the hardware store, so we will be right across the street from you. We will catch up with you in about ten minutes, or so.” He wrapped his arm about her waist and leaned down to place a gentle kiss upon her lips.

“We will not be long, love. Now go and pick out something pretty,” Aiden stated, as he had also gotten out of the car and had walked around to where her and Adrian were standing. He leaned in for a kiss as well, and then gave her a playful swat on the ass to get her moving.

Evangelina smiled and giggled as she danced across the street and on into the store. God, how she loved her men! They were everything in the world that she could ever want and more, and now they were on their way to starting a beautiful family. Finally, everything in her life was going right for once, and it felt good. It was nice not to have to worry about making ends meet every month, having to find work, or running away from a crazed ex. No, she need not worry about any of that anymore; she now had two great men who loved and cherished her beyond words. They had proven hands down that they could support her financially, and she knew that both men—and their dragon—would never let any harm come to her. She was completely safe.

She was just starting to show, but knew with carrying twins, and dragon twins at that, she would soon look like she swallowed a watermelon. So, she might as well get a little shopping done while they were in her hometown, since her men were planning to take her traveling over the next few months. She knew if Fadri had his way about it, she would be naked the whole time and wrapped up in the softest fur blankets that money could buy. She smiled to herself and shook her head, just imagining the dragon now. This pregnancy was going to be one hell of a ride with two very protective mates, and a two-headed dragon all watching her so closely.

Evangelina knew the twins wouldn’t leave her on her own for any length of time, and she only had a short time before they would be back by her side and wanting to buy her everything in the store. Quickly pulling her head out of the clouds, she got down to work, sifting through pieces of clothing as she wandered from rack to rack full of maternity clothing.

A hand started slowly to lightly stroke her long locks as she continued to glance through the clothing, with fingers combing down deeper into her hair with every stroke. Adrian, his touch was always so light and gentle. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back into the hand, a sigh escaping her lips.

Her euphoria was brought to a screeching halt, and she quickly froze in place, her heart seeming to stop in mid beat, as a cold barrel of a gun was pressed to the side of her head. Her eyes flew open as she took in a quick breath and held it, praying silently that this really wasn’t happening to her.

“Hello, dear. Did you miss me?” Just the feel of Gerald’s breath against her ear was enough to make her want to vomit.

Where had he come from? Why was he here? And what did he want with her?

“What do you want, Gerald?” she asked in a cold tone.

His hand fisted in her hair, causing her head to jerk backwards, and the items in her hands to fall on the floor. She automatically reached up in hopes of loosening his grip, but it was of little use. She quickly tried to look around for help, but realized she was in the back of the store, and couldn’t even see the cashier up front.

“You selfish little whore, I saw you with those two men. The same two that were hired to keep an eye on me, since everyone wants to think I am insane because of my warnings about supernatural creatures.”

“You are crazy, Gerald.”

“Shut up and listen to me!” Gerald demanded, pulling back on her hair again. “They are real, and they’re lurking around us everywhere. But you already know that, don’t you?” he whispered in her ear. “You’re with two of those shape shifters. Guess you thought they might protect you from me, huh? Well, you thought wrong. They’re only using you to breed and become their little bitch.”

The guys were next in line to check out when suddenly Fadri’s voice boomed inside their head.

'Mate! Mate is in trouble! Babies are upset! Go to her now!'
In his fury, he was bellowing out both fire and liquid nitrogen.

The men threw down what was in their hands and took off across the street at a fast run.

'
Fadri, calm down. How do you know Evangelina is in trouble?'
Aiden tried soothing the beast as he ran just as fast as he could.

'
The babies can communicate to me. They showed me that evil man has our mate! Hurry!'

As they rushed into the small maternity store, the sight that met them would haunt them for a long time.

“Evangelina!” Adrian cried out, his eyes wide as he and his brother stood side by side in the doorway, now seeing their beloved, precious little mate being held at gunpoint.