Their Mating Rituals [Paranormal Protection Unit 4] (Siren Publishing Classic) (16 page)

Talon glanced at her then and sighed. “It’s a hard thing to live with in the modern world. It was much easier in a time when those around us knew what we were. But in this day and age they no longer believe in magic or in Dragons, let alone anything else. Of course the fact that Hollywood has glamorized or villainized many of the Changers hasn’t helped much either.”

Chewing her lower lip, Lina hesitated for several minutes and then whispered, “And what if we find him and he’s…” She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t ask what would happen if they found her twin and he was more like her mother than her father.

“We will deal with it then,” Talon told her honestly. “Until then we make no assumptions,” he said with a sigh, cracking his neck. “We figure out all we can and then move carefully, cautiously, and find out really who he is.”

“I think that will be the best idea that there is,” Lina confessed. “I think that we should slowly get to know him. Perhaps send someone in to befriend him?” Even her father could pull that one off. The man looked barely in his thirties, so she knew that no one would ever expect him to have fathered grown children.

“Unless Nathaniel looks just like Talon.” At her look, he shrugged. “It does happen, especially in some bloodlines. Allister and I look a lot like our father, enough that no one could doubt we are his children in the least. Or brothers, if it was a human looking at us.”

“Shoot,” Talina grumbled. “Well whatever has to happen needs to happen. We have to find him, regardless of anything else that might come of it.” He was her brother. That had to count for something, right? A thought occurred to her and she looked to her father. “Oh crap, he is your heir,” she whispered.

“Not necessarily,” Talon said quietly. “While we’re naturally paternal in lineage, the Throne makes the final call,” he murmured. “Besides, it all depends on what kind of person he is.” And that was the giant, burning question hanging in the air.

“I have to pray that he’s nothing like mother.” Lina hated to say that, but it was the truth. She didn’t want her brother to be anything like the cold and unfeeling monster that had been her mother, a woman that Lina spent her entire life trying to win the love of.

“That isn’t something we’ll know right away, baby girl,” Talon told her honestly. “Besides the fact that people tend to hide their true natures when first meeting people, he’s a complete unknown at this time.” Shaking his head, he stood up. “Not something we can do anything about, so let’s not worry about it. And I don’t have any plans to step down any time in the near future, so it’s one less thing to be concerned with.”

“That makes sense.” She took a deep breath, sighed, and then looked at Aiden. “How did you know that I wasn’t a bad person when we met?” He could have believed the worst since she was brought in and told to care for him while he was captured, but he hadn’t. Even in the worst of times he had believed in her and she wondered why.

“My soul recognized yours, Talina,” he said softly to her. Stroking his hand down her arm, Aiden lifted her hand and flipped it to expose her palm. “You had a gentle touch, you spoke in a gentle manner, and just everything about you was pure and good. I could see that purity in your eyes when you looked at me. You felt compassion but still had fire deep inside.” He smiled and winked. “You also had a lot of spine and were protective. You were scared, yet you never once left me alone,” he murmured, lifting her hand to press a kiss to the center of her palm. “You had me wrapped around your little finger long before I ever knew your name.”

Blushing, Lina looked at the floor and smiled. “Well that is a very good thing, because I think from the moment that I saw you I was lost to you. It’s only fair you should be to me as well, right?” she teased. “I’m just praying that Nathaniel will have found acceptance and peace inside of the family that he was adopted by.” She hoped that he had love, that thing that she had missed all her life.

“Me as well, Talina, me as well,” Talon said quietly.

Pacing the waiting room, Aiden was not a happy camper. Damned doctors had kicked him out of the room while they looked over Talina, got her hooked up, and gave her the pain medication for the birth that was already in progress. Oh, he’d protested, loudly. Unfortunately they hadn’t cared and tossed him out anyway. The fact that they hadn’t listened to Talina, either, really pissed him off and had him mere seconds from tearing the door off the room she was now in alone, doctors surrounding her.

When the door opened, the small nurse stood there and looked up at Aiden, a grin on her face when they both listened to Talina’s most recent bellow. “I don’t give a good goddamn what your regulations are! I want my Aiden in here, now! If he isn’t in here now I am goddamn good and well not giving birth, so get his ass in here.” Another scream tore from her throat and she added in a growl, “If I fucking have to suffer, so does he!” Smirking, the young woman looked to Aiden. “All right, Daddy, time for you to come in and help us calm your bond-mate. Her blood pressure is soaring with each contraction, so we need your help.”

Storming in, he shot her a dirty look. “If you’d actually listened to me this wouldn’t have happened,” he snapped at the lot of idiots. Moving to his mate, he took her hand and leaned into her. “Shh, baby,” he whispered, brushing his lips to her damp cheeks. “I’m right here, angel.” Aiden breathed her in slowly as he pressed her hand to his chest.

“Aiden,” she whispered with a soft sob. “God, this hurts,” she admitted to him at the end of another contraction. “I don’t think they are giving me the pain meds I asked for. Please make them give me more,” she begged as the next contraction ramped up and began to seize her.

Shooting the doctors a look, he narrowed his eyes. “Was she given the pain medication?” he asked as he stroked her hair, knowing it helped to calm her. Squeezing her hand gently as hers tightened on his, he watched the so-called medical professionals and was less than pleased with them. “Someone answer me or I swear to the Gods I’ll eat the lot of you and get someone in here that actually knows what he’s doing.”

“Yes, she was given the medicine, but with her Dragon physiology she’s burning it off at a far faster pace than we had anticipated. It’s too dangerous with the babies to give her more of it though,” the doctor answered Aiden as she walked into the room. “Your sons’ heart rhythms aren’t showing signs of distress yet, but if we pumped her with more drugs they would. I’m sorry, but we have one of two choices. Either she sucks it up and gives birth to these boys or we knock her out and do a C-section. Which one will it be?”

Looking to Talina, Aiden lifted a brow.
Your call, angel,
he said softly to her.
How do you want to go about this love? Do you want to give birth naturally or do a C-section?
It had to be her choice and hers alone. It was her body, and unless it was an emergency he wouldn’t ever take her choices from her.

“We will try natural, but if it’s too much can you still do the section?” The doctor gave a nod to confirm her words. “Gods, this hurts. It’s going to be a very long time before we have another baby, right?” she asked as she rubbed her hand over her extended belly.

“A very long time,” he assured her, grabbing a stool, and sat down next to her. “Decades, if not centuries,” he told her quietly as he stroked her fingers lightly with his thumb. Running his fingers through her hair gently, he watched her. “We will wait as long as you want to, my love.”

“Good.” She clenched her teeth as another contraction hit, panting as the doctor and nurses taught her. “Not for a very, very long time. I want to be able to spend many, many decades spoiling our boys,” she said through gritted teeth and then a loud sigh.

“We’ll do that then. We’ll spoil them rotten and then let them loose on the world to wreak havoc like Allister and I did,” he told her as he flexed his fingers slightly. Adjusting the hold he had on her hand, he smiled at her. “But let’s worry about spoiling them once we have them in our arms, darling. You might go and change your mind about it once you meet them.”

She snorted and shook her head. “Doubt it. Not with as much as this hurts. Oh Gods.” She breathed out in another building scream as yet another contraction hit her.

“That’s it love, squeeze hard and push that boy out,” he encouraged her as he felt the bones in his hand grinding together. Holy hell, she had a grip on her. Definitely had some of the Dragon’s strength in her grip, more her father’s daughter than they all would have guessed. “Breathe,” he ordered her when the contraction set her loose.

Panting through her teeth, she growled at Aiden. “What the fuck do you think I’m doing?”

“Snarling at your bond-mate,” he told her honestly. “But you need to be pushing air in and out of your lungs in a smooth rhythm instead of sucking it up like it’s the last drop of water on the planet. You’re going to hyperventilate and then we’re going to be in serious trouble because I’m going to freak, and you know who’s going to get cooked first, right?”

“Anyone but me,” she said confidently as she lay there between contractions. “And we both know it.” Sweat dripped from her body. She was freezing cold but so hot that she was sweltering at the same time. “Another coming,” she whispered and began to push once more.

“That’s it love, push,” he whispered, holding her hand. When she collapsed back, he grabbed a cloth and wiped her face for her. “You are bloody amazing to me, angel.”

Pain tore her inside and out. She was a living and breathing testament to the amount of pain a woman had to endure to give birth. That first lusty scream from her firstborn though was enough to bring her to tears. No longer cussing like an angry, drunken sailor, she sobbed like a babe as she took in the visage of the boy held in the doctor’s arms.

Smiling, Aiden turned to look at her. “You did it, love. There’s our first one.” He laughed softly, feeling more than a little giddy. “Gods, I love you, Talina,” he whispered, leaning in to kiss her soundly on her lips.

“That’s good,” she whispered. “I think I should nap while I can,” she said reaching out to touch her son. There was a smile on her lips as she said, “Hello, little darling.” A yawn escaped her lips when she added, “Mommy would love to have some time with you, but I think I should rest a moment before your brother chooses to come into the world.” With that she was out.

The doctor smiled. “She will likely nap for a few minutes as her body gets ready for round two. Would you like to take your son and introduce him to your brother and her father? I will stay here with her and come get you the moment she wakes if you wish.”

Taking the baby, Aiden just sat there and held their son. Stroking a finger gently down the chubby cheek, he leaned in. Breathing in his scent, Aiden rubbed his nose to the tiny little one on the tiny little face. “Hello, my son,” he whispered softly, “we’ll wait for your mother to wake and see if she’s finally decided on one of the many names we’d picked for you two.”

“Anthony,” Lina whispered from where she lay half-asleep. “Anthony and Andrew.” She yawned. “I’m so tired,” she whispered in confession. “Take Anthony out to meet Daddy and the others. I swear I can all but feel their anticipation as they wait outside.”

“It’s good for them to learn patience,” he said with a smile. Leaning in, he kissed her softly. “But I will take him and introduce him around. I won’t be long, promise,” he whispered against her lips as she smiled faintly. “I love you, little angel.” Aiden breathed her in and stood to carefully carry the little bundle out to meet the family.

Jackie rose first and approached Aiden. “Lemme see. What did you name him?” she asked as she pulled down the blanket from around his little face. “Hello there, handsome. Aren’t you just all kinds of beautiful?”

“This is Anthony,” he told her with a grin and shifted the baby. “Here, give him a snuggle, and share him, Jacqueline,” he warned with an even bigger grin at her dark look. Shifting, he settled next to Talina’s door so he could hear if she woke. Watching carefully as everyone got up close to the baby and cooed, he chuckled. “Don’t smother him.”

Jackie stroked a finger over the boy’s cheek. She smiled. “You are a big one, aren’t you, little man? I bet your momma was ready to hurt your daddy.” When the boy opened his eyes, she grinned. “There you are, my little man. Aren’t you a truly handsome one?”

“She was calling Aiden some interesting names,” Allister said with a grin to his twin. “Pretty sure she got about half of them from you, my love,” he added, dropping a kiss to Jackie’s cheek. “He’s definitely a big lad.” He shook his head slightly.

“If I didn’t know better I would swear he was bigger than our sons when they were born.” Jackie looked up at Aiden and grinned. “You better get her some shiny and beautiful pieces for the pain that woman is going through, mister.”

“Already got her a lot of shiny things,” he told her softly with a grin. Aiden had already done a lot of shopping before his mate’s due date and had everything sitting at home to gift her with. “She’ll be getting a bunch of them as soon as we get home.”

“You are a very smart man,” she said with a smile. “Too bad you didn’t tell your brother these very wise things.” She chuckled, looking up at Allister. “Wonderful gifts would have been brilliant had my mate thought of it,” she teased Allister.

“Hey, I made up for it,” he said with a glare to her. “Besides, I’m pretty sure he learned from my errors on the subject. No way is he smart enough to think it up on his own.” Allister shot his brother a grin. “Sorry, big brother.”

“You are not allowed near my impressionable children, ever, evil little brother,” Aiden proclaimed as he watched Talon looking down at the little boy. If he didn’t know better he’d swear the Dragon King was hesitating about reaching out for the babe.

Jackie turned to Talon and grinned. “Here, how about you hold him for me while I go and look in on Lina to make sure that she’s good, Grandpa?”

“Uh, sure,” Talon said, taking the baby carefully. Staring down at the big baby blue eyes that he knew would change in the next couple of days, he licked his lips. It felt odd having someone call him ‘Grandpa.’ Oh, he knew he was old enough to be a grandfather a few dozen times over, but to actually hear it and be it, whole other ballgame.