Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
At one point, one of the twins clamped down on Gregori’s tail. Without thinking, he yelped and flicked it up, trying to pull it out of the tiny mouth. But the baby dragon didn’t let go, so he ended up flicking the baby across the pile. Thankfully, the baby released his tail and extended their wings, soaring across the dragon pile to land safely in the snow.
A new game had been invented.
Now the babies rushed to clamp onto one tail after another so they could be flicked into the air over and over again. Their cries of joy squeezed his heart.
Yes, Dimitri and Sam needed to have a baby.
Maybe even Rodrigo and Ha Na.
Luka, Vasily, and Amaru would also make great fathers.
Yes, the Valerii Clan was poised to grow at long last with new life, and maybe now that Salem was here, he would understand how desperately they needed him. All those new babies would need a trained pediatrician to look after them.
If he was lucky, Salem would also realize he belonged here because this was his home and his family, the same way Gregori had always been destined to be his mate.
Could he also hope maybe Salem would want a dragon baby with him too?
But only one at a time.
Ravi and Sora were crazy for having twins. If they’d thought Sora’s calm nature would temper Ravi’s innate insanity, well, they’d been totally wrong on that count. The twins were pure Ravi.
No, one baby would be perfect. A baby with his scales and Salem’s crooked smile. That would be perfect.
The very second the dragon pile released Gregori, the mages descended. All of them.
Or, at least, it felt like all of them.
People Salem could barely remember meeting at the wedding descended en masse, shooting off question after question.
“Gregori, how long did it take before it felt like something was off?”
“Hey, what were your exact symptoms?”
“Was it just your dragon feeling off or was it physical symptoms as well?”
“What helped you shift? I understand you were stuck in human form.”
Gregori seemed bewildered by this onslaught and wasn’t sure who to answer first. Growling internally, Salem stepped up, getting his hands into a “stay back” position and buying Gregori some breathing room.
“Stop, stop. You’re overwhelming a person who just started feeling normal.”
A few of them looked abashed at his chastisement. At least they had the grace to realize they were being pushy.
He also knew they were asking for a reason. Gregori was an unprecedented case, after all, quite likely the first dragon to ever experience this. They wanted to document it for future records.
And really, Salem agreed with them. This should be recorded, written down for the future, in case some other idiot dragon thought it a good idea to try and live outside the clan. This might not be the best timing for it, but it was fine. Salem knew the answers.
“Okay, in no particular order: No, it wasn’t just the dragon side acting up. He had many physical symptoms as well. He ran a low-grade temp several times, but mostly his body temperature leaned toward cool and clammy. I honestly thought he had a cold or the onset of a flu several times. Exhaustion was one of the key symptoms. Lack of appetite as well.”
Someone whipped out a phone and took notes, while another had a phone out and was apparently recording. Eh, didn’t bother Salem either way.
“Someone asked how long it took for symptoms to kick in?” When Salem got a nod, he kept talking. “About a month, I think. First symptom to come in with homesickness was the lethargy. It just got progressively worse after that. Okay, what was the other question?”
Ha Na showed up then with a very stern, matronly look on her face.
“All of you, I told you to wait! Shoo, off with you. You can badger Gregori with questions later.”
“But, Ha Na—”
“NO!”
Discouraged, the crowd dispersed, forlornly going back toward the main house. Salem chose to think of it as a house instead of a manor because he needed that level of sanity. Now that it looked like he was going to live here and all.
When he turned back, he found Gregori looking at him with the softest, warmest eyes he’d ever seen aimed at him. It made Salem feel a little self-conscious.
“What?” he asked uneasily.
“You really were paying attention,” Gregori murmured, still sounding awed. “I didn’t think you realized.”
“You live with a doctor,” Salem pointed out with a sigh. “Of course I’m going to notice when you’re not feeling well and what your symptoms are. My mistake was not dragging a confession out of you of just how bad off you were.”
Sora loped over to them, looking as tired as Salem felt, but not slowing down any. “Hi, all. Sorry to interrupt, but I need to do a checkup on Gregori. Can I have a second?”