In the end, Amara and I were successful.

  Standing in judgment of our work within her bubble of scent-free space, Alys imperiously declared our perfumes ‘acceptable.’ And by that, I mean she stole samples of all of them. I even received a grin and a quick kiss for the revised belladonna perfume I’d managed to concoct in between other experiments.

  This meant we were ready to tackle the town tomorrow. Nominally, at least.

  The thought of sharing our news still filled me with mild trepidation, which I found confusing. I wasn’t worried about our friends knowing. In fact, I looked forward to telling them. I was thrilled with the idea of being a father, even if my anxiety over how to be a good one was liable to drive me to madness.

  It was as I finished cleaning up that I realized the source of my worry: people I didn’t personally know and trust would soon have the information that Alys was pregnant.

  This made me uneasy.

  I tried to remind myself that things were different for immortal races. Pregnancy wasn’t as much of a vulnerability for Alys as it would be for a mortal… but it was impossible to avoid certain pitfalls of the condition entirely. Ergo, some part of me didn’t like the idea of shouting from the rooftops that my mate was pregnant.

  Yet I decided that I wouldn’t let such emotions rule me, especially after the story Amara had shared. I was annoyed by how easily I could see myself slipping into a similar mindset as both Amara and Shaessath. That was something I would definitely need to work on.

  I braced myself as we left my lab and headed for the kitchen. After my chat with Amara, I expected Grandmother to return from wherever she’d ventured with Soren and immediately bring up the topic of everyone moving into her lair.

  Except that didn’t happen. The two wandered in a few minutes behind us, Shaessath looking unusually smug and Soren looking… lighter, as though a pressure had been lifted off his shoulders. From the kitchen, where Alys and I were cooking, I saw Amara and Soren cuddle up to each other and start whispering. Shaessath sat on what was now firmly her sofa and visibly got lost in thought.

  And that was that. The rest of the evening was quiet and peaceful. No one seemed keen on breaking the sense of contentment that had settled over all of us, though Alys did gently try to bully me into making a fresh batch of enhanced torture juice.

  I gave in… but only because my dragoness quietly made some promises that made me flush, while the others weren’t paying attention.

  Predictably, far too much of the juice I made was consumed immediately when Shaessath showed off her ability to cut down cooling time. She simply yanked the heat from the liquid until it was almost freezing.

  Once that was done, we finally retired for the day. I gladly discarded all the trepidation and other annoying emotions in favor of Alys’ warmth.

  —

  Giggling. That was what I woke up to once again: loud, unrestrained giggling. Except, for once, it wasn’t coming from directly inside our bedroom.

  Alys let out a string of unintelligible noises as she stirred to wakefulness and cracked an eye open balefully.

  “Mother,” she hissed, looking like she was about to threaten Amara with bodily harm.

  Then my dragoness froze. Her eyes went wide.

  “Love?” I whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of her snout.

  “That’s not just Mother. It’s Grandmother as well.”

  Blinking, I refocused on the sounds of happiness coming from downstairs. Sure enough, there were two voices giggling together, and one was much rumblier than the other.

  “Well, now we have to get up to see what has them in such a good mood,” I mused.

  My dragoness pouted, but she did not protest.

  We got dressed in a hurry, though I did take my time picking out one of the slightly nicer outfits I’d brought with me when I fled home. My parents had ordered these casual garments in bulk for all of us, crafted by some well-known fae seamstress who felt justified charging far too much for her work. It wasn’t anything particularly special, but it was made out of a supremely soft and nice-looking material I had no name for.

  Still, it was perfect for today’s events, though it did come with the side effect of making Alys unusually clingy. Apparently, she really liked how the material felt against her scales.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “I have more of these outfits, you know,” I told my dragoness teasingly as she practically carried me towards the stairs. “Just pick out a few in the colors you like, and we’ll visit a tailor in town to see if they can be reworked into something you can wear.”

  The promise put a smile on her face and earned me a slightly tighter hug, but any further response was lost to the sight we discovered downstairs.

  Amara and Shaessath were sitting together on the latter’s sofa. One of Shaessath’s arms was around her daughter, while her other hand was held up in front of them. Flames danced over the palm of her hand, twisting and casting a mirage-like image of an adorable baby draconian in a scarlet robe.

  The baby was sleeping. Her tiny hands, barely poking out of the sleeves of her robe, were clenched into fists, like she was trying to threaten the world even when unconscious. Stubby wings only just curved around her sides. A disproportionately long tail was tucked up and over her stomach, the tip of it reaching past her chin. Her feet were completely lost inside the robe, which was a touch too big for her.

  Alys let out a choking noise and brought her wings up in front of us to try and block my view.

  “Ahh, my sweetling, I see you are awake,” Shaessath purred. “Come, come. Your mother and I have been reminiscing about your childhood.”

  “Grandmother!” Alys sputtered, clearly wanting to say something and having no clue what it was.

  “You were absolutely adorable,” I whispered.

  Her grip on me tightened. “You can’t look at those! They are definitely going to show off something embarrassing eventually!”

  “Oh, I know.” Grinning, I twisted in her embrace to brush my lips against her cheek. Then, louder: “I’m sure you haven’t yet told me all the stories you have about my dragoness here.”

  “Oh, we have loads more!” Amara crowed happily. “Alys, let your poor mate go. And Thorn, come here. We have so much to show you!”

  My dragoness whined and released me only to wrap herself up in her wings instead, much to my delighted laughter.

  “I’ll be right there.” I wasn’t going to let Alys get away, either. I managed to grab her hand, even past her winged barricade, and then dragged her over to the mother-daughter duo.

  I did idly note that this was the first time I had seen Shaessath and Amara really getting along. Though they had never been hostile to each other, I had sensed a barrier between mother and daughter, particularly on Amara’s end. Now, that barrier seemed to be dissolving slowly.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Soren working away on breakfast. There was a smile on his face that only grew every time he glanced at his mate and mother-in-law.

  We ended up eating in the living room, gathered around the sofa and watching the mirage show of baby Alys. My morning was extremely pleasant… even if the flush that had claimed my wife’s cheeks seemed like it would never fade away.

  —

  “You are heading to town?” Shaessath rumbled, once we’d finally set our plates aside and the last few mirages of Alys had been sufficiently shown off.

  “We should inform the elders about what’s happening, yes,” Alys said in a hurry, clearly relieved at the change in topic.

  “Hrmmm. Very well. I will not accompany you, since I do not think people would feel at ease with me there.” Shaessath turned to me. “Do hurry back, however. I have something to show you. I do believe you will appreciate my surprise, my child.”

  Now I was intrigued. Shaessath once more looked victoriously smug. If she was that proud of whatever she had to show me, then I had little doubt it would be impressive.

  “We’ll make sure to return with all due haste,” I promised.

  “Good. In that case, I will spend some time harvesting wildefire fruit. You will need plenty of it in the coming months, so it’s best to make sure you always have some on hand.”

  “Oh, in that case…”

  I had my arms around Alys to keep her from fleeing the mirage show, which had forced my dragoness to feed us both. It took me a moment to wriggle around and be able to extract things from my storage bag. Pulling out a number of ingredient preservation boxes, I stacked them on the floor next to the sofa.

  “These should help. They keep whatever you put inside them fresh, so we don’t have to worry about the fruit spoiling.”

  Shaessath’s eyes gleamed. “The fruit is hardy and does not spoil easily, but those will help, indeed. I will pick out the finest fruits to store away!”

  My lips twitched. I almost teasingly accused her that she just wanted to indulge in the finest quality juice afterwards, but I was fairly certain she was doing this for Alys’ sake.

  During her little show, she and Amara had made note of the various clothes and other items Alys was using in the mirages, listing off everything we would need to take care of a baby. They had both promised to pass along some of the things they had set aside. It was immensely helpful and appreciated, because I hadn’t even considered some of the needs they pointed out.

  Their confidence and experience were also doing much to soothe some of the worries I’d been wrestling with. Perhaps Alys’ family wasn’t perfect, but they did love her, and they had done a good job of keeping her healthy and alive.

  This was more than I felt confident in doing when it came to our unborn child. No part of my training had focused on childrearing. In fact, my training had come with the expectation that I would never need to worry about raising any children I might have, thanks to the army of servants attached to the Belladonna name.

  Such had not been the case with my dragoness. Despite having kobolds to rely on, Shaessath and Amara had clearly gone out of their way to be a major part of raising Alys.

  That did make me wonder how involved with my early childhood my own parents had been. But since I couldn’t remember that time period, and they weren’t around to ask, ‘wonder’ was all I could do.

  “Would you mind if Soren and I accompany you? We’d like to get to know the people you two are close with,” Amara asked shyly, almost like she dreaded the answer.

  My dragoness rushed to reassure her. “We would be happy to have you there. Right, Thorn?”

  “Of course. I can’t thank you enough for your support. Already, your help has been invaluable. And I’ll never refuse the offer of backup when dealing with the elders,” I said cheerfully.

  To be honest, I had to repress the urge to grin like a loon.

  Grafton was quick to behave insultingly around Alys and me, but I couldn’t help wondering what he would do around Amara. Especially since the draconian had flown in on the back of The Molten Expanse.

  Oh yes, I was looking forward to meeting the elders… and asking them a few questions about exactly what they were doing to promote my shop, too.

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