He stopped and clenched his fists. He wanted to do something to help her, but in this, he was useless. Especially as his dragon was threatening to come out and kill everyone in the delivery room. They had killed their mate. They needed to revenge her. It would make them feel better.
Shut it, he yelled at his dragon. They are trying to save her.
His dragon gave a grunt and went back to pacing.
The nurse touched his arm and he glanced over. “Do you want to see your children now?”
With his dragon pacing and growling inside his head, seeing his children would help to keep his human-half in control. Not only that, it would help distract his human-half as well. He had every confidence in Sid’s abilities. Between the skill of the doctor and his mate’s stubbornness, he was confident Melanie would come back to him.
She had to.
He nodded at the nurse and followed her down the hallway into the newborn room. Since dragon-shifter numbers were low, there weren’t any other children in the room.
As he approached the two little carts that held them, he could scent his son and daughter and his dragon relaxed a fraction. They needed to protect their young. No one would harm them.
Tristan didn’t argue and reached a hand out to caress the cheek of his son and then his daughter. And for the first time in memory, he felt tears prick his eyes. He whispered to his children, “Don’t worry. Your mum will be a bit late, but she’ll be here. She loves you and would never abandon you.”
As the feel of his children’s skin helped to calm him, he only hoped he wasn’t lying.
~~~
Melanie heard a voice so faint she couldn’t make out whether it was male or female, let alone what they were saying. There was so much noise. Beeping and yelling. Metal crashing and more yelling.
But she didn’t hear the cries of her children.
Her children. Where were they?
Then she felt a jolt go through her body followed by a split-second burning, which caused her to gasp in a mouthful of air. She opened her eyes and saw four dragon-shifters standing around her.
As her muddled mind tried to figure out what was going on, one of the dragonwomen—the doctor, she remembered—said, “Melanie. Thank fuck. Can you hear me?”
It took a colossal amount of energy for her to whisper, “Sid?”
“Yes, it’s Cassidy. You’re going to be okay.”
“Tristan?”
“He’ll be back soon. You know how protective male dragon-shifters are, so I kicked him out. He’s with your children.”
Her children. She wanted her children. “Where are my babies?”
Sid said, “We’ll bring them in shortly. I think you’re out of the danger zone, but I want to monitor you for the next ten minutes just to make sure and also deliver the afterbirth. It’s safe for you to fall asleep, so close your eyes and I’ll wake you when Tristan comes back with your twins.”
“Tristan,” she whispered and then she dozed.
A short time later, she woke to someone shaking her. “Melanie, wake up. Tristan’s here.”
At the sound of her mate’s name, Melanie forced her eyes open. Her brain was still bleary with exhaustion, but her power nap had helped with her concentration.
The doctor moved out of the way and she saw Tristan holding two little bundles.
The picture of her tall, muscled dragonman holding two tiny, ridiculously pastel bundles in green and yellow made her smile. “Hi,” she whispered.
Tristan rushed to her side and maneuvered himself into the chair at her bedside. He leaned over and kissed her before he said, “Hi, yourself.”
“You’re being nice to me. It’s weird.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry, it won’t last long. Now, how would you like to meet your children, Melanie Hall-MacLeod?”