He shifts uncomfortably and looks down at something below the tub line. I find out what it is when he says, “Tis a new wonder. At just the mention of performing the mating act with you outside of breeding reasons, my male works have descended.” But then he looks back up at me to say, “However, the answer to your question about whether I am angling for one of these pants party VIP passes is no. It would never occur to a drakkon to expect such a thing from his mate, even if she survived her birthing.”
“Hold up…” I displace a bunch of water, bringing my hands up to grip the edge of the tub. “You think I won’t survive this birthing?”
A shadow passes over his face. “I am not certain…” he admits. “But I have consulted with my cousin on this matter, and he has instructed me upon what would be needed for you and our progeny to survive a live birth after three months of gestation. I have great hopes that if I follow his instructions, the three of us can make a life on this planet as he has with your sister and their three offspring.”
I blink. So many questions popping off in my head. “Wait, you’ve been in contact with Xenon? And he told you about…?”
Damianos was a good 50% of why my sister and her family had to go into hiding, but the twins were the other 50%. When Fensa and he announced their plan to go somewhere where neither Damianos nor any other drakkon would be able to find them, I’d cornered him alone to ask why they couldn’t just stay here and fight.
“There’s a ton of us wolves and like, a very few of them,” I pointed out. “We could take them on.”
“No, I cannot rissssk it Twin Ssssister of Treasured Mate,” Xenon had insisted. “If any of the drakkon were to disssscover Treasured Mate had given birth to not one but two biologically compatible drakki, it would start a ccccivil war among the drakkon, many of whom are on the short list of this planet’s trillionairessss.
“Even if we managed to best Damianossss, more drakkon would attempt to kidnap Golden Twin Daughterssss. Their lives would not be their own but that of their captorssss. And drakkon do not have the concept of mental age as you do. If captured, they would be forcccced to breed as ssssoon as their fertility workssss developed. And that is a fate I could never abide for them. For those reasonssss, I would rather hide than fight.”
It made sense, even to a hothead like me. And I would have died myself before telling Damianos or any other of those dragon bitches about the twins.
But now here the supervillain is, casually dropping mention of them like they’re a known secret.
“You have no need to worry about me telling anyone about the Betrayer King’s golden drakki twins. You forget, they are my family, too, and I would not wish harm on them.”
“How did you know I was worried about that?” I demand. Is he reading my actual secret thoughts now? Is this some weird side-effect of our cross-species mate bond? I’d heard all sorts of wonky things happened when wolves got with humans, which is why Knud’s and Layla’s romance is yet another long story in our family cannon.
“’Twas a simple guess,” he answers both my spoken and unspoken questions. “I can feel your upset over our mate bond and your flame has become incredibly agitated.”
“My flame,” I repeat, not understanding.
“Ah, yes, drakkon see the world in what would most easily be described as thermal vision. Though, this is the first time I have been able to see your flame. About a century ago, one of my drakkon subjects designed contacts for our shells that allowed us to not only mask our eye glow but also to see the world as anthros see it.”
Okay, so many questions. Like, all the questions. But I start with, “So wait, Xenon not only knows I’m here but also talked you through how to help me give birth…in three months?”
“Yes.”
“Does Fensa—”
“No, she is not aware I have taken you as my mate, or even that my cousin and I are in contact. The Betrayer King was afraid that if she knew what he’d kept from her, their mateship would suffer.”
“More than suffer,” I answer. “She’d never forgive him if she knew he knew I’d been kidnapped, and he hadn’t lifted a finger to help me.”
“That is exactly his fear if our union doesn’t result in a live birth, with both you and the baby intact.” Damianos nods as if we’re in perfect agreement.
But I shake my head back at him. Because he’s totally not getting it. “Fensa will still be pissed. Just like me. It doesn’t matter if I live through the birth. It’s not like I’m going to suddenly decide, ‘Oh, it’s totally okay that you kidnapped me and forced me into proximity heat.’”