Page 75 of Dragon Me Through Space

“What?” he asked.

I tapped my upper arm. “I have birth control in place.”

His brows furrowed a moment before relaxing. “Ah, that makes sense. I had thought you would put up more of a fight about my request last night.”

“Are you upset?” I asked, titling my head a bit as I looked at him and tried to gauge his expression. He was often the hardest to read amongst the quad. “I didn’t mean to give you the wrong impression or deceive you.”

“I’m a bit disappointed, I’ll admit, but it is your body and we promised to follow the rules of our betrothal.” He picked up my hand and kissed my palm. “Whenever you’re ready, you just let us know. Plus, I would rather you decide to open the locket and bind us together before we start trying to impregnate you.”

“Why?”

“So that if you are pregnant, we are able to feel you and address any physical or mental ailments as quickly as possible,” he answered.

“And if anyone tries to steal you, we’ll be able to find you immediately,” Wayne answered while typing on a tablet.

“What was that locked room on your ship?” I asked. “I never got a chance to sneak, I mean, visit it with your permission.”

“That room was for our mate,” Preston answered.

“A nest,” Gage added.

“Nest?” Did Dragonkin lay eggs in a nest after they laid them?

“A room with lots of comfortable blankets and pillows that our mate would use during their fertile time,” Preston explained further.

My eyes widened. “A breeding room?”

“Breeding room makes it sound nefarious,” Gage grumbled. “It was designed for the comfort of our mate, so they could have a place of their own that we were only allowed to visit when they allowed us entrance. A place to be as comfortable and relaxed as possible while away from Drakorantia.”

Well, when he said it like that, it didn’t sound so bad and I was sad I hadn’t been able to experience it.

“We’ll build you a nest if you want one, when we return to Drakorantia,” Wayne said, still typing on his tablet.

“What are you doing on that tablet?” I asked, finally letting my curiosity boil over, and choosing to change the topic away from the nest discussion.

“I just finished checking in with our network and confirmed what the big event coming up is,” he answered and looked over at Preston. He had the most worried expression I had ever seen on him. “It’s worse than we imagined,” he said gravely.

“How much worse?” Preston asked, his hold on my hand tightening.

“It’s not a birthday or wedding. It’s the Games.”

“Shit.”

“Fuck.”

“Dammit.”

I looked around at the four, upset male Dragonkin and asked, “What are the Games? Why are you so worried?”

“Are you certain?” Preston asked Wayne instead of answering me.

He nodded. “They’re happening in three weeks, which means …”

All of them turned to look at me, varying expressions of worry on their faces.

“What? Which means what?” Their expressions were not helping my anxiety.

“You’ll be participating,” Preston whispered.