Page 252 of Scales ’N’ Spells: Volume Two

“I have a feeling I won’t be building much; I’ll be spending more time looking for you to relive the memory.”

Something warm and fuzzy unfurled in Nikki’s chest. They leaned in to kiss the tip of Gunter’s nose. “Then I guess I’ll just have to stay close so you can always find me.”

“This is an excellent plan.”

“I love you, my sexy dragon.”

“And I love you, my explosive mage.”

Six months later…

Gunter rolled his eyes at himself as he trudged up the stairs to what had once been the ballroom. Why he’d thought to check the mage workshop or the greenhouse for Nikki was beyond him. The sun was setting, and his mate liked to end the day in one place.

The nursery.

From the doorway, it took Gunter only a second to spot the lithe blond standing beside Sora and Ravi as the wind dragon cooed and made funny faces at the large bassinet-shaped incubator. Even from across the room, Gunter could see the warm golden glow that surrounded it, protecting and nurturing the occupants inside.

Gunter quietly crossed the room and stopped at the overstuffed chair currently occupied by Sora’s mother, Yuki. While it took a minimum of seven mages constantly feeding a single incubator energy, usually only one or two mages were present most of the time to watch over the infants.

“How are the little ones doing today?” he asked, barely talking over a whisper. There was something about the atmosphere that demanded a low speaking voice.

Yuki looked up from her knitting and smiled. “Less trouble than the parents.”

Gunter bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing and admired the tiny booty she was working on. In the past five months, Yuki had pretty much moved into the nursery and produced a steady stream of booties, caps, sweaters, and blankets, as if the little ones were in danger of freezing to death once they came out of the incubators. Well, at least one of them definitely wouldn’t.

Gunter gazed around the room, smiling at the transformation that had taken place. Several shelves had been moved in along with a couple of sturdy tables. The shelves were stocked with countless magical supplies, while the tables were used for pulling together those spells.

Another corner had been filled with two large, comfortable couches and three matching chairs for the visitors and the mages on duty.

While all of that didn’t exactly demand a lot of space, the red dragon currently curled around one of the incubators did.

From the moment his and Cameron’s child had been conceived, Alric’s dragon had become demanding and outright stubborn. Nearly half of every day, Alric spent it in dragon form with his large body almost completely wrapped around the incubator. As it was, a mage had to step over his tail to approach the bassinet.

But even from across the room, Alric looked like he was at peace. A dragony smile was on his lips, his eyes closed, and his mate sat on the floor with him, leaning against his side. It had been so long since a fire dragon had been born, and even longer since an incubator had been used, he wasn’t quite sure if this was normal behavior. Ravi didn’t feel the same need to spend his days in dragon form wrapped around his children’s bassinet.

“Alric give you any trouble today?” Gunter asked. He smirked as one eyelid rose to reveal a large, slitted blue eye glaring at him.

Yuki made a dismissive noise. “He’s a pussy cat. My son is the handful.”

“All I said was I wasn’t sure if you were keeping it warm enough for them,” Sora said huffily. “They’re wind dragons. They won’t have the same internal body temperature as a fire dragon.”

It was becoming harder and harder not to laugh. However, his own mate had noticed his presence, so he stepped away from Yuki and walked over to join Nikki with Sora and Ravi.

“Are you done causing mischief?” Nikki asked with a lift of one arched and delicate blond brow.

“I was only trying to tease Alric. Ruffling Sora’s feathers was just a bonus.”

Nikki huffed but quieted the moment Gunter stepped up behind them and wrapped his arms around their waist. He looked down at the twins sleeping within the bassinet. They were pointed in opposite directions like a little yin and yang, but it looked as if they were holdings hands. They were both still bald, but Gunter was expecting both children to be born with thick black hair like their parents.

They were hitting right about the five-month mark. Despite Cameron’s demands to have babies right after defeating the Jaeggi, it had taken them roughly a month to make all the necessary preparations. At least half of the dragons had left over the past few months, but many lingered. Gunter suspected they were waiting to welcome the new baby dragons into the world.

Gunter couldn’t deny he tingled with excitement to hear them take their first breaths out of the incubator, their first giggles, even their first cries. Sasha had been the last dragon born to the Burkhard Clan, and that had been more than four hundred years ago. The castle needed to ring with the cries and laughter of children again.

“They’re beautiful,” Gunter murmured.

“Of course they are,” Ravi replied with a wide grin. “They look like him.” He pointed at the mage at his side, the mate who made the wind dragon shine even brighter.

“Oh, no. They’ve definitely got your nose,” Sora whispered, pointing to the baby on the left.