Page 30 of The Dragons’ Eternal Mate

Luca and Bastian burst into the room, with matching expressions of awe, as they looked at Poppy holding one baby while Samuel held the other.

“You two get to be the first visitors to meet Lucas and Liam,” Poppy said, pride ringing through her tired voice.

Samuel let Luca hold Lucas, the baby no doubt named after him, then walked to his mate, laying a kiss on her forehead. “You did it, babe. You’re a total rockstar.”

Poppy grinned, laying her head against the pillow, little Liam snuggled into her chest. “Yeah, I am a total fucking rockstar.”

Bastian

“I’m struggling to hear my sister in so much pain. Fuck knows how I’ll cope when it’s my mate, and I’m expecting my own child,” Luca muttered as he paced.

“Tell me about it. Watching someone you love struggle with something… Struggling isn’t even the right word. When I think about what Rowan has gone through because of my own father…” I took a deep breath.

We stood in silence for a moment, both considering how incredibly momentous this all felt. At least, I assumed that’s where Luca’s head was at because that’s where mine was. I wasn’t upset or even annoyed that Poppy had gone into labor in the middle of the night, but I couldn’t help but think about how Rowan had only been asleep for a handful of hours. She’d been working herself to the bone, and I truly didn’t understand how she did it all.

And she was still being threatened by Cyrus’s mere fucking existence.

I turned to Luca, jerking my chin at him. “Thank you. For bringing your people here so Rowan can have extra protection.”

Luca nodded, an easy smile on his face. “I thought about convincing her to come back to Three Ridges, but she loves you guys.”

“She loves the others… Me, well, I’ve got some work to do.” I appreciated Luca’s lack of comment on that, letting me wallow in my own pity for a moment before I shook myself into focus. “Though, if you had convinced her to go, you know I would have followed, right?”

He smiled again. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

As I leaned against one of the posts that held the cabin roof on the porch, I was overwhelmed by the quiet, that absence of sound making my thoughts too loud.

“I don’t know how to do this. I always thought I would simply follow my father’s lead, that he was a good Alpha and a good role model. Now, everything I thought I knew has been turned on its head. I can’t lead like him. I can’t be the mate he was. How did you do it? Stepping up to be Alpha?”

Luca sighed. His father had died when he was young. He had taken over as Alpha when he was only seventeen. I didn’t envy him for the abrupt change. Still, I considered the fact that we’d found Rowan when we were young, then losing her so quickly. We had a lot more in common than I’d realized, and I was man enough to admit that getting advice from someone who had gone through something similar didn’t make me weak.

Despite what Cyrus might have said.

“It was hard. Fuck, it was brutal. I had to trust my own instincts, build everything from scratch, all while I was grieving the loss of my father. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. If I had to give you one piece of advice, I would say do that: trust your gut.” He paused for a second, tilting his head. “You have a clan, though. You have no idea how much of a blessing that is, to have their support and the ability to rely on them. Part of me desperately wants a mate because I don’t want to shoulder all of this on my own anymore. I-I’m tired, man. It’s a lot to manage.”

I walked up to him, clapping my hand on his shoulder as I met his eyes, saying, “You’ll find your mate in time. I’m sure of it. If I can be blessed with one, there has to be hope for you.”

Luca chuckled, and we enjoyed the moment, a little bro connection before it was interrupted by a loud groan from inside the cabin. Poppy had been doing this for a while. Her pain was getting louder, rightly so.

He stared at the door. “How long is this supposed to take?”

I could see the tension all over his face, but I had to shrug. “I’m not the expert here, but I imagine several hours at least, from what I’ve picked up on from Rowan.”

“Jeeeez,” Luca dragged out. “You know, if we had to do this, we’d lose our shit. I think we’d just die.”

Laughing, I bobbed my head. “Absolutely. They don’t get enough credit for how hard this is.”

And then it went quiet outside as we listened intently to every last sound that came out of that cabin, waiting. Just… waiting.

Conversation eventually started up again, and Luca and I filled the time until we heard from Rowan.

“So, I gotta ask, what’s with all the boxes you had delivered?”

I chuckled, putting a hand on the back of my head as my ears heated. I didn’t like to talk about this. And I didn’t think I would have, if it weren’t for the fact we were both in waiting mode and had been bonding on the porch for several hours now.

“I had Kiki’s things delivered. I wanted to… do something nice for Rowan.”

Luca turned down the corners of his mouth at me. “That’s a hell of a gesture there, man.” He leaned back against the exterior wall of the cabin. “There a reason you felt like you needed to go big or go home?”