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Someday you will come to us

with your mother’s howl and your father’s fire,

and you will never have to wonder

if you were wanted.

You were wanted before you were anything at all.

You were wanted tonight.

I’ll say it to him every day until he’s born.

“Oh, Ezra,” Aya whispers.

I stand and cup her face in my hands. She gasps at whatever she sees in my eyes. Her scent goes sweet.

I have a poem for her too. Years ago, I wrote it for whenever she found out she was carrying our baby, and I committed it to memory under the stars. I always swore I’d be standing in front of her when she did. I’m late, but I’m here now.

My father says every star is a fire

someone trusted to burn.

I used to think he meant the sky.

Then you let me love you,

and Mother Fate trusted us with a fire of our own.

So I made the stars a promise.

On the day you learn he’s coming,

I’ll stand in front of you

and say it out loud where they can hear me.

I will guard that little flame

with my life.

I will teach him every star by name,

and when he asks me which one burns the brightest,

I’ll point to his mother.

On the last word, I kiss her. Her knees buckle, and I scoop her up into my arms.

“Ezra, that was beautiful,” Aya says when our lips part.

I smile and carry her up the stairs. My dragon has no plans to put her down. I kiss her cheek, then her forehead. “Now, that shower. I do stink like fish and the ocean.”

She chuckles as a tear rolls down her cheek. When we reach the bedroom, she wipes it away. “I want us to take our time telling everyone.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “Aya, we live in a community of shifters. We can’t hide shit like that.”

She tucks her face into my neck and snickers. “Well, as much as we can help it.”