Chapter 1
Victoria laid her face on the center island countertop and groaned. “This is ridiculous,” she growled, feeling more frustrated than she ever had in her entire life.
“I know it’s frustrating,” said Greer, the healer for her clan and one of her dearest friends. Her voice was all soothing and gentle and it simply annoyed Victoria. Which wasn’t like her at all.
But she had reason to be cranky. “Frustrating? I’ve been pregnant longer than anyone on the planet ever before.”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.” Greer’s voice was dry.
“Is it? Because I had my baby shower back in April and it’s almost Christmas. Christmas! I’m a shifter. This baby should’ve been here over the summer. What happened to shifters having shorter pregnancies than humans? Huh? And now I’ve been pregnant even longer than humans. This is not normal.” Not only was she frustrated with being pregnant for an abnormally long time, she hadn’t been able to shift in ages because of her crazy pregnancy. Her wolf was actually pretty dormant and relaxed about the whole thing. It was her human side that was freaking the fuck out.
“I just got off the phone with a healer from Okinawa. She confirmed another case of a hybrid pregnancy going as long as fifteen months.” Greer winced at the last part as if she didn’t want to tell Victoria.
She groaned again. “So, fifteen months is the longest you’ve heard so far, right?” She was at the thirteen-month mark so she could hang on a little longer. She hoped.
“Yes. It’s definitely rare, but not unheard of.”
“It’s punishment for something I did in a former life.”
Now Greer laughed. “That’s ridiculous. Beyond, in fact. This is not a punishment. Your little guy is just happy where he is. You’ve created a nice home for him and he doesn’t want to come out.”
Victoria look down at her belly and growled. “You better be really awesome, kid.”
Greer snickered. “Oh, another thing I didn’t mention earlier…”
Victoria’s gaze snapped back up to her friend. Good God, there couldn’t be more. “What?”
“It’s not really a big deal but all the children whose mothers had abnormally long pregnancies…they’re all basically super Alphas.”
Victoria’s shoulders eased at that. “That’s not a big deal. And not really surprising considering the family I mated into.”
“Man, is that the truth.”
Greer and Victoria, though different species—dragon and wolf—were both healers so they were cut from the same cloth. They were more or less peacemakers and it was in their DNA to help people. Neither of them were betas, but they weren’t Alpha in nature either. And they were surrounded by a bunch of stubborn dragons and wolves.
“Where is Drake, anyway?” Greer asked, frowning as she glanced over at the digital clock on the stove.
“I don’t know. He was supposed to be here. He said he wanted to—” Victoria paused when she heard the front door opening.
A few seconds later, her huge, sexy mate jogged in, slightly out of breath. “Sorry I’m late, had some stuff to take care of.” Then he was standing behind her and massaging her shoulders as if he’d sensed her discomfort.
She really had mated the best dragon even if he’d been disappearing at random times over the last couple months.
“So what did I miss? Good news? Are we going to have a Christmas baby, after all?”
Ah, if only that were the case. “Well, about that…”