“We are right on time.” Tide looked at the clock on the wall.

“You are half a minute late.” Torrent frowned. “Are the two of you taking this seriously?” he directed his question at Meghan, sniffing the air as he asked it. She knew he could tell that they had just had sex. Sometimes she hated their enhanced senses. This was one of those times.

Meghan nodded. “Of course we are.”

“We were on our lunch break. We’re not late,” Tide spoke with a growl. “And you know how seriously Doctor Roberts takes her job, so you can cut it right out.”

Despite where she was. Despite just having had sex with Tide, her girl parts reacted when he said her full name like that. He always insisted on calling her by her full name during sex. It had become a thing since they mated almost six months ago. Six months! Time flew when you were having fun.

“Leave them, love. They are newly mated,” Candy said. “Remember how we used to be?”

Torrent smiled. “Yes, yes.” He rolled his eyes. “I only hope you both start trying for a baby soon. You’ve been mated for a while now. Come to think of it,” he looked at Candy, “they aren’t that newly mated anymore.”

“We will start trying for a baby when we are good and ready,” Tide said.

“As second-in-command, you need heirs. It is—”

“I know!” Tide snapped. “We know.” He put his arm around her. “We’ll get to it in our own time.” He kissed the top of her head.

Megan felt bad. She knew that Tide was more than ready, but she wasn’t so sure just yet. They needed to get to the bottom of what was going on with the children who had resulted from dragon-human pairings. More had come to light in the last few months and she was close to having conclusive scientific evidence to back up her findings. Also, she needed to ‒ hopefully ‒ start working on that vaccine. “Shall we get started?” she asked, trying to get the conversation back to the job at hand.

Candy and Torrent looked her way. Candy nodded. “Yes, of course.” Torrent inclined his head.

The door to the lab flew open and a very flustered looking George rushed in. “I’m so sorry I’m late.” He grabbed his white coat and tugged it on. “I had an extremely important errand I needed to—”

Meghan raised her brows and looked at George in such a way that had him stopping in his tracks. “Dang our improved senses.” He huffed out a breath. “I get bust every darned time.” He turned his attention to Torrent and Candy. “Hello everyone. My sincerest apologies.” He nodded his head at Tide.

“We’ll have a word after this meeting,” Meghan said, trying to sound stern. She did it more for Torrent’s benefit. She was sure he would expect for there to be some sort of recourse.

“Don’t be too hard on him,” Torrent piped up. “He is newly mated.”

Meghan's mouth fell open for a moment. "Not that newly mated.” She laughed but quickly turned serious. “Shall we continue?”

Torrent's grin disappeared in an instant. He nodded once.

“Okay, so, as you both know, Sky and Lake’s baby still has the silver allergy. However, the effects are much less severe because of the immunotherapy during the pregnancy. I had truly hoped to eradicate the allergy altogether.” She paused, holding in a breath before slowly letting it out. “I’m afraid, that because of this, I am expecting similar results with little Fjord here.” She glanced at the baby in Candy’s arms.

Torrent nodded. “We’ll go through the same procedure as before?”

“Yes.” Meghan nodded. “I’ll touch a needle to his arm for a few seconds and then we’ll give it a minute before going on to the next one. Each needle will contain a higher percentage of silver than the last.”

Torrent didn’t look thrilled. Thankfully he’d seen the whole process with Lake and Sky’s baby, Flood, so he knew what to expect and was able to be more understanding as a result.

Meghan picked up the first needle. “If he starts to fuss, you can go ahead and feed him.”

Candy nodded. “Thank you. It is almost his feeding time, so I might have to.”

Meghan touched the first needle to his arm and as expected, there was no reaction. She pushed the stopwatch, checking Fjord’s heart-rate while they waited the allotted time. She kept going, taking a higher percentage needle and noting her findings. Sure to check his heart-rate regularly.

Meghan picked up the next needle. “This one is forty percent silver,” she clarified.

“You’re sure it’s safe?” Torrent growled, his eyes narrowed, his whole stance became tense.

“Calm down,” Tide said from somewhere next to her. Right next to her.

She gave a little start and clutched her chest with her free hand.

“I’m sorry. Did I scare you, doc?”

“You know you did.” She glanced his way. Just as she suspected, he was smiling at her, his dimples out in full force. His beautiful blue eyes were bright with mischief.

“You get back to your place at the wall.” Torrent pointed at Tide. “My female is feeding our son.”

Meghan looked over at the tiny baby. He was already four weeks old, and yet he was smaller than a newborn human baby would be at this age. She shrieked when Tide cupped her breasts through her white lab coat. He was still behind her. “I have my own mate,” he growled. “I do not need to look at yours. My mate has amazing breasts. The best breasts I have ever—”

“Tide,” she tried to keep her voice calm, “I’m working. This is inappropriate.” Even as she said it, a warmth settled in her chest. His mate. She still had to pinch herself sometimes.

“What’s inappropriate is him,” Tide let her go and pointed at Torrent, “insinuating that I’m looking at Candy’s breasts. Why would I do that when I have you?” Something in his gaze softened and she melted. Full on melted, even though he was being inappropriate.

“You two stop it.” Candy laughed. “I swear you’re like little boys sometimes.”

"Take that back," Torrent grumbled, pretending to be upset. Meghan noticed that his mouth twitched with the need to smile. "I am a male in my prime."

“Yes you are, my love.”

Torrent leaned in and kissed Candy. It was a quick brush of the lips and then he was turning back to her, a worried look on his face. “I’m not sure I want to do this.”

“You don’t want to know if our son is immune?” Candy asked.

“What if the whole therapy thing didn’t work?” Torrent was looking back at Candy. “I’m worried.”

Meghan realized that he was worried about the outcome rather than the actual procedure. “We don’t have to do this today. The meeting between the four kingdoms is not taking place for another two weeks. We can postpone. A couple of days won’t matter either way.”

“Postponing won’t help anything. Let’s do this.” Candy’s gaze was locked with Torrent’s.

The Water king took his time mulling it over. A whole range of emotions crossed his face. Starting with nervousness and ending with uncertainty. “You do realize that the outcome is even more important now than before?”

“I understand your apprehension, Torrent,” Tide said.

“How could you? You don’t have a son.”

“I’m an uncle. I have a mate. I have some understanding.” Meghan could see that Tide was working at keeping his voice calm.

“What if …?” Torrent’s eyes were tormented.

“No what ifs, love,” Candy said. “Not until we know for sure.”

“Any more news on …?” Torrent turned his gaze to her.

Meghan shook her head. “I have a good idea about what is going on with the new species of dragon children, but my findings are not conclusive yet.”

“A hint then?” Torrent pressed.

Meghan squeezed Tide’s arm. She could feel him becoming agitated. “What if my theories are wrong? What if my assumptions are completely off the mark?” She shook her head. “I need a week ‒ ten days tops ‒ by then, the last of the test results will be in and I’ll have conclusive evidence. I do expect the evidence to be firmly in line with the things that have happened.”

“What does that mean?” Torrent widened his eyes. “You’re speaking in riddles.”

“I would rather not say anything more for now,” she replied.

Torrent sighed. “I guess we’ll have to wait.”

“May I continue?” Meghan held up the needle in her hand.

Torrent’s frown deepened. It took a few seconds for his features to soften … marginally at least. “Yes, doctor, you may proceed.”