Dragon paced Gabriel’s makeshift studio like a caged animal.

Outside, the azure waters of the Sea of Tranquility shone brightly under Coral. The Fifth Moon’s sun played with the clouds, bobbing in and out of sight and creating pink shadows that stretched inside the room.

Gabriel and Valentine watched Dragon carefully and let him work out his frustration, waiting for him to initiate the conversation.

“We can’t stay here much longer,” Dragon finally said, pausing his march long enough to look at his friends.

“I understand.” Gabriel sipped from his flute of aged Laurum.

“We must get going, too.” Valentine absentmindedly stroked his son’s back. Valemir had been having nightmares since the day of the fire that had almost burned Martelli Manor to the ground. “Mirella’s entering the last trimester of her pregnancy and only trusts Mama Bee to deliver baby Myrenne.”

Traveling from Celestia to Lupine took slightly less than two months, and it was the same length that it took to reach Solaria on the other side of the Fifth Moon’s System. Planning pregnancies and births around interplanetary travel wasn’t easy. Dragon too wanted to leave for Solaria as soon as possible, but he had to wait for Valerian to wake from his healing sleep.

Wounded during the meeting with the rebels of the Front Pro Humanity, his cousin—who was his lieutenant, and most importantly his longtime friend—had been fighting for his life for more than two planetary cycles. A fortnight spent worrying as frustration and anger ate at Dragon.

“How’s Jade?” Gabriel asked.

Valentine perked up, stilling his hand against Valemir’s blue onesie.

“I wouldn’t know since she’s been avoiding me like the plague.” Dragon grabbed one of the flutes on top of the liquor cabinet by the large window. Gabriel’s extensive reserve of rare wines had no equal, and he was a generous host, offering his guests only the best from his cellars. Dragon filled his crystal with a good measure of Silver, one of the vintages from the vampire’s coveted vineyards, the locations of which he kept a secret.

“I thought being in such close quarters would’ve helped,” Valentine cautiously said.

“Thought so too, but it turns out that I was sorely mistaken.” After finding Jade at the Citadel in a turn of events that could only be described as serendipitous, Dragon discovered that his soulmate was pregnant with his child, and yet she didn’t remember him at all. He had been trying ever since to convince her that his sentiments were true. “And to make matters worse, she has been growing distant each passing day.”

“It might be the pregnancy. Hormones—” Valentine said.

“And this whole situation doesn’t inspire romance.” Gabriel waved his half-empty flute around, pointing at the rest of the room. “I can’t remember the last time I slept a full night without waking up at the softest of ruffles. We are all exhausted.” He brought the glass to his lips for a long sip. “I can’t even imagine what it must be like for her, hunted down by the Academy—”

“I’ll never let them get close to Jade.” Dragon’s blood boiled every time the Academy was so as much as mentioned. They had discovered that Jade was with child and wanted to use her as a breeding factory for shifter babies, and the thought made him sick. “I promised her.”

“But she doesn’t know you,” Gabriel said. “Give her time.”

“It’s all I’m doing, but being near her and sensing her shying away from me, day after day, is madness.” Dragon gulped the content of his flute, barely tasting the sweet bubbles crashing against the back of his throat.

Since that first night he and Jade had come back from the Citadel, he requested she sleep with him in the basement—the palatial room underneath the mansion—because he wanted her under his constant sight. If fighting against the rebels had taught him one thing, it was that they could trust nobody. But closeness hadn’t engendered fondness. Not at all.

Gage appeared at the doorway. The House of Martelli’s head guard usually sported a somber expression, but this time, his eyes had a bright spark. “High Lord,” he said to Dragon, respectfully lowering his head.

“Is there any news of Valerian?” Dragon slammed his glass back onto the cabinet, and the content of the spindly piece of furniture rattled under the strength of his gesture. The flute broke but Gabriel waved Dragon’s ready apology away. Immediately, a clockwork servo swept in, vacuuming the shards with its brass trunk.

“Valerian’s just woken and asked for you,” Gage answered after the mechanical worker ceased its noisy activity.