“Why am I always the one taking you the hospital?” Audrey muttered as she steered her Mustang through traffic toward the Mills-Peninsula Medical Center. “You should have gotten a midwife!”

“It’s too late for that now!” Brooklyn gasped as another contraction violently seized her. “Can’t you go any faster?”

“There’s Christmas traffic!” Audrey snapped. “Screw this, I’m driving on the shoulder.” Under normal circumstances, Brooklyn would have protested, but she was in far too much agony to do anything except hope her child didn’t come into the world in the passenger seat of Audrey’s car. “We’re almost there,” Audrey assured her. “Just hang in there, hon.”

Brooklyn squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to count her breaths. She felt as though the baby was going to claw its way out from her abdomen. Was this amount of pain normal? Even if it wasn’t, she could only bite down on her lip and keep breathing. Another contraction overcame her, and she screamed, sweat streaming down her forehead.

“How can the baby be coming so fast?” Audrey called back to her. “You just went into labor!”

Thankfully, the next turn was into the medical center, but Brooklyn was almost delirious with pain as medical staff got her down onto a wheelchair.

“The baby’s coming!” she cried, tears streaming down her face. “Now!”

“Shh,” the nurse whispered, racing her toward the maternity ward. “You’re fine now, honey. Don’t worry about anything. We’ve got you.” The lights flickered around her and Brooklyn worried she was going to lose consciousness.

From somewhere behind her, she heard Audrey yelling at them, “Give her the good stuff! Don’t skimp on anything!”

For a second, Brooklyn could’ve sworn she did faint, because the next thing she knew was that she was sprawled on her back, her legs spread open as a staff of doctors and nurses surrounded her.

“I see a head!” someone called excitedly.

“Brooklyn,” the nurse called to her, face inches from hers. “I need you to look at me now. You have to push. Your baby is coming.”

With a terrific, agonized groan, Brooklyn did as she was instructed.

“Breathe,” the nurse instructed, and she took several short, erratic breaths. Someone held her hand, and Brooklyn turned to see Audrey at her side, her face covered in a surgical mask.

“You’ve got this,” she said comfortingly.

“One more big push, Brooklyn!”

Brooklyn inhaled and pushed, the sounds of a shrill cry piercing the air. Again, spots danced before her eyes, but she was aware of the silence beneath the wails of her newborn.

“What’s wrong?” she gasped, struggling to sit up. “Is… is my baby okay?”

“Lay back,” the nurse instructed. “Just catch your breath. He’s fine. He’s a… little… boy.” Her tone was hesitant, and Brooklyn was covered in a blast of shivers again.

“What’s wrong with him?” she asked Audrey, who stared after the screaming infant, but her friend did not answer. “Tell me!”

“Shh!” Audrey said, turning her attention back to Brooklyn. “There’s nothing wrong.” Though the quaver in her voice told Brooklyn differently, she didn’t push it.

“I want to hold him!” she babbled, tears filling her eyes. “Give me my son!”

“Yes, honey,” the doctor said, appearing with a freshly wrapped baby in her arms. “Here you are.”

Brooklyn peered into the face of the child she and Cass had created, his blue eyes barely peeking through half-closed lids. As he was lowered into her yearning arms, his cries faltered, and his lips puckered.

Oh, my God, Brooklyn thought, gently kissing his red forehead. Oh, my God, I’m in love.

“He’s beautiful,” Audrey whispered, brushing a strand of Brooklyn’s blonde hair off her forehead, where it had matted and stuck. “I love both of you.”

Happiness and melancholy filled Brooklyn as she studied her small son. He was already falling asleep against her chest, and Brooklyn closed her own eyes, her pulse slowly regaining its normal rate.

“Let us check you out, Mama,” the nurse said, reaching for the baby, and Brooklyn’s eyes flew open as she instinctively pulled him back. The nurse smiled tenderly. “He will be right here in his cot,” she assured Brooklyn, who reluctantly handed him over.

She allowed the doctor to check her, but she could not peel her eyes away from her child.

He needs to know his father, she thought, the notion filling her with excitement and worry simultaneously. She forced the idea out of her mind. He didn’t have a father. The man who had spawned him was a beast. Then again, was he really? What had Cass ever showed her but gentleness? Maybe he had some disfigurement or—

Stop it! Brooklyn scolded herself. You’re having postpartum blues. You decided a long time ago that you will be his mother and his father.

“What are we going to name him?” Audrey asked, and Brooklyn grinned up at her friend.

“We?” she echoed. “I didn’t realize we had gotten married.”

“We may as well,” she replied dryly.

“What about Audren?” Brooklyn asked, smiling up at the vivacious redhead. “After his godmother.” Audrey’s blue eyes widened, and she grinned.

“Really?” she asked, gleefully clapping her hands together. “You would name him after me?”

“I would on the condition that he doesn’t come equipped with your mouth,” Brooklyn laughed.

“I can’t promise anything,” she joked. Then her face grew serious. “Speaking of genetics,” Audrey started to say, but Brooklyn held up her hand.

“I don’t want to go down this road again,” she said firmly, and Audrey sighed deeply.

“I’m going to call everyone and tell them the good news,” she said, leaning down to kiss the top of Brooklyn’s head. “Can I tell them to come anytime?” Brooklyn nodded, realizing how much she suddenly needed her friends beside her.

“Yes, please,” she replied.

“We’re going to move you into a room now, Ms. Demeris,” the nurse said, and Brooklyn nodded.

“I’m going to make those calls and grab a cup of coffee,” Audrey told her as she was lowered onto a wheelchair.

“Room 402,” the nurse said to Audrey.

“I’ll be right there.”

In Brooklyn’s room, baby Audren was handed back to her, and the nurses left her alone to feed him.

“If you need any help, just buzz,” the kind nurse told her.

“Wait!” Brooklyn called after her.

“Yes?”

“Thank you!”

The nurse smiled and nodded.

“That’s what we’re here for, dear,” she replied, closing the door.

Audren continued to sleep, his tiny chest rising and falling as his miniscule lips parted. Brooklyn had the irresistible desire to examine every inch of his body, and she gently unwrapped the blanket, careful not to disturb him.

“You’re perfect,” she murmured, counting his small fingers as she studied him. A sense of wonder she had never known filled her: soft baby skin and two skinny arms, a baby tummy and knee-less legs.

Such a strange creature, she thought, shaking her head. But when her eyes reached his feet, her heart stopped.

Tiny talons jutted from his toes, his feet greenish in color.

She gasped aloud, and Audren’s eyes fluttered open. He did not start crying, though, so Brooklyn carefully continued to look him over. She turned him around, and her head went light.

Protruding from the base of his spine was a stump. It was pointed on the end and scaly to the touch.

Brooklyn cursed under her breath. She quickly wrapped Audren back up and drew him to her breast, rocking him gently as she fed him.

There was a knock on the door, but before Brooklyn could respond, the doctor entered, a stern expression on her face.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said. “But I need to take the baby for some tests.”

Brooklyn held Audren tightly to her chest.

“No,” she said. “He’s eating.”

The doctor’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Brooklyn, I’m sure you’ve noticed that he has some abnormalities on his body. We need to determine precisely what it is—”

“He’s perfect!” Brooklyn roared. Her tone startled Audren, who began to cry. “You’re not taking him anywhere!” She continued to rock him, her eyes wild, as if daring the physician to touch him. Whatever the doctor saw in Brooklyn’s face seemed to keep her at bay.

“I’ll come back after you’re more rested,” she said, but Brooklyn glowered at her.

“You’re not touching my son,” she hissed to the retreating doctor. Audrey entered at the same time the woman walked out.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, immediately noting the expression on Brooklyn’s face.

Without a word, Brooklyn began to unfold the blanket as Audren continued to cry. However, when the cloth fell away, there was nothing unusual about infant’s feet. Ten perfect toes sat where she had seen the claws only minutes earlier. Perplexed, Brooklyn turned him over, shushing him gently as he slowly calmed down.

“I don’t understand,” Brooklyn murmured, the tail nowhere in sight. She looked up at Audrey, who was equally perplexed.

“Where did it go?” Audrey muttered, and Brooklyn realized she had seen it when Audren was born. That was why she had stared after him, why she had been so hesitant to tell Brooklyn that he was okay.

They exchanged a long look, and the new mother rewrapped the baby, her heart pounding.

“Why is he like that?” Audrey finally asked, voicing the question to which everyone had probably wanted the answer. Brooklyn gulped and stared at her friend.

“I changed my mind,” she whispered.

“About what?”

“I want to find his father.”

Maddy, Stella, and Christine showed up an hour later, but Brooklyn was already packed up and ready to leave the hospital when they arrived.

“What are you doing?” Stella demanded.

“I have to get out of here,” Brooklyn told her in a low voice. “And you guys have to cover us.”

Maddy scowled at Audrey.

“Is this your brilliant idea?” she snapped. “She just gave birth! She can’t go anywhere until they are both cleared!”

“Please!” Brooklyn begged. “We don’t have much time. I have to get Audren out of here. You have to trust me.”

“Go,” Stella said immediately, as if she could sense the desperation in her voice. She turned to Audrey. “You better call us later, okay? And keep a really close eye on her.”

Audrey nodded. Together, she and Brooklyn headed toward the door.

No one is getting their hands on my son, Brooklyn thought, a strange prickling shooting down her spine.

As Audrey ensured that the coast was clear, Brooklyn caught a glimpse of herself in the washroom mirror. The light was off inside the washroom, but the brightness from the room illuminated Brooklyn’s matted blonde head.

But her face wasn’t her face. In its place was the sleek jawline of a dragon, her skin glistening like soaked leather in a violet hue, her eyes glowing amber. She gasped, her huge jaw parting to expose a thousand gleaming razors.

“What’s wrong?” Audrey whispered, and Brooklyn whipped her head to look at her, expecting Audrey to scream. Instead, her friend grabbed her arm and led her out into the hallway. Audrey hadn’t seen what Brooklyn had. Was she going crazy? Had she really seen any of it at all? On Cass or on Audren or on herself?

No, she wasn’t going crazy. The doctor had seen the abnormalities on Audren, and so had Audrey.

I need to find Cass, Brooklyn thought, and give him the chance to explain all this to me.

Brooklyn wore Audrey’s long trench coat, a sleeping Audren in the folds as they hurried toward the stairwell. They could not risk being seen in the elevator, though Brooklyn knew they could not stop her from leaving, even if it was against medical advice. She was terrified that her baby would be taken away to be poked and prodded. The idea of that happening was too much for her to bear.

They stole down the stairs and into the parking lot, where Audrey had already strapped a car seat for Audren on the backseat.

What would I have done without Audrey? Brooklyn wondered. How would Ryan have handled this? She almost smiled at the idea of Ryan’s reaction.

“What can you tell me about this guy?” Audrey asked as they drove away from the hospital lot. “What is his last name?”

It was a question Brooklyn had asked herself many times over the last nine months, but she was no closer to having the answer now than she had been before.

“I don’t know,” Brooklyn sighed. “I don’t know anything about him except that he was very wealthy and in town for a short period of time. He had a strange accent…”

“A strange accent?” Audrey repeated, looking over at her curiously. “Like…?”

“I don’t know. British, maybe? Australian? I couldn’t really place it.” Audrey laughed, and Brooklyn groaned.

“I know,” she muttered, craning her head back to look at her son, who was awake and staring blankly ahead. “I don’t know anything about him.”

“No,” Audrey chuckled. “I’m laughing because I was thinking, imagine if you got knocked up by Cassius Williams.”

Suddenly, Brooklyn was in the back of Cass’s town car, catching her breath on the way back to her house all those months ago. The driver had called him “Mr. Williams.” His last name was Williams!

“That’s his name!” Brooklyn gasped. “Cass Williams!”

Audrey snorted and laughed louder.

“Funny,” she said. Brooklyn didn’t understand the joke.

“Why? Who is Cass Williams?”

Audrey’s smile faltered, and she gaped at her best friend, slowing the Mustang onto the shoulder.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” she choked, reaching for her cell phone.

“I think so,” Brooklyn replied uncertainly. “Who is he?” Audrey furiously typed something on her phone, and she shoved the device into Brooklyn’s hands.

“Is this the guy?” she demanded.

Brooklyn’s eyes bugged from their sockets as she stared at the picture on the article Audrey had found. “Yes! Holy shit! He’s a… he’s a billionaire? A real estate genius?”

“Hot damn!” Audrey hooted. “You’ve hit the jackpot of baby daddies!”

But Brooklyn didn’t share her enthusiasm. After all, would a man this famous want his secret exposed? Would he want a love child? Of course not. But what would he do to protect himself?

Brooklyn realized she didn’t care. She wasn’t afraid—not anymore.

She had a son to fight for, and fight she would.