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“Oh, he’s gone.” My mate sniffed. “I miss that dragon already.”

I’d warned my mate the dragons would return but not for years, but it was a wrench to see the beast and then have it disappear.

“But our little boy is here.” I scooped him up and placed my lips on his damp head before handing him to Sheridan.

My mate was howling as he clutched our son to his chest. I sat him in the middle of the nest, and he rocked the baby, telling him he was the most beautiful little boy he’d ever seen.

But not wanting to be left out, the second baby punched a hole in their shell and a tiny clawed foot appeared. The egg rocked from side to side, and I put a hand on the side of the nest, worried the baby would topple onto the floor. The shell split in two, and a speckled dragon looked up at my mate and me.

“Awww.” Sheridan reached out, but the dragon was no longer there, and a baby girl lay in the beast’s place.

I wrapped her in a blanket Clover had made and sat beside my mate. He kissed our daughter and pushed her red hair out of her eyes.

“Our babies are beautiful.” He handed me our son, and I gave him our baby girl. “I wish we could capture this moment, because as every second passes, our children grow older.”

Draping an arm over his shoulder, I leaned my head on his. “But think of all the exciting moments we’re going to experience with our little ones.”

“Okay.” Sheridan didn’t stem his tears, so I kissed them away.

“Look, he hadn’t moved.” I pointed to the toy soldier.

“Maybe we should give him the night off.” But neither of us was willing to get up and put the tin soldier on the shelf.

One of the twins tucked their head in the door. “We’re going home.” Apparently his brother was fast asleep and slumped in the hallway. “Have you named them?” He told us he and his brother had strong names and we should consider naming the babies after them.

I told him we had a daughter, and he shrugged.

“Do we know their names?” Sheridan asked.

“Nope. Maybe Jon does.”

But we didn’t need to do that tonight. Instead, we lay in the nest with the babies between us. We should have slept as our children did, but we couldn’t take our eyes off the little ones. We marveled at their hair and their tiny toes and fingers.

Pierogi hopped over and sniffed the babies and went back to his hutch.

“I can’t wait for Indigo to meet them.” My mate rested his head on my shoulder.

“We’d better give them names before she does or she’ll insist on her choices, whatever they are.”

Sheridan didn’t respond, and I glanced at him. His eyes were closed, and the babies were nestled at his side.

I’ll stay awake. My dragon had appointed himself our children’s guardian.

While he’d never given up hope we’d get a happy ending, I’d stopped believing in one. Lying here with my mate and children, I finally let myself believe.

EPILOGUE

SHERIDAN

Poppy and Ryder were running around the living room, chasing after the bubbles Radley was blowing for them. They’d gone from crawling to running, not bothering to stop to walk in between. I was still faster than them, but there were days I wondered for how long. Today was worse than normal because we were coming off four days of rain.

“We need to get out of here,” I said, handing my mate a mug of coffee. “I love our place, but being trapped inside thanks to the rain has me feeling closed in.”

“Agreed. Any ideas? We could head to the park?” The kids loved the park.

If they weren’t running, they were climbing, and the play area a couple of blocks from us had one of the best climbing structures for little ones I’d ever seen. Normally, I’d have already been getting their shoes on, but not after the week we’d just had.

“It’s probably gonna be packed today.”