“Hmm…” Kieran mused. “Well, dragons don’t tend to use guns and weaponry, because they have flame breath and claws and teeth. No sense in investing time in an external weapon when your own body serves well.”
“I mean, I wouldn’t want anyone to end up in jail but them.” And maybe she shouldn’t be considering the possibility of shooting someone, but the way Kieran talked so casually of his own brother murdering and getting away with it made Tegan suspect that regular rules didn’t apply here.
“There wouldn’t be jailing. Not in our territory. Humans don’t encroach there, their laws are nothing there. The only justice that exists is mob justice. If I did harm my brother in that way, unless I took out my father as well, and my mother, then they wouldn’t rest until they had me.” He sighed, rubbing the small of her back in an absent way. “A shifter told me I needed to give them something they wanted—something big enough to get them away from us, permanently.”
“And what do they want?”
Kieran hugged her tighter. “A child. My father wants his legacy continued. My mother is infertile, and so is he now. Oldest brother died, another one married a shifter of a different species, and Broxar’s unable to have children. I’m what’s left.”
For a second, Tegan panicked, because it sounded as if he meant they’d want her child. She took a second to think that through, heart racing, before finding the words. “I take it they wouldn’t be happy with a half-human child?”
“No. They would very much be the opposite of happy in that scenario. Let’s just leave it like that.”
Yeah, okay. Didn’t exactly surprise Tegan that they’d be unhappy, given what she did know of them.
“So they want a child. A pure dragon child. Or two.”
“Yes.”
“Would the child have a good life if it was raised by them?”
“It depends what you think is good. I mean, sure, they’d revere it, but they would also attempt to instill all of their shitty values on it, and that’s not the best thing.”
A faint, vague idea implanted in Tegan’s mind, though she doubted someone like Kieran might even consider it. Or even if his family might consider such a solution, given how he’d described them. But… since he’d gone out of his way to try and give her a future, one she wondered if she’d ever be able to have—may as well give something in return. He deserved that much.
“Have you ever thought about… just giving them a child?”
His green eyes blinked in utter bafflement. “Why would I want to do that?”
“To get them off your backs. And if you say it’ll be raised at least kindly by them… it’s an idea.”
He pulled a face. “That means I have to meet up with a woman they’ve picked out for me, and then I’d have to get her pregnant. Assuming she’d even agree to such a thing.”
“You don’t even need to meet up with them at all. We have sperm banks, IVF, ways of giving people children without needing the physical contact itself. You could give your sperm and let them use that instead.”
By the expression he now pulled, Tegan figured that something like this had never occurred to him in a million years. He just stared for an awkward, frozen moment.
“Are you okay?”
He blinked a couple of times. “I completely forgot about that.” He took a dazed step backwards, and his heel slid down the bank, catapulting him straight into the lake with a meep sound. Tegan burst out laughing while he scrabbled back out like a drowning cat. “Stop, stop, that wasn’t funny—”
“It was!” she squealed, prancing backwards out of his damp reach. “C’mon, you fell in that like a complete idiot.”
“Dragons are dignified creatures! We don’t fall like that!” he yelled, before laughing as well.
“So dignified,” she wheezed, gathering herself together. “You really never thought of that?”
“No. That’s not something we do or would think to do. But—huh. That might actually be a possibility. Probably won’t work, though. Using human inventions, messing with nature, not having a proper family… they’ll find some excuse.”
“You won’t know until you try and propose it.”
“I guess. It’d bother me, though. Giving something to them.”
“You don’t want to end up killing your own family, do you?”
“Of course not. I just know they’re relentless when it comes to obtaining things they want.”
“That’s what compromise is all about. Finding a middle ground both parties can agree on, rather than completely conceding and being miserable as a result. You want to be free—they want an heir. Both can be arranged without either losing out.”
In a way, she thought she understood this mysterious father and mother’s need to have a legacy. Though it was stupid that they wouldn’t consider anyone but a pure-blood dragon, and incredibly small-minded, she did remember some tales of her own father, when he talked about his family. Being able to trace bloodlines back to royal or noble lineages was a big thing. Keeping family heirlooms and owning land and business within the generations spoke of a legacy to be proud of. Some people became obsessed by that perceived lineage, their ancestry, to the point of obtaining an overinflated sense of pride and importance.
She figured she’d just give him some time to mull over the idea, and held onto his arm, smiling happily to herself. Man… an entire plot of land, just for her. The first major step in creating her own brand of drinks, her own label, finally putting her mixology talents to use.
A future. An actual, shining future, waiting at the end of this unexpected dark tunnel.
Just needed to make sure everyone survived it long enough, and that his family might listen to a compromise. If they didn’t, then, well… she’d probably have to look over her shoulder for a lot longer.
Without any more words to say, she continued leaning into Kieran, until all the worries bled out of her mind, and the only thing that mattered was the comfort of the moment, and the clouds obscuring the sky and darkening the snows around.
She flew back home on him, both of them a little subdued, with a lot to think about. The thing that had Tegan’s mind running the most was the fact that maybe, just maybe, she liked Kieran a lot more than she previously expected. Maybe, without the sudden child there, they might have fallen in love anyway and chosen to start a family in the future, once her career took off and went somewhere.
She shivered, leaving Kieran in the living room, going downstairs to the basement, just to keep her hands busy with the mixing. Her stomach was more noticeable, especially when she lifted up the sweater, seeing the way her belly hung low and stuck out, with a new life form growing in there.
About time she went and told her mother about this, she supposed. Marla could be a little bit of a handful when she got excited or accusatory, but she wouldn’t have her mother any other way.
“Hey, Mom,” she started with, once Marla answered the call.
“Oh! It’s been a while since I’ve heard your voice. You better be coming around soon.”
“Yeah, actually, I’d like to meet up with you. I’ve got some news.”