She moaned, a horrible, drawn out wail.
“Push, Melissa!” Dawn snapped, and Melissa did as ordered. She kept bearing down, almost breaking Jarek’s and Sasha’s fingers.
She collapsed against her mate when she was done, panting desperately. He felt her sag from inside out and roused her immediately.
“One more, Melissa. One more just like that. Go, now!”
She moaned, shaking her head. “I can’t. I can’t.”
Jarek gripped her hand even tighter and wrapped himself around his mate. “You will push, now! You have more strength and courage than any soldier in the fleet! You are my mate. Show me your strength, shaa kouva. Show me! Push! Bring forth your daughter!”
Melissa screamed, bearing down. Whelon saw the baby’s head emerge and gasped in relief. As the end of the contractions passed, he was able to support the infant as she slipped gently into his waiting hands.
Melissa cried, shaking all over, and he didn’t wait or hesitate a moment. He placed the baby straight on her breast. The little girl grabbed her mother’s hand and nuzzled into her, searching for milk.
“Oh,” Melissa cried, tears pouring down her face. “She’s beautiful!”
Jarek was beyond words, staring down at his baby daughter, feeding for the first time. Sasha and Dawn moved away to give them a moment while Whelon quickly checked the mother for any injuries.
“I’d love a photo,” Sasha said quietly, “but I’ll wait.”
Whelon’s job done, he smiled and leaned in to kiss his mate gently. He was exhausted and his only hope left for the day was that they wouldn’t make him attend the damn party that was still going on outside the office door.
He felt like he could sleep for a hundred years.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Several weeks after Melissa’s daughter crashed the biggest Preor-human event ever to be held, Sasha stood in the main park in the center of Tampa. In front of her, Melissa lay on the thick grass under a tall tree, her daughter curled in her arm. Jarek sat nearby, alternating eating grapes out of a picnic basket and rubbing his daughter playfully on the tummy.
They had named her Nicoletta, for Melissa’s grandmother. Since her spectacular birth at the conference, little Nicoletta had become a minor celebrity of sorts. Everyone wanted to see the newest dragonlet who had been born under the flag of the new treaty.
Sasha had Kerry and Mark with her, filming random shots of Preor and humans mixing together, playing games and sharing food. They had set up a massive picnic area with jumping castles, games and tables spread with amazing food.
It was the first fundraiser for a charity that had been organized by both races. Sasha grinned as she recalled her conversation with the mayor. He had wanted them to pay several hundred thousand dollars to rent the park. Yeah, even though the Preor had the money, Sasha gently hinted that humanity was doing less for the unfortunate than the Preor and there could be bad press as a result. He immediately donated free use of the park and every carnival ride that belonged to the city.
Screaming, happy children were everywhere. The atmosphere was high as everyone indulged in face painting, bumper cars, or the laziness of lying on their backs in the grass, stuffing themselves with food.
Sasha didn’t perform any interviews. She simply walked around the park with her crew, getting lots of footage and doing voiceovers to explain what was going on to the folks at home. They had put out enough good press over the last few weeks that they didn’t need to push the issues so hard any longer.
So many people had turned out for the event that Sasha knew they wouldn’t have any problems from the protestors for a long, long while. There had been a few at the gate when the event started, but once the Preor approached them—just to talk—the protestors had fled.
It did nothing for their argument to be seen shouting and pointing at a bunch of very peaceful Preor. Choler had been at the head of the group, his yellow scales and upbeat manner an obvious choice for an ambassador. He was excellent at making people feel at ease and had a knack for making the protestors feel terrible when he talked to them happily and calmly while they screamed.
Since the protestors had taken off, the day had only gotten better and better. Some of the Preor were handing out flyers and directing people to the new website Sasha had organized. Three times a week at Preor Tower, they held classes on the Preor for their history, customs, and cultural evolution. Sasha had been amazed that hundreds of people kept showing. She had never imagined that many people had an interest, but it seemed that getting to know the Preor was becoming a necessity for some.
Some doctors wanted to learn their methods, not just to apply them in their own hospitals but also to learn how to treat the Preor, as well. Plenty of doe-eyed women looked for their mate and were determined to learn everything they could to be prepared. Some people had a casual interest while others planned to make the stuff of Preor culture their life’s work.
Sasha waved at people she knew as she walked through the boisterous crowd. She had met dozens of Preor over the last several weeks and she remembered every face. She was pleased to see quite a few celebrities had come as well.
Overhead there was a sudden roar and rush of wind. Sasha looked up to see Whelon’s dark shape cruising above, his massive wings making a huge, black shadow. Behind him Vende and Kozav followed closely as they turned their noses up and then dove straight down.
They came within a few feet of the ground, making a terrific explosion of dust and leaves as they powered back up into the sky. People clapped and cheered, and the children ran around screaming in joy.
They will never know a world without dragons. To them, this is the Earth. They don’t know what it was like before the Preor came.
She smiled, knowing that as generations passed, the two races would only become further intertwined. It was inevitable, a process of evolution.
In a way, she could see the protestors’ point about the human race being wiped out. It wasn’t, though. It was being changed—for the better. That was not the same as the death of the species, which is exactly what would have happened if humans had been allowed to keep spreading poison across the planet and killing each other without care.
She watched the dragons come around in a big circle, ready to land at the edge of the park. Already a screaming horde of children charged at the dragons. She laughed and chased after them all. The Preor would do several air shows today, performing stunning maneuvers with both their wings and fire.
It wasn’t just in an effort to be impressive and entertaining, but also to show just how much control the dragons had over their massive bodies. It wasn’t possible to accidentally squash someone, for example. The males were too highly trained for such a thing to happen.
Unless you’re chasing after your mate…
The Preor had all been coached about acceptable behavior but the trouble was, not one of them was capable of thinking clearly once they caught the scent of their one and only.
The three dragons came down as one, flapping their wings in time as they stretched out on the grass. The fearless children immediately began to crawl all over them, and Sasha heard Dawn’s tinkling laugh as a small child grabbed hold of Vende’s eyelid to clamber onto his head.
Sasha approached Whelon, seeing his fangs peek out of his big, scaly smile. She stroked his nose and the massive eyes blinked in pleasure.