Bureau Under Siege (2 page)

Ronan hung up, Starr looking expectantly at him. “Don’t know much more but Creed’s got all the Elites on guard and Sam’s got Wolves out trying to scent any danger and Matthew is working his magic too. By the time we get there we should have more Intel. Now, come on, you need to eat before we leave.”

Picking up both cases they made their way downstairs.

Chapter 2

The dining table was almost overflowing with food when they arrived. Starr’s eyes widening as she took it all in. If there was an item of food for breakfast then it was there, both cooked and fresh. Fruits, eggs, toast, bacon, cereal...the list went on as she took her seat.

Margaret appeared with fresh coffee in her hand. “Now I know I’ve gone a little overboard but it’s your last breakfast here and anything you don’t eat I’m sure the ranch hands will. So don’t worry about wasting anything just enjoy what you want.”

Starr smiled widely, her eyes twinkling. “Thank you, Margaret. I really appreciate the way you’ve looked after us and I hope we can come back soon. This place is, well, special.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you. It’s been a pleasure looking after you and you are very special too, Starr. I’m honored to have met your Dragon and I hope you’re feeling better now?”

Again Starr smiled. “Yes, I feel a lot better. In fact, I feel glorious. I’m full of energy this morning and I’m gonna make a big dent in all this food.”

Ronan poured himself some coffee, staring at Starr. Her skin glowed, her eyes were bright and her hair shone as if the sun were glinting off it. She looked absolutely perfect. The best she had looked since he they’d met. He wondered at the changes but put it down to the rest and relaxation they’d had.

Margaret scrutinized Starr too, a slight frown on her face for just a moment. “You do look much better. You have a glow to you that I’ve only ever seen when....oh no, I’m being silly, just ignore me. Eat up, I’ll get Finbar to load your luggage.”

Starr watched as Margaret disappeared, a blush creeping up her neck to cover her cheeks. Ronan cocked his head to the side. “What? Why are you blushing and what was Margaret blathering about?”

She started to place a host of items onto her plate, far more than she normally ate. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking ‘bout.”

He saw the blush deepen at her obvious lie. “Starr, you’re lying, baby. What’s going on?”

Her eyes met his. “Later, we can talk later when you’ve dealt with this Creed carry on.”

Ronan sipped his coffee. “No, I don’t think so. Out with it, baby, what’s going on? Are you sick or something?”

“Ronan, I’m hungry, let me eat my breakfast.”

He watched as she continued to eat, almost everything on her heaped plate. Staying silent, he waited her out, keeping his eyes on her. As she reached for her glass of fresh orange he asked again, worry now lapping at his insides. “Starr, we’re not leaving until you tell me what’s going on.”

The blush spread up her neck again, causing her cheeks to pink beautifully. “I’m not certain. Well, I kinda am, but not a hundred percent.”

Her eyes left his, looking at the table and he prodded her. “Go on.”

“Well, I think, maybe, possibly, I’m pregnant.”

Ronan gasped, his heart almost stopping with shock. “What? You can’t be! I’m a Vampire, baby, we can’t have kids. Shit, maybe there’s something else wrong inside. We need to get you to a doctor!”

She looked over at him through her hair that had fallen forward, “I’m pretty sure. I think Talon’s magic has made it possible.”

His chair went flying backwards, crashing into the wall, as he jumped up. “How can you be sure?”

Making his way around the table, he pulled Starr up, holding her in his arms, carefully.

“I can sense it. The life has only just started but I can feel it inside me.”

The bewildered look on her face told Ronan a hell of a lot. His mate hadn’t expected this to happen and was as shocked as he. “So, Dragons can sense their unborn child?”

She nodded. “Yeah, we have a connection with it and can actually feel it growing. I don’t know an awful lot, only stuff told to me when I was very young and I’m trying to remember it.”

Ronan could feel the apprehension in her body. “Hey, don’t worry, we’ll work it out but
cac
I never thought to hear those words from you. I can’t say I’m not shocked but I’m happy as hell and we’ll work it out together. Fuck! I’m gonna be a father!”

Margaret’s high pitched squeal from the door to the kitchen alerted them that they weren’t alone. “I knew it! I knew you were pregnant! That ‘glow’ I was talking about, well, I’ve only ever seen it on pregnant ladies! Congratulations to you both, this is miraculous!”

Starr laughed at the excitement in the woman who was barely stopping herself from jumping up and down. “Thank you, Margaret.”

Ronan’s head whirled with the information, worry for his pregnant mate forefront in his thoughts. “Maybe you should stay here? Let me go home and sort out whatever it is that’s going on. You would be safer here.”

Starr’s head swiveled around, her eyes locking with his. “No. I won’t even consider that. I need to be with you during this and I mean I
need
to. Our bond will grow as the pregnancy progresses and you will also start to bond with our child before it’s born. But only if we stay together. Wherever you go, I and our baby go.”

He thought his head was going to explode. Starr was pregnant and they were going to be bonding with an unborn child. How was that even possible? “Okay,
mo chroi
, don’t get upset. We’ll work something out and take it one day at a time. For now, we need to get on the road.”

Margaret rushed forward, hugging Starr. “Oh my, this is so exciting! Please let me know how things go.”

Starr returned the hug, smiling so wide it looked as if it hurt. “I will, in fact, we may come back here sooner than you think.”

“I hope so!” Margaret gushed as she released her hold on Starr.

“Thanks again, Margaret.” Ronan said as he led Starr away.

“You’re not feeling sick or anything? Don’t women get morning sickness at the beginning of pregnancies?” he asked as he helped her up into the SUV, already with their cases in the rear.

Laughing as she buckled up she shook her head. “Nope, no morning sickness and I’m feeling great. However, we do have to talk.”

Ronan got in, driving away far more sedately than their express arrival. “Okay, let’s talk. What do I need to know?”

She turned in her seat. “Well, firstly, I’ll need to go Dragon a lot more than I have been. At least a few hours every day, more if I can.”

“Why?” he interrupted.

“If you hadn’t butted in I woulda told you by now, but, I’m a Dragon, we don’t do the whole pregnancy and birth thing quite the same as the rest of you. Now, Ronan, I don’t want you to freak. Okay?”

His eyes darted between her and the road ahead, his heart rate rocketing. “Why would I freak?”

“I won’t give birth like a human, or a Witch, or a Wolf. When the time comes I need to be Dragon and I give birth to a rather large egg...”

The SUV swerved as Ronan almost lost control, his head swiveling around. “What? What did you just say?”

Her tinkling laughter filled the SUV and it was some moments before she could carry on. “I said, I will need to be Dragon and I’ll lay a rather large egg. Then when one of us touches it the egg will begin to crumble and our child will be there.”

Ronan cursed. “
Feck
! How the hell does that work? An egg? When it’s born is it in human form or Dragon form?”

He noticed one of Starr’s hands circling her belly. “It will be in Dragon form, but only for the first few moments. Once it’s fed from me, the child will change to human form and will remain so until it’s about ten or so. Only then will it regain the power to transform.”

“Holy Hell!” Ronan laughed.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, but it’ll be fine. I promise.” Starr placed a hand on his thigh, squeezing it tightly.

“What if it’s not full Dragon? I know you spoke before about this and Dragon’s mating with humans and said all their children were Dragons. But, I’m not human and I would bet my next paycheck that a Dragon has never had a child to a Vampire before. So, what if it’s different somehow?”

Starr looked thoughtful, staring off to the side, before answering. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Whatever happens we’ll deal with it together and I know we’ll love our child, no matter what.”

Ronan couldn’t help but worry and tried to hide it as best he could. “We sure will.”

“I’d rather we kept this to ourselves, for a little while at least.”

He couldn’t agree more though for far different reasons to what hers were. He didn’t want any enemies finding out she was pregnant because it would make her into a perceived easy target. “That’s fine with me, baby. I think you should get checked out at the clinic though.”

Her answer was firm. “No, I don’t need, nor want, any doctors. A Dragon pregnancy is not like any other so they won’t have any experience of it anyway. They can’t do anything to help and I don’t want them touching me.”

“Why?”

She sighed heavily. “It’s hard to explain, but only my mate should be in close contact with me and certainly be the only one to touch my stomach. The bonding will start very soon, Ronan, and that’s a very special time between us. All three of us.”

“I see, well, I’ll do what you think’s best. Unless I think there’s a real need for you to see a doctor, that is. If that happens then I won’t argue with you. You will see a doc. I won’t put your health at risk, Starr, not for anything.”

Starr nodded her head, although she had a slight frown on her face. “I suppose, but we tend to go through our pregnancies in the peak of health so I don’t envision any problems. However, I want to try and put it behind us for now. We need to concentrate on what’s going on back home. Once that’s sorted then we can deal with this rather unique child.”

The rest of the journey to the airstrip flew by as they chatted easily about anything and everything. Ronan had a load of further questions about the baby but he could sense Starr’s reticence in speaking any more about it.
“I guess she’s coming to terms with being pregnant too.”
he thought more than once.

As he thought on this surprising development he started to worry. Their lifestyles, their work, didn’t exactly exude safety and to bring a child into that was more than scary, it was downright terrifying.
“How the hell can I be a good father?”
he asked himself over and over.

As he pulled into the parking area he took his phone out, sending his Agent in Charge of Vegas, Paul, a text to say the vehicle was ready for pick up and he’d leave the keys in the small office. “I’ll only be a minute, go on and board,” he told Starr as he took their cases out and locked the vehicle before going to hand the keys in.

When he boarded the jet, Starr was already sitting, her feet curled up beneath her, and a faraway look on her face. Justin, the pilot, was conducting his outside pre-flight checks. Sitting down next to Starr, she didn’t even notice until he reached over, taking one of her hands in his.

“We’ll be okay. I’m sure we can figure out this parenting thing. If Josef can do it, then we sure can.”

She jumped at his touch and voice, turning with a worried look. “Really? It’s just kinda sinking in and I’m scared for so many reasons. What if there’s more Witches out there wanting to capture a Dragon? What ‘bout our work? There’s so many things to think about and my head hurts just trying to sort it all out.”

His thumb softly circled the top of her hand, feeling the need to soothe her. “We’ll be fine. I’ll make sure our child is safe and as far as work is concerned, we’ll do whatever is required. You could either stop work for a while, or do part time. Whatever is best for all of us.”

Starr scowled over at him, “Me? I’m the one to stop working? What about you? Couldn’t you take some time off?”

He sat back, looking at her face and trying to figure out if she was joking. By the deepening scowl he thought not. “Well, I’ll take some time off for the birth, of course. However, Starr, you do realize I’m the Director? It’s not so easy for me to take extended leave and I just assumed you would want to spend time with the baby.”

He wasn’t sure what she thought, but just upping and taking months off at a time just wasn’t an option for him. Surely she would understand that?

“I do want to spend time with our baby. I just don’t want to do it alone. I’m sorry, Ronan, Dragons are special, we deal with things differently than most and family is one of those things. The start of a child’s life is very important and normally the mother and father spend it with the child together.”

He had so much more to learn as far as Dragons were concerned. Although raising a family hadn’t been one of the things he thought he would need to learn about. “I see, well, we can work things out. I’ll go to work a bit later, take a proper break during the day and finish earlier. But that’s about all I can promise for now. We’ll figure it out together, Puff.”

“Shit!” Starr exclaimed, “I’m sorry, I know you have to work and your job is important. It’s the hormones. As soon as we become pregnant our hormones go into overdrive and start infusing us with how things should be. Like staying close to our mate so they can bond with the baby. Like both parents being around to raise the child, especially in the beginning...it again strengthens the bond. Like shutting everything else off and focusing on the baby alone. It’s in our DNA and I know I’m going to be a pain in the ass while I try and fight it.”