Nadine Book 2

17. Triggers

Tre's hair is in my fingers. His head is on my stomach. I play with his hair. I always liked his hair in my fingers. I think he's sleeping. His arm is around me. He's holding me.

Kane is sitting in the chair. "1 day. Castle still standing. This one is taking it very hard. I think he may have passed out drunk on you."

"He always blamed himself."

"What happened?"

"Someone who was supposed to love me, tried to beat me to death. It was bad. Tre is the one who left me alone with him. I seen my dad so mad last night. I remembered how mad he was. I seen it all over again. I thought it was happening again."

I run my fingers through Tre's hair some more.

The next time I open my eyes, I feel Dipak close to me.

He kisses my head. Then my cheek. "I'm going to go to bed sweetheart. Keep sleeping. I'll see you in the morning. I love you."

"I love you too." He smiles. I still have Tre's hair in my hand. I love the way his hair feels. It is so soft.

The next time I wake up. It's almost morning. I'm still playing with Tre's hair. It seems he moved around a little bit. He's not in the same spot he was. I play with his hair and he starts stirring.

He starts stretching after a few minutes. His eyes are red. He looks terrible.

I lift up my arms for him and he grabs me. He hugs me tight and holds me.

I hug him and rub his back.

He rolls over onto his back and takes me with him. I nearly choke on the blood tube, but Kane gets to it quick enough. I laugh a little then relax. Tre rubs my back and I fall right back to sleep.

The next time I open my eyes. Kane is sleeping in the chair. Tre is sleeping under me. Mary is staring at me from the door. This is going to be loud.

"YOU NEED TO GET UP AND DO THINGS."

The 2 of them jolt wide awake.

"Do not give me that look. It is lunch hour. You have both been sleeping since before dinner yesterday. YOU NEED TO EAT. STOP SLEEPING."

"It's sleepy time." I snuggle into Tre's chest.

He rubs my back. "Baby I have to pee."

"No it's fine."

Him and Kane both laugh.

I stretch all the way as far as I can reach with my fingers and toes while I'm still laying on him. Then I roll off and sit in the middle of the bed on my knees. I stretch my arms up again. Only the 3 of us here.

"I'll be back baby." He kisses my head and stares at Kane.

Kane jumps up. "I'll send a guard to let Dipak and Omar know she's awake."

I dive on Tre's spot in the bed. It's still warm. I get all snuggled in and the 2 come back. "What are you doing baby?"

"Sleepy time."

"No."

"Your spot is warm."

Omar and Dipak come in. "What is she doing?"

"My spot is still warm, Omar."

"Ah yes, we can not forget that boys are warm."

Cruor walks in. "Not sure why her wake up took that long. An extra 12 hours is quite odd."

Kane laughs. "Boys are warm."

"Oh that. Yes, I've heard that several times from the girls here. I should have guessed that." Cruor writes something down on his paper. "The screaming has stopped, and she seems to be with us again. She is free to go. That is all I can do. Omar, you can take over now."

"Thank you Dr. Cruor."

I try to climb more into Tre's spot.

"Get out of my spot woman." He picks me up and carries me out. "It is time to wake up." I shake my head. "Yes, it's wakey time now."

Tre carries me to Dipak's office and puts me in my seat. It is not near as warm.

I give them all a dirty look.

"What sweetheart?"

"This spot is cold."

Omar rolls his eyes. "Move around a bit and wake up more."

Mary walks in twirling the swords and sits by Dipak. We're all at my end of the conference table this time. The servants give us all some food.

Omar fixes my food. "What happened?"

"Seeing my dad mad was scary. It reminded me of Nicladie. When he hurt me. I started seeing Clay. I could still see you all. But I could see him too. He was mad. Then he had the rock standing over me again. That's all I remember."

Omar takes a drink.

"What do I do about it?"

He shakes his head. "Time will help you I think. As the years pass you may not get as scared if someone you love is that mad at you. What you went through was horrifying. I've heard everyone's story of what happened that day. I've read all the reports and medical documents. It was bad. You have dealt with it amazingly. You understand that it happened and you have worked past it. But you will always have triggers. Hopefully they will lessen as the years pass."

"Triggers?"

"Seeing someone you love that mad at you, was a huge trigger. You seen the same look in his eyes that you did in your brothers."

Dipak pours me more water. "The day you thought Frode attacked Thora. I think that is a trigger for you too. Your dragon took over fast. I didn't even know why."

Omar nods at him. "Yea very well could have been. Except your dragon didn't take over this time. I wonder why that was."

"I don't know. She seems happy."

Mary starts choking. Dipak jumps up to help her.

"A happy dragon?" Kane puts his hand on my head. I see flashes for a second, then nothing. I put another bite of food in my mouth. He has his hand on my head for a long time.

I stare at Tre. "Anything new with you?"

He watches everything going on. "No same old stuff." We both laugh.

Omar takes another drink while Dipak and Mary sit back down.

Kane takes his hand off my head. "3 days at most. How did she not know?"

Omar looks up. "Know what?"

"When she can get pregnant."

Tre tilts his head. "Did you ask Mary when the doctor told you to?"

I shake my head. "I forgot. Am I pregnant?"

"No, but the dragon wants to be. It wants twins. 1 from both of them. I don't know how to deal with this. It really wants her to be pregnant. It's completely fixated on it. It's positive it will get its way. Those are her mates. It wants her pregnant."

"GREAT." I say as sarcastically as I can. "About the time I decide I don't want a baby yet. It decides we do want one. Why can me and the damn dragon never agree on anything?"

"I need to read yours too." Kane puts his hand on Dipaks head. He stops after a second and stares at his plate.

Mary sits back. "How did that go?"

"About as well as can be expected. The dragon doesn't want to get her pregnant before the bond. But he would not turn her down either. She is his mate. If she wants to get pregnant, he will give her the baby."

"So what now?"

Mary smiles at me.

"Do not smile at me, Mary. That never ends well."

"There are safety protocols in place. I can remove you or I can remove them from the castle for a week. We can prevent any males from having contact with you. We can prevent the pregnancy if all parties are in agreement."

"Ok go ahead."

"Guard summon Asa, Prinna, Thora, and Aurelia."

"What?"

"You'll see little miss." I shrug my shoulders and keep eating. They all come in.

"Option 1. We remove all the unmated men from the castle. Including Tre and Dipak. Until the heat subsides."

"What? Wait. What? Mary. All the unmated men? What in the world for?"

"You're an unbonded female. You will attract all the unbonded men. All of them. Not only yours. And the fact that you are a queen will make it 100 times worse."

"That option sucks. What's option 2?"

"We remove you. Me, you, any of these females can go. We move you to a location and tell no one where it is."

Tre shakes his head. "Option 2 sucks. She will pull unbonded males from around that location, and we won't be there to chop them apart."

"There are no males at all where she will go."

I scratch my head. "Have any of you been there?"

Asa nods. "Once you have been there. You will be sworn to secrecy. We can never let anyone know where it is. If we do. The men will go there."

"I don't understand why we have to do all this."

Momma answers, "You will go into heat about every 10 years. It will make your mates go crazy. They will want you constantly. And you will want them as well. But if you decide not to have a baby beforehand. The men will be able to handle the stress and help you through it as well. It is not unmanageable. It's difficult and takes concentration and dedication to your mate. You would have to keep the promise to not make her pregnant."

"I'm still not understanding momma. They will manage. They manage everything."

"You're not bonded. They will not have that much focus. All of the unbonded males will be trying to get you pregnant. Your heat will take over you and the only thing you will want is to get pregnant by anyone. And yes. These 2 would fight the others off. But if they have to concentrate on fighting, they would not be concentrating on the lust for you. They will get you pregnant. I would give it 1 day."

"Is the location I would go actually safe?"

Thora smiles. "I went twice. It's... You know. Safe. It's mainly for girls like you. Still to young to bond and their heat kicks in." She looks at the boys. "It has to stay safe from all men knowing where it is. You understand, right? It's young unbonded women in heat. We all have to protect all of them." The boys all nod. "But I promise you. It is safe."

"Who would all go with me or only me and Mary?"

Every single female raises her hand.

I raise my eyebrow. "Oh really? So how bad does this heat get for me?"

Thora shakes her head. "It's not so bad if there are no men around. It's the men that make us crazy."

"That is true. Dracul was away one time. I went through an entire heat cycle and never even noticed." Tre turns green. "I mean you'll still think about them and want them a lot. But if you keep your mind busy and do other things, it's not very noticeable."

They all start laughing. Momma nods. "But when your mate is around, that is all you want. This one time..."

I stand up. "Thank you all for the information. I think me and Tre have had enough."

Prinna smiles. "One time Bud and I..."

Dipak puts his hand up. "No. Mom no."

"Well it's safe. And I think it would be a lot easier for me to leave than all the unmated men. So that is the option I want to use." All the girls start smiling.

Omar smirks at my boys. "I do believe they will be having fun on this trip. I wouldn't worry."

Prinna smiles. "Well, not to much fun. There's no men."

"MOM STOP."

I run over and hug Dipaks head while trying not to laugh. "It'll be ok." I rub his hair. "We won't let her talk no more." Then I bust out laughing. "Are you guys ok if I go somewhere safe with no men for a week?" They don't seem happy. But they do agree. "Mary continue."

"Hypatia, do you want to get pregnant during this heat cycle?"

"No."

"Dipak, do you want to get her pregnant during this heat cycle?"

"No."

"Tre, do you want to get her pregnant during this heat cycle?"

He stares at me for a second and I smile at him. "No."