Book 1 of the Love series- Love Has a Price (Student/Teacher Relationship)

Chapter 32- Aaron

Once we arrived home, which took a while, Caitlin practically dragged me to the boat by my hand which was quite painful. She gets very aggressive when she’s worried or stressed, it’s even worse when she’s both. Her father met us outside and we rushed in quickly to see the twins laying in their car seats. They both looked perfectly normal to me, cute as ever. Caitlin bent down to inspect Mia and I did the same to Jason. He had a temperature, that was obvious and his cheeks were slowly tinting red.

“It is fine,” Caitlin began, “It’s just her mermaid coming through. Follow me.”

            She scooped our daughter up carefully and headed upstairs to where her room use to be. It’s still decorated in the same way for two reasons, one, as a reflection of her childhood and second, in case she ever decides to sleep over which I’m sure she will sometime. She went strait to her connecting bathroom and gently laid Mia in the sink. She took her phone out of her bra and scrolled through some texts for a couple of seconds. Once she reached it, she began to sing a calm tune which fixed me in a trance without delay. 

            A scene formed into front of my eyes, I knew it was Caitlin’s singing that was doing this but I didn’t care, it was beautiful. The scene before me played out like this. I was watching Caitlin and me swimming in the lake on her Island. It was just me in her for a while, swimming and having fun in the water, it was her home and it had become mine too over the years.

“Daddy,” someone called.

            My head whipped around to see my sixteen year old daughter running to me with her arms wide. I stepped out of the pool and met her embrace before spinning around and throwing us both in the lake. She was laughing and by now Caitlin was sat on the side of the lake with just her tail in the water. And soon enough, Mia had grown her own tail. It was exactly like her mothers but silver instead of gold, I guess that’s something she inherited of her mom. But then the scene changed as a rain of fire came down.

“Jason, stop it!” Caitlin called.

            And suddenly a silver dragon came spinning down for the sky and landed in the lake next to me and Mia. She scolded the dragon and then he shifted in Jason.

“Dragon,” I breathed, bringing myself back to reality.

“A what?” Caitlin asked.

            I looked over to her and she was now soothing Mia, I observed as her much shorter, silver tail was replaced with legs. Her head turned to look at me and Mia instantly stopped stirring and smiled, she is going to be a daddy’s girl.

“A dragon,” I repeated.

“That doesn’t come from my side of the family, I never knew you were mythical,” she whispered, panic filling her eyes,

“I’m not, but my ancestors were, I need to call my dad.”

            Caitlin, her parents and I spent the next ten minutes trying to calm a crying Jason. And when my parents arrived, I was thankful. Headaches, kids give me headaches. My mom took Jason strait from Caitlin whilst my dad went into his bag. He came out with a solution and they fed it to him. Soon enough, Jason lay silent and still. Caitlin’s face soon filled with anger, oh no.

“What was that?” Caitlin questioned through gritted teeth.

“A sleeping solution, he’ll sleep through the next few days without pain,” dad answered.

            Mom laid him softly down in his crib and a huge sigh left Caitlin’s mouth.

“Care to explain?” Caitlin questioned.

“Well, it was around five hundred years ago. Dragons were part of the mythical world on a wide scale. The council consisted of three members, one being our direct ancestor, Jake. He was with the council for around ten years before he had a little baby boy but he didn’t posses the power to change into a dragon. The other two members believe that he didn’t deserve a position on the council because his son would take over his spot that has no magical ability. So a fight broke out amongst dragons and in our area, the boy with no powers was left unharmed, he was the only survivor. Ever since that day, in our family, a dragon has never appeared, a book has been passed down from generation to generation with the tales in but why it’s suddenly come through I don’t know,” my dad explained.

“I do, I think,” I admitted, “Caitlin’s a mermaid, she has magic in her blood, couldn’t it have triggered of the dragon gene which came from me.”

“I guess so, well it’s nice to have the family trait back anyway, congratulations, your son is a dragon,” dad told me.

            I smiled slightly and looked to Caitlin who was dumbstruck.

“My life is so normal right now,” she breathed.

“Tell me about it,” I joined in, collapsing next to her on the sofa.

            Her parents came in with a tray of tea and snacks. Caitlin didn’t move, just kept her hand on her hand and that’s when I heard her mother gasp. Her finger shook as she pointed it Caitlin and I followed her sight. Her lips formed the shape of an O and another gasp left her lips again. I looked to Caitlin to see what she was panicking and that’s when I saw it, twinkling in the light, her engagement ring. Both my parents and her father gasped when they caught. It looks like we could be in some trouble now. Both of our mothers ran up and took her left hand as they studied the ring.

“He proposed,” her mom gasped, “But you’re only eighteen and you’ve known each other for about nine months.”

“We know we’re meant for each other, the babies proved that and also we’re not planning to get married yet, just when the twins are a bit older,” she defended, holding her hand to her chest.

“As long as you wait,” her father started, “I’ll remind you again son, I’m a cop and I know how to use a gun.”

“Daddy,” she warned yet again.

“Just pointing it out again.”

            Caitlin shook her head before leaning it on my shoulder. I kissed her head and she smiled. Everything is falling into place, except for Cassie, she’s our only problem.