There's a very audible sigh of relief at her answer. Not that he doubted she would stay with him; Ariane is nothing if not maternal in her nature, practically adopting any stray—human or otherwise—that wasn't specifically accounted for! She was already fully invested in the rearing of his previous two broods, so this one shouldn't be any different?

Except, well...

"I've already spoken with Vidofnir at length," he says slowly. "We're working on a solution, but the most obvious forms of contraception aren't really, ah, compatible with draconic anatomy. And in this particular instance, it wouldn't have made a difference. You know as well as I that dragons are fully capable of producing a clutch without the aid of a consort, at least as far as sharing genetic material is concerned. Of course, they generally do require a partner to, ah, stimulate an ovulation..."

He can feel his ears burning with embarrassment. Gods, why is this so hard to say?

Taking Ariane's hand, he drags it toward his swollen belly and holds it there. The scales are stretched apart beneath the strain of so many eggs, of which Ariane might be able to discern some of the individual shapes. His skin is fever-hot, fueled by the wyrm's fire burning within his belly, now serving as an incubator for his latest brood.

His lifts his gaze to stare into Ariane's eyes. "I... have reason to believe that you are responsible for this clutch." His lips twist into a wry smile. "Congratulations, Ariane. You're about to become a father."

He has to inject some bit of levity into the situation, else he's liable to break beneath the tension!