by Roxie Ray
“Your handmaidens should have been counting for you—but of course, Kali is only a cub, and the other three are even more brainless than you are.” Leonix nudged my breast with the stump of her wrist. “But your teats are swollen, and your skin…it glows. Think, Alora. Have you bled since you began bedding him?”
“No.” The word burst from my lips like a gunshot. “No…I haven’t.”
“And you certainly have not bedded the king. He has been drunk near constantly since your wedding night—and I know for a fact that he is not able to perform when he is in the cups.” Leonix’s jaw clenched. “You are pregnant, vringna.”
I drew back as I heard the word Ronan had purred so fondly to me so many times used like a swear.
All this time, I’d been under the impression that it was a pet name.
Apparently, I’d assumed wrong.
“Alora! If you are pregnant…” Ronan moved in front of me with a look of hesitant joy. His chest heaved. His lips looked like they were desperate to smile. “In my dreams, when I am crowned…you have a cub in your arms, Alora. Our cub. It is… destiny. As I told you. Do you believe me now?”
“I…I don’t think I have a choice,” I whispered. I tried to take a breath, but my lungs didn’t seem to be interested in holding air right now.
“Mm. How sweet. A very happy occasion for you both then, I am sure.” Leonix scoffed. “I doubt the king will be quite so elated to discover that the cub he believes is his heir is in possession of four arms instead of two, though. It is a trait only your people have, Ronan. And as you are the only four-armed Lunarian who has been near our delightful new queen—”
“Oh.” Ronan’s face fell. The smile that had been tugging at his lips vanished in an instant. “But—”
“Ah. You did not think of that, did you?” Leonix rolled her eyes as she took me by the arm with her good hand. “Dreams. Visions. Prophecies and rebellions and fate. Sneaking around in alcoves where anyone can hear you bickering…and now, a pregnancy. Neither of you thought this through at all, did you?”
I placed a hand on my belly as I looked up to Ronan.
Leonix’s words were harsh…but she was undeniably right.
Neither of us had thought this through in the least.
16
Ronan
My own father had been a pious type. He had been generous and kind, full of convictions. Full of faith. Often, especially in my years in the fighting pits after his death, I had thought him to be foolish as well.
When the former king’s recruiters had come to the temple where my mother was high priestess in search of warriors to fight in the war against the Rutharians, he had refused to go with them. Once, I had believed him to be a coward for that. Especially after the king’s warriors came and razed the temple to the ground barely a month later—it had been his fault, in my young mind. All of the blame, I had placed on him.
I had moved to Moonsong Temple after that. As soon as I was able to join the fighting pits with the other male cubs, I did so. I had been so determined to never allow my own inaction, my own unwillingness to do battle for myself, my family, my planet, to hold me back.
My father had been a pacifist for all his life. When the king’s warriors came to deal with the protest that my mother and father had organized there, my father had died a pacifist as well.
Peace had not saved him. I had never operated under any illusions that it would save me.
But as I looked down at Alora, her hands over her smooth, flat belly and fear in her eyes, suddenly I understood.
Of course my father had wanted peace.
With a family to think of, what father wouldn’t?
“Perhaps you could leave us, Leonix,” I requested. “If this is true…Alora and I have much to discuss.”
“Then discuss it elsewhere,” Leonix hissed as she tugged on Alora’s arm. “You are lucky that it was I who discovered you here, and not someone who would do ill with such knowledge instead.”
“Alora…” I touched her face, desperate to see joy in her eyes. Even a single glimmer of it would have sated me.
But I saw only fear. Uncertainty. Nothing more.
If Alora was truly pregnant, my dreams were coming true before my very eyes. A fire. A crown. Alora at my side with our cub in her arms.
But for Alora, I understood how this could seem like a nightmare. Her position here at court would be at risk if this was really true. In the same way that Kali had her father’s eyes and Orion had his father’s hair, this half-human cub would look like me as well. Purple-haired instead of Brixta’s black. Four arms instead of two.
A revolution was no longer an argument if Alora was pregnant. It was a dire necessity.
King Brixta would have to be overthrown before the cub was born—but Alora, like my father, desired peace.
Peace. A luxury we would not be able to afford.
Alora stumbled after Leonix as she was pulled from the alcove. I followed close behind. Wherever Alora went right now, I needed to follow at all costs.
I was no longer only protecting Alora anymore. I was protecting our cub—or the possibility of one—as well.
And as a bellow sounded down the hall, I was reminded of what I needed to protect her from most.
“Wife!” King Brixta’s throaty shout echoed from the corridors to our left. “Where is my damned wife?”
We all froze. Leonix and I exchanged a glance. There was a look in her eyes I knew well. We do not want to fight this battle. Not now. Retreat, soldier.
But aside from slipping back into the alcove, there was nowhere to retreat to. The first corner on the other end of the hall was too far away for Alora to run to with Leonix and me. I could carry her, I supposed—but before I could suggest it, Brixta’s guards entered, followed shortly by Brixta himself.
He was carried by six of his male servants on a litter ornately shaped from black metal. It was draped with black curtains pulled back to reveal Brixta reclining on pillows, a chalice of wine resting on his belly in one hand and the bottle in his other.
The smell of drunkenness flooded the hall along with him. Sour and stale alcohol mixed with sweat and fresh booze. When Brixta’s beady black eyes landed on Alora, I half expected him to smile—but instead, he only managed to look more furious.
Something snapped like a leather cord pulled too taut in my brain.
Could he know already? Had we been found out?
“Wife,” Brixta snarled at her. “Come here. Now.”
I resisted the urge to bare my teeth at him. Leonix and I were outnumbered, yes, but between the two of us, four guards and six servants was not an insurmountable hurdle. That was all that stood between my dagger and Brixta’s throat.
Alora may have been his wife in name, but she was mine by right. The keeper of my heart, my soul.
The mother of my cub.
Death was no less than Brixta deserved for bellowing orders at my mate.
But before I could act, Alora moved first. A serene smile appeared on her lips like magic. Though she had assured me that she was no spell-worker, it was hard to imagine a smile like that being the product of anything else. She had just been faced with the likelihood of an unexpected pregnancy, one that she knew presented an additional risk to her here in the palace. Moments before that, we had been locked in an argument on whether or not I truly loved her; an almost equally stressful thing to worry about, though I was so certain of that love I struggled to understand why she worried at all.
But effortlessly, she smiled at the drunken brute who had made himself her husband anyway. The entire hall warmed with that smile. Even Brixta’s guards could not help but smile back at her on instinct.
It was like watching the sun come out after a thunderstorm. Beneath the rays of Alora’s light, the guards relaxed. The servants looked as though the litter that forced their shoulders down was slightly lighter as they basked in Alora’s glow, despite the heaviness of Brixta’s weight. It nearly took my breath away to see the eff
ect she could have on people when she wished to. In Alora’s presence, even the deepest of darknesses were washed away.
Only Brixta failed to be moved by her. His brow was set just as low as ever. His lips were curled, stained with wine like lip paint—like old blood.
“Stop your smiling, female,” he spat. “We are under attack. There is nothing to grin about.”
“The palace is being besieged?” Alora’s smile faded into a look of confused concern. “I did not hear any alarm sound, my king.”
My lips twitched. My king, she called him. For his sake, I was sure.
If there was no longer a chance for peace, he would not hold that title for long.
“Not the palace. Not yet. But my forces have just been defeated in the mountains, my queen. The baz-terd Lord Haelian has bested me, though I do not know how.” I nearly laughed at that. I knew exactly how. Haelian was a military genius. The best strategists and fighters on Lunaria who were not already among Haelian’s troops were in Brixta’s dungeons, locked away. “The rebel forces will be marching unhindered toward the capital as soon as they regroup.”
“Then we must take care, husband.” Husband. She was mollifying him—and doing a clever job of it at that. Still, the thought that Brixta could be a true husband to any female, let alone to her…it was a mockery of the word. “Whatever I can do to help, I am happy to do it and more than capable of it.”
“What you can do, female, is give me my damned heir already!” Brixta threw his goblet of wine to the floor. It shattered just short of Alora’s feet, splashing wine on the small, delicate slippers she wore. “Every night, you ply me with wine, and I bed you, do I not?”
“Of course, my king,” Alora said softly.
It was only half a lie.
At least he was right about the wine.
“Then why are you not pregnant yet? If you wish to continue enjoying your position as my wife and Lunaria’s queen, you must give me an heir.” Brixta raised a gnarled claw and pointed it at Alora—not at her face, but at her stomach. “I did not bring you here for your mere presence, Alora. I brought you here for your womb. If you refuse to give me a cub with it, I will have it cut from you. Perhaps someone else will be able to make better use of it then.”
To my horror, Brixta nodded at one of his guards. The guard looked uncertain about what he was doing, but that uncertainty did not stop him from taking a step toward Alora as he reached for his knife.
I stepped in front of Alora immediately. A growl left my throat, deep and full of warning.
If they wanted to get to Alora, they would have to get through me first. The second he raised his knife, he would lose his hand. The second after, he would lose his head.
But before it came to that, Leonix cleared her throat and stepped forward as well. At first, I thought she was seeking to protect Alora too. But then, she spoke.
“There will be no need for that, Your Majesty.” Leonix held up a hand to the guard, causing him to hesitate. “If it is an heir you want, you have one.”
“The cub I put in your belly is not my heir, dear Leonix.” King Brixta waved Leonix away dismissively. “You lost the opportunity for that the first time you declined to become my queen. It is Alora who must give me a cub now—”
“And she will,” Leonix said. “She is pregnant. When the cub is born, your lineage will be secured.”
“Is she now?” Brixta’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Prove it.”
“Get me a bowl of gilly-fruit,” Leonix said to the guard with the knife. “Quickly, please.”
The guard glanced at Brixta, who gave him another nod, then took off down the hall. We all waited in tense silence until he returned with a bowl of the soft fruits. When he offered it to Alora, she plucked a gilly-fruit from the bowl and, after only a moment of hesitation, took a bite from it.
“And how does it taste, my queen?” Brixta leaned forward, craning what little neck he had to judge her expression.
I turned to watch the look on Alora’s face as well. Some part of me already knew what her answer would be, though.
“Sweet,” she said. “A little tart. But—”
“Good. Very good.” With another nod to the guards, Brixta finally smiled. “Take the females to the birthing suites and lock them in. They will not be leaving again until my cubs are born.”
“Please, husband—” Alora began. She backed away from the guards as they approached her again.
Once more, I stepped in front of her.
“I will take them,” I offered. I did not want any of Brixta’s guards anywhere near my female. My mate.
The mother of my cub—not his.
“Come to think…” Brixta stroked his chins thoughtfully. He spoke as though he had not heard me at all. “Take him to the dungeons. I will escort the females to their chambers myself.”
“Your Majesty, why—”
“Silence, my queen.” Brixta gave Alora a glare as he cut her off. “Your guard has served you well up to this point, but he is a known associate of Lord Haelian. We cannot trust him anymore.”
“My king—” Leonix began.
She received a similar glare.
“Do not push me, Leonix. Haelian is your own cousin, as I recall.” Brixta’s stare was icy and cruel. “Speak against me on this and I shall have you thrown in the dungeons with him. Would you prefer to give birth there, or in the birthing suite?”
Leonix opened her mouth as if to argue, but no words came out. She gave me a look of regret as she took Alora into her arms and backed away.
I could not blame her for backing down. I would not have her put herself in harm’s way for my sake.
But similarly, I could not go down without a fight.
Ronan, Alora mouthed as they came for me. Her lips moved in the shape of my name, but she made no sound. She did not dare.
I was grateful to her for that. To scream my name would have been a death sentence for us both. But even after I had hurt her, made her question what I felt for her—even after I had impregnated her and endangered her here—she still let me see my name on her lips as I fought off the four guards.
It was that image that I held in my mind when four more came from behind me and placed the black bag over my head.
I was dumped in the dungeons unceremoniously. It was hard to tell whether the guards who had hauled me down there did not want to face me out of guilt, or if they simply did not care.
The air all around me was cold enough to make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I could hear other bodies shifting around me. I could only hope they were friends, not foes.
Given the types of people Brixta had been throwing in his dungeons over the last several years, the former was likely.
Unfortunately, given my recent luck, the latter was likely as well.
All four of my wrists were bound in shackles. Thankfully, the guards had only bothered to pull two of them behind my back first.
With my upper hands, I struggled to slip my claws beneath the bag over my head. It had been pulled tight enough around my neck that it cut into my skin every time I swallowed.
Just as I was about to give up, another pair of hands reached behind the bag and loosened the cord that bound it. I gasped and rubbed my neck as the bag was pulled from my head.
“Ronan.” I blinked up at a familiar face with sad gray eyes. “When they brought you in, we feared it was you.”
“Kloran.” It was not common for Lunarian males to hug, but it had been so long since I had seen my former commander, it seemed that he could not help himself. His arms wrapped around my chest and gave me a tight squeeze. “Moons. It has been years, my friend.”
“Too many.” Kloran let out a small, tired laugh as he released me. His silver-white hair had more gray in it these days, and even in the low light, I could see new lines on his face. “But…you do not seem to have changed a bit.”
“Fifteen days spent on Edon will do that, I suppose,” I said. I did not even know if Kloran knew t
hat my ship had crashed.
“On Edon? I heard that you had been lost, but… Moons, Ronan. Fifteen years have passed here on Lunaria since your vessel disappeared. You really have not aged at all, have you?”
“And look at you.” I would have clapped him on the shoulder had my hands not been bound. “An old man now.”
“Hardly,” Kloran said with a chuckle. “These dungeons have aged me more than the years have, I am afraid.”
“Is Bria—” I began, but I was cut off as a small figure shot out from the shadows and crashed against me.
“Ronan!” Kloran’s wife, Bria, looked older now too, though she was still as beautiful as the day I had first met her. Her arms wrapped around my waist, enveloping me in a second hug. “What did you do to end up here?”
“I would ask you the same question, but I fear I already know the answer.” I pulled away to give her a small smile. “I have seen your daughter in the palace. She is the handmaiden to the new queen.”
“The human one?” Bria winced. “Poor thing.”
“Yes. Brixta is…not an ideal husband for any female.” Least of all my mate, I wanted to add—but that seemed like a rather large revelation to drop on Kloran and Bria at the moment.
“Well, yes, but I meant…well, you’ve met Kali.” Bria glanced at Kloran. “She is a sweet girl…but she hardly has any business waiting on a queen.”
“Kali is the least of Alora’s problems right now,” I assured her.
“Brixta is mistreating her?” asked Kloran.
“One could say that.” I sighed. I had no idea how long I would be locked up in here. I had no idea of how to get free. The time to explain my situation to Kloran and Bria would have to come sooner or later. Choosing to do it sooner…it was just as well. “I have much to tell you both. I think I may need your help.”
“Come say hello to the others first,” Kloran said, placing a hand against my back. “We have all missed you—and Nion will be able to pick the locks on your cuffs as well.”
We gathered in the corner of the cell, beneath a small window near the ceiling that allowed a few rays of light inside. Along with Kloran and Bria were Nion and Alyse, Orion’s parents, as well as Orion’s more-or-less twin brother, Phoenix, who had the pale red skin and black horns of a Rutharian.
