Birth of a King

by Kaitlyn O’Connor

  Emma uttered a half-hearted laugh. “I always suspected you were way too pretty not to be a playboy.”

  He bent his head to nuzzle her neck. “You think I am handsome?”

  “On a scale of one to ten?”

  He hesitated. “Yes.”

  “At least fifteen.”

  He chuckled huskily and nibbled a path down the side of her neck. “You are beautiful—In all ways. I do not know how I have contained myself.”

  “Lack of opportunity?”

  He laughed, scooped her into his arms and carried her to the lounge. “Mostly that. But here we are with at least an hour on our hands, from what I was told, and no way for anyone to burst in and interrupt.”

  “And the baby’s asleep.”

  He settled her and sprawled over her, careful not to crush her. Lifting his head, he checked the baby before he gave her one hundred percent of his attention.

  His kiss was everything she remembered … and more. She was dizzy with the excitement jumping in her veins before his lips even made contact with hers and when he pressed them to her, she descended into a swirling lava pit of need, of sizzling nerve endings and coiling desire.

  He built the heat with patience, slowly, leaving no part of her neglected. She writhed in exquisite agony, panted for breath, chanted his name mindlessly, telling herself she would remain passive, enjoy, allow him to set the pace.

  But there came a time when she could bear no more of the exquisite torture, when she had no more patience, when she could hardly bear her own skin. She began to urge him to take her and then to beg with desperation, fearful she’d come before he even entered her, afraid she wouldn’t.

  She spread her thighs at his command, looking down between them as he pressed the head of his cock to the mouth of her sex.

  That was when she realized his cock had nubs all over it, in a pattern—whether natural or not. It made her heart lurch with anxiety, but the moment he entered her she just lost her mind at the feel of those nubs bumping along her love corridor. She thought she might have come in that very moment, but he kissed her and it seemed to halt her ascent, to hold her at the pinnacle, just teetering toward the brink and unable to launch.

  He stroked her until she felt feverish and faint, until she was moaning incessantly.

  “Hauk! Please!” she managed to gasp finally.

  As if he had only waited for that, he increased his pace and took her to the stars with a cosmic eruption that shattered her soul and sent her flying off in fragments.

  When she caught her breath at last, came to herself, gathered her scattered wits, she discovered that he was lying beside her, trailing his fingers lightly over her abdomen in a light caress. As if he sensed she was looking at him, he met her gaze. “This child is ours—Mine, Kadin’s and Gaelen’s. I want you to know that, regardless of how it came to be, I love this child of ours.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Emma wanted to simply lay in Hauk’s arms forever, soaking up the afterglow from true bliss. What she didn’t want was to have her moment tainted with anything ugly, though, so when she felt the change in speed and descent of the pod, she pulled away from Hauk to get up and straighten her clothes.

  Hauk tensed, but made no attempt to keep her. Instead, he followed suit, getting off the lounge and adjusting his own clothing and then moving to a forward porthole to look out as she had.

  Even he was impressed with the sight.

  “It’s beautiful,” Emma breathed, scanning the gleaming castle from end to end. “That must be bioluminescence. It wouldn’t be … anything electrical, not this far down, would it?” She hadn’t seen any sign of a power plant or cables and couldn’t see any now.

  “I think it must be … something growing on the stone. It’s amazing.”

  “It’s actually weird that it reminds me so much of castles I’ve seen on Earth … and yet so different, so exotic.”

  “Same here. There are ancient structures on my home world, Nardyl, that bear some resemblance. They are crumbling, however. This is either amazing preserved or repaired or not all that old. It’s hard to say in the glow of light.”

  “Yes. I guess that’s what makes the magic—the colors, and the way it glows. It does look magical, though, like a fairy castle under the sea.”

  Hearing Nye stir, she moved from the window to check on him and when she saw he seemed to be awake, she brought the sleepy eyed baby to the window to look out. As she’d expected, he was delighted with the lights. She chuckled. “Did I look like that when I was looking at it?”

  Hauk grinned. Lifting his hand, he brushed her cheek with his knuckles and then ruffled the short hair on top of the baby’s head. “Yes.”

  They moved back to the lounge when the pod began a steeper descent. A few moments later they felt the pod settle. Minutes passed. Hauk got up to look out to see what was happening and came back to report that they were in some sort of locker and the water was being pumped out. Shortly after that, the door was opened.

  Emma saw a group standing outside the pod and glanced at Hauk a little uneasily. “It is fine. They are here to greet the young king.”

  Relieved, Emma nodded and moved to the opening, stepping out carefully. The group outside, mostly male although there were also female warriors, came to attention and saluted.

  Thankfully, there was no more fanfare than that. They crossed the small area and entered a wide hallway that was like stepping back in time. A servant waited for them and bowed in greeting. The walls were paneled and lined with sconces that held glowing globes. The floor was covered in a running carpet with an exotic design.

  They followed it for what seemed miles and finally reached a wide set of stairs that looked like Niagara Falls and went up and up and up. Thankfully, they weren’t expected to climb a zillion stairs because Emma was winded before they got halfway to the first landing.

  Mostly because Nye was really heavy.

  Hauk took him from her when he saw she was struggling.

  She smiled up at him thankfully and when she returned her attention to the stairs, discovered Valee was waiting at the first landing, her eyes narrowed as she divided a look between the two of them.

  Uh oh.

  Emma was almost surprised the woman didn’t try to trip her when she passed.

  “I will take Nye,” she announced.

  Hauk ignored her. “He is comfortable where he is.”

  Fuming, she followed them up the next rise and then stomped off down the hallway.

  Thankfully, Emma didn’t have to rely upon her to find her way. The servant led them down the hallway and showed her the nursery and then the small bedroom to one side that she would use.

  Emma was delighted.

  She had her own room!

  And it had a door to one side that opened into Nye’s room.

  She wondered if it meant Valee hadn’t managed to accuse her of some crime but decided it probably hadn’t been long enough to consider herself in the clear.

  It seemed completely unreasonable to think she might be accused of influencing Nye in a bad way, but she also knew that parents were generally considered responsible for the actions of their children on Earth and she had no clue about this society. Valee was a royal princess. She could be accused of trying to murder a royal.

  It was a terrifying possibility, but she just couldn’t bring herself to believe there was even a remote possibility of anything that dire.

  Kadin had defended her. Surely that counted at least as much as the accusation?

  Doing her best not to think about it, she took Nye from Hauk after she’d followed the servant around the suite as he pointed out the features and amenities, then she thanked the servant, bid Hauk a good night and sat down in the rocker provided to soothe Nye until he could settle down and sleep.

  It had been dark when they’d reached the beach. She had no idea how long the trip had taken but thought it must be really late or maybe even the wee hours of the morning.

  She was t
ired but wired when she’d finally gotten Nye to settle down and discovered she was having trouble sleeping herself.

  When she did finally manage to dose off she began to dream bizarre, scary things and kept waking up. The end result was that she felt worse the following morning than she had when she went to bed.

  So she felt particularly joyful when Valee showed up to take over Nye’s care and feeding.

  Nye didn’t seem especially thrilled either, but aside from whining and squirming while she bathed him and changed him, he put up with her.

  Emma’s mood improved when she’d made use of the facilities she’d been shown the night before. It wasn’t a fresh water shower, but there was hot water and soap and those were luxuries she’d almost despaired of ever seeing again.

  And a working toilet!

  And huge towels to dry with—not the terry she was used to, but they worked.

  Her cup runneth over when she left the bathroom and discovered Gaelen had arrived to walk her to breakfast.

  She didn’t realize that right away, but she perked up anyway just seeing him.

  For about five seconds before she abruptly recalled the interlude with Hauk. Then guilt set in.

  Either he didn’t notice or he thought it was just discomfort from a reminder of the disaster their liaison had resulted in. He left off playing with Nye, handed him over to his sister and crossed to meet her.

  As thrilled as she was to go to breakfast with Gaelen, she was uneasy about running into Hauk and Kadin—especially Hauk. She tried to tell herself that she was just having breakfast with him and there was no reason for hard feeling on any side, but she wasn’t terribly successful. She was, therefore, tied in nervous knots when they got to the banquet hall where everyone seemed to have gathered for breakfast and she discovered they were sharing a table with Hauk and Kadin.

  She’d never expected to find herself in such an uncomfortable position—being in the same room, much less at the same table, with three men she’d slept with!

  It went beyond awkward.

  Particularly since she was pregnant with one of them and had chosen to sleep with Hauk just the night before.

  She thought she would have been uncomfortable anyway, even though the sex she’d had with Kadin and Gaelen had left her with deniability because the Sheloni had orchestrated it—for the simple reason that she hadn’t been against having sex with either one of them.

  But there was no glossing over having sex with Hauk directly afterward, and when she was carrying someone else’s baby.

  Of course, he’d said that the baby was theirs, plural, that the Sheloni had artificially inseminated her with a genetic cocktail that had combined the DNA of all three, but if they had, why throw her into the breeding pen? To stack the odds that she’d conceive if the implant didn’t take? To see if the men would fight over her?

  She didn’t know what sort of things motivated the Sheloni. They seemed pretty coldblooded, but maybe purely for entertainment?

  Maybe they’d just lied about it because they felt like it?

  Meaning Hauk was wrong and she’d gotten pregnant in the breeding pen—which meant the baby belonged to Kadin or Gaelen—not Hauk.

  Gaelen squeezed her hand as they sat. “Is ok, Emma.”

  Emma felt her face heat up with discomfort. What was ok? Was he a mind reader?

  Meant sarcastically, the thought jolted her that he might well be. He was alien. She didn’t know what he might be able to do—especially considering what she’d seen.

  And he had ‘spoken’ to her in the ship.

  She could feel a head ache coming on. Thankfully a server brought around plates of food and mugs of beverage. The ‘beverage’ smelled like something fermented—as in alcohol—which disappointed her. “I shouldn’t drink that. I wonder if I could get water?” Coffee would have been wonderful, but that was a luxury of the past.

  Kadin flagged the server down and asked him to bring water for her.

  Afraid to try to eat with her dry mouth until she had something to wash it down, Emma merely nibbled at the food, but it was enough to determine that, whatever it was, it was really good.

  “Should eat for bebe,” Gaelen said disapprovingly.

  Emma was disconcerted since she hadn’t told him she was pregnant—because she was still trying to figure out who the father was before she made an announcement! But she assumed Hauk had told. “I need to eat for me, but I don’t want to choke,” she said a little testily.

  Kadin nodded. “Definitely breeding.”

  She sent him a look and he laughed instead of looking quelled.

  “Extenuating circumstances,” Hauk murmured.

  She frowned. “What?”

  “The beach thing,” he reminded her.

  She gaped at him in dismay. “But … I didn’t do anything! I really didn’t.”

  Gaelen patted her hand and she had to resist the urge to swat him.

  “We know that, Emma,” Kadin said gently. “He was just pointing out that it explained the supposed animosity Valee is claiming.”

  Emma didn’t like that worth a damn either. To her mind Valee was the one that felt animus and had provoked her—deliberately. She bit her tongue, though, instead of trying to argue her case with people that were already on her side. Especially since it sounded like they were working on her ‘defense’.

  She’d hardly gotten any sleep. She was worried and she was scared. That wasn’t enough reason to be testy? She was pregnant. She was almost positive—both because she’d seen some signs and also because the Sheloni had removed her from the breeding pens.

  But she didn’t see that it had had any effect on her personality, damn it!

  And she hadn’t done anything to that hateful woman even though she’d wanted to.

  The ‘devil’ arrived just about the time Emma’s water finally did, plunked the baby down on her lap and strolled off.

  It was hard not to be annoyed.

  Emma perched him on one knee, though, and ate what she managed to get to her mouth with Nye making a grab for every spoonful she scooped up.

  Thankfully, Kadin came to her rescue, grabbing the baby and planting him on his own lap and holding his hands when he tried to grab his spoon.

  Nye whined, but he didn’t scream like he was prone to when she thwarted him.

  Another ‘not good at’ in her negative box she thought morosely.

  Even if they didn’t behead her for encouraging Nye to try to kill his Hirachi nursemaid they would probably dismiss her for not being able to make him behave.

  She was going to make a terrible mother—was already.

  Before she could talk herself into crying, the guys got up and escorted her out although she wasn’t sure if it was because they saw tears were imminent or because Valee had made it back to the table with her plate.

  Taking turns carrying the baby and entertaining him, they explored the castle/residence of the High King and the small village attached via tunnels and covered, ‘glassed in’ walkways that allowed views. It was enough of a distraction to divert Emma from her worries and she was so exhausted when they finally took her back to the King’s Suite that she could hardly hold her eyes open long enough to feed Nye and settle him for his nap before climbing into her own bed.

  She had a far more cheerful outlook when she finally woke up, and the guys arrived with even better news.

  The council of lords had convened to discuss the charges Valee had lodged against her and had unanimously agreed that Valee would be happier if she was reassigned to a position in another royal household.

  Emma couldn’t believe it. “Really?”

  “Really,” Hauk repeated with a grim smile.

  She’d hoped, but she hadn’t dared believe there wouldn’t be ugly consequences. “You guys spoke for me,” she said with conviction.

  They exchanged a long look. “Yes. And it did not hurt that we are all on the council.”

  Emma gasped and covered her mouth with her hand but a c
huckle escaped anyway. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.”

  Her amusement died. “You mean to say I’ve been worried sick about this and you guys knew you could fix it and you didn’t tell me?”

  The men exchanged a look, shook their heads and rose to leave.

  “Wait!”

  They stopped at the door and turned questioningly and Emma ran to them and gave each one of them a hug and a kiss. “Thank you for saving me!”

  Gaelen’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Dis our job.”

  Emma tilted her head questioningly. “Why?”

  He brushed his knuckles along her cheek. “Mate.”

  She wanted to complain that he hadn’t said ‘love’ but she realized he actually had said far more. “Even … if it turns out the baby isn’t yours?”

  “Make anutter.”

  That provoked a chuckle from her.

  She glanced from Gaelen to Kadin and Hauk. Hauk grinned at her. “You didn’t get enough sweet talk last eve?”

  She laughed. “Never.”

  He gave her a look. “Your turn.”

  “You guys are my heroes—always coming to my rescue. You are the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me—except for finding Nye, of course, but that led you to me. I love you, and you, and you,” she said, meeting the gaze of each, but then shook her head. “I never imagined when I wished on that star that it would come back to me in quadruple.” She thought about it a second and touched her belly. “Make that quintuple.” She hadn’t felt like she had anyone to love who loved her and now she had … like a football team, she thought happily.

  “I think five would be a few too many. You will have your hands full with Nye and the one you carry,” Kadin said.

  “I meant ….” She saw he was teasing and let it drop. “Who would ever have thought I’d only have to go halfway across the known universe to find my true loves?”