Crowning Glory [The Royal Wolves 3] (Siren Publishing Allure)

by Honor James

  “Of course.” Des looked to Laszlo and grinned. “Lots of pupperoni.” Laughter was there even as she pulled out her cell and dialed up the local pizza joint to order their pizza.

  Reaching out Laz took her cell from her. “They won’t deliver out here love but, I will go and pick it up if you two want to head in and get comfortable.” Handing the closed phone back to her, he said, “Go and get comfy and I will get you your pizzas.”

  Des took the bow and arrows and smiled. “Sounds good, Laszlo, go and get our food.” She was again needing him, she could practically feel him once more inside of her and she needed to distract herself. “I love you, Las, go, darling, and get our pizzas for us, all right?”

  Leaning in, he kissed her lightly as he stroked his fingers over her cheek, “I know, love,” he murmured. He was feeling the pull to her, too, and knew it was because she was thinking on it once more, her body warming and softening. “Go and start the girl stuff.”

  Des nodded and closed her eyes. “All right,” she breathed out before she opened her eyes again and leaning in whispered very quietly, “Tonight, I won’t be able to wait for long before I have you again, my mate, keep that in mind.”

  “Just remember you have young and impressionable eyes and ears watching your every move and hearing every word you spout, love,” he teased her gently. Kissing her lightly he stepped back and winked to Katherine. “Any preferences for your pizza, little one?”

  Katherine tapped her fingers to her lips and then grinning, said, “Hawaiian. Daddy Janos promised to take us there for a spring break so I wanna do their pizza so that I know if I’m going to like it or not.”

  Des grinned and shook her head. “All the meats for me. Maybe get a small one for her, that way if she doesn’t like it she can have what we are having?”

  Nodding, Laszlo raised his hand to his mouth, as if to hide his amusement, and cleared his throat. “I’ll see what I can come up with. Be good, ladies,” he said and headed out.

  * * * *

  Desi and Katherine were painting their toenails when Des heard Laszlo’s car on the trip back. “Your Uncle Laszlo is back with our pizzas, dear girl, let’s get these things closed up so that we can enjoy ourselves, shall we?” The nail polish was burning her nose and even though they had on fans and the windows open, she knew that it would affect her sense of smell for a little while at least.

  Opening the door, Laz wrinkled his nose. “Good god, girly stuff stinks,” he muttered shaking his head as if to try and clear his burning eyes and nose. “I think we should eat this outside and let this place air out, Des, my love,” he told her as he found them sitting tidying up. “Otherwise you are never going to be able to sleep in here tonight, love,” he pointed out.

  “I think that is a great idea.” Because as it was Des’s head was swimming and her stomach felt like butterflies were battling full on inside her. “Come on, half pint, let’s go and stake our place on the porch while Uncle Laszlo opens all the windows for us.” She shot her mate a look and waggled her brows. “He loves to open windows, don’t you?”

  “You’ve been sniffing too much of this stuff I can tell,” he grumbled, wrinkling his nose more as he passed off the pizzas, which no longer had the smell of them masking the stench. “If this doesn’t air out you two are sleeping at the house rather than here,” he told them both.

  Des nodded, she couldn’t argue because the smell really was horrible, but it was all a part of being all “girly” with Katherine, she was sure. Des was going to say something more but her stomach turned somersaults and instead asked Katherine, “All right, darling, let’s try your pizza and see what you think about it, all right?”

  Flipping open the lids of the boxes as he sat next to her, Laz watched her turn pale. “Are you all right, love?” he asked her, softly reaching over to touch her cheek. “You’re looking a little on the pale side.” His face indicated he was wondering if perhaps the fumes inside had been too much for her new senses.

  “Yeah, I will be fine. Just a little sick to my stomach is all.” She leaned her head against Laszlo’s shoulder and smiled. “I’m just here to enjoy this time.” She watched as Katherine started to eat the Hawaiian pizza and laughed when she scrunched her face up. “There is more than just that in Hawaii, darling, I promise that your mom and dad won’t take you somewhere where you can’t have good feed, all right, love?” Katherine nodded and moved closer to them as she lifted a slice of the pepperoni pizza and ate it happily.

  “She’s right, Katherine,” Laz told the little girl with a smile. “There is a lot there for you to enjoy, there are shows, theatre, good food, lots of sun, sand and the bluest of waters you’ll ever see. You can climb up the volcanoes and look out over the land and ocean and feel as if you are the only one in the world, Queen of it all,” he teased. “The Luaus are fun, too, they do it up big for the visitors and you’ll never forget it,” he added pulling a slice of pizza to his plate.

  Katherine then did something that sent Desmonda running for the bushes. She stuck her finger in her nose while talking and then ate what she pulled free.

  Chasing after her, Laz caught her hair back as her body expelled everything it had within. Cradling her close, he knelt with her, offering her silent comfort. He knew he’d have to tell her a little later. But only after she’d settled down a little and didn’t look as green any more.

  “Okay, too much nail polish and too much grossness,” she said simply and leaned back into him. “My Gods, you would think Mina would have broken that child of something so gross by now.”

  Stroking back her hair as he cradled her close to him, Laszlo pressed a kiss to her hair. “It’s more than that I think, love, although the nail polish and…grossness as you call it just pushed you beyond the boundaries of what your body could handle.”

  “There hasn’t been anything else today, Laszlo.” She laid her head on his shoulder and turned slightly so that she could relax against him.

  Des heard Katherine next as she moved against Laszlo’s back and then into his lap. “I’m sorry, Aunty Des, Mommy Mina always tells me not to do it but I fergets sometimes.”

  “It’s okay, love.” Desi threaded her fingers through Katherine’s hair and nodded. “It will be all right, love. Just please, don’t do that again?”

  “I will try,” the little girl said solemnly.

  Desi watched while, wrapping his arm around the little girl, Laz gave her a gentle squeeze and kissed her cheek. “What say we wrap up this party and get you two more comfortable and warmer inside either the cabin or back to the house?” he asked them both.

  “The house ’cause the cabin still stinks okay, Uncle Lassie?” Katherine said and rubbed her cheek against Desmonda’s shoulder. “I love you both,” she admitted in her too-softly-spoken way.

  “And we love you, too, little one,” Des whispered and kissed the top of Katherine’s head. “Now, Uncle Laszlo why don’t you take us back to the big house because Katherine is right, the smell here is horrible.”

  Since they were both right about the smell, it was clear that Laz wasn’t about to argue, but his face indicated that there was one small problem. “Well, if the two of you could perhaps get off my legs…” he put out there with a grin.

  Laughter began as giggles which exploded into gales of side holding laughter. “Yes, I guess that we can get off of you, Uncle Laszlo.” Desmonda leaned in and kissed the side of his neck. “Later, Laszlo, later I will give you a true kiss.” Right now she was sure her breath reeked and didn’t want to come too close because of it.

  Winking at her he helped them both up before standing and moving to the table to clean up the food. Boxing everything up, he picked it all up and turned to them. “Let’s lock up and get out of Dodge, shall we, my ladies?” he asked already heading inside to do just that. “Why don’t you two grab everything and we can get out of here.”

  Des moved with him, rising with the grace of an athlete and helping Katherine to her feet even as Laz did as
well. Holding onto Katherine’s hand, Des felt the nausea rising and swallowed hard. “This sucks.” She pressed her hand to her belly again and shook her head. “Laszlo, I think that I might be getting the flu or something.”

  His lips twitching, he carefully kept his back to her. “Or something,” he murmured knowing she’d pick it up. The bonus of having a young and impressionable child around, she couldn’t grill him until said child was sound asleep. He knew she would, but for the moment he was safe and could grin at the knowledge he had that would likely send her into a homicidal rage before he convinced her it was a good thing.

  Des frowned and shook her head. “What aren’t you telling me?” There was something, she just didn’t know what it was and that was seriously pissing her off. Katherine looked between the adults and frowned. “You two aren’t going to fight, are you?”

  Looking to Katherine with surprise evident on his face, Laz shook his head. “Of course not, sweets, why do you think we would?” he asked softly as he moved closer to her and dropped to a crouch so he wasn’t towering over her. Touching her cheek lightly he watched her carefully. “What’s wrong, Katherine?”

  “Before Mommy Mina and Daddy Janos saved me, the people on the streets would get that look and then they would fight and I had to hide in the cracks or dumpysters a cause they would hurt anything close.”

  Des dropped to her knees and shook her head. “Katherine, darling, your Uncle Laszlo and I love you, sweetheart, and we would never hurt you. I love Laszlo and he loves me and neither of us would ever fight enough to hurt one another, I promise.”

  Watching her, it was clear from his face that Laz knew Katherine was only partially buying it. Sighing, he drew her close as he sat down and he pulled her to his knee to sit with him. “You need to know something Katherine, not everyone in life sees eye-to-eye with one another. On occasion they will disagree and sometimes it might get heated. But those that love each other, like Des and me, we may fight, we may argue, but we will always make up and we will be all the stronger in our relationship because of it. But we would never draw you into a fight, little one, especially since you are an innocent that needs and deserves only our protection and love.” Kissing her hair lightly he gave her a hug. “Not everyone in the world is good, that is true, but you can always believe in our family to be there for you Katherine because you are ours, too.”

  “Exactly, we will always be here for you, little one. Your mother, father and all the aunts and uncles that you will gain by having Janos and Mina as your parents. We will always love you, darling, and even if we don’t always see eye-to-eye it is as Uncle Laszlo said, we will always come out the stronger for it love.”

  Stroking his fingers slowly up and down Katherine’s arm he tipped his head to see her face. “Come on, little one,” he said softly. “Talk to us, honey. We might be a lot of things but we can’t read minds, Katherine, you need to tell us what’s going on so we can talk about it.”

  “I just don’t want to lose you guys now that you all are my family. I want you to be wif me always and love me because I don’t know.” Katherine’s lower lip quivered. “I don’t think I can go back to the streets and live. It was always cold and I was always hungry so please don’t make me go back?”

  “Never, Katherine, I promise you, darling, you will always have happiness, have a warm home and full belly,” Desmonda promised. “We will always give you a family because that is what we all are, we are family.”

  Hugging the little girl close, Laszlo looked to Desmonda. “We are always and will always be here for you, Katherine, good times and bad as is the way with life,” he murmured softly. Holding her for long moments he just breathed her in. “We should go,” he said finally.

  “Yes, we should,” Des said and kissed Katherine’s cheek. “Come on, little love. We will get home so that we can get into that big comfy couch and watch a movie and have some ice cream, sound good?”

  “Okay, Aunty Desi.” Katherine smiled and nodded. “I want chocolate moose tracks ice cream, okay?”

  “You know it, love.” She looked up at Laszlo and smiled. “Ready to take us home, my love?”

  Nodding he touched her cheek pulling her close for a kiss. “We’ll talk later,” he promised her softly. Helping Katherine to her feet once more he stood and pulled up his mate straight into his arms. Holding her close he nuzzled at her throat. “It’s nothing bad, Des, I swear it.”

  Chapter 11

  “I have the flu, don’t I?” she asked softly and sighed. “All right, I will deal with that. I guess that I would have to be sick at least once in this, right?”

  “Wolves don’t get the flu, Des, the only human sicknesses that we can get are cancer and a rare blood disorder,” he said softly. “It’s not the flu, love,” he murmured, kissing her gently before pulling back and picking up her bag, Katherine’s, and the pizzas. “Let’s get moving, ladies,” he said, waiting for his mate to move.

  Des just stood there and frowned but finally moved. “We are so going to have a chat, my love,” she teased and lost it with a smile on her face as she did so. “Gods I love how you move.”

  “That’s just because you are—” he cut off his words when his eyes spotted Katherine watching much too closely. Throwing Des a glare, he shook his head. “You are dangerous, woman,” he muttered. “Later, Des,” he promised, again herding them both out of the cabin.

  The Wolf inside of her was howling in need, raging against the walls that she forced to cage the animal in and growled. “Later, Laszlo.” A shiver ran through her as she spoke.

  Smiling slowly at her, he licked his lips, as if in promise of what he’d do to her later, when they were alone. Des watched him opening the car door for Katherine as he belted her in and passed her the pizza even as he tossed their bags on the other seat. Turning he caught Des close and kissed her. “I love you,” he murmured against her mouth, his hand sliding down to smack her bottom. “But you need to behave in front of impressionable eyes,” he teased gently.

  “And I love you.” She caught his hand and shook her head. “I’m not the only one who needs to behave in front of impressionable eyes, Laszlo.”

  Kissing her again he smiled. “You are such a terrible influence on me,” he murmured though he knew that last one had been all his fault. Pulling open her door he waited on her. “In you get, my love,” he said, softly stroking his fingers over her cheek.

  Her eyes closed but she got into the truck. “You are my everything,” she whispered to him and buckled in, pulling her legs in while he closed the door. Looking back at Katherine, she grinned. “Are you ready, little love?” When Katherine nodded she smiled and nodded, waiting on her mate to join them.

  Taking a moment as he walked around the truck, Laz fought to get his body under control and his mind off the thought of taking his mate again. And again and again. God, he just couldn’t bloody well seem to get enough of her. Not that he was complaining, he couldn’t complain about wanting her lush body at every turn. Pulling open the door he slid in and started the engine. Throwing them both a quick look Laz winked to his mate as he pulled away from the cabin, his hand reaching over to find hers.

  Her hand slid into his and squeezed as she looked over at him with a smile on her face. Pausing to look back at Katherine she smiled. “She’s sleeping.”

  Glancing in the rear view mirror he nodded, “Good,” he murmured softly. “She needs to sleep,” he said. Stroking his thumb over her knuckles, Laz lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her fingers. “I hate that she’s still so worried that she’ll lose her place in our lives. I would have thought she’d be feeling more secure, especially with Janos and Mina.”

  “I think”—Des paused—“don’t think anything bad about what I’m going to say, but I think it’s because we are all wolves, she isn’t. I have a feeling she’s afraid that because she isn’t Wolf, that she will lose us all.” It would be how she would feel if she were the child in question.

  Sighing at he
r words that his face indicated he knew to be truth, he nodded slowly. “I suppose that is quite terrifying to her,” he murmured softly. Rubbing her fingers over his cheek as he drove, he frowned as he let the problem roll around in his head wondering how he could help Katherine understand she would always have a place with them.

  “For now she is the baby, the most important part of all our lives, imagine how she will feel if and when Janos and Mina become pregnant.” Because it never entered her mind that it would be her. “I know that Mina wants another child, she’s not on any type of birth control and is near desperate.” Des shrugged and laid her head back. “We should likely make sure that Janos and Mina are aware of our suspicions huh?”

  Nodding at her words he glanced to her. “Mina couldn’t get pregnant before, she was not Wolf, but if Janos is changing her”—and they both knew that he was—“she’ll be able to get pregnant now. All birth control will no longer work for her anyway.” He wasn’t very subtle, she knew that, but it seemed as if he was also trying to give her little bits of information so she wouldn’t be so shocked by some bigger bomb.

  It took her several long minutes and it wasn’t until they were pulling up into their drive when she squeezed his hand hard and with wide eyes said, “What. Did. You. Say?” Each word was enunciated softly, carefully. “Laszlo.” She paused and swallowed. “Am I?”

  Glancing into the back seat he slid out of the truck and, going around to her side, helped her out. Shutting the door, he led her to the front of the vehicle and nodded. “About a week along,” he told her softly. His eyes watching her carefully, he cupped her cheeks. “How upset are you?” he asked carefully.

  “I’m torn between wanting to shoot you and wanting to jump you dammit.” Tears angrily pricked at her eyes which she brushed away, “Why didn’t you tell me that birth control wouldn’t work?” She leaned into him however and breathed him in. “Don’t leave me?” She asked softly and more tears fell. “What little I knew of my mother was her always yelling that my father left because she got knocked up with me. Please don’t leave me?” She knew that he wouldn’t and added, “Gods I’m sorry.” Her arms wrapped around him. “I know that you won’t.” She was trying very hard to wrap her mind around this new innovation in their lives. “I can’t stay on the force, Laszlo,” she whispered. “I can’t because I refuse to put our child into any type of possible harm.”