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

by Honor James

  Rolling his eyes as she went from one extreme to another to another, he just wrapped her in his arms. Lifting her up, he settled her on the hood of the truck and moved in closer, his arms around her waist. “Look at me, love,” he said softly and waited until she did. “I did tell you about the birth control but that was before I changed you, I didn’t think it was necessary to say it again, I thought you of all people would remember. For that I’m sorry, I should have told you that if you wanted to wait that you’d need the stuff for Wolves.”

  “It’s okay, Laszlo, I’m just shocked and cranky and just worried.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “Too many past worries hitting me hard I guess. I worry about being alone,” she admitted again.

  Reaching up he stroked his fingers over her cheek to dry them. “There is no force in Heaven or on Earth that would or could ever pull me from your side, Desmonda. You are my mate, that is forever in my world and I never break my vows, especially to the one that holds my heart.” Pulling her close, he kissed her gently. “As to your work, that is up to you, love. I won’t discourage you if you want to protect our child, it is what a good and loving mother does. But you don’t need to do it immediately, love, there are other positions on the force you can work within and then return to active duty after the birth.”

  “I know but you’re forgetting one thing,” Desmonda said as a cold truth washed over her. “Our child will be in danger, it will be hunted because he or she will be the next heir to the Throne that you are retaking Laszlo. Our child will be the first Prince or Princess of the new Werewolf Nation, it will take everything we both have in order to keep them safe.”

  “I’m not forgetting anything, Desmonda,” he said gently. “But you might be.” His eyes turned Wolf and hardened to the unforgiving killer he was under the smooth outer shell of humanity. “I will kill anyone that even dares to think,” he bit out in the voice of the Wolf. “To try and harm those under my protection. I’m done playing nice, I’m done looking for the diplomatic way to solve the problems, I will kill any and all and to hell with the consequences. They started this war, but I am fucking going to end it once and for all.”

  “Good, and I am going to be right there at your side, Laszlo.” She nodded adamantly. “Now, my love, we have come to an agreement, I will leave the force and we will take over our nation once more. We will put to right that which those bastards stole from you and your brothers and we will make life safe for our son or daughter.” She nodded and smiled. “Kiss me so that we can wake up Katherine, get her inside, and watch movies and finish our pizza before we go to bed.” She leaned in and nibbled his lower lip. “And you, Laszlo, are to come in and hold me for the night.”

  “Is that so?” he asked softly with a smile, enjoying her play. Resting his hands on her hips, he drew her in closer. “And just what benefits might be entailed in doing as you so sweetly demand?” Keeping his head up just enough that she couldn’t kiss him, he smiled a little wider at her look.

  “Well I was thinking that we could possibly touch, caress, kiss and who knows, possibly a little more, if you’re up for it, big guy?” Her hands moved up and down his chest. “We can see if we can keep me from screaming.”

  “I can likely keep you from screaming, but you’ll have to play by my rules, officer,” he told her with an evil glint in his eyes. Pulling her closer, he kissed her softly. “But we’ll discuss it more after we get Katherine settled for the night. Let’s get her inside and we’ll do your movie marathon,” he murmured, kissing her once more before letting his hands loosen on her hips.

  “I love you, Mr. CEO and all-around nice guy.” She winked and slid off the hood of the car. “More than that”—she turned and hugged him slightly—“I love you, Daddy.”

  He stilled completely, his arms around her as he held her close. “Oh god, I’m going to be a father,” he whispered for the first time, his face scrunching up as if he were just realizing it, really realizing it. His knees seemed to go weak at the same moment, and his vision must have blurred. Somehow he pulled himself back together. “And with that moment of reality kicking me in the groin, let’s get our young charge inside.”

  “Glad that I could be of some assistance, Daddy.” She smirked and stressed the word she knew was making his knees weak. “I will get little munchkin if you will get everything else?”

  Growling at her softly he nipped at her throat. “You can just stop that, Mommy,” he told her with a soft warning. It was clear that he definitely needed the time to come to terms, and must have been thinking thank god that he’d have nine months before she gave birth and the reality was in his hands.

  Des just stopped in her tracks, swallowing hard, she bit her lip. “Gods, it does sound strange to know that we will have a baby in nine months.” With a small nod she moved on. “All right, my love, yes we should do this,” she whispered. “Let’s get ourselves into the house. I will get Katherine now.”

  Watching her carefully he touched her cheek. “Are you all right?” he asked softly as he opened the door and, unbuckling Katherine, lifted her out to pass her to his mate. Ensuring Des had a good hold on the little girl, he turned back and drug out the bags and pizza boxes.

  Desi breathed in the scent of Katherine and nodded. “I’m fine, love, I’m just a little off kilter right now, sweeting, but I promise that I will be fine. We will be fine.”

  Straightening, he bumped the door shut and with a slow nod he led the way into the house. Holding the door for her, Laz used an elbow to hit a few lights. “You might as well lay her down in the living room Des since we’ll be in there watching the movies anyway.”

  Desi took Katherine to the living room and lay her down gently, pulling a blanket from the back of the couch and covering the child lightly with it. “Rest well for now, my little darling.” Her fingers caressed her cheek lightly, pulling back and just standing, watching her.

  Watching from the doorway of the living room, Laszlo smiled gently at the image before him. “You are going to be a great mother, Desmonda,” he murmured moving toward her and wrapping his arms around her from behind. “You will be the very best there is.” Just as wonderful as his own mother had been, strong and pure with love for her children.

  “I hope so,” she whispered and looked up at him. “I know this, I am going to love and protect any children that we ever have together with all that I am, my love.” Leaning back against him she closed her eyes and rubbed her hands over his. “I’m terrified, Laszlo. I’m terrified that I will not be the person that you need me to be.”

  Stilling he frowned. “You already are, Des,” he said softly, shifting a hand to take one of hers. “Why do you think you wouldn’t be, my love?” he asked, clearly wanting to solve any problems he could with her as soon as possible so they wouldn’t continue to come up in her mind. He particularly hated that she doubted herself, she was very self-assured, up until it came to their life together.

  “I’m afraid that I won’t be ‘girly’ enough to be the Queen to your King.” And that was the crux of the issue with her. “I want to be girly, I really do, love, but I wasn’t raised in a home where I could be ‘girly’ but raised where it was kill or be killed.”

  Frowning even harder at her words he pulled her closer to him. “Honey, I don’t care if you run around in ball gowns or torn blue jeans. It’s the woman inside of those things that is important to me and the Nation. If she’s strong, personable and determined to keep the people safe then that is all that is needed. Girly takes a back stage to that, love,” he told her gently. “My mother, while she knew when it was appropriate to dress her station, she could fight with the very best of our guards, she was out on the practice field every morning before we woke pitting her skills against theirs and then she would come and wake us to start our day.”

  Desi instantly felt better. “Really?” she asked with a smile. “She’s my kind of woman, isn’t she?” Happiness filled her suddenly, and that quickly, things began to feel better inside of her, she felt
more at ease, so to speak. “I am very determined to keep our people safe, starting with you, our children, our brothers and sisters and their little ones.” She looked down at Katherine and smiled. “And most especially her. I have a feeling our little Kat is going to play more of a role than we think in our lives.”

  “She already does, honey,” he reminded her softly. “But yes, my mother was an amazing woman and so like you. She wasn’t licensed to carry a loaded firearm, thank god,” he muttered. “But she never needed it. She had this way of looking at a person that could either wilt them to nothing making them feel like scum not worthy to touch her boots, or so tall their heads were floating in the clouds. She was kind, generous to a fault and always willing to listen to any of our people from the common man working his farm to the highest of officials. She never turned any away and more often than not would lend a hand to a widow in bringing in her garden to take to the market.”

  Stroking his fingers over her arm he pressed a kiss to the curve of her neck. “Being a Queen is not just glamour and pomp, love. It’s knowing the people, understanding them and putting yourself in their place on occasion. It is more than just rubbing elbows with the elite, it is going out to all the places and just talking to the people that support us. Yes there are balls and parties to thank the high ranking Lords for their support both vocal and financial, but we always threw parties that all could attend, casual but high spirited. Those were the ones my brothers and I were allowed to, Mother didn’t worry so much about us breaking all her good crystal then.” He chuckled in memory.

  A smile moved over her face as she stroked her fingers over his arms. “We are really going to do this aren’t we, Laszlo? We are going to take your throne back and demand that our children’s lives are protected, lived free.” Leaning back into him she sighed and closed her eyes. “We will make sure that our people are treated fairly in the human world, we will do what we can to ensure that they all have what they need in all things, won’t we?”

  “Yeah,” he murmured, as though not believing that he’d been the one just talking her into being his Queen when he had been the one with the issues of being King. “We’re going to do it and we are going to take care of everyone, love,” he said, rubbing her back lightly. “Everyone will get a fair shake from us no matter who they are.”

  “I think that’s about the best that we can do. Make sure that any and everyone who comes into contact with us, seeks us out will always have the fairest that we can give them. It’s all there is, right?” Desi sighed and closed her eyes. “Gods I can’t believe that we are going to be doing this, darling.”

  “Doesn’t seem to be lot of other choices,” Laz murmured softly. “My brothers won’t take it and the only other option is a cousin, one of the ones that are hunting for our heads. It has to pass through the Royal line unless all blood relatives are dead. Then it goes to the next line, one is with us and the other is against us,” he said softly stroking her hair.

  “And we don’t want to chance the one against us winning so we take it.” Desi felt her resolve once more. “We take it and bring back to order our people. We will prove somehow that the charges against your family are wrong and we will start to put our people back on the track they need to be on, not the drugs, killing and gangs track they seem to have fallen into now.”

  Smiling down at her, Laz squeezed her closer. “So much for not wanting to be the Queen to my King,” he teased her softly as he kissed the tip of her nose. “You certainly have done an amazing about face on all of it.”

  “Well I have to because I refuse to let anyone hurt any of our loved ones, Laszlo. I’m terrified and know I will fail but I know that between the two of us we will be able to keep our family safe and hopefully do something good for our people.”

  “Honey, you will not fail,” he said biting her neck lightly. “You will be strong, personable and amazing. You will lead with humor and a will of iron. The Nation will love you and support you, you will rock.”

  “Only because I have you as a support system, my love.” Desi leaned back again and sighed. “Let’s let her sleep, my love. Come on and feed me, darling, now that I hopefully will be able to eat.”

  “Something light,” Laszlo said softly as he guided her toward the kitchen. “Nothing heavy for you until we know what your stomach can and can’t handle,” he advised, moving to put the pizza boxes in the refrigerator.

  “Just the smell of the spices on that pizza are turning my stomach,” she admitted and nodded. “All right, love, something light.” She looked inside of the fridge and frowned. “All right, so nothing appeals except pudding. Do you mind?” There was only one cup of pudding left and she didn’t want to take it if he wanted it.

  Pulling it out, he passed it over. “If you can keep it down you can have the last of everything in this house,” he told her honestly, as though knowing she needed to get something into her body.

  “Thank you, love,” she said with a smile and stepped back after snagging the pudding. “If I’m able to keep this down you might end up going to the grocery store for me, darling.”

  Chuckling, he shrugged. “I don’t have a problem with that,” he told her softly. Moving around her he dug out a spoon and passed it along as well. “Dig in and we’ll see how this goes,” he said moving to the cupboard to dig out the tea in there and start a pot.

  Very tentatively she took the first spoonful of pudding and then, closing her eyes at the nirvana dancing in her mouth, devoured the whole cup before she even realized she was eating it. “Oh yes, that’s very good. I think I just found my soothing food for this pregnancy, Laszlo.” She smiled sweetly. “Hunt’s will be sending you Christmas cards if this is all I can keep down.” Because both she and the Wolf had very hearty appetites.

  Shaking his head he poured her a cup of tea and set it before her. “Try some tea, love,” he suggested, putting some bread into the toaster. “We’ll see if we can find anything else your stomach can handle before I go and buy the manufacturing plant for your pudding.”

  Inhaling the scent of the tea, she closed her eyes and shook her head. “No, my stomach’s all turning in knots again.” Setting it down, she pushed it from her. “I think I will just have water if you don’t mind please?” she asked and then stood to begin to pace as she smelled the toast cooking. Just the scent of it was making her stomach hurt and closing her eyes said, “I’m going to open the back door to let in some air, I’m sorry, Laszlo, but the smells are killing me.”

  Frowning at that, he flipped up the toast and tossed them out. Pulling out a bottle of water he passed it to her and then dug out the saltines. “See about these?” he asked softly and moved to open a window.

  Taking the saltines from him she tried one out and nodded. “These are good, too.” It seemed the bland foods would be the best, the ones without the smells and textures to give her a hard time. “This is going to be a very long pregnancy isn’t it?” she asked as she watched him there frowning at her.

  “No longer than any other pregnancy, love, besides,” he said as he moved back to her, “I’ve heard that during each trimester there’s the possibility for the cravings to change. Next month you could be eating a cow a day,” he told her with a grin.

  She snorted in laughter and shook her head. “Let’s hope for your sake that I’m not because then I would get as large as said bovines and where would that leave you, Laszlo?” It would leave him with a hungry all the time pregnant, what? “What am I by the way? Am I your girlfriend, lover, other than mate, what am I?”

  “You are my mate and, if you ever decide you want to marry me, my wife,” he said softly. “The Wolf Nation, while we respect marriage, view it slightly differently. Mating is more permanent than marriage, but we also understand that our mates may not see it as such and like to have the formality of a wedding. But you are also the mother of our children, the most important woman in my life, my heart, soul, the very air I breathe and the only reason I wake up every morning.”

&n
bsp; Desi was all emotional and moved from where she was to his arms. Wrapping herself up close to him she waited for several long minutes before saying, “I would like to wed just because I want your last name because I want our children and their mother to have the same last name.”

  “Honey, you had it the moment I gave you this,” he murmured, stroking a finger over her mating mark. “Or rather the first one I gave you. But if you would like it formal…” He smiled and held up a hand before heading deeper into the house. Whistling softly, he found what he wanted and went back to her.

  She couldn’t figure out what he was doing and was honestly a little worried. She didn’t realize that she could alter her last name because of them being mated, then again she was still learning the laws as they related between human and Wolf. When he came back she grinned, and then went blank with what happened next.

  Going to a knee he popped open the box. “Will you marry me, Desmonda?” he asked simply. She knew that he wasn’t one to be effusive, that he was to the point most days, except for with her, it seemed. He was just a hair too nervous as she stared at the ring in the box. While it was simple in design, it was not a small stone, and she had a feeling that he’d tell her the history of it later and just who it had once belonged to.

  Des finally found her voice and nodded before saying, “Yes, Laszlo, yes I will marry you.” Holding her far-too-shaky hand out, she hesitated and curled her fingers under. “As long as you keep in mind that I will keep my weapon, I will continue to be bossy and I will love you for the rest of time.”