The Royals of Monterra: Royal Delivery (Kindle Worlds)

by Rebecca Connolly

  Lemon suddenly let loose with a loud, pained sound of distress and Dante was off like a flash.

  “…doozy,” I finished with a helpless look at the other two men, who suddenly looked terrified.

  Rafe, as it turned out, proved insanely useful. While Dante tried to soothe his wife, whose main concern was that it was still too early and I couldn’t possibly go this soon to make it better, he set off to make the car arrangements, security details, and call the hospital in advance to prepare them. I tried to get Nico to do something helpful, but he refused every time with a firm shake of his head.

  “You are not going to mind yourself,” he told me quite plainly, “and in your condition, someone needs to look after you.”

  I huffed a little. “Someone needs to look after Lemon! She’s the one having a baby.”

  He gave me a serious and all-too-knowing look. “And we need to make sure that you don’t have one, too. Dante will take care of Lemon, that’s what he’s there for. He’s her husband, let him do it.”

  I looked into my husband’s eyes, so blue and calming, so serious and steady, and the fight went out of me. I sank into him and he pulled me in close at once. “She’s my best friend,” I whispered, clutching his shirt.

  He rubbed my back soothingly and kissed my hair. “I know, bella. We’ll go with them to the hospital, and you’ll be with her, I promise.”

  I hugged him closer to me and sighed. “Thank you.”

  Lemon snorted from behind us. “Don’t thank him yet, girlfriend. I’m about three seconds from screaming my freaking head off and if that doesn’t scare the pants off of you, nothing will.” She grabbed for Dante and he was there, bag over his shoulder, hair somehow in disarray. “Let’s get this baby out of me.”

  “How does it feel?”

  “Like somebody hacked off the lower half of my body.”

  “You like it?”

  “I loooooove it. L-U-V. I would marry this epidural if I were a free woman.”

  I laughed and looked towards the door. “Don’t let Dante hear you say that.”

  Lemon grinned and rolled her head on her pillow to look at me. “Dante makes me feel good, there’s no question, but this? Oh my lord, Kat. I know how you feel about drugs and all, but DO THIS.”

  I managed a smile, and avoided shaking my head. Despite everything I’d seen already today, which would terrify me if I actually thought about it long enough, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to go the drugs route. I’d seen too much in my life to consider it. I was probably crazy, but there it was.

  We’d been at the hospital two hours already and even though Lemon was in active labor, as she’d so delicately shouted to anyone who came into the room looking the least bit medical, it was pretty slow going. Her contractions were pretty intense, so they went ahead with the epidural, probably more so they wouldn’t have to deal with her being the crazy lady with the really vocal reaction to pain.

  Dante and Nico had fled to the cafeteria when the epidural kicked in and once Lemon was in a good mood.

  Cowards.

  I’d seen Lemon through a lot of things in life, but never in a million years had I imagined what watching her endure contractions would be like. If I hadn’t already been pregnant, that might have been the birth control to make me second-guess the idea. As it was, I was forcing myself to avoid pondering on them because it would probably lead to a breakdown, and when you combine panicky breakdown with pregnancy hormones, it would have gotten really ugly.

  Lemon heaved a sigh and looked up at the ceiling. “Remember the first ultrasound? Where you’re up in stirrups and they shove the wand covered in goop up in there and it’s really cold and awkward?”

  I grinned and sat back in my less that comfortable hospital chair. “Yeah. And then suddenly you see the blob with a heartbeat and you don’t feel it anymore?”

  “Yeah.” She smiled a little. “I had no idea what the rest of it was gonna be like, you know? I mean, you hear things, but nobody tells you all of it.”

  “How can they?” I scratched at my ever-itchy belly. “You think if we knew just how bad the nausea and heartburn could be that we would go for this?”

  Lemon barked a laugh. “Or how we almost wet ourselves every day at the end? And sometimes we actually do but just don’t care?”

  “Or how your boobs are suddenly massive and heavy?”

  She gave me a bit of a smirk, somehow looking gorgeous in her hospital gown and in labor. “I didn’t mind that one so much.”

  I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “I did. Sheesh, I hope these go down in a few months.”

  Lemon laughed and reached out her hand for me. “I never thought we’d actually be pregnant at the same time, you know? I mean, odds are we’d overlap at some point, but not like this.”

  I squeezed her hand, smiling. “Not like this. Pretty sure I’d have gone crazy if you weren’t doing this with me.”

  “Same here,” she murmured, her voice breaking a little.

  I raised a teasing brow. “I still hate you for being perfectly pregnant, you know.”

  She heaved a dramatic sigh. “I told you, sister. Backne and hemorrhoids.” She shuddered and laid her head back on her pillow. “The secret pregnancy fun facts that nobody mentions.”

  “That bad?”

  She nodded without looking at me. “And I have ridiculous stretch marks. Like awful ones. Never thought much of bikinis before now, but I am definitely not wearing any after this. Dante says he doesn’t notice them, but…” She shrugged, looking far more vulnerable than I’d seen her in years. “I notice them. And even though I feel awesome for carrying this baby, for doing pretty dang well the entire time, I never really felt… Well, you know how some women talk about how beautiful they feel while pregnant?”

  I nodded. I kind of hated those women, but only because I was insanely jealous.

  “I never had that,” Lemon whispered. “I felt awkward and self-conscious and I’m actually scared of letting my husband see me naked after I’m not pregnant anymore. It’s one thing to look like this with his baby inside of me, but what about when it’s over? Later on, will he still like what he sees?”

  I didn’t have an answer for that. How could I? Lemon’s body was still way better than mine at this point, but I wasn’t dumb enough to think things hadn’t changed. I could see that they had, especially these last months. And I couldn’t exactly talk away her fears, because I had them too.

  She quickly wiped away a few tears and groaned. “Ugh, I’m such an idiot. That’s selfish talk, right? I mean, I’m having a freaking baby here. That’s some miraculous stuff! I shouldn’t care if I never get my body back… but I do.”

  I squeezed her hand again. “That’s okay,” I said, not really knowing what to say or do to help her. “Dante loves you, Lemon, not just because you have a frickin’ amazing body.”

  “Had,” she corrected sharply. “Had, not have.”

  I shook my head. “Have,” I insisted. “You’re still Perfect Pregnancy Barbie, my friend. Stretch marks and all.” I turned myself a little and put my other hand over hers. “And if I know Dante, and I do, he’s going to be just as crazy for you if those stretch marks are there forever. Because they’re yours, and for your baby, and he’s probably going to find that incredibly sexy.”

  Lemon threw her head back and laughed, loudly and without restraint, which did funny things to the monitors, and made me giggle, which made my bladder do things, and I just shook my head at that.

  “Oh man,” Lemon said breathlessly, still laughing. “That’s great. Yeah, he probably will, huh? Crazy man, I adore him to death.”

  I grinned and sat back a little. “Favorite part of pregnancy.”

  She raised a brow. “Eating whatever the heck I want without feeling guilty.”

  I moaned and closed my eyes. “Oh yeah. Midnight gelato will never be the same without the side sandwich.”

  “Worst part.”

  I cracked an eye open at her. “Can I sa
y that when I’m not done? Pretty sure it’ll be contractions the way you were carrying on.”

  She considered that. “Toss-up between contractions and first trimester as a whole. Contractions suck, but the end is nigh, so there’s that…”

  Oh goodie, something to look forward to.

  She shook her head. “No, the glucose test was the worst part, contractions and all.”

  I suddenly wanted to vomit. “Ugh, yeah, absolutely.”

  She looked thoughtful all of a sudden. “No, I take it back. My favorite part wasn’t the food.”

  That shocked me. Lemon had become a total foodie and all hell broke loose if she didn’t eat. “What was it?”

  She smiled a little. “The first time I felt a kick. Not the fluttering part, but the real honest to goodness kick. Before he was too big to be felt well and before my ribs and hips were getting bruised from his crazy dance moves. Those first few kicks. Gosh, I loved that.”

  I grinned at her, suddenly feeling exactly the same way. I waited a moment, then added, “But the food was pretty dang good.”

  “Oh, the food was amazing, don’t get me wrong there.”

  We were still laughing when our husbands came back and they seemed surprised by it. Dante kissed Lemon gently and Nico came to start rubbing my shoulders, kissing my hair.

  “How are you feeling, Limone?” Dante asked, cupping her cheek.

  “Like a million bucks,” she replied, grinning wryly. “Literally, a big fat pile of money.”

  He grinned back. “No pain?”

  She shook her head. “Nope, no pain. Just awkward pressure. Can’t really describe it, but it doesn’t exactly bother me.” She shrugged. “Find any good food?”

  He sat on the edge of her bed. “Not really. You get this going, and we’ll get Tino to have something waiting for you at home.”

  Lemon flopped her head back on the pillow. “Ugh. Don’t talk about Tino. I’d marry him if I wasn’t married to you.”

  “Is that so?” Dante challenged, folding his arms. “You think Tino would love you better than me?”

  Lemon narrowed her eyes. “Tino is a god among men. You are just a lowly prince.”

  “Lowly, is it?” Dante leaned over her, bracketing her with his arms. “Lowly?”

  “Get a room,” Nico groaned with a roll of his eyes, working magic on my shoulders.

  Dante chortled and glanced at his brother. “We have a room. You’re in it.”

  I winced and looked up at Nico. “He’s got a point.”

  Nico gave me a hard look. “Don’t you start, Kat.”

  A nurse appeared then to check Lemon’s progress, so Nico and I went out into the hallway to give her some privacy.

  Nico took me by the shoulders and looked at me closely. “Are you all right?”

  I hadn’t really thought about it, but no, I wasn’t. I’d put on a good face for Lemon and had been focused on helping her, but out here in the hallway with my husband, I was most definitely not okay.

  I shook my head. “No,” I whispered, tears rising and heart beginning to race. “No, I’m not.”

  Nico folded me in his arms at once and held me close, murmuring softly in Italian.

  I let him hold me, buried myself in him, and waited for my panic to subside. “She was hurting so badly,” I managed. “Lemon is the strongest person I know and she was screaming.”

  “Shh,” he soothed, stroking my hair. “You knew it was going to be something like this, bella.”

  “But seeing it, knowing I’m only a few weeks off, is something else entirely.” I shook my head against him and held him tighter. “How am I going to do this?”

  “With me,” he said simply. He pulled back and took my face in his hands. “I will be with you the entire time, cuore mio. You can do this. We can do this.”

  I nodded in his hold, gripping his shirt. “Okay. Kiss me so I don’t think about it anymore.”

  He grinned so fast it almost blinded me. “Now that I can do.” And he did.

  And it worked really well.

  The door to the room opened and we went back in, only to be told it was going to be a very long night, so we might as well go home. I argued for staying, but Nico, Dante, and Lemon all disagreed, Lemon most of all.

  “Battle of the Babies is about to become a single Royal Baby Watch,” she told me. “Go home and get ready for that. The moment I’m out of this bed, I will be riding your behind so hard to turn the focus all on you, you’ll hate me. Go home. Sleep. Make Nico give you a foot rub.”

  “Excuse me?” Nico said, turning to her with a raised brow.

  She snorted. “Excuse me, Your Majesty, sorry for speaking for you.”

  Dante barked a laugh.

  I gave up and gave Lemon a hug, feeling pretty emotional, but neither of us said anything about it. I ordered her to call her mom, since I knew Sue Ellen would be calling me if Lemon didn’t, and then Nico and I left.

  I did pretty good on the drive home, holding Nico’s hand and looking out of the window. I held it together when everyone at home asked about Lemon and what was going on. I didn’t even crack when Serafina asked me how big my baby was and I replied it was a squash.

  But when Nico took me upstairs and got me in my pajamas, and lay down in bed next to me and opened his arms, I lost it.

  I didn’t say anything, and he didn’t either. I let loose my panicked sobs and all of the fear and worry that had been building up. I wasn’t a queen at that moment and he wasn’t a king. I was just a pregnant woman terrified about what was coming and he was the poor husband who knew enough just to hold me and let me freak out.

  Around four in the morning the phone rang and Nico sleepily answered it, but I sprang upright, as much as I could with my size. He asked a few questions, then laughed once.

  “What?” I asked, poking him.

  He tipped the phone away from his face. “The baby was born about twenty minutes ago,” he murmured. He grinned and even in the darkness I saw the irony in it. “It’s a girl.”

  I gaped and grabbed at his wrist. “It’s supposed to be a boy,” I whispered. “The ultrasound said it was a boy, Lemon said so.”

  Nico laughed and repeated what I said into the phone, waited, then said, “Well, Dante says he was there, and the baby that came out was most definitely a girl. They’re working on girl names now, but she’ll probably be Eva. Eight pounds twelve ounces, and lots of dark hair. Lemon feels great and is already asking if she can go home now.”

  I shook my head and lay down again, resting my head on Nico’s shoulder as he kept talking to his brother, not really listening anymore.

  Lemon had a baby.

  Which meant I was next.

  I gripped Nico’s t-shirt a little and tried to calm the sudden fluttering of my heart.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Seventh Trimester

  I was going to be pregnant forever.

  Literally, forever.

  I was well aware that a pregnancy lasts about two hundred and eighty days, but I was positive that I had been pregnant for eight hundred and seventy-two. Every time I saw the doctor, I was convinced they would tell me that their calculations were obviously wrong and that I needed to deliver soon. I was even open to being induced, but nobody seemed to see what I was seeing.

  Worst of all, it seemed that my projected due date was squarely on Christmas.

  There was no way in any Mannheim Steamroller musicked, Santa Claus themed, hot chocolate and sugar cookied, red and green and twinkly lights tinted world that I would let that happen.

  And the most frustrating part was that everybody seemed to think this was all really funny.

  The rest of November passed uneventfully, except for the announcement and fuss over the arrival of Her Royal Highness Princess Eva Aria Katerina Ellen. The world went absolutely berserk over her, and there wasn’t anything we could do about that.

  Lemon had almost immediately bounced back to her usual body, which the entire world seemed jealous of, bu
t she was so busy being a doting mom and her old bossy self that she didn’t even notice. And she made the mommy job look fashionable and easy. Eva was always dressed in the most adorable things and was somehow more photogenic at a month old than I have ever been. Paparazzi weren’t a problem in Monterra, but the rest of the world going so crazy for photos that we had to actually set up restrictions and come out with statements about privacy and law. Who’d have thought a royal baby that wasn’t even going to be on the throne would cause this much fuss?

  But then, most royal babies didn’t have Lemon and Dante as parents. Those two were Hollywood attractive and everybody loved them.

  It didn’t take long for the awkward questions about Eva’s timing to come out. My regular interviews had started to take a bit of a bitter turn, trying to find the family strife in the king’s brother having a child before him. Lemon worked some kind of magic because it suddenly became the most taboo topic on the planet, quite literally, and becoming the Situation That Shall Not Be Mentioned.

  Most of the time, though, people just wanted to look at Eva. Then smile at me and ask when it was my turn.

  Which was a darn good question.

  I continued working with Natalia, and not just for appearance’s sake. I actually felt a lot better when I was letting her help me and moving that way, and I even had Nico down for a few sessions when the press would be there, which made for some pretty hilarious and adorable moments. My warrior poses were looking more like beer-belly poses and I was getting more and more off-center, but I still rocked goddess pose, and that sounded better anyway.

  But as the weeks went on, I continued to get bigger and bigger and bigger. I was convinced I was having twins, but was repeatedly assured that it was just one baby. It made no difference; I ached and groaned and creaked and swelled and was generally miserable, though I smiled a lot and told everyone how excited I was.

  Once I hit thirty-five weeks, I decided that enough was enough.

  I had collected enough pins on Pinterest to warrant the “we think you’ve pinned too much” alerts at least once a week throughout November, and it was time to put them into play now that it was officially close to delivery time.