Tragic King (The Dominant Bastard Duology Book 2)

by Sparrow Beckett

  Minnow was going through another contraction as they walked in.

  The nurse stopped a few steps into the room. “Oh. Hey, man. Is this going to be weird?” she asked Rodrigo.

  He grinned at her, but looked tired. “Hey, Feng. Not unless it’s weird for you.”

  “He offered me fifty grand, cash, to stay overtime. This can be as weird as it needs to be.” She winked at Minnow. “Your man used to beat me at parties, back in the day. We cool?”

  “Yes, thank god,” Minnow grumbled. “Vanilla nurse was making me twitchy.”

  The new nurse laughed. “She’s a nice girl, but green. I made a safeword joke the other day and she had no idea what I was talking about.”

  “Her kink is leaving the lights on?” Minnow asked, giving a short laugh.

  “Missionary in the dark would be kinky to her.”

  “That would be kinky for me too,” Rodrigo admitted. “It’s been a long time.”

  They hung out and talked for a while, joking about things they wouldn’t have discussed in front of vanilla people. It was helping Minnow relax, so at least he felt like he’d helped a little. He was a shithead for not thinking to do this beforehand, but he hadn’t been able to force his mind far enough into the event to go through details.

  Severin watched them and struggled with his panic. He kept looking outside, wishing he could leave. He’d wanted her here, where it was safer for her, but the smell of the place turned his stomach. People kept walking past and glancing in. He felt like they were a sideshow. No doubt the other nurse was gossiping.

  He hated how calm Minnow was. She didn’t voice her pain, even though he could see it, and in between contractions she acted as if they were hanging out in the living room. It felt like a moment where last words should be exchanged, but everyone was acting as though there would be a tomorrow for them. That she’d live and nothing would change.

  “You know how to deliver a baby, right?” he finally asked Feng as Minnow’s contractions had fewer breaks between them.

  “Minnow’s body knows what to do, Mr. Leduc. I know how, but the doctor will do the actual delivery.” The nurse scrubbed her hands in the sink and put on some gloves. “Let’s see what’s going on. Do you have the urge to push?”

  Minnow shook her head no, but had given up clutching their hands to wrap her fingers in the sheets. She was so small and pale lying there. So helpless. She didn’t look very scared, but he was fucking petrified. If it was his kid, how was she going to push it out? He had a big head. What if the baby got stuck? What if there was no way to save them and they both died?

  “Are you sure you don’t want a C-section?” he blurted.

  Feng shot him a look of sympathy, but Rodrigo and Minnow were watching her rather than listening to him.

  The nurse checked her. “You’re at ten. You’re good to go. Do you want to try pushing and we’ll see if the doctor needs to come in soon?”

  “Wait!” Severin held up a staying hand.

  Minnow arched a brow. “For what, Mister Leduc?”

  “I’m not ready,” he admitted.

  Minnow smiled regretfully, the little jerk. “I know, but it’s too late for that.”

  “Don’t die,” he said desperately, hating that there was a stranger in the room while he was feeling so out of control.

  Minnow smiled at him, her gaze conveying her affection louder than any words could. “As if you’d allow it, Mister Leduc.”

  For a moment it looked like she was going to say something more, but her expression shifted, and she started to push. He stood there in terror, not sure what to do.

  The nurse tapped Minnow’s leg almost immediately. “Minnow, stop. We need the doctor. You just hang out right there and think non-pushing thoughts.” Her mouth twisted with chagrin.

  The doctor came moments later, as if by magic, and took over from Feng. “Someone’s in a hurry!” the doctor said, her brows high. “Just do what your body wants to do and the rest of us will do anything you want.”

  “Just for the record, no matter what you say I refuse to line dance,” Rodrigo said.

  “Hard limit?” Minnow gasped out.

  “The hardest.”

  She chuckled tiredly gazing up at Ro. The two of them looked at each other with adoration. They were so excited about this kid. They’d tried involving him in the naming and the nursery, but the few bits of enthusiasm he’d been able to fake hadn’t been convincing.

  Severin couldn’t remember what they’d chosen.

  He didn’t belong here.

  He moved toward the door, knowing no one would notice him gone. He couldn’t stay and watch her die. He couldn’t stay and watch her live and bring a tragically flawed human into the world. A kid who would suffer – who’d regret he was ever conceived. They were happy because they didn’t know what it was like having genes like his. He’d been stupid and hadn’t been careful enough to prevent his tainted genes from spreading.

  “Good job, Minnow. Wow. Three more good pushes and the hard part will be done.”

  Severin had made it partway to the door when he looked back. The top of the baby’s head was visible and he stood, transfixed, as Minnow grunted with effort and forced the baby’s head out. His feet rooted to the ground as the rest of the baby was delivered, a scrunchy, goop-covered gremlin with a weirdly rubbery-looking body.

  It opened its eyes and looked around with a what-the-fuck-just-happened expression.

  A laugh burbled up from Severin’s chest. People were talking. The thing’s slate-gray gaze landed on Severin and fixed on him. The alien was put on Minnow’s belly and he moved so he could watch the two of them look at each other. He’d expected the typical movie crying baby thing, but it just checked out its mother with curiosity.

  A weird, calm excitement flooded through him, followed by the worst terror he’d ever known. The baby was so small. So many things could happen. Rodrigo was crouched down, watching from close, stroking careful fingers over the kid’s thatch of dark, wet hair. A tiny hand stretched, spider-like, the fingers seeming strangely long. Tiny nails on the end of each finger. All the bits in the right places.

  Severin realized his face was wet. He watched Rodrigo kiss Minnow, the baby making the whole scene like a Hallmark card. Perfect. His people in one place.

  Happy. Alive.

  The baby too fragile. Adorable in its ugliness.

  He wandered into the hall laughing.

  *

  They were asleep.

  His submissives curled around their baby. The dogs guarded them from the floor.

  Severin watched over them all, afraid to sleep. The baby’s mouth moved instinctively at Minnow’s breast, the child having nodded off while nursing. Probably needed a diaper change, but sleep was hard to come by.

  He wished he could paint. Photographs were good, but their impartiality never saw what he saw.

  Frog stirred, and Severin prepared himself to take him away, but he settled again. A goofy smile crossed the sleeping kid’s face and Severin wondered what he was dreaming about. Maybe something deep, like the meaning of the universe – maybe it was a joke only a baby could get and people forgot it as they got older.

  Frog was the coolest thing that had ever happened to him.

  Minnow and Rodrigo kept insisting the baby’s name was something else – Otis? Oliver? Started with an O. He’d make an effort to remember eventually.

  He and Frog had an understanding. They talked about deep shit when everyone else was asleep on the job.

  As if on cue, the baby wriggled and grunted, the prelude to a full-on fuss. Minnow’s nipple popped out of his mouth and his little face screwed up in preparation for a howl of displeasure.

  Severin plucked the baby out of bed and brought him to the impeccably decorated and seldom used nursery, ignoring the change table to use the changing pad on the floor. He couldn’t roll over yet, but he was strong and smart, and Severin was pretty sure he’d be rolling around in no time. He changed Frog’s dia
per and checked him over to make sure he didn’t look skinnier or anything then put him in the sling.

  Octavian?

  Ollivander?

  Something with O... Ostrich?

  No.

  Onion.

  Oscar.

  That seemed closer to being right...

  He looked down at Frog’s sleepy face, eyelids drooping, lips parted in a half smile, his tuft of downy black hair sticking straight up, as always.

  Prospero.

  That was it. He knew there was an ‘o’ or two in it.

  A serious name for such a little frog. Made him sound like a superhero.

  From a distance, there was the crunch of tires on gravel.

  What now?

  Although Rodrigo’s house was closer to the hospital, which suited Severin fine, it was also in town, which meant people dropping by at all hours wanting to gawk at their kid. Minnow thrived on the family contact, though. Church, Ilse, and the girls had stayed for almost a week, and Rodrigo’s mother and sister came by almost every day. She had people again, even if they weren’t her blood relations.

  It was ten in the morning, but why did people think it was okay to drop by unannounced – as if the house wasn’t chaotic enough without surprise visitors?

  He strolled down to the door, trying not to jostle his little gnome, while readying himself to intercept the intruders and keep them occupied for a while so Min could sleep. He also had to assess whether they were healthy enough to be breathing Frog’s air because he had no qualms about telling people to get the fuck out of the house if they so much as sniffled.

  He opened the door to find his own blue eyes staring back at him.

  Loïc, but the scruffy version.

  “What are you doing here?” The aggression he would have expected upon finding Loïc standing on their doorstep was strangely absent. He’d wondered, unwilling to admit he’d been worried – unwilling to go looking for him after he’d tossed him out of his life. There’d been no sign of him for almost a year. Severin had assumed he was dead. The amount of relief he felt to see him alive surprised him.

  “I...” He brandished a gift bag that looked suspiciously as if he’d put it together himself. “I found out about the baby and wanted to congratulate you.” His gaze drifted to the sling, and he smiled a strange smile, full of longing. He held out the gift. “I was going to leave it on the step rather than bother you. You probably hoped I’d never come back.”

  Severin was struck by how young his brother seemed. Hardly more than a boy, really. A fucked-up kid who no one gave a shit about. The protective dad thing reared its stupid head. Loïc’s hair was slicked back and longish, his face sporting a few days of beard, his earlobes pierced with silver rings – a far cry from the very proper young man who’d arrived on his doorstep the first time. He actually looked more like Severin now, the poor bastard.

  There was a long, awkward pause as he tried to think things through, but he was too tired and happy to see the harm in being kind.

  “Are you sick?”

  “What?”

  “Sick. Like, do you have a cold? A cough?”

  Loïc’s dark brows rose in confusion. “Um...no.”

  He accepted the gift from Loïc’s outstretched hand.

  “Come in,” he said finally.

  His brother’s face lit with cautious optimism.

  “I’m not saying move in. I’m saying we’ll have coffee, and I’ll try not to strangle you.”

  Loïc’s eyes were bright. “I’ll take anything I can get, mon frère.”

  Life was too short and unpredictable to pretend he didn’t care. He’d wasted too much of his life pretending. Besides, Prospero should have the chance to meet his prodigal uncle.

  Severin stepped back and let Loïc in.

  The End

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to Heimy Roa for being Rodrigo’s Spanish checker yet again, and thanks to Sorcha Black’s mother for correcting Loïc’s French, even though she’ll never be allowed to read the book.

  Once again, thanks to the Vampire Queen of the South, Nerine Dorman, for her quick and thorough editing work, and for being completely impossible to shock at this stage of her editing career.

  Thanks to Rebel Book Design (www.rebelbookdesign.com) for creating gorgeous covers we always want to lick.

  And, as always, thanks to our hilarious, badass, bratty street teams, The Badass Brats, and Sparrow’s Circus!

  More books by Sparrow Beckett

  Masters Unleashed

  Finding Master Right

  Playing Hard to Master

  To Have and to Master

  Masters of Adrenaline

  Stealing His Thunder

  Fueling His Hunger

  Pushing Her Limits

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