Chapter 65
SIXTY-FIVE
Z
Eight Months Later
M y wedding was a small affair, though I knew the council would’ve preferred it be large and grand as a way to boost morale. However, that wasn’t what my mates and I wanted. We were already connected in every way that mattered. A wedding was just a formality.
Only our closest friends and family members attended.
There were no nerves in my stomach as I pledged myself to my mates. I knew that they were my forever.
Once the wedding ended, all of us moved to our house to celebrate.
We chose to live close to the capitol building, in a home with ten bedrooms. We wanted the option to have our own space, if necessary, though the majority of the time, my mates stayed in my room, in a bed that went from wall to wall. I liked having them close. Feeling their arms around me. Breathing in their distinct scents.
For the wedding’s after-party, Mali and Atta had transformed the basement. Fairy lights dangled from rafters, and they’d set up a large table, boasting an assortment of tiny foods and desserts. A live orchestra performed in the corner on a slightly raised stage.
Mali and Atta had truly outdone themselves.
After the wedding, I’d changed out of my white dress and into something a little more comfortable. This particular dress stopped just below my knees and rippled like water when I moved, the color more silver than white, sparkling like the stars themselves had been plucked from the sky. I’d wanted to wear my usual fighting leathers, but Mali insisted.
Besides, the dress felt amazing against my skin.
“You look beautiful, my love.” Dair wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and pulled me flush against his chest.
His lips teased my earlobe, and warmth flared low in my belly.
“And you look dashing, husband.” I turned in his arms, biting my lower lip as I surveyed him from head to toe.
His gray suit clung to his muscular frame in a way I was almost jealous of. A blue tie—the color almost the exact same shade as his aquamarine eyes—had come slightly undone, hanging loose around his neck.
And he was walking.
After the kings’ execution, we retrieved the bones from their bodies—along with the bones of a deceased shadow king. Bash and Paco worked together to create a mixture that would enable Dair to walk permanently.
I knew that Dair didn’t need to have two working legs for me to love him, but I also understood that this wasn’t about me. It wasn’t even about him. He had come to accept himself as he was, yet a part of him still craved what he’d lost. What his malicious father and brothers had taken away from him.
And finally, he’d gotten it back.
“I’ll never get tired of hearing you say that,” Dair murmured, planting a chaste kiss to the tip of my nose.
“Hearing her say what?” Ryland materialized in a horde of shadows directly over the mermaid’s shoulders.
Slowly, his features began to pop into existence—first his piercing blue eyes, then his slightly crooked nose, then the scars marring the skin of his cheek, then his shoulders, and finally the rest of him.
“The h-word.” Dair released me and turned to face the shadow.
“Himbo?” Ryland asked, arching an eyebrow.
Dair gave him a droll look. “Yes. Himbo. Obviously.”
Ryland grinned wickedly before lowering his gaze to me. As always, he gave me an assessing once-over, as if ensuring I was alive and okay.
All of my mates did that, as if they needed to know for themselves that I’d survived the battle with Aaliyah and my father. I couldn’t even blame them. I found myself doing the exact same thing with the seven of them constantly.
“You look beautiful, dove,” Ryland said reverently. His sweeping gaze stopped on my baby bump, and fierce possessiveness splayed across his face. “I don’t think you have ever looked more ethereal before.”
“How does it feel to be a married woman?” Bash slung an arm around my shoulders before I could reply to Ryland. My mage mate kissed my cheek before releasing me. “I swear a dozen fuckers are crying their eyes out now that you’re off the market.”
I snorted before I could help myself. “I’ve been off the market since I met you fuckers.”
“Aww. You’re already giving us cutesy husband pet names,” Bash cooed dramatically.
“You want your pet name to be fucker?” Killian asked, looking unfairly dashing in the suit tailored specifically for him. His tail poked through a tiny hole in the back of his trousers.
Unlike with Dair, the bones of all the kings did not heal my sweet incubus. Paco had a theory for that—Aaliyah’s magic was so dark and corrupted that nothing short of death could reverse it. And since death was off the table…
Killian smiled sheepishly at me, red dusting his neck and cheeks. “Hi.”
I found myself smiling back. “Hi.”
“You’re married, and you’re awkwardly saying ‘hi’ to each other?” Devlin lifted an eyebrow as he joined me on my other side in a black three-piece suit complete with a violet tie. “Never change, Killian. Never change.”
“Why do you guys keep saying that to me?” Killian threw his hands up in exasperation.
“Because you’re adorable.” Jax playfully moved to pinch Killian’s cheeks, but Killian swatted the vampire’s hands away with a scowl.
“I hate you all.”
As my mates bickered amongst themselves, Lupe shouldered his way through them until he stood in front of me, a plate of crackers and cheese in his hands. Instantly, the mouth-watering aroma assaulted my senses. My cravings had been more intense this late in my pregnancy. Primarily, I wanted cheese and chocolate. Sometimes both at the same time.
Fucking hormones.
“God, I love you,” I moaned, grabbing the plate from Lupe and shoving a handful of cheesy crackers into my mouth.
“Is she talking to you or the cheese?” Jax mock-whispered.
“The cheese,” Bash said. “Definitely the cheese.”
I flipped them all off.
“I want to go thank Atta again,” Lupe said, glancing over his shoulder where couples danced. “She and Mali have truly outdone themselves.”
“I think I saw them with Axel and Mary-Lynette in the kitchen,” Bash mused, tapping a finger to his chin. “I’m pretty sure the slippery bastard was using his machete to cut watermelon. Don’t ask me why. I didn’t even know we fucking had watermelon.”
“I need to talk to him,” Devlin said with a nod.
Axel had become the official security advisor for all of the kingdoms. We eliminated the position of assassin shortly after coming into power. That wasn’t how we wanted to rule.
“No work,” Dair admonished with a scowl. “It’s our wedding night.”
“I’m, for one, excited for the after- after -party,” Bash purred, giving me a slow, salacious once-over.
All at once, I found myself the center of attention of seven completely different men. Their gazes felt like lightning on my skin, skittering across my arms and legs. The heat in my belly morphed from tiny embers to a blistering inferno. Any second and I would burst into flames and be burned alive.
“We could move this party upstairs—” Devlin began, but I couldn’t hear anything else as the worst pain imaginable reverberated through me.
I’d been stabbed, shot, poisoned, left for dead, and more…but I’d never experienced anything quite like this before. My entire body became one huge gaping wound.
Wetness trickled down my leg, and at first, I thought I’d peed myself. I couldn’t help but think how embarrassing that would be.
Then another piercing pain racked my body, and I placed my hands over my belly, where it felt like all of my organs were rearranging.
Oh…fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I blinked at my mates, who were all gaping at me, wide-eyed and terrified.
“I think…” I hissed out a breath as another wave of pain assaulted me. “I think my water just broke.”
And then everything went to shit.