“Target,” Killian muttered. “You hear that, Ro-Ro?” He leaned over to our daughter. “Stay away from men like your Uncle Dax.”
Rowan scowled. “I love Uncle Dax.”
“Yes, as you should. Just don't date anyone like him. You don't want to be seen as a target.”
“I'm teaching my son how to get whoever he wants,” Daxon said. “That doesn't mean he'll disrespect them. I certainly respect women.”
“And I respect women too, Uncle Killian!” Caelum declared. “I respect and adore them.” His gaze drifted back to Nighean. “I can't wait to adore them more.”
“Dear Gods!” I exclaimed. “Daxon, do something about that!”
“What would you have me do, my love?” Daxon grinned. “He's a young man. It's perfectly natural for him to feel this way. Healthy even.”
Before I could respond, my father said, “Oh, my. That woman looks remarkably like Seren. How fascinating. Do you think King Astaroth has noticed?”
I followed my father's gaze to the right. Back to Star and his escort. I blinked. Processed. Finally saw what everyone else was seeing. Dark hair, fair skin, green eyes. Holy shit! Star was dating a woman that looked like me. Her face was different, of course, but her coloring was close to mine and she had an athletic body with larger breasts, just like me. Now that I'd seen it, I couldn't unsee it. All she needed was a stripe of purple in her hair.
Raza growled again.
“What's wrong, Daddy?” Shazy asked.
“Nothing, dragonling,” Raza said, his voice rumbly and his stare locked on Star. “I've just had confirmation of something I've suspected for a very long time.”
My other husbands all made sounds of agreement while my father's eyes went wide. King Keir was not an oblivious man, but he hadn't been around Star enough to notice the sexual tension between us. Or if he had, he thought nothing of it. This was the man who had urged me to take multiple lovers. It had shocked me at the time, but I understood it now. It was a fey thing. They're very open about sex. Dad himself was born to parents who were married but not to each other. It was Danu's calling that brought them together, and that couldn't be ignored. So, my dad may have noticed Star's interest in me and assumed I'd eventually take him as my lover. Fairy queens were allowed to wander outside the marriage since any child they produced was their heir without question. But their husband, or husbands in my case, had to approve. And remain faithful. Of course, the Call of Danu trumped all of that. Even the called fairy couldn't refuse.
This was not Danu's call.
Although it could be Anu's. Did Anu have a call?
The thought made me go still. What was the difference between Danu leading me to a lover and Anu doing the same? Both had their agendas. As fairies, my husbands (most of them) honored Danu's wishes. But shouldn't Anu's call be honored as well?
Oh, fuck! Now, I was trying to find reasons to be with Star. And I had just given birth to Sever's baby! Talk about time to reel it in. Enough already. Let's blame it on the baby hormones, shall we?
“At least he's found a substitute,” Tiernan said. “This could be a good thing. Maybe now he'll stop panting after our wife.”
“I believe this is proof that he is merely panting in private,” Daxon drawled.
“Panting in private,” Killian repeated with a laugh. “That sounds naughty.”
“I intended it to.”
“Hey,” I hissed and looked pointedly at the children.
“They are not simpletons, Seren,” Tiernan said. “And they're old enough to understand that sometimes you desire someone whom you can't have.”
I sat back with a huff as a tide of questions poured out of our children's mouths.
“What does that mean?”
“Who can't you have?”
“Who wants Mommy?”
And my favorite, the one that had me standing up and leaving the table, came from Caelum, of course. “Are you saying there will be someone I want who Ican'thave? No, that can't be right.”
Chapter Six
What's even better than midwife magic? Immortality and the super-fast healing that comes with it. I rubbed my flat belly as I strolled through the corridor toward the back garden, musing over how marvelous it was to be walking about with no pain anywhere, my body fully recovered from pregnancy and childbirth. No bleeding, no aches, no loose skin. Oh, yes. I knew how miraculous that was. The only difference was my boobs, which were enormous. And I was all right with that. I was normally a C cup, but now I was rockin' double D's. As Killian said, the Booby Fairy had come. To which Daxon had replied, “Oh, if only there were such a fairy.”
