The baby was all round cheeks and curious eyes, so different from the last time I’d seen him. I touched his tiny hand, marveling at the warmth and miniature fingernails.
“He’s beautiful,” Kaori cooed over the boy.
“And this is our daughter, Eula.” Gisela adjusted the baby girl in her arms. Unlike her brother Callum with his shock of red hair, little Eula had inherited her mother’s dark brown locks. “She just turned three months.”
“Oh, she’s precious.” Kaori stared longingly at the baby.
“Would you like to hold her?”
When she nodded with bright eyes, Gisela transferred her daughter to Kaori, who cradled the baby with natural ease. I watched as Papa’s gaze lingered on his beloved holding a child, something stirring in his silver eyes.
“Would you like to hold Valerian?” Luke offered.
Before I could answer, Zane piped up from behind me.
“No, no, no! Holding one will only make her want one, and we have an agreement! No oopsie babies!”
“Zane!” Heat crawled up my neck.
But Luke just laughed, putting the prince into my waiting arms. The last baby I’d held had been my sister. Small and frail and far too new to the world. Prince Valerian was sturdy and solid, his tiny fingers grabbing at my hair with surprising strength.
“Hello, little one,” I murmured, swaying gently.
As Queen Lilah patiently extracted my curls from her son’s pudgy hand, King Julian cleared his throat, and I realized I’d been so absorbed in the children that I’d forgotten we were surrounded by royalty.
“We have a surprise for you,” he announced, making everyone around him fall silent.
“For me?” I raised my eyebrows in question as I handed Prince Valerian to his mother.
King Julian raised his chin and looked over my shoulder, and I turned around to find something I thought I’d lost forever.
29. Precious to Us
Seri
Beta Emerson of the Five Fangs pack was unmistakable, well over six feet tall with a broad-shouldered build that almost made Koa look slim by comparison. With him was his mate, Angelo della Morte. I’d met them briefly after my wedding. Angelo had come at my husbands’ request to help heal my injuries, and Zane had said they trusted no one else.
They had been kind to me then, Angelo’s stern face softening as his magic knit my battered body back together, but it wasn’t their presence that made my breath catch in my throat.
In Emerson’s boulder arms, cradled with improbable tenderness, was a chubby little girl with thick black hair held back by a fancy white headband. She wore a frilly dress, and her little fingers clutched Emerson’s shirt front as she looked around with curiosity.
Gray eyes. She had gray eyes, exactly like the ones I saw every time I looked in the mirror.
Our Papa’s eyes.
“Josslyn?” I breathed, hardly daring to believe it.
Tremors began in my fingers and spread until my whole body felt like it might shake apart at the seams. The room tilted and narrowed, everything beyond that tiny face fading into insignificance. I took an unconscious step forward, then another.
Casimir’s warm hand stayed in the small of my back, steadying me, and Koa loomed beside me, intercepting my champagne glass before I could drop it.
“Are you all right, beloved?”
But I couldn’t answer. All I could see was my sister, so much bigger now, healthy and thriving. She gurgled happily, secure in the arms of who could only be her adoptive father.
“We felt it best if no one knew who gave up the child or who adopted her.” Queen Lilah’s voice seemed to come from very far away. “For her safety and yours. With Arabesque still at large, information was dangerous.”
“Only we and the MacGregors knew the full story,” King Julian added. “Well, and Foster, too, in case he needed to redirect Arabesque’s attention or warn Angelo and Emerson of an impending attack.”
