“I absolutely will,” I said with tears in my eyes.
“Forever my fae darling,” he said, then gathered me in his strong arms and kissed me deeply. Soon after we were joined by friends and family who toasted our engagement with sparklingcider. We celebrated late into the night with fireworks and food, Hiero’s kin regaling me with their shared memories and playing music around a bonfire until dawn. I sang my heart out and when I grew tired, fell asleep on a blanket by the fire with my betrothed steadfast by my side.
The wedding was a simple but beautiful affair, held on that same mountaintop a few weeks later with the entirety of the Wolfsbane Clan present. There was much singing and dancing and revelry all round. I wore a crown of flowers and white gossamer pants with a matching peasant blouse because my baby bump was now starting to show. Hiero wore his leather pants, motorcycle boots, a black dress shirt, and the silver chain I’d given him as a token of my affection. It was easily the happiest day of my life.
My only guest was Monica, as my parents never showed or even bothered to respond to my invitation, but my bitterness was soon replaced by gratitude for the shifter clan that had adopted me as their own. They became more of a family to me with each passing day.
Soon after the wedding, Hiero and I spent a magical week down by the coast in a little beachside shack where we made love everyday to the sounds of the waves caressing the sand. That was also where I learned my Daddy had a bondage kink, and through extensive experimentation, he even figured out a way to bind my wings.
When we arrived back home, I discovered much to my surprise that a stone mason had already begun work on thefoundation of what was to be our new family home. Hiero let me help design the interior, making sure the master bedroom had ample closet space for my growing collection of Oleander originals as well as a bathroom large enough to accommodate my various beautification rituals. Monica had gasped, eyes bugging, when she saw it, but even more so when I showed her her room for when she visited, which had a bathroomalmostas big as mine.
And I got my balcony, too.
It was on that balcony, next to a trellis of moonflowers, where I sat sipping my hibiscus tea while looking out over the pastures of clover just starting to push up through the ground. It had been almost a year since I’d arrived here in the Dragonback Mountains and found refuge in my minotaur Daddy’s loving embrace. Now it was spring again and everything was in bloom, including myself. I was due to give birth any day, the exact date being hard to pin down because fae pregnancies varied, and I wasn’t altogether sure of my conception date either. We didn’t know the baby’s gender or exact species, but I looked forward to welcoming Tiny Toes into our family, one that was safe and loving and built on all the values that Hiero and I held dear.
I glanced back to our behemoth of a bed where my minotaur Daddy was just starting to stir. He blinked open his sleepy eyes and saw me out on the balcony.
“Come here, gorgeous,” he called in a rough voice. I set my tea on the table and waddled my way back to bed. “What areyou doing up so early?” he asked, kissing my hair and my neck, scenting me as he’d had a habit of doing whenever we’d been apart for even a few hours. I’d asked him about it once, and he told me the smell of my skin soothed him. I supposed it was the same for me.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I said. I’d been uncomfortable lying down lately despite the many pillows Hiero insisted I have to bolster my growing body. “And I have a million things to do today. The nursery still needs to be organized, and there are some meals I’d like to prepare, and I think there are weeds growing in the garden beds out front.”
“Nope,” he said, still half-asleep.
“What do you mean, nope?” I asked.
“You’re not doing any of that today.”
“I’m not?”
“It’s all being taken care of.”
“By who?”
“Our friends and family are taking care of it. Frito and Frankie are coming over to weed the garden. Enid wants to work on the nursery. And Aunt Mabel is making meals.”
Aunt Mabel had certainly come around, congratulating me at our wedding for making an “honest man” out of her nephew.
“I like the way you say ‘our friends and family,’” I confessed.
“They’re yours now too, for better or worse.”
“Then what am I going to do?”
“Be my boy.”
A delicious thrill coursed through me. Suddenly, none of the tasks I’d planned for the day seemed nearly as important as being good for my Daddy.
“I’m your boy every day,” I reminded him.
“Then be my boy, naked,” he said and tugged on the thin, silk robe I’d been wearing to ward off the morning chill. I let it fall freely from my shoulders, the crisp spring air sending a rash of goosebumps across my chest and tightening my nipples. Hiero had researched midwives in the area who were experienced with delivering fae, and after choosing Callista for the important task, he’d asked a lot of questions about safe practices during sex. Our midwife probably knew more about our kinks than Monica. It meant that I trusted him to use me without causing harm to me or our growing child.
“Pretty fae,” Daddy said, rubbing one callused finger over the tightened nub of my nipple, then pinching just beneath the bud until it secreted a sticky golden substance. My chest was slightly swollen and my areolas were as big as silver coins. My nipples were tender all the time. When Daddy teased them like this, it nearly drove me wild.
“The midwife said this means you’re close,” he murmured as he lapped at the nectar with his long tongue, which sent an erotic thrill through me, to be sharing my body with both our child and my Daddy. I moaned without meaning to, and his hand moved to my hard cock, softly stroking.
“Yes, I feel it coming. Any day now,” I said. My body was a seed pod ready to burst open. I was nervous about the labor part of it, but I couldn’t wait to meet our child.
“Remember VIP night?” Daddy said.
