“Eleven,” Kylian pipes in, a radiant grin on his face. “One will be the baby’s torture room.”
Luka pinches the bridge of his nose. “Our baby willnothave a torture room.”
Kylian stares at him, affronted. “Of course not.” He pauses and then adds, “It’ll be for when he’s a toddler. At least three years old. If we start him too young, he’ll turn into a psychopath.”
“For the love of…” Luka massages his temples.
Kylian winks at me, and I bite down on my giddy smile.
Ridge wipes his eyes, trying for dignity and failing spectacularly. “I’m calling the physician. God, there’s…fuck…prenatal care. Vitamins. We need?—”
“We need to breathe,” Luka interrupts, but he’s already pulling out his phone, probably googlingomega pregnancy protocolsor something equally ridiculous.
Colter hasn’t stopped crying, the tears tracking silent paths down his face as he holds my hand against my own stomach, covering us both with his warmth.
“Hello, little one,” he whispers, and I break all over again, shattering and reforming into something new, something more.
Fuck, how could this be my life?
First I was an omega and princess.
Then I was a soldier and alpha.
And now…
Now, I’m security advisor to the king, mate to four impossible men, sister to a miracle.
And finally, wonderfully, terrifyingly?—
I’m going to be a mother.
56
BRYLEE
Laughter reaches my ears first—brightand melodious, like wind chimes in a summer breeze—eliciting a smile that spreads across my face before I even realize it's there.
I stand at the window of the east wing, watching my children chase their cousins through the maze of hedges that Teddie had planted three years ago—for the children, he'd said, as if this ancient stone castle needed another reason to feel like home. The hedges have grown thick and wild now, a labyrinth of emerald walls that catch the afternoon light and hold it, glowing like stained glass.
“Mom! Mom, look!” My second youngest, Elara, stands atop a weathered stone bench, her dark curls bouncing with each excited hop. She waves something green and probably very much alive, her voice carrying that particular pitch of childhood triumph. “I found a frog! A big one!”
I press my palm flat against the cool glass, my heart expanding with that familiar ache—the one that never really goes away, the one that whispers,I made this.Wemade this. Look at them all, breathing and laughing andalive.
There are five of them. Five miracles I didn't believe possible, running wild through the palace grounds with their cousins—Teddie and Caran's three adopted children, who came to us from a neighboring kingdom two years ago, thin and wary as feral cats, and now laughing so loud I can hear them through two floors of solid stone.
“She's going to release it in the ballroom,” Ridge murmurs, sliding his arms around my waist from behind. He rests his chin on my shoulder, his stubble rough against my skin, his warmth seeping into my back like sunlight through linen. “I give it ten minutes before absolute chaos.”
“Seven,” Luka corrects, passing by with two champagne flutes that catch the light and fracture it into rainbows. He's grayer at the temples now, the silver threading through his brown hair like moonlight through a forest canopy. It suits him—makes him look distinguished, like a scholar from the old paintings. “Elara's got that look in her eye. The same one you get when you're plotting something.”
“Are you saying I'm chaotic?” I ask, arching an eyebrow.
“I'm saying you'repassionate,” he replies with a smile that crinkles the corners of his eyes. “And our daughter is her mother's child.”
They all wear their years differently—Luka with his reading glasses permanently perched on his nose and graying hair; Kylian with laugh lines etched deep around his eyes, grooves of joy worn into his skin by more than a decade of smiling; Ridge with the quiet confidence that comes from years of leadership, standing tall like an oak that has weathered storms; Colter with gruff laughter that was once as rare as summer snow but now fills our halls as naturally as breathing.
“Where's Harper?” I ask, turning in Ridge's arms.
He’s so handsome that the breath is quite literally siphoned straight from my body, leaving me momentarily dizzy.
