Chapter 265. Fever Dream III

Chapter 265: 265. Fever Dream III

Maisie

I gasped, pain ripped through my chest.

Quinlan’s smile vanished.

The room flickered, like the surface of a mirage. Everything blurred at the edges. The sunlight darkened, and everything felt cold, so cold.

My fingers were encased in ice, and for one insane moment, Quinlan and Jericho weren’t with me. They were outside some kind of cocoon made of ice, slamming into it again and again, while every dent they made just got mended with more ice crystals.

"May?"

I blinked and Quinlan was holding my face.

I stared at him. Everything was back to normal. The cold was gone and I could feel the soft, comforting touch of the sun rays streaming through the windows.

Something was wrong.

The thought barely settled before Soren came striding in through the large double doors.

There was a baby carrier strapped across his broad chest. A dark-haired little girl slept against him, her tiny cheek pressed to his heart, one chubby fist curled into the fabric of his official jacket.

Soren had one large hand spread protectively across her back as though the movement might wake her. And in the other, he held a blonde, wailing boy upside down by one ankle.

"Is there a reason you’re carrying my son like a dead chicken?" Quinlan mused.

"He bit Councilman Brooke."

"Then the old fart must have done something," Quinn was saying as it all faded around me, as I watched like I was experiencing it all from a different body.

Soren and Quinlan got into an argument about morals. Soren didn’t want us teaching our children that violence was always the answer. Quinlan thought Soren was fucking boring. Mercer was on Quinlan’s side. He’d never liked Councilman Brooke anyway. Jericho sighed with exasperation.

A sob escaped me.

Silence fell in the room as every eye turned to me, and then they were all around me again, their faces etched with worry as they tried to figure out what was wrong with me.

"I don’t know," I choked out.

Another sob escaped me, and I covered my face, laughing helplessly through my tears. "I don’t know why I’m crying. I’m just--You all make me so damned happy."

I turned red. I hadn’t yet learned to be completely vocal about my emotions. I still felt like a shy virgin around them, and it explained their shocked expressions.

"H-hormones, I think. I-I’ll just hit the shower," I stammered and took off for the bathroom without looking back.

The door shut behind me and it didn’t matter how many times I wiped my tears, they wouldn’t stop falling. My chest was hurting so bad, and I didn’t know why.

There was a knock on the door, and Quinlan’s voice flitted in. "Can I come in, cherie?"

I sniffled. "You’ll get your fancy suit wet."

He came in anyway and I yelped when I was picked up and carried straight to the shower. I was set on my feet inside the shower and I gasped as the water hit my skin.

"What are you doing?" I said, voice breathy as I got distracted by his naked, glistening torso.

"Showering with you?" he deadpanned. "It usually helps with the hormones."

He wasn’t lying. The tears had stopped running and now my mouth was dry with thirst. It was the constant need to be close to my baby’s father taking over my senses.

But I shook my head. "Absolutely not. I haven’t recovered from the last time you did that. As you can see," I pointed at my stomach.

He pushed me up against the wall, grabbing the under of my knees before I could protest and wrapped it around his waist. "I’ll pull out, I promise," he said, kissing my neck.

"You said the last time, too," I moaned, but locked my ankles around his back.

It had been proven that I was so fertile that it didn’t matter if I was already pregnant. I could take in again. It’d happened the last time with the quadruplets.

"Fine," he said. "Just the tip then?"

I groaned as he rocked his hips into me, and I pushed my fingers into his hair, bringing his lips to mine. He kissed me hard, breaking only to pant against my mouth, "I fucking love you, Maisie," and when he pushed into me, it was infact, not just the tip.

Not that I minded.

***

The music started as the doors to the Great Hall parted.

Nerves erupted in my stomach, but I stood with my shoulders back, my chin high, my spine straight. I had practiced the speech so many times, I’d begun to dream of it.

My hair was brown again. Long and glossy, pulled away from my face in a sharp, regal style. The blood-red ceremonial robes flowed around me as I stepped into the light, and for a moment, I simply stood there.

At the end of the path, my future waited. Soren. Mercer. Jericho. Quinlan.

My four mates dressed in their finest, standing before the dais with wide, beaming smiles, as though there was nowhere else in the world they would rather be.

Waiting for me, with our children.

The priestess at the center of the dais was the same one who had officiated our wedding, and she held a black cushion with the ruby crown seated on top of it.

Beyond them stood my people. My people.

Regina waved so wildly I almost laughed. Jenny stood beside her, grinning just as brightly. Juliette had her arm around Lyon’s waist, and when he caught my eye, his brown eyes twinkled as he winked at me.

He still walked with a cane. But he was alive. He was smiling.

A year ago, I hadn’t known if he would ever wake from his coma. Now he was here to watch me become Queen.

My throat tightened and my eyes watered. I had spent so much of my life surviving that I had never really learned how to dream.

Not properly. I had dreamed of being loved, perhaps. Of being safe. Of finding a place where I belonged. Home.

But this?

A family. Children. Four men who would die for me. Friends. A kingdom. I had a future.

I had never dared to want so much, never dared to even dream it.

The acolyte cleared her throat behind me. "We have to begin the ceremony, Your Highness."

I nodded.

My heart was beating so hard I could feel it everywhere.

This was it. For once in my life, I wasn’t running from something. I was walking toward it.

Toward my future. Toward everything I’d never even allowed myself to dream could be mine.

I smiled at my family.

Then I took my first step.

And the ground beneath my feet collapsed.