Chapter 594: Good News.

A week later, the first message arrived shortly after breakfast.

Dean was in the smaller family sitting room with a stack of transition documents spread across the low table, though he had been reading the same paragraph for several minutes without absorbing it. His pregnancy was still too early to change much physically, but fatigue had begun arriving at inconvenient hours, and Arion had responded by developing an increasingly irritating habit of moving anything heavy before Dean could touch it.

Theo sat on the rug with his dragon, building something that appeared to involve three wooden horses, a blanket, and Boreas’s front paw.

Arion stood near the windows in a pale sage shirt and tan trousers, one hand holding a tablet while the other rested against the back of the sofa. His attention had been divided between an imperial transition report and whatever was happening through the link when Dean’s phone vibrated against the table.

Dean glanced down.

Sylvia.

He opened it.

For several seconds, he simply stared.

Arion noticed immediately and crossed the room.

"What happened?"

Dean turned the screen toward him.

The photograph showed Sylvia propped against a mountain of pillows in a private hospital room, her hair loose and slightly disordered around her face, looking exhausted and happier than Dean had seen her in months.

A newborn slept against her chest.

Tiny. Dark-haired. Wrapped in cream fabric with one hand visible beneath his chin.

Thomas sat beside the bed with an arm curved around Sylvia’s shoulders, looking as if he had not slept since labor started and would personally fight the sun if it came through the window too brightly.

Dean smiled.

"They had him."

Arion lowered himself beside Dean.

Theo looked up from the floor.

"The baby?"

"Yes."

He was on his feet immediately.

Dean shifted so Theo could squeeze between them and see.

The child studied the photograph with enormous seriousness.

"He’s small."

"You were smaller."

Theo looked offended.

"I’m not small now."

Arion kissed the top of his head.

"No one accused you."

Another message arrived from Sylvia.

Healthy. Loud. Thomas has become completely unreasonable.

Dean laughed.

A third followed almost immediately.

He has informed three physicians that nobody is testing anything until I can stand without wanting to kill someone.

Arion read over Dean’s shoulder.

"That sounds like Thomas."

Dean typed back.

The secondary-gender test can wait. Tell him he is being dramatic but correct.

The reply came from Thomas this time.

I am neither dramatic nor accepting visitors who disagree.

Dean showed Arion.

Arion’s mouth twitched.

"Definitely dramatic."

The newborn’s secondary gender could technically be tested after the first week, once the early pheromonal fluctuations settled enough to make the result reliable, but nobody in their family considered that urgent.

Apparently Thomas considered even discussing it during Sylvia’s recovery an act of aggression.

Dean approved.

Another image arrived.

This one showed a side table buried beneath flowers, fruit, expensive chocolates, several covered dishes, two blankets, three gift boxes, and what looked suspiciously like a small silver bell.

Dean stared at it.

"What is that?"

Arion leaned closer.

Theo pointed.

"A bell."

"I know what it is."

Sylvia answered before Dean could ask.

Thomas gave me a bell because apparently calling him from three meters away was too much effort.

Dean put the phone against his forehead.

Arion started laughing.

Theo looked between them.

"Why does Aunt Sylvia need a bell?"

"Because Uncle Thomas has lost his mind."

Arion rested a hand against Dean’s thigh.

"Temporarily."

Dean lowered the phone.

"Do not encourage this. If you bring me a bell after I give birth, I will throw it at you."

"I was thinking something quieter."

Dean turned slowly.

Arion’s expression became entirely innocent.

Theo had already returned to the photograph.

"What’s his name?"

Dean checked the messages.

Sylvia had not sent it yet.

Before he could type, another notification appeared, this time from Amelie.

Dean expected a congratulatory message.

Instead, he opened the attachment and went still.

It was not a photograph of Sylvia.

It was a medical scan.

Arion saw it at the same moment.

Dean looked at him.

"Oh."

Theo looked up again.

"What?"

Dean scrolled down to Amelie’s message.

Apparently Draxil decided one new royal baby was not enough news for the week.

A second line followed.

We were going to wait longer, but Sylvia already knew and threatened to tell Dean herself.

Dean laughed.

"Amelie’s pregnant."

Arion leaned back against the sofa.

For a moment he looked almost stunned by the concentration of family news, then the surprise softened into a smile.

"Amaru?"

"Also apparently capable of planned reproduction."

Arion gave him a look.

Dean smiled sweetly.

His lack of filter had improved since the last heat.

Theo climbed closer.

"Another baby?"

"Yes."

He thought about that.

"So there will be many babies."

Dean glanced toward Arion.

That was increasingly true.

Sylvia and Thomas had a newborn.

Amaru and Amelie were expecting.

Dean was pregnant.

Within months, Theo would go from being one of the youngest children in their close circle to being surrounded by infants.

Dean brushed his fingers through Theo’s hair.

"You’re going to have a lot of little ones to boss around."

Theo frowned.

"I don’t boss."

Arion looked away toward the windows.

Dean stared at the side of his face.

"You’re laughing."

"I am protecting myself."

Theo narrowed his gold eyes at both of them, looking so much like Dean in that moment that Arion’s restraint failed.

He laughed.

Theo crossed his arms.

Dean pulled him closer before the child could become genuinely offended.

"You can teach them."

That improved things immediately.

"Everything?"

"Within reason."

Theo accepted the amendment reluctantly.

Dean’s phone began vibrating again.

Family messages.

Congratulations.

Lucas had already sent something about visiting Sylvia once Thomas permitted civilization to approach.

Minerva was discussing gifts.

Otto wanted to know whether Thomas would accept calls.

Rina had apparently sent Sylvia a message offering to kidnap Thomas for six hours so she could sleep without being watched.

Dean could imagine how well that went.

Arion took the phone from his hand and set it face down on the table.

Dean looked at him.

"We are in the middle of family news."

"You have been reading messages for twenty minutes."

"I was working before that."

"You were staring at the same page."

Dean narrowed his eyes.

Arion reached for his coffee and placed it back into his hand.

"Drink."

Dean accepted it because he was tired enough to appreciate being managed selectively.

Theo returned to his fortress.

Boreas remained trapped beneath part of it with the patience of a saint.

Dean leaned into Arion’s shoulder and looked toward the phone lying face down between the transition folders.

"Everything is fine."