“Hey, boys.” I smiled.
“You look beautiful,” one of them complimented me before looking at Alejandro furtively.
“Yeah, move along,” he growled, making me laugh.
They nodded, chuckling as they ran off. With time, the fear that they had of Alejandro changed. Yes, they feared and respected him. With the passing of years, I had seen how much Alejandro had changed, saw the growth in him and how he continued to strive to do better, to make things better for us all and admit to mistakes. My man was more than a king by name. He was so much more, and every day, he only made me prouder.
“What’s on your mind?” I asked, sensing his emotions.
“The boy in the middle… he’s… Fred’s.”
Fred’s? It took me a moment before I realised what he had just said, what he meant. My heart thumped, and I looked towards the boys. I knew instantly which one he meant. Atlas… The boy with the dirty blond hair. How had I never noticed it?
I looked at Alejandro, seeing the conflicted look in his eyes.
“Why did you never mention it?” I asked quietly. He sighed; his eyes met mine before glancing around.
“Let’s get out of here first.”
I nodded as he placed an arm around my waist and led me away…
A short whilelater, we were down by the river. An entire picnic had been set up for us in the secluded area, with Al smirking as he stated there wouldn’t be anyone within miles. It was obvious he had planned for us to do a lot more here than eat, not that I minded…
The sun was warming my skin, and the pleasant gushing of the river felt like a peaceful melody to my ears. We had just opened the picnic basket and were eating as I waited for Alejandro to tell me about Fred’s son.
“I don’t know why I never mentioned it, it’s just… obviously you can tell by his age that he was born whilst Fred was mated to Indigo.”
“Yeah, he’s not even of age,” I said quietly.
“Yeah, but he isn’t at fault. I didn’t want it to become known to the point of it affecting the pup in any way. The topic of Indigo was sensitive to your parents, and so it just never came up. Fred was a fucking player, and that’s what I always thought was going on between them. I never fucking thought that he was actually fucking abusing her as well,” he said seriously, drinking some of the cold juice. I nodded. I understood that, and he was right; the child was not at fault.
“I get it… but that means that Azura has a brother,” I said softly.
“Yeah. I fucking guess so,” he replied. Our eyes met, and I knew that it was something Mom and Dad had a right to know.
“You know we have to tell Mom and Dad. Even Azura has a right to know one day.”
“Yeah, I know.”
I looked at him, and although I was sitting just a foot away from him, it felt too far. I got up, climbed intohis lap, and cupped his face, enjoying the sparks that shot through me.
“Don’t blame yourself for what happened to Aunty Indy. It’s a little like Raven. We never knew what she was going through. Sometimes we don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors or behind a smiling face. You have always done your best, Alejandro, and you always will. If you want, I can tell Mom and Dad myself,” I said, trying not to react to the way he was running his hands up and down my waist.
“I’m not a fucking wuss, Amore Mio. We’ll do that shit together when the time comes.” I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Okay, my sexy beast, as you wish.” Our eyes met before I slowly placed a hand on my stomach, and he kissed my neck sensually. His scent made me giddy. “Can you believe we are going to be parents again?” I whispered, still feeling awed.
“To be honest, it’s still fucking crazy, but I’m looking forward to it. What do you think the gender is?”
“I don’t actually know. I asked Dante, and he simply said it doesn’t work like that.” I smiled. Alejandro’s smirk faltered, and he nodded.
“The fact the Djinn was shielding it from him… from us…”
“Obviously, he knew that if we knew, we would have made sure I was taken care of, but he needed something to fight my body with.”
“Using our pup to do it…” His eyes flashed, and I softly kissed him on his mate mark.
“He’s gone now, completely. Even Janaina said the only reason he had such a strong hold on me was that I was pregnant. He was drawing strength from the foetus, and I was, in turn, healing the foetus, keeping the Djinn’s hold strong,” I sighed.
