AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It proved to be a wasted effort. “I…can’t understand any of this,” I admitted, squinting at the yellowed page that a ring-adornedfinger was pointing to. “I’m getting one out of every handful of words, but…”
“It’s old Quarehian,” Ren explained. “Took me a while to get my head around it. See this part?”
His finger waggled at a partially faded sentence and he read it out loud. “…and the princely heir who was birthed by neither royal girth nor groin did rule Quareh in mighty fashion for four and two score years.”
I cocked my head. “What does that mean?”
“It’s a horrendously fun way of saying one of my predecessors wasn’t blood-related to the kingorthe queen consort,” he told me, clearly excited. “And he had no trouble being recognised as a legitimate heir following some kind of naming ceremony detailed in a later chapter. So fuck you, councillors, because there’s ancientprecedent.”
Startled, I caught his sparkling gaze. “Adoption? We could...?”
“We could,” he confirmed with a broad smile, which then faltered. “That is, if you wanted to?”
Hope flickered in my chest. “Ren, your Council’s right. You need a child for your legacy, and your own safety. Heirs give the whole kingdom stability.”
“I don’t give a shit,mi amor.If you don’t want to do this, we don’t.”
“Well,” I said, “it’s a terribly good thing I do, then, isn’t it?”
We stared at each other for a long moment. And then the book slid from my husband’s hands to the floor and we crashed together, kissing and clawing at each other as if we could pull the other inside us and become one.
Ren smiled against my mouth, and then I felt fingers squeeze around my barely recovered cock. “Let’s go make a baby,” he murmured.
I laughed. “Pretty sure that’s not how it works.”
“Pretty sure we won’t know until we try,” he teased, threading his fingers through mine and stealing my heart all over again.
*
Epilogue
6 months later
“Night, Jiron.”
“Night, my king. Sleep well.”
“Knowing you’re just outside, protecting the three of us? Always,” I said, blowing Jiron a kiss as he drew the doors closed.
And then I paused, blinking at the slabs of wood separating us. I could haveswornthe guard had puckered his lips in an air kiss right back at me in the half second before the latch snicked shut, but that was…impossible. Jiron didn’t doplayful.Not while he was on duty.
I really had to track down that man of his and learn how he’d managed to work such magic on Jiron. Admittedly, Wyatt’s ass lookedverycute when he was bending over to dig up weeds in the gardens – and I may have pointed out a few just so I could check it out from multiple angles, until Jiron had startled growling down the back of my neck – but it had to be more than great sex that had given my oldest friend such a spring in his step and pulled him so steadfastly through the darkness that had once had its claws in his mind. Maybe it was the unflinching positivity and sweetness that the Lukian practically emanated from his pores.
My own husband wasn’t anything of the sort, his thorny and headstrong personality making him a challenge to handle, evenafter all this time. I didn’t mind. In fact, I revelled in it. I adored my position as king of the unarguably best country that ever existed, but it could become quite dull, especially now we’d secured peace with the northandconvinced Lukia it was in their best interests to withdraw their concerns. Mat was mouthy and clever and fiercely protective of anyone who needed it, regardless of whether theydeservedit. Amidst the blandness of endless meetings, budgeting, and legislative review, my wildcat…always kept life interesting.
Inandoutside of bed. Mathias and the Council he’d convinced me to retain had formed somewhat of a truce, one where he delighted in pissing them off by announcing revolutionary decisions once in a while but otherwise mostly made their jobs easier by toeing the line – or dancingjustbeyond it, because it was Mat, after all. He even attended our Council meetings now, although stubbornly insisted on being seated in his own chair rather than the perfectly good lap I had available, and him and Councillor Morales could occasionally be found sharing a bottle of vodka and an intense discussion about policy reform that inevitably ended with one or the other of them having a tantrum.
I padded across the antechamber and diverted left instead of our bedchamber’s door on the right. I’d pounce on my sleeping husband in a moment and remind him of what he’d been missing all day – clue, it was in my trousers – but first there was someone I was even more excited to see.
I slowly pressed the door handle down, wincing at the faint noise it made, and cracked the door enough to slip through. I drew up short when a shadowy haze in the darkened room lifted its head.
“Ren?” Mat asked softly from the armchair. He was shirtless, wearing the pair of Mazekhstani-style trousers he’d sneaked into the wardrobe at some point: done up with buttons instead of the laces he always had such trouble with, soft with use, and just atouch too long so they draped down past his ankles and rustled on the ground when he walked.
“Everything alright?” I asked, instantly on alert.
He gave me a tired smile. “Fine. She just couldn’t sleep, so I…”
“Gave into her, as usual,” I breathed, unable to stop my smile. Dios, our beautiful princess had him wrapped around those tiny little fingers of hers.
