The Hideous Secret

With the King

Allahie laid silently next to her pregnant brooding mate. He lay on his back staring at the ceiling.

"Triplets." Allahie reached out and poked his still semi-rippling abdomen.

"Twins." He corrected, "We only have twins."  

With her magic swirling over his core she could feel all three of their tiny bodies. Two were so lovely, and one was so foreign. Despite the dark pull of the third one her magic still swirled around it lovingly.

"Triplets," she growled again. Her magic tugged at the baby and Aleksandar yelped sitting up abruptly.

"Don't do that," he growled, "Your magic can't change the fact it's not ours."

"You're going to have to tell Kennith."

"Not now, I will tell him when I can use it against him."

"War then," Allahie stated and her mate nodded laying back down. He drummed his fingers on his stomach.

"I may not return to have them. War can take a long time."

"So you'll have them at a war camp?"

"If the king wished it I would have them in front of his court with no help. I have no choice Allahie."

"The first pure-bred fae in 200 years Aleksandar, I think he's going to care about them."

"Yes, he cares about them. No, not about me. I'm just the incubator. Allahie when they are out, I'm going to have more. I resisted it this long, but no more." She watched her mate shift his leg awkwardly and rub the plane of his stomach.

"You will have 100 years to recover?"

"No. That's when I cycle naturally. He can give me a drug that will force me to cycle early. I have good fertility at this age you think he's going to wait for me have a 100 year break before the next....batch?"

"Aleksandar they are our babies, will we not be able to see them?"

"Females are much more prized. If we have a little girl, we will see her, but the king will want her strictly on a diplomatic court when she reaches two. A boy will go to war camp when he reaches four."

Allahie was dumbfounded and swallowed heavily. "This drug. If your not cycling naturally will you have to...have to..."

"It will be Kennith again, or Lexein."

"Who is Lexein?"

"Shifter of Hell...or in other words Fire." Aleksandar swallowed heavily as well. "Now he will hurt. His body temperature is much higher internally as externally. He's also a good two feet taller than me....he has a mate though. Perhaps the king will allow artificial insemination."

"Why don't I get a say in this?"

"A few of my children will be an equivalent to a ten thousand man army. No matter your rank, the knowledge of how powerful they will be is to great. I can breed with any fae, male or female. I'm beyond valuable."

"Yet he's throwing you to war...pregnant." Allahie reached gently caressed his stomach.

"Yes, until my heir's can take my place."

"Why don't the other lords fight?"

"They will. Front lines." Aleksandar replied in a clipped, cruel snarl.

"What of the weapon he wants to try."

"Who knows."

"Will you and I be allowed to have a baby?"

"Yes, but with my warrior lineage it will have the same fate as the ones in me now. You may love our current babes but when you have a baby Allahie it will be another story. I don't want you to kill yourself fighting the king on the path the baby will have."

"Why do you not have a problem with it."

"Because I was raised knowing of what would happened. Raised it is okay to have your children be taken from you." Allahie watched as a tear slid down his cheek, and he held his belly tighter. "Raised that I won't get to watch my first-borns grow up."

"What if they were born crippled? Will he kill them?"

"I'd be shamed and publicly whipped." Another tear slid down his face, "Allahie, he will more than likely be there as I have them. Should one prove worthless, I should be taken immediately to be disgraced."

"But he will expect more?"

"After this pregnancy, I probably will be bearing five at a crack. In simple terms, I will be fully stuffed with as many babies as my body can handle per pregnancy. Which each baby inside me the shorter the term, the smaller they are. The shorter the term means the more babies I can have in a year." Allahie watched as he actually reached his hand down to rub himself, and then he shuddered. She couldn't comfort him. He should have told her earlier and she would have figured something out. Now she could never have a baby either or have a family.

"I won't tolerate that," Allahie growled, "I know of foreign kingdoms. We can run."

"But we can never truly hide. Allahie, my mother was just like me. He just had baby after baby. When I was 5,  I already had 27 siblings. When I was 6 my father became barren, but I also don't know how many more he added to that list of 27 in a year's span. My father died of complications when I reached age 7."

"But how hasn't a pure-bred fae been born in 200 years?"

"Rathgar has to give Lords permission to have children. "

"How many siblings do you have now?"

"I'm the last remaining child...the last remaining member to my family that I know of. I was selected early on and never saw most of them again. Being 354 I've been in a lot of battles."

"Is there a chance he is alive?"

"Complications as in Rathgar got frustrated and kill him."

"Did you watch him die?"

"No, but I could smell his blood everywhere on the obsidian floor. He was more than likely publically slaughtered after being whipped."

"As of your father?"

"No one knows who my sire is. I was born a single child, a single child of darkness born to the fae of light...which is suppose to be impossible. I shouldn't have magic if my sire was truly of darkness."

"Why has there never been babies of ice and darkness before?"

"Because that should make hellfire--magic feared and rejected by all. A rippling blackness with flecks of blue that burns on contact. It won't be hot but it can melt and shatter victims." The female fae grabbed her pregnant mate's hand and gave it a squeeze. 

Allahie was silent for a long time after that. "Well I won't let this happen. I will figure something out. Dammit Aleksandar, we have triplets on the way! Your going to be parent as with I! I want a family! I want a baby!"

He tipped his head to the side to gaze at her. He rolled over a moment later and kissed her forehead. "I admire your courage. But with your ice magic cool your head, you have to meet with the king now...." He died off and a second later a knock came on the door--holy damn did his hearing have to be delicate.