Set Fire to my Atmosphere

Chapter 26

Father.

Father.

You are to be a father.

Holy rutting gods.

He knew fae fertility was extremely rare so he had been prepared for years of trying.

But this? This struck him dumb.

Chaol grinned from where he was sitting. Yrene smiling ear to ear.

"I guess you didn't know," she meekly said.

"When will she wake up?" Was all Rowan could think about.

He wanted to scream it from the rooftops...but with Aelin.

"Perhaps a few hours at most," Yrene begun to stand up. "We'll let you have some alone time." She smiled at Chaol.

"Thank you," Rowan looked her in the eye.

"She deserves this, you both deserve it," she whispered. And she left with Chaol, leaning against her for support.

Rowan looked back down at her and stroked her cheek.

And kissed her, softly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Her head was pounding. It hurt so bad she couldn't bear to open her eyes against the light in the room.

Her hands fumbled for a surface to push her up, but they found familiarity instead.

"Rowan?" she groaned at the pain pounding her forehead.

He instantly woke up at that.

"Do you need anything? How's the pain?" Rowan grazed his hand over the stitch on her forehead.

She hissed at the pain.

"Headache," she whispered. "How long?"

He knew what she meant, "We all found you at midnight, it's about 5 am right now."

We all, she thought. She instantly felt bad for ruining Dorian's birthday.

"No, you didn't," Rowan said, undoubtedly reading the words in her eyes.

Aelin sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

Should I wait? No. No she has to know she has a right to know, Rowan thought.

"Fireheart."

Aelin looked him in his pine green eyes and raised an eyebrow.

"I know you are still recovering, hell what happened a few hours ago is proof of it. And I don't know if you are ready just yet but..."

The only sound for a few seconds were the burds chirping out the window.

"What?" Aelin said almost inaudibly.

"You're pregnant!" Rowan blurted out.

Her shoulders slackened.

Aelin's hands started shaking. Rowan grabbed both of them in his palms, bringing them up to his lips.

"Say it again," Aelin breathed, voice affected from the lump in her throat and tears in her eyes.

Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius was not an emotional male. But he could not stop the tears rolling down his face.

Rowan whispered into her hands, "We're going to be parents, Fireheart."

Aelin broke down sobbing.

"How do you know?" she said the second she could get words out.

"When you fell, Yrene examined you," Rowan replied.

"Is the baby okay?" Aelin asked.

If the fall hurt the baby... She thought.

"Yes," Rowan said still reeling in a bit.

"We're going to be parents," Aelin realized out loud.

Rowan smiled, flashing his canines as he brought his mouth closer to hers.

"Are you ready?" Aelin asked him before he could kiss her.

Rowan paused at that. He knew what she meant. This woman, his mate, was still concerned about Rowan's past coming back to haunt him more than anything.

And for that, he brought his tattooed hand up to her chin.

And kissed her deeply.

"Yes, I am nothing but ready."

He could feel Aelin smile underneath him.

And so the King of Terrsen held his Queen in his muscled arms and they held onto each other until they both fell asleep.