Chapter 216
We were sitting in the hospital room. Gabe came a few hours ago and Nora pulled a chair up to the bed and hadn’t moved for the past three hours. We were waiting for Hazel to wake up, she was healing quickly and had been given blood all night, she should be good as new before nightfall. I kept going over my talk with Zade in my head- how he made me think I was giving up my Lycan to save Hazel’s life and if it ever came down to it, I would, in a heartbeat. She was everything, my breath and my heartbeats, they were for her.
This world was better because of her, and I knew, without a shadow of a doubt that I couldn’t live in a world where she didn’t exist. The babies held an equally large place within me, as did Kiera, I loved them all and would die for either one of them but Hazel was the core of everything that was me. Without her, everything else would crumble.
“She’s waking up!” Nora said and I ran over to her side.
Hazel’s eyes flickered open and she drew a soft breath. Our eyes locked and I sighed in relief when I finally got to gaze into those eyes.
She squeezed my hand softly, her strength would come back with time, and she parted her lips.
“We are never… having sex again,” she rasped out.
Everyone laughed and Hazel winced when she tried to sit.
“You need to rest,” I said and gently pushed her shoulders down.
The room filled with chatter when Elise brought Mathilda and Kiera to visit.
Keira immediately hopped up in my arms and I walked her around the bed to visit her siblings.
“This is your baby sister, Kaitlyn. She’s the oldest of the triplets,” I said.
“That’s pretty,” Kiera mused and burrowed against me as she looked into the bassinet.
“Will she be Queen one day?” Kiera asked.
5
My lips rounded and my heart broke, we hadn’t had that talk with her yet, thinking she was too young but I thought it was obvious.
I looked at Hazel and she fought to sit up in the bed and leaned against the mountain of pillows that Nora stuffed behind her.
“No, my love,” Hazel said. “You are the future Queen of Valeria, nobody else,”
Kiera sunk into my arms as though her entire little body relaxed, and she smiled.
We all stayed with Hazel for another two hours and talked about the babies and the future, the deliveries, and Zade saving their lives.
It was odd to have a Demon on our side but at least it came in handy.
After two hours of games and talk, Hazel got tired of laying in bed. She was almost completely healed and wanted to go home. The doctor did one last checkup, and everything looked good, so we packed our things- Gabe and Nora each held one of my sons, and I held my baby girl as we walked back home.
The housekeepers, maids, chefs, and drivers, not to mention the leader of the Royal Guards stood awaiting us as we entered the palace. Everyone gushed over the babies, wanting to see them at least once before we hid them away for a while.
Mrs. Smith stepped up, the keys jiggled on her apron and she gazed at the babies’ faces, pausing as she leaned over Kaitlyn, and her features softened.
“She has her eyes,” she said.
Hazel shook her head and smiled.
“Not mine,” she said.
1/3
Chapter 216
“No, not yours. The former Queen of Valeria, Darian’s mother- your daughter has her eyes,” Mrs. Smith said and sniffled.
I had noticed that too, maybe that’s why I couldn’t stop looking at her, those eyes used to be the only thing that made me calm, and the love that flowed in them so easily and with such warmth was what kept me coming home as a child.
“I love that,” Hazel said through her tired smile.
“And who is this handsome boy?” She asked.
“That’s Kai…” Hazel paused and her shoulders slumped as she exhaled a breath “Kai Zade. It’s the baby boy that Zade saved,” Hazel said.
Mrs. Smith’s eyes locked on Hazel’s and she nodded slowly.
“A good way to honor him then,” she said.
“And this is Kane,” Gabe said.
Mrs. Smith flickered her eyes across his face and scoffed with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
“This one will be a handful,”
Kane was the calmest out of all of the children, so her comment confused me.
“How can you tell?” I asked.
“When your mother brought you boys home, you wreaked havoc with your screams from the second you came inside. But your brother,” she said and turned her glint to Gabe. “he was as calm as an angel sent by the gods himself. And then he grew up and nearly tore this palace apart brick by brick before he was five. That’s how I know,” she grinned.
Her face twisted back to its normal grumpy expression and she wrinkled her nose as she patted Hazel’s arm.
“Go, get some rest, you’ll need it,” she urged.
The housekeepers had refurnished our bedroom. Each baby had a bassinet against the wall and we had moved the lounge furniture to make room for changing tables and a three-piece Victorian vanity for clothes and toys.
Everyone put the babies down in their beds, and it was almost painful to take my eyes off them. After they were safely tucked and sleeping soundly, Nora and Gabby remained in the room, Mathilda came in shortly after with a blanket around her shoulders and a book in her hand. She walked over to the rocking chair, made herself comfortable, and started reading.
“Yeah, so,” Gabe raised his shoulders to his ears,” we don’t wanna go,” Gabe said and pursed his lips.
I sighed and shook my head as I walked across the room and closed the door to shut the noise out.
There was nothing I could do about the noise inside the room though.
“Make yourselves comfortable,” I said and gestured to the room. Watching Gabe dote on the babies brought back memories from when he was a kid. Mrs. Smith was right about Gabe being a handful, but that part of him was shoved down after the countless threats and disciplinarian actions of our father. Maybe…hopefully, the kids would rekindle the parts of him that I know are in there. The ones I tried to protect but failed. After I killed our father, I had to rise as King, and Gabe did everything I did, he took responsibility and decided that he couldn’t be a kid any longer. As I looked over my children, I made a promise to never take the child away from them. They were safe and loved, and I wouldn’t let anything take their light.
2/3
The Alpha’s Hunt
