Claimed by the Elven King: Part Four Read online

  CLAIMED BY THE ELVEN KING

  PART FOUR

  CRISTINA RAYNE

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2014 Cristina Rayne

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  As my sleeping mind drifted towards full consciousness, I slowly became aware of an unfamiliar firmness and warmth at my back. For a long, confusing moment, I couldn’t figure out what it could be. I pressed back against it then stiffened when I immediately felt an answering kiss to the back of my neck and an arm tighten around my waist. I panicked for ten whole seconds, struggling to remember why someone was in bed with me, before snippets of last night finally began to surface within my frantic thoughts.

  After Sethian’s cryptic remark, he had urged me to sleep, and I must have nodded right off because I could remember little after that. I never expected to wake up still intertwined within his arms—and I had no idea how to act in this kind of situation. Should I say “good morning”? Turn around and give him a good morning kiss instead?

  I felt Sethian’s hand start to slowly caress my belly, and I sucked in a startled breath. Wait! Did he want to…?

  “Another three to four moon-cycles or so and this will be rounded enough to present you to the court,” Sethian murmured into my ear, and I was suddenly glad he couldn’t see my face because it was probably as red as a cherry.

  Had this last month changed me so much that my mind automatically ended up in the gutter with every little thing he did, no matter how innocent?

  “What—does that mean exactly?” I asked, deciding that the time for greetings had long passed.

  “For you, it is a change in status,” Sethian replied. “It signifies your official entry into the elven court as the Royal Wife. For the court, it is an official announcement and proof about the forthcoming birth of a potential heir.”

  My ladies-in-waiting had already given me a rudimentary idea of the political and social structure of the elven court, a system of titled nobles that all claimed relation to at least one of the ten noble founding families of the realm. Lariel had claimed that the founding of the realm was quite an exciting origin story, but had insisted that I needed to learn much more about present-day elven society before I could fully understand everything the history would entail.

  To someone like me who always had the need to know and understand every tiny detail about everything, having something as potentially earth-shattering as that dangled before me was practically torture. To think that I would now actually become a part of the amazing elven history I had already learned. It was a bit…overwhelming…

  “I hope you don’t expect me to give a speech or address the court or something,” I said in a small voice.

  I still had nightmares about the speech class I had been forced to take as an undergraduate. Having to stand before a class of five hundred of my peers and deliver a speech without stuttering had been bad enough, but having to do so in front of a room full of hundreds of elven nobles—which would probably include the queen—would be agony. My fear of public speaking was the one weakness my PhD advisor had constantly badgered me about fixing that I had placed in the “I’ll do it later” category. Now my procrastination may have just come back to bite me in the ass.

  “No, nothing like that,” Sethian said, and had I been standing, I would have probably collapsed in relief. “Once you are announced, you will merely have to cross the length of the throne room to first present yourself before me as I sit on the throne, and I shall address you before the eyes and ears of the entirety of the court as my ‘Royal Wife who now carries the potential heir to the throne.’ Then you will take the seat a step below and to the right of me in order to accept words from each courtier in turn. I’m afraid it’s a rather long and tedious affair, but one that tradition mandates.”

  As far as I was concerned, I would sit there all week like a curiosity to be gawked at without one word of complaint as long as it meant I didn’t have to say anything—especially in Elvish.

  “I’ve sat through worse,” I assured him.

  He shifted behind me, then I felt his hand leave my belly and grasp my chin, turning my face back towards him. He brushed his lips against mine briefly for that good morning kiss I had wanted to give him earlier before pulling away from me altogether and sitting up. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed at losing the warmth and comfort of his body, but he was the king. I couldn’t expect him to lounge around in bed with me all day.

  I sat up as well, pulling the sheets up with me to hide my nudity. It would probably be a long time before I would ever feel comfortable enough to just lay it all bare in front of him when we weren’t having sex or about to have sex.

  “Let me see you.”

  I could feel my traitorous cheeks start to heat up as the memory of Sethian’s commanding words from last night echoed throughout my mind, but I ruthlessly stopped those thoughts in their track before the blush could get any worse. The last thing I wanted right now was Sethian asking embarrassing questions.

  Sethian leaned towards me, for a kiss I thought, but he merely cupped my cheek and said, “Your coloring is looking better this morning, but I want you to rest for the rest of the morning, all the same. Once I remove myself from your presence, your sickness may very well return. I will send for a healer, as well as your ladies, to attend you while the servants fetch your things from your rooms.”

  “My things?” I echoed in confusion.

  He nodded. “From now on, you will remain here with me in the royal suite.”

  It was all perfectly logical, but his words still stunned me. With the way he had initially explained the living arrangements between the queen, me and him, I had thought that I would continue to live separately from him indefinitely, or more correctly, I had never actually allowed myself to hope that things could ever be different.

  This was exactly what I had wanted, but I still had to ask, “Won’t the queen be upset?”

  “Our child is now second in rank only to me unless the birth proves otherwise. She will voice no protest,” he replied firmly.

  His answer was less than reassuring. “The baby outranks the queen?”

  “For now, yes. It will remain so only if you give me a son, an heir to the throne. If it is a daughter, then the newly born princess will rank just beneath the queen.”

  The intricacies of a monarchy really were just one big headache. I could already see the various problems that would spring up if I gave birth to a girl.

  “Can you tell?” I asked. “The sex of the baby before it’s born, I mean? You said you could ‘hear’ the baby’s soul, so…”

  Sethian shook his head. “Whether male or female, a child’s soul feels the same.” He smiled and be
nt down to kiss me briefly on the forehead. “You must not fret over it. I suspect we will have many children over the years, so this first child need not be an heir. That a Sidhe child will be born at all is joyous enough.”

  My brain stuttered to a stop at the word “children.” The reality of having one soon was scary enough. That he talked about having multiple children like it was just par for the course was something I wasn’t prepared to deal with yet, especially when I really hadn’t come to terms with this pregnancy.

  “Do I need to keep my pregnancy to myself until you announce it publically?” I asked.

  “You may tell your ladies, but I believe for now, the news should go no farther. Until my people can see with their own eyes the truth of your pregnancy, spreading the news now will only cause unrest. The last Plague of Infertility was several thousand years ago, and thus there are few alive today who remember a time when human brides walked among us. You, as well as they, will need time to adjust to this coming change. As I said before, I never expected a child would come so soon no matter how much I wished for it.”

  Hearing all of that, I suddenly wondered if his recent trip across the realm had involved more than just checking up on the state of his lands as he had told me earlier. I suspected he was purposely being vague in his explanations in order not to worry me, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that his bringing me here had caused a lot more strife within the elven court than just a little voiced unease.

  After all, the queen had looked at me as if I literally was the mongrel she had named me. It wouldn’t be a stretch at all to say that there were likely others, and not just those in the nobility, who wouldn’t hesitate to call me the same. Then there was the unavoidable fact that my baby would be a half-breed. Knowing how sensitive these types of caste-minded societies could be about the mixing of blood, would they even accept the son of a human as heir?

  Suddenly the locks on the door and the armed guards weren’t so irritating anymore. At that moment, I realized exactly how incredibly stupid I had been. All this time, I had been agonizing over the wrong thing. I had let Sethian and my friends’ complete acceptance of my humanity blind me to the fact that there were always those who railed against a change in the status quo. More than my husband would have to accept me if I ever expected to find happiness here.

  “Emily?”

  I started, and focused once again on Sethian’s now frowning face. Crap! How long had I zoned out?

  “Sorry, I was just—thinking about what you just said,” I said sheepishly, deciding that some of the truth was needed here.

  “You mean ‘worrying,” he chided, and it took a humongous effort to keep from squirming beneath his gaze.

  “No, just thinking,” I said a bit more forcefully, hoping that my insistence would make him drop it.

  I half-expected to see his frown deepen, but his expression changed into something I couldn’t quite understand. The intensity and seriousness of his stare remained the same, and although he was no longer frowning, his lips were set in a fairly neutral line. Nevertheless, for some reason, he gave the impression that he was really laughing at me even though there wasn’t an ounce of amusement present physically in his demeanor. It was really unnerving.

  After staring at me for a few more nerve-wracking seconds, his lips finally twitched up into a half-smile, and I was thankfully able to breathe normally again. He took one of my hands that had been unknowingly clutching the sheets around my waist tightly and gave it a squeeze.

  “I shall send the healer to see you after the midday meal, so make certain to rest well before then,” Sethian

  Because the healer will no doubt report immediately back to you, I thought wryly. I really hoped that he didn’t expect me to spend the next eight months “resting” in bed. I would die of boredom.

  I nodded anyway, content to follow his instructions, if only for today. I was still blissfully free from yesterday’s terrible nausea, and without Sethian here to remedy me, I wasn’t about to do anything that may cause it to return.

  Sethian smiled and squeezed my hand one last time before he slid off the bed and strode across the room to his closet, offering a nice, long parting shot of his nude backside that had my face heating up with arousal rather than embarrassment. It definitely made up for the slight disappointment of not receiving a parting kiss.

  I took advantage of his absence to snatch my discarded nightgown from the ground and quickly slipped it on. In a few minutes I would be telling Lariel, Saeria, and Rinwen about the baby, and the last thing I wanted to be was nude when all the inevitable hugging occurred.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “I knew it,” Lariel said in lieu of a greeting as she hurried into the bedroom, Saeria and Rinwen, carrying what was probably my breakfast tray, on her heels.

  I winced inside at her accusative tone. I had thought the plan was for me to spill the beans on my pregnancy, but…

  I rose up a bit onto my elbows from my prone position on the bed and asked, “Knew what?”

  “His Majesty just informed us that a healer would be in to see you after the midday meal and to make sure that you did nothing but rest until then,” she replied. She stood at the side of the bed and peered down at my face critically. “I knew you were sicker than you wanted us to believe. Why would you even want to keep something like that to yourself?”

  I let myself fall back onto the bed, internally sighing with relief. They still didn’t know, and now I wouldn’t have to explain why I had kept the pregnancy from them. I could tell them on my own terms.

  “The healer isn’t coming here because I’m sick.” I paused and then amended, “Well, I was pretty nauseous yesterday, but it wasn’t because I had caught a bug or because of my nerves.”

  I looked from Lariel and Rinwen and smiled sheepishly. “It seems both of you were right to be suspicious. My lord husband confirmed it for me last night. I’m going to have a baby.”

  Although I didn’t expect any of them to squeal like a tween at a boy-band concert or something as equally undignified, I did expect exclamations of delight or the usual congratulations at the very least. That’s why when Lariel suddenly burst into tears, I didn’t know what to think or how to react. She didn’t sob noisily or even move to cover her face with her hands. They were silent tears that fell slowly down her cheeks as she looked down at me with eyes so full of happiness that they practically glowed, as though I had given her the greatest gift in the world.

  I reached a hand up to her, wanting to stop her tears but having no clue what to do. “Lariel…” I said uncertainly, feeling my chest tighten almost painfully with a maelstrom of emotions.

  She smiled prettily at me and shook her head. “I’m sorry. This is unseemly, I know.”

  She sat down next to me on the bed and took my hand into both of hers as gently and carefully as if they were made of glass. I finally got a good look at the strangely silent sisters standing side-by-side over Lariel’s shoulder.

  Rinwin’s usually pale face was flushed red, and her expression was so ecstatic it seemed she was a breath away from bursting, her eyes shimmering with blatant happiness as she looked at me with a wide grin. It almost looked as though she was on the verge of tears, herself. Saeria was both smiling and absently wringing her hands as if she was anxious to jump forward, to touch me or to hug me, I don’t know, but as the sisters always seemed to follow Lariel’s lead, she would probably stay rooted to that spot while the younger elf was still gushing over me unless I called her over.

  I beckoned them with my free hand. “Come, sit with me. Just put the tray on the desk over there, Rinwen. I’d like to talk for a bit before I eat.”

  “You were so certain that you had not conceived—did you not hear the child’s soul?” Saeria asked once everyone had arranged themselves comfortably around me along both edges of the bed.

  I shook my head. “Seth-my lord says that human women can’t hear it until later on in the pregnancy.”

  “I can just imagine
your shock when the king told you,” Lariel said.

  “I had no idea he would be able to hear the baby like that. In hindsight, I should have asked more questions about elven children. I never considered that things would be so different.”

  “It seems we all should have asked more questions about each other,” Saeria said. “Having a mental connection with our families is just so fundamental that I never once considered that it would not be so for you and your child, especially since you already have such a strong connection to His Majesty.”

  “Huh? Connection?” I tried to sit up, but Lariel’s hands were immediately on my shoulders, pushing me back down again. “Wait a minute! What do you mean?”

  Saeria and Rinwen shared a look before Saeria answered, “So you don’t hear His Majesty’s soul either?”

  I was about to shake my head no, but then the memory surfaced again of that strange incident when I had momentarily felt what Sethian was feeling. Is that what everyone meant when they said they “heard” a person’s soul? Some kind of super empathy?

  “I think I might have once, on the second day I was here, but sometimes I’ve gotten the feeling that—”

  I abruptly stopped, unsure for what seemed like the thousandth time if it was something I should even talk about. I wanted to scream and yank at my hair in frustration. I really hated all this royal court etiquette crap, having to second-guess myself every time I opened my mouth.

  All monarchies should be abolished, I thought crossly. “Never mind,” I said aloud. “It was probably just my imagination, anyway.”

  “No, the connection definitely exists,” Saeria insisted. “His Majesty already knew you were feeling out of sorts before he saw you two evenings ago when I spoke to him on my way to the royal suite.”

  I looked at Saeria sharply. It seems I was right to worry that she had been talking to Sethian while off running her errands that night. I would definitely have to watch what I said around all three of them from now on. Not that it would make a whole lot of difference, I suddenly realized. If Sethian knew what I was feeling even when he wasn’t anywhere near me…