She had a far more cheerful outlook when she finally woke up, and the guys arrived with even better news.
The council of lords had convened to discuss the charges Valee had lodged against her and had unanimously agreed that Valee would be happier if she was reassigned to a position in another royal household.
Emma couldn’t believe it. “Really?”
“Really,” Hauk repeated with a grim smile.
She’d hoped, but she hadn’t dared believe there wouldn’t be ugly consequences. “You guys spoke for me,” she said with conviction.
They exchanged a long look. “Yes. And it did not hurt that we are all on the council.”
Emma gasped and covered her mouth with her hand but a chuckle escaped anyway. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
Her amusement died. “You mean to say I’ve been worried sick about this and you guys knew you could fix it and you didn’t tell me?”
The men exchanged a look, shook their heads and rose to leave.
“Wait!”
They stopped at the door and turned questioningly and Emma ran to them and gave each one of them a hug and a kiss. “Thank you for saving me!”
Gaelen’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Dis our job.”
Emma tilted her head questioningly. “Why?”
He brushed his knuckles along her cheek. “Mate.”
She wanted to complain that he hadn’t said ‘love’ but she realized he actually had said far more. “Even … if it turns out the baby isn’t yours?”
“Make anutter.”
That provoked a chuckle from her.
She glanced from Gaelen to Kadin and Hauk. Hauk grinned at her. “You didn’t get enough sweet talk last eve?”
She laughed. “Never.”
He gave her a look. “Your turn.”
“You guys are my heroes—always coming to my rescue. You are the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me—except for finding Nye, of course, but that led you to me. I love you, and you, and you,” she said, meeting the gaze of each, but then shook her head. “I never imagined when I wished on that star that it would come back to me in quadruple.” She thought about it a second and touched her belly. “Make that quintuple.” She hadn’t felt like she had anyone to love who loved her and now she had … like a football team, she thought happily.
“I think five would be a few too many. You will have your hands full with Nye and the one you carry,” Kadin said.
“I meant ….” She saw he was teasing and let it drop. “Who would ever have thought I’d only have to go halfway across the known universe to find my true loves?”
She couldn’t imagine she would ever have found anyone on Earth who even began to compare, who loved her just the way she was—awkward, inverted, not especially pretty—just ordinary.
And almost the best part was that they hadn’t made her choose between them. Because she would’ve been unhappy if she’d had to no matter who she chose.
Epilogue
Kadin kissed his way up and over the mound of Emma’s belly and up between her swollen breasts, finally burrowing his face against her neck. “I am more glad than I can say that you decided not to hate me,” he murmured.
A shock wave went through Emma that brought some focus to her scrambled wits. Not enough to prompt the incident he was referring to, but enough to make her somewhat alert. “What?”
He pulled away and met her gaze. “That day when I … first made love to you.”
Emma smiled at him.Thatshe remembered. “Made love? Not bred?”
“Made love,” he said firmly.
She patted his cheek. “You are so smart! How could I hate you when I adore you?”
Chuckling, he rolled off of her and collapsed on the bed beside her. For several moments they both lay staring at the ceiling, hot and winded and delightfully expended, waiting for their hearts to stop hammering and their lungs to cease laboring. Finally, almost in sync, they rolled toward one another and moved closer.
Well, Emma mentally amended, as close as they could get with the mountain between them.
Kadin settled his hand on her belly, stroking it lightly.
“You afraid it’ll explode?” Emma asked jokingly.
Kadin jerked a quick look at her face and grinned a little sheepishly. “I was commanding him to stay put for a little longer.”
Emma rolled away. “He’ll come when he’s ready,” she murmured, trying not to think that his fathers might be making war before he made his entrance.
They’d arrived on Ack just weeks before the first snows. For reasons no one had ever figured out, the Sheloni rarely made raids during the winter—possibly because the Hirachi tended to stay inside through the long winter, making it difficult to impossible to gather up a shipload. But spring was not far off. The Hirachi had spent all winter preparing for all out war with the Sheloni—which had included many visits between the council of lords and various chieftains, who had surprised almost everyone by uniting behind the High King without resistance.
This, they discovered, was because the episode on the beach had had one very unexpected consequence.
It had made little Nye a legend.
He was wise far beyond his years and merciful because he had only used his awesome powers to smack the warrior down for the threat to his mother instead of actually harming her.
He was predicted to be the most powerful High King in the history of Ach and the Hirachi people.
He would lead them to victory against their oppressors.
Emma was happy with all of that except the last, but she’d been assured that Nye would lead from the castle. He would never be exposed to the battles that were expected.
Their first was just on the horizon—and their baby still hadn’t made his appearance.
She hadn’t argued when the guys had insisted the baby was ‘theirs’ plural. Maybe they knew what they were talking about, however farfetched it seemed to her, but since the end result was that they each felt ‘mated’ and she was the happy recipient of that, she wasn’t inclined to
