by V Vee
One thing he could say was a positive, over the past few months that Leyah had been incarcerated, she’d been eating well. Her normally trim figure had grown curvier. Her waist had thickened, her breasts had grown fuller, she even had a slight roundness to her belly. He was glad she was being taken care of in that regard. He would never admit to anyone if he were questioned, but he always breathed easier when he heard she’d been eating, even if his own appetite had almost ceased to exist. That was to say nothing of the insomnia that held him in its clutches.
He stepped through the prison door, nodding at the guard on duty, before the sound of retching reached his ears. He frowned and swung to face the man who stood against the wall expressionless.
“Is that Princess Aa’Leyah?” he asked.
The guard nodded. “Iak. She’s been sick around this time every day for the past few months. It’s normal for pregnant women to have morning sickness, Sire.”
Alastair’s eyes widened. “She’s not pregnant,” he shook his head. It couldn’t be. Leyah? Pregnant? Why wouldn’t she tell him? Why would she? His brain taunted him. You had her arrested without giving her a chance to explain, and even after hearing her reasoning, you still haven’t freed her.
Maybe the baby isn’t even yours, a dark, ugly, twisted side of his subconscious mocked. She lied about why she was here. Lied about everything else. Maybe she lied about being faithful.
Without allowing the guard to respond, he stomped down the hall to Leyah’s cell.
“Whose is it?” he yelled.
Leyah looked up from where she knelt in front of the non-private toilet, vomiting. Her eyes were bloodshot, her thick, black hair was a tangled mass, sweaty tendrils plastered to her face. She wiped her mouth and inhaled before turning to throw up violently again.
Unable to witness her distress, Alastair used his key and opened the cell door. He walked inside quickly and squatted behind her, holding her hair back with one hand, the other rubbing her back. He grimaced at the sounds of her retching, gagging at the cloying smell of her sickness filling the bowl.
Once she was finished, he reached over and flushed the toilet. He tugged Leyah back into his arms and rested with her back against his front. He rested one hand on her stomach and felt the small bump there. Jealousy filled him, and he took a deep breath.
“Whose is it?” he asked again, this time quieter than before.
“Yours,” Leyah responded softly.
Alastair shook his head. “How do you expect me to believe you?” he whispered.
Leyah sighed. “I don’t, Alastair. But you were my first. My only. You were my Sir. You are the love of my life. And you are the father of this child.”
Alastair’s eyes slid closed. “I want to believe you. I really do.” He exhaled. “I want to believe that you had no part of the attacks on my family. I want to believe that you had a change of heart. I want so much, but I don’t know if I can trust you again.”
“Maybe I can help with that,” Andreas’s voice sounded from behind him, and Alastair turned to see his younger brother standing just inside the cell, a folder in his hand.
“Andy?” Alastair could hear the hope in his own voice.
Andreas held out the folder to Alastair who stood, lifting Leyah with him before he took the offering from his brother. He led Leyah over to the bed and sat down beside her.
“What is this?” he questioned.
“Persephone’s confession,” Andreas stated nonchalantly.
Alastair’s eyebrows rose towards his hairline and he looked over at Leyah who gasped.
“Persephone?” He opened the folder and noticed a handwritten note, a bank statement, and a number of pictures. Persephone stood with a hooded figure in some of them, in front of the abandoned shed where the missing, and murdered, guards had eventually been found, her clothes stained with blood. And in another, much more damning photo, she was accepting the vial of poison that had been found in Leyah’s things after her arrest, from none other than Danorian.
“Danorian?” he asked in surprise.
“Yes. Quite a surprise since he accused your wife and knew exactly where the evidence would be,” Andreas’s voice sounded nonchalant, but Alastair could hear the subtle note of anger in the man’s voice.
Alastair could sympathize. Danorian had pointed the finger at Leyah, who, though she’d been guilty of entering the palace and her employ with nefarious intentions, had been innocent of any actual violence. Danorian, who’d suggested Leyah for employ, had, in the end, been the true criminal. Alastair wanted the man’s head on a pike.
“Where. Is. He?” Alastair asked through gritted teeth.
“Gone,” Andreas replied. He held up a hand when Alastair glared at him. “But do not worry, I will go after him, myself. We will catch him. Not only for the attacks on the palace, but for his part in your wife’s incarceration.” He looked over at Leyah, who had been silent throughout their entire exchange. He bowed his head at her before looking at her intently. “Forgive me for the part I played in your arrest, Aa’Leyah.”
Leyah shook her head. “Forgive me for my original intentions.” She looked at Alastair and he felt his heart clench. “Please forgive me.”
He pulled her into a tight hug. “I’ll forgive you if you forgive me for not giving you a chance to explain in the beginning, and not believing you when I finally did.”
“Forgiven,” Leyah sighed as she snuggled closer to him.
“Cute,” Andreas snorted. “Perhaps you would like to remove your wife from prison, now?”
“With pleasure,” Alastair stated happily. He swung Leyah up into his arms. “I need to take her to be seen by the doctor. We’re apparently having a baby.”
He chuckled at Andreas’s groan and mutter about his brothers being “super fertile,” and strode down the hall with his wife in his arms. His princess.
His love.
The King and Queen of Waldakan
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Five Days Later
L eyah stared at the palace doctor in shock and shook her head.
“I’m sorry, I’m having what now?” Leyah stared at the doctor who merely smiled at her. While she didn’t care, much, what people thought about her, she’d been relieved when Alastair had informed her that no one outside of his family and the guards who’d arrested her and been assigned to watching her in prison, knew about her incarceration. As far as the country of Malvidence knew, Leyah had been getting acclimated to her new duties as princess, as well as spending time with her new husband, Alastair. The lie was easily believed since Alastair himself had been scarcely seen around the palace or the kingdom. Dividing his time between his office, the gym, his suite, and the prison where he often visited Leyah. Even sometimes taking his meals there.
But everyone would know about Danorian and Persephone’s part in the attacks so all of Malvidence and Waldakan could be on alert for Danorian, and no one would truly mourn Persephone.
“You’re having twins, Mexoria Źeylήia,” the doctor informed her again.
Leyah shook her head again and looked over at Alastair who laughed in delight. She squeezed his hand, they were rarely seen without them holding hands, or without Alastair’s arm wrapped around her protectively, possessively. Rarely a day went by without them declaring their love for each other or without them constantly needing to touch the other. Their months spent apart, anger, hurt, betrayal, and guilt festering between them and keeping them separate, had strengthened their love, and made them even more committed to each other now that the truth was out.
“I can’t believe this,” she said, laying her head on Alastair’s chest.
“I can,” he told her, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Didn’t you hear Andreas? The Smythe brothers are very fertile.”
“Would you like to know what you’re having?” the doctor asked.
Leyah looked up at him and he nodded. She grinned.
“Yes, Doctor. Please let us know who the heirs of Waldakan are g
oing to be.”
Alastair carried Leyah into their suite hours later, excitement and pride suffusing his being. His beautiful wife, who’d bravely and staunchly been pregnant with twins for months in a cell, still loved him, and he loved her more than he ever had before. They’d both forgiven each other and now they were looking forward to the rest of their lives with each other.
Alastair lay Leyah down on the mattress and lifted his body, stretching out over her and the mattress in a push up position. “I want you,” he confessed. “I’m not sure I can take my time.”
“Then don’t,” Leyah responded, lifting her hands and caressing his cheeks. She tugged her tank top down, exposing her ample bosom to his gaze, then tugged up her skirt, exposing her bare pussy to him.
“Why, Queen Aa’Leyah, you’re not wearing panties!” he feigned shock, leaning down to kiss her deeply. When he lifted his head, she was panting, her brown eyes darkened to almost black with desire.
“I wanted you to be able to get to me quicker,” she told him. “And look,” she slid a hand down her stomach to her mound, and stuck three fingers deep inside her core. Alastair groaned at the sight, and when she removed them and showed him her sopping wet digits, he knew that he wouldn’t have to go slow. Not this time. He opened his mouth and sucked eagerly when Leyah placed her fingers in between his lips. As the taste of her washed over his tongue, Alastair’s cock grew as hard as steel. Keeping her fingers in his mouth, he kneeled between her spread legs, and unbuckled and unzipped his jeans, shoving them down his hips, along with his boxer briefs.
In one swift motion, he was over her, tilting her hips up, his hand on her round belly, and he sighed at the relief of him sliding his cock inside her tight heat. Placing his hand on the mattress and lifting onto his toes he started to stroke her inner folds with his shaft, before he sped up to pound into her, pushing up and down over her as he did so. He rolled his hips and thrust deep, drilling into her from his push-up position.
“Iak! Yes, Sir! Yes! Fuck me!” Leyah yelled out.
The skin of his bare chest glistened with sweat, the strands of his dark hair falling messily in his eyes. He growled loudly as her sheath tightened around him. Each stroke of his cock inside her center built up the bliss that had him feeling drunk. He felt on the edge of an orgasm, but he’d only just gotten inside of her. Those longs months without her were taking their toll, but Alastair refused to give in so quickly or so easily. Not before Leyah. Not without his princess. His queen.
When she looked up at him with her eyes almost black with passion and bit her lip as he fucked her harder. The bliss morphed and turned into fireworks and a kaleidoscope of perfect gratification. Leyah’s eyes rolled back, and Alastair felt his toes curl as her screams echoed through the walls of his suite and down the hallways of the palace. He kept pace with the frantic movements of her hips, determined to make her come again, but this time to soar with her. When she sighed and gazed up at him with blazing eyes, Alastair knew it was time he sought his own orgasm, while tugging her over the edge with him.
He pulled his shaft from inside her and smacked her ass.
“Turn over,” he said breathlessly. With a smirk, Leyah rolled over in a fluid motion, pressing her head and breasts down into the mattress. Alastair grabbed a pillow and placed it beneath her, so she could rest on it, and to protect her round belly. He slid his throbbing member into her center once again, and before long his rhythm of slow, deep strokes, turned into hard, quick thrusts as his pleasure pushed at him to take her harder and faster.
Nothing but the sounds of their sweaty bodies smacking together filled the air as Leyah pressed back against him, meeting his every thrust. He pulled her upright until he could meet her lips. Crushing his lips to hers, he continued to move his hips, his cock sliding in and out of her easily due to her own arousal. Her bigger, swollen, and sensitive breasts bounced with the force of his thrusts. He could feel his orgasm starting to take him over, and his balls drawing up close to his body, and he shoved his cock deep. He growled still plowing into her, his muscles straining as he worked to wring every ounce of pleasure from her body. He gripped her hips tight, his hips moving on autopilot. Her wetness streamed down the inside of her thighs, soaking the sheets, driving him wild. They fit perfectly together. Leyah broke their kiss and cried out, tossing her head back as another orgasm took her over. Her walls clamped down on him, milking him through his own powerful climax. He roared his release as his seed blasted inside her.
His body continued to twitch in enjoyment as he sighed in complete satisfaction. He leaned over and rested gently on her back as he covered her skin with kiss. He wrapped his arms around her body, lay on his side, and pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. Leyah’s deep breaths and soft snores moments later made him smile, and he closed his eyes the sweet moment and their love lulling him off into sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
He hated them all. As he stood outside the suite of Prince Alastair and Princess Aa’Leyah, the former princess of Waldakan, and now current Queen of Waldakan, as well as the princess of Malvidence, he seethed and stewed in his rage. Their sounds of lovemaking had finally ended, Queen Aa’Leyah’s screams and Prince Alastair’s roar causing the other princes to stick their heads out of their suites, before laughing and returning to their own spaces. His plans had all been foiled in one way or another. And to make matters worse, he’d discovered that Persephone had been sleeping with Danorian as well, and when he left, she’d deserted him not long after. How the fuck was he supposed to survive, to complete his mission without the two of them by his side? Was he supposed to simply accept things as they were?
No! No. He refused to lay down and show his belly like some sort of submissive, trained, dog. He was a wild wolf. A lion that belonged out in the Serengeti, not guarding the hallways of the palace of Malvidence. Not watching as Princess—Queen Aa’Leyah—a woman who should have died the same night as her parents, but who’d survived thanks to help from someone, went on to live happily ever after with Prince—King Alastair. No. That throne belonged to him. They all belonged to him. The throne of Waldakan and the throne of Malvidence. He would claim them all. He would take over the entire region. One after the other until everyone who’d ever defied him, left him, rejected him, or hurt him were crushed under his boot, and the rest bowed and scraped, pleading for the scraps from his table. Paying homage to him.
The once and future king of Malvidence and Waldakan.
It was the way things should have always been.
“Look at me, Kutíbābā,” he whispered in the empty hallway. “Your little boy is going to be king. He’s going to kill them all and then take the crowns that should have always belonged to you.”
Yes. That’s right. He was going to kill them all.
His attention turned to the door at the end of the hallway that slowly creaked open. He narrowed his eyes as he saw the American woman, the one Prince Augustus was obsessed with, what was her name? Ah yes. Helen. She creeped out of the prince’s room, her hair disheveled, her clothing askew, and her shoes held in her hands. She looked ashamed. Guilty.
Guilty consciences were good. He could do a lot with someone who felt guilty. With a smile on his lips, he watched as she headed down the hallway away from him and began to plan his next plan of attack.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
A lastair placed his hand on Leyah’s round and expanded belly. The palace was quiet and while it had taken some getting used to, splitting their time between Malvidence and New Waldakan, Alastair found he enjoyed having a palace of his own. He loved being king while still maintaining his title as a prince of Malvidence. He would never want to lose his heritage, but he loved stepping into his new identity. The consort, husband, of the ruling Queen of Waldakan. His woman. His wife. His princess.
Aa’Leyah Zameer-Smythe.
When one of the babies kicked his palm, followed by the other kicking his face, where he rested it on Leyah’s stomach, Alastair laughed heartily. He
lifted his head when Leyah shifted and pushed him away.
“Are you enjoying yourself, my Prince?” she asked him with a smile on her face.
Alastair nodded. “Indeed, I am, my Queen,” he replied, leaning down and placing a kiss on her stomach, then tilting forward to place one on her lips. He sipped from her lips, moaning as her taste covered his lips and soaked into his tongue. When they separated, he smacked his lips happily.
“Why do you always taste so unbelievably delicious?” he asked her.
Leyah laughed and shrugged. “It’s just my lip gloss, Alastair,” she answered, before pushing up from the couch where they were currently reclining.
Alastair hopped up and helped her to stand, making sure she was sure-footed before releasing her hands. He smiled when Leyah cupped his cheek, before lowering her hand and turning to walk away from him.
“Hey, where are you going?” he asked her as he trailed behind her.
Leyah laughed. “Nowhere. I just feel the need to walk.”
Alastair narrowed his eyes. “Are you having contractions?” he asked her.
Leyah shook her head. “No, Alastair. I am not having contractions.” She turned to look at him over her shoulder. “I refuse to be like Valerie and give birth to my twins in a palace bathroom or in the palace anywhere. It’s clean, but it is not sanitary. We will be having these twins in the New Waldakan hospital.”
After Leyah had confessed all to him and his father, they had sat down and gone over the history of both Malvidence and Waldakan. Alastair had been ashamed and disappointed in his ancestor when the man’s exploits and underhanded criminality had been revealed. His father had been even more baffled and saddened. He’d revered his great-great grandfather. To discover that the man had stolen the land where Malvidence now sat, and not through war, but simply through underhanded tactics, an unwise partnership, and by taking advantage of the hospitality of King ZwooZa, Alastair’s father had asked Leyah what she wanted.