“Is that where you were last night?” I asked, proud that I managed to keep the jealousy I was feeling from my tone.
He frowned, and I suddenly kicked myself. Crap! Had I just overstepped my bounds? But dammit, I really wanted to know the answer. I had just spent the past two days in a constant state of hell because I knew so little about what he did beyond these walls that it had driven me to desperate acts of stupidity, so didn’t I deserve some kind of answer now?
“Limira has been distraught since I took you as my wife,” he said, and the tone of his voice when he said the queen’s name made me realize that it wasn’t me that he was currently upset with. “After meeting you in the royal baths and seeing us together in my bed, she suddenly demanded that we try once again for a child.” He shrugged and continued rather matter-of-factly, “It is her right as queen, no matter that the entire exercise was useless. If she has not conceived in a thousand years, then the chances of it happening now are fairly nonexistent. Although I already knew you were pregnant when I received her summons yesterday, I gave her one last night out of respect for our years together and the sadness of her fate.”
There was no way I could continue to feel jealous after hearing all that. If it were me, I would have been desperate to conceive, too. Knowing the history of various royal families back in my world, she was probably under tremendous pressure from her family. Whether human or Sidhe, the continuation of bloodlines was always important.
Not wanting to think about the elven queen anymore, I quickly asked before Sethian could continue, “How did you know I was pregnant anyway? Did Lariel tell you? They were all pretty suspicious from the very beginning.”
“No, nothing like that,” he replied. “From the moment I appeared in your bedroom yesterday, our child’s soul spoke to me.”
“What!” I cried, half-rising on my elbows in my shock and nearly causing us to bump heads.
“It is not as extraordinary as you may think,” he insisted, chuckling at what was probably a very dumb look on my face. “All elven women can hear their child’s voice soon after conception, but according to the old texts, the changed humans were different. It seems only when the elven child had developed the ability to form clear thoughts that they were able to connect mentally with their human mothers.”
“That’s—that’s—amazing!” I exclaimed lamely, unable to find the right words to describe the sense of wonder I was feeling.
Sethian smiled. “Unlike humans, elven babies do not cry. The connection is necessary for communication. It is not so much words, but a sense of intent or emotion. That is why I am also able to hear our child. Had we any other children, they would be able to hear their sibling’s voice as well. It is our genetic ties that allow this.”
It was becoming abundantly clear that I was still laughingly ignorant about the Sidhe. A few days ago, I had thought that I was finally starting to grasp my new adoptive culture, and had said as much to the girls. Now I’m surprised that they hadn’t laughed in my face.
“If you knew from the start, then why did you let me go on thinking that you had no clue about me being pregnant?” I said, trying not to sound resentful.
“I wanted to give you the pleasure of telling me this joyous news, but…even when we were alone in the garden and you still had not told me, I thought that perhaps you had a specific place and time in mind. It seems I completely misread you and the situation. Forgive me.”
I shook my head and snuggled up to him with a sigh. “I should’ve never tried to keep all my fears to myself. Maybe if I had just confided my fears about the pregnancy to Lariel, or Saeria and Rinwen, then a lot of misery could have been avoided. Before you did whatever you did to me to make me feel better, the morning sickness was practically torture!”
He tutted and then ran a hand over my belly. The look in his eyes was suddenly so nakedly joyous that I felt the prick of tears in my own.
“I never, never thought that a child would be conceived this quickly,” he said with the largest smile I had ever seen anyone wear. “According to the old histories, it had taken several decades for the first human woman to conceive an elven child. That this has happened is truly extraordinary!” Then abruptly, his smile dimmed. “On the other hand, for your sake I am sorry that this has happened as quickly as it has. It would have been best if it had happened after you had been settled into this new life for a bit longer. As I said before, it is understandable if you are frightened.”
“Yeah, I’m scared,” I admitted, trying to smile bravely, “but—what first-time mother isn’t? Luckily, I still have another eight months or so to get used to the idea. I’ll be fine.”
And I would be fine. Sethian may not love me just yet, but at least some of his words had rekindled my hope that it could happen, especially now that I apparently had thousands of years to persuade him. I felt lightheaded just thinking about the oceans of time I had ahead of me.
“Once the evidence of your pregnancy is apparent, I shall present you to the whole of the elven court.” He paused, and the look in his eyes became deadly serious. I suddenly found myself looking into the eyes of, not Sethian, but the elven king.
“Your pregnancy will change everything.”
I blinked in surprise at the sudden shift of his demeanor. This was what his people had been longing for for over five hundred years, wasn’t it? My friends were constantly telling me how excited a lot of the elven women were about the prospect of children filling their homes again.
So why did Sethian sound so worried?
CLAIMED BY THE ELVEN KING: PART FOUR
When word gets out that the king’s new wife is pregnant, Emily learns that dealing with the queen’s resentment is the least of her worries when her friends inform her that her pregnancy may not be as welcomed by the court as she was led to believe…
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Also by Cristina Rayne
Urban and Epic Fantasy, writing as C.G. Garcia:
The Supreme Moment (A Fractured Multiverse Novel)
Old Souls (Book 1)
The Ties that Bind the Soul (Old Souls Book 2)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cristina Rayne lives in West Texas with her crazy cat and about a dozen bookcases full of fantasy worlds and steamy romances. She has a degree in Computer Science which totally qualifies her to write romances. As Fantasy is her first love, she feels if she can inject a little love into the fantastical, along with a few steamy scenes, then all the better. Claimed by the Elven King is her debut serialized Fantasy Erotic Romance novel.
Claimed by the Elven King: Part Three Page 5