(The Marriage Groups)Elian (20 page)

Unable to remain upright, Elian dropped the book and fell to his knees. Tears rolled down his cheeks as the pain ratcheted up a notch and he felt his limbs tremble. Something was wrong with his babies. He didn’t know what, but he suddenly wished that he hadn’t left the manor and gone to the garden. Wrapping his arms around his middle and rocking slowly as the pain persisted, he opened his mouth to call out for his husbands. Unfortunately, at that moment another hard grip of pain squeezed his middle and instead of calling his husbands' names he screamed.

And screamed and screamed. The babies were coming, he could feel it, and they were coming fast. He prayed to Andalusia and thought of his husbands, mentally calling out to them even as he continued to scream in pain.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Gaige

T
HE
bloodcurdling scream coming from outside made him jump to his feet and look around the room. The second one had Nevin and Corbin leaping to their feet as well, and they all took off running outside. Gaige felt his heart pounding in his chest even as his breath panted out of his lips.

“Who was that screaming?” Corbin asked as he ran alongside Gaige.

“It was Elian,” Gaige responded, his arms pumping on either side of his body. He turned to look briefly over his shoulder and saw that Alain and a few other servants raced behind them with towels, pillows, and water. He nodded his head and turned to look forward. He skidded to a stop at the entrance to the garden and called out to Elian. Hearing their coração’s answering call, he ran in and turned toward the direction of Elian’s voice.

He came to a halt when the plants before him began to grow and connect across the aisle, effectively blocking his way. The sky grew dark and thunder sounded in the distance. Gaige shivered as he turned to look at Corbin.

“What the fuck is going on?” Corbin asked.

“Someone’s using magic to stop us from getting to Elian,” he said, feeling the energy of the magic moving over his skin and hearing it crackling in the wind. He reached to his hip to grab his sword only to realize that it wasn’t there. How were they going to reach Elian in time if they couldn’t get past the wall of branches, leaves and plants?

“Why would they do this?” Nevin asked.

“The babies could die if no one is there to help bring them into the world,” Alain stated from behind them.

Gaige turned to look at Alain in confusion. “What do you mean?” he asked even as he heard Corbin and Nevin trying to rip apart the wall of foliage. He could hear their frustration and wanted to add his own growl to theirs.

“Female Kardalusians are born differently than male Kardalusians. A slit opens in the belly of the coração for the boys to be born, but females come through the anus and they must be coaxed out by the voices of the inseminating fathers,” Alain explained.

Gaige nodded but could tell there was something the other man wasn’t telling him. Walking closer to Alain, he lowered his eyebrows and glared at the other man. “What else?”

Alain shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said.

“Yes, you do. You’re hiding something. What are you hiding? What else should we be concerned about?” Gaige asked, hearing Corbin and Nevin panting as they came to stand on either side of him.

“You don’t want to know,” Alain reassured him. “We should just focus on getting to the coração.”

Gaige shook his head. “Tell us. What else?”

Alain sighed and looked at them with a look of sympathy tinged with fear. “If the babies aren’t coaxed out within hours of labor beginning, the coração will die along with the babies.”

Gaige gasped and turned to look back at the wall of foliage that was keeping him from Elian. “Is that what happened to all of the women who originally lived on our planet? They died in childbirth?”

Alain nodded and then shook his head no. “Yes and no. Some of them were compelled to go to Sapphro, some stayed on Earth, and others contracted diseases and slowly died off here. But many died in childbirth. Their bodies changed and it was as if they no longer wanted to birth females and so the girls had to be coaxed out of the womb. Because it wasn’t common knowledge, many died in childbirth. Those who lived eventually succumbed to the diseases and plagues that seemed to only target the women and they were wiped out,” Alain explained.

Gaige growled and rushed back to the foliage. They had to get to Elian and help him deliver their children. He wouldn’t lose his daughters, and he especially wouldn’t lose his husband. He’d recently come to the conclusion that he loved Elian. Their interactions with each other, their conversations, and the times they spent slow dancing or gardening with each other were precious to him. He wouldn’t lose that for anything in the world.

Reaching deep within his soul, Gaige found the flare of magic that he’d long since kept buried and hidden within himself. Closing his eyes, he gripped the magic and spread it throughout his limbs, feeling the energy thrum through him before allowing it to burst free. He focused the blaze of energy and magic towards the foliage wall and heard Elian scream out in pain. Immediately cutting off the flow of magic, he called out to his lover.

“El G? Are you alright? Did I hit you?” It was his biggest fear. That the magic that he kept so tightly harnessed would get out of control one day and hurt the ones that he loved.

“N-no!” Elian called back. “It just really, really hurts. I feel like s-something is supposed to be h-happening and it’s not. P-please h-hurry, Gaige!”

Gaige felt the warm press of his husbands’ hands on either shoulder and he focused his magical energy once again on the foliage, the bright cerulean blue light blazing forth from his fingertips to the wall of ivy and tearing into it.

“Did you hear that?” Corbin whispered, and Gaige tilted his head for a better listen even as he continue to tear into the barrier. At first, he heard nothing, but then the faint sound of screaming could be heard—from the very wall of foliage that he was trying to break through.

“It’s like it’s living,” Nevin breathed out, his voice sounding oddly choked.

“It is living,” Gaige huffed as he watched the leaves and plants burn and fall to the ground in a heap of green. “Whoever did this had to bring the plants to life as living, breathing, sentient beings, in order for them to grow together and try to keep us out.”

“Oh, god,” Corbin said, covering his mouth with his other hand.

“It can’t be helped. We have to get to Elian, or he could die,” Gaige said firmly.

“Agreed,” Nevin replied, his voice just as determined.

Finally, the last of the wall fell away and they strode forward and directly towards the whimpering cries of their coração. Gaige came to a halt as he looked down at Elian. He was sweaty, his face a mask of pain, his hands clenching the grass beneath him. Gaige had no idea what to do. Looking back at Alain, he growled.

“Help him!” he yelled.

Alain shook his head. “The inseminating fathers must call forth the daughters. It is up to you to coax them from the womb.”

Gaige watched as Nevin unashamedly knelt between Elian’s legs. He pulled off Elian’s pants and tossed them to the side. Placing one hand on Elian’s belly, Nevin leaned forward and began speaking softly to their unborn children.

“Come on, girls. Your daddies and I are anxiously waiting for you. Come on out,” Nevin coaxed, and Gaige winced as Elian screamed. His eyes widened as the top of a baby’s brown-haired head appeared, covered in blood and mucus, before the rest of its body appeared and slid into Nevin’s outstretched arms. No one breathed fort until the baby girl screamed and began crying. There was a collective sigh of relief as Nevin stood to his feet with their tiny daughter in his arms, murmuring nonsense to her.

Corbin took Nevin’s place and imitated his actions from moments before. Another baby girl, this one with thick, black hair came out only ten minutes after her older sister, whimpering quietly. Corbin stood and accepted a towel from Alain just as Nevin had minutes before and wrapped the baby in it. Elian panted and cried, pleading with Gaige to hurry and get the third baby out of him. Gaige nodded and strode forward, hoping no one saw his hands shaking. He was a warrior, a fighter, a king, he wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. He could do this.

He knelt between Elian’s legs, the sound of his screams and whimpers of pain echoing in his mind. He looked down past Elian’s genitals to his anus. Exhaling deeply, he reached out a hand and cleared his throat.

“Come to Papa, little one. We’re all waiting for you,” he began speaking.

“It’s not working, Gaige, try harder!” Elian pleaded.

Gaige nodded, fear for his final daughter and his husband causing a lump to lodge in his throat. “Princess, do you know the first time I saw your birthing father I knew he was the one for me? For us?” Gaige swallowed thickly. “I could feel his spirit connect with ours, see our destiny when I saw him laugh. I was so happy when we saw the moment you and your sisters were created, not just because we’d get to have you, but because you were a piece of all of us. It’s a miracle, you’re a miracle. And we really, really want to hold you.”

No sooner had Gaige finished speaking than Elian screamed and his shoulders came off the ground, hunching forward as he screamed and pushed. Gaige held out his arms and gasped as, with one more hard push, his daughter slid into his arms. Her skin was a creamy mocha color just like her sisters, but where the other two had darker hair, her hair was a gorgeous burnished gold color, thick and plastered to her head, covered in blood and mucus. She didn’t cry, but when Gaige touched her button nose, she grabbed his finger and held on tightly with a grip that surprised him. Her eyes slowly opened and he gasped at the violet color that looked back at him.

“She has violet eyes,” he breathed out as he looked up at Elian, who smiled back at him softly.

“They’re so beautiful, Cora,” Nevin spoke from above them.

“Just like their Abda,” Corbin said with a wet smile, tears rolling down his cheeks even as he smiled.

“I agree,” Gaige said and watched as Elian exhaled deeply. As he watched, their coração’s body was bathed in a white light, the area growing warm and smelling of carnoses before fading away. Gaige looked down at his husband and saw that his body had been returned to its previous, slender form and he slept peacefully.

Without needing to be told, Alain and two guards stepped forward and lifted Elian into their arms, carrying him back to the manor. Gaige followed them with Nevin and Corbin trailing behind him. Their family had just expanded by three and while Gaige couldn’t be happier, he knew that it was now more important than ever for them to find the person or people who were out to kill Elian and get rid of them first. Elian was no longer the only one in danger. Their daughters were as well. Their daughters, the first female Kardalusians born in centuries, the princesses of the kingdom, heirs to the throne and the future leaders of the planet. They’d thought they were safe at the manor, but someone had found them and tried to prevent them from getting to Elian. Someone who knew them and knew where the manor was, which brought the identity of their attacker to his mind with instant clarity.

Gaige came to a halt and looked over at Nevin. “I think I know who’s trying to kill Elian.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Elian

H
AVING
babies was a beautiful, miraculous, awe-inspiring, painful experience. Oh, Andalusia did it hurt. Elian would never forget the pain of bringing his daughters into the world. He was glad that after giving birth a coração’s body was bathed in healing light, because if he’d had to endure much more of that pain he probably would have asked for Andalusia to kill him. He didn’t want to leave his husbands or his daughters, but he didn’t want to have to breathe another moment with that searing, throbbing, flesh-rending pain, either.

When he woke up from the healing coma he’d been put into, it was the next morning. The sound of suckling and the deep voices of his husbands crooning to their daughters pulled him out of his dreamless sleep and into the most perfect picture he’d ever seen. Each one of his husbands stood around the bed feeding one of their daughters, cooing and making baby noises to them. Elian smiled and felt his heart clench at the beautiful picture they made. He couldn’t remember ever being this happy.

“You’re all amazing,” he croaked out and laughed when each of them gave happy cries that he was awake.

“How are they? Are they okay?” he asked as he tried to sit up.

“They’re fine. All three of them. Unnamed, but fine,” Corbin said cheekily, a grin swamping his features.

Elian nodded. “You didn’t name them?” he asked. He wondered why they’d allowed their daughters to go so long unnamed. Granted, they hadn’t been able to decide on a name for any of the girls before he’d gone into labor, but surely they had come to a decision by the time he’d awaken.

“Why didn’t you name them?” he asked.

“We were waiting for you, Cora,” Nevin replied, looking at Elian as if he should have known the answer to that question.

“Oh,” Elian grinned sheepishly. “Well, thank you.” Looking at all three of his beautiful daughters, he felt his heart clench with a love so deep and intense it almost brought tears to his eyes. “So what shall we name the first girls born on Kardalusia in centuries?” he smiled up at his husbands and watched as they all looked down at the babes they held in their arms, their eyes growing soft and small smiles appearing on their faces.

“Would it be too cliché if we name this one,” Nevin held up the baby in his arms, her thick brown hair looking soft to the touch, “Eve? I have always found the Earthlings' story of their beginning fascinating.”

Elian racked his brain and then smiled as he remembered the story of Adam and Eve. He frowned as the rest of the story came to mind. “Wait a minute. Didn’t Eve have two children and one of them killed his brother?”

“Actually,” Nevin spoke up, coming over to sit against the headboard next to Elian, “Eve gave birth to many children, boys and girls, and they intermarried with each other in order to populate the Earth, but yes, her two eldest sons had a serious case of sibling rivalry.”