Page 117 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)

Alezya could not have made the trip in a few hours without a dragon’s help from the mountains. Careful not to wake up Lumie, Kassein gently put her down on the bed, and while Lorey quickly dressed her with the clothes she’d made, he got himself ready.

This time, he put on his armor and his scaled arm braces and selected his best blade. They had a long day ahead, and he needed both him and his dragon to get their heads into battle.

“Kiera sent Kiki back, she’s waiting to take us.”

Kassein climbed on his sister’s dragon first before lending a hand to Lorey as she was holding a sleeping Lumie tightly bundled between them. Kiki took off quickly, having rested enough.

Kassein didn’t know how long he had slept, but the sun had risen in the skies, and while they flew past the mountains, he couldn’t help but check them from afar, hoping for a glimpse of raven hair somewhere.

His heart ached thinking about Alezya and what she could be enduring without him. She had made the choice to go back for her child, but at what cost? How had she managed to get Lumie to Kein? Had those men harmed her again?

The journey was quiet, Kiki quickly taking them to the Onyx Castle.

It didn’t take long for Kassein to spot his dragon’s bright orange scales amongst the black walls of the Onyx Castle, the snow blanket, and the green trees that surrounded the area.

His dragon was in their mother’s garden, in a strange, cornered position and letting out warning growls that definitely cautioned others not to approach recklessly. Kiki landed at a good distance, wary of Kein’s angry temper that morning.

Kassein got off the dark gray dragon first, and after taking Lumie from her to help Lorey dismount, he rushed into the garden, feeling something was off. He glanced ahead and noticed Kiera standing with her back to him, her arms crossed and her head tilted.

“Finally,” Kiera greeted him with a scoff. “Did you get a good sleep? I hope you’re wide awake for this part...”

“What do you mean?” Lorey asked, just as confused as he was.

Kassein clenched his jaw, frowning, but he willed himself to approach his dragon.

Right now, his mind was already saturated with chaotic, angry, and worried thoughts about Alezya, so he wasn’t sure what else his dragon’s fuss could be about.

His sister was staring at something on the ground, tucked between the dragon and the wall of the garden, and next to her, Tievin was pacing in frantic circles.

“This is a problem,” he was huffing when Kassein got near enough to hear. “This is a big, big problem. I should have prevented this. I knew this was coming; I told myself, ‘ Tievin, you put a stop to this ,’ and I didn’t! I should have said something, but–”

“My brother’s sex life is hardly for you to comment on, Tiev, let alone make any executive decisions about,” Keira scoffed. “Not that anyone could stop Kassein’s di–”

“What the fuck is going on?” Kassein growled.

Despite his angry voice, the toddler in his arms, who was apparently awake, let out a giggle, and after a second, he reluctantly put her in Lorey’s arms to walk up to his sister. That’s when he finally saw what she was looking at. Two dragon eggs.

Kassein was so shocked that he froze, almost rearing back as if he’d been hit by an invisible punch. And he felt that punch to the gut too.

There was no mistaking which dragon those eggs belonged to, nor their significance. Kein was guarding them far too fiercely for there to be any doubt.

“...Alezya,” he muttered, his throat tightening.

Pregnant. Alezya was pregnant with his child.

It felt so unreal that for the first time in all his eighteen years of existence, Kassein thought he might collapse. His heart skipped a beat before it drummed violently. He had just lost her again, and now, he had to swallow that he had lost the woman who was carrying his child.

“You fucked up bad,” Kiera scoffed, as if it was funny. “You lose your woman for the second time, and she’s carrying your kid? Two of them, apparently. Way to go, Brother.”

“We need to inform the palace,” Tievin mumbled, looking one shade too white and on the verge of passing out.

“Two dragon eggs. The palace will freak out. And the mother is a tribeswoman, and we’ve lost her!

This time, Father will have my head. Or expel me to another hellho–somewhere else.

I can’t. Why? Why me? There was already so much work with two of them, and now there are going to be two more!

I’m not mentally equipped for this. This is a problem.

A major problem. Maybe I can convince them I left before this. Right. Head south and maybe…”

“What are you going to do?” Kiera asked Kassein, ignoring Tievin’s spiraling panic.

“I mean, you got two baby dragons coming, but they’re missing their mom and baby counterparts.

Tievin’s right on one thing: this is definitely going to be a problem.

And yeah, Kassian’s probably going to rip your head off. ”

For once, even Kassian’s name wasn’t enough to get a reaction out of Kassein. He was just staring at the two small eggs, so many emotions rushing through him that he couldn’t settle on one.

Alezya was pregnant.

They had spent one night together, then she had left, and she was pregnant. With his... baby. He swallowed.

She had sent him Lumie and trusted him with her daughter’s protection, but now, the moonlight of his dark life was gone, more vulnerable than she knew, and he needed her back immediately where he could protect her, shield her, and never let anyone or anything harm her again.

Where they could be together. Alezya, him, Lumie, and the baby.

Or babies. He looked at the two eggs, still absorbing the shock.

The eggs were small, but they couldn’t have been more than a day old. One was snow white, and the other was as dark as obsidian. One looked slightly bigger than the other, but maybe that was an optical illusion of the color difference.

“...Isn’t it strange?” Lorey muttered.

He turned back to her, but immediately, his eyes went down to Lumie. The little girl’s eye met his under the fur blanket, and she immediately brightened up, extending her arms in an obvious request.

Kassein couldn’t refuse her anymore than he could her mom, so he gently picked her up from Lorey’s arms. The baby girl nestled her tiny bundled body against his warm chest, getting comfortable like they hadn’t met just hours ago.

Kassein covered her with his cape, further protecting her frail body from the cold and sun.

“What is?” Kiera tilted her head.

“...There are two eggs,” Lorey said, pointing a finger at the eggs.

“I guess my brother was that efficient,” Kiera scoffed.

“Weren’t Darsan’s triplets’ dragons all born from the same egg?” Lorey insisted. “His wife mentioned their egg was huge, and that’s how they figured early on that she was expecting more than one...”

“Oh yeah,” Kiera laughed. “Serves him right! That big dumb Dran probably had a great time popping that giant egg out of his–”

“We aren’t actually sure how dragons lay eggs, my lady ,” Tievin interrupted her, rubbing his eyelids, “so I would hardly suggest we make assumptions about the... state of them after said eggs appear. What we do know is that they always have them in the place they consider safe, consider home, and away from human eyes. And Lady Lorey is right. There have hardly been any records of dragons having... multiple eggs at one time. Arguably, there haven’t been any multiple births in a long time either.

Lord Darsan’s triplets are quite a unique record in the Empire’s history. ”

“...It doesn’t matter,” Kassein finally said after a few seconds. “Alezya is with child, my child. She needs to come back here.”

He turned his eyes back to Lumie, who had her cheek against his torso, her mouth in a cute little “o” while her pale eyes were riveted on the dragon eggs, full of curiosity.

Even if it wasn’t for her, Kassein would have been dead set on bringing Alezya back, but thanks to Lumie and the pregnancy, there was no doubt in his mind that this was where she needed to be.

Everything was finally making sense. Alezya had done it all to save her baby, this baby girl, and he loved her all the more for it. Perhaps he should have been hurt that she chose her child over him or that she’d left him again, but there wasn’t any place for negative feelings in his heart.

Instead, looking at the precious little girl in his arms made him feel even more for her mother.

He was going to be a father too, and he understood.

There was nothing he wouldn’t do for them.

Alezya was a strong woman and a dedicated mother, and he adored her for it.

Whatever was important to her would be important to him too, and he already knew Lumie now resided at the top of his priority list.

He loved that child. He didn’t need time to get to know her or to come to terms with feelings.

It was just a plain truth that had appeared as bright as day, and he didn’t need to question it.

He’d felt love for Alezya the second he’d met her, and Lumie had just barreled into his life the very same way.

Not only because she was Alezya’s, he realized, but because she had made her mother the strong and beautifully resilient woman that she was today. The Alezya he knew had already given birth to Lumie and had been made braver and stronger by her identity as Lumie’s mother.

And now, her mother was gone, and while she was under his protection, her future sibling wasn’t. Kassein let out a heavy sigh and lifted the child higher against him, pressing his lips against her white curls of hair.

“I’ll bring her back,” he whispered his promise. “I’ll bring her back.”

There were a few seconds of silence, during which his sister rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything. Tievin stepped closer to the pair of eggs, took out a notepad from somewhere under his layer of coats, and started frantically taking notes.