Page 184 of The Wild Prince’s Favorite (The Dragon Empire Saga #3)
“Lumie?” Alezya called, glancing around. “Lumie!”
A flash of white darted behind her, and she sighed, turning around.
“I know it’s you, Oshu,” she said. “If you try to scare me again, you’re going to be in trou–”
A high-pitched growl cut off her sentence, and a mass of black and white scales rolled in a scuffle around her feet. Then, Niiru got the upper hand, pinning the smaller white dragon to the dark stone floor. Alezya sighed.
“Niiru,” she said. “Where’s Lumie?”
But Niiru ignored her, busy chewing its dragon sibling’s tail. Oshu was smaller, half Niiru’s size, and as white as Niiru was black. The two dragons were perfect opposites, except that they shared the same bright amber-colored eyes.
“Niiru,” she called again. “Let your baby brother go.”
Niiru growled but eventually moved aside, letting Oshu run behind Alezya’s leg with a sulky grunt.
She sighed but kept walking down the corridor with both dragons at her feet, glancing around.
Eventually, she reached the gardens of the Onyx Castle and let out another sigh.
Oshu and Niiru ran ahead to Kein, who was napping in the high grass.
The dragon was curled around a new egg, its snout against it.
Alezya walked up to the tall dragon, who barely opened an eye as she caressed its head.
Then, on the other side of the mountain of bronze scales, she found the three of them.
Lying on the grass with his back resting against his dragon, Kassein had their son sleeping on his bare torso.
His hand was under the baby’s bum, and Shuryo’s tiny fist was clutched under his chin.
Lumie was cradled between his legs. The two of them were busy with their favorite activity together: watching the stars.
“There you are,” Alezya said.
“Good evening, Mama!” Lumie beamed as Alezya came to sit next to them, her back immediately warmed up by Kein’s scales.
Kassein smiled, pressing a kiss to her lips as his free hand gently caressed the small curve of her belly.
His mother had warned them, but it had not taken long for Alezya to get pregnant again after Shuryo was born.
Their son was barely six months old, and she was already carrying their next child.
Not that she minded. Cassandra had given her a contraceptive medicine in case she needed it, but the truth was that this second pregnancy had only made her love Kassein even more.
She had never realized how much of a difference it made to have a partner who truly cared, one who was more nervous about the pregnancy than she was.
Even when she had been much sicker while carrying Shuryo, it had felt easier with Kassein at her side.
He had been there for every step, waiting on her hand and foot at all hours, never letting her feel alone in it.
He had stayed with her during the birth, and afterward, he had been even more helpful, making sure she could focus on both children without feeling overwhelmed.
He was patient, reliable, and endlessly caring.
Knowing he would always be there gave her so much confidence in growing their family.
Maybe not eight children like his mother or nine like his older brother, but she definitely wanted at least one or two more.
Any lingering doubt that Kassein would be a good father had disappeared the moment Shuryo was born.
What had moved her most wasn’t how naturally he had taken to caring for a newborn, but how nothing had changed with Lumie.
Alezya had been worried, even if she hadn’t dared to voice it aloud.
Worried that a new baby might shift something, even just a little.
That Lumie might feel left out, or that Kassein’s love for her might somehow dim.
She had known plenty of men who wouldn’t have spared a second glance at an adoptive daughter after a son of their blood was born.
Kassein wasn’t one of those men. He had loved Lumie from the second he’d met her, and that love had never wavered.
If anything, he’d made sure to cater to the little girl even more while Alezya had been busy nursing her baby brother.
He could have let his family take care of Lumie, as they’d come to help, but no.
Kassein had been the one to make sure Lumie was cared for while everyone was focused on their newborn.
If anything, Lumie had probably felt more loved than ever during her baby brother’s first months, with everyone coming to see them.
And once they had been gone, they’d enjoyed simply being a family of four.
Kassein had made sure to keep Lumie involved in everything regarding her younger brother, and yet still saved time just for her.
Kassein had become a better father for both children, and he had made it seem effortless.
Sometimes, Alezya almost forgot that Lumie wasn’t biologically his, because Kassein never acted like she wasn’t, not once.
If anything, she suspected that as the children grew older, he might end up taking Lumie’s side more often than not.
He had a special fondness for her, and she loved him all the more for it.
“You guys snuck away again,” she sighed, leaning against his shoulder.
“Lumie wanted to see the stars.”
“It is a nice night,” she smiled, looking up.
Since they’d worked out a schedule to spend more time outside with Lumie, sleeping late into the day and staying up past midnight, Kassein and the children had fallen into the habit of going out into the garden whenever the weather allowed to watch the stars.
It had become their favorite thing to do together.
It had started one night when Shuryo wouldn’t settle, and he’d taken both children outside to look at the stars so Alezya could get some rest. After that, it had just become their thing, something the three of them did when Alezya needed sleep, and sometimes, she would come out and join them.
Even though his work often took him away from the Onyx Castle during the day, Kassein always made sure to be home before it got too late, just so he wouldn’t miss putting the kids to bed.
The North Camp was now shaping up to become a proper village, built by his army and those who had come from the town to mix with them.
If Alezya hadn’t flown there often, she wouldn’t have recognized the place, which was now full of little houses, growing families, and a popular stop for trade between the mountains and the rest of the continent.
When Kassein had taken her to see how large his clan’s land was, Alezya had needed a few hours to recover.
Their first trip had been to his grandmother’s house, which was one of the most beautiful places she’d ever seen, but knowing that the journey to the tip of his country took three or four times as long had made her dizzy.
Once she had been alright with traveling again, they had gone farther, to the east to meet his older sister’s family, and to the south, in their country’s capital, to meet his oldest brother, whom she had learned was the current, actual leader of their Empire and some of his other siblings.
By now, Alezya had seen more land than she would have ever imagined and met all of Kassein’s family.
Yet, it had actually made her realize the north was her home. Lumie had been born in the mountains and Shuryo in the Onyx Castle. The nights were long enough here for her daughter to enjoy them, and Alezya could spend time with all the clans, shaping the future of the north alongside Kassein.
Now, together, they ruled the Northern Kingdom.
Kassein hated the title of King, and aside from residing in the Onyx Castle, they lived like most families up here.
However, the country’s border had been set, the Empire no longer disposed of convicts here, and they were making new decisions weekly that would shape many people’s futures.
Tievin was still Kassein’s advisor and was still doing a lot of his beloved paperwork, although now, and thanks to Alezya’s suggestion, he had taken on a handful of assistants to have time with his wife, who had just given him a son.
Dajan had also found love, with a young woman from a northern clan.
It was new, as he had met her after the war while he had helped establish a route between the mountains and the camp, but now, he spent more time in the heights than not, and was learning the northern language at remarkable speed.
Much to Alezya’s sadness, Lorey and Kiera still spent a lot of time travelling and exploring the west. The pair always came back whenever they felt like it, but at least, it still looked like they made a point to come back fairly regularly.
The Onyx Castle had become the place they called “home” whenever they returned, in need of a break from their travels and dying to spend time with their nieces and nephews.
The pair had found traces of the Lumiata Clan during their journeys, but they weren’t sure what had happened to them.
Kiera suspected many clans like their mother’s before had been attacked by slave traders.
More optimistic, Lorey thought they might have sailed away to explore the sea west of the continent.
Alezya sometimes wondered if she would ever meet them.
But even if she didn’t, a part of her was satisfied enough knowing they lived.
She had her own family here, and she didn’t feel the need to seek out more.
“How are you feeling?” Kassein gently asked.
She let out a faint sigh.
“A bit better. I can’t wait for this one to be born, though. I keep falling asleep in every room of the castle I sit in…”
“It’s fine,” he smiled. “That’s why we have pillows everywhere.”
“You promised you didn’t mind the new pillows,” she pouted.
“I don’t.”