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As expected, the journey to Eara was for nothing. The Bearer chosen for him by the temple was sweet and cute, but Darya felt nothing for him. His cock didn’t stir. His heart didn’t leap.
Once you gave your heart, it was hard to notice anyone else.
That was that, then. Arjun had Darya’s heart. What should he do now?
“King Darya. Brother.” The King of Eara, Kiran, grinned at him. “Is the Bearer to your liking?”
“He’s fine,” Darya said non-commitantly, unable to help a scowl.
“I see.” Kiran laughed. “That good, huh?”
“Apologies. I don’t think he and I are compatible.”
“And you don’t want to give him a try?”
At the thought of fucking the cute Bearer, Darya’s cock...showed no signs of caring, remaining limp in his britches. “I don’t think it’s be worth it.”
“That bad. So who’s the lucky elf?”
“Huh?”
“The elf who shot you through the heart and tugs on you with every breath?”
That was a fairly good description of how he felt, Darya had to admit. Then again, King Kiran obviously had experience with the feeling. The looks his kept casting his Mate, Ceren, were full of fire and love.
“He’s one of my guards,” Darya said quietly.
“Don’t tell me he’s the one you saved from the dragon’s claws!”
“I see word travels quickly.”
“Well, we live for rumors. Not much entertainment in these parts,” Kiran laughed. “So is it true?”
“I didn’t save him from her claws. I wish I had. She flew off with him and I wrote him off for dead until rumor reached me that the dragon had an elf with her, a living elf. So I took my guards and went to get him back from her lair.”
“And did you? You did, right? You wouldn’t be sitting here if he was dead.”
“We saved him. The dragon didn’t kill him.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t know yet. She actually fed him scraps of meat after carrying him off to her cave. We don’t understand why.”
“You don’t say...” King Kiran looked pensive. “Well, you know the saying about dragons.”
“What saying?”
“It’s an Earan saying: dragons love virgins and babies.”
“What does it mean?”
“Well, was he a virgin?”
“No.”
“Then he must have been pregnant. Am I right?”
Was he?
Darya thought again about standing in the bailey with Arjun, staring at the swell of his belly under his folded arms, thinking that maybe... and then telling himself that it wasn’t possible. Though the Commander had told him that Arjun couldn’t do the exercises the others did. Though Darya himself had watched from a distance, seeing how Arjun couldn’t bend over and rubbed at his swollen belly after each exercise.
His seed couldn’t be sown in a low elf. A guard with no family line. Right?
But what if King Kiran was right? Stranger things had happened.
And it would explain why Darya was in a rut, though it didn’t explain why he’d given his heart before knowing something like this could ever happen.
***
DESPITE THE NEW URGENCY he felt to ride back hard, return to the castle and talk to Arjun, see what the priests said, if he’d been examined, he couldn’t just leave. Celebrations had been prepared for his visit, banquets and dances and rituals, and many Unclaimed Bearers had traveled to Eara castle trying to catch his eye and see if they had a chance with him.
So he smiled, or at least bared his teeth, feeling like a caged animal, as they all paraded in front of him, and drank all the wine he could find.
The thought of Arjun having his babies had his blood running hotter than ever. The possibility had him chewing at the bit, dying to get back.
Finally, King Kiran took pity on him and gave him leave to go.
“Ride back, brother Darya,” he said with a wide grin, “and get your Mate. It’s obvious your mind and heart are back in Sarada, and not here. Your guard sounds as amazing as the Lost Prince of Eara, the dragon’s beloved. Go get him.”
“Apologies,” Darya mutter. Hells, lately all he seemed to be doing was apologizing—to Kiran, the eager Bearers... to Arjun. He was a king, gods damnit. He hadn’t apologized to anyone in years. Wanting Arjun had thrown him in for a loop, that was for sure. “Who’s this lost prince, anyway? I’ve never heard this story.”
“One of Eara’s royal princes vanished one day, only to return a year later with a strange story about how a dragon kidnapped him while he’d been pregnant. The dragon, he said, had taken the baby to raise as her own, since her own dragonet had been killed by the Hunters.”
Ha. Earan imagination at its best. “And who had been the baby’s Sire?”
“The prince never said. Rumor had it that it had been a Low Elf.”
“A Low Elf impregnating a High Elf prince?”
“I know. Sounds incredible, right? Just as much as a dragon stealing a baby.”
It had left Darya grinning, but with a weird foreboding in his heard. Was it that incredible, all of it? A she-dragon had kidnapped Arjun, after all.
“Any clue as to why she’d kidnap that particular prince?”
“The dragon? Don’t tell me you believe the story. I mean, the people of Eara say that it’s because the prince was from a pure line of Earan royalty, hailing back to a dragon. A Dragon Prince. As per our kingdom sigil, see? The Dragon of Eara. Ritually all kings claim descendance from a dragon, but some houses claim they have proof. Something about a mark appearing on their Bearer’s bellies toward the end of their pregnancies.”
“Well, then.” That explained nothing about Arjun’s abduction, and it was time for Darya to go.
Gathering his traveling gear, he swung onto the saddle, gathered his guards and rode out, heaving a sigh of relief as he left the walls of the Eara castle behind him. Soon he’d be back in Sarada, in his own castle, and he’d sort out once and for all what he felt.
Love. Fuck, he was so much in love with his guard it felt as if a part of his own body, his own soul was missing.
There was his answer. He’d known it all along. The distance Arjun had put between them had confused him for a while, but now it was all clear in his mind. Obviously, if Arjun still refused him, if he really didn’t want him, that would be that, but Darya had to try. He’d kept away out of deference for Arjun’s trauma, had respected his wish for distance, hadn’t wanted to harm him by pushing. But he had to know, and if there was something a king knew, it was how to fight for what he wanted.
He’d show Arjun how good it could be, how much he wanted this. How deep his feelings went. And it’d be up to Arjun then to decide.
***
THE CASTLE OF SARADA loomed in the distance, close enough to reach within the day, when it all went south.
Nightmares, a herd of them. On the road, so close to the castle. Sarada was plagued by them lately. He wondered if it was the same herd he’d asked his Guard Commander to deal with.
So he wasn’t very surprised when he saw a group of elves on horseback fighting the herd, wearing the Saradan colors and coat-of-arms with the great black horse depicted. Hunters and guards alike were battling the monster herd, placed between them and the nearby town.
He wasn’t surprised until he recognized one of them, one he’d ordered to stay at the castle and recuperate.
By that time, his guards had seen him and redoubled their efforts to push the nightmare horses back, to reach their king.
The surprise was giving way to anger. What had Arjun been thinking? He’d still been too weak, too far from being back in shape to be out here, risking his life. Darya had ordered him not to risk his life, damn it. And if there was any chance that he might be pregnant...
Gods below.
“Ride with me!” he hollered to the guards who’d been journeying with him, unhooking his ax from his back. “Let’s get those monsters! Help the others!”
They smashed into the herd, Darya swinging his heavy ax right and left. Pressed from both sides, the nightmare horses started to back away, biting and kicking and snorting flames. Darya’s attention was divided between the monsters and Arjun who was wheeling his horse to one side, then the other, cutting the nightmares down with his longsword. He looked fierce, while delicate and beautiful at the same time, his brown-gold hair flying around him.
He’d caught Darya’s heart like that, with that fire and courage and that ethereal beauty he had, like a spirit of nature dancing in a flame.
“Majesty, look out!”
Ducking saved his head from the savage bite of a nightmare horse, his own stallion dancing out of harm’s way, nervously whinnying.
Fuck.
Swinging his ax, he only managed to push back the nightmare. His guards didn’t have much better luck. The nightmares weren’t afraid of a few elves on horseback with their sharp bits of steel.
A strange thing was happening on the other side of the herd, though: where Arjun advanced, the nightmares fell back.
How fucking strange.
Arjun pressed his advantage, the other guards and Hunters behind him, and amazed and bemused Darya watched as they pushed the herd back, and further back, until the herd finally turned tail and ran.
What had that been about?
The battle was finally turning. If Arjun had such power over monsters, why hadn’t it happened earlier, though?
Did this have anything to do with why the dragon had captured him and kept him alive? What were the monsters seeking with him?
His guards whooped as they flanked him, raising their swords, waving them in the air, as if the victory had been thanks to them. Shaking his head, Darya allowed the exuberance, waiting as the bigger group of guards and Hunters cantered toward them, in the wake and clouds of dust left behind by the retreating monsters.
Darya only had eyes for one rider, sword still in hand, face arranged in a fierce scowl, long chestnut hair flapping behind him like a banner.
Breathtaking.
The guards arranged themselves in a line before him, their horses huffing and pawing at the dirt, bowed their heads and banged their fists over their hearts, saluting him. Their breastplates shone in the gray morning light.
One of them wasn’t wearing a breastplate, though, and Darya was even more bemused when he saw how big his favorite guard’s belly was. There didn’t seem to be any question about Arjun’s pregnancy anymore, not for Darya. His heart pounded and a huge smile split his face.
“Well done, everyone! Hunters, follow the nightmares, make sure they head back to their mountains. Guards, we ride back to the castle. And Arjun...” He watched his guard’s scowl deepen. “You ride beside me. Let’s go!”
***
DESPITE HIS ELATION at finding his guard alive and well, Darya was still pissed. “Arjun. Why were you there? I told you to stay at the castle.”
Arjun spurred his horse forward to keep pace with Darya’s huge stallion. “Majesty. I was at the castle, but we received a message that the battle was going awry. The Commander sent the rest of us out to push the nightmares back.”
“And where is he?”
“He was injured earlier today, Majesty. He was carried to the town to be seen by the local priest.”
“Hm.” Slightly mollified, Darya glanced sideways at the elf he’d been dying to see all the days he’d been away. “And how do you feel?”
“Majesty? I’m fine.”
Darya bared his fangs. “Have you been to see a priest?”
“No, Majesty. I was going to.”
“When?”
Arjun’s cheeks turned pink. “When the message came.”
“I see. Were you going to disobey me?”
“Of course not, Majesty.”
“Why don’t you want to be examined by the priests? Does touching still scare you?”
Arjun’s cheeks turned crimson. “No, that’s not it.”
“Then what is it?”
Arjun placed a hand on his swollen belly. “I just...” He gasped.
“What is it?” Darya asked, worried.
“I don’t know. Like... a flutter. A movement.”
Oh Melek. “Arjun... Has it happened before?”
“Once or twice.” Arjun’s eyes were wide.
“You’re pregnant with my babies, Arjun. No doubt about it.” Darya’s grin reached his ears. “Why can’t you accept it?”
“I can’t be.”
“Everything is possible,” the king whispered. “Don’t you know that? If a dragon can steal a guard, and a guard can steal his king’s heart, why couldn’t he also carry his babies?”