Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir

Chapter Fourteen

Watching a man as big and muscular, and well-hung, as Rubius walk nakedly through the city carrying the nude queen in his arms was not a sight that went unnoticed. By the time that Rubius had reached the bottom of the castle steps, Aeron had already been informed of the sighting and had run out to meet them out of concern for his wife.

“What has happened?” he asked Rubius, trying to ignore the sight of his dangling cock as he held Cassandra’s naked breasts pressed against his chest.

“I don’t know,” Rubius said honestly. “She is unwell and needs a doctor.”

Aeron sent for the doctor and took Cassandra from Rubius’ reluctant arms. Then he turned to carry her back into the castle.

“May I come as well?” Rubius asked, not wanting to create a scene by barging into the castle uninvited to stay close to Cassandra.

Aeron made a rather indignant huffing noise, which Rubius interpreted as close enough to an affirmation. The two men walked through the castle toward the bedroom without speaking.

When they got inside the room, Aeron laid Cassandra down on top of the mattress and pulled a blanket up over her body to cover her. Then he went over to his dresser and opened a drawer. He pulled out a shirt and pair of pants and tossed them at Rubius because the continued sight of the cock he knew had been inside of his wife was starting to elevate his anger. Rubius could tell, too. He put the clothes on quickly and then stood awkwardly at the end of the bed, staring at Cassandra, as they waited for the doctor to arrive.

“Why is it that you seem to always be bringing my wife back to me, Rubius?” Aeron asked him.

Rubius was trying to think of a response, but he was too worried about how sick Cassandra was to think of a convincing lie, and Aeron was too worried to know whether he would even believe anything that Rubius said to him. Both of them were too concerned and fearful for Cassandra’s wellbeing to get into an argument with each right now. When the human doctor from the city arrived, he asked both men to step out of the room and both refused. Why was it that humans were always so commanding when they had actually very little to be commanding of?

The doctor heaved several sighs and sounds of confusion, which then changed into nods and the rubbing of his brow with his index finger. Cassandra woke up and said only a few short words to the doctor, which both Aeron and Rubius had trouble hearing since they were at the other side of the room and she was speaking in a whisper. After the doctor had finished his examination, he looked at Cassandra strangely and then motioned for the two men to come and join her at the bedside.

“Do you know what is wrong?” Aeron asked the doctor, once he saw the man’s expression and started to get worried.

“Well, there’s not necessarily something wrong,” the doctor said.

“Of course there is something wrong,” Rubius interjected. He didn’t have the patience to listen to any of the human’s word-salad right now. He wanted to know what the matter was with Cassandra. “She’s not feeling well. Tell us what is causing her sickness.”

“It’s not a sickness,” the doctor said, clearly intimidated by the size and unease of both men. “The queen is pregnant.”

Looks of shock fell over all three of them.

“That can’t be true,” Cassandra protested.

“Oh, I assure you,” the doctor said, “it’s quite true.”

Aeron and Rubius looked at each other and the tension in the room increased trifold.

“If you’d like, I can stay and—”

“No,” Cassandra said as she cut the doctor’s sentence short. She feared what was about to happen between the two shifters hovering on either side of the human man.

“Thank you, doctor,” she said. “But I am feeling very tired now. Perhaps you could come back tomorrow and we can finish the discussion then?”

“Of course,” he said as he packed up his things and walked out of the room. “Congratulations to you and the king, of course.”

Cassandra looked up into the glowing yellow eyes of both Aeron and Rubius. Their wolf senses were immediately engaged as they knew that a conflict between the two of them was coming now.

“Both of you, please,” she scolded. “Both of you. This isn’t a time for rivalry.”

“Did you know?” Aeron asked her.

“Know what? That I was pregnant? No, of course not,” she said.

She waited for Aeron to finally confront her and Rubius about the fact that he knew they had slept together. He had to have known and it was almost vexing her that he hadn't confronted them. But he still didn’t make the accusation.

Rubius didn’t know what to think, nor what to do or say. He had never had a family before, and if there was a chance that Cassandra was carrying his child, then he would do anything in order to make sure that both Cassandra and their baby stayed with him.

“Cassandra, I—” Rubius didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence either.

“I need quiet,” she interrupted. “I need you both to leave for now.”

Cassandra stayed alone for the next few days. She needed time to think. She asked Aeron to stay in another bedroom and refused to see Rubius when he came to visit her. The only person that she allowed in her room was the doctor when he returned for a follow-up appointment she had already pushed off for too long.

“How are you feeling?” the doctor asked when he came into the room for the second time.

“Fine,” she answered. “I no longer feel sick.”

“That’s wonderful news!” he said. “Let’s have a look and see how things are progressing. I would imagine that you are probably several weeks along, based on my last exam, and I think that—”

When Cassandra moved the blanket off of her abdomen, the doctor turned pale with shock. Cassandra’s stomach had grown in size to be as large as a human woman would look at the beginning of her third trimester.

“How is this possible?” he asked. “This is a scientific anomaly.”

She had been so busy thinking about Aeron and Rubius, and what to do about the two of them, that she had failed to realize that the startling quickness of a shifter pregnancy would shock the human doctor and cause a great deal of rumor and alarm to develop all over again.

She quickly pulled the blanket back over her body. “Please fetch my husband.”

“But I really ought to examine –“

“I insist. This is urgent.”

When Aeron arrived back inside the room, Rubius was not far behind. Both men had been fretting and had been waiting for Cassandra to open her door to them again. The doctor waited outside at the king’s command.

“You need to send him away,” she told Aeron. “He is becoming too curious about why my pregnancy is growing so quickly. I need to have a shifter midwife brought in instead.”

Aeron nodded and stepped outside to dismiss the doctor.

“I can go back to the forest and get the midwife,” Rubius said to her. “I’ll bring her to you.”

“Thank you,” Cassandra said as he started to turn to leave.

“Rubius,” she said, stretching her hand out to him before Aeron returned to the room. She could hear Aeron trying to dissuade the doctor from asking more questions just outside the door. “The baby is yours.”

Rubius’ eyes widened so largely that it looked as if they might fall right out of his skull.

“How can you possibly know that?” he asked.

“I can tell,” she said. “Because of how much I want it to be. I can feel that this child was created out of the force that has drawn us together.”

“Are you sure?” he asked as he reached forward, and Cassandra allowed him to place his palm atop her stomach.”

“Positive,” she said with conviction. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Rubius said as he bent down to kiss her forehead. “But I know that you and I and our baby will be together forever. The rest we will figure out along the way.”

Just then, Aeron stepped back into the room and Rubius straightened himself back up.

“I’ll go get the midwife and be back soon,” Rubius said as he let go of Cassandra’s hand and walked out of the door.

Aeron looked jealously at him as he passed, and then for a short moment, he looked at Cassandra with a mixture of hurt and betrayal.