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Quin left the jars of cream on Vivi’s bedside table and made short work of his own clothing, stripping out of his shirt and trousers as he went and throwing them at Kitty as he went by. Kitty hissed batting away Quin’s clothes as Quin snickered andquietly got into bed, sliding over toward Vivian and pulling her into his arms.

Vivian sensed Quin near and settled into his hold the moment he reached for her. She sighed deeply and stretched out a leg, relaxing only when she felt Kitty inch up the bed toward her and lay his heavy head against her foot. With Quin’s arms around her and Kitty’s head against her foot, her breathing evened out, signaling that she was once again very deeply asleep.

“Goodnight, Kitty,” Quin said, thankful for anything that gave his Vivi a sense of security, even if that security came in the form of a two hundred pound shraler.

Kitty hissed softly at Quin, but didn’t move away from his human mom.

Chapter 5

Vivian opened her eyes and gazed blearily around the bedroom. She was alone, Quin’s side of the bed mussed, but obviously no longer being used by her husband. Sighing as she realized she needed to pee — again — she rolled onto her side so she could push herself up and hopefully get her feet on the floor to stand up. Swinging her feet, she realized they didn’t reach the floor. “Quin?” she called out, as she sat on the side of the bed.

“I can’t reach the floor!”

She listened as nothing but silence resonated throughout her home. “Great. Bed’s too high. Gotta pee. Can’t see the fricking floor. Can’t just jump down because… huge baby. Can’t get any damn sleep because I can’t get comfortable. Can’t stop peeing!”

“Quuuuuiiiiinnn!” she screeched as loud as she could.

Finally a sound other than silence was heard downstairs. The sound of a door opening and closing, followed by a familiar voice. “Sirena? Are you well?” Kail asked, his voice raised to carry through to wherever she may be.

“Yes! I’m upstairs but I need help!” she yelled back. She looked around and realized she was still nude. “Crap,” she grumbled, stretching out and scooting across the bed to snatch up Quin’s shirt from where it lay on the foot of the bed from the night before and quickly pulling it on over her head.

Immediately Kail started thundering up the stairs, his hand sweeping across the implant behind his ear to activate it. “Sirena needs us!” he rushed out.

The front door to their quarters opened and slammed and Asl ran as quickly as he could to catch up with Kail.

Almost immediately the door opened and closed again and the sound of more boots pounding up the stairs was easily heard.

Vivian sat on the edge of the bed scowling, waiting for all four of her guards to enter and realize she really only needed help getting down from the bed.

Kail was the first to burst into the room, his weapon drawn. He glanced around and found her watching him wryly. “Are you well, Sirena?!” he rushed out.

“I’m fine. I only needed one of you, not the whole group. I can’t get out of the damn bed. Quin got up and carried me each time I tried to get out of the bed to go to the bathroom last night. Now I know why. I can’t reach the floor on my own. He thought I’d hurt myself.”

“We can help you, Sirena,” Asl said as he and Kail both approached to help steady her as she slid to the floor.

“This is probably the most pathetic thing you’ve ever seen. A grown woman and I can’t get out of bed by myself.”

“I have no doubt you’d just jump if you weren’t carrying our next leader,” Rel said from the doorway. “It is only as high as your thigh. Without the baby, you wouldn’t need us at all.”

“Yes, well. It’ll be a little while until then. I’m sorry to have to call you until then.”

“We’ll be ready in the mornings,” Kail said.

“Or better yet, we’ll build you a short step up to access the bed more easily,” Zahn said, trying not to snicker.

“Do not laugh at me, Zahn. I’ll tell Au'revele you want to mate her!”

Zahn immediately stopped laughing. “I want no such thing!”

“Really? So you don’t mind that all the males in the palace have been watching her?”

“Who has been watching her? She is under our protection and none should be watching her!” he said angrily.

Vivi raised an eyebrow.

The others in her personal guard tried not to smile. They were all well aware of the fact that Au'revele was meant to be Zahn’s. She was his Ehlealah. Whether or not he followed through on it was another thing entirely.

Asl grinned at her, as she waddled toward the bathroom.

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