Page 151 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“She is with child.”
Alezya barely suppressed a sigh of relief as the Healer turned to her father with a nod. Her maker didn’t seem as confident, squinting his eyes at the Healer.
“...Are you certain?”
“It seems like it,” the old woman shrugged. “But it is far too soon to be absolutely certain. We could confirm in a matter of weeks–”
“We don’t have weeks,” her father hissed back. “We need her pregnant already. The council gathering is tonight!”
He hesitated for a few seconds, his dark eyes on Alezya like he was trying to decipher her.
“She really only slept with their chief?”
The question wasn’t directed at her but at some of the sentinels, who gave him a nod.
“She spent every night with him.”
Little did they know Kassein only touched her on one of those nights.
Alezya felt grateful that her clan’s men were far too narrow-minded to believe a man like Kassein could have spent nights with a woman in his bed without touching her, and even more grateful to Kassein for being the man that he was. She missed him already, and seeing men who were so different from him made her miss him even more.
They had no idea that there were men like him, warriors who did not enjoy abusing women. A man putting a woman’s desires before his own was sheer heresy in their clan.
“She was only ever in his quarters or with him or their women,” another sentinel added.
Her father nodded with a satisfied grin.
“...Good. We wouldn’t want you to havestrayedagain,” he spat.
Alezya didn’t suppress her grimace. They still believed she had cheated on her ex-husband with whoever Lumie’s father was. They would never accept that the precious son of the Exkiu Clan had fathered her oddly white child. It was far more acceptable for them to push all of the faults on her than to risk another clan’s trust.
She didn’t care any longer; Kassein had been the only man to touch her since Lumie’s birth, and that was everything she wanted. Now that her clan was only seeing her as a vessel to carry children with his blood, they wouldn’t risk another man touching her, which was a good enough outcome for her. Alezya never wanted another man but Kassein to touch her ever again.
“My daughter,” Alezya hissed. “You promised my daughter back.”
Her father ignored her, turning toward his sentinels.
“Inform the other clan chiefs that we have succeeded,” he said, not hiding his grin. “All eyes will be on our clan tonight. Even if we have to wait a few months, all clans will be waiting for us to have a dragon!”
Alezya certainly didn’t correct him.
She didn’t know how the dragon eggs were made, but she was fairly certain it wouldn’t come out of her womb. Baby dragons were far too big from the nests she’d seen, and she doubted Kassein’s mother would have been able to bear eight of them. Her father probably expected her to come back bearing some monster or that a dragon would magically appear with her child, but there was no child to be born anyway.
She was glad she had managed to trick them, but now, she had to focus on her main goal: getting Lumie out of there.
The sentinel nodded and left, but Alezya kept her eyes on her father.
“My daughter,” she insisted.
He rolled his eyes, before turning his hateful glare toward her like she was some eyesore.
“Your bastard is fine,” he hissed. “You should be grateful your cousin agreed to take that shame upon herself.”
A wave of relief crashed over Alezya’s heart, almost making her lose her balance, and she was glad she could lean on the wall behind her.
Lumie was alive and still with her cousin. Her father would have happily broken her heart otherwise.
Days and nights of worry suddenly felt like they had all been worth it. She had refused to entertain the thought for more than seconds at a time, but if Alezya had returned to find her baby was gone... She would have probably followed her.
