Page 289 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“Candies!” she announced proudly.
“Hush, you snitch!” Kiera hissed. “You can’t give us away like that!”
Lumie giggled and crawled out from their hiding spot, visibly unbothered.
“Hiding from what?” Kassein asked.
“From your woman,” Kiera muttered. “I don’t know if it’s the pregnancy or the fact she finally speaks our language fluently, but your wife terrifies me. She’s been working us to death all day.”
“There’s a lot to prepare,” he shrugged. “And what were you hiding for, snowflake?”
“Candies!” Lumie repeated, gleefully.
“No! I said I’d give you candies ifyoudidn’ttell anyone where I was—”
But Lumie was already holding her arms out expectantly, grinning. Kassein lifted her into his arms with a chuckle.
“You have a good nap, baby?”
“Grandpa?” Lumie asked hopefully.
“Not yet,” he said with a smile. “One more sleep. He’ll be here for the party tomorrow.”
She pouted but leaned her head against his shoulder. Her vocabulary was growing fast, picking up from both languages, but her favorite word, without contest, was “Grandpa.”
Kiera groaned as she crawled out from under the table.
“We shouldn’t have come back early,” she muttered, stretching. “Lorey was worried about Alezya’s pregnancy, so we came to help, but your wife is like Tievin on a bad day, plus a dragon sidekick.”
“He’s gotten softer since he got married,” Kassein offered.
“Right. I forgot he has his own dragon sidekick now,” Kiera snorted. “I think his wife’s even scarier than yours…”
“Grab the crate,” Kassein simply said with a smile.
He carried Lumie outside. The Onyx Castle’s gardens were nearly unrecognizable. Every patch of earth had been trimmed, rearranged, uprooted, or replanted under Alezya’s watchful eye. His mother’s once-abandoned greenhouse had been claimed and brought back to life, but today, the greenhouse faded into the background behind the chaos of the celebration setup. Lanterns had been strung from newly installed poles, tables and benches were scattered across the garden like fallen chess pieces, and one long banquet table was commanding the center like a throne. At the moment, Alezya and his sister-in-law Naptunie were pointing at a corner of the lawn, instructing his brother where to drag yet another table. Lorey stood beside them, nodding along and holding a notepad.
Due to being the mother of nine children, Naptunie was followed by a small herd of young dragons at nearly all times, and presently, three of them were now brawling around her in the grass with Niiru in their midst.
“A bit more to the left,” Alezya called. “Not too close to the wall.”
“Right there, honey!” Naptunie nodded. “Perfect!”
“Oh, speaking of—do we have enough honey for the beignet sauce?” Lorey asked, frowning. “Tievin put a note that your mom adores that one.”
“As do my Darsan, the kids, and Tessa,” Naptunie added. “We’ll need a lot.”
“I only got four pots,” Alezya said, looking worried. “Do you think that’s enough?”
“I’ll send the kids to get some more! Dada?”
The largest of the young dragons perked up immediately.
“Go find the kids. We have a new errand!”
With a low growl, the dragon took off into the sunset.
“Mama!”
