Page 99 of Pregnant With Their Babes

“Brandt,” Tyne warned. “Stop accosting our brother and his…mate. Leave them be.”

Brandt spun to face Tyne. “Youstilldon’t wear a crown, big brother. So stop barking edicts and orders.”

Tyne shook his head as Brandt swam for shore. “Best hurry and follow him. We don’t need him to be the first one of us father sees. It might kill him.”

They all then swam for shore. As soon as they reached it, exhausted, Llyr clawed himself up the beach, attempting to get himself out of the water. Dagr was suddenly there to help pull him farther up the beach. Next, he pulled both Tyne and Oz higher, leaving Brandt to crawl out on his own.

Their bodies morphed back into human forms, and they rose to stand on the beach. A thought crossed Llyr’s mind as he followed them to the tunnels. “You and Brandt drowned, correct?”

Tyne gazed his way. He looked so much like Oz, it almost hurt to regard him. “We did. Something I never wish to experience again. Nor the months spent as King Augustine’s deadly servant.”

Llyr shivered, realizing these men had been under his father’s spell all this time. It took him a moment for his mind to unjumble his thoughts enough to spit out his theory. “Had the curse not been in place, you would never have drowned. Your tails would’ve appeared, your gills come out… and you would’ve simply swum away. Perhaps the curse being lifted altered your destiny, saving you from the fate that shouldn’t have been yours.”

“Sounds logical enough,” Dagr said. “In the most illogical of circumstances.”

“We can, of course, speak with Dagr’s mother about it. Perhaps she has more information.”

“I thought Dagr’s mother was dead?” Brandt asked as he joined them.

“How sympathetic of you,” Tyne said to Brandt through clenched teeth.

“Well. She was,” Brandt said with a shrug.

“She survived somehow, thank you,” Dagr said to Brandt. “Only, she cannot leave the water.”

“Is she still a witch?” Brandt asked.

Llyr noted Dagr’s hand tucking the necklace behind him. “She is.”

Brandt chuckled. “Is that how you ended up a merman, too? Wiggle those magic fingers of yours? Or did mommy do that for you?”

“Any way we can throw him back in the water?” Dagr growled.

“Be my guest,” Tyne said. “Only he’ll come back out angrier, which does us no good.”

“One would think a chance to breathe above the water and be out from under King Augustine’s thumb would bring you some joy,” Llyr said to the middle brother.

Brandt ambled a little closer. “I remember why you seem so familiar, Prince Llyrof Aegeaus. You’re Augustine’s son.”

“What of it?” Llyr asked, lifting a brow.

Brandt rushed forward, as did Oz and Dagr. Llyr curled inward to protect their pups—but Brandt bounced off an invisible barrier before getting close enough to touch him.

“A blessing… for the young,” Dagr murmured, parroting his mother’s words. “A protection spell.” Dagr knelt beside where Brandt lay in the sand. “Attempt to touch our mate again and I’ll kill you myself. This time… Ipromiseit will last.”

Brandt didn’t answer. He only grunted in his attempt to rise to his feet. When he stood, he glared at Llyr, Oz, and Dagr. “I think I prefer it under the sea.” With that, he spun and marched back out, disappearing below the waves.

“I’m glad he’s gone,” Llyr said, taking a deep breath.

“At least here, we knew where he was,” Tyne said, shaking his head. “Who knows what trouble he’ll cause in that world without someone to watch over him.”

“He’s a grown man. He doesn’t need a babysitter,” Oz said.

“True,” Tyne said. “Now let’s go see father.”

* * *

Two months later…

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