(The Marriage Groups)Elian (21 page)

“Cain and Abel,” Corbin supplied the names.

Elian nodded and then looked at the beautiful baby in Nevin’s arms. “Then no. We are not naming her after some woman who had sons who killed each other.”

They laughed at his words and returned to looking at their newborn daughters. Elian watched his family in fascination. He’d known that one day he would have a Marriage Group, that he would give birth and have a family—it had been a fact of his birth—but he had never expected to get so lucky. Never thought he would be chosen to be part of the Royal Marriage Group and to give birth to the first female Kardalusians in history. He felt extremely blessed and honored. When his husbands looked at him with a deep, unnamed emotion shining in their eyes, Elian had never felt so treasured. How did he get so lucky? What had he done to warrant such care from three such amazing men? Whatever it was, he wanted to keep doing it.

“So what do you suggest, love?” Gaige asked him. Elian turned his head to stare at Gaige and smiled widely. Reaching out his hands, he accepted the sleeping baby into his arms. He looked down into the peaceful face of his daughter, his heart turning over as he watched her sleep and heard a voice, soft and delicate, speak to him.

My name is Lodara, the voice spoke and Elian gasped.

“What? What is it Elian?” Gaige asked as he grabbed the back of Elian’s head and turned his face to look into his eyes.

“She told me her name. It’s Lodara,” he spoke breathlessly.

“She told you her name?” Gaige asked incredulously.

“Yes. I was looking at her and she introduced herself to me,” Elian remarked. He saw the look that passed between his husbands and wondered if they thought he was crazy. After everything they’d experienced in the last month and a half of their marriage, they should have been used to the unknown happening. While Elian still got freaked out when he thought of the fact that Andalusia had inhabited his body and then had spoken to him, he still knew that it had happened.

“Well then, Lodara it is,” Corbin said with a smile. He gestured for Gaige to take Lodara back into his arms and once Elian’s arms were free he passed the baby in his arms over to him. “And what is this young one’s name?” he asked.

Elian smiled up at his husband. Corbin was always very laid back, and while he had his moments of fierceness and stubbornness, they were few and very far between, rare. So rare, in fact, that the last time he’d seen Corbin get upset had been when they’d found themselves under attack. Corbin had even taken finding out about Gaige’s true heritage a lot better than they had expected him to. Though he suspected that Corbin had been furious about his inability to get to Elian when he’d been in labor. Elian accepted the baby in his arms and looked down into her closed eyes. Her black hair was thicker and longer than that of her sisters, and Elian grinned when he realized that she had a lot of him in her physical features.

And what is your name little one? He mentally whispered to her.

“My name is Patesha,” came her response moments later.

“Her name is Patesha,” he informed his husbands and watched as they smiled. Nevin’s face pulled down into a frown seconds later before it was wiped clear. Elian wondered for a moment what the frown had been about, but forgot about it seconds later when Patesha was taken back into Corbin’s arms and replaced with their eldest daughter.

Hello Abda. My name is Tisa, she said, and Elian smiled as her eyes opened and looked up into his. Their gazes locked and she shared with him her first experience of the world in which she now lived. Most of it was filled with images of her fathers, and Elian smiled before taking hold of her tiny hand with his fingers. He laughed when she clutched them in her fist and brought them up to her mouth to suck on. He let her suck on his finger for long moments, his eyes watching her actions with love expanding his heart near to bursting, before he looked up at his husbands.

“Tisa. Her name is Tisa,” he told them with a watery smile.

Nevin gasped and turned to leave the room. Without a word to any of them, he walked out and Elian looked first at Corbin and then at Gaige. “What? What did I say wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Corbin said.

“Maybe this reminds Nevin of his parents?” Gaige supplied.

Elian nodded, realizing that might be a definite possibility. When Nevin strode back in the room moments later holding three tiny blankets, tears streaming down his face, Elian grew more concerned. He wanted to plead with Nevin and ask him to tell them what was wrong, but he was brought up short when Nevin placed the blankets down on the bed next to Elian. Elian stared into Nevin’s eyes for a moment before looking down at the blankets on the bed next to him.

What he saw there made him gasp. “But how?” he asked.

“My Abda made these a week before he died. He gave them to me and told me that I would need them. I didn’t know why, but when you started to say the names of our daughters, I knew. Somehow, Andalusia had shared our daughters’ names with him, and he made these for us,” Nevin choked out, tears rolling down his face.

Elian brushed a hand over the three soft, yellow and baby pink blankets. Each one had a letter embroidered in the corner. One with an L, one with a P, and the last with a T. While it wasn’t unusual for Kardalusian babies to be sent home in a pink blanket, these blankets were somehow more special because the pink blankets were embroidered long before they were needed. How fortuitous was it that Nevin’s Abda had had these blankets made years before their daughters were born? Obviously Andalusia had shared the names of his future grandchildren with the man before Nevin had ever even met Elian, or at least shared that their names would start with the letters L, P, and T. Elian was humbled by the deity’s foresight and sent up a quick prayer of thanks before returning his focus back to his new family. He smiled.

Despite of the danger that still hovered over them, Elian had never been happier than he was in that moment.

****

B
ABIES
were loud. Loud and messy and whenever they weren’t sleeping—which they did a lot of—they were crying or pooping or rolling around in their cribs or on the floor. Elian wondered why there were no classes on actually dealing with Kardalusian babies when there were a ton of classes on actually having them.

He groaned as the triplets began crying again. Rising from his desk, where he’d been poring over documents and books about coraçãos and the Kardalusian society, he walked over to the playpen he’d had placed in his office. His husbands spent their days in meetings and touring the kingdom, so it had seemed only natural for the babies to spend their days with him, and usually he had no problem with their being with him, but after two months of not getting any work done, he was at the end of his rope. He just wanted one small moment of peace.

Rubbing a hand over his upset stomach, Elian leaned over the edge of the playpen and smiled down at his daughters. The three girls instantly stopped crying and smiled up at him, their faces streaked with tears. He felt his heart turn over at their expressions and felt the echoes of love thrumming through him. He didn’t know how it was possible to love someone as much as he loved his daughters, but for him it was.

Reaching a hand into the pen, he slid his fingers along the cheeks of his beautiful offspring. There were times when he felt weird seeing them. While he’d only carried them within him for six weeks, he’d felt like it was much longer than that. Not having them inside of him, being able to look at them and touch them, dressing them in long tunics and soft baby outfits that he’d had sewn especially for them, made him feel almost… empty. Maybe he was only supposed to breed Kardalusian babies because it was all he seemed to be able to think about.

When he wasn’t thinking about having sex with his husbands, the threats made on his life and the life of his daughters, or how to make things better for coraçãos all over the planet. His mind did seem to be almost one-tracked most of the time. He needed a hobby, or more responsibilities. Ones outside of redecorating the palace and caring for his children.

“I think I’m bored,” he confessed to his daughters, smiling when they merely gurgled at him in reply. He sighed as he turned to walk back to his desk. What was he supposed to do with that piece of truth and knowledge he’d just exposed to the atmosphere? What could he do to not be bored? Having sex and taking care of his daughters only went so far. He needed something else.

Humming underneath his breath, Elian walked back over to his desk and pulled out a fresh sheet of blank paper. Conjuring up an image of Nevin as he’d last seen him, sitting astride his horse, speaking to the line of soldiers and servants who would be touring the kingdom with him, Elian began to draw. His mind floated away as he did so, the scratch of the pencil on the paper the only sound in the room. The lines on the page began to form an exact replica of his husband, and he was so engrossed in his sketch that he didn’t notice the moment when his husbands stepped into the room, fed their daughters, and then sat in chairs in front of his desk and watched him.

Once he’d finished the drawing, Elian sighed and looked up, squealing in surprise at the presence of his husbands sitting before him. “What the hell?” he gasped out, pressing his hand against his chest.

“You were so engrossed in whatever you were doing that we didn’t want to disturb you,” Corbin said in way of a response.

“Oh,” Elian said, nodding his head and trying to cover up the picture before any of them could see what had so captured his attention. He didn’t move quickly enough, however, and Gaige took the picture from his desk and looked at it.

“Wow,” he sighed. “I’ll admit that I wish you’d done a picture of me, but this looks exactly like Nevin. This is beautiful, El G.”

“Really?” Elian asked, desperate for the reassurance.

“Yes, really,” Corbin agreed before passing the picture to Nevin.

Elian watched as Nevin studied the image, scrutinizing it carefully. “Wow, according to you I’m hot,” he said finally, causing them all to laugh. Elian breathed a sigh of relief at his response and opened a drawer in the desk to his right and pulled out the images he’d done of Corbin and Gaige. Corbin was lying on his stomach in the middle of the floor, studying a sheaf of papers, whereas Gaige’s picture was of him in the garden, surrounded by carnoses.

“These are amazing,” Gaige observed, and Elian smiled broadly. Perhaps he was skilled at something besides having sex and giving birth.

“Thank you,” he said softly, looking each of them in the eyes as he did so.

“You’re welcome,” Nevin said with an answering smile.

“So, what are you doing, our beautiful coração?” Corbin asked him, and Elian felt his cheeks grow hot as he thought about what he’d been doing before the urge to sketch had overcome him.

“Um… nothing really. Just looking into some things about coraçãos,” he said, giving a half-truth. He could only hope that they didn’t prod further. He didn’t like keeping things from them—it felt way too much like lying. While he knew that he gave them half-truths and kept things from them because he didn’t want to hurt their feelings, he knew they wouldn’t see it that way.

“What things?” Gaige asked, stepping closer to Elian behind the desk. Elian grimaced and sighed in resignation. Sifting through the papers on his desk, he pulled out the sheets he’d been working on.

“The law that restricts coraçãos to only being allowed to go to a certain number of soirees before they’re forced to either become spinsters or prostitutes. The education that coraçãos receive and even their health insurance.” He sighed again. “Coraçãos are special. There are some who understand that, but there are still those who think we are less than ‘real men’ because we give birth, when the fact is, it takes someone of strength, mentally, emotionally, and physically, to be able to give birth. Coraçãos should be revered, treated as the precious beings they are. Forcing them into prostitution because they weren’t chosen is cruel. Then there’s the fact that coraçãos are chosen. Why can they not choose their own Marriage Core? Shouldn’t it be mutual?” He shook his head and looked into the shocked expressions on their faces. “Not everyone will be as lucky as me to be chosen by a Marriage Core that they were created to be with. Some will be chosen by horrible cores. I just feel that there needs to be more protection and consideration in place for the men who help to sustain our kingdom.”

Elian nibbled on his lower lip once he was finished, especially after seeing the looks that passed between his husbands. Perhaps he’d overstepped his bounds. What would he do if they got angry with him? They could always divorce him and then where would he be? They would keep his daughters and he would be shamed.

“We think you’re right. Those are things that warrant looking into further,” Nevin said and Elian gasped. They agreed with him? They weren’t angry because he’d spoken his mind?

Guilt assailed his mind and Elian felt tears fill his eyes. Why did he always go to the worst of extremes when he was nervous and unsure? Hadn’t his husbands shown him how much he meant to them? How much they cared? Why would he automatically jump to the conclusion that they were going to divorce him because he’d spoken up for something he believed in? He shook his head at himself in disgust. No wonder Tabansi was always telling him that he was exhausting.

“I would love that,” he said finally. “Thank you.”

He smiled at his husbands and bid them goodbye when they bid him farewell in order to return to work. His chest ached slightly as he watched them walk away, and he wondered at the emotion coursing through his heart. He always got excited when he saw his men and grew morose and sad whenever they had to leave him. What was he feeling? What name could he give the emotion that seemed to help him to breathe?

He knew of only one person who would be able to help him, and without another thought, he turned to his communicator and contacted Tabansi.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Corbin

E
LIAN
had been acting weird for the last few weeks, and it was starting to make Corbin nervous. He seemed to be more withdrawn at times and then overly flirty at other times. He’d thought that perhaps it had something to do with the fact that their coração might be pregnant yet again, this time with a child or children that solely held Nevin’s DNA. At least, according to the doctor Corbin had consulted with, that was probably the case since Elian seemed to lust after Nevin more and crave attention from him more than anyone else. It was common knowledge that whenever a coração was pregnant, the father of the babe or babies could be identified by who the birthing father seemed to be most drawn. In their case, whenever Corbin wanted to find Elian, he just had to look for Nevin.