(The Marriage Groups)Elian (22 page)

He wasn’t jealous or envious about it. He knew that his time would come, and he knew that Elian cared for all of them equally, but Elian’s mood swings were really starting to worry him. So much so that he’d gathered Nevin and Gaige in his office one night after Elian had fallen asleep in order to talk to them.

“So, what’s up, Corb?” Gaige asked as he flopped down on the brown chaise lounge in Corbin’s office. Corbin licked his lips as he saw the muscles in Gaige’s torso bunch and move beneath his open night shirt, the black pajama bottoms riding low on his thick waist. Corbin was blessed with the most beautiful men in all of Kardalusia, and he sent up a quick prayer of thanks to Andalusia for that fact.

Clearing his throat, he returned his attention to the matter at hand, taking note of Nevin sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk, shirtless and wearing a pair of low-slung, gold pajama bottoms. Corbin was the lighthearted one. He liked being known as the one who could always ease the tension in the room no matter the situation, but this time, he needed to be serious. Serious and focused on the reason he’d called his husbands into his office long after the time they should have been sleeping in their bed beside their coração.

“Have either of you noticed how strange Elian has been acting lately?” he asked, cutting to the chase.

He saw the look that passed between Nevin and Gaige and wanted to groan aloud. They both looked confused, which surprised him. Of the three of them, Nevin was more detail oriented, while Gaige always seemed to be able to pick up on the emotions of everyone in the room. Corbin was usually the one who missed things. He was oblivious on his best of days. The fact that he’d been the one to pick up on the changes in their coração did not speak well for their current situation.

“Guys, come on. He’s happy one minute, happy and laughing, and then in the next minute he’s withdrawn. I’m concerned that maybe there’s something going on with him that he’s not telling us,” Corbin said. He watched as both Nevin and Gaige seemed to consider his words before Nevin sighed deeply and rubbed at the back of his neck.

“I know. I was hoping that maybe if I didn’t acknowledge it then it would just stop and go away,” he admitted.

Gaige sighed as well and nodded his head. “Yeah, me too.”

Corbin shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that, guys. You know this. We have to figure out what’s going on with him. I don’t know about you two, but I love him too much to just let him deal with this—whatever it is—by himself.”

“You love him?” Nevin and Gaige asked simultaneously, shock apparent on both of their faces.

The door to Corbin’s office swung wide, and he startled at the appearance of Elian in the doorway. “You love me?” he asked.

Corbin swallowed thickly, looking at Elian then to Nevin and Gaige before looking back at Elian. Realizing how important his answer was to the other man, and having vowed never to lie long ago, Corbin could do nothing but nod. He saw Elian’s eyes fill with tears and he wondered if it was in happiness or distress. Could Elian love someone other than his husbands? Did he not love Corbin? What was the problem?

“Yes, I love you,” he acquiesced. Though he wasn’t prepared for it, when Elian raced across the room and threw himself into Corbin’s arms, Corbin managed to catch him in his arms and buried his face in Elian’s neck.

“I love you too, Binny,” Elian sobbed against him. “I love all of you so much. I didn’t know how you felt about it, or if you loved me to, or even wanted me to love you so I’ve been feeling out of sorts.”

Corbin looked up and found his gaze captured by the wet ones of Nevin and Gaige. The air was thick with emotions as all four men began to express their feelings into the open air. Elian was surrounded, and Corbin kept his arms around him as Nevin and Gaige joined them shortly, wrapping their arms around them as well. A lump filled his throat and he choked back tears. This was more than he could have hoped for when they married Elian. He’d hoped, of course, that one day Elian might come to love them, but for it to have happened within their first year of marriage, within the first six months, was a miracle. So many things about their relationship were miraculous. From the girls Elian had given birth to, to how close they’d grown to each other.

Corbin squeezed Elian closely and jerked back when Elian shoved him away before throwing up at their feet. Nevin and Gaige jumped back, but Corbin didn’t react quickly enough and cringed when Elian’s vomit covered his feet. He heard Elian’s anguished moan and he joined in with his own.

“Are you alright, Cora?” Nevin asked as he held back Elian’s hair as he gagged. Corbin wanted to check on Elian, but in that moment, he wanted to have both his floors and his feet cleaned a lot more. Nodding at Gaige, he flicked his eyes to the bell pull in the corner, silently asking him to summon one of the servants to the room. He watched as Gaige walked briskly over to the gold rope hanging in the corner of the room and gave it three hard tugs. Corbin looked back over at Elian and Nevin and noticed that Nevin was escorting Elian to the settee to sit down as he rubbed on Elian’s back gently.

Moments later, one of the footmen knocked on the door before stepping in. Corbin couldn’t remember the younger man’s name, though he didn’t really remember any of the servants’ names. Gaige didn’t speak, merely pointed to the floor and Corbin was impressed with the footman’s lack of facial expression before he left to get a bucket, mop, and rag to clean the floor and Corbin’s feet. As Nevin and Gaige attended to Elian, who sat on the settee crying softly, Corbin stood in one spot, not daring to move.

When the footman returned and began to silently clean the vomit from the floor and Corbin’s feet, Corbin smiled reassuringly at Elian as the other man began to apologize profusely. Corbin shook his head and waved away Elian’s guilt. He now had a pretty good idea what was wrong with Elian and he couldn’t wait for the footman to leave so he could share his suspicions with his husbands. It was a little surprising, as most Kardalusian males used contraceptive measures to spread out how often they gave birth, but no one had broached the subject with Elian, and they had resumed their sexual activities with him a month after their daughters were born.

Once the footman left the room and the area surrounding his feet, as well as his feet themselves, had been cleaned, Corbin walked over to Elian and crouched in front of him. Reaching out, he took Elian’s hand within his own and smiled reassuringly. Looking over at Nevin and Gaige, Corbin tried to figure out how to bring up the subject he wanted to. Should he go serious or amusing? After long moments of no one saying anything, Corbin decided to just be upfront and blunt.

Taking a deep breath, Corbin released it slowly and smiled up at Elian. “Elian, are you pregnant?”

He watched as Elian’s eyes widened before he looked around at all of them, gaze lingering on Nevin. As Corbin knew he would, Elian looked down at his still flat stomach and placed his hand over it. Corbin shared a look with Gaige before they both looked at Nevin. It took him a moment before he gasped and looked at Elian and then down at Elian’s stomach.

“That makes sense,” Nevin breathed out. “You have been drawn to me a lot more than usual. Not that I mind, of course, but it explains it.”

Elian nodded and looked back at Corbin. “I think I am.”

Corbin agreed and smiled at the other two. “Well, looks like we’re going to be having some more babies joining us soon.”

Elian shivered. “Is it wrong that I hope that if I am, that I’m pregnant with boys? Six weeks just isn’t long enough for me to wrap my head around the thought that I’m pregnant again.”

Corbin joined his husbands in laughter, though he silently agreed. He loved his daughters, but he hoped that Elian would be pregnant for the full six months so they could all wrap their heads around the fact that they would be welcoming another child—or more children—into their midst. At this rate, the castle would be overrun with children within a few years.

“We’ll call the doctor later today and have him confirm the pregnancy,” Corbin suggested. “But right now, I think we should all get to bed.”

His husbands all agreed and as they left the room, Corbin breathed a sigh of relief. While a part of him was still tense about the person who wanted to kill Elian being on the loose, he would take the drama of having a new baby over the drama of life or death situations any day.

No sooner had he had that thought than the sound of their three daughters crying at the top of their lungs sounded throughout the walls of the palace. Corbin froze and looked over at Gaige and Nevin as they followed Elian up the stairs. Maybe he would take the fighting over the babies. At least in that situation he knew what the hell he was doing.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Elian

M
ONTHS
passed after the doctor confirmed Elian’s pregnancy and the palace settled down into a sense of normalcy. After copious amounts of meetings with the Royal Council, Elian had finally gotten certain laws regarding coraçãos changed or under review. He was glad for that, because his friend Tabansi had recently found two members of a Marriage Core that he wanted to marry, and while they couldn’t officially marry, Elian had at least gotten the council to approve Tabansi being able to live with the two men and to be taken out of the rotation of the soirees. Other coraçãos who had been labeled spinsters or been forced into prostitution were being brought before the council, one by one, to discuss other options for them.

Elian breathed a sigh of relief every time he heard about a coração being given the chance to either return to the soiree rotation or being given the chance to get a job. While the policy hadn’t been officially changed and there were those sitting on the council who were against changing anything, a number of coraçãos had thanked him for saving their lives. It wouldn’t be too long before things completely changed. It was a day that Elian looked forward to impatiently.

Laws concerning coraçãos weren’t the only thing under review. Nevin had brought before the council a change in the law concerning Zevinxians. Elian had hugged Nevin fiercely when he’d heard that Zevinxians who were innocent and didn’t use their magic to hurt others would no longer be hunted. They still hadn’t announced that Gaige was Zevinxian, but Elian knew that it would only be a matter of time before they did so. Gaige had admitted to Elian one day while they were outside gardening that he could breathe easier now that he knew he didn’t have to hide such a major part of himself. Elian was glad as well, and things were looking so bright and shiny in his world that he’d forgotten all about the nightmare he’d had at the beginning of his marriage.

Their daughters, Lodara, Patesha, and Tisa were growing quickly, and Elian was always amazed when he saw how beautiful they were becoming and how smart they were. He and his husbands always took a few hours every day to read the history of Kardalusia to the future leaders of the kingdom. Gaige read spiritual texts to them, while Corbin read literature to them about different languages and finance. Elian had laughed heartily when he walked into the nursery one day to hear Corbin talking to their daughters about fiscal responsibility. Nevin taught the girls about kingdom etiquette and the ways the kingdom was changing now that girls were being born throughout the planet. Elian’s pregnancy had surely sparked a change in coraçãos throughout the land and shops now carried clothes for Kardalusian females.

Elian spoke to his daughters about their futures and the men or women, they would one day end up marrying. He told them how happy he was to have them and how excited he was to be giving birth to their younger brothers. When his family came to visit, he proudly displayed not only his daughters, but the fact that he was once again pregnant with Kardalusian babies. The palace had been completely renovated and redecorated and Elian felt more at home there than he had anywhere else, even the manor. His husbands were slowly giving him more duties and after hearing Elian sing, had asked him what he thought about having a school built that concentrated on skills that were more creative in nature than logical. Elian had thought it brilliant and was even more excited when he was given the task to oversee the building and the running of the Joy & Laughter Performing Arts School.

His life was filled with meetings, building plans, his pregnancy, curriculum, his daughters, his husbands, and meeting with other coraçãos, so escaping to the grotto for some much needed alone time was his one bit of solace every day. He kept a regular schedule, often times going down to the beautifully erected sanctuary after lunch, though sometimes he had to wait until after dinner to get the brief moment of peace that he so needed.

Which was why, on this particular night, he was so surprised to have his solitude interrupted by the sound of footsteps. Sighing heavily, Elian lowered his head briefly before lifting it to look over his shoulder to see who had disturbed him. He gasped as he a man he didn’t know standing directly behind him, holding a broadsword in his hand.

Elian gulped and opened his mouth to yell for his guards or his husbands when the other man chuckled darkly.

“They can’t help you. Your guards are tied up and your husbands captured, Coração,” the stranger stated.

Elian stood shakily to his feet, grabbing onto one of the shelves in the grotto to steady himself. He looked around the area and saw that there wasn’t actually anyone around to help him. He swallowed nervously and prayed furiously for Andalusia to help him. When nothing happened, Elian felt his heart break. Would the deity actually abandon him when he needed Him the most?

“You have corrupted this planet, coração,” the menacing stranger said as he stepped closer to Elian. Elian slid across the altar, knocking over statues and bowls of incense. His fingers sank in the fragrant sand and crushed flowers as he watched the man step closer to him.

“H-how have I corrupted the planet?” he asked, hoping that if he could only get the man talking, he could find a way to escape. When the man merely snarled at him, Elian gasped.