The Dragon Queen

III Rhaenyra

King's Landing – 117 AC

"The last dragon egg of Syrax's clutch," Qoren commented, as he brought the beautiful red and black dragon egg that will soon hatch into Tyraxes.

The poor dragon and my son, had both died too young last time. However, that will not happen again. Everytime I pop out a dark haired son, the court does not whisper and point fingers. They rejoyce and coo about how similar they are to their father.

"Put it in the crib," I told him, hand caressing my belly. I loved the process to get pregnant and I loved having my children, but I do hate being pregnant. I always feel so bloated. "It makes me feel sad to put a dragon egg in an empty crib..."

"But our son will soon join the little one," Qoren finished for me with a smile and a kiss.

I smiled fondly as I watched my husband do as I asked. The court and the people of the realm praising my name took a while to get used to. But what truly surprised me was Qoren. I had expected to find a powerful ally and a good partner in bed. I had not expected to find love and friendship. In my first marriage I had friendship, without any passion or love. It was a partnership which I enjoyed and cared very much for... had it not been by the aweful greens and the nasty rumors they spread to ruin my image. On my second marriage I had love and passion in spades... but I did not have friendship or trust. For all our claimes of loving each other and having wanted each other for decades, we never truly trusted each other. Daemon never respected that I had a higher position than him and I was quick to believe the whispers of the White Worm about him constantely cheating on me, even when I knew that when a dragon is in love they never stray.

However, things with Qoren were different. He respected that I was a Targeryan princess and that meant that his princeship came second. He came from a dinasty that never bent the knee to the Faith or the Andals, keeping alive the tradition of first born inheritance. So, he trusted and believed I was capable of ruling. If he did not agree with any of my plans or thought one of my projects could be done in a better way, we discussed it in private. But he always supports me and gives me Dorne's full backing.

With time I stopped being so afraid and started noticing small things. Like how he snuggles the pillow in the morning, glaring at the sunrays coming through the window, how dimples would overtake his cheeks when he smiled in joy playing with our sons, how calm he was teaching the new guard recruits in the training yard, how his smirk would only grow whenever I caught him staring at me, unrepentant in his desire and love for me.

I would stare for hours into those beautiful black eyes, the same eyes of my sons, and get lost in them... no, I allowed myself to get lost in them. I trust him. Something that I have not been able to do in a long time, even before the dance really begun. I think I stopped trusting when I found out my best friend had seduced my father behind my back, under the command of her father. But now I do, I trust my husband and that's a wonderful feeling.

It was to no one's surprise I ended up falling in love with him.

"A letter from Riverrun came," Qoren informed me. "Lady Alicent Tully has delivered her second son safely, they named him Oscar Tully."

"She sure is quick to pop babies, some things never change," I chuckled, under my breath, before saying out loud. "Good for Kermit, he'll enjoy having a younger brother so close in age."

That's another thing that has changed. Alicent and I, are still friends. At least, I stayed as friendly with her as possible. In this timeline she never did anything against me, if anything she stayed by my side at every stage of the way during my wedding and first two pregnancies, only missing this one because of her own. Even going as far as to send me weekly letter asking for forgiveness for not being there for me and constantely asking how I am doing.