Kaya’s POV.
My eyes are closed, and there’s the sound of a child giggling in the distance. For some reason, I am familiarized with the sound of the girl.
As she seems happy, her giggling gets nearer and nearer, and my own cheeks pump as my own smile elevates too. Her happiness is my own happiness, and I can’t even see her. At least, not yet.
My senses are sharpened. I seem to be alive, but it’s all dark. My body feels heavy, and my eyelids are like a block that I can’t force myself to shift open.
In the course of all this, I feel calm. The aura of the mildly blowing breeze is a utopian feeling. Also, there’s a feeling of happiness, etherealness, and joy. I feel all bubbly and perfect. I have never felt like this before, not in a long time. Not since I lost my parents.
Yes! My memories serve me well, even here.
Suddenly, someone hit me, and my eyes snapped open as I tried to catch the little girl that my sight came to accommodate.
“Hey, careful, little one.” I say to her, but she’s so focused on her play that she doesn’t worry at all. I smile wider when she squeals. Next to her is a boy her age. Both of them couldn’t be more than four years old.
My brows furrow as I reel deeper into what they could be. Is this the past?
If it is, I’ve got no idea what kind of past it is. I was never the girl, and Williams was certainly not of the same age as me.
Then, a male’s voice reaches me from behind before its owner runs past me. “Kaya, what are you doing? Catch, Celestina.”
My brain freezes for a second when I see Kyle. He’s grinning hard. You can see the happiness in his eyes when he sees me before he utilizes his werewolf’s heightened speed to catch their daughter, pulling her from the ground into his arms.
She’s squealing, and her eyes shift to me as she cries out. “Mother, father is cheating! Aldous, don’t you agree?”
The boy quickly agrees with her, “Yes, it’s true. They are both cheating. Daddy Kade wouldn’t have.” He is pouting just before, and from behind, Kieran grabs him, appearing into the scenery.
My gasp shows just how unbelievable I am at this scene. Am I their mother? Kieran, Kyle, and Kade are their fathers?
Oh, many fucks! I can’t believe this.
My eyes shift to the valley, then to the clothes spread on the wires, then to the pots on fire, then down to my body, where I’m actually the one doing the cooking for breakfast, then to the field, then to the beautiful arena that we’ve found a settlement in, and then my sight lands on Kade in the distance.
He’s drinking tea from the cup in his hands. I remember that I made it for him. I’m shocked, and I have no idea I was holding my breath until I try to inhale, and I’m sounding like a strangled cat.
“This is...”
“I know, right? My queen, tonight, we’ll know if the kids are hybrids, just like you have foreseen. Trust me, I trust you with my life to believe it would be real. I’d be so thrilled.” Kade is telling me through the mind link.
Oh, many fucks once again!
This could only happen if we’ve passed through the mates vows. We aren’t even friends. How’s this happening? What kind of reality is this? Is this a trick in my mind?
My head feels heavy, and as much as I wish to leave here, I also want to stay because this reality seems so real and so alive, and I want to be a queen that they worship with utter love. Not through obsession. Not through infatuation.
“Are you okay?” Kyle says out of the blue. He’s directly in front of me. “You look pale. What has happened?”
“She must be stressed with the cooking. Come, I’ll take over.” Kieran approaches me to collect the apron from my body, but my body takes its own action and jerks backwards away from him.
I’m retreating with my heart beating hard in my chest when suddenly, I feel someone’s hand at my back, and before I could see who it was, gravity changes course, sucking into my body with a heavy sensation.
I scream out loud, and when my eyes open, I’m in a different space. Where is this?
“Where am I?” My voice is quick as I’m breathing heavily. My eyes scan the room frantically.
“Kaya, you’re safe. And you’re here with us.” The voice came, and I recognized it instantly. It’s Kyle.
My head snaps over to him. “What are you doing here?”
“You were food-poisoned, and we brought you to our wing for a physician to treat you. He said you’d be better and would awake at this time of the day.” As he tells me, my brain tries to remember the memory of me being actually poisoned.
My heart is thudding with a sound similar to the grazing of a herd of animals running through a field. And at the same time, there is a memory that I can’t bring myself to forget. I remember it crystal clear.
It was my dream. That dream is like the thought of an idea that’s been plastered on the back of my head. My eyes focus on Kyle’s blue ones, watching as his retina is calm, and for some reason, my body mimics the same feeling. I get calm.
“Good girl,” Kyle whispers.
“She’s awake at last.” Kieran’s voice sounds so relieved as he and Kade enter the room. Kade, on the other hand, only smiles, but you could see the wrinkles of worry lining his forehead before they vanished as if they were never there.
“For how long was I gone?” I ask with fear laced in my tone. I don’t want them punishing me again for asking too many questions or for being too forward.
At the back of my mind, I notice how caring they seem. There’s that vibe, and I worry about what will follow their niceness. Certainly, it is another trick of theirs, and I won’t fall for it.
“She needs more rest.” Kade is saying at the same time that Kyle replied to my question.
“Many hours. I lost count after seven.” And that’s my ticker to get out of bed.
Imagine someone slamming a hundred percent hard brick on your head. That kind of feeling is what washes over me when I try to get up on my feet.
“I just said you need to rest.” Kade repeats.
“Here’s some soup.” Kieran speaks as he sits next to me on the bed. Carefully, he places it down and ushers me to come close. I agree instantly, and he feeds me.
“The physician should soon be back. He has gone to prepare some...”
“Medicine.” Kyle helps him with the English.
“Yes, some medicine for you. In the mean time, I want you to eat.” He sounds serious, and one important word is caring. I can’t bring myself to believe him.
Suddenly, the door opens, and Emilie and Jared come in. “Here you are.” Her tone is quick and laced with something suspicious. And if someone like me could notice, I wonder what the triplets would notice more, as I’m already seeing a wrinkle on their foreheads.
“Are you okay, mother?”
“Yes. It’s just that this is a delicate time, and we can’t afford to lose a dime of our time. You guys should hurry out of here. Go and make your strategies and all. I want to see the physician after all, so I’d just wait with your toy.”
“Thanks for your interest, mother, but we would disagree. We are adamant about waiting for him to come back and prepare the medicine right before us. We can’t afford to lose her, especially not after all we’ve put ourselves in just for the said toy.” I’d say this is the actual first time that Kade would talk, utilizing the word “toy” to reference my existence, and I’d rather be amused. One can notice the sarcasm in his tone towards his mother.
Her lips tighten. “There’s no need to be with her. She’s your slave. Of course, she’s going to be fine.” Kade didn’t allow her to continue talking before he took over.
“Someone poisoned her—that maid at the dining room. She must have a target because she too was the one who served us. Why didn’t she poison us, but only Kaya? Someone must have sent her. And my best guess?” He pauses, his sigh audible to even my own ears. In the background, Kieran is still feeding me, and heaven knows that I’m enjoying it even when I wish I wasn’t. “We have an enemy within us.”
“Are you suggesting that there’s a traitor in the kingdom?”
“Plainly well, mother. And I would find them once I found the girl.”
She shifts her eyes away as her voice goes down. “Well, I hope you will find her.”
In the next few minutes, the physician walks into the room, and Kade attacks him with his first question. “Is she going to be all right?”
“Of course, as would the fetus inside of her.” My eyes flare when he says that, as does Kade’s.
Everyone goes into a pause, and my throat tightens, and my body halts into a stagnancy, and Kade shouts, “Pardon me, what?!”