Titus's P.O.V
Sipping a cup of coffee and watching the sunset are the only things keeping me calm while waiting for Vladimira in the quaint-sized cottage the Moon Goddess had taken me to.
I so desperately want to see my unborn child that Vladimira is so graciously carrying. On another note though, the pure pride of getting The Luna Queen pregnant might play a role in it.
How did I manage to even get close enough to Vladimira to get her pregnant?
With all of Dmitri's spies and the elite bodyguards that he hand-picks to guard over him and his daughter, I think even looking at Vladimira in a public area is an adversity for somebody in the werewolf kingdom.
Yet, here I am, waiting for her with The Moon Goddess. How lucky am I?
'Too lucky if you ask me. Dmitri could have killed us so many times by now,' Nixon reminds me.
Right. How could I forget about Dmitri?
It's not like he is the ruler of all werewolves. It's not like he's capable of magic that could disintegrate a whole group of people in a matter of seconds. It's not like his wolf, Xavier, is a complete sadist.
Technically, Dmitri could have killed me by now. Not only did I have sex with his one and only daughter, but I got her pregnant. I have also disrespected him too many times to count.
"What's on your mind, My Child?" Diana cuts through my frantic thoughts. Her silver eyes stare at me expectingly, her high cheek bones and heart-shaped lips complimenting her white hair.
I shove my face into my hands. "I'm expecting a child and the mother is the Luna Queen, your granddaughter!"
Diana runs her fingers over my cheek in a nurturing gesture. "Calm yourself, Sterling. You'll stress yourself before you even get to see that baby's twinkling little eyes," She instructs. "I'm here to lessen your load and explain some things to you and Vladimira."
What things?
Before I can voice my question, a light knock resides at the door. I stand up abruptly, nearly knocking the chair back.
"Is that her?" I bark at Diana. With a glare, she moves her hand out in front of her, a motion that notifies me to calm down.
She opens the door to reveal a groggy Vladimira. Her cardigan hugs her body perfectly along with her shirt, clearly outlining her stomach.
My child isn't that big yet, but you could say Vladimira is medium-sized at the moment. Not too small, and not too big.
Still, she looks breathtakingly gorgeous, and, much to my horror, I feel a small attraction to Vladimira, something forbidden, something that shouldn't even register in the mind of someone like me—a simple alpha that is in no way royal.
"Vladimira, are you alright? You look... tired," Diana comprehends as she wraps an arm around Vladimira and pulls her into the cottage.
She releases a tired groan, her hand massaging her belly. "I am tired, I've had a long day and all I want to do is sleep," She groans again.
Diana motions for me to follow her and the mother of my child into the living room where a fire blazes in the hearth, crackling ever so often.
She ushers Vladimira, who still hasn't acknowledged my presence, into a velvet lounge chair. Vladimira releases a pleasured sigh, she then looks at me.
"Hi, Titus," Her silky voice greets, "how are you?"
I stand up and cross the distance between us. My hands go to the sides of Vladimira's stomach instinctively.
A pang of lust courses through my body as she parts her legs so I can get between them.
Jesus. I want to do so much more to her body than just kneel in front of it.
Still, I settle with a chaste kiss on her belly. "How are you, Blueberry?" I whisper, secretly hoping that I'll feel the baby kick.
Vladimira tilts my chin up so we're staring into each other's eyes. "We both have fruit names for the baby. How did that happen?" She wonders aloud.
I raise an eyebrow as my hand slowly trails lower on her body. "What's yours?"
"Strawberry," She smiles, her wine-colored hair seeming to blaze like the fire in the hearth.
I push my hand further along her body, my fingers beginning to burn as I get closer to her core.
Diana's voice suddenly breaks through the silence. "Just because Dmitri isn't here, Titus, doesn't mean you can practically strip Vladimira of her clothes right in front of me," She states bluntly.
My hand immediately moves from Vladimira's inner thigh, yet I find it weird how she didn't even stop my actions, how she casually let my hand slip between her thighs.
Even stranger, she looked disappointed when my hand moved away from her thigh; I'm disappointed too!
I was so close to touching her core, so close to feeling her moist heat, so close to seducing Vladimira out of her clothes and into a night of pleasure.
But, I have no choice in the matter, which results in me sitting back down on the couch opposite of Vladimira.
"Great!" Diana rubs her hands together, her silky dress swishing back and forth like the ocean. "Let's begin shall we?"
Diana takes a seat and crosses her legs. "I'm going to talk to Dmitri because it's my job as his mother to keep him in check when things just start to fall apart in his life, I had to do it when Saffron passed," She begins.
Sitting up, Vladimira stops rubbing her stomach. "Why did you have to keep him in check?" She asks.
"He was angry at life, which put him in a peculiar mood. The way he released that anger was by killing off rouges, and I'm not going to lie, he refused to be around you for about the first three weeks after your birth. Paige, your nanny, was the one that took care of you during that time period.
"Eventually your father came to his senses after I confronted him about his absence from your life. I threatened to take you away from him and raise you as my own," Diana says to Vladimira.
At the discovery of this new information, I can't help but think I'll be a better father than Dmitri.
Diana continues with her reverie once Vladimira nods in understanding. "He feared that he would hurt you if he held you too tight, he feared that he would fail you, which would result in him failing Saffron, but he got his crap together eventually.
"His whole mood changed towards you once I knocked some sense into him. Once that happened, it wasn't killing rouges that calmed him down, it was you."
A small smile spreads across her face at her grandmother's word, the smile then dampers as she looks up. "Why does Xavier despise me then? Why would he hurt me if I'm the so called 'anchor' in his life?"
Bemusement consumes me when Diana begins to laugh, a tingling kind of sound, like bells ringing on Christmas morning.
Diana points to Vladimira's stomach once her laughter ceases. "Just like you're going to be with your child, you're going to be wrapped around their little finger. Your father is a king, he can't look weak, but I'm just going to be honest with you, Vladimira. You're their weakness, especially Xavier's," She explains.
I look between the two family members and smile as they stare at each other. "Wow, Xavier has a weakness?" I laugh.
Diana rolls her eyes. "Okay, Xavier has quite the temper, but I know for a fact that Vladimira is his weakness. He lost Saffron, so, of course, that makes him resistant to fall in love like that again with anyone."
Vladimira looks down at her lap, probably trying to connect everything that her grandmother said to her father's actions.
From the look on her face, I knew she wasn't coming up with any sturdy conclusions.
"Then why did he kill Adam? Why did he hurt me emotionally and physically? Why is he such a tyrant?" Vladimira cries, her cheeks reddening in anger.
Who's Adam?
It must be someone she cared about dearly.
"Calm down," Diana instructs, "you just need to listen to me and hear me out."
Vladimira nods her head. "Alright," She croaks weakly.
"Your father," Diana begins, "doesn't want to lose you, especially to a man that wanted to take your hand in marriage, so he killed him."
That Adam dude was going to marry her?
Is it possible that if he wasn't killed, my child wouldn't be growing inside of Vladimira right now?
Am I actually feeling... elation at the fact that Vladimira is carrying my child? Maybe even a little speck of endearment?
Vladimira takes her thumb and swipes it under her eyes, effectively drying the salty tears from her skin.
"What is it that you must tell us?" I cut into their conversation, hoping to avoid a crying fest from Vladimira.
Diana sends me a glare that could put me six feet under, her silver eyes seeming to brighten before she takes a deep breath. "I'm here to tell you that anything baby related I can help you with. I'm also here to warn you," She pauses before continuing. "There's danger lurking around the corner, and I'm pretty sure Vladimira has already encountered this, but for me to tell you this danger would throw off the balance of so many things, so I must sit back and watch as this unravels."
Vladimira seems shocked, her body ceasing movement at her grandmother's word. It not something that I am accustomed to seeing the Luna Queen do on the regular.
"Can you at least give us a hint in this guessing game?" I ask exasperatedly. "I have a child on the way and I would love if I could protect him/her correctly," I huff.
Silver eyes flicker to a drowsy Vladimira before looking back at me. "Him," She says randomly.
Vladimira sits up slowly her eyebrows furrowing. "W-what?" She stutters.
"Your baby," Diana motions to Vladimira's stomach, "is going to be a baby boy."
My heart nearly jumped out chest, and I nearly chocked when my breath left me too quickly.
A baby boy! I'm expecting a baby boy!
My eyes fall to Vladimira's swollen stomach, and, just like I expected, pride swells up in my chest, leaving me smiling.
"Oh, wow," Vladimira mutters, her own smile sparking across her face. She lets out a tearful laugh before glancing up at me.
For a second, just a mere second, I see the same type of endearment that's swelling up inside my chest bubble up in her eyes.
What's happening between us?