CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

WREN

It is our baby kicking, not bean enchiladas.

The flutters are distinct, making me rub my belly. Our little one must feel how nervous I am. My heart is racing—my pulse, climbing.

Tonight can go a dozen ways, beautiful or bloody.

“What are we doing out here?”

Axel gestures to the entire family, all the kings and queens, gathered in the hallway outside the preschool playroom of Sire’s church.

No one else is here. The school is closed for the holiday week.

Cotton-ball Santa Clauses, paper chain garlands, felt Christmas trees, and toilet paper roll ornaments adorn the bulletin boards around us.

Grant and Loch grin, inspecting the kids’ art while Nick, Zar, and Jace suck on candy canes. Nash wraps around Vale, kissing her cheek. Delphine stands with Nadine, their arms looped, but their worried eyes are locked on Ruby and Axel, who’s losing his patience with Sire.

“Why are we here?” Axel challenges him again. “For a PowerPoint presentation on your missionary work in Ukraine? The mighty savior, all while you left your wife and child behind? No thanks.”

Axel’s been brusque with Sire since he’s been home. Sure, the brothers talk shit; I like that part. But acting cruel and even judgmental?

What’s wrong?

It’s like Axel already knows.

But he can’t.

Nadine promised me Sire would get to tell him. That’s why we’re here. Don’t ask me why we’re in the auxiliary building and not the chapel, but I have faith and assume Sire doesn’t want blood on the Bibles.

“You mad at me?” Sire steps to him.

“Yeah.” Axel chest bumps him like they’re about to brawl.

I glance at Jace and Loch, their broad shoulders drawing up, about to pull them apart.

“Good.” Sire stays in Axel’s face. “You should be mad at me. You should hate me. You should never want to talk to me again, and I deserve it.” His voice breaks.

His handsome face, falling, too. All the pain Sire’s been hiding, he lets it go.

“I’m sorry, brother. I’m so fucking sorry from the bottom of my soul. ”

Axel pulls back, coldly raging, “So, it was you? You’re the one who sold us out to our father.”

Grant barks, “What the fuck are you talking about—he sold us out?”

“We’ve been found?” Nick fumes. “The fucker knows where we are?”

Jace growls, “Goddamn, I suspected it. I heard—”

Nadine lifts her hand, snapping her fingers.

Silence falls over the family and the brothers, standing nose to nose.

Sire won’t let go of my hand, either. Does he think I need comfort? Or does he?

“You knew?” Sire asks, sounding calm.

“Yeah, we fucking knew.” Axel doesn’t. “Our captive? The one who climbed over the wall at Delta’s? Roman: he’s our half-brother and told us we’d been found. But we didn’t know who ratted us out.” His lip curls. “You.”

“What the fuck?” Jace thunders. “Roman’s our half-brother? And you ratted us out?”

The circle of angry brothers tightens around us, but Nadine turns to them with one eyebrow raised.

They stop.

“Ruslan raped my maid’s daughter.” It’s the first time I’ve heard Nadine use his name, explaining, “She was fourteen, and Roman is their child. He was raised to kill us, but is on our side instead. He hates Ruslan and told us what he knew.”

“Like how Roman used to be married to Katya,” Axel adds, not breaking his deathly stare with Sire.

“But our father made Katya leave Roman and come after me instead. To marry me. To get pregnant by me. To leave me and take my son as his heir.” His nostrils flare.

“Our father knew where to find me. How?” He grabs Sire’s throat.

“Because you fucking told him where we were.”

Ruby tugs Axel’s arm. “Don’t. Don’t do this. Let him go.”

But Axel’s not listening. This is why he’s furious; he’s had time to feel the pain. He knew half of the secret.

“Yes.” Sire doesn’t flinch. “It’s my fault. It’s my fault he found us through my criminal record. It’s my fault he took your son.”

“No, it’s not.” I try to wedge between them. “Tell him, you had no choice.”

“What is she talking about?” Axel snarls, “You had no choice? No choice but to let him take my son?”

“He wanted my son.” Sire lifts his neck, letting his brother choke him tighter. “He wanted my heir, so I offered my unborn child to keep us safe. And I secretly vowed to never have one. It kept him away from us for years, until he came after you and he took…”

A tear falls down Sire’s cheek, over his broken heart tattoo, confessing, “He took Lev, your baby boy, and I’m so fucking sorry, brother. I’d rather die than hurt you or him, and I’ve been trying to get him back.”

“He gave his kidney,” I blurt, joining Ruby, tugging on Axel’s flexed arm. “Let him go. He almost died trying to get Lev back.”

“Lev.” I hear Nash invoke the name to Axel. “You have a son, my brother; that’s his name. So be a better man than your father. Be a father Lev can admire. Forgive your brother.”

Axel swallows, slowly dropping his hand.

But Sire doesn’t move. His chin, lifted. His throat, open. It’s as if he’s willing to stand in Axel’s pain for as long as it takes to end it.

“What does she mean you gave your kidney?” Ruby asks. Like me, she looks worried about our kings, our kids, and family.

“Show him,” I urge Sire. “Show him your scar. Show him why you almost died trying to save Lev.” I turn to Axel. “That’s where he’s been. Not Ukraine. Not abandoning me or us. He went to Moscow to sacrifice his life to get Lev back.”

“Fucking hell, I knew it,” Nash mumbles.

“Did our nephew need a kidney?” Grant asks, confused.

“No,” Nadine sighs. “He did. The man who thinks he’s your father. He has a genetic condition, and he used my grandson as leverage to get a donor, to force your brother, once again, to sacrifice for this family.”

“You’ve been in Moscow?” Loch frets, stepping toward Sire. “This whole fucking time, and you almost died?”

“Yes,” Sire reveals. “I think Katya tried to kill me. Somehow, she gave me sepsis because she knew I tried to take Lev, but—”

“But you’re here?” Axel steps back, his eyes shifting, not knowing what to think.

He’s been so betrayed. So hurt. It’s heartbreaking to watch.

“You made a deal with the Devil to save my son. You almost fucking died doing it, so where is he?” Axel blinks, his tears falling, his voice booming, “Where’s my son! ”

I feel it in my soul, too, the pain of a parent. I hold my belly while Axel’s pain echoes down the hall, reverberating in every heart gathered who loves him, mostly his brother’s—the one who’s held his pain the longest.

Sire palms his chest. “He’s here. It’s okay, brother. I brought Lev home to you.”

I gulp.

He did? When? How?

I glance at Nadine. Tears stream down her smiling face.

The Queen did this.

I glance at Sire. Finally, his face looks peaceful.

My king did this, too.

“They’re bringing him up the back stairs, into the playroom,” Sire assures him. “We don’t want to scare him. Calm down.”

Under his brother’s patient hands, Axel’s chest heaves. I don’t blame him. I’m crying. I look around. Everyone is crying.

“How?” Axel can barely speak. “Who?”

“Roman and his mother.” Nadine reaches, holding Axel’s arm.

“She was Lev’s nanny and traveled with your brother to bring him home.

We helped him adjust yesterday. He can’t speak English, only Russian.

” Her voice chokes. “He’s a sweet little boy.

He looks just like you. You need to be tender with him. ”

Axel wipes tears away. He’s barely able to ask Sire, “Does he know about me? Who I am?”

Ruby clutches Axel’s arm, smiling through her tears.

Proudly, Sire sheds a tear with his brother, too. “You’re his father. It’s your blessing to tell him. No one else.”

Axel swallows, turning to nuzzle his forehead against Ruby’s. It’s like he can’t breathe. He can’t believe this.

“How did you get him out?” Jace wonders what I don’t even know. “Why did our father let you leave Russia alive? And with our nephew?”

I guess Sire was protecting me when he came home. He needed to make sure I was safe and our baby was okay. He wanted our reunion, our time, and tears, too, while he was guarding this secret.

“I left him no choice.” Sire cups Axel’s shoulders. “Lev is yours now. Forever. He’s not going back. You get to keep your son.”

Axel shakes his head, aiming his eyes at Sire. They’re burning bright blue with tears. For all of Axel’s ice, he has the warmest heart.

“That’s too easy,” he doubts. “It’s too good to be true. My son is mine? Without a fight?”

“It is true,” Sire answers, “but it won’t be easy. I made a deal, and there will be a fight.”

“Here we go,” Grant mumbles.

“Damn, right.” Sire lifts his stare from Axel, ordering his other brothers, “Here we fucking go. All of us. For our nephew. Our mom. Our wives and kids. You better fucking believe we’re about to go.”

“Go where?” Jace nods his chin, ready.

“I—” Sire starts to explain, but the cutest kid’s squeal explodes through the air, like sparkling, happy fireworks, turning our heads toward the playroom door.

Sire glances through its glass window and smiles. “Lev’s here.”

All step forward but Axel.

He doesn’t move.

He can’t move.

I’ve never seen a menacing man look so damn beautifully afraid.

“Come on, brother. Just me and you.” Sire reaches for him, leading him. “We’ll play with him. He’ll warm up. We’ll—”

“We’ll scare him,” Axel worries. “He doesn’t know me.”

“He’ll love you.” Ruby lifts on her toes, kissing Axel’s cheek. “You’re going to be a great father. Twice.”

“Here.” Sire reaches into his suit pocket, pulling out a pink Ring Pop. “Give him this and he’ll be your best friend.”

Sire turns to grab the doorknob, but Axel yanks him back.

For a moment, I fear he’ll punch Sire. It’s everything Sire’s feared. Axel’s pain. His rage. His anguish. All the years with Lev that Sire can’t give back to Axel. It’s not Sire’s fault, but my man was born to bear a cross. For his family, he’ll carry it, standing tall.

But Axel wraps Sire in a hug. “You fucking dick.” He squeezes him tighter. “Thank you.” He whispers through tears. “I love you, man.”

Huddled around the open playroom door, we’re like a huge family in front of the window of a hospital nursery.

Except there’s only one little smiling boy, sharing his hot pink Ring Pop with a jacked and tatted man, while his other little hand scribbles doodles on the man’s face.

His father’s face.

His father’s smiling face.

The little boy’s uncle, all jacked and tatted, too, sits in a tiny red plastic chair. Strumming his guitar, he softly sings about a bullfrog and “Joy to the World,” before he looks over … and gives me a sexy wink.

Hey, Dolly, we’ve come a long way since the last time we stood in the doorway like this.

The proof?

Mr. Muscle hovers beside me, mumbling, “It had to be a pink Ring Pop for my badass nephew?”

I backhand Jace’s chest. “Shut up.” It’s like backhanding a Mack truck.

“Pink is sexy for a man, no?” Delphine corrects him.

“I look hot in pink,” Loch boasts.

Grant laughs. “Wearing it or fucking it?”

“I heard both.” Nick piles on.

“Don’t tease me, Daddy,” Zar drawls.

“That’s my line,” Vale coos.

“And that’s my cue,” Nash mumbles, aroused.

“Sweet Jesus,” Ruby huffs. “We can’t go anywhere without you kings getting hotter than blue blazes.”

Jace chuckles. “As long as it ain’t blue balls.”

“Speaking of blue balls…” Vale turns to Jace. “Where’s Vivian?”

Delphine taunts Loch, “And where is Alena?”

“Leave my daughter out of this,” Nash warns.

“She’s one of us,” Vale debates. “Alena’s a queen and—”

“No,” Nadine snaps her fingers, “I’m The Queen telling y’all to cork your pistols.” She points to the tender sight before us. “Whatever we must do, we fight to keep this deal. I expect to keep our family together. You understand me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” We answer in unison.

She arches a brow. “Excuse me?”

We try again. “Yes, Queen.”

Looping her arm around my pregnant waist, she gives me a warm squeeze. “And that’s how you do it.”