Vampire King Chapter 47

Pregnancy Woes
Pregnancy Woes
Emory
+25 BONUS
I try to sit still as Dr. Joe Martin looks over my vitals. Kane is busy dealing with the diplomat from Scarlett Thunder to be with me for the check-up. He feels terrible about it, but I told him it isn’t a big deal. I know he’s stressed enough dealing with this stalemate with King Peter, and I don’t want to add on to his load.
Besides, I’m not alone. Lola is here trying to sit still on a stool nearby. My maids, Helga and Nellie are in the room with us trying not to hover. After Lord Alistair found out about my pregnancy and informed King Peter about it, Kane and I decided to let our friends in the castle know. We need the support of those closest to us more than ever.
We know that King Peter won’t be sitting on this information for long and will probably be spreading it to the other kingdoms to curry favor for his cause against Kane. We can’t keep this information to ourselves any longer, so all we can do is try to mitigate the upcoming wave of opinions that is coming our way. We havn’t sworn our friends to secrecy, but we know they aren’t blabbing to others about what they know. Helga and Nellie have become my biggest supporters, concerned and overjoyed at me carrying Kane’s child and heir. Along with most people in the kingdom, they have been waiting for him to finally reproduce -even if it is with a wolf shifter.
“Have you been sleeping well?” Dr. Martin asks. “Your blood pressure is higher than normal.”
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping. I seem to only get morning sickness in the evenings, usually late.”
“It’s not that uncommon with vampire babies. I recall Queen Agatha had similar symptoms when she was pregnant with the king and his brother.”
1 also get really queasy around strong smells. Garlic makes me want to barf.”
He nods and makes a note on his clipboard. “That’s also common. Your wolf shifter senses might be even more heightened as the pregnancy goes along.” He looks up and asks, “Are you also feeling ill at the smell of blood?”
“No,” I reply. “I like my meat rarer now.”
I prefer my meat to be practically raw, which might have been unhealthy if I wasn’t a wolf shifter but I won’t get sick from it. My dinner last night could probably moo at me with how rare it was.
“The baby will be craving blood. Preferably fresh.”
My eyes widen slightly as I realize what he is getting at “I have to drink blood?”
“You will only need to consume it in small amounts. We can have the staff serve you a small cup of blood during dinner.”
The thought of me drinking blood would have thoroughly grossed me out months ago, but I don’t feel the same way now. I have a craving for it like I would with a good steak or even ice cream.
“This is good for the baby?”
“Healthy vampire babies need blood.”
“All right. I’ll do it for the baby.”
+25 BONUS
Pregnancy Woes
He prescribes prenatal vitamins to me then instructs Helga and Nellie about the best food for me to eat. Lola is bored during the entire appointment and is happy to leave once it’s over.
“Are wolf shifter babies the same?” Lola asks me as we walk back to our rooms. “Are pregnancies this difficult with our kind?”
“It can be rather complicated,” I answer honestly. “There’s the risk of miscarriage if the mother shifts into her wolf form during the pregnancy.”
“That won’t be a problem with you.”
Lola knows I haven’t met my wolf yet. Wolf shifters don’t change into their wolf forms until their twenty- first birthday, and my birthday is still months away. That will be a problem I would have to deal with when it comes because I won’t be able to stop myself from shifting for the first time on my birthday, but I don’t want to think about that now. Being pregnant already scares me enough as it is.
“Not now, Lo,” I tell her. “It’ll all be okay though.”
“Did my mom have a difficult pregnancy with me?”
That makes me pause. Lola rarely asks about her mother. It is a touchy subject due to how other people, including our very own family, treated her differently because of who her mother was. I never really tried to ask about the scullery maid that had given birth to Lola as Bernard had tried to erase her presence in the castle as if she never existed. My mother had been upset about his infidelity, and he had tried to make it up to her by making everyone in our home never mention Lola’s mother as if it could negate the shame of what he had done.
I never saw Lola as something to be ashamed of. She is my heart and some of the best parts of me. I look at her, and I see none of Bernard’s cruelty and selfishness. I see a happy little girl who just wants to live a normal life.
“I don’t know,” I finally reply. “I never really knew her.”
Lola goes quiet. I can see the play of emotions on her face as she takes this information in. We reach the door of her bedroom, and she hesitates before going inside.
“Did your mom have a difficult pregnancy with you?”
“I’ve never asked her, and she’s never told me.”
“Maybe you should talk to her about it?” she suggests. “Just in case anything isn’t normal with the pregnancy.”
“Normal?” I echo.
Lola looks worried. “There were also those stories in the library about hybrids. I just want to make sure you’re going to be oka
I reach over to touch the apple of her cheek gently. “Of course I’ll be okay, Lo.”
“I hope so.” She surprises me by hugging me, her arms wrapping around my middle. “I don’t want to lose you again, Emory.”
I pat her shoulder, trying to hold back the swell of emotion that threatens to make me cry. All the pregnancy hormones make me want to burst into tears at every little thing. The lack of sleep doesn’t help
+25 BONUS
Pregnancy Woes
All I want to do is have a good cry and take a long nap,
“I’m not going anywhere, Lola,” I say. “I promise.”
Lola goes into her room after that. I give in and take a lengthy nap in my room. The baby doesn’t seem to bother making me want to puke my guts out when the sun is up which is a much needed relief. Nellie looks guilty as she has to wake me for lunch. I begrudgingly get up, and my maids help me change into a green sundress and strappy sandals.
Having lunch with Queen Agatha has become part of my routine. She has a spread of delicious food waiting in the gazebo every day for us. The queen has been kind enough to have food Lola especially likes. And after that incident with garlic bread and me puking into her prized rose bushes, she makes sure to not have any food that would set off my oversensitive nose. Vampires don’t really care for garlic
anyway.
Queen Agatha smiles when we arrive at the gazebo. “You’re looking better today, Emory. Have you been
able to rest?”
“I took a nap,” I reply. “The baby lets me sleep
efore sundown.”
She takes a sip of her blood. “That’s good. You should try these meat pies the cook worked on today. There’s no garlic and onions in them.”
pick up
one of the meat pies from the platter. It is the size of my palm. I place it on my plate and slice through it with a butter knife. Spearing it with a fork, I take a small bite. I taste butter, meat, and pastry. It isn’t bland, but it’s not too flavorful. I’m able to swallow without an issue.
“That’s really good.”
The Queen pours a cup of tea for me, pouring a small amount of milk in and stirring. She slides the cup toward me and asks, “How did the check-up with Dr. Martin go?”
“It was fine. He said there doesn’t seem to be anything unusual with the pregnancy.”
“That is a relief to hear. Have you told Kane?”
“Not yet. He’s been in meetings all day.”
“No doubt dealing with that obvious mole Peter has sent to bother us.”
Seeing Lord Alistair scurrying about the castle is a common occurrence. More than once, he has tried to go into areas he is not allowed in only to be deterred by a guard or **nt. He has even tried to bribe whoever caught him in the act, but Kane fires whoever gives in and replaces them immediately, Kane complains about how easy it seems to bribe people in the castle, and it’s becoming an epidemic.
Kane
“We could just kill him,” Lex suggests not for the first time. “And then deal with the consequences later.”
“And this is why you’re not ruling this kingdom,” Rainier quips. “We’re trying to keep King Peter from -attacking us, not give him another reason to give the marching orders.”
Lex gives him an annoyed look. “How do you propose we deal with Alistair? He tried to bribe his way into the dungeons this morning.”
Pregnancy Woes
“Well, **k. If he sneaks Jacob out of the castle-”
+25 BONUS
“I doubled the security guarding Jacob,” I cut in. “I also have the se**nts collecting any letters he has that might be interesting.”
“It’s still not enough, Kane,” Rainier points out. “Peter already knows about Emory’s pregnancy.”
I sigh and lean back in my seat. The stress migraine I have been fighting off all day makes me feel like my brain is going to explode. I slide King Peter’s latest letter across the table for Rainier and Lex to read.
As soon as King Peter found out about the baby, he proceeded to threaten me with telling all the vampire kingdoms about it. In his eyes, I not only got his precious daughter pregnant and refuse to claim her spawn as my own, I have defiled her honor even more by getting another woman pregnant. And it’s a wolf shifter to boot.
“He wants you to declare Emory’s baby is a b**d that will never inherit your throne and that Opal’s baby is your rightful heir?” Rainier looks furious and astounded. “Is he insane? You can’t agree to this!”
“I already told him no.”
I don’t care what King Peter threatens me with. I will never forsake Emory and our child. He can just add this onto my list of perceived sins against him and his family. I’m quickly losing my last vestiges of patience with this man.
“He wants a hostage,” I continue. “Since I won’t let Jacob go, he wants his own leverage.”
Political hostages are an old practice dating back to my grandfather’s time. A royal child from another kingdom would come to stay with the kingdom they’re warring with to ensure peace at the cost of that child’s life. A political hostage would be treated well and raised among the other kingdom’s royal children but would never truly be a part of the family.
My mother’s brother, King Cyrus, had been a political hostage for another kingdom when he was a child and was only released as an adult after his father died, and he became the new king of Cerise Point. My mother told us how it had been a lonely and unhappy time for my uncle. My father managed to secure peace with our neighbors so that neither I nor Lex had needed to be hostages.
“Who would you even send?” Rainier questions. “Your child is still in the womb. Does he want you to send Emory?”
“Absolutely not,” I tell him resolutely.
I will burn down Scarlett Thunder before letting them get their grubby hands on Emory.
“You can’t send Mother. She hates him,” Lcx points out
I can’t look at my brother. “I know.” He was in King Peter’s possession once and managed to trick the king into thinking he was more useful here, but now, well… maybe there’s another option.
There’s a silence as the only option is blatantly obvious to all of us. I have no children to send. What I do have is a brother. The spare.
“You want to send me,” Lex concludes.