Chapter 425 Congrats Auntie, Now Back The Hell Up

DRAKENFELL — GAMMA QUARTERS

Elara Vaelor was holding together five lives with bullshit and willpower, and the bullshit was running low and the willpower was running on fumes and the whole damn operation was one hand-touch away from detonation.

“Is his shoulder okay?”

Serena reached to touch the bandage on Gav’s shoulder absentmindedly.

Elara slapped her hand away. “Serena. Don’t touch his wounds. That’s weird.”

She was running a fucking espionage operation in a sick room, and the only thing standing between Serena and the goddamn matebond mark was a bandage.

Serena shook her head once. Twice. Then grinned. “That was weird.”

Hale had fainted twice, Gav was marked in his goddamn sleep, and Serena was three inches from blowing the whole thing wide open because she couldn’t keep her fucking hands to herself.

The fact that Serena hadn’t already figured the whole damn thing out was either a miracle or proof that the universe owed Elara a favor and was finally paying up.

Serena reached for Gavriel’s hand instead. Of course she did.

Elara saw her do it in slow motion. She knew the second Serena’s skin made contact with Gavriel’s, she would feel the sparks.

Elara couldn’t hide it forever. But damn, Serena had three days to learn how to shift and learning she marked the goddamn Gamma right now would be the absolute worst thing for everyone involved. A meltdown.

Elara moved in front of Serena, blocking her. Yes, this was a temporary fix. Yes, it was wrong. Yes, Elara was going to do it anyways and had zero remorse about it. Mostly.

Serena froze, tilting her head at Elara. “What is it?”

Elara needed this conversation to change direction. Immediately. Before Serena’s curiosity, which was the most dangerous force in Drakenfell, decided to ask a follow-up question. Her curiosity was a fucking menace on a good day, and the menace was pointed directly at the one damn thing in this room Elara needed her to ignore.

“Hale fainted,” Elara said. “It was bad.”

Serena’s full focus snapped to Elara.

“What? When? Is he okay? What happened?”

“Last night. In this room. He just went down. And then again this morning in our chambers.”

“Oh no.” Serena’s hand went to her chest. “Where is he right now?”

“Our chambers. He is resting. He keeps waking up and then going back down.”

“I’m so sorry, Elara! That’s terrible. What’s wrong with him? Is he sick? Should I get Alaric?”

The questions were rapid, genuine, carrying the escalating concern of a woman whose inner circle was shrinking by the day, with Gav in a coma and Hale apparently fainting, and the shrinking was activating every protective instinct she had.

Elara looked at her. Looked at the door. Looked at the ceiling. Looked back at Serena.

The next sentence was going to leave her mouth. The sentence was necessary because it was the only piece of information in her arsenal large enough to permanently redirect Serena’s attention.

“I’m pregnant.”

She fired it without hesitation, because Serena’s curiosity was advancing and Elara needed a bomb, not a wall.

Yes, she had weaponized her own pregnancy to prevent a diplomatic shitstorm twice, and if that wasn’t the most fucked up thing she’d done this week, it was only because the week wasn’t over.

The words landed on the room.

Serena’s mouth opened. Slowly. Progressively. Her jaw descended in a trajectory that covered surprise, confusion, processing, and comprehension in the space of two seconds, each phase visible on her face like weather crossing a landscape.

Her eyes went wide. Her hands went to her mouth. Her body went still for one full second while her brain confirmed that the sentence she had just heard was real and the sentence meant what she thought it meant and the meaning was that her best friend, the woman she loved most in the world, was going to be a mother.

Then Serena Drakenfell erupted.

She started jumping up and down. In the middle of Gavriel Sterling’s sick room, beside the bed of a comatose Gamma, the Crown Princess of Drakenfell was jumping with the unrestrained, full-body enthusiasm of a woman witnessing the best possible thing happen to the best possible person.

Her hands came away from her mouth and started clapping. The clapping was rapid, percussive, the sound of pure joy being expressed through the only available instruments, and the instruments were producing maximum volume with zero regard for the unconscious man three feet away.

Gavriel Sterling, who was unconscious and contributing nothing to the celebration, continued to contribute nothing. The water glass on his bedside table was migrating toward the edge.

“Oh my GODS, Elara.” She pulled Elara into a hug so immediate and so tight that Elara’s composure cracked on impact. “Oh my gods. Oh my gods. You are going to be a MOTHER.”

Elara grinned.

“A mother, Elara. You. Hale. A BABY. I get to be an aunt!” Serena pulled back, held Elara’s face in both hands, and looked at her with eyes that were bright and wet. “This is the best news I have ever heard. This is the best news anyone has ever heard. I am going to cry.”

“Please do cry,” Elara said. “It will make me feel less insane.”

She needed company in the emotional breakdown, because crying alone about a pregnancy while guarding a secret marking was a solitary experience she was ready to share.

Serena was already crying. The tears were immediate, happy, the kind that arrived when joy was too large for the body containing it and the overflow had to go somewhere. She wiped them with the back of her hand and jumped one more time because the jumping was involuntary and the joy was still producing it.

“Does Hale know? Wait, you said he fainted. He fainted because you told him?” She gasped. “He FAINTED.”

“He fainted. In this room. Full tree fall. Hit the floor so hard the nightstand shook.” Elara’s grin turned into a laugh, the laugh of a woman reliving the memory of her six-foot-seven mate dropping like timber at the word pregnant. “Then I got him back to our chambers. He woke up. I tried telling him again, because he thought he had dreamed it. He fainted again.”

“Hale fainted TWICE.”

“He is currently on his third attempt at staying conscious. I left to come check on Gav and I am giving him time to process because every time he sees me, his eyes roll back and he passes out. I have discovered the one thing on this continent that can bring Hale Ironholt to the ground, and it is fatherhood.”

Serena covered her mouth again.

“Don’t tell anyone yet, Serena,” Elara added. “Hale can barely stay vertical. I need him functional before we go public. And I have yet to see Alaric. It is too early. Things can happen in early stages, and I refuse to announce something that the universe has the power to take back.”

“I will tell no one. Your secret is safe with me.”

Three secrets. One room. One unconscious Gamma who was damn lucky he was in a coma, because if he were awake, Elara would have to manage his reaction too, and she was fresh the fuck out of management.