Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 111: Cat Fight--In More Ways Than One

*Tristan*

After I sneak Alpha Morris and his misfits into the bedrooms in what I think is an empty wing of the castle, save Luna Barbara’s room, I head back to my bedroom. From my bathroom, I hear loud mewing and wonder if the other Alphas just haven’t come back inside.

How do they not hear that?

I open the door, and a ball of fur comes flying at my face. Claws sink into both of my cheeks as the cat hisses and screams. Blood streams down my face as I rip him, and a bit of flesh, away from my face.

“What the fuck?” I ask him, doing my best to manhandle Mr. Whiskers into a less dangerous position. I tuck him under my arm, but it’s clear he’s not happy. I get a glimpse into my bathroom.

Either it’s been snowing in my bathroom or Mr. Whiskers murdered the toilet paper. I hope there’s another roll under the sink. If I have to take a dump later, I’m not wiping with his shredded confetti.

“I got him!” I tell the other Alphas through the mind-link as I run toward the outside door.

I don’t make it too many steps down the hallway before Reece and Eli appear in front of me. Both of them look confused. Mr. Whiskers sinks his claws into my hand again, and I toss him down onto the stone floor. He takes off in a blur, hissing at me again.

“What the hell is wrong with him? It’s like he’s possessed by the devil!” I say.

“Your face looks like it,” Eli points out.

I wipe the blood on my sleeve, and I am amazed at how much there is. Thankfully, it doesn’t hurt anymore, and I assume that means I’m starting to heal.

“Where was he?” Reece asks.

“Oh, uh… near the flowers in the garden.” I wipe at my other cheek and get just as much blood.

“Then why were you coming from that way?” Eli asks.

“I came in a different door,” I say with a shrug. I should have thought this through better. They don’t believe me.

“Tristan?” Eli asks.

“What?”

He puzzles over my face for a second and then shakes his head. “You’re up to something. I don’t know what it is, but you’re up to something.”

“I… am a perfect angel,” I insist. “But I am insulted!” I stick my nose in the air and turn around, headed back for my room. I need to take a shower and then go talk to Morris. Maybe he has come up with a plan for how he can take out Luna Barbara.

After my shower, I begin to walk over to Alpha Morris’s room. I think I hear someone crying. It sounds like a woman. It’s high-pitched, and whoever is distraught is wailing like they can’t get a handle on their emotions.

I think it might be Morris.

But it isn’t coming from the room I told him to take, and before I can investigate, the bedroom door opens, and Emily walks out, swiping at her face. She stops and stares at me before she asks, “What the hell happened to you?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” I admit. I wonder if my face still has scratch marks for her to be asking that. I think I smell the scent of sex lingering around her, flowing out of her room. “Who were you with?” I ask.

It couldn’t be an Alpha. I just saw Reece and Eli, and Mark is with Rose.

She straightens up. “That’s none of your business.”

“You seem like you need someone to talk to Emily,” I begin. “Maybe I can–”

“Oh, thank you, Alpha Tristan!” She latches onto my arm.

I was about to say find her a maid or something, but she seems to think I meant me.

“I have been dying to tell you more about what that dreadful Luna Barbara did to me.”

“Wait!” I stop her, my forehead crinkling. “You were having sex with Luna Barbara?” Now, this is a story I can get behind.

Her eyes widen and she looks like she wants to scratch my face. “No! Gross! I hate that bitch. I mean, how she ruined my life!”

“Right….” I nod. I look around. I do need to talk to Morris, but it looks like Emily needs someone to talk to, and even though I don’t believe what she told me before, I do believe in the idea that it’s smarter to keep your enemies closer than your friends. “Wanna go outside?”

I don’t need for anyone to think I’m up to something in Emily’s room.

“Sure,” she agrees, not letting go of my arm.

I find the nearest exit and take her out to a garden, where we have a view of a lot of balconies and everyone can see us. “What’s the trouble, Emily?” I ask her.

She blows out a hot breath, finally letting go of me. “It all began five years ago….”

“Can I have the short version?” I ask her.

She turns and glares at me before she says, “Fine. Barbara stole my mate, my one true love, and she killed him. She also killed her own baby.”

“Right,” I said. “So I have heard.”

“I don’t think you understand, Tristan!” she exclaims. “Before I met Barbara, I was a wonderful person. I was kind-hearted. I used to teach kindergarten!”

I tip my head to the side and stare at her. “I don’t believe that, Emily. You’re still the king’s cousin. I can’t see you taking a job that pays as little as a teaching position.”

“Well… I did help the other kindergartners in my class when I was in kindergarten.” She says this like it’s the same as being a teacher.

Somehow, I even doubt that is the case. Maybe she helped them to glue their mouths closed or cut off their ponytails.

“Barbara did her best to have me killed! She sent a mass of warriors after me, trying to… take my virginity and leave me for dead! Thankfully, I got away.”

“And you probably didn’t have your virginity to take five years ago,” I mutter.

She growls at me. “The point is, she tried to come after me! All because I was in love with Ivan.”

“Wait… you were in love with her husband?” Ivan–Alpha Ivan–was Barbara’s husband; the whole kingdom knew this.

Emily shrugs. “I didn’t know that he was her husband. We met, and it was clear to me that he was my mate. So… we met several times, making love beneath a blanket of stars!” She looks up at the sky and takes a deep breath like she’s lost in a memory.

I clear my throat. “You didn’t know he was the Alpha?” I find that hard to believe. We almost always know when we’re looking at an Alpha or a Beta. There’s just an air of respect around them.

She bats her eyelashes a few times and says, “He told me he was a professional chicken sexer.”

I stare at her with my mouth agape for a long moment before she moves toward me a little, and I’m afraid she is taking this as an invitation to kiss me. “A what?” I am imagining a grown man and a chicken in some awkward positions, and I have to shake my head to clear it.

“Don’t be a pervert, Tristan,” she warns. “A chicken sexer looks at baby chickens to see if they are males or females. You know… roosters or… regular chickens.” She makes a face, like she knows that’s not quite right.

“Hens,” I tell her.

“Hence… I didn’t know he was the Alpha.” She thought I was segueing into another thought; I let it go. She still doesn’t know that female chickens are called hens, and I’m okay with that.

“Well, Emily, it sounds like you and Barbara both have all the reasons in the world to kill one another. Tell you what, why don’t we put you both in bikinis, get a big vat of Jell-O, find a couple of spare medieval mauls, and see what happens?”

She glares at me for a second before she says, “You know, I’d be happy to wear a bikini for you, Alpha Tristan.” She winks at me, and my stomach turns over worse than it did when Mr. Whiskers tried to scratch my face off.

She didn’t even get my name right. “No, thank you,” I say. “Listen, I have to go talk to A—a friend.” I almost said Alpha Morris, but I saved myself.

“Alpha Morris?” Her eyes are narrowed again.

“What?” I scratch the back of my head. I didn’t know she was in that hallway when I picked those rooms.

“I know he’s here,” she declares. “Don’t worry, I’m on your side. I won’t send him after Rose again. Besides, he says he’s completely loyal to you.”

My forehead puckers as she looks forlorn again, and I remember she had been crying… and maybe having sex.

I have cried during sex before, so I understand. But I don’t think Emily got any of her pubic hairs caught in a toy.

“He told you I asked him to come to the castle?” I clarify.

She nods, looking away. “Yes. He told me. He said he’d tell me a secret he has about Barbara, but he was just tricking me.” She turns her head violently to look at me. “I don’t like to be tricked, or… taken advantage of.”

Things are starting to make sense now. Did Alpha Morris get Emily to sleep with him by telling her he’d give her a secret about Barbara? And then back out?

Was it the same secret he told me, that Barbara is really working with Kane?

“Well, you can’t trust him, I guess,” I say with a shrug, getting to my feet. “I need to go find him.”

“All right. But remember, I’m at your disposal, Terrance.”

I sigh, not even wanting to correct her. I give her a little wave and head inside, making my way to Morris’s room.

I knock on the door, and a moment later, he answers with a wide grin on his face, whistling a happy tune.

He smells like Emily.

I don’t think I can trust either one of them… I need to get this asshole into shape or else the other Alphas are going to be pissed I brought him here.