Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 119: Nightmares

*Rose*

I lay in my bed, staring up at the ceiling, listening to Kelly and Shelby talk about…. Well, I don’t even know what they’re talking about.

I’m really not paying any attention to them at all. I’m thinking about the babies.

The Braxton-Hicks contractions have subsided, thank goodness. I’m not in any pain, though I’m still uncomfortable. Dr. Pepperglass says that I’ll probably be in discomfort for the rest of my pregnancy. After that, she says there’s a good chance I’ll be uncomfortable for about eighteen years.

I think she has forgotten that I won’t be with my babies for the next eighteen years, and she’s thinking I will be the typical mother who doesn’t get any sleep because the babies are crying and are up constantly worried once they start walking because they might wander off or fall in a lake or get swallowed up by a sinkhole….

Maybe she was under the impression I would be one of those moms who are constantly worried about how my kids are doing in school. Are they learning fast enough? Are they learning too fast, and now they’re bored? Are they making friends? Are they making so many friends that they’re talking during lessons?

What about high school and dating and all of those things? Would I be the sort of mother who would cry the moment she saw her daughter… daughters… in her wedding gown? Will I approve of my children’s mates?

Someday, my children will have children of their own. Would I be a fun grandma? Would I give them too much ice cream and let them stay up too late? Or would I lecture my kids that they’re too lenient, and the grandchildren are spoiled?

Yes, I can see Dr. Papergat saying I would be uncomfortable for the next eighteen years if I was going to be raising four beautiful lives for eighteen years and be responsible for keeping those beautiful lives living.

But… at the present… that’s not what’s supposed to happen.

I’m supposed to let go of these little cherubs in a few short weeks and hand them over to others to worry about them.

Then… what?

I rub my abdomen as a tiny foot kicks against my rib cage, and tears collect in my eyes. What if the person who is supposed to be worried about them on my behalf isn’t worried about them at all?

And… what about me?

I’m just supposed to go back home and forget that somewhere in the world are four tiny people who are half me and half these men that I love now and will always love?

I’m supposed to let go of the eight people I love most in the world and just go on about my business as if I don’t really care that I am the only one missing everything that is wonderful and lovely about the everyday lives of my children.

“Rose?” I hear Kelly say with much concern in her voice. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” I say, swiping at my tears. A box of tissues sits on my nightstand, but there are so many things on my nightstand right now that I don’t reach for it because I’m afraid I might make a mess.

Kelly and Shelby both come over and sit next to me on either side of the bed. Shelby plucks a tissue out of the box and hands it to me, and I dab at my eyes, trying to keep my tears at bay. I feel like a baby myself, crying all the time. But I’ve read in my books that it’s normal for me to be emotional.

“It’s okay.” Kelly rubs my arm. “The babies are safe. Dr. Pendergan said that it’s normal to have these practice contractions. It’s just your body getting ready to have the babies.”

“And even if the babies were born right now, which they won’t be,” Shelby continues, “they’re all large enough to survive on the outside.”

I nod, knowing that that’s probably true. They would all be teeny tiny, but they’d be okay.

I’m honestly not worried about the safety of my babies right now. I think they will all be healthy, happy children when they are born and will grow up well-loved and taken care of by their fathers, who will all four raise them as if they were all their parents.

But their mother? Since I am not supposed to be allowed to fill that role, who will?

Emily? My children might be eaten alive.

Barbara? They will all grow up to be pole dancers.

No, I can’t imagine either of those women being their mothers, and if the Alphas are allowed to choose their own wives, well, they could end up with all kinds of step-monsters.

Tears sting my eyes again.

“It’s all right!” Kelly brushes my hair back from my eyes.

“Tristan is king now,” Shelby reminds me. “I’m sure that he will make sure that nothing can happen to you, dear.”

“I know,” I say, but I don’t know. Tristan is only a temporary king. King Gene will be back soon enough, and when he arrives, who knows what will become of me?

“You should try to get some rest,” Shelby encourages me. “Go to sleep, and when you wake up, you’ll feel better.”

I shake my head. “I don’t think that I will. I don’t think I’ll feel better until the babies are born, the king is decided, and I’m assured I’ll be allowed to stay.”

“Don’t you know that even if King Gene forces you away from the castle, the new king will be able to bring you back?” Kelly continues to brush my hair away from my face, trying to make me feel better.

But I’m not sure it’s working.

I do manage a nod.

“Really, Rose. You have four strong, brave, strapping men who will make sure nothing ever happens to you. You’ll be fine.” She gives me a sympathetic smile, and I manage to smile back at her.

Suddenly, I do feel tired. I decide to close my eyes for a bit and go to sleep.

I hear Kelly and Shelby get up off of the bed, and one of them tosses a blanket over the top of me.

I pull it up under my chin and I try to think of happy moments to dream about, like… my Alphas… and my grandmother who used to bake cookies for me when I was little… and that horse that lived in the field behind our house when I was in high school….

I’m walking through the forest, wearing a long white gown. My feet are bare, but I’m in my human form, not my wolf. It’s a cool day, and the wind rustles the leaves above me. In the distance, I know someone is waiting, but I don’t know who it is.

Maybe it is more than one person.

Maybe… there are several.

I continue to walk, hurrying my pace in my haste to find out who is there, but I have to be careful not to trip over any of the exposed roots that jut out from the ground along the trail I follow between the trees.

I hear the sound of children laughing. They are calling to one another. Their names make me smile, and I know who these children are.

Rounding a corner, I walk out from between two large pines and see a beautiful meadow filled with butterflies. The azure sky above is a lovely contrast to the white fluffy clouds that flutter by.

“There she is!” a familiar voice calls, and my eyes land on a picnic blanket in the center of the carpet of green.

There they are!

All four of my Alphas are here. Mark and Tristan are sitting on the blanket while Reece is playing a game with the children and Eli is flying a kite.

It’s the picture of a quaint happy family–if all families contained four fathers.

My children–two girls and two boys–laugh and cheer as I come closer to them. Now that I’m in the meadow, there aren’t any roots to trip me up. I gather up my dress and begin to run.

The distance shouldn’t take that long for me to cover, but it seems like I am running in slow motion. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get there.

And the scene in front of me is changing….

The sky grows dark, storm clouds gathering quickly above the meadow, lightning bolts splitting between clouds like daggers as angry rain begins to fall. All eight of them freeze, the kite falling from the sky, their faces frozen in panic and fear but they aren’t looking up at the sky.

They are looking at the forest behind them.

That’s when I hear it.

The thunder isn’t loud enough to completely drown out the cacophony of what sounds like hundreds of wolves tearing through the trees, running straight for me–straight for my family.

As the first glimpse of fangs becomes visible between the trees, I scream.

It’s an earth-shattering shriek intended to somehow frighten the wolves off so that they cannot harm my family.

But all it manages to do is wake me up.

I sit up straight in bed, my heart pounding in my chest, sweat dripping off me.

My room is dark, but across from me, I see a pair of eyes.

And I feel like screaming again.