Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 263: The War Cry

*Alpha King Rohan*

“We attack at dawn!” I bellow.

I hold my hand up in the air dramatically, making a fist. My head is aloft, eyes focused on the sky to ensure that the Moon Goddess herself has heard my war cry.

And no one says anything.

I lower my hand and look around, and I’m alone in the room. What the fuck?

“Kurt!” This time it’s more of a scream than a bellow.

He’s out of breath by the time he gets here. How the fuck far away was he?

“What is it, Your Majesty?” he says between pants.

I put my hand on my hip. “I’ve just declared war, you idiot! My presentation was impeccable, and now I have to do it again! What kind of a Beta misses it when his Alpha King declares war because he’s off twiddling his thumbs?”

He takes a few more breaths as if he’s trying to find an answer for that. Instead, he says, “Rowan—”

“You’ll address me as Your Majesty!” I cut him off.

I catch him rolling his eyes. He does that a lot, since we were kids. But he can’t go around acting like he can still call me by my first name just because he remembers that I liked Skylar in the third grade. She was pretty, with bright red hair and green eyes that sparkled when she looked at me. Her voice was like—"

“Your Majesty…?”

Oh, he kicked me out of a good memory this time. She’d kissed me on the cheek behind the bleachers. Oh, what a kiss….

“We don’t have word from the spies yet,” he says, insisting on interrupting my thoughts again. “I thought Your Majesty would wait until they returned.”

“I don’t need spies to tell me what I already know!” I scream. I think better of that quickly since all the bellowing has already hurt my throat. I lower my voice. He’s right in front of me, after all. “Dark Forest is evil. Just look at the name! What kind of a place is named that!” I clear my throat, assume my position with my fist in the air, and repeat, “We attack at dawn!”

He bites his bottom lip and just stands there for a second. “Ro—Your Majesty, it’ll take weeks to get the fleet there, and that’s after we’ve assembled all the troops and weapons.”

I frown. “Well, dawn on the day we arrive, of course.”

“But what if we get there later in the afternoon?” he asks.

I want to slap him. I just might. “You will order the ships to arrive at dawn! I don’t care what it takes! That low-life scum of a kingdom is going to be destroyed, and I’ll be the one to do it! At dawn, we attack as ordered!”

He stands there with his mouth open for a few minutes before mumbling, “Yes, Your Majesty,” and then he walks away.

I go over to my mini-bar and pull out my special tea. The seer Coraline has been giving me this special tea for about ten years now. It’s made with a bunch of different leaves—she hasn’t told me which ones—and it doesn’t taste very good, but she promised it would help me see things clearer. Sometimes, I think it makes my mind wander. But other times, I think it makes me smarter. I’m convinced that I really do see the kingdom of Green Mountain now for what it really is—a true enemy.

I’ve asked Coraline about that, and she always says that my vision is clear now, so that must be true.

I hold my fist to the air again, this time in a silent war cry. I’ll show Dark Forest that the kingdom of Green Mountain is nothing to mess with! It’s their own fault for being the dirty thieves and con artists that Coraline says they are.

Their evil ways end here! Well, over there, I suppose. But either way, they will end!

* * *

*Rylee*

Amla seems to be getting worse since I ran out of the remedy that I got last month from the healer, Maddie. I don’t want to let her in on my secret about Amla and the kids, so somehow, I’ll need to get her to tell me what it’s made of and where she gets it.

I call Christopher and Maya over to the corner of the room. For now, Amla is asleep.

“I need you to keep an eye on your mother,” I tell them. “I have to go get her some more medicine. You need to be as quiet as you can, and please don’t look out the windows. Can you do that for me?”

They both nod, and with everything they’ve gone through, I know I can trust them. I lock the door behind me and head to Maddie’s office. I find her there, her black hair up in a bun as she stares at some papers on her desk.

“Rylee,” she says, “it’s good to see you.”

“You as well,” I say, sitting in the chair in front of her. “I was wondering if I could get more of your fever remedy.”

Her expression doesn’t change. “You don’t look ill.”

“It’s for a friend.”

She nods, knowingly. “I see. I’ve known you for a long time, and I trust you, so I won’t ask questions. If you’re looking for more of it, then someone must truly need it.”

I nod back, not wanting to say more.

“Unfortunately, I’m out until the next shipment,” she says. “But if you need it badly, you can use the raw ingredient for it, which is the bark of the cherish tree.”

I shake my head. “I’m not familiar with that.”

She holds up a finger and spins around, pulling a book off the shelf, then walks around to my side of the desk and flips pages. “Right here.” She points to a picture. “There’s a grove of those just east of the compound.”

“I’ve seen those.” I stand to leave. “How do I administer it?”

“Just have the patient chew on a small piece of the bark for about ten minutes, then spit it out.” She holds her fingers up to show the size of the piece. “Follow up with water. Do that about four times per day.”

“Thank you,” I say, leaving.

“Rylee?”

I turn around.

“Be careful.”

I nod and walk out the door, heading east. I find the trees quickly and begin to scrape off pieces of the bark and put them in my pocket.

“Are you okay?”

I whirl around at the sound of the voice. I’m startled, but I have a strange feeling inside, like I want to hear that voice again. But then I see it’s just the royal who came out to ‘save’ us all, Ethan. I must be feeling confused because he’s very attractive, but then, most of the royals are. I have to remember that I can’t trust them.

“I’m fine. Why?” I ask.

He points to the tree. “My mother always gave me cherish tree compound when I had a fever. But you don’t look feverish.”

“It’s for a friend.” I turn around and keep scraping.

Why would a royal get cherish tree bark? They have more expensive treatments they can use. Just when I think he might be walking away, he appears in front of me and gets out a pocket knife to start scraping—on the same tree!

My nose catches a whiff of his scent. It’s definitely birchwood, my favorite. It’s probably some expensive aftershave he bought with all his royal money.

“I’ve got this,” I say.

“I’m just trying to help,” he replies and keeps on scraping.

Damn, he smells good. My wolf stirs inside, but I don’t sense a wolf in him. He must not have found his wolf yet. So why is he so damn distracting? I scrape faster so I can get out of here.

“Ow!”

I jump back and drop my knife, holding onto my now-bleeding arm. I can’t believe I cut myself, allowing myself to get so distracted by a royal.

But before I can do anything else, he’s right in front of me, ripping his shirt and tying a piece around my arm. I’m getting blood all over him, and Goddess, his bare chest ripples with muscles. I want to run my fingers over them.

What’s wrong with me?

“I-I’m fine.” I look at my arm, and he’s done a more than competent job of tying it up. “Thank you. You seem to know your stuff.”

He nods. “My fathers taught us all field medicine for combat.”

“Us?”

“Me and my brother and two sisters,” he explains.

Oh, yes, the royal quads. I forgot there were so many of them.

“Here, you’d better sit for a minute. You lost a lot of blood there.” He leads me to a fallen tree and sits me on it. “It takes longer to heal when that happens.”

I nod, knowing that. “How do you know about the bark? You’re a royal.”

He chuckles. “You say that like it’s a disease.”

I shrug.

He laughs then turns serious. “Well, my mother is different.”

“She’s an Alpha’s daughter, isn’t she?” I know only Alphas’ daughters were considered royal breeders back in the day. I’m glad they don’t do that anymore.

“She is, but she was poorly mistreated, up until she came to the Dark Forest castle. She used to have to find her own medicine whenever she got sick when she was little.”

“That’s terrible,” I say.

He shrugs. “It is. I never knew her when her life was like that, but she never forgot. She always tries to be sure all the people in the kingdom have better lives. She doesn’t want anyone to go through what she did.”

“But that’s not—”

“Not what?” he asks.

“Nothing.” I’ve always been told Luna Queen Rose didn’t do anything but buy new clothes for herself.

“Anyway, she taught me about all the plants she used so that if I ever ran into anyone who needed help I could at least help them find the right medicine for whatever was wrong,” he continues.

I look up at him. His eyes are so beautiful, bright green to go with his red hair. I even notice different shades of red in each of the strands now that I’m up close. “Even rogues?”

He nods. “That’s exactly who she meant. It always bothered her that there were so many people out there who had been kicked out of their packs. She wondered what happened to their spouses and children. It worried her a lot that she couldn’t help them because they were so afraid of the way things used to be that they didn’t reach out for help. It wasn’t their fault they were out there surviving on their own. Hell, it wasn’t even their family members’ fault they were kicked out half the time. The world under Alpha King Gene was a terrible place, apparently.”

Is this true, I wonder? Is the Luna Queen really a kind person who’d been mistreated herself and now wanted the best for everyone, including rogues?

I’m starting to wonder whether the royals are as bad as I’ve been told.