Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 269: What's Her Name?

*Ethan*

I wake up to the sound of giggling and roll over with a smile on my face, bringing Rylee into my arms. This is going to be our life from now on, and seeing the twinkle in her eyes makes me realize how lucky I am.

“What’s so funny?” I ask, pulling her in for a kiss so she doesn’t even have the chance to answer.

But she giggles against my mouth and pulls back, and I don’t even get my kiss. “I’m sorry. This is just so…. Do you realize how much I hated royals? And now I’m in a castle in bed with a prince.”

“Well, I don’t see what’s so funny about that,” I say teasingly, stealing that kiss from her. “And I’m not just any prince, you know,” I add when we come up for air. “I’m your mate.”

“That’s what’s so funny about it.” She settles her head against my chest, tracing the lines of my muscles. “I don’t mean to laugh. I’m just happy. And I never expected things to go this way.”

“Well, your sister is a Beta. You’ve been around a lot of royalty.”

“I suppose so, but I never thought of Isaac that way,” she explains. “He’s an Alpha, but it wasn’t like we were in a palace, though it is a fancy place. I just… I felt more connected to the people in the forest, and they don’t have a king.”

“They kind of do.” I run my fingers through her jet-black hair. “Calvin is in charge, and he probably lives a lot better than any of the people he was ruling over.”

“I’ll say.” She moves suddenly, propping up her head with her elbow. “He actually had children erect his tents, and then he’d send them off for the night to sleep in the forest.”

“So, there you go,” I say. “He’s the kind of ‘royalty’ you should be hating.”

“I know that now.” She kisses me and pulls back again. “I don’t know how I was so wrong.”

“That doesn’t matter now.” I grab her and pull her on top of me, and she giggles again. “What matters now is planning our wedding. My mother is going to be so excited.”

“I hope she likes me,” she says.

“She’ll love you,” I assure her. “And speaking of Mother, she’s in my head right now asking where I’m at.”

“Are you supposed to be somewhere?”

“Yes, apparently there’s a whole post-birthday breakfast going on in a half an hour,” I say.

She gives me a quick peck on the lips then climbs off me, scooting off the bed. “Well, are you coming? I don’t want to piss off the Luna Queen.”

I laugh. “She could never be mad at you. But I can’t wait to tell her about us.”

“I’m pretty sure she knows, as does the rest of the kingdom. We weren’t very discreet about it.”

I laugh, standing up. “I suppose not.”

We hurry to get cleaned up and dressed then head downstairs hand-in-hand. We don’t get far before Mom and Aunt Kelly come running up to us.

“Oh, my goodness!” Mom practically squeals. “My baby boy has found his mate!”

“Mom, I—”

“And you’re so beautiful!” she continues, ignoring me. “Isn’t she beautiful, Kelly?”

“Stunning,” Kelly agrees. “That hair is going to be a knockout in your wedding dress.”

“I—” Rylee gets one word out before Mom continues.

“Oh, the wedding dress!” she says, now almost with a screech to her voice, she’s so excited.

She takes Rylee’s hand and pretty much pulls her away from me, and Aunt Kelly falls in on the other side of her while they walk her toward the breakfast hall, still chattering on about weddings. Rylee manages to get a quick wave in toward me. At least she’s laughing.

“Wow.”

I turn to see my brother Matthew standing with his arms crossed. “That makes me almost hope I don’t have a mate.”

“I hope she’s okay,” I say.

“I wouldn’t worry.” He shakes his head. “Your mate seems like she can hold her own against our crazy relatives.”

“I hope so.”

“By the way, congratulations, little brother,” he says. I shake my head because he was born only a few minutes before me, so I’m technically younger, I guess. He likes to remind me of that for some reason.

I ignore it. “Thanks. I’m sure you’ll find your mate soon and Reeva as well.”

He shrugs. “Doesn’t bother me. I can wait. But right now, I smell food.”

We both laugh and head to the breakfast hall where my mom, Kelly, and now my honorary aunt Shelby still have Rylee trapped. But she looks like she’s having a good time, so I don’t try to rescue her. They do need to make those wedding arrangements anyway. I want to be married to her as soon as I can.

Finally, we all sit, and I’m next to my mate again. “Are you all right?”

She laughs. “I’m fine. Your family is really nice.”

“I’m glad,” I say. “My mom can be overwhelming when she’s excited. I’m the first of us to find my mate, so you’re probably getting the worst of it.”

She laughs again and gives me a light kiss. “If that’s the worst she has to offer, I’ll take it. I like your mom.”

“I’m glad.”

We have a great breakfast, and Mom and the dads give some speeches to the crowd in attendance, which isn’t much smaller than the celebration last night.

“I’m just so happy that my little baby boy has found his mate,” my mother says.

I can feel my cheeks turning red. For some reason, that comes easy for me, and there’s no way I can turn it off. If I try, they just get redder.

She’s about to say more when the double doors burst open and some warriors run in. All four of my dads stand instantly as the warriors run up to our head table and give the sign of respect.

“Forgive our intrusion on your celebration,” the highest ranking man says. “There’s urgent news from the royal city. The marketplace has been attacked by rogues, and we have multiple casualties.”

Mom gasps, and worry crosses over her face. Rylee and I both stand and run around the table toward the warriors.

“Dispatch the first battalion,” my dad Tristan says.

“Already done, Your Majesty.”

My biological father, Eli, speaks up. “I’ll go take charge of things.” He gives my mother a kiss on the cheek and tells his Beta to get his car ready.

“I’m going with you,” I say, stepping forward.

“And I’m going with you.”

I turn to see Rylee beside me with a determined look on her face.

“I can’t let you—”

She holds up her hand to stop me before I can say any more. “I’m trained. I’m a warrior. And I’m going with you. After all, stirring up the rogues was my fault.”

* * *

*Alessandro*

My heart feels like it’s falling out of my chest, seeing the empty forest ahead of us. “Where is she?” Damon asks.

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find her,” I say before shifting.

It doesn’t take long to catch her scent, and I see the others have done so as well since we’re all running in the same direction. But it doesn’t take long before her scent just drops off.

We shift back, and their faces look the same as I feel.

“What the hell?” Braden asks. “There’s no road here, no cars. Her scent couldn’t have disappeared like that.”

“Agreed,” I say. “Let’s backtrack and see if we missed anything.”

We all shift again and go back the way we came then forward again, and both times the scent stops abruptly in the same spot.

‘Let’s go back, get our stuff, and regroup,’ Damon says in the mind-link. I’m glad we can talk to each other that way as Alphas because it makes it so much easier to coordinate things.

We head back to the campsite and shift back, throwing on some clothes from our backpacks. Edor runs up to us.

“What happened?” he asks.

Out of nowhere, Braden grabs him by the shirt and drags him backward toward a tree. Luckily, he holds off before slamming the old man into it. “Where is she? What kind of fucked up magic do you have in this forest?”

Edor holds up his hands in surrender. “I swear, it’s not me. The only magic I know about is the berries. What happened to the young lady?”

“Her scent just disappeared in the middle of nowhere,” Damon explains, prying Braden’s fingers off the man.

I understand how Braden feels. The pain of having Daphne missing is like having a sledgehammer pound right on my chest.

“I swear, we don’t know how that could happen,” Easton says, also holding his hands up in a surrender pose. “But there are some strange things that happen up here sometimes. We didn’t have anything to do with it, though, and we hope the young lady is okay.”

Braden drops back and leans against a tree. I can see that he feels the same way I do.

“We’ll just need to make a guess as to which way they—whoever they are—took her and just head that way.” He looks at the two old men. “Are there any towns nearby where they might take her?”

Edor shakes his head. “There’s nothing up here since we never built the resort. This is pretty much the top of the mountain. The only thing that comes close to a town is back down in the flatlands.”

Easton nods. “Back down the road it’ll veer off to the east. A few people made a settlement there. That’s the only place we know of where there are people around.”

We practically run back to the car with as many supplies as we can quickly grab from the campsite, and Damon jumps into the driver’s seat while we get in back. He backs the car down the road as far as he needs to until the road is wide enough to turn around, then he floors it down the mountain.

“What if they were lying?” Braden asks.

“The old men? I don’t think they were,” I say. “They seem pretty straightforward.”

“I guess.” Braden taps his fingers on the window impatiently, though Damon is driving as fast as the car and the road will allow. It’s not fast enough for me, either.

“I wonder what her name is,” Braden says.

“What?”

“Just before she left, remember? She said her name isn’t Daphne.”

In all the rush, I’ve forgotten about that. “Maybe that’s why people are after her. Do you think?”

“That’s possible,” Damon says.

“I hope we find her soon,” I say. She has to be okay. She just can’t be hurt–or worse–not when I haven’t even had the chance to learn her real name.