Pregnant With Four Alphas' Babies: A Reverse Harem Romance Chapter 46: Emily is a Pain

*Mark*

We meet in the garden after the last set of Alphas attempts to persuade King Gene to let Rose stay in place of Emily.

None of us are successful, and as we sit around near one of the fountains, Eli dribbling a basketball that the rest of us have no energy to play with; we are all morose.

“We’ve got to come up with something,” Reece declares. “The idea of Rose going back home, of her leaving here, and never seeing her baby… I can’t even fathom it.”

“Has she mentioned her life back home to any of you?” Tristan asks. “I mean, she doesn’t talk a lot about it, but from what I can tell, it really sucks. Like… beyond sucks.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard, too,” I agree. “And I can’t imagine her having to go back to her awful parents. I’m glad they did what they did for our sake, but I can’t imagine having to go back to live with people who are supposed to love me but just sold me off as a babymaker.”

“Or rented her out anyway,” Eli mumbles.

I start to tell him he’s right, but I hear someone walking by on the other side of the flowers behind the fountain, and I close my trap and signal for them all to be quiet until the person is gone. We can’t afford to let anyone hear us.

Once the footsteps have faded, echoing back down the path that leads to the castle, Tristan says, “Listen, I think there’s really only one way out of this.”

We all perk up at the idea because someone finally has a plan. “What’s that?” Reece asks, leaning toward where Tristan sits on the same bench as him. Eli is on another bench, and I am leaning back in the grass, trying to situate myself on the ground.

Tristan clears his throat, and I know instantly that we are not going to get a short answer. No, we are going to get a long-winded, twisty, turny, Tristan-sized answer.

“All right, so here’s the thing. The king wants his cousin, Emily, to be Luna, right? And none of us can talk him out of that, obviously. But what if she talked him out of it for us?” he ponders, looking around at all of us.

“Why the hell would she do that?” I ask. “She wants to be Luna.”

“Sure she does, right now, but what if she found true love instead? What if she didn’t need to marry whoever wins this contest or whatever the hell you wanna call it, because she already had her loving man?”

“I’m not following you, Tristy,” Eli says condescendingly, and Tristan makes a face at him.

“Didn’t I tell you to never call me that?” he asks, practically growling.

“You’re right. Sorry, Tristanstein. Anyhow,” Eli continues, “you think that we can convince Emily to marry some random guy so that she won’t want to be Luna anymore?”

“No, not some random guy,” Tristan clarifies, still not happy with the nicknames he’s been supplied. “A most-sought-after prize!”

“Like… who?” I ask, and Tristan turns and looks right at me.

The other two follow his lead, and the three of them are all staring at me.

I must be missing something, so I repeat my question, feeling my pulse begin to race as I inwardly pray to the Moon Goddess that he’s not serious. “Who?” I demand.

“Oh, come on, Mark!” Tristan exclaims. “You’re the sexiest out of all of us. You’re the one all the ladies swoon over when they see the four of us coming! Can’t you take one for the team?”

“Me?” I sit upright. “That’s not true! Emily’s tried to get Reece to fuck her about a hundred times. He’s the one she wants, not me!”

“I don’t think so!” Reece declares, waving his hands in front of himself. “You guys have lost your ever-loving minds!”

“Well, I’m just saying, if we could make Emily happy, then maybe King Gene wouldn’t care what happens to Rose,” Tristan says with a shrug but then looks back at me. “Shame on you, Marcus for not accepting our plan!”

“Hey, first of all, it’s not Marcus, it’s Mark, and second of all, this wasn’t our plan; this was your dumbass idea, Tristan. And I didn’t hear you volunteering to marry the she-devil, and third of all… well, there’s not a third of all, but the answer is no way in hell!” I spit at him.

“Then what are we going to do?” Eli declares, and none of us have any idea what the answer to that question is.

We all grow quiet, and as we stop talking for a moment, I swear I hear the sound of footsteps echoing away behind me….

* * *

*Tara*

I can’t believe what I’ve just overheard!

Miss Emily is going to be so mad when I give her the news! I hate to be the one who has to tell her because every time I give my mistress bad news, she lashes out at me.

Once, she hit me over the head with a hairbrush because I told her she had lipstick on her teeth. What was I supposed to do? Let her go out with lipstick on her teeth?

I should have just let her go around with pink teeth, like an idiot….

But, no. This time, I have to tell her.

I hurry back to her room, carrying the muffin she sent me after, which I promptly hand to her and then bow my head like I’m supposed to.

“It took you fucking long enough!” she shouts.

“I’m sorry, Miss Emily,” I tell her as she breaks off a piece of the blueberry muffin and slides it into her mouth. She is sitting on her bed, flipping through a fashion magazine, making fun of how fat the models are.

“Look at the thighs on this one,” she says to her friends who are gathered around her solely to laugh and agree with her.

“Miss Emily,” I interject, my voice breaking as I begin to speak.

She huffs and rolls her eyes, looking at me, finally. “What is it Tammy?” she asks me.

She should know my name is Tara. I’ve worked for her for five years, and my name has always been Tara. She just forgets or doesn’t want to learn it. She never even calls me the same name more than one time in a row.

Nevertheless, I prepare to tell her what I’ve overheard. “The four Alphas were in the garden while I was walking in.”

“And?” she demands like that’s all I had to say.

“And… they were talking about you, miss.”

Her eyes glisten and she sits up, closing her magazine. “They were talking about me? What about me? Oh, this had better be good!”

I can no longer breathe; it is certainly not good. “Well,” I begin, “they were talking about how it would be better if one of them marries you.” That actually doesn’t sound half bad, when I put it like that.

A smile breaks out across her face. “One of the Alphas wants to marry me?” she asks, and all of her friends break into applause. “Which one, Tanya?”

She has misunderstood me, and now I’m going to pay dearly.

“Uh… well, uh… none of them, miss.”

Her smile fades away, and an angry scowl takes its place. “What do you mean none of them? You just said that they were talking about one of them marrying me!”

“Yes, I know, miss. It’s just… they were talking about how it would be easier if one of them married you, but none of them wanted to do it.”

She curses and slides off of the bed, magazine in hand, her bare feet hitting the floor with a smack as she comes at me. “You mean to tell me none of them want to marry me? But they’re just trying to–what? Get rid of me? So I can’t be Luna?”

I tip my head back so far, I almost fall over. “Y-yes, miss,” I tell her.

“ARGH!” She rolls up the magazine and bops me on the head with it, like I am a bad dog. Pain splits through my skull, and I wonder if I have a concussion.

“That’s it! I’m telling my cousin!” She slips her feet into her heels and flies through the door, leaving me standing there with her friends gaping at me and my head aching.

Maybe I shouldn’t have told her….