"What are the duties of a monarch, Heir Queen?"

"Fair reign for all, strength of a kingdom, and fidelity to your citizens."

"And what should a monarch never submit to?"

"...fear and greed."

"Why so?"

"Fear shrouds the kingdom in darkness. Greed gives birth to rage. A monarch must never give way to these things."

"Very good, your Grace."

"Mage Reid?"

"Yes, Arwen?"

"...has the kingdom fallen to the darkness?"

"...why would you say so, my liege?"

"Because Papa walks the corridors like a haunted man, and Mama will not see him. Lady Jennifer will not let us see him, and I wish to see my father!"

"...come now, Arwen. Enough talk of the kingdom. Let us see the Queen now. Your siblings are growing stronger every day inside her."

When the King woke, it was to a pounding heart and a scream lodged in his throat from a horrifying nightmare - as he had for many dreams before. It wasn't uncommon, not for the most part; but the crowned man found his body almost wickedly contorted and aching, and a heavy weight pinning him to the bed.

His body was drenched in the sweat he'd shed in his nightmare - he shivered as the cold air in the room wrought his body with more sickly feelings as he struggled to make sense of reality and sleep...and the weight at his side.

Something shifted then, a quiet humming in a throat he'd long since marked for his own, and a soft and pliant body was pressed into his side. The soft swell of her stomach pressing into him even through the warm furs draped over their nude bodies.

Someone had evidently seen it fit to undress them before laying them in the royal bed.

His eyes lowered to the woman's face, and Aêron gasped quietly in his throat when he saw the blissfully serene face of his wife pressed into his shoulder and her arm draped possessively over his chest. She was as beautiful as ever, perhaps even more, if that were possible; her pale perfect skin pressed into his own tan and scarred one - the swell of her breasts warm against his arm.

By instinct, he made to remove himself from her presence - no good could come from their sharing of space, but Emily's pretty face furrowed into a frown when she felt him shift, and instead pulled him even tighter against her. Beneath the furs, he could feel her long leg sliding between his, locking around him and keeping him in place; the King would have no choice but to obey.

And so he remained in her embrace, and did the only thing he could.

He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around his wife and Queen, and reveled in the long-missed scent of her sweet skin and hair surrounding him once more. His body protested the movement, so sore and so bruised he was, but he would be damned if he was going to let his own body get in the way of him holding his wife.

Holding Emily.

What a heavy sigh escaped his lips as Aêron buried his nose into her thick, dark, curling head of hair. The sweet honeysuckle and vanilla scent was familiar and soothing and home as he inhaled greedily and heavily and committed it to memory in his mind as he slid his hands along her naked body; remembering and also memorizing the contours of her body - the old ones and the new.

It had been so long since he'd touched her; her body had changed in such remarkable ways that he couldn't help the reverent awe as he stroked his large hands along her hips, the rounded shape of her stomach. His hand paused there, holding steady as he felt the wriggling of their children inside her and reveled in the sensation.

For the first time in months - the Lord-King smiled.

His exploration of her body continued, spanning upwards along the smooth plane of silken pale skin, reaching up towards her breasts, where he took one in the palm of his hand gently. He caressed the full swell of her skin, her nipple peeking between his fingers as her breast threatened to spill from his hold.

She was a perfect handful before - now, she was preparing to feed two.

The thought of her resting upright on their marriage bed, two hungry bundles nursing on her creamy chest; it made his chest swell with a warm pride and longing - to see her with their children, to hold them in his arms and wonder who they'll look like most. For the longest time, he'd convinced himself that these dreams were no longer valid, that by his own doing, he had robbed them both of their children and their future...

...and yet, there was hope.

Suddenly in his arms, Emily shifted, and inhaling sharply, she reached up where his hand cupped her breast still, resting her hand over his larger one as her eyes fluttered open to meet his silently startled gaze. A slow, languid smile spread across her red mouth, and for the life of him, Aêron could feel nothing but happiness and joy.

"Do you make it a habit of fondling all women you find in your bed, o King?" she murmured at him huskily, and a gasp escaped her parted lips as he began to stroke his hand along her tender nipple. Her body shifted against him, nearly wriggling as the heat spread faster than she could follow, and Emily felt the rising heat burn pink into her skin.

Pregnancy attuned a woman to the surroundings of her body; every touch, stroke, caress - it made the blood rush with such speed that the Queen was often left lightheaded. She carried two bairns, after all. Having her husband, her beloved, her King touch her...she felt her body burn like dragon's breath.

He rumbled in his chest, watching with rapt fascination as her body was consumed with a delicious pink heat; rising from her chest to her neck to her cheeks, and underneath the pads of his fingers he felt her nipple stiffen into a peak. His body had begun to respond to her almost as soon as he was conscious - no man living or dead could refrain himself from reacting to Emily, but he waited.

There were so many new parts of her to touch, to taste - to memorize.

"Only you," he whispered, as he moved to hover above her. Trapped in his cage of arms, Emily stared up at her King through hooded, darkly lashed eyes; the glory that was her husband and lover and father of her children. "Only for my Queen."

He reached down with his hand, scarred but healed from the blade he'd held in the courtyard, and cupped her soft cheek gently. His thumb stroked her skin, his eyes fell along her face as she leaned into his touch and nearly purred. His eyes were torn between such love and such fear as Emily raised her lust-darkened eyes to him.

"How do I know I will not hurt you again?" he asked her, uncertainty and torture in his low voice as he struggled and strained above her to keep from sliding his hips along hers. The temptation was burning, her heat called to him as he pressed himself gently between her legs, but he made no movement to touch her further. His hazel eyes were wide as he searched her face; fear, apprehension, disgust - anything but consent, even if just a flicker of uncertainty, and he would cease.

Emily's face gentled into a reassuring smile, reaching up to cup his face and humming when Aêron turned his mouth into her palm and laid a reverent kiss there. Between her legs she could feel him waiting, hard and strong and hot, but the restraint in his body was greater. "Because the man who forced his hand on me was not you," she told him quietly, seriously as she slid her hand down along his chest, and pulled him down flush against her body.

Her lips ghosted his in a breath, she pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "You are Aêron. You are my King and my husband and my lover, and inside me I carry your heirs. You are the man who saved this kingdom from its Tyrant, and you are the man who saved this woman from the monsters that hunted her." She gasped as he flexed his hips, parting her legs wider as he began to guide himself painstakingly slow; gentle as he delved into her heated core.

Her fingertips found his brows as he pressed his forehead to hers, his breath hot on her face as he moaned lowly in his chest when their hips finally met, and Emily felt him where she'd missed him for so long.

"Most of all, Aêron," she whispered to him then, as she lifted her hips to guide him that much deeper. "Most of all, you saved me from myself."

"No," the King moaned, as he began to move within her, his body sliding and arching and molding itself into her and as the Queen gasped and mewled and writhed in his embrace. "You saved me, Emily. You are the reason I live and I breathe; you and my children." He dropped his mouth to hers, a hot and uncoordinated kiss as she mewled into his mouth again.

"You are my salvation."

The Queen was crying, and didn't occur to her until her husband leaned down and kissed it away with a gentle touch. Everything overwhelmed her easily now; anger, sadness, frustration, they were all a close companion with her pregnancy, and now it was lust and emotion and a general sense of love overcoming her. As her body writhed in response to Aêron's deep, precise thrusts, she felt something deeper stir inside her, something stronger and more profound than merely joining her body to her husband's.

There were flames that burned inside her that she thought she'd never feel again; they licked her body in a hungry roar, the same growl that rumbled deep in her King's chest as he began to meld his body into hers desperately.

His breath was hot and thick against her ear, his hips frantic and harsh. "Will I hurt you?" he gasped then, muscles clenching tight as he forced himself to slow his pace and withhold his release. His body burned with the need to climax; the taut muscles roping his body flexed and his teeth were bared in a growl. "Will I hurt them if I - if I...?"

"No," Emily breathed, and she wrapped her arm tight around her husband's neck as he pressed himself against her and sank deeper inside her. "You won't harm them, or me. I promise you this." Her eyes rolled into her head, her head lolled backwards as she arched her back in a silent scream as she felt her body tightening in her release.

A strangled, sobbing shout came from her red lips, and the Lord-King could take no more. With a harsh, snarling howl of her name on his lips, the King emptied himself inside her, thrusting raggedly as her thighs quivered and shook around his body.

"Gods!" he wheezed, when his body had ceased its convulsing and his arms had surrendered beneath his weight. Beneath him, the Queen heaved ragged breaths as well, her pale skin flushed and glowing a mesmerizing pink. Her hands wove their way inside his dark hair, stroking idly as they found their breaths eventually, and Aêron snuggled deeper into her bare chest, sighing heavily as he molded their bare flesh together in a tangle of limbs.

Slowly he reached up to her stomach, stroking the gentle swell and smiling softly when Emily giggled at the ticklish brush of his fingertips to her skin. His eyes traced his hands as they moved around her stomach, marveling in the soft fluttering that came beneath the warmth of his palm where he touched his children.

"I think they're boys," he murmured, slurred and muffled against her chest. He lowered his mouth to her skin, pressing a loving kiss to her stomach as Emily smiled dreamily down at her husband. "Strong, handsome boys; warriors and wise rulers."

Emily laughed softly; he felt her humming in her chest. "Do you wish sons of me then, Aêron?" she asked him lazily, smiling crookedly at the man's awe-filled caresses of her skin. Inside her, she felt the babies stirring, not old enough to kick, but were beginning to understand the presence of their father in the world around them.

Aêron's mouth was warm on her skin, his touch loving and gentle. "I wish for happy and healthy children from you, nothing more." He raised his head away from her body, his hazel eyes were soft and teasing as they stared adoringly up at his beautiful wife's face. "Although now I see clearly that all our children will be as beautiful as their mother. It will do best for me to have sons, lest I sit about with my sword in my lap when suitors come about."

The Queen Consort chuckled softly, smiling in amusement at her husband as he grinned up at her with his dashingly handsome face. Dimples peeked through his cheeks, the ones marred with scrapes and healing bruises, and Emily reached up to stroke his grizzled cheek. "Regardless; princes or princesses - our children will be beautiful and loved and safe," she told him, and she pressed her lips to his in a sweet, speaking kiss.

"As long as you are my King and my husband, I know we will survive anything that should cross our path."