The Darkness Within

The sound of the baby’s cry echoed through my ears and the light panting of my wife. Even after she has given birth, she still looks as exquisite as the day that I met her. What did I do to deserve her? If anything, I don’t. Heaven and hell knew it to well. I could only thank the Goddess that she has fated her soul to mine. She slowly looked at me and weakly smiled. I took her hand and kissed the back of it. “You did such a great job. You did great.” I said. She just weakly nodded and closed her eyes. I looked at the heart monitor and saw how slow her heartbeat was. Pain spread throughout my body as I numbly watched the monitor. “What’s happening?” I numbly asked Charmaine. “Sire, you have to move and get out. We need to tend to your wife.” Charmaine said. “Not until you tell me what the f**k is going on!” I demanded. “If I tell you, we won’t have time to save the Queen, so the choice is really yours.” She eyed me. I hesitantly moved aside, and the nurses assisted me out of the delivery room. We knew that it was a high risk pregnancy but I never expected this. Charmaine said we were looking good, and that the delivery might be safe. No, she said it was safe, so why was this happening? Why was my wife dying? I angrily ruffled my hair as I paced back and forth. Every time the door opened, my heart leapt out of my chest. Part of me imagine that there would be a doctor to break the news that she was dead. “Sire, you have to calm down. Your wife is going to be fine. Please sit down.” She said as she gestured towards the chair. “How exactly can I calm down?!” I yelled. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. “How exactly can I calm down? Charmaine said we would be fine and yet this is happening. Nobody explained to me what was going on. I can’t exactly calm down… That is your Queen right there. If anything bad happens to her—“ “We won’t let anything bad happen to our Queen, sire. We care about her as much as you do. She’s just a bit unstable right now, but she is not dying. All they’re trying to do is stabilize her again, but it has to be done soon or she could go into shock. That’s why Dr. Charmaine kicked you out.” She explained. “But how is she right now?” I anxiously asked. “I will check on her, and hopefully you would be able to speak with Dr. Charmaine herself. Stabilizing a patient doesn’t take that long, it just has to be done soon.” She smiled. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to bite your head off earlier.” I apologized. I felt bad because she was being so nice to me and yet that’s what I gave her in return. “It’s okay, sire. Times like these are incredibly stressful, so we understand the frustration, but please be patient. We’re all doing the best that we can for your mate and our Queen.” She said with a bow. “I understand.” I said. She headed back into the delivery room, and I caught a glimpse of the heart monitor. It seemed to look a little bit better now. I overreacted for nothing. I released the breath I didn’t know I was holding until I did that. I sat down at one of the chairs and patiently waited for Charmaine to emerge from the doors. In just about a couple of minutes, she was out of the delivery with a smile on her face. “How is she?” I asked, standing up. “She’s stable now. I’m sorry you had to endure that, sire, but I do want to say that the both of them are healthy and are ready to be transferred to a room in an hour. Maybe less. We’re just cleaning both of them up, and checking for everything.” She informed me. “That’s good.” I sighed in relief. “Can I go see them?” “You can wait for them in their room. We’ll be up in a few. Don’t worry too much, sire.” She smiled reassuringly. I sighed heavily and nodded. All I wanted to do was to be with the both of them and hold them both in my arms. I want to see their eyes looking up at me, especially the little one. I still can’t believe I’m having a child— then again, that’s what you get when you have s*x. I’m just glad it happened with Michaela. I wouldn’t want to have it with anybody else apart from her. I used to be so confident before that I wouldn’t get anybody pregnant. It was a part of my curse. In fact, it used to be the greatest blessing I could ever ask for back then. I never wanted a family. I never dreamt of having a family. My main goal was to keep ruling both worlds until the day I had to fight for my life. Everybody in the kingdom knew this. Everybody had wanted that I would never accept a mate— it’s been like that for years, decades. That’s why it was so hard for everybody, including myself to accept Michaela into my life. The castle also used to be dark and gloomy but ever since she came back here months ago, everything has turned bright and joyful. I would have detested this woman for doing such a thing to my castle, but it’s crazy what love can do to change you for the person you’re with. It’s hard to say for sure what was going to happen with us in the future but I’m sure as hell that I would keep fighting for my family. Me, King Lucian Devi Grimrose. Her, Queen Michaela Valentine Grimrose. And our little princess— Princess Melanie Ciara Grimrose.