Chapter 73 - Surprised by Three Mates

April POV

“Viktor!” Sebastian yelled. Little Viktor pulled out of Dad's arms and ran to Seb.

“Oh thank Goddess! We lost you.. I should’ve made sure you got in the training center like the rest of them.” Seb cried. He pulled away and examined Viktor closely. Running his fingers along the scar wrapped around Viktor’s neck.

“She..” Seb couldn’t even finish his sentence and sobs fell out.

“I’m okay..” Viktor said softly.

“But you weren’t.. I’m your big brother.. I’m supposed to protect you.” Seb cried.

“You were fighting.. helping to save the others. Don’t beat yourself up over it.” Mom said. She held Viktor tightly and took a deep breath of his scent.

I turned around when my great-grandfather's scent filled my nose.

“I have a question..” I began. He smiled and nodded.

“About how I got the dagger?” He asked.

“Yeah.. it was in my boot.. I don’t understand how you did it without me even noticing.” I said.

“I’m a vampire.. a very old one at that. And my vampire gift is to move faster than any other vampire or.. really any species. You wouldn’t have been able to notice even if you’d tried.” He chuckled. I raised my eyebrows in shock.

“So, you’ve also got some gifts.. from what I’ve seen. You healed yourself fairly quickly compared to a normal tribrid.” He said.

“She’s a Phoenix.” Mom said.

“Ohhhh.. that makes sense.” He pointed at the burn marks on the wall.

“You should see the hellfire.” Little Vik said. Viktor looked at him and smiled.

“I’d love to. But first.. I think I’d like to get to know the boy who was named after me.” Viktor said. Vik used to love hearing stories of the memories Viktor shared with mom before he died.

They walked out of the ballroom together, Mom smiling as she followed right behind them.

I sighed as I intertwined my fingers with Alexei’s.

“You did it.” He said. He pulled me in his arms and held me tight.

“I’m so glad it’s over..” I sighed. I felt my belly, the tiny bump now coming back into view.

“When is the next appointment?” He asked.

“Next week. Though, the doctor is headed this way to check on the pup. And It won’t be long and we’ll be able to find out the gender.” I said. He smiled a big toothy smile.

“Genders.” He corrected me. I rolled my eyes.

“Not you too.” I sighed.

“I just got this feeling.” He said.

“How much did you bet?” I asked as I narrowed my eyes to slits.

“$100 for 3.” He said.

“3? Goddess help me. Why 3?” I asked.

“Don’t know. The number three just screams at me.” He chuckled. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“I’d look like a blimp.. but I guess if there really is more than one.. hey, but if there really are.. no more pups after this!” I chuckled.

“We’ll see about that.” He winked seductively at me, making my face turn beet red and super hot.

“We’re going to have so many pups if they don’t quit.” Iris giggled.

“To be truthful, I love big families,” I replied.

“Come on, I’m going to help them clean up while you sit and watch,” Alexei said.

“Sit and watch? I just got thrown around.. I think I’m capable of helping.” I said as I crossed my arms.

“Oh, I don’t doubt it, moya prekrasnaya printsessa. (my beautiful Princess) the doctor is coming to check on the pups, right?” He asked. I nodded my head.

“Then you can help after that,” Alastair said with a smile. I agreed with a nod and wrapped my fingers in his and Alexei’s.

“I want to get a fetal Doppler. So we can listen to the heartbeats anytime we want.” Klaus said.

“You mean so you guys can make me lie down all the time so you can listen?” I giggled.

“Yes. But you know you wanna hear them too.” He said.

“You’re right about that..” I laughed.

“I'm so hungry, I can’t wait for food. Fighting really makes me hungry.” Alastair said.

“I'm not going to lie it makes me hungry too,” Alexei said. I shook my head, then pinched my lips together and avoided eye contact after the embarrassingly loud grumble erupted from my stomach.

“I’ll take it you’re hungry too.” Klaus laughed.

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“Okay, this is going to be a bit warm.” The doctor said and he began to squirt the warm gel on my belly. He moved the Doppler around a little, then stopped when he heard a fast beating sound.

“Ahh, there it is.. 165 beats per minute,” he said. A bright smile came to my face as relief washed over me.

He moved the Doppler around some more, his face going almost pale when the beating came back.. but it was different.

“This one is 143 beats per minute.” He said. I cocked an eyebrow at him. Alexei, Klaus, and Alastair all looked concerned.

“Nothing to worry about, it’s quite normal. But it makes me believe there’s more than one.” He said. I threw my hands over my mouth and gasped. I could feel each of my mate's excitement through the bond.

“Let me do an ultrasound. We should be able to tell.” He said. I nodded my head and waited for him to get started. He pulled out a screen from his bag, since we’re not in the hospital he just brought a portable one.

He squirted more gel on my lower belly, then began to use the wand to look around.

“Okay.. I see one..” he showed me the screen.

“And two..” he continued. My heart raced in my chest..

“And I.. I think that’s three..” he said. I gasped loudly, looking at my mates in shock. Alexei threw his hands up in victory.

“Hey, you didn’t win the bet yet. Beckett said we’re waiting till after the birth.” I said. He gave a bright smile.

“Yeah, but I was still right.” He said. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.

“See any more in there, doc?” Klaus asked.

“Nope, just the three.” He replied.

“Hmmm. I was still right about there being more than one.” Alastair said. I rolled my eyes as the doctor wiped the gel off.

“Alright, appointment is next week. Make sure you have a full bladder. You’ll be about 5 weeks in Wolf pregnancy time, then.” He said. I smiled at him and nodded.

“Next month I’ll be able to identify genders in the ultrasound, or we can do a blood test a few weeks early and we can find out the genders then. Your decision.” He said.

I looked at my mates, all who I knew wanted to know as early as they could.

“We’ll do the blood test,” I said. He nodded.

“Alright, perfect. See you next week!” He said. He held his hand out to help me up, earning himself growls from my mates. He put his hands up in defeat and chuckled.

Klaus helped me up as the doctor left.

“I’m so excited!” He said.

“I say 2 girls, one boy,” Alastair said. I rolled my eyes and huffed.

“Don’t tell me y’all are going to start a bet on that too,” I said.

“Maybe..” Klaus said.

“I say.. 2 boys, 1 girl,” Alexei said.

“Mmm.. 3 girls,” Klaus said.

“What about you, April? What do you think they’ll be?” Alastair asked.

“Ummm.. all boys,” I said with a shrug.

“Though I do wish for at least one girl.” I finished.

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Alexei said. He pulled me into his arms, taking a deep breath of my scent and smiling.

“I still can’t believe we’re going to be parents,” Alastair said. His excitement was almost overwhelming through the bond.

“It’s going to be awesome having little people running around all the time,” Klaus said. My heart is so full of joy.. it could explode at any moment.

“Now let’s go see what we can help with around the castle,” I said.

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“We didn’t lose anyone else.” Mom said. That made me feel amazing, I was worried more would’ve gotten severely hurt, or even dead.. but surprisingly there were one minor injuries that I healed fairly quickly.. aside from little Vik of course.

“Your warriors are well trained. I did notice that some of them are.. different than the rest. Why is that?” Viktor asked.

“A lot of them are forsaken. April sort of freed them. They call her their queen. Only a few of them were born forsaken.” Seb said.

“Queen of the vampires, queen of Lycans, and Queen of the forsaken? That’s very unique. How did you change the ones that were born forsaken? I didn’t know they could be born.” Viktor said.

“We didn’t either. But there are only a couple. It was as easy as doing the rest of them. Though, they are quite different. This little boy, Beta Mark’s little brother.. he was born forsaken. And I just felt some type of power coming from him.. he helped me turn them all back, along with mom of course.” I said.

“Wow, that’s pretty badass.” He replied. Just then, Liam joined us. Viktor stared into his eyes curiously.

“You were born forsaken?” He asked.

“Yes, my queen changed me. Gave me a life.. purpose. A future.” Liam said. Wow, what a way to pull my heartstrings. I giggled.

“You did all that yourself. I just helped.” I said.

“Another question.. I know you’re all probably getting tired of my questions.” Viktor chuckled.

“Are you merging kingdoms?” He asked. I looked at Alexei and Klaus.

“Well.. as soon as Klaus becomes king, we will for sure merge. Until then, it’ll just be the vampires and forsaken that wish to join us.” I said. He nodded.

“We also.. decided on where we will rule from,” Klaus said. My eyes lit up and I nodded.

“Yes, we love decided we’re going to rule from Alexei’s kingdom,” I said.

“What?” Seb asked, his voice almost breaking. Which in turn, broke my heart.

“You know you can visit literally anytime. And I’ll visit often as well. But, that kingdom.. is home.” I said.

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