Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

While the five brothers were out taking care of various details regarding Emporia and the illegal sale of that world, Leonardo had moved his working office from his warship, into Slate's ship to keep an eye on Candace.

At first, she seemed normal. She did her morning exercise routine at her usual time and had breakfast with them, but then after breakfast, Candace took a nap that dragged on past lunch time.

Leonardo had expected Candace to take a short nap, but she had slept until dinner time.

As she slept, Leonardo had gone to check up on her several times, only to find her sleeping normally.

Thankfully, Candace came out of hibernation and had a small dinner with Leonardo and Lucas. She hung out with them for about half and hour, but during that time, Leonardo noticed she yawned a lot and her eyes looked a bit glassy.

He had asked her if she was okay, noting her tired eyes and droopy expression. Although Candace had nodded with a smile, she begged off and went back to her room.

By the time Leonardo went to her quarters to check on her, Candace was again asleep. It was barely 8 pm.

That was the last straw.

Leonardo had promptly called an emergency meeting with his brothers to talk about Candace. Without a word, they had all sped back to Slate's Falcon 600, Candace's temporary home.

At the appointed hour for the meet up, Leonardo made his way to the star viewing lounge. A quick glance confirmed that he was the first one there.

Leonardo grabbed a quick soda from the machine and sat down to wait for his brothers.

Within minutes, the twins and Dante had arrived, with Lucas immediately following behind them.

"Hey Leo. Sorry we're late. We got here as soon as we could." Jared said by way of greeting.

"No one is here yet, so you're not exactly late. How are your Aunt and Uncle?" Leo grinned.

"Oh you mean the ones who sold us out?" Jason stuck out his tongue.

"Yeah, that set of aunt and uncle."

"They are not doing well." Jared laughed. "We showed a tiny clip of her and King Dilbert banging each other and at first, she denied that it was her, saying someone else was impersonating her."

"That could be true."

"We told her we had confronted the King of Coraline and he confirmed that the visual was real."

Jason grinned. "Once she couldn't back out of that damning visual, she cried and begged us not to expose her."

"And what was your response?"

Jared laughed. "We told her that not only will all of Emporia see it, the entire galaxy is going to be in on the fun as well. That was when she really lost it."

He clapped his hands with mirth.

"What was even more hilarious was that the deal was purely a monetary one, but because King Dilbert was hemming and hawing, she sweetened the deal by throwing in a free fuck."

Jason guffawed. "Uncle Landry didn't even know that she'd had sex with King Dilbert, so now it looks like they will be permanently unhitched."

Leonardo laughed. "She's screwed all around."

"Yes. So now she and Uncle Landry are both sitting in separate cells of the brig awaiting their trial date. Meanwhile, Dante's taken the money back from Uncle Landry's account."

Dante stood back with his arms folded across his chest. He wasn't saying much. The twins were doing a great job telling everyone what had just occurred.

Leonardo's eyes crinkled. "Are you going to transfer it back to King Dilbert?" He asked as if he didn't know.

The twins guffawed. "Hell no! Dante said that was partial payment for kidnapping five Princes of Erenveil and for scaring their wife near to death at her Avgo Event."

Leonardo laughed. "I wonder what happened with Slate and Byron and what they've managed to do with the King of the Avians."

"Ask us yourself." Byron chuckled. He and Slate walked into the star gazing room.

Leonardo turned to them.

"Did you get a chance to talk with the King of the Avians?"

"Not only did we talk to him, we actually made him cry." Slate bumped fists with Byron.

Lucas' eyes popped. "What did you do?"

"Slate destroyed some of his warships, and I hauled off one of Coraline's moons, so now Erenveil has four moons instead of three, and Coraline has eight moons instead of nine." Byron laughed.

"Wow!" Jason's mouth was O shaped. "How in the world did you take an entire moon?"

Byron shrugged. "Same way Dante took his moon. I tractor beamed it away."

"I also told him to back off Nymphalidae, or I would send my warships in and raze his other bird world to the ground." Slate's eyes were rage-filled.

Byron's eyes burned. "That wasn't all. For kidnapping me and making me late to my wife's Avgo Event, I told him I was confiscating the five billion jemals he illegally paid to the Grand Duke of Emporia."

"Booya!" Jared laughed.

"So what are you men planning to do with that money?" Lucas asked.

Slate grinned. "It's part of our wife's dowry, right men?"

"What?" Lucas gasped.

"Yep!" Dante laughed. "We're going to turn that confiscated Coraline moon into a beautiful home for Candace, along with the five billion jemals as part of her dowry, from all of us."

All the men laughed. It was a unanimous agreement.

Leonardo raised a hand to get the brothers' attention.

"I'm glad the situation with Emporia has been resolved, but I actually called this meeting because of Candace."

All the brothers paused. This was Leo the doctor talking.

"What's going on with Candace?" Slate asked. He didn't feel happy being away from Candace overnight, but he was glad Leonardo and Lucas had been able to remain with her.

"She's not unhealthy, but…"

"Spit it out, man!" Dante snarled. "What's going on with my wife?"

"She's very lethargic. She has been sleeping a lot within the last two days."

"Is she pregnant?" Slate asked, his eyes intense. If Leonardo confirmed, it would be his baby.

Leonardo shook his head. "She's not. I've been keeping a very close eye on her, but other than the tiny shard of Avgo that is floating around in her womb, there isn't anything else that could be causing her discomfort."

"Tiny? It was huge!" Byron made a hand gesture that looked as if he was holding an object the size of a golf ball. It was what had hit him in the chest.

"What is within Candace is too small for us to even see without equipment."

Slate frowned. He had remembered the Avgo being rather large as well. How was it possible that what left him and entered her be so tiny?

Leonardo turned to Slate. "Your Avgo is gone, right?"

Without waiting, Leonardo reached out and placed a hand over Slate's chest where the Avgo had entered.

"It's gone." Leonardo confirmed. "He's returned it to Candace."

"Perhaps that shard requires all its pieces back for her to return to normal." Lucas murmured.

All the men looked at him with varying degrees of disbelief.

"I'm just guessing," he waved a confused hand. "I'm not saying that's what's needed. I just figured it made sense for the Avgo to need all its pieces back."

"For what?" Byron asked.

"For…" Lucas shrugged and threw a helpless look at Leonardo. "I don't know. For Candace to get pregnant?"

"That's a very real possibility." Leonardo rubbed his jaw.

"It would be a strange pregnancy, where it requires the genetic material of seven males to fertilize a single egg, but I would be lying if I said we knew everything there is to know about the Avgo."

"Maybe she's just exhausted from the Avgo Events and is just trying to recover her energy." Byron suggested.

"It's a possibility." Leonardo nodded. "Perhaps I could monitor her for a few more days. If she does not improve, we may have to go to our next plan."

"Which is?" Dante asked.

"We have to each return the Avgo to her."

Jason scratched his head. "But that would mean…"

"That's right." Leonardo nodded.. "We would each have to make love to her."