Chapter Six: Four Months
The moment Naya was certain that the fluttering sensation around her navel was the baby kicking, she knew she had to tell Gabriel at once. Her heart soared with happiness. The instant love that filled her when she felt Gabriel's baby kicking was too much to keep to herself.
After getting Ivanna settled in the kitchens, where she very happily 'helped' the cooks make cookie dough, Naya went straight to Gabriel's private chambers. She had only been there a few times when they wanted to make sure they wouldn't wake Ivanna up with their lovemaking.
She didn't knock before she entered. And what she found had her heart plummeting. Her lungs locked and her eyes widened. No!
Angel stood behind Gabriel, her body pressed against his, her arms around his waist. His shirt was unbuttoned.
"What the hell?" Naya gasped.
Angel stepped away from the king, tugging her skirt down. Blood rushed to Naya's face and her hands clenched. She could hardly see, she was so angry. How could he? It was just a month ago that he said that he wanted her to be his lover. Did he mean he just wanted her as part of his harem? She knew she should have demanded more of an explanation!
"Naya," Gabriel said, smiling broadly as though there was nothing wrong with what he had been doing. "I didn't expect you."
"I can see that! How many other women do you have in here?"
"It's not what you think—" Angel started.
Gabriel cut her off. "You think we were having sex?"
"Getting ready for it!" Naya trembled from head to foot. She ought to have known. Angel quite literally looked like an angel. She was gorgeous. And what was Naya? Short, too round and too human. Gabriel had to hold back so he wouldn’t hurt her, and she couldn't keep up with him. Of course he'd look for completion elsewhere. "So everything you said last month was just to keep me around at night, was it?"
"Naya—" Angel started again.
"You're jealous?" Gabriel laughed, his own hands clenching. "You're jealous? You're the one who is always telling me to stop snarling, to let males near you. You're jealous now? Do you have any idea how hard this has been for me? Of course you don't, you're human. What do you know?"
"Gabriel!"
Naya ignored Angel's gasp. "I know that I'm pregnant with your son and I just caught you here, about to hook up with this... this skank!"
She knew she was being unfair, knew she needed to stop and listen. And she knew that Angel was no skank, that she was a sweet, kind woman who deserved better. But she was so angry that she didn't care. It hurt too much, knowing that Gabriel didn't feel towards her the same way she felt towards him.
Knowing that he didn't love her.
The king's face darkened. "What did you just say?"
"You heard me!"
"How dare you?" A deep snarl rose in his chest. "You stand there and judge me? Sex is as vital to vampires as food is to humans, and despite what you think and what your human morals declare, vampires are rarely exclusive, except in mated pairs. So don't you dare stand and judge me when—"
She didn't stick around to hear any more. Naya spun on her heel and tore out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Let him do whatever he wanted! She wasn't going to stick around to see it. She wasn't going to keep giving her heart to a vampire. He was right; she didn't know anything about vampires. How could she have expected him to feel anything more than lust towards her? And even the lust–it couldn't be as powerful as what he felt towards other, prettier women.
Now her heart was breaking. And it was all her fault for letting herself fall in love with him.
***
Nobody had argued with her when she had demanded to return to the city, although even now, whenever she looked out the window, she saw a dozen or so vampires hanging around the streets below. She and Ivanna were staying in the penthouse of a hotel, since her new house wasn't ready and her old apartment building was being renovated. Her escort was just outside the door.
She wouldn't have stayed in this hotel, paid for by Gabriel, but her escort had insisted, and she was too tired to argue with them.
"I want to go home," Ivanna whined, as Naya sat on the sofa, trying to read her daughter a story.
"It's being renovated, sweetheart." Naya focused on the book in her hands. It had 'mysteriously' been left outside her door, but she recognized it as one that Angel always read to Naya at night.
Angel had always been around them. She had acted as though she wanted Gabriel and Naya to get together. So why had she decided to sleep with him? Didn't either of them understand how it would make her feel?
"If we can't go home, can Angel and Gabriel come here?" Ivanna leaned against Naya's side and looked up at her with big, dark eyes.
Naya shut the book. Ivanna wasn't referring to their apartment as home. It was the palace. Of course it was. There she was always the center of attention. The vampires were constantly encouraging her to sing and dance for them. No matter what she wanted, she had it in a heartbeat.
It was best for Ivanna to get her away from there, Naya tried to tell herself. She was getting far too spoiled.
Her heart ached, though. Ivanna had truly bonded with Angel. It was like she had a live-in grandmother. And Angel was so good with Ivanna…
"It's time for bed," Naya said, shaking the thoughts from her head.
Maybe tomorrow, when she was a little cooler, she would phone Angel–not Gabriel, she still felt too vulnerable to talk to him–and ask for her side of the story. Maybe she had overreacted, or misread the situation. Even if she had, though, Gabriel's reaction still stung.
"I'm not tired," Ivanna insisted, as Naya lifted her off the couch.
"Mommy is. Maybe you can sing me a little song while we lie down."
Ivanna accepted that idea, and soon they were cuddled together in bed, Ivanna's soft little voice singing song after song before she drifted to sleep. Naya stayed awake, staring at the faint light that came through the hotel curtains.
Eventually, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep, and went back to the living room. Her phone lay on the coffee table, showing she had missed five calls. Scrolling through them, she found that they were all from Angel. Sighing, Naya slumped onto the sofa. Did she really want to phone her back?
No, her feelings were still too raw.
Instead, she flipped open the text messaging. Angel had sent her a dozen texts, telling her that she was only helping Gabriel get ready for a meeting, that nothing happened between them, and that Gabriel was exclusive with her.
Naya wanted to believe it. If Gabriel had told her, she would have, like she had before.
I'm just like my mother. She phoned Angel but, when the vampire woman answered, she spoke before Angel could.
"I'm sorry that I called you a skank. I was angry and it was unfair. But exclusivity is important to humans, and I thought that Gabriel understood how I felt when I asked him what we were. But he doesn't, he obviously doesn't. Maybe that's my fault, but all I know is that my father was always cheating on my mother. Every month there was a new woman and every month my mother said she forgave him and knew that nothing had happened, even when something clearly had. She always took him back and I hated her for it."
Naya sucked in a noisy breath. She had never told anybody this before, not even Ivanna's father. Tears burned her eyes, but she plunged ahead. "And maybe I misread the situation, but that's the sort of thing I would walk in on all the time with my father, and he always gave stupid excuses. I love Gabriel, I really do, but I'm not going to make my children grow up like my mother made me grow up! Either we're together exclusively or we're not together. That's it."
There was silence for a long, long moment. Naya clutched the phone to her ear. Eventually, Angel spoke. "You need to say this to Gabriel."
Naya snorted, though it came out sounding more like a sob. "I don't think I can."
"Why not?"
"Because if he told me all the buttons just magically fell off his shirt, I think I'd believe him. I would go right back to him the way my mother went right back to my father, and I'd still be left wondering what I am to him and if there's going to be a new woman next month. I wouldn't talk about it because I wouldn't want to fight, and I think it'll turn into a fight if I try to talk about it."
"Naya." Angel sighed. "Just ask him. I promise he's already yours. You don't have to be afraid. You're the only woman he's had since the Blood Moon. Trust me. He loves you."
Naya sniffed, wiping her eyes. "I have to go now."
"Naya—"
She hung up. Almost of their own accord, her fingers found Gabriel's number. Her thumb hovered over the call button, but she couldn't bring herself to do it and she turned off the phone. She felt the baby kick and placed a hand on her stomach, fighting back tears.