It had been a really long walk with many interruptions, and Rogue was tired. However, Callida’s instructions had been explicit. When the baby was born, success or failure, Flore’s escort was to return her directly to the palace and specifically to her husband. Which was fair. The entire company navigated the halls to the king’s bedchambers, for, surely at this hour, His Majesty was already asleep.

Knock, knock.

The great oak door, carved with a regal lion’s head swung open a few moments later, revealing a definitely not asleep Lion King.

“Flore?!” The king’s surprise was obvious. His sweet little wife extended a bundle of blankets to him, and both of them burst into tears without another word required.

“It’s a son, Verum,” Flore managed to say through her tears. “He’s a host. We did it.”

“He’s beautiful. Primordials…. I’ve missed you, Flore.” With his sleeping newborn son in one arm, the new father tugged his wife gently into a hug with his other arm. “Thank you,” the king acknowledged the group of soldiers and Rogue with a tearful nod. “Get some sleep, gentlemen.” Rogue turned to leave with the rest of the group, wearing a sleepy smile. “Qiangde! Wait, uh… take your wife home since you’re heading that direction.”

“My wife?” Rogue reversed course with a frown. “Where is she?”

“She’s here,” Verum said distractedly, and Rogue prickled.

“Why?”

“Huh? Oh…. We were having a meeting, and she sort of fell asleep on the couch. She’s been burning the candle at both ends for the last several days, and I thought it best to just leave her be.”

While the reunited royal couple moved deeper into the room to gush over the newest member of their family, Rogue slipped in behind them, feeling a resurgence of his insecurities merge with a deep possessiveness. He tamped it down and located his wife, somehow finding the room to feel excitement and affection to see Callida curled up in one corner, her arms and legs tucked to her chest with her head leaned against the arm of the couch. He took a moment to study her. Just a moment. And then he smirked, leaning forward to plant the biggest, juiciest kiss he could on her lips.

She startled awake, squawking in surprise and protest with her hands flailing in an effort to push him away. He caught her wrists and forced back laughter while she processed, the sounds of her dismay shifting to become confused recognition and then joyful acceptance. He released her arms, allowing her to tangle her fingers through his hair and draw him in as he took a knee in front of her.

“Rogue, what’s all this?!” Callida pulled back with a laugh. “I see you still haven’t gotten that haircut.” He merely grinned as her fingers curiously combed through his loose, black curls, watching her face as she studied the way his hair now fell to just above his shoulder. “And you’ve forgotten how to shave,” she teased, her fingers moving to run through the short, two weeks old beard softening his jawline.

“I’ve missed you too, M’lady,” he reversed the tease, leaning in to kiss her again.

“When did you get back?”

“Just now.”

“The mission!” Callida seemed to remember the reason for his absence all at once. “How’d it go?”

“See for yourself,” Rogue smirked and glanced over his shoulder to where the happy parents were cooing quietly, looking back at his wife to watch the tension release from her shoulders.

“Boy or girl?”

“Boy. Flore named him Optatio. The Lion Tribe throne now has an heir.” The bags under Callida’s eyes grew puffy with threatening tears of relief, and Rogue accepted the grateful kisses that came with them most willingly. “Oh, I was going to ask you. What is a nobilis?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, because Flore asked me to be Optatio's nobilis. I said ‘sure’, but I don't actually know what I agreed to.”

Callida laughed tiredly. “You know how I'm Callida Vir's domina? It's like that but for a boy.”

“So… no, I still don't get it.”

“A donum domina or a donum nobilis is a role assigned to a caring, trusted adult to act as a bonus aunt or uncle. It’s a measure of extra security for the child, especially in times of war, in the event that something happens to their parents, and it’s an invitation to be involved in the child’s life as they grow up.”

“Oh. I see,” Rogue dumbly processed.

“It’s generally considered to be an honor to get asked,” Callida said with a flirty smirk that invited more canoodling.

“Alright, you two, get your own room,” Verum dismissed them with an amused snort, and Callida grinned, standing up with a small groan to stretch and rub tired eyes and then squawk again when a pressure at her hips lifted her feet off the ground and folded her over Rogue’s shoulder.

“Don’t wake the baby, Callida,” Rogue chuckled, and spanked her gently on his way out the door.

***

“Primordials, I’ve missed you.” She was still curiously raking her fingers through his beard, and Rogue, comfortably sprawled out next to her, chuckled and captured those long, slender fingers, bringing them to his lips to kiss before initiating a roll that put her on her back so he could trace his fingers over the lines of her face. She giggled and writhed a little when his scruffy face nuzzled playfully into the crook of her neck. “You’re prickly,” she accused.

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“I’ve been traveling.”

“How was it?” Her question was vague and abruptly laced with undefined anxiety.

“How was what? Traveling?”

“The mission. All of it.”

“Hm,” he hummed, frowning in thought.

“It was successful,” she prompted. “Any complications or anything?”

“No. Not at all. Saghira was a little surprised to see us. Your messages warning her of visitors were apparently pretty vague.”

“That was necessary,” Callida confirmed. “But she was ok with everything?”

“We gave her the note you sent with us explaining everything, and she barely batted an eye at it. She gave us the royal treatment. Literally. And then Flore’s pregnancy was textbook: uncomplicated, easy delivery, healthy baby, short recovery.” He smiled and kissed his wife. “So, how have things been here?” Her head sank more fully into the pillow with a heavy sigh, and her eyes found a space over his head to stare at. “Uh, oh.”

“Yeah. It’s been… frustrating. The investigation has stalled again, and….” She was choosing her words carefully. “I… I have something I need to confess, um…. It would be best if you heard from me first… i-if you haven’t already heard.”

“Ok?”

Another heavy sigh, but she met his eyes again. “There’s a rumor going around…. You have to understand, there’s literally nothing behind the rumor beyond a poorly thought through comment, but….”

“What rumor?”

“Um, well, the rumor is that His Majesty and I are… are having an affair.”

His brain shorted. A blind rage dropped into his stomach and flooded his body with a sudden, numbing anxiety. He felt his face twist and his fists clench, and then he forced himself to calm down so he could think through a response. Halfway between beneath and next to him, Callida was gnawing on her bottom lip and studying him as she waited for a reply. “Maybe you should just tell me what happened.”

She scooted out from underneath him, sitting up and inviting him to do the same. He obliged and she launched into an explanation while nervously massaging his palm with her thumbs. Rogue watched what he could see of her apologetic, downcast face through her hair and only sort of heard what she was saying. A member of her investigation team had made a derogatory comment about her in a council meeting to earn the trust of their targets, but his comment had been vague and interpreted to imply an affair. The rumors had sprung from there. It hadn’t helped that both he and Flore had disappeared at the same time, and Callida had been meeting with Verum in his study — which was connected to his private bedchambers — in the evenings to discuss things. “I’m sorry, Qiangde. There isn’t anything I can do about the rumors except to uncover the conspiracy and then reveal that the rumors were a part of the plan to flush out the conspirators. I want you to know that I’m upset about the rumor, but I’m even more upset that you’re upset by it.” She stopped her explanations and finally looked up from his hand to read his face. “Please say something?”

She was back to gnawing on her lip, and Rogue was feeling quite defeated, though much of his initial rage had tempered. “I don’t know what to say.”

Her face dropped and then turned to the side in a way that curtained it off from him with her hair. Her hand moved behind that curtain, and Callida sniffed a little, drawing a shuddery breath before turning her face back to him. She was trying (unsuccessfully) to hide her tears. “I suppose I deserve that.”

“Callida, what do you want me to say?”

“I don’t…. Nothing specific. Just something? I’d take you ranting and raving at me over silence.” She was swallowing and blinking more than seemed necessary, her face dropping again, preparing another curtain to hide behind as her tears welled up. This was eating her up inside — had been eating her up inside for a while. He’d seen enough.

He shifted closer before hooking her hips and drawing them into his lap where the proximity prevented her from hiding from him. His hand settled against her sternum and allowed Shyaam to make the connection, giving him a mind’s eye view of the golden wolf spirit within willfully submitting to his own black wolf’s offended sensibilities. Animal spirits had simpler emotions than their hosts, though their emotions were reciprocally affected and connected, and Shyaam would more readily trust Goldie than Rogue would Callida (even though they were two parts of a whole). The question was hesitant and quietly delivered: “Callida, are you still mine?”

“You’re my only, Qiangde,” she immediately choked out through a stifled sob, and Goldie seemed to whimper in agreement, her golden essence humble and pleading. “I love you more than anything, or anyone, or even life itself.”

The half of him that was Shyaam accepted his Beta’s reply utterly while Rogue struggled to do the same. It’s not that he didn’t believe her; it was more that he couldn’t as readily dislodge the hurt. He exhaled as much of it as he could, his hand moving from the connection at her chest up the anatomy of her throat to her jaw, feeling the steadiness of her pulse jump when he leaned in to kiss her. “Ok. If you say the rumor is baseless, I believe you… as long as you’re still mine.”

She nodded against his forehead, her arms wrapping around his neck and drawing him into a hug. “I’m sorry the rumor exists at all.” He sighed and returned the hug in time for Callida to pull back and lift his face to hers. “Let me try to make it up to you.” He couldn’t help but smile against her kisses and allowed her to push him over backwards, much of the heaviness lost to a renewed, affectionate playfulness. Her fingers combed his curls behind his left ear, giving her easy access to whisper in his ear and send pleasant shivers down his spine. “I love you, Qiangde.”

***

Callida exchanged a subtle nod with Verum as she entered the throne room and adopted her usual stance by the western wall from which to stare down the council. They hadn’t heard yet, and Callida didn’t bother schooling the smirk that formed from this thought.

“Councilman Legatus, what is the agenda this morning?” Verum opened the meeting, and his council settled, finding their seats and silencing to listen to their spokesman prattle off the to-do list. “Very well,” Verum acknowledged as Legatus sat back down. “Forgive the departure from protocol,” Verum began, sparing a conspiratory glance at Callida, “but I have a rather important announcement to make. General, if you would, please?”

Callida’s smirk grew as she bowed and moved to the throne room doors, ordering them open to then escort Flore, carrying her infant son (and trailed closely by her escort party now serving as temporary bodyguards), to the center of the room. “Gentlemen of the court, we would like to formally present to you Optatio Rex, His Majesty’s son and heir.”

The instant buzz of the blindsided council as Flore peeled back the blanket to reveal the yearned for babe within startled the sleeping prince awake. He whimpered, and his mother lovingly drew him to her shoulder, cradling his head and patting his back until he’d settled again. A precious scene for those that watched.

But Callida was not one of them. Her narrowed eyes were trained on the Trebax clique to the far left of the council. Now clustered together in a tight, arguing huddle, Callida could practically taste their panic. Eventually, one of the group noticed her leering and alerted the circle; all of them turned to meet her gaze and then nervously took their seats in silence. Callida merely continued to smirk at the way they all failed to look up again after that. Oh, yes. They were well primed to break. They just needed a final push….

***

The meeting ended and Callida made her move, making eye contact with Spahen before deliberately strolling across the throne room and into the throngs of bustling councilmen. “Councilman Trebax, I trust that you are satisfied that the king no longer needs a mistress to sire an heir.”

“Indeed,” came the terse reply.

Her eyes bored into his icily, and she allowed the return of a cruel smirk. “And to think that all Her Majesty needed to do for a successful pregnancy was to get away from the palace and all the doctors and treatments and servants… and meddling councilmen. Very interesting, don’t you think?” Her smirk fell, the ice in her eyes suddenly burning, and Trebax cowered, unconsciously stepping back and shrinking in on himself defensively. “Councilman,” Callida tilted her head forward in a subtle bow and turned on her heel, leaving him to stew, feeling the rest of his posse stare at her as she left, and trusting Spahen to water the seeds of chaos she’d planted.