*Leroy POV*
“Leroy!” 
“Come on mate. Leroy!” 
I can hear Marcus and Alloy’s distressed voices before Betty and others join them. I am not quite in a coma because I can hear everyone, but I feel so weak and limp. My eyes feel so heavy, I eventually keep them closed. 
“His Majesty!” Betty cries out with a shaky voice. I can even hear her galloping heart. She is truly fond of me. 
“Your Highness!”
“What happened?”
My Epsilon, then Rufus. They both sound anxious. 
“I don’t know. We were talking and he just collapsed,” Marcus explains while Alloy volunteers to go and find Cali. 
I turn to the wolf I have not spoken to since he became the Sable king.
“Sky.”
Silence. 
“Sable king?” I call and my idiotic wolf actually laughs.
“I am still Sky. Bigger, stronger and better, but it’s still me,” he brags. He is still Sky alright. The cockiness, sound of his voice and our connection is the same. 
“What’s going on?” I get to the point. 
“Oh, that.”
“What!” I snap. His nonchalant response immediately makes me suspicious. I am so tired of this weirdness. I just want to live in peace with my mate. 
“Don’t snap at me. You made our mate mad with trying to kill me nonsense. This is your fault,” he hits back. 
I don’t try to deny his accusation. Cali being mad is my fault, but that’s the least of my problems right now. I can’t be the most powerful king one moment and on the floor with everyone worried about me the very next minute.  
“I am not talking about that. What is going on with us right now?”
“That’s what’s going on!” this wolf actually snaps at me. “Gold will never separate us and Cali will never forgive you and anyone else who is stupid enough to try and kill us,” he states, leaving me cursing before adding. “Not that anyone can actually challenge me and win.”
His last words worry me. With mates, Lord knows how many, still out there, I just had to get an arrogant wolf that can’t be defeated. What if he turns tables on me and decides to get rid of me instead? I did try to do the same to him. Can a wolf live without a human? I wonder if he is trying to get rid of me right this moment. 
“Gold can,” I say and hope Alloy was right about this and he laughs. 
“Gold will never hurt me. Cali will destroy her.”
I process everything he says. So Gold can actually defeat him. I don’t bother asking anymore questions. My heart and mind are at peace. It seems everything, including my fate, is ultimately in Cali’s hands and I am content with that. I don’t even care what’s happening with me anymore. 
I am snapped back to what is going on around me. I feel my mate approaching and her heart racing way before her hand gently strokes my face. 
“Why are you so fragile, Mate?” her shaky voice breaks my heart. My queen has been through hardships her whole life. Surely, there must be an end to it all. 
“You are his weakness. His only weakness,” the Epsilon tells her in a matter-of-fact tone. 
“What’s that got to do with anything?” I can hear the irritation in my queens voice. 
“You walked away from him. You made him experience his worst fear,” it is prophet Rufus who speaks. 
“So, I can’t be mad at him?” Cali asks in disbelief. I am surprised by the prophet’s words too. Cali and I used to fight a lot more before we both decided to stop fighting our feelings and be together. 
“Like I said, Queen of Queens, you are his weakness,” the Epsilon responds. I internally roll my eyes at the drama queen that is my wolf. 
“Leroy and I have fought a hundred times if not more. Are you saying the massive all mighty Sable king can’t take me being mad?” Cali asks, still in disbelief and the Epsilon confirms. 
“No, he can’t, My Queen.”
“Seriously? What am I supposed to do when he gets on my nerves?”
“Find other ways to punish him, Your Highness,” Prophet Rufus suggests before Alloy jumps in. 
“Legend has it that he is very indulgent of his mate. You could…”
“We are not discussing this,” Cali interjects, cutting Alloy off before getting closer and daring me, more like my wolf. 
“Listen here you massive ball of hotness. I dare you to die right now. Die and someone is going to take your place and raise your pups. Die, do you hear me?” she yells and I feel her trying to move away and grab her hand. 
“You are crazy and I am never dying,” I utter before my crazy wolf takes over. He growls, scaring everyone out of the lounge and possessively hovers over her. 
She giggles when he licks her face and declares, “You are a cry baby.”
It takes a moment before my possessive wolf is satisfied that our mate is completely ours and lets me take over. It’s only then that Alloy and Marcus return to the lounge. 
“I am sorry,” I say the moment our eyes meet. 
She lets out a sigh and I blurt out the reason I asked Alloy to kill my wolf or me. 
“I know and I should understand.”
“But?” I ask, reading through her. 
“Have you forgotten that I am a Lycan? That I can only have one mate? That I will probably die with you?”
She fires questions at me while I flinch with every word. I just can’t imagine a world where this woman is no more. 
“You dying will not solve anything, Leroy. It will leave our children orphaned,” she adds and I feel like an ass for even suggesting that. 
“I am sorry,” I murmur and flash her the puppy face I know she can’t resist. 
“Leroy!” she cries when I whisk her off her feet. I have to redeem myself and I can’t fight the urge to be fully united with my mate. 
“Here we were thinking you are dying,” Marcus teases as I head upstairs with my Queen in my arms. A few minutes later we are tangled up in our bed, unable to help ourselves. She breaks off the kiss and frowns. 
“I know. I feel it too,” I confirm under my breath before capturing her lips again. There is this incredible force flowing through us as we make love. It’s nothing I have ever felt before. Not even the red moon felt like this. It is an hour later when we collapse on the bed, exhausted.
“OMG! That was…” she halts, I guess trying to find the words.
“Awesome? Incredible? Out of this world?” I complete her sentence and she nods. 
“Yes, what’s happened to you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think it is you, but us. I love it. Want to do it again?” I tease. We have been together a multiple times before. Our passion was incredible before, but today was mind blowing. 
“No! I am pregnant and exhausted!”
I can’t help but crack up before pulling her to lay on my chest. My wolf is over the moon. I should never have worried about other mates. My wolf, whatever I am, is crazy about our mate. I am drifting off to sleep when she decides to speak to my wolf. 
“Sky,” she calls on my wolf with a yawn. 
“Mmh?”
“Are you still you or…” she halts and my cocky wolf responds. 
“Or what? Trying to get rid of me, Gorgeous?”
“No. I love you, you idiot!” Cali cries in disbelief, pumping up my wolf’s already inflated ego. 
“Of course, you do. Love you to death too.”
“Leroy won’t be able to subdue you. You both almost died the last time. What’s going to happen if you can’t fight the mate bond?”
“I will die.”
I can’t help but frown at Sky or Sable king’s response. He does not sound cocky anymore now. 
“No!” Cali strongly objects while he proceeds to explain with a tone so tender I immediately conclude that my big cocky wolf is not so bad after all. 
“I can never live without you, my queen. I can’t even live with you mad at me.”
“That’s sweet, but I can’t accept that. You can’t just die because I am mad. I forbid it,” Cali objects and Mr cockiness emerges again. 
“Woman, I am not being romantic here. You will be hurt and mad if I mark another mate and I will literally die.”
“What?” she asks, unable to hide the shock on her voice. 
“You are my Achilles heel,” Sky declares charmingly before adding, “That’s why I did not mind Leroy trying to get rid of me. I will die first before betraying you.”
“Can’t we just live in peace?” she asks and I can hear the desperation in her voice. 
“Well, we did challenge the diety. No regrets on my part. I would do it over again if given a chance.”
“Me too.”
“I know.”
“You don’t have to be so cocky,” she says. I can even imagine her rolling her eyes and I concur with her sentiments. 
“I am majestic and my gorgeous, powerful and pregnant mate is crazy about me, I can’t not be cocky.”