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Reece

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I know that the call from Gloriana had put my Little Bunny on edge. She was worried about what was about to happen, and if this was the foreseen battle already preparing to start. I was right there with her, worrying about it. But until we knew for sure, there was nothing we could do.

"Let us not focus on that too much." I took her hand, still wrapped in the silence of her shields. "Until we know for sure there is no reason to panic. This could just be something that happened in the court and not the enemy that we're waiting for.

"Yes, I know." She looked at me while I held her hand and smiled at me.. "I will do my best."

"Mama?" Rika, who seemed to be sensitive to emotions, called out to her. "Mama sad?"

"No Rika, Mommy is not sad." Little Bunny turned then and kissed our little girl on the head. "Mommy is just thinking, that's all."

"Mama smile." Rika grinned when she saw Trinity's face now.

"Yup. See, Mommy isn't sad. How can I be? You and Reagan are both here with me."

"Mama." Reagan leaned forward to see her now after she mentioned him.

"Mommy loves you both so much."

It was a sweet and tender family moment, and I was glad it was just for us, or mostly us. Gabriel was there, but he was family now too.

After that, my Little Bunny dropped the shield, and Gabriel went back to his place behind us. We were able to get the banquet and ball back on track. The meal concluded not long after that.

I took Trinity's hand and helped her to her feet then while there was a large, covered cart wheeled to the front of the stage. We each picked up one of the twins and walked to where the cart was.

"Queen Trinity," Abigail began in a loud, happy voice, "may I present to you your birthday cake that we worked so hard on." With that Abigail lifted the cover from the cart with the help of Bethany and Viola, two new members of the kitchen staff.

The cake was beautiful, and huge. It was twenty-one layers tall, I counted them. The icing was done in different blues, silver, and white. There were symbols that represented Trinity all over it, from the Trinity Knot to the three Goddess symbol, and even vines for the Fae. The entire thing was beautiful and elaborately designed.

"It's wonderful." My Little Bunny smiled. "Don't you think so, Rika." Trinity asked the toddler in her arms.

"Cake! Mama me wan cake."

"Ooh! Cake! Dada, me get cake?" Reagan was also wanting the cake first.

"Let Mommy blow out her candles first, then your Lola and Nona will take you upstairs to eat cake." I calmed the boy in my arms. "Want to see Daddy light the candles?" I asked him and his eyes lit up while he nodded furiously.

I had gotten so used to my fire magic over the years that I could light the twenty-one small candles and the large decorative candles at the top all at the same time. I snapped my fingers and immediately all the candles were glowing brightly, everyone in the room had their eyes on us and clapped when they saw that little display. Most of them never saw me use my magic either.

What followed that was a very long process of singing to my Little Bunny. The only ones that I cared about were Reagan and Rika as they tried to sing the words with everyone else. Their attempt was so cute.

Trinity and I handed the babies off to our moms and Roisin and Abigail gathered cake for them to take upstairs. They had offered to leave the party early so that the twins weren't down here all night. They needed to get their rest since they were so young. In fact, Shawn's mom and dad weren't even here because they were watching their five young grandchildren as well.

Trinity and I didn't want the cake right away, so we were opening the ball part of the evening. I took her hand and went to the part of the dancefloor that had been magically blocked off from the others. Only those with permission were allowed to enter that space. That was to protect the Queen, of course.

I danced with her first, and I would also dance with her last. This time, I didn't need to worry about who else danced with her, and it also let me go and have some private conversations while she continued to dance with some of the others.

I twirled her around the dance floor expertly. In that moment, it was just the two of us. There was no one and nothing else. It was just me dancing with my wife at her birthday party. I was also quite aware of how the dress she was wearing showed off so many parts of her body.

Her breasts looked amazing even though I could only see the top of them. The marks on her chest, shoulers, neck, and back were in full display and glowed in the light. And the way that her neck kept flashing at me reminded me of the night before, and the way that I had bitten her again. My mouth watered and I desperately wanted to sink my teeth into her again. She tasted so delicious that I couldn't help it.

After I was done with my dance, Wesley came up to dance next. He was her Dad for all intents and purposes, and he wanted to dance with his daughter. After I handed my wife over to him, I left the dancefloor and went in search of Valerian. I needed to tell him about what had happened with Gloriana. I knew that he would want to check on his sister soon. He was a man who was fiercely devoted to his family after all. There was no way in hell that he was going to let this incident slide without finding out what happened.