Morning came and went, and Candace was still out like a light. It wasn’t until almost noon that she began to stir from her deep slumber.

For a moment, she didn’t know what had awakened her, but then her stomach growled again. It was a deep, loud, extremely embarrassing rumbling. At least it would have been embarrassing had there been anyone in the room.

She rubbed her stomach and blinked. She had skipped lunch with Jenna Natoli and had romped around with Leonardo but it shouldn’t have gotten to the point where she was this hungry.

She sat up and swung her feet onto the floor.

Any type of food that had legs and could come to her would be of the uncooked and still living sort. For anything else that was in the least edible, she would have to come to the food.

As Candace stood up, the room began to melt sideways.

“Whoa!” She gasped and sat back down. Why was she so dizzy?

She tried again but only got as far as the wing chair before collapsing onto it, breathing heavily. Why was she so weak and woozy?

She probed around in her mind, going to the shared mind-space.

‘Hey…guys?’

‘Baby! You’re awake!’ Jason squealed.

‘Oh my gosh!’ Lucas yelled.

‘Hold it! Don’t get out of bed. I’m on my way!’ Leonardo’s voice came on strong and insistent.

‘How are you feeling?’ It was Dante asking.

‘Are you still in pain?” That was Slate.

‘You haven’t eaten anything for awhile. I’ll bring some hot soup over right away.’ Byron chimed in.

‘Hold on,’ Candace laughed. ‘What’s all the special treatment for? Am I dying or something?’

‘No Darling,’ Jared chirped. ‘You’re not dying. You’re just pregnant.’

‘I’m what???” Candace’s eyes bulged in shock.

‘Pregnant! You’re having our babies.’ Lucas confirmed with a laugh.

‘But…how do you know?’

‘We were there. We saw you get pregnant.’ Jason laughed with glee.

Candace grimaced. Talk about tall tales and grandiose make-believe. How could they possibly have seen something that could only be happening inside her body?

She was about to respond with something waspish when the door opened and a stream of men came in, each bringing something with them.

“What are you doing out of bed?” Leonardo scowled and went to the wing chair.

She looked up into his thunderous face, wondering why he was so upset.

“What’s wrong?” She looked at him and the rest of the brothers who were standing all around.

“You’re not allowed out of bed until the doctor says it’s okay for you to be out of bed.” Leonardo leaned forward and picked her up from the chair.

“And I haven’t said you could be out of bed yet.” He grumbled into her ear.

As Leonardo deposited her back into bed, Jared covered her with the quilt and began fussing over her.

He and Jason wiped her down with a warm wet cloth and brushed her hair.

GRRRROWWWLLLL.

Her stomach groaned again. It made such a loud sound that her face reddened.

“Sorry. I don’t know why but I’m super hungry.”

The men all laughed.

“The babies are crying for food.” Byron came forward with a covered bowl while Slate pulled a small table over to her bedside.

“I can—I can feed myself, Byron. No need to spoon-feed me. I’m not an invalid” Candace grinned, taking the spoon from him.

“You’ve been unconscious for days.” Dante reached out to touch her head. “We’ve been so very worried.”

“Days?” Candace’s eyes widened as she chewed on the chicken soup. “Hmmm. This is good. Did I miss the wedding?”

The men looked at each other and began laughing.

“How can you possibly miss the wedding? It’s not as if it can happen without you, Woman.” Byron chuckled.

“Relax, you’ve only been sleeping for the better part of three days.” Slate reassured her. “There are still a few days left before you have to marry us.”

“Oh my gosh! I lost three days???” Candace’s eyes grew large. “But there’s still so much to do!!!”

“Relax, Wife.” Leonardo touched her head. “Everyone else has been chipping in and we’ve done most of the things that needed doing.”

“That’s right,” Lucas grinned. “All you have to do is rest, relax, eat, and take care of those babies in your tummy.”

Candace inhaled sharply. “All those babies in my tummy? How many are we talking here? Two? Three?”

“Seven.” The men all chorused together.

==========

The days rolled by like lightning over water. The sounds of thunder rolled over head with the rain and the wind and the sun and the surf.

Candace slowly recovered from her initial shock of becoming Avgo pregnant. The idea of having seven babies at the same time was at first, daunting, but with the men’s assurance that it would be fine, she acclimated to that reality.

Although she was not showing yet, the eggs had implanted which caused her to lose a lot of energy and she found herself tired and sleepy part of the day.

Jenna popped in occasionally to alleviate her boredom with tales of grandeur. It seemed that elven men had a penchant for spotted cougars—who knew!!!

Candace had laughed. “Honey, it’s not just elven men. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You’d slay any man who came walking around.”

Jenna shook her head. “None of your husbands even looked at me twice. I’m telling you. It’s the elves. They like cats!”

Her sisters Poppy, Lyra, Ariana, and Daisy also came by with sweets and flowers, bringing gossip and cheer.

Apparently, lacking the main female lead to focus on, Lorem Ipsum had done individual interviews with the other Imperial Princesses. There had been a rather substantial spread done for Poppy, Lyra, Ariana, and even Daisy got a good amount of air time.

“It was like a floodgate opened up, Candace.” Poppy harped on. “Suddenly, Erenveil began to be flooded with messages from kings and dukes around the galaxy.”

Lyra smirked. “They were crawling out of the woodwork and prowling about. It was like this was the first time they’d even known there were princesses in Erenveil.”

Candace had laughed. “Have you all gotten your bridesmaids dresses?”

“We did a fitting yesterday.” Poppy smiled. “You have three bridesmaids.” She indicated at herself, Lyra, and Ariana. “And you have a special flower girl!” She reached out and gave Daisy a pat on the head.

Candace turned towards Daisy. “Do you like your dress?”

The little girl’s eyes were shining. “I love it! Brother Jared put lace flowers all over it.”

“I can’t wait to see it.” Candace smiled.

And of course, her husbands took turns staying by her side, just in case she needed anything, or simply just to work next to her.

There was always a floating desk nearby that Dante or Slate or Leonardo would use to work at while they kept an eye on her.

And all those fancy rehearsals for a fancy scripted wedding—all those went by the wayside.

“We’re not putting on a show for you people to watch for fun.” Byron put his foot down. “Go take visuals of the twenty-five wedding cakes!”

“But all the major visuals productions are here!”

“Tough. My wife is not feeling well and we’re only going to do the basics. If you want to do some major visuals, go run visuals on the progress of CandyLand Marakaran.” Dante brushed his hands at the attendants, throwing them out on their ears.

The night before the wedding, Candace could barely contain her excitement.

She was supposed to have been the one walking down the aisle towards her husbands who were to stand on the platform waiting for her, but Leonardo made the entire production change the script.

“Haha!” Lucas had laughed. “We’re going to walk up the aisle?”

Leonardo nodded. “She’s gotten much stronger, but I don’t want to take a chance that she will get dizzy and faint half-way, so we’re going to have her just stand up there on the platform and wait for us.”

“Since we are the strong ones, we will walk to her. I think that’s a splendid idea!” Slate raised a fist and Jason bumped fists with him in agreement.

Whoever heard of the grooms walking up the aisle to meet with the bride who was standing at the altar waiting?

But the men were adamant and all Candace could do was smile and nod in agreement.. It was their wedding and they could do what they wished.