Chapter 214

Justin POV

I tapped my fingers on the polished wood of my desk, trying to sort my thoughts. Randy had gone back to his own office on a phone call with one of our new business partners, somebody in a pack halfway across the continent. But thanks to the internet, we would be doing business with them.

For the last two months, Randy and I had been trying to piece back together my father’s kingdom. He spent so much time with the infighting that he’d neglected any other duties that a king should do. Then as everything fell apart thanks to him and the Huntsman and everything, what he’d left behind for me to rule was a total disaster.

Randy and I had tried to piece back together what we could in the heat of conflict. And while everybody was happy enough to be part of the True Mates pack, it wasn’t running the way that I wanted it to. Our pack wasn’t the sort of legacy that I would want to leave to my future children, children whom Helen and I were still working hard to conceive.

I’d had no idea when we started trying for a child how much trying was actually involved. Having a kid seemed so straightforward: have sex, cum inside her, and have a baby. But reality didn’t seem to work that way. Even going into heat didn’t seem to be a guarantee that I would shoot the magic bullet and she’d come out the other side pregnant.

I kept watching Helen, hoping that she would say something. But the weeks dragged into months, and Helen never mentioned anything about being pregnant. So, to fill my time, I worked hard trying to get the pack ready for when she eventually did conceive.

I wanted everything to be in good order, and I wanted to be able to turn running the pack over to Randy so that I could focus on Helen and our new baby—whenever that ended up happening. I tried very hard not to pester Helen about it because I knew that she wanted a baby as badly as I did. If I pestered her, I would only make her feel guilty for something that was outside her control.

It’s not like a woman could order her body to get pregnant at will. If that were the case, there would be a lot more couples who had children and a lot of people who didn’t. It seemed odd to me as I thought about these things that some people could want a baby so badly and not be able to have one. At the same time, some people found themselves saddled with another child even though they had no means to properly take care of it or no desire to have conceived it in the first place.

Once again, it all came back to what seemed like such a simple task, which wasn’t simple at all.

Maybe while we were waiting for pregnancy to happen, I should take her on a proper honeymoon or something. We’d been married for almost two years now. Almost two years had passed since she had been dumped in my bedroom as an offering, a sacrifice to the crazy lycan.

How odd that we had bonded over our mutual neglect at the hands of our families, only to turn around and be betrayed at every turn. It seemed like our journey to this point had taken forever. And yet so many things were missing from what should have been a much different course of events.

We hadn’t had a proper wedding with real friends and loved ones in attendance. Nor had we gone on a proper honeymoon. I slapped my hand down on the desk. That was the answer. I knew with absolute certainty what I would do to distract us both while we waited for good news.

Russo and Lisa weren’t getting married until this summer, so if Helen and I didn’t try to go too big, we could probably squeeze in renewing our vows and having a proper honeymoon before then. Maybe being relaxed in some tropical location would coax her body into conceiving finally.

Randy knew enough about how to run the pack that I was sure that she and I could fly off to some remote place and hole up with nothing to do except each other. And now that we didn’t have to worry about having anyone present for our mating, it would make the trip so much more romantic.

I flipped open my laptop and pulled up the internet, opening travel sites. Excitement buzzed around my stomach. Where should I take her? The options were endless.

We could go stay in a bungalow over the water in a tropical destination. Or we could go to a metropolitan city and see art and theater and experience a completely new culture. Or we could travel to some historical place like the pyramids and poke our noses around in history. Or we could retreat to the mountains and hole up in some Alpine cabin, spiking our hot chocolate and making love through the dark nights.

All of these options sounded appealing now that I thought about it. We’d been so focused on survival for so long that I’d almost forgotten how much fun the world offered. It was definitely time to take advantage.

The more I worked on this, the more excited I grew. I’d never really asked Helen what sorts of vacations she would like. No, what a stupid question to throw at her. She would have no idea what vacation she liked. Her parents were rich enough, but if they had ever traveled anywhere with her sister, there was no doubt in my mind that they would have left Helen behind.

So the only places she would have ever seen were our little towns and the places where we’d fled to while we were on the run. None of that was even close to a vacation. Keeping all that in mind, maybe I was thinking too small.

Maybe what we needed to do was a bigger sort of trip, something where we could see more of the world. I pulled up options for larger trips on the travel website. Once again, a whole buffet of options spread before me.

We could take a cruise that went around the Mediterranean. If we did that, we could stop in numerous cities along the way. Or we could take a cruise that took off in the Caribbean and went through the Panama Canal, and then out the other side to finish in Mexico. If we did that, we’d stop in Caribbean and Latin American countries.

I pulled up the itinerary for going through the Panama Canal. That cruise certainly looked exciting, with the jungle overhanging the canal and monkeys and parrots roaming about overhead. That would certainly be exotic.

But in one of the pop-up advertisements, I saw the option to rent one of those bungalows over turquoise waters in the South Pacific. I clicked on this option to compare. Not only were the bungalows on stilts over the tropical lagoon, but they also even had glass bottoms as part of the floor.

Imagine making love where only the fish could see. But as I thought about that scenario, imagining the sexiness of such a setting, my imagination ran away with me. What if I were mounted on Helen, having a go at her, then there was a shark staring at her naked backside? Could it watch us through the glass, appraising us as if my dangling parts were a worm that it ought to bite? Never mind. No overwater bungalows for me, thank you very much.