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Wei Wuxian moved gracelessly down the corridors of the private residence – corridors only he of all the emperor’s concubines was allowed to traverse. He mourned his lithe build and ability to run freely but would never trade this pregnancy for either. They tried too long for this.
There was a time Wei Wuxian believed the emperor would be better off to set him aside and take another concubine to his bed, but the emperor, his beloved fool, was besotted with him and refused.
And now. Now, Wei Wuxian was swollen with the emperor’s child.
Wei Wuxian reached the guarded doors demarking the border between the private residence and the palace at large. Two burly guards broke from the detachment and flanked Wei Wuxian as he crossed that border. He continued as though they weren’t there; it was, after all, the life of the emperor’s favored concubine.
The dining hall was already bustling when he arrived, and he moved to his place at the head of the table with a quiet dignity that his round belly made difficult. A maid helped him to his cushion and he eased his unwieldy body down, still quiet, hoping the emperor would arrive soon.
And just as the thought crossed his mind, the conversation around the table died down and there was the emperor in all his regal glory, tall and stern and dignified and utterly gone for none other than Wei Wuxian.
The emperor was seated by his retainers and then... And then the sternness softened when his gaze fell on Wei Wuxian.
Rich aromas preceded the arrival of the meal – roasted duck in orange sauce, pork in a spicy marinade, a wide selection of vegetables in savory sauces in deference to the emperor’s vegetarian palate.
And before a bit of it was served, the royal tasters stepped in to sample each dish.
It wasn’t good enough for the emperor. Vegetarian though he was, he still sampled each bite of Wei Wuxian’s food before it crossed Wei Wuxian’s lips.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian protested under his breath. “It’s already been proven to be safe.”
“Nothing is proof enough,” the emperor replied stubbornly, and Wei Wuxian couldn’t even argue, because there were a group of dead royal tasters who had conspired to poison Wei Wuxian before this pregnancy, and Lan Wangji, emperor of Gusu, wasn’t taking any chances with his unborn child.
There were those in the court who were not happy about this pregnancy. About Wei Wuxian being the carrier of this pregnancy, of all the concubines who could have been chosen. The emperor had even refused to take a proper wife in favor of Wei Wuxian, to the confusion of many and the fury of some, including the emperor’s uncle, Lan Qiren.
The emperor did more than just sample each dish; he fed Wei Wuxian from his own chopsticks, in front of everyone, and even Wei Wuxian had enough face to be mildly flummoxed by this behavior in the beginning. Now, though, he simply reciprocated, picking the choicest morsels of vegetables from his own plate to feed the emperor.
The emperor, having learned of the discontent smoldering in the court, chose to flaunt his relationship in the court’s face.
When the meal ended the emperor took Wei Wuxian’s hand and led him away from the dining hall. They didn’t often leave together these days; the omega was hopeful that they would have some actual alone time tonight.
The emperor led Wei Wuxian to the gardens.
The gardens, where they first met when Wei Wuxian was first sold to the palace by his family six years before. Wei Wuxian spent most of his time trying to run away from the haram even though the older concubines assured him the new emperor never visited. He didn’t want to be a concubine. He wanted to go home. Home was gone though, never to be his again. Madam Yu made sure when he presented as an omega that he understood he would never be welcome at Lotus Pier, that he would never belong there. And she dragged him away in the night and sold him to a broker who took him to auction in Lanling where he was lucky enough to be purchased by the haram matron of Gusu.
The matron was a hard beta woman who had Wei Wuxian beaten for misbehavior regularly. Wei Wuxian couldn’t even deny he deserved most of it – but he wasn’t going to stop running away. He was convinced that he would learn the palace layout well enough to succeed eventually.
Instead he wound up in the royal gardens with the emperor himself, and by the end of that night he was well fucked and knotted, and because of the marks on his back the haram matron was fired.
Six years later in those same gardens, the emperor pressed a very pregnant Wei Wuxian against a garden wall and kissed him deeply, slipping his tongue in his mouth when Wei Wuxian’s lips parted in a moan. Slick instantly gathered between his legs and his cock began to harden, and he tried to press against the emperor for friction but his belly was in the way.
He broke the kiss first and whined, “Lan Zhan, I need -”
The emperor’s hand slipped between them and stroked over Wei Wuxian’s tight belly, downward to press against his cock. Wei Wuxian groaned and ground against the emperor’s hand, groaning at the relief. The slick pooling between his legs overflowed and dripped down his thighs.
The emperor growled and pressed harder.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian gasped, “Lan Zhan, please -”
“Wei Ying will tell me what he wants,” the emperor said, a hint of his earlier growl still behind his words.
“You, my liege, I want you, alpha, alpha, I want you.”
And so the emperor fell to his knees there in the garden and carefully parted Wei Wuxian’s robes until his cock was freed, and with no more warning than that took his whole length in his mouth.
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian cried out as his cock hit the back of the emperor’s throat.
The emperor pulled off and growled, “Wei Ying will take it quietly or do without.”
“Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian whimpered, but when those golden eyes glared at him, he stuffed his fist into his mouth and whined around it as the emperor wrapped his warm mouth back around his cock.
The emperor’s head bobbed blissfully and Wei Wuxian found himself closer to climax than he wanted to be. He wrapped his fingers in the emperor’s hair and warned, “’m close, L’n Zhan. Close!”
And just as he was ready to give himself up to orgasm, the emperor pulled off and Wei Wuxian burst into tears.
“Sorry,” he gasped, “sorry, pregnancy hormones, sorry, Lan Zhan, I’m -”
“Wei Ying.” The emperor stood and stroked a gentle hand down Wei Wuxian’s cheek. “I have told you. There is no need for sorry between us.” He used his thumbs to wipe away the tears. “Let me make you feel good, Wei Ying.”
“Yes, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian begged, and the emperor gently laid him down on the ground.
He plunged his fingers into Wei Wuxian’s slick-wet hole and when Wei Wuxian howled, he plunged the fingers of his other hand into Wei Wuxian’s mouth. Wei Wuxian immediately began sucking those fingers as though his life depended on it even as his hole eagerly sucked in the other fingers. The emperor worked those slick-damp fingers in and out of Wei Wuxian’s tight hole until, without warning, he crooked them just so to hit his prostate, and Wei Wuxian groaned around the digits in his mouth.
The emperor suddenly withdrew all of his fingers and thrust his huge alpha cock into Wei Wuxian’s hole. Wei Wuxian bit his lip against a moan as his back arched and his rounded belly pressed against the emperor’s well-muscled stomach.
“Ohhhh,” Wei Wuxian moaned, “oh, Lan Zhan,” as the emperor pounded into him. “Lan Zhan, please!”
“Be silent,” the emperor snarled, and bent to thrust his tongue into Wei Wuxian’s mouth.
The kiss eventually ended and Wei Wuxian’s mouth, once again freed, began to run once more. “Knot me, alpha,” he begged, “knot me, knot me.”
“Wei Ying” the emperor groaned. “Do you know what you do to me?”
“Knot me, alpha!”
Later, when the emperor’s knot went down, and they were wrapped in each other beneath the moonlight, the emperor looked down at his sleeping omega and whispered, “Someday I will marry you properly, Wei Ying. This is my vow.”