Pregnant At The Palace Altar

LORRAINE HALL is a part-time hermit and full-time writer. She was born with an old soul and her head in the clouds, which, it turns out, is the perfect combination to spend her days creating thunderous alpha heroes and the fierce, determined heroines who win their hearts. She lives in a potentially haunted house with her soulmate and rambunctious band of hermits-in-training. When she’s not writing romance, she’s reading it. Books by Lorraine Hall The Prince’s Royal Wedding Demand Secrets of the Kalyva Crown Hired for His Royal Revenge Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk. Pregnant at the Palace Altar Lorraine Hall www.millsandboon.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-008-92892-6 PREGNANT AT THE PALACE ALTAR © 2023 by Lorraine Hall Published in Great Britain 2023by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises ULC. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental. By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher. ® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries. www.millsandboon.co.uk Note to Readers This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings: Change of font size and line height Change of background and font colours Change of font Change justification Text to speech His expression was grim, his eyes flat. She recognized this side of him. The way he dissociated and focused only on his duty—never on what he actually wanted. “If I let you go, if I pretend this never happened, there is no guarantee you do not change your mind. No guarantee that the child should not come of age and find out and cause an uproar. We must be married and make the child legitimate. There is no alternative if that child is mine.” It hurt, because perhaps deep down underneath so many protections she’d at least wished a little his showing up here meant he’d changed his mind, or perhaps that he cared for her in some small way. But no, it was about duty. Potential scandal. It was about protecting his crown at any and all costs. She could not win in this, no, but she could at least wipe that superior look off his face. “If the children are yours, you mean.” “Excuse me?” “It is not a child, Diamandis. It is children. We are having twins.” Secrets of the Kalyva Crown It started with a royal revenge... Banished following the execution of his parents, Lysias has spent years plotting revenge on the surviving royal of a bloody coup, King Diamandis. Now justice is finally within reach, as he has hired someone to pose as the king’s long-lost sister... King Diamandis believed he was the sole surviving member of his royal family. Ruling with an ironclad fist was the only way he knew how to continue their legacy. Until his whole world is tilted on its axis by his supposed sister’s royal return... Soon, both of their carefully constructed plans and lives will be thrown into complete disarray—by love! Read Lysias and Al’s story inHired for His Royal Revenge And read Diamandis and Katerina’s storyPregnant at the Palace Altar Both available now! For Soraya. Thank you for your boundless enthusiasm. Contents Cover About the Author Booklist Title Page Copyright Note to Readers Introduction Secrets of the Kalyva Crown Dedication CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN EPILOGUE Extract About the Publisher CHAPTER ONE AS FAR AS King Diamandis Agonas was concerned, royal weddings were a royal pain. His only comfort in being involved in the planning of this one was that it was not his own wedding. That would be a disaster. But being the king while his sister—the long-lost princess who’d only been returned to them earlier this year—got married was proving more challenging than he would have preferred. In any other circumstances, he would have labeled the whole affair a debacle. First, Zandra and her betrothed had run off to Athens to get married months ago and then the announcement of her pregnancy had brought about the need to move up the date of the royal wedding ceremony, and Diamandis had found himself uncharacteristically bending over backward for his sister. He blamed it on the fact he’d considered her dead for nearly twenty years. What man wouldn’t want to make up for lost time? What king wouldn’t want to give his sister, the princess, all she desired, and all that was befitting a Kalyvan princess? He eyed her now, moving around his office.