Chapter 84

ARIC

Eleanor rolled over in bed and snuggled closer to my side. I held her tightly to my chest, caressing the soft skin at her waist while I watched her sleeping.

I couldn’t stop grinning. I hadn’t stopped since she told me. Fuck, being a queen didn’t even sound as amazing as her carrying my child did. I was over the fucking moon.

I had been spending an inordinate amount of time imagining what the baby would look like.

Would they get her opal eyes, her skin tone, her dark locks? If they looked exactly like her, I would be so happy.

What if my mother’s blonde hair seeped in, or my father’s green eyes? I couldn’t help grinning thinking about it.

Eleanor mumbled softly in her sleep and unconsciously pressed her lips to my shoulder. I couldn’t help but grin down at her, running my fingers gently through her hair.

She shifted again, and I saw her eyes blink. She gazed up at me, and I hugged her tighter.

A ghost of a smile played at the edge of her lips, and she buried her face into my chest with a little moan.

“Good evening,” I said softly.

“Not yet,” she moaned. I chuckled and pressed my lips to her temple. She glanced up at me again, wrapped her arm around my waist, and flipped her leg up around my hips.

We were both naked, and I could feel her soft breasts pressing against my skin. The slight scent of her arousal filled the air. I was already rock hard. She was kissing my chest, still half asleep.

“Eleanor.” I grabbed her arms and pulled her up to me, crushing my lips to her.

She gasped in surprise but melted into me, her fingers digging into my hair, her body shimmying up mine, driving me crazy.

I devoured her mouth, running my hands over her supple skin, grabbing her ass and squeezing. Eleanor let out an excited giggle. When I opened my eyes, I saw her gazing back at me.

Her eyes were a dark shade of crimson. She purred, wriggling against me. I couldn’t take it much longer.

Grabbing her hips, I flipped her over onto her back, grabbed her thighs, and pulled her toward me.

I made my way slowly, nipping, licking, kissing down her breasts, giving each nipple ample sucking time while Eleanor writhed with pleasure.

I licked my way down her stomach, stopping just slightly to blow a raspberry where our child was growing. Eleanor let out a giggle and a huff of annoyance. I grinned up at her.

“Aric, please,” she moaned, wriggling her hips at me. I grinned, my cock was so hard, but I wanted to take my time and savor my queen.

I dipped between her legs, flicking her clit with the tip of my tongue. Eleanor let out a gasp, and she threw her head back.

“Look at me,” I growled. She looked back at me, her eyes wide. She looked seconds from losing control. I dove back into her, licking, nibbling, thrusting deep inside her.

She moaned and wriggled with pleasure, grinding against my face while I lapped her juices. She let out a heart moan, and I knew she was almost there.

I pulled back, holding her feverish gaze, and thrust into her, burying myself to the hilt.

She shattered around me, her mouth popping open, her eyes flashing from crimson to opal blue, her insides clenching around me. I almost came.

I thrust slowly as she rode out the waves of her orgasm, and when she looked back up at me, her fangs bared, I started pummeling into her. She gripped the sheets to stabilize herself.

I grabbed her hips, drew out, and flipped her over onto her stomach. Pulling her hips up, I thrust back inside her with a growl.

She hissed, her head falling forward, her hands gripping the sheets, tearing them into a million ribbons.

I moved my hands down her back, around her chest, squeezing her breasts, rolling her nipples between my fingers. I could hear her heart beating. I could feel it through her soft skin.

I slid my hands down to her clit, pinching it. She gasped and moaned. I leaned down, my fangs bared, and bit into her shoulder.

She let out a scream. I felt her shatter around me, pulsing, her sweet blood filling my mouth. With a growl, I emptied myself into her, lapping at the blood that trickled down her back.

After cleaning her up, I gathered her into my arms and held her tightly. She nibbled at my earlobe happily.

“Eleanor,” I breathed.

“Hmm?” she licked my ear. I felt her fangs grazing my skin. She wanted to drink.

“Do you want to go back to Toulouse?” I asked her. She pulled back slightly, meeting my gaze, her head slightly cocked to one side.

“I hadn’t thought about it yet,” she replied. “It’s still summer vacation.”

“Being queen, I don’t want it to stop you from realizing your dreams. Your family, your human family, is still alive. You have time to spend with them.

“I was thinking maybe you would want to study and work while they’re still around. Make them proud, you know.”

She nodded slowly. Her fingers trailed down my chest, leaving goosebumps in their wake. “I did think about that,” she admitted.

“David will go home tomorrow, and I was thinking I would like to meet them. Also, there’s Constance and Dean.”

“Of course. Spend all the time you want with them. There will be some aspects that we’ll have to hide,” I advised.

“You being pregnant for three years, the child not growing at human speed.”

She nodded in agreement.

“But we can find ways around that, right? Meet up for dinners, pretend I keep getting pregnant, kidnap human children.” She giggled as I tickled her sides.

“As long as you’re happy, my queen.” I grinned.

“Everything is going to be all right now, isn’t it? We can relax, can’t we?”

“Yes, yes, we can, Eleanor. I will always keep you safe.”

“Aric.” She leaned down on my chest, kissing my throat lightly. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I growled. I flipped her over onto her back and hovered above her. Her eyes grew wide with lust. She giggled.

“I was doing some thinking,” I admitted.

She nodded, tracing her fingers down my chest, over my back. I could barely concentrate on my words.

“I was thinking, we should get married, and I should take your name, to strengthen the Ravn pureblood name.”

Eleanor’s fingers stopped moving over my body, and she stared up at me wide-eyed.

“Did you just propose?” she gasped.

I grinned at her. “Yeah, I did. Will you marry me, Eleanor?”

“Of course, I fucking will!” she cried, grabbing my face and smashing her lips to mine. “And you are definitely taking my name!”

***

After I left Eleanor in Phoenix’s room, hovering in front of her enormous walk-in closet, I made my way through the castle to the ballroom.

It had been cleaned thoroughly the first night Eleanor became queen. Now, it had been decked out with a very large round table, something that Eleanor found very amusing.

Mother decided she wouldn’t tell her the real story the fantasy legend was based on.

Eleanor was the queen of vampires. The royal family was the Ravn family, but we were her adoptive family, and after her, the ones with the closest claim to the throne.

We ruled as a family, dividing up responsibilities to make it easier. Venus and Henry had less interest, for now, and wanted to spend more time together traveling.

Phoenix wasn’t so inclined. She dived deep into the nitty-gritty work and put in long hours. She was in charge of administration and dealing with people.

Mother and Father put their heads together for the business work, Eleanor and I oversaw the more creative and philanthropic work.

The first thing Eleanor insisted on addressing was the treatment of turned vampires.

My parents sat together at the table. They sipped their drinks, their heads together reading a document. When I came in, Mother looked up at me and smiled.

“Aric, how did you sleep? How is Eleanor?” she asked.

“Well.” I grabbed her drink, sipped it, and placed it back on the table. “She’s well.”

I slid down into the chair next to my father. He pursed his lips at me. He was still annoyed that I had knocked up his daughter but also happy for me, his son. He was torn, and I was enjoying it too much.

I grinned at him, and he huffed back.

“Alexander is still a problem,” I said, turning to Mother. She nodded in agreement. The Night family had been released and sent home to Pompei.

They were banished for one hundred years as well to serve among themselves. Alexander, however, was still locked up downstairs.

“We can’t keep him locked up for a hundred years. Besides being a prick, there’s not much we can blame him for,” she murmured.

“Does Phoenix have an opinion?” I asked.

“She wants to cut his head off,” Father scoffed.

“She’s still pissed at him,” Mother sighed.

“Understandable.” I ran my fingers through my hair lightly. “Eleanor wants to let him go. She doesn’t want to deal with him anymore.”

“She’s very permissive,” Father murmured.

“She’s barely a vampire. She still thinks like a human,” I replied. “But she’s not wrong. Alexander probably should be set free to return to his family.”

Father breathed out heavily, landing his gaze on mine, then Mother’s. “Fine. We’ll free him. Tonight. He’s an entitled prick, but that’s not enough to hold him.”

“I’ll deal with him.” I nodded and stood up, playing my hand on the table. “By the way, I asked Eleanor to marry me, and she said yes.”

I ran out of the room. My father roared after me, my mother laughed. I grinned as I made my way downstairs to the small dungeon.

Alexander sat in the corner, his head hanging between his knees. He looked a mess. He didn’t look up when I sat down on a chair in front of him.

Alexander and I didn’t cross paths often, though I remembered him from my school days. We avoided each other even then.

When he started going batshit trying to get Eleanor and treating my sister like shit, my distaste for him solidified into pure loathing.

I tried my best to reel in my emotions as I faced him. He had, after all, lost everything, and I had gained everything.

“Alexander.” I pursed my lips as he glanced up at me. “We’re letting you go home,” I informed him.

“I’m not going without my queen,” he sneered. I rolled my eyes. I didn’t even feel anger toward him anymore, just pity.

“She not going anywhere with you,” I told him. “She’s staying here with her family, with me.”

Alexander seethed. “I’m the prince, and she’s the queen! We should be together!”

“Forget her, Alexander!” I barked. “She is carrying my child. Mine! She’s marrying me. She’s mine.”

I couldn’t help the possessive tone. Eleanor was my whole world. She was my everything. I couldn’t listen to him whining about her anymore.

He looked sullen. “Be glad she still follows her human morals,” I said in a low voice. “Had it been any of us, you’d already be dead.”

I stood up and unhooked his chains from the wall. He didn’t resist when I pulled him through the dungeon, upstairs into the castle, and out the front door. My parents watched us from the ballroom.

Alexander breathed in deeply, his dark blue eyes moving to mine. “Cousin,” he rasped. “I can’t promise I won’t be back for my crown and my queen.”

I pursed my lips. “I would be disappointed if you didn’t try,” I admitted. His lips tweaked with a slight smile.

“We’re still young,” he murmured. “I wonder what this place will look like in a thousand years.”

“We’ll have to wait and see.”

“Indeed, we will.” He turned to the woods.

“One hundred years banishment,” I reminded him. “To be spent within your family. If you’re seen by other purebloods, they have a right to kill you on sight.”

He nodded. “I’ll see you in a hundred years then,” he said before launching himself into the woods.

I watched and listened until he disappeared, then slipped back into the castle to look for my queen.

I followed the sound of her excited voice downstairs and back to my sister’s room, where I had originally left her.

From the giggling inside and the cooing, I understood that they were trying all of Phoenix’s clothes. There was four hundred years’ worth of clothes in that closet.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I knocked and opened the door. Eleanor was twirling in an 1860s baby blue ball gown. She grinned when she saw me.

Phoenix was decked in a 1920s flapper dress and was enjoying twirling her pearls through her fingers.

“Aric!” Eleanor gushed, throwing herself in my arms. “I think I want a themed wedding!” she cried. Phoenix snickered.

~Oh, please, no.~