Hunting Allegra

“I can say the same. I remember thinking that you hated me and that you were beautiful even though you were too young for me. Then you ran off on me. I wanted to wait until you reached eighteen before claiming you as mine because that’s what it felt like from the start. I had to protect you until I could possess you—body and soul.”

“Well, you passed that up by several years.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t my plan, but I also didn’t expect to be turned into a vampire overnight either.”

“Good point.”

An hour later, Allegra and I travel back to the apartment that Alessandro and I had in Manchester. I don’t sense anyone. It’s empty, but for a note.

I’ve gone to Bucharest. There’s nothing left for me here. I’ll be looking for my own home soon—Your Father

“Well then, are you ready to go home?”

“Yes, I am.”

We arrive in Bucharest at our castle. Allegra gasps at the beautiful Romanian architecture. We enter without using the front door, appearing in the lobby. “Mrs. Fernbach?”

“Ah yes, my dear. It’s such a pleasure to see you again.”

“What are you doing here?”

“It seems that I’m one of you now. A vampire attacked me on Halloween three years ago. I was there to keep tabs on you should you appear in town again.”

“So you don’t have a son you were trying to pawn off on me?”

“Oh yes. Well, it seems that you have found him. Well, Alaric is my son because he’s so young and needs a mother’s touch.”

“Father,” Allegra blurts out, seeing Alessandro come through the room.

“Allegra,” he pauses. She shakes her head and steps up to him, throwing her arms around his neck.

“No, no. You don’t need to say anything. Let us forget about all of it. I don’t want to deal with it. Life is different now. My happiness only revolves around one man these days,” she remarks, turning to smile at me. Damn right. I drag her back to my side.

“Now that’s all settled, if you two would excuse us, I have to show my wife around her home.” I take her hand lead her leisurely about the castle. Our bedroom is isolated in the west wing of the home. It is perfect for the privacy that newly mated vampires need. We only have a couple of years to create our family. And I plan to expand on the Von Jager clan as much as I can.

“Our bedroom is all the way on the other side of the castle,” she says with an impish grin.

“That it is. And perhaps we need to test the acoustics,” I growl, slipping my arms around her waist and dragging her close to me.

“Say no more, my Lord,” she whispers, nipping at my earlobe.

Epilogue

Alaric

Six months later…

The waiting for my heir to be born had forced me to nearly go insane with fear. For the past six months, I have been pacing and reading whenever I thought about this new life coming into this world. Most of the knowledge was still passed down in journals and word of mouth, but none of that mattered because Allegra’s my universe and nothing must go wrong. She couldn’t die like a human would, but the pain would be more than I cared for. Both of us just feasted when she doubled over. Freaking out, I contacted all the vampire specialists I could find.

I only left to prepare a meal for Allegra when I heard her cry out. I rushed into the room to see her with her legs parted and her knees practically behind her ears. Don’t think of it. Now’s not the time to think of claiming her. “Stop it,” she growls out at me.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

“I know,” she sighs, reaching for my hand. I take her tiny one in mine, holding it in her punishing grip while the vampire midwife, tells her to push. In seconds our baby is delivered. I can’t believe how fast he came out after the hours of waiting, but my son was born. A dark-haired smiling toothless vampire with a little extra chubbiness. She lays the baby on her belly, and I run my hand over his head, then steal a kiss from my tired mate.

“Congratulations, Milord and Milady.” They clean her up in a flash, and I rest with my family in my arms. The baby latches to her breast like a normal baby would until it’s time to teach him to eat. Fuck, I couldn’t be happier as we fall asleep.

Allegra

Twenty Years later…

Four children later, Alaric and I are no less in love than we were when we first mated. My fertile years have passed, but we’re happy with the large family we have. In the vampire world, there aren’t that many children born to any pair. At most there’s only been two. We had Alessandro, Wolfgang, Zander, and Alana. A girl birth is a little rarer than a boy, but she is just as strong as they are.