by Lola Gabriel
He pulled his mouth from hers and smiled at her.
“I’m not afraid or disgusted. I’m intrigued,” he said. “I kind of want to try it. If you’re up for it.”
“Are you sure?” Raven asked.
Jagger nodded and smiled at her again. She nodded back and then her lips were on his again. The deep, fiery passion was back and Raven was kissing him like she wanted to consume him completely. She pushed him back flat onto his back, coming with him, still kissing him.
She pulled back from the kiss and smiled down at Jagger. Her eyes were still blood red and now her teeth had grown two pointy fangs alongside her normal teeth. They were pearly white and Jagger felt a rush of desire flood him as he looked at Raven this way. A hot predator who could kill him with one bite if she chose to. He felt his cock pulsing and he had to bite down on his tongue and concentrate on the stinging pain to stop himself from coming there and then. Raven’s smile grew wider and Jagger knew she had felt his cock growing beneath her.
She ran her tongue over his lips and then across his cheek and down his neck. Goosebumps followed her tongue, making Jagger’s skin pucker and tingle. He could feel the heat of Raven’s breath as she licked him. She reached the side of his throat and she pushed his head to the side, exposing his jugular more fully.
She leaned her head back for a second and then she moved toward him in a fast, darting motion. Jagger felt the warmth of her lips as she sucked his flesh into her mouth and then he felt the sharp points of her fangs pressing into his skin. He winced and gasped in a breath as the points pierced his skin a little bit painfully.
As Raven began to suck on his neck, the pain went away, replaced by a feeling of ecstasy like nothing Jagger had ever felt before in his life. It felt like the most intense orgasm he had ever had, but it started in his neck and moved through his veins, bringing his whole body to life in a way that took his breath away and made his eyes roll back in his head. He lay that way, helpless and ecstatic, until Raven pulled her mouth away from his neck.
His eyes flew open and she smiled down at him, running her tongue over her lips to lick away the last drop of his blood. The feeling of ecstasy began to recede, leaving behind a desire for Raven that was so strong, Jagger felt as though his cock might burst before he could get it inside of Raven.
“Well?” Raven smiled. “Did you like it?”
“Like it? Holy shit, Raven, it was fucking amazing,” Jagger breathed.
He pulled her face down to his as he said it, his kiss stopping her from responding to him. He pushed inside of her, impaling her on his cock as she kissed him. She pulled back from his kiss, sitting up on top of him and beginning to move up and down faster and faster, her fingers moving over her own skin. She teased her nipples between her fingers for a moment, making Jagger’s eyes almost pop out of his head, and then she moved one hand down her body, pushing her fingers between her lips and finding her clit, moving her hips in time with her probing fingers.
She half closed her eyes, leaving them as slits. Her lips were parted as she panted and Jagger had never been more turned on than he was now. He felt Raven’s already tight center tightening even more, clenching around him as she came. He felt a rush of hot liquid dowsing him.
Jagger couldn’t hold himself back any longer and he came hard. She unhooked her leg from across him once their climaxes had passed and she lay back down beside him, both of them trying to get themselves back under control.
Jagger wasn’t sure exactly how it had happened, but somewhere over the course of last night and this morning, he had started to find himself falling hard for Raven. He knew she couldn’t be his one true mate—after all, she wasn’t a witch—but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still have feelings for her.
4
Three Months Later
Raven had never been happier than she had been over the last three months. What had started out as something she had assumed would be one night of fun had turned into something much more than that. She had really started to fall for Jagger in a big way and he had told her that he felt the exact same way about her.
They had talked about it in the beginning, and while they had both agreed that it wasn’t possible for them to be each other’s one true mate, that didn’t mean they couldn’t choose to be together. At least for now, to see where it went. It felt real to Raven. More real than anything she had ever had with any vampire in the past, and when it came down to it, that was all that mattered.
Jagger didn’t seem to mind that being with her might mean he missed out on his chance to be with his mate and get ready to take over leading the warlock tribe. He had told Raven that he was happy with her and he was willing to take his chances on their happiness lasting. And if that meant that he would never get to take over the tribe, he could live with that, and his younger brother could have the honor of it instead.
Raven had a feeling all of the happiness they had felt over the last few months might be about to change, though. Recently, she had begun to feel a little bit sick most mornings, even throwing up the odd time. And that was anything but normal for a vampire. Vampires couldn’t catch any sort of human disease or bug and they couldn’t get anything like food poisoning. The only way a vampire could get sick was if they were pregnant and experiencing a little bit of morning sickness.
When the idea had first come to her, Raven had dismissed it as crazy. There was no way she could be pregnant. The only guy she was sleeping with was Jagger and he wasn’t a vampire. The only way a vampire could get pregnant was by another vampire or by a human who they turned. They couldn’t get pregnant by a warlock.
But the sickness hadn’t gone away and Raven’s periods had stopped. She knew it was impossible for her to be pregnant, and yet at the same time, she also knew it was the only explanation for everything else that was happening with her body. In the end, she had bought a pregnancy testing kit, more to show herself that she wasn’t pregnant than anything else. Once she had done the test and ruled out the seriously impossible, she would have to go and visit an immortal healer and find out what the hell was going on with her body.
She went to her bathroom and peed on the stick and then she placed it in the sink and set the alarm on her cell phone to go off in three minutes’ time. She knew if she just sat there, it would feel like forever, so she left the bathroom and went into the bedroom to make her bed.
Her sheets smelled of Jagger after he had stayed over last night and she found herself burying her face in the pillow he had used and inhaling deeply, sniffing in his scent. She smiled to herself as she felt her core respond to Jagger’s scent, tightening and craving his touch.
Raven went back to pulling her bedding straight, trying to ignore the tingling in her clit. She would be seeing Jagger soon enough. He was picking her up on his way home from work in about half an hour and they were spending the night at his place tonight. She could surely control her urges until then.
She managed to get the blankets straightened out and her bedside cabinet tidied before her cell phone started chirping, her alarm going off. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and switched the alarm off and then she headed for the bathroom. She didn’t know at this point what she most afraid of: finding out she was pregnant and having to deal with Jagger’s reaction to the news, or finding out she wasn’t pregnant and worrying about what else it could be that was wrong with her.
Raven stepped into the bathroom, not letting herself pause for courage. She was afraid that pausing would have the opposite effect, paralyzing her with fear and stopping her from going and looking at the test. She crossed the room with a determined stride until she reached the sink. She plucked the pregnancy test from the sink, took a deep breath, and looked at it. Pregnant the little screen said.
Raven shook her head, not sure what to make of any of this. She sat down on the lid of the toilet, her head spinning and her stomach feeling queasy. How was this even possible?
She had no idea how it was possible. She had been told all of h
er life that it was in fact impossible. But despite what she had been told, it had happened. She was pregnant and the baby had to be Jagger’s, so clearly it wasn’t impossible then. She didn’t know how it was possible either, but she supposed that the reason behind it barely mattered now. What mattered now was where she and Jagger went from here.
She had no idea how he was going to react to the news, and now, she wished she had waited a little bit longer to do the pregnancy test so that she would have less time to wait for him. The next half hour was the longest half hour of Raven’s life as she paced up and down the living room, waiting for Jagger to arrive.
Finally, she saw his car pulling up outside of her gate and she grabbed her coat and threw it on. She collected her handbag and her keys and stepped outside, locking the door behind her. She pushed her keys into her handbag and walked down to Jagger’s car, faking a smile. She didn’t want to talk about this in the street or in the car—she wanted them to be in Jagger’s apartment, comfortable and not rushing through the conversation—so she would have to act like everything was okay until they got to Jagger’s place.
“You’re eager,” Jagger grinned as she got into the car beside him.
“Of course I am,” Raven said with a soft laugh. “Aren’t I always eager to see you?”
“I hope so,” Jagger laughed as he started the car engine and pulled away from the curb, joining the traffic. “But that doesn’t usually stop you from being late to come out of the house.”
Raven laughed but it sounded halfhearted even to her ears and Jagger glanced at her with a frown of concern.
“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s just…never mind, okay? We’ll talk about it when we get to your place.”
“It sounds ominous,” Jagger said with another grin.
The grin faded quickly when Raven nodded her head grimly instead of laughing and telling Jagger not to be so melodramatic like he had clearly been expecting her to do.
“Can’t we talk about it now?” he asked.
“We’re almost at your place now. I’d really rather not talk about it until we’re inside,” Raven said.
“Okay,” Jagger agreed.
He fell silent, his eyes on the road, and Raven noticed that he had sped up the car. She wished she had been able to bite her tongue until they got to his place, but she should have known it would never have worked. He knew her far too well to not realize when something was wrong with her.
They pulled up outside of Jagger’s building and got out of the car. They crossed the lobby and got into the elevator and rode up to the seventeenth floor where Jagger’s apartment was. The first time Raven had come to Jagger’s place, she had been shocked to see that a fairly normal, if pretty large, apartment was his home. She had been expecting the warlock prince to live somewhere much fancier. She remembered how Jagger had laughed when she had told him as much, telling her he didn’t need forty bedrooms to clean for no reason.
Jagger opened his apartment door and stepped back to let Raven enter. She stepped inside, crossed the open plan space, and sat down on a pale yellow couch. Jagger pushed the door shut and then he crossed the floor too and sat down beside Raven.
“Okay. Spill it,” he said as he sat down.
Raven knew she had to tell him. She had no other real choice, but she was suddenly nervous. She looked down into her lap and began twiddling a strand of her long black hair in her fingers. She took a deep breath and forced herself to look up at Jagger.
“I’m pregnant, Jagger,” she said finally.
Jagger’s face fell and he stood up and pointed to the door.
“Get out,” he said.
“What? No, please,” Raven said. “Look, I know this wasn’t meant to be forever, Jagger, and I understand why you’re pissed off, but we need to talk about this.”
“What is there to talk about?” Jagger said. “Yes, I know it wasn’t meant to be forever, but that doesn’t excuse what you’ve done, Raven. You cheated on me and I have nothing to say to you about it.”
“Cheated on you?” Raven said, getting up as she felt anger welling up inside of herself. “You really think I cheated on you? Oh my God, Jagger. I thought we trusted each other.”
“We did,” Jagger replied. “But how else can you explain this?”
“I can’t explain it,” Raven said, shaking her head. “But please, let’s just sit back down and talk about this for a moment. I didn’t cheat on you, I swear it.”
Jagger looked ready to argue with her again, but then he sighed and sat down heavily on the couch.
“Fine. Start talking,” he said.
Raven sat back down herself and turned to face Jagger.
“Like I said, I can’t explain it. I know in theory it’s supposed to be impossible for a warlock to get a vampire pregnant. Yet that’s what has happened here. I am more than willing to have a DNA test done on the baby if that’s what it takes for you to believe me,” she said, her voice level and more calm than she felt.
Jagger looked at her, really looked at her, his gaze intense enough to make Raven blush slightly.
“I believe you,” he said. “We don’t need a DNA test.”
“You do?” Raven said, hardly daring to hope that he believed her.
Jagger nodded and then he smiled widely.
“Oh, wow. I’m going to be a father,” he said. “Right? I mean, you do want me to be a part of this even though I was such a shit about it, right?”
“You can be as much or as little of a part of the baby’s life as you want to be, but you decide now, Jagger. It’s no good being around for so long and then walking away,” Raven said.
“I want to be there for every step of it all, Raven. With you and our baby,” Jagger said.
Raven smiled, allowing herself to believe for the first time that maybe this was going to be alright after all. When Jagger moved closer to her and kissed her, she knew it really was going to be alright. Everything would be fine while she and Jagger were together.
She moved closer to Jagger, pressing herself to his side, wrapping her arms tightly around him. His kiss got deeper and his tongue pushed into her mouth. Raven opened her mouth to him, gladly accepting his tongue. She had gone from scared they might be over to her clit tingling with desire in a matter of minutes. It was a little bit disconcerting, but in the nicest possible way.
Jagger pushed her onto her back on the couch and came with her, lying on top of her. He kept kissing her as his hand pushed into her jeans and her panties, rubbing her clit roughly. She gasped and moaned into his mouth as he worked her clit, making the delicious tingles from it spread up into her stomach and over her chest.
She reached down and opened the button on her jeans and pulled her zipper down. She lifted her ass long enough to pull her jeans and panties down, giving Jagger better access to her. When she had her own jeans down, she started on Jagger’s, opening them up and pulling them down. She came back for his boxer shorts and then wrapped her fist around his already hard cock.
He moaned as she moved her hand up and down his length. He kept working her until they were both on the brink of climaxing and then he pulled his hand away from her clit and grabbed her wrist, moving her hand away from him. He smiled down at her and then he ran the tip of his cock through her slit, spreading her wetness around. She moaned as the tip of him brushed over her pulsing clit.
He moved back through her lips and then he was inside of her, their hips moving together, their bodies uniting as one as they moved in sync. Within minutes of them starting to thrust, they came together as one, Raven screaming Jagger’s name as she came and him clinging to her, moaning into her ear as he came with her.
When their orgasms faded away, Raven sat wrapped up in Jagger’s arms and just like that, she knew that whatever happened now, everything would be alright. Jagger had taken a moment that could have been one of the worst moments of her life and made it one of the best moments of her life instead. He had taken something that could have broken
her and made it the making of her.
She smiled up at him and he kissed the tip of her nose.
“So, how are you feeling?” he asked.
“Good,” Raven replied. “Really good. You?”
“Happy,” Jagger smiled. “I’ve always wanted to be a father and now I am going to be one. Raven, you’ve made me the happiest man on earth.”
5
The rest of the night went by in a happy little blur for Jagger. He cooked dinner for himself and Raven and they ate it sitting out on the balcony, enjoying the view of the city. Raven needed blood to keep her alive, but she also still enjoyed indulging in human food, and Jagger was glad of that because he really enjoyed cooking for her.
They’d enjoyed their meal and then they’d watched a movie, and finally, Jagger had suggested an early night. Raven had instantly agreed and they’d gone through to his bedroom and made love twice more.
They’d woken up this morning and had sex again and then they’d both had to go off to work. Jagger hadn’t wanted to leave Raven, but he knew he had to—she never would have agreed to skip work even if he had been willing to do it.
The workday was dragging even more than they usually did for Jagger, because his mind kept going back to the baby. He hadn’t been lying when he had told Raven he was pleased she was pregnant. He really was. He had always dreamed of being a father, and despite the fact that on paper he and Raven should never work together, the fact was that they did and he really thought he could see a future for them.
So he wouldn’t get to find his soul mate and run the tribe? He could live with that if it meant he got to have his little family instead. He couldn’t imagine meeting anyone he could feel more for than what he felt for Raven and he couldn’t imagine meeting anyone who could make him happier than she did.
The only thing that was spoiling his happiness somewhat was his worries around the baby. He was worried that there would be something wrong, that the baby would have some problems because he and Raven had mated together. He had thought about it last night after Raven had fallen asleep, and then he had thought about it again all day, and he was still no further forward. He knew what he had to do, though. He had to talk to his parents. As the ruling warlock couple, they knew everything there was to know about warlock stuff, and hopefully, they would have some answers for him about this.
