A Vampire Fairy Tale (Ronnie Radke)

Raised By Wolves

          The night went off without a hitch, and just as Anna predicted, nobody questioned her spending a good two weeks in a dark room with no light- except for Bert. As Annalise rested and recovered her strength under the watchful eyes of Ronnie, Vic, Kellin, and Andy, Bert sat back with his faction and watched.

"Riddle me this," Bert raised his eyebrow as he watched the four vampires pass by from the boardroom, with their minds completely closed off, "How long was it after being turned that you came out of hiding, Quinn?"

"Shit, I couldn't even look out a window for about a month, and even then, I think you had to bring me blood bags from hunts for three weeks of that," Quinn sighed and then looked up, "You don't think they did something, do you?"

"All I could get from my father is that he and Ronnie had a massive fight over how he plans to rule. He won't tell me much else, and Marius and our king have both been edging my father out of Ronnie's affairs. When he tries to talk about plans to get our order together to watch the throne pass to him, the subject changes," Bert frowned and sat back with a pensive look on his face. Something smelled fishy, and he would get to the bottom of it.

Meanwhile, Ronnie had snuck back into the room he now shared with Annalise. He laid beside her and hugged her closer to him as he whispered, "Feeling any better?"

Anna shook her head and frowned, "I'm beginning to think all of this at once was a bad idea. Have you ever regurgitated blood before? It doesn't feel pleasant, and I don't know how we're going to keep a lid on this much longer, Ronnie."

"Hey. Calm down. We've got that covered. The only elder not on board is Viktor, and he knows nothing. I had to throw him under the bus to get that done, but there's no way Bert can bring Craig into my council of elders. Vic has full endorsement for the fourth spot. Bert still has no consequences, but I can cross that bridge later. I know he's going to fuck up. He always does," Ronnie sighed and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I had a strange dream last night," Anna sat up and pulled the blood bag she knew was left for her that morning up and started sipping from it, "Is there any possibility that this could be a girl?"

Ronnie snorted, "Almost zero. There hasn't been a female born into our order in...well, in our recorded history. It's like the male chromosome just dominated. We marry the women in. A female heir, no less, is even more unlikely," he braved a glance at his wife and frowned, "You're serious, aren't you?"

Annalise nodded and sighed, "I had this dream, where you were holding my hand while Kellin was telling me to push while the opportunity was open. You were casually discussing names, and all of a sudden, Kellin says, 'Oh wow. Ronnie...You may wanna rethink that.'

You say, 'Why's that?'

And Kellin sighs and holds her out to you and says, 'Last I checked that's not how boys are built.'

Then you fainted and I woke up," Anna looked up at Ronnie and frowned. He was staring down at her stomach with a worried look on his face. He sat there and opened his mouth, then closed it. He did this a few times and then just hugged her closer to him.

"It would make you two even more of a target, but I don't see how it would change anything, aside from of course completely remapping our future. Which we've already done," Ronnie finally said about five minutes later as he traced a circle around Anna's belly button, "But we've got about two and a half months before we know anything for sure."

"Whoa wait a minute, that's not how biology works," Annalise frowned, "We should have about seven...why are you saying two and a half?"

"Just like everything else about our kind, reproduction works differently. More quickly in this case. You still have trimesters, each one being about a month long. It's not a fun process, but since I turned you, it won't kill you to deliver," Ronnie said matter of factly. Anna balked at him and shook her head.

"So, I'm giving birth in two and a half months, to potentially the first naturally born female vampire in our recorded history?" Anna laid back and frowned. Her head was spinning from the (terrifying) information she had just gotten, and it was making her feel queasy all over again.

Ronnie nodded and put his arms tightly around her as he whispered, "Don't worry, Anna. You've got this, and I've got you. You're going to be fine. And look at the bright side, tomorrow, you should be allowed out after dark for your first hunt."

Unbeknownst to the couple, Craig Mabbit had been outside their door. He carefully made his way to the wing Bert stayed in with Viktor, ready to tell them the fascinating information he had just heard.