Max

Ididn't want to be at the ball, not before Vee and, until we got here, I would have happily walked away from the whole affair. But being able to announce she is filled with my child was unexpectedly pleasurable, even among the whole crowd. I drain the glass of champagne and, with my hand at my Vee's back, we make our way through to the main dining hall.

"The food is usually very good," I murmur in Vee's ear.

"I thought you hated these things?" she replies.

"I attended many of them when I was starting out. It's the reason I hate them now."

She leans back into my touch. "We don't have to stay long, you know that don't you? Everyone's seen us."

It is true we've been very much the center of attention, albeit incredibly discreet. Admittedly our brush with the slavery ring and the fire at my apartment has caused some significant discussion across the usual circles and the tabloids have had a field day, or so Peter tells me, but even so, being seen with my Vee, my gorgeous pregnant mate I very much want to marry, fills my heart not with dread but with pride.

I just wish she'd let me have an answer to my question.

I grab another glass of champagne as we enter the dining hall, and before we take our seats, John reappears with all the flourish of Dracula along with an entire pitcher of orange juice for Vee, which she accepts gracefully. I hope the food comes out soon because without cigars, unless my face is buried in Vee's delicious cunt, I need the distraction.

"Maxim, we meet again." I look to my side to see Lucretia with a strange half smile on her face.

Something I've never seen before, and it makes my blood run cold. She beckons me.

"Will you excuse me, sweet Vee?" I bend to kiss my seated mate. "John will look after you." I give him a long, dangerous gaze.

"Always, Max," he says cheerily, taking a sip from a glass which is absolutely not filled with red wine.

Still, he's a vampire who prefers his meals ethically sourced, and he's been my lawyer for a long time. I know I can trust him.

I make my way over to Lucretia who stands next to one of the heavily curtained windows.

"What can I do for you, Lucretia, which I've not already done?" I query, checking Vee over my shoulder.

She's shifting cutlery while John talks to her and she seems fine, but my skin itches to get back to her.

"I believe it's what I can do for you, dear Maxim," she says, her voice lacking its usual hard edge, and it makes me concentrate on her.

"You're finally offering what you owe?" I state.

A witch in debt will always make a return when it benefits them, and not before, so it does surprise me she's only left it two hundred years.

"I never told you why I needed your blood," she says, her eyes dipping to the glass in her hand.

"I didn't want to know."

"My daughter was dying. A spell rebounded as a curse, and it was killing her. A potion derived from troll blood, freely given, was the only thing which could save her, and no other troll but you was prepared to offer any to me."

My heart booms in my chest.

"If I'd known…"

"If you'd known?" Her eyes blaze. "I didn't know you, Max. You could have used the knowledge against me." Her gaze softens. "Now I know you won't."

"So?" I raise my eyebrows at her, wishing I had a cigar.

"I wanted to give you some information, something I hope will help you and your sweet human mate."

I don't reply, I simply wait. Lucretia clears her throat.

"When a troll finds his fated one and she is mortal, he has a choice. He can give up his immortality if he wishes, or he can keep it."

The knowledge floors me. "That isn't true. Trolls are but stone and air. We go on…forever." I look back at Vee again, and this time she catches my eye, a smile flooding her face, and my heart very nearly stops.

She will grow old and die. I will watch our children die. I will have no option but to go on without her.

"How?" My voice is hoarse.

"Renounce it and it is done," Lucretia says.

"It's that simple? Magic isn't that simple," I growl.

"This isn't magic. This is fate." Lucretia smiles. "And you deserve fate, Maxim Horenson. Because you have always had a good heart. This is what you deserve."

"Even if fate has not always been kind, I can accept it because it brought me to my Vee," I snarl. "So renouncing my immortality is a pleasure."

"It is done." Lucretia curls a hand around mine. Hers is cool on my skin. "Go, be happy, have many children, and when your sleep finally comes, it will be forever."

It's with a weird lightness I walk back to the table where the entrees are being served and slide into my seat next to Vee.

"What was that all about?" she asks, tucking into her food.

"I'll tell you later," I say. "But I love you, Vee."

"I love you too, Max," she says, eyes twinkling. "Now eat your food or the entire place will know we have a hungry troll in the house."