Chapter 13

LUNA

My princess's giggled filled the cavernous space of the club area. I tipped my head back to scent her. She instigated by whispering here and there, her bare feet barely made a sound on the high polished floors. My mate was naked in the shadows, hiding from me. She took great pleasure in being my prey.

"Luna," she whispered from another corner of the room.

I crouched low, my steps silent, and I surged forward to look around the corner of a booth. Fuck, the space was empty and her sweet laughter came from somewhere behind me. Ivory was getting good at his game. One night I'd have to take her to the woods, hunt her and then fuck her beneath the brightness of the full moon. I knew an Alpha with a lot of land who owed me a favor.

A smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth as plans began to form. I spun in the middle of the dance floor as a flash of pale skin caught the corner of my eye. I stalked in that direction.

"You're getting cold, Mistress," she taunted.

My growl grew louder and earned me another sweet, lilting laugh that told me my next direction. I froze in my steps as a familiar scent from my past hit me. A creature I'd never hoped to see again. I ripped off my shirt.

"Princess, game over, come here." The command in my voice told her I was serious. I threw the fabric into the shadows so that she wouldn't be exposed. "We have company."

"Oh shit."

I snorted as I stepped into the spotlight that lit the center of the dance floor. A shadowed figure hid to the side near the door to the basement that was hidden behind a heavy tapestry.

"Mother, not a pleasant surprise." My shout was met by an angry hiss.

"Always the insolent child. Shouldn't you have matured into a suitable demon in a century and a half?"

"Where would be the fun in that?" I asked as an extremely tall version of me approached.

My mother's hair had turned solid white from its former crimson shade. The red in her gaze muted by age. A lot changed in over a century. She seemed almost ready to pass into the final realm. I sensed my mate hidden behind a pillar watching from a safe distance. Very smart. My kind didn't mellow with age.

"What brings you back? Miss the job?"

"No, rumors have made their way to me. I thought a visit was in order." Tavi's voice contained way more of a hiss than mine.

The human contributor to my creation had bled through in certain areas, mainly physical. Everything else was purely my mother.

"Is this a concerned mother checking on her wayward child?"

Her spine rattled with her irritation. My mother was a vicious female. It's the reason I was the most feared; her lessons had been painfully learned. She entered the halo of bright light, we circled each other like warriors in a ring. Preparing for the first strike.

"Shit." Gailie's voice broke as she zoomed by my head with a bundle of fabric in her arms to peek over my shoulder. "I sensed we had a visitor, so I brought Ivory her gown."

"She's behind me, please get her dressed and comfortable before the introductions." Tradition stated we never did these family reunions. Once a Hag disappeared, she stayed that way. "Have you come to reclaim your throne?"

"No, I've grown too old to deal with the politics of being The Hag. I'm here after hearing a distasteful rumor."

"And what might that be?" I asked, knowing perfectly well what she heard. I'd mated to a human.

"Mated, really, what nonsense," she shouted.

Smirking and knowing she'd lose her temper even more. Tavi knew perfectly well why she slinked off into retirement. I grew more powerful. Yet that didn't mean she could cause my Princess significant damage. I'd banish her without a second thought.

"Humans are prey, nothing more. Occasionally used to continue our line. We do not mate or fuck them for pleasure, Luna."

She sounded like an actual mother scolding her child. Which was a joke. She'd trained me like a pet. Painfully, at the end of her whip.

"Not saying I don't like to hunt my pretty mate before I fuck her, but it's very much pleasurable for both of us." She spit at my feet and my smile only widened at her failed attempt at dominance. "Is that all you have?"

"You've grown too arrogant, even for you, Luna."

"I am what you made me." I twisted to hold out my hand to Ivory, but never took my focus from my mother. "You had questions about her, love." Tavi snarled. "Come meet my mother."

A cold, clammy hand slipped into mine, and I tugged her until she was safely tucked to my side. I rolled my eyes as a wing teased my cheek. Gailie had taken her favorite perch on my mate's shoulder. Mother stared at the human and pixie with obvious disgust.

"Ivory, meet Tavi, Tavi, meet my mate."

I glanced at my mother and then quickly to Ivory to find her staring way up at Tavi. She'd never seen another Hag, the differences were clear. I knew my mate would have questions later.

"You defied tradition for that?" Tavi asked with an aggressive sweep of her arm.

"You'll show respect to my mate in her home."

Mother sniffed and turned away; giving me her back was meant to be an insult. I turned my head to kiss Ivory's soft cheek. Her fear made her chilled. My princess should never fear for anything. She may not be as strong as me, but she was by my side as an equal. I flicked Gailie has she smacked me with her wing for crowding her and almost knocking her from her perch.

"Lovely visit, ready to disappear yet?"

"No room for your mother to have a visit?" she asked with a hint of the old arrogance she possessed before she'd left.

"You just want to stay and be nosy, intimidate my mate. That's not fucking happening. Unless my mate feels comfortable issuing an invitation, you're not welcome in our home." I rubbed Ivory's back as she whispered my name.

"This used to be my home before yours."

"You relinquished that right when you gave up your power here. No goodbye and you're suddenly back thinking you're getting me to give up my mate. It won't happen, and I can assure you if you put one claw on her you won't have to worry about returning to your retirement."

"I'm sure the child and her pet would love to offer their mate's mother a place to stay." She glared at Ivory.

"If she's polite, I don't mind giving her a guest room for an evening."

Ivory's dislike was clear through our connection. The insult to her she'd ignored, but calling Gailie a pet annoyed her. She was protective of her best friend.

"Gailie and I will ready a room for your mother, I'll be waiting for you in bed." She didn't take her focus from Tavi as she walked a wide circle around my mother.

When she disappeared through the door leading to the upper levels, I turned back to Tavi. I waited her out. She wouldn't hold her tongue long; it wasn't in her nature to do so.

"You gave up everything for that human," she roared.

"I earned so much more than I may have lost. Ivory issued the invite you wanted, but one insult to her, even a scratch makes it onto her skin, and I'll destroy you. Mother-child bonds don't exist, you had me for a purpose and nothing more." I walked around her, if she followed that was fine, if not good riddance.

I'd never had use for Tavi.

My senses were on high alert with her at my back. I'd seen the weariness in her. The age that had dampened her power. She was near the end. Hags always reached the point at some time where the existence was more effort than it was worth. We chose our times. If she was anything but a Hag I'd assumed she was wanting to reconnect, make amends at the end of her life, but not Tavi. There wasn't anything in her that wanted to bond with the child she had out of obligation.

No more than I wanted to pretend that I cared for her in any way. At that moment she was nothing more than an adversary. A threat to me and mine. I didn't trust her and would contact my security to up patrols until she grew bored and left. Which wouldn't take long, I'd studied her my entire life as an opponent and not a mother. I only called her my mother to stress the disgust I had in the role.

I stepped off on the third floor which was the first of the living quarters, and found Ivory and Gailie giggling as they changed the sheets on the bed. Well more Ivory than the pixie as she was trapped under the top sheet and struggling to escape. Before my mate, I'd never seen anything close to normalcy. Yes, I'd observed mates in the past, but more often than not I was acquainted with the unmated, like Lucian. I'd been thankful for the fact Hags didn't have mates, and then I'd claimed Ivory, and I'd begun to pity him and the pain he experienced.

"Almost finished, Gailie had a mishap."

My mate and her pixie worked together to finish getting everything set up, and then they were leaving. I sensed Gailie would be staying on our floor until Tavi left. That was fine with me if it made my mate happy.

"Make yourself at home on this floor." I stressed that she couldn't venture any farther than that floor.

I left her without another word and went to find my princess so that I could have her safely in my arms.