Faith
Lady Jax hated me. That’s all there was to it.
I tried small talk. I tried talking about Lord Jax’s Zebcats—one of which was curled up around my feet at the moment much to Lord Jax’s shock and delight—and I tried talking about the food, the house, the freaking weather.
She was Thor’s mother. I really wanted her to like me. It was kind of stupid, but I did. By snooping about her house, I’d set myself up to be on her enemy list. And then being a maid who’d gotten her sharp claws into her only son… yeah, I was her worst enemy. It wasn’t as if I’d seduced him, stripped naked and forced his cock to awaken and then somehow “fall” into my pussy. No, Thor had some responsibility for all that. And yet I was branded the harlot. Virgin ravager.
Whatever.
I was stuck in this uncomfortable situation of my own making, partially intentional and partially completely out of my control—and madly, stupidly in love with her son. Yeah, that was the part that had been out of my control.
He sat beside me, looking so good I had little interest in the food I knew we were about to enjoy. I was sure it would be wonderful, as I’d been sampling bits and pieces from the kitchen during my time here as a servant, but I smelled burning meat, which generally made my stomach churn with nausea.
I loved animals. All animals. The thought of eating one made me ill. The smell of one cooking?
Well, if I thought nothing would ever curb my sexual desire for my new mate, this had proven me wrong. Charred flesh killed the sexy right out of me. So did the sight of Thor’s mother. Her glare. Yeah, she’d heard us having sex earlier.
No question.
I took a sip of wine and tried to smile at Lady Jax. Again.
“This wine is lovely.” I wasn’t much of a wine fan. Sweet. White. Not much taste to it. That was about the only thing I could take. This was a dark, blood red and tasted like tree bark and pepper left to rot in a vat of vinegar. It was hard not to grimace, which would only irritate the woman even further.
No. Not a fan. The woman or the wine. I sipped it anyway, forced myself to smile at my future mother-in-law and tried not to shudder as she poured herself a third glass from the crystal decanter near her elbow.
“It’s the finest wine, from Atlan.” Thor leapt on the opportunity to fill the stifling silence in the intimate dining room. This was the family’s private table, not the larger room that was for guests and sat twenty. I knew that well since I’d had to polish the glossy surface every day I’d worked in the house. This room was small, but decadent. Large double doors on three sides closed us in like donuts in a box, the large glass ceiling overhead offered a view screen to the stars. It would have been romantic, any other time, or at least with only Thor in the room with me. The stars twinkling overhead, the muffled sounds of the Zebcats purring made it almost possible to forget Lady Jax. Almost.
“I don’t drink anything else,” she replied. “That’s something you should know, Faith, if you’re going to be part of this family. We do not accept anything less than the best.”
The woman raised her brow and looked down her nose at me, her intention clear. She did not believe I was the best option for her prodigal, oh-so-beloved son, and she wanted me to know her opinion.
Message received. Jeez. I wondered if this was what it felt like for every woman brought before a judgmental, over-protective mother-in-law. From what Thor had said, he hadn’t brought any other woman home with him. Hadn’t told his parents before me that he’d found his mate. Not like guys on Earth who might change their minds ten times over. No, I’d awakened Thor and that was the end of it. I was his mate. Period.
But I remembered Thor saying Lady Jax had brought women to him in the hopes one of them would awaken him. Nope. Hadn’t worked. Until me.
Ha!
I had to admit, Thor was fantastic. And gorgeous. And smart. Honorable. Fucking amazing in bed.
Rich.
But I wasn’t after his money. I didn’t need it. In fact, compared to my family, they were paupers. I’d seen my mother’s palace, and been told that my mother owned several more homes scattered on different continents on the planet, all nearly as large.
We were richer than I could fathom. Me, Trinity and Destiny. And back on Earth, Trinity had struggled to pay off her student loans from law school, Destiny worked at her martial arts gym about fifty hours a week, and I’d barely scraped by enough on odd jobs to keep myself respectable.
No, I was a bazillionaire. And while I wasn’t sure how much money we had exactly, I knew it was a lot. Technically, from what I understood, we owned the entire planet.
Which was just crazy. Who owned a damn planet?
Me.
Double ha! I should tell the witch with the scornful, disappointed expression on her face. I wasn’t going to give her what she wanted. A higher place in society. God, she’d probably keel over from the new social standing alone. It was probably her ultimate dream—her only son mated to a princess.
And yet she looked at me, most likely thinking about the best way to toss me out into the back alley with the rest of the trash.
Thor’s warm hand slid onto my thigh beneath the table, and I was grateful for the contact. One, it broke my depressing, bitter train of thought. And two? It was Thor. Touching me. Always a win.
“How was your day, Father?” Thor asked.
“Fine. Fine.” He popped a spoon-filled bite of something that shook like jelly but was thick, black, and smelled like burned peaches into his mouth. Gross. “And you? Any word from the guards on who broke into your apartment?”
That got monster-mother’s gaze off me and onto her son. “What break in?”
Thor sighed and leaned back in his chair, slumping like a scolded ten-year-old. “It’s nothing, Mother. I’m taking care of it.”
“What do you mean, nothing?” she asked.
Clearly, she didn’t like that someone messed with him. For once, I agreed with her, but I wasn’t going to say that.
“Someone broke into your home? I may have retired from the Optimus unit, but I still have connections. You know that. You should have told me at once.” There was real worry in her voice. She loved her son beyond all reason, which I could respect.
I could win her over eventually with the fact that we both loved Thor, right?
Thor squeezed my thigh and I relaxed. “And have old man Coburt sticking his nose in my business? No thank you, Mother. I’ve told you before, I don’t care for Lord Wyse, or his style of investigation.”
She frowned at him, her gaze darting to me—the elephant in the room. Lord Wyse had fully intended to take me to some prison and interrogate me. Thor had saved me from that, which probably pissed his mother off on top of everything else. Surely, she’d wished Thor had left me with the Optimus unit, especially since she knew what they did to bad guys.
I didn’t have to win over Thor’s mother. Or his father. Or his cousins or uncles or staff. I had Thor’s heart. He was mine and I was his. That was all I needed. It wasn’t like we were going to live with his parents for long. God, if there was a motivator to find the real traitor, it was that alone. I wanted Thor, in a place of our own, without parents looming or judging or just plain-old hating.
If Lady Jax came around, great. If not? Well, I still had Thor. And our future, which I hoped would include a couple of Zebcats of my own, and maybe a set of twin girls to run around and tackle Daddy when he came home from work.
I had a lot to learn about his job, too. And that was after we managed to catch the traitor. If we caught him.
We’d only been in the house a few hours, and we’d been naked and fucking almost the entire time. That wasn’t the best way to root out a traitor, but it had certainly made me feel good. Because of our afternoon in bed, we were no closer to figuring out who had been behind the attack on Trinity. It was frustrating, all of it except the part about being with Thor as his mate. That was extremely… pleasant. Much more so than sneaking around on my off hours and cleaning up after his father. Now I had someone to snoop with, and we didn’t have to be all that secretive about it.
The Zebcat at my feet stretched, then rubbed its whiskered chin against my ankles, the purring noise louder than any I’d heard before.
Thor’s mother scoffed, looked under the table and glared at her mate. “You know I don’t like to have animals in the dining room. They’re filthy.”
“Life’s filthy, love. You like it a little dirty.” He smiled and waggled his eyebrows at her, which made her cheeks flush pink as she looked down at her plate.
I did not want to know.
“Back to the discussion at hand, Mother.” Clearly, Thor didn’t want to have his parents talk—even thinly veiled—about their sex life over dinner. “I need to see the work schedule for the day the comm was placed in my room, the day of the royal reception.”
“I’m looking, dear, but you know how things are around here,” his mother replied. “Sometimes the schedule is on the computer system, and sometimes it’s not. I’ve asked the head maid to find it. She will.”
“When?”
“I don’t know, dear.” Lady Jax put down her glass and patted her lips with her napkin. “She’s busy. These things take time.”
Thor slammed his glass of wine down on the table. “No. They do not. I want the schedule, and I want to see it tonight. It’s been too long already.”
She tilted her head at him, her expression serious. Placating. “Of course. If that is what you wish. I’ll ask her about it immediately after dinner.” Her gaze darted to me, and the scowl returned to her face. “I could bring it by your bedroom, if I know you’re going to be—available.”
Available? As in not fucking your new mate’s brains out and making her scream your name.
I smiled at her, and it wasn’t exactly friendly. But it wasn’t mean either. I did want her to like me. But I had no intention of giving back her son. He was mine now. And she would just have to put on her big girl panties and deal with it.
The servants came into the room and went like ghosts, bringing soup, a crisp, fruity salad and more wine. Always more wine. Since I didn’t have more than the one sip, my glass remained full, but the youngest of them was observant enough to refill my water glass instead.
Thank god. Some of the crackers and side dishes were dry, and swallowing fermented tree bark was not my thing.
When the main dish arrived, the burned smell I’d identified earlier intensified. Lady Jax rose and went to a side table, where the steaming dish had been set, and left behind, by the kitchen staff.
Thor’s mother was beaming, then lovingly glanced over her shoulder at Lord Jax. “I made your favorite, dear!”
“You know how to keep your mate happy.” His smile was endearing, and full of true contentment, even as he patted his stomach in obvious eagerness for the stinky dish. It almost made up for the stench of burning flesh.
I looked at Thor, who grinned at me, tracing my lower lip with his thumb. “My mother comes from a land far from here where this dish is a delicacy. The recipe is very old, passed down for generations.”
I swallowed. Hard. Oh, shit. There was no way. No way. Whatever it was, I would vomit all over the table if I tried to eat it. “Thor, I don’t eat meat.” I mouthed the words to him, made less sound than a whisper.
I’d messed with Lady Jax enough. Offending her and where she’d grown up might push the woman over the edge. Especially if I threw up. Not a good impression.
His mother laid a plate of steaming dead body parts in front of me, then went back to fill plates for everyone else. Three small chunks of charred… something with a coating of dark sauce.
“Don’t worry,” Thor whispered. “You don’t have to eat it.”
“That’s right, you don’t eat any of your animal friends,” Lord Jax murmured. He, too, didn’t want to upset his mate. He winked at me as his mate returned and placed an identical plate in front of him.
When she turned her back again, Lord Jax reached over and speared two chunks of meat from my plate onto his fork and stuffed every bite into his mouth with a huge, self-satisfied grin on his face.
“There,” he said, cheeks full. “Good job cleaning your plate.”
The words were garbled since his mouth was so full, a bit of sauce on his lip.
I put my hand on his and whispered, “Thank you.”
God, he really was adorable and he also knew his mate’s unhappiness. I wasn’t sure if he were trying to smooth things over with me, or with her. I knew where Thor’s charm came from. And it definitely was not his mother.
She set a plate in front of Thor as well and went back to the sidebar to serve herself. By the time she sat down with her own plate before her, Lord Jax had emptied my plate, and both her mate and her son only had one piece left.
Her smile was brilliant. “I see my boys were hungry.” She glanced at my plate as well, eyes rounding when she saw that my plate, too, was bare. “And you, Faith. Did you like the dish? It’s a family tradition. I made them to honor you and Thor and your mating.”
I smiled. She was trying. That was something. “Thank you. They were delicious.”
Preening, she looked down at her plate and I glanced at my future father-in-law, who winked at me with a grin. We were both happy. He got a double serving, and I didn’t have to eat a single bite. And Lady Jax was pleased.
When the plates were cleared, Thor’s father rose and lifted his glass. “To you, Faith. I have never seen my son so happy. Welcome to the family.”
“Thank you.” I lifted my glass and managed to swallow a bit of the wine. Sometimes, a girl had to do what a girl had to do. A sip of the bitter wine was better than any of the meat. “I am happy as well.”
“We all are, dear,” Thor’s mother added. I doubted her words were sincere, but I wasn’t going to call her on it. I’d take the words for now.
Thor’s hand was back on my thigh and I leaned into his side. Happy. Content.
Thor’s father swayed, as if he’d had two bottles of wine, not two glasses.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
Lady Jax looked up from the table, where she’d been staring at her wine glass, rotating the base on the table, around, and around, and around. Thinking. “My lord?”
“Fine. Fine. I’m—“ He toppled, falling hard to the floor. The Zebcat closest to him hissed in alarm as his master nearly fell on top of him.
“Father!” Thor jumped from his seat as Lady Jax fell from hers, landing on her knees next to her mate.
“My love!” She shook her mate as Thor settled on the opposite side of his father’s unconscious body. I loomed over them, not sure what to do. Lord Jax was flushed, sweating. Unmoving. Ten seconds ago he’d been fine and now…
The lead servant stuck his head into the room, probably hearing the loud thud of Lord Jax falling. Thor yelled at him, “Summon the healers, now! And get me a ReGen wand.”
“At once, my lord.” The door closed behind the servant and we were alone in the room, the elder Lord Jax’s labored breathing a garbled sound I’d never heard before, as if his lungs were full of fluid.
“Father?” Thor rolled his father onto his back and the old man’s eyes were glazed over, like glass. Staring, unseeing, at the ceiling. “Father?”
“My love?” Lady Jax screamed, shaking his shoulder. “What have you done? What have you done?”
Shit. I had no idea what to do. All I could do was watch.
Until Lady Jax stood and pointed at me. “You. You did this!”
I stared at her wide-eyed. Me?
“Did what?” I took a step back as she moved forward, all kinds of crazy on her face. Veins popped out at her temples, her gaze narrow and the fiercest I’d ever seen. She glanced at the table, grabbed her husband’s knife and waved it at me. Was she planning on stabbing me? With her mate dying on the floor?
“You! You poisoned him!”
“What?” Holy shit. I put a chair between us and kept backing up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t. I would never—“
“Enough, Mother!” Thor said, putting his hand on his father’s shoulder. “Stop this. Get the ReGen wand!”
She took a step around the end of the table and looked down at my empty plate, then back up at me, her gaze no longer lucid. “You poisoned him.”
I moved further away, putting two chairs between us. I didn’t want to go kung fu on Thor’s mom, but this was getting real. Fast.
Poisoned? As if.
I could see she why she wouldn’t like me. I had been snooping around her bedroom. And now I was her son’s mate. That was reasonable. But this? This just made me angry.
I could feel the power building inside me like a grenade about to go off. If she came at me with that knife, I wasn’t going to be able to stop whatever was inside me from kicking her ass.
Then she’d never like me. Never. Not even giving her cute grandkids would be able to save me from a life of scorn and disappointment from her.
“Mother!” Thor stood now, walked to her and ripped the knife from her hand. “I said enough. Stop this. Father needs help.” He glanced down at the prostrate man.
She shook her head and leaned into her son. “Nothing is going to help him now. Nothing.” She sobbed, her shoulders shaking like she was breaking.
A servant brought in the wand and Thor took it, dropped beside his dad and began waving the blue light over him.
“He’ll be all right,” Thor said as he worked. “I’m sure the medical team will be here any moment. We don’t even know what’s wrong. A ReGen pod will have him back here chasing you around the house in no time.”
She shook her head, spun on her heel and turned back to me. Pointed. Livid. “You did this. If you live a thousand years, I want you to know this was your doing.”
Her words were like a dagger in my gut, but I stood tall and kept my chin up. She hated me. So be it. But I wasn’t going to give up on Thor because of that.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “I told you I wasn’t the traitor. We’ll find who’s messing with the Jax family. Set things right.”
“No.” Her hands shaking, she reached into a pocket of her gown and pulled out a small vial. “Things will never be right.” She glanced over her shoulder at Lord Jax’s unconscious body.
She opened her mouth and tipped the contents of the container onto her tongue. What the hell was she doing? I didn’t understand what I was seeing, what was happening so quickly.
Thor, who’d been checking on his father, saw her as the final drop fell.
Between one second and the next he was beside her, throwing the vial away from her to shatter against the wall across the room. “Mother! What have you done?”
He was wild with fear. With anger. With surprise.
She looked up at him, her shoulders sagging in defeat. “It was supposed to be her.” Her legs gave way, as if they could no longer hold her weight, and she slipped to her knees. Thor tried to catch her, but she’d gone boneless. Weak.
“I’m sorry, my son. It was supposed to be her, not your father.”