I wasn’t sure what he was saying, but the words came out commanding and final.
Everyone went death-quiet.
Opening my eyes, I peeked out from under his wing to see the fae queen stumble back. Her hand flew to her heart, and a look of sheer shock briefly passed over her face before pure joy took over. Her demeanor changed instantly. She cried out in relief and threw her arms around her son’s neck.”Vár!”
She was so large in her fully shifted form but seemed so small in her son’s embrace. I gaped at them in pure fascination at the way she sobbed, overjoyed to see her son. Vin said something to his mother that had her nodding and quelling her sobs the next moment.
I barely recognized her as the savage queen who’d been ready to rip out my throat seconds ago. Now she just looked like a mom, happy to see her child.
“Dar sev, Vár!”she sniffed against Vin’s shoulder.
“Da Ruby, mothva.”Vincent stepped to one side, allowing me to come back into his mother’s view while still keeping one wing cradled protectively around me.
Her attention zeroed in on me.
And her demeanor shifted again. Her beady black eyes narrowed.
“Ruby?” Even with her thick accent, there was no missing the way she tasted my name, like it was something nasty in her mouth. She stepped closer, pulling Vincent’s wing away to appraise me.
“She doesn’t speak English?” I asked him, growing at the way the woman seemed to regard me like a piece of meat.
“No,” my mate growled out. “Some of my people do, but only those who’ve traveled to the human realm to hunt before my mother outlawed it. I will translate for you.”
My frown deepened. I didn’t need to know the specifics of what Vin’s mom was muttering under her breath. I’d heard him curse enough to know she wasn’t exactly rolling out the welcome wagon.
“She’s surprised that you’re here.” The terse bend in his tone made my heart twist.
The queen of the fae was more than surprised. She was straight-up horrified, disgusted, and distrustful of me. Because here I was, a strange hybrid, reeking of the fae prince.
Knowing how sensitive fae senses were, she could probably smell every goddamn thing I’d ever done to her son. I cringed. “Have you told her we’re mated?”
The expression on Vincent’s face was the only answer I needed.
She knew. They all knew.
To say the atmosphere was beyond tense was a massive, freaking understatement. Here I was, meeting my monstrous mate’s mother, looking at me like I was a dangerous monster and not her son’s mate. I mean, Iwasa dangerous monster. So we had that in common. But one of us seemed to have more manners than the other.
Before anyone could get out another word, another female forced herself to the front of the crowd.
The moment Vincent’s attention shifted to the woman, he bristled, and the surrounding oxygen grew brittle.
“Fuck,” he snarled under his breath.
Everything in me went cold.
Whoever the woman was, she was gorgeous, with olive skin and silken white hair that flowed down to her hips. A dozen doves were tatted over her throat and stretched down her chest and dipped into the thin scrap of fabric covering her breasts.
She was like an otherworldly supermodel, with a bitch attitude I could practically taste by the way she carried herself. Not to mention the way she eyed me with the coldest expression I’d seen since I’d murdered Lexi.
Everyone seemed to hold their breath as she approached. Even the fae queen appeared to have respect for this woman by the way she stepped aside, clearing a path to me.
“Vincent, who in the bloody fuck is that?”
The way my mate paused, trying to pick the right words, had that fist of anxiety squeezing my lungs so hard I could barely breathe. “She’s known as Val around the village. The most talented shifter here.”
He ground his fangs. “And a cruel bitch. So brace yourself. She’s not happy after my last visit.”
“Why? What is she to you?” I couldn’t tear my eyes off her. I wasn’t sure why the muscles in my body coiled tighter with every step she took toward us.
