“As if you could, mortal,” Mom said coolly.
Zak, Axel, and Paxton charged through the shattered glass wall and surrounded me in a protective ring while staring at my wings in shock.
I knew the feeling, but now wasn’t the time to talk about it.
Mom, however, wasn’t shocked at all. She beamed in pride, her horns turning half-crimson and half-silver in delight. She landed delicately on the edge of the pool and withdrew her wings. I mimicked her, my wings disappearing with barely a thought. I didn’t want my wings to be the center of attention at the moment, even though they were very cool.
I especially didn’t want them to get in the way of my mates and me getting cozy.
“My daughter,” Mom said proudly.
Héctor gave Lilith a hard stare and pulled me into his arms protectively, and my other mates closed in on me. And then I was in a haven of strong arms, finally reunited again.
“How could you put my mates through such an ordeal, Mom?” I roared at Lilith.
“Ordeal?” She quirked an elegant eyebrow. “I think they quite enjoyed it.”
My mates all growled.
Lilith smiled at them. “That’s not the way to greet your future mother-in-law.”
“They could do worse if you weren’t my mom,” I seethed. “You tried to seduce Héctor. Do you have no shame?”
“Why should I be ashamed, darling Belle?” Mom shrugged. “Your mortal is no fun.”
I clenched my fists. I’d asked the wrong question. Demons, gods, and angels didn’t hold to any kind of morality, and therefore never felt shame for their actions. I was lucky that my demigod mates adopted my ethics.
“You blame him?” I asked incredulously, shooting her another glare over my mates’ shoulders. “He turned his nose up at you and your offer, Queen of Succubi! It didn’t sit well with you, did it? All of my mates rejected your seducers. Quit trying to break us up. I won’t abandon them and stay here with you, if that’s what you planned.”
“That’s not what I planned, Belle Marigold, my beautiful, fierce child.” Lilith beamed at me, as if she was the greatest mom ever. “I was only looking out for your best interests. I always do. Who wouldn’t do anything for their child?”
“Maybe you should have that conversation with Lucifer,” I said.
Not every parent was a good role model. Lucifer had chained and whipped Loki in the dungeon because Loki defied the devil’s order to kill his birth mother. I wondered how Loki was doing now. He’d looked after me on Earth, and I’d helped him get rid of his sadistic father.
Hell belonged to him and his dukes now.
Mom regarded me indulgently. “I’m glad he isn’t your father. It irked him to no end that I had a child with another male, and not just any male, but the Titan king.”
My heart lurched at the mention of my father. “He—my father is here?”
“Of course.Hyperion is in the prison,” Lilith said fondly. “You’ll see him soon.”
Something fluttered in my chest. I hadn’t known I was a Titan’s child until Axel dragged me to the Academy and made the priest perform the blood rune ritual on me. Step by step, my mates peeled off the layers hiding my true heritage along with me.
I didn’t know what to make of my parents’ sudden accessibility. And I was willing to bet that visiting a father I’d never known in a prison wouldn’t be any daughter’s highlight of the day.
“Leave us,” Lilith said in a queen’s voice, and all her girls, who still stared at my mates with lust, filed out the garden, swaying their hips unnecessarily.
In a moment, they cleared away, and I relaxed my shoulders. It was crystal clear that my mates weren’t interested in other females, but the possessive part of me didn’t like those nudists gawking at my mates with burning desire.
“Now it’s just us family,” Mom said and twirled a finger.
The pool garden morphed into a palatial dining hall. A diamond and sapphire chandelier hung from the ceiling, while six dining chairs in plush velvet upholstery surrounded a hand-carved Chinese rosewood table.
Mom had the same expensive taste as my mates. I still remembered whenHéctor took me to his apartment in Manhattan overlooking Central Park. I had felt embarrassed dripping water on his million-dollar rug.
My mates developed an acquired taste for me after they got the Marigold who raised herself in the wilderness and gangster streets. And I was kind of cheap. After that kind of upbringing, I wasn’t even awed by the gold and silver utensils and fancy napkins. Extravagance did not touch me. All I cared about was the rich display of the variety of food, drinks, anddesserts that seemed heavy enough to collapse the royal table.