Ascension Saga (Interstellar Brides): Book 5

“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 c

ould 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.