Stolen by Her Demon King Mate

Chapter 9: Wine

I stared at Grayson’s mother as she walked in. “You don’t have to be worried,” Vaness whispered to me. “When I told her you were here she seemed eager to meet you and excited for Gray.” Maybe I didn’t have anything to worry about. Grayson’s mother sat down on the other side of Vaness.

“Mother, this is my mate Aria. Aria, this is my mother, former Queen Fay.”

“It’s nice to-”

“You’re the woman from the prophecy?” she interrupted while scanning me. She was probably trying to figure out for herself if I met the description.

“Uh… that’s what everyone seems to think but I’d never try to harm Grayson. I don’t really think I could.”

Fay raised an eyebrow. “You’re not properly trained? Am I to believe you’re not a powerful blessed hybrid?”

I stroked the nape of my neck apprehensively. “I’m not trained in any way and I’m not that much more powerful than any blessed demon.”

“So you haven’t reached your full potential?” She looked disappointed, which I wasn’t expecting. Wouldn’t she want me to be harmless but instead it was as if she wanted me to be the woman who could overpower her son?

“Enough,” Grayson declared as we were served the first course of dinner.

“Grayson, I will be moving soon,” Fay announced.

“Very well,” Grayson approved.

“Can I go with you?” Vaness asked.

“No,” Grayson answered for his mother.

“Grayson is your legal guardian, if he doesn’t want you to come then there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ll be leaving soon,” Fay said impatiently.

The rest of dinner was tense. Grayson took off to do something after so I walked with Vaness to Grayson and my room.

“Are you mad at Grayson for not letting you move with your mother?” I asked curiously.

“Not really.” She shrugged. “It was an impulsive question. I haven’t really felt connected to my mom in the last seven years, but I’ve wanted to, so I asked. To be honest I would probably miss Gray and Grace too much. I actually feel a connection with them. It would be nice to not have such strict rules. If I lived with my mother she probably wouldn’t care what I do. I’ll be 18 this year so it’s not like I won’t be able to leave then if I really wanted to.”

“That’s true.” I rubbed my arm. “Who’s Grace’s mother? I’ve asked King Grayson but he won’t tell me. Is it Delilah? I keep hearing about someone named Delilah.”

Vaness laughed. “No, Delilah is only 19 so she’d had to have had her at eleven.” Her laughter continued. “Wait, you don’t think Gray is Grace’s biological father do you?”

“Uhh… I did.”

“No, no, no.” She grabbed the key from me and unlocked the room door. “My brother adopted Grace.” She handed me the key back and walked in.

“Really? But they look so much alike.”

“Well yeah, I look a lot like Gray too and Grace looks like me. We’re all biological siblings. After our mother gave birth to Grace both our parents were attacked. Our father was murdered and our mother was greatly injured causing her to slip into a coma. Grayson was left with no other choice but to become King early and raise his sisters.”

“That explains a lot.”

“He became our legal guardian. When our mother woke up from her coma she had no previous memory of her life. Gray decided to legally adopt Grace as his own. He explained most of this to Grace a few months ago but our mother doesn’t know she’s Grace’s birth mother. It was easier to explain to her that she had two children than a third who was just a baby and would have required a lot more attention. She wasn’t mentally stable enough to care for a baby because of the trauma.”

“I don’t know why he couldn't explain all that to me himself.” I did know why. He could never trust me because of the prophecy. I grabbed the bags that had all of Vaness’ clothes and makeup.

“Don’t tell him I told you any of this. I’m surprised you didn’t already know. I know you come from a community more focused on survival than politics but It’s not anything you couldn’t have learned from a quick web search on our family.” I didn’t think about that. There was probably a lot about Grayson that was public knowledge. She walked to the door. “I’ll see you later okay? I really appreciate you acting like these things were yours.” She reached into her bag. “You’re a little smaller than me but I did pick out a few things in your size that you can keep. Grayson might think it’s weird that he bought so much lace lingerie for you and then see that there’s none in your closet.” I grabbed the lingerie from her but I didn’t plan on wearing any of it. Vaness left and I put the lingerie away in my side of the closet.

I yawned and that was cue for me to change into my pajamas. I looked forward to sleeping tonight. I slept a lot better last night knowing my family was safe. I know Courtney would want me to enjoy myself now. I don’t know what my father would want. I know he’d want me to be safe but I don’t know how safe I felt here.

Grayson didn’t take long coming to the room. He looked as if he was disappointed to find me in baggy pajamas instead of lace lingerie. He had a bottle of wine in one hand and glasses in the other.

“Do you want to join me for a drink?” He put the things down on the tall round table.

“No thanks.” I enjoyed drinking a lot. A little too much if you asked Vey or my mother. The problem is how sensual I got after a drink, especially wine. Emilio took advantage of that a lot and I don’t want to give Grayson the same idea. The mate bond and his good looks made it hard enough not to throw myself at him.

Grayson poured two glasses of wine despite my refusal. “You’ve been on edge since you arrived.”

“Can you blame me, King Grayson?” I held back on giving a sarcastic reply.

“You don’t have to address me so formally my love. I want you to feel more comfortable here. What can I do to assure that?” He walked to me and extended a glass of wine to me as he took a sip from his. “I’ll only ask one more time if you want wine”

“I just want us to get to know each other.” I accepted the glass of wine.

“We will. My oracle is getting better at seeing the future. He’ll be able to tell us if the prophecy will still happen or not.” He needed the prophecy to be disproven before he let his guard down. “Tell me more about your father.”

“Oh. My Dad was a great man, a spell caster I think.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, my mom doesn’t talk about him. I wasn’t too young when he was alive. I remember him casting spells and making potions but it’s vague. I know he researched science magic a lot.”

“Do you remember what he looked like?” He took another swig from his wine glass.

“That’s vague too. It’s not like I don’t have memories of him but memories aren’t the most reliable after eight years. My mother has pictures of him from when they were younger. I don’t look at those too often though. Do you remember your father?”

“You’re assuming my father is dead again.” Because I knew he was. I took a drink of my wine. He watched me as if he was bewitched by me.

“I…” I bit the inside of my cheek. “I hate how I don’t remember my father’s voice.” I tucked a strand of my curly kinky hair behind my ear.

“You’re beautiful, Aria.”

I glanced at him before staring at my wine glass. “Th-thank you.” I straightened my posture and took a sip of wine before handing the glass to him. “I don’t want anymore.” I was already feeling a sensation from my bottom front.

“I have a meeting tomorrow.” He put both glasses down on the round table. He took his shirt off and pants. He got into bed and sighed with contempt. “Grace is already fond of you.”

“Yes but your mother isn’t.”

“She’s not very fond of you but that doesn’t matter.”

“King Grayson,” A voice from a walkie-talkie on his nightstand said. He picked it up and pressed the button to speak.

“Yes?”

“They’re becoming a problem and Tobias insists on fighting them off with magic.”

“What’s the problem with that?”

“He needs to be reinforcing the protection barrier on the castle,” She clarified anxiously. “He’s afraid a few will get in but we’re capable of fighting them off without him.”

“Tell the guards so are spell casters to work together to reinforce the barrier for now. He’ll do it properly after,” Grayson instructed calmly.

“Okay.” The guard responded and he put the walkie-talkie back down on the nightstand.

“What’s that about?”

“I need to increase the castle’s security even more than I already had.” After I nearly escaped I noticed there were more guards on duty at a time around the castle. “I’ll do that soon.” He cupped my cheek when I laid down. After more than half an hour he asked, “It doesn’t usually take you so long to fall asleep. What’s wrong?”

“There was always something to think about… Vey, my family, or both. I’m not done grieving for Vey but the worst is over and my family is safe. Tonight I have no distractions…” I closed my eyes. “When I close my eyes all I can see is the faintly lit dungeon. I feel the cold stone floor, a smell of the musty scent in the air, and the taste of my dry mouth. Not only that but a starved feeling invades my now full stomach again. The dizziness I felt from the sleep I deprived myself of is felt. Those days… a thought creeps into my mind that I’m still stuck in one of those days.”

“Baby.” Grayson drew me into his embrace with swift force. “I’m sorry.” I cuddled against him. “I’m sorry that I put you through that.” He was sorry he put me through it but he wasn’t sorry he put the order out. That was still clear because that’s what brought us together. I don’t think he’d give that up if he could.

I’m the morning I woke up tossing and turning. When I woke up I realized it was because Grayson was gone for his meeting.

I took a bath for the first time here. The tub was spacious. It was almost like a jacuzzi. Everything here was so elegant and expensive-looking. I was afraid I’d break something.

After my bath, I washed and rinsed off with a shower. When I got out I got dressed in an outfit Grayson bought me yesterday. This was one he picked out.

I left the room and walked around the castle. I hoped to see someone I knew but I didn’t. Grayson’s employees had their eyes fixated on me as they whispered to each other. I looked out the window at the garden where guards were running around. They were spreading out to look for something.

I turned around as guards ran past me shouting, “He went this way!” “Don’t alert the king or his advisers, it’s a minor problem.” “We’ll report the incident after their meeting with the rest of his court!” “Only a few guards should be looking for him, the rest should be keeping the low-class demons at bay!”

I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way so I wandered into one of the drawing rooms which was just a fancy room meant to entertain guests. It was like a living room in a normal house except the castle had a few. I noticed someone in the window frame. As soon as my eyes set on him he was gone. I looked around and saw him zip to the other side of the room then sit at the piano.

“The guards will be here soon,” he said. “I haven’t seen you around and I frequent here a lot. Usually, I’m not noticed but they’re on high alert because of all the low-class demons in the area.” He began to play the piano. “I’m Kyle.”

He was the intruder they were looking for. I had a bad feeling about him. He wasn’t a demon at all.