Chapter 205: Maverick’s Story - 1

Maverick was scared shitless. Aria could sense it in his body language. Even when they sat at the foot of the tree, he wouldn’t let her sit beside him. Instead, he had her settle in front of him with her back against his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist like he couldn’t bear to let her go.

From there, Aria couldn’t see his face or read whatever was going through his head. All she had was the warmth of his body pressed against hers and his legs stretched along either side of her, cocooning her between them.

"Okay..." He sounded nervous. "I-I don’t know where to begin."

Aria was already turning toward him. "Maverick, you don’t have to—"

He stopped her before she could finish turning, keeping her back against his chest.

"I can do this." There was such determination in his voice that Aria’s heart ached for him. He was pushing himself to do this for her when she’d already made it clear that he didn’t have to.

She didn’t try to turn around again. Maverick was quiet for a moment before he finally spoke.

"I’m sure you already know who my parents are..." He gave a small shrug behind her. "I mean, who doesn’t know Violet Purple, the Goddess’s daughter, and her multiple Alpha mates?"

A nervous laugh escaped him, but there wasn’t much humor in it. Aria didn’t say a word, letting him find his way through the story at his own pace.

"I had what many people would call a unique and exciting childhood. As the first Alpha Queen, my mother had a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders and a lot of reforms she wanted to make. My fathers did everything they could to make things easier for her, but there were some duties only the Queen could perform."

His arms shifted around Aria’s waist, settling more comfortably as he continued.

"Thanks to my multiple fathers, I grew up surrounded by so many people and so much love that sometimes I didn’t know what to do with all of it. But my mother was stubborn. She grew up with an absent father, and she was determined not to repeat that pattern by becoming an absent mother herself. So when my sisters and I were little, she took us with her whenever she could, even when she traveled for work."

"It was quite crazy, actually. I remember this one time..." Aria could hear the smile creeping into his voice as the memory came back to him. "She’d recently had my sister Cecily, and apparently Cecily decided she wasn’t going to stop screaming for anyone. Father Griffin tried everything, but she wouldn’t calm down in his arms, so eventually he took her to my mother."

"Where was she?"

"In a meeting." Maverick paused, already sounding amused. "A very important meeting. The room was filled with Sub-Alphas, their Betas, elders, and other important figures in the werewolf community."

Aria was already beginning to see where this was going.

"Turns out my sister was hungry and wanted her milk directly from the source. So right there, in front of all those men, my mother brought out her boob—"

"Oh my God..." Aria slapped a hand over her mouth, failing miserably to stifle her laughter. "She did not."

"Oh, she did." Maverick was laughing now too, the sound vibrating through his chest against Aria’s back. "She fed her daughter right in front of all those traumatized men. And then she had the audacity to look at them and say, ’Why are you all looking at me like I flashed you? If you lot can fuck your women and put a babe in them, then act normal when she feeds your pup.’"

"No..." Aria shook her head in disbelief. "Tell me she didn’t."

By then she was laughing so hard that tears had gathered in the corners of her eyes. She wiped them away, imagining an entire room of powerful werewolves suddenly finding anywhere else to look while their Queen calmly breastfed her daughter in the middle of a meeting.

The heaviness that had clung to Maverick when he first began talking had gradually eased without Aria even noticing.

Maverick chuckled as he continued. "My mother is strong. I mean, if she can handle four grown Alphas under one roof, everyone else is pretty much a piece of cake."

Aria found herself smiling in admiration. She had never met Violet Purple, but everything she had heard about her made the woman seem almost larger than life.

"Yeah. She’s really amazing."

Maverick leaned closer until his lips were near her ear. "Don’t worry. You’ll meet her soon."

Aria’s smile faltered.

If Maverick had meant to reassure her, he’d achieved the exact opposite. Meeting his mother was terrifying enough. Meeting Violet Purple was something else entirely. She was the Alpha Queen, the Goddess’s daughter, and one of the most powerful supernatural beings alive. Compared to someone like that, Aria was merely a human girl who had somehow ended up dating her son.

Aria was a hundred percent certain Violet was going to be disappointed.

So she only nodded with a small smile, grateful that Maverick couldn’t see the sudden panic on her face.

He continued.

"My mother was a philanthropist too, and she made sure we accompanied her to some of her events. She knew what growing up surrounded by wealth, power, and privilege could do to children if no one kept them grounded. She didn’t want us becoming spoiled simply because of the family we’d been born into. She wanted her kids to be humble and respectful. She wanted us to understand how fortunate we were and how quickly pride could bring someone down."

Aria felt the change before she fully registered it. The amusement disappeared from Maverick’s voice. His body went rigid behind her, and the arms around her waist no longer felt relaxed.

When he spoke again, the warmth of the childhood memory was gone.

"And it was at one of those events that everything went wrong."