- Be Like Mom
Renae
Hands clasped behind her back, she watched from a distance, having gotten banned by her son from The Hunt
It didn’t matter. She could only take pride in knowing the wretch wouldn’t be returning with the rest of the contenders.
She watched as the woman tried again and again to get on the horse She watched the Gamma approach her, and Renae saw the emotions that flickered briefly in her son’s eyes as the Gamma lifted the maid and placed her on the horse
Renae felt no regret for what she had planned.
There would be casualties, perhaps, even deaths, but it was all for the greater good. For the pack, for Neredia, she would never let an outsider take the sacred seat from her
Did she hate the miserable maid? Yes
Why did she? Because there was none she hated more than Madeline Everhart. The whore. The one who could tell fortunes by reading one’s hand. The one she had confided in once about her impossible love, and she had gone behind her and stolen him from her.
Once upon a time, Renae was a nobody who wanted to be somebody. In the time where she was born, both Neredia and Dawn were one, and
there had been two kings and two princes.
Renae couldn’t have cared much if the Prince of Neredia lived or died. She was like every woman her age, wanting the Prince of Dawn.
But the Prince of Dawn never even looked at the maidens who stood by the road during his processions through the villages. Neither did he look at them when they visited his father’s court. And when talks of an
alliance were brought up, he’d rejected every woman with the same
reason.
She’s not the one..
Renae had watched him. Day after day, breaking the hearts of many. They called him cruel, but Renae had seen him once, offering his jacket to a peasant who needed it in the winter.
She grew curious, and worked up the nerve to approach him one night at solstice. She couldn’t do it. Not because she grew cold feet at the last second, but because a nobody couldn’t get into the King’s Castle.
So, she’d snuck in, climbing the highest wall, and when she’d jumped, she sprained her ankle.
But that in itself had been a blessing, for it brought her Prince to her. She was nursing the sprained foot, agony burning through her leg when her Prince knelt by her side and wrapped her foot so snugly, it no longer hurt so much to move. Then he’d looked at her with eyes that stole secrets and said, “Better?”
Lost, she nodded, and he had offered his arm and took her into his
Castle.
One would think a story began from there, but it did not. Her parents. died and she couldn’t see her Prince again, and when she did return to the Castle, he no longer remembered her.
It didn’t stop her from watching him. It was then, she came upon the House of Sin in the city favoured by the Dawnish. The Prince visited the brothel every night and he wouldn’t leave till the morning.
She’d wondered why a prince who showed no interest in women would have his favourite spot be a brothel. One day, when he was gone, she went into the brothel in hopes to find out more.
That was when Renae met her. The most beautiful woman that ever
lived. On her was a bodice that was light and transparent, and around her waist was a black corset made of leather. Her hair, as dark as polished ebony and richer in sheen and fullness than a moonlit sea, cascaded down a face with features too sharp and angular to be real. A beauty was sharper than any blade. A beauty was was dangerous. A. beauty that captivated and compelled.
But it was her eyes, above all, that scared Renae.
Usually, when the worshippers of the Sun Goddess made carvings and statues of their deity, the statues had eyes of violet. It was believed the Sun Goddess’s eyes were the gateway to a paradise never seen—not by the living anyway.
When the woman peered down at Renae, she shivered with fright and. awe. She was standing before the Sun Goddess herself.
“Darling, are you lost?” the woman said, cupping Renae’s cheek. Renae. shivered at the touch, light yet seductive, even for her who was a
woman.
She jerked back, nervous for the first time in her life. It was then she noticed the woman’s dress barely left her body covered. Her nipples. perked through the light dress, and when Renae looked beyond the woman, she saw things that forever scarred her young mind. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’ll leave now.”
But the woman wouldn’t let her leave. She gripped Renae’s shoulder before she could run. “No no. Stay. I could use the company of someone who wasn’t trying to ruin me.” Violet eyes winked and Renae. blushed. The woman raised a glass kettle gracefully. “Tea?”
Renae shook her head. “I really must leave-”
The woman leaned in so suddenly, Renae yelped. Their noses were inches apart and Renae could smell and almost taste the musk and sex rolling off the woman. “You will be like me someday.”
Renae’s face crumpled. “What?”
Red lips lifted into a cruel smile. “A queen. I can see it.” Her tongue darted out and she licked Renae’s cheek. “Now, will you have tea with me, my‘ raena?” She added when Renae’s eyes darted behind her to the men thrusting wildly into women who made the oddest sounds Renae had ever heard, “Don’t like the view?”
Renae blanched and the woman laughed. “They won’t touch you. I am Queen around here. They’ll die if they displease me.
Renae’s eyes widened. “You kill people?”
The woman laughed heartily and Renae caught a glimpse of perfect. white teeth as she purred, “No, people kill for me.
She believed her, because every man who laid eyes on the woman had the same look in their eyes. Wanton desire. And the Queen, as she liked. to be called, she wore their needs and desires like armour. She wore her beauty like a shield and her allure was a spear. Renae had never met anyone so captivating and terrifying.
Her visits increased, partly for the Prince, but also to see the Queen of the House of Sin who had become Renae’s closest friend over the months of frequent visits.
She would tell her everything, and the Queen would listen and tell her tales in turn. Tales Renae so badly wanted to hear. Tales of what her life would be. The Queen never spoke of herself or her desires, but Renae didn’t mind. Or care. Not in those moments.
But she came to understand why much later, when she’d come to visit her friend the next year and heard argument in the Queen’s private chamber.
She was arguing with a man, and Renae knew the man from his voice alone. She pressed closer to the door, putting her ear to it as she
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listened to her Prince talk to her friend.
I would give you any and everything you want. Yet, you choose this life, the Prince of Dawn growled.
I was a whore when you met me. You do not expect me to change because of you and whatever riches you think you could offer me. I like it here, the Queen simply said.
You like it here? Selling your body to those pigs?
is have
We all sell parts of ourselves. Our souls, our bodies, our minds. You, Hunt, are the biggest whore of us all. At least my heart is mine. You give even that to your people, leaving nothing to yourself. nothing left to offer me. Riches, I have in abundant–
And love? A family? Children? Have you never craved to live a
normal life?
The Queen snorted. Normal is boring, Hunt, and I was never cut out to be a family woman. I’m a pleasure giver. There’s nothing I can do
better.
You could be my Luna. My Queen.
Renae felt it then. Her heart shattering. Her heart breaking. Her friend, the Queen of Sin, had stolen her love. She turned to flee, but she knew
she had to listen to it all.
The Queen laughed at him. You do not even know my name, and you wish to make me Queen over the many lards that have laid with me. Don’t be foolish, my prince.
I don’t care what your name is. I’ll give you one if you’ll have me. I’ll give you my name, my home, my Castle, the whole world if you’ll have me, the Prince of Dawn said, desperation creeping into his voice.
But the Queen said, Do not ruin your life and your future for me,
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2 Be Like Mom
Hunt. I won’t have you. Leave from here and never come back.
You can’t make me leave. I am the prince–
You may be that, but this is my den. This place is mine. Get out. I’ve indulged you for far too long.
Renae heard heavy, angry footsteps, and she had run fled down the hallway then, never looking back.
Did she hate Jessamine Everhart? Of course she did. She was her mother all over again, only with the Prince of Dawn’s wispy hair.
A princess in her own right. But she didn’t know it yet, and she never would.
