Chapter Fifteen
Esmeray
I stared at my latest paystub, my eye twitching as it had grown significantly from my last. My usual eight hundred a week had plumped itself faster than I had, to a respectable fifteen hundred.
Whatever Father was pulling, I’d get to the bottom of it.
Right after I finished reading through the hell-borne cleric’s assessment of my gifts.
And, according to their documentation, I had succubus and cambion prince genetics, a daeva that consumed most of my thalmaturgic energy, succubus charisma that was in the realm of legal gifts as it had no control over external impulses, and greater mastery of regent gifts.
No special sex skills. They’d been thorough.
Resting a hand on my side, I sat up, breathing through the twinges that came with the end of my first quad’s end. Demons showed and grew quickly, but we tapered off toward the latter half, the growth stemming as our children developed their more arcane parts, which took longer.
I caught up with my breath and scooted out of the room, my goal one floor up and down the hall, past the office he kept shiny, new and empty just for me one day. Dick.
As I passed by the cubicles, heavy whispers passed about, and I turned that way, glancing at everyone comparing their paychecks with excitement.
“What’s going on?” I glanced at their paystubs and flinched when I got shy oh, it’s the boss’s son reactions.
“We were—uh. We can compare paystubs; it’s our right and legal…” A rather stubborn young alpha spoke up, a snake shifter of some variety that wasn’t doing his species any favors for the sake of stereotypes.
“Of course. I was just wondering why everyone had theirs out comparing.” I waved my own stub, and a shy woman spoke up.
“Thought there might be an error.” She cleared her throat. “Our pay took a nice jump.”
I narrowed my gaze and caught the digits on their respective checks as I craned my neck over. “Oh. You, too? I was just about to go put my foot down with Father about it.”
“It’s a mistake, isn’t it?” The girl sighed.
“I’ll go check on it.” I held out my stub for inspection and earned a shocked glance that traded between a few of them.
“I make more than you.” She huffed, and I compared our checks. Surprisingly, hers only came out to be more because she had a write-off.
“No, we make the same. I don’t have any deductions.” I nodded politely to them. “I conceded to the office because…” I gestured about ambiently and earned a few nods of understanding.
“We all know you’re part succubus. It’s really the right thing to do.” The snake from before stood and gave me a clap to the shoulder and eyed me up and down. “How are you and your mate faring, by the by?”
“Careful. Your nose is turning brown.” I shook my head and half grinned. “But we’re doing fine. Stuck on names.”
“Well, I lost my chance to date you, so I might as well kiss booty.” He winked and, honestly, I couldn’t remember a time he’d ever propositioned me or flirted. Hell, I hadn’t even recalled his name. Dirk? Derek? Dahm! He was kind to me, but maybe I could be oblivious.
“I thought you got paid more than us,” the woman, Tara, I thought, spoke up. “Wow. You and daddy not get along?”
“Huh? Oh, no. I just wanted to do things on my own. Prove I could and all that.” I smiled and waved them off as I took my paystub back and made my way to my father’s office.
I didn’t need to knock as his door was open and, to my surprise, Gre sat there in his business attire, reviewing paperwork of some kind. “Oh, hey there, dear.”
I didn’t react as I moved forward, glancing down at the paperwork he signed. Life insurance, deed of ownership—it was quite the splay of things. “What’s this?”
“You didn’t want to get married so soon, so I made sure that my life insurance, will, and the deed to our new house all had your name on them as sole inheritor.” He turned his gaze from mine. “In case of the worst.”
My heart fluttered a little bit. I had the most thoughtful mate, who desperately wanted to be my husband, and he’d stopped at nothing to make sure we were cared for.
He pushed some papers out so I could see.
“So, I took out a life insurance policy with my new job for enough to make sure the house and everything is set. I have a trust started for them. I put a few hundred thousand into it instead of down on the house. My credit was good enough to take a loan on the rest—more important things and all that where interest is concerned.”
“And I knew you wouldn’t take a raise, so I upped the base pay for all the interns. I also hired a third-party consulting company to come through and do employee reviews to make sure when you get your promotion, it’s fair.” Father shot me a smug look that made my heart clench and my eyes burn.
I blinked a few times, stared up at the ceiling, and took a few calming breaths before I lost my composure and lost the battle to tears. “Gre… Dadd—”
Father’s face brightened. “Ohhhh, I almost got you to say it!”
“I didn’t! Father. Dad. I wasn’t going to say daddy.” I cleared my throat.
“Maybe that name’s reserved for Gre, now?” Father gave Gre an eyebrow that he dismissed with a huff.
“Absolutely not. Paternal terms hold no sexual connotations to me.” Gre gave me a patient eye roll that told me he was putting up with Father quite nicely.
I loved him even more for that. Pet names never had come up between us.
No love or babe. He’d called me dear to him, by my name and made a few puns regarding being mesmerized by me.
He’d lovingly called me Esme, French for beloved.
But my name was Turkish in origin, a language my father had loved.
And it fit me. A dark moon. My dark hair and the moonless night I was born on, boded well for me.
“Well, I was making certain this wasn’t an accounting error and ensuring you weren’t fattening my wallet unnecessarily.
Thank you very much, Father. You have an entire team full of ecstatic interns.
” I bowed my head as I left, waving my hand as my shadow didn’t follow the gesture.
“You both have made me very happy today.”
As I left the room I glanced down and around, searching for Ausmius. I’d had a terrible time hunting him down as of late. He’d weakened considerably, mimicking something about my pregnancy keeping his magic at bay. I preferred it that way, honestly.
“Aus?” I whispered to him and earned a peek of shadow by my feet, two horns perked up as like ears listening. “Keep an eye on them. Make sure Gre doesn’t do anything legally stupid.”
Ausmius gave me a thumbs-up and parted from my shadow with a little bird fluttering across the floor before bleeding into desk and door and out of sight.
A slight whisper touched my ear as he faded away, his voice from what was left of his shadow with me.
I will do what I can for you, as you will do for me.
I halted in place and blinked a few times. He spoke so rarely that it shook me. It almost felt like a goodbye. “Is everything alright?”
Instead of an answer, I received only a ripple in the remains of my shadow that mimicked that of a sigh. And at that, I felt the first kick of my little one, a tiny and internalized little flicker that made me certain of his presence, far more than any of the other flutters I’d felt before.
I rested my hand there and treasured the little tap I received in response and wondered, not for the first or even thousandth time, who or what they’d be.