Maeve Felmark sat at the small restaurant. She had light plate armor on guarding her most vital areas, but still flexible and not cumbersome. People often said she looked like her mother, but her mother always said she looked like her father. When people saw her striking blue eyes they often would remark.

Maeve enjoyed her weekly lunches with her mother, but her real goal was to get her out of the blackwood’s manor. The woman had few friends even after having lived in the city for nearly her whole life. Maeve loved her mother, but outside the rigged exterior she knew her mother was soft hearted and didn’t want to see her hurt so keeping up with her was the best way she knew how.

Watching the people of Myredi filter back and forth on the cobblestone streets without a care in the world was one of the reasons Maeve had wanted to join the Paladins…she wanted people to continue to live as carefree lives as possible.

In a few more years the eight heroes would gather together and start their mission to purge the continent of the monsters who had pushed humanity to the brink. Caphaine demanded the world be purged of monster spawn.

Maeve saw the familiar sight of her mother who came quickly and sat across from her. “Mother! It is good to see you. How was your week?” Maeve smiled, but noticed her mother seemed off slightly.

Before her mother could respond she motioned for food to be brought over “I ordered food already if that is okay with you.”

“Oh yes thank you. I’m doing fine just keeping myself busy as usual.” Valeri scratched the back of her ear.

Seeing her mother’s tell-tale sign of her lying or trying to keep a secret from her, Maeve's eyes narrowed, but didn’t want to push too much and decided to probe.

“Surely something interesting must have happened?” Maeve pressed leaning on the table.

Valeri smiled trying not to give anything away “No nothing you’d be interested in.”

The very moment that she started saying those words her hand grabbed her earlobe which was her strongest tell that it was a serious thing that Maeve ought to know about.

“Mother. I’m your daughter and if it isn’t something you want me to know just tell me, but you are a terrible liar.” Maeve said confident in her assessment.

Valeri sighed “Fine.” giving a pouting face as if she was a child who was caught sneaking a candy. Before shifting in her chair and sitting up straight and proper.

“Maeve, as you know I’ve been a widow your whole life. I loved your father more than anything.” Valeri said as formally as possible with little inflection.

“Yes?” Maeve gave her mother a weird look leaning back in her chair subconsciously trying to keep some distance from the weird aura that seemed to be coming from Valeri.

Looking Maeve in the eyes Valeri steeled her resolve. “Well I met a man…and I intend on continuing to see him.”

Maeve's jaw dropped; she was expecting her mother to suggest that she might be interested in starting to look around again, but to already have someone in mind and further she already has seen him. It was almost too much for her to believe.

It was not shocking that men would be interested in her mother as they always were over the years, but she had only had her heart taken by her father who we assumed had died to monsters in the wildlands.

“Mother…I’m certainly happy for you, but you’ve never expressed even the faintest interest in romance with anyone since I’ve been old enough to even notice. What sort of many could steal your heart.” Maeve asked earnestly.

Valeri looked away from her daughter’s intense stare “Well…he just so happens to be a tad bit younger than myself.” Holding her fingers just a tad apart to emphasize just how small the difference was.

Maeve was sure it wasn’t too big a difference and it didn’t surprise her that a man in his early thirties would be interested in her mother. All of the guards and older veterans who had seen Maeve with her mother commented or asked if she was single.

“Oh so is he like thirty one? Thirty two?”

Valeri shook her head and pointed down, still ignoring her daughter’s gaze. Meanwhile the food was put in front of both of them a simple broth with sliced duck breast which was her mother’s favorite meal.

“Please don’t tell me he is thirty?!? Mother! You are thirty eight years old you can’t be dating a man eight years younger than you! What are you planning on having more children at your age?”

Maeve couldn’t believe her mother would even consider it even if it was not unheard of; it was not common for a middle aged woman to date that much younger of a man. The entire situation was ridiculous.

Valeri picked up the spoon and just before eating a spoon full of the broth she paused “he’s maybe err twenty three.” Following the quiet admission she took a spoonful. “Oh this is wonderful Maeve you should really try it!”

If the first shock wasn’t enough finding out her mother was actively dating the following shock was almost too much. In less than a few months she was going to be sixteen years old. The age gap between herself and a twenty three year old was less than the age gap between her mother and this apparent boy she was seeing.

“Mother…first” Maeve stood up from the table “You are going to show me where this man is…second you are going to pretend you never met him.”

Valeri stood up putting a bit of money on the table as she watched her daughter stand up and begin moving out as if she was going to hunt down the man immediately. “Maever darling! Please let me talk to him first! I promise I will talk with him and work this out!” she said grabbing Maeve’s wrist.

“Let me make this clear. Mother. You will show me where this man is by tomorrow and if I don’t have a satisfactory answer as to why he is taking advantage of a lonely widower I will personally skewer him in the name of Goddess Caphaine herself.

…

It had gone much worse than she expected. Valeri was not sure why she thought her daughter who had always been overprotective of her since joining the Paladins would take it well, but honestly her heart was captured by the dolt of a man again even after all these years.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘It's the stupid kiss’ she muttered frustrated at herself. ‘The man had muddled my brain with it.’

Touching her lips as she made her way back to the in she smiled it has been a long time, but he still clearly knew how to charm her. Looking around to make sure she wasn’t followed she quickly entered the inn.

Valum stood there after hearing her story for a few minutes “Yeah maybe we should have taken it a bit more slowly. Maeve clearly isn’t the type to let this go.”

Valeri rolled her eyes. “You think? She was livid and trust me would have killed you certainly if she found you here.”

Valum sighed “Let's not dwell on what we can’t fix right now. We have so much to catch up on.” sitting next to Valeri he put his firm hand on her thigh and looked at her intently. “The woman who captured my heart has lacked love for how many years? It is something I will have to pay back with interest.”

Valeri felt her heartache again, a deep yearning she had buried for years. “I love you, Valum Felmark.” With zero hesitation she leapt at him. In that moment as they passionately kissed for him the first time in more than a year and for her the first time in a decade she felt all her passion and love spill out.

…

Maeve knew her mother was naive, but she didn’t think she would be so naive as to think Maeve would simply return to the Paladins training academy simply because her mother promised her to deal with it first. As far as she was concerned that man was a monster who preyed on lonely widows. Maybe he was a poor bastard trying to get money or make her mother goddess forbid his own little treasure vault. Once her mother left she would go into the inn and confront him.

The afternoon had turned into night and Maeve who had been sitting in a corner booth in the inn had started to doze off. Since she wore official Paladin armor no one would bother her, but it has been hours since her mother entered the inn and there was no sign of her leaving.

As she waited her consciousness finally faded as she nodded off.

“Ma’am…err…Ma’am?” a voice penetrated her sleeping mind and stirred her awake.

Lifting her head up she lazily looked up at the source of the voice. Who was a robust maid who was gently shaking her as well.

“Ma’am it is morning and we didn’t want to bother you while sleeping, but I simply did not want to bother you.” the Maid said, concerned.

“What? What time is it? Wait…” Maeve looked up from her booth and slid out standing up immediately, her body fully alert again.

Looking over at the Maid she immediately faced her “Did the woman in a dark blue and purple dress leave last night?”

“No Ma'am, certainly not we make sure we track what guests are coming in and out to make sure we don’t have any squatters in any of the rooms.” The Maid denied flatly.

“What room did she go into?” Maeve asked earnestly.

“Well since you are a Paladin I guess it is no harm, but she went into the second floor last room on the left street side.” She pointed up the stairs.

Taking out a small token Maeve tossed it to the maid. “Go call the guards and tell them Paladin Maeve is tracking down a fiend to be arrested and interrogated and have them bring a full squad.”

“As you say Ma’am.” the Maid hurried out as ordered.

Walking up the stairs Maeve drew the sword standing squarely in front of the door. With a powerful kick she blew threw the locked door and entered yelling “Monstrous fiend unhand my mother!”

Maeve looked around the room and her eyes landed on a sight that she immediately wanted to erase from her mind. Her mother was laying on top snuggled into the chest of a young man no older than twenty-three years old. A large blanket pulled over them.

For a moment her entire world froze as her mind began to process the situation.

…

Valum had never been happier their night had been…quite eventful to say the least him and Valeri unleashed a lot of passion in a single night particularly Valeri. Even still the entire situation triggered a deep desire in him to sink his sharp canines into her neck so throughout the night he had to keep taking swigs of blood from the waterskin until he had drank it dry just to keep his mind off drinking from his wife.

Valeri at times seemed to have a bit of apprehension about the entire thing, but decided she didn’t care and simply wanted to be with him after all these years it didn’t matter. What her heart told her was this was still the Valum she had fallen for all those years ago and despite this she still wanted him…no she needed him again. Figuring out Maeve's situation for her for just a single selfish night would take a backseat.

The night wore on and eventually their stamina had run out before their passion even though Valum had a supernatural strength he still had exhausted himself he couldn’t imagine how Valeri felt.

The morning he felt completely renewed and his worries seemed far less important now.

“Are you awake?” Valum nudged Valeri softly as he admired her sleeping form.

“Mmmhmm” Valeri didn’t bother speaking up.’

“Well we ought to get up and figure out how we will break the news to Ma—”

“Monstrous FIEND” a roar could be heard as the door to his room burst down. Immediately both him and Valeri looked up at the massive commotion that had taken them both with their pants down….literally.

Looking at the intruder he saw a blonde haired girl with bright blue eyes much like his own once were before his change. His eyes being a solid yellow-gold color now. The girl he knew immediately to be Maeve in his eyes and perhaps only his she looked just like her mother.

“Ma-Maeve!” Valeri yelled out as she pulled the cover up more to hide behind it like a shield.

Valum also noticed that he was entirely indecent and immediately used his foot to dig for his undergarments and began to pull them back up.

Pulling up his trousers slowly in the bed he also grabbed the tunic which was on the small cabinet next to the bed. He sensed that while stunned by the scene she had a flame light up behind her eyes.

Valeri hurriedly put on basic garments and stood up in front of her daughter roughly the same height. “Maeve darling this…this is err…”

They hadn’t even come up with a name for him yet so he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind “Julius err Reddington?” he looked at Valeri who looked back at him giving him a look of complete disbelief before turning back to Maeve who still had yet to react he sword still ready in front of her.

“Yes…Julius Reddington…he is errr” Valeri stumbled again.

“Her lover!” he blurted out again causing Valeri to shudder again as she turned back at him and mouthed “I’m going to kill you.”

“Err yes my lover.” Valeri said, slightly defeated. If she was honest with herself like Valum was she would admit that there was no rational way to get out of this and so just hard truth was better at this point.

Valum sensed the rising flame in her eyes and slowly backed away as he put on his shirt.

A rage filled whisper came from Maeve after another few moments “Fiend…you dare defile my dear mother by using your charm and good looks and fool her? You are no better than a monster…no you are a monster and should be put down like one so says the goddess.”

Valum heard his daughter call him good looking and charming both weirded him out, but also made him mildly proud considering she wasn’t aware he was in fact her father she admitted to it which slightly stoked his ego.

“Va—er Julian err Julius you need to leave…” Valeri said holding up both her harms as if to shield him from Maeve.

“Sweetheart she is just a bit shoc—”

“Sweet. Heart.?” Maeve said slowly before looking at him with a dangerous glare “Lecher. Fiend. Monster. You will have your heart impaled on my sword.”

With those words Valum realized what Valeri was saying and immediately dove out the slightly opened window.