Chapter 1 – A Huntsmistress and her child

Manhattan New York

"Huntsmistress," A terse voice called into the darkened room.

Shooting open her eyes at the sound of one of her many titles, Rose turned her head towards the entrance of her chamber and spied the assistant with an icy glare. She had little doubt what this was for, she had instructed her assistant to not disturb her and it was an unspoken order that the man could only disturb her when it pertained to one thing, her son. He had too much of his father in him for his own good and it was seriously affecting her image with in the Huntsclan. Don't get her wrong, she loved him, but sometimes when she looked at him she saw Jake. "What has he done this time?"

"He blew up the science lab with a Grenade," He answered with a clipped undertone of amusement. "The Headmaster of the Academy wants you up there to reprimand him yourself. And frankly Master, I would agree."

Blowing out a breath, Rose pushed herself up off of the ground and brushed some imaginary dust off of her shoulder. She didn't know what she was going to do with the kid, perhaps she could send him to Jake's mother, she had been aware of his existence of a long time. Susan had voiced her objections -hell she didn't voice them, she shouted them at her- to her Grandson joining the Huntsclan, but Rose had silenced her on that. To do that, she only had to mention what Jake had done to her that night in Central Park and she'd surrendered. "I want you to get the Transporter ready, and inform the Headmaster that I will be reviewing the school when I arrive. And he is not to even sound condescending in a message or I will cut his head off and find someone else who respects my station, understood?"

"Yes Ma'am," He responded, snickering under his mask.

Rose couldn't help but letting a corner of her lips lift into a warm smile, she promised herself when she took the reins from her Uncle seven years prior that she'd be a touch nicer, but not that nice. The only person that she was nice too more than half of the time was her son Trevor. Trevor Long, she had considered not giving her son his father's last name when she had given birth to him, but on the spot she had decided to do it. "What am I going to do with him? I mean he's not going to stop until he destroys the place."

"He is your child Master," The man spoke, realizing that he was speaking rather boldly to the Huntsmistress, "With all due respect of course ma'am."

"You do have a point." Rose snickered dryly as they walked out of the private chambers. They were in Manhattan, in the Huntslair that she had been trained in and practically raised in. She did have her hesitations about staying in this city, with the fact that her son's Aunt was the American Dragon and she was the Huntsmistress and her son was the Huntsboy. If anyone knew the truth, Rose didn't know if they would be more shocked, angry or amused at the arrangement

They were bound to run into each other, they hadn't simply for the reasons that she had kept Trevor up state in the Academy most of the time and she didn't do field assignments that much anymore. That was one of the more drastic changes that had taken place when she had taken over the Huntsclan and she had taken flack for it. But those people were dead either by her hand or her order, and she was now the unquestioned master.

When Rose arrived in her private quarters, the bank of fluorescent lights switched on with a hiss. No one was allowed in her besides her son, this was her sanctuary, the place that she could sink into her memories of what life was like before Jake. When she didn't have a child to take care of and nurture, when she was just working for her Uncle, before she had met the clumsy skateboarding boy that stole her affection and had turned out to be a sworn enemy. An enemy that she grudgingly admitted grew on you in time.

Stealing to the bathroom of her spacious quarters, she sighed and looked up into the mirror of the bathroom. She was wearing her mask, the mask that had kept so many people out of her mind, it may have been a simple piece of cloth, but to Rose it was much more of that. It kept the constant look of sadness out of her eyes. She didn't wear it out of her own will. It was more of a thing that had stayed in her face for a decade and it was always noticed when she slipped the mask off. "Damnit, if you could only know how your insane little son tends to muck up my life Jake, he truly is your offspring."

Shaking her head clear of the smiling face of the man that she had once loved, she stalked out of the bathroom. Whenever she thought of Jake, all of the good times, all of the times that she would gladly give her left arm to experience again, were shadowed out by the sight of him walking out on her in Central Park. Rose being as dignified as possible had held no bitterness or ill will towards him. She had only wished that he had given her a chance to tell him that she was pregnant with his child. And even if she had wished and cursed every day that he was alive, it wouldn't have done any good.

Rose hadn't lived under a rock for ten years, she did have a television and she did read the newspaper. She knew that Jake had made a name for himself. The nation's financial bigwigs had named him CEO of the Year, and the tenth richest man in the world. Hell, her cable was through Jake's company which was amusing to her for some unknown reason. It was clear that she would never forget him, even if she had made an effort to do it, her Son and the media in general would never let her. But it didn't matter anyway. They were never going to run into each other ever again anyway.

"You destroyed the chemistry stores," Headmaster Bailey of the Huntsclan academy hissed at the three sheepish looking youths, "The only reason –and it is the only reason- I haven't sent you into the pit to battle the kraken is because the Huntsmistress would be most displeased with me."

To the far right of the trio of uniformed, masked males was the smallest one, through the mask, his blue eyes stood out in contrast to the dark grey uniform and those eyes made him the most feared of the group. It wasn't that he held an advantage to his two friends, it was that there was only one person in the Clan who had those eyes and that person was the Huntsmistress, and his mother. "Huntsboy! What do you have to say?"

"Nothing sir," said Trevor Long, or as they knew him, the Huntsboy.

Bailey sneered. He knew that if the boy wasn't the son of the Huntsmistress than he would be able to be whipped in shape. But his mother protected him with all the viciousness of a hunt and he would be absolutely foolish to do anything. It was up to her good graces to punish her child, but he had the right to discipline the other two. "Hunters Bayhan, Stone. You will report to the Kraken pit at Midnight tonight, and you will spend an hour in an attempt to kill it. Afterword's you will stay into detention until seven o'clock."

Both of the boys let out groans, but they dutifully nodded and turned on their heels to depart the room. Trevor didn't feel any sort of pity for them. In fact he was smirking under the protection of his mask at their slumped shoulders. Sure they were friends, but in the Huntsclan it was kill or be killed and he would be damned if he was going to take a bullet, or in this case a kraken for them. "Huntsboy, you are very, very lucky of your parentage."

"I'd watch my tone if I were you Headmaster," Trevor gloated, feeling very lucky of who his mother was, "Because my parentage could sack you."

Bailey snorted. "I highly doubt that."

"Oh, never doubt anything Headmaster." Her voice said from the entrance of the room, and the Huntsboy and the Headmaster both turned to face her.

She stood there, her figure shadowed by an overhanging arch that adorned the entrance of the office. Even surrounded by darkness, the Huntsmistress was a strikingly beautiful woman. She wore her mask off, causing her golden locks to flow down her shoulders, and as she stepped forward into the light, she had an amused glint in her blue depths at the sight of her indignant Son.

"Huntsboy?" The Huntsmistress asked looking to her son.

Bailey could almost feel the smirk that the boy wore and it made him want to strangle the kid. "Master, I do apologize for my shenanigans, I was just-…"

"I know what you and your friends were doing Huntsboy," Rose said with a light smile, "I ran into them outside. You won't be joining the Kraken tonight though. I have a special punishment for you. But run a long, I have a few things that I need to say to the Headmaster. I hope you don't mind."

Inwardly, Trevor cringed. His mother was a piece of work when it came to discipline but he had a feeling that his mother wouldn't be too hard on him when he saw the look in her face. "Right Mom eh-…Huntsmistress…"

Rose winked at him and patted him on the shoulder before lightly pushing him in the direction of the door. When she heard the door slam shut behind him, she took a deep breath in and turned to the Headmaster with a terrifying sneer. "Now Headmaster, what am I going to do about you foolish hostility and bad intentions towards my son?"

AN:/ I wanted to give you a peak on Rose's life, next is Jake. And for those of you who wanted Jake and Rose to meet in the next chapter. Don't hold your breath. It'll be more than likely the third or fourth. One thing that I observed in making Rose the Huntsmistress, you don't see that very often in ADJL stories. Just sayin' anyway, please leave me a review. They keep me going.