"Captain, I need to have a word with you."
Without waiting for a response, Nick entered Sean Renard's office and closed the door.
"Maybe this should wait till another time." Renard said, not liking the look on his detective's face.
"This won't take long, ser." Nick's expression was steely as he continued. "You are my precinct captain. At work I follow your lead. I have to show you respect because you are my superior and I will continue to do so. But outside this job, we are not friends. You have no right to interfere with my personal life. You chose to keep secrets from me. I understand you must have had your reasons. Some of those reasons might have something to do with the reputation of my ancestors. The past is what it is. None of us can change it. Whatever happened, happened. With you, Adalind or Adalind's mother. Your lives and pasts are your own and I get that. Adalind and I are together, now, and I won't lose her. She has become everything to me, and I will remove the head of anyone who tries taking her from me."
Without waiting for a response, Nick leaves. He said what he needed, giving fair warning for Renard to stay out of his personal life. Whether or not the older man would listen remained to be seen.
Adalind messaged Nick and told him that she would be working late. She had told him she had received a client who was bound and determined to get everything they wanted in an estate merger and had no interest in compromise. Problem was, the other side also had no interest in compromise, which may have meant a lot of money for the lawyers, but also a lot of long hours.
Being a cop, with the weird hours he had, Nick understood.
They made a deal to message each other when they could, to keep contact with one another and let the other know they were ok.
After a long day, Nick got home first and headed into the shower. The case he had just worked was the most frustrating yet.
A doctor had created a device that was to help wesen, unfortunately it ended up malfunctioning and causing full woges for anyone to see, including Hank.
So now, not only was Nick wrestling with the guilt of not being able to help that doctor, who became a victim himself and ended up dying, but also not being able to explain to Hank that what he saw was real and he was not going insane.
Keeping the cop and the grimm world separate was getting impossible. He had to figure out how to juggle both or everyone he loved would get hurt.
Nick was so exhausted and his mind so preoccupied that he did not even bother getting into sleep pants before crawling into bed. Just laying there naked.
When Adalind got home, she was very pleased to see her grimm's state of undress. She removed her own clothes and slid in next to him, pressing against his side.
He woke to the feel of her lips on his skin and her fingertips gliding down his torso. Adalind splayed her hands down taking his member, stroking and teasing before climbing on top and inserting his hardness with in her.
Nick simply watched as his beautiful hexenbiest rode him. The way she writhed above him was like a graceful dance. He wanted to just enjoy the view, so he merely rested his hands on her thighs, making no effort to take control, giving it completely to her.
Only when Adalind lost her rhythm did Nick intervene by pressing his thumb on her clit, triggering her orgasm and allowing him to take his own.
He flipped them so she was on her back and he on top. It took only a few thrust before Nick felt release as he extended Adalind's.
Pulling themselves into each other's arms, they basked in the beauty of what they had. That they could still want to be together even after a long and stressful day was worth anything life threw at them.
"I spoke to Renard" Nick told Adalind the next day. "I informed him that who I date was my business and he should stay out of my personal life."
"Do you think he understood."
"I really don't care" Nick said with a shrug. "If he wants to keep crossing the line, than he will give me no choice but to do the same. I won't allow his need for power destroy my need to have a life with you. If he wants to mess with the grimm, than the grimm will mess with him back."
Adalind felt a chill go through her at the icy coldness of Nick's voice when he spoke that last line. There was not a doubt in her mind Nick meant what he said. Sean Renard may have high ambitions, but they were no match for Nick's desires to have a home and family.
Renard would find that working against Nick would be a foolish and possibly deadly decision.
As it turned out, the half zauberbiest, half royal felt the same way, that is, after being attacked in his own home by someone looking for the coins.
After some research, it was discovered that the captains attacker had been part of the original three thieves that had brought the coins to Nick's attention in the first place.
When this new player realized Renard didn't have the coins and had no idea where they were, he decided to find the grimm.
At Nick's home however he found himself facing not only a grimm, but the grimms hexenbiest girlfriend.
Then soon a woman dressed all in black.
The hexenbiest threw a large knife at the coin thief, killing him. The woman in black seeing a hexenbiest went after her, but was stopped by the grimm, who got between the two women and said
"Lay one hand on her and you're dead."
The woman in black stopped short with a look of surprise and said
"Nicky"
"Mom?"
It was Nick's turn to be surprised. He had believed since he was twelve years old that his parents had been killed in a car accident. Which was in fact not an accident but had been caused by the thieves looking for the coins.
Kelly Burkhardt looked at the blonde and said
"Did you give my son a zaubertrank to make him fall in love with you?"
"No" Nick and Adalind say at the same time.
"I don't know why that is everyone's first thought when they see Nick and me together. Especially considering I fell in love with him first." Adalind grumbled to herself. Though it could be heard by both grimms in the room.
"I'm sorry" Kelly explained. "Grimms and hexenbiests are not known for having compatible natures."
"And it can't be easy for a mother grimm to see her son with a hexenbiest. I know my own mother has practically disowned me for being with Nick, and, turning my back on my own kind, as she puts it."
"Mom, what is going on?"
The next moments were filled with Kelly Burkhardt explaining how she had to go into hiding because she thought that would keep Nick safe after his father and a friend of the families were killed in that car crash.
They called Monroe and Rosalie, needing their help in cleaning up and hiding the dead body.
Monroe and Nick's mom almost got into a scuffle. The blutbad not liking the dangerous scent of the stranger near his friend. The female grimm not liking a blutbad near her son.
Nick found himself having to jump in between again to stop a potential fight.
After more explanations and more shocked faces,
from the wessen on finding out Nick's dead mom was actually alive,
and from Nick's mom on finding out her son had wesen friends, in particular a blutbad, who would kill and die for him.
They went about trying to figure out if there were anymore people in Portland after Nick, Kelly, the coins or the key.
Nick apologized to his friends for the whole incident with his mother.
"Hey, no worries man. As far as family reunions go, I think that went really well. At my last family reunion, we lost three cousins and a dog… I still miss the dog."
The surprises just kept coming, when Sean Renard called Nick and informed him about the royal family sending an assassin of sorts after the grimm.
"A mavis dentes" Renard explained. "My contacts have told me the royals know about you and your key. They sent their best to kill you and retrieve that key at any cost, which may include Adalind's life."
"What makes you suddenly care about Adalind's safety, and so eager to help me now, don't you want the key and coins for yourself?" Nick accused his captain.
"If the royals get the coins and key from another source than I will gain nothing and may even end up dead myself. This is one situation where it proves more lucrative to work against my father's family than for them."
That logic could hardly be argued with. It was decided that Nick would take Kelly to the trailer, in order to retrieve the coins and she could take them to a safer location.
Adalind, Rosalie and Monroe disposed of the body in a high crime area with no witnesses.
Unfortunately, all hell was not done breaking loose in Portland.
Nick was questioned by the FBI on why a dead man had his name and address in his possession.
Adalind and Renard had to convince the feds that Nick had no clue who the dead man was, and that cops were always being targeted by one criminal or another.
The hexenbiest hated working alongside the royal bastard but knew it was necessary to protect the man she loved.
It took explains how thieves were after rare and highly valuable coins and would do anything, including assault a police captain in order to obtain them. Renard fortunately had proof in the form of uniformed officers who had been called to his home and scared away the thief/killer before he could finish his work on the captain.
The feds believed all of the evidence and decided Nick was just another detective surrounded by chaos and let him go.
However, the mavis dentes was not so keen on letting go of his prey. Attacking Nick when he was alone.
It took all the skills the grimm had to defeat the assassin. The sabre tooth tiger like wesen was fast, strong and agile. Without a doubt Nick's toughest opponent.
That was until he got home and found out his mother killed Adalind's mother.
Kelly Burkhardt explained that Catherine Schade had showed up with the intent on killing Nick and her own daughter, unless of course the latter agreed to kill the grimm herself. The two mothers had gotten into a fight. Breaking several pieces of furniture, including a mirror, of which a large shard ended up in the older hexenbiests throat.
It was obviously self defence and protecting the lives of others, but it was still something difficult to explain.
Luckily the captain was able to help in the law enforcement and paperwork department.
It would be cataloged as a murder where the suspect disappeared. They could even give a full description of Nick's mom if they wanted to since she was already leaving Portland for who knows where.
The real issue lies with telling Adalind her mother was killed by Nick's. And the grimm was afraid that it would be to much for his hexenbiest and she would decide to leave him.
Adalind had been at work, sorting out what legal documents she could in order to ensure they were all covered, by the time she got home, the mess had been cleaned up, Nick's mom was long gone and Nick himself was waiting on the couch for her, looking worse than he did that night he had offered her a reason to call off their relationship due to Monroe getting attacked and Nick not wanting the same thing to happen to her.
He explained to her the story his mother told him.
Then he waited.
For her to scream.
For her to cry.
For her to tell him it was the last straw and she couldn't live her life with him anymore.
But what she ended up saying completely took Nick by surprise.
"I really don't know what to feel. I know she was my mother, but she never really seemed to care about me. She was rarely around when I was growing up. Our whole relationship was based on her telling me how to be the perfect hexenbiest and do everything I could to manipulate people to get money and power. I know I should be sad, but she wanted you dead. Your mother protected the both of us."
Adalind shook her head at how insane it all was. Maybe later she would feel more. It was possible she was still in shock. But a voice in the back of her mind was telling her she was finally free. She could live the life she wanted without her mother's judgments.
She did fall into Nick's arms then. Seeking comfort, offering comfort. It had been a trying past few days and the were both worn out from the whole ordeal.
Chances were things would only become more chaotic. The royals would not give up, Renard was still far from being trustworthy, and there were always wesen making trouble.
Life of a grimm was far from easy.
But Nick felt the one thing he didn't have to worry about was Adalind walking away. Even after all that had happened, she was still in his arms.
And that made Nick feel like the luckiest man alive.