(A/N) So I think I'm starting to write on a semi-normal schedule now.

Book 2: Chapter 2

I'd like to think I handle this situation under grace and dignity. I'd like to say that I could handle the fact that I was abruptly meeting the love of my life's mother for the first time and just now finding out that I'm apparently engaged to royalty. I'd like to think that there was some reality or timeline in which that would be true. However, I'm not exactly the shining example of grace under fire.

"Why did you not tell me this?!" I demanded.

"I didn't want to bring it up!" Miia shouted back, meeting my intensity just as hard.

"Why not?! I feel like this is something I should know!" I turned to everyone else in the room. "Am I wrong? I'm not wrong, am I? I feel like I'm the bad guy here."

No one would meet my eyes. They didn't just turn away from it either, but most of my family made a theatrical show of clearing their throats and turning away. My dad, for instance took a sudden interest in the newspaper, Papi and Suu promptly returned to their game, and Rachnera vocally made it a point to lounge across a hammock of webbing she made across the living room and watch us with an interested smirk. Centorea wasn't anywhere to be seen, but my mom, however, seemed to be the only one keeping her composure.

She stepped up to all of us and clapped her hands, getting our attention.

"Well! This has definitely been fun, but you're right, Boo," she said, turning to me with a tense smile, "You are the bad guy here."

I stammered, trying to find some way to combat that, but I figured the best thing to do was to keep my mouth shut and slumped defeatedly. Turned to Amaree.

"It's nice to meet you," she said, "I'm Kayo's mother."

"Oh! It's such a pleasure to meet you!" Amaree said way too cheerily, her tail wagging excitedly, "It's an honor to meet the woman who so graciously accepted my daughter into her own home, and the mother of her future husband." She took my mom's hands, my mom's eyes narrowing dangerously. "We have so much to discuss before he comes to live with the rest of our family, My Dear Sister."

My mom cast a harsh glance to everyone else in the room. There was something in Amaree's words, something about me coming to live with Miia's tribe, that would have obviously caused an uproar with the rest of the family, and Rachnera and my dad were already on their feet, ready to throw down. Thankfully, they all knew not to question my mom. Knowing fully well their input would not have been appreciated, and would probably have counterproductive, they both remained silent and let her handle this.

"Right! Well, why don't we go to my study and discuss this?" she said, and then turned to start walking, but then took a second to look over her shoulder, "Oh, and don't call me your 'Dear Sister.' You can call me Mrs. Ghirahim up until I give you that right."

"Oh. Oh, now I see," Amaree said, her tail starting to rattle.

I had lived with Miia for a long time. I knew how to read lamia-style body language like a champ, and knew what the most subtle movements of their tail were supposed to mean, and that rattling made my blood boil. She was feeling threatened, and worst case scenario… To be honest, I wasn't worried about my mom getting hurt. Well, I was, but I was more worried about her going too far and killing Miia's mother rather than her losing the fight instead.

My mom was one of those people that spiked your survival instinct. She had an aura about her, a subtle feeling that raised the hairs on the back of your neck as if she was dangerous, the psychic feeling that all humans possess on a fundamental level that lets you know when to stay away from someone. The reason for that is because she truly was dangerous.

Before I was born, my mom was a member of a special forces unit in the United States military built around a singular specific purposes- the destruction of all liminal species. Sure, several years ago, the United Nations and United Monster Federation came together in peace to help monster girls and humans live together in harmony, but before that, a never ending war had been raging all throughout humanity's existence for the survival of either race. In the late eighties and early nineties, that war had been raged in secret using the special forces my mom was a part of. Ironically, that's actually how my parents met.

Not only that, but any and every veteran would know that those instincts don't exactly leave you. Many veterans even choose to keep momentos and trophies from their tours of duty to remind them of the honor of what it meant to be a soldier, and my mom held all of her own, including her weapons made specially to fight liminals, in her study. Seeing a lamia barge into her home, upset the peace, and threaten to kidnap her son? She hid it well, but both my dad and I could see that she was purely enraged, and taking Amaree, Miia, and myself into her study was a balls out power move to intimidate her opponent. Amaree's rattling tail was a clear sign that she knew a fight was coming.

Before she and I could follow, though, Miia grabbed my hand and turned me to her.

"Darling, I'm really, really sorry," she said, her eyes glowing as if she was trying to hold back tears, "I know I should have told you sooner. I just didn't want to think about it, and now it's- it's causing problems and- and I don't want… I don't want you to be mad at me."

She was hiccuping at every other word, trying her hardest not to break down but the cracks in her facade showing plain as day. Even her tail was starting to shake erratically. I blinked at her out of shocked. I started panicking, in part because she was starting to lose it, but mostly because my poor reaction to this was causing it.

"Miia. Miia easy," I said, brushing a few loose strands of hair out of her face, "I promise I'm not mad. I'm more surprised than anything else, OK? I just wasn't expecting to meet your mother, or to find any of this out, and I know I handled it poorly. I'm OK."

She looked at the floor, then curled into me, her fingers tensely grabbing my shirt in an effort to try to calm herself down. Instinctively, her tail wrapped its way around my legs. We took a few moments to sit there and breath, knowing full well that we were going to be no good in this situation if we couldn't keep our composure.

Speaking of, I could see them both leering at us over Miia's shoulder. They both had different looks in their eyes. My mom's was what you would expect for a mother in her shoes, feeling fierce and protective and being ready to throw down and do whatever was necessary to protect her own, the "Mama Bear," she called it. As for Amaree, her's was a bit more predatory. She was looking at us as if closely analyzing the situation, watching how I handle myself around Miia and how close she was to me emotionally, and as if she was pleased with what she saw, she gave a sickening grin.

That's when I realized I didn't trust her. Call it experience, training, or instinct, but every fiber of my being was shooting red flags up at me, telling me that this woman was up to something. Still, she was Miia's mother, so I had to keep myself calm and handle this better.

After a moment or two, Miia took a deep, calming breath and pulled away from me, giving me a serious look.

"Are you sure you're OK?" she asked importantly. I smiled dryly at her, knowing full well what she was getting at.

"This is exactly what I'm going to therapy for," I said confidently, "I can handle this."

I wasn't the only one who was learning during her homestay. After living with me for close to two years, it came out that I had depression, and Miia, being the woman i loved and truly caring for me, made sure that she learned how to handle me when I found myself falling into an episode like this. That's why I started going into therapy- both to make sure I could function better as a healthier human being, but also to make sure I didn't bring her down with me. This was the exact situation I had been going to therapy for.

After I showed her I had gotten myself together, Miia nodded, her smile returning to her for a split second, then turning around and slithering after Mom and Amaree. Before I did the same, I was stopped again. This time, it was by Rachnera who, for once in her life, wasn't giving me her usual caustic grin, even if she was still lazily sprawled across her hammock as if she didn't what happened one way or another.

"I'm going to call Agent Smith," she said.

"Do you really think-" I was about to question, but she caught me off with an evil glare from all eight of her scarlet eyes, letting me know I didn't have a choice in the matter. Instead of continuing to question her, I gave her a cheeky grin.

"Aw, you do care about this family, don't you?" I teased, then immediately got a gag of webbing slapped over my lips.

"I'm sorry, did you say something? I couldn't quite catch that. It's like you've got a gag over your mouth or something?" she said, sarcastically throwing a bit of popcorn into her mouth. I grumbled and peeled her webs off my face.

"Smart aleck," I said, then entered the study.

The air was tight and suffocating. I saw Centorea had retreated into this room earlier, probably from a command from my mom whom she readily took orders from as her superior, and she was watching Amaree carefully, hand on a replica arming sword she owned. Mom was doing something very similar, relaxing on one of the couches in here, but with her own longsword Drakmor laid across her lap. Amaree, however, paid them no mind. She confidently slithered around the room, carefully examining the weapons and armor Mom stored in here, as well as pictures of her various conquests and missions which she didn't bother hiding since I discovered them, occasionally crossing overs Miia tail in the process.

The thought had crossed my mind that Miia would be scared of her mother. Miia was one of the most dramatic people I knew, and regularly started conflict if she ever felt it necessary, but had always backed down in the face of true adversity. I had thought she would treat her mother's arrival with the same reverence. Worst case scenario, I had even expected Miia to be afraid of her mother and be so uncomfortable with this situation that she wouldn't be able to stand up for herself or her family.

Thoughts like these make me feel like an idiot, because the exact opposite was the case. Miia had her arms crossed angrily, scowling at her mother like she was trying to blow her up with her mind, and every time Amaree slithered over her tail, she coil it back underneath herself as if she was poised to strike, and as far as I knew, she probably was. Miia had never mentioned her mother before. As far as I knew, those two could throw down at any minute. It wasn't like Amaree had shown that was a peaceful being she had arrived here.

"You'll have to excuse me," Mom started, "I figured it was best to have this conversation away from prying ears."

"I agree," Amaree said, not bothering to meet her eyes as she stared at a photo, "You're referring to Kayo coming to stay with our tribe, correct?"

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Mom said, grinning proudly as if that were obvious, "And that is the end of those negotiations."

"You don't really expect these two to marry and not live in the country they rule over, do you? Marrying Miia means that Kayo will become the crown prince of the Lamee Tribe, so it only makes sense that they will come to stay with the rest of their family. They can't rule overseas, and as you know, we're not going to live forever." Amaree smiled darkly at the mention of her and my mother's age. "Our children will need to learn how to fend for themselves eventually, and they can't learn to do my job without being up close and personal with interspecies politics."

"You seem to not understand something pretty crucial." My mom slammed Drakmor point down, still in its sheath, into the floor and casually tossed out two fingers to Amaree. "This is America! Here in teh glorious United States, we put value in something called consent. It's not only ethically the right thing to do, it's also the law. Oh, and isn't there a particular law detailing the relationships and regulations between humans and liminals?"

She turned to Centorea, who had the deadliest look in her eyes and arms crossed under her chest, already knowing the answer.

"It's called the Interspecies Exchange Bill," she said.

"Ah, that's right! Thank you, Cerea!" My mom applauded.

"You forget that they haven't yet decided the finer points on the law," Amaree pointed out, treating this as a gotcha! Moment, "And you humans seem to think that getting married makes you both the same person. Miia is a princess. She has responsibilities and she needs to hold up to them, so if Kayo still wants to get married to her, then he holds the same responsibility that she does."

"Hm, is that say?" Mom turned to us, pretending to be confused, "Kayo? Miia? What do you guys think? Do you guys want to be forced to rule a Tribe of lamias?"

"No," Kayo said immediately.

"Hell, no!" Miia said.

My mom, Centorea, and I looked at Miia with a bit of surprise and pride on our faces. We were expecting her to decline the offer, but getting so emphatic about it, shooting out of her feet and throwing her tail so hard that she actually broke mom's desk was almost terrifying. It was kind of hot, actually.

I tried to hide back my smile, but then suddenly alarm bells were ringing in my head. We all glanced over to Amaree who was radiating with dark energy, her eyes fading into a black void with nothing but a single red dot within them. Her tail was rattling so loud that the walls were shaking. The rest of us didn't hesitate to get to our feet, Mom and Centorea jumping ahead with their swords drawn and pointed at Amaree's throat while I instinctively put myself between them and Miia. I tensed up after Miia put her hand on my shoulders, whimpering.

"Sit. Down. Miia," Amaree said.

"Talk to my daughter like that again," Mom said, "And I will kill you."

Amaree's aura died down as she eyed the sword point at her throat. A smile slowly crossed her face and she politely sat down, her hands crossed lightly over her lap and her tail curled neatly underneath her. Mom and Centorea glanced at us. They took a second to breathe, make sure everyone was cool and calmed down, then took their own sweats, making sure that Miia and I were safe before doing anything else.

I listened closely to her. She was trying to keep herself calm, but I could hear her wheezing, hyperventilating into my hair. What exactly happened between these two that made her that scared of her mother? I reached back and grabbed her hand tightly, then gave her mother a demonic look before taking our seats again.

"You're right. They haven't decided anything about these bills just yet," Mom continued, "Humans and monsters have been having relationships for as long as we've been alive, but there's only ever been one legal case ever since the ICEP was put into effect. These two-" she gestured to us "-And do you know why that is? It's because these two are the test case to try to decide what amendments and addendums get put into the bill."

Amaree smiled tightly as she listened to us.

"I want to make a good impression on you," I said, trying to keep the growl out of my tone, "No matter how you look at it, you're an important or at least a major part of Miia's life. I want you to like me. I do." I sat forward, putting off my own kind of pressure just like hers from earlier. "But after this, I want to make one thing very clear. I don't want you anywhere near me or my family. We decide how the bill treats interspecies marriages internationally- not you -and I think at this point, you've just guaranteed that we'll adjust the law accordingly to make sure this situation never happens again."

I could feel Miia's eyes on me, watching lovingly. Since she was sitting so close to me still, her tail subconsciously wrapping around my ankle, I could even hear her muttering "Darling" under her breath, touched at me standing up for her.

"Miia, would you like to tell them why you joined the Exchange Program in the first place?" Amaree stated.

We turned to her. Miia's eyes suddenly went dark, and for a moment, I thought she was going to cower in fear again, but that wasn't it. There was something in her, something primal that was about to boil over and destroy everything in its path.

"Mother," she said through bared teeth, "Do not say one more word."

"Would you like me to tell them how you came here to find a husband?" Amaree began leaning forward over her arms, finding her footing.

"Mother!" Miia snapped, her pupils thinning into the most threatening slits as her tail began to rattle, her fists shaking at her side.

"Or would you like me to inform them how you manipulated them into letting them accept you into their family for no other purpose than to do so?"

Miia leveled her eyes on her mom at this point, tears threatening to spill over even though I could see nothing but pure rage behind them.

"I would actually, yes," she said finally. Her mother blinked, caught off guard.

"Fine," she huffed, then turned to Mom, "Lamias, as a species, are what you humans call polyamorous. Multiple lamias marrying the same human male is one of the most common things among all lamia kind, but-"

"But what my mom is trying to get at is that the Lamee Tribe is known for its harem style of polygamy," Miia continued, crossing her arms, "Mother sent me to the United States as part of the Intercultural Exchange Program to find a husband not just for myself, but for our entire tribe to marry, mate with, and have their children until the moment they could no longer survive our breeding process. Do I have that right, Mother?"

"Amazing, Dear!" she said, clapping her hands together, "You understand our tribe's law so well!"

"I'm not doing it," Miia stated.

Amaree's eyes shot open with utter rage. It only took a matter of seconds, but her motherly facade from just a second ago, being proud of her daughter, back to the devil of a woman who had previously tried to attack her.

"What did you say?" she stammered.

Suddenly, I felt like I wasn't part of this conversation anymore.

"I told you I'm not doing it!" Miia shouted, "Darling is mine! He is my husband and I will share him with who I wish! He will never be the property of the Lamee tribe if I have anything to say about it, so help me by the power of Monster Lord Alipheese the 16th!"

"Is that what you think?" Amaree said tightly, "That the Chosen Male of the Lamee Tribe is nothing more than property? Is that how you feel about your father?"

"Of course," Miia said, "You never loved him. You and the others only saw him as a means to get your rocks off."

The air was completely still in the split second before Amaree charged her. Maybe it was her defying her authority, or perhaps it was the insult to Miia's own father, but either way, Amaree dashed for us, springing from her coiled tail like a snake hunting its prey. My arms went up to defend us, but Miia was already prepared for a counterattack. Before Amaree could even reach us, Miia's tail launched upwards from my ankle, throwing me to the side in the same motion as she slapped her mother through the wall.

Amaree spilled into the yard next to the house, light spilling into the room as the wall crumbled into a lamia sized hole. Curling over herself, Amaree groaned, trying to sit up. Miia was standing up, making sure she was between us and her, protecting us with all she was worth, but she couldn't get herself to move any further. She was shaking again. After that burst of defiance was gone, she was back to submitting to her queen.

Amaree slowly got to her feet and raised her hands in a familiar fighting stance, the exact same I had seen Miia use on several occasions, showing that they had the same training.

"Is that really want you want?" she demanded, "You love this one man and wish to keep him to yourself so badly that you would even challenge your own mother? Then, so be it!"

I was standing behind Miia then. Gently, I stroked her hair and brushed my lips lightly against her ear while whispering into it.

"Have I ever mentioned I love you?" I asked.

That's when Amaree launched her attack. She twisted her hips and launched her tail at Miia's face, attempting to slap her and send her flying across the street, but just then, a horned being with draconic wings the span of a school bus stood between them. With clawed hands, he caught Amaree's tail out of midair, stopping her in her tracks. His eyes were a jet black all over save for a split pupil in a silver iris, fangs splitting down his snarling mouth, and a blood red aura far more intense than Amaree's black one burned around him.

"Incubus…" Amaree said in awe, "You're… you're the legendary-"

"Yeah, I've heard it!" I shouted at her, flapping my wings violently, "Legendary hero, something about a prophecy, and all that nonsense. I don't care. The only thing I care about is that you leave right now and never return here under any circumstances. Do you understand me? If you do, then it won't be my mother who kills you. Frankly, I won't kill you either. I'll just make you suffer."

"I can't just-" Amaree attempted, her tail swiping across the grass nervously, "I can't just leave my daughter in the United States when she has so much at stake with her tribe! You can't just make me leave!"

"The only time Miia stood up to you during that whole conversation was when you tried to take me away from her," I said, "Do you really care so little about her that you would ignore that? That you would ignore the submission and fear she holds towards you in the one time she decides to stand her ground?"

She tried to say something again, but bit it back.

"Leave," I said one more time, "Or I'll make you leave."

It seemed to dawn on Amaree just what she had gotten herself into at that moment. I could see the wheels turning in her head, examining the situation and trying to find the best course of action now the she knew for sure that what she had come here to do had completely failed, now needing a way out. She had come hoping to take Miia and I back to her village, only to be fought on every occasion. She struck me as the type of person whose power and influence all but guaranteed her everything she had ever wanted before, a type of entitlted parent you'd hear stories of on Read-it, because no matter how much I stared her down, that challenge in her eyes never left.

She wasn't going to give this up. The only thing keeping her from outright kidnapping me right then and there was the genuine threat of bodily harm. I had been convinced that Miia would submit to her, so she didn't scare her in the slightest, but now that she knew I was an incubus, and my mom was both a soldier trained specifically to fight her kind and was definitely willing to do so, not to mention how Centorea still had her sword drawn ready to throw down, she was hesitating. Even Rachnera, probably coming to check on us after hearing the commotion, had circled around her, webs at the ready to tie her up if she tried anything.

That's when that sickening smile crossed Amaree's face one last time.

"I see. I will take my leave then," she said with a very low polite bow, "I meant you no disrespect and hope you can forgive my ill-begotten behavior in the future. Farewell."

With that parting said, she slithering around to the front of the house, and Miia and I jumped on top of the roof, watching her get into her car and leave. We didn't jump back down until she was far out of sight.

"Sweet Merciful Buddha, would you two come down from there?" came a familiar, exasperated voice from the ground.

We looked down to see none other than the government coming in to check on us. There were four liminals, all wearing a particular type of ballistic armor, surrounding a much differently dressed individual with arms at the ready. The redheaded bob cat holding two SMGs was Zombina, a literal zombie, and the team's weapon's expert. Next to her in a godly powerful suit of power armor was Tio, a nine foot tall ogress with dark skin and flowing blonde hair, whose job could pretty much be summed up as a battering ram, or the team's tank if this were an MMO. Lying casually across the hood of the sedan parked out front, however, was Doppel. She was the team's infiltration expert, with ghostly white hair that fell around her black body in a whispy mist, not bothering to wear clothes since, as a doppelganger, she could just snap her fingers and shapeshift into any outfit- or person -she wanted. Lastly, was a shy monoeye as small as Papi and Suu with purple hair covering her face and a .50 Caliber sniper rifle twice as big as her. That was Mono, the sniper and lookout for the group.

Put these three together, and you had MONster's New Law, or MON Squad for short. They were the special forces unit made up entirely of monster girls who were called upon to deal with threats from other liminals since the Interspecies Exchange Bill even prohibited police from acting violently towards their kind no matter the situation. They were led by the person standing in the center of the group. She was an average human, a woman with finely brushed black hair, a government issue black pants suit, and black sunglasses bringing the look together.

Miss Kyoko Smith, my Intercultural Exchange Coordinator.

"What in the name of the ever loving mountain of paperwork I already have to do today was just going on?" she asked as Miia and I clambered off of the roof.

"Hey, Agent Smith," we greeted, but were promptly knocked to the ground just as the words escaped our mouths.

"Kyoko!" my mom yelled, knocking us over to hug her old friend.

"It's good to see you, too," she said, still glaring at us, "But this isn't a social call. I got a phone call from a certain arachne that you all were in danger, so do you mind filling me in on what happened? Please?"

I let out an exhausted sigh. Slightly stumbling as the fatigue began washing over my body, my adrenaline finally starting to seep its way out of me, I pushed open the door and gestured for her to come in.

"I'll put on some coffee," I said, "This is going to be a long story."