Author: Greeting everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful and safe New Years. I may have written a crossover with Mori x Himawari and ACOTR/TWGFs. I hope you all enjoy it. Please read ACOTR and The War Gods Favorite, they are lovely series. I also want to thank all of you for your reviews/favorites/follows. You all are amazing and I hope that you enjoy the chapter!

" It's been twelve years, Akira." A tall male of muscular build who appeared to be in his mid-thirties with light brown hair said weakly. His deep purple eyes were filled with deep despair. " It's becoming harder and harder to keep up the hope that we will find them."

Beside him, a large cougar let out a sorrowfully growl. The feline curled its long tail around its companion's ankle.

" You, my friend, are not allowed to give up hope." A tall male, Akira, shoulder length black hair with grey eyes. He was of similar height and build to the other. He had a thin well-trimmed goatee and mustache.

He placed a reassuring hand upon his counterpart's shoulder. " Inei, my friend. If you, the female's own mate and the youngling's father, give up hope. Then how will they ever return? Who else would be worthy enough to welcome them back to their Court?"

A large, nearly shoulder foot tall tiger approached the cougar and placed a paw comfortingly onto the creature's snout.

" I just don't understand a single trace of Ayame and our child." Inei sighed weakly, running a hand weakly through his brown hair. " I lay awake every night praying to the gods for a sign…any sign. I just need to know if I should lay them to rest or n-"

THWAP!

" AKIRA!" Inei snapped angrily as his friend's hand collided with his head.

" I will do it again if I catch you speaking as such." Akira said, narrowing his grey eyes dangerously. " If I have not given up, then neither shall you. I believe we will find the truth of them one day, whether good or not. I am not allowing you're idiotic momentary weakness to give up on them

" You are the High Lord of the Spring Court, Inei. If you give up on your own mate and youngling, then why should anyone else hold out to find them? Your Court will not stop searching for them until you will. Ayame was their Lady and Himawari is your only heir. Who you appoint to take over after you if you give up hope?"

" Kameko, maybe?" Inei said earning another blow to the head.

" I swear, I will strangle you myself, Inei!" Akira growled, lips curling to expose elongated canines. " That girl, is not even being a member of your bloodline, thereby cannot ever possibly wield the power that comes from your position! In addition to that, she is absolutely unwilling and most importantly, incompetent!"

A small growl escaped the fox which earned a snort of amusement from the tiger.

" You just do not wish your son to marry Kameko, Akira." Inei said giving his friend a half hearted smirk.

" Takashi will marry your true heir, not an imitation. That was the agreement between our Courts, Inei." Akira said as he walked towards his liquor cabinet and pouring them both a glass of liquor. " I will only accept your TRUE heir as Takashi's wife. Not that vile woman's hateful spawn."

" You shouldn't speak of her in that way, Akira." Inei said as his friend handed him a glass.

" I shall speak of her however I want. She's vile and manipulative." Akira said, narrowing his grey eyes onto his friend. " I believe she is the one placing these poisonous thoughts inside you."

" Don't-"

" Don't you tell me what to do when you are beginning to ignore your own instincts as a male."

A snarl escaped the brown haired male at the statement. A weak and pained growl escaped the felid beside him.

" Be mindful of what you say, Akira!"

" I will say it as many times as needed for you to pull your head out of your ass, Inei. You're letting her manipulate you into giving up on Ayame and your daughter." Akira said setting his glass down and striding over to his friend. The two males stood toe to toe, a dangerous aura flickering between them.

" The only reason I haven't knocked you flat on your ass, Inei, is because of you being my bonded brother as well as having guest rights here. However, keep that tone and I will remind you who always won in our sparing matches."

A low snarl from Inei earned himself a blow to the chin.

" You're to busy listening to the viper you let into your garden that you ignore those who care for you and yours. Instead of listening to the venom she drips into your ears what does your instincts tell you, Inei! YOUR INSTINCTS AS A MATE AND AS A FATHER! THAT IS WHO YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING TO, NOT ANYONE ELSE!"

" I HAVE!" Inei snapped finally. " TWELVE YEARS AGO I FELT THE SNAP, AKIRA!"

" The snap?" Akira said in disbelief. " The snap?"

" Twelve years ago, just a few days after Ayame and Himawari disappeared. We were still searching the surrounding areas for them when I felt it. It felt like someone had pierced my soul and wrenched it from my very being. I couldn't breathe when I felt it."

Inei looked up to see the disbelief on his friend's face.

" I didn't want to believe it, Akira. For twelve years I didn't want to believe that she was gone...but she is. I can't deny it any longer. Ayame is gone, I will never see her again."

" And the child?" Akira asked weakly.

Inei clenched his fist so tightly blood began to trickle from it. He looked away, refusing to meet his friend's eyes.

" Inei…what of the child?"

" I don't know…there are times when I swear that I can sense something…but I don't know if it is just the last dregs of hope tunneling their way from my heart."

" Obviously you believe the child still exists." Akira said after a long tense silence.

" How would you know what I believe?" Inei said as he stared weakly into his drink.

" Because you stupid fucker," Akira said as he drained his drink swiftly. " You're still alive."

An approving 'mrrow' came from the feline beside Inei.

" If your daughter had been lost you wouldn't have had the will to continue living. Even Suisen here agrees with me." Akira said gesturing to the cougar who flicked its tail in recognition. " He and I never agree. So the simple fact that you are not feeding the worms right now tells me the girl still lives. Now, act as though you still have a brain and we can think of other ways we can locate the girl."

A small smile appeared on Inei's face as he lifted the glass to his mouth.

SLAM!

" What an enormous amount of stupidity gathered in this room." A booming baritone voice echoed through the room.

" Yorihisa," Akira said calmly. " It's the hour of the wolf, must you be so loud?"

" Since when does the Night Lord care for silence during his reigning hours?" A large male with shoulder length blonde hair and neatly trimmed blonde hair entered the room. His auburn colored eyes shone mischievously as he slung an arm lazily around Akira's shoulder.

" When I do not want to wake an entire manor filled with teenagers, younglings and terrifying females who do not enjoy their slumbers disturbed." Akira said as he watched a large male lion saunter into the room following the man.

" You may have forgotten, dearest cousin, but my eldest has recently moved his mate into my palace and that girl is absolutely terrifying in the morning. Why did you not warn me how Night She-Faes behaved, Akira?"

" You did not ask, Yorihisa." Akira said calmly, handing the blonde man a glass of liquor who took the drink and downed it instantly.

" And here I thought we were closer than this." Yorihisa laughed jovially. " And Inei, if I ever hear you utter thoughts of giving up without absolutely certainty again, I shall beat some sense into you myself."

" You and I both know who would win that fight, Yorihisa."

" Well, it would never get to it because the spoil sport here would stop it." Yorihisa said, nudging Akira jokingly.

" Who knows Yorihisa, I may suddenly come down with a coughing fit and may be unable to stop him." Akira said cooly leaving a look of shock on the blonde's face.

" On a different note, I passed Takashi on my way in, where was he off to so late?

A smirk appeared across Akira's face at the blonde's question.

" He's hunting."

A tall, muscularly built teenaged male with shaggy, shoulder length black hair and grey eyes walked towards a dingy set of docks. Pointed ears poked out of his dark locks as he adjusted the violet purple cloak cinched around his shoulders. Mist wafting around him as he ventured further into the dark. He was dressed in an all black tunic and pants, hands shoved lazily into the pockets.

" You can't come inside when we arrive." He said in a low baritone voice to the large felid beside him, its head almost to his bicep. The creature resembled an all black tiger that came up to his elbows. However, were on a regular tiger there would be black stripes, this creature had white. It almost perfectly blended into the night's black.

" You were restless this evening, Masaki." The teen said to the tiger, who brushed lightly against him. " That is the only reason we're out this late."

A low whine escaped the creature as its beautiful green eyes shone flicked to the docks and then back.

" Is that where it is?" The teen asked, running a hand through the feline's fur. " The Human Auction house?"

A low growl of acknowledgment flowed from the tiger.

" I still don't understand why you are so riled up. You've never been this way when we've raided one."

Hurry up, boy! The angry male voice yelled into his mind. Or else I will go in myself.

" You are not going in there, Masaki. It'll be a dead giveaway who we are."

Then move now, Takashi! Masaki snapped as he flinched, as if suddenly struck by something painful. He had been doing that a lot recently. Every time Mori also felt a small stinging sensation in his back.

It was never anything debilitating, more of a minor annoyance.

To him, at least.

To Masaki, it was unsettling, he became on edge.

Snapping at even the slightest disturbance.

It had been getting worse within the past few days. His bonded beast was almost ready to lunge at a servant last night when he had intervened.

High Born Fae males were born with a bonded beast, a particular species belonging to each of the High Born clans.

The males felt everything that their beasts felt.

The beasts were the males link to their basic instincts. They knew things before their counterparts did.

They could even identify a male's mate before he realized it himself. Nothing was allowed to harm the mate when his beast was near.

The beast would also be the first to know if the mate was in pain or afraid. The closer they were to the mate, the more intense the beast would feel their emotions and the greater their desire to protect them.

" I'm going." Mori said calmly, pulling the hood onto his head, adjusting the loose material billowing at the neck to cover his mouth, showing only his stormy grey eyes. " You are to remain here."

Boy, if you think I will stay put-

" Behave, Masaki." Mori said once again, earning a displeased snarl from his beast. With that he turned and strolled towards the docks, his heightened senses following the scent of blood and sorrow that wafted through the air.

CRACK!

The cracks of whips and sobs of pain flowed to his ears the closer he came.

Vile. He thought as he rounded the corner and spied the cages and auction.

Human enslavement had been outlawed for the past five hundred years. His father, Akira, along with his uncles Yorihisa and Inei had fought alongside the human rebels in-order to liberate them from their shackles.

All of his family's former slaves had been freed two centuries prior when his father had assumed the mantle of High Lord from Mori's grandfather. Any human who wished to remain at the Court had been given a pension and treated with respect.

Any who wished to live amongst their own kind, were transported to those lands with money to begin anew.

Many minor lords had spoken out against his father's decree.

They had been brought to heel with ease.

His uncles, Inei of the Spring Court and Yorihisa of the Day Court, had easily squashed those who wished to keep to the old ways.

Now here this filth was.

Out, almost in the open, selling slaves in his father's lands made him seethe in anger. It was only intensified when he saw products being sold.

Females.

Young females of various ages.

Some appeared to be barely old enough to have hit their first flow. He knew what the slavers were planning to peddle them for.

Bed Warmers for the High Fae if they were deemed pretty enough by Fae standards.

If not, they were sent to Brothels.

And a few unlucky females, if purchased by the lower Fae. Mori cringed at the very thought of what his reports had told him.

There was also human young locked in cages. Their large, innocent eyes filled with fear and confusion.

Many were looked like they were barely able to toddle, others appeared to still to be in swaddling clothes.

Pets.

The young were to be sold as pets for the High Fae…if they were lucky.

Lucky enough to be kept like how the humans kept cats or dogs, these young would possibly meet similar fates.

He bit back a snarl at the sight a thick steal collars around every human's neck and each wrist.

Not only did the market violate the anti human enslavement laws, but they violated the very basis of the Fae's society.

Females were sacred.

The Young were to be protected at all times, regardless of whether they were human or Fae.

Females were the closest to the Goddesses that there could ever be in their realm.

Not only were they in the very image of the Goddesses, but they had the power to create life itself.

Their souls were considered closer to the nature around them than their male counterparts. Their scents, especially to their mates, were the most intoxicating a male could register. A female's power over her mate, if their bond was strong enough, could quell his rage with a single touch or word.

He, himself, had even seen his father, who was considered to be one of the strongest High Lords to exist, be brought to his knees to appease his mother.

Females were so important to their culture that Fae temples were run completely by them.

Communing with the deities was something the females of their race were more easily able to do.

Males were in-charge of warfare and were required to consult with the temple priestesses were consulted.

The priestesses were able to have young of their own and as many consorts that they deemed enough in order to strengthen their young's bloodline.

The male young were sent to their father's Court while the females were kept within the temple.

There had been only one case where a priestess and her female young did not remain in the Temple.

That priestess had fallen in love with a High Lord.

She had been that Lord's mate.

She had even bore him one female child in their time together before both she and the child had vanished.

That priestess had been Ayame, dedicated to the Temple of Kore located in the heart of the Spring Court.

Inei, the High Lord of Spring, had been her mate.

It had been unheard of that a Temple Priestess to leave her designated temple. Unheard of for her to not relinquish her young to the temple to be trained in service of the Goddesses.

It had also never been seen in their history where a High Lord had been mated to a Temple Priestess. Many had taken them as lovers in the histories, but never had there had been a record of an official mated pair.

Yet they had been allowed to live together. Not that the temple could stop them. Ayame had always been rumored to be rebellious. Quite unlike the other priestesses of the Temple of Kore who had been very mild mannered.

CLINK!

The clinking of the chains had jolted from his thoughts. Looking around he fought back the urge to snap the slavers necks as he saw them dragging young females to the selling blocks.

If he were to resign to his basic instincts, seeking retribution for the injustices before him he wouldn't be able to find the mastermind orchestrating it all.

It had been centuries since the last attempt to sell slaves in this continent. No one had dared to even breathe a single whisper to the idea. Yet here was a fully fledged slave market only a hundred miles from the Court's capital.

He did his best to blot out the atrocities before him. Surely this had to be the way, or else he would have to obliterate the entire slave market in his rage.

Surely this had been what had been upsetting Masaki recently.

His beast, as a bond with the future Night Court Heir, must have been able to sense the pain of the weaker beings. It must be why he was so angered

" Hello young man!"

Mori froze at the call to his left.

The accent of the male slaver was thick from the continent.

That had been the last place where the enslavement of humans had still occurred. The liberation wars had only recently ended about two hundred years ago.

His father had said there were still underground cells that kept their human counterparts enslaved.

Mori clenched his fists in attempts to quell the rage inside him at the thought of this sacrilege being on his own soil.

" Young man, yes you!" The slaver waved at him, beckoning Mori to his selling block. " You look like a viral young man. Ready to bed any female in need."

Mori cringed inwardly at the slavers words. By those simple words he had deduced that the slaver was selling Bed Warmers.

" Well young man, I have some things that will most assuredly interest you."

Things.

He was referring to these females as things.

As opposed to living, breathing beings.

Beings with beating hearts of their own.

" May haps you like red pelts, young man." The slaver said gesturing to a wild eyed red haired female. " One that requires a bit of breaking in."

Mori tried to his best to keep his rage tampered at the implications.

" Maybe something a little more innocent?" The slaver gestured to a younger blonde girl who was barely ten and four.

CRACK!

Mori inwardly cringed as a stinging sensation seared between his shoulder blades, the sound of a whip echoing in his ears.

Along their bond, he felt Masaki snapped in outrage.

Stop it! Mori sent the command along the bond.

You had best hurry, boy! I will wait no longer!

You have t- Mori paused as the breeze brought the soft scent of lilies and vanilla to his nose. He straightened as he fully inhaled the scent. He felt his mouth water as it filled his entirety.

Another wave of stinging pain shot through him as the scent of blood began to mix with the intoxicating scent that filled him.

Let me go now, boy! Masaki roared, fighting against Mori's restraint. I will end these bastards now!

" Or perhaps, young man. You would like something a bit more tame?" The slaver said gesturing to his aide who had gone behind a curtain.

Tame… Mori thought in horror, his skin.

TAME! Masaki roared in hatred, Mori being barely able to hold him back.

" No need to worry about attitude or rebellion out of this one, young man. It doesn't even cry when reprimanded. Silent as a whisper in the night. Just light a Bed Warmer should be!" The male said jovially. He was completely oblivious to how close he was to meeting Persephone herself. " You'll be the first to taste this product, young sir! Never once has it been bedded since it was originally sold. I'll even give you a good price as a first time customer!"

I WILL SHRED THIS BASTARD! Masaki roared.

The sound could be heard not only echoing inside Mori's mind but off in the distance. The sound being easily confused with an oncoming storm.

Masaki, n-

Mori froze as the attendant returned from behind the curtain. The soft scent of lilies that he had detected from earlier now blasting him straight in the face.

A soft purr wrippled down the bond as Mori locked eyes with a delicate looking female who held the deepest set of purple eyes that he had ever seen in his entire existence.