1850 in Frankford Delaware.
A black carriage stopped near the very small town full of small log cabins and busy unchanged werewolves, a beautiful elegant woman came out of the carriage with her escort helping her down and her female assistant by her side, she was wearing a green gown with white pearls on the front of her corset with white gloves, and she wore a white and a little bit of brown feathery hat making the brown colour almost match her curly chestnut hair, she was the beautiful Margaret.
Vanessa and Alex's biological mother and crowned prince Howard's wife.
Benson and Brian walked towards the woman and made a small bow at the same time, they wore white and long sleeved shirts, waistcoats and green pants.
"My lady." Said Benson while he stood just after his bow.
"Benson." She said with a small smile on her face just before she turned to Brian.
"It's a pleasure seeing you my lady." Brian said.
"Please, anything to help." She said while she looked at both of them.
"This way please." Benson said while gesturing his guests to the path behind him.
"It's been a while since you came here my lady." Benson said while they all walked together.
"Did you miss me?" Margaret asked with a playful smile on her face earning a warm smile back.
Brian cleared his throat and asked. "How was your trip home?"
"It was splendid I had so much fun with my babies." She replied.
"My lady." Margaret's assistant said making her boss turn to her. "Remember that time when Mr Alex was playing hide and seek with his granny and got stuck in the kitchen cabin?" She added earning a laugh from all of them.
"He didn't change at all didn't he?" Benson asked between his laugh, Margaret scoffed and replied. "Not even a little."
The stories went on as they walked closer to the small houses in that village but they suddenly stopped when they saw some of the palace guards taking sacks of food from the wolves, they were given instructions by a man who was holding some papers and a fountain pen.
"Is that the tax collector?" Benson asked.
"Looks like it, but he came too early if you ask me." Brian replied, Margaret looked at the man who was incharge of the situation and realized that she might have known him.
"How many sacks of grain?" The taxman asked.
"50 sir." One of the palace guard replied.
"What about meat?" The man asked.
"40 sir." The guard replied.
"Okay! We'll take 47 sacks of grains and give away 3." The taxman said.
"What?!" One of the wolves asked the taxman but didn't earn a reply but instead the taxman went on.
"And 35 sacks of meat, okay start packing." He continued as he wrote down on one of his papers before the palace guards started carrying the sacks and placing them in wagons.
"How are 3 sacks of grains and 5 sacks of meat going to help us survive throughout the year with all the snow that is coming?" The wolf that was ignored earlier asked.
"Well you can always buy some from us." The taxman said.
"Where do you think we'll get the money? And not to mention there will be too much snow for plantation." The wolf said.
"Well then find a job or something." The taxman simply said before he went on writing on his papers.
When the wolf walked towards the taxman he gripped his shoulder and said.
"That's injustice and you know it."
"How dare you say that to the kings command! Guards seize him! " The taxman exclaimed while he freed himself from the wolfs hand, as soon as he commanded the guards to seize the wolf the guards immediately kicked the wolf on both his kneepits making him fall down his knees and then they grabbed his hands from the back and lifted him up, when the wolf tried to struggle a bit one of the guards gave him a heavy punch on the stomach making him bend a little and moan in pain, when the guard lifted the wolf's face to throw another punch Benson and Brian showed up to stop the mess.
Brian punched the guard that was holding the wolf's hands on his back making him release the wolf while Benson pushed the other guard that was throwing punches with both his hands making the vampire fly a bit and land on his back a few meters from where he was standing.
"Kill them!" The taxman shouted making the rest of the guards take out their swords, the villagers looked terrified by this action because they weren't ready to start a fight with the vampires, but before they could do anything Margaret held her dress tight and quickly walked towards them with her assistant behind her.
"Stop!" She said.
The taxman quickly looked at Margaret with confusion on his face and when the guards saw her they immediately put back their swords in their scabbard.
"Lady Margaret." The taxman said with a bow, followed by the guards.
"Mr taxman." She said with a small nod.
"Please, call me Phil."
"Yes ofcourse Phil... I suggest you give them 30 sacks of grains and the 20 will be ours and as for the meat you will give them 20 sacks and the rest will be ours." Margaret said making Phil's eyes widen before he said.
"But the king—"
"Yes ofcourse you mean my father in-law, yes I seem to notice that" she said while interrupting his words. "But you. Who are you and what right do you have against me?" She asked.
"None my lady." Phil answered.
"That's what I thought, now please do me a favour and return their food and reserve only half the sacks for the royal family." She told him, Phil looked at the wolf that stood up on him and took a long look at the two brothers and finally said.
"You heard her." As soon as he said it the guards started taking down some of the sacks from the wagons, the wolves were so relieved and when Margaret looked at some of them she could see smiling faces which made her smile too and when she looked at Benson and Brian they were also happy that she stood up for them.
"My lady this is too much risk for me." Phil said with a worried tone.
"Then look for a another job or something." Margaret said while she lifted her dress a bit before she left.
♥♥♥♥♥♥
Hampshire 2021
Katherine walked towards Vanessa in the café table and pulled out a chair for her to sit but before she could sit Vanessa used her telekinesis on the chair making it go back in it's place.
"Oh seriously?" Katherine said while throwing her arms in the air.
Vanessa looked at her but didn't say a word and went on sipping the cappuccino.
"Okay I know I was wrong but atleast let me explain myself." Katherine begged.
When Vanessa looked at her she saw her making puppy eyes with a small pout, she sighed at her and used her telekinesis to slowly pull out the chair from the table for her best friend to sit, Katherine smiled at her actions and sat on the chair while placing her purse on the table.
"I can't believe you kept that from me."
Vanessa said.
"I'm sorry but i thought you would know it yourself, I mean it was obvious." Katherine said.
"Yeah but how can someone be so sure, it's not like I have mind reading powers like Alex." Vanessa said while finishing her cappuccino.
"Look I promised Marcus." Katherine said.
"It seems like your not so good at keeping promises." Vanessa said making Katherine sigh a bit.
"Are you okay?" Katherine asked.
"I'll be fine, I just hope things won't get awkward between Marcus and I." She replied.
"Do you know how long it has been?" Katherine asked while she placed her hand on her friend's arm.
"Apparently not." Vanessa answered.
"Ofcourse" Katherine said while rolling her eyes. "It's been 60 years." She added earning a surprised look from Vanessa.
"Why didn't he say anything?" Vanessa asked.
"Because he's a chicken." Katherine simply said while earning a bored look from her friend.
"Okay apparently his a chicken only when it comes to you." Katherine said while throwing her arms. "Your he's weakness." She added.
Vanessa looked at Katherine for a while trying not to believe what she just said but even if she tried not to believe, it would never have changed the truth.
She didn't know exactly what to feel at that moment because it was so confusing, she felt something for Michael and it was getting seriously deep but at the same time Marcus always looked out for her and he was the sweetest vampire she knew, It would break him if she didn't feel the same.
"Are you okay?" Katherine asked in a low voice while she slowly rubbed Vanessa's shoulder, Vanessa gave her a small nod and took her bag from the chair next to her.
"I need to go." She said before Katherine nodded at her.
When she was headed to the door she saw Michael coming in the café, they looked at each other for a while then Michael broke the silence.
"Hey." He said.
"Hi." She replied but didn't allow any further conversation and left, Michael turned to look at her with a confused expression on his face as she walked out the café and then decided to go on with what brought him in the café.
Meanwhile Katherine was looking closely at the two supernaturals and looked kind of surprised at what she saw.
After a while when college was over the vampires headed to the parking lot were they saw Richard waiting as always but before they got in the car Michael, George and Alicia showed up.
"Well what do we have here?" Alex said while cocking his head.
"We came to invite you guys." Michael said.
"A party?" Lily excitedly asked.
"It's going to be like a barbeque dinner." Alicia said.
"I'm not getting anywhere near that house." Marcus said before he entered the car.
"You do know that we don't actually care whether you show up or not?" George said with a raised brow on his face.
Alex didn't say a word and got in the car as well, his actions made Katherine roll her eyes at him.
"Look guys we appreciate it but we can't make any promises." Katherine said.
"Yeah It's going to be a 50, 50 chance that any of us will show up." Lily added.
"I'll come!" Vanessa muttered making everyone look surprised.
"And don't worry about me I'm a woman of my words, I'm not going to have any second thoughts about it." She added earning a smile from Alicia, her attitude made Michael smile a little before he looked down so that he wouldn't get caught.
When she was done she immediately got in the car.
"I think I'll also see you guys later." Katherine said before she turned and smiled at Vanessa earning a smile back while she entered the car.
"Me too, I guess." Lily said with a scoff.
"Okay." George said with a small nod before they left Lily getting in the car behind them.