The one explanation that I reached that day in my room, the one that I kept reaching every single time I thought of my mother and father's relationship and how much they loved each other was the only logical explanation for my existence as another male's offspring.
'The monster must have forced her.'
Elizabeth's head shook violently.
"Is that what you were thinking all these days without asking me about it?" She must've known I wasn't going to answer that because she dismissed her question and carried on.
"What Emma did back then was her duty, she always knew that day would come, the man that raised you married her knowingly."
She tilted her head to the side as if she was the one hearing the information for the first time, she looked confused, to say the least. I decided to disconnect my emotions and deal with the flow of information rationally.
"What you're saying is that my father always knew that," I swallowed hard, trying and failing to stay calm about it. "You're saying he knew that one day, another man was going to touch her. You're saying he allowed that to happen?" I was disgusted with the words that left my mouth and left a bitter taste there as soon as they were out in the open between us.
'My father is not that kind of person at all.'
The man that could barely keep his eyes off of his wife, the fighter that I looked up to, the golden couple that I grew admiring from afar only wishing that someday I will have what they have.
"You are being too human about this, Theodor. Emma and her Alpha broke a ton of rules, scratch that, they broke EVERY single rule that ever was considered the foundation of the tabooed world, but there was one rule they couldn't break. It would've KILLED her." She explained desperately.
I took a very deep breath and held it in. I released all of it, thankful again for the fact that my mother and my father were still alive.
"What was the one rule she couldn't break." My voice sounded indifferent, but the truth was far from that.
"Reproduction duty." She whispered.
I couldn't help but think about horse breeding again, my blood was painfully hot inside of my veins. It physically stung me for the first time in my life, she searched my body, and something inside of me knew that she was aware of what was happening to me. Her innocent doe eyes found my identical ones at last.
"I would ask you to stop acting like a human about it. But it's the only thing you consciously know how to do. It's not a matter of choice or consent, it's just as the name implies, it comes to her naturally, to satisfy the call her king made, it was her duty to conceive you."
My head shook on its own, so she raised her voice a notch. "You are essential to the survivor of our kind!" I grabbed her wrist and pulled her to me as soon as she finished her sentence. I bent down until my nose was touching her nose.
"Will you be called for reproduction duty too?" I said every word low and slow.
Her breath fanned over my lips, and it took my entire integrity not to kiss her. Reminding myself that she didn't want it.
"I don't know, ask yourself then tell me, will you order me to produce an heir for you?" She asked sarcastically. Rendering my boiling blood ice cold the next minute.
'That's an unfair question.'
She knew that I had feelings for her and she was hitting low, comparing me to the monster that took advantage of my mother.
She moved away from me to the nearest tree trunk, she slid down and leaned her back against it, wrapping her arms around her knees, looking fragile and small. She spoke softly.
"Do you know what's a vampire, Theo?"
Images of bats, fangs, and blood ran through my brain simultaneously.
'Monsters of the night.'
"Don't you think it's strange that two vampires are having a conversation in daylight then?" She asked, trying to drive me to a certain conclusion for sure.
'It's one of the many lies they inserted into your brain about the tabooed world.'
"Okay, I'm listening." It was a story I wanted to hear with my ears so I spoke up.
"In a nutshell, vampires are portraited as monsters by the real monsters."
.
.
.
I had no idea what she meant by that, for real this time.
"The real monsters?" I asked.
"Humans." She said the word as if it was an insult.
"You lost me," I admitted.
"Vampires are simply the natural selection, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of humans, we carry superior genes." She looked smug for a change. "And you know what that makes them?" She asked with a smile on her face.
"What?" I humored her.
"Jealous." She answered.
'Humans? jealous of vampires?'
It sounded twisted and all wrong to me, I was about to ask, 'whatever for?' when she continued explaining without hearing me.
"We're faster, smarter, stronger, we don't even need words to communicate." She winked at me playfully, her mood swings were severe, to say the least. The image of the bloody fangs of a bat flashed inside my brain again.
something with her story was simply implausible.
"What about the whole… blood-sucking thing?"
Humans couldn't possibly envy this one.
"Being able to survive on blood? that's just convenient to us, not an obligation. It was focused on and highlighted to create a deep repulsion in the hearts of all the sheep out there."
I was disappointed.
"... That's not very creative of you," I said vaguely.
"What do you call people who ask how high whenever they are told to jump?" She said sarcastically.
"People who need guidance, that's what I would call them if I must categorize them under something."
Two things I couldn't tolerate was prejudice and prejudiced people.
"Do you blame them for believing that vampires are monsters? That's the same as blaming them for not believing vampires exist at all!"
Heck, I found it hard to believe myself.
"You see, the lies they made up about us, it's why Emma insisted on isolating you, why she raised you away from the rest of us, and why your brain is twisted, thinking more like a human than a pureblood vampire... it's a weakness to our entire kind that you're like this right now!" She kept hitting low, questioning my upbringing now of all times.
"I might not have your collateral way of thinking about things, but I'll tell you what... I'm thankful for all the years I spent in ignorance."
I nodded once to myself.
I was starting to understand why my parents had to lie to me.