The Princess And The Wolf

When your parents literally made history and everyone knows who they are, you tend to live in their shadow, feeling like you can never be known for your own achievements, but rather for theirs. Nobody cares how good you are, how strong or how smart you might be, when they hear your last name. In my case, the last name is somewhat irrelevant, only serving as confirmation. As soon as my title comes out people already start to look at me in a different light. PRINCESS. By the time it gets to my name, the gears inside their brain start turning, slowly figuring out who I am. CLARABELLE. When the last name finally drops, it just confirms that indeed I am who they thought I was. DRAKE. I am Princess Clarabelle Drake, and I am the only child of King Marcus and Queen Elisa, the rulers of the Vampire Kingdom. When my father met my mother, their love story nearly caused a full on war between vampires. My dad was the heir to the Drake caste, while my mother came from their biggest rival, the Snow cast, so they were not allowed to date each other. Let me back up and start from the basics, shall I? First of all, even if we are vampires, werewolves, sirens or any other type of 'supernatural' being, it doesn't mean we are immortal, or that we live a thousand years or any other crazy things like that. For some reason that completely eludes me, simple humans still have a lot of misconceptions about the other subspecies. Being different just means we are a different subspecies compared to the basic human. It took a few thousands of years, and our elders still talk about how it was feared by the simple humans that their silly technological inventions might be the ones to rule the Earth in the future. But guess what? DNA is the strongest, most unpredictable thing in the Universe, and it just decided to mutate in a way that would create a few more subspecies of humans. At least that's what I've learned in History classes at school so far, or a short, simplified version of it. I personally think that the goal was to evolve into a more intelligent species, since simple humans are not the brightest, just saying. The natural life span for the humanoid species, regardless if they are shifters or not is about 100 years, give or take. Of course all subspecies are susceptible to some illnesses or injuries that can severely harm or even kill them before old age takes its toll. But back to what actually matters here, and that is how my parents managed to make it into the history books. To cut yet another long story short, mom and dad met and fell in love despite the rivalry between their families and their respective castes. Revolutionising the way the world as we know it today works, they found allies in other species and basically pioneered the way to forming kingdoms. Slowly but surely, as a result of the revolution they started, the Vampire Kingdom has formed, soon after being followed by the Magical Kingdom, the Werewolf Kingdom, Elven Kingdom and Siren Kingdom. This is a fairly recent thing, only starting about 18 years ago when my parents met, but it's like having 5 powerful countries that have basic agreements between them. We all live and can roam freely between humans, most of them aware of our differences, but many keeping their distance from us. The one rule to follow is that we cannot use whatever powers or abilities we might possess, unless in our respective Kingdoms, or if we are in a Kingdom and we are granted special permission. For instance, witches and elves often help other kingdoms by using their healing abilities, or some vampires are called to other kingdoms to use their compelling abilities to find out the truth in an urging situation. We're all basically frenemies, and even out in the human world most of us stick to our own kind, our own subspecies. I mean, it's not like you go around seeing a lot of dogs eating from the same bowl as a cat, do you? But that doesn't mean a human family can't have both a dog and a cat as pets. You get what I'm going with this, I hope. Now back to me, and to the reason why I'm having this conversation with myself, in my head, like I would be speaking to another person. I'll have to start college soon, and that means that I will also be trained and taught all the necessary things to take over the Vampire Kingdom. I know that a lot of kids want to become President when they grow up, but I'm almost fully grown up and I can tell you it's not as fun as it might seem where you were 7 years old. Despite getting to finally be together and have a family, my mom and dad are the first ones to admit that being the King and Queen and having so many responsibilities, is not as easy or as glamorous as one might imagine. My mom told me once that if not for them being so busy with their duties, I wouldn't have been an only child. I thought about that, and after some quick research, I learned that except for the Werewolf Royals, all the other Royals only have 1 child, so indeed, it looks like the pressure is very high and you barely have time for yourself or your family. Bloody hell, that's it! That's why old mommy and daddy are sugar coating this for me. They can't wait till I take over and they will finally get to enjoy each other without any more responsibilities. I love my parents to pieces, and I want that for them, but before I relieve them of their duties by taking over, I want to be normal for a while. Deciding that this is as good of a moment as it gets, I ran out of my room, not stopping even to say hello to people I would usually ask about their day. They could all see that I was on a mission today, so everyone moved out of my way, either chuckling lightly or wishing me good luck. They all know me so well. "Mom, dad, I want to go and study at a human college." I barge in, not bothering to knock, and watch my parents collecting their lower jaws from the floor of my dad's office. "Uhm, I'll just... I heard my phone... Hello?" Patrick, my parent's right hand man, is the first to speak, excusing himself from what he clearly saw as a family only situation. Patrick is like my dad's brother from another mother, that's how close they are, and he still couldn't leave the room fast enough after what I just said. I bet my dad wanted to follow him right out, but my mom would have tore him a new one, so he stuck around, sighing, and I swear I saw a few hairs going instantly grey on his head. "Clara..." My mom starts in a soothing voice. "Just hear me out, OK? I promise you it's not that bad, I am willing to negotiate and compromise so we can all come to a mutual agreement that would benefit everyone." I say what I have been rehearsing for more than a week. "Well, when you put it that way..." My dad waves his hand, motioning me to sit, sporting an equally amused and proud expression on his face. "The two of you, I can't even...Marcus it's like you've had her by yourself." My mom rolls her eyes, forgetting she's the queen, and just flops dramatically on the sofa. "Oh, come on, Elisa, she got all her good looks from you." Dad winks at her like a love sick teenager, and I already start feeling like a third wheel. I snap my fingers in front of my dad's face, snapping him out of the trance that my mother got him in. "Back to the matter at hand, King Marcus!" "Sorry honey." He clears his throat awkwardly while I hear my mother giggling behind me. "Before I get to witness something that might scar me for life, and deem me unstable and unfit of taking over as Queen, can I just tell you my idea?" I swear my parents are the definition of 'in love'. One can only dream of finding someone and having what these two have, but love is not on my to do list, at least not now. "We're all ears, sweetie." My mom comes next to me sitting on a spare chair, but not before pecking my dad on the lips. I decided to ignore that, and start my well rehearsed pitch. "I just want one year where I can be normal, just a girl going to college, with the good and the bad of it. No titles, no favours and no duties. After that, I will transfer to a University in our Kingdom and finish my studies and also learn the ropes of being the future Queen." I breathe out. "Done!" My dad instantly gets up, extending his hand for me to shake. By shaking his hand, we create a bond, a contract that cannot be broken unless both parties agree to it. After shaking his hand, I can't help but wonder why he agreed so easily. And why is my mom so amused by all this. I would have expected both of them to freak out and forbid me from even leaving the Vampire Kingdom. "Wait... Why do I feel like all this was way too easy?" I narrow my eyes at them accusingly. "Pay up, baby!" My dad smirks at mom, both of them completely ignoring me. What the hell is going on? "Fine, you win. I should have known better, she is your exact replica, I swear." Mom huffs and goes to her handbag retrieving a bill and handing it to my dad, while I watch their interraction dumbfounded. "Would any of you care to explain this bad parenting to me?" I eventually manage to speak up. "We had a little bet going." Dad pockets the bill he received. "Yeah, I kind of figured as much." "Don't be sassy, Clarabelle!" Mom warns me, but I only roll my eyes at her. They are the ones being childish, yet she dares to scold me. "Your mom here thought that you will just roll over and bite your tongue, accepting your duty just like that, but I knew you will want to find a way and explore the world a bit before committing to your Royal legacy." Dad explained. "You forgot the part where you had expected more kicking and screaming instead of this very reasonable part of our daughter." Mom bites back at him. He might have won the bet, but apparently neither of them guessed how I would actually take all this. "Well, yeah, that also." I realise now that I could have asked for 2 years away or something. Apparently my demands are more than reasonable hence my dad's eagerness to shake on it before I changed my mind and started rebelling against having to be the next Queen. I have much to learn...