Winter's Dawn (5 page)

“Tolerance is not a bad thing for leaders to learn,” Maggie argued, her eyes narrowed. “Nor is it bad for your king and queen to learn about the human world considering you must coexist with it.”

“Humans are easily controlled.” Aunt Emma narrowed her eyes. “Attempt to tell others that you work for wolves and find out just how easy it is for us to keep our secrets. No human who works here can reveal our secrets and when they leave, they forget us all together.”

Maggie ignored Emma and turned back to Max and Susie. “Werewolves are not better than humans, just different and learning our world and spending time with our children will be fun, I promise.”

Aunt Emma snorted in disgust, but dropped the subject as she said, “Maxwell, just braid her hair. One of the maids can show you how to do her hair differently later.”

“No, I’ll do it how she wants.” Max wanted Susie to be happy with how she looked on her first day of school. He turned to Maggie. “Can you show me now?”

Maggie nodded, giving him a smile. “Sure, Maxwell, I’d love to.”

****

Maggie had been right. Susie and Max both enjoyed school very much.

Even if it had taken Max a bit longer to get comfortable in such a strange environment, Susie had no problems. Her teachers thought she had an active imagination. Apparently, it was normal for young human girls to announce that they were queens with their own crowns and everything. The natural self-confidence that came from knowing she was a queen worked in Susie’s favor. She had lots of friends almost instantly.

It had been harder for Max. He realized he was much larger than human males his age, considerably larger, even the school officials didn’t believe he was nine. His father had to use hypnotism to produce birth records for both Max and Susie. Even with written proof that he was just a large nine year old, teachers and students alike originally thought Max was dim witted and talked slowly to him because he never said much. He just observed for several weeks until he felt comfortable enough to start reaching out to some of the boys in his class.

Their school was very exclusive and even young humans were easily won over by wealth. It seemed wealthy children were taught at an early age to seek out those who were as rich as or richer than them. Max and Susie were wealthier than all of them by far. Everyone knew that, assuming they came from old money, which they did. Max learned quickly that surviving in the human world did not necessitate lies, it just meant curving the explanations of everything in a way they understood it.

So when Max finally showed interest in sports, having started this whole quest for human schooling with the hopes of playing baseball, he too found friends because Max was
extremely
good at baseball. In fact, he was good at all sports and it didn’t matter that he had to curb his strength and speed to play in a way that was acceptable, he still enjoyed it.

The only real problem was the other kids begged to come to the Winter Palace. It was such a large estate it was legendary. None of the other children had ever been in an estate that large and for these children to be awed by it was saying something. They were from some of the richest families in New England.

Eventually, Max’s father relented and allowed a few visits, because the children’s parents were insistent too, calling the palace relentlessly to explain how close their child was to either Max or Susie. Human adults gravitated to wealth more than their children.

Though the visits were fun, they always ended with both the child and their parents getting relieved of several memories before they left and neither Max nor Susie wanted that for their friends. They avoided visits at the palace as much as possible.

A nice alternative was going to their friends’ homes. They all lived in estates - none close to the size of the Winter Palace – but still quite nice. It allowed Max and Susie the opportunity to observe how humans acted at home, which was very educational. They never once noticed how the adults of the households appeared almost nervous in front of them and went out of their way to make them feel welcome. It seemed perfectly normal to them that the adults should encourage their children to be polite, to play the games Max or Susie wanted to play, to bow down to whatever their wishes were.

At that age Max and Susie assumed that sort of worship, even of ones as young as them, was quite normal. They were queen and king and had been raised as such, with no others above them. Though they were the youngest in their world, they were already the most powerful.

It wasn’t until a hot day in June that Max truly understood how much more dominant he was than other werewolves. It was his first lesson in the difficult existence of an alpha werewolf, where he learned the power he held in his hands and the power Susie held over him, making them both werewolves to be feared.

“Would you please come with me to Jessica’s place again tomorrow?” Susie whined in the back of the large car Hal used to drive them wherever they wanted to go. “I know you want to go play with John before they leave for Europe, but I’ll miss Jessica and they are leaving for Newport in a week.”

“That’s fine.” Max wiped at his forehead, feeling positively miserable. “I really want to be asleep in an icy room. I hate summer.”

“Me too.” Susie also wiped at her glistening forehead. “This dress is sticking to me. I need to be naked in the worst way.”

Hal snorted from the driver’s seat. “I am willing to wager that would shock Jessica’s parents.”

“Oh, we know that.” Max fell back against the seat. “We’re getting the complaints out now so we can be like normal children who love sweating all summer long.”

“Winter feels like years away,” Susie moaned. “I am going to melt into a little queen puddle right here.”

Max laughed. “You’d be a cute little queen puddle.”

Susie gave him an impish grin. “Thank you, Maxwell. I love when you come on my outings.”

“Yes, they are such fun.” He rolled his eyes. “Who needs baseball when I can play dolls.”

Hal laughed again. “You’re picking up sarcasm.”

“Huh?” Max frowned at the back of his head.

“Your kind usually doesn’t get it,” Hal explained. “But, I’ve noticed you do.”

“He is witty because he is king,” Susie explained loftily. “He is smarter than other werewolves.”

“Is that the reason?” Hal asked, sending her a grin in the rearview mirror. “I thought he learned it from his father.”

Max laughed. “Oh, yes, that must be it.”

“Yeah, you certainly get sarcasm,” Hal announced. “Your father wouldn’t get a joke if it hit him in the head.”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing that,” Max grumbled, imagining something hard thumping against his father’s skull. “Thank the Gods he is too busy to spend much time with us.”

“You shouldn’t say ‘Gods’,” Susie reminded him. “They don’t say that. They only have one God.”

Max wiped at the back of his neck that was moist with sweat. “I can say what I like.”

“The heat is making you a grouchy wolf,” Susie announced. “But, you can come on my outing anyway.”

“Gee, thanks, Susie Bee.”

Hal started laughing again. “Good god, Max, you have certainly picked up humor. I like it.”

For some reason, that one compliment meant more to Max than anything the wolves at the palace said to him. He liked humans, even with all their complexities and difficult rules.

Jessica’s estate was quite large, bigger than others that they had been to. She was one of Susie’s closest friends and despite being hopelessly spoiled, Max liked Jessica. Spoiled little girls didn’t bother him, perhaps because Susie was spoiled, yet still so cute Max could hardly stand it. He adored her completely.

“I’m dropping the Wellington children off,” Hal told the butler who answered the door. “I believe they were due at one o’ clock.”

“They were indeed.” The butler tilted his head to smile at Max and Susie. “How are you today, Miss Wellington?”

“I am lovely.” Susie walked into the front entryway and looked up towards the large chandelier hanging above them. “Where is Jessica?”

“Susie!”

The butler smiled. “I believe we just found her.”

Jessica Carver came running up and pounced on Susie, hugging her and kissing her cheeks. “Oh, you brought Max!” Jessica turned to beam up at him. “Hi, Max.”

“Hello, Jessica.” Max walked in behind Susie. “Thank you for having us.”

“You know we love having you over.” Mrs. Carver, Jessica’s mother, smiled at him warmly. “How is your family, Maxwell?”

“The same.” Max shrugged. “We’re getting ready to go to our Newport residence for the summer.”

“Oh, wonderful.” Mrs. Carver’s voice was high pitched enough to hurt Max’s sensitive hearing. “Perhaps your parents will come to one of our parties this year so Jessica and Susie can spend more time together.”

“Maybe.” Max couldn’t help a slight wince because he knew his father would never go to one of the Carver’s parties. “But, my father is pretty busy.”

“Yes, well, so is Jessica’s father.” Mrs. Carver sighed. “But, your mother must have time for socializing.”

Max frowned, because Aunt Emma was not his mother, but everyone thought she was because explaining that his father was essentially married to his aunt would be a problem. He understood humans felt very differently about mating inside the family. Many things that were normal to werewolves, were offensive to humans.

“Aunt Emma is busy too,” Susie announced, stating it easily, because Emma was her aunt and everyone knew it. They all assumed both Susie’s parents died and Max’s parents had adopted her. “They are all busy—all the time. It makes our house boring.”

“I doubt that an estate as lovely as the Winter Palace is boring.” Mrs. Carver gave Susie a broad smile. “But, we are thrilled we could have you over again.”

“Let’s go to your suite and play dolls,” Susie announced before grabbing Jessica’s hand and leading the way to the grand staircase.

“Suite?”

“We still sleep in the nursery suite,” Max told Mrs. Carver, because Susie had already excused herself in her own way. “So Susie doesn’t get lonely.”

Mrs. Carver nodded, giving him another smile. “You are a good cousin to her, aren’t you, Maxwell?”

Max considered her for a moment. “Yes, I try to be.”

“It’s very sad about her parents.”

Max nodded. “Yes, it is. But, she doesn’t remember them.”

“For the best,” Mrs. Carver said softly before her voice brightened. “Goodness, Maxwell, you are like a little adult. Why do I forget you are a child?”

“Lots of people do that,” he told her, before he looked up the grand staircase Susie had gone up. “Do you mind if I go find them?”

“Not at all. I’ll have Isabelle bring up some snacks. What do you and Susie like?”

“Susie likes anything sweet,” he told her, refraining from mentioning that sweet queens liked sweet things, but smiled at the thought anyway. “If it has sugar in it, she’ll like it.”

Mrs. Carver laughed. “Very well.”

Max excused himself and breathed deeply, catching Susie’s scent easily. He followed it and found Susie and Jessica in a large playroom filled with all the things little girls enjoyed. Max wondered why Jessica had more toys than Susie, which seemed wrong somehow. He would have to tell his father to buy her more. Their people just didn’t know what female puppies liked, seeing as Susie was the only one who had been around in a very long time.

“We’re having tea,” Susie announced when Max walked in. “Join us.”

Max wrinkled his nose and walked over to the small tea table they were sitting at. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his pants as he looked at the elegant tea setting. It was smaller than a real one would be, but every bit as ornate.

“Smells like water to me,” Max told her with a smile. “When you get real tea, let me know.”

“You can’t smell water.” Jessica frowned up at him. “Water doesn’t have a smell.”

“Sure it does.” He turned around to look at the books that lined one large bookshelf against the wall. “I could read a story.”

“Oh, yes, that’d be nice.” Susie gave him a bright smile. “Read us
Little Red Riding Hood
.”

Max laughed, turning around to look at Susie. “No,” he told her firmly, realizing he wasn’t the only one who was learning sarcasm. “I don’t like that one.”

“Why not?” Susie asked, raising pale blue eyes to look at him innocently as she took a sip of water.

“Ends badly for the wolf.” Max turned around to look at the bookshelf again. “Pick something else.”

“But, the wolf is a mean wolf,” Jessica said.

“He’s just misunderstood.” Max was still smiling as he looked at the books. “How about
Peter Pan
? That’s nice.”

“That’s fine,” Susie said, before she caught herself and added, “Do you like
Peter Pan
, Jessica?”

“Yes, I like it,” Jessica said, and Max turned to watch her take a dainty sip of water. “Your brother is nicer than other brothers.”

“That’s ‘cause he’s not my brother.”