"Happy birthday to Rosie, Happy birthday to you!"

"Hip hip hooray!"

"Guys! Enough! I'm nineteen. I said I did not need a party!"

"Oh come on honey, you are our only child. Give us a few more years won't you?"

"Depends, what's in it for me dad?"

"How about we have dinner and cake first then discuss gifts? Deal?"

"Deal."

My parents love a reason to make and eat birthday cake. They even made an excuse to make one for the Queen of England's birthday this year. Even though we aren't British and we do not live in The Uk. Dad though it was a nice gesture.

Yeah, I bet the Queen thought so I had told him but he just laughed and ate cake for her anyway.

"Rosie, will you set the table hun?"

"Sure Mom."

I go about setting the three places just as we like them. Dad at the top of the table, mom to his right and me to his left. We have sat for all meals, in this arrangement, for as long as I can remember.

I'm almost finished with the placement of the mats and plates when the doorbell rings.

"What have you guys done this time?"

They both look at each other with confused expressions. Clearly this was not something they planned. Either that or they both get a grammy for best actor.

"Maybe Aasa invited herself." I yell out as I head for the door.

I unlock the latch and swing it open. A small attractive woman stands before me. It takes me a few seconds to realise she looks a lot like my mother, maybe just a few years older than mom but the likeness is uncanny.

"Uh, mom? You better come here please?"
The woman looks me up and down, a small smile starts to form on her perfectly painted pink lips.

"What? Aasa's present too big to get in the door.."

Her voice trails off as she sets eyes on the woman at the door. Her expression has not changed when dad eventually comes to the door, both women are staring at each other, neither making a move, though the woman scowls at dad and her nose crinkles in distaste.

"What are you doing here mother?"

My mom speaks in a calm, monotone voice.

My grandmother. Of course. They look too similar. Wow, she is very preserved. She looks young enough to be my mothers sister. She would be 60 but she looks like she is only a few years older than my mother who is 39. They could be sisters. They share the same long, golden tinged hair, like me. We all carry the Lang traits, long golden sun kissed hair and skin, light grey eyes and long lean limbs. It was like seeing the stepping stones of my ageing future except for the fact that when I am 60, I will look 60 because, unlike the rest of my family, I am human.

The Lang's are the longest serving and the most highly regarded Royal family of the werewolf lines. And for the first time in their long, proud and eccentric history, I was born, without any wolf traits at all. Unlike any ever before me. And for the family, this is unacceptable. It's unthinkable. So, my parents packed us up and left. Without so much as a word to anyone, in over eighteen years.

Until now.

"Esmeralda, will you not invite me in? I am your mother after all."

My grandmother speaks in a sing song voice, the tone is high and harsh and the sound makes my father visibly shrink into himself. I have never seen anything have this reaction on him before

"No, I don't think so mother. What do you want?"

"To see my granddaughter on her nineteenth birthday of course, surely you remember the custom, or has it been too long for you to remember anything to do with our ways?"

My mother lets out a small hmmmph noise and shakes her head. She keeps her hand firmly on the door frame, clearly she has no intentions of letting my grandmother pass.

"Douglas, i see you are still here. Shame. I had rather hoped to find you had disappeared or perished by now. Oh well, one can only hope."

My father just raises his eyebrows in disbelief. I cannot believe what I just heard but he is clearly not surprised. I knew that we had moved away from our family also partly due to grandmothers lack of acceptance of my father but I didn't expect the clear hatred she held towards him? And after all this time.

"Let me see the girl then. Move Esme, let me get a good look at her."

My mother does not move an inch.

"Esme, you knew this day was coming. At nineteen, all our females receive the birth right. Just as we always have. Just as you did. Rosalie is to be the next in line, even if you are an embarrassment to the family and abandoned your position, it does not change the traditions. You know this."

"No. She will not accept. We left. We are not and shall not ever be part of the family. Ever. Mother, hear me now, Rosie will never belong to the Langs."

My mother tries to shut the door but my grandmother puts her foot in the way. She is strong. Almost as strong as mother. Almost.

"You still have the strength my dear. Even this far away from us, the Lang blood runs strong. Good. You will need it."

She stops trying to get in and instead bends down and plucks a small ornate wooden box from a bag.

"Rosie, this is yours. Your birth right on your nineteenth birthday."

She beckons me forward and as even though I have no clue what to even think right now, I'm intrigued. I step forward and quickly accept the box. As I do, she grabs my hand with her other hand, trapping me in the door frame

"Let me see you, you look just like your aunts and cousins. But what is that?.... no. It cannot be? Esme! What is this?"

She drops my hand in disgust and stares wildly at my mother. She shoots a look that could kill directly at my father who has now retreated behind my mother.

"You. You half breed, this is your fault. What have you done?! Esme, tell me now. Is she? Is Rosie human?"

"Yes. Mother. Yes. Ok? We don't know why. But we have known for a long time. Now if you have nothing more to say, you need to leave."

"You must bring her home Esme. She needs help. We can send her to Maximus. This cannot be. This cannot be. Not now."

My grandmother has gone from devil to devastated in the space of two seconds and apparently it's because I am human, and to do with father's blood status. Mother is a a born wolf, a true-blood and father was turned. He was born human.

And me, well, I'm just not. We never knew why I didn't turn. And it didn't really matter to me until now. To any of us really.

Why was it so important to my grandmother?
She seemed so upset? So maybe this is part of why we don't live near my mothers family? Surely there are other humans in our family history?

I have never really questioned my parents much about the reasons surrounding our departure all those years ago

If I ever bought it up they would say, they wanted to live away from mom's large and overbearing family or that they wanted to just do their own thing and the hometown where the extended family lives was too stifling. Mother once told me they wanted me to experience human life without too much wolf interference since I am not a wolf. I never felt compelled to ask anything further. And it never worried me until now.

What are they not telling me? And why is grandmother so upset about me not being a wolf? Surely that happens? It certainly never mattered to us? My parents never made a big deal of it. They only  told me as a child that I needed to keep the wolf world to myself as it was still secret, though  there were many werewolves everywhere, as a rule, humans did not widely know of their existence. Again, I never had a reason to question this.

I feel really confused.

Grandmother is visibly upset now and takes one more sad look at me before she turns to  leave.

"You need to fix this Esme, before it's too late."

With that cryptic message she is gone back into the night.

Mom shuts the door and leans back on it, resting her head back and turning her face to the ceiling.

"Mom, what the hell just happened?"

Mom drops her head and looks at me. Her expression is one that I have not seen on her face ever. Despair.

"Rosie, I'm so sorry. There is so much to explain. We just hoped we would never have to."

I look from her to father and back again. He walks to her side and places his arm around her shoulders.

"How about I make us some coffees and we sit down and have a talk over coffee and cake?"

"Skip dinner?"

Mother nods and wipes the tears from her face. This is really affecting her.

She walks forward and takes my hands.

"I'll explain everything, I promise. I'm so sorry I have left it this long."

We walk hand in hand into the dining room and sit down. Dad brings in the coffees and then goes back in to the kitchen to get some plates and cutlery for the cake.

He returns and cuts each of us a slice and sits at his place next to mom.

"Ok, let's start at the beginning shall we?"

Why do I feel like everything just changed.