Xander's POV:

The meal prepared was delicious. Not 'Lily level' delicious, but reasonable given the fact that it didn't come from her.

Though some of that may have had to do this the almost adrenaline-like feeling coursing through my body at all of these revelations and discoveries.

I was still torn between keeping things professional and not given that we were family.

I felt like formalities were already somewhat out the window and all my questions were gonna sound frantic regardless.

Augustus sat across from me, sitting straight and a bit tense in the silence while I figured out how to approach all of this and in what order.

He picked idly at his food, pushing it around with his fork.

There was just so much I wanted to know. How this all started, how it got to where it was now, how mom tied up in all of this... I guess that order might work.

"So," He perked up at just the single word, looking at me with ready eyes, "This clan is beautiful. Who started it? Was it your Parents or..."

"It was me."

I drew back in surprise.

"It was you?!" I perplexed.

I don't know why I expected this clan to be much older. Passing down leadership at least a few times by now, but no.

A clan in its first generation.

"Well, me and your grandmother, Elenora, but she's Uhm," He paused for a moment, "No longer with us. she passed almost a decade ago."

I felt my eyes widen, my heart sinking despite the fact that I'd never met her.

Sure Augustus looked old, but not old enough to reach a vampire's life span anytime soon.

"I... I'm sorry." I began, but he shook his head.

"She was quite a bit older than me," He continued as if reading my thoughts, "That mixed with the stress of running this place and... she never really recovered from the grief when Caroline left."

Left?!

Okay... we'll come back to that.

"So if you created and organized this place then... Why? What drove you to want to make a place like this?"

He thought for a moment, brows knotted.

I plucked another bite of venison steak in my mouth before he finally began.

"I always believed that there's no one way to live a life that makes everybody happy. Vampires grew from savages over the ages. We learned to tame our instincts, to live lives somewhat peacefully amongst humans. Bloodthirsty creatures trained over millennia to acquire peace within ourselves."

He stopped to take a drink from his glass, then folded his hands on the table to give me his full attention.

"Peace isn't in our nature, not for long periods of time. We can see that with the way we lash out, how our instincts come into play the second we feel too much of any emotion. How we lose any semblance of control during bloodmoons, but otherwise, we manage. We try, but no matter how hard we do, it can get... hard to control. Some choose to bear with it and some choose not to. The latter runs in our blood. It's our nature given that that ferocious parts of us is what we are at our very cores. If it's who we are, then why try to fight it? That was our thought process anyways, back when we started this whole thing. We didn't understand why we had to change our nature when it was always going to be a part of us."

I sat forward, finding this answer much more interesting than I was originally anticipating.

"But we try, I tried, and only found myself getting more irritated by the day trying to humanize myself. Some vampires aren't cut out for living side by side with the humans we once and still call our prey, and I didn't believe that they should be punished for something our brains are hardwired to do. So I figured why try to fight it? Why not give those of us struggling a place to live the way we desire? Get us away from the humans so there's not a problem on that front. So we set out to make a community where we could let our instincts take more of a front. Where we could let them take a more prominent role as they once did in our day-to-day lives and not have to worry about the consequences our species have implemented over the years. As you can see some find it freeing, and some love it. It's not for everyone, of course, but it's here for those who want or need it. That's all I wanted it to be."

There was a sadness to his tone towards the end, and he let out a sigh that showed it before speaking again.

"But with a community comes rules, and with rules comes those who break them," He paused, wincing at what I could only imagine to be a memory, "Those humans you lost because of us... all of them you've lost because of us, were never strategized and executed plans. They were never meant as attacks or acts of defiance to the Vanderwoods. At least not from me."

This topic... Truly disheartened him. It disheartened everyone in my family, but it was always talked about like the actions were done out of spite.

"It's the few bad ones that ruin the image for the rest of us, and I can assure you measures have been taken against those who commit the crime that even here is looked down upon. I don't want any trouble between us and your parents, but I can't enforce my will the way you royals can. I try...I do what I can to keep the peace between my clan and your territory."

He let out another sigh, rubbing a hand down his face.

"All I wanted was a space for vampires who wanted to be able to live their lives this way without getting looked down upon because of the changing times. With the promise that I'd leave your citizens out of it. The promise that we wouldn't touch the humans, and wouldn't bother the town. Those were the conditions your father and I agreed on back in the day."

"Dad agreed to this?" I asked, "To let you form your clan here?"

He nodded.

"Your other grandparents weren't fond of the idea of us, but your father was becoming an age to where it was likely he'd soon take the throne, and decided to make us one of his first problems. He agreed under certain conditions, one of which being..."

I nearly jumped to my feet.

"Mom?!" I exclaimed, "There marriage was one on convenience? For political gain?"

No... No that didn't add up whatsoever.

The fact that he shook his head was actually a relief.

"No it's... somehow both much easier and far more complicated than that. Either way, I don't have all of the details on those two as I wish I did." He spoke with a hint of shame that was impossible to miss.

Details... about his daughter's love life?

Holy shit mom, what kind of person were you back then?

"It was never a story I got to hear," I noted the way his voice broke, nearly starting to waver, "I wasn't the best father back then... We weren't the best parents, I wasn't the best man. Elenora and I were much more... brash given the previous Lord and Lady's distaste for us."

His fingers steepled in front of his lips, staring down at the table now.

"She was raised in these ways surrounded by these people... We were such a frail and vulnerable organization at that time that we refused to let her live any other way. We thought that if our own child couldn't grow under our conditions, this clan was bound to fail from the beginning. We rose her with the notion that she'd one day be a leader for us. We didn't leave her a choice no matter how much she tried to fight it. And we never went about it in the best ways."

I was stunned. This wasn't at all what I was expecting out of any of the questions that I had. This wasn't what I was expecting at all out of this trip in general.

"She had every reason to leave. To become a leader greater than we could provide for her. I'm absolutely thrilled for the life she ended up living, but ended up losing her in the process... I always wish I could go back and change it, though I suppose in its own way, it worked out."

He met my eye again at those last two words, looking over my features again as if he was looking for her through me.

Holy shit this was depressing. for both sides.

But now I had so many questions for mom... too many for me to list.

I needed Nico to hear all of this. For him to feel the shock factor I was experiencing.

I'll be coming back, and I'll drag Nico with me if I have to.

I could recognize that the clan had grown from what it once was to what it is now. He'd actually made something of it as he'd want it to.

From his words, I could see that the man before me right now had his intentions in the right place. I couldn't say as much for his past self, but nothing about him right now gave me the impression that he was trying to sway me.

"Anything else?" He asked.

I shook my head, "No...not yet anyways."

His chair skidded against the wood as he stood, walking to the side of the room to grab something from the drawer.

I recognized the parchment immediately when he began walking it to me, snagging a pen on his way.

"You can amend the treaty to your liking and I'll approve and sign it right here and now," He said.

"Here and now?" I repeated, "Isn't there usually like a public ceremony of sorts?"

That's... just how I imagined it.

"We can do it that way if you'd like," He assured, "Emmet had just told me that you wanted to spend some time with the vampires here. I'd kept you from meeting me and properly meeting them long enough now. I want you to see my people for who they are now that you know everything before you're scheduled to leave."

That's right... I was supposed to leave here in a few hours.

I suppose this wouldn't hurt. especially if he was letting me amend it.

Those tiny little loopholes they kept finding had been haunting me ever since I revised it. Maybe with his assistance, I can cover them all up right here and now with words we all understand and cant rebel against.

I stood, meeting him halfway, gesturing for him to place the treaty on one of the smaller desks.

"Go through it with me, " I invited, "We're gonna fix this once and for all."