The Youngest Royal

Chapter 13

I am so sorry for the delay! I was in the hospital for five days and catching up from missing a week of nursing school was hard! I am back though, thank you for your patience! 

*Thomas' POV*

Getting Ella to help us customize her room has proven to be a difficult task. She doesn't seem to have an opinion on any of the options we give her. I am currently sitting back watching Freya try to get her to pick between two bed sets and she is not budging one bit.

"Ella, come here please." I chime in as they both start getting too exasperated with each other to get anything done. She slowly comes to stand in front of me, avoiding eye contact by looking at her hands folded in front of her. Even with her standing and me sitting she's slightly shorter than me. My perfect tiny girl.

"Do you like either of those options mommy just showed you? No, I didn't ask for a shrug. It is a yes or no question." I ask her

"I-I don't know. I never had any of those things before. What if I don't like it? I don't know what I like." she responds quietly.

Freya comes over and pulls Ella into her lap, "If you don't like it, we can return it and get a new one baby. How about this? Next week when we go down to the village, we can go shopping. You can pick out everything your little heart desires!" She says tickling the little one. Ella giggles but then gets quiet again.

"I don't want you to spend money on me," she whispers. I look at my wife confused.

"Why not bud?" I ask. She just shrugs and I can tell she's starting to get overwhelmed.

"Hmmm, you know what? I think we should do something else. What about you kiddo? Do you want to color or play a board game?" I suggest. She looks a little confused but eventually says she wants to color.

The three of us go over to the little table on the other side of her room and start coloring. After a few minutes Freya starts telling Ella about when she was young. Freya and I were both born way back before vampires were known to be real. It's hard being learning about yourself when you have to keep all the aspects that make you unique under wraps.

I chime in every once in awhile with a story about my past, but it is mostly Freya doing the talking. She was telling us a story about when she was first out on her own and got trapped by anti-supernaturalists in the forest. This was during the war that eventually led to the peace we have today. This is when our little human spoke up.

"I remember being that scared one time." She said focusing on her drawing. Freya looked at me wide eyed.

"Why were you scared honey?" she asks her. She stops coloring and looks up at us. She looks like she is contemplating if she should tell the story or not. After a few seconds she sighs softly and starts coloring again.

"It was the night I ran away forever." Her voice changes to a more serious tone and she seems to be in that moment in her head.

"I had arrived at this foster home a week or so prior. They were a family of mixed species, the only one they didn't have was a human. I soon discovered the reason for this was because they despise us and believe we should have been forcefully extinct after the war."

I shake my head, unfortunately that is not a rare mindset for supernatural's to have. It has started to be phased out but there are a lot of supernatural beings that want to out the human race, including the werewolf king. He is awful, but werewolves are loyal to their traditions. He will be the alpha until he steps down or he dies.

"I still don't know why they took me in. Sometimes I wonder if their goal was to kill me or make my life so miserable it somehow made up for the fact that my ancestors were horrible," she continues, "I was used to being put in small rooms and treated like an inconvenience, but they took it to a whole new level." She lets out a shaky breath.

"I had to sleep in a dog kennel, because 'my kind doesn't deserve to be anything more than a pet'" she did finger air quotes. "I was let out from eight in the morning to seven at night. Essentially I was allowed to come out to make them their meals and clean. I would be locked back in the second I had finished dinner."

She hasn't looked up from her drawing since she started talking. I grab Freya's hand because she looks like she is about to cry.

"There were other beatings throughout my time there, but one day I had spilt some pizza sauce on the floor. I didn't notice it right away so when one of them came in and saw it he went ballistic." She pauses, going still and staring off into space. She shook her head and went on.

"He grabbed me by the hair and drug me into the common area. They had friends over, and they all took turns. When they finished and threw me into the cage, they didn't bother to lock it. I don't think they knew I was still breathing."

I watch a few tears roll down her face and have to stop my own from falling. Freya is silently sobbing.

"I waited until they were all asleep and left. I am pretty sure a few of my bones were broken but I knew if I didn't leave then I would never get another chance. I stumbled through the woods, luckily, I was found by a fairy. She gave me a potion a witch had given her that helped heal my life-threatening issues." She sighs and her posture goes from rigid to relaxed.

"That was the day before I turned 16. After that I decided I would never depend on anyone again. That's why I didn't get classified, and why I stayed hidden in that alley. I usually left the city limits when your guards came to town. I thought if I got caught you would send me to jail."

Freya picks her up and hugs her tight, whispering to her how brave she is and how much we love her. I walk over to them and join the hug.

"Estrella, you did not deserve any of what you went through. You are so smart for getting away and for having the courage to save yourself. I promise you are safe now bubs, we will never let anyone treat you like that ever again." I say to her wiping tears from her eyes. She smiles up at me and whispers a soft thank you daddy.

We end up moving our little group hug to our bedroom and cuddle on the bed for a bit. We continue telling her about our lives and she tells us things about hers as well.

"How did no one at school notice you were gone?" Freya asks.

"Oh, when I was in second grade one of my foster moms wanted to homeschool us. Once I left there it somehow slipped their minds to re-enroll me. I haven't been to school since I was eight years old." She tells us. I look at my wife knowing she will be quite upset to hear this.

"How could they miss something that big?" She exclaims. She grabs her phone and dials a number letting us know she will be right back.

"Did I say something wrong?" Ella asks turning to me.

"No, you didn't. Mommy is just mad at those people because you should've had an education. We will make sure you get it though, don't worry." I pick her up and walk towards the bathroom.

"You gotta go potty bug?" I ask her. She blushes and nods, so I help her. I can hear my wife yelling at someone on the phone and thank the heavens this little one doesn't have supernatural hearing.