Nixon

Leala

Perhaps one of the greatest lies we tell ourselves is who we are, that we are not who we believe to have built up in our heads. We tell ourselves lies everyday, ones which determine the person who we will decide to be that day...or desire to be that day. Perhaps that is why she thought nothing of the lie she would tell the child she would raise as her own. To give this child a completely new identity and keep the truth - the ugly truth- from this child as long as she could. After all, the world is cruel to girls, especially those of dark pasts. Quinn saw this lie she would tell to her adopted daughter as a way to protect her child from the brutal and ugly world ahead of her child.

"She deserves to know who she is," Terrance stated firmly, still claiming what could be best for this child would be to one day learn about who she really was, who her parents were.

"The world will tell her who her parents were, their terrible acts, and they will make her believe they were the worst and nastiest people. Do you want our daughter to learn that the same people she has been told in school are completely evil and destroyed a kingdom the very same people who are her parents?" Quinn knew her point was valid, for this child to be raised and learn from school and others that the Maxwell family was tainted with evil and sickness and then for her to learn that these same people she has been taught to hate are her family, that would complicate things and make their child feel angry at the world and at Quinn and Terrance as well.

Their new child slept silently in her bed, barely two years old as her mother had just perished days ago in the palace she sought to destroy. Lily Maxwell got her desire, to burn to palace, to destroy the kingdom, to break apart packs and start a war bigger than herself. She never killed Zion, rumors of Zion running from the battlefield with a red head assumed to be Penelope made their way around the kingdom. But Lily Maxwell got what she wanted in the end, for she could finally be at rest with Nixon, away from this cruel world and in eternal peace alongside the man she could never forget or stop mourning over. Even Leala was not enough to pull Lily out of her mourning, only dragging her further on a path to her demise, for Lily knew at the end that she would perish in the same place Nixon did, as if making them closer than ever, even in death.

Lily Maxwell believed the royal crown was broken, needed to be removed from the kingdom like one does a pebble from their shoe. She killed King Laraxis, her remains were found in the remains of the throne room, and her name will forever go down as a evil individual.

The world is not fair, death does not see the good and bad in people and select who to pick from there. No. Death seeks the evil and good people in the world as equals, everyone needing to die at one point, and Lily was chosen by death and fate to perish there.

"So we let the world educate her on who Lily and Nixon Maxwell were?" Terrance asked, knowing that Leala could not learn from the world alone who these people were, for a biased opinion is all she could receive.

Quinn shook her head, looking down to their new child as she stirred in her sleep. "We raise her as our own. We let her learn from the world, but we also teach her who Lily and Nixon Maxwell were, the history of Crimson Lock, and give her another view to the stories which the world will tell her. That way if the day ever comes for her to learn who she really is, then she will not be disgusted by the fact."

They both knew Leala would one day find out who she truly was, for her father and mother were the leaders of Crimson Lock, meaning it would be her destiny to one day return to her true pack and lead them once more. They knew it was in Leala's blood for her to lead Crimson Lock once more. Yet they knew the harsh truth of packs, of how the war was beginning to tear apart the small and weak packs, fighting for land the royal crown once marked as their own or neutral zones. Alphas, packs, and rogues were all going crazy now, preparing for a kingdom-wide war.

"So we raise her with a new name," Quinn continued, "give her our last name, raise her as part of our family, pack, and try our best to protect her as long as we can."

The pair agreed on what should be done.

"And her name?"

"Evelyn."