Councilman Laren

Councilman Laren’s POV

Council meetings are often tiresome when the monarch doesn’t see eye-to-eye with their councillors. And Queen Tasha, a beta ruling while her husband was too ill to function? Truly an abomination. Fortunately, it would only be temporary.

It had been a long day and I’m on my way home now. For once, my daughter is being silent on the carriage ride home.

“Father,” she says, “why do you hate me?”

It seems I spoke too soon. I sigh. “I don’t hate...you.” The words roll strangely off my tongue.

Holly smells stricken for a second. “No,” she says. “But you hate humans, and I am one,” she continued bitterly.

Because I do not know what to say to her, I say nothing. And apparently, that was wrong too.

“If you and mother are too afraid to give me a brother or sister in case you get another human, you could always adopt,” she mutters under her breath.

I glanced at her sharply. “That is between me and your mother.”