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JULIAN POV

“Julian?? Julian?? Are you awake and up yet?”

I stretch and answer “Yes Mother, I am”

“Stop lying and get out of bed, I need your help to get everything ready and out to the field for the picnic...”

“Okay mother, be right there!...”

I get out of bed as I hear her walk away from my door, calling to my brothers and sisters to get out of bed, too. I head into my bathroom for a quick shower. Once I’m finished, I get dressed and then head out to help Mother with whatever she requires. I ended up carrying some of the baskets containing the picnic food in them, but luckily, it wasn’t just me.

“Hey Nat, Ri, you both helping as well?”

“Yeah Jules, hey happy birthday! Did you manage to have some fun at Charlotte’s birthday celebration?”

“Yeah, Nat, I did, but nothing that lasted more than the night, though.” I smile as he does.

As Victoria, Violet, Eli, Chrysta, Chase, Gabriela, Katrina, Whitney, Seth, Kathleen, Victor, Sebastian, Teresa, Theodore, Tina, Uncle Dominic, Mother and Father enter and pass through the kitchen Nathaniel, Riley and I grab all the baskets and as the family, we are we all head to the waterfall field where the picnic is being held, to meet up with Scarlett, Phoenix and Aunt Seraphina.

Once we have everything set up we all forget that we are part of the Royal family and just have some fun, us older ones play chasey with the younger ones for a while and then we have some fun in the lake, I have fun swimming and trying to dunk Nathaniel, Victoria and Riley under the water but I think they had more fun ganging up on me.

We had just exited the water when we were suddenly surrounded by rogue vampires; we have all had training; it was a mandatory requirement by uncle Dominic. He wanted us to be able to protect our mates, but he was also preparing us, especially me, for my role as Nathaniel’s second when he takes over as king.

With Nathaniel and Riley, by my side we stand in front of Victoria protecting her, not that she needs it as she is a born fighter and quite good probably even better than us, it doesn’t take us long to see that the others need help too.

“Nat, we need to make our way over to the others... Do you think we can make it?”

“Maybe, keep Vicky in between us and we should be able to make it slowly over to where the others are.”

Victoria hisses low at me for my comment but stays in the middle of Nathaniel, Riley, and me. We slowly make our way through the field so we are closer to the other children, it is then that we are jumped by a couple of the rogues we didn’t notice, Nathaniel, Riley, Victoria and I all fight but I notice they are not fighting to kill only to distract and maybe knock out. It isn’t long before we hear our cousin Charlotte scream.

“STEFAN!”

We all stop, even the rogues and look over to where her scream came from, then we hear another scream that comes from the same direction

“PHOENIX!”

A strong loud commanding voice then sounds throughout the field.

“KING DOMINIC! SHOW YOURSELF! OR I TAKE YOUR QUEEN’S LIFE FOR YOURS! NO ONE ELSE MOVES OR THE PRINCESSES DIE TOO!”

Everyone else stops dead. I look around and see that while everyone is focused on the rogues, no one is watching the littler children. I turn slightly and whisper,

“Nat, Ri, Vicky, the younger ones are all scared and it sounds like he is going to tell Aunt Sera what happened to Mother’s parents and I don’t think it is something they need to hear.”

“Okay, we move very slowly so they don’t realize we are moving.”

So we move very, very slowly, making our way behind the rogues we were just fighting and move over to where the younger ones are either standing or sitting on the ground, we slowly join them and then quietly distract them with soft fairy tales keeping their attention on us as much as possible as what the adults are discussing isn’t something that they need to know the details about. We all sit and manage to keep the younger ones distracted until we hear cousin Scarlett scream out in pain. Nathaniel leans over to me and whispers.

“Scarlett has just gone into labour and Dad has just agreed to allow the rogues to leave, as long as they don’t cause any more trouble.”

We then hear the rogue leader yell, “KINGSTON MALES STAND DOWN!”

All the rogues but five leave the field. We get the young ones up onto their feet and, with the help of Sebastian and Teresa; we get them all playing again. We hear another scream and I look up to see Teresa move over, give Sebastian a kiss, whisper something into his ear and then started making her way over to where Scarlett is now laying on the ground. As the rogue leader made his way slowly over to where Sebastian was watching over Kathleen and Victor as they played with Chrysta, Chase and Gabriela. I look at Nathaniel and whisper.

“I don’t trust him, do you?”

“No! I say we stay close..”

We played with the young ones as we listened to the conversation between Sebastian and the rogue leader.

“Hey son, I am really sorry! But I had to protect the kingdom and all the innocent bystanders that would have been killed if I hadn’t killed him!”

“Father, I know. That is one thing that Dominic did tell me, but he told me you were killed protecting all of us when his father had given in to his vampire's rage and bloodlust becoming a rogue. He killed Phoenix’s father and then you, but died shortly after from the injuries you had caused him.”

“Seb about your sister....”

“No, Father, I don’t want to know anymore. I knew that she and Dom had decided together to be mated lovers, and wanted everyone to know before they made anything official. They loved each other deeply, Dad. Dom was never the same after that day. He went cold and was extremely cruel and once he had decided to do something, no one could talk him out of it. He was like that until he found and rescued Seraphina. She is a combination of my sister and his mother. In the short amount of time Seraphina has been with us, she has managed to break through and thaw the ice Dom had in his heart, allowing him to love again. He still isn’t the same as he was with her, but Seraphina is the miracle he needed, that we all needed.”

“I’m just glad you have had a good life and from what I can see, you were blessed with finding your true mate...”

“Yes, I was. I didn’t meet her under the best of circumstances, but it always happens when you least expect it, making the love we feel for each other mean even more. Kathleen! Victor! Come here, please!”

“Hey, Dad!”

“Daddy!!”

Kathleen runs and jumps up into Sebastian’s arms, whereas Victor took the more male approach.

“Kathleen, Victor, this is my father, your grandfather Maximus!”

I watch as Victor looks at him with suspicion and then slowly walks up to him and offers his hand to Maximus. Maximus takes it and shakes it carefully. Kathleen, on the other hand, wouldn’t even go near him, hiding into Sebastian’s chest and neck. Maximus seemed a little disappointed but says.

“It’s okay, little one, Seb. She is beautiful. I hope at some stage I will be able to meet your lovely mate.”

“Yeah sorry, she is our female doctor at the moment and when one of your males grabbed princess Scarlett, they caused her to go into labour with her twins.”

“Yeah, about that I didn’t want anyone to be hurt, but I needed to know that King Dominic was suffering the same as me. However, when I had heard that he now had a Queen and a family, I thought he had forgotten your sister and she meant nothing to him.”

“He never talks about her, but I know he has never forgotten....”

It wasn’t long before we heard two babies cry. My mother then calls out, “Gather everything up. It's time to head back.”

We quickly pack everything up and then head back to the castle. Once we are there, we follow mother and aunt Charlotte to help put the younger ones to bed, we then put the picnic stuff on the kitchen table before Nathaniel, Riley, Victoria and I head down to our gaming room, where we play games and chat until it is near dawn, we all then head back to our rooms to crash.