Katherine Lessard's Story

The walk to Katherine's estate was undertaken largely in silence. The crowds parted around Alistair, and by association Max, as they made their way through the streets and into the most high-end area of town. Here, all the houses were large and elegant structures. The streets were practically saturated with wealth. But even amongst these extravagant homes, the Lady Katherine's Estate stood out.

A wrought iron gate provided street access to a large garden and driveway. Alistair buzzed them in after a brief exchange with an intercom and a security camera. The walk up to the front doors led them past water features, hedge sculptures and multicoloured flower-beds. It was a veritable parade of opulence, one thing after another.

An armed man in a cloak similar to Alistair's opened the large front doors as they approached, and held them open until the two had proceeded inside.

Only then did Alistair speak.

"You will refrain from touching anything. I do not know why it is that the Lady Katherine has requested your presence, boy, but..." he turned to fix the long-haired young man with a narrow-eyed stare. "Be aware that I am watching you. Do not be tempted to pocket anything."

And indeed, there was plenty to pocket. Everything from the leather-bound books in the shelves in the corridors to the ornaments laid out on display-tables and window sils. Alistair led Max up a set of stairs and down a long corridor until they reached the doors of a study. He raised his hand and knocked firmly. "Lady Katherine, I have brought the boy."

"Send him in, Alistair." A soft female voice from within spoke - the first that the man's name had been mentioned. "And wait outside."

Alistair frowned. Clearly he had been expecting to be present for the meeting, but he did not question the order. As he sent Max in, he once more met his eyes with a scowl. 'Just try something funny, I dare you', that gaze said.

The door was swung shut behind Max as he entered the study. It was a warmly decorated room, mahogany wooden wall panelling and bookcases arrayed around a desk by the window at the far side of the room, and a pair of armchairs with a small table between them facing a fireplace to the side and centre of the room. A green-and-gold rug was laid on the floor.

The face of the woman who rose from one of the armchairs to greet Max would likely stop him in his tracks. Katherine Lessard smiled warmly - the spitting image of her twin sister Leandra.

"Hello, Max."

Max had passed through Luskonios only once before and he could remember thinking it was grand back then. He’d only been small, his mother had a student who lived here and on a day where his child-minder had fallen ill, she had had to take Max along. A more diluted sense of awe washed over him this time. He wasn’t gaping, as he had been back then, but more he regarded the area through experience-tinted glasses, taking in the spoils of those who did better than him.

He knew little of his family, but he knew that they were wealthy. As he passed house after house he thought about how one could’ve been his home in another life… Another life where his mother had not been outcast by her family, leaving her in her shame to scavenge and beg. He was winding himself up. These thoughts mingled with the ones dedicated to working out what was going on. It concerns your family. Maybe one of the lowlifes had decided it was finally time to apologise for all that had happened, and was using this Katherine as a mouthpiece. Or they’d summoned him for Katherine to finish their job, and kick him into the dirt, send him off on an even more lowly life than the one which he already lived until he died of disease which he couldn’t afford to cure.
Still, none of it made sense.

As he mused, he sometimes sent obvious stares at Alistair. He seemed like a smarmy prick. Though, Max gathered that he was an important smarmy prick.

The gates in which they finally came to a stop before offered a view between their bars of an exceptionally exquisite building. Their destination might have made Max feel intimidated, if it wasn’t for the rise in adrenaline which had been triggered by those memories turned sour and stirred anger.

The walk up the drive offered more spectacular sights but Max just listened to the crunch of his boots on the gravel and fixed his stare straight ahead, refusing to be sucked into this display.

When the man spoke, it made Max want to punch him. He was certain he could do a good amount of damage.
He might’ve looked a bit rough around the edges, and still hold the smells of pack life faintly, but he was no thief.
He bit back any retort. Having already decided that Alistair was a smarmy prick, he thought the best thing to do was to not feed him.

The corridor in which they walked felt far too long. The answer to all of his fresh questions was waiting at the end. But he thought it too optimistic to think that they were ones he’d like to receive.

Boy, he kept calling Max. His flash of sudden annoyance was muted by the voice that carried out to him. He had never heard it before, but somehow, it still made something within him stir. However, Max wasn’t distracted enough to not smirk smugly at Alistair as the voice proceeded to tell him to stay outside. Before he entered Max bared his teeth at the man – a recently acquired habit.

He hadn’t the time to comprehend the impressive room before his eyes latched onto the woman’s face.

The surge of shock that racked through him brought him to a standstill. He lost control of his body; his knees felt week, his heart prepared to race, his mouth grew dry and his lips trembled, his hands too, they shivered, made cold and nervous by the gush of reminiscence. The memories rained down on him as he stood there, this woman’s likeness bringing to the forefront of his mind those cherished, archived memories of that woman who was gone. Gone. So far, far away. Mom?

His gaze devoured the woman’s face. Doing so in the silence enabled him to establish that no, this was not his mother. Not only was that impossible, but there were differences. Whilst her smile was kindly, it didn’t quite spread to her eyes the way Leandra’s would. Her posture was different. This woman oozed confidence and authority whilst Leandra was much softer, uncertain; charming in her own way.
And he felt no love towards this woman. In fact, as he got over his shock, something about her irked him. Perhaps it was the rage which was sure to ensue once he'd collected himself.

Lady Katherine.
It concerns your family.

This could not be a coincidence.

“Lady Katherine Lessard.”

The smile on Katherine's face broadened with satisfaction. "Well done. You're perceptive, that's good. I had a feeling that you were more savvy than Alistair gave you credit for. Leandra might have been misled, but she was always a smart girl."

She gestured towards one of the armchairs, "Please, sit." she said, before taking a seat herself. "I'm sure that you have a lot of questions, and I will do my best to answer them all. I understand that my family has not treated you and my sister with kindness, and you have no reason to humour me. But if you would do me the kindness of not dismissing me out of hand, then I would be very grateful."

She took a sip from a glass of whiskey, indicating towards the bottle and glass upon the small side-table between them to invite Max to help himself.

"I will let you speak first, before I broach the subject of why I have asked you here. If there is anything you want to know about your family, or your mother, then I will answer you as fully as I am able."

Again. He was irked. Annoyed by the way she spoke so nonchalantly and with familiarity about his mother. For over twenty years, they’d all shunned her. A lot changed in twenty years, including people. Max knew his mother better than anyone. He was her only family. This stranger may have shared the same surname with him, but that didn’t make her related in any emotional sense to him or his mother. Not any more. How dare she.

At her offer to sit he quite defiantly remained standing. He wouldn’t set his ass down on anything owned by Lessards. And he certainly wasn’t going to drink any of their liquor. It was all probably bought by money which he also had a right to.

She was correct. They had not been treated with kindness, and so Max would not extend any kindness to Katherine, either.

“How could you?” He growled, taking a heated step forward and slamming his hands down on the desk. His shock had been dismissed and replaced with rage which glistened in his eyes. “How could you do that to her? Your own family? What are you? Her sister? Cousin?”

He thought, that if he’d had a full family, they’d come before everything. All his life he’d been yearning for such a thing. In the pack, he’d been proved right. Family wasn’t important. Family was everything. The wolf in the pack has a greater chance of survival than the one which hunts alone. It was their fault for throwing her out of the pack when she so desperately needed support.

When Max's fist came down on the table, Alistair shoved the door open and rushed inside, only to be met by Katherine raising her hand to him. "Out!" she snapped. The man shot a glare at Max, but once more retreated out to the corridor.

"I am Leandra's sister." Katherine stated calmly, lowering her hand, "And your mother was very dear to me. We spent our childhood together, playing and running and laughing as any children would. It was not my decision to turn her out. At the time, our parents retained control both of the inheritance and the estates. I was no more able to prevent her exile, once decided, than she was - though I pleaded, begged and demanded they let her stay till my throat was hoarse. It was futile."

She took a deep breath. "That said, I will not excuse myself of fault. It was terribly wrong of me to allow my sister to be treated in such a way. I was not the strong woman then that I am now. Disobeying our parents did not seem an option. I was wrong. And I am so very, very sorry for what happened to her. I do not ask for your forgiveness in that matter, as I know that I do not deserve it."

There was a heavy pause.

"But I will not sit idly now and watch as my nephew is left despondent on the streets. I have had my eyes on you for a long time, Max. Whilst you were with Baron's wolves, I was unable to contact you. I believed that you would reject my invitation outright so long as they maintained their illusion of acceptance. I think that you know to what I refer."

Twenty tree years. Max puffed out a big breath through his nostrils. That excuse would not cover twenty three years. He was not satisfied. She was right, she didn’t deserve his forgiveness.

He’d spent a year searching for his family. But only now, Max realised with a start that he had already found his true family. What a shame it was that he had fucked it all up.

Looking into Katherine Lessard’s eyes, he felt nothing but hatred.

Illusion of acceptance.
Max snorted.
This was just another illusion, then. An illusion of genuine grief, regret… atonement.

“Yeah? Well I’ll guess you’ll just have to sit and watch idly, Lady Lessard, because I’d go way beyond despondent before I ever even considered accepting a shred of help from you.”

“Keep watching me, go on, I’ll have a middle finger stuck up for you at every turn” he spat, feeling cheated. Any politeness that may have still remained from him vanished in that one utterance.

Katherine nodded her head, as though expecting the response. "I understand why you feel this way, Max. You have every reason to hate me. But to refuse aid is cutting off your nose to spite your face. For years I have watched you within that pack of wolves, fearing that one day you would become permanently lost to them. But you did not."

She gestured towards him, "You wanted to be one of them, did you not? But Max, what you are now is beautiful. You have what they lack - humanity. A wolf may wear sheep's clothing and walk amongst sheep, but it as at heart still a wolf. You saw that, in a way. You saw that as a human you stood apart from them." She shook her head, rising to her feet and pacing across to the fireplace. "They do not consider themselves like us, Max. To them, a human is never their equal. A human is lesser, inferior. Weak. And you know just as well as I what happens to the weak at the mercy of the wolf pack."

Taking another sip of her drink, she turned back to them. "But I believe it is your humanity which makes you strong, not the other way around. Where the wolf's mind falls prey to its instincts, and the vampire's heart is cold and empty, the mind of a human is sharp and self-aware, and their heart warm and joyous."

Katherine paused in thought. "If you will not accept my help, Max, will you accept my employment? It would not be the first time a man has worked for a hated employer. You will find that I pay better than most in Lutetia, and I do not ask much. Only that you keep your eyes and ears open going about your life, keep me informed and on rare occasion, perform simple tasks. Believe it or not, Max, you are important to me. I have done you wrong in the past, and want to offer some atonement for that. This is not an offer I would normally make."

She met his insolence with calm tones and well-structured explanations. Max was considering all of this rhetoric by now. His resentment was contained - he’d rather not have to deal with the smarmy prick - but his glare was the window through which this bottled up indignation could be seen.

“Then a wolf’s heart is worth more than many. More than this beautiful humanity you prattle about. Every member of a pack I’ve ever met has shown more care for his family, for his pack, than you’ve ever shown towards yours. Even if I was an… outsider, they still treated me better than any Lessard other than my only parent ever had. I just wish my mother had experienced the same.”


Max felt mocked. The audacity of this woman - his aunt - to have labelled him as practically helpless. An ideal time to strike with her cleverly wound lies, then capture him in her silk to demean him even further through this ‘employment’ that she was offering. Well, there was no way he was wandering into that web.

“I’d rather literally cut off my nose to spite my face.”
Cut off my nose to spite your face.

"That is disappointing." Katherine stated, taking a long breath. "But, very well. I will not push you further while your mind is so set."

She turned and offered him a gentle, warm smile. "My doors are still open to you, Max. I'm sorry that it took so long. If you ever need my help, then give me a call." She walked across to her desk, noted down a number on a scrap of paper and walked across to hand it to him. "You can shove this in your pocket and forget about it. Taking it doesn't mean you've accepted me, or my help. But it gives you the freedom to make that choice in the future."

She stepped back. "You're free to go. Alistair will show you out. And for what it's worth, Max, I'm glad that we met. I'm sorry that things happened the way they did. Goodbye."