Chapter 84 – The head of household

After an awkward dinner that Priscilla did not attend at all and with both Tessa and Cassandra in gloomy moods from their long after lunch talk, both women went to discuss some matters regarding the latest news in the Kingdom, while Noah excused himself saying he will go train his skills.

That made Cassandra raise an eyebrow but Noah did not wish to explain to her his mind realm. Tessa did not comment on it too, leaving her with no answers.

Tessa returned to her bedroom late at night. Monsters did not have the need for sleep so she did not notice how late it was until Dahlia asked whether Cassandra would be staying and which room she would like to get. After that they quickly skimmed the topics and put their discussion on hold, deciding to go rest.

Which was basically Tessa trying to end the talk with Cassandra looking at her with a strange look and reminding her that they are monsters that don't sleep and need no rest for a long time. But Tessa's eyes were shifting around with a bit of blush on her cheeks while she tried to make all kinds of ridiculous excuses why she thought it's good to still take a rest.

After Cassandra sighed and said 'fine go mate with your human you wanton woman' she finally let Tessa go.

"Dahlia?" Said Tessa standing in the dim room.

"Yes, madam?" The maid's voice came from behind her, with Dahlia appearing from within the closed wooden door.

"Where's Noah?" Asked Tessa seeing that Noah was not in the room.

"Master asked to prepare a room for him for tonight, so I prepared the room next door for him, as the ready guest room was given to Lady Vespertine." Answered Dahlia.

"Umm…why did he ask that?" Asked Tessa baffled.

"I don't know madam." Said Dahlia.

"Alright. Thank you." Said Tessa dismissing the maid.

*****

"Noah?" Softly said Tessa, slipping in the middle of the night into his room wearing a beautiful nightie that showed off her delicious body to the best.

She came over to the empty bed holding a small chandelier with one candle in it, dimly lighting the room, and spread her senses to the spot where she could feel small fluctuations in space. The same as when she saw Noah disappear into his mind realm.

"Hey." Said Noah, appearing a moment later.

"Can I come into your bed?" Asked Tessa softly with a bit of hesitation in her voice. Making Noah a bit surprised.

He lifted the blanket, opening the bed for her.

"Why do you ask dear?" He asked Tessa, who smiled happily and slipped under the blanket embracing him tightly immediately.

"I thought…you are angry with me." She whispered into his chest.

"Why would I be?" Asked Noah hugging her back.

"Why did you ask for a separate room then?" She asked lifting her head to look at him.

"Oh…felt kind of awkward going to your room without you in it."

"Noah. I don't mind if you want to have a room of your own for privacy. But I want you to understand it clearly. We may not be married by your human standards, but it is exactly what a true mate bite mark means to monsters. My room is a master bedroom and you are the master of this house now as much as I am. In my, my daughter's or Cassandra's eyes, you are the head of this household equal to me and you don't have to feel shy or awkward toward anything. This is your house as much as mine now. And it is not my room, it is ours now." Said Tessa gazing into his eyes with trembling in her eyes. "As long as you want it to be this way. As long as you desire to be here. You are the head of the household and ruler equal to me in all meanings, Noah. You are my husband, only not on the paper with your human stamp on it."

"I see. I really did not understand it well enough. So is this why your friend hates me so much? You basically married some stranger out of the sudden."

"Partly, yes. But she'll get used to it. You are now part of my life whether she likes it or not. If she wants to come here in the future she would have to reckon with this and give you the same respect she gives me. Just give her a bit of time. It was a bit sudden for all of them. They will come to terms with it soon."

"Ok." Said Noah, nodding. "So what's with Priscilla? Is everything alright?"

"It's okay. Don't worry…just…consider it a kind of… monster equivalent of periods." Said Tessa.

"Are you serious?" Asked Noah lifting his head from the pillow to loom at Tessa. "I thought you…I mean…you have a magical body and all…so I thought you kind of don't get such….ailments.

"Well, you are not wrong. Of course we don't have such a thing…but this is not physical ailment…it's more like an after effect of our sentience. Monsters are creatures of instinct. In the wild monsters don't get such problems. But my daughters and I live…defying our very being with sentience. With control over these instincts."

"So she is losing control? Should I be careful near her?" Asked Noah.

"She will be fine tomorrow, you'll see. You have absolutely nothing to worry about. I promise. I will take care of it." Said Tessa looking back at him.

Noah felt Tessa hiding something from him, but decided to trust in her, nodding silently and laying back down on the pillow.

"You are done talking with Cassandra?" Asked Noah while Tessa lay her head back on his chest.

"Mostly. Just some small discussions tomorrow. Sorry about that. She is mostly my only source of information here in the middle of nowhere, except for little spider friends that roam outside the mansion and come back with some information from time to time. She'll go back soon as she is busy with Duchess duties too, so it's a rare chance to get info."

"I see. She's a good friend, to find time just to keep you in touch despite how busy she should be with her status." Said Noah.

"Don't overthink. She is not sharing information for a good friends sake. She is here to ask for advice. If you noticed, despite her being as ancient as me, being calm and rational is not her best quality. She agreed to become new house master mostly for my and girls sake, but analyzing and governing never was to her liking. So she always comes to me for advice. Keeping me in touch with the world is her investment into being a good ruler herself. Well it does help me to know what is going on, so I don't mind." Said Tessa with a smile. "But, yes. She is a good friend non the less. So I really want you two to be on good terms."

"Well, there are still some worries regarding that still." Said Noah, not knowing how to say it well.

"Worry that your kind are more of a food for her kind?" Asked Tessa.

"Yeah." Said Noah. "I understand that within the boundaries of this house she will show some respect. But being on good terms is doubtful considering that outside this mansion she is a hunter and I will be a nice meal."

"I don't ask you to trust vampires or spiders Noah. Only me. Monsters would always be monsters and humans will always be their prey. But you will never be that for me or my daughters. Not for Cass to a degree too. Vampires tend to be impulsive. But she is not a youngling anymore. She can control herself well. But yeah you should be still wary of any of the other monster kin, including Cassandra's family members if you ever meet them. They may not hold the same respect for me as her, or not hold their impulses under control well."

"By the way. This has bothered me for some time. As I understand, there are all kinds of monster houses. Some can just eat normal food like you, but there are those like Cassandra too. Their food is human blood, right? She can eat raw meat for appearance sake, while sitting behind the table with everyone. But it does not sate her right?"

"Pffft. The meat is really raw right? Just don't say that in her presence. She gets irritated when people point that out." Said Tessa, smiling. "There is some…leisure…that kingdoms allow to such families. They keep humans in the household for provision."

"Hold on! They keep humans as livestock? And the Kingdom allows it?"

"It's not the same. Loyal followers, servants that don't mind being a source of nutrients. Love it even. Why do you think vampires are feared so much when only the elder ones can be active in the sun? How hard is it to just blow up their hideout with magic from afar and wait for them to burn in the sun? It is because there are hordes of living people willing to serve them, that they can sleep safely in the day. As long as the people they prey on are willing, the kingdom does not interfere." Explained Tessa.

"But vampires are more of an exception actually. With blood being all they need, they can leave their prey alive to recuperate. It is different from other monsters. Therefore observers exist. Many monsters have a sense of sentience and sometimes contact the Kingdom wishing to make a household, thinking that the kingdom would never find out if they covertly prey on humans. The Kingdom will alway know. Humans are not stupid to not expect such thing. Neither are the humans pushovers. Once observers consider them a danger, they all become experiences for human hunters."

"Well, there is also the church as you know. If the Kingdom gets greedy and allows too much freedom to the monsters just to enlarge their territory quicker, The Church will act. And it never ends well when The Church takes justice in its hands. The religious fanatics are a pack of wolves on the loose with no boundaries stopping them. Not only nobles, even Royals will not avoid their punishment. Of course it is also a scariest time for monster families that did nothing wrong. The Church doesn't like to observe and judge. They burn everything, just to make sure. For them it's better to rebuild from scratch than try to repair. But this is why common people love the church and trust in it so much. At the time when nobles get out of hand and people suffer too much, it is the church that smites all evil fir them."

"This is why such families like mine and Cassandra's are held in esteem and have real power within the kingdom. We proved that we can control our monster side and the offspring we will raise have higher chances to be able to make new households in other areas in the future to take over new evil seeds and helping humanity to conquer new territories, than if they take in new monsters from the wilds, hoping they are really sentient monster that will be as trustworthy as us and will not start praying in humans. The less Kingdom has to gamble on the monsters from the wild the less accidents happen and the less attention the church will turn towards it."

"I see. Better feed all the perverts in the kingdom to the vampires than let good people suffer from the hands of monsters that think they're too smart to hide their actions from observers." Said Noah, nodding, which made Tessa chuckle.

"But why doesn't the church just take a hold of all territory under control?"

"If they do, who would common people be dissatisfied with when something goes wrong? This way there are always nobles and Royals that take people's hatred upon themselves while the church stays holy and good, always in white shoes in front of the common people. Bunch of hypocrites aren't they?"

"I see. That's quite smart indeed, but only as long as Kingdoms are weak enough to be bullied by the church though." Said Noah.

"Which they always will be, simply because there is only one Holy Bitch. As long as she is in the church, Kingdoms will never have balls to even resist. If they do, they are on their own against the darkest things that crawl out of hell. Things that only she may hold at bay."

"Demons?"

"Yeah.

"This really gives the church a nice lever to press on everyone.

"Yeah. So did I answer all the questions?" Said Tessa looking at him with a coy smile.

"I do have a few more…" Said Noah with feigning ignorance.

"Ask them another time!" Said Tessa jumping up from him and throwing off the blanket. "Don't you see a lady in skimpy clothes is all cold and needs some warmth."

"Umm. That is indeed very unbecoming of such a gentleman like I am, to leave a lady suffering." Said Noah slipping his hands under her nightie and fondling her body. "Do not worry, My Lady, I will take care of you."

"Umm…" said Tessa hesitating.

"What is it?" Asked Noah.

"This room may not be as soundproof as the master bedroom. Let's not use your…angry state. I might not hold my screams if you do."

"We'll see." Said Noah her with a brazen look on his face.