Disclaimer: I do not own Underworld, or any of the associated characters.

Summary: What if Viktor hadn't seen Lucian and Sonja together? What if Sonja had never named a father, and Viktor had waited until the child was born?

CHAPTER ONE

If I do not know the identity of my daughter's lover, then it is because she had taken great pains to keep it secret, so I will allow it to remain so, as long as she is more diligent in her responsibilities. Right now, I will overlook much, so as not to risk her health.

A vampire woman somehow becoming pregnant! Such a thing has never happened before!

A child of my bloodline, unique among immortals. To guide and rule over such a child, I will forego questioning the other half of its heritage. If Sonja is with-holding the name of the father for fear that I will be angry, perhaps she will relent after the birth, or perhaps I will recognize him in the child's features or mannerisms.

The child has been named Selene, though Sonja had been wavering between that and Irina, for my late wife, and Astrid, for the stars that light a Vampire's waking hours.

Her eyes are larger than Sonja's or mine, her features a little sharper, her skin not quite as fair, but nothing that I could recognize from any in my Coven.

Perhaps the father was a human, a brief moment of distraction, for Selene displays few vampire traits, other than slightly sharper senses and a level of intelligence beyond what her age would suggest. But perhaps she is merely precocious, as her mother was. Any child of Sonja's, of my line, is bound to be special.

Lucian, the first Lycan, had held a strange fascination with Sonja since they first met, perhaps because they were the only two children. I wonder why he would show similar interest in my grandchild, but perhaps it is only the same interest and wonder that everyone else shows. I have never cared over-much for deciphering a Lycan slave's though processes.

Perhaps he knew that she was special, because Sonja begged for him to guard her as she gave birth, fearing that on the full moon, with the Coven distracted by this miracle, Werewolves may take this chance to destroy us. Lucian has always been loyal, so I allowed it. Men, regardless of species, have no place in a birthing chamber, and I admit that Sonja's cries pained me too much to be near without trying to burst in and demand that the midwives do something to ease it.

Though if the head midwife does not watch her tone, after ordering me out with the statement that I would be worse than useless and only in the way, she may well become part of the celebratory feast, and not in a position to enjoy it!

Selene was just beyond her first birthday when I discovered the truth.

We had been ambushed in a Lycan attack, the rest of our small party killed, and while Sonja was uninjured, I was not so fortunate. Unthinkingly, she offered me her blood, to sustain me until we reached the castle, and unwillingly, I saw the awful, damning, truth.

Selene was the product of my daughter and her Lycan lover.

It explained why she was always agitated around the full moon, why she was not as repulsed by Lycans as the rest of us, why she was more human than vampire, as Lycans prefer to be in their human forms whenever possible, and both of our races were human once. It explained Lucian's fascination with the child, not fascination of a unique child, but the same amazement I felt every time I looked at my daughter, knowing that such a precious being had come from me.

But Tanis was also with us, and tasted a spilled drop before either of us could stop him. He fled before either of us could bring him down, and we both knew that he would tell the council. The Coven Historian, Tanis documented everything, and even if we killed him, he would have left something written down that someone would inevitably find.

I had not become the ruler of our coven by being an idiot, or a slow-thinker. I had not risen to power as a human by not being able to conceive or adapt plans in a moment.

Amelia was not the only female on the Council, and many of the members had been parents themselves. Several held a special kind of hatred for the Werewolves because of a lost child.

Depending on how much Tanis had seen, I could claim that love for Selene had motivated Sonja to help Lucian escape, knowing that his loyalty to and friendship with her might convince him to make sure that the Lycans and Werewolves would never touch her daughter. No one would know of their affair, though it would be a long time before I fully trusted my daughter again, and there would have to be some form of punishment.

As long as Selene did not show signs of her father's heritage, no one would need to know, and my daughter and grand-daughter would be safe.

But it was not to be.

The coven believed my tale that Sonja had acted for fear of her child's safety, and regarded Tanis's story of a love affair between her and Lucian as attempted revenge for Sonja's repeated refusals of his affection. But with Lycan attacks growing more and more frequent, there was only so much that the Council were willing to accept.

Selene was judged as innocent, as not even the most jaded of us believed that a one-year-old could be guilty of anything more than charming people with the instinctive softening that all feel upon seeing an infant.

But Sonja…

Sonja they judged as guilty of betraying her Coven, a crime punishable by death. Sonja was my daughter, and they judged me as too close to the situation to be given a voice at the trial, so all I could do was talk to as many as possible beforehand, trying to convince them.

But it did not end there. Though I was denied a chance to speak, I was still the head of the Coven, and I was therefore responsible for carrying out punishment. They demanded that I kill my own daughter.

I managed to delay until we found Lucian, so that he might share her fate, but I had not counted on that damned Lycan finding out on his own, and charging in to rescue them.

Many of the Council wished to witness the execution, to make sure that I did not orchestrate a rescue attempt. I could not. It was all that I managed to walk calmly from the room and take Selene from her nurse, who also had planned for the child to witness the price for treachery.

I took Selene to Sonja's rooms, trying to silence my ears against the screams. Sonja's screams of pain and terror, followed by Lucian's screams of grief and denial, echoed through the castle, and I bowed my head in silent agony.

As if knowing that something was wrong (slaves and prisoners screamed all the time, especially when they were culled for their blood, that we might feed) Selene wrapped her tiny arms around my neck, offering what small comfort she could.

I knew then what I had to do.

There were too many people who listened to Tanis, and Selene would be under suspicion her entire life, for fear that she would repeat her mother's betrayal. No one believed that Lycans could be trusted to keep their word.

Hair could be dyed, and a peasant family could be persuaded to take in a foundling, especially in exchange for money or livestock. I could claim that Selene had been killed by Lycans in revenge for Sonja's death, foster her out to a family unconnected to us, and keep an eye on Selene from afar.

The family I selected had another daughter near Selene's age, as like enough in appearance that they could pass as sisters. The father had a promising career as a budding architect and mason, though he lacked the connections to rise as he should. I would recommend him to some of the more prominent lords, and Selene will grow up with the life she deserved.

When Selene was six, I could no longer stay away, and hired her adopted father to build a prison for William, the first Werewolf. I included Selene's supposed sister in my doting while their father was in my employ, basking in what little attention I could offer.

Two years passed that way, before I had to once more bid farewell.

I next saw her when she was twenty, when I turned her.

I discovered the circumstances by accident, when a merchant had been laughing at one of his fellows. Selene had inherited her mother's spirit, and turned down a number of suitors, claiming that she would marry by her own will or not at all, despite the fact that her younger 'sister' was already a wife and mother.

More worrisome was the fact that her 'family' had somehow developed the belief that Lycans were not the rabid animals that most portrayed them as. Lucian had also managed to locate his daughter, and was slowly cultivating them. I could not allow it to continue.

The loss of her family was regrettable, but necessary. I told Selene that Lycans were responsible for the act, but that I would care for her.

The Coven did not question that I would take in a girl that was a bittersweet reminder of my beloved Sonja, and I had my grand-daughter, if not my daughter, with me once more.

I would not make the same mistakes again.

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A/N: I'm sorry, but does no-one else think that it is a bit too convenient that Selene looks so much like Sonja, that her father was the one to build William's prison? Look at the first and third movies, and see how similar Viktor acts toward Selene and Sonja. He openly admits that he loves Selene as a daughter, and in the flashback of when her family was killed, Selene accepted Viktor's comfort a bit too easily for them to be complete strangers.

I explored the relationship between Sonja and Viktor in my other Underworld fic, "The Pebble That Started The Avalanche' if anyone cares to read it.

Anyway, it's just a small conspiracy theory that wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it, so any constructive criticism is very welcome, even if it is only to tell me that I am a paranoid idiot seeing connections that aren't there.

Thanks, Nat.