AN: HI everyone. Here's the next chapter!

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Chapter 19

EPOV

We got dressed slowly after completing the mate bond. Every few seconds our hands would find our way back to each other for a touch, a stroke, a caress. Now that I knew she was mine, I wanted to keep her with me at all times. I knew it was mostly because our bond was so fresh that these feelings were so strong in both of us. but I didn't really care for the reason. I just wanted to enjoy it.

When we were fully dressed again I gave into my instincts and pulled her into my arms. Her arms wrapped around my waist and held me tightly as well.

'What happens now?' I asked softly, afraid to burst the happy bubble we'd been in until now.

She sighed and pulled back slightly so she could look up at me. 'We need to go see your family and you need to decide what you want to do. I have to return to Volterra for a while until things settle down again.'

'Am I allowed to join you?' I asked her curiously.

She nodded. 'The bond is complete now. I would rather you stay with me where I know I can protect you. But I understand if you'd rather stay here with your family. You had a life already and I can't expect you to just drop everything to come with me.'

'What is going to happen in Volterra?' I asked curiously. I wasn't sure yet what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to stay with Bella. But I also knew it would hurt my family if I immediately left them. They'd all hoped to be gaining a sister, or a daughter, not losing a son and a brother.

Bella placed her head against my shoulder. 'It's going to get messy. Most changes of power are. There are a few pretenders who will come forth and challenge me. it will probably be a few days or weeks of heavy fighting. When that's done, I will instate the new council and help them settle in.'

'Do you already know who the council is going to be?'

She nodded her head. 'I do.'

'Who?'

She stepped out of my arms and gave me a sad smile. 'I want to tell you everything, Edward. But I can't tell you about that yet.'

I frowned. 'why not? Don't you trust me?'

'I do.' she assured me. And although I was hurt that she didn't want to tell me, I did believe that she trusted me. 'But I never share who the new council is going to be until the day they are instated. I don't want to compromise them or myself.'

I mulled that over for a bit and then nodded. It made sense considering the fact she'd had no one to rely on for most of her life. I felt certain that with time she would come to see that I was here to stay and that I would gladly share every burden with her from now on. But that was something only time would be able to prove to her, so I just left it at that for now.

'Let's go see my family then.' I suggested. 'They'll probably have a lot of questions for you. Are you willing to answer them? Or I can go by myself and just keep it vague.'

'I'll share just enough for them to know you're safe with me.' she gave me a small smile, but I could see she was slightly nervous.

That made me chuckle. The thought of this ancient phenomenally powerful vampire being scared to meet my family seemed silly to me. she gave me a questioning look but I just shook my head. I took hold of her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it.

'They already liked you, you know. You won't have to do much to win them over completely.' I assured her.

She just shrugged. 'Endangering you probably put me on their shit list though.' She countered and I had to give it to her, they had been upset about me becoming a target.

'But then you saved my life. And all of theirs.' I argued back. 'and they'll be grateful for that.'

'I doubt it.' she muttered under her breath. 'but I guess we can hope for the best.'

I laughed and nodded. 'come on.'

We started running through the forest with our hands clutched tightly together. Bella kept pace with me easily of course, though I did push myself to run faster to make it more interesting for her. within a few moments we were back at the house.

Bella paused at the edge of the garden and took a deep breath.

'Ready?' I asked her.

She nodded. 'As ready as I'll ever be.'

'You just faced an angry horde of Volturi members.' I chuckled. 'my family surely can't be worse.'

'I don't care about the Volturi. They're just my employees. But your family is precious to you. I'd like for them to at least not hate me.' she gave me a small smile and my heart melted a little.

'You'll be fine.' I assured her, stroking one finger down her cheek.

She nodded once and then grabbed my hand and started guiding us to the door. Before we reached the porch the door opened and Alice greeted us enthusiastically.

'There you guys are.' She smiled. 'Come on, hurry up. We've been waiting for you.'

'Alright. calm down.' I told Alice.

Everyone has some questions. Rosalie is a bit pissed off. But mostly they're okay with this. Alice thought at me.

I nodded to her as thanks.

We stepped into the house and headed to the living room where everyone was gathered. And Alice hadn't been wrong. Rosalie met us with a glower, but the rest seemed mostly curious.

'Hi.' Bella greeted everyone.

Esme's eyes zeroed in on our entwined hands immediately. Her eyes snapped up to mine.

Oh Edward. I'm so happy for you

I smiled over at her.

'Bella. Edward.' Carlisle greeted us, his tone was slightly cool, but his thoughts were mostly filled with questions and worry about me. There was no malice behind it. 'Come, sit down.'

Bella nodded and I guided her over to the sofa.

The moment we sat down Rosalie couldn't keep it in anymore though. 'Are you done putting my brother in danger now?' Rosalie snapped.

'Rose.' Emmett put his hand on her shoulder.

'No.' she shook him off. 'She needs to know. You put him in danger, do you realise that? You put him through hell with your little indecisive act and then you nearly get him killed because your henchmen or whatever they were decided to betray you.'

'Him being in danger was the reason I was indecisive.' Bella responded evenly. She didn't get angry or defensive. 'I never wanted to put him in danger, and being my mate puts a target on him by definition.'

'So you admit you're endangering him right now then?' Rosalie snapped.

'It's possible.' She acknowledged. 'But we talked it through and it's something we're willing to face together.'

'And you never considered us in that?' Rosalie now turned to me.

I rolled my eyes at her. 'Rosalie, I've found my mate. No potential danger is ever going to keep me away from her. It's ridiculous for you to even suggest that I should leave her because it might hurt you if I get hurt!'

'He's right, Rose. You're not being fair.' Emmett added. 'They're mates. You can't ask him to ignore that.'

'Who says they're mates?' She snapped back. 'She could simply be manipulating everything, just like she did to get into our family in the first place!'

And there it was. The reason for how hurt she was feeling. She'd thought Bella and her had had similar stories. She's felt a connection to her, only to feel betrayed when it turned out to be a lie.

'They are mates, Rose.' Jasper chimed in. 'I can feel it.'

'I'm sorry for deceiving you.' Bella said. 'but if I had to do it again, I would. I'm not an ordinary vampire who is here to join your family and mainstream with humans with you. I am the original vampire. I have responsibilities to the world and to the vampire race. I came here to determine if there was a threat. I never thought I'd find myself in this position. So I am sorry for the hurt I caused by deceiving you, but I won't apologize for having done so.'

'So you're not going to apologize for nearly getting all of us killed?'

'Rosalie. That's enough now.' Carlisle jumped in before I could say what was on my mind. 'Bella didn't tell the Volturi to come and try to kill us. She's the reason we're still alive.'

Rosalie scoffed in response.

'What do you think would have happened if she hadn't made it in time?' I asked her angrily. 'She's the only reason any of you are alive right now. Instead of being angry at her, you should be on your knees thanking her!'

'We could have gotten out of it!'

Now it was my turn to scoff. 'We were done for. You know and I know it. Now if you can't stop being hostile to my mate because of some perceived slight you feel, you can fuck right off and leave the rest of us to talk in peace.'

Bella put her hand on my arm and squeezed it softly. 'It's okay Edward. She's allowed to feel hurt by what I did.'

Rosalie huffed, and crossed her arms over her chest, sulking that she wasn't getting her way. But I couldn't care less.

'Okay. let's continue. As you can imagine, Bella. We have some questions.' Carlisle said.

Bella nodded. 'I can't promise I can answer all of them. But you're welcome to ask.'

'How old are you?' Emmett just couldn't help himself.

I levelled him with a glare that had him holding up his hands sheepishly. But Bella simply laughed.

'I don't know exactly. But it's in the tens of thousands.' She answered. Emmett's mouth dropped open. As did every one else's.

Talk about may to December! Emmett yelled at me in his head. I just rolled my eyes at him.

'Did you know the Volturi was out to kill us?' Alice asked.

Bella shook her head. 'I knew Aro was interested in your coven, because of it's talented members. I told him to back off and he'd never gone directly against my orders before. I thought I had it settled until I would have returned after determining for myself if your coven was a threat. But he went behind my back. I had expected him to move sometime soon, but not like this and not so brazenly.'

'How did you know to come back?' Jasper asked.

'I have two students I guess you could call them. Jane and Alec. They've been under my care for their entire lives. I turned them into vampires. I had left them with the Volturi so they could keep me up to speed. They warned me that the Volturi was here and coming for your coven.'

And then Esme asked the question that had been on everyone's mind but were too scared to ask. 'What happens now?'

'That is up to Edwrad.' Bella said, turning to me with a wry smile. 'I have to leave for Volterra to deal with the aftermath of killing the Volturi. It will probably be a dangerous struggle until I seat the next council. I've informed Edward of this and it is now his choice.'

All eyes turned to me and for a moment I felt put on the spot, but then as I thought it over, there really was no desicion to be made.

'I'm going with her.' I told them all.

Esme sucked in a ragged breath. Her thoughts were sad, but she did understand my choice. Rosalie was of course angry about it. Emmett was sad to see me go but understood I'd follow my mate anywhere. Carlisle was happy I had finally found my place, but was sad to see me go anyway. Jasper was happy with the feelings coming from us both so he didn't mind either way. Though he did hope we'd still get to see each other in the future. And alice… alice was scanning the future it seemed. Though I wasn't sure why.

'Are you sure?' Bella asked me.

I nodded. 'I know you want me to be sure. But I can't imagine leaving your side to let you face all that is to come on your own. I'm coming with you.'

She smiled at me and nodded.

A second later Alice gasped and then clapped her hands with glee. I turned to her in surprise as did the rest of the family.

The vision was still playing out and I quickly got swept up in it. There was some blurriness and darkness, but I could clearly see the castle of Volterra in the background. Beautiful gardens were in front of us and the entire family was on the lawn, basking in the sun. I could see myself walking towards them, something blurry walked beside me. which I would guess would be Bella. it was such a happy and blissfull scene that it took me aback for a moment. Then the vision stopped.

'What? Alice?' I asked confused. I couldn't ask them all to come with me. I didn't want to put them in anger. Bella and I could protect each other, but bringing more people in might make us more vulnerable and it might put them in danger unnecessarily.

'Let's all get packing!' Alice exclaimed. 'we're coming with you!'

'What?' Bella asked shocked.

But most of the thoughts of the rest of the family were warming up to the idea. In fact Esme was overjoyed for the opportunity to stay together and get an opportunity to get to know Bella. Carlisle was intrigued at the prospect of learning how the new council would be instated. Jasper and Emmett were looking forward to another fight. It was only Rosalie who was absolutely fuming.

'Are you insane?!" she yelled out.

'For once I agree.' Bella said.

'Are you all this willing to endanger our family?' Rosalie asked.

'No one is forcing you, Rose.' I bit at her. 'you're welcome to stay here.'

'Please, think about this. I can't guarantee all of your safeties. I will try my best but even I don't know what will happen when we get to Volterra. I don't know who is going to come knocking for the seat of power. I can't guarantee you might get hurt.'

'oh we'll be fine.' Alice said in a sure voice.

'Your visions don't work that well on me, Alice. You can't guarantee it either.'

'Perhaps she can't, but if we all come with you, we can protect each other.' Carlisle spoke thoughtfully.

'Carlisle you can't be serious?' Rosalie asked shocked. She hadn't expected Carlisle to agree with this plan.

'I won't force anyone to go who does not want to, but to be honest I would like to join you Bella. Mostly to settle my own curiosity and see how you operate. If you are okay with that of course.'

'I would too. I'd like to get to know you better, and joining you in Volterra seems like a way to do that.' Esme said with a kind smile.

Bella just looked back at them thoughtfully.

'You can't be serious.' Rose yelled again.

'Rose.' Emmett said softly. 'You want our family to stay together. You know that. Why don't you want Edward to be happy with his mate? Because that's the choice here. Either we separate the family and Edward and Bella go to Volterra to face the danger alone, or you force Edward to stay here without his mate in agony. Why would you even want that?'

Finally it seemed to sink in to her mind that what she was asking for was indeed unfair to me. It was unfair to ask to leave my mate behind for the sake of our family.

'I won't risk my life for her.' she snapped though, not wanting to give up just yet.

'I would never ask you to.' Bella responded in an even tone.

'But you are! Along with the rest of my family!'

'I am not asking anything of any of you. Not even of my own mate. I laid out the facts and Edward made his choice. I respect that choice. If your family now decides to come along that's their decision as well. I have told you all the dangers that lie ahead and that I can't guarantee your safety. If they still want to come then that is their choice. And I will do my best to protect them.'

'All I want is for my family to be safe.' Rosalie finally had run out of her anger it seemed and now the real reason for her hostility was coming to the front.

'I understand that. I want the same.' Bella told her kindly.

'Do you? Do you really?' Rosalie asked. 'Because you've lied to us again and again. that doesn't make me trust your word one bit.'

Bella looked at Rosalie for a moment, then she stood up. She walked over to Rosalie and then suddenly wrapped her arms around her.

'I know I lied. But that doesn't mean everything was a lie. You're a beautiful soul, Rosalie. You love and protect your family with everything you have. Your strength and ability to love are amazing and you don't have to apologize for that. But you shouldn't turn everything in this world that isn't directly with you as something that is against you. the world isn't always out to get you, Rosalie. I know you've seen the darkness of the world, but there's beauty and light as well and I know if you let yourself see it again, your burdens will be lifted.'

For a moment it was quiet in the room and then the sound of Rosalie's muffled sobs reached our ears. Her shoulders shook as she fell into Bella's arms. I stared at them in shock.

No one had ever gotten thought to Rosalie like that. It was amazing to see really. Rosalie's mind was in turmoil as she struggled to keep hold of her way of thinking, but the part of her that wanted to trust people was winning over. She knew not everyone was bad, like the man that had left her for dead. But it was such a great fear of hers that she had brought into this new life that it was hard for her to let go of.

But it seemed Bella's words had struck a chord where none other had before. And Rosalie was finally starting to see that perhaps Bella was right.

They hugged each other for a long time, until Rosalie finally calmed down. When she did, Bella pulled back slightly, wiping a few strands of hair form Rosalie's face.

'I won't ask you to come with me and to put yourself in harm's way. That is something I will never ask of you, Rosalie. I won't ask it of your family either. But I won't apologize for wanting my mate by my side. If you want to join Edward and I, so you can protect your family, you can. And I will stand beside you and protect them as best I can too.'

Rosalie swallowed thickly and then sniffed loudly, trying to gather herself again. She stared at Bella for a moment until she fianlly flipped her hair and sighed. 'Fine. Let's go then. But don't think I've forgiven you yet for lying to me.'

Bella smiled. 'Of course not. I will spent however long you want me to trying to make it up to you.' the girls smiled at each other and hugged again.

'Alright! We're going to Volterra!' Emmett cheered, breaking the residual tension in the room and having everyone laughing and planning for the trip ahead.