𝕆𝕟 𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℍ𝕦𝕟𝕥 ➾ 𝕆ℂ 𝕩 𝕆ℂ [𝕋𝕎𝕀𝕃𝕀𝔾ℍ𝕋 𝕊𝔸𝔾𝔸]

Max

Calgary, Canada

1950

 Max, Jasper, and Alice departed from Peter and Charlotte that night.  It was a long goodbye, mainly Jasper and Peter hugging and promising to write or call as often as they can.  But the three prevailed on their journey to the Cullen-Hale coven.  

When they finally arrived at the Cullen's residence, it was almost sundown.  Alice glided up the steps and knocked lightly on the door.  Jasper and Max -being the perfect soldiers they were- stood stiffly with their hands clasped behind them on either side of the pixie-like brunette, like her bodyguards.  A man with amber eyes and bright blonde hair answered the door. 

"Good evening, Dr. Cullen!" Alice beamed at him.  "My mate, my friend, and I are interested in joining your coven."

He was surprised but welcomed them in nonetheless.  He then called out for the rest of the coven members, "Esme, kids, would you come to the family room, please."  A tall and lean boy with amber eyes and bronze hair zipped down the stairs to them, next was a beautiful brunette woman who came from the room next door, and finally, a burly boy with curly dark hair and a blonde goddess-like girl dashed to them from the basement.  Alice was practically glowing at this point.

"What's going on?" The burly boy asked Dr. Cullen.  

"We might be having more people joining our family," he responded.  Max couldn't help but notice the use of the word 'family'.  Not 'coven', but 'family'.  He was already feeling excited about the Cullens.  He saw the bronze-haired boy smile amusedly at him.

"Hello!" Alice practically exploded in excitement.  "My name is Alice, and this is my mate Jasper, and our friend Maxwell."  She went on to explain her gift, "Well, my gift is the ability to see the future and I had a vision of you all.  And you gave me the idea of feeding off of animals instead of off of humans.  But I started to get more visions of your coven and the three of us were always there and living with you.  So I decided to speed fate up and just come to you."

"Fascinating..." Dr. Cullen muttered.  It reminded Max too much of Aro.

The bronze-haired boy's eyes snapped to him.  "How do you know Aro?"  He spat.  The moment he said that the rest of the Cullen-Hales looked at him alarmingly.  Some of them even looked ready to attack.  Alice and Jasper were immediately at Max's defense.

"He was my creator..." Max replied solemnly, the events of his stay at the Volturi castle flashing through his mind.  The bronze-haired boy's eyes instantly softened.

"I'm sorry, I did not know he put you through all of that."  He apologized.  Max and Jasper were confused but Alice had a knowing look on her face.  The boy saw their confusion, "My gift is mind-reading.  My name is Edward, by the way."  He shook Jasper and Max's hands but when he reached Alice he was tackled into a hug.  Jasper noticed that the rest were still tense and sent waves of calmness toward them.

"What was that?" The blonde goddess inquired.

"That was my gift, mam, I can feel and manipulate the emotions of the people around me," Jasper replied with a smirk.

"Outstanding," Dr. Cullen mused.  He turned to Max, "Do you have a gift, Maxwell?  I'm assuming you did because Aro only wants those with gifts in his guard."

Yes, um, I can manipulate blood," Max saw the looks of surprise and puzzlement, "I can make someone's blood gush out, freeze, slow down, and even boil."

"Our hunting trips are about to get interesting," the burly boy laughed.

The brunette woman decided that introductions were needed, "I'm Esme," she greeted them each with a hug and pointed at the blonde goddess, the burly boy, and Dr. Cullen, "And this is Rosalie and Emmett, and my husband, Carlisle."  All three of them were also attacked into hugs by Alice.

"I'm Alice!" The pixie greeted.

"Major Jasper Whitlock at your service," Jasper introduced.

"Private Maxwell Sanford," Max said.  "Just call me Max, and thank you for allowing us into your home."

"How did you ever get away from the Volturi?" Carlisle questioned him.

"Well, my gift is only useful to them if I can use it on vampires, so he made me test it on one of his guards.  But I knew if I could do it then I'd never get away from them.  So I pretended to use my gift.  And Aro let me go because the Volturi doesn't fight with humans and he didn't approve of my preferred diet."  Max explained.

"You didn't feed off of humans?" Esme asked.

"No, I never have," Max answered. "And I never intend to."

The rest of the Cullens looked at him with wide eyes.  Carlisle and Jasper (even though he's heard Max say it before) seemed the most impressed.  But then Rosalie realized something.

"How did Aro know that you were gifted?" The blond inquired.

"Well, when I was human I served in the US Army in WW2.  My cavalry was one of the many used in the Allied invasion of Italy in September 1943.  When we invaded Salerno, I was shot clean-through multiple times but Aro and Marcus found me before I died.  Aro knew that I was gifted because, despite my injuries, I wasn't bleeding at all.  And he decided to turn me."  Max took a deep unnecessary breath, "After I woke up and fed on some animals, he made me test my gift on a human prisoner they had.  And I did,"  venom filled his waterline,  "I-I nearly killed him...and I nearly attacked him."

"But you didn't, Max," Edward comforted.  "You didn't kill him with your gift and you didn't try to feed from him.  You held strong and stayed in control."

Esme led him to the couch, as Alice began to tell them about how she doesn't remember her human life and how she found Jasper and Max.  And when she was done, Jasper told them about his human life, how he was turned, and his time with the Mexican Coven and the newborn army.

▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

 The Cullens were very welcoming toward the newcomers.  Esme had their rooms ready for them by sunrise, and Max was amazed at the size of his room.  He could fit his whole old log cabin in it!  Esme put a red velvet couch instead of a bed and an oversized black leather chair was opposite it.  The velvet curtains matched the couch and the tall, ebony bookshelves were made of oak.  

Rosalie immediately whisked Alice away to go shopping in the town, Max bonded with Edward over their shared love of music and their lack of mates, and Jasper and Emmett roughhoused in the backyard.  The moment Esme found out that the ex-Private could play the cello, she bought him one.  Max was ecstatic, as he hasn't played the cello since his human years before he enlisted in the army.  He and Edward immediately went to work on new original pieces to play.

Maxwell was finally home.  The only thing missing now was his and Edward's mates.