𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐄, Volturi Kings

𝐗𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐈𝐈, 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐀𝐑

Sam and Jared made an attempt to get closer, but that did not go well for them. Everyone was there to witness just how protective a shifter can get over their imprint.

"Who the Hell is that, Leah?" Sam questioned his ex-girlfriend, clearly peeved that she was acting out in front of everyone. "Don't you snap at me."

Jacob knew that if he didn't intervene, Leah was going to upset everyone including herself. The bond was fresh and she could lash out towards anyone, Chrissy was not an exemption to that.

The young man turned back into his human form, accepting that it would be quite chilly against his bare chest. He shifted his stance to get in front of Leah, who growled but did not attack him.

"Sam, leave her alone. The bond is fresh and she's not happy about where she found our imprint," Jacob tried to explain in the least amount of details possible, knowing that it wasn't his place to share Chrissy's business with that vampire. "Jared, back down. We need to get them inside the house without a fuss."

"Yours or ours?" Seth came out from one of the beachside houses and questioned him. "What's up with my sister."

"She's fine, I'm fine. We have our imprint-"

Sam cut him off, his arms crossed and a confused look clearly plastered on his face. "-Our? Like, shared or something? Imprints aren't shared."

Jacob did not want to get pissed at the alpha of the pack. That wouldn't end well for either of them and right now his main priority beyond being rudely questioned by Sam was making sure that Chrissy didn't have any cuts or scratches on her, and if she did, he had to wrap them so she didn't get an infection.

So, in an effort to not blow everything up when he wanted to fix this mess, he ignored the comment and found Chrissy behind Leah. "I'll get you in the house. Do you need anything?"

She nodded quietly and grabbed his arm as he tried to quickly move her inside with as little fuss as possible.

God, Jacob wished he were truly rogue and didn't have to deal with all of these jackasses questioning him. Seth was fine, but Sam? Fuck Sam. Fuck Sam all the way to Hell.

---

MARCUS FELT HIS STOMACH CHURN WHEN HE WATCHED THE BOND GET THINNER AND THINNER, EVENTUALLY REALIZING THAT HE WOULD BE UNABLE TO CATCH THE FUCKER THAT HAD HURT HIS MATE SO DEEPLY AND COMPLETELY.

Every inch of him was annoyed with this fact, his inability to protect his mate in such a way. The castle had been infiltrated and where was he? In a room with his blonde brother, deciding what actions they could take next.

Not that this had been of much help.

Caius was insistent on keeping track of the people inside the castle, stalking the group chats to make sure people were okay and not hyperventilating. Plenty of jokes about this were being made, much to Marcus' chagrin. This was a true danger to the castle, and Marcus did not find the joking around funny when a prisoner was missing.

Though, now he realized that his blonde brother had not spoken up on these chats for a long time now, preferring to be quiet and leaning things from the Coven at a distance. Marcus could not understand why his brother was doing this- didn't he want to find out where this man was and where Chrissy had been brought.

Marcus realized by how fast the bond had thinned that this man was fast. So fast, in fact, that in an hour or so he could be on the other side of the globe. How frustrating.

Caius finally spoke up about what he was seeing on his phone. "Aro will be back in half an hour. I've told him that the coast is clear and to come in the back way."

He nodded, not very keen on speaking to his brother after all that had gone down. He too was upset that this had happened under his nose. It was their job to make sure things didn't implode while Aro was gone and they'd failed. A horrible thing had happened, there was no doubt about it.

"Renata says that River has calmed down but that she is clearly not doing well," Caius informed. "Alec will need to be questioned after the lockdown is lifted."

"We are lifting the lockdown?" Marcus didn't know if having the Guards outside was a good idea anymore, considering that such a social little vampire as Alec could be compromised.

"They cannot be inside for the rest of the month, Marcus. I wouldn't agree with that and neither would they. We will just impose new rules and a buddy system like we've done before." Caius shrugged and put his phone down.

"We only do that during times of war." A cold hard fact that Marcus hated being reminded of. War. What a terrible thing to be caught in. He did not want to repeat that experience Gods help him. "Alec is a smart boy, there is no way that he is not feeling guilty about this whole thing. He has never been compromised like this before."

His brother groaned and rolled his eyes. "We have also never dealt with a motherfucker who can literally change peoples memories, destroy them, as well as return someone to a blank slate of a person. We may be fighting a war against one man from now on, as much as I would hate that. The entire vampire community should be notified of this threat."

Aro would not agree with this. Transparency within their Coven is one thing, but the man had never allowed for his Coven to be seen as weak. That would not be his style.

Despite the fact that they were in a disaster, Caius was calmer than he'd been in the hours prior, simply allowing his mind to go to the best case scenario.

"We can't be in a war when we have too much to lose," Marcus seethed, still feeling too upset to deal with all of this. How many times would they let this matter go? Let this man get away with things instead of tackling the issue head on? Marcus never wanted to be a solider, but he would do anything to protect his family. "I have too much to lose this time around."

"This is not an entire Coven, Marcus, this is one man. One man who fucking sucks but nevertheless. We take him on as a Coven and he will not be able to fight back. It is that fucking simple." Caius had an air of denial around him at all times, but now it was thick with his own arrogance.

"You have no idea how bad things will get," Marcus reminded him. "We need a better plan. We can't be starting a war when our mate is not trained in fighting styles or how to combat gifts like this mans."

Caius let out an annoyed grunt. "I will never make her fight him. Not after what he has done to her."

"Yet you are the one insisting that we start a war over him instead of starting an assassination."

"They are one in the same, Marcus." Caius threw his hands up and commented, "You may not be willing to admit the truth of it now, but when our mate is in danger you may yet have to come to accept this truth as what it is. This man is a great threat to our Coven. Alec may be able to show Aro exactly how the manipulation was done, since he was not rendered a new person from this experience."

Alec was a boy, something that Aro nor Caius ever seemed to take into consideration. Not when he was turned, not when he served. He has always been a boy. A child that still needed a parent to guide them.

Age does little to a vampire so young. It took him hundreds of years to master his gift due to his trauma.

In this way he was glad that River was a full grown adult woman when she'd been turned. In her mid twenties, she had the development to be able to manage anything that life threw at her, despite her horrible experience with this man during some part of it. She'd been able to adapt in ways many who are turned younger can't. In ways Jane and Alec will never be able to.

In ways Caius himself couldn't do. He'd been turned at twenty one. Aro was turned at freshly nineteen. Marcus was physically the oldest at twenty four.

Why did there have to be this kind of maturity difference in their Coven that could never be shaken from existence?

"When Aro gets here, he will help us make this decision," Marcus says, completely noncommittal.