Frau des Winters *Under Editing*

1.8

Charlotte woke up practically buzzing with excitment. Her eyes bright as she  threw on an outfit for the day. She had hardly slept a wink last night, far to excited to once again be at the Cullen home. She had promised Esme she would come back today to clean... And she wanted to see them again. Marcus, Aro and Caius. The three men had weaved their way into her head and heart. She felt like a princess around them. Though... There was a bit of doubt in her. As she applied her blush she frowned slightly. What kind of woman was this attracted to three men? Three brothers none the less! She felt shameful... But also happy. Something seemed just right about it. She couldn't seem to put her finger on it. Couldn't really find it in herself to question it though. She felt like she had seen them before somewhere. Like she knew something about them. She couldn't put her finger on it. 

"Charlotte! Edward is here to pick up you and Bella!" Charlie yelled from downstairs where he eyed the Cullen boy warily.

"Coming!" Charlotte yelled back as she slid on a pair of tennis shoes and her leather jacket.

Hurrying out of her room she stopped to press a kiss to a photo of her family on the wall. As she walked down the stairs she felt as something was suddenly wrong. That someone was near. Someone that shouldn't be there. She froze on the steps and took a second to calm herself. What was this feeling? This dread in her bones? Charlotte had been taught to always follow her gut and her gut told her that something was going to happen. Something bad. 

At the same time, Edward was eyeing the woods. He could hear something. Someone. But he couldn't make out who it was. There was something clouding his gift. But the mind reader didn't think much of it. Only assuming that it was one of the many Queen's Guard members messing with him. He knew little to nothing about a few of them and was sure they were behind this feeling. 

Shaking her head to rid herself of these thoughts she kissed her uncle's cheek and greeted Edward who seemed slightly distracted.

"Good morning, Edward. Bella." Charlotte smiled as she saw the loving look on Bella's face as she gazed up at Edward.

Edward smiled back and nodded his head in greeting, "Good morning, Charlotte. Are you ready?"

"That depends on how bad the mess is." Charlotte chuckled and waved goodbye to Ms. Carlos who was sitting on her porch.

"It is... manageable." Edward grimaced at the reminder of how horrible the human teenagers had treated Esme's house. It had taken everything in Carlisle to keep Esme from cleaning it all. It would have been impossible for normal humans to clean it all up and with charlotte coming to help there had to be at least something to clean. 

"That bad, huh?" Charlotte cringed and slid into Edward's back seat.

Charlotte noticed that Bella had said anything this morning and had a rather distracted look on her face as she stared into the woods. Charlotte tilted her head in confusion and followed Bella's gaze. Her blue eyes widened when she saw what looked like a bear in the woods across from her home. It stepped out of view almost as soon as she had seen it, but she was sure it was bear. Could that have been what the feeling of dread was? She pulled her phone out of her pocket and texted her dad to warn him and Ms. Carlos about the animal. Her phone dinged back moments later with a thumbs up and she saw Charlie step out onto the porch and start yelling over to Ms. Carlos. As they pulled out of the driveway she snickered when the old woman flipped off Charlie and stormed back into her house, slamming the door. The drive to the Cullen home was quiet mostly, Bella choosing to remain silent and biting her lip in thought, Edward speaking softly to Charlotte about how she had slept and such.

Charlotte gasped as they pulled up to the house and she saw Esme frantically scurrying around with a garbage bag in her hands. The car had barely stopped moving when Charlotte jumped out to help.

"Esme!"

Said woman looked up and let out a sound of relief when she saw her future Queen. Now that she was here she could finally start working on getting her home back in order.

"Charlotte! Good morning!" Esme smiled warmly and welcomed her with a hug which Charlotte happily returned. The two had held quite a few conversations since their return to Forks, starting a true friendship. If you took away Esme's vampire years the two were much closer in age than Charlotte and Bella were.

"Oh, Esme! This is horrible!" Charlotte started looking around and making noises of disgust. Rage filling her at how the Cullen's home had been treated after they opened their doors.

"Oh, no, no. It's okay. It has been much worse. You should have seen Emmett, Rose and Jasper's graduation party. And it was just family for that one!" Esme sighed and cast a dark eye towards the mentioned Emmett who was trying to sneak away from cleaning duty, "Emmett McCarty Cullen! You get over here and help clean this up right now!"

"Oh, come on!" Emmett groaned and marched back towards the house with his head hung in defeat.

Esme stood straight and brushed a few strands of hair out of her face before turning back to Charlotte, "I am going to have Edward, Bella, and Jasper clean out here. Would you mind helping out in the back yard?"

"Of course not! Anything you need!" Charlotte smiled and made her way towards the house.

"Trash bags are in the kitchen on the island!" Esme called after her and passed a bag to Edward.

"Okay!" Charlotte called back and waved to Jasper as they passed each other on the stairs. 

The southern vampire tilting his head in greeting, "Mornin' Miss Charlotte."

"Good morning, Jasper." she greeted back and opened the front door. 

She immediately growled at the mess and shook her head. She would be talking to Bella's friends about this. Grabbing a trash bag off the island and heading for the back door she didn't hear someone come up behind her until a voice spoke.

"Charlotte."

The sound of the smooth accent had the hair on the back of her neck sticking up and her heart skipped a beat. Biting down on her lip and trying to control the blush that threatened to crawl across her face she finally turned around.

"Good morning, Aro." 

The sound of Edward's car finally pulling up had the Kings each let out a moan of relief. The three of them had spent the night watching over Charlotte's house and had been rather impatient to see her again. Well, Caius was the most impatient. After Charlotte had left for the night he had gotten quite the earful from Marcus and a good smack to the back of the head from Aro. He might have milked the idea he had had an intimate moment with their mate to much. It certainly had amused him a great deal though. Especially since Marcus had hissed at the fact that Aro got to see their interaction in his memories and he didn't. And it was also amusing when they noticed the brotherly look on the wolf's face. Aro had told them of how he wanted to give them a good lashing, but knew better than to try. They had to give it to him though, the wolf was dedicated to his imprint. Aro had also assured them that he had no doubt in his mind that the wolf would not be a threat to their relationship. The wolf had found his mate and it wasn't their Queen. Though now they had the problem of figuring out how to deal with a wolf and a vampire relationship. That sure would be quite the challenge.

Hearing her enter the house Aro took it upon himself to be the first to greet her. He slid in through a window so as not to be seen and hissed when Caius compared him to Edward, sneaking in through windows to watch his mate. He straightened his button up shirt and licked his lips when his mate came into view. Every time he saw her he felt the bond roar to touch her. But he had sworn not to touch her again until she knew and gave him permission to do so. He already had violated her privacy once in order to save her life. Red eyes gazed over her figure from behind and he had to force himself from admiring her legs in order to try and remain.... respectful. She had yet to realize he was behind her so he took a small moment to take in her beautiful scent before he said that heavenly sounding name.

"Charlotte."

Aro smirked when he heard the blood rush to her cheeks and her heart beat skip at the sound of his voice. He clenched a fist behind his back when the faint scent of her arousal hit the air. Once she turned to him he had to refrain from taking her into his arms. Especially once she said his name.

"Good morning, Aro."