“You do know the whole rescue squad is here for you don’t you?” James mentioned off-handedly as he started lacing up his shoes, stopping me mid dressing to blush fiercely about what we had just done, where we had done it and now people were waiting for me! My husband was waiting for me and my soulmate! Oh my God this was my soulmate’s bedroom and I’d just made love to my (vampire) soulmate in his bed! I really was the lowest of the low.
I pushed my top over my head abruptly and James frowned over at me until the confusion on his face turned to understanding and then sympathy. He crossed over the room to pull me into his arms and I nestled my head into the crook of his neck, hiding my face there. “You’re not a bad person my love. You’re still just a confused teenager who became pregnant too early and has to deal with changing and choosing who you want to spend the rest of you eternally long life with. It’s a big decision that isn’t made easy with your condition because you have two people to look after now, well three with Riley,” I chuckled and he moved his shoulder back enough to gently grasp my chin to face him, “and I know that you would have stayed with whoever the father of your baby was no matter what. No one blames you though for trying to decide for yourself who you want to be with. Any one of us would be happy to be that baby’s father but there’s only one of us who will make you happy and that is who you have to choose.” He was asking me to choose between three amazing men and whoever I chose I would spend the rest of my life with them, if not for the baby then just because I would not put the other two through the heartache of being this indecisive again, but this was a huge decision to make! “I’ll be proud of you whoever you choose and I will always be there to support you and the baby,if not as the father then as the uncle and friend. So don’t base your decision on being afraid to lose me because you never will.”
The sincerity in his words made tears well up in my eyes to the point where I was trying to blink them back. Alexander and Darren were handsome, charming and pretty much amazing in every way but neither of them would be that selfless and I don’t think I could live without James in my life... as a permanent part of my life because the other two men were amazing but they just weren’t- James. That was what I was missing from my life. James. I loved him. Completely and wholly loved him with all of my heart. I burst out laughing startling James but I didn’t care because this realisation made me feel like a Goddess. I wrapped my arms around him and murmured softly, “I choose you James, in sickness and in health till death do us part. I love you.”
He cleared his throat and held me at arms length so he could inspect my face closer but he probably could see much through the broad smile taking over the whole thing. “Could you repeat it so that I know I heard you right?” He sounded choked up and it only just occurred to me that through all his bravado, James was just as scared of losing me to another man as I was to losing him as my husband and more importantly as my friend. “I love you James and I choose you for now and forever.” His lips came crashing down onto mine in the next instant and at that point in time I didn’t have a care in the world because we were just two people in love who were having a baby together and who were about to spend the rest of their lives together.
“You have made me the happiest man in the world Rosabella Jamerson.” He beamed at me but I frowned at him because that no longer sounded right, but I knew how to make it right.
“I believe you should start addressing me like everyone else will have to-” He held his breath, “Mrs Rosabella Peterson.”
“Not double-barreling your name then?” He laughed.
“That would sound ridiculous! Rosabella Jamerson-Peterson? It’s one or the other so if you want me to keep my old name-”
“Double-barreling was a stupid idea Mrs Peterson.”
“I thought so too Mr Peterson.” I couldn’t possible be any happier which was when James dropped down onto one knee and produced a small velvet box from his recently donned jacket.
“Well I’m going to do this properly then.” My breath hitched in my throat because, through all of this time and the men’s claims to be my husband’s/soulmates, none of them had bought me a wedding ring, or a ring of any sort, in fact no jewelry or gifts whatsoever for me or the baby. He opened the box to reveal a stunning Rose Gold simple band ring that was engraved around the band with what looked like flower stems that ended with small diamonds at the end of each one. The overall effect was breathtaking in it’s delicacy, beauty and simplicity.
“James-” I whispered and couldn’t take my eyes off of the ring that was one dreams were made of.
“The reason it isn’t gold is because it is amber which means you are truly spoken for, for now and forever, so here I go. Rosabella Peterson, will you officially accept me as your husband for better or for worse, in sickness and in health till death do us part?”
“I’ll even follow you into death my love.” I whispered as a tear rolled down my cheek but he heard me loud and clear but I wanted to emphasize my point by clarifying, “Yes! I will marry you... Officially.” He placed the ring on my finger and the colour of the ring blended in with my naturally tanned skin but emphasized the beautiful engraving and diamonds.
“Now that’s a ring.” The foreign voice in the room startled me until I realised who it was.
“Mother? Mother!” I squealed and ran into her waiting arms. “I missed you so much but I couldn’t find you after I met my father.”
“Does this mean I will finally be invited to a wedding of my only daughters’?” I winced at the accusatory tone in her voice but nodded, my excitement compensating for the berating. “I’m so happy for you baby! You chose the right one.”
I looked up, startled at my mother’s knowing tone and she smiled down at me with a pleased smile on her face. “You approve of James?”
“Are you kidding me? James is the one who protected me against the threat of Alexander’s attack instead of trying to win your hand like he should have been doing. A man that selfless certainly deserves the hand of my daughter over the other two suitors vying for your affection.” Her smile turned inward as she stroked a hand over my now large baby bump and then looked over my shoulder towards James, then back to me and my now adorned hand. “My little baby is all grown up and I couldn’t be happier about how you turned out.” She stroked my cheek gently and motherly making me tear up again thinking of how at home I felt with her near me.
“I love you mum.” I hugged her the best I could with my baby bump and she laughed as she could feel the baby kick on her stomach.
“You’re going to be a great mother Rose, because you will do anything to protect that child, even risking yourself for her.”
“Nothing less than you would do for me. If I was half the woman you are or even half the mother you are to my baby girl then I would be happy.”
She laughed her soft melodic laugh. “You are so much more my little one and never forget that I love you.” She hugged me again and I officially couldn’t feel any happier which is when we broke apart laughing at the sound of Nick and Riley bickering like the old married couple they already were.
“We should go Rose.” James said from behind me and laid a careful hand on my shoulder.
My mother sighed and moved aside so that we could all walk through the door before shouting over her shoulder, “I hope you two love birds know that I am way too young to be a grandmother though!” I rolled my eyes at her and as we got to the stairs Riley and James met us there, still scowling at each other.
“Dare I ask?” I joked to Riley who shot another scowl Nick’s way, which he responded to by giving her the finger before talking to James.
“He threw poor Ben out of the room just because we were talking together and scared the poor kid so much he practically ran off crying which Nick then proceeded to laugh at, then he wondered why I would possibly be mad at him!”
“Ben...?” I said cautiously, not wanting to cause another argument but even saying his name softly made Nick now scowl over at the both of us.
“The young pup who I’ve been out running with and have been hanging out with while you’ve been taking care of your adopted daughter,” that earned a quizzical glance off of James that promised we’d be speaking more about that soon but I frowned at Riley still slightly unsure which pup she spoke of until she sighed dramatically and expanded, “the one you scared half to death the first time he had to watch over us by practically threatening to rip his throat out if he came near us or Annabeth.” Nick was now beaming at me at the mention of me scaring the young pup and I rolled my eyes at both him and Riley, they would get over this soon enough just like they got over everything else because that’s just what they did.
“I’m sorry? Adopted which child exactly?” James cut in and my mother was even listening to this one as we were walking down what seemed like the longest staircase in history! I cleared my throat unsure how to put this when Riley did it for me.
“Annabeth is a half-vamp, half-were child who’s parents were both murdered but when she saw Rose in a killing spree she took a shining to her and Rose has looked after the little one ever since and promised to basically adopt her. The only thing is that Darren has already taken the role of her father.” It felt like I hadn’t even spoken! Oh wait, I hadn’t. I dared a glance around the group to see shocked faces until I finally turned to James who was- beaming at me?
“So can I be a father figure in this little girls life too? I could be a step father who gets to sleep with the mother whenever he wants.” I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help smiling. “So it doesn’t bother you that she is half vampire and half werewolf?” I asked skeptically because I did fully intend to be there for Annabeth as a mother figure for as long as she needed me to be.
“Not at all because then she’ll have double the strength but none of the awful smell of werewolves!” I punched him in the stomach for that comment but we all fell silent when we reached the bottom of the stairs and realised there was no other sound coming from the cavernous house, which was extremely unusual.
Nick and James pushed us to the back which annoyed me but then, to make it worse, my mother and Riley pushed me behind them! “Baby.” They all stated together when I was about to say something about being at the back which had me shutting my mouth and just glaring at their backs instead. I was fully capable of fighting and looking after me and my baby.
The men walked up to the door with us following and slowly opened the door to reveal an obvious divide in the camp between vampire hating werewolves, Darren’s werewolves and finally vampires. They were all growling at each other ready to pounce when the door squeaked as it shut behind the five of us, drawing all attention our way and making all sound stop until the werewolf who I had reprimanded in the field a few weeks ago snarled at me. I clearly had that effect on people. “She’s the reason for all this! Well that and an alpha who’s too weak to even have a werewolf as his soulmate!” Darren’s werewolves growled at the slanderous comment to their pack master but Darren stood at the front of them and didn’t say anything which is when I realised why, little Annabeth was stood directly behind his leg and if he angered them then it could endanger her as well.
I followed suit and kept my mouth shut to try and avoid the confrontation that was going to happen anyway. “He’s not a real alpha anyway because he wouldn’t even mate with me when she came here.” One of the bitches snarled and I laughed at her.
“Darling, just because Darren didn’t want to dip his toes into your sleazy pond does not mean he’s less of an alpha, it just means he has taste.” I hissed before my brain had even caught up with my mouth and clearly the truth hurts in her case as her mouth started growing and her bones started snapping before morphing into a hairy wolf, but the process was almost unwatchable in it’s intimacy. That was when others started to follow suit but as I braced myself to fight I was swept off of my feet and within seconds was placed behind a large barrel at the far edge of the fight so that I was close enough to see but not close enough to be seen or harmed.
I looked to James who had carried me here but before I could say anything he placed his hand on my stomach and looked into my eyes. “I could not live with myself if anything happened to you and I don’t think you could live with yourself if anything happened to our baby.” Our baby, not your baby. The idea of James classing the baby as his no matter what had tears springing to my eyes again and I nodded my understanding of staying here but before he could leave I grabbed his wrist. “Look after my mother because she’s not strong enough to fight by herself.” He nodded and tried to leave again but I pulled him back once more. “I couldn’t live without you either James.” He kissed me fiercely before smiling and running off into the now ongoing battle between the werewolves with vampires in the middle of it. With all the people I loved in the middle of it, but where was Annabeth?
I started glancing around the, now already gory, battlefield and started spotting my loved ones fighting. The first two I noticed was Alex and my father working in unison to tackle a couple of changed werewolves and a couple of still human werewolves who were trying to surround them, and yet all they did was laugh as they swatted each of them away one by one. Satisfied that they had everything covered I moved my glance over to where Riley and Nick were so in sync that it was almost beautiful to watch as they felled one werewolf after another with the ‘nice’ werewolves backing them up including Ben, who was surprisingly strong for his size while still in human form.
Next I saw my mother with knife in hand for extra help, not that she used it with James killing anyone who came within ten foot of her and it was safe to say seeing James in action was little short of amazing... and hot! His movements were graceful whilst being extremely lethal which had my heart racing faster. He was utterly ruthless, displaying the warrior he has been for over one hundred years which was easy to forget when you saw the easy going exterior containing the grim reaper himself. Every blow was efficient and effective, delivering death within seconds whether it was to break a neck or even to rip the heart out of a wolf and as he glanced around for the next closest wolf to him I saw the sheer determination on his face to win this fight and to make sure he protected my mother and it seemed like nothing could distract him from his task, which could not be said for Darren when my heart leapt into my throat at seeing him being silently surrounded by a group of wolves who definitely were not on his side.
My dream forced it’s way back into my head and I began to watch it play out just the way it did every night I saw it, only this time it wasn’t a dream and if Darren died now he would never come back every morning to reassure me it was just a nightmare. He was too busy holding off two wolves to try and get to Annabeth, who was trapped behind wolves fighting, to even notice the man shouting at him earlier coming up behind him with that all too familiar stake from my dream. I couldn’t watch that happen no matter what I’d silently promised James, so it was time to stop hiding but as soon I stepped out from behind my cover that same wolf with the stake turned to me with an evil smile on his face as he moved forward to Darren, intending me to watch Darren die as if there was nothing I could do to stop it. He clearly didn’t know the true speed of a ticked off vampire, which he soon learnt as I started at a flat out run, dodging everyone with ease as if they were going in slow motion. I had his throat clenched in my hand in the next second and hissed into his face as I used my other hand to pluck the stake out of his.
“You should have sided with the vampires and then you might have lived longer.” I laughed and plunged the stake into his heart just as I sunk my teeth into his neck, making him cry out until his heart stopped beating as I drained the rest of his blood. I dropped his body but kept hold of the stake as I looked at the other shewolf who’s toes I’d clearly stepped on earlier. Her change back to a human was more graceful than the change to a wolf but if did leave her naked for all to see.
“He was my lover you bitch!” She snarled and I shrugged, not about to get into the nitty gritty details of her moaning about not being able to sleep with Darren earlier on, which was why she was initially angry with me and now she was angry at me about this, I’m starting to think she was just angry at me because she didn’t like me!
She took a step towards me but I heard Darren yell “Annabeth!” so I decided to make this short and to the point as I plunged my hand into her chest and pulled her beating heart from it. “I didn’t like you either.” I said as I dropped her heart onto her body as she fell to the body which is when I looked over Darren’s shoulder to see Annabeth having a wolf circle her as she held her ground and hissed as him making me prouder than ever that when in fight she assumed her vampire side.
I kept my eyes on her as I walked slowly across the ground littered with dead bodies until I reached Annabeth’s side. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes because, when you set all her bravado aside, she was still a five year old girl. “Mummy?” She asked me and my heart swelled as she held her arms up for me to pick her up because she saw me as her mother. I lifted her up just as the wolf moved forward to bite her, which earned it a kick in the side hard enough to break bones and send it into a tree over a mile away.
She hugged me so tightly that I thought she might never let go. “It’s ok baby, mummy’s got you and she’ll always look after you when you need her.” I whispered in her ear and saw Darren walking over to me with a relieved look on his face to see Annabeth unharmed which is when I realised the battle was pretty much won and James was making his way over to me just as quickly and then everything seemed to happen in slow motion as a werewolf sprung up from the ground right in front of my mother, who was smiling over at me and plunged the stake right into her heart.
My heart stopped as time completely stopped when what had happened registered with everyone, when it registered with me. I handed off Annabeth to Darren and ran over to my mother screaming with tears streaming down my face. This couldn’t be happening! She had to be ok because she was my mum! In none of my past lives had I had to see her die and I didn’t want to see her leave me in this one. I reached her just as her knees gave way on her, the wolf had long since run off so it was just me and my mum, like it always had been. I slumped onto my knees and cradled my mum on my lap, supporting her head as she smiled up at me with pride in her eyes. “I could not have asked for a better daughter, did I ever tell you that?” She slowly lifted her hand to my cheek and stroked it with some effort but I grabbed it and held it to my face, never wanting to let it go.
“You’re going to be fine mum, so you don’t need to tell me now.” A tear dripped onto her face and I gently wiped it away only to have it joined by one of her own.
“I am so proud of you Rose. You’ve grown into an amazing woman and will be a great mother. I’m just sorry I won’t be there for your wedding or to meet my granddaughter, but I know you’ll always be there for her. Don’t forget to tell her about me.”
“I’ll never forget to tell her just as I won’t forget about you, but can’t you tell her yourself? Please don’t give up mum, who’ll look after me like you? I need a mum too God damn it!” The tears were freely flowing now as I felt my heart breaking into a million pieces as I could feel my mother growing weaker in my arms by the second. I couldn’t lose my mum!
“You chose well with James Rose so don’t blame him for this, don’t punish yourself like that.” Her breath hitched and her eyes started to shut.
“Mum? Mum!” I screamed and gently shook her shoulders and thankfully her eyes opened a bit to look at me again.
“I love you, my baby and I’ll always be with you in here,” she tapped my heart, “and I’ll always be watching over you whether you realise it or not, I’ll also be watching over all of your family for the rest of their lives and I’ll one day see you on the other side.”
“I love you too mum-”
“I’ve always known that...” She exhaled and with that I knew that her life had gone with it. My heart clenched and I screamed until my throat was raw.