We wait there, barely daring to breathe. Alec is around the corner, we'd agreed that we would introduce him after we'd explained. Then we heard a car turn into the drive, I squeeze Edward's arm, so hard that if he were human I would've cut off his blood circulation. Then the car stops in front of the house and Edward walks to the door. I follow him, purely because its physically painful to be away from him. I could tell he felt the same way, because he grabbed my hand immediately. "Edward!" Tanya exclaimed "How are you?!" She hugged him and I dropped his hand momentarily, "Hi Bella! Hey Edward!" Kate says hugging us, Tanya nods at me, that was going to take some getting used to "Bella!" Carmen hugs me, followed by Eleazar "Good to meet you." I say to him "Likewise." He smiles and I smile back "Hi Edward, Hi Bella, Its lovely to meet you." Irina says, shaking my hand "You too." I reply "May we come in?" Tanya asks "Of course." Edward replies, grabbing my hand and leading us through to the main room.
"Carlisle said he was going to Europe, and that you are all in grave danger." Kate explains "Yes." I answer "My father was changed a few weeks ago, by one of us accidentally. He's not happy about it, and he's trying his best to be the opposite of us. Starting with his hunting habits. He killed fifteen people last week. One of them being one of my closest friends. Anyway, the point is he's not keeping the secrete, and the Volturi think he's one of us. And they're coming, when the snow sticks to the ground. We want you to meet someone, please be open minded, once you hear their story you'll understand but please don't freak out." Edward put his arm around my waist, holding me tightly -possibly needing the support- "You okay?" I think "Getting there." "I'm here." "I know, I love you." "Love you too." "Whats going on with you two?" Eleazar asks "We'll explain later, please be open minded. its important. You have to trust us." "Of course." Tanya answers.
"Alec?" I call, they all gasp and back against the wall "Edward!" Tanya shouts "Have you gone insane?!" Irina and Kate hiss and Eleazar forms a protective crouch in front of Carmen, who looks curious. She steps in front of him "Edward says you have a story." She tells Alec "Tell us." She looks around at her family "Or just me." She laughs quietly "Calm down, his eyes are gold. He can't be that bad, come on" She sits down and Alec starts describing what happened to him, he explains about the others as well. "Oh I'm so sorry I ever judged you!" Carmen hugs him and encourages the others to do the same. She see's the best in everyone. "Olivia's back." Edward tells us, Alec freezes. "I-is did she um did she b-bring um-" He stutters "Yes." Edward answers. Alec takes a deep breathe and walks outside.
"Alec!!" His Mom shouts and runs over to him, she hugs him tightly "Olivia told me everything, I'm so sorry!" "Mom don't be. Is William dead?" He asks "No, we thought you'd like to be there." Jane answers "Why thank you." Alec laughs "He's mine." Olivia growls, revealing herself from the trees. She had Williams arms pinned behind his back. "Alec, have you got a lighter?" She asks, he nods and throws her one. I can tell Jane is about to use her power on him but Olivia stops her "Don't. He's not worth it." "But he deserves it." "I know. But he doesn't deserve your time." She threw him to his knees and snapped his head off, then set fire to his body. "Bonfire!!" Alec shouts, they all laugh. "God, I wish we could still have marshmallows." Jane says "Actually, I froze some animal blood in a cup. I thought we could melt it." Olivia tells them "Animal blood?" Lara asks "Yeah, we don't drink humans. Leopards my favourite." "Nah, Panthers the best." I say walking down the steps "Mountain Lion by far." Edward replies "Lets just say we have our preferences." I laugh "Hi I'm Bella." I say shaking Lara's hand "Hello Bella, I'm Lara, their mother." "This is Edward, my husband." I explain, gesturing to Edward "Hello Edward." they shake hands "I've heard a lot about you, its great to finally meet you." He says "These are my cousins, Eleazar, Carmen, Irina, Kate and Tanya. The rest of my family and hopefully more will be back in a few days. I assume Olivia and Jane have told you whats going on?"
"No they said, they'd explain when we got here. How many people are in your Coven?" She asks "We like to think of ourselves as more of a family but there are seventeen of us that live together, Eleazar, Carmen, Irina, Kate and Tanya live in Denali." "Se-seventeen?" Lara asks "Yeah." I answer "But how? Don't argue? Try to kill each other?" She continues in disbelief "Come in, we'll explain everything." I say. We all go inside and explain our family and our diet and any other questions Lara can think of. "Carlisle and Esme have sent someone, so have Demetri and Felix, they'll be here in a few hours." "What about Alice?" "Oh yeah she's sent someone too." "Bree, Diego and Fred?" "Not yet." "Renee?" "She's talking to Harry right now." "hey! We should visit Nando!" "Good idea." "Okay what is going on with you too?" Eleazar asks staring at us in frustration "I'm a block so I can read Edwards mind." I explain "So I read his mind then lift my shield so he can read mine. Its how we communicate sometimes." "A block? I've never heard of that." Eleazar says, curious, he leans towards me involuntarily "Yes, any powers that affect the mind that are used against me I reflect back." "Incredible." He whispers "We have more people coming." Edward tells us "Are you asking us to fight with you?" Tanya asks, looking at Edward. It made me uncomfortable the way she looked at him.
"No. We just wanted to tell you. We have many gifts in our coven, and there's a lot of us. We're hoping to make a dent in the Volturi guard, at least. We wanted to give you the opportunity to stand against the Volturi. Considering our chance at winning." I answer. Looking at Tanya, she's leaning towards Edward, and keeps getting closer. I clear my throat and she backs off immediately "Did you not see her three inches from your face?" I growl in my head "Yes, I wanted to see your reaction." I elbow him in the ribs, then cuddle up to him and rest my head on his shoulder, partly to make a point, but also because I wanted to. Okay mostly to make a point. "I need to hunt." Tanya whispers, and her and Kate leave.
The next few days consist of welcoming guests, explaining and then repeat. "Alice! Jasper!" I shout running onto the lawn and hugging them when they return "I missed you so much!" Alice kisses me on the cheek and says "I missed you too!" I let them go. "How's it going here?" Jasper asks "Great." I reply "Has there been any fighting?" "Once." I say guiltily "Who?" "Me and Tanya." If they could, my cheeks would be burning. "What happened?" Emmett asks, coming through the trees "Emmett! Rose! Carlisle! Esme!" I run up to them and hug them "I hear there was a fight." Esme raises her eyebrows "Yes. Tanya tried to kiss Edward. I got protective blah, blah, blah. Anyway, how are you guys?" we start walking towards the house (which is full with vampires and a few wolves in human form) just as we get there Alice and Rosalie pull me back "What happened?" Rose asks "Cottage." I say and we run there. "Well?" Rosalie raises her eyebrows "Ever since they got here Tanya's been trying to get close to Edward. A few days ago she lent towards him and got really close, I cleared my throat and she backed away. But even after that she's been hugging him at every opportunity, and asking to hunt with just him. He's been pushing her away but it doesn't stop her. Then the other day I was hunting with Jane, Olivia and Carmen and when I got back she'd backed Edward up against a wall and was trying to kiss him. He literally had no escape. I pushed her off and we started fighting." I explain, but I start vampire-crying. "Does she really think he cares that little about me? What if something actually happened on one of their hunting trips? Does she think I'm not good enough or something?" "Shh Bella. You need to talk to Edward, he's probably oblivious to be honest." Rosalie tries to reassure me "She tried to kiss him! I don't think he's that oblivious!" "Bella?" Edwards voice fills the room, and I can't help but vampire-cry.
"Shh shh what's wrong love? I'm here." He pulls me against him and I see Alice and Rose leave quietly. "Is this about Tanya?" He asks, guiding me to the couch, I nod. "I told her to back off. At first I thought she was just worried or wanted to talk to me about something. She hid her thoughts well. And then she kept hugging me, I thought it was just that she hadn't seen me in a while. But then she tried to kiss me. I had no escape, she'd timed it perfectly. Almost everyone was out, Kate was furious by the way, everyone was. Tanya's staying a hotel with Irina for now. She'll come back a few days before the snow sticks to the ground." I snuggle closer to him "I'm sorry I ripped her hand off, that was mean." I apologise "You were completely within your right to, don't tell Carlisle though." He winks at me "And I'm sorry I didn't see what she was doing sooner, I was just so caught up in everything. I didn't realise how uncomfortable she was making you." He continued, he didn't have to apologise though, he was already forgiven. "Hey you don't have to apologise for anything. Anyway, I've been so stressed I didn't notice, how many people came?" "So there's the seventeen of us, then Benjamin, Tia, Garrett, Nahuel, Safrina, Kachiri, Senna, the Denali's, Peter, Charlotte, Maggie, Liam, Sioban, Alistair, Amun, Kebi, Valdamir, Stefan, the wolves, Lara, so around thirty nine in total. And they all want to see the Volturi fall." "Anything from Charlie?" I ask, he shakes his head.