Disclaimer. All publicly recognizable characters, settings etc., are the property of their respective owners. The original characters, ideas and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. I only do this for fun.

The Heart's Desire

A/N: This story is written as a collaboration by both Xo BellaItalia oX and DeathQueen26. We hope that you enjoy the story and look forward to reading your reviews. Also, credit goes to WhiteWolfLegend for her awesome photo manipulation that I used for my cover!

NEWS: If you go to my Wattpad page – where I have also posted most of my stories, including this one – you will see that I have posted PICTURES of a scene from each chapter inside of the story with the posted chapter! So, take a look and tell me what you think! There are even Jasper Romance pics of him with Bella! The user name (penname) is the same as this one so it won't be hard to find. Or you can click on the link on my profile! - Bella'Xo

Summary

Princess Isabella Maria Volturi of the East discovers that Prince Jasper Andrew Whitlock of the West is her intended mate and heir to the Western Throne. Their families arrange their marriage, but trouble is brewing from old enemies resulting in an all out war, bringing about a fight for their lives. Witness the journey Bella and Jasper go through together involving mystery, adventure, jealousy, revenge, love, and action. Jasper/Bella Alice/Edward Rosalie/Emmett Carlisle/Esme

Prologue
(Bella's POV)

I sat in my bedroom, sitting on my windowsill and staring out the window, deep in thought about the on goings in my life. My name is Isabella Maria Volturi and I am the crowned Princess of the East. I am also a vampire.

There are three brothers from my family that rule as Kings. Their names are Aro, Caius, and my father Marcus Volturi. My uncle Aro is mated to a vampire named Sulpicia, and they have a son together, who is named Riley. He is the oldest of us royal 'children'.

My uncle Caius is mated to Athenodora, and they have two sons named Charles and Alistair. Charles is the only one of us that has found his mate, his other half. Her name is Makenna. However, since we do not crown any vampire without having a royal birth (who has been born into the royal family), she is only introduced as his mate.

My father, Marcus, is mated my Mother, Didyme. She is the only one of the three who are mated to the kings that is a true queen, having been born into royalty rather than being mated into it. She is Aro's younger sister.

I am sure that this may not make much sense to you since Aro, Caius and Marcus are considered brothers, however, they were not born this way. In fact, very few vampires are 'born' at all.

Let me tell you a story…

There were three good friends who were changed into a vampire by the same man called Vladimir. He and his brother, Stefan, were once a part of the twelve Romanian vampires who governed the whole vampire race for a thousand years, before the revolution had taken place and the two kingdoms had become divided. They were heartless group who lived brazenly and decadently. For thousands of miles in every direction, they were known and feared. They ruled over humans and vampires alike, demanding slave labor and copious amounts of human sacrifice. Occasionally humans would create armies to try to overthrow what they considered to be beautiful demonic overlords, but all such attacks were futile, resulting in an easy feast for the Romanians. Obedient humans were spared death, if not labor, and a few lucky individuals pleased the Romanian's enough to earn immortality. During this time, vampires were a well-known fact in the human world, and the contention that vampires should conceal their existence was scoffed at.

The Romanian's had created my father and uncles to be a part of their guard, and had become close over the years, considering each other to be brothers since they were all fledglings of the same creator, as well as brothers in arms. Caius was the youngest of the three, having been changed at 24, and Marcus at 25.

My mother was only two at the time that Aro had been changed at the age of 26, but he had been keeping an eye on her over the years, trying to keep her safe, if only from a distance. However, when the Romanian's learned about this when my mother was twenty, they ordered her to the castle in Romania and ordered her to be destroyed. They believed that she would pose a danger to our kind and locked her away in the dungeon to be executed by sunrise.

But Aro could not let this happen. He had planned to sneak into the dungeon in the middle of the night and run away from the castle with her in tow. He believed that he had the upper hand considering the fact that the Romanian's were not intending to tell Aro of their capture or the executing until it was taking place and would have no way to interfere. Lucky for him, Aro saw the guards kidnap Didyme and saw her confrontation with the two kings.

Catching him before he could put his plan into action, Caius and Marcus agreed to help and leave with them, insisting that he could not to this alone.

When they successfully made it inside of my mother's cage, Marcus had gotten his first full look at my mother and knew that she was his mate. His gift, as well as his heart had told him so.

They made is successfully out of the castle and ran to Italy where they had begun to create their rebel forces that they called the Volturi. They copied many aspects of the Romanians' way of life - the formation of a permanent guard, the stationary home, and the eschewing of hunting in favor of prey being rounded up and delivered to them. The difference was that they did all of these things while remaining invisible to the humans.

They starting recruiting gifted vampires in fighting and supernatural abilities and began training them. Caius, having been the general in the Romanian guard, was responsible for their combat training, while Marcus would work with them on their gifts, being the only gifted of the three brothers. Aro was responsible for intel, gathering information on the Romanians, as well as the organization of the Volturi as a whole. He was the front man, you could say.

A couple of years went by, and they had created a strong fortress, hidden within the city of Volterra. Aro and Caius found their mates in two human women and had children before changing too them into vampires. However, my parents, try as they might, were not able to conceive. But my mother refused to give up and decided to keep her mortality until she and Marcus had a child of their own.

It was around this time that a golden-eyed vampire named Carlisle Cullen had heard of the rebels and was intrigued, thirsty for knowledge, and went to Volterra in search of the rebel forces.

Upon their meeting, the brothers were intrigued by him, curious about his golden eyes and odd dietary preference. He explained how he only fed from animals, and began to tell them on of transformation. He had once been a pastor's son and had been bitten when they were chasing away a vampire from their town. He had been raised to believe that each human life was precious and refused to drink from a human. After secluding himself in the forest, he had become starved and instinctively attacked a deer before learning that he could survive from animal blood. Though it would not fully satisfy him as human blood would have, it still clenched his thirst and kept him strong.

Another two years passed and my still human mother was twenty five. She was becoming impatient and depressed at their challenges. Then, finally that spring, they discovered that Didyme was finally pregnant. The pregnancy was difficult, but Didyme refused to give up on that child that she and Marcus had wished for for so long. That September, she gave birth to me, Isabella Maria Volturi. It was that very day, due to the difficult labor, that Didyme was changed into an immortal, joining her mate and brother in the supernatural race. It was a miracle in itself that she had survived, thanks to Carlisle's expert in medicine. He had become a doctor about five years after his transformation and had been working in hospitals all over the world.

Another year passed, and before they knew it was time to make their first move against the Romanian government. Their guard was well trained and victory was in their favor. However, it was a delicate matter that could not be concluded with one battle, and after a century-long struggle, the Romanian's were finally defeated, leaving Stefan and Vladimir being the only survivors from the original twelve rulers. The only other survivor was Vladimir's mate, who was later killed during the last of the many attempts the Romanians made during their centuries to regroup, repopulate, and topple the Volturi.

After the defeat of the Romanians, Aro, Marcus, Caius contemplated on how they would govern and lead the vampire race. However, by now, the world's population, both mortal and immortal, was consistently growing in size. It was then that they decided to split the Earth into two hemisphere's and have another trusted vampire rule the West while the three of them ruled over the East. It didn't take them long to decided on Carlisle Cullen being that vampire.

Over the century, the three brothers had become close to Carlisle, practically adopting him into their family. He was intelligent, humane, and trustworthy, the perfect vampire to govern the East. It was decided that my family would rule over the eastern half, which would cover the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. The West consisted of North and South America, along with was decided that Antarctica would be neutral territory, having practically no population and stretching across both east and readily accepted and began to build a coven of his own, but until he was able to acquire a strong guard, the brothers sent several of their soldiers to assist him in creating his headquarters and recruit and train his guard.

As the centuries wore on, the Romanian attempted to take back their throne with no success. Finally, a decade after my father and uncles saved Jane and Alec from being executed as witches at the age of fourteen, the Romanians fought for their last attempt to destroy the Volturi kingdom. They believed that once they gained control of the East, they would have the power to defeat the West and bring the vampire race back to what it once was, and govern them under a single body that ruled over both supernatural and human forces.

The Romanians amassed an army of more than 100 new recruits and were confident that the Volturi would was the first time that the Volturi displayed our powers in battle. Stefan and Vladimir had been planning to spring a trap for the expected Volturi retreat, and so escaped slaughter when their recruits failed. After this, they made no further attempt to create more vampires for their coven, and decided to disappear until they believed that the Volturi weakened or another power presented itself.

Vladimir and Stefan were constantly on the run and on their guard from the Volturi's agents after that, but since the two never posed much of a threat anymore, our efforts are not put at our best.

Throughout that time and shortly after his empire had been built, Carlisle became mated to a woman named Esme. Unfortunately, Carlisle found her near death and had to change her immediately, so they couldn't have any children of their own. It was then that they decided on adopting three children. Two of them were created by Carlisle, himself, except for one.

Jasper is their oldest son at 23 human years, followed by 21 year old Emmett, and finally, Edward being the youngest at 17. Edward became mated to a vampire seer named Alice, and Emmett became the mate to a fledgling of Carlisle's named Rosalie. Jasper is the only one who is not yet mated. I haven't had the chance to meet him yet, because he always seems to be away whenever our families visit.

From what I know about Jasper, he is said to be the most feared vampire known to our kind. He is the head of the Western guard and goes by many names; The Major, the Satan of the South, the Reaper, Ares, the God of War. He was the one responsible for ending the Southern Vampire Wars.

Jasper was in the South for 80 years where he had become the second in command to a viper of a woman named Maria. She had created him when he was a Major in the American Civil War. Together, they conquered all of the Southern Warlords and when there was no one left, he planned to kill her so he could escape her. Unfortunately, she caught wind of his plan and ran before he could execute it. He called the royal guard and they took in all of the newborns, teaching them what it meant to be a true vampire, along with the rules of our world. Carlisle immediately grew very fond of him and took him in as his son and the heir to the throne.

In our world, a female vampire of high standing (anyone in the royal bloodlines or a highly ranked member of the guard) keeps hold of their virginity and only gives it to their mate. Males don't have to abide by this rule, but once they find their intended, must remain loyal. Not that they would want to be unfaithful to begin with - their instincts won't allow it.

A soul mates' bond is said to be the strongest and most unbreakable bond. I happen to know a lot about the different types of bonds from my father, who has the gift of seeing those bonds. Being separated from your mate over a certain time or distance creates a dull throbbing in your chest that only increases the longer or farther apart you are from them, or so I've heard. They instinctively mark each other with a bite to the left side of the neck and fill their mates with their mating venom, changing their scent in the slightest to smell of their mate. Males are always dominant over the females and extremely protective. If ones mate dies, the other is not usually far behind.

It was discovered about 500 years ago that vampires can create children. If the male vampire mates with a human female, a baby is born a hybrid. They are what is called a 'Dhampir'. They age faster than humans and stop aging completely at 21 human years.

I am a Dhampir, along with my cousins. Dhampirs can bear children and choose to become a full vampire. The change only takes half of the amount of time that it takes from changing com a human. But once the female is a full vampire, the ability to have children is forfeited.

I sighed, hearing Jane coming to my door and bringing me from my thoughts. The Cullen's were expected to be spending the month with us to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the Genocidal War. It was a war between us and the Children of the Moon. They were trying to terminate our species as we were them. The War took place over 1,000 years ago and to celebrate our victory, every twenty five years, we have 30 days of coming together, having mock battles, games, and parties. The first day of the celebration was tomorrow and it was our turn to host the events.

"Excuse me, your highness?" Jane asked knocking on my door.

As I had mentioned, Jane is a member of the Volturi guard and could cause you immense pain just by looking at you. Her twin brother does the complete opposite and could cut off all of your senses with his deadly fog, leaving you blind, deaf and immune to sensation. Me? I am what is known as a shield and as powerful one at that, or so I've been told.

Shields are said to be very rare and there has only been two known in our existence. Johan, who had a physical shield, but was killed during the Genocidal War. And Renata, who is Uncle Aro's personal guard, but protects my father and Uncle Caius when she has to. Her shield is a bit different. If you went to attack him, you would suddenly find yourself going in the other direction and forgetting why you were going the other way to begin with. The only glitch with her shield was that she had to touch the person she is shielding for it to work.

Now my shield is something different than both of them. I can shield anyone within my senses mentally and physically. I can also use it as a weapon by cutting their limbs clean off, or trapping someone and constricting them inside until it gets so tight that they disappear into ash. I can also mold my shield so I can move people and objects, including fire and water. Lastly, if I use my mental shield and cover someone with a gift, I can use their gift as my own for as long as they are covered. I don't really like to use it too much though, unless I am in battle. I love to participate in the mock fights and training. I sometimes even accompany the guard on missions.

"Come in." I sighed, standing up in my long gown that I detested wearing. I was quite the tomboy and hated dressing up.

She entered the room and bowed her head in respect.

"Yes, Jane?" I asked.

She looked up at me and smiled sympathetically. "Your father and Uncles request your presence in the throne room. The Cullen's and their army have arrived."

I groaned, not looking forward to the celebration. I hated that I had to dress up for all of the activities, aside from when I fight in the games.

A/N: So, what do you guys think so far? Any thoughts on where the story might lead?

If you have any questions or comments, post them in my reviews and I will answer them in my next Author's Note.

To see more, go to either page: Xo BellaItalia oX or DeathsQueen26

If you enjoyed this story so far, check out some of my other stories on my FanFiction page! Also, I am still accepting Twilight stories that involve Jasper/any female leads or Bella/selected male leads if anyone is looking for a Beta Reader. I will make exceptions on the characters depending on the plot. I am also now accepting Phantom of the Opera FanFictions that include Erik! I will also be accepting Bones featuring Agent Seeley Booth, Dawson's Creek, Titanic FanFictions featuring Jack, Snow White and the Huntsman featuring Snow White or Eric (the huntsman), The Ghost Whisperer that feature Melinda and Law and Order SVU that feature Elliot. I will accept OC characters as well depending on the other lead character. PM me for details!
- Bella'Xo
Xo BellaItalia oX