A/N: This story is dwindling to an end. I just don't know where else I can take it, so we've got this Chapter, the last Chapter is next, and then the epilogue. There are just other things I want to work on.

Time seemed to speed up, and before we knew it, the doorbell was ringing. Edward got up to answer it without being asked, the rest of us remained in our place. There was a blur of movement and I was on my feet immediately, perched on the back of the couch, balancing with ease and growling in fury. The movement came to an abrupt halt and Alice stared at me sadly.

"I'm so sorry, I should have seen that I was moving too fast." She pouted.

It only took a reassuring squeeze of my hand from Jasper for me to step down from the couch. Emmet had a small smirk playing on his lips and when I looked at him, it dropped immediately. Apparently, he had been amused by my actions. "It's fine Alice." I couldn't bring myself to hug her, so I stepped around her and pulled Esme into a bone crushing hug instead.

I didn't have to be an empath to feel the sadness radiating from Alice, but she said nothing about my dodging her. "I've missed you Esme." I whispered to the only mother I would have for the rest of my overly extended life.

"I knew in my heart that you weren't gone. I knew I would see you once more." She sobbed into my neck. "What has happened?" She pulled back to examine me more closely and I found myself shrinking back from the scrutiny.

I glanced from her curious expression to Rose and back. My hands unconsciously brought the collar of my shirt closer to my neck until I felt Jasper's hand on my back. "It's fine, Sugar, they won't look at you any different."

Rose even sat up straighter, she'd never seen my scars. Only Peter, Char, and Jasper had seen them, and Jasper hadn't seen all of them, just what my tank top revealed. I hesitantly undid the buttons on my long sleeve shirt and pulled it from my shoulders before dropping it to the floor. The only sound in the room was the fabric landing on the floor and the six intakes of breath. While they looked more closely at my scars, I burned a hole in the floor with my gaze. The atmosphere was tense.

Suddenly, Jasper spoke up, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "So Esme, how does it feel to have a matching set?" I realized in that moment, he'd dropped his shirt as well to reveal his scars to the room, I wasn't alone. My heart soared, he wanted me to be comfortable and revealed the only thing he was self conscious about to the room with me. I wasn't alone.

I couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped me, and Emmet obviously wouldn't hold his back. Soon the whole room had chuckled and the tension was gone. I tore my eyes from the floor to catch the last hint of the incredulous look Esme had given Jasper before she smiled. "I always wanted one." She winked at me.

Carlisle pulled me to him and kissed my forehead. "It's wonderful to see you again."

We sank into individual conversations, and it seemed time passed even more fleetingly than before. The next morning, Alice and I forced Emmet into the neon pink ball gown she'd gotten in his size, along with clip on earrings, a wig, and makeup. To top it off she added neon pink high heels and a gold necklace that said 'Hot mess.' The family couldn't look at him for the next twenty four hours without laughing, and he hammed it up too, adding his best feminine voice and pretending to flirt with Jasper. Jasper could have done without that part, he had punched him in the face.

Emmet's only response was, "You dare to hit a lady?" The room had erupted into laughter once more.

Carlisle and Esme were only going to visit for a couple of weeks, and I had been spending as much of that time as I could with them. By default, Jasper and I had been distanced from each other, but we were okay with it, until the last day of Carlisle and Esme's visit.

"We really should be getting back. I told the hospital I was only going to be gone for two weeks." Carlisle reminded Esme.

She had a pained look in her eyes when she looked at me, "Bella, I would love it if you would come with us. You would like Alaska, and Tanya and the others truly wanted to meet you."

"I don't know Esme." I bit my bottom lip, a human trait I'd brought with me into eternity.

"Oh, please Bella? Just a short visit? You don't have anything to stay here for that-" She was cut off mid-sentence by an angry growl, Jasper was returning from a hunt and had caught part of what she'd said. He was standing in the doorway, looking livid.

"You're leaving me?"

"I didn't-" I tried to explain he had gotten it wrong, that I wasn't going anywhere, but he interrupted me again.

"No, it's fine. Run along, go pack your things, it's not like you have anything to stay here for."

His words went straight through me, shredding the pieces of my heart that remained. I stood, my anger rolling off of me in waves, and I allowed him to feel it. He took a breath and backed up a step.

"You are an idiot!" I growled.

"I'm an idiot? I'm not the one who is going to run away!"

"I'm not going anywhere! I wasn't planning to! Now, I should leave and never come back, just to teach you a lesson!" His eyes filled with dread and he took another step backwards.

"Jasper, you know better than to make assumptions from one bit of a conversation!" Esme was right beside me, her fury seemed to match my own, "You have no right to be angry, and if I had been able to finish my statement to Bella, I was telling her that she had nothing here that wouldn't be here when she returned from her short visit with Carlisle and I. You know better than to interrupt when others are talking, and flying off the handle before knowing the facts causes more harm than good."

"I'm sorry Esme." He whispered, but when his eyes fell on me again the anger had returned to them. "Maybe you should go. There is nothing here worth your time."

What the hell was he saying? I growled in frustration. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Go, or travel, maybe you can find you true mate." The anger was gone and he just looked defeated.

The rest of the family stared between us in shock, but they melted into the background of the room and I forgot they were there. In an instant, I was standing chest to chest with Jasper. He slipped and showed his surprise at how quickly I'd moved, parting his lips and taking in a gasp. I took advantage of the moment and grabbed the back of his head, yanking him down with force and crushing my lips to his. He tried to pull away in shock, I growled and made him stay where he was, and then he was kissing me back and nothing else mattered. When I did release him, he was panting and staring at me with wide eyes. I didn't give him the chance to speak before I finally told him. "I was under the impression I had found the man I wanted to be with above all others."

His shock turned into glee as a bright smile broke across his face, but Emmet ruined the moment, "I know Bella, but I've told you a hundred times, I'm already married."

I turned to glare at him and he shrank into his seat, "I was only kidding!" His hands were up, palms facing me in surrender.

"Did you mean that?" Jasper asked me.

"Wow, she was right, you ARE an idiot!" Rosalie grumbled under her breath.

Nothing else was said before Jasper groaned in frustration and swept me up into his arms to get me away from the interruptions. "Bella, did you mean it?" He asked as I took in my suddenly new surroundings, the forest.

"Of course I meant it. As crazy as you are, as messed up as your past is, I accept you and I accept it. The past is the past, I want to focus on my future. While I don't have the same abilities as a certain Cullen, I can see my own future."

"And what do you see?"

"You." I smiled. "But I do have to ask that you respect my mind and my body."

He crushed me to him, "Of course I respect your mind." He said into my neck.

"And my body?" I pressed.

"I'll do anything to it you want me to." He whispered, sending chills down my spine.

Our lips touched again and we fell to the ground in a frenzied heap. Jasper made everything click for me, I wanted him, I needed him. He was my everything, the thing that kept me tethered to the world. I gasped as his hands ghosted over the sensitive areas of my body, igniting a flame that had never truly burned. When I had been human, Edward had ignited sparks, but they fizzled and died. Jasper's hands lit the fire and stoked the flames higher. I ran my hand down his chest, bare from discarding his shirt during the hunt, and moaned deep in my throat.

My hand snaked down to his hip and I squeezed, causing him to buck his hips forward and a growl to rumble through his chest. "Sugar, if you don't stop now, I won't be able to stop myself from claiming you here and now." He panted, his eyes closed in pleasure.

My other hand snaked down to his other hip and an evil smirk found it's way to my lips as I squeezed once more, causing him to lose complete control. We both lost ourselves in each other, clothes discarded, bodies in motion and getting covered with dirt. The reason for the frenzy was the fact that we had denied it for so long, I was his, he was mine, we were meant to be mated.

With one final hard thrust, we both spilled over the edge and he collapsed next to me, pulling me into his arms and kissing my forehead. I just snuggled into his chest and suppressed a smiled.

"Rosalie was right." I sighed quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"Love doesn't hurt." I let my eyes drift closed to enjoy the heaven I had suddenly found myself immersed in.

"It really doesn't."

I had expected to be apprehensive of Jasper, touching me in a way that I'd only experienced when it was not my choice. I had thought it would scare me for him to touch my body, I thought it would make me sad to give him every inch of me, but it truly didn't. I had never felt more at home, or more complete than I did in that moment, in Jasper's arms.

"I was an idiot." He sighed heavily. "I should have known you claimed me as your mate."

"How's that?"

"When I had to distract you, and I kissed you, you bit my lip and forever marked me as yours." he teased. "You know as well as I do that that is what you were doing."

I just chuckled and let him have his fun. "We should get back and shower before we have to say goodbye to Esme and Carlisle."

He sat up and looked into my eyes, "Bella, is Alice leaving with them?"

I sat up and turned my back to him, pulling my tank top over my head and slipping into my jeans. "I don't know."

"Why won't you even look at her."

"Because she saw how miserable I was after you all left, she told me she loved me, but when I needed her the most in my human life, she wasn't there. She saw and didn't even call." I wrapped my arms around my torso, to keep my stone heart from escaping my chest.

Honestly, she could stay, I didn't give a rat's ass. That didn't mean I was going to go all Bella and forgive her for her slights and sins. Out of everyone, it was her that had hurt me the most. She'd turned a blind eye, a fucking blind inner eye to the pain I felt without a second glance. There was no, "I'm sorry." There was no "Fuck you." There was nothing, she had abandoned me completely.

"Come on, Darlin" Jasper whispered, pulling me to my feet and saying nothing more about Tinkerbell or her exile from my heart. I appreciated the gesture, and I squeezed his hand while we ran.

As soon as we stepped through the door, our clothes a mess and our faces set in lines of determination, Peter's voice shattered the silence, "And at last, they've mated!"

I would have turned ten thousand shades of red had I been capable. The rest of the vampires in the room erupted into smiles that warmed my bones. They were all so happy. I ignored the curious gaze of a particular set of golden eyes and hugged my parents goodbye, kissing their cheeks and telling them to visit soon. I knew there were things they had wanted to talk to me about, mainly wanting me to come out with my feelings for Jasper, but because no one really allowed them time alone with me, Esme had to piss us off to get it to happen. Her smug and knowing smirk had told me that much, mother dear had done it on purpose.

The realization that I'd been duped into admitting my feelings rolled off my back and I hugged my overbearing, sneaky mother once more before they departed. Alice had remained behind with Edward, and they went for a stroll to talk and play catch up. It left me alone in the house with my family, my true coven. Peter and Charlotte had saved me from torment, Rose had aided and been aided by our talks and together we moved past our pain a little more, Emmet had been my ease of mind, always there to take me for a hunt or play against me in games when I needed to blow off some steam, Jasper was in a class all his own. He was my one and only, he was it for me, and I was it for him. We stood there in silence, needing no words to communicate that each of us completed this coven in one way or another. A complete set, unbroken and unbound.

My life had been nothing like a fairy tale, it'd been filled with pain and torment, but I had remained standing. Nothing was going to take that away from me.

I had my cushy life, filled with the love of my coven, my family, for a whole three months. Then Alice came running through the door from a hunt, tearing it off the hinges with a look of panic in her eyes.

"I don't know what they are doing here! There is nothing here for them!" She squeaked.

"Alice, what are you talking about?" I asked, unhappy about the fact that speaking to her was necessary. I still hadn't forgiven her.

"Volturri." She moaned in fear.

No sooner than she had said the word did the room fill with cloaked figures, hoods drawn up to hide the faces of the intruders. It had taken a lot to keep my control and not begin snarling at our unwelcome guests. The man who I assumed was in charge glided forward.

"It's so delightful to see you all." He beamed, entirely too happy to be where he was.

"Aro, what is this about?" Jasper asked quietly, "There've been no laws broken."

The man clapped his hands together, "I would love to say that I am just visiting dear friends, but then, that wouldn't be true. I've come for one reason and one reason only. I received word about a female being changed and then being tortured into madness. She's a liability and must be destroyed." His eyes flicked in my direction.

"I'm not mad, nor am I a liability." I growled.

"We cannot afford to risk it, my dear." Aro's eyes locked on mine, though his voice sounded apologetic, his eyes only held a yearning. "But, I will be generous. The guard will bring her back to Volterra and decide there if she is a threat. If you are deemed a threat, you will be sentenced to death."

"You can't take her to Volterra against her will!" Jasper bellowed.

Aro's eyes hardened as he looked over at my mate, "I can and I will, you will do well to keep out of it. I would reconsider, of course, if you would only join me in Volterra."

Jasper's jaw clamped shut, he stepped forward and nodded once.

"Then either way, she's coming to Volterra. Even if she is a threat, we can keep her safe within the walls of the city."

"Aro, she's an animal drinker, it's her natural hunting instinct, not voluntary."

"We'll see about that." He grinned, motioning with his hand.

Someone grabbed me from behind, I tried to fight them off, but more hands joined in to hold me still.