A big thanks to my beta BelleDean!

Chapter 24: Meeting the family… and other secrets. Part 2.

I woke up to the sound of someone knocking at my door. I pushed the covers over my face, trying to muffle the sound, but it was useless. The knocking only became more insistent and louder.

I growled as I uncovered, the warm sunlight coming through the window blinded me for a moment. I got out of the bed, still adjusting my eyes to the strong light.

"Fuck!" I yelled as I crashed against the night stand. "Who the hell put that over there?" The knocking stopped, and a soft laugh could be heard behind the door.

I walked to the door and opened it, finding Nick.

"Good morning," he said. "I like to see you're a morning person." He brushed my messy hair with his hands. He gave me a light peck. "Get ready! They're waiting for us for breakfast."

I grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of shorts as he slightly pushed me to the small bathroom in the room. I had a look at the mirror. To say I looked like shit wasn't an exaggeration. My hair was messy, I had rings under my eyes, and I still had a slight pimple on my right cheek.

I put my clothes on, remembering the encounter I had with Evan the day before. No wonder Nick had been stuck to me like a limpet to a rock after that.

Evan had continued harassing me, trying to get a rise out of me, until I couldn't take it any longer. I'd phased and ended up biting his ass, literally. But as he'd tried to get rid of me, he'd slapped me hard, throwing me against the wall.

Being hit by a werewolf had been as painful as I remembered, but Evan hadn't really done much damage so I'd refused Noah's help. Evan, on the other hand, hadn't been that lucky, my teeth had sunk deep into his flesh, and Noah had to touch his ass to heal the wound and stop the pain.

Instead of causing trouble, our fight had shown the rest of the werewolves that I wasn't a simply defenseless human. Candra had adopted a silenced attitude towards me while Linus had kept his comments to himself, only growling lowly at me occasionally.

The only one who had continued with the same dark, bitching mood was Vivien. She'd continued taking every opportunity to show me just how not welcome I was whenever she could.

Getting out of the bathroom, I found Nick waiting for me sitting on my bed. "Ready to go?"

I nodded and we left the room, walking through the corridor to a huge dinning room. King Oberon was the only one sitting at the large table.

"Good morning, Leah. Nick," King Oberon greeted us, smiling and pointing to the two chairs by his side. "Hope you don't mind it's just us, the others had an early breakfast this morning."

I walked to him and took the sit next on his right while Nick sat on his left.

As I took some eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes French toast and cereal, we started talking. King Oberon – Grandpa, as he liked to be called– was really interested in my shape shifting skills and my life. In exchange, he educated me on everything about fairies and where he came from. Apparently, he had come to America not long ago; he moved from Europe to help Nick and Cammie create a safe place for werewolves to live in.

When we finished eating, Nick told me to go back to my room. He had to talk with Grandpa about some important things, and that he would meet me once the meeting was over.

~oOo~

I knew I shouldn't be walking on my own in a place full of werewolves that could kill me just for the fun of it. But I couldn't stand staying in the room doing nothing either. I would have died of boredom if I stayed one minute longer, so I went outside the house for a walk.

The streets were fairly empty. That, combined with the fact that I'd been able to defend myself against Evan the day before, made me daring, gave me the confidence to get out of the house. Still, I wasn't stupid. Everyone had warned me about werewolves and fairies, so I kept all my senses alert.

I turned right at the end of a street and saw a group of four men whose backs were facing me. They were a good sixty feet away from me. Thankfully, the guys were in deep conversation and didn't notice me.

I was going to turn around, walk back to the house, trying my best not to direct their attention toward me. Unfortunately, I had no such luck. One of them turned around abruptly and saw me just as I was trying to walk away.

My legs weren't responding and a shiver ran down my spine as our eyes locked. His look was intense, dangerous. I snapped out of the fear as I saw him smirk and nudged the rest of the men.

I didn't think twice, I turned around and started to run. I could hear their steps right behind me.

I wasn't sure if I was going in the right direction or not, but I kept running until I reached a small park.

This was it. When the men grabbed me, they'd kill me. I'd give a fight but they were four and I was just one. I was thinking about possible ways of staying alive when I saw two familiar figures – Alex and Cammie– sitting on a bench under a tree.

They'd noticed I was there and waved for me to join them, but when they saw the guys behind me they both run in my direction, and in a blink of an eye they were both growling at the gang following me.

"Get the hell out of here, Corwin, or I'll gladly kick your and your friends' asses," Alex growled.

"We just wanted to meet her," the guy, Corwin, said, in a fake sweetly tone.

"Let's just see what Nick thinks about you trying to 'meet' his girlfriend," Alex replied. "Now go before my warning turns into reality."

"Leah, what are you doing here? What have we told you about being alone!" Cammie yelled when the men left.

"I know, I was-"

"Are you okay? Did they hurt you? Oh God! Nick will be hysterical when he finds out," she cut me off.

"He already is. He's like crazy asking for Leah," Alex answered.

I looked at him and he pointed to his head; he was having a mental conversation with Nick.

"Okay. He's on his way here. I'll go make sure these guys aren't planning on coming back," Alex said, running in the direction the guys took off in. Cammie's eyes followed him until he disappeared.

"So you and Alex, huh?"

"Alex and I what?"

"You know. You like each other," I said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Why do you answer with another question? Is it a touchy topic to talk about him? You like him, don't you?"

"Well, I've known him my whole life. He's a good friend of mine. So yes, I like him and respect him a lot."

"I didn't mean in a friendly way. It's so obvious there's something between you two."

"Something like what?"

"Love? Come on, Cammie! You are always telling me that I should give love a try and all that shit, and what about you? Do you do what you suggest? Have you ever been in love?"

"I'm afraid my case's a little bit more complicated, Leah." She sighed sadly. "I was truly in love once, a long time ago. We loved each other so much, but I guess it was never going to work. There were too many obstacles between us. After that, I made a promise to myself that until I found him again and–"

"And kill him! That's the only thing that would happen to that man when I find him," Nick said, interrupting his sister. He walked to me and hugged me tightly. He looked at me scanning me up and down looking for a bruise or something.

"Nick, you think that by killing someone you solve everything," Cammie said, making him turned his head to her.

"Well, in this case if I kill him I'll be doing the whole world a favor."

Cammie sighed frustrated and walked away. Nick frowned.

"She doesn't understand the only way she'll finally find happiness is if we kill that son of a-"

"Let Cammie do what's better for her."

"You don't understand, Leah. You didn't see her after Caius and she broke up. It destroyed her. She was so beautiful on the outside and so hurt in the inside."

What did he just said? Caius?

"Caius?"

"He's one of the vampire Kings. A Volturi."

Like I didn't know about him! He was the royal leech that wanted to kill us wolves. But I pretended I didn't know about them. Nick didn't know that I knew vampires, was actually on a first name basis with some, and therefore was familiar with some of their laws.

"Wait! You're saying Cammie dated a vampire?"

"Yes, she did."

"But aren't they your mortal enemies?"

"Yes, they are… now."

"Now?"

"Well, there was a time when vampires and werewolves lived in peace with each other. A time when we didn't fight.

My father was King of the werewolves during that time, and he was married to Camille's mother. In that peaceful period, my father heard there were three brothers who had become the new royalty of the vampires; they had just finished fighting a war between some Romanian leeches. They were the new rulers and Father wanted to make sure that they weren't planning on attacking us, so he decided we should meet them to show them we didn't want to fight.

The Volturi brothers had only been vampires for a short time by that time, and they didn't have mates yet. So when we met them, they immediately liked Camille. The three of them tried their best to make her fall for one of them. Cammie, liked Marcus and Caius in the beginning because of their calmer personalities. Aro, well, that was different. She was never comfortable around him.

Although Cammie had never admitted it, she liked Caius the most, but didn't want to hurt Marcus' feelings so she pretended she wanted only a friendship with them.

Suddenly, things changed when Aro's sister, Didyme, was changed and Marcus took an interest in her. Caius seeing as his brother had eyes for another woman, and noticing that Camille and Aro weren't close, took the opportunity and asked Camille to be his mate. They were so in love that soon after they got engaged.

When Aro found about their relationship, he was really mad because he wanted her for himself. I always thought he had an obsession with her because of her uniqueness. He was just starting 'his collection', a group of vampires with extraordinary powers, and she was such a unique creature, that he would have done anything to get her.

One night, Aro tried to rape Camille. He wanted her to have a child with him and maybe that way she would have to choose him. He almost succeeded if it wasn't for Didyme who heard her screams and helped Cammie. Didyme confronted Aro and told him she was going to tell Caius and Marcus what he wanted to do to Camille and that they'll banish him from Volterra.

Aro pleaded his sister to keep quiet, telling her that he wouldn't do it again, but she didn't believe him. Didyme was on her way to tell Marcus when Aro killed her. He couldn't let her go and tell them what he had tried to do.

So he killed his own sister, and when his two brothers, my father and I arrived to the crime scene, he said it was Camille who had killed Didyme. He even invented that Camille had a lover and that Didyme found out about it and wanted to tell, and that was why my sister murdered her."

"That sick leech!" I interrupted him.

"That's not all! When Marcus and Caius heard that, they both tried to kill Camille. Marcus for revenge and Caius for infidelity. My father got in the way as Caius launched towards Camille, protecting her and fighting Caius, while I made sure Aro and Marcus didn't get into the fight.

Caius was almost killed but Camille pleaded with our father not to end his life. He did as she asked and forgave Caius' life, but the leech, being the coward he is, killed our father when he turned his back to him."

"What happened next? How did you manage to escape?"

"As I saw our father being killed, I grabbed Camille and we escaped Volterra. At first, we hid in Paris, and then we moved to Russia. Since then we've been moving from one place to the other.

Caius' been hunting our kind since then. That's why vampires and werewolves became enemies; all because of Aro." Nick growled the last part.

I was silent for a moment, trying to comprehend what Nick had just told me. "Why did Caius believe Aro's version instead of Cammie's? Weren't they in love?"

"I don't know. All I know is that when he dies, all our problems will be solved. Our people would stop dying and Cam would be able to be free to fall in love again."

Nick took my hand, and we walked back to the house.

"You know, I'm happy I've told you about what happened to Cam and my father. Not many people know that secret," Nick said before entering the house. "Vampires have destroyed our family. That's why we despise them so much, and I'm lucky you despise them as well." He looked at me and smiled. "I'm really proud of calling you my girlfriend. Don't forget that. People might think you're not suitable for me, but they are wrong. There's nothing that will separate me from you. Nothing." He leaned down and kissed me.

I hoped he was right and nothing would ever separate us. Especially, if he ever found out about my friendship with the Cullens. I was in love with him and I didn't know what I'd do if he hated me for that.