No One's POV
At the prompting of her words, Anastasia was led into a small living room area, fire crackling gently in the hearth and comfy couches seated around with a grand piano off to the center side.
"What would you like to speak to us about, bellissimo?" Aro asks, settling down in an arm chair, his brothers also seating themselves gracefully, giving their mate their full attention.
"I- I- Why do you call me that? What does that mean? Bellissimo?" Anastasia asks, stumbling over her words, not at all beginning the conversation how she wanted to. So much for just telling them straight out, nice going Anastasia, she scolds herself.
"It means beautiful, in Italian." Aro answers, frowning at his mate's question, not understanding. "Do- do you not wish me to call you that?"
"I- no, never mind, I- look, the gifts, the notes, I only- I only came here to return them." Anastasia finally manages to say.
"Are they not to your liking?" Marcus asks, feeling something like dread and ice begin to seep into his veins.
"What? The gifts? You're not serious? No- they're really thoughtful- that's not that point." Anastasia says, turning to look at the brothers, disbelief clear on her face. "No, it's not that."
"I'm afraid, I- we don't understand, Anastasia." Marcus says softly, eyes searching his mate's face for something that might indicate the thoughts swirling in her mind.
"Okay. I- um. The gifts, they are really nice and I appreciate the gesture, really, I do. But this- whatever this is. Needs to- needs to stop. I'm sure- I'm sure you're all very nice. But I don't- I'm just not comfortable with this, and I don't really know you. I- I'm sorry. And I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression in the note. I just thought it would be better in person, to clear things up." Anastasia says finally, breathing out in a rush, feeling like maybe she could breathe again, having said what she wanted to say, mostly anyways.
She wasn't about to tell them how she thought they were hiding something from her or how she was pretty sure they were the Italian mob or along those lines at least. She valued her life thank you very much.
"I'm sorry. I am, I'm sure you'll- you'll find someone, better. I should- I should probably go now." Anastasia says softly, daring to look at the brothers, wanting nothing more than to slink out of the room and grab her things before bolting.
The Kings sat frozen, their mate's words barely connecting to their minds as they saw everything they ever wanted go up in flames.
Had all their efforts, all their dreams of finding and obtaining their true mate truly end in nothing? Would fate truly be that cruel?
"Please- please don't go." Caius manages to plead, finding his voice, suddenly in front of his mate, his hands outstretched imploring, wanting so desperately to touch and hold her, wanting her acceptance.
Despite Caius' sudden movement from the couch to in front of her, Anastasia manages only to blink in reaction, yet her body curls almost defensively away from him, shying away from him as if she was preparing for a violent reaction, making Caius' inner beast roar in displeasure at the thought, he would never hurt his mate.
"Why me? What do you want with me? I don't understand." Anastasia asks finally, her defensive posture not lessening.
Aro, Caius, and Marcus were at a loss, torn at what to do, not wanting their mate to find out like this. They had wanted to court her properly, introduce her into their world gently, not have everything laid out immediately fearing that they would scare her and therefore lose her.
Not getting an answer, Anastasia turns, decisively heading for the door.
"You captivated us, from the first moment we laid eyes on you. Your beauty is unparalleled. And we wanted to get to know you. Please- gives us the chance to-" Caius answers, voice still pleading.
"While that is very flattering, after all what girl wouldn't want to hear she's beautiful? You're going to have to do better than that. You're lying to me. I don't enjoy being lied to. I'm not stupid you know. And I don't appreciate being treated like I am." Anastasia says, cutting Caius off, pausing to turn around, arms crossed in front of her, now looking a bit annoyed.
"Do you believe in legends?" Marcus asks, rising from his place on the couch, approaching his mate slowly in a manner that would hopefully appear nonthreatening to her.
"Legends such as?" Anastasia prompts, shifting her weight and watching the brothers carefully.
"Vampires, werewolves." Marcus finishes, inching closer, eyes locked onto his skittish mate, gauging her reaction.
"Then, no."
"And, if we were to tell you that they were indeed true? That we ourselves are vampires?" Marcus continues.
"I would probably tell you that you were crazy and not believe you." Anastasia replies flatly.
"You would have every reason to not believe us, bellissimo, but we are telling you the truth." Aro says, rising from where he sits in an arm chair, but not making a move towards her, not wanting to over crowd or overwhelm his mate.
"Yeah, I'm going to need a little more proof than you telling me that you're vampires." Anastasia replies, eyebrow raised, questioning in her mind just what type of crazy she had gotten herself mixed up in.
Caius suddenly flashed across the room, casually picking up the grand piano before placing it back down where it once stood, causing Anastasia to blink once, then twice.
"Uh-huh. Yeah, I'm gonna- that- that would- this makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. Unfortunately." Anastasia mutters to herself, internally trying not to panic about her current horrible life choices and the mess she currently found herself in.
"We realize this must be quite a shock-" Aro tries to sooth.
"Oh, I'm sorry, quite a shock? You think!? About two seconds ago I was blissfully ignorant about things that go bump in the night!" Anastasia interjects with a huff and a glare, throwing her hands up in the air.
"We truly mean you no harm, tesoro. We would never hurt you." Marcus tries to assure.
"Fine, okay. So- you're vampires. And you didn't bring me here as a glorified snack, which I had kind of guessed as much. You spent far too much effort and money, even if you were playing some twisted psychotic game of cat and mouse." Anastasia reasons, managing to keep it together and not freak out hysterically or have a complete mental break down about the revelations being presented to her. "Which begs the question, what does this have to do with me?"
Marcus, Aro, and Caius weren't sure whether to be proud that their mate was clearly intelligent enough to pick up on certain cues many humans would otherwise ignore or vaguely insulted that their mate was still insinuating she was a snack and that they were playing and toying with her. Their inner animals growled at the unsavory thought and paced, wanting nothing more than to curl around her and assure her she was loved, protected, and cared for with everything in their being.
"Contrary to what it may seem at times, and some even within our own kind may believe, vampires have the capacity to love. We are not simply mindless beasts, mindless animals, that only are consumed by blood lust. Moreover, what is unique about our kind is that we are blessed with the opportunity of a true mate, a soul mate, one which completes us in every way, if we are blessed enough to find them in our long eternities." Aro begins to explain.
Anastasia looks between the three brothers, gaze calculating and questioning, taking in all the information she was being thrown, trying to understand exactly what they were saying.
"Are you- are you saying, that I am-" Anastasia tries to form the words, but is unable to.
"Yes, you are our true mate, mio caro." Marcus clarifies, his brothers and himself waiting for her reactions tensely.
"True mate. To- to all three of you." Anastasia repeats, looking a bit dumbfounded.
"We are soul brothers, not by blood, but connected nonetheless. It makes sense that we would share a mate as well." Aro explains, anxiously looking at his mate.
"No. I didn't- I don't- I didn't ask for this! I don't want this." Anastasia shakes her head back and forth, feeling tears of frustration blink at the corners of her eyes and hysteria rise in her voice. "I'm not- I'm not your true mate- I can't be. Pick someone else!"
"Diletto, that is- that is not how it works." Caius says, feeling desperation claw at his soul as his mate's rejection hits him.
"Anastasia, bellissimo, you are our mate, the golden stands that bind you to us, Marcus can see. It is his gift, to see bonds between others. And even without it, we know, we can feel it within our souls, our very being. We only wish you to be happy and a chance show you that we love you." Aro pleads imploringly. "Whatever you wish, it can be yours, if it jewels, or riches, or land, or power, anything, we will willingly give it to you."
Anastasia could see desperation in Aro's eyes, pleading with her to what? Simply to stay? To understand and accept them? Anastasia didn't understand the level of devotion in Aro's eyes she saw, and she wondered how she had managed to get herself into this type of situation and if she should take the chance. What if it was all an elaborate game to them, of silver tongue lies and well thought out plans to reel her in before the ax finally fell?
"And if being happy meant that I never saw you again?" Anastasia challenges.
The Kings looked stricken at the thought, knowing that having their mate walk away from them would be a death sentence for themselves.
"We would never keep you against your will nor would we ever harm you, it goes against our very nature and instinct." Marcus answers honestly.
"Me leaving, what does that mean for you? You've gone to all this trouble to get my attention, so the bond, it's special, correct?" Anastasia asks.
"That- that is correct. If you were to leave, reject our bond. Our- our bond would slowly weaken, wither away until it was gone. You would not feel it, but we would- we would not be able to exist anymore. We would weaken with it, slowly until we ourselves would not be able to go on, crumble into nothing." Aro answers, his expression pained at the thought.
Anastasia simply stares, looking contemplatively at the three brothers, her mind reeling with the amount of information she had just been given while also desperately not trying to scream and have a mental break down, she felt like she was standing on a edge of a cliff and someone had just pushed her off, or a frayed roped unraveling.
She never wanted this, she never wanted to be thrown into the supernatural world and sudden be mates to three vampires, vampires who seemed very powerful too, it was obvious by the way they held themselves and the kind of aura they gave off.
"I- I can't- I don't-" Anastasia couldn't finish her sentence, honestly she wasn't sure what she was trying to say, but at the moment she just needed to be out of the situation, so she turned and fled.
Perhaps that wasn't her brightest nor best moment, but she was on emotion and situation overload, and she found herself fleeing towards her room, or rather the room she had been given while staying here.
The brothers did not follow, for which Anastasia was grateful, and it gave Anastasia time to think as she pushed open the doors, finding solace in the peace and quiet.
Meanwhile, the Kings watched as their mate fled from them, feeling every bit of hope and joy flee with her, instead a deep, heavy, coldness settling inside them.
"Perhaps- perhaps this is fate's punishment for all the atrocities we have committed." Aro utters, settling back in the chair, his mind drifting uncaringly.
"She- she does not want us." Caius whispers, still in shock.
Marcus only turns away, already looking like an empty shell, accustom to the feeling to emptiness since his wife and best friend, Didyme, left him when she found her true mate. He, of course did not resent her for it, but it hurt nonetheless for he would not get that happiness.
In the room, Anastasia set out the gifts the brothers had given her, contemplating leaving them and then packing to go, her plane ticket she had booked to return to London set to leave in a few hours.
Yet, as she placed the gifts on the bed, her mind still tossing and turning with all the information, her hands paused, brushing over the sheet music Marcus had written for her. Would it really hurt to give them a chance? Their expressions flashed through her mind.
Anastasia sighed, feeling a familiar tug in her chest that she had felt while in London. Was it possible she did feel the mate bond, at least slightly?
Anastasia was pretty sure she was crazy for doing this, and she was also pretty sure her father would kill her for this, that is if he knew, but he didn't. But she also knew her father had taught her to follow her heart, as equally as he taught her to follow her mind. So maybe this was insane, but there was a part of her that felt like perhaps it was meant to be or it would all work out in the end, if she just had the courage to try.
Grabbing the sheet music, Anastasia trekked down the winding hallway, taking a fortifying breathe as she found her way back to the living room area, peeking her head in cautiously, if not a bit ashamed of her previous actions.
"I- Okay. I'm willing to-" Anastasia says. "I'm sorry. That was- I shouldn't have acted that way and lashed out or walked off. I was uncertain and overwhelmed, and I was testing you. But it was unnecessarily cruel of me. I- I don't understand all of this. But- I am willing to try and understand and accept it."
The Kings nearly trembled at the sight of their mate before them, wanting desperately to believe that they were being given the chance to prove themselves to her and win her affection.
"Anastasia, diletto." Caius breathes reverently, flashing towards his mate to stand in front of her.
"I need you to be honest with me. Completely honest about everything. No secrets and I need you to be patient. If you can do that, then I will try to understand and accept this. We can- can try this." Anastasia offers, pausing Caius.
"Anything, mio amato." Caius agrees immediately, reaching out for her cautiously wanting just to hold her, even if it was only for a brief moment, but wondering if she would reject his advances.
Anastasia doesn't, instead allowing Caius to envelope her into his embrace which he does all too eagerly, arms gently resting around her waist and head resting against her shoulder.
"Thank you, il mio amore. You will not regret this." Aro says, eyes fierce and passionate, envying his brother as he holds their mate in his arms, himself unable to do so unless he wishes to violate her memories and mind unknowingly, for once hating his gift he has always prized.
"Marcus, would you play this for me please?" Anastasia asks shyly, pulling out of Caius arms to walk up to Marcus, the music Marcus had written her in hand.
"Of course, mio caro. I would love to." Marcus smiles, taking it from her gently, pleased that he could do something for his mate to make her happy.
Curling up on the couch, fire crackling gently, Caius also settling close but still at a respectful distance not wanting to push his mate's patience, Anastasia lets the piano notes wash pleasantly over her.
Edited 2/5/19