Guesss who's back? C'est moi :)

Sorry about the wait, it's only the third week of school and I already have like, a million tests and quizzes and a shit load of homework :/

But still, I managed to find the time to update here and there for all you amazing readers.

Your reviews are greatttttt and I want to thank you all for leaving them :)

Also, I've been getting a few requests for another AxA one-shot, and I'm going to ask ya'll what I should do it on. So end me your ideas for possible one-shots and I'll pick one of them. And of course you'll get an honourable mention for the idea :)

So think away my lovelies.

Disclaimer: You know how it goes.

Enjoy!

"Alexander?" she asked softly, but the dream-Alex only winked at her before turning his back to her. He then gathered dream-Katherine in his arms and began to kiss her.

'You fucking idiot,' I wanted to yell at him, but it wasn't my dream to control. I heard a whimpering sound and pulled back from her thoughts. Her face was scrunched up and her bottom lip trembled slightly. When I felt the sudden urge to beat up dream-Alexander for putting that look on her face I knew that I was royally fucked.

I sighed and watched the road as she settled again.

She was a complete idiot for falling in love with me, I thought as I checked if she was actually asleep, but I'm an even bigger idiot for doing the same thing. After a slight hesitation I reached out and took her free hand in mine as gently as I could.

Complicated didn't begin to describe what this was.

Chapter 36

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and waited a long moment before prying my eyes open. I lifted a hand to rub over my face and jolted at the contact; my hand was ice cold. I fisted my other hand and was confused to find that it was warm. Squinting my eyes I studied my hand which looked almost blue now.

What the hell happened?

When someone moved to my left I looked over to see Alexander looking out the drivers' side window, hands balled up into fists. I opened my mouth then turned away, shaking my head and rubbing my temple with my non-frozen hand while I tucked the frozen one in between my thighs to warm it up.

My eyes drifted over the dashboard and when I saw the time I sat up in my seat. It was almost 3:30. How the heck did that happen?

"You were sleeping," Alexander said and I looked over to him again.

"And?"

"And... well you were tired and I didn't want to wake you up, so... I didn't..." he said then shifted in his seat uncomfortably. Huh, that was... interesting.

"So, what, you just sat here for 3 hours?" I asked still trying to figure him out. The Alexander I knew from before would have slapped me awake. I saw him scowl at that and felt a slight twinge of guilt at my harsh thoughts, but it was the truth.

"Yea," he said tersely and I furrowed my brow. That was almost... sweet. Almost.

Gnawing on my bottom lip I looked out my window and noticed that we were parked a few miles away from the long road that would lead straight to the Romano Mansion. I laced my now warm fingers together and caught Alexander drop his gaze to them out of the corner of my eye. When I looked over at him, he was glaring straight ahead.

"Well, um, thank you," I said and cleared my throat. He turned his head and studied me for a long moment, making me feel uncharacteristically self-conscious. Why was he looking at me like that? There was this weird look in his eyes and he was acting all different. Was I missing something?

I saw his jaw clench before he turned forward again and started the car. I scratched the side of my head then undid my bun, letting my hair cascade down past my shoulders. Since I had taken a shower minutes before I put my hair up, the scent of jasmine filled the contained space.

I saw Alexander's hands flex on the steering wheel, and I watched as he forced them to relax.

What was with him?

"Alexander?" I said quietly.

"What," he snapped and narrowed my eyes. Clearly someone was in a bad mood, but it was hardly my fault so I didn't know why he was snapping at me.

"Nothing," I snapped back and crossed my arms as he sped onto the road to my house. In a matter of minutes, very few with the way Alexander was driving, I'd be at the house. The nerves that lay dormant for the past few hours began to act up again.

Holy shit, was I really going to do this?

I exhaled loudly then took another deep breath. Was it just me or was it getting harder to breathe? I rubbed a hand over my heart as I saw the tops of the mansion through the cover of trees.

What a time to be having a fucking panic attack.

Crap.

I can't do this.

What was I thinking?

This was a stupid, stupid idea.

Oh my God.

I think I'm going to—

I lurched forward in my seat when Alexander slammed his foot down on the breaks. I was turning to look at him when he grabbed me by the shoulders and actually lifted me a couple of centimetres off the seat.

His golden eyes glared at me and his fingers tightened painfully on my shoulders.

"Get. A. Fucking. Hold. Of. Yourself," he growled.

"I—"

"We're here, and you are going to do this. So quit being such a baby about it." He shook me, hard enough that I thought my neck would snap.

"Okay, okay," I snarled back through clenched teeth. "You don't have to be such an inconsiderate ass." When he only narrowed his eyes at me I narrowed my own.

"I mean, you could try to be a little sympathetic. Do you even understand what I'm going through right now?"

"Are you really asking me of all people that question?" he growled and I when I thought about it, he was right. He wasn't the sympathetic and understanding type.

For a quick second something passed over his face, but before I could focus on it, it was gone.

"Why are you being such a jackass? I didn't do anything to you," I snapped and glared over his shoulder.

"She doesn't remember..." came his thought in my head and I brought my eyes back to his.

"Remember what?" I asked then let out a tiny gasp when he suddenly released me. He turned his attention back to driving, but his words had my mind going into overdrive.

What don't I remember?

"Remember what?" I persisted.

"Nothing," he snapped, but it clearly wasn't nothing. Biting my lip I sat back in my seat and wracked my brain to find the missing piece to this puzzle. I began to replay the events of the past few hours in my head.

He came to my house, then we got into my car. Neither one of us said anything then. We were talking later on, I recalled then tried to remember exactly what we were talking about.

I remember being pissed off at him about Saturday, and I remember breaking down and crying my eyes out. Maybe that's what he meant. But... it didn't seem right.

What did I do after that?

I was sitting in his lap, and then, oh yea, and then I got pissed at him all over again. And I was yelling at him and I said that—

Oh fuck.

My mouth popped open and my eyes widened. I told Alexander Cullen that I was in love with him. I looked over at him and could practically see his teeth grinding together.

Well... at least I figured out what it was...

I also recalled that he said that we'd talk about it later. Maybe I should—

"Not now," he snapped as he stopped the car in front of my house and got out, slamming the door behind him. I glared at the door before scrambling out of the car myself.

"Alexander," I growled, walking quickly towards him as he headed for the front door and reached out to grab his arm. He jerked it away however and turned to face me so quickly that I ran smack into his chest and would have fallen over if he didn't grab my flailing hands.

"Do you honestly have no idea of what you should do when? Now's not the time to discuss your infatuation," he snarled, yanking me so close that I felt his breath on my face.

Infatuation? I thought angrily. Did he honestly think I was infatuated with him?

"I don't recall using the word 'infatuated' when I told you how I felt about you," I snapped, getting up into his face.

"Well that's what you are," he retorted then abruptly turned away, dropping my hands.

"I'm pretty sure I know how I feel," I said to his back as I wrapped my hands around myself and shivered in the cold.

"The problem is that you don't know how you feel," he said quietly then began walking up the front stairs. I was slightly taken back by his tone, he didn't sound pissed off then, he sounded... troubled.

"And you do?" I asked, hurrying behind him once I managed to get my legs to move.

"Better than you," he replied quietly reaching the huge double doors. This time his words along with the way he said them had me furrowing my eyebrows. Something was wrong with Alexander. He's acting all weird.

"What—"

He sighed and reached out to push the doorbell. He then shoved me closer to the door and moved himself off to the side. I was glaring over my shoulder at him when the front door swung open.

"Arabella?" My brother, clad in only a pair of old jeans, finger-combed his chin length black hair back from his face as he studied me though narrowed eyes. A second later a playful grin flashed on his face and he yanked me off my feet and into his arms.

"Ang," I laughed as the more reserved Romano twin squeezed me hard then placed a quick kiss to my forehead before setting me down and tugging a long lock of my hair.

"What brings you here kid?" he asked and I cleared my throat. No need to get down to business just yet, I reassured myself.

"Why? Can't I come over to see my dear brothers?" I asked with a grin and watched a mirroring one appear on his face. "Speaking of which, where are the other 3?"

"Somewhere around the house," he said and grabbed my hand to pull me inside. "Luc got called to work this morning, and he should be back any minute now. Tony's in the handling some business upstairs and Damen is... I actually don't know where Damen is. Sleeping maybe."

"I thought twins had, like, a psychic connection. Shouldn't you know where I am and what I'm doing," commented Damen, narrowing he eyes at his twin as he appeared from the south wing. Diangelo merely rolled his eyes at Damen's antics.

"As if I want to know what you're doing with your time," said Angelo with an exaggerated grimace and I laughed at his implication. Damen shot his twin a wicked grin and a wink before he turned his bright blue eyes on me.

"Well, look what we have here," he said crossing his arms over his bare chest, yes, yes, I know, my brothers have this weird obsession with walking around shirtless. "Couldn't stay away from us?" he questioned raising an eyebrow and I scoffed.

"I only came to see my favourite brother," I said and leaned into Angelo's side.

"My heart," groaned Damen, dramatically clutching his chest. "You wound me."

I laughed a looked at him sympathetically.

"Poor baby," I said then patted the top of his head and his eyes narrowed a second before he grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder. I squealed as he loosened his grip, threatening to drop me on my head.

"Damen," I laughed as the blood rushing to my head made it all tingly.

"Damen," cautioned Angelo, "put her down before you drop her."

"But that's the point," Damen said innocently as I pounded his back with my fists.

"The point isn't—" I was interrupted by a loud sound on the other side of the door.

"What the fuck are you doing here," snarled my brother from outside and it was then that I realized that Alexander was still standing out there. How could I have forgotten?

Angelo was already heading towards the door and Damen put me down on my feet before pushing me away from the door and following behind his brother.

This was not good.

The door swung open and Luca stood there glaring at Alexander. Once my other two brothers saw Alexander I saw them tense before they stepped out as well. I took a quick second to wonder if they were cold standing outside in the middle of winter, shirtless. I then mentally slapped myself before rushing towards the door. Angelo turned his head and sent me a hard look.

"Stay inside," he snapped but I continued forward.

"You think you can just fucking show up here?" growled Luca and I looked on with wide eyes to see that he was right up in Alexander's face. Where my brothers were clearly pissed off, Alexander looked very relaxed. He had his arms crossed and was regarding Luca with a smirk.

"Damnit, let me go Angelo," I snapped when he tried to physically shove me back inside. Finally pushing past him and Damen, I squeezed myself between Luca and Alexander and pressed my hands to my brother's shoulders.

"Get away from him Arabella," he snapped and tried to shove me aside.

"Calm down Luca," I said and tried to get him to back off.

"Calm down?" he asked. "How the fuck do you expect me to do what when this fucking ass hole shows up here?"

"He didn't just show up, he came with me," I said loud enough so that all three of my brothers heard.

"You what?" he asked incredulously, dropping the hands that were gripping me by the shoulders.

"Yea, I brought him with me."

"Why the hell would you do that?" asked Damen angrily.

"Because I wanted him here when I—" I broke off suddenly and looked away.

"When you what?" asked Angelo and I winced slightly.

"Um," I murmured quietly and shifted on my feet. I felt Alexander's hand on my hip and I took surprising comfort in the small gesture. My brothers however, didn't feel the same way judging by the looks on their faces.

"You have got to be kidding me," murmured Luca, his green eyes huge, looking from Alexander to me.

"Uh."

Alexander's hand slipped forward and rested lightly on my stomach. Angelo followed the movement and then his eyes almost popped out of his head. His face turned this weird shade of red and he opened and closed his mouth a couple of time before he spoke.

"Are you... please don't tell me..." he took a deep breath. "Arabella are you pregnant?"

For a moment it was completely silent as I stared at him, mouth open, eyes wide. It was only when I felt Alexander shake with silent laughter that I was snapped out of my shocked state. That little ass did that on purpose. I would have turned and bitched him out right then and there, but I had bigger problems. 3 of them to be exact.

"No. No definitely not. I—I mean with him? No. No, honest. We've never even slept together, well except for..." I trailed off when I saw them turn impossible hues of red. I winced when I realized what I had said.

"Not like that," I said quickly. "I meant like sleeping next to each other. Nothing happened, we were fully clothed. Okay, not really—" I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my face with a hand.

Oh. My. God.

I was just digging myself in a deeper hole.

"This is all your fucking fault Alexander," I thought to him murderously. "Watch what I'm going to do to you."

"I didn't do anything," he returned and I glowered.

"Okay listen, I'm not, you know, having um, sex with him," I said uncomfortably. This was so not how I imagined today would go.

"And I am not pregnant!"

And it was at that exact moment that Antonio decided to show up at the door as well. He stared at me after hearing my outburst. Could this get any better?

"What the heck is going on out here?" he asked looking at each of us, lingering on Alexander and his hand on my waist. No one said anything so he rested his gaze on me. I flushed and looked at the floor.

"Arabella?"

"Uh, there was a little misunderstanding that I was clearing up."

"What kind of a misunderstanding?"

"Um, well. They thought I was pregnant," I said quickly and saw Angelo's eye twitch.

"And why would they think that?" asked the oldest Romano, as calm and cool as always.

"Because I said that I wanted Alexander here with me when I did something, and they jumped to conclusions," I said quickly then felt almost as though I was letting Alexander get away with his part in all of this.

"But it wasn't just their fault," I said jumping to my brothers' defence. "This one thought it would be funny to antagonize them." I glared over my shoulder at him and he grinned.

Asshole.

"And who is this?" he asked watching Alexander. It was then that I realized that Antonio had never actually met Alexander.

"Antonio this is Alexander Cullen."

"Carlisle's son?" he asked and I nodded.

"Are you two..."

"It's complicated," I murmured and flattened my bangs against my forehead. Again, there was a long moment of silence before Tony sighed.

"Come inside."

"But—" Luca started to protest but shut up when Tony sent him a stern look. Seeing that no one else was moving, I grabbed Alexander's hand and pulled him inside after my oldest brother. I heard someone curse as they filed in after us.

Tony walked to the family room without looking back and dropped into the recliner and waited as the rest of us shuffled in and took a seat. I shoved Alexander down onto the loveseat before sitting next to him. I cleared my throat and rubbed my palms on my jeans; this was it.

"You said that you wanted to do something," said Antonio after a moment and I winced. Well at least I didn't have to bring it up myself. I cleared my throat again and shifted on the sofa.

"Yea, I uh, actually wanted to ask you something..."

"What did you want to know?" he asked in that same authorative voice and I dropped my gaze to my hands. How the hell was I supposed to start? I mean, it wasn't everyday that I did this. I tucked my hair behind my ear nervously and fidgeted.

"Arabella?"

I looked up at him them looked away again. I heard a quiet sigh from next to me and then felt a cold hand slip into my own. I looked over at Alexander.

"It'll be okay," he thought, and for some reason my heart fluttered with the words. I bit my lip and watched him for another moment. Finally I took a deep breath and sent him a small smile, squeezing his hand.

"Thanks," I thought to him, though I didn't know what for. He squeezed my hand back and I placed our joined hands on my lap and stared at them for a moment before looking up at Antonio.

Unlike my other brothers, he wasn't glaring at Alexander, but instead was watching me carefully.

Well it was now or never.

"How did ma and pa die?"

Damen, who had been sprawled across the three-seater this whole time, sat up abruptly and stared at me wide eyed, much like Angelo and Luca. I saw something pass over Antonio's face, but it remained impassive.

"In a mob war," he said.

"Don't lie to me," I said and my breathing sped up. "Please, after all this time... how did ma and pa die?"

"Arabella—" Angelo started to say but was cut off when Antonio held up a hand.

"As I said before, in a mob war. Why are you bringing up the past?"

"Because I need to know the truth."

"And you assume that we're not telling you the truth?"

"No. I think you're keeping the truth from me because you think I can't handle it. But it can. I'm not that 9 year old girl anymore Antonio."

"No you're not," he said and though he tried to remain impassive, I saw the quick looks he sent to his brothers.

Oh God.

"But we're not keeping anything from you—"

"Do you think I'm fucking stupid?" I snapped.

"Watch you language Arabella," he warned and I nearly scoffed at his attempt to divert my attention.

"Fine, do you think I'm stupid?" I rephrased.

"Not particularly," he said and I almost exploded. How dare he sit there and not take me seriously when I am so clearly distressed? Did he not catch the looks Damen, Angelo, and Luca were sending each other? Did he think that I would miss them?

There was clearly something they were all hiding from me. I was sure of it.

"Did you think that I'd never find out?" I asked. Maybe if I implied that I already knew, they would say something. But of course, I should have known that Antonio would catch me.

"Never find out what?" he said calmly and I let out a breath, rubbing my pounding temple.

"Antonio... how did ma and pa die?" I asked yet again and I could tell that he was starting to get pissed. Him, of all people. Imagine how I felt.

"I told you—"

"You're fucking lying," I snapped, not caring about my language. I then turned to face Angelo who immediately looked away from my gaze.

"Ang please, how did they die?" I asked quietly, trying to look as forlorn as possible. He brought his blue eyes up to mine then turned them on Antonio.

"Tony..." he started, "maybe we should—"

"No."

"But she should—"

"Shut up Diangelo," Tony snapped and Angelo turned to his twin, at a loss.

"I think she should know," said Damen quietly and Luca turned to look at him wide-eyed.

"Then tell me," I said and Damen's eyes flickered between me and Tony. The thing about Damen was that he didn't really pay any heed to Antonio and his orders. Now that I knew that he wanted me to know, there wasn't much that Tony could do about it.

And I bet he knew it too.

"Damen," he cautioned sitting up in his seat, but Damen only sent him a mild look before turning back to me.

"Arabella, they were killed by—"

"She doesn't need to fucking know," snapped Antonio, and yes, he was a hypocrite for cursing right after telling me not to. He got to his feet and glared down at his brother who glared right back.

I could feel myself get more ticked off by the second. How could Antonio think that I didn't deserve to know if my parents were killed by fucking werewolves because they were trying to do something for me?

At this point Damen was on his feet too, and he was shouting at Antonio who was uncharacteristically shouting back. Angelo was trying to get the two of them to calm down, and Luca just sat there staring at the scene his brothers were making.

Without stopping to think about it I got to my feet as well and stalked over to the centre of the room and stood right in front of Antonio.

"I don't fucking need to know?" I demanded, livid now. "What bullshit. I can understand you trying to hide this from me when I was a kid but hiding it from me now? You lied to my fucking face. I asked you to tell me the truth and you straight up lied to me Antonio."

"It was to protect you," he exploded, again very uncharacteristic for my usually calm and even-tempered brother.

"Do you think it did me any good to find out that my brothers had been lying to me about my parents' death for years from some random stranger?"

"Who—"

"Do you think it did me any good to find out from some random person that my parents were murdered by werewolves and that it was because of me?"

Damen, Antonio, and Angelo all started at me wide-eyed for a moment and I heard Luca curse. My heart was thudding so hard in my chest that I thought it would burst. Finally Antonio sighed and pressed his thumbs over his closed eyes.

"Sit down Arabella," he said softly.

"No."

"Arabella, sit," he repeated.

"No."

"Belle just sit," said Angelo quietly.

"No. Tell me," I demanded and I guess Antonio had reached his wits end because he looked up and fixed me with a furious look.

"You want to know? Fine," he growled.

"You're right, ma and pa were killed by werewolves, in fact, what was done to them was worse. They were ripped to fucking shreds and tossed in our living room."

"Antonio..." Angelo said, taken back, but he didn't seem to hear.

"And you're right again, it was because of you. Because they heard that there was a way to lift the Chosen curse. But it came at a price, the old wolf wanted you. He wanted to make you his wife, but you were 8, just a baby, and he was 50. Father was furious, and he said no, but they told him that if he couldn't have you, then you couldn't get the curse lifted."

"Their only options were giving you to the wolf and having you live a long life or keep you and risk you dying at any moment. They didn't want to choose so they thought they could have both; keep you and get rid of the curse, but the wolves didn't have that."

"They killed them. They just walked into our house and started to shout at mother and father. Ma shoved us into the powder room and told me to lock the door and not to open it, no matter what I heard. She told me to protect all of you and she told me to take special care of you. She said that she loved us and then she left and the next time I saw her, her face was so fucked up that I couldn't even tell that it was her."

He paused for a moment, breathing heavily.

"Are you happy now? I told you the truth, isn't that what you wanted? Now you know what really happened and why. Can you blame us for trying to spare you the guilt? Can you live with the fact that it was all because of you?"

"Antonio," snapped Angelo furiously before turning wide eyes to me.

"Arabella, sweetheart," he said softly reaching out to touch my hand but I cringed away as I stared blankly at a spot on the carpet.

There it was.

Everything that Atian said was true. My parents hadn't died in a mob war, they were murdered by werewolves... because of me.

"...How could you say that..." I heard someone say, but the sound was coming from far, far away.

"...Arabella, shit, honey, I'm sorry. I don't know why I..." It was Antonio speaking this time, and I saw his feet move closer to me and then double as my vision split. I tried to say something, but my tongue felt like lead in my mouth. I tried to cry, but the tears didn't come. I tried to feel the pain, but all I felt was the numbness.

My head started to feel really heavy and it was getting really hard to hold it up. I thought maybe I should sit down, but my feet wouldn't move.

"Shit... is okay and... looks so pale... pass out..." I heard bits and pieces of what someone was saying, but couldn't put it all together. When Damen stepped up to me and touched a hand to my shoulder I couldn't even make myself move away from him.

What the heck was going on with me? Was I having a stroke... heart attack... seizure?

Maybe I was dying.

At least I would get to see my parents in heaven and apologize for killing them. But then again, I was probably going to hell for that very reason. I guess anything would be better than this.

"Arabella," murmured a soft voice by my ear.

That voice.

Alexander.

"It's okay," I heard him whisper and then I was being turned to face him. He put his hands on either hand of my face but I barely felt the cold. He gently tipped my head up and I tried to focus my white-grey eyes on his beautiful golden ones, but I couldn't. I blinked a couple of times, trying to clear my vision, but it was no use; my eyes stayed stubbornly blurry and it pissed me off because for reasons I didn't completely understand, I wanted to see his eyes. I wanted to see his face and I wanted him to tell me everything was okay.

Even if it wasn't.

"It's okay baby," he repeated gently and touched his forehead to mine.

I wanted him to tell me that I'd be okay. I wanted him to hold me and I wanted to hold him. I wanted him to make me feel okay again because he was the only one who could.

"I'm here," he whispered.

Stay with me, I thought. Don't leave me.

"I won't," he said softly, running his thumbs lightly over my cheeks.

"Promise?" I managed to croak out in a voice that didn't sound like the one I was used to. I heard him take a deep breath and hold it.

And then he let it go.

"I promise."

Gahhhhhh :'(

How could Antonio have been so heartless? Now I know that some of you know hate Arabella's oldest brother right now, but try and see his side of things; the last thing you promised your mother before she died was that you'd protect your baby sister at all costs. Now she shows up, somehow having found out about what really happened, and demands that you tell her about it. You know that it's going to hurt her, bad, so what do you do?

And everyone reaches their limit at some point, it just so happened that Tony reached his just as he explained to his sister about the truth.

Tell me what you think. Do you think that it was wrong of Arabella's brothers to have not told her about how her parents died or do you think that they did the right thing by keeping it from her?

Alllllllllllsoooooooooooo, how about that little Alex/Arabella bit at the end? Didn't know Alexander could be sucha sweetie, eh? ;) If you're wondering where that came from, keep in mind his confession from the previous chapter. Despite his claims that he's a heartless bastard, remember that he does have a sweet side.

Anyways, thanks for reading!

Peace, love, and lies.

Xoxo thedarkangel22