We climbed up the front steps to the familiar Cullen household. Everything was exactly the same as last time, except for the addition of Jacob's car parked outside on the driveway.
With Amethyst in her baby carrier held in my left hand, Marcus knocked on the door for me since I was kinda preoccupied with the child. During the plane ride, we'd changed Amethyst's clothes out of her vomit-covered onesie and Aro'd had to change too, much to our amusement.
Through the clear glass of the door, I saw Esme hurrying down the stairs excitedly, and I had no idea how she was managing to move so quickly in her heels. She opened the door for us and, as predicted, her attention first was on the baby.
She gasped and spoke in an almost sickly sweet high-pitched voice. "And who's this little one?"
I laughed under my breath. "This is Amethyst. Amethyst, this is Esme," I cooed at her. Not that she understood a word of what I said, but it was worth a shot.
"She is simply gorgeous, isn't she?" Esme smiled at her and then turned her attention back to us. "Eli, Aro, Caius, Marcus, wonderful to have you back so soon. Would you like to come in?"
"That would be wonderful thank you," Aro responded politely as Esme led us through to the front room.
Inside the front room, Emmett, Jasper, Nessie, and Jacob were playing an intense game of Mario Kart on the TV. The others were spectating, some more eagerly than others (you can guess who).
A few heads turned at a time, some a little too fixated on the game to properly notice us enter. Surprisingly, Rose was the first one to dash over to me—well, not me, the baby.
"Oh my goodness, is this little Amethyst?" she cooed, crouching in front of her.
Caius took the baby carrier from me and held it up out of reach, subtly shielding her from the family. It wasn't like I was exactly surprised though, since Caius was the most protective of her out of all of us, flinching at even the most minor of threats.
"Uh, yeah, everyone," I addressed the room, "this is Amethyst, our new little addition to the Volturi."
Alice gasped and placed a hand over her unbeating heart. "Aw, and you even dressed her in one of the onesies I gave her," she sighed.
"Yeah, she threw up all over Aro on the plane here so we had to change both of them," I giggled.
Bella seemed excited too. I couldn't exactly blame her, since she'd missed most of Nessie's time while she was Amethyst's physical age. "How old is she?" she asked, attempting to smile at the confused baby.
"47 days," I responded. "She's already marginally bigger than she was a few weeks ago."
A few came to coo over the baby some more, expressing how angelic and adorable she was. I was surprised to find that Amethyst was actually tolerating this many people much better than I'd initially expected her to. Everything was going fine, until . . .
"Are you kidding me?"
I turned my head towards the source of the sound. Jacob looked absolutely fuming, his hands clenched tightly into fists. Out of the corner of my eye, Caius handed Amethyst over to Marcus, who lifted her out of the carrier and held her protectively in his arms. At the threat, I instinctively crouched slightly in front of Amethyst, Aro and Caius doing the same either side.
"Jake, stop it," Bella hissed.
"No, no, I will not stop it," Jacob snarled, and then turned his murderous eyes to me. "How irresponsible could you possibly be to adopt a human?! That baby isn't safe with you, you eat other members of her species!"
"I'd stay out of this if I were you, Chihuahua," I murmured with an underlying threat in my tone. I was so ready to fight him, right here if I had to.
Carlisle attempted to break off the fight. "Jacob, maybe now is not the time-"
"If not now, then when?" he snapped. "All it takes is one split second for her or any of them to lose control. I've seen it happen with you bloodsuckers before, and I will not stand around and watch it happen again." His next question was aimed directly at me. "How could you be so selfish?!"
I placed a hand in front of Aro to stop him advancing. "Selfish?!" I laughed in disbelief at how much of an asshole he was being. "You're calling me selfish now, Jacob?" I spat his name in his direction. "You don't know the first thing about this baby, or about any of the shit I've been through for this past month, so if I were you, I'd keep your ugly trap closed and stay out of my business. Got it?"
"You're putting an innocent human's life in danger for your own twisted agenda?" he accused in a hiss.
"Twisted agenda my ass, who told you that? Do you want to know why I adopted a human baby out of nowhere? Fine, I'll tell you. This baby is my biological sister." Jacob shrank back suddenly in surprise. "Yeah, that got you, didn't it? My mum died giving birth to her, and my dad was kidnapped and turned into a Child of the Moon, now out to destroy all vampires, enslave and torture humans, and destroy the world. So yeah, that's why I adopted Amethyst, not because I'm the twisted psychopath you make me out to be!
"You may think you mutts are soooo much better than all of us low life bloodsucking leeches. But, shockingly enough, we have morals too. We were once human, and our human morals remain. In no way are we soulless monsters. I would never allow anyone to harm my baby, not even myself, so how dare you even imply that of me or my coven," I hissed.
There was a long silence for a moment, most in shock and awe of my little speech. Okay, so maybe I was getting a little touchy, but Jacob did need to be taken down a few pegs and shown his place i.e. not meddling with my life and my family where his wolf-y claws didn't belong.
Carlisle broke the silence, barely taking his startled eyes off me. "Jacob, maybe you should go to the reservation with Renesmee for a while," he offered, politely kicking him out of the house.
"No," I interjected as I began to rise from my crouched position along with my mates, "he needs to be present for our reason for this visit."
"Okay," Carlisle said slowly, confusedly, "do take a seat, Eli."
I sat down on the end of one of the sofas. Aro sat beside me while Caius perched himself on the armrest, and Marcus stood back, still shielding Amethyst warily.
"I assume this is about your father," Alice guessed.
I nodded slowly. "The Children of the Moon, as many of you know, are werewolves, but nothing like the shape-shifters. Once shifted, they become very hostile, deadly, bloodthirsty. If one vampire were to fight against one wolf, the wolf will always win.
"They've been opposed to the Volturi's way of ruling for many years. They claim to believe our secrecy of the supernatural world is . . . unnatural. They 'have rights to humans', they treat them as livestock, only used to reproduce and as food."
I carefully studied everyone's expressions, especially Jacob's. The Cullens seemed somewhat unsurprised, but apparently Children of the Moon were common knowledge to the supernatural world. Jacob, however, was genuinely interested, nodding his head in understanding as I continued.
"Now, since the Volturi hunted them down for centuries, they're planning a rebellion of sorts. Roughly 50 Children of the Moon," everyone's jaws dropped at that number, "are preparing to overthrow our rule. The pack's commander in chief is my dad.
"We'll be putting up a fight, of course, but we don't have nearly enough numbers alone. That's why we ask, not for our sake but for humans' sake, that you help us fight."
"Should you accept our offer of alliance," Aro continued, "you will be provided with accommodation with the Volturi and training on combat with the Children of the Moon. I do not even want to begin to imagine what should happen if we lose this war, Carlisle."
Carlisle nodded thoughtfully with his hands under his chin. "And you're certain there's no other option?"
"Dad!" Rose screeched. "Are you seriously suggesting we fight? We risk everything we've worked towards? For the Volturi?!"
I grimaced at the shrill tone of her voice. "Rosie-Posie, calm down. This isn't for us, remember that. You know 'everything you've worked for'? That'll be gone if we lose this, this all," I gestured around me wildly, "will be gone if we lose this. Don't you see the severity of the situation?"
"We will stand with you," Carlisle announced. "This kind of threat is not to be taken lightly, not by any means."
There were varying levels of enthusiasm to the family's reactions. Rose and Edward both seemed furious, Bella and Esme more nervous than anything, Alice's expression remained neutral, and Jasper and Emmett just seemed pumped at the thought of going up against wolves. Those boys loved a good war.
Nessie worriedly went over to her mother who pulled her into her arms and soothed her. Of course, she was only a child.
"Why did I need to be here for this?" Jacob asked.
"Oh, yeah, about that," I laughed to relieve some of the tension in the room, "when Carlisle carried out tests on your blood, he realised you Chihuahuas are immune to Child of the Moon venom, unlike us."
"What does it do to us?" Bella questioned worriedly.
I sighed. "It causes paralysis, and eventual death. Other than tearing an immortal apart limb-for-limb, werewolf venom is the only other way to kill one of us. The venom can be drained for the body, as was done to my arm," I rolled up my sleeve and showed them the bleak grey scar, "but it isn't a pleasant experience."
Carlisle flitted in front of me and held my previously injured arm. "May I take a look? I am simply curious, that's all."
"Help yourself, Doc," I giggled as he examined my arm closely, his eyebrows furrowed together.
After a few awkward moments, he let go of my arm once more. "It appears the tissue there, though identical to that of an immortal, is completely discoloured."
"Back to the point I was trying to make before I was rudely interrupted," I playfully glared at Bella who did the same to me in return, "Jake-y, your packs are immune to the venom that kills us. Not only that, but you're almost as strong as the wolves. It would take much less of you to destroy one. That's why we ask that you join us too."
Jacob scoffed. "And why would we do that?"
"Because you're good people, devoted to protecting humankind. Do I need to repeat the list of what they do to humans? Because the list I provided you is actually a toned-down version of what they've actually been known to do."
He sighed. "The pack will fight. Unlike you, wolves don't scare us. If you wanted the Uley pack to join, though, you've got another thing coming."
The door burst open and two people came storming into the room. I instantly recognised them as Seth and Leah, since I had met them on occasion. Usually, Leah and I kept our distance, occasionally glaring at each other or immaturely sticking our tongues out, but Seth seemed friendly enough. Usually.
"Jacob, you idiot!" Leah yelled. "We don't help bloodsuckers, that's, like, the whole point in the pack! I still don't get why you're Alpha, it's just embarrassing."
"That I do agree with," I chimed in.
She spun around to smirk at me and then went back to glaring at Jacob. "You seriously want to do this? What reason do we have to help leeches, forget about evil leeches?!"
"Evil is rather harsh," Marcus argued.
"Evil, demonic, whatever." She waved her hand over her shoulder nonchalantly and placed her hands on her hips.
Jacob sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What choice do we have? As Eli said," that was the first time he'd used my actual name, "this isn't for them. No one cares about them, but the humans? We'd be hypocrites to stand back and watch them suffer because we didn't fight to defend them."
Leah stamped her foot on the ground defeatedly with an angry squeal and stormed out of the house. Seth followed her with an amused look on his face, high-fiving me as he left.
There was silence for a moment. I clapped my hands together and smiled. "Well, that could've gone worse."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: Yay, we back in Forks! I feel like this chapter was uneventful, but it's definitely an important one to include.
Smeyer's portrayal of the packs being angry assholes really annoyed me, and I like to think they're actually good, patient people who will fight for what is right, even if it means helping the vampires. Their duty is to protect humankind, after all.
Side note, I thought of a really fun HP fic I'm considering writing at some point in the future. I swear, I come up with ideas faster than I actually write haha.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love to hear your thoughts, stay safe, and ily lots!