CPOV
"Carlisle, can you please come downstairs?" Edward's voice calls to me from downstairs.
It's almost 6:00 on Christmas morning and I'm in bed with Esme. She's curled around me like I'm her lifeline and there's nowhere else I'd rather be. For Edward to call me away from her means something is wrong.
"I'll be right down." I whisper knowing that he will hear me.
I carefully extract myself from Esme's hold and slowly get out of bed. As soon as my weight is gone, Esme reaches for me in her sleep and settles for cuddling with my pillow when she doesn't find me. Once I know she's settled, I go downstairs to find all of my kids gathered in the living room. Sitting on the coffee table in front of them is a plain white envelope.
"What's going on?" I ask immediately.
"We were sorting through the mail when we found this." Jasper says, holding up the envelope to show me. "It's addressed to Esme."
A frown that matches all of theirs comes across my face.
"But no one knows she's here." I tell them.
"That's why this is odd." Edward says. "The only one who knew where we live and that we are connected to her was the PI, meaning…Charles knows."
My frown drops further and I reach for the envelope. It's the same size as the Christmas cards that we have scattered around from other vampire families and friends. I look all over for a return address, but don't find one, all that's written on it is "Esme Evenson" followed by our address. I don't even think twice before turning it over and tearing open the flap. Inside is a generic Christmas card: the front is a picture of a snowy forest that says "Merry Christmas" in curly font in the bottom corner. When I open it, I growl and I can feel my lips curling back over my teeth. Inside is a photo of Esme and I that day in the mall, but parts of the picture have been burned out: my face and…Esme's pregnant belly. Breathing deep, I move the picture aside and read the cursive writing on the inside: "The holidays are a time to be with family, and from ours to yours, Merry Christmas." Charles has taken a red pen and underlined the word family. Underneath the printed words, is one handwritten sentence: "You're MINE, and I'm coming for you."
"God dammit!" I roar and throw the card across the room. All of my kids are looking at me with stunned faces. This is probably the first time they've heard me curse, and I'm sure they can count on one hand the times they've seen my temper. Edward is the one who recovers first and growls in frustration, of course he's the only one other than me who knows what that card said. Alice quickly retrieves the card and each of them growl when they read it.
"Did you see anything about this Alice?" I ask after I've gotten my temper under control.
"No" she whispers "Nothing. He must have done it on a whim. He couldn't have planned it, or I definitely would have seen it."
"It's okay, darling." Jasper murmurs rubbing her back. We can all tell that she feels guilty, but I don't blame her for this.
"It's not your fault, Ali." I tell her.
"So what do we do?" Bella asks after a minute.
"We hunt him and down and kill him. Simple." I knew Rosalie would say that, and I'm not completely against it.
"That seems like a good plan to me." Emmett says shrugging.
The kids all look to me and I can tell their waiting for my approval. There's nothing I want more than to kill Charles with my bare hands…except to keep my promises to Esme.
"No." I say firmly. "We will not seek him out to kill him. I made a promise to my mate and I will not break it. However, if he comes here, I will kill him myself."
"So we just wait?" Rosalie asks. "Wait for him to come after her?"
"He doesn't even know for sure that she's here. My guess is he's fishing for a response. He knows her and he knows exactly how to manipulate her. He knows that if she's here and she reads that, she'll run. Once she's out in the open, she will be easier for him to find." Jasper says.
"So there's no countermove for this?" Emmett asks.
"I don't think so. We continue doing what we've been doing. If she doesn't run, he will assume she isn't here." Jasper says.
"That's pretty risky."
I can't help but shake my head to agree with Edward.
"Not when you think about it, Edward. She's never alone. If he comes here, he's dead. If he doesn't, than that means he's out looking somewhere else for her."
Everyone is quiet as they think about Jasper's plan. Logically, I know that there's no chance of Esme being in danger. We never leave her alone, and he's no match for us. However, my mating instincts are telling me to run as fast as I can, and kill Charles in the slowest way possible.
"Fine. We wait." I bark out. "But no one tells Esme one word about this."
I won't have her panicking and worrying, and I definitely don't want her to run.
"Carlisle..are you sure?" Bella says quietly. She knows it's dangerous to question a newly mated vampire on his mating instincts, but I have enough self-control to keep myself in check.
"I'm sure." I tell them before turning toward the stairs. "Hide that." I tell them pointing at the card. All I want right now is to hold Esme. I'm not sure I'll be able to let her go until this whole thing is over.
I don't waste a second once I enter my room, I quickly climb into bed with Esme and pull my shirt over my head, I need to feel her against my skin. She automatically comes to me, and I put my arms around her and hold her tight. She will never be in danger, from herself or from someone else, I won't allow it.
I don't even realize that Esme is awake until I hear her voice.
"What's wrong?" she asks, running her fingertips over my furrowed brow.
"Nothing, love." I smile at her. "I'm just wondering how long Emmett is going to wait to open presents."
"Come on guys!" Emmett yells from downstairs and we laugh.
"Come on let's go." She tells me, and with a quick kiss she's bouncing out of bed. I chase after her as she runs down the stairs laughing, and when I finally catch her, I pick her up like a bride.
"Hey, I want a real good morning kiss." I tell her. Her eyes are sparkling and I smile at her. Leaning in, she kisses me soft and deep. She pokes her tongue out to taste my lips, but quickly pulls back when I try to tangle my tongue with hers.
"No time for that. We have presents to open." she tells me with a wicked grin.
"Okay, come on." I don't bother putting her down, I just plop onto the couch with her in my lap.
"Oh yeah! Present time!" Emmett says rubbing his hands together and sitting on the floor by the tree.
Each person hands out the presents that they bought and soon we each have a small pile of gifts at our feet. We always give gifts as couples, and I've never been happier to share my pile of presents. Each couple opens their gifts from the others and then we split up so mates can exchange gifts in private. I always get to go first, and now Esme does too.
I hand Esme the worst wrapped gift in the pile and I know it's from Emmett and Rosalie.
"Still letting Emmett wrap the Christmas presents, Rose?" I ask her and smile when she rolls her eyes.
"He insists every year, even though he's horrible at it."
Esme opens the large box and finds two packages inside. She lets out a laugh when she sees that they are also wrapped and hands me the one with my name on it.
"We wanted to get you each something that you would like instead of one present for you both." Emmett says.
Esme gestures for me to open mine first and I do. Inside I find a medical journal from the 1700s. It's very rare and beautiful. I'm itching to read it.
"This is amazing you guys. Thank you so much." I tell them.
I nod at Esme to open hers and when she does theres another book inside. This one is a spiral bound book with a picture of a silhouette of a pregnant woman on the cover.
"It's a pregnancy journal." Esme whispers. "It's beautiful. Thank you."
She immediately starts looking through it and I laugh.
"We can look at that together later, love. We have more gifts to open."
She smiles and lays her present on the seat next to us.
I let her choose the next gift and she chooses the thin, rectangle box sitting on top. She opens it slowly and curiously, and inside finds a key. She looks up at Bella and Edward curiously and they smile at us.
"It's the key to our beach house. We know you can't go out in public, but the house is completely private as is the beach. You guys can have it for as long as you like, whenever you need a break from here." Bella says.
"Wow, thank you both so much. I would love to go and get away from all of this snow." Esme groans and I laugh.
"We can go whenever you want, love." I whisper in her ear and she smiles up at me. Her eyes are shining so beautifully that I can't help, but lean down and give her a sweet kiss.
"It's your turn to open one." Esme says against my lips.
The last one in the pile is from Alice and Jasper. I carefully rip open the paper to find another box, this one isn't wrapped. When I open that box, I pull out something that's wrapped in bubble wrap. Once I've finally gotten it unwrapped, I look curiously at Alice and Jasper.
"Penguins?"
"Have you ever heard about when a penguin finds his mate?" Alice asks and we shake our heads. "There's a legend that when a male penguin finds his mate, he will scour the beach to find the perfect pebble to present to her. Once he does they become a couple, and they will never part. They will be mates forever, just like you."
"That's beautiful." Esme says looking up at me.
The elegant, sleek glass figurine of two cuddling penguins now has new meaning for me, and I know that it will have a place in our bedroom forever.
"That's perfect you guys. Thank you." I tell them honestly.
I wipe a tear from Esme's cheek and kiss her softly. The moment is broken once again by Emmett.
"WHOOP! Our turn!"
By the time everyone has finished opening presents, Esme's stomach is growling and the kids each come to kiss our cheeks before going upstairs to exchange their gifts in private. Samson is in the corner chewing his Christmas bone when Esme and I go into the kitchen so she can have breakfast, which turns out to be a Christmas tree made out of cinnamon rolls the kids made earlier and set to warm.
Esme eats several before she is full, and she practically bounces up the stairs to our room. I've never seen her so carefree, and I love it.
When I come into my bedroom, all I see is Esme's rear-end sticking out from where she's digging under the bed.
"Found it!" she yells and quickly wiggles out. Her hair is a mess, but the beaming smile on her face is gorgeous.
She's holding a small box in her hands; its perfectly wrapped and even has a small red ribbon wrapped around it.
"Hold on, love." I tell her before going into the closet and getting her present out of it's hiding place.
We take up our positions sitting on the bed just like when we opened our pajamas yesterday.
"Here, I want you to go first." She says handing me my present.
"No, love. Ladies first."
"Please" she says with a pout and sad eyes. She could talk me into anything with that face.
"Okay" I grumble.
The small wrapped box fits in my hand and I can't help but wonder what she could have gotten me. I carefully untie the ribbon, unwrap the box, and lift the lid; inside is a gorgeous golden pocket watch.
"It's an antique Riverside Waltham Hunter pocket watch, circa 1903. Open it."
Flipping the lid carefully, I find that she had the inside engraved: "You Are My Once Upon a Time"
"It's true, Carlisle. You are my fairytale. I never thought I could ever love and be loved like this. Everything about our life is perfect, we have perfect kids, a perfect fur baby, and a perfect peanut on the way. Thank you Carlisle. Thank you for my fairytale." She tells me and I reverently set the pocket watch onto the night stand before taking her face in my hands.
"My life is nothing without you in it." I whisper before pressing my lips to hers. I quickly lick her lips and devour her mouth. When she needs air, I kiss my way from her lips, down her jaw, and to her neck.
"I love you. I love you. I love you." I mumble against her skin as I suck it into my mouth. She feels so good in my hands and I'll never get enough of her taste on my tongue.
"Carlisle..mmm..Carlisle I have to…oh right there…I want to open my present." She mumbles as I nibble on her skin. I place one last gentle kiss on her lips before pulling back.
"Thank you so much, angel. I'll treasure it forever." I run my fingers along the engraving on the pristine gold.
"You're welcome. Now it's my turn." The sweet smile on her face makes me laugh and I give her the present in my lap.
I've discovered that she is a slow unwrapper, taking her time, and enjoying it. I love watching the happiness on her face as she rips the paper.
"Oh Carlisle, it's beautiful." She whispers pulling out the necklace. It's a white gold lariat necklace with pearls and what looks like a leaf made out of the metal.
"May I?" I ask holding my hand out so I can put the necklace on her. She quickly hands it to me and turns around. She lifts her hair away from her gorgeous neck and I place a kiss on the bare skin after fixing the clasp.
"When I saw this, it reminded me of your story of climbing trees. You told me that you loved being up in a tree because you felt free. I want you to always feel like you can do anything, unrestricted with no strings attached. I want you to be free to do whatever you put your mind to. You deserve to feel, everyday, what you felt like sitting on those branches looking at the sky….well before that evil bird."
She laughs through her tears and I kiss each tear off of her cheeks.
"I love you so much, Esme."
"I love you too, Carlisle. Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas, angel."