Chapter Sixteen

Alec didn't touch her for the first few days after they had learnt they were to be married, as though the guilt that lay within him had awoken with a vengeance. He would propose to her in proper time, they had all the time in the world.

Or at least once upon a time they would have had all the time in the world but because they had decided to have their purity taken away and given to each other it meant they had to properly marry. She'd probably have to wear anything but white, since in the eyes of some of the vampires in the castle she had whored herself away to her mate before she could walk down the aisle dressed in the cliche white wedding dress.

To say the least, some things in their chambers had been broken, including the very mirror she had stood in front of when she was making sure she would indeed become intimate with him that very night. Her hand went right through the glass and shattered it, causing blood to come flowing from her hand and staining not only the glass but also the white Italian marble she was standing on.

It was fitting, she thought, as she fell onto the ground, and onto the blood. She had caused an alarm from one of the vampires that were on patrol. They had smelt the blood even from the corridor and had called Marcus along with Alec to the chambers since they knew they wouldn't have the same bloodlust someone who wasn't mated or related to them did.

Eventually, Alec began to talk to her again. Then they began to touch each other, but he had claimed he wasn't going to make love to her again until after they would get married. She didn't know how to feel about it but at least it was only a month until he would make love to her. It wasn't as though he said he'd never touch her again, because it would only bring bad things.

Today she was standing on a little podium in one of the numerous elegant rooms. Her wedding dress was a bluish-purple sky hue, which let Bella know she was right. She wasn't going to be able to wear white on her own wedding day. It wasn't as though she was upset with it, it just reminded her of the old traditions that needed to be gotten rid of.

In fact, her dress was tulle with a heart shaped neckline and off the shoulder sleeves went to her wrists. There were diamond flowers and sapphire butterflies that were sewn throughout the tulle. Her dark hair was pulled up in an elegant bun and there was a darker blue veil that was hooked to the back of it made her look even more unique. She loved it, and how the blue looked on her, but it was just a reminder how her own wedding was out of her control, it wasn't supposed to even be happening until at least another year or two.

"You look beautiful."

Bella peered into the mirror, her brown eyes landing on the figures she could see. Her lips were pressed tight together as she saw the Cullen women in the room. Rosalie made sure to stay clear from her, but although Alice wasn't ever going to be a best friend, she still would have a nice friendship with her. Esme on the other hand, she had this motherly essence that was around her, as though she was hoping Bella would come to her and want to have a mother in her life again.

Bella didn't need nor wanted a new mother. Her mother was dead, six feet under the ground in Forks. She hadn't trusted her own daughter and told her about having that brain tumor. She could have let Bella be there for her, but she didn't tell her. So, their relationship, which already was in odd standing when she was alive, disintegrated.

"Shouldn't I be beautiful in my wedding dress? After all I'm getting married in three and a half weeks," Bella softly said, giving a tight smile towards one of the fashion designers that had made her dress.

The woman came up with a necklace that had sapphires and diamonds clustered in the shape of rose petals. She hooked some earrings into Bella's ears once she had draped the large necklace around her neck. She smiled brightly; a human fashion designer who was going to get taken care of after the wedding if she didn't, please the Volturi when it came to the wedding.

Or at least that would have happened, if it weren't for the fact that Bella had recently heard one of the visiting vampires from Norway had learnt the fashion designer was their mate. The visiting vampire owned some of the wealthiest fashion companies, and she had been more than excited when she had let her eyes land on this woman…Hillary?

"Brides should be happy planning for their weddings," Hillary proclaimed, as she moved away and clasped her hands together, allowing Bella to see what she would look like in all her bridal glory in a couple of weeks. Hillary had done amazing, and Bella told her so–enough that Hillary blushed before she had thanked her profusely.

"I'm having a difficult time being happy when I was planning on marrying Alec after I became a vampire. Now I'm getting married before I become one. This is the only thing I hate about the Volturi–" Bella whispered, her voice shaky as her hands went down and touched the tulle fabric that both stuck her skin but also bellowed around her.

"Good. You've finally found something that you hate about this place. I thought that you were kidnapped and forced into Stockholm Syndrome. Now you've come back to the real world. It's not all diamonds and pretty dresses and fairy tale endings," Rosalie spat, her eyes narrowing at the human girl in the room. There was no apologetic look upon her face nor did she look like she was going to apologize for what she had just said.

Bella straightened her back up higher and pulled her hands away from her skirt and let them clasp together.

"I'm not some ditzy girl, Rosalie Hale. I might have had my memory taken away from me to an extent. I invited the family here, but even then, I didn't ask for just you out of your family to be here. You could have decided to stay wherever you were before you got the invitation to come and see my transformation. I'm not the same Bella as before, none of you hold enough of an emotional attachment to when it comes to demanding you stay."

Rosalie studied Bella, as she stood upon that podium with her heart and soul laid bare while she was being forced to try on her wedding dress only two weeks after nineteenth birthday. Bella stared at her back, challenged in those brown eyes of hers. She wasn't going to let Rosalie feel as though she had any power over her because the simple truth was none of the Cullens held any power over her.

She was beginning to wonder why she even invited the Cullens to Volterra to see her transformation. The only good thing that came from it was Edward arriving. It was learning Edward Cullen was the mate of Jane Volturi. He would become her brother-in-law one day. Within the next few weeks, he would become her future brother-in-law for one day he would marry Jane and they would be in the same family, through marriage but not to each other.

"I'm not staying for you; I'm staying for my family. You can be rest assured when I leave this castle after the wedding and your transformation I will never step within this village and castle again," Rosalie vowed, before she spun on her heels and stalked out of the fitting room–the doors slammed shut behind her quite loudly.

Hillary flinched from the strength of the slam, knowing in time she would become accustomed to doors slamming and opening. Her mate, Violetta, never slammed doors or made loud noises. She was gentle and sweet to the fashion designer and bared her teeth at anyone who made Hillary's anxiety rise up.

This Rosalie Hale wouldn't help with her mental health for the remaining weeks before the wedding in mid-October. At least the bride was nice, even if she was depressed with having to be forced to marry her vampiric mate long before she wanted to marry him.

Esme and Alice left a moment later, partly because they could tell that Bella wanted to be alone, and another being they weren't asked to come. They had hoped if they had come, they could give advice to Bella, tell her good things about marriage but the truth was, Bella had to remind them all the time they had lost that relationship they had with her when they had left last year. She had nothing to remember them by, except for entries.

Even when it came to that she hadn't gotten to know them as much as she had wanted to. The very day she had gone to their house to officially meet them she ended up gaining the attention of James and his coven. All three members of the coven were dead: James by the Cullens and Laurent and Victoria were both murdered by the wolves. Well, more like mauled to death, and it was the least of what they deserved for what they put her through.

"My Queens!"

Hillary fell onto the ground, her head down towards the stone floor she was once standing on. Her eyes stayed down, so she wouldn't be looking up and showing any type of disobedience towards her now future queens.

Bella pulled herself out of her musing, her eyes flickering towards the mirror only to see two elegant women entering the room.

One of them had fair hued hair that cascaded halfway down her back, the top of her hair was pinned back while a diamond headpiece was upon her head–there were diamond chains that looped down on the sides of her headpiece. She had powdery skin and brilliant crimson irises that showed no emotion towards Bella. She wore an obsidian gown; the sleeves were sewn over the simple dipped downwards gown in a jacket like manner with the sleeves going past her wrists and ending a few inches away from her longest fingers. There were pure diamond flowers that were sewn into the top of the sleeves, where the collar was higher than the rest of the dress. There were diamond chains that were sewn around the roses to make them look like vines with leaves.

The other woman had darker blonde slightly curly hair that fell a little past her armpits. Unlike the other queen her themes in her dress were snow white and gold. The neckline of the dress rested right below her collarbones so there was no immodest cleavage showing unlike her sister-in-law. The sleeves were bellowed while a cape was sewn upon the back of the white gown. The top of the cape along with the top of the neckline were covered with golden leaves and golden flowers. She had a similar headpiece as her vampire queen sister had but she had topaz stones instead of diamonds.

"So, this is the mortal woman who spread her legs and brought us to this momentous moment," the light blonde haired said, her voice rich and cold. Bella's eyes widened at what she had just heard, her mouth falling open and her face becoming hot in both embarrassment and anger.

"You have forgotten dear sister this isn't just any mortal woman in our presence. She is Marcus's descendant. You, my dear, are one of her ancestors through marriage," the darker blonde commented, her voice bland but with an edge which allowed the other queen to take a step back and analyze what she had just said to Bella.

"Then this is even more of an insult! We hold purity over everything! To lay with a man or woman before marriage is abominable! If you were not mated to my nephew and are related to me through marriage I would have you executed!" the darker blonde haired seethed, which let Bella know this was Queen Sulpicia–Aro's wife.

The doors to the fitting room were thrown open and their husbands came into the room. Queen Sulpicia went over to her husband without hesitation and put her hand against his cheek. He stiffened for a moment before he allowed himself to be transported to her thoughts, only for him to push her away from him in disappointment. She pouted, and went to open her mouth, only for him to give her another warning look. He obviously wasn't happy with how his wife was treating Bella.

"Sulpicia, we have talked about this. We cannot go back in time and correct the mistake that was made. She is still family, through marriage but she is still family. As a family that means we treat each other with the utmost respect, isn't that correct, Athendora?"

Athendora without hesitation bobbed down in a curtsey, giving a warm smile towards Bella a moment later. "Of course, brother! I am looking forward to adding her into our family permanently. I am glad Marcus has a newfound blood relative."

Bella gave a nervous smile that was barely on her lips, enough for Athendora to come over to her. She held out her hand towards Bella, as though to ask her to take her hand. Bella turned her attention towards Caius. He studied the scene in front of him but like she expected, he was very stone faced when he was probably in public but in private, he must have had his own side he liked to show to his wife. Just like it was with her and Alec, even if he weren't very stone faced to begin with.

Bella took her hand and got off the podium, enough for Athendora to give her another reassuring smile.

"I am sorry about my sister; she is still stuck in the original Volturi Laws. Unlike I, I made sure to not push away change. I would be glad for you to come up to the tower sometime so that we can get to know each other better."

"Enough Sulpicia, we'll talk about this later. You are rude. In fact, come, I will take you back to the tower. Athendora you are allowed to stay, if you want. Of course, that is if Caius is okay with it," Aro declared, enough for Caius to nod his head later.

"I will come and get you in an hour," Caius decided and went to leave the fitting room with Aro only to turn around and look at Bella. "You look beautiful, Isabella. You look like a proper bride. My nephew is a lucky man to call you, his mate."

Bella blushed before she thanked him. She hadn't expected for him to tell her this. Thankfully Athendora didn't seem as though she was bothered with her husband complimenting Bella. Sulpicia on the other hand narrowed her eyes at Bella, it was obvious that she did not like her. She must have even hated being a marital ancestral of Bella's.

Aro walked out of the fitting room with Sulpicia, and Caius dipped his head down as though to bid them goodbye. As soon as they were gone, Hillary and Athendora turned around and helped Bella out of her bridal dress and other items, such as the necklace and the veil.

Once Bella was back in her usual clothes, Athendora took one of Bella's hands in hers before they went to the sitting chairs that were in the corner of the room, facing in an angled manner towards the podium. Bella sat down while Hillary put away her bridal dress and accessories for safe keeping. Bella played with her fingers as she waited for Athendora to speak.

"I am certain I am not what you expected. My husband is known for being the least friendly king. I also got on to him for what he said to you when he learnt about you and Alec consummating your relationship. He is not as bad as my sister, Sulpicia is known for her harshness. She has always thought herself better than me because her husband is gifted," Athendora confessed, there was an annoyance and sadness that came from her, at the fact that her surrogate sister was icy towards Bella.

"Thank you for being welcoming. I was afraid that you would not like me for as you said 'consummating', my relationship with Alec. As soon as I learnt that we had broken an old Volturi Law I expected for there to be nothing good to come from you or Queen Sulcipia," Bella admitted, making sure she was looking away from Athendora when she said this.

"You need not look away from me when you speak the truth. I would rather have someone be truthful to me than lie to me or try to soften what they say. As I said before, I am someone who can handle the truth. My dear sister, Didyme, was the same way. She didn't feel as though she should have someone not tell the truth. Her happiness was nothing more than a breath of fresh air."

Bella nodded her head.

She knew Jane and Alec were the same way, even Demetri and Felix wanted people to not lie to them. She was certain there were others like Sulpicia that did not care for the truth if it didn't make her look good. She could only imagine what Alec would do when he would learn of the development that had happened today, with her and the queens.

In fact, later in the day, after dinner, Bella was sitting in the sitting area of the chambers she had with Alec. Alec came into the sitting room after having his own dinner. She tried to keep herself from thinking about the human(s) that Alec drank from. The only thing that kept her from staying awake in the middle of the night was knowing he and the rest of the coven did not go after children. They were not that heartless.

He went over to Bella and bent his head down so he could kiss her on the top of her head. She gave a warm smile towards him, before he sat down in the chair that was next to hers. Without hesitation she told him what had happened when she was trying on her wedding dress, and he listened to her intently though his fingers embedded themselves into the elegant and gilded arms of the chair when he had learned of what Sulpicia had done.

"Father knows what I think about Mother. I am certain she will not be glad to have you as her daughter-in-law. I am also certain she would never welcome any woman into her life that would end up marrying me. The only saving grace is Father will make sure to put her in her place. He will be able to see if she had done anything after it happened, and make sure that she will not do it again.

"There will be times in which I will want nothing more than to go toe-to-toe with my own mother. We do not have a healthy relationship. At least Father has accepted you with open arms, and Uncle Marcus. I know that Uncle Caius will slowly come around to you."

"I only wish I would be allowed to wear white to our wedding. I will not tell you the color they chose for me, but I am pleased with the color," Bella confessed, there was both irritation and sadness that came from her voice.

They didn't talk about the wedding nor her fitting for her wedding dress the rest of the night. There was a part of them that was glad they were getting married, it might be tiny, but the bigger part was complicated. They were being forced to marry without having an actual opinion. Their courtship was taken away from them with harshness despite the softness that came from Aro and Marcus. They were angered by the dismissal that came from Caius and the hatred that was from Sulpicia all because of her pettiness.

Time sped up, and before long it was only a week and a half before the wedding. Bella had been rechecked to make sure her wedding dress would still fit. She didn't look at herself in the mirror, instead she smiled at how Hillary was telling her about how she was happily court shipping with Violetta. She would get to be married to Violetta in the future, but that would be when they would be able to legally get married.

Heidi came into the fitting room this time, Athendora was up in the tower. She knew she would only be able to come down when the wedding would happen for right now. Bella just was happy she had gotten a blessing from one of the queens, even if it weren't from her future mother-in-law.

It would be her surrogate aunt and that meant more to her than she thought. She would think of Athendora as her future vampire mother, this much Bella was certain.

"I got you something."

Bella turned her head towards Heidi, curiosity was burning from her as she noticed the woman came into the fitting room with a clothing bag that held something in it. She opened it and pulled out a beautiful white wedding dress, enough for Bella to have her mouth open in shock.

"I got you a wedding dress!"

"What? But what about this one?"

"Fuck it! You should wear what you want to wear, and I won't let them have you wear something you don't want to wear. Besides, Queen Athendora managed to convince King Aro and King Caius to let you have a white wedding dress after all. King Marcus of course would be fine with it. The only one who wasn't pleased with it is Queen Sulpicia but she doesn't hold as much power as she thinks she does," Heidi informed her, her chest puffing some and a smirk dancing upon her bright red lipstick covered lips. She was a force to be reckoned with.

Bella changed out of her wedding attire and instead put on the wedding attire she was being gifted. It was a white tulle lace dress that bellowed out and fell almost a foot around the bottom of her dress. There were white lace flowers that were spread throughout the tulle dress. There were sheer sleeves that were butterfly styled, where she would pull her arms up so that the sleeves would spread out as though they were wings. There were flowers that were on the part of the wedding dress that was covered around her neck and sheer that was sewn around her neckline.

Tears fell down her cheekbones and she sniffled some. She bawled out when a white veil was placed upon her head that trailed even further away from the skirts of her dress. She even had Queen Didyme's necklace she had been gifted to by Marcus around her neck, as though to honor her ancestor. It suited this dress, and it was almost as though this necklace was meant for the wedding dress.

"Thank you so much, Heidi. You have become like a sister to me also. Jane better watches out, you are quite a competitor to be my favorite sister," Bella joked, enough for Heidi to laugh at what she had said.

"No thank you. I love you, Bella, but I don't think you need to say that. I might be a force to be reckoned with but so is Jane. We sisters gotta stick together, not against each other," Heidi reminded Bella, earning a nod from her.

Since Heidi was the main feminist of the Volturi she always taught Bella how to be a more powerful and accepting female. She also made sure Bella would have the wedding she should have, even if the circumstances weren't ideal.

Running her fingers against her wedding dress, Bella was for the first time excited for her wedding in a week and a half. She was also excited for Alec to see her walking down the aisle in a white dress in the castle's cathedral that was further on the grounds. It was what they deserved.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: next chapter will be the wedding. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and liked Hillary. For some odd reason I just automatically thought of her as a lesbian. *shrugs* not that it matters.

anyway, Twilight doesn't belong to me

-Emmy