We had to leave Mati. Not even three days after Bella's birthday, Alice had a vision. The Volturi had made their decision and it was nothing any of us had expected: they wanted me and Alice in their guard. As they were carefully monitoring the news about the Wilsons, to see if they had any reason to get back to searching for us and end us all, Aro had also pondered over something completely different. He had kept the thought so far back in his head, almost like a phantom of a plan, that it escaped Alice's radar.

We only knew what Alice had seen, but I could guess that getting an idea of what both of us could do in the minds of the Denali sisters got Aro thinking. The Volturi were known for collecting gifted vampires, that was no surprise. Once they found a talent they considered great enough to be of help to them, they did what they could to lure that talent into their coven. Sometimes they insisted, sometimes they were patient - with Aro's unpredictable nature, it was always a game of luck.

This time, however, Aro was set on his decision. He wanted us. And he wanted to be sure he would have us, so he had laid out an entire elaborate plan that would secure his chances. He expected us to refuse his proposition, so he thought that maybe guilt would be enough of a motivator for us. However, we still had no reasons to be guilty in their eyes, given the way the news about the Wilsons grew scarcer each passing day, leaving our family a clean slate to work on.

So Aro decided to tarnish that clean slate.

He wanted to make it seem as if Bella's actions had truly jeopardized the secrecy of our species. To do that, he needed Elijah Cochran to come out of the woodwork and talk again about the two women he had seen the night of the accident. But Aro didn't want to wait and leave the efficiency of his plan in the hands of fate, so he had decided to plant some false evidence. He intended to send Chelsea and Heidi to Forks and to have them "accidentally" drain Cochran's wife minutes before he would arrive home from work. They would remain there, standing on top of her body just enough for him to recognize that he was witnessing the same type of supernatural murder that he had witnessed the night of the accident. They would leave and get rid of the body seconds after he would see them.

Ridden with the despair of seeing his wife murdered, Cochran would have no choice but to talk again - this time more convincingly, given the personal stakes. Aro was assured that whatever Cochran was going to say, it would be enough to put the spotlight back on our family. In the human world, his stories would fade into the territory of conspiracy theories over time. But until that happened, the Volturi were going to have every right to come after us. And that was the catch: Aro would show us the mercy of sparing our lives by asking me and Alice to join their coven. He suspected that we would not be able to refuse his wish if it came to choosing between the death of our loved ones and indulging him.

And the worst part of it all was that he was right.

I would not think twice about it if joining the Volturi meant saving the life of my wife and the lives of my loved ones. It would break me to my very core, but I could live with it if I knew my Bella would be alive and in one piece. I would forever cling to the hope of finding a way out and getting back to her, to the only happiness my frozen heart could ever comprehend. I knew that she would wait for me, even if it killed her sanity. Knowing her, she would try everything in her power to get the attention of the Volturi, just so that we could see each other again. But all this chaos would have been preferable to losing her forever, with no hope in sight of getting her back. And I had no doubt that Alice would feel the same way for Jasper.

Aro had never met me or Alice in person, but he knew our father well. He knew his values and he was convinced that the kids of his old companion would have the very same values instilled in them. He had us in a trap.

"Edward, that can't happen," Bella said as soon as we finished talking to Alice. "They can't do this."

"I will protect you," I responded.

This was the only promise I could make. I was going to protect her, no matter the final cost.

"But this whole thing cannot happen if they don't kill Cochran's wife, we have to stop them!"

"Carlisle will try to do that, love. He is the only one that they would listen to."

In fact, he and Esme were already planning to meet Heidi and Chelsea in Washington, where their plane would land, in order to talk, given the fact that Forks was off-limits for us now, having broken the treaty.

"But Heidi and Chelsea are also heading there, right?"

I swallowed the knot in my chest.

"They are."

"What if Carlisle and Esme don't get there in time?"

"They're taking a direct flight to Florida and they will run from there. Heidi and Chelsea will do their traveling via planes and borrowed cars."

As I was trying to convince her that my father and mother would get there in time, I wasn't so convinced myself. The odds of them arriving before the pawns of the Volturi would set the plan into motion were not in our favour.

"God, Edward, and the werewolf?" her voice raised a few octaves. "How do we deal with everything at once? Tell me!"

"The werewolf should not bother us until the next full moon, you know this. And it really is the least of our problems right now."

There was an actual chance that we would no longer have to fear the werewolf a month from now for reasons that I didn't want to consider. The anxiety of that thought made me grab her and crush my lips to hers with ardour.

"We need to pack our bags, just in case," I uttered over our kiss.

She got closer to me, her mouth opening to deepen our connection, her fingers locking in my hair and pulling me down to her level. The urgency of her actions burned within me, trying to get hand in hand with my own urgency. But for that moment, I knew better than to cave to my desire.

In less than fifteen hours, we were going to know exactly in what direction our future was going to go.

"Wait," she murmured, when I detached from our kiss. "What happens with Nellie?"

I sighed. This was not the first time I had thought about it since Alice had broken the news to us. And the truth was that I had no idea. Our little team of three had been the only reason we were still alive after facing the werewolf two times.

"I don't know, Bella. It may be safer for her to remain here, if we are going to be on the run every two days."

"But that means she will face the next full moon on her own."

"She's done this before."

"But she won't be able to kill that thing if it finds her alone," Bella insisted. "Besides, we know that something in my shield hurt the werewolf, I want to train more."

I really couldn't find it in me to think about the werewolf, knowing that we might be facing bigger problems than that in the extremely near future.

"Can we please get back to the problem at hand?"

"Which one? Because we've got several, in case you haven't noticed."

She looked and sounded irritated, so I chose my next words with care.

"We don't know what's going to happen until the next full moon. I think it would be best if we handle these issues one at a time. And maybe it would make sense to at least ask Nell if she is even willing to embark on this, with this amount of uncertainty."

"Then let me talk to her. If we'll still be in one piece a month from now, we'll need all the backup that we can get. And so will she."

"I'll come with you."

Bella rolled her eyes, but she seemed past the point of protesting. She had grown accustomed to my anxiety of parting from her for even the shortest amount of time since the accident happened. A part of me understood that this was objectively unhealthy. Yet in our current circumstances, I couldn't see things happening any other way.

"Okay, let's find her," she agreed.


To Bella's relief and to my slight irritation, Nell had agreed to leave Mati with us and remain close by until the next full moon. I could not see the utility of that, knowing that very soon we were going to be right on the Volturi's radar. Potentially bringing another person down didn't make sense to me. Bella kept reminding me of the next encounter with the werewolf and called me 'selfish' for my logic, of all things.

After this discussion, the kid decided to head to the city while we waited for Carlisle's phone call, to 'get a taste of the local cuisine'. It still baffled me that she couldn't just stick to one diet, but I was past the point of caring or trying to argue about these things.

Meanwhile, Carlisle and Esme had tried their best. But the best that a vampire could do with the trademark strength and abilities of our kind crumbled into nothing when human hazard came into play. It so happened that in the plane flying my parents from Liberia to Florida, a man had had a heart attack. He was lucky enough to have the gifted doctor that Carlisle was on board. This luck had saved him. But Carlisle and Esme had not been as lucky, because the pilots had to do an emergency landing regardless, to get the man to the nearest hospital for further care.

This stroke of fate sent them straight to The Bahamas. It was seven P.M. there, which meant that they got to get out of the airport without much of a fuss in regards to covering themselves up from the sun. They forged ahead to the ocean and swam straight to Biscayne Bay. Once back on land, in Miami, they easily made their way through the Mangrove Preserve - but after that, their mission of running to Washington had gone increasingly difficult. It wasn't just the fact that they were running late after the emergency landing, but they also had to choose the most winding path, in order to avoid humans.

In the end, it didn't take anything other than bad luck for Carlisle and Esme to miss Heidi and Chelsea. Alone and defeated in the Ronald Reagan Airport, my parents called to let us know what had just happened.

"So it's settled then," I said in an even tone, although deep inside I felt my every hope breaking.

"They will go through with their plan, son, yes."

"What does that mean for us?"

"You and Alice are going to become their main targets. They'll track both of you with Demetri's help."

"And the rest?"

"Not even a priority until they find you two, according to your sister."

Silence fell as I was trying to analyze the best course of action. Other than running around on an almost daily basis, there didn't seem to be any.

"So it's a matter of who they find first, right?" I managed to say.

His quietness did the responding for him. I was getting ready to voice another question when Bella asked me to put the phone on speaker. I didn't think much of it and did as she told me. She saluted him, always so polite, but then surprised me completely with the straightforwardness that followed:

"Carlisle, what if Alice comes with us?"

"Well, I'm not sure if this is such a good idea, Bella."

"I know it sounds crazy, but if you listen to me for a second, it will make sense, I promise. So you know I've been practicing to extend this shield of mine - or whatever it's called. It's getting better and better, I swear."

In the back of my mind, I couldn't help but notice the fact that she didn't mention the other trick in her sleeve - me hearing her thoughts at the most random of times. Of course, that would have been one hell of a conversation starter: 'So, Carlisle, your son was fucking me mercilessly, when he suddenly heard my thoughts. Isn't it crazy?'

I cringed hard at the thought. This had to remain our little secret for a little longer. Lord knew how I had managed to keep it away from Nellie until now.

"Both Nellie's and Demetri's powers are psychic at their base," Bella continued. "He only needs to meet someone who has encountered one of them, in order to get to them via his mental tracking. If I can block out Nellie's power with my shield, it only makes sense that I could do the same with Demetri, right? Maybe I can train even more and extend it to cover all of us, to make Demetri's job of finding us harder. You already said that it is Edward and Alice the Volturi are after right this moment, so wouldn't it be logical to get her and Jasper with us, to protect them with my shield as well?"

Carlisle's lack of an immediate response alerted me. He was considering this. Truth be told, it didn't sound completely crazy. I had to remind myself to give Bella more credit for her ideas than I usually did. Sure, sometimes they sounded almost suicidal. But there had also been plenty of times when she had proven that she could come up with perfectly good solutions.

"How sure are you of that shield, Bella?"

"I mean… right now I know it's not the best. But I know I can do more if I keep up with my training. Especially now that we know it has some effect on the werewolf as well."

My muscles tensed up the second she brought the last part into the conversation. The memory of her getting hurt burned in my brain. The bracelet-like mark around her wrist didn't help with that. Like with most things, she said it really didn't phase her that much. A part of me had expected her to be a little more wise in regards to her own self-preservation, but when did she ever behave according to my predictions?

"You might be onto something," my father said. "Why don't you call Alice to discuss this with her?"

Only two seconds had passed when Bella's phone rang, Alice's name popping up on the screen. I answered, putting it on speaker as well. This had to be some weird family reunion.

"Yes!" my sister's voice resounded loudly. "You're smarter than all of us combined sometimes, Bella, I swear."

"Hello, little one," Carlisle saluted her.

"Hello," she replied. "I've had two visions in a row just before calling and this thing you're thinking of, Bella, buys us time. This would throw Demetri off the loop. The other vision had him finding us in less than two weeks."

"Does he find us in the other vision?" I asked.

"Not yet, from what I've seen. This will depend very much on Bella and how far she manages to get with her training. But with me and Jazz there, that won't be a problem. I can be very pushy when I want to."

"I think we all know that," Carlisle added.

"I'll meet you and Bella in Taipei in less than two days, all right?" she said.

"Are you insane?" I uttered. "The population density there is of thousands of people, we cannot go there."

"We'll not be standing in the centre, silly. I already saw us checking in a small inn, in the Yuanyanggu Forest."

"I'm repeating myself here, but are you insane? An inn has plenty of people in it."

"I said small inn, dummy. There won't be more than ten people in it."

Bella in the presence of more than ten people sent chills down my spine. We had encountered large crowds in the airports, but we had never spent too much time there. We had even been in the presence of humans for weeks on end, in the tourist camp in Belaya Gora. But the people there were houses away from us, not a few walls away - furthermore, they never remained there during the day.

"Alice, we won't be coming alone though," Bella intervened. "Nellie is coming with us as well."

"Oh, yeah, I know that. We'll get along well, I've seen it."

"Kids, with or without Alice's visions, this is not without risks," Carlisle stepped in. "I want you all to keep moving every two days from now on, you understand?"

"Yes, it goes without saying," I agreed.

"And Edward," he continued. "If we get through this, I won't be leaving you alone the next full moon, I promise you that."

"Carlisle, you don't have to…"

"I know, but I will. But let's talk about this some other time, shall we? You need to go now."

"Dahan Inn," Alice said, all of a sudden. "That's where we'll meet."

Things started to move very quickly after that phone call. Our bags were already packed and Nellie returned just as we were exiting the house. The marmalade in her eyes was a tad redder now. We returned via the ATV we had rented and returned the keys to our host, Guillermo. I left him a fat tip, just to be polite, despite him ogling my wife again. I was somewhat grateful I couldn't hear his thoughts, but they were not hard to guess.

We were back to the airport in no time. We had to wait an hour to get a clean runway, during which I kept Bella's hand tightly squeezed in mine, sitting in a corner far enough away from the rest of the crowd. Nell was a little too fascinated with the concept of airports, given that she hadn't seen too many in her life, which meant that she got to walk in every Duty Free in sight, gazing at all the trivialities that humans bought. Of course she came back with a sarcastic remark about humans and their penchant for buying useless fancy stuff, that had Bella laughing for ten seconds straight. Strange were the ways of teenage humour.

The flight to Taipei was short and turbulence-ridden. But Bella didn't waste a second of it and kept trying to extend her shield, in order to block out Nellie's power. It got a little better: for a whole minute, I got to be a guest in Nellie's mind. Nothing of interest came up, just random bits of thoughts regarding the last days. But I didn't need interesting. I needed Bella to succeed.

We arrived a little before sunset. Luckily for us, it was a cloudy September day, so we had no reason to bring our hoodies and sunglasses and gloves from the baggage. By the time we arrived, I was sure that Chelsea and Heidi had completed their mission. I couldn't check with Alice, since she was up in the air. It would take her and Jasper another day and a half to catch all their connecting flights and arrive.

With our path clearly set by Alice, we rented a car - all this renting made me miss my actual cars that I had in Forks - and headed straight to the Yuanyanggu Forest. The Dahan Inn was placed somewhere deep within the woods, close to a stream of water that was so small it had no name.

As we got closer, following an off-road between the beech trees, a horde of smells started to swarm in the air: cooked animal meat, ginger, soy, cabbage, leek and all sorts of spices. And along with them, the unmistakable scent of human blood, potent and heavy, despite there not being too many people checked in.

"We'll ask for the most isolated room," I told Bella, as I was parking the car in the small lot in front of the inn.

"I'm well-fed, I think we'll be good."

Lord knew she was well-fed. I had made a habit out of taking her hunting every few days. Sometimes she complained, but she always obliged in the end.

"Nellie, we'll get you a room of your own here."

I saw her face cringing in the rear mirror.

"I still don't know about that, it's-"

"We agreed on this," I cut her off. "We remain close-by in the following circumstances. If anything happens and we have to leave, there is no time for an assembly."

"Yes, but… it looks like it costs big money. I don't have big money and it's definitely weird to have someone pay for me."

I rolled my eyes. I had so much training with Bella forever being humble and always making a fuss about me spending any amount of money on her, that I was convinced I always had a counter-argument.

"Money is never the problem with us," I pointed out.

Any previous embarrassment she might have felt earlier seemed to disappear when she responded:

"You did not say that out loud."

"I did."

"Wow, the wonders of being upper-class!"

At the reception, we had to pretend we were family. The old lady from the reception seemed troubled enough by our trio - but whatever she hid in her thoughts, she kept it out of her speech. We ended up a couple of rooms and one floor apart. Before we parted ways, I made sure to give Nell a few books, to make the passing of time easier for her. She seemed particularly interested in Maya Angelou's 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' - I could only hope it would offer her some solace, if she needed any, after the way she had opened up in front of us about her past days ago.

The room Bella and I received had charmingly rustic vibes. Everything in it seemed to be made of wood: the floor, the headboard, the window frames, the table, the bench in front of it, the cabinet, the shelves. As a result, the scent of oak was overpowering, swallowing everything in its wake. Bella's face seemed oddly disconcerted for a few seconds and I couldn't help but wonder why.

"What is it?"

"I just had a flashback of sorts," she responded. "I can still remember most things from my human life, but it seems that the further back I go, the blurrier they tend to get. But this one was not blurry at all."

I circled her waist with my arm, leaving the baggages down.

"Care to share it with me?"

"Oh, it's not even that astounding. It was just an image of me visiting my grandma back when I was little. The smell of her house was just like the scent in here, I swear."

As long as this was the scent enveloping her senses, I could only rejoice deep down.

"At night, my mom and I slept in the same room there, and we talked until late. She would always tell me to keep my laughing at a low volume, to not wake grandma up. You see, she was a light sleeper."

I smiled, in love with the enthusiasm she had over this small memory. I wanted this small bliss to last a little longer. But we both knew that as we talked, Cochran was probably losing his mind over the loss of his wife. He had probably called the police by now and it was only a matter of time until he was going to speak out to the press again. I felt a pang of regret and sorrow over this image: a man whose objectively good intentions had brought him to the worst possible fate, his wife murdered for the sole purpose of getting a damned plan rolling. Just two pawns in the game the Volturi were setting up, without even knowing.

If these thoughts brought me pain, I couldn't imagine what hid in my father's mind. How bad was he blaming himself, for not arriving on time, to save that woman? Did the tiniest amount of resentment seep inside his soul, in regards to me and Bella? I was afraid to ask him and receive his neverending kindness, knowing that I deserved anything but that.

"Edward?" Bella's soft voice took the reins of my conscience and I felt thankful. We could still be us, if only for a little while.

"Hm?"

"Will you join me for a shower?"

There she went again, with those eyes full of invitations. And this, in particular, was an invitation I could never refuse. She was already unbuttoning her shirt in front of my very eyes, waiting for my response.

We didn't make it to the bathroom. In fact, we barely made it to the floor.

I attacked her before she got to the next button of her shirt. My hands got rid of her clothes for her and we fell to the ground, in a tangle of limbs, her body aching for friction just like mine did.

"Shower?" she gasped when I offered her the chance to talk, by lowering my mouth from her lips to her earlobe. I traced it with my tongue, making her shiver.

"Love, you smell way too good right now," I whispered, nibbling at her ear between words.

And she did smell amazing: without the constant tropical heat of the Philippines, the lavender sugar undertones of her fragrance blossomed in a way that master perfumers could have only dreamed of.

"Human habits..."

"To hell with them, I need your scent."

My whispering had turned into a groan. I got back to kissing her, making no effort to be delicate when I invaded her mouth with my tongue. She welcomed my decision by wrapping her legs around me, pushing my pelvis down with the soles of her feet, so that my erection could press right into her scorching center. Her wetness was going to leave stains on my trousers, but I couldn't care less about it.

Bella found quickly enough a motion that had her clitoris rubbing against the slit of my pants. She moaned hard, the sound getting lost in the back of my throat as I continued kissing her. The motion continued, driving me crazy with need - and driving herself closer to orgasm before I even got the chance to touch her.

"No, no, no, Bella," I broke away from her, to gaze down at her face. "We're not doing it like this."

"But-"

"No 'but's. I want you to come hard when I'm inside you. Understood?"

Her eyes flickered with lust. She liked being subdued, that much I knew. I would've been lost if she didn't, because subduing her in bed - or, in this case, on the wooden floor - came naturally to me, almost like a basic instinct.

"Yes, Edward."

In my unyielding need for her, I grabbed her breasts in my palms, squeezing them hard, the action resulting in a beautiful whimper from her. She was all too sensitive and I couldn't help but marvel at all the ways in which her body responded to my actions. It was always a new spectacle, just waiting to unravel.

This time, the spectacle involved some of the most luscious sounds my ears had ever heard - not two of them the same. And while I loved them - for each one of them indicated her desire growing and boiling and bubbling over the edge - it might not have been the wisest idea for the neighbours to hear them as well. Especially the neighbours that could hear particularly well.

"We can't make too much noise, love," I told her, just as I was taking one rosy nipple between my fingers and started to twist it. "Can I rely on you to keep a low volume?"

I let my other hand trail her stomach, not making too many pit stops along the way, until it arrived between her legs. Her wetness on the tip of my fingers greeted me, letting me know I was more than welcome here: I was expected. I found her clitoris and started flicking it rapidly, while my other hand was still busy twisting her nipple.

"Edward, oh, God!"

"Lower," I commanded.

Her thighs clenched around me tightly, to the point it almost hurt, but I continued working on her clitoris.

"I'm close, I-"

"Lower, Bella, lower."

Her moaning turned into sobbing and suspiring. I knew she was close; I could feel the electricity between us growing, her clitoris pulsing for liberation, her liquids dripping liberally. Ruthlessly, I slowed down my rubbing. This had her return to being noisy - and God, how I loved her when she was noisy, but this was not the right place for this.

Suddenly, an idea flashed through my mind.

"I see," I murmured, letting go of her nipple and stopping the attack on her clitoris. "You leave me no choice but to take care of this myself."

I removed myself from her embrace, remaining on my knees in front of her. She immediately raised up on her elbows, to look at me. I unbuckled my belt - some limited edition designer leather belt that Alice had bought for me years ago, way before I even met Bella - and removed it from its hinges.

"What are you doing with that?"

"Silencing that beautiful mouth of yours."

I was back between her legs in no time. She remained on her elbows and her lips parted, awaiting. Prudently, I placed the metallic buckle in her mouth, while I draped the leather strap around her head. Once I got back to the metallic part, I passed the end tip through it, letting the prong pierce through one of the holes and closing the belt tightly.

Bella gagged with my belt. What a sight to behold that was. My erection was threatening to explode from my pants if I didn't do something about it soon.

"Now," I said. "This will be a lesson in good manners, my love, don't you think?"

She nodded affirmatively and lifted her hips up, to meet my hardness once again. I pushed myself against her, savouring the way her arousal smudged on my trousers.

"You will feel the need to bite," I said. "When that need comes, I want you to repress it, you understand? Because Alice won't be happy if you ruin this belt."

As if I could care about Alice and her fashion trinkets. All I wanted was to enjoy Bella like this for as long as I could.

My wife nodded 'yes' again. With that, I rose up from the floor to remove my clothes, letting them fall in a shapeless pile near us. Her eyes widened and remained fixed on my shaft. I could never get tired of her reaction whenever she saw me naked: the way her pupils dilated, making her eyes almost black with need, the upheaval in her breath, the wetness growing more copious.

Getting back on the floor, over her, I slid my hand back between her thighs.

"I love how wet you get for me, Bella," I whispered, my thumb tugging gently at the hood of her clitoris. "I've fucked you all day yesterday and you still want more. What am I going to do with you?"

She circled my body with her limbs, her hands working to bring me closer and closer to her. I felt the warmth of her slit pressing against the tip of my penis. It would have been easy to slide down inside in one motion. But she could use some more teasing, so I only pushed my tip inside. Her small lips parted, making room for my girth, and she made a sound that was immediately weakened by the belt in her mouth.

"Mmmmm, you have no idea how good you feel."

I rotated my hips slightly and Bella threw me a desperate look, moving her hands to my buttocks, trying to lodge me inside her. I resisted her strength and with a wide grin on my face, I went only an inch deeper. Another muffled sound came from her throat.

"Always so impatient," I admonished her. "Let me savour you inch by inch, Bella."

Taking her wrists into my hands - and making a deliberate effort to not think about the scar on her right wrist - I pushed a little more. She frowned, lifting herself up once again, to meet me, winning another three inches in the process. Still, she sighed deeply, because we both knew I was not even halfway in.

Longing to kiss her - and unable to, thanks to her mouth already being occupied by my belt - I pressed my lips inside the hollow of her neck. The scent of her was so powerful here, calling to me like a siren calling a lost sailor. I pushed further inside Bella, as my teeth sunk into her throat. In response, her nails dug into my shoulders.

I continued to immerse myself in her body slowly, one inch at a time. She tried to get me to go faster, which only made me go slower. But when I was all in, there was no going back - I wanted more, I needed more, I craved more. And I could not see a point in denying our mutual necessities.

There was nothing she could do when I started moving inside her: careful at first, to see how she wanted it, then with more resolve when I understood that she wanted it hard. She spoke with her body only, letting me know what she needed with her eyes, with her hands, with her legs. I loved seeing her so helplessly under my control, her perfect moans stopped in their tracks by my belt.

When I had her like this, I knew she was safe. Nothing could hurt her. And the way she was offering herself so readily showed me that she, too, felt safe. She had told me countless times before that I could do anything to her, putting all of her trust in me. It was a wild promise to make to a man and I doubted she understood the full effect that that particular knowledge had on me. There were still so many things I wanted to try with her - some of which I had told her about, some still starring in my fantasies, waiting to be lived out…

Silently possessing Bella in public.

Teasing her for a whole day with no release in sight.

Depriving her of all her senses and power.

Spanking her ass into complete submission.

Making her come over a phone call.

Having her suck me while piloting a plane.

Watching her pleasure herself - maybe even taking some photos of that sensual spectacle.

All of a sudden, I found myself on the brim of my climax. And judging by the way Bella's walls started clenching around me, she was right there with me too. She looked at me with eager eyes and I knew what she needed.

"Come for me, love," I groaned. "Show me how much you love this..."

Writhing and squirming, making sounds so small that only I could hear, she let go. With the exquisite pressure of her interior on me, I did the same. We came hard and long, grasping at each other in desperation with everything we had, and I bit into her shoulder to hide my animalistic growl.

When I woke up from the trance she had me in, I found myself murmuring 'I love you' over and over again. Still gagged, Bella couldn't respond to my eulogies, but she didn't have to. I knew she loved me just the same. Her hands kept caressing every inch of my skin she could reach. I understood then that nothing and no one would ever tear me apart from her. Not the Volturi with their insidious plans of taking me and Alice into their guard, for we would find our way back to each other before they could do anything about it. Not the werewolf, for it would not go on to live much longer. Not even death, for I would go through all the circles of the Inferno to find the gates of Heaven and get her back to me.

If only my burst of optimism didn't have an expiration date.


So is anyone going to look at belts the same way again? ;)

Belts aside, things are getting serious with the Volturi and I am oddly excited about this.

If you've got any thoughts on the events of this chapter or on the story in general, feel free to share them! Reading and responding to your reviews is like my own personal brand of heroine (It's all right, I'll see myself out).

Although I've said it countless times, I can never thank you enough for having enough patience and interest to read this story!

Stay safe and happy, guys!