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Heidi, Felix and Demetri ran through the forest, following Esme and Jasper's scent for the barrier. It had been decided to have Esme, as the new coven leader, and Jasper with his gift, to join the guard members meeting with the wolves to hopefully help make a truce. The Cullen's were more concerned about a possible fallout where the wolves anger and prejudice would cause the wolves to attack the guard members and then the Volturi would send all their Elite Guard members and slaughter the wolves.
It wouldn't be the first time the Volturi retaliated in such a violent fashion and Esme wanted to make sure nothing happened to the pack. She was hoping with Jasper and Heidi's gift at play, the wolves would begrudgingly allow the Volturi to stay there and not attack. Esme was willing to do whatever it took to make sure the meeting didn't end in violence.
Heidi, Felix and Demetri didn't really care what happened at the meeting as long as they got what they wanted. The queens had already ordered them to hunt far away from Forks to make sure no suspicion landed on the resident vampires. Thankfully, since they kept to their natural diet, they were able to go much longer without hunting than the Cullen's are able to with their substitute blood. The guard knew they would survive if the young shifters attacked but per request of Bella, Heidi would do all she could to make sure they got the more peaceful outcome possible.
They soon found the Cullen's not too far from their home and without a word, the group of five raced off towards the border. There was no need for talking, the guard wanted little to do with the Cullen's and the Cullen's didn't want to risk angering anyone and something happening to their last member still in Italy.
The vampires could smell the border before they actually reached it. The strong, rancid scent of wet dog insulted their senses before they hit what felt like a brick wall made of the offending scent. They stopped just a few steps before crossing the border and no sooner did they stop did they all hear the howls of warning and then the pounding of heavy paws against the ground.
It didn't take long before there was a brown wolf in front of them growling. As much as the guard hated it, they had to let the Cullen's stand in front of them to make sure the wolf didn't blindly attack before they could talk. The guard knew shifters tended to have anger issues when they were young and therefore attacked before anything else. Heidi didn't want that.
"We need to talk to Sam about some developments that occurred when we were gone." Esme said in a commanding voice, Jasper using his gift to express the urgency and believability. Since Heidi wasn't the one talking, there was little she could do but when it was her turn to talk, she would sure as hell use her gift to the best of her ability.
The wolf only growled in response, the sound of more wolves coming to them only helped to annoy the guard. Clearly, they weren't trying to attack, shouldn't they have come up with some way to at least have some form of sign language to communicate with the resident vampires in case they needed to communicate while in their wolf form? The lack of communication skills only helped to show how young and inexperienced the wolves were. The guard knew then, the talks would be harder than they would prefer. But not impossible.
In a matter of about ten minutes, there were three wolves, the vampires could hear more in the distance that were keeping their distance to likely try and hide their presence but were failing at it, and a shirtless man was coming out from behind the trees. The guard had heard every bone breaking and mending into a human shape and for just a second, they pitied the wolves for all the pain they had to continuously go through just to access their own gift of shifting. As far as the guard was concerned, it was only another point in the vampires favor that the vampires only had three days of hell to endure to get their gift of vampirism whereas the wolves had to endure the pain every shift.
"Why are there red eyes here?" The man asked in a guttural voice, anger and hate dripping from his voice.
"That's what we wanted to talk with you about, Sam." Esme said in the calmest and most soothing voice she could muster. To do anything else the wolves could perceive as anger or threatening in anyway would guarantee they would attack. "Their presence is what we wanted to explain."
"They are not welcomed here." Sam growled, his own words echoed by the growls of the wolves around him.
"They are here to protect Bella." Esme tried to explain, only to be cut off by the russet brown wolf's loud growl, clearly offended by the vampires words.
Heidi decided it was time for her to step in as she side-stepped the Cullen's, feeling Jasper increase his own gift as she started to use hers.
"My name is Heidi, I come from the Volturi coven in Italy." Heidi said, loud enough to be heard over the growls and continued talking, ignoring Sam's attempt to respond. "My coven has hundreds of members and hundreds more that have pledged allegiance to us. We are here to keep Bella safe while she is in school. We have sworn to hunt no where near this state. I can assure you, if you attack us in anyway, my coven will retaliate in force and your entire tribe will be nothing but history. Do you have enough wolf's to defend against hundreds of gifted and trained vampires sent to kill you all?"
Heidi hadn't meant to come on so strong. She had wanted to follow in her Mistress Didyme and Sulpicia's mannerisms and try to talk some sense into them. But just the few words Sam had uttered Heidi was sure there would be no talking to them, no negotiating. So, she decided to lay all her cards on the table and let them know their entire tribe, the tribe they were trying to protect, would be killed if they stepped out of line. With Heidi's gift and Jasper's gift at play, they would undoubtedly believe them, without question.
"You can have free reign of our territory, to patrol in any way you see fit. I will make sure my coven will no longer hunt in the area as well to make sure there is no chance of us encountering each other." Esme knew if the wolves interrupted a vampires kill, their hunt, their instincts may have them defend their prey and attack the wolf. The wolves wouldn't care what happened and would take that as an opportunity to attack and Esme didn't want that. It would be a major inconvenience, but they would do it to keep the peace.
"Do you honestly think nothing bad will happen from allowing them here?" Sam growled, realizing he couldn't do anything to stop the red eyes from being in there at hating it. He would make sure to up the patrols and make sure they kept a heavy presence in Forks from then on.
"Quite frankly we don't give a shit." Heidi said, "The Cullen's have no choice in the matter, they are forced to accept us being here just as much as you are. In fact, one of the members currently being held in our stronghold because he fought too loudly to get us to stay away from here." Heidi figured spinning the truth a little may endear the wolves to the Cullen's a little and perhaps the Cullen's could have some conversations with them to have the wolves be less hostile. "We're done here, do what you will but remember, any hostility towards us, and our coven will come in force to kill you all, no questions asked."
With that said, the guard all left, leaving the Cullen's to finish any leftover conversation the guard may feel they needed to have. Heidi truly didn't care what the fallout was with her threat, she wanted to get back to her mate and cuddle with her. She had held off for so long on the plane and then the car ride and she just wanted to cuddle. She had priorities and now that the wolves were dealt with, she could attend to her more favorable priorities.
