So i was seriously craving some Matthew and Lidiya bonding. This chapter has a little bit of them together on the front but it all gets back to the real story soon after. This is short but you have 3 more chapters being updated at once so enjoy the rest of Forever Legends. Thank you to EVERYONE that has supported me and read this story.
Matthew Cullen
"Matthew stop pacing" Lidiya called from the bed. She was reading. Reading a book. I just couldn't believe it.
"I'm sorry but it's not the time to be reading" I told her as I thought through everything in my head. Everything my father and I had discussed, everything that was planned and prepared.
"I am no help with the strategy or at all really. I am pregnant and my gift is useless what else have I got to do but sit here and read?"
I let out a smile to my wife as I carried on pacing the room. Back when she first became my wife she was always concerned or worried about something to do with my job. It took until we had our first child for her to be distracted enough to stop thinking about it all. Here we were decades later and my wife found comfort in reading. It was a nice change and I was glad she was relaxed when she was carrying our child.
"Matthew" my wife called, she was suddenly behind me. Her arms wrapped around my back and her palms rested on my abs. She halted me in my steps, her strength stopping me from moving. She wasn't that much stronger than me but she could beat me when she wanted to. Her lips were on the base of my neck and I just surrendered to her touch. "Please stop pacing and worrying." She whispered to me. I sighed and relaxed into her. I turned around and brought my lips to meet hers, in that second I forgot everything going on, I stopped worrying and focused only on the woman in my arms. That was until there was a knock at our door. Lidiya sighed as I pulled away and went to see who it was. I opened the door to see my mother on the other side with Chloe.
"Baby check" Chantelle smiled and her eyes fell to Lidiya behind me. Chloe sat on the bed with Lidiya.
"No ultrasound?" I asked hoping to see the baby growing inside my wife.
"Not today just a standard check" Chloe said reaching her hand out for my wife to lie down. Chloe had delivered our last two babies and countless of others in our large family, she along with Carlisle were the family doctors still delivering the supernatural babies of the family and even a few that haven't been related to us. Her hand rested on Lidiya's stomach and she nodded her head as she felt the baby respond to the cold touch.
"I know you'd know if anything was ever seriously wrong but it's good to be checked every now and then, especially after what happened with Liana and that spell." Chloe explained. Lidiya nodded.
"I understand, I'd rather you did anyway"
"Very healthy heartbeat and seems to be of average size, have you had any pain or discomfort at all yet? Spotting?"
"Nope nothing." Lidiya responded.
"Good let me know if anything changes."
"There is something I wanted to ask you though, and I understand Eddie has a say too so you don't have to answer me now, just when ever you've had a chance to talk about it" Lidiya began but Chloe reached out and sat her up stopping her from talking.
"Lidiya it's ok. We're staying until you have the baby" she said as if she knew she was going to ask her.
"You are?"
"Eddie insisted. There is no point in us returning home when we'll be coming back in six months to meet our newest grandchild. I will be here as your doctor the entire time. Don't worry" Chloe smiled. Lidiya lit up like she was a child and pulled Chloe into a hug. She thanked her and their hug ended. I felt my mother's head fall on my bicep so I turned around to hug her. She giggled but relaxed into me. She held me tightly for a moment before letting go. We didn't say anything else, Chloe and Chantelle left and I was alone with my wife again. She was smiling sitting cross legged on the bed.
I stood there staring at her, memorising the sight of her smile. This woman had so much strength inside her sometimes I forgot how insanely important she was to my life. From the day I met Lidiya my life changed. I had gone from a powerful child in charge of one of the biggest covens in the world to a young man questioning everything he had every been taught or did. I had fallen for Lidiya instantly and she seeped into my veins never to be removed. I wanted to be better for her, I wanted to be the man she deserved. And so I did, I stopped drinking the human blood my guardians had forced me onto, I had began thinking of 'what would Lidiya think?' when making a decision in my work, every second of my day was spent thinking of the woman back in the united states, thousands of miles away from Italy. The day I had her forever was the day she moved those thousands of miles to be with me and I finally felt complete. We were married within months and she became my other half in everything, work included. She had supported me, advised me, been there for me from day one despite the fact I had insisted she could keep out of Volturi business. Here she was now, in possibly the worst situation the Volturi and Cullen's have ever been in, several of our family members missing, werewolves on our borders, an all powerful witch hell-bent on destroying our power and she was smiling. She knew the seriousness of the situation but she knew inside that we would beat it, that there was hope, that we had something to look forward to. Being parents again.
Her smile had dropped as she saw me staring at her. I don't know what expression was on my face but she was blushing.
"what?" she asked. her hand involuntarily dropping to her stomach. My face broke into a smile as I strode over to her I knelt in front of her and rested my hands on her face to kiss her. She relaxed against me and smiled against my lips.
"thank you" I whispered.
"what for?" she asked her eyes still closed. I kissed her nose and both cheeks.
"for being by my side for everything and for still smiling even though were about to go into hell" I said softly. Her eyes opened and I was momentarily stunned by the sheer love she looked at me with.
"I have faith everything will be okay. I won't let anyone die. I might not be able to be there but Anelie and I will be together. We can work from a far. It will all be ok."
"I believe you" I said and I felt my body relax for the first time in months.
There was another knock at the door and I sighed as I pulled away from my wife again.
"come in" I called and my father stepped in this time.
"Esther is back with Grace. Its time." he said and looked at how we were positioned sympathetically before turning away. I turned back to Lidiya and gave her a kiss before holding her hand and standing up. We pulled our dark cloaks on in unison like we had many many times before and headed to the throne room.
Edward Cullen
After Grace arrived it was like Zio had a new light inside of him, excitement.
This was it. Chloe had managed to find the girls and we knew where liana was holding them. we'd go there in just a few short hours and save them and finally end this with Liana.
I didn't know how Zio expected to finish her, he must have trusted Grace enough to wish she could kill her, I didn't know.
It took us a few hours to organise the guard, decide who was going, who was staying to protect those remaining and then to decide how we were going to go about it all.
It ended up with Lidiya and Anelie staying behind with the children. Tony was staying to protect them with a few guard members. Carlisle and Esme wanted to stay too, to help with the children. My father also mentioned to me privately that he was getting too old for all this fighting. He and Esme loved their family fiercely and would protect them if it came to it but were much happier leaving the leading and fighting to the 'young' ones, we had enough fighters, we needed a miracle. If anything Carlisle and Esme were more protection for the children if it ever came to anything but Zio doubted that Liana would go for Lidiya and Anelie or the children since she was mostly after Esther and she would be nowhere near them. the spell Liana had done had incapacitated the girls not killed them, which Zio thought meant Liana just wanted them out of the way.
I hoped he was right. both Tony and Matthew agreed so if they were happy leaving their wives it was down to them. Tony would be in wolf form the entire time so he would have the advantage if anyone did decide to come after them and unless it was liana herself Lidiya could knock anyone out living or dead.
Everyone else was going to the location Chloe had tracked. It was a large old farm house about fifty miles outside of the city. it hadn't been bought or lived in for a hundred years and was surrounded by acres of deserted highly polluted land. It used to be a farm, back when you could farm out in the open, now it's all done in giant greenhouses where pollution cant destroy the crops.
There would be teams, the first on the scene would of course be Zio, Matthew and Benjamin, along with Esther, Chantelle, myself, Bella, Chloe and my children Eddie and Lexi. Zio knew that Eddie and Bella could combine their shields that would most probably block any magic Liana tried to throw at us, and where Bella goes I go and where Eddie goes Chloe goes. Second on the scene would be the black cloaks in the guard and the rest of the Cullen's, Emmett, Jasper, Alice, Rose, Zac and Matthew's daughter Allesandra and her boyfriend Jonathan. Madeleine had begged to come with us but since she was only human Zac had managed to persuade her to stay behind. He had promised her he'd bring back her daughter and she had fallen on her knees and sobbed. Nothing would keep Zac out of this battle, he was even pissed he wasn't on the first team. The third consisted of the rest of the guard and would only be called if things got very messy. Grace wasn't in a team, she shadowed Esther worse than Aleksander but she understood showing her face too soon could provoke Liana or damage the mission. She was going to over watch it with Aleksander and come in when needed.
"Zio what is the overall plan? we get the girls out and then what?" I asked him. he had been keeping this part of the plan a secret, hidden from us and I wondered why. He looked to Grace briefly before turning back to me. They had spent nearly an hour in his soundproof office alone, talking about who knows what.
"its down to Grace but I have a plan" he said.
"what is it?" I asked, trying to read his mind but most of my family members had decades of experience hiding things from me, Eddie and Esther. many of them had their own little tricks to keep things hidden from us. We all know she couldn't be killed and I highly doubted Zio's diplomatic skills were going to be good enough to convince her to stop.
"its being dealt with" Zio said turning away from me. I wasn't the only one scared about the outcome of this. I looked to Jasper who was watching his son with burning questions in his head. he was worried too. Jasper turned to look at me and we had a mutual look of agreement.
My son is an exceptional leader. if he's hiding something it's because he has to. I trust him but I worry too. Jasper thought. I nodded. I worried too. I had seen the lengths Zio has had to go to in the past. the fact he wasn't telling us meant he knew we wouldn't approve.
Time would only tell.
I remained linked to Tony and Esther to her daughters as we made our way to the farm. They would be updated every step of the way and we knew if anything happened on their end too. The wolves under Liana's charge had surrounded the Volturi complex. I guessed they were reporting on our every move but they could also be vicious which is why I was paying attention to my grandsons mind in case he needed help and they attacked. Leah and Zac had their pack spread out in the city, all in their human form but ready to phase and intervene if completely necessary but we wanted to try and keep the shape shifters out of this, Liana didn't know about them and we had to keep it that way. Leah and Zac had a pack of nearly fifty wolves. There wasn't just Quileute's in the pack, there were other tribes too, they viewed Leah and Zac as some magical alpha duo, various tribes had even changed their form into wolves when their own alphas gave up their right to Zac and Leah. They now had a super pack, spanning over both the Americas. Washington still had their own small pack run by Jacob and William but that mostly consisted of Quileute's and veterans, those like Jacob that only phased to keep from aging. We had never seen a Quileute versus a true child of the moon werewolf and I hoped it wouldn't come to it.
"She's going to know were coming" Zio said as we moved past the wolves. none of them moved to attack us. they just watched us, their yellow eyes staring as we moved.
"no she won't" Chantelle said, her hand was on Esther's. I smiled at my niece as I saw her reversing the control on the wolves. Esther was using Ariella's power to boost Chantelle's, letting her change all their minds at once.
"why couldn't you have done that months ago?" Rose asked her daughter.
"and let Lilim know what I could do? I don't think so momma" she smiled.
"don't over exert yourself Chanti, we have a long way to go yet" Zio said softly to his wife stroking her other hand.
"I'm good" she smiled at him and her and Esther dropped hands. I turned back to see the wolves and turned. facing their backs to the house now rather than the other way around.
"did you just reverse their loyalty?" I asked her.
"maybe" she smiled at me. I smiled proudly at my niece. I could see the smirk on Emmett's face too.
There was now a wall of vicious mindless killing machines between anyone and the children and I was sure every member of this family walked away from that house a little happier we were leaving them protected. I hoped when we returned Chantelle would set them free, they were still innocent people having been pulled into this war pointlessly.
As we arrived closer to the house I tried to tune into the minds of my loved ones inside but neither myself, my son or Esther could find them, we all hoped this meant they weren't dead and there was a spell covering the house but the closer we got the more anxious we were.
As the house came into view two things registered in my mind, the fields were actually full of giant warehouse sort of buildings, like she had been keeping things in them. It reminded me of what Elijah had described the first night he turned. This was where the wolves were being kept.
The second thing was how a small brown wolf came bounding out the front door.
