Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. She messed up the story when she made Jake imprint on Nessie. Fortunately for us there's always the world of fanfictions.

Author/Note: This is a Leah/Jacob story with all the normal pairings and the events in Breaking Dawn never happened, because just like my cousin said, Breaking Dawn shouldn't even be considered a book.

Translation to English of O Nosso Amanhecer 2. This version was subjected to a few changes from the original in Portuguese.

This translation was a request by FantasyLover74.

I'm not a native English speaker so I'm sorry for my grammar and spelling. Thank you for reading and thanks the people who reviewed, FantasyLover74, She-Wolf Heiress, brankel1, Chick, Piper9004, Jo Harv, JacobLeah, CallyGreen, Mariaxxx, RobertForLife, Darkmaster of the arts, BenitaxoxoCastiel, mehr03, AllieBlack16, ItsCuzOfTheFame, brezzybrez, teamtorettosupporter, running with wolves, Blackwater Crazziii, DressageQueen14, Krizglass, akira m, bvc17, blackwater-forever, cyrusnjonas, Ketaaa15, roxymari.28, Sassy1515.

Alert: the characters in this story curse a lot.

Our Dawn

Part II

Leah Clearwater

22. Volturi

I hugged my brother tightly and watched him as he phased with all the others. We could feel that they were coming. It was almost eight in the morning and there was a horrible stench coming from the east. We were anxious and nervous but ready.

Carlisle and Edward were ahead of us in the frontline because they would talk to Aro first. Bella was behind her husband showing a bit of fear. Esme was surrounded by her adoptive children, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper and Alice.

Jacob was standing on my right side and behind us was displaced a long line of wolves. Jasper had checked on our reinforcements fifteen minutes ago and they were also ready in case Edward called them.

"It's time." Alice said.

She was right we could feel the cold wave surrounding the clearing as the Volturi came slowly, floating gracefully. They were only a mile away now.

"When this is over…I want to tell you something…" Jacob whispered to me never taking his eyes of our enemies.

I simply nodded.

Five minutes later sixty leeches dressed in black ropes were standing before us. Just like Alice had seen, Aro, Caius and Marcus were surrounded by the Volturi Guard. At front came a beautiful brunette with red eyes and long light brown hair. On each of her sides stood a small girl, at least she appeared to be really young, with blonde hair and a twisted smile planted on her pink lips and a young man, with short hair and a curiosity look on his face.

"Aro will talk to us." Edward whispered. "Marcus is just bored and Caius is quite scared."

"Renata, Alec, Jane…please let me welcome my good friends." Aro said.

His voice wasn't as scary as I thought. Actually Aro didn't seem to be scary at all. When Renata and the twins moved away we were able to see the three Elders and the wives. Our younger members groaned but only for a few seconds. They were instructed to keep their positions and stay calm.

"Carlisle…you brought your lovely family to meet us…I really appreciate the welcoming party." Aro stated.

I really didn't know if he was being sarcastic or not but Carlisle answered him as if Aro had been honest.

"It's good to see you too Aro."

"I didn't hear from you since we received your letter about Edward's wedding. I'm sure you're all delighted to have Bella in the family. We are too." He said watching Bella carefully. "How are you dear?"

Bella stepped forward and held Edward's hand.

"I'm fine Aro, thanks you."

"Oh…Bella…immortality really suits you. You're absolutely gorgeous."

"She was always beautiful." Edward said with a smile.

"Of course…" Aro said quickly. "Well…congratulations on the wedding and I was wondering if maybe I could…see for myself how wonderful Bella really is…?"

Edward nodded because he knew that Bella's powers would block Aro's. She raised her left hand and Aro took it in his, closing his eyes and waiting for a few seconds. Nothing happened as all of them expected.

"She's truly magnificent." Aro stated letting Bella go. "She's completely immune to my powers. A full protection…You would be welcome to stay with us, dear Bella."

"Aro, I'm flattered but I'm married…" Bella joked.

"I know that, that's why my invitation is also for Edward and Alice, of course."

Aro's eyes searched for the pixie and he smiled widely at her. He looked at her the same way a kid looks at a very expensive toy in a shop. Curiosity, need and enthusiasm covered Aro's face. If I didn't know better I would've thought he was on crack or some other powerfull stuff.

He kept looking at us, first Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett and Esme, and afterwards the pack. His smile turned into a reprehensive look when he turned to Carlisle again.

"I guess you know why we've came." Aro started. "A friend of ours told us some…disturbing things that require our attention."

Irina joined Aro and she growled at us. Her eyes were focused on Jacob because she must have remembered he had almost died from her first attack during Bella and Edward's wedding.

"Werewolves, seriously Carlisle? Do you understand how dangerous that is?" Aro inquired in a rispid tone of voice as if he was scolding a child.

"We can explain." Carlisle said softly.

"We always thought the Volturi didn't interfere in personal matters." Edward added.

"We don't. We're not here to revenge poor Lennie."

"Laurent." Irina corrected.

"Yes, Laurent…Well it's sad what happened to him but there's nothing we can do."

Irina's eyes were now glowing with anger. She watched us carefully and clenched her fists.

"We have indeed a treaty with the Quileutes." Carlisle announced.

"So it's true?" Aro asked.

"Yes. The treaty is very old and avoids us to attack each other and live in peace." Carlisle continued. "We don't hunt on their lands and they don't attack us."

"It's not just a treaty, Aro. They killed Natalia to save Bella. They're allies." Irina stated never looking into Carlisle's eyes. She was probably feeling guilty for putting the Cullens in that situation.

"You know that my family and I live among the human world. We like to live peacefully and we never put our society at risk." Carlisle said.

"Yes. I know you have always followed our rules and despite that small incident with Edward a few years ago, our families have always been friends. But an alliance with…werewolves? That's not smart, not even coming from you." Aro declared.

"We're just trying to pay a debt." Edward said looking directly at Jacob. "They've helped us with Victoria."

"Victoria?" Aro inquired surprised. "The one who created an army to kill Bella?"

"Yes. When Jane arrived the battle was over but we managed to destroy them thanks to the pack's help." Edward referred.

"How can I be sure you're telling the truth?" Aro asked sounding quite interested. So far Aro had reacted exactly like Edward had predicted.

"Well you can read minds, can't you?" Edward replied smiling. "Seth, can you come here?"

I felt like hitting the damn mind rapist. How dared he to put my brother's life in danger like that?

"What are you doing?" Jacob asked.

"Seth fought with me against Riley and Victoria. Aro needs to see that."

My brother left his position between Brady and Collin and approached us. I was already shaking but Jacob's hand in mine allowed me to stay put.

"He's not going to attack you." Edward said. "Show Aro your memories of that day, Seth."

"He understands you?" Aro was surprised.

"Of course he does."

Aro took a few steps forward and Seth did the same. When they were face to face my brother lowered his head and Aro touched him. It took only a couple of seconds.

"Fascinating creatures…these werewolves." Aro stated. He looked very impressed. "I see Bella was a bit…insecure about her own feelings at the time…"

Seth had probably showed Aro that wonderful moment when Bella asked Jacob to kiss her, trying to keep him safe from the newborns. My stomach flipped again. When Jacob kissed her and then phased he had replayed that moment over and over. Sam was finally forced to scold him so he would focus on the battle. His love for Bella was almost contagious. It almost felt like I loved her too. Thinking about that almost made me green with jealousy because Jacob would never love someone like that again.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, right Bella?" Aro asked. He paused and looked directly to the pack. "I guess you are speaking the truth. They helped you…actually I was a bit surprised when Jane arrived and told me you had destroyed an army of newborns."

"We don't have any reasons to lie." Edward observed.

"As you can see, the Quileutes aren't dangerous to our kind. They only protect their people." Carlisle said.

"They are a bit different from what I was expecting." Aro confessed.

"Aro! They have an alliance…" Irina insisted.

"I never told Natalia to come."

"But they killed her!"

"Calm down, Irina. I believe Carlisle knows that this…treaty or alliance wasn't a very good choice."

"As soon as my family leaves Forks, they'll stop phasing. They'll be just ordinary humans." Carlisle explained.

"How do you know that?" Aro inquired with curiosity. "And how can we be sure that you're not plotting something?"

"Plotting? Why would we do that?"

"Come on, Carlisle. You have vampires with special powers and they're about twenty werewolves. Combined you could try to…"

"Rule the world?" Edward suggested laughing. "Will you listen to yourself? Have we ever threatened to steal your place as leader of the Volturi?"

"No, you didn't."

"We don't care about that." Carlisle assured. "Besides my sons and daughters don't have offensive powers."

"But they are quite useful."

"You don't understand, do you?" Bella asked almost in a whisper. "Our alliance or treaty or whatever you want to call it, is based on friendship."

She was clearly overreacting I mean we were hardly best friends, but we could say we were working on our differences or at least we were trying.

Aro was a bit lost with Bella's comment. He had probably missed school the day his teacher told the students about friendship.

Aro was silent for a while. Then he turned his back on us and faced the other two Elders.

"Marcus? What do you think?" He asked.

The vampire named Marcus was the weirdest and creepiest creature I had ever laid eyes on. I would have nightmares about him for the rest of my life, if I survived.

When he walked over to us Jacob moved closer to me. We didn't know what the hell he was going to do.

"Marcus can see the relationships between us." Edward said holding Bella's hand.

"I see…Yes…I see friendship. I sense loyalty and…" Marcus announced. Even the sound of his voice was damn spooky.

"So there is a relationship between the Cullens and these werewolves?" Caius asked sounding nervous.

"Yes…I see friendship and even love…maybe." Marcus watched everyone carefully. Esme and Carlisle, Edward and Bella, Rosalie and Emmett, Jasper and Alice, Jacob and…me? What the fuck? Even the fucking leech had picked up my feelings for Jacob.

Fortunately he didn't say a word about our "relationships" and just watched the cloudy sky as if something really interesting was there.

"I feel so many relationships ties…it's tiring and boring…I don't like it."

Couldn't he speak properly like the others? The damn leech spoke as if he was choking on something. It was fucking annoying.

"I admire those feelings, I really do but…An alliance with our mortal enemies is not allowed among our society. You should've known better, Carlisle." Caius declared with a superiority expression.

"Our alliance isn't harmful to anyone." Carlisle mentioned.

"Werewolves should be extinct." Caius insisted.

"They're not werewolves, Caius. Look at them carefully…They're not beasts."

Caius watched the pack with extreme caution and then he looked at me and Jacob.

"What are they then?" He asked with a scornful look.

"Shape-shifters."

Caius turned his attention to us again. His ruby-coloured eyes met Jacob's and they both kept glaring at each other for a few seconds.

"Which means?" Aro asked.

"They don't attack people, they don't need the full moon to phase, and they can stop being wolves if they choose to…They're only dangerous when provoked."

"We protect our people, our lands, our friends…If you go back to your damn bat cave we'll never see each other again." Jacob growled.

Caius hid himself behind Renata and Marcus just yawned with boredom.

"I guess we reached a dead end. I really wish we could go back to Volterra and leave things like this but, as Edward probably knows, we can't." Aro announced.

"I see…" Edward whispered.

"Caius wants to exterminate the werewolves, Marcus thinks they're not a real threat but he'd rather see them dead…I believe Sulpicia and Athenodora will agree with Caius…that leaves me."

"And because you don't mean any harm to our family and friends…you have a proposal, right?" Edward asked.

"You can keep your alliance and some of the werewolves can stay alive, with supervision, and in return you, Bella and Alice will join us…what do you say?"

"All the wolves stay alive." Bella said loud and clear.

"They're too many, dear Bella. But maybe some of them can go with us and be our loyal guards in Volterra…"

"You mean pets…" Jacob snarled.

"Interesting choice of words." Aro smiled at him.

Jacob took a deep breath trying to calm down and I heard some of my brothers growling.

"The younger ones can live…" He added.

"They'll stop phasing once we leave." Edward reassured.

"Then you'll come?" Aro questioned with enthusiasm.

"If you let them live, yes…we will."

Aro looked like he had won the fucking lottery. Caius wasn't happy and Marcus yawned again.

"I'm absolutely delighted to know that Edward. It's a pleasure to welcome you all in our family. You have no idea how I dreamed about this day. Well maybe you have since Alice can predict the future, right dear?"

Aro floated and touched Alice's hands. What he saw in Alice's mind pleased him a lot. I guess he had just seen the future when the Cullens would finally join them.

"We're going to learn so many things from each other." He said smiling.

"What about my friends?" Bella asked suddenly breaking Aro's enthusiasm.

"Well…I guess we can spare them. It's obvious they don't want to leave this place and from what I've seen they're really different from the Children of the Moon. Actually they're very interesting creatures."

It was hard to believe that Aro had finally said the words we wanted to hear so much. We had managed to stay safe from the Volturi. We wouldn't be all killed. It was sad that Bella and the others would have to go live in Italy but just like Alice pointed out, maybe they would only stay there for a while.

But before we could celebrate we heard a scream of anger echoing in the clearing and we watched as Irina launched herself towards the pack.

She wanted revenge and after realising that the Volturi weren't actually doing what she wanted, Irina had decided to take care of the matter in her own hands.

My heart almost stopped when I realised who was in her way. It was my baby brother.

"Seth! Move!" I heard Edward's voice and then a rain of black ropes fell over us.