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Special thanks to Gredelina1, Augustmoon and Mary-Alice-Brandon-Cullen for pre-reading this. This was beta'd by Maxipoo1024 from Sparkly Red Pen.

Chapter Fifteen — Coercion

Bella POV

I was sad to leave Jasper in Alaska, but I knew I had made the right choice; he would not be able to handle life in Volterra. All he had suffered in his early years would be nothing compared to the temptations and emotions he would suffer through among my coven.

My short stop in Romania was both informative and worrying. As expected, Stefan and Vladimir were once again working toward our downfall. This time. their genius lan relied on newborns. There were at least thirty freshly turned vampires spread around their lair, copulating on the ground and fighting. There was an older vampire among them I assumed was in charge. She was exceptionally small, with long black hair. She was thoroughly unremarkable and certainly not gifted. As plans went, this was not Stephan and Vladimir's best. It did not do to underestimate them, though, so I made sure to survey the area carefully before leaving.

I called for the jet to meet me in Romania before I left Alaska. I would have used it to fly out, but I wanted to be away from Jasper before things could become more complicated. As it was, we had an arrangement that would enable us both to live our lives; if we had been together longer, my resolve may not have lasted.

We touched down at the small private airport in Italy late evening, and I made my way back to the city on foot. I was not particularly looking forward to my return home. I was still angry at Aro and Marcus for their involvement in my mating, and Caius to a lesser degree. I doubted he had been involved directly, but the fact he hadn't warned me did not endear him to me. When I reached the reception area, I caught three familiar and most unwelcome scents: Jasper, Alice, and Edward. My first reaction was confusion, shortly followed by annoyance. I didn't know what Edward and Alice were doing here, but it wasn't difficult to deduce the reason behind Jasper's presence. He had been far too agreeable when I said he wasn't to join me here, now I knew why; the stubborn fool was planning to come anyway.

I sped my pace through the halls toward the throne room. In the split second between the doors flying open and drawing a breath to speak, I saw and understood it all. Jasper, Edward, and Alice were staring at Aro with sycophantic devotion. Chelsea had them fixed within her gaze. Marcus stared at the opposite wall, his discomfort evident, and Aro looked supremely satisfied.

"Again, Aro," I growled. "You would do this again?"

His look of satisfaction faded as he looked at me and mulish defensiveness took its place. I couldn't wait to hear his justification for doing this.

"Isabella, how wonderful to see you again." He greeted me effusively. "I have been talking with your mate and his coven—"

"I know exactly what you were doing," I snarled. "All of you get out!" I directed my order at the guard milling at the edges of the scene, and they started toward the door.

"Not you!" I qualified as Chelsea followed after them.

She froze on the threshold and looked back to Aro for guidance. He watched the rest of the guard leaving in silence, and I knew he would have been happy to watch her leave too. The longer Jasper, Edward, and Alice were under her influence the more strength the bond would have. He evidently chose to appease me, though, as he nodded curtly to her and went back to sit in his throne.

Once the room was empty of surplus guards, I turned my attention to Chelsea again.

"Remove your influence, now." She turned to look at Aro again, but I gripped her jaw and forced her to look at me. "Now!"

I knew the moment it happened as Edward pulled Alice behind him defensively and Jasper looked at me with dawning realization.

"What happened?" Alice asked, looking thoroughly bemused.

"Aro," I said with a quirked brow, "do you want to explain or shall I?"

By speaking to him like this before witnesses and ordering Chelsea to do my bidding, I was essentially destroying any hopes I had of maintaining my tenuous role as exalted guard. I was taking the role Marcus had designed for me all those centuries ago. I was now a leader.

I hated it had come to this, but the sacrifice was necessary. It didn't look as though Aro was going to speak any time soon, so I took up the explanation for him.

"This is Chelsea." I introduced the woman now attempting to burn a hole into the floor with her gaze. "She has the ability to manipulate relationship ties. She bound you to Aro, but she has removed her influence now. She will not do it again." My last words came as a softly hissed warning.

She nodded her acquiescence and made for the door again. This time I allowed her to leave.

"Why would you do that?" Jasper asked Aro. "I offered you my services freely."

"Because he can't help himself," I said bitterly. "He's greedy. Alice and Edward would have been too tempting for him, and he would have influenced you as a precaution. Unfortunately for him, none of you will be joining us."

Jasper stiffened. I felt his annoyance surge, and I knew he was planning to argue the point. I cut him off before he could. "Let us all retire to discuss this in private."

Edward and Alice looked exceptionally relieved at the opportunity to leave, but Jasper had an expression of stubborn defiance. I stopped concentrating on blocking his gift and allowed him to feel the full force of my anger. It was not entirely directed at him, but I didn't allow him to know that. I needed to get them away. I turned to Aro, Marcus and Caius and fixed them with a stern look.

"I will be back presently. I have news."

Satisfied that the possibility of news of the Romanians would hold them in place long enough for me to deal with Jasper, I strode from the room with Jasper, Alice, and Edward trailing after me. I led them to my own quarters and flung open the door. Marching inside, I shrugged off my cloak and threw it onto the lounge chair.

"What were you thinking coming here?" I asked, enunciating each word carefully.

"We came to rescue Jasper," Alice volunteered.

"I did not need rescuing," he said rudely. His irritation was greater because he was being affected by the emotional tenor of the room.

"If you really did come here in the hopes of joining the guard, you definitely needed rescuing. What on earth were you thinking?" I crossed my arms over my chest and locked eyes with him.

"I was thinking I am your mate and we should be together." His eyes darkened as his anger grew. "I was thinking I am not a child that needs to be ordered around by you, that I am an equal in this and therefore can make my own decisions."

His words halted me for a moment. Was that how I made him feel? Like a child?I couldn'tfollowthose thoughts, to do so would cause my determination to waver.

"That anger you're feeling," I said conversationally. "That hate, and thirst, and need, that is this place. I told you that you could not join me here for a reason. This place will destroy you. And if the emotions are not bad enough, imagine how it will feel to be in near constant temptation. We feed well and often here, parades of humans coming into the castle for our meals. They emote and think and scream. Did you consider any of this when you made your idiotic choice to come here?"

"I can handle it," he said stubbornly.

I barely noted Alice and Edward presence in the room, all my attention was focused on the man in front of me.

"Perhaps you can, but I cannot. I cannot watch you suffer through all of that to be with me. It is not fair."

"I didn't think," he admitted. "But I cannot be away from you."

"You will have to be. We can either be apart for a time and happy, or together always and miserable," I said. "I know which I choose."

"I don't want our mating to be managed like a human custody agreement," he muttered.

"I have no idea what that means," I admitted.

"When a human child's parents…" Edward began, but trailed off under Jasper's glare.

"Never mind."

"You cannot stay here," I said addressing them all but looking at Jasper. "This place is not for you. I will see you to the airport."

"Isabella, you cannot just order me away," Jasper said.

I sighed heavily. "That is not my intent. But you cannot stay here; it is not the right place for you. There are things I must do for my coven, and then I can join you in America for a time."

"You're going to live with us?" Alice asked hopefully.

I fought back the chill of horror that possibility brought to mind. Doomed to a lifetime of playing human and being deferential to the doctor? That would not work.

"We shall need to organize something," I said vaguely. "I cannot leave the coven permanently, too much changed today for that to be possible."

They each looked at me blankly, but I did not elucidate. I opened the door and called for Felix. He arrived a moment later, giving me a cautious look as he paid obeisance.

"Please see Edward and Alice to the airport and arrange for them to be taken home," I instructed. "Let no one interfere with them in the mean time, or I will hold you personally responsible."

He flinched, but marshaled himself, nodded obediently and gestured them out of the room ahead of him. After casting Jasper concerned looks, they left, leaving Jasper and I alone.

"Am I not going with them?" he asked.

"You will soon. I thought we should have some time together first. I think there has been a misunderstanding somewhere between us, and it would be good to deal with that first."

He nodded and crossed his arms over his chest in a gesture of defiance. "I am not going to apologize for coming here. I did what I believed to be necessary for us both."

"That's fine. I will not apologize for failing to explain myself properly when I suggested our visitation plan either. I know I did what was best for us both. Aro's manipulation has proved my point better than anything I could have thought of."

"Why did he do that really?" he asked.

I sighed heavily. "I don't truly know. There was certainly an element of greed involved—he cannot help himself—but it is unlike him to disrespect me in that way. I imagine he has convinced himself it was for my own good by now. He is remarkably creative when defending himself. The influence has been removed now, though, and Chelsea will not dare do it again."

"You really scared her. I felt it. In fact you scared them all."

"Good," I said simply. "I need them scared."

"You do?" he asked. I could feel the curiosity radiating from him.

"By challenging Aro the way I did, I changed my position here," I explained. "My situation has always been tenuous. I maintained that I was a guard, but someone disagreed. They believed my position was that of an equal. By taking care to never challenge them I have remained as I am. When I enabled Eleazar to leave, I made my position even more tenuous, but by acting subservient afterward, I remained a guard. This time I was unable to do that. So, by challenging Aro, I have become, in the minds of our guard, a leader."

"Eleazar told me about that," he said. "You didn't want to be a leader."

"I still don't, but it is too late for regret. What's done is done. Now I must make the best of what I have."

"You did that for me," he said with some unnameable emotion in his eyes.

"You are very special to me," I said.

He truly was. I didn't know if what I felt was love or just the pull of mating, but he was what mattered now. When I saw Chelsea's influence in his adoring look to Aro, I had been enraged. Any lingering doubts I had about our relationship were cast aside. He was mine and I was his. There was nothing either of us could do about that.

"I need to speak with my brothers," I said, using the informal title that came with leadership for the first time, aloud. "Would you like to come with me? You haven't been formally introduced after all."

"Demetri introduced us," he said, his brow furrowed with confusion.

"Yes, but you have not been introduced as my mate."

His answering smile was positively dazzling. He saw what I was saying and what it meant.

"In that case please introduce us."

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Simaril x