A/N: Thanks for reading, and for all the reviews, follows, and favorites! Y'all make me smile:)

See you tomorrow, M. x

Home

Jasper tossed their bags down to Peter, who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, then scooped his mate up to cradle her in his arms. After quietly thanking the pilot, he walked down the steps to where Peter's truck was waiting at the edge of the tarmac. Once Jasper got them situated and worked out how to get the seatbelt around them without strangling Bella, Peter headed for home.

"You seen the wolves yet?" Jasper asked.

Peter shook his head. "Charlotte and I haven't gone to the house yet. Figured they'd be more comfortable meeting us when Bella was there," he shrugged. "She's about a mile from the house waitin' on us."

"And Kristof?"

"Too easy," Peter laughed. "Once I caught up to him it was over in less than five minutes."

Jasper smiled. "Were you hoping for more of a fight?"

"I'd hardly call it a fight," Peter scoffed. "I was hopin' to burn off some of my rage at those Cullen motherfuckers but…" he trailed off with a shrug, then smiled at Jasper. "You'll just have to spar with me."

"That's fine, I have enough rage of my own to burn off. We should probably give the wolves some proper training anyway," Jasper answered. "They're more equipped to fight as a pack. With Leah and Paul in a pack of their own now they should have some extra tools to protect themselves if they ever need it."

Peter hummed his acknowledgment but didn't answer for a few minutes. "Have you met any of them?"

"No," Jasper shook his head. "Aside from Sam, most of them didn't phase until after we left town from what I can tell. Paul may have been before but I'm not sure. And I don't think Bella was friends with any of them aside from Black. Just fair warning, they smell terrible. Like honest to god awful. But don't be a dick about it. It'll make Bella feel bad."

Peter looked at him a little incredulously. "You seriously think I'd tell people I invited into our home that they don't smell good? I do have manners, asshole. I may not use them all the time, but I do have them," he added with a laugh. They drove in silence for another few minutes before Peter spoke again, quieter this time. "How's Esme?"

Jasper thought on it a moment, thought about her emotions before they'd said a temporary goodbye.

"She's alright, I think. They had a lot of happy years, even with her knowing they weren't mates, but his behavior in the last couple years confused and frustrated her as much as Alice's did me. You know Esme, her heart's as big as they get, so it upset her to watch Carlisle hurt me. Havin' Bella back in her life helps I think. She loves my girl just as fiercely as she loves the rest of us," Jasper said as he looked at his sleeping mate with a soft smile.

"And you?" Peter asked.

Jasper shrugged. "I'm mostly alright. I've got Bella, you and Charlotte, Esme and Rose and Emmett, the wolves now too, I suppose. That's more than a lot of people have. It is what it is. Nothin' I can do to change the past."

"It's a new start for all of us," Peter nodded. "It'll be an adjustment for sure in the beginning. Goin' from just me and Char most of the time to this motley crew?" he laughed. "But we'll all adjust."

"We will," Jasper agreed. "Thank you, Peter."

Peter glanced at him. "What for?"

"Seriously?" Jasper laughed. "I don't know, coming to Italy? Taking a single step inside the Volturi's castle? Accepting my mate and her humanity and the brand new human she's growing? Being willing to open our home to all and sundry, including two beings who could be classed as our mortal enemy? Take your pick."

"I have an open and giving heart, you know that," Peter said, trying his damndest to sound sincere but not quite pulling it off. "I'm a kind soul."

"You're a dick is what you are," Jasper laughed as he rolled his eyes. "But also the very best friend I could've asked for in this life," he added, his sincerity one hundred percent genuine.

Peter smiled at his oldest friend. "I feel the same about you, brother."

They spent the rest of the drive in a peaceful silence, Bella's soft breathing the only sound in the warm and cozy cab.

Bella started to stir as Peter turned off the main road onto their driveway. It was more like a long dirt track, so the truck was bumping and jostling. She lifted her head from Jasper's shoulder and looked around with tired, bleary eyes. The cab of the truck was toasty and warm but the world outside her window looked decidedly frosty. Beautiful, but frosty. She glanced at the clock and smiled a little. They'd had a long ass day of traveling but with the time difference it wasn't midnight yet, and Bella had been hoping they'd arrive at her new home while the calendar still said January 1st. She wanted the new year to be the first day of a new start for all of them.

After a long and gaping yawn, Bella gave Jasper a quick kiss. "Thanks for letting me sleep," she smiled, then looked at Peter. "And thanks for picking us up. Where's Charlotte?" she asked. A light tap on the back window had her startling a little, but then she saw Charlotte peeking in with a smile and a wave. "Did she sit in the bed of the truck the whole way?"

Jasper smiled at his sleepy mate. "No, we just picked her up a minute ago. They thought it would be better to meet the wolves when you were with us."

"Makes sense," Bella said with another yawn. She couldn't see a whole lot through the window but she did see that they were pulling up in front of a sprawling log cabin that was far more modern than what she was expecting. "Whoa. It's way bigger than I pictured it."

"Vamps don't do well living in cramped quarters with other vamps," Peter shrugged. "This gives us some room to spread out."

As the truck came to a stop, Jasper unbuckled the seatbelt and patted her thigh. "Ready to see your new home?"

Bella scooted around as Jasper opened the door and then hopped down, only losing her balance for a second - though she didn't fall, which she counted as a win. "Yep, let's go," she laughed as she righted herself.

The inside was just as Jasper had described it. The floors in the entry were stone, but hardwood as you walked in the main living area, which was huge. There was an open kitchen that led to a large living room that had a huge stone fireplace anchoring the back wall, and big picture windows gave sweeping views of what Bella knew to be mountains and the Yellowstone River, though she couldn't see much in the dark. A wing on the opposite side of the house from the living room had two bedrooms, both with en suite bathrooms, and after climbing the stairs that followed the curve of the entryway wall, Jasper showed her two more huge bedrooms with attached baths. They were on opposite wings of the house so no one was right on top of each other. In between those was a home office and a room that had been turned into a cozy den with built-in bookcases covering three walls.

The bedroom Jasper put their things in was big enough that it contained a small sitting area in front of sliding glass doors that led to a small balcony.

When Bella flopped back on the bed she let out a happy sigh. "This is even more comfy than our bed at the castle."

Jasper crawled up beside her and pulled her into his arms. "Feel like sleepin' more or do you wanna come downstairs with me? We've got two nervous wolves headed our way."

"I'll come down, just give me a sec," she smiled as she grabbed her bag and pulled out two small gift-wrapped bundles. "Alright, let's go."

Bella grabbed Jasper's hand and started pulling him downstairs, and he laughed a little at his mate's eagerness to see the two people who'd risked everything to keep her safe. Just as they stepped off the last stair there was a quiet knock on the door. Bella handed Jasper the gifts and bounded over.

"Leah! Paul!" she smiled as she flung it open, then pulled both wolves in for a hug. They laughed as they hugged the human, then looked beyond her a little nervously to see Jasper leaning against the far wall to give them a bit of space. "Would you feel better meeting them outside in the open air? Would that help?" Bella asked.

Leah nodded a little sheepishly. "Maybe just for the initial meeting. You guys set off our instincts and I'd really hate to make any wolf-sized holes in your walls."

Jasper laughed and nodded. "That's perfectly fine. You do the same for us, and I'd hate to make any vamp-sized holes in my walls."

Jasper grabbed Bella's coat and threw it at her, then smiled when she didn't catch it in time and it landed over her head. "Funny, Whitlock," she snarked with a laugh as she tugged it off her face.

They were just walking outside when Peter and Charlotte joined them. The log cabin had a front porch that spanned nearly the whole length of the house with a porch swing and adirondack chairs, so after introductions and hesitant handshakes, they all took a seat.

"Here," Bella said a little nervously as she handed the wolves the presents. "You all have super-hearing so I'd rather just get this out of the way before you overhear anything and freak out."

Leah and Paul looked at her curiously for a second and then unwrapped their gifts. Leah's jaw dropped when she unfolded a little green onesie that read 'Can I call you Auntie Leah?' and then looked at her fellow wolf to see his said much the same thing, but with Uncle Paul instead.

Leah's eyes darted between Bella and her mate. "Are you…"

Jasper smiled and shook his head. "Bella likes to remind me that I'm already dead, so no, I'm not the father. She'd just discovered she was pregnant when I got to Italy."

"He's not the biological father, but he will be her daddy," Bella added.

"Her?" Paul asked, then looked at her stomach.

"Just a hunch," Bella shrugged.

"Congratulations, Bella," Leah smiled as she got up to give her a hug. "I'm happy for you."

"Same," Paul nodded. "Congratulations."

"Thank you, I'm pretty excited about it," Bella laughed, then plopped herself back down in her mate's lap. "So how's your cabin?"

Leah smiled at the three vamps. "It's perfect. I think vamp space is different from ours, though, because when you said a 'little' cabin, we were expecting an actual little cabin. We were shocked to find it was bigger than both our houses on the Reservation," she laughed.

Paul looked at each vampire in turn. "Thank you," he said quietly. When all three looked at him a little curiously, he smiled. "Thank you for opening your home to us."

Peter waved a dismissive hand with a smile. "It's your home, too. We're just one big ol' weird family now."

When Bella let out a huge yawn, Leah smiled and stood up. "We'll let you go, we just saw the lights on and figured we'd come meet this new tribe of ours," she laughed.

Jasper stood up with Bella still in his arms, making her squeak in surprise. "I'm gonna get her to bed, but come and go as you please, this is your home now. Cabin, main house, doesn't matter."

Charlotte and Peter stayed seated but waved as Leah and Paul turned to leave. "Welcome home, wolves," Charlotte said with a smile.

As the couple watched the wolves walk away, and Jasper carry his human mate inside, Peter shook his head and chuckled. "What an odd little tribe we are."

"When are the others getting here?" Leah asked a little distractedly.

"Uh, what's today, the 5th? Tomorrow, I think," Bella answered.

The two of them, Paul, and Charlotte were leaning against a wooden fence that surrounded what would have been a pasture if the Whitlock property was a working farm or ranch. Instead, it was the area Peter, Charlotte, and Jasper used to spar. Leah and Paul were watching with critical eyes as Peter and Jasper tried to take each other down, Bella watching more in awe. Because damn did they move fast.

Bella was no stranger to vamp speed, but watching a fight at vamp speed was wild. The brief 'fight' between Jasper and Charlotte in Volterra looked more like two humans playing tag compared to this.

Paul flinched a little when Jasper swept Peter's feet out from under him and he landed on his back with a resounding thud.

"You're such a dick," Peter huffed playfully as he shot to his feet and lunged for Jasper, who scooted out of the way just in the nick of time. "Why you gotta make me look bad in front of my girl?"

Jasper laughed as he dodged another lunge. "Work harder if you don't want me to embarrass you."

Charlotte laughed as she silently hopped over the fence, and as soon as Peter had Jasper distracted, she took off running and tried to slide into his legs like she was stealing home in baseball. She almost had him but Jasper grabbed Peter at the last second and spun them around so Charlotte barreled into his legs instead, taking him down to the ground in a skidding mass of arms and legs. Jasper laughed as he leaped over them and flashed over to his mate.

"Warm enough?" he asked as he kissed her slightly red nose.

"Yeah, this coat's fucking great," Bella laughed as she patted the long quilted, down coat that covered her literally from head to toe. "Anyone spending money on me makes me a little nervous but this was money well spent. I hardly feel like I'm outside."

"Good," Jasper smiled, then spun around and quickly pinned Peter when he came running up behind him. "Watch my pregnant mate, asshole," he growled, though he was fighting a smile. Which turned into a laugh when Charlotte jumped on his back.

"I win!" she cheered loudly, making both wolves and the human smile.

So far everyone had been adjusting to their new normal pretty well. Paul and Leah spent a lot of their time in their cabin or exploring the area as wolves, though they did stop in at the main house at least once a day. The last two nights Bella had cooked a proper meal for them to eat together and then they'd all watched a movie in the huge living room. Leah was a reader like Bella, so she had come and swapped out a couple books she'd borrowed with two more she'd never read.

Jacob Black had told everyone that Edward Cullen and his 'family' were a bunch of rich, stuck-up assholes, so Leah and Paul had been a little wary of what the Whitlocks would be like, but were relieved to find they didn't have a single snooty bone in their very old bodies. They were wealthy for sure, but they weren't snobby about it. And nothing about either of the cabins was fancy, though all the furniture was definitely high-quality. Leah wasn't sure she'd ever sat on a more comfortable couch than the huge sectional in the living room of the main house.

Charlotte, Peter, and Jasper were about as down-to-earth as you could get, so even if the two wolves were still slightly put off by the vampire aspect, they liked all three by their personalities.

When Jasper had broached the subject of training the wolves, Leah and Paul had jumped at the offer. They knew they were vulnerable in a pack of only two and were grateful these vamps were willing to teach them how to fight more effectively. So far they had only been observing, but just doing that helped the wolves get an idea of how they could translate some of the moves into ones they could make their own.

Once Charlotte hopped off Jasper and he and Peter hauled themselves off the ground, Jasper turned to the wolves. "Who wants to start?" he asked.

"I will," Paul said as he hopped the fence and walked with Jasper to the center of the clearing.

Peter and Charlotte both smiled when Leah rolled her eyes. "He's just lookin' out for you," Peter said quietly.

"I know, but I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself and he knows it," Leah said with a glare at Paul's back, though she was smiling so it lacked any real heat.

To start off, they were training as humans, and Jasper cut his speed down by about half so he could give instructions as they went.

"He's really good at this," Leah said as she watched Jasper patiently show Paul for the seventh time how best to hit the ground with a roll to minimize any damage.

Bella smiled at her. "He ought to be, he trained other vampires for like…" she trailed off as she tried to remember the math.

"Seventy-five years," Charlotte supplied with a smile.

Leah's head snapped around to look at her. "Seriously? What, did he run some kind of vamp self-defense school or something?" she asked curiously.

Peter couldn't help laughing at that. "Somethin' like that. We'll tell you our history when we go inside."

Leah nodded distractedly as she watched Paul hit the ground in a perfect roll so he was back on his feet within seconds. She and Bella started laughing when they both broke into cheers at the same time.

Jasper looked over at Bella with a pout. "I thought you were supposed to be cheerin' for me, sweetheart."

"Nope, I'm an equal opportunity cheerer," she laughed.

Paul tried to use Jasper's distraction to his advantage and launched himself at him, but Jasper - casual as you please - just dropped to the ground without a glance so Paul flew right over his head. Paul did land with another perfect roll, though, so all three vamps, the second wolf, and the lone human all broke into loud applause and whistles.

Once they were all settled in the living room - Bella with a mug of ginger green tea and the wolves with hot chocolate - Jasper started telling the wolves the story of his long life. He was interrupted almost immediately.

"You were in the Civil War?" Leah asked incredulously, then looked at him a little suspiciously. "And with that accent, I'm guessing not on the winning side?"

Jasper smiled at her in understanding. "Texas, yes. But I didn't enlist to preserve slavery, I enlisted because the war quite literally showed up on my doorstep. Slavery was no more a part of my life than the rich white families who lived in town were. If I could go back in time I'd do things differently, but I was a naive seventeen-year old farm boy. I didn't know a thing about the world outside our land and the land that adjoined ours on all sides. If it makes you feel any better, I ate a whole lot of racist white folks after I became a vamp," he shrugged. "Figured I'd do my part after the fact."

Leah had to bite back a smile. "Yeah, alright. I guess that's something."

Jasper continued with his story, but he was interrupted again when he got to the part where he discovered the world he'd been reborn into, this time by Paul.

"Armies? Like legit vampire armies?"

"Yep," Jasper nodded. "It's been war in the south for centuries. Since newborns are stronger and more savage than older vamps, they were the soldiers of choice. It was…" he trailed off as he tried to come up with the right word.

"Brutal?" Peter offered.

"Miserable?" Charlotte added.

"Yes," Jasper laughed as he pointed at them. "It was a brutal, miserable life. Only three good things came out of those seventy-five years. My ability to fight, which means I can protect my loved ones better than most, and—"

"Me!" Charlotte and Peter shouted at the same time.

Jasper laughed again and nodded. "And Peter and Charlotte."

"Did you… create them? Sire? Change? What do you call it?" Leah asked.

"I did, though years and years apart. And the three of us usually say sire. Some use 'maker' too," Jasper shrugged.

"So you three are like a for real family? Just venom-based, rather than blood?" Paul asked, making all three smile.

"We are," Charlotte laughed. "Peter and I consider Jasper our brother, though, not a father the way creepy Carlisle Cullen saw himself."

"Did you, or do you, see the Cullens as your family too, even though you weren't related by venom or whatever?" Paul asked Jasper.

"Some of them, absolutely. I never considered Edward a brother, he and I never got along, but I do see Emmett as a brother and Rosalie is my twin in just about every way that matters. She's the one I was always closest to, with Esme a pretty close second. I never saw either Carlisle or Esme as parents like the others did. I'd been on this earth for over a century by the time Alice and I turned up on their doorstep, so I wasn't in need of a set of parents. For me, Esme is more like a sister, though the unconditional love that lives inside that woman is similar to a mother's love," Jasper explained with a smile.

"Is there anything we should know about them before they get here?" Leah asked a little nervously.

Jasper thought on it a minute before answering. "The first thing you'll notice about any of them is Emmett's size. He's pretty big, heavily muscled and even taller than me. But he's honestly one of the most easygoing beings I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. He's truly happy about ninety-nine percent of the time and rolls with life's punches like he was made for it. He's brilliant, but not a dick about it like Edward. He's the tech genius of the family. Esme is just as warm and loving as she'll seem when you meet her. The woman has a Texas-sized heart and loves like no one else I know," Jasper said with a smile. "Rosalie might come off as a little cold at first, but that's usually how she reacts to new people until she knows if she can trust them. She and I are similar in that trust doesn't always come easy. But family means everything to Rose and she already knows y'all are family, so I don't think it'll take long for her to thaw out. She's strong and loyal and will fight to the death in defense of anyone she loves. She's probably the best fighter of the family, too. She asked me to train her when she learned about my history, wanting to always be able to defend herself in any situation."

Leah and Paul nodded as they absorbed all that.

"I know how Jacob made the Cullens sound," Bella added with a yawn. "But the ones coming to live here aren't like that. All three are as close to normal as you can get as a vamp. They're like the Whitlocks in that they have a shitload of money, but none of them are snobby or fancy. Edward, Alice, and Carlisle were the snooty assholes in that house. At home, Esme and Rosalie live in the same types of clothes you and I do, Leah. Esme's only twenty-six in human years, so if she was out in the community as Carlisle's wife, she tended towards dressier, more conservative clothing to appear older, but at home she was more into comfort."

"How old are the others?" Paul asked curiously.

"In human years, Esme is twenty-six, Emmett is twenty, and Rosalie is eighteen. For time on this earth, Esme was born in 1895 and Rose and Emmett were both born in 1915," Jasper answered.

"And you were born in 1843? '44?" Leah asked.

"1844," he nodded. "And changed in 1863."

Paul let out a low whistle. "Man, that's crazy. Jacob didn't know anyone's ages so we didn't either. All we knew was that the five original Cullens were around in the late '30s when they made the treaty with Ephraim Black."

"I think that was 1936," Jasper nodded, then smiled as he grabbed his mate's mug as she dozed off so it didn't spill and set it on the coffee table. "It's been a long day for her so I'm gonna take her up. The others'll be here in about twelve hours and I know she'll wanna be awake when they get here."

Leah and Paul stood up and went to rinse their mugs out. "We're gonna head out but we'll be back tomorrow," Leah said. "I'd like to get some rest too so I don't look like shit when I meet my new family," she added with a laugh.

"I thought we were a tribe?" Jasper asked with a smile as he walked through with Bella in his arms.

"Tribe, family," Leah shrugged. "Don't they basically mean the same thing?"

"I think they both translate to the people you feel most at home with," Charlotte said as she and Peter walked them to the door. "And I know y'all are still settling in, but I hope you feel at home here, and that you'll eventually come to feel at home with us, too."

Leah and Paul both smiled at the three vamps who'd done so much over the previous few days to make sure they knew this was just as much their home as it was the Whitlock's.