My Strength Chapter 28

Bella was seated in between Athenodora and Caius, both vampires unwilling to be too far from their daughter. Her mates were in the seats behind them, just an anxious as Bella’s parents but since they hadn’t become officially mated, Athenodora and Caius were able to have priority with having Bella near them. All the vampires nerves were on edge. After the battle ended, they all immediately made plans to return home to Italy immediately. With Bella in tow, regardless of her desire to stay there because of school and Charlie.

No one was killed in the battle, but there were several severe injuries. On a separate plane, Demetri, Senna and Kachiri were there with another guard member to fly them. Demetri and Senna were injured in the fight. Demetri had lost an arm and had several large bites on his torso. He had gotten too cocky with a younger wolf and paid the price. Senna though, her injuries were a tad more severe.

As it was told to Bella, Senna had been trying to help Seth who had been ganged up on at the start of the fight. There weren’t nearly as many wolves as they had been anticipating. There were supposedly still some younger kids showing the signs of becoming a shifter but had yet to actually turn. So, most of the vampires got cocky and underestimated the wolves anger fueled fighting abilities. While Senna knew better to underestimate an opponent, it was hard not to when they so out numbered the wolves. Seth thought he would be able to quickly get the upper hand on a wolf that was older than him but hadn’t been a wolf for as long. Senna moved to check he was okay and while her back was turned, Jarod took advantage of it and attacked her from behind.

She lost both arms and even after hunting and becoming fully healed, she would be left with an ugly scar along her back. Kachiri was beside herself with getting her mate’s arms reattached and then getting her enough blood to be able to heal from the bites she had suffered. Both Kachiri and Felix were assigned to help Demetri and Senna reattach limbs and to hunt before taking a separate plane to meet them all in Italy. Zafrina was anxious to get word that her coven was okay and that Senna was back to being in one piece.

The only comfort Bella could give Zafrina while on the trip was to hold her hand from between the seats. Since Victoria had been with Bella the entire time, she was more than okay with just sitting back and keeping guard. And unfortunately, Victoria was keeping guard over her mate because of her parents.

With the injuries that had happened at the battle and while they were minimal, both Athenodora and Caius couldn’t help but see the wolves injuries and imagine it happening to their daughter. They had never had any problems going into battle and seeing the enemy go down; especially since both rulers never used to let their enemies live after a battle with them before. But as they saw each opposing wolf shift back to their young, human versions of themselves, both royals kept seeing their daughters face.

The Volturi had been ruling with an iron fist for several millennia and during that time, there had been many attempts at a coup. None were even hardly successful but they would be fools to believe they had killed all the vampires that wanted to see their reign over or to take over for themselves. If they were attacked, Bella would be the easy target. They hadn’t exactly been as quiet as perhaps they should have been, they weren’t really known for their subtlety like the other royals. Bella’s presence and affiliation with Caius and Athenodora would have likely already started to spread.

They needed to protect their daughter.

Caius immediately had Heidi use all her charms and powers on Charlie to allow the man to have Bella move to Italy with her new friends, where there would be an unfortunate accident at some point soon, and Athenodora had the Cullen’s use their local connections to help sell Bella’s story. The quickly whisked Bella off to Seattle where they had several planes already on the ready for after the battle for them to return. There was no time to pack, no time to say goodbye. Athenodora and Caius wanted Bella in Italy and to be turned as soon as possible so she could be safe.

And Bella was pissed about it.

Victoria had tried to argue against it, that moving so quickly wasn’t smart and would likely only piss off Bella, but Caius and Athenodora wouldn’t hear it. They wanted their daughter safe and wanted to do so in the best way they knew how: to turn Bella in a completely guarded castle full of older vampires.

“I don’t see what the problem is.” Caius said for what felt like the hundredth time. “You knew you were to be turned, what problem is it that the timeframe is moved up a little?” He asked with a sneer as he looked at his daughter, his sneer turning darker the longer his daughter refused to look at him.

Bella resisted pursing her lips in annoyance and instead focused on the way Zafrina’s hand felt in hers. She could also feel Victoria’s stare and even though she wasn’t as close as Bella would have preferred, she still felt like she was right next to her. Bella stayed silent though, she was pissed and knew if she opened her mouth, she would definitely say something she would likely regret at a much later date.

“Don’t act like a petulant child.” Athenodora said with her sneer, doing her best to avoid begging their daughter to talk to them. Unfortunately, she and her mate weren’t the best when it came to words and feelings. Secretly she was hoping Didyme and Marcus would be up to helping them fix their rash decisions. “We only sped up what was going to happen. This way you will be safe and a vampire, everyone wins.”

“Idiots.” Victoria muttered just loud enough for Bella to hear. Victoria smirked as she saw both royals tense, likely wanting to yell and argue with the redhead, but Victoria knew they wouldn’t say anything. They were already in hot water with their daughter as it was, they didn’t want to push their luck. Victoria was going to take advantage of that; her gift would make sure she didn’t push too far like they had.

“Agreed.” Bella muttered, knowing full well the two vampires next to her would hear her. She was going to channel her inner Zafrina so she could get a couple words out to hopefully have them bug her a little less while still getting her point across.

Caius couldn’t stop the growl escaping from his mouth. His own child, basically of his flesh as far he and his mate were concerned, finally talks to insult them instead of having a conversation with them. A quick ‘shush’ from his mate in warning kept him from retaliating against his own child. He couldn’t understand why his child would prefer to insult them instead of discussing things like adults. Was she not an adult? Was that not how things should be handled? Aro and Sulpicia were always telling him to talk things through instead of acting out, that all adults talked first instead of acting out. Why would his daughter be any different? Instead, he just crossed his arms over his chest and thought of all the different points he would give to his daughter once they were home to show her this was the best way to go about things.

Athendora knew her mate was all but pouting and likely thinking up ways to make things worse for them. As time went on with their flight and Athenodora was doing her best to think of what she could say to get her daughter to talk with them. She was near to the point of saying anything just to piss their daughter off enough just so she would yell at them. Perhaps it was time to swallow her pride and talk with Didyme and see if perhaps she would have insight on how she could fix things.

With a heavy sigh full of frustration, annoyance and over all just the sense of she was at her rope’s end, Athenodora spoke.

“I’m sorry you are upset about how quickly we moved you out of Forks but we are only doing what we need to keep you safe.” Athenodora knew the temporary peace that enveloped the pack of shifters was likely only temporary. Jacob had been able to oust Sam as Alpha but he hadn’t killed Sam; Sam was only exiled. Athenodora believed he would go back to the shifters and get his friends that were being forced to follow Jacob to side with him and start another war. Athenodora and Caius wanted their daughter far away from that. Seth and Leah both were on their plane as well because their own mates wanted them safe. Jacob was on his own and while the shifters on the plane were upset with leaving, the agreed to leave. Bella did not agree. Which is where the royals’ problems lied. “I’m sure one day you will understand our need to keep you safe and while I’m sure there could have been a better way to go about your move to Italy, we felt this was the safest and fastest way to get you there.”

Caius snorted at the mere fact they had to point out everything they were doing was Bella’s best interest. It was practically insulting. But he wouldn’t say anything about it. His mate was clearly ending their attempts at getting Bella to say anything and he would respect that. He would spend the rest of their trip in silence since their daughter was clearly planning on doing just that.

This was going to be the longest flight to Italy anyone on the plane had ever been on. Bella was thankful she had the strength of her two vampires with her to keep her emotions from making her explode at the two royals.