My Strength Chapter 25

Bella was very thankful she had Athenodora and Caius. She had tried to continue to go to school and act normal around all her very human school friends and to keep up with her homework. But she couldn’t keep focused enough. It seemed every other minute her mind would turn to thoughts of the pack fighting the vampires. She was worried about someone getting hurt, about a human wondering into the fight or the fight taking place right in the middle of town. She knew the latter concern wasn’t going to happen but she was still worried about it.

As soon as Athenodora and Caius realized how worried she was, they had Heidi use her gift to compel everyone to believe that Bella had a really bad flu and simply had to be at resting. Heidi was also able to convince Charlie she was a traveling nurse, coincidently finishing up a job in Seattle and was just passing through Forks, and could look after Bella for him so he could continue to work and Bella would be taken care of.

This left Bella to the care of her vampires, both her parents and mates alike were trying their best to assure Bella everyone would be okay. But after a day or so of Bella still getting a worried look in her eyes, Caius decided to show Bella what the vampires were capable of, to show his daughter how little there truly was to worry about.

“Once you see how strong our warriors are, I know you will no longer be worried about any of us.” Caius said as he and Athenodora walked their daughter through the forest to where the three wolves and guard were training. Bella had made it very clear she didn’t want anyone to get hurt on either side and her parents were willing to oblige. Honestly, Caius would much rather prefer just killing the other pack and to be done with it all but since his daughter asked and his wife sided with her, he would happily ensure no one was killed.

“We have many centuries of training on our side, there will little the other pack can do to truly hurt us.” Athenodora added, purposefully not mentioning there was still a very good chance a vampire may lose a limb and a shifter on their side may break a bone; no battle between supernatural’s could ever be so one sided that one side was not at least injured, but her daughter didn’t need to know that. If a vampire lost a limb, it could be reattached. If a shifter broke a bone, it could heal. Athenodora was confident no one would be permanently harmed.

Bella bit her lip but didn’t say anything. She knew the two ancients were trying to ease her worries but she wasn’t stupid. She had seen the Cullen’s struggle with just James when the fight should have been easily won for the Cullen’s. She knew the Volturi were a lot more experienced, but there was always a risk of someone, on either side, of getting hurt.

“Yeah, I’m sure you guys will do good.” Bella lamely said, unsure of what else to say.

Caius put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder as he felt a pull to get closer to her. He knew his daughter was a lot kinder than either he or his mate; which was likely done of purpose as a way to temper the duo’s anger and aggressive responses to everything. But his daughter was the Volturi princess and she would be witness to a lot of battles in the future; shifters and vampires were not the only supernatural’s in the world and it was always a constant battle to stay on top of the food chain. His daughter would need to grow a thicker skin and it was his belief it would be safer for his daughter to do so slowly and cautiously; especially while she was still human.

“Wait until you see them, we will have them slow down their speed and you will see, there isn’t much to be worried about.” Caius assured his daughter once more.

“We constantly train to keep from growing stagnant and from growing an ego.” Athenodora added. “We come up with new ways to train every other year, always tweaking and making minor adjustments so we are always improving.”

“Don’t you guys have perfect memories?” Bella asked, wondering why a vampire would need to be constantly training if they had perfect memory of the learned fighting techniques.

Caius smirked at the question. It was that train of thought that got vampires killed. It was the very same form of thought the Cullen’s had about them blending in with humans to live their life and think they won’t have to worry about anyone else. Did they not know there could very well be other supernatural creatures going to school with them that they wouldn’t be able to recognize? What if that supernatural creature had a vendetta against vampires? How would the Cullen’s defend themselves with no training? It was something the Volturi did their best to make sure would never happen to their coven and even tried to extend their strength to other covens over the world with their frequent check in’s. The Volturi would never let vampire lose their spot in the food chain if they could help it.

“Perfect memories are a good way for an ego to make assumptions on our ability in a fight.” Caius said, knowing for a fact he had once thought the very same thing when he had first been changed so long ago. “When I was first changed, and for many years, I always assumed there would be no better fight than me because of what I had learned as a soldier as a human and then as a nomad as a vampire.” Caius explained. “I assumed I knew best and because of that, I got sloppy and made mistakes. One mistake nearly cost me my life.”

“What happened?” Bella asked, more curious than worried about the answer. Clearly whatever had happened to the vampire, he had survived just fine. But Bella felt a desire to learn more about both ancients, not as strong of a feeling as she had with Victoria and Zafrina but the desire was still there.

“I felt pity on him and decided to stop playing with him before things got too out of hand.” Athenodora said with a smirk. In reality, she had first spotted the cocky vampire the day before, Caius not even realizing his mate was near, and Athenodora decided to knock his ego down a peg or three. After that pseudo fight where Caius learned he wasn’t as strong and skilled as he thought, they united properly and since then they always trained together.

Bella smirked and turned to the ancient queen, “You’re older than him, right?” Bella asked, already understanding in order for the queen to have survived for so long, with or without the Volturi, she would need to have some fighting abilities.

“Very much so,” Athenodora said with a proud smile. She would never shy away from her age, it was a prideful fact that she was so old, older than anyone she knew to still be alive. “To be alive in such an uncivilized world, especially as a female, I always had to train and keep my skills sharp to make sure no one could best me in a fight.”

Bella nodded her head, understanding the importance of training. It did also make sense since fighting techniques were always changing and evolving. Keeping up on training would make sure someone was able to adapt to their opponent in a fight; especially if it was a life or death fight. Just because they had perfect memories didn’t mean they knew everything or that their ego’s didn’t play a role and a fight they thought was an easy win really wasn’t.

That didn’t bode well for the three shifters on her side.

The trio walked into a small clearing, the guard having picked the spot so the wolves could practice in both a clearing and wooded area. They had two wolves, whom Bella knew to be Leah and Jacob, fighting each other while Seth stood on the side in his wolf form watching the fight. What was odd, was Jane watching the fight with such a critical eye the royals felt she may be fighting using her gift on one of the wolves. It didn’t take long for them to realize why.

It was the most recent development when all the vampires and wolves finally met for training. It was something not purposefully kept from Bella, just something that hadn’t needed to be brought up.

“The wolves are training with each other because it’s going to be other wolves they’ll be fighting, right?” Bella asked to make sure she understood why a better fighter wouldn’t be in the fight to help teach in real time.

“Exactly.” Caius said with a proud smile, a smile the other guards rarely see. Caius was just so happy that his child was catching on so quickly and with so little experience, he knew she would be a force to be reckoned with as a fighter, even if she chooses to avoid fighting if she could given her nature. His daughter would be a capable fighter, no matter her stance on going into battles. “It gives them practice for what they will be fighting against.”

A yelp from the duel earned everyone’s attention to the practice duel. No sooner did a wolf yelp did another, Jacob, collapse to his side and howl in pain. Jane glared menacingly at Jacob as the wolf rolled in pain, trying to knock off the invisible pain.

“Stop!” Bella immediately yelled, Athenodora having to put a hand on her shoulder to stop her daughter from racing out to the wolf in pain, “He didn’t do anything on purpose.” Bella had no idea what was going on, but she did know Jacob wouldn’t have hurt Leah on purpose and whatever did happen certainly didn’t warrant Jane using her gift on the new Alpha.

“Don’t worry Bella.” Victoria soothed from behind, cautious to not get too close to her in case Athenodora would think the redhead was trying to out comfort Bella in some sort of competition. “Leah and Alec are mate’s. The twins have always been very protective of each other. Jane just has some anger issues she needs to work on, she was just defending her brother's mate, she's used to being the strength of the pair, she likely didn't even think about acting before she did.” Victoria said with a smirk, knowing very well Jane could hear her and would definitely not agree about her lack of control. If anything, it was to be expected Jane would protect Leah as Jane would protect her brother at all costs, including what made him happy and that included Leah now.

Leah shook off whatever it was that had happened, growled at Jane, she was probably offended someone had come to her defense without asking, and then raced off into the forest. Jane sneered at Jacob, clearly blaming him for the situation while Alec looked on passively, likely torn between what exactly he was meant to do and what his mate would allow him to do.

“They’re mates?” Bella asked. Wouldn’t they have realized that sooner? When they all first met each other? Wouldn’t that have been a big development like when Heidi and Seth met? “How did I not know?”

“You’ll find when it comes to Alec, he is very much a reserved person, usually allowing Jane to speak for them both.” Athenodora advised, “It wasn’t for any of us to say and if Leah didn’t say anything, we didn’t want to either as it wasn’t our news to share.”

Bella thought back to all her time with Leah and how much hate and pain she had for Sam and what had become of their relationship and how it ended. Leah had a lot of issues that, from what little she had seen and heard of Alec, he may turn into a steady shoulder for Leah to lean on. If Alec was as steadfast and able to handle Jane's grouchy attitude, then he would be the perfect person for Leah as she wouldn't be able to run him off from all her anger.

Either way, Bella knew Leah would need someone to talk to that wasn’t her brother or Jacob. She wasn’t sure how much contact she still had with her mom on the reservation but she doubted it was much. Bella felt Leah would want or even need to talk to someone.

“Where did she go?” Bella asked, turning to look at Athenodora who still had a hand on her shoulder, “I want to talk with her.” Bella doubted Alec knew about what happened with Sam. At least, Bella was sure Seth probably explained some of it from his perspective and probably not in the best way. Regardless, if Bella were in Leah’s shoes, she would want someone to talk to and at the moment, Bella was sure she was all Leah had that knew the full situation and wouldn't run away when Leah was sure to tell her to go. It was definitely going to be an interesting conversation likely filled with a lot of cuss words and a pissed of Leah on the verge of shifting. But if she could help her friend sort through her own feelings then it would be okay.

“She probably went to the Cullen’s house, it is in that direction.” Caius answered, “If you let me carry you, I can follow her scent and find her with you.” Caius offered his daughter, more than willing to lend a hand to his human daughter.

“Please, I really want to talk with her.” No sooner had she given permission was she in Caius’s arms and being raced off towards an unseen direction.