My Strength Chapter 20

Zafrina and Victoria weren’t as quick to brush their annoyances with each other aside as their human was. Zafrina refused to believe that if her mate was hurting that she would willingly stand aside and not fight to get to her mate and make her happy. Victoria couldn’t be bothered to explain to someone who grunted and used words like a caveman that her gift making her stay back was what allowed for Zafrina to meet Bella in the first place. If Victoria had taken Bella and run like the Amazon wanted her to do then the Amazon wouldn’t have met Bella for quite some time. If anything, Victoria felt Zafrina should have been thankful that she was so cautious, not upset because Victoria waited for the perfect time.

It was quickly decided that while all three wanted to spend some together to get to know each other and figure out their new dynamic, there were bigger problems they needed to figure out first. There was still a very real threat to their mate: the pack. They weren’t entirely sure what was going to happen with the pack and the members that were at the Cullen house. They needed to learn as much as they could about the threat, get rid of the threat and then they could spend as much time as they wanted to get to know their mate.

“We need to go back.” Zafrina said in a commanding tone to get them back to the house.

“Can’t we just stay here for a little bit and talk, I’m sure the others will send someone to us when we need to go back.” Bella said, smiling at both women in hopes to sway them. Honestly, the more she spent time with Zafrina and the woman opened up with her via using more words, the more Bella wanted from the woman. And then there was Victoria. Honestly, Bella wasn’t sure what to make of the woman. When she had first seen Victoria at the baseball game, she wasn’t afraid of the redhead, more intrigued than anything. She wanted to know more about the woman and the best way Bella knew to do that was to talk.

Victoria smirked at her mate, the human had a lot to learn if her intention was to manipulate them to do something she wanted instead, “We need to go back and figure out our plans to keep you safe. Afterwards, if your mother permits it, we can spend some time together before you go to sleep.”

Finally, something Zafrina could agree on with the redheaded woman. “We need information.” Zafrina agreed.

Victoria just barely stopped from giving a victorious smirk at having found common ground with the woman. If there was one thing they could both easily agree on and end their arguing, it was their mates safety.

“I want to know what the Volturi are willing to do, who they are willing to send to help us. The greater our numbers, the less risk there is to anyone getting hurt.” It was really only Bella getting hurt that Victoria cared about, but she could play politics and pretend she cared about the others as well. She knew if Zafrina or her sisters were to get hurt, it would also hurt Bella; so it wasn’t all a complete lie.

“Their numbers would be a welcomed addition to ours.” Zafrina agreed and Bella groaned.

If Zafrina was talking this much about what they wanted to do, then there was really no chance to get them to stay put and talk about anything but what was going to happen with the pack. Although, she was curious about what was going to happen with Jacob, Leah and Seth. She was really curious about what was going to happen with Seth since he imprinted on Heidi; weren’t wolves pack creatures? Would Heidi stay here or would Seth go with her?

If they couldn’t stay with just them there, she could at least make sure her friends were going to be okay. They had helped her a lot after the Cullen’s had left, being there for them was the least she could do. Plus, she had a feeling that if Victoria was anything like Zafrina had been for the last couple days, she wouldn’t need to worry about them straying too far from her for a while.

“Okay, let’s go back and figure out what’s going to happen next.” Bella said with a nod of her head towards the Cullen house, the sooner they figured things out and the sooner she wasn’t worried about her friends, the sooner she could just be with these two women.

Zafrina and Victoria both moved to pick Bella up to carry her at their speed back to the house but each stopped when they realized the other was in the process of doing the same thing. They both let out an almost reflexive growl from having someone attempt to take their mate away from them.

Zafrina quickly gathered herself and allowed Victoria to take Bella in her arms. It was silently agreed that having Zafrina show her complete trust in the redhead would ensure the others, the Cullen’s really, would be quickly to trust the redhead as well. If they saw Zafrina had no problems with Victoria being so close to her mate, then they would have to have no problems as well. Zafrina could also recognize that while Victoria had known their mate longer, Zafrina had had a lot more time with their mate and had more time just being with their mate than Victoria.

Victoria was grateful that while Zafrina didn’t express herself that well, she certainly had decent perceptive skills since she was able to realize Victoria was feeling a bit territorial from her lack of time spent with Bella from just looking from afar. Victoria had a lot to atone for from what her former coven mates had done, giving Bella a ride the Cullen’s house was just a small she could do… it definitely had nothing to do with the fact that Victoria just really wanted her hands on her mate to get a better… feel… of her mate.

“You guys are so hot.” Bella muttered as she heard them both growl. She may have originally struggled with Zafrina and their connection when they first met, Zafrina’s lack of words did not help at all, but to have them both there and staring at her even with their angry looks, she couldn’t stop the words from leaving her mouth if she had tried. She could freely admit she felt she got very lucky with the mating lottery at being able to have these two women instead of the bedhead man that seemed to prefer to whine when he didn’t get his way.

Both women smirked, opting not to say anything since they were just happy to have the approval of their mate, and raced off towards the house. As they got to the door, they met Heidi and Seth as they walked up to the door. Bella could feel the smug looks from her vampires since it was obviously very good timing on their part to get them back to the house at the same time as the other two.

“Have a good talk Bella?” Seth asked, a blush still present on his face. If the smirk on Heidi’s face was anything to go by, Bella was sure now that the seductress had a mate, she was putting all her seduction techniques to use on the young shifter; even if they would actually do anything. Heidi was definitely the biggest tease she had ever met. Seth was going to have his hands full.

“Yeah, there’s a lot more we need to talk about but we’re good.” Bella said, knowing that her friend was really worried that Victoria wasn’t telling the truth. Seth was a very trusting person, but the safety of his friends took priority and the way Victoria had been introduced to everyone hadn’t painted her in a very good light. “Are you two good?” Bella asked. She really wanted to know what they were planning on doing since Seth was still so young but that was something Leah deserved the right to know first. Bella would be content with just knowing that her friend was okay with the new development.

Seth’s face flushed a darker red as he answered, “Yeah, yeah I’m good.” Seth said, not able to look Bella in the eyes as he answered.

Bella opted not to say anything because she knew she had been in Seth’s position of being embarrassed by a vampire that had no filter more than once and from the little she knew about Victoria and already knew about Zafrina, she was likely to be embarrassed a lot more in the future from something one of them would say.

They walked into the living room to see everyone had shifted to stand apart from each other, the Volturi in their own little group, the Cullen’s in their own, the Amazons near the Volturi and the shifters awkwardly standing and leaning against a wall. Bella could feel the tension in the room and was very thankful she hadn’t needed to be one of the ones waiting in the clearly very awkward room.

“Bella.” Athenodora said in a commanding tone while holding her hand out towards her daughter. She was done with the Cullen’s. She couldn’t stand being around the insolent boy for much longer. The sooner her daughter was happy with the resolution of the pack and graduates so they could all go back to Italy would be the greatest relief the ancient would ever feel in her life. “We need to finish this talk before I kill Edward.” Athenodora said as Bella went to the vampire as requested. If it wasn’t for the fact that Bella could easily tell that the woman was losing her patience with whatever it was that was happening with Edward and the Cullen’s, she would have commented about being commanded to move to her like an animal. As it were, she could tell Athenodora just wanted Bella with her to calm herself down. “Carlisle, it is time to take control of your coven and make sure he keeps his mouth shut. I don’t care what he thinks about any union in my coven, I will not hear him mutter one more disrespectful thing or I will personally remove his head from his body for the remainder of my visit.” Athenodora growled. She had been listening to the Cullen’s try and tell Edward to shut up and that any relationship that wasn’t his was not any of his business. He had kept making snide remarks and she was finally done with him thinking he was above everyone else.

“I simply don’t see how everyone could be okay with one of your guard members starting a relationship with a child. It’s disgusting and im-” Edward was going to continue talking but Athenodora had zoomed over and tightly grasped his head between her hands.

“I gave you one chance, which was more than you deserved, and you blew it.” She growled.

The Cullen’s had to fight with themselves to not intervene; really it was just Esme and Carlisle that had to hold themselves back while Rosalie and Emmett could only smirk and Alice shook her head muttering how she had seen this happening and had made sure Edward saw it as well. If their coven mate had only managed to keep his mouth shut, he wouldn’t be in the situation he found himself in.

With grating sound that irritated everyone’s ears, Edward’s head was easily pulled from his body then tossed at the coven leader.

“You need work on your leadership skills. Perhaps letting you have a coven this size was a mistake, we may need to re-evaluate your abilities to ensure order within your coven.” Athenodora said as she walked back to her daughter, allowing Edward’s limp body to collapse to the ground.

“I assure you, as soon as he is back together, we will be having a very long discussion.” Carlisle assured, worried for Edward’s future and the future of his coven. Clearly he had pissed off the ancient queen and while Carlisle was upset that she had attacked someone in his coven, someone under his protection, there was nothing he could do that wouldn’t result in more harm to his family.

Athenodora wrapped an arm around Bella’s shoulders, both to comfort the shell shocked human from seeing her ex-boyfriends head ripped from his body and for her own comfort to try and calm down, and addressed everyone, “Now, Heidi, what is it you intend to do with your mate?” Athenodora asked, getting the whole room back on topic and to hopefully finish this stupid conversation as quickly as possible.

“I will protect him with everything I’ve got.” Heidi swore, “I will not leave him behind.” She also committed but not really clearing anything up.

“So what exactly does that mean?” Leah asked with snark, afraid of what was to become of her brother now that he was tide to a vampire that they were raised to hate. “He’s supposed to pack everything up and leave his home to go with you? He hasn’t even finished school yet.” Leah said, her anger quickly taking control of her.

“Well, it’s not like we were really allowed to go to school anyways.” Seth said to try and calm his sister down before she said something she could regret. “Plus, we haven’t really decided anything yet. We want to help with Sam’s pack first and then go from there.”

Leah rolled her eyes, of course her brother would want to take the ‘let’s wait and see’ approach instead of planning everything out. He really was too easy going sometimes for his own good. There were a lot of big obstacles with him imprinting on a vampire, never mind imprinting on a vampire that lives in a whole other country that also ate humans. This wasn’t going to go over well whenever Sam finds out.

“And what do we do about Sam’s pack?” Athenodora asked the shifters, “What can you tell me?” She couldn’t make a decent plan until they told her everything they knew. Their information would be invaluable to her planning.

“We’ll tell you everything.” Jacob said with a firm nod. He would talk with Seth later about what he wanted to do with his imprint but right then, he could agree with Seth that taking on one challenge at a time was a good idea.