Ban Together Chapter 20

Rosalie and Didyme were stood on opposite sides of Didyme’s office in her wing. As much as Didyme would have loved to just take Rosalie to her bedroom and throw the blonde onto her bed and have her way with her newfound mate. But that wasn’t going to happen for at least a few hours… hopefully. If she knew her sisters as well as she thought she did, which seeing as she’s known Athenodora and Sulpicia for several millennium she should know them fairly well, her and Rosalie would be needed in the throne to discuss their next steps relatively soon. The pair liked their plans and schemes too much for them not to be all together to get everything planned out as efficiently as they could.

Rosalie had immediately gone to stand next to the window that overlooked one of Didyme’s personal gardens and stared at all the flora that was in bloom. She wrapped her arms around herself as a sort of armor for what she knew was going to be a serious talk that would take a toll on her emotions. She knew they needed to talk, she knew there were things about her past that Didyme would need to know about… especially about what lead her to be changed by Carlisle. She didn’t want them to be in the throws of lovemaking and go into a flashback and freeze or, given that she was a vampire and her instincts were a lot more primal as such, attack Didyme thinking she was her former fiancé.

But even more important that going over her human life with her mate, she needed to confess her role within the Cullen coven. She wanted to make sure that she had nothing to do with any of Carlisle and Esme’s plans. She didn’t even have anything to do with the plot of Victoria and James. Carlisle and Esme tended to be pretty tightlipped about their plans and end goals. The only one that probably knew everything that was planned was Alice and Jasper because of Alice’s powers. Rosalie was more of just a pretty face for the coven and nothing more. She didn’t have a gift herself and didn’t approve of Carlisle’s games. The only reason she had stuck around for so long was because of the maker’s bond that Carlisle liked to exercise every chance he got.

While everything Rosalie had done to help Carlisle wasn’t necessarily bad in and of itself, just the fact that Rosalie hadn’t really tried very hard to get away or to report him wasn’t very good either. Rosalie carried a lot of guilt about not turning in her coven mates sooner but she had never thought it wise to break away from them. Even when she was alone, hunting with the Denali’s, she had never thought to try and break away. She wasn’t sure if that was because she hadn’t thought she would be able to get away or if she thought she wouldn’t get the help she needed from the Denali’s; even though they had never made it seem like they wouldn’t help her.

With that said though, Rosalie was sure if she had broken away from the Cullen’s any sooner than what she had, she may not have met her mate so soon in her vampire life. She knew Didyme was literally several millenniums older than her and Rosalie was thankful she didn’t have to wait that long to meet her mate. But if she had run away from the Cullen’s any sooner, she knew she would have avoided any and all vampires; especially the law keeps that were the Volturi in fear they would arrest and then kill her for just having been associated with the Cullen’s at some point.

“You have nothing to fear from any of us.” Didyme said in a quiet voice that Rosalie knew only a vampire would have been able to hear. “Especially not from me.” Didyme added with conviction. “Even without Sulpicia’s gift, I knew right away that you have nothing to do with Carlisle’s games. Just by the fact that you came here on your own already proves your innocence.”

“Or it shows I’m not very good at plotting.” Rosalie said, thinking of the times Carlisle had been within these same walls and hadn’t roused suspicion from the queens about the games and experiments he liked to do. Perhaps she was just following in her maker’s footsteps and just didn’t realize it? It wouldn’t surprise her if Alice had constructed her walking into the Volturi stronghold for the Cullen’s own gain and with Rosalie being none-the-wiser. Rosalie was still very much concerned that everything she and Emmett had done to leave was actually exactly what Alice had planned and they were just following the unknown plans perfectly. Rosalie felt so out of control of her life that she honestly thought this was the worst time in her life to find her mate; she was completely unprepared and knew she wasn’t in the best place mentally to welcome and cherish her new mate like she knew she should.

Didyme walked closer to her mate, feeling the need to comfort her mate, sensing that the younger vampire’s thoughts were diving into deeper and darker territory. Didyme didn’t know Rosalie, had only heard of her from her sisters about Carlisle’s periodic updates about his coven and its’ growth. But outside of the random remarks that the blonde may have very well have beauty that rivaled Heidi’s, she knew nothing outside of the obvious feeding habits she had.

Just looking at her mate, she could tell there was a lot going on with Rosalie’s life and how she had been living the past few decades and Didyme could tell the blonde was not happy with it. But Didyme was torn about how welcome her touch would be, how welcome her presence was. Didyme was okay with forcing her presence onto the younger woman, but to force her touch onto was something that Didyme’s instincts told her would be catastrophic and the noir queen feared why that would be. She had to tread lightly with her mate, especially while she knew so little about her young love.

“I may not know you very well, but I’m sure if you truly wanted to plot against someone you would be able to be very successful at it.” Didyme said, mentally focusing on her own hand that was practically itching to take hold of the blonde. “But I’m confident that you have nothing to do with what Bella had been put through and she and her new family is about to face in the way of Victoria and Carlisle’s plans.”

Rosalie turned her head so that she could see the ancient vampire over her shoulder from the corner of her eye, “I wasn’t very nice to her when she was dating Edward.” Rosalie said with a frown, unsure if that would affect her future treatment as well.

Didyme took a few more steps closer to her mate, stopping just within arms reach from the blonde. If Didyme wasn’t so focused on making sure her arm didn’t move, she was sure her arm would have already reached out to touch Rosalie to provide some sort of comfort that the blonde clearly needed.

“I’m confident that whatever you did to her was done with the best of intentions of keeping your coven safe and within the laws while keeping yourself safe as well.” Didyme said with confidence. Her mate didn’t seem like the type of person to be mean just to be mean; she seemed more of the protective type. And if, at the time, her coven was making choices that could have incurred her families wrath then she truly believed her mate would have done what she could under Carlisle’s watch to keep her coven safe. “You have done no wrong here Rosalie.” Didyme said with a sure voice. “You have been wronged and that is a big difference. You are safe here and with my family. I will always protect you and allow you your autonomy.”

Didyme wasn’t sure why she added the last part, but her instincts said it was the right thing to say. While she would have thought that was an obvious protection her mate could happily take for granted, perhaps while in Carlisle’s coven, it wasn’t a given. If Carlisle was in fact calling all the shots, or even if Alice was the puppet master with no one else being the wiser, Rosalie’s vampire life would have been very much controlled by her maker to make sure his plans weren’t given away. Didyme was always one to listen to her instincts and at the moment her instincts were screaming for her to not only comfort her mate without touch, but to also make sure her mate knew she was safe and she had options that Didyme wasn’t trapping or forcing her to be with her. It was something she thought her mate would already know but clearly, if her instincts were telling her to give her mate those reassurances, then something must have happened in Rosalie’s past.

Rosalie finally turned around and unwrapped her arms from around herself and Didyme took that as invitation to finally wrap Rosalie in her arms. Didyme had to keep her quiet moan of pleasure of finally having her mate in her arms, pressed nicely against her body, to herself. She didn’t want to scare her mate away. Didyme could tell there were old scars on her mate’s soul that demanded patience and understanding to navigate. It was a blessing that Didyme was the most patient of all the queens and with how long she had been alone watching her sisters happy in their bond, Didyme was more than satisfied to just simply be in Rosalie’s presence. It was more than enough to just have Rosalie near; everything else, all the physical part of being mates would come later when Rosalie was ready and Didyme was okay with that.

“I know I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, that I didn’t do everything I could to try and derail Carlisle from his plans, or even properly protect Bella from Edward.” Rosalie said, her voice muffled against Didyme’s shoulder but thanks to vampire hearing, Didyme could hear every waver in Rosalie’s voice that the blonde tried to hide. Didyme only held on tighter, sure that the blonde was trying to work up to telling her something that the blonde may or may not believe was a make or break in their new relationship. Whatever it was that her mate would reveal to her, Didyme was confident it wouldn’t, couldn’t, sour her view on her new love.

Instead of talking, Rosalie only gripped her harder, as hard as a vampire could. She knew what she wanted to tell her mate, she knew it. She wanted to tell her about her being changed into a vampire. She wanted the ancient vampire to know why it was she was about to die and then what Carlisle had originally wanted with her and had continuously tried until she found Emmett and convinced everyone they were as close to mates as they could get without being mates. Thankfully, Jasper could only read emotions, not bonds so it made it easier to hide. There were many things Rosalie wanted to tell her mate but she was sure, without a doubt, that the last thing to have happened to her before she was turned would affect their relationship more than how Carlisle had used her would. In fact, Rosalie knew, in a self-reflective sort of way that what Carlisle had done to her also inflicted some damage; but she was sure that was all made worse after what her fiancé had done.

But for the moment, Rosalie just wanted to be with her mate. She just wanted to feel the comfort only her mate could bring. She was sure there were plenty of other things they should be doing; God knew there was plenty for them to talk about much less actually do. But for the moment, just this brief moment of finally meeting her mate, she just wanted to take a small breath and just bask in her mates’ presence.

Royce and his friends could wait for Rosalie to have at least this moment in time to just herself and her mate.