My Strength Chapter 13

It was around two in the morning when the vampires had all gathered in the clearing. It hadn’t taken long for Bella to explain all she knew about the pack and their dynamics because she really didn’t know much. All she knew was what little she had observed on her trips to visit with Jacob, Leah and Seth and then of course what the three told her. But they were pretty tight lipped about everything also.

Apparently their Alpha, Sam, was just as into being secretive to outsiders as vampires were; which was fair. Bella could understand wanting to keep the supernatural away from the public and prying eyes. If she were them, she wouldn’t be very confident that if the government caught wind of their existence they wouldn’t be tempted to run some experiments. But that meant she didn’t have much to tell her group of vampires that were seemingly preparing for war.

She could tell them that her friends that were in the pack, the three shifters, did have problems with how Sam ran the pack and how willingly the others were following him. They couldn’t say much, but they were able to explain that with wolves, there always has to be an Alpha, someone in charge of the pack. But apparently some of the decisions and actions that Sam has been doing pisses off her three friends. They couldn’t say what exactly those orders were, Sam had used an Alpha Command to make sure they couldn’t, but Bella knew that while it likely wasn’t anything illegal, it was probably still frowned upon.

Jacob had always assured her that they were safe and that she didn’t have anything to worry about; that Sam just wasn’t the ideal Alpha for them. But Bella always worried about them. She was worried that with this meeting, knowing how unwilling to listen to anything outside of his beliefs, Sam may not want the vampires around his town and that wasn’t an option.

According to Demetri, the wolves were going to meet them at the border, a border that the vampires assured her was very obvious to them based off of the scent, but they weren’t there. It was making the vampires nervous; or as nervous as vampires could be.

“I’m sure they have surrounded us.” Athenodora muttered just loud enough for her daughter to hear; she didn’t want her daughter to think they were leaving her out of the conversation… even if talking at vampire speed would make sure the wolves couldn’t hear them, it wasn’t fair for Bella. “Trying to figure out the best way to take us down if they decide to.”

“They’re too young to stand any chance against us.” Demetri said with a smirk that promised some pain if they were attacked.

Zafrina wrapped her arm around her mate’s shoulders and pulled her closer to her, “You will not be hurt.” Zafrina asserted, just to make sure there was any doubt of her own ability to protect Bella. Zafrina knew her mate was about to see her friends and wanted her mate to know that Zafrina wouldn’t falter if they attacked, with or without the Alpha command.

“I know.” Bella said with a small smile, the worn out phrase was starting to sound more and more endearing the more Zafrina said it. Bella grabbed Zafrina’s hand that was over her shoulder, keeping a grip on it; she felt better about the whole situation while holding onto Zafrina. It was an odd feeling that she could definitely get used to.

What the wolves didn’t know, even as they were likely circling the small group, was that Kachiri and Senna purposefully stayed back from them. They kept away to track the wolves going to their meeting. Kachiri and Senna were used to hunting hunters and had run into many volatile shifters, sneaking up on the wolves that were already focused on something else was easy for them. Kachiri and Senna were going to hang back, not let any of the wolves see them, and only intervene if the wolves attacked and they were needed. If the wolves didn’t attack or weren’t any challenge for the others, the two Amazons were to just observe and gather as much information as they could on the pack dynamic and how they fought and interacted with each other.

“They are getting closer now.” Demetri said as he seemed to stand straighter.

“Heidi, stay with Bella and Zafrina.” Athenodora commanded.

Heidi’s power wouldn’t work if she wasn’t the one doing the talked. As requested, they were going to try and not use Heidi’s gift. So, unless she felt she should intervene to keep the peace, she would stay next to the pair as added protection for Bella.

Demetri was going to make sure he took as much information as he could of all the wolves so that if needed in the future, he would be able to easily track them all. That wasn’t something that was told to Bella; but the others knew what Demetri would be in charge of. All the vampires weren’t holding their breathes about a peaceful meeting, so if they needed to track the wolves one by one for whatever reason, Demetri would be able to. But until he was needed, he would guard his queen.

Bella felt and saw all the vampires tense up and knew the wolves were close. Nearly a minute after she felt Zafrina tense up, she heard pounding getting closer to them. The wolves were getting closer to them at a very fast rate.

Only a minute or so after she heard them, she saw five wolves slowly stalk out of the woods and into view. The one she knew was Sam continued to walk closer to the vampires while the other wolves stopped walked. Sam, for a reason that Bella couldn’t begin to guess or understand, growled what she felt was a warning and then him and a wolf she knew to Jacob turned around and walked behind some trees. Seconds later they were walking back towards them with nothing but a pair of shorts on.

“You all have red eyes.” Same commented in a gruff voice and Bella wasn’t sure if he wanted a comment on it or not.

“Are you okay Bella?” Jacob asked in a serious tone. Just because she visibly looked okay didn’t mean there was some damage they couldn’t see. Bella was his friend, his very human friend, that was hanging around red-eyed vampires that had helped kidnapped her. Jacob wasn’t going to take any chances when it came to making sure his friend was safe from these vampires that literally ate humans like her.

“I’m fine Jake.” Bella said, squeezing Zafrina’s hand before the Amazon could growl in offense. Bella knew Zafrina likely wanted to say that she was safe with the Amazon, and that Zafrina would never let anyone hurt her. But Zafrina wasn’t going to be doing a lot of talking; all the talking was supposed to be done by Athenodora.

“Are you going to let her go?” Sam asked with narrowed eyes and Bella got the impression that he wouldn’t believe anything he was told.

“Let her go?” Athenodora asked in a calm tone, not sounding nearly as menacing as she typically did. Bella got the impression that Athenodora was making herself sound nicer to try and make the wolves underestimate her. “We aren’t forcing her to stay with us at all. In fact, she was the one that dragged us here so she can finish school and spend time with her father.”

Sam seemed to sneer at the words and a few of the wolves growled, clearly not liking or believing the story. “Then come here Bella, before one of them kills you.” Sam commanded, causing Athenodora to sneer, but she was thankfully able to catch her growl.

But Zafrina didn’t even try to stop her growl. As far as Zafrina was concerned, in that moment at least, the most offensive thing he could say or assume was that Zafrina couldn’t protect her mate. She couldn’t let that stand.

As Zafrina tensed to move forward, her mate spoke up, unknowingly saving the Amazon from making things worse. But at the same time, Bella herself made things worse, but at least it wouldn’t be Zafrina facing Athenodora’s wrath for screwing things up so quickly with the meeting.

“Excuse me? Do I look like some dog you can command around?” Bella said, then quickly realized that she was talking to a pack of wolves and looked at Jacob for just a second before Sam could answer, “No offense.” She said with a small smile.

Sam seemed to have to swallow some words and fight with his anger before he could respond. “You can’t stay with these leeches; they are going to kill you, is that what you want?” He asked, his anger seemingly getting worse.

Athenodora grit her teeth and had to exercise all the self-restraint she had to not say anything that would make the situation worse; she was better than these dogs and allowing them to anger her. They were supposed to be the ones with anger issues, not her.

“They aren’t going to kill me.” Bella said as she let go of Zafrina, who wanted to keep hold of her mate but wasn’t about to control her. As long as Bella was within reaching distance and not in immediate danger, Zafrina wouldn’t restrict her movements; no matter how much she didn’t want her mate to get any closer to the wolves.

“You don’t know that; especially since you are their chosen diet.” Sam growled, leaning forward as if about to take a step himself but stopping himself.

Bella took another step, bringing her close enough to put a hand on Athenodora’s shoulder. The touch unknowingly to Bella caused the blonde warrior queen to relax just a little and get back to her senses enough to realize that all the wolves were clearly just as upset as the Alpha; except for the one wolf in human form. The human seemed more annoyed with his Alpha than feeding into his anger like the other ones in wolf form were.

“If they were going to kill me, they would have done so already when I was in Italy with them when there was literally no one around that would even try to stop them.” Bella gave a quick smile over her shoulder towards Zafrina, knowing exactly what the woman wanted to say but wouldn’t since Bella was so far away and unable to whisper to her. “All we want is for you to leave them alone and not attack; they won’t attack anyone from or around Fork or the reservation. I just want to be able to finish school before leaving to go back to Italy.”

That wasn’t the right thing to say apparently as Sam’s nostrils flared in obvious anger and Bella could swear his eyes went coal black just like a vampire’s did when they were angry. She briefly wondered how pissed he would be if Bella would to let the man know how similar to vampires he kind of was.

“What do you think they are going to do Bella? Go someplace else when there are perfectly good meals within a mile wherever they are in town?” Sam yelled, his anger getting the best of him as he watched the human argue in favor of the leeches. How could she not see the danger she brought to the whole town? What vampire had control to never hurt and hunt humans? The Cullen’s were an anomaly that Sam wasn’t entirely sure had as clean of a record as they insisted. He wouldn’t, couldn’t, let the leeches stay in town. They would undoubtedly kill more humans than the ones that attack his home many decades ago that caused their tribe to have spiritual warriors in the flesh.

“Are you going to go chase down every vampire that steps foot in Washington?” Bella said, not quite yelling but getting close. Athenodora gripped her hand that was still on the queen’s shoulder, stopping the only human in the area from marching up to the angry wolf to talk in his face. “How about in the entire west coast? Because that’s kind of what you’re starting to sound like.”

“Don’t be stupid Bella.” Sam said, not hiding the sneer from his face. “These are the vampires that are living next door to us and are a threat, a clear threat that we cannot let go.”

“What threat? They haven’t done anything?” Bella asked with narrowed eyes.

Athenodora couldn’t stop the smirk from growing on her face. While it would definitely be the wisest thing for her to do all the talking and negotiating, she did have the most experience after all, she couldn’t stop her daughter if she wanted. Her daughter was protecting them, or at least trying and most definitely failing, but Athenodora was so proud to see her daughter trying. Plus, Bella needed the practice for future negotiations since she was technically the Volturi princess and what better way to practice than to practice with people she knew? Whatever fallout would happen with the lackluster negotiations would be dealt with; she wasn’t worried about anything happening to them, she was more worried about something happening to one of the wolves her daughter was fond of. Oh well, if something did happen, she would be there for her daughter as would her husband and her daughters’ mate.

“Of course they have!” Sam yelled, completely shocked at how oblivious Bella could be. “They have red eyes, they became a threat the second they became a vampire and while they are near our home, we consider them a threat.”

That caused Jacob to react, knowing where Sam was going and not liking it at all. He had already said that from what Bella had told them, what little she knew, these vampires were bad news and if they were to attack them, there was no way their pack would win. Just because there was a small number there now, didn’t mean they didn’t have plenty more in Italy. While Jacob didn’t like that they killed humans, Bella was defending them more adamantly and strongly than she ever did the Cullen’s. In fact, these vampires were letting her defend them while the Cullen’s never let her. As far as Jacob was concerned, even if he didn’t like that they killed humans with no remorse, he understood that humans were their food source due to no fault of their own and unless the pack took up a crusade to kill all vampires, there was little they could do… as long as they left their town and surrounding area alone of course.

“But if they don’t hunt on our lands, or turn anyone on our lands, then technically we should leave them alone right?” Jacob asked with a challenging look towards his alpha that he was disliking more and more. “We protect our people, that is our job and as long as they don’t hurt our people, then our job is done.” Jacob argued. Going to war with these unknown vampires was asking for trouble for their tribe that they definitely were not prepared for; it was entirely unnecessary.

“Are you questioning my judgment?” Sam asked in a near hiss that once again reminded Bella of a vampire and had to look down to try and had a smile from her amusement. “I’m the alpha, I’ve studied more the stories than you have and I know a dangerous vampire when I see and they are dangerous. As far as I’m concerned, they could easily kill the entire tribe while we slept and there is nothing we could do about. I will not let that happen!” Sam said, “We’ll talk more after this is done, in the meantime just shut up.” Sam ordered, thankful that the Alpha Command worked even in his human form. He turned his attention back to the active threat, ready to be done with this whole façade of a talk; he always knew what the outcome was going to be. “You need to leave this area. You are not welcome here.”

Bella’s jaw dropped at how Sam was completely ignoring everything she said but Athenodora took over the talk before she could Sam an idiot and make things worse.

“As I’ve said before, we are not leaving.” Athenodora said, the command and authority in the tone very clear, “We will be staying until Bella graduates and until then, you will not bother her or us. Once she has graduated and deemed it time, we will return to Italy and not a moment sooner.”

“Then you are inviting us to attack and kill you.” Sam said with narrowed eyes, already thinking about how his name would be written in the records as a hero, almost as revered as Taha Aki. “Bella, are you sure you want to align yourself with them?” Sam asked, more than willing to give a fellow human another chance. It wasn’t like they were going to hurt Bella, but she would definitely be in greater risk being around them when they would eventually attacked and he wanted to do everything he could to avoid a human being hurt.

“You can try.” Athenodora said with a smirk, happy to have some fun while she was stuck in the boring town.

Sam only growled and exploded into a giant black wolf that seemed more feral than not. He growled as threateningly as he could, only growing more upset when the vampires didn’t react, then turned around and raced off, commanding his wolves to follow him. There was going to be a lot of planning to do if they were to win the upcoming fight. And they would win. What they didn’t know was that there was a still a red headed leech that was obsessed with finding Bella. The leech was staying on the Forks side of the boundary and so she was their problem. These new leeches would have to deal with that leech and the wolves; how divided could their attention be and still be cocky?

Jacob gave a small smile towards his friend, hoping that his dad would take a trip to visit Charlie soon so they could talk. He knew there was no way now that Sam would let him anywhere near Bella unless it was an attempt to keep Bella on the rez or to try and kill one of the vampires. But Sam couldn’t keep him from helping his very disabled father that was best friends with the sheriff of Forks. But Jacob couldn’t say anything, so he just phased and ran off to join the rest of the pack to talk about what had happened with the others that couldn’t join the mind link, the imprints, and then they would talk with the elders.

“Well, that was fun.” Demetri said with a wry smile. At least the human was able to provide them all with entertainment they hadn’t seen in quite some time.

“We need to work on your negotiation skills child.” Athenodora said with an amused smile, “I can’t wait to call your father and tell him he gets to come here to have fun afterall.”

“It was a nice try.” Zafrina said, closing the gap between her and her mate that had been created earlier. Zafrina knew her mate was worried for her friends, but there wasn’t anything Zafrina could say that would ease her worries, not anything that she could ensure to be true at least. So, instead, Zafrina would stand strong by her mate and support her with whatever is to come.

“You know, I don’t think Charlie will like hearing that I started a war with his best friends and vampires.” Bella said with a frown, unsure of how she was going to handle going to school and the shifters. Apparently hoping to have an easy last semester was too much to ask for.