Love Conquers All 7

“I don’t like not having Bella and Rosalie close to us with that man in the castle.”Didyme said. She along with the other two queens were sitting on their thrones in the throne room waiting for Peter and his mate Charlotte to be brought in by guards. The pair had come to the castle on their own requesting an audience with the queens claiming to have urgent news. Didyme was afraid this was a trick to separate them from her daughters so they could be kidnapped but they wouldn’t know until they actually talked to visitors. The queen was of the opinion that they should just throw them in the dungeon and let the Jane and Alec spend some time with them but Sulpicia had stopped her claiming it wouldn’t be right as they didn’t have any proof that they did anything wrong. Athenodora had volunteered to lead the questioning but once again Sulpicia had said no. She did promise that Athenodora could do anything she wanted if they found out that Peter and Charlotte were helping the Cullens.

“I don’t either but they are safer in the royal wing with all the guards protecting them.”Sulpicia would prefer to have her daughters with her at all times but that wasn’t reasonable with Bella being pregnant. Once Bella was turned then Sulpicia would be having her daughters and granddaughter with her more often. Just thinking about her granddaughter made the queen smile. Even with the situation with the Cullens being unresolved couldn’t dim the happiness Sulpicia felt by having her daughters home and them giving her a grandchild.

“I could have protected them.”Athenodora could have easily protected her daughters.

“It wouldn’t have been worth stressing Bella out.”Sulpicia said.

“True, stress isn’t good for the baby.”Didyme couldn’t argue with that reasoning. Bella was already under too much stress and Didyme didn’t want her to have any complications with the baby.

“No it is not. That is why we are having this meeting right away. That way we can find out what Peter has to say for himself and get back to our girls and tell them what is going on. Then I’m going to insist that Bella take a nap.”Sulpicia had seen how tired Bella was. The poor girl hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep lately for a human let alone a pregnant one. The queen would know as she had been doing a lot of research online about pregnancy.

“Our girls. I love being able to say that.”Athenodora couldn’t help but smile every time she thought about her daughters. She couldn’t wait until this Cullen nonsense was taken care of so she could have the time to get to know them to find out what they liked so she could begin to properly spoil them. Hopefully they would like warfare as much as she did because she would love to be able to share her passion with her children.

“I do to.”Didyme smiled just as brightly as Athenodora did whenever she thought of their daughters. Sulpicia did as well.

Before anything else could be said a guard entered the room and announced.”Your majesties I present Peter and Charlotte. Nomads without a coven.”

“Bring them forward.”Sulpicia watched in interested as the pair entered the room and looked around nervously. To the queen their mannerisms showed them to be scared. That fear she didn’t they were faking either.”Welcome to the castle Peter and Charlotte.”

“Thank you your majesty.”Peter was not happy to be before the queens at all. This whole situation made him extremely uncomfortable and he cursed Jasper for involving him and his mate.

“Enough with the pleasantries why are you here?”Athenodora asked.

Normally Sulpicia would scold her mate for not being polite but this time she was just as impatient as Athenodora.”I to am curious to know why you are here.”

“Well you see I have a gift.”Peter began only to be cut off by Athenodora.

“Yes we know about your gift and how it works. Get to the point.”Athenodora didn’t want to hear the details of how Peter’s gift worked.

Peter was confused by that. He would have thought if the queens knew about his gift they would have targeted him for the guard. It made him even more unsure of Jasper’s motives as he was the one who told him about how horrible the queens were.”Well you see I was contacted by a friend for help but my gift told me to come to you and tell you about the task my friend needed help with because if I didn’t you would not only kill me but my mate as well.”

“Who is this friend?”Sulpicia figured that it would have been Peter’s involvement in kidnapping Bella that led to his and his mate’s death.

“My friends name is Jasper Whitlock and he is a member of the Cullen coven.”If Peter was asked not even 24 hr hours before he came to Italy to betray Jasper he would have offered up his life to protect him but after Jasper put him in this situation Peter wasn’t even comfortable referring to him as a friend.

“What is that Jasper asked you to help with?”Sulpicia noticed that Peter had started shaking and the queen was somewhat worried that the man may pass out.

“As long as you tell the truth no harm will come to you or your mate. We will even offer you sanctuary and protection in the castle if you are afraid for you and your mate’s safety.”Didyme saw the same thing Sulpicia did and made the offer because she wanted Peter to calm down so that he not only could tell them what happened but maybe could help in the future.

Hearing the offer Peter instantly felt better. His gift was telling him that staying in the castle would indeed keep him and his mate safe.”We will happily accept that offer as we do fear for our safety.”

“We will get you settled after we are finished. Now tell us what did Jasper ask you to do?”Sulpicia was perfectly alright with offering the couple a place in the castle. Especially if they gave the queens information on the Cullens.

“He called us and said he needed us to come to his home and that it was an emergency. When we got there everything was tense and chaotic. We actually feared that the Cullens were under attack and needed out help fighting that’s how intense things were.”Peter told her.”It was when we asked Jasper what was going on he told us that Bella was deathly ill and Rosalie kidnapped her and was refusing to let her see a doctor.”

“Did Jasper say why Rosalie supposedly kidnapped Bella?”Athenodora asked.

“He said that Rosalie was horribly jealous of Bella because Edward chose her over Rosalie and that Rosalie didn’t want Bella to become a vampire and spend eternity with Edward. I asked why Rosalie just didn’t kill her outright and was told that Rosalie was too much of a coward to do it herself.”Peter and Charolette both knew that the story wasn’t true. They had interacted with Rosalie enough to know that she despised Edward and resented Carlisle for changing her to be Edward’s companion.

Sulpicia was happy to see that Peter wasn’t lying to them as it was the same story they were told by others.”What did Jasper want you to do?”

“He wanted my help finding the pair.”Peter said.

“What did you say when he asked that?”Sulpicia was curious of what Peter had said to his friend only to betray him.

“I told him I would help him. I did because I didn’t want to a fight to break out but we both knew that Jasper was lying and my gift was warning me that we would be killed if we helped him. We stayed around long enough to get all the information we could then came here to tell you everything.”Peter told them.

“What were the rest of the coven doing while you were there?”Didyme wanted to know what everyone else was up to.

“Edward was walking around the house muttering to himself about how he wouldn’t lose his prize. Esme spent most of her time in the dining room with maps of various regions around the world on the table and working on a laptop. Emmett was extremely angry and was making comments about when he finally caught Rosalie he was going to make her regret even thinking she could get away from him. Then he was talking about various ways he was going to do that.”Peter took a step back when the three queens growled.

“So the boy did know the bond was false.”Athenodora was going to make Emmett’s death slow and painful when she got her hands on him.

“Rosalie is not going to react well to learning that.”Didyme expected her daughter to be devastated when she learned that Emmett was in on the ruse.

“Neither is Bella.”Sulpicia was worried how this was going to affect both her daughters. She had seen Rosalie’s hope that Emmett was just as innocent as she was in Carlisle’s scheme. Finding out he was involved and abused the bond to take advantage of Rosalie’s dubious consent was going to be something that Rosalie was going to need a lot of time and support to even begin healing from.

“What was Carlisle and Alice up to while you were there?”Athenodora would have to speak to her mates before they told the girls what happened to find the best way to tell them without it being so traumatic. Not that the queen thought that anything they said could really soften the blow.

“Carlisle alternated going from his office to the dining room. We overheard him and Esme talking and it seemed that Carlisle had been reaching out to various people and having Esme cross of places on the map or in some cases research an area to give Carlisle an idea of who to call. Carlisle got angrier each time he left his office and at one point he got so mad that he destroyed the kitchen.”Peter had thought the man had lost his mind and saw that as just another reason to distance him and Charlotte from the coven.

“And Alice?”Sulpicia was pleased that Carlisle was acting so erratic. It would make it easier to catch them. Something that should be happening soon as they had sent guard members to their home and Peter had just said that was where he had seen all of them recently.

“She was sitting on the back porch meditating. Japer told us that she was trying to use her gift to find Rosalie and Bella but was having no luck because the illness Bella suffered from was effecting her visions of the human. She never talked to either of us and the only real reaction we saw from her was a lot of swearing and growling.”Peter had actually felt a bit smug that Bella had proven that Alice’s gift was useless. The little vampire was an arrogant, know it all who manipulated everyone around her just to get the future she wanted. Peter and Charolette had hated her ever since Jasper introduced them.

“Did you hear them making any plans?”Athenodora was very happy to hear that they had conformation that Alice’s gift didn’t work on Bella anymore. The Cullens would definitely not be able to find the pair because no one knew they were in the castle or that they had reached out to the queens.

“Mostly what we heard was a lot of ranting and comments about punishments that were going to be given to Rosalie when they were found. Although Edward did mention something about killing the monster if it survived.”Peter didn’t know what that had meant but if the rage he saw come to all three queens’ faces meant anything he figured it was important.

“I am going to enjoy killing him.”Didyme shrugged when her mates looked at her in shock.”Anyone who thinks they can hurt our girls and Lily deserves to die and I wouldn’t be a good mother if I wasn’t the one to avenge them.”

Sulpicia was going to have to have a talk with her mates about who was going to be killing who because she had a feeling that Rosalie wanted to kill every member of her former coven and the queen was of the opinion that her daughter be allowed to.”Was there anything else that was said concerning Rosalie and Bella?”

“Not that I can think of.”Peter said.

“What about you Charolette? Can you think of anything?”Sulpicia asked.

Charolette stiffened when the attention was suddenly on her. It was her and Peter’s plan that he would do all the talking.”No your majesty. Peter has covered everything.”

“I see.”Sulpicia thought about anything else she wanted to ask the pair.”As a formality let me take your hand.”

“Of course your majesty.”Peter didn’t hesitate to give the queen his hand as he had nothing to hide and told the truth.

Sulpicia concentrated on Peter’s memories replaying his interaction at the Cullen’s home numerous times to make sure she didn’t miss any details. Once done she opened her eyes.”I thank you for coming to us with this information. As we promised you will be given a room to stay in and two guards to shadow you as protection until the Cullen issue is dealt with.”

“Thank you your majesty.”Peter was beyond relieved that the meeting turned out the way it had. Especially because his gift was telling him that he and his mate were safe and the feeling of dread he had since Jasper’s call had disappeared.

“Jane assign two people to them and put them in a guest room.”Sulpicia knew that calling attention to Jane would remind the pair what would happen if they tried to betray them.

“Yes, my queen.”Jane bowed then motioned for Peter and Charolette to follow her.”I’ll escort you to your room.”

“Thank you.”Peter wasn’t happy that Jane was the one in charge of them but he wasn’t afraid as he and his mate weren’t planning on doing on anything to incite Jane’s anger.

“The rest of you are dismissed.”Sulpicia told the guards.

Didyme waited until the room was empty before speaking.”What did you see?”

“Peter was being truthful. The only thing he didn’t mentioned were the details of the threats the group were making. All of them but Edward’s were focused on Rosalie.”Sulpicia growled just thinking about the things Edward said.

Didyme stood from her seat, sat in Sulpicia’s lap and put her arms around her mate’s neck.”We will get them and when we do all those threats they made about our daughters we will follow through on with them as the victims.”

“I like that idea.”Athenodora thought using their own plans as punishment on the Cullens was the perfect revenge.

“It would be a nice touch.”Sulpicia agreed.

“Now we need to discuss how we are going to tell the girls about what Peter just told us.”Didyme said.

“I really don’t want to tell them anything because Rosalie is going to be devastated when she finds out about Emmett. Which in turn will cause Bella to be upset and that won’t be good for the baby.”Sulpicia wasn’t looking forward to being the one to tell her daughter such bad news.

“It has to be done because I refuse to lie to them.”Didyme told her earning murmurs of agreement from both her mates. Rosalie was definitely going to be devastated but Didyme wouldn’t hide the truth from her because not only was it wrong the queen would want to know if was her in Rosalie’s position. That didn’t mean she had to like being the one to deliver any kind of news that would upset either of the girls but it had to be done. Didyme would just make sure Rosalie knew that she was there for her and that the young vampire could count on her mothers to help with whatever she needed. Didyme just hoped that Rosalie didn’t shut them out. She didn’t know her daughter well but based on the time they spent together Rosalie seemed like a person who tried to take care of everything herself and didn’t like to show weakness. Not that the queen thought showing emotions was a weakness but Rosalie seemed like she wanted to be strong for everyone. Especially Bella and she would likely ignore her feelings to be there for Bella. It didn’t matter though. Didyme wouldn’t let Rosalie go though this alone. It was a mother’s job to protect their child even if that meant protecting them from themselves.