The Hidden Princess 6

“What do you think she is like?” Didyme asked Sulpicia as they waited in the queens’ sitting room for Athenodora and Isabella to return and introduce them to Isabella’s new mate. Although both queens were happy for their daughter Didyme was worried about what this would mean for their relationship with Isabella. She had feared this day would come and hated the fact that her mothers would no longer be Isabella’s number one priority. Didyme knew they had been spoiled with having Isabella all to themselves for all these decades but she selfishly wished they had more time.

“I don’t know. She is a part of Carlisle’s coven and he is her sire so who knows what type of person she is.” Sulpicia said.

“Do you think Isabella will want to leave us?” Didyme asked voicing her worry.

Sulpicia sighed. She to was worried that finding a mate would be the thing that would drive Isabella away from them. “I think we have to wait and see. It’s to early for those type of decisions to be made.”

“I just don’t want to lose our daughter.” Didyme was trying hard to be strong but it was hard.

“We will never lose our daughter my love.” Sulpicia pulled Didyme into an embrace tightening her arms when Didyme began sobbing. “It will be alright. Isabella loves us, she won’t leave us.”

“What if she wants to though.” Didyme said.

“Maybe she will want to travel for a bit but she will always come home.” Sulpicia was trying to make her voice sound like she believed what she was saying but knew she failed when Didyme began sobbing harder. “She loves us, remember that. I have no doubt that no matter if Isabella had one mate or a hundred mates she would never stop loving us.”

“I know, I just..” Didyme couldn’t really put her thoughts to words. She almost wished they never sent Isabella on the mission to confront the coven. If they hadn’t she would still be in the castle and Isabella and Didyme could be in one of her gardens tending to the flowers. It was a selfish thought though and she was ashamed of herself for having it. Having a mate was a wonderful thing but it was hard to remember that when with having a mate she was guaranteed to lose a part of her daughter.

“There coming. Try to keep it together.” Sulpicia kissed Didyme softly feeling proud when she saw her mate rise to her full height and straitened her shoulders getting her emotions under control.

Didyme reminded herself to breath as the door to their sitting room opened and Athenodora was the first to enter. Although she was happy her mate was home her attention was immediately on the blond vampire standing slightly behind Isabella holding her hand. Didyme felt her heart swell at the look of happiness on her daughter’s face and she smiled brightly when Isabella dropped the girl’s hand and rushed to give her a hug. “I missed you my darling girl.”

“I missed you to momma.” Isabella said taking a deep breath to inhale her momma’s scent. The familiar scent had an instant calming effect and Isabella felt glad she was home.

“Did you not miss me as well?” Sulpicia asked as she finished greeting Athenodora. In reply Isabella moved out of Didyme’s arms and into her own.

“Of course I missed you mom.” Isabella said.

“Why don’t you introduce us to the young lady standing by the door looking very unsure of herself.” Sulpicia noticed that Isabella’s mate was uncomfortable and hoped that she would relax as they got to know each other better.

“Oh yeah, sorry.” If Isabella could have blushed at her lack of manners she would have. Walking back to Rosalie and taking her hand she pulled her towards her mothers. “Mom, Momma this is Rosalie Hale.”

“Hale? I thought you were a Cullen?” Didyme was sure that was what Athenodora said.

“I refused to take Carlisle’s name. I didn’t want to lose yet another thing from my human life.” Rosalie told them.

“Interesting.” Sulpicia wondered exactly what that comment meant but wasn’t going to push right then. “It’s nice to meet you Rosalie. I am Sulpicia Isabella’s mom.”

“I am Didyme Isabella’s momma.” Didyme reached out her hand for Rosalie to shake.

Rosalie took the hand bowing. “It’s an honor to meet you your majesties.”

“There is no need for that in private Rosalie. You are Isabella’s mate that makes you family and as family you have the privileges we allow Isabella.” Sulpicia was pleased that Rosalie followed protocol and didn’t take liberties just because she was Isabella’s mate.

“Even I have to refer to them as queens when we are in public.” Isabella said.

“That’s because you have impeccable manners.” Didyme said.

“Because you made sure I did.” Isabella grumbled.

“Oh hush you know that you enjoyed our etiquette lessons.” Sulpicia had fond memories of helping her daughter learn the proper way to behave as a princess. During those lessons Isabella had opened up and began talking more to each of them.

“You’re right I did.” Isabella agreed.

“So how was your trip?” Didyme asked.

Athenodora made her way to the couch sitting down in the middle being flanked by Sulpicia on one side and Didyme on the other. “It was uneventful.”

“We did get to fight some newborns.” Isabella moved Rosalie and herself to sit on the love seat across the couch from her mothers.

“You fought?!!” Didyme gave Athenodora an angry look. “You promised you would keep her safe.”

Athenodora rolled her eyes. “She was safe. The newborns were no match for us.”

“Mother is right. We had the newborns taken care of in less than five minutes.” Isabella said.

“Still you were only allowed to go because I was told you were not going to be in danger.” Didyme was going to have some harsh words with Athenodora later.

“Sweetheart you know that Dora would never put Isabella in danger. If she had thought that Isabella would have gotten hurt she would have made her stay shielded to the side of fight.” Sulpicia knew that Didyme was upset and wasn’t looking forward to the fight her two mates were going to have once they were in private.

“Oh momma guess what?” Isabella wanted to stop her mothers from fighting. When they got going it could take hours for them to calm down.

“What darling?” Didyme asked giving Isabella her full attention.

“We saw wolf people.” Isabella told her.

“Wolf people?” Sulpicia looked to Athenodora to explain.

“Wolf shifters not wolf people Isabella.” Athenodora corrected. “Apparently the Cullens were hiding the existence of a group of wolf shifters.”

Rosalie shifter closer to Isabella when all eyes turned to her. Knowing they were looking to her to tell them why they hid them she took a deep breath and answered. “Carlise originally had us make a treaty with the tribe when we first settled in Forks about a hundred years ago. He said we couldn’t tell you because you would kill the wolves. He said that because of your hatred of the children of the moon you would eliminate the whole tribe so they couldn’t produce future shifters.”

“Idiot.” Athenodora wasn’t surprised by Carlisle’s stupidity. “We don’t kill shifters.”

“The Volturi may not tolerate children of the moon but we have a good relationship with most shifters we have come across.” Sulpicia told her.

“Then what did you mean on the battlefield when you said you would send people to deal with them?” Rosalie wasn’t sure if she truly believed the queens but she also knew of Carlisle’s prejudice against the women. It made her take everything he said about them with a grain of salt.

“They were injured. I sent some of our contacts to help heal them.” Athenodora explained. “I would have had Alec and Felix stay and help but the tribe is so isolated it was obvious they wouldn’t feel comfortable around vampires. That is why I asked some friends of ours from a group of jaguar shifters to go visit them and help out.”

“Seriously?” Rosalie looked to Isabella for confirmation.

Isabella smiled. “Yes, seriously. I have actually gotten the chance to fight some of them. They are really strong and extremely nice.A few visit often. Next time they come I can introduce you if you want.”

“I think I would like that.” Rosalie was interested in meeting other shifters. She had always been interested in the wolves but they were rude and standoffish and Rosalie didn’t want to put in the effort to try and get to know them.

Didyme was happy it seemed that Isabella was making plans to stay in the castle. She wanted to ask Isabella what she was planning for the future but many things had to be taken care of before that happened. “Now what are we going to do about the Cullens?”

“When we originally planned this mission the plan was to bring them all here so we could interrogate them.” Sulpicia said.

“And now?” Athenodora asked.

“Well it’s quite obvious we should ask Rosalie what was going on before we get the story from the others. I mean it’s not like Rosalie is going to lie to us. Not only would it be an insult to the queens but it would hurt Isabella and there is no way you would hurt Isabella now would you Rosalie.” Sulpicia took pleasure in the way Rosalie gulped when she made eye contact. She had no doubt that they were about to get the real story of what happened.

“Oh course not your majesty.” Rosalie quickly corrected herself when Sulpicia gave her a look. “I mean of course not Sulpicia.”

“Good now then tell us why a newborn army was created to kill your family.” Athenodora was happy it seemed Rosalie realized the serious of this situation.

“Well it all started when Edward’s human mate was hunted by a tracker.” Rosalie proceeded to tell the queens and Isabella all about James, Victoria and even the wolves. When she finished the room was quiet.

Sulpicia took in everything that she heard. “So you killed a vampire but left their mate alive?”

“Yes.” Rosalie confirmed.

“Forget about the wolves as we have already discussed why none of you reported them. Why did you not inform anyone of the newborn army?” Didyme asked. She was even more invested on why this whole situation happened because now she knew Isabella had been in danger. That made her want to find out who was responsible and dole out extreme punishments.

“Carlisle was against letting anyone know because he feared you would kill all of us for hiding the wolves and for not turning Edward’s human mate.” Rosalie didn’t like that she was ratting out her family but she wasn’t going to lie to the queens. Sulpicia was right lying would only hurt Isabella and there was no way she was going to hurt her mate.

“I’m sure it had nothing to do with him not wanting us to come in and handle everything for him.” Athenodora knew that Carlisle probably wanted to prove he could take care of everything himself. They all knew his pride was wounded when they had come and taken care of the army so easily while he and his family were close to all being dead.

“Who else in your coven didn’t want to tell us of the newborns?” Sulpicia asked.

“Edward was concerned for his mate. Jasper was totally against not telling you but went along with Carlisle to keep the peace. Emmett didn’t care either way and just wanted to fight. His mate just wanted Emmett happy. Alice was concerned by her lack of visions and I wanted to at least ask the Denali for help but Carlisle refused to contact them because of their known loyalty to you.” Rosalie told them.

“So it seems the ones who made the final decision were Carlisle and Edward.” Didyme knew they would have to be careful with their punishment because they didn’t want to upset Isabella by upsetting Rosalie. If they punished her whole coven it would no doubt cause a riff between them and Didyme didn’t want to make Isabella choose between her mothers and her mate.

“Carlisle and Edward are the ones who make all the decisions.” Rosalie didn’t feel bad putting the blame on those two because what she said was the truth. Every time something happened Carlisle and Edward chose how they would handle it not even taking into account what the others wanted.

“We will still speak to all of them but it seems that we know who is responsible for what happened.” Athenodora wished they could punish more than just two of them but was off the same thought as Didyme. She didn’t want to upset Isabella.

“In the mean time would you like to speak with your coven or would you like for Isabella to give you a tour.” Sulpicia and her mates needed to talk about exactly what to do and didn’t want Isabella or Rosalie present for that.

“If it’s alright with you I would like to spend time with Isabella.” Rosalie wasn’t in the mood to deal with her coven right then. She knew they would have dozens of questions and she wasn’t prepared to answer them. Plus she hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Isabella and was curious about where she lived and what life was like in the castle.

“Then why don’t you and Isabella go and we will call for you later.” Sulpicia liked the way Isabella’s face lit up with happiness when Rosalie chose her over her coven.

“Thank you mom.” Isabella stood from the couch and gave each of her mothers a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Be good.” Didyme said.

Isabella rolled her eyes. “I’m always good.”

“Sure you are.” Athenodora told her. The trio watched the pair walk out of the room. When the queen was sure they were far enough away they wouldn’t be overheard she spoke. “Now then let's talk about these idiot Cullens.”

Didmye sighed. She wanted to be done with all this nonsense and spend some time with Isabella. Knowing that she had been in danger was making her protective instincts kick in and she knew that she wouldn’t get the chance to actually spend time with her daughter until everything with the Cullens was done. Turning back to her mates Didyme decided that no matter what happened and who was punished the punishment would be harsh and unforgiving. It was because of that coven that Isabella had been in danger and there was nothing Didyme wouldn’t do when someone put her daughter’s safety at risk.