[ Chapter Six—everything about everything ]

   The Cullen manor was magnificent. Fifteen bedrooms, five different sitting rooms, an enormous main kitchen with a mini kitchen on the third floor, a small personal library, two studies, and a game room. The backyard was giant with a huge swimming pool, trampoline, and it also led straight into the forest.

I had not seen anything more than the foyer that came from the garage door, the main sitting room on the first level of the house, and the great kitchen on the first floor. Bella had been the one to tell me about the rest of the house, it seemed even with there being ten people living here, the manor was by far big enough to house all of them more than comfortably.

Everyone was waiting in the kitchen when we arrived, Esme, Renesmee, and Alice being the three to immediately hug me the second I walked into the kitchen. Emmett gave me a large grin, Jasper a polite nod, Jacob waved, and Rosalie... well Rosalie grumbled something about letting another stray dog inside.

Rather than allowing her salty comment to get to me, I pretended I did not hear it even though with my hearing it was near impossible to not have heard it. At least Esme and Carlisle gave her a warning glare.

Esme and Renesmee had apparently whipped up one of Renesmee's favorite dishes, lobster pasta. To say it was good was the understatement of the year, it by far surpassed phenomenal.

Now, all eleven of us sat in the dining room at the grand mahogany table in awkward silence. They were all watching me eat, Renesmee and Jacob—the only other two who ate—had already had dinner before I came, so it was just me eating.

It was taking all my might not to eat the pasta in a feral animalistic manner. Being a hungry werewolf made it all the worst, but I held on taking quick forkfuls of food into my mouth as though my life depended on it.

All of a sudden, a wave of calmness came over me washing away any previous awkward feelings I had. It was refreshing, and I was slightly confused as to where it came from until a thought occurred to me.

Didn't they say something about Jasper being able to manipulate emotions?

"Yes," Edward answered, breaking the silence.

Looking at Edward, I glared already sick of him rummaging through my head.

"Bruh," I groaned causing Edward to cringe with an apologetic look.

"Sorry," he smiled, "but your mind is just so interesting, I'm assuming it's the werewolf traits that make it that way."

I rose a curious brow, and I was not the only one as the rest of the family looked curious as well. Especially Carlisle.

"Do explain, son," Carlisle suddenly had a little black notepad out and I wondered where it came from.

"Her thoughts are simply more quick-paced and... raw. It's hard to explain," Edward stated, Jasper suddenly speaking up as well.

"I know what you mean," our attention flicked to him where he was tapping his fingers against the table, "her emotions are the same way. Powerful, raw, and near animalistic, it's slightly difficult to interpret and manipulate them," Jasper admitted while I narrowed my eyes.

"Man, stop screwing with my feelings," I teased lightheartedly causing Jasper to flash me an embarrassed smile.

"Alrighty," I looked around at everyone, "let's get straight to the point. I know you have questions go ahead and ask them," I said just before taking another bite of the pasta, "also this is delicious."

It was apparent Bella was about to ask something, but Emmett beat her to it. "The better question here is why Bella and Edward were busy the night you called at first," the large vampire snickered as Bella and Edward threw him immense glares.

"Oh yeah," my eyes lit up, remembering a thought I had prior, "why were you all even up, wasn't it like three in the morning here?"

"We don't sleep," Esme answered me with a kind smile, "vampires don't require it, so we were all simply lounging around—"

"I think you're a blind spot to my abilities," Alice randomly said out loud, her expression taking on one of being extremely focused, "I normally would have seen you call us, but I didn't. I also can't pick up anything in your future, sort of like Jacob and Renesmee," she stated.

Right, she's a fortune-teller vampire.

"That isn't surprising seeing as unless it's a human or a vampire you tend not to be able to see them," Rosalie quipped in a sour tone, but despite that, her voice sounded as though heaven itself was speaking.

Along with her undeniable beauty, it seemed her voice was equally as magnifying.

Alice shrugged seeming to shake off Rosalie's hostility, myself turning my attention back to Bella. "Wait, Emmett's right, if you don't sleep then why didn't you answer my call at first?" I asked, Bella, refusing to meet my gaze.

Nessie groaned, looking away from Edward and Bella in disgust while the rest of the family hid their smiles.

"That's not important—" Edward didn't finish as Emmett looked to me with a smirk.

"They were in the woods, not hunting but fucking—"

"Emmett!" Esme rose her voice causing Emmett to shrink at the look his adoptive vampire mother was throwing at him.

"Like animals?" I smirked, my cousin and Edward refusing to meet my gaze or reply to the question.

"Yeah, I really don't want to hear about my parents doing that..." Renesmee trailed off, crinkling her nose, "stuff."

Renesmee and Rosalie were hand-in-hand for being the most beautiful people I had ever seen. Renesmee was the type of beautiful where you would not be surprised if she was an actual angel sent from heaven.

I assumed Renesmee and Jacob not having golden eyes had something to do with the fact that they weren't vampires.

"Moving on," Carlisle changed the subject, his attention befalling to me once more, "you know mostly everything about us, but we do not much about you, do you mind explaining?"

"Sure," I shrugged leisurely, "what do you want to know?"

"How about we start from when you turned," Bella suggested causing me to nod.

I did not waste much time jumping into the story of how I became a werewolf. "It all started back in October, now I'll admit I haven't been the holiest person while in university..." Emmett and Jacob snickered while Carlisle adorned a worried look.

"...So I was drunk and stumbling back to my dorm. Keep in mind the quickest route to get to my dorm back from where the party had been was to go through this small patch of forest, well when I was going through it I was attacked," Esme gasped, throwing me a sad look that I only shrugged at.

"Seeing as I was extremely drunk, the details are a blur, but I'm pretty sure I was mauled and whatever it was left a huge bite mark on my side. When I woke up, I was sore and my side was entirely scabbed up."

"Technically, that wound really should have killed me—especially seeing as I was out all night with no help. Fast forward a few days and subtle changes start happening, my appearance is suddenly spruced up, I can hear things going on all the way across campus, smell things I truly shouldn't be able to smell, my long-distance glasses are now obsolete to me, speed and strength are impossible, and my hair grows extremely quickly," my nose crinkled as I thought about how often I now had to shave. 

After that, I explained how my first full moon happened and the small things I had discovered within my few months as a werewolf.

"Honestly, most of it is still a mystery to me, but I'm getting along,"

"Magnificent," Carlisle marveled, writing in his notepad. "I wonder if newborns are the same for werewolves as vampires, have you felt that your strength or speed has diminished within the months you've been a werewolf?"

"Not at all," I said honestly, "actually, if anything it feels like I've gotten stronger and quicker." Carlisle hummed, his eyes lighting up.

"Perhaps it's the opposite to vampires then, rather than stabilize over time, your kind only gets stronger."

"Yeah, but what about that vamp who attacked me? The first time I ripped his head off and he came back, the second time I bit him and he died immediately after?" I said causing Carlisle to get a curious look.

"Wicked," Emmett smirked along with Jacob, Rosalie rolling her eyes at the two.

I swear I spotted Jasper hiding a small smirk as well.

"Did you inject anything into the vampire when you bit him?" Carlisle's eyes lit up in understanding.

Thinking back on it, I think I might have. If I recalled correctly, warm sticky fluid had come from somewhere in my mouth and gone straight into the bite I delivered to Patrick-John.

"Yeah, now that you mention, I think I might have, but I have no clue what it was—?"

"Werewolf venom," Carlisle interrupted, answering my question at the same time, "vampires have venom too, it's essentially the substance which if a human gets infected changes them into either a vampire or, in your case, werewolf. There is not much to go off on your kind as werewolves in this day and age are extremely rare; however, legend and lore generally have the singular rule of a vampire dying should they be exposed to werewolf venom flowing within their veins. I don't believe it works vice versa though giving werewolves the upper hand should a vampire get too close to your teeth," the doctor said, myself tilting my head at the thought.

Wow, I could kill everyone—except Jacob—in this room with a simple bite if I wanted too.

"Yep," Edward shrank, "but please don't."

I rolled my eyes, I'll probably need to get used to him infiltrating my thoughts.

Bella scoffed and suddenly I felt as though some invisible force engulfed me. Edward groaned while Bella smirked in victory.

"Um, what just happened?" I questioned my cousin.

"I just put my shield over you, Edward can't read your mind unless I bring it down," she giggled as Edward sighed in defeat.

"Woah, you can just keep it up constantly like that?" Bella shrugged at my question.

"I've gotten better at it over the years so now I can if I want, but it didn't use to be like that. Before it was difficult and I had to focus to shield someone, now it's just second-nature." I tilted my head, these vampire gifts were so cool.

"Who cares? I want to see what you look like half-shifted!" Emmett boomed with a large grin causing me to shake my head.

"Hell no!" I laughed, "I will never shift like that again in a million years, it makes me look so weird!"

"Must suck that you can't shift fully apart from the full moon," Jacob commented causing me the shrug.

"Eh, I still have my advanced abilities even if I can't shift, so it's not that bad. But I will admit, it must be cool to be able to shift all the time as you can," I admitted to the shape-shifter.

"So it's all balanced out then?" Everyone looked to Renesmee questionably at her comment. "Like vampires and werewolves. From what Jackie said, it sounds like werwolves have better hearing and a sense of smell, but vampires have sight and stronger skin on them. Speed is obviously better for a vampire but werewolves no doubt excel in strength. We're still unsure if werewolves are capable of having extra abilities like vampires and whether or not they're immortal, right?"

"Well said, Renesmee, and yes we are still unsure of those things," Carlisle answered his granddaughter with a proud smile.

"But why?" Everyone turned their attention to me. "Why are werewolves so rare? You said I'm the only one you have ever come across and you have been around for what... over three-hundred years?"

Damn, he was so... old.

I wanted an answer, while it was nice knowing I was not the only supernatural creature anymore, they were still all vampires. As great as it was, it would be even better if they were werewolves so we had more in common physically.

Everyone was silent for moments until Carlisle answered. "The history of werewolves is a long one and a history which intertwines with that of vampires. Do you remember our brief explanation of the Volturi?"

"Yeah," I nodded remembering the small words they had spoken over the phone about the supposed leaders of all vampiric kind. "They're the leading coven, right?"

"Correct, and with that, the Volturi have been around for an extremely long amount of time. Within the Volturi are the three Kings—the leaders—Aro, Caius, and Marcus. I lived with them for a few decades, they are refined but have no respect for human life, rather they respect the arts and sciences brought forth by humanity. While the Volturi may be considered remorseless, their actions do, in fact, keep peace among the vampires and humans..."

"Yeah, crappy peace," Emmett muttered, Carlisle, clearing his throat and ignoring Emmett.

"I won't bore you with the finer details of the Volturi, rather, I'll explain just what they have to do with the werewolf population. One of the three Kings, Caius, was nearly killed by a werewolf two-thousand-years ago leaving him terrified of your kind. Caius was not the only vampire, back then werewolves were great in population, they were also the only other creations who posed a true threat to vampires as werewolves are fully capable of killing a vampire single-handedly, just as you were able to do with Patrick-John."

"It was because of this that the Volturi took the action to make a law forbidding any interaction of the vampire race with that of the Children of the Moon, or werewolves—"

"Wait," I interrupted eyes wide as I looked to the vampire family sitting around, "you mean, you could all be incriminated for even talking to me, let alone allowing me to stay in your home?"

Bella opened her mouth to say something, but surprisingly, it Rosalie who beat her to it.

"Oh," Rosalie barked a sarcastic and mean laugh, "we'll be more than just implicated! The Volturi already have animosity toward us for the Renesmee incident fourteen years ago, if word gets out that the Cullens are now housing a werewolf, we will all be hunted and executed! Trust me, they're not fooling around anymore," she spat, Esme glaring at her, giving her a look that made Rosalie snap her mouth shut quickly.

I shrunk back, guilt eating away. This was more than I realized, my cousin and the rest of the family could potentially die all for talking to me. It seemed that vampires and werewolves hating each other was more than just legend.

"It is risk that we are all willing to take, Jaclyn, you're family. Surely the Volturi will understand, we couldn't just leave you in the dark seeing as it's their fault there are no more werewolves in the first place..." Esme said softly, her golden eyes boring into my own in a kind manner.

Her words touched me, they considered me family already. So much so that they were risking their lives.

"The Volturi won't understand, they'll come after us for anything," Jasper said quietly, and yet with our hearing, everyone heard it.

"Well, what do they expect us to do?" Bella snarked. "As Esme said, it's their fault Jaclyn doesn't have any of her own kind to teach her, what were we supposed to do, ignore her?" Bella scoffed as though the idea itself was preposterous.

"Kill her, that's what they expect us to do," Alice stated, her eyes rounding on me, "not that we would ever do that, of course."

"Hold up, what do you mean the Volturi are at fault for their being no more werewolves?" I furrowed my brows.

"I was about to get to that," Carlisle said softly, continuing on with his story. "The Volturi hunted the Children of the Moon into near-extinction. It was not too difficult as werewolves generally traveled either alone or with one of the opposite genders—their mate—" there was the word mate again, "therefore, if the Volturi sent a group of vampires together to attack, the werewolf would be easy to annihilate. Werewolves have been near extinct since even before I was born, that's why it's so rare to find any now. The Volturi have stopped hunting werewolves because of this low population your kind no longer poses as much of a threat toward vampires."

Carlisle was finished, I could sense that. My thoughts were a jumble of a whirlwind. I was angry at the Volturi, that much I could fathom. Was this leader—Caius—so much of a pussy with werewolves he just had to wipe us out? Honestly, it was probably his fault for getting into it with a werewolf anyway.

Seriously, what a damn wuss.

However, on the other end of that, this was all over two millenniums ago, did I really have that much of right to be upset over something that was in the past? Seeing as the Volturi still had a law against vampires and werewolves interacting, then yes, yes I did.

"Fuck the Volturi!" I hit the table, making sure to hit it gently enough that it wouldn't break. "And what the hell even is a soul mate? I've heard that word too many times in the past week now!"

It was Alice to answer my question, her bell-like voice ringing out.

"We call them mates for short, but once you become a vampire or werewolf, your automatically given a soul mate, someone who you're ideally suited to be with. Once you meet them, you form an immediate bond that strengthens over time, and honestly, after meeting them it becomes difficult to live without them. Mates can take ages to meet though, some vampires never even meet their mate so they choose someone to mate with instead," Alice hummed causing me to raise a brow.

Pursing my lips, I looked around the table finally noticing something I had not before. Bella and Edward. Esme and Carlisle. Rosalie and Emmett. Jasper and Alice. Hell, even Nessie and Jacob.

"Don't tell you're all...?"

"Soulmates?" Bella grinned, Edward grabbing her hand. "Yep, we all have our soulmates here."

"No offense, but that sounds like shit,"

Jacob shrugged. "That's what I thought at first too, but it's not bad, I swear," he looked at Nessie with a soft smile as he said this.

"It doesn't matter, I probably don't have one so I'm good," I sighed, Nessie giggling at my words.

"Sorry to break it to you, but everyone has one, it just might take you a long time to meet them," Rosalie smirked causing me to groan.

"Maybe if I'm lucky I'll die before I meet them then," I stated causing Carlisle to cringe.

"Actually, there is an extremely good chance that alike to vampires, werewolves are immortal to age." He explained causing me to huff and cross my arms.

"Fine then, I'll just choose someone myself!"

"Go ahead," Nessie shrugged, hiding a smile, "but if you happen to meet your mate, it'll be impossible to ignore them and you'll ultimately end up leaving the person you chose for your mate, it's simply the laws of nature."

"Aw crap," I cried dramatically, "I just want to sleep this all off. First I learn some crotchety old vampire boomers are pretty much racist to werewolves and now I learn I'm stuck with some random person as a mate!"

Bella patted my back sympathetically. "Don't worry about the Volturi, Alice is watching their decisions and you killed Patrick-John so nobody knows about you. Plus, you probably won't need to worry about a mate for awhile, you have time to warm up to the idea."

"God, I hope so," I muttered, my thoughts turning to what would happen if this evil so-called vampire royalty found out about the Cullens affiliation with me.