Astraea's POV

The fact that I'd gotten a dress and people were sending out letters was enough to prove that a ball would indeed occur at some point in time. I was looking forward to meeting new people, despite being slightly worried that my mates would be attacked by the older vampires.

Why the hell did they have to be treated poorly for being bisexual anyways? It isn't like the concept of bisexuality hasn't existed for the past... Oh, I don't know, since animals came onto land. Unless it came before... the idea of gay fish isn't sitting right.

I will never get that image out of my head.

Nevertheless, I headed down the hallway to where I'd promised my mates I'd meet them for yet another discussion on what we were doing for security. As much as I appreciated that they wanted my input, I know nothing about how the guards work in the castle. I know Jane and Alec are off on Tuesdays and that Demetri takes Felix and Ambrose out on a dinner date every Saturday night.

Caius was the one who wanted to lead this discussion. He had the pen and paper right in front of him when I walked into the office.

"We still have to figure out how to make the ball safe for everyone here," Caius insisted.

"Only a certain percent of events are allowed to be missed to guard every decade. We have had a record low in the amount of events we've hosted here in the palace," Aro tried to explain to his mate. "Unless we are planning to make up for that in the next four years... we are tied."

"We could always make an exception," Marcus added. "We have done it during times of war, when we still needed to host weddings and proper mating ceremonies. It has been hundreds of years, but I am sure none of the guards would object if they understood the state of things."

"The guards can never know the true state of how fucked we are if we get into another war. The morale would crumble up and die and you know it," Caius insisted. "We have always kept certain things secret. Our battle plans, our finances..."

"Our family trust us only because we are honest. I am sure they wouldn't protest."

"And I am saying that it is both dangerous to prepare for a war when we are supposed to be showing off our final mate and it is worrying to change precedent," Caius began to scribble onto the paper in a language I didn't understand. "What's the point of the ball if it isn't safe?"

"I feel like we've had this conversation before," I admitted. "Caius, we have two newborn guards at the front who are both gifted. They can be there for the first shift and join the party afterwards. Or they can work the second shift. Whichever one will make sure that things aren't awkward."

"Jane, Alec, Demetri, and Felix have fresh bonds. Fragile and volatile. They will be dangerous if provoked by a force such as the Romanians or Cain. I doubt the man has enough people after multiple gifted members of your family have escaped him, Caius," Marcus reasoned.

I knew Caius was anxious about the potential for a fight during what should be a happy moment, I did. He'd always been, despite him trying to hide it, the most sensitive one of my mates. Marcus and Aro could let things bounce off of them, but Caius couldn't. I can't. I'd grown up in a family that let me be sensitive in my own way. It wasn't beaten out of me like some of my human friends.

There are very few things that can soothe the sensationalism of a sensitive mind. Reason is not one of them.

"Caius, you make them promise to be on guard. You make them make an oath to protect me. Have them do it in the beginning. Make it a part of the ball. Vampires do not go back on their oaths. You've already told me that," I said in my best efforts to soothe Caius' anxiety over the ball. "The ball is happening, whether or not you are ready for it. Have every vampire make an oath to protect me. If they refuse, we know something is wrong."

"It is a good plan," Aro said. "This minimizes the amount of traitors we could have in our ranks."

"Even if they try to lie," Marcus began to add, "That kind of oath is a bond in and of itself. If they are dishonest, it will show."

And that is how decisions in the castle are made.

---

Third person POV

Astraea's uncle had no reason to be upset that day. He'd been working on his latest letter to his niece and his two sons. The twins being gone had left a hole in the tiny house. The older man didn't realize how much he missed their rowdiness, or how they broke nearly every vase his wife brought home. He knew his wife missed them too, but had understood that what happened could not be changed.

The silence of his wife hurt his heart. She'd written her own letters to the boys, learning about what was going on in their lives. She didn't write to Astraea, which confused and nearly angered him. He chalked it up to grieving the life she thought her boys would have, but the man sill wished that she'd paid more attention to Astraea.

He'd always wished for that. He treated her like a daughter even if she never called him her father. No, he knew she didn't really have a father. She didn't want that. She'd been the most independent child, yet so attached to those around her. Not to him or his wife, though, which did hurt for the first few years.

The coldness of the house remained. There was little chatter to liven the place up. He'd been promised it be only a year or so until he could see his children again. He could see the boys and meet those mates they'd written pages upon pages about. He laughed quietly to himself. They'd be like that forever now. Forever at the age where every relationship is the best.

They'd never grow up. The man thought, despite never being told so, that Astraea would be the same. She was an adult, eighteen. She could do what she needed to do. She should be finishing the last semester of school. He hoped she would, and perhaps she'd even go on to do something more than be Queen.

It was nearly nighttime when the man got a knock on the door. It had to have been the package he'd ordered for the new business ventures that the Volturi had allowed him to start.

---

Astraea's POV

Once everything was wrapped up into a shiny bow, I was able to send in the last test that would make sure I would pass my last class. Thank goodness for that, no more school meant that I could focus on new things.

I wondered what I would do in my free time. I could pick up anything now that I had the means to do so. My mates insisted that I do something, even if I wouldn't be good at it at first. Aro promised me music lessons while Caius planned an entire lecture on color theory for me. I laughed a little at Caius' request, despite him being completely serious about him wanting me to take notes and everything.

Truth is, I love to sing.

Not the whole in the shower is the only place where I sound good. I'd been an avid member of the school choir before coming here, and I wanted to take more lessons. Lessons that I couldn't afford before. I could learn how to read music and sing anything.

Ambrose and Astro may have made fun of me for joining choir, but they still attended every performance the school put on, and they did say that they thought I was one of the better sopranos.

I couldn't remember how to sing the first time I tried to get the lyrics to one of my favorite English songs. It took a few tries to realize that you can, indeed, lose a skill over time if you aren't working at it. I had lost some of my ability, but I would be working on getting it back.

Shyness wasn't an issue for me, that had been trained out of me by the second year in choir. There can't be a shy soprano. If you sing too quietly, the highest notes will hurt you. I'd broken my voice quite a few times that first year. The issue now was I wasn't hitting the right notes, my chest wasn't as strong. My core had to be strengthened.

Then came the whole week of trying to get it back through exercises. The sound of my voice cracking made me want to throw up, but eventually things started coming back. I sounded better than I remembered.

Aro's eventual sightreading lessons weren't for nothing, either. I couldn't do everything by myself, but it was so much better. I hit the notes, the correct ones, and made my voice into a weapon to please the ears of those around me. Mainly Aro and Marcus, who couldn't help but ask me to sing various things. Old songs from hundreds of years ago to ones that came out this year. I had to reject some of them, though. I was not singing sexual songs for the entire castle to hear.

"Well, our lessons have been fruitful," Aro said as he put down the lesson binder. "By this winter you shall be at peak performance, I believe."

"That's a relief."

"You should have had more faith in yourself, my love. Your days in choir have trained you well." Aro laughed and began to put the binder on the shelf. "Perhaps you should showcase your ability at the ball?"

"I may not be shy, but I am also willing to preserve my dignity."

Aro frowned. "Every member of the Volturi has a skill, my dear, including you. This goes beyond gifts. If we only wanted gifts, we'd be doomed. I can play music, Caius can paint, Marcus can write. You can sing. That is a gift so beautiful that many would sell their souls to be able to do it like you do."

"I really doubt they'd sell their souls for it." I laughed. "That would be silly."

"People without talent do silly things to pretend they have it," Aro insisted, pulling me up from my chair. "You should at least think about singing at the ball. It could be something in English, Italian, or Greek. It does not really matter the language, only that your voice is as heavenly as it was today, mia amore."

---

Third Person POV

Bella had been thinking about her time in Italy. Alice had too, she'd been telling Bella how she didn't like the way the mate of the kings acted, how she behaved as if she had some authority over them despite being fully human herself. In her words: humans with fresh mating bonds shouldn't be in the business of the entire vampire world.

Bella agreed. She was human, but she wasn't making any fuss with the vampire community. She just wanted to be with Edward. She wanted to be with him forever. She wasn't trying to skirt the rules.

Why in the hell was Astraea able to be human anyways? It didn't make a lick of sense in the eyes of Bella Swan. She was human, she was with a coven. Why couldn't that be enough to let her stay human as long as she wanted? It wasn't like anyone around her thought she was hanging out with vampires. Well, despite Jacob.

She didn't know what she would do about Jacob. That part of her life had become a mess faster than she'd anticipated. It was like the world was against her right now. It didn't even make sense, why he wanted to be more with her. Wasn't she a human in love with a vampire? That should have been enough to get him off of her. She wanted to be friends, but if he couldn't do that...

Things were messy with Jacob. Things were messy with Edward and his family, who were worried about her all of the time. It was like things that she touched turned messy.
Victoria. She'd been another messy part of her life. She had no reason to believe that she'd survive another attack by Victoria or any friends of hers. She was indeed human, and if any of the Cullens were taken out...

Bella needed more protection than she wanted. She just wanted to be left alone, be able to be who she was without people trying to arrest her or members of her family. She wanted what Astraea had. Astraea had power to make her own decisions, Bella did not.

She'd been handed certain things that she'd have to accept. From the story she heard, so did Astraea. The only difference was the coven, the people, the relationship. She had three mates to protect her. Wasn't that a bit excessive? How could someone even have the strength to have three people at once? Three kings that desperately desired her?

Bella couldn't help but compare the situations. How could she not? She was the only human allowed to be with a vampire. Bella wouldn't say that she was jealous, though, that wouldn't be like her.

"We have news," Emmett said as he came into the house. "Thankfully, none of it is bad."

"Do we know when they're coming?" Bella asked. She'd been prying for information from Alice for weeks now, only getting a few small responses. "Do we know how many of them there are?"

"Well, it's an army of about fifteen or so," Emmett said. "That doesn't mean their numbers won't increase by one or two before the fight. Alice still thinks its weeks away based on her current visions."

"Which are always open to change," Jasper reminded Bella as he walked into the house. "We've got to train more."

"Do we have any news from Italy?" Bella asked.

"No? Why would we have news from Italy?" Jasper asked.

"Because the Volturi-"

Jasper cut Bella off, "-don't do everything, even if they should. They never interfered in the vampire wars I fought in. They stay on their side of the planet, for the most part."

"They've got their own issues to work out," Carlisle said, walking into the kitchen. "I'm glad you have good news, Emmett. We can discuss while Bella is eating dinner."

"Wait-" Bella stood up, "-why can't I be there?"

"This isn't a fight for humans, Bella," Carlisle tried to explain, "We can train you the best we can, but Victoria's plans are complex. This is a war she's initiating."

"You don't know as much about Victoria as we do, Bella," Jasper tried to soothe the human woman. "She's dangerous, you know that, but she's been involved in more things than you could possibly realize. This isn't the first time she's caused chaos."

"Then why hasn't anyone done anything about her yet?" Bella said with a huff. "Why does it have to be us? Wouldn't there be more people willing to fight against her?"

Bella couldn't understand that Victoria had made enemies, evaded them, and gathered more dirt on them than Bella could possibly realize. She'd made it a habit. People wouldn't fight you if you knew what laws they'd broken. Nobody was willing to fight when they themselves could be forced to give their hand over to King Aro. He'd kill them for the things they'd done- mostly to humans that they ate.

"Things are more complicated than you realize. We will tell you more when you need to know, alright?" Emmett wrapped a large arm around Bella. "For now, someone needs to feed you."

Bella wasn't satisfied with that answer. She never would be. She wanted to know why. She needed to. Bella had lived in the dark about too many things. Why her parents divorced, why her mother really wanted her to move in with her father (because it wasn't just for travel, they'd been in New York for three months), and why Edward was refusing to turn her there and then.

She wanted it to be him, she always had. To have her be her maker, in a way. Then she'd be wrapped around him forever. Screw a 'mating bond', what Bella had would be deeper than whatever these mates had. She'd been through so much with Edward. Happy relationships have their ups and downs, not just ups.

Her relationship was real. She had waited. She'd been slower with Edward than anyone at her school had been with their boyfriends and girlfriends. Some people got pregnant right after High School. She hadn't. She'd waited for Edward. That was true love.

Bella would wait, but she would voice what she wanted. She wanted to be turned. She wanted to be married. Being married meant being unified in a permanent way. They would never get divorced.

Isabella Swan would become Isabella Cullen. She'd like it be sooner rather than later.