It had taken Aro over an hour to come back with a bag of blood for me. During that time, I had been rolling all over my mates, uncomfortable with the hungry and burning in my throat. Marcus looked like he wanted to die once more and Caius was just about ready to decapitate Aro for taking so long to get me something so simple as a bag of blood. Aro, reading the energy of the room, didn't try and defend himself against the glares of his soul brothers and just sighed as he saw me rolling and trying to clutch at Marcus' chest.

"Il mio amore, I have the blood," my eyes lit up as I dashed off of Marcus, much to his relief, and ripped open the blood bag to drink it. I had gulped down the red substance in less than two big gulps. I had been so hungry and I needed the blood in my system. Being that hungry was not normal for me. I hadn't been so hungry as to need to roll myself out of some discomfort in more than a year. I glared at Aro when I realized that he had allowed me to stay hungry for an hour while he doddled, allowing my mates to suffer along with me as they read my hunger and discomfort through the rolling and through the incomplete mate bond.

"Aro, if you ever take that long again, I will kill you," Caius threatened his brother. Aro gave a scared smile and tried to hold me. I moved away, throwing the blood bag down and sitting on Caius' lap, much to Aro's dismay. I kissed Caius and stilled myself on him, laying nicely on his chest. I could hear the low purr that came deep within my chest. My mate let out a confused whine before kissing my head, eventually settling at my purring.

"What is that sound?" Aro asks, looking around to see if it was coming from somewhere other than his very comfortable mate. "It sounds like purring."

"It's Annalise you great buffoon," Caius deadpans. Marcus stares at me longingly before looking to a very smug Caius, turning his head. "She's the one who's purring."

"Annalise, how and why are you doing such a thing?" Aro asks, still confused about the entire thing. For a man who has been said to have seen it all, he did sure seem clueless about the topic of purring.

"Let her purr on me, Aro. Maybe if you weren't so late she would be purring on you right now," Caius snarks. Marcus laughs at his throne.

"Caius, I am simply curious!" Aro defends himself, looking offended as ever.

"She looks comfortable. It seems that since I have been the one to make her comfortable, she purrs on me," Caius looks down at me. I was listening but too happy and comfy to make a sound, simply allowing the loud purrs to come from deep in my voice box. "Cara mia, for the sake of Aro's ignorance, can you tell us how you are making such a sound?"

I purred loudly at him and looked around to see Aro looking intently at me. I stop purring to say, "I dunno. I just got comfy and happy."

"If that were the only factor, wouldn't you be purring as well, Caius?" Aro questions. It was a good point. The man seemed very happy and comfortable with the situation he was in, having his most precious mate cuddling up to him and had been purring at him.

"I do believe that this is something we have personally never heard before, but some of the other guards may have some knowledge. Chelsea and Afton are true mates. They have explained our mate giggling at us, but I do not believe that they have ever said anything about a true mate purring," Marcus muses. Aro and Caius look to each other before Aro sighs and leaves the throne room, leaving to go and grab the true mates in question.

My heart, though dead and unbeating, felt almost fuzzy as I snuggled into Caius, taking a deep breath of his scent. My most protective mate smelled of mint and winter, smells that I loved. I let myself curl into him deeper as I felt myself drifting into my own sort of dream. While I was awake, I was not really present and conscious.

"Cara mia," Caius pesters, rubbing my face gently. I groan, starting to get annoyed that he wouldn't just let me curl up and love him. Caius stops his pesters immediately, looking to Marcus. "Is she doing this on purpose? Bellisima, you need to stop being so cute all of the time. You're killing me with that face."

"Leave our mate be, Caius. Allow Annalise to be cute on you. If you won't appreciate her beauty, I might just scoop her up," Marcus teases his soul brother, who was unimpressed by the prospect of me leaving his lap.

From the entrance of the room came in Aro, Chelsea, and Afton. I feel my chest getting heavy as I allow myself to nuzzle myself into my mate, feeling warm in his comfort. Aro is about to tap me from behind but is stopped by a loud growl from Caius and a softer one from Marcus, who was intent on allowing me to be as comfortable as I so pleased, even if it meant a slight twinge of jealousy from seeing me with Caius.

"Aro, I don't get what's wrong here, Queen Annalise is obviously just nesting with Caius right now. I don't see why you find anything about this odd! Although I don't think that nesting on a throne is the best idea. I mean, you'll get attached to the thing like it's your damn child. Aro, if anything is wrong here it's the fact that you can't even tell that your mate is just nesting. Have you not heard of this from someone's memories?" Afton looks worried that his king didn't know the prospects of nesting.

Afton knows that a nest is when the submissive of the mates creates a place of comfort, a place where only their mate can come and find them. It usually contains special items and gifts from the mate and can be used as a calm environment for a stressed mate.

Well, guess that my gift can help me learn about some odd shit. I mean, nesting sounds nice. Yeah, I want a nest. This whole thing sounds peaceful and happy, exactly what I need in this stupid fucking newborn stage of immortality.

A sudden wave of understanding washes over Aro's face. Caius looks down at me and smiles, running his hand through my hair. Aro looks annoyed that he couldn't figure out something so simple.

"Over 3 millennias of life and we are still thicker than the stone in this castle," Marcus gets up off of his throne and pats Aro on the back. Marcus looks at the two of us and suggests, "We should go to one of our rooms if you're going to scent everything around you right now. I wouldn't want to confuse Demetri or any of the guards. I doubt that they would understand the lingering scent that you give off."

Aro looks offended at the insult to his intelligence. I grumble and give Marcus a nod in understanding. "To Caius' room!" I cheer.

__________________________________________________

During my time in Caius' room that night, I had managed to scent almost everything. Even his closet lingered with my scent. During that night, we all cuddled. It was nice to have some mate bonding time. Aro, I think, knowing that Aro could hear me.

"Yes, il mio amore?" Aro nuzzles against my head before giving me a strong kiss. I bring my hands to his hair before growling as someone decides to open the door. Demetri had decided that he would interrupt my mate bonding time. As much as I loved the man like a friend, he had annoyed me with his presence at that moment.

Demetri takes one step in the room before Aro gives him an evil stare. "Why are you here, Demetri?"

"I didn't mean to disturb you, Master Aro, but there is a problem in the throne room. Something about the Yemen coven," Demetri tries to explain himself to my mate, who looked beyond frustrated that he and I had been interrupted.

"Demetri, what happened with the Yemen coven?" Marcus asks, coming out of his trance. While vampires could not sleep, I had learned that those who had found their true mates could go into a sort of trance when they were near each other and comfortable. "I thought that this was the coven Sulpicia and Athenodora fled to, Demetri. We are not very good friends with them and I do not want to play host to those whores."

"Damn, tell us how you really feel, Marcus," I encourage. Marcus hisses and wraps his around my waist, now glaring along with Aro, giving a deadly look to my personal guard.

"Just come to the throne room, please, I don't want to worry the guards that are around here. You know how some of them can get," Demetri tries to get us to the throne room. "It is important."

"Fine," I whine out, throwing Aro and Marcus off of me and rush to the throne room. My mates followed, groaning as they opened the doors to find the two whores as Marcus so perfectly put it.

"Why? Why us? Aro, Caius, why did you pick the worst wives?" Marcus whines to his brothers, causing the women to hiss. "At least Didyme was liked by the guard and the damn world," Marcus whispered. Aro gives him a pained look. They had been brothers in multiple senses of the word. Had been. A long time ago.

"Aro, darling, do control your brother," Sulpicia croons. My mates and I let out a catlike hiss at her, which causes her to frown. "Have you not come to your senses yet, Aro? This girl will never be a queen. I am and will always be the queen of the Volturi," Sulpicia tries to claim a title that never had and never will belong to her. She was never the queen. She was his wife, but never a queen. No, that title went to me the second that they had found out I was their mate.

"What has the bitch of whoreville done now?" I ask Demetri. I realized something, that I wouldn't need anyone to tell me things anymore. Not anyone actually here anyways.

Sulpicia and Athenodora are working with the Romanians. These are the same Romanians that killed Didyme over 2000 years ago. They killed her in front of your mate, her husband at the time. They did it because they wanted revenge. Aro had killed their wives, so Stefan wanted to kill his sister to get at him. He knew that Aro loved her. He had hate in his heart and enjoyed killing the sweet girl who had never hated anyone or anything in her entire life. Sulpicia and Athenodora want you dead.

I didn't realize that I had been staring at them for so long, gathering information that could be used against them. "Annalise, il mio amore, what do you know?" Aro asks, kissing my cheek. Sulpicia hisses at the display of affection.

"They're working with Stefan, the same Stefan that killed Didyme," I inform, "They want me dead. They think that they have a chance with you if I am gone."

My mates hiss deeply at the two women, who were flabbergasted at my knowledge. They have immortal children in their army.

It was then that time almost stopped. They had immortal children. "Aro, they have immortal children in some army of theirs," Aro looks to his ex wife and growls at her. Sulpicia looks defeated. "You know the law, Sulpicia."

"How did you do that? How can you read so much information? How do you know everything?" Sulpicia questions. As if, she didn't have any right to question the queen. Even if she did, I was under no obligation to answer her. Even if that was so, I did answer her dying questions.

"It's the gift of knowledge, darling," I sneer before ripping off her head, kicking it into the pyre.