ᴏᴋ ꜱᴏ ɪ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜɪꜱ ɪꜱɴ'ᴛ ɢᴏɴɴᴀ ʙᴇ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ'ꜱ ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ, ʙᴜᴛ ɪ ᴘʀᴏᴍɪꜱᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴘʟᴀɴ.

 ³ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇꜱ ɪɴ ¹ ᴅᴀʏ. ɪ ᴀᴍ ᴏɴ ᴀ ʀᴏʟʟ.

Rushing my body to the infirmary, I was hit with the dangerous smell of human blood. Holding my breath, I come into the room, watching as a woman screams in agony on a hospital bed. Scrambling to her side, I make sure to not do anything that would harm her.

What was quite alarming about her presence was not just her blood, but her very pregnant belly. What the hell is this? Why did they have a pregnant woman in a damn house full of immortal children? Are they fucking breeding her for children or something?

Her shrieks set me off as I had to hold myself against the wall, my newborn instincts fighting with my own morality. I couldn't feed off of a pregnant woman, who was shrieking bloody murder inside of the infirmary.

"Please, please," she pleaded, "I didn't want this to happen." Taking in one breath, I stay close to the wall, not wanting to do anything to hurt her or her future child. "I'm not-please help my baby. If not me-help my baby."

I looked to her belly, where a hand started to protrude. It was the hand of a fucking child that looked ready to get its ass out of home base. I nodded my head, but had to start holding my breath once more.

She was about to give birth and I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing. I wasn't Carlisle, I didn't have the kind of control needed to help a woman perform childbirth. I was a newborn vampire with decent control. My control was still in development, I couldn't even turn someone if my own life depended on it.

"You're one of them, I know-" she yelps, "He was one of them as well. I just-I didn't know that this was going to happen to me."

Maeve, please. Please fucking tell me what the hell is going on here. Or at least tell me how the hell I am going to get through this. I don't understand. I don't get it. Something is wrong with her. She smells human, but something is just so wrong. Maeve didn't answer me, staying quiet inside of my mind. Who is "he"? Please.

Before Maeve could even get the chance to respond the woman starts to scream again. This time, however, my mate rushes inside of the room.

Marcus stared at the woman who was about to give birth, eyes black. His movements were more controlled than mine, walking up to the woman with ease and asking her a simple question, "Who are you?"

"Lana," she answers quickly, "Please, the baby is-coming. It's going to kill me. That's okay, just please, save him. Save my baby, please."

"What do you mean you're going to die? Childbirth does not usually kill women. Not anymore," Marcus' face turns frantic as the woman starts to cry and laugh at the same time, clutching one of the sides of the bed, crying out as she is forced to push. I growl as I see blood pool around her. She was going to bleed out.

"The father," she whispers, "He was one of them. One of the vampires."

Marcus steps back before shaking his head. Vampires cannot procreate. Vampires can't have kids. They aren't-They can't. We're dead. We are all dead. How? How? My internal conflict gets stopped by Marcus, who growls as he has to hit the wall beside me, forcing himself away from the bleeding woman. Even if he did have control, this was proving to be too much for him, his eyes turned black. You have to help her, Anna. Marcus will not be able to do it, but I know that you can. You wouldn't hurt her in her dying moments. She will die, but she trusts you two. She trusts you two with the one thing she holds dear.

Maeve's cryptic words slip past me as I slide over to her side, trying my best to think about the baby and not the blood. I had to help the baby.

"Take my hand," I say, knowing what was to come. This frail, already dead looking woman, was going to die before she even got a chance to see her child. What pained me more than the sight of the blood was the thought of dying without even being able to see your own baby. Even being immortal, I knew how much love and motherly instinct that I felt with Jane and Alec, how I would do everything and anything for them. This woman was willing to die for her child, to die without seeing him, if it meant that he would get a chance to live.

"Take my baby with you," Lana orders, "Take my baby with you and give them a good life. Please, I can die happy if you give them a good life. I just want him to be happy. I would give him the sun if it meant he would be happy."

"I promise," I give her my word. She smiles and starts to cry.

"Who-Who are you?" She asks, tears streaming down her face.

"Annalise Volturi, Queen of the Volturi," she smiles. I point to Marcus, "That is one of my mates. His name-His name is Marcus."

"Just," her voice was just a low whisper, "Give my baby all the love that I couldn't give."

At that, I heard as her heart stopped beating, her life completely gone. I couldn't even...tell her that I would...

The baby wasn't even out of her, still trapped inside. I could hear a fluttering of a heartbeat, not like his now dead mother's. No, this heartbeat was like that of a butterfly, fast and beautiful in its own right. Taking a step back from the scene, I watch as a small baby falls out of his mother, bloody and almost paper white.

I rushed over to him, picking him up in my arms, making sure that he wasn't hurt in any way. Holding him in my arms, he looks up at me, giving me a wide eyed look. I pulled my cloak over him, keeping him warm. His skin was paper white like that of a vampire, but it was warm to the touch. His eyes were just like that of his mother, brown with hints of gold.

A rough dry sob escaped my lips as he huddled into my arms, his mother's body still on the bed. Lana's face was turned to a smile as she lay there, peaceful in her own death. She knew she was going to die. She knew...she just wanted her baby safe. She wanted to give him everything that she had...even her own life...

"Tesoro," Marcus got himself together as I stood there in front of the bed, tears that could never fall swelling in my eyes. "The child-"

"Is not an immortal child," I snapped at my mate. I sniffled as the baby boy grabbed onto my cloak, pulling it into his mouth. The sobs couldn't escape my lips again as I looked down at his happy little face.

"I was not going to say that, Anna," Marcus takes a step towards me, his eyes pinned on the child. My mate lets out a deep breath. "We have never seen such a creature."

"Do not call him a creature," I snap again, holding the baby up to my own dead heart, allowing him to feel my embrace. "He is a baby. I promised her that I would keep him safe and happy."

"Anna, please, I am not suggesting anything otherwise," I take my eyes off of the brown-eyed baby boy to look at my mate, whose face and stance had softened as he looked at the child in my arms. "What are we going to do with him?"

"What kind of a question is that?" I seethe, "We are going to raise him just like she wanted us to. I am going to give him all the love in the world because he deserves-" I stopped my sentence as my baby boy let out a small coo, nuzzling his head into my chest. Taking his hand, I put it on my chest, allowing me to almost feel the warmth that was coming off of him. "He's warm."

"What?" Marcus questions, quickly moving to my side. I snarl as he tries to touch my baby. "Tesoro, please, I am not going to hurt him."

I gave him a glare but allowed him to touch his face. My mate let out a gasp and moved away after feeling his face. "I told you that he was warm. We need to get out of here," I hiked up the baby as I felt a strong pull through the mating bond.

Aro and Caius are coming. Jane told them that Marcus went running in. They smell the blood, Anna. Keep the baby safe. They won't do anything to him once they see you go momma bear with him.

Just like Maeve said, Aro and Caius both came barreling through the door, tearing it down. I hissed as my baby started to get fussy with all of the noise that my other two mates were making. You fucking idiots!

"Il mio amore-" Aro is about to embrace me, but takes a sniff of the room and looks at the little bump underneath my coat from where the baby was on my chest.

"What the hell is under your coat?" Caius deadpans, mouth agape as he looks at Lara's body on the table. "What the hell happened in here?"

Marcus puts himself in between us, trying to protect me from their questioning. They would think that the baby was an immortal child, which he wasn't. He was just a very strange baby. "Aro, Caius, let us explain please."

"Marcus, is that a baby?" Aro questions his brother before looking over to me. I scooch back, keeping the baby under my protective cover. I let out a growl as Caius tried to walk closer to me. My blonde mate almost whimpered at the sign of aggression on my part. I looked down, my inner vampire upset that I had hurt his feelings. I knew that I would have to protect the baby. My main goal would always be to protect my new baby.

"Im-" before Caius could even say the words Marcus cut him off.

"He isn't an immortal child, Caius. His mother," Marcus pointed to where Lana was, "Said that his father was a vampire. I don't know how or what he is but he isn't fully immortal or mortal. I mean, he's warm. You can hear his heartbeat."

Caius lets out a huff, "We are infertile, Marcus. This is not possible. It is either mortal or immortal."

"Shut the fuck up and listen to me, Caius," all of my mates let out a hiss at my tone of voice. "I don't frankly give a shit what you know about our species. I promised her that I would keep her baby safe. He is warm, he is paper white, and he is mine. He is coming home with us and he is going to be mine for as long as he lives, happily."

"Anna," Aro takes another step towards me, even when I snarl at him, "Can I see him? Can we see him?"

Even if I didn't want to let him anywhere near my baby at this point, I nodded, moving my cloak out of the way so that he could see his little face. The boy didn't look like he was a few minutes old. In fact, he looked like he had to be at least a week old already. I didn't open him up too much, making sure that he was almost completely covered still. I wasn't ready to put him down just yet.

My raven-haired mate touches his face, causing the boy to let out a coo. "Remarkable."

"Aro," Caius tried to get the attention of his brother, "This baby does not smell right."

"He is both human and vampire," Aro determines, "Do you not see his skin? His eyes are brown and his skin is like ours. Such a sweet little thing, you are. So handsome."

I smile as my mate kisses the boy's head, a sign of acceptance from him. Caius lets out a sign and comes up to the baby and I, still unsure of what to make of the whole situation. Slowly, my blonde mate puts his hand to the baby's face. As their skin touches, he pulls back, his face now fearful as he takes a step back.

"Caius," I whisper, "He won't hurt you. He's a baby."

My mate lets out a quick breath of air before coming back up to the child, his eyes still showing just how terrified he was of the baby in my arms. He doesn't want to screw it up and hurt the baby, Anna. He doesn't want to hurt you.

"Such a tiny thing," he mutters, "Where would we even get information on what you are?" Caius bends over and kisses the baby's head before coming up and kissing my head. "What are we going to do with him, cara mia? To keep a hybrid in the castle..."

"We can make it work, my mate," I smile at him. Marcus takes his chance and kisses the boy's head himself, even if he had already voiced his acceptance of the small child. He just looked so peaceful in my arms, cooing every time someone would give him even a hint of affection.

"What are we going to tell the guards? The world?" Aro asks everyone in the room. "Do we just come out of here with a hybrid baby and no explanations? We....we killed all of the Romanians that could have impregnated the human woman."

I frowned at the reminder that this woman had likely been forced to conceive this child, that his father was a bad man with a group of evil people. People are not who they are born from. He can be good. He's a baby. A really sweet and good baby.

"We tell the world nothing," my mates look relieved, "We tell the guard everything. We are a family. This baby coming into our family means that the guards now have a baby brother. To keep that from them is not only bad parenting on our part, but they would not trust us anymore once they found out. The world does not need to know yet. These children could exist elsewhere, in other places that we have not found out about yet, hidden in their own covens. It really doesn't matter."

"A name," Caius realizes, "We can't just call the baby the baby forever. The little one needs a name. Lord, I never thought that I would be doing this."

"I didn't think I would be becoming a father today," Aro mutters. "Or ever, for that matter."

"We have never raised children, only young vampires," Marcus realizes, "I suppose there are no books on how to raise hybrid children. No how to pick your hybrid baby's name after that responsibility gets dropped on you?"

"Very funny, you three. It is true, he needs a name," I rub my new son's back as he giggles at me.

"You are the mother," Caius points out, "You pick the name. As long as it is not abhorrent and is fit for a prince, I am fine."

"The first prince of the Volturi," Aro laughs. "What kind of name could your mother give you?"

"She would give him the sun," I remember what she said to me. Marcus lets out a sad laugh at the memory. "With you, the people that they used to call gods-" I stop.

"Cara mia, are you alright-" I nod, cutting Caius off.

"His name will be Helios, like the old god of the sun. Your mother would give the sun to you, so I shall honor her in your name."