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𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐄, 𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐄-𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐘 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐁𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐄, 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐈 𝐃𝐈𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐀 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐋 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍, 𝐍𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐕𝐄 𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆, 𝐀 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐓 𝐀𝐓. Even when faced with the potential reality that blood-sucking vampires could be right in front of me, I didn't want to run from them. I mean, if they were vampires, wouldn't they be able to outrun me? Is that just in the movies?

It was the second part of what Carlisle said that... intrigued me. Shared mate. Whenever I thought of mating I thought of animals having sex. Do they want to have sex with me? I mean the word 'mate' implies quite a few- Shit he can hear me. Goddamn it.

"Uhm that..." Edward trailed off. Carlisle gave him a look and Edward winced. "I don't want to repeat that. Please don't make me-"

"We need to know if it's serious." Carlisle tried to pull my thoughts out of Edward before turning back to me. "Fenella, please, you must understand that your situation is a bit... strange."

"If I had any sense I would be running right now." They all took in a deep breath. "I never said I was a sensible person or that I even could run, which I can't. Bad for my lungs. Could cause an infection if I exert myself too much." All Cullens were giving me weird looks. "Well, I need some proof before I believe anything, but since I'm stuck here for the time being and you're all pretty hot-" I clamped a hand over my mouth at what I had just said. My cheeks flared a bright red.

How stupid was I? Very. I was very, very stupid. Perhaps this was my fate, embarrassing myself in front of a bunch of strangers who just called me their shared mate. I just called people who claim themselves as vampires hot. Are you trying to sound like an idiot- Oh my god Edward stop reading my mind I'm trying to tell myself that I did something stupid! That's private! Ugh, are you going to do this all the time?

"I'm sorry, I can't help it," he apologized. I frowned once more, turning my head away from him. To be honest, having someone who could read your thoughts... Well, the air of dramatics was wearing off. "Please don't re-"

"Don't pressure her, Edward. This is Fenella's choice. As much as we want her to be with us, we can't force it on her. If she wishes to..." Carlisle cut off his son, but trailed on a bit before finding the right word, "...reject us all, it will be within her right and her power."

The way that the doctor cringed when talking of rejection almost reminded me of a teenager trying to ask someone on a date. What a horrible idea, being rejected. Detestable at best, especially if you liked the person. Not that I would know, I hadn't had many crushes and most certainly hadn't plucked up the courage to ask any of them out. Nobody had asked me out either, being the girl on the verge of death. Who wants the girl who can barely go out on the weekends? I'm quite boring, really.

Being someone's anything was not in my plans. Even through those schoolgirl crushes I knew I would be no use to someone. Having children would likely kill me, or worse, pass down my genetic ailment. In my eyes, it would be selfish for me to have kids knowing that I could give them my disease. Not that I would shame anyone for taking the leap, I just knew that I didn't have it in me.

If these people were in fact vampires who drank blood... This all had to be some sort of practical joke, right? Vampires wouldn't live in a town like this.

Or perhaps a town like Forks was the perfect place for a creature of the night to settle down in. I wouldn't know because this couldn't possibly be real.

"Emmett and Rose are going to kill us." Edward shook his head in his hands.

Carlisle took in a deep breath. "This must be a shock to hear, dear, but we would not lie to you about something so important. You have likely felt the pull of our bond already, even if you are still very much human. Mates are a big deal in our world, the piece of you that helps immortal life be bearable. For a coven as large as ours, it hadn't crossed my mind that perhaps fate had brought us together even before your arrival. To be honest, I have only met one other coven with a shared mate and still do not understand the concept myself, but being a man of knowledge I would like to learn."

All of this talk about mates and vampires was going to make me want to sleep. Or cry. Maybe both. You can sleep and cry at the same time, right?

"So I'm supposed to just screw all of you?" That was the best way I could put it without having to use the word mate.

Carlisle's sputtering caught me off guard. This was not the sort of man who sputtered. Most of the Cullens were sputtering out incoherent things along the lines of what and uhm.

"A mating bond is both romantic and sexual." Esme was the first one to come back after my question. "But yes, you would be screwing all of us, dear. Of course, we do not plan to pursue a relationship of any sort unless that is what you want from us. You have the control. A bond like ours is unique. It's very rare to have more than one mate, let alone seven."

"So this isn't a normal thing for vampires?" I had a hard time understanding this whole bond thing. Yes, I was overly attracted to all of them, but all of... everything? Was confusion about these sorts of things normal? Did normal people question soulmates and vampires or would they hop into the arms of hot people and question it later?

I couldn't figure out what the right response was to this. The Cullen coven sounded like a nice place to be, but how would I know? I was human, a weak and fragile one at that. Running wasn't an option, I needed this treatment that Carlisle was going to administer. The chance at being in love... was risky. What if I died and left them alone? I'm hanging onto a thread of a chance at a better life, a life where I don't have to constantly be in the hospital and scare my mom to death.

Becoming a vampire, an immortal creature, could cure me, but at what cost? Who would I lose? Drinking blood-

"We can give you some time, but for now I would study your school schedule," Carlisle suggested. "Fenella, we're yours when you want us. We won't reject the bond on our end, so it's all up to you."

"I'm kind of shit at making decisions about supernatural creatures." Carlisle chuckled and ruffled my bleached white hair. "No, seriously, do I have to make a decision? What happens when I become a vampire. I don't want to hurt anything."

"We eat animals in our family, that's why we have golden eyes. Most of our hunting trips include bigger animals since we need more blood to sustain our bodies." I scrunched up my nose. "It's either that or human blood."

"I'm not hurting animals, they're already going extinct. That's mean and ridiculous. Not to be rude about your choices, but I'm not contributing to mass global extinction. Can't I just have a blood bag? Like, human blood but from a donor? Isn't that smarter?" The coven looked at me like I had made some sort of huge discovery. Did none of you think of that? What happened to vampires in time of famine and such? Or when y'all were supposedly hunted during the 1600s? Are you not that old?

"Carlisle is that old," Edward said, "but we've never had human blood from a bag."

"Well maybe that would help you. We have brains for a reason," I sassed, grabbing my backpack. "Education is important. If it's possible to drink from blood bags you should be doing that. The animals on this planet are going extinct and humans are overpopulating. To be fair, killing humans could help solve that problem, but I don't and won't hurt anybody."

"A woman of morals," Carlisle mused.

"Yes, now I'm hungry and need some food, so lemme have my smoothie. Hungry Fennie is not very nice and can be quite judgmental. Snappy, even. Discussions of sex or dates or whatever will happen after I get my hands on food."

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