Woman of the Hour // volturi kings

12. revelations

1996

A deathly silence settled over the room, the vampires tense with panic. She knew. Their mate knew they weren't human.

The rational side of Marcus knew she wasn't scared of them, he knew she had known for a while; the flash of fear on her face when the first met should have given it away. But he enjoyed playing human with her, he enjoyed the little moments of innocent touching, the intimacy of the intense looks they shared. If she knew how dangerous her was, how easily he could have inured or killed her, those moments meant even more, because she trusted him not to.

"I'm sorry, what?" Caius managed to shake himself out of shock. His face was tight, his brows furrowed and his lips pursed. He didn't want to even think about how she knew about vampires. According to their own rules, Claire and the one who revealed themselves to her should be killed.

"I think you heard me," she turned her gaze to Caius, her expression warm and open.

"Please, explain," Aro's gruff voice sounded. He was enraged. Not only was there a vampire out there telling humans of their existence with no consequences, but they had put Claire in potential danger.

"Well, back in Anchorage, there was this family. They moved there when I was 16. They were so beautiful, so enchanting. I was partnered with one in one of my classes, his name was Edward," the three brothers growled at the mention of their mate being so close to another vampire, a male one at that. "We hit it off straight away, we were practically attached at the hip until he grew the courage to ask me out one day. I never really understood what he saw in me. He caught the eye of every girl in school. He was tall, handsome, rich and charming. He made me feel like the most important person in the world. His family was lovely, his parents welcomed me with open arms. One of his sisters, Rose, was a little hostile to begin with, but we eventually became best friends."

They watched as her expression became sad and wistful. She really missed Rosalie and Jasper. While she had grown to love the Malloys, she missed having a best friend she could go to about anything. It was a hole the generous couple couldn't fill.

"A neighbor of ours lost their dog while on a hike and I had volunteered to hike the trail and see if I could find him. About two hours into it, I heard barking in the distance. Being young and stupid, I left the trail and went after the sound. I spotted the tiny dog facing off against a brown bear, but before I could even turn to run something tackled the bear with a violent snarl. It took me a while to process what happened, but then I realised I was staring at my boyfriend's brother tearing a bear's throat out."

Caius was quick to his feet, pacing in attempt to calm himself. Furious. He was furious.

"We're rabid when we're feeding, you could have been killed!" He shouted, the image of her lifeless, pale body flashing through his mind. He going to slaughter that family for even being in the same state as Claire.

"I know, but I'm here, I'm fine," she attempted to console him, to settle him. She didn't know why he was so worked up about it but her instincts told her she needed to comfort him to some degree, and it worked. His pacing had slowed and he didn't looked like he wanted to decimate the city.

"Luckily, it was his final catch for the day, so he was satiated. After we wrangled the pup back home, I drove us to his house, where Edward took me aside and told me about them. His father, Carlisle-"

"Carlisle?" Aro interrupted, his voice rising enough to make Claire jump slightly.

"Yes? Carlisle Cullen," she replied, tilting her head slightly in question.

A violent snarl ripped out of his throat, his lips curling back from his teeth and his eyes flashing pitch black.

"I'm going to kill him. Good-for-nothing, animal-drinking, pretentious bastard. After everything we've done for him, he just goes around breaking the laws we've been enforcing for centuries. He knows what we'd do if we found you, he knows what we'd do to him," Aro was shouting at this point, the fury rolling off him in waves and making Claire uncomfortable.