𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒂 𝑽𝒐𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒊 was found by none other than Caius Volturi as a newborn after being kidnapped by members of the newly expanded Romanian coven. After looking into her brown eyes, Caius knew that this child was as good as his own and...
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ANDROMEDA LOVED PARTIES. Or rather, she did when she was young and unable to go outside for long periods of time. When ashamed of her ill working intestines and terrible heart she found comfort in the family that were perfect. They didn't need a heartbeat to live, she reasoned, and that made them perfect.
Now she couldn't believe she was in the same room as those she loves dearly, wearing a dress to match her newly found mate. Just like the family, her life moved quickly.
The strangeness of the bond left her clingy and emotionally exhausted. Jacob wouldn't tell her to get off of his arm, she knew, but Andromeda understood that anyone would find her behavior a tad annoying. It didn't make her relent, rather it spurred her into anxious smiles and off-putting laughter.
Shimmering lights and happy faces did not change the tension that the young vampire felt over the impending release of her status as a woman who had found her mate. Andromeda had been a teenager turned due to circumstance, she was still in the newborn stage, albeit with more control than the average newborn. Now she was mated to a man, a man with the ability to shift into a wolf. A man who was immortal just like her.
Jacob wasn't raised around vampires, only the legend of them. The idea of them, he had told her, struck fear in the heart of many of the native children on his reservation. Vampires were creatures that deserved to be killed if found on their land. Vampires were the monsters that kept children up at night.
Assumptions had ruined many things in Andromeda's life. The assumption that she would live longer as a human because her papa said she would. The assumption that her sister would love her. The assumption that being a vampire would be perfect.
Destiny makes life difficult sometimes.
Andromeda saw the smirks of covenmates and lower level vampires that had been visiting the ancient city during the time of her arrival. The obvious displays of affection between them were making it obvious. She felt a small inkling of shame over it brewing inside her chest.
"Your father wants to announce our mating bond," Jacob signed close to her face. His hands brushed up against her neck, tracing down to her exposed collarbone.
"We will do it," was her quick response, eyes gaging anyone who was staring at them in the moment. "We will do it."
"Are you scared about doing this? This is your whole family and more." Andromeda nodded, being entirely freaked out by the idea of this being knowledge that the whole vampire world would know.
Things had changed politically during the past century. Jacob was not a Child of the Moon and was not being treated as one during the party, but Andromeda could not help but wonder what would happen between the covens that fought The Moon Children and the Volturi when Shifters were announced. Vampires were territorial, forcing their own ways of being onto their vampire families. Vampires rarely change unless needed.
"They will love you, I am sure. The others may not," Andromeda confessed. "Others are stuck in their ways. Others hate the Volturi and will use this against us. The Romanians have wanted their power back for over a thousand years and have been getting more and more support from our sworn allies."
The shifter had so many worries when he found out his mate, the one he would love and cherish for the rest of eternity, was a vampire. His pull towards her was strong enough to leave everyone and everything. His heart snapped at the idea of never seeing his family, but he knew Andromeda wouldn't force non-contact. Bella would, she would indeed. Jacob saw that his family was the world of vampires as a whole for her soul. Vampires had a culture, as did Shifters.
They were the balance, the strings of fate that forced their kind to stop the fight. Caius Voltui, the prime supporter of the eradications of Children of the Moon and anything similar, adored his sweet girl. Jacob wasn't a black hole to the King, he was an ally.
"If everyone else could be swayed, wouldn't that be great," Jacob half-joked as he gazed into his mate's eyes. "If only one, that would be enough."
"None should be enough, but it worries me. Nobody has ever hated me as much as my own sister. Other vampires hating me..." Andromeda didn't finish. She didn't want to say it. Her hands remained still as stone as her eyes averted.
Her mate didn't respond, knowing that this wasn't the hill to die on. There was no need to grab the swords and armor.
Marcus had put together the music for the night, a mix of upbeat classical and semi-normal music. The King didn't enjoy any of the music from the twentieth century, despite the urgings from his kin to listen to more songs about deep topics and societal issues. He didn't want to have to listen. Marcus enjoyed loud silence. He needed to tune out the world while not being interrupted by changing style. Each artist had their own style, but these days they varied by genre and album. What a brain twister.
However, the older man understood that there was one song that his niece adored. His brother, her father, had taken Athenodora to the theaters the summer of 87, just a month before Andromeda's birth. When the little girl came into their lives Athenodora could not get her new favorite song out from her immortal mind. Humming, singing, dancing, it didn't matter.
The famous song from the hit Dirty Dancing came on, which prompted the young vampire, despite her shyness in the moment, to drag her newly founded mate onto the floor. Her uncle couldn't have been more proud.
One step, two steps...
Andromeda's dress hooked itself under Jacob's shoe, prompting a roar of a laugh that shook the room.
The shifter placed his right hand on the pale, exposed small of her back, their hands connected as they paced the marble floors.
Jane whispered something intelligible to her twin brother, whose eyes widened.
And, well, Andromeda and Jacob? At the end of the dance they were like every other on the floor, helplessly in love.
