We Have Forever (Alec Volturi *Book 2*)

Chapter 17

A few days passed since the incident before we had to return to Volterra. I didn't want to leave, of course, and surprisingly neither did the twins. I guess they loved all of the attention that they were getting from the Pack as well as the Cullens. You could always find Violet with Alice, Rose, or most surprisingly Paul. Meanwhile Cole took a special liking to Quil and Embry who would horse around with him resulting in Cole coming home covered in dirt from playing outside.

"Baby, we have to go." I told Violet as I was packing up what remained of our stuff.

"But mommy!" Violet whined. She had grown so much these past few days, looking about 2 or 3 years old now, just like her brother.

"Can I stay here?" Cole asked while tugging on my hand.

"No, we have to go home."

"But this is home!" Violet argued.

"Why don't you go find daddy and ask him?" I sighed in relief as soon as they left the room, Alec can deal with them. Unfortunately the twins were both just as stubborn as we are and wouldn't always take 'no' for an answer.

"Daddy pleaseee!" Violet's high voice was heard throughout my small house before I saw Alec come into my room with Violet on his shoulders and Cole holding his hand.

Alec sighed and glared at me while I just smiled and looked at him innocently. "Princess, I've already told you, we have to go back to Italy. Don't you want to see Aunt Jane again?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed, tugging on his hair.

"Then we have to go back."

"But I want to stay with the puppies!" Cole told him, tugging on his sleeve and referring to the pack.

"We'll get you a puppy once we get home. Daddy and I will take you to the shelter to get one, okay?" I crouched down to his height and saw his eyes light up while Alec just raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, mommy."

Alec and I sighed in relief as we had finally managed to appease them. They're usually not this difficult to convince but I guess that they liked it here. I zipped up our last suitcase before taking them to the living room with Alec following.

"Paulie!" I saw a flash of brown hair run past me and towards the guys while Violet's voice was heard before I saw her reach out towards Paul.

"Hey, Vi!" Paul reached up and took Violet off of Alec's shoulders and placed her on his.

I looked around and saw that Cole was already in Seth's arms in the middle of some of the guys. Something caught my eye and I realized that there was someone standing with Seth. Layla. I had forgotten about her! This was the first time that I had seen her since the wedding and now she's probably wondering how I had two kids that looked like toddlers yet they were only born about a month ago.

"Layla!" I caught her attention and she sent me a smile before coming over towards me. "Hey girl, I haven't seen you in so long." I gave her a quick hug which she immediately returned. "Seth should've brought you earlier, we don't get a chance to visit a lot and I would've loved to hang out with you."

"Hopefully next time he'll give me a heads up." She replied, looking back at him.

"Yeah, right Seth?" I over exaggerated the last part, catching his attention.

"Huh?"

"You heard me, wolf boy. Next time I come to visit, I want to spend time with the new member of the family." I told him. He just smiled sheepishly and swung his arm around Layla who looked at him lovingly.

***
The flight to Volterra was quiet and uneventful...for the twins that is, as for Alec and I...well let's just say that we joined the mile-high club. Thankfully both of the twins were heavy sleepers and didn't wake up at any point during the flight. Jane had been waiting at the airport for us and immediately held onto the twins, who were fully awake and walking at this point. Jane complained about how much they grew while we were gone, I think that she was more upset about the fact that they wouldn't need her or any of us to carry them anymore.

We had some lower guards carry our stuff up to our room as soon as we got back to the castle and Heidi had informed us that Aro wanted to see us as soon as possible. Demetri and Felix met us half way there and stared wide eyed at the twins who were walking in front of us.

"They're growing too fast!" Felix told me as he pretended to cry onto Demetri's shoulder.

"Who would've thought that such a strong vampire would be such a marshmallow." Demetri scoffed and Felix glared at him as we walked.

Felix opened the doors to the throne room before entering beside Demetri followed by Jane and the twins with Alec and me in the back. Once we entered, the twins ran towards the three men sitting on thrones, excited to see their grandpa Aro and grandpa Marcus. Caius preferred to be an uncle because he said that he wasn't as old as the other two. Somehow the twins had managed to warm that stone cold heart of his because as soon as he laid eyes on them, a grin spread across his face as he greeted them.

"Miei nipoti! Look at how much you've grown!" Aro said as he picked up Cole, who smiled and gave him a hug.

"They grew another six inches, I bet." I told them as I leaned into Alec who had his arm around me.

"They weren't even walking the last time we saw them." Marcus replied with Violet sitting on his lap.

"And their gifts? How are they developing?" Aro asked us, his crimson eyes filled with curiosity.

"As fast as they are; of course they still have to understand what their gifts do before they have full control of them." Alec told him.

"Magnifico! We must begin their training immediately. Once full grown, they will be a tremendous addition to our guard."

"Woah, wait a minute. Training? What do you mean training?" I asked, eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"Training to develop their gifts, of course!" Aro handed Cole to Caius before stepping down from his throne and coming towards us. "We must nurture their gifts as early as we can to allow them to become more powerful."

"They're barely toddlers and they won't have much more time being this young. We don't have a lot of time with them at this age, why can't we just leave them be until they're fully grown up?" I stated rather than asked, anger beginning to boil inside of me.

"I agree, they are too young, master." Alec chimed in.

"But the earlier that we train them, the more that they will retain." Aro tried to reason but I didn't want him to take away my children's childhood to train.

"They need to enjoy their childhood, that's what they need. I don't want them to begin training, I want them to be able to be careless and enjoy their early years before they grow up." My time with my kids is already limited, I don't want to limit it anymore.

Aro opened his mouth to speak again but I glared daggers at him which made him hesitate before speaking. "I see. They may begin training after they are full grown, if that is what you wish."

"Yes, thank you, Aro." I nodded towards him, my anger subsiding after hearing that my children will be able to spend more time with us at this young age.

I watched as Aro retreated to his throne and the twins continued playing with the centuries old vampires. They were young now but in about a week they would look 6 or 7 years old, and in a month they'd possibly begin to look like preteens. Our time with them was so limited, at least for their childhood. We'd have an eternity with them but as adults, we only had a few weeks with them as kids and that's the thing that I hated the most. I didn't have enemies at the moment except for the one thing that I wish that I could stop.

Time.