I didn't even feel it when the glass slipped from my hand, breaking into a million pieces just like my state of mind. The glass shattering brought an unpleasant memory to the surface. My mother's words ringing in my head. I was back there again, back in that old shack that they called a house. I felt myself cower in fear as a shadow moved closer to me and a bottle shattered above me narrowly missing my head. The glass cut into the side of my cheek and the alcohol burned. It burned my eyes, my cut, my nose and worst of all it burned the words that were being said into my mind.

'Nobody will ever love something as disgusting as you,' my mother screamed from across the room.

'Disgusting filth, it would be so much better if you didn't exist," a venomous voice whispered in my ear. It didn't take me long to realise that it didn't belong to either of my parents, it belonged to me.

'Everything you touch dies, you should die, no one loves you, no one cares," the voice got louder and louder. I begged and screamed for my parents to stop, for the voice to shut up.

'Probably doesn't even hurt that much you attention seeker', my father's voice yelled out at me. The haunting voice in my head only got louder as my fathers boot connected with my ribcage over and over again.

'Die, die, die, die, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE', I sobbed feeling the pain in my chest increase. It was somebody's embrace that brought me back to reality.

I opened my eyes once more, expecting my father to be standing in front of me. Instead there was the blonde angel, I recognised him instantly after Carlisle's description. He was Caius Volturi, one of the most feared vampires in the land. I knew all of them from the portrait in Carlisle's study.

I looked around the room and took in the ghostly pale faces of the Volturi kings and the amount of fear that was ingrained into each one. Upon realising I was now back from whatever episode I was in, all of their faces softened, their behaviour was making my heart melt. They were beautiful, and even more importantly, they were mine.

"Tesoro," Marcus' voice was soft, "everything is going to be alright". My anxiety immediately dissipated and I leaned into Caius, his hand rubbing circles on my back.

"You all, are my mates?" My voice was barely audible. Aro nodded coming closer, Marcus zoomed to the other side of my bed, sitting close to me. Caius remained where he was, me continuing to lean into him. Carlisle decided to step in, "Lyra, would you like some space?" His voice was kind but the thought of the three vampires around me leaving made me double over in pain. Carlisle immediately understood his mistake and it took me latching onto Aro's forearm that prevented him from murdering my soul-father. 

I'll leave you three be," Carlisle whispered in an affectionate tone and left the room.

I felt happier than I had ever felt before, but at the same time I felt hopeless. I didn't deserve these 3 and I wondered how long it would take before I disappointed them.

"Never," Aro patted my hand, willingly letting go. I sobbed, harder than I had ever sobbed before clutching onto Caius for dear life. had true mates. I actually had found someone who would love me without any condition, I looked over at Marcus and he had venom tears in his eyes.

In the end I decided to believe Aro, falling into a deep slumber with each of them around me, too tired to address the questions that were flooding my mind.

⤐

When I awoke, I was still lying in Caius' arms. Aro and Marcus weren't in the room, however, but I could feel them nearby. The mate bond was throbbing, but it didn't hurt anymore.

"How are you?" Caius' voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"I am alright now, thank you," I replied politely.

"You gave all of us quite a scare," Caius chuckled. Feeling bolder by the second I decided to tease him, "forgive me for startling the fearless Volturi kings." A look of amusement and pride overtook his face and I sat up slightly. The pain in my chest was not that bad anymore - it was quite surprising I was sure I had broken some ribs. As if on cue to answer my question Carlisle walked into the room. Caius frowned, but I decided to ignore it for now. "Lyra, how are you feeling?"

"My ribs surprisingly don't hurt," I paused thinking, "Carlisle what happened? I remember Laurent and seeing you guys but how did you get there?" Carlisle held a grave look as Caius shifted behind me. "Lyra I think it is best if we wait till you are completely healed before we have that conversation... I know you hate being kept in the dark but you won't wait long. With the mate bond you're healing very fast," Carlisle said, trying his best not to hurt my feelings as I gave an exasperated look.

It never made sense to me, why everyone treated me like precious China. I hated the feeling. I had been strong enough to live through horrors that most people would faint upon hearing, yet my vampire family thought I would break upon the slightest impact. I remembered my outbreak prior and guilt replaced anger. I hadn't had one of those flashbacks since, yet I wasn't able to control myself. God they probably thought I was some emotional teenager with trauma. The trauma bit was true but I was better than this, I was stronger than this. For years - ever since I had found the Cullens - I had begged for them to turn me, but Alice and Edward always objected. It never made sense to me as Bella would turn, but no, Lyra couldn't.

I must've had a frown upon my face, because Caius began rubbing soothing circles on my back. It calmed me but I was still annoyed. I was angry at Alice for forcing me out of the house, angry at Edward for not letting me turn, angry at Laurent for causing all these problems, but most of all angry at myself for how I had reacted - just after the first time I met my mates.

⤐

The rest of the day passed by with a blur, with me mostly resting and one of the three kings being by my side. I hadn't seen any of my other family besides Carlisle and from the angry looks that passed between my kings, it was probably for a just reason.

⤐

Esme and Rosalie were the first to walk into my room the next day, the only issue with this was that they had decided to do so when all three of the kings were my room. I was practically completely healed and could get out of bed now so I stood up to greet them, only to have Caius snarl.

I didn't know my mates well but what I did know was that Caius was the short-tempered strategist or to me someone who constantly wanted my attention and was quite child-like in the ways he would get it. On multiple occasions he had almost thrown Aro across the room in order to be the closest one to me.

Aro on the other hand, despite what others had said, wasn't creepy. No scratch that, he was very creepy, but it was on purpose. Aro kept an aura of power and creepiness around him so that no one would know what he truly felt - a true diplomat. That aura had faded within the first hour of him knowing me. Both Caius and Aro were very immature at times for 3000 years+ vampires, I soon found out that, that was solely because of me.

Marcus was the most sober of all three of them. He was a gentle giant and had an aura of calm, oftentimes he would be keeping the peace between Aro and Caius. Marcus was wise and tactful - you could tell from the way he spoke - which according to Caius was not much around those he didn't care about.

Don't get me wrong, an angry Marcus did exist, except he was rare (for me to see) and far scarier than both Aro and Caius combined - or so I had heard. Their relationship as brothers was one of the most pure things I'd ever seen, I hoped that no rift would ever occur between them .

Marcus and Aro both did well to hide whatever emotions they were feeling when Esme and Rosalie entered the room, but Caius let out a snarl that made Esme flinch. Despite them being my mates and the mate bond being crazy, I did not appreciate him acting in such a hostile manner, but as Carlisle had said there was something I didn't know so I remained silent. Nonetheless I shot Caius a look that said 'be nice or I will get mad' and he immediately sobered up.

Esme looked worried as she sat close to me and a usually cheery Rose looked like she was going to rip someone's head off - or she had. They both looked very uncomfortable and I knew why. Sighing I asked the kings to give us 5 minutes. Marcus looked concerned but still respected my decision and rose out of his chair, Aro followed grabbing Caius to half-drag him out. A sharp pang in my chest made itself known but I held myself from crying out.

"So what did I miss?" I said masking the fear in my voice well. Rose still looked angry but she decided to sit down in the chair Marcus was previously occupying. Esme decided to take charge of the conversation that was to come. She explained how the volturi were prepared to let me live so long as I turned and when Aro was seeing Carlisle's memories he heard my cries from help through the mind-link. The Cullens were about to run out of the room to save me when Aro accidentally made contact with Alice and saw something that angered him. Seeing this he took Caius and Marcus to hurry up and save me.

The Volturi were faster than all of the Cullens and Esme spoke about how they had taken Laurent apart in a clear second. It was Marcus who had reached me first and carried me back to the house alongside Carlisle. I nodded in understanding but I still didn't understand my mate's hostility towards my family.

"That's all fine, but what did Aro see in Alice's memories that angered him so much?" I asked hesitating slightly. Alice was manipulative at times and I was scared that this was one of those moments. I didn't get a chance to ponder any more as Rose finally decided to speak.

"Edward and Alice lied to us," her voice dripped with venom. "Lyra, do you remember when you found out that we were vampires?" Esme asked me now. I nodded, confused how this had any relevance.

"Edward and Alice knew the Volturi kings were your mates since then. They hid you from them, they hid this from us. They wanted to spite Aro, Caius and Marcus. They knew." Rose sounded like it was taking all of her effort to not scream in the moment.

For the 10th time in the past 24 hours I was overcome with an emotion deeper than grief. I knew that Edward and Alice were selfish when it came to their ideas, but I never thought that they wouldn't even care about me. The sadness was quickly replaced with anger though with what Esme said next.

"Edward wanted you to grow old, so that... when you were on your death-bed... he could reveal to the Volturi that he knew.. To hurt them," Esme's voice was barely audible and part of me wished that I had heard wrong.

"He wanted revenge from Aro for ruling in favour of Bella being turned," Rosalie's voice was heavy with disgust and I could feel the hatred coming off of her in waves.