A flower crown sat heavy in her hair as she arched her neck, hand resting on the curve between.

The studio lights danced in her eyes as the camera flashed and the photographer shot instructions at her. She adjusted her pose, bending her toes and flexing her calves to emphasise the muscles and highlighted skin peeking out beneath the flowing blue summer dress twisted around her ankles. She stood up when the photographer, Ken, gestured for her to switch poses and she turned to face the white backdrop, hands stretched out behind her and a leg lifted behind her, knee bent. The constant flashing filled her vision as she continued throughout the shoot, sending an amused glance at Sebastian in the corner who worried his bottom lip, eyes flickering left and right ever so often.

"Alright, it's time to wrap!" Ken called out. "Great shoot everyone! Fantastic for something so last minute. Alright, let's start cleaning up. We don't want Sebastian to have a conniption over the state of his studio."

"Arlen," Sebastian said as he strolled to the set, maneuvering between the lights and moving bodies cleaning up. He hugged her tight. "Thank god. I owe you one."

"You really do," she replied and patted his shoulder. "You'll be okay if I go now?"

"No worries, we just needed you as a model." He released her, hands still on her shoulders but his face was relieved of the lip biting and forehead wrinkling. "You can go now and we can catch up some time soon. It's late. Do you need a ride?"

"I'll leave the clothes in the dressing room." Arlen waved as she left to change. "And don't worry about me. This is my city after all."

She slipped into the empty room with her bag on the side and changed into an over-sized sweater, leggings, and a ball cap. Arlen ducked out of the studio and sighed at the clear skies; it was a nice night for a walk if she wasn't so tired but she had already sent her chauffeur home. There was a bus stop two blocks away and she could still enjoy her walk. She headed towards the bus stop only to pause at the sound of footsteps following her and she tensed, her entire body taut and ready to shoot forward in a sprint.

"Queen Arlen, it's unsafe to walk alone at night."

She paused and turned around, middle finger already primed to flip whoever the Volturi sent to follow her off.

Demetri, again, and he grinned at her narrow-eyed expression of displeasure at his appearance. She glanced around to look for people possibly passing by or spectating but there was no one. A good thing, really.

She rolled her eyes at his smug expression and Demetri only shrugged, gesturing to the limo pulling up. A gusty sigh escaped her; she was barely able to comprehend what happened in the woods and had no time to think about it but she suspected that was their motive. To overwhelm her until she couldn't think anymore.

"Your ride, my Queen," he said.

"Stop calling me your queen," she hissed, "a normal person doesn't randomly call another person by a royal title unironically."

"Apologies, my Queen." He smiled charmingly, an almost mocking edge to the curve of his lips. "But the masters have insisted it is your proper title and have tasked me with making sure you arrive home safely."

"You can just say get in the car or I'll annoy you by following you home very obviously," she muttered and glided by him to open the door to the limo. She peered inside to find the Volturi Kings lounging in their seats, eyes on her with an intensity she was already growing used to. "Why are you doing this?"

"Ah, cara mia. We thought you would appreciate us replacing your chauffeur," Aro said smoothly.

"You mean you stalked me and noticed I sent my chauffeur home," she deadpanned. "What do you have to gain from doing this?"

"Nothing you must worry about." Aro dismissed, words almost guileless but his red eyes gleamed in the dark, predatory.

"It's best if you come with us, fiore, it is late," Marcus broached carefully, "it is rather...unsafe for you to walk alone."

As if she hadn't walked these streets in the dark alone since she was a high school student.

She sighed when she glanced at the time on her phone. "Fine. You win this once. I'm too tired to wait for another ride. You can drive me home and only drive me home. To the gate. Those are my terms."

"And we will agree to them, amore." Caius crossed his legs, blood-red eyes settling on her too comfortably to ease her nerves.

She threw another at Demetri for good measure before she sat down on the empty backseat of the limo. Felix drove the limo and he smirked when he saw her enter. Arlen crossed her legs primly and folded her hands in her lap, keeping a close eye on the Kings to see if they invaded her personal space.

The ride home was not a silent affair which she would've preferred; the Kings posed soft questions and she answered with care. She never revealed more than she had to and danced around the topics they attempted to needle through. They asked after her job, her life, her background—and she didn't budge for a second. The more they knew about her, the more power they held over her, and she wasn't a disillusioned girl placed before Kings, left to their mercy. They wanted something from her.

And despite the words she exchanged with Caius outside of her home, she wasn't giving them any quarter until they told her point-blank what they wanted from her.

When they parked outside of her house, she exited, shut the gates and hurried into her home, not glancing back once at the Volturi Kings.

Arlen sat the desk in her personal office, tapping her pen against the white-washed wood as she stared out of the windows covered by sheer curtains.

They were watching her home, that was for certain, and while it would make anyone else paranoid, it didn't bother her as long as they kept off her property. It was clear that she had something they wanted but couldn't force out of her hands and while she suspected it was because of her gift, she wasn't quite so sure anymore after Caius' actions and words in the woods. What did he have to gain for a lowly guard member by throwing away his pride? An unheard of occurrence and unexpected. She still couldn't quite reconcile a King kneeling to someone who barely registered as a peasant on their scale. She was the equivalent to a persistent and annoying fly more than anything.

There was something more than simple information for an execution or her gift.

She sighed and rubbed her temples. Understanding vampires thousands of years old wasn't probable without causing major headaches. The pen hit her desk and she stood up, walking out of her office to her bedroom to get dressed. She could wait them out but a vampire who managed to claw their way into living for thousands of years didn't lack patience in the slightest and while she loved her home, she didn't want to waste away behind the walls or find herself chased across the planet by the Kings of the vampire world. The fact she thought she could was irrational and derived from sheer stubbornness than anything else.

Arlen sat on her bed, in freshly laundered clothes, and fiddling with her phone, dreading what she was about to do next.

What was she even trying to delay?

God, curiosity really must've killed the cat.

She walked down the stairs, each step leaden like she was headed to her own funeral and she paused when her hand met the front door. They were somewhere out there, she could tell somehow, and shouting out of a crack to the wide open air like a nut didn't sound appealing. The crisp yet cool Vancouver air filled her lungs as she stood on her concrete porch, scuffing her slippers.

"I know you're here," she said. The wind blew by, brushing her hair into her face but she batted it away. "I'm giving you one chance to explain this to me in full detail."

They appeared before her, almost as if she conjured them up from her imagination alone. She startled, nails digging into the delicate skin of her palms and heartbeat erratic. No matter how many vampires did that to her, she would never get used to it without warning.

The three of them stood there, dressed to the nines in Versace and Armani but uncompromising on their crimson and black color scheme from before.

"Fiore," Marcus greeted, smile soft and charming on his young face.

She stared at them, solidifying her resolve, and gestured for them to follow her inside her home.

"Without your guards," she added when she spotted them in the courtyard.

They followed behind her and politely took off their shoes this time before she led them into the living room, drawing the curtains to block their guard's view. They sat down on her sofa, looking pleased as cats who caught the cream and she sat across from them, out of reach.

"And what prompted you to give in, cara mia?" Aro smiled, teeth peeking over the red of his lips, pale skin radiant beneath her white lights.

"Curiosity. And like I said, I'll listen to your explanation." She held up her fingers. "On several conditions."

"Anything you ask of us, fiore, and we will abide by."

"Whatever I decide here and now, you'll agree to it," she said. "You will not use your supernatural abilities on me, at all, and you'll stay where you are. At all times."

"How delightful." Aro folded his hands over his thighs. "Such simple rules."

Caius remained suspiciously quiet but Arlen ignored his seeking gaze, lingering over her as if his eyes were hands, gently caressing her.

"That's not an agreement," she said. "Either you agree to my terms or I won't listen to you at all."

"We agree to anything you wish, amore," Caius finally spoke up, "as long as it means you will listen to us."

Arlen shifted further back into her sofa, as if the cushions could soften whatever they were about to say to her or shield her from them. If only she could take Udon out of his tank and wrap him around her wrist or neck for a little more comfort but she didn't want to have to protect her snake and herself from them. And animals, even snakes, weren't comfortable around vampires. Especially old ones who no longer bothered to act like they were humans. "You can start talking then."

"What do you know about vampire mates, cara?" Aro leaned forward.

This, again?

She pursed her lips. "Every vampire has a mate, for reasons unknown, but once they meet, the bond is formed forever. They're eternally bound through the soul and should one die, the other half finds themselves half-dead."

"A passable amount of knowledge," he commented.

She couldn't even tell if it was a half-hearted compliment or passive-aggressive insult or neither. "I don't see what this has to do with me."

"We have told you. You are our mate," Caius said, reverently. "The other half to our souls, molded perfectly to complete us and we have searched for you, amore."

"He does not lie." Marcus' soft gaze melted into her, as if he could see through her. "Our bonds with you are golden and eternal, fiore. The bond of mates. You know of my gift, yes?"

"I'm supposed to believe that?" she asked, unimpressed. "Then why don't I feel it and isn't the rule a single mate?"

"Oh, cara, we exist and yet you must confine yourselves to the mortal idea of monogamy?" Aro sighed. "And you are but mortal, dear Arlen. Humans do not experience the world as we do."

She rolled the idea around in her mind, frowning at them as they stared at her, overeager and expectant.

There were no good outcomes if they were telling the truth and that was only if they were telling the truth. But what did they have to gain by lying about something as serious as this? Vampires took their matings seriously. It wasn't rare for mates to find each other in the vampire world but the Volturi Kings hadn't found theirs in the thousands of years of existing and somehow their luck accumulated all into her? Some internet model girl that streamed video games and looked pretty as a career? She wasn't a life-changing or powerful figure like Empress Wu Zeitan or Empress Myeongseong. On top of all that, she wasn't even friends with them much less in love.

But then, if they were telling the truth, she had to consider the options there.

They'd expect her to follow them to Volterra and become a vampire, forever live a life of secrecy.

No matter what happened, every option but one ended up with that as a conclusion. They might even turn her into a vampire to force her into feeling the bond and tying her to them.

"Hypothetically, you're telling the truth." She broke her silence. "What happens?"

"We will fake your death and you may return to Volterra with us and become a vampire whenever you wish, amore," Caius said.

"And what if I didn't want to do that?"

"We are willing to give you time, cara," Aro said smoothly, "as long as you're accompanied by our guard and one of us, you may travel outside of Volterra."

"I meant what if I'm not willing to become a vampire or go to Volterra. What then? I have a human life here outside of this hypothetical scenario."

Caius' eyes narrowed. "Those are not viable paths for you to take, amore."

"And why not?" she challenged. "After all, you said I'm unaffected by the bond. I don't feel it at all and as far as I'm concerned, I don't know you. Why should I give up my life to assuage whatever it is you feel?"

Marcus met her gaze, burgundy eyes piercing as if he were peeling away her skin and flesh to find the marrow of her bones. "Perhaps, fiore, you will change your mind with time. You have not known us long and you are speaking rather rashly, are you not?"

"I'm not leaving my friends or the life I've built for something that isn't even my problem to begin with. You being affected by the mating bond is your problem. Not mine. I didn't ask for it."

Caius snapped. "You are the mate to the Volturi Kings and we cannot risk you. As you've said, if you were to die, we would wither away. Your human friends will not last the century. Time will erase the memory of them. You will come with us now or in the future."

"So, you'll force me to Volterra whether I want to go or not?" Arlen said, fingers digging into the soft of her thighs.

Just as she thought but the fact he put weight behind her unvoiced notions unsettled her. She was just another human without Vince there and he didn't even know the Volturi Kings were in her living room. If he had, he would've dumped her into the cold water beneath the Lion's Gate Bridge for being stupid and inviting the same people who broke her wrist into her home.

Marcus touched the top of Aro's hand.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Of course not, fiore," Marcus said gently, "but we cannot survive without you."

"But I can survive without you."

Aro laughed, almost shrill if it weren't for that damnable vampire perfection. "You are playing a dangerous game, dear Arlen."

As if she didn't already know that, judging by snarl Caius' face was set in.

"Tell us, cara, why won't you come to Volterra instead of infuriating Caius more than you already have?" Aro smoothed out his suit. "I do so love games but I cannot say the same for my brothers. I believe you try their patience."

Just as you try mine, went unsaid.

"It's my life you're asking me to abandon, for one." She adjusted herself, almost shifting further away from them. "The other is my freedom. You're asking me to let your guard monitor everything I'm doing while one of you follows me around and hypothetically, I wouldn't be allowed to live my own life. You'd shackle me with an anchor to Volterra in every scenario, wouldn't you? After all, if I get hurt, so do you."

"And what if we gave you everything you wished for? Would you come with us then? You may do all the things you wish if you were one of us, cara."

"You didn't let me finish." Arlen gripped the sofa beneath her. "Who said I wanted to live forever?"

Aro's eyes narrowed before a pleasant smile broke out on his face once more. "You must repeat that, dear Arlen."

"What if I don't want to become a vampire at all?" she said. "What if I don't want to live forever? If I go with you, no matter what happens, you won't let that be an option, would you? I wouldn't be allowed to choose my fate because you don't think it's my choice to make."

No matter what happened, Arlen knew, they wouldn't let her die. If the mating bond was real, that wasn't an option. They would wither away, without a doubt, but how much of that was their undying love for power over other vampires? If she was their mate, did they come after her because she was a liability or would they hide her in the dungeons of their castle, their greatest weakness taken off the chessboard and hidden as if she was some unsightly creature from nightmares. Her choices wouldn't matter then.

"I believe you will change your mind with time once you understand the greatness that comes with immortality, cara."

"Another thing you haven't taken into consideration," Arlen said, staring into her teacup. "You don't know me."

"As you do not know us."

"That's not what I meant." She paused and considered her words carefully, taking in each of their expressions before she set down her cup of tea on the table between them. Arlen was a human being but if she was truly their mate and not the byproduct of her powers warping their perception of her then that changed everything. She had the power to devastate them with her death just like they had the power to destroy her life. "The Volturi Kings are known to be callous and heartless."

"It is necessary for us to rule, cara." Aro's smile was almost robotic, more of a pull than a curve, and his canines glided over his bottom lip, red as blood.

A charmingly threatening look.

"If I'm your mate..."

She squared her shoulders and met their gazes evenly.

"...how do you know I'm not the same?"

In the end, she had asked them to leave, any traces of her emotions frozen over like the tundras in the far north of Canada during the coldest months.

But, she had not handed out a verdict over the information they gave her. Merely asked them to leave her alone and stop watching her. Marcus settled into the sea drift of his thoughts, letting the tides slow and pull away, dragging him further away from the sands of his mind. He carefully considered each expression she made, chafing over her words as if he could reveal the hidden meanings if he wore them away long enough. Perhaps Aro's ability would've come in useful at such a time but he was unable to read her mind and they were left lost at sea.

"The Volturi Kings are known to be callous and heartless..."

"...if I'm your mate, how do you know I'm not the same?"

An almost unheard of provocation. Something that surely aggravated and stung like newborn's bite into his brothers but they were not of a gentler stock. Marcus noticed the hesitation and distress tensing their mate's shoulders. His brothers were heedless in terms of emotions, including their own, and he was not surprised at their inability to discern the difference between anger and panic. He doubted their mate was able to either. She was more alike to Caius and Aro than him, he thought wryly.

Didyme had taught him many things but the others had not enlightened his brothers with such knowledge, something he would wait to gloat about when their tempers calmed.

Caius fumed just as Aro brooded beneath his cheerful veneer, their thoughts tumultuous, but he existed as the still-water lake between their wildfire anger and torrential flooding. Arlen's words had given them much to think about but he doubted the weight behind them. The fear curving her spine when they had cornered her with their words nearly drowned him with shame.

"We should have taken her with us," Caius snarled. "Why play these games with her if she refuses to come with us?"

"Many reasons, brother." Aro cleared his throat needlessly. "Do you wish to shatter the mating bond until it is irreparable? I am quite sure we can act with haste and make it happen."

"There is no need to needle him, Aro." Marcus mediated. "And you must heed your words, Caius, if you do not wish for her to resent us."

"We are running out of time." Caius growled and adjusted his cuff links. "If we do not return to Volterra within the fortnight to rule then our enemies will take notice and we cannot afford to lose her."

"Rushing her, brother, will do us no good as we have witnessed." Aro looked back at the mansion hidden by trees and walls, wistful. "I have several plans but first, you must refrain from destroying your clothes. Marcus, how is the bond?"

He held out his hand and let Aro dive into his mind, searching his thoughts, gliding over what he deemed useless and picking at the strings of the golden bond stretching further and further as they left their mate behind her walls, the black on her end withering like a dying tree's gnarled branch.

hello, i'm kind of back. do you want to know who was a clown and jinxed herself? i'm using the desktop version on my phone and not the mobile app. it can't format the way i need it to. my laptop died while i was working on this and i can't afford a new one and unfortunately i don't have a lot of free time. everything irl (jobs, finals, bills, etc) took precedent before this. hopefully i'll get enough christmas and chinese new year money to buy a new laptop but if not then i guess i'll just suffer.

but anyway i'm really thankful for all the reviews and private messages. i'll address one thing however! yes, arlen's personal, real life abilities are based off a famous social media celebrity from china. also, yes, i'm hinting towards something.