Some explanation of the last chapter

1. Yes, it was a part of this story.

2. No, Harry did not cheat on Carlisle. The chapter with Neville took place before Harry met Carlisle.

3. There will be a couple more interludes in which Harry's backstory will be explored and they will include Neville, but they are not the point of the story so if you don't like Neville/Harry you shouldn't worry too much.

I realize I should have given a little more prelude for that chapter, and I will try to do so for any other chapters that are in a confusing context.

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their opinions of the chapter, including those of you who didn't like it. The only way I know to improve is if you let me know what's wrong.

Edward took a deep, unnecessary breath. He breathed in the perpetual scent of damp earth, the moist air, the musk of the small woodland creatures that lingered in Forks at all familiar scents should have soothed him, reassuring him that the whole world hadn't gone awry, but they didn't smooth the ragged edges of his emotions the way he'd hoped they would. He scented the sharp metallic taste of electricity in the air, indicating there was an approaching storm.

"We'll meet you in Port Angeles," Jasper was murmuring into the small silver phone in the palm of his hand.

"We'll explain there. Carlisle and Esme are both fine, but we can't stay here," Jasper continued firmly as vehement protests erupted from the phone. Edward tuned them out as Jasper muttered a few more assurances to them and hung up.

"They're not going to like this."

"Of course not," Edward muttered, "I don't like it." He pointedly didn't acknowledge the fresh surge of betrayal and resentment that washed through his chest, and he definitely didn't acknowledge the concern Jasper felt because of it.

"Edward," Jasper murmured, Carlisle didn't do this to hurt us. There's more going on here than either of us understand.

Edward jerked away, not wanting to listen to any more of Jasper's platitudes. His brother sighed as he realized his words hadn't had the desired effect.

"Do you want to check in with Bella before we meet the others?"

Edward shrunk away from the suggestion, the thought of seeing Bella when his emotions were in the current disarray they were just seemed stressful.

"No, I'll call her later. Let's just go."

Jasper wanted to tell him that the comfort of seeing his mate would likely make him feel better with the whole mess, but Edward sped away before he could voice the thought. Jasper watched the silent forest where Edward had disappeared for a long moment, sure that Edward had gotten the message anyway from his mind. He was also sure Edward had not understood.

They met Emmett and Rosalie in a grubby hotel that had, for a brief period of time been slated for demolition, but some hands had been greased under a few tables, and the health hazard of a building had remained standing. Edward sneered in disgust. This place was barely suitable for human habitation, but for their enhanced senses it was intolerable.

The carpets were musty and the sheets stained. The scent of mold permeated the air and the scuttling of insects echoed from the walls.

"Why are we here?"

"The nicer hotel in town wouldn't rent us a room, since we're minors and everything," Emmett told him.

"Emmett, you were 20 when you were turned," Edward pointed out incredulously. Just because they played teenagers in high school, didn't mean most of them were actually teenagers.

"That's not what my ID says," Emmett groused. They had a variety of false IDs back at the house but they didn't have the forethought to bring them.

"Besides, we sent Alice in to get the room by herself, and she really couldn't pass as an adult." Jasper and Edward laughed.

"Are you serious?" Jasper chortled. "You two couldn't turn on the vampire charm?"

"She was a shrew who was jealous of my beauty," Rosalie snarled, not enjoying being poked fun at.

"And what about you big boy? You lost your touch?" Edward smirked.

"Ha ha, very funny. I don't think I was her type," Emmett acquiesced with a good natured smile at the easy ribbing.

Alice appeared from an adjacent room. It was clear she'd been sulking in there after being accused of being a child.

"Hello there little one," Edward teased, "Done with your nap?"

Alice swiped an irritated hand at him, before burrowing into Jasper's side.

"Aww, I think the wittle one is still a wittle gwouchy. Maybe she needs a bottle," he continued to mock her, delighting in the flow of foul insults in she flung at him from inside her mind.

"That's enough," Rosalie finally grew tired of the childishness of her siblings. "Did you find Esme at the house?"

The humor immediately bled out of the room, dripping off the coven and seeping out of the cracks in the walls, leaving only a tense cold behind. Jasper and Edward exchanged glances, putting the rest of the room on edge.

"Emmett, you need to check a flight registry for us."

Emmett's brow furrowed in confusion but he obediently retrieved a laptop and went to work, checking the passenger list for the flight number they gave him. The boys could tell both girls were bristling with irritation but a meaningful look from Jasper convinced them to hold their tongues.

"Here, the passenger list," Emmett turned the screen to face him. Jasper scanned the list quickly.

"Here," he murmured, his fingers brushing the screen, "he was right," The group watched the tightening of Edward's shoulders and the grim line of Edward's mouth.

"You two have three seconds to explain before I eviscerate you," Rosalie sneered.

"Esme is on a flight to France… or, I suppose she's landed by now," Jasper informed them plainly.

"Esme's name isn't on this passenger list," Emmett pointed out.

"No, but Esmeralda Coleman is one of the aliases on the many passports I've had made for her."

The relief they'd expected at finding out Esme's whereabouts didn't come.

"Why would she leave for France without telling us?" Rosalie murmured.

"And if that's where she is, why can't my visions see her?" Alice demanded.

"Alice, focus on whether you can see Esme five minutes from now in France," Edward ordered her. She glared at his callousness but tried it anyway. "I think she already landed. I can see her getting into a cab, but then she…" she huffed "it goes fuzzy."

Edward smirked in satisfaction as his theory was confirmed. "I don't think Esme had a plan when she left us in Alaska. The reason you couldn't see her future is because she's making all of her decisions spur of the moment. My guess is she wasn't planning on going to Paris until she'd already boarded the plane. Even now you can't see what will happen because she hasn't decided where she's going."

"It still doesn't explain what motivated this," Rosalie groused.

"I think we all know what motivated this," Emmett pointed out guilelessly. "She hasn't seen Carlisle in weeks, Mama Esme is lonely."

"She does love Paris," Alice conceded, "Maybe she just wanted to take her mind off of Carlisle's distance."

"I can't imagine what state I would be in if I couldn't see Rose for three weeks," Emmett said gently, with an uncharacteristically fond smile at his mate.

"So what is Carlisle going to do about it? Is he going to get her?"

"No," Jasper started hesitantly, "Carlisle has decided that Esme deserves to be allowed some privacy if that's what she wants."

The others gaped at him.

"Well, yeah," Emmett exclaimed, "but privacy doesn't include mates. Privacy means being alone except for your mate. The point of mates is never being alone."

"Jasper," Alice said hoarsely. "How did you know Esme was on the plane? Did she already tell Carlisle?"

"No, look, this is more complicated than any of us anticipated. You need to let us explain." The scuttling of the bugs in the walls echoed in the silence. Jasper looked to Edward but he was glaring at the floor, a sharp tight feeling rolling off of him.

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just gonna get it out and explain after," Jasper warned them. "Esme and Carlisle are not mates."

The words pierced the silence, a stone dropping quietly into a still pond, sinking to the murky bottom of their consciousnesses and dragging with it a corpse. It was the death of their understanding of their lives.

"What!?" Alice croaked.

"Carlisle and Esme have never been mates. We all knew they didn't share a traditional matebond, never consummating it. Their relationship has always been platonic.

"No," Rosalie defended fiercely, "Just because it's never been sexual doesn't mean it's been platonic. They were a romantic couple."

"No, they weren't. We assumed they were mates because they seemed so well suited to each other, and they never bothered to correct us. We should have known though, because they weren't well suited to each other."

Rosalie flinched away from the words as if they were attacking her. "How can you say they were unsuited to each other? We all idolized them and their relationship."

"Esme is asexual and Carlisle is not. They are not suited for each other."

"Look, just because Carlisle's never said that he's asexual doesn't mean he's not. There's not an unmated man alive who doesn't feel sexual urges every once in awhile. Even Edward feels frisky from time to time," Emmett said callously, "I've never noticed Carlisle checking anyone out, and I definitely haven't smelt him jerking off," he said, shifting uncomfortably and feeling a tickle of embarrassment as he discussed his father's sex life.

"Only Carlisle is mated," Jasper informed them, "So he wouldn't feel any true attraction outside his matebond."

"That- " Alice gaped in shock, "Do you mean Harry?"

Jasper inclined his head.

"But he's human," Rosalie growled. "And he's a child. There's no way Carlisle could have found and mated him without us knowing."

"I don't know what Harry is, but he's not human," Jasper shared solemnly. "You all smelled him, and he appeared without any of us noticing his approach. Plus there's something else."

"What?"

"He seems… to have some sort of control over crows."

"Crows!?" Emmett guffawed.

"Yes, he was the one who figured out where Esme was. He sent out a crow to look for her and when it came back he knew Esme's flight number."

"There's no way a crow could tell him that," Rosalie snapped, "he obviously was bluffing. He found out some other way. Maybe… maybe he threatened Esme into taking that flight and is somehow tricking Carlisle into thinking they're mates. We need to see this for ourselves." She stood.

"No!" Edward and Jasper shouted together. "We saw ourselves, he's truly Carlisle's mate." Jasper rolled up his sleeve to reveal the still healing bites and scratches that Carlisle had left on him. "He's very overprotective right now, and perceived us as threats. He's on edge, and his mating instincts are running wild. He made it clear that we weren't allowed back until Monday at the earliest."

"He attacked you?" Alice asked breathlessly.

"He - we walked in on him and Harry when they were resting, and well, unclothed," Jasper admitted awkwardly, "No vampire alive would be able to resist getting defensive. He held out a surprisingly long time before jumping us, but by then he'd practically entered a frenzy."

"How did you both come away unharmed?" Emmett asked, wrapping an arm around Rosalie's shoulder and pulling her close.

"Harry really is his mate. He came close enough to the danger that Carlisle fell back to better protect him, and Harry was able to call Carlisle back from the frenzy." Jasper grimaced at the memory.

"What?" Alice pestered worriedly, "What else happened?"

"He- Harry that is,called us Carlisle's babies." His face twisted in distaste.

The dead silence was almost humorous.

"They'll be here tomorrow," Harry said quietly, interrupting the quiet. Carlisle hummed in agreement, nuzzling into Harry's hair and shifting his grip around his mate's chest. Harry was seated firmly in his lap as they lounged together in bed. "So tell me about them."

Harry's words broke the comfortable silence he'd been sharing with Carlisle. Five days had passed since Jasper and Edward had appeared, meaning it was their last day alone before the Cullen children descended upon their home tomorrow. Of course, Carlisle, knowing how mischievous his children could be, half-expected them to show up at midnight tonight.

Naturally Harry was curious about the vampires his mate had claimed as children, and wanted to know a little about the individuals he would most probably be spending the rest of his life with.

"They're wonderful, great kids, you'll love them," Carlisle assured him, petting Harry's hair, enjoying the heat of Harry's cheek pressed against his icy chest.

"If you love them they must be wonderful," Harry told him, "but what are they like?"

Carlisle thought for a moment before responding

"Emmett is a goof ball. He loves video games, wrestling, playing pranks and…"

"And Rosalie," Harry finished for him. "He loves Rosalie."

"Yes," Carlisle confirmed, "he loves Rosalie. And Rosalie of course loves him."

"What's she like?"

Carlisle chuckled a bit as he searched for the words that would capture Rose. "She was born to be an aristocrat. SHe likes being a princess, and Emmett sure treats her as one. She's prickly too, she doesn't get along very well with anyone she doesn't know and trust."

"Oh," Harry sighed involuntarily, deflating.

Carlisle's smile softened. "You may need to give her some time, but she'll come around. She'll come to love you just as she came to love everyone else in the coven."

Harry considered Carlisle's words dubiously. Carlisle had an idealistic view of the world, and he doubted the process of integrating with the family would go as smoothly as his mate hoped it would. The Cullens were already a tight knit group, they didn't need or want him interfering with their family. Nonetheless, he smiled indulgently at his mate.

"What about the others, Jasper and Alice?"

"Serious and mischievous."

"They seem like quite a pair," Harry noted.

"They are. Alice barely tops five feet, but she's a firecracker of energy. Her ability to see the future means she almost always has a lep on on everyone else, and she's not scared of taking advantage of it. She manipulates people left and right, and can't stand not being in control of a situation, but she's mostly harmless," Carlisle assured him, noting Harry's trepidation, fully aware of his justified wariness of both manipulators and seers. "She has a caring nature, so she uses her abilities to mostly tease and help her siblings, not to mention make a fortune on the stock market.

"Plus Jasper keeps her in line, he has a lot of self discipline. He was a soldier as a human and as a newborn. He has the strategic mind and the physical carriage of one. Not to mention his empathy. He'll be the first to know if someone is upset, and he'll act on it if he sees fit, but he's good at keeping out and letting people handle things on their own."

Harry was silent for a moment, contemplating the information given to him. "What about Edward?" he finally prompted.

Carlisle hesitated, unsure how to explain his eldest. "Edward is… complex. He's been alone for a long time, and his gift isolates him even more. He used to become overwhelmed b it, and it's led to him avoiding others and closing himself off. Recently he's started seeing a human girl, Bella."

"A human?"

"Yes, he can't read her mind, and her blood calls to him, so he thinks she's his mate," Carlisle explained, dragging the words out slowly with a furrowed brow.

"You don't think she is?" Harry asked concerned.

"I don't honestly know," Carlisle sighed. "He certainly loves her, there's no doubt about that. And I believe Bella loves him to."

"But…"

"But their relationship has hardly played out like a typical mateship."

"How so?" Harry asked, perking up at a potential mystery.

"Well for one, Edward's first attraction to her was as a predator to prey. He barely stopped himself from killing her. Even now that he's acknowledged her as a potential mate, he's not had any problems with mating urges."

"That could be Bella's status as a human. She's very fragile," Harry pointed out, "I've never heard of a vampire finding their mate before they were turned, you excepted of course, but I'm not exactly human."

"I suppose we'll just have to wait and see," Carlisle sighed.

"Besides, not all vampires can be as insatiable as you are," Harry teased, trailing fingers along the dark purple marks Carlisle had left on his thighs just that morning. In the past couple of days Harry had gotten down to sleeping only 8 hours a night, so Carlisle had taken to waking him from his rests whenever he was feeling frisky, which was apparently all the time.

"Insatiable am I?" Carlisle smirked, running his hands up and down Harry's sides as he spooned him. Harry flushed immediately. "I suppose I should stop right now then, the vampire murmured hotly against Harry's ear, his cold breath sending shivers down Harry's spine, and his hand slipping down to palm his little love's groin where his cock was just beginning to take an interest.

"I wouldn't want to tire out my poor little human," Carlisle teased, ignoring the way Harry's eyes narrowed.

Carlisle gasped in delight as Harry undulated against him, grinding back against Carlisle's erection and allowing his head to loll back onto Carlisle's shoulder, revealing the tempting expanse of creamy neck, mottled with love bites already.

"Mmmm, Carlisle," Harry moaned.

"What's that my human?" Carlisle smirked, grinding harder into Harry's ass.

"I'm starving," he declared suddenly, hopping out of his lover's arms and sashaying nakedly from the room, leaving Carlisle bereft and gaping.

He only smirked at Carlisle's incoherent spluttering. That would show him to tease his "little human."

"Now? Can we go now?" Alice chimed anxiously.

"Hm, what does your gift tell you my response will be?" Edward snarked. "Here's a hint, it'll be the same answer as the last time you asked."

Alice huffed angrily.

"Alice," Jasper tried to placate her, "Carlisle was very clear. He doesn't want us there until tomorrow."

"But it's 11:55 PM" Alice groused, "By the time we run over there it'll be tomorrow.

"No Alice, Carlisle was very serious, he won't appreciate us finding loopholes in his instructions."

"What does it matter if we show up at night!? We're vampires. We know he's awake. Tomorrow is tomorrow!"

"Alice," Jasper growled firmly,"You're being purposefully obtuse. We were to wait until tomorrow so Harry could have time to rest and recover before meeting us. That definitely means that we shouldn't wake him up in the dead of night. That's the exact opposite of what Carlisle wants."

"I don't care about Harry's rest," Alice muttered petulantly, "Esme left us and Carlisle's ignoring us and it's all the human's fault."

"Alice, that human, for better or worse is Carlisle's mate. He will not tolerate you speaking of his mate like that," and then to soothe her wounded ego he added, "just like I would never tolerate anyone speaking of you like that."

Alice flopped dramatically into the armchair of their hotel room. "How can he be Carlisle's mate? How could Carlisle have kept this from us?" she asked thought they'd been over this multiple times in the past few days without ever figuring out the truth. "All this time Esme…"

"Look, we always knew those two didn't have a traditional mateship bond. Maybe this shouldn't have been such a surprise to us.

"They've been pretending for decades," Alice said bluntly. "Why wouldn't it be a surprise?"

"They never consummated the bond, for one thing," Jasper said dryly, "they weren't even attracted to each other."

"That's not fair," Alice snipped, "Is Esme supposed to be alone forever just because she's asexual?"

"That's not what I meant and you know it," Jasper intervened quickly. "What I meant is that they weren't compatible sexually, Esme is one thing, but Carlisle is hot-blooded man," he joked. He pressed on, ignoring Alice's raised eyebrows, "No, really. You lot may not have seen it because he's always so composed, but he feels arousal. I never bothered to consider it other than to pity him, but it truly doesn't make sense for Esme to be his mate."

"How great for Carlisle, he's found someone to roll over and spread 'em for him whenever he pleases," Rosalie quipped from the desk where she'd been sitting, pointedly ignoring their conversation.

"Rosalie," Alice gasped, laughter choking her voice. "That was horrible."

"That was uncalled for," Jasper glared at his sister. She pointedly ignored him, filing her nails.

"I just don't want anything to change," Alice sighed.

"It doesn't necessarily mean things are going to be worse, just different."

"Jasper, you can't possibly be suggesting things are going to be better. Our mother has flown the coup, we're probably going to have to move again, because there's no way Carlisle's going to be able to pull off another mysterious adoption that nobody had a clue about. Plus, we have to make nice with a new Daddy Dearest, who is human to boot. You can't honestly tell me you're going to be happy with a human living in the 's also the fact that he gives me splitting headaches," Alice pointed out.

"Let's not forget that he's a homewrecker," Rosalie added acerbically.

Jasper pretended Rosalie wasn't in the room. "It won't be easy, but it doesn't have to be horrible. I've never felt Carlisle's happiness so strongly before. We at least owe it to him to give this human a chance. He doesn't even smell like food."

"Why are you trying so hard to defend him!?" Rosalie snarled.

Jasper sighed, unsure how to explain. "For one, he's Carlisle's mate, and Carlisle deserves a mate. But also… his emotions are very pure. He was nervous and shy: abashed. He loves Carlisle, very truly, and when Carlisle attacked us, he was overcome with worry. He's insecure," Jasper added, thinking of the pain and self-doubt that had flashed through Harry whenever Esme's name was brought up, "but when we mentioned Esme was missing, he felt concern and compassion. I never felt anything malicious from him."

Seeing Rosalie's stormy expression, he continued, "I'm not ready to be bosom buddies with him, but I hardly think we need to plan his disappearance just yet."

Alice sighed, accepting temporary defeat, but Rosalie glared poisonously and stormed out. They watched her go, likely to find Emmett to rant to.

"What are we supposed to do until dawn then?" Alice complained.

"Why don't we go hunting," Jasper suggested, though both their eyes were a clear amber. "It won't hurt to be well fed."

"I thought you weren't worried about the thirst with this human," Alice glanced at her mate accusingly.

"It's not the human I'm worried about, it's Carlisle. His protective instincts are going haywire, and whatever we can do to put him at ease the better.

Alice merely hummed, unconvinced.

"Come on then," Jasper said with an eyeroll, "I'm sure we can find you a nice deer."

"A deer?" Alice scoffed, "You can have a deer if you want, I'm not settling for anything less than a cougar."

The couple clasped hands and sped off into the night, scattering the flock of crows gathered in the trees around the hotel.

Let me know what you thought of this chapter. Too much dialogue? Too slow? Not enough details?

The next chapter will include Harry finally meeting the coven, and we'll really be getting into the meat of things.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck to this, even though it's been ages since the last update. You're all amazing!