The Unwanted Imprint

Chapter 36

A/N: mention of suicide

Nichole stood up from the table, shaking her head. "No way, that isn't going to happen. No way in hell am I going to get married to you."

Aro's face was blank, showing no expression. "Need I remind you of what will happen to that mongrel of yours if you don't do everything that I tell you? It could be worse, you know. You could be marrying Caius, he's a bore that one. At least with me, you would get a sense of adventure."

Nichole felt like she was going to puke. How sick was this man? He was hundreds of years old, had been an adult before he was turned, and he wanted to marry someone who was still in high school.

"You'll get used to it in time, my darling." Aro purred. "The wedding is going to be a week from today, so that you can prepare yourself." He snapped his fingers, and Diana appeared. "Take Nichole back to her room, she has a lot to think about."

"Of course," Diana said, and she led Nichole away.

"Did you know about this?" Nichole demanded once they were back in her room. "Did you know that Aro was intending on marrying me?"

"Everyone did." Diana's voice was soft, as though she was ashamed. "We all know about his obsession with you."

"And you didn't think to tell me?!"

"What good would it have done? It's not like it would have changed the outcome of things."

Nichole shook her head. "You said that you were decent, Diana. Someone who is decent doesn't just let things like this happen."

"I am decent, Nichole." Diana took her hand. "I'm a lot better than a lot of the vampires here."

Nichole yanked her hand away. "If you were any kind of decent, there's no way that you would be okay with Aro marrying someone who isn't even in their senior year of high school yet."

Diana bit her lip. "I want to help you, Nichole, I really do, but there's nothing that can be done. Aro wants to marry you, and whatever he says, goes."

"You could help me. You could tell my family what's going to happen."

"I thought that you wanted to keep your family out of this. Isn't that the whole reason you went with Aro in the first place?"

Nichole sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I don't know what else to do, Diana. I want to keep them safe, they mean the world to me, but I also can't marry Aro, I'll kill myself before that happens."

"Now, let's not talk about that just yet. Something might happen. I know Carlisle, and he isn't the kind of man that's just going to let something like this slide. You're his daughter, and that means he's going to do whatever it takes to get you out of here." Diana lowered her voice. "Look, if I get word that he or any of your family members are in Italy, I'll try and get out, tell them what's going on."

"Thank you, Diana."

"You should get some rest, it's been a long day for you. There's pajamas in the dresser."

Diana left the room, and Nichole rubbed her face. She didn't know how she was going to get out of this one.

Jared had managed to round up a few of the other pack members. Seth had healed from his injuries, so he was coming along, and so were Embry and Quil. Leah was coming along as well, but she said that the only reason she was coming was so that her little brother didn't get himself killed.

"I still can't believe that you imprinted on a Cullen," Leah grumbled to Jacob as everyone got on a plane that was bound for Italy.

"It's not like it was planned." Jacob retorted. "And you didn't have to come along, you know. If you hate her so much, then you should have just stayed home."

"And have my brother get killed? No thanks."

"Seth is stronger than you give him credit for."

"He's still my little brother. He could be He-Man and I would still try to protect him."

Jacob chuckled a bit. "Thanks for coming anyway, we're going to need all the help that we can get.

"You know that this is basically a suicide mission, right? I mean, you guys are planning on infiltrating a place that's filled with vampires, how the hell do you expect to get out of this alive?"

"I don't know Leah. But Nichole is my imprint, and that means that I'm going to do whatever the hell it takes to get her out of the mess that she's in."

"You mean the mess that she put herself in."

"She did it to protect me and her family. You can't say that you wouldn't do the same thing if it was Seth's life that was on the line."

Leah let out a huff, staring out the window. "I wouldn't have gone willingly, I would have torn his head off of his shoulders."

"Yeah, and we have the strength and power to do that. Nichole is a human, she doesn't have that power. Going willingly was the only way that she could protect her family. I don't agree with what she did, but I understand why she did it."

"Whatever. What's the plan anyway?"

"Carlisle wants to do some scouting first, find out just how many vampires we're going to be dealing with. His friends from Cairo are going to be meeting us at the hotel that we're going to be staying at. I guess that this Benjamin kid can control water or something like that."

"Oh yeah, that'll work. Let's just drown the vampires, boom, problem solved."

"Um, is she always like this?" Alice whispered to Jared as the two continued to bicker, and Jared nodded his head. "Unfortunately. I would say that she grows on you eventually, but I would be lying."

"Oh, I'm sure-" Suddenly Alice gasped, her eyes going wide. "Oh my God..."

"Alice? You good?"

"I just had a vision. I didn't see much, but I saw Nichole. She was wearing a wedding dress."

Jared arched an eyebrow. "A wedding dress, are you sure?"

"I'm positive. I think that there's more than one reason that Nichole was taken. If we're going to get her out of there, then we need to hurry. I believe that Aro is planning on marrying Nichole."

Jared gagged. "Yeah, because that's totally normal. Okay, so our timeline just sped up a little bit."

"More then a little bit. I'm not sure that we'll even have time to stake the place out."

"So we'll be going in blind. Well, at least that will add a little bit of excitement to the whole thing." Jared glanced out the window. "And you guys say that vampires aren't weird."

"By this point, I'm kind of starting to agree with you."

"Rescuing your sister from a perverted vampire, that's probably a new one for you."

"We've saved her from a perverted human, but never a perverted vampire. Two perverted humans actually."

"Okay, later on, you have got to tell me that story." Jared was smiling the whole time that he was talking with Alice, these vampires really weren't so bad after all.