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THE TEAR HAD BEEN RUTHLESS, A STRATEGY THAT ARO HAD USED IN TIMES OF WAR TO BRUTALLY EXECUTE HIS ENEMIES.
Edward had disrespected him, and that was almost too much during his stay. How foolish he was, thinking that his ears had dulled within his thousands of years of existence, but this young vampire truly believed that if he spoke poorly about his mate, his mate, that he would get out alive.
The only reason why he wasn't being dragged off to be burned was because of Carlisle, who promised that he would discipline him. When that was not enough to calm the king, he'd pled more furiously, saying that Edward was stressed and not in the right mindset, that being frustrated would have caused this and that discipline would set him straight.
Aro had not wanted to hear what Carlisle said, knowing that since leaving the Volturi and starting his own Coven he'd grown to be a pushover. If it were when he was a part of his family, Carlisle wouldn't have turned a blind eye to Aro burning someone for this.
But this was his son, and as much as Aro hated him, he'd accepted a plea deal, for the sake of Carlisle.
He'd always bended the laws for him, and he was growing resentful of that fact with each law he broke, each time his children disrespected him. How could he govern with vampires like these? Rosalie had done what she had to do, tried to set her brother straight with that glass that he deserved, yet she'd been the questioned one.
Edward was to never speak of River again, could never discuss her with anyone, and if he ever said anything about her, positive, negative, or neutral, he would be destroyed on sight.
Bella had cried over this, saying that Edward had a right to his opinions, to which Esme had promptly shushed her.
Aro had the right to kill him, but he didn't.
Perhaps he was growing weak, going soft. He'd accused Marcus of this before he left, noting that he should be stronger and able to defend his mate against anything. Now he thought that this could be a projection. Would they all go soft when it came to their mate? Aro hated to think this, but he was wondering if there were any facts that came along with his hypothesis that with a mating bond, one does become softer.
Now he was on the phone with Jasper, demanding answers. He wouldn't burden River with his gift, he didn't desire to invade her privacy. Aro believed that he'd rather have the short gist of things rather than the whole story, that would hurt too much.
It already burned his soul to know that she'd come to Carlisle broken.
Who could do that to a human being? Aro believed that killing the evil was a merciful thing to do to the rest of the population. Before he'd been in power he'd done the same. Who would want to not get rid of a nice group of horrible people to save the lives of plenty of good humans.
Good humans could be made into nice vampires, if they proved useful enough.
Which made what little he saw so disturbing and this new knowledge of the womb of his mate so heartbreaking. What could someone do that made his mate lose such an important aspect of her youth? Whether or not she wanted to have children in the first place was irrelevant, should she not have that choice? Aro was disgusted by the idea of it being ruined for her by some monster.
