Chapter 1

I don’t own Twilight or SM’s characters. I just like to have a little fun with them.

Creating A Mate

EPOV

I’m 117 years old. I’ve been a vampire for 100 years, being turned at 17 when I was dying of the Spanish Influenza by Carlisle, my “father”. Our coven is more of a family really. Carlisle is our father with Esme as his wife, our mother. I have 4 siblings, Rosalie & Emmett, Alice & Jasper. They are all married, but my siblings pretend to just be dating so we fit in better wherever we happen to be living. Do you see a pattern in my life? Everyone in my family has found their mate except me.

I’ve been alone for 100 years and it’s getting old now. It’s no longer a want to finding a mate. It’s become a need. The ability to continue another 100+ years alone watching and hearing everyone in my family being in love is no longer an option. The fact that my body was frozen at 17 when my human hormones were already running amok and having been heightened by my vampire senses only made things extremely uncomfortable. I need more than my music and family relations to be whole and casual encounters no longer help mask the loneliness in my soul.

This leads me to where I am now, searching for my mate. Who knew it would take so long and be so hard. My family and I have been across most of Europe and Canada helping me search, visiting vegetarian covens with single females who at least appear to be close to my age. No one sparked more than a fleeting interest. I wanted someone I could carry on an intelligent conversation with about more than the latest fashion. I swear most females I met seem better suited for Alice or Rosalie than for me. My sisters could talk a fashion designer to death.

The closest I’d come was friends of ours in Alaska. Their coven was the closest in lifestyle to ours being vegetarian and living as a family unit. We visited with the Denali clan about 10 years ago and I thought there was a possibility with one of the sisters, Tanya. She was beautiful and very nice, but we just didn’t have that much in common. After spending time in Europe with no luck, I went back to Tanya resigned to at least try again. We arrived in time for her wedding to her mate, Gabriel. She found him while hunting in Canada a few years back. Their story was similar to Emmett & Rosalie, in that she had found him while out hunting and had to change him because he was dying. In Gabriel’s case though he was dying of hypothermia, not a bear attack.

The reception was going on outside their home and everyone was laughing and having a wonderful time. I was sitting in their study brooding. I’d heard my family’s thoughts worrying about me. I heard Carlisle’s thoughts coming down the hall towards the study; he was worried about how I would handle this setback. I took a deep calming breath and wiped the look of frustration from my face as he came into the room. I didn’t want him to worry about me as I already had a plan of action in mind. I just needed to convince my family now that this was the only solution left to me.

“Edward, I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you. Please don’t get discouraged. I know your soul mate is out there waiting for you. It’s just going to take some time”

I stood up and ran my hands through my hair, tugging a little in frustration. “Carlisle, you know as well as I do that’s a lie. I’ve spent the last 80 years looking for a mate with no luck. We’ve been to visit all the vegetarian covens across the globe with no luck. I can’t look at the covens that feed off humans. Who wants a mate you have to worry about all the time if she’s going to eat the neighbors?”

Carlisle chuckled a little. “I’m glad you still have a sense of humor at least. It means all is not lost.”

I just growled at him. Carlisle raised his eyebrow at that. “Sorry, Carlisle. I’m just frustrated. I hate feeling so alone. Being here at Tanya’s wedding is just bringing home to me how much I want and need my own mate.”

Carlisle walked over and put his hand on my shoulder. “I understand, son. Esme and I have done a lot of talking about your situation. We hate you being alone almost as much as you hate it.

Esme has been worried that part of the problem is that I turned you when you were too young. I don’t think that’s the problem so much as you’ve been without a mate for 100 years and are just set in your ways, so to speak. You have very specific ideas of what you’re looking for and no one measures up.”

“Are you implying that I’m being too picky? Remember I am going to be with this person for all eternity and that’s a long time to have nothing in common to talk about.”

“No, no. I’m not saying that at all. I know I couldn’t have asked for anyone better suited to me than Esme. I wouldn’t want to think of life with anyone else but her. “
I heard a commotion in the house as the rest of my family came in. Jasper came in and sat down.
Alice bounced over to me and hugged me. “Edward, don’t feel bad. I didn’t see you and Tanya together anyway, so it wouldn’t have happened even if she wasn’t married now.”

“Gee, thanks Alice. I feel so much better.” I said sarcastically. “Could you try to make me feel like a bigger loser?”

Emmett slapped me on the back and went to sit with Rosalie on the sofa.

Esme just hugged me as she stood by Carlisle. “Honey, we just want you to be happy. All Alice is trying to say is that she didn’t think Tanya was the one.”

I turned to Carlisle. “Carlisle, I’m actually glad everyone is here now because I want to discuss something with you and it involves the whole family. Please Carlisle, Esme, have a seat.”

They walked over to the other sofa and sat down together. Carlisle looked at me. “Alright son, let’s hear it. What do you want to discuss?”

All of a sudden Alice squealed and clamped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry Edward.”

I just looked at her and frowned. “Carlisle, I want you to keep an open mind and hear me out before you say anything.” I took a deep breath; I knew he wasn’t going to like my next statement. “I’ve done a lot of thinking on this and I don’t see any other way around it. I’ve decided that if I can’t find a mate, I’ll make one of my own.”

Everyone looked at me with confusion for a minute except Alice. She was trying hard not to bounce out of her chair.

All of a sudden the light went on in everyone’s head.

“What?! How could you even contemplate doing something like that? Edward, we’ll find someone for you. Don’t give up please,” Esme implored.

“How could you even think such a thing? I swear I’ll stop you if you even try something like that. I won’t let you do it,” Rosalie promised with anger flashing in her eyes.

“You know that would be impossible. You would constantly have to watch every move you make so you don’t accidentally kill her. Much less want to suck her dry. How long do think that kind of mate will last? A day? If you just wanted a one-night stand there are some single women out there that don’t look bad.” He gestured with his thumb over his shoulder toward the window. Naturally Emmett’s mind went straight to the gutter. It’s where his mind stayed when it wasn’t on pranks.

I began to pace the room. I could feel Jasper sending waves of calm to everyone, which I really appreciated. I knew Rosalie would be the most adamantly against my idea and really didn’t want to get in a fight with her at the moment. Not that Emmett would let me get close enough to even wrinkle her dress.

“I know it won’t be easy at first. Eventually I’ll have to turn her to keep her safe. I just know that there’s no other option now. I’ve done everything else. Please everyone, try to understand, if there was another way I wouldn’t even consider it. You’ve all found your mates. You have your happiness. I want- No, I need to find mine. I can’t be alone any longer and I don’t want to live the life of a nomad.”

Nomads were vampires who’d given up. They roamed the world alone and tended to become more violent as the years went on. Eventually they either joined the Volturi or had to be destroyed. I’d met the leaders of the Volturi once. They were our rulers who made and enforced the laws we lived by. They drank from humans and were uncaring whether they destroyed a family or drained the scum of society. They saw humans that were unfortunate enough to be caught in their web as cattle. I refused to live like that. I also had a strong sense of self-preservation and didn’t want to end my existence.

Carlisle stood up and walked to me. He put his hand on my shoulder and looked in my eyes, I’m certain deciphering the seriousness of my intent. He sighed. “I see your mind is made up. I’m not in favor of turning someone who has a choice ever, but I agree you have tried everything else. So I’m willing to support your decision and see what happens. But I warn you Edward, be very sure of your decision when you choose someone. Remember whoever this girl is will be giving up the natural life she would have led. There can be no mistakes.”

“Thank you Carlisle. I was worried about your approval,” I sighed in relief. I respected him too much to ever go against him, but this was too damn important to me. “I swear I won’t make any hasty decisions. I have my eternity riding on this as well.”

“So where do you want to start?” he asked.

Alice jumped up no longer able to contain her excitement. “I think we should start in Washington and work our way east. After all you and Esme already have a house in Forks we can stay in and Jasper and I have never been. We’ll need to stay in the Northern states. You can’t look south because it’s always sunny.” She snickered at Edward, “It just wouldn’t do to walk up and introduce yourself to some girl while sparkling. Running and screaming don’t help a courtship very much.”

Everyone laughed at her joke while I just frowned at her. She knew something but was blocking me by singing a Brittney Spears song in pig-latin. She knew I couldn’t stand her music and to sing it in pig-latin was enough to get me out of her mind quickly. She just smirked at me.
Carlisle smiled and said “That’s just as good of a place to start as any other. We’ll leave after everyone hunts.”

***

We moved into the house in Forks at the beginning of summer. It was the perfect time to be able to settle in and start looking around before school started in the fall. Hopefully by that time we won’t be such a novelty to everyone and things would go smoothly. Carlisle took a position at the local hospital and Esme was redecorating the house for our stay. There was a summer festival going on in town so the rest of us decided to go to the street dance that evening. We knew being outside would be easier to be around that many humans in one place for a start. And let’s face it the very concept of a dance is to meet the opposite sex.

We got to the dance a little before sundown and stood on the side looking around at everything. It wasn’t a bad dance for a small town. They had a local band playing that weren’t too bad, but seemed better suited for country music than pop. Emmett was very happy about that. He grabbed Rosalie as the band began a popular country song and pulled her out on the dance floor.
Jasper, Alice and I stood and watched everyone. Jasper wasn’t sure of himself being in the middle of that many humans while they were dancing. The emotions coming off the males and females around us were enough to knock you over even if you could resist their blood.

I watched as Emmett swung Rosalie around across the crowd. He was laughing and having a good time. He really was just a big bear. Rosalie just looked at him with love and amusement.
That’s when I saw her. She was dancing in the crowd with a young boy with blonde hair. He was leaning into her saying something in her ear. She looked up at him and threw her head back and laughed. Even with all the noise I could hear her laugh. It sounded like music. She had beautiful mahogany hair that hung down her back in waves. She was dressed simply in jeans and a t-shirt and boots.

The song ended and she and the boy she was dancing with made their way over to our side of the street stopping to talk with a group of kids that looked their age. The boy handed her a drink and she turned to look around her surveying everyone. She finally turned in my direction and I saw her eyes. I knew even in the fading evening light they were a deep chocolate brown. Her face was like looking at heaven. She saw me looking at her and she smiled timidly at me blushing before turning back to her group of friends.

Alice had seen me pause and looked for who had caught my attention. “Edward?” She touched my sleeve pulling me out of my trance.

I glanced down at her and smiled. “I think I found her, Alice.”