Chapter 12 – I'll Be Yours

EPOV

"I think you should introduce me to your brother."

Bella lifted a shapely brow, glancing at me from where she lay, naked and glorious, on her bedroom floor. My hand drifted over and through her thick chestnut waves, playing with her hair, wrapping it around my fingers.

"He already knows you," she reminded me. "It's hard to forget your little sister's vampire stalker." My girl loved to tease me, to taunt. "I mean, you did expose yourself to him." A sigh, "And you uprooted a good portion of the bushes in his backyard. With your bare hands. While watching me undress. That was bound to make an impression."

I waved her off as her little pink tongue darted out to swipe across my nipple, distracting me. "As your boyfriend, I mean."

Bella stared at me suspiciously. Her mind working furiously. She did know that I was her boyfriend, right? But when she spoke next it was with amusement. "Edward, you're over one-hundred years old. And I'm nearly fifty. And you want to introduce yourself as my boyfriend?"

"Isn't that customary? Courtship, exclusivity, then marriage?" I asked her, my tone innocent as I watched her, waiting.

Bella coughed, surprised. "Marriage? I'm only fifteen!"

"Well, technically. According to your forged birth certificate."

"And we've only know each another for two weeks."

"I've known you since the first time I caught your scent almost thirty years ago. And I have loved you from that day to this one."

Her face was soft, beautiful, graceful. My thumb traced a line from the shell of her perfect ear, down her cheek and to her full lips. "Oh, Edward." She leaned in, kissed me, and I rolled us over so that she sat aside me.

When Bella pulled away, her hands pressed firmly against my chest, I asked, "So, will you tell Charlie that I'm your boyfriend now or not?"

"It's a rather loose interpretation of the word 'boy,' and you're something far more to me than just that," her fingertips slipped into my hair, stroking it back and away from my face, making me want to purr like a cat. "But as I don't want to share all of the gory details with my brother, I think such an introduction can be arranged."

I reached forward, tapping her chin up, and gazed into her angelic face; the dark purple bruises under the her eyes, the exquisite shape of her mouth, that little nose, and I was lost. "I'm yours, Bella. For as long as you want me to be."

"I'll always want you," she replied, leaning in, our foreheads touching. "Forever."

My palms skimmed along her sides, up to the mounds of her breasts, down, and around those gently curved hips, pulling her against my erection. "Again?" she grinned. I was insatiable. And it was all her fault. But still she mocked me.

With a growl I flipped us, Bella landing on her back. The floorboards creaked but we were learning; nothing shattered or even cracked. "This is what you do to me," I breathed beside her ear. Her hands were still against my chest, trapped between our bodies. Before she could do anything to free herself I reached out and captured her wrists, dragging them up and above her head, holding her in place, where I wanted her. But she didn't struggle, only wiggled and squirmed until my dick was nestled firmly against her. She was a wanton woman and I had made her that way. And I was pretty fucking proud of myself. "Harlot." She smirked in return, one leg wrapping around my thigh, keeping my leg in place while the other found my waist. Even as I tried to dominate her she managed to enthrall me. Accepting me, my needs, and allowing me to fulfill hers.

"Edward," she pleaded, lifting her hips and I was helpless but to comply. The one day we had spent apart during the week had done a number on us both. We had barely been clothed since I returned. The trip had been successful in the fact that I had fought a Mountain lion, fed, enjoyed the hunt. But I could think of nothing but Bella. Her eyes, her laugh, her quivering pussy clamping down on my cock. Emmett had not helped, asking ridiculous question after ridiculous question. And all of them having to do with Bella's anatomy and my sudden penchant for wearing sticks in my hair and having mud on my knees.

The sun's rays were incapable of breaking through the thick gray cloud cover that afternoon as Bella and I entertained ourselves in my room. We had hunted, gorged ourselves and returned to my home, which was an interesting alteration to our routine. Alice had begun to complain that I was keeping Bella all to myself and how were they supposed to become best friends if they never got to spend any time together. I had no answer. And then Esme had joined in the discussion, agreeing with my sister that it would ne nice to see Bella now and again. She wanted to get to know her. The girl who had so completely captured my heart. So I had complied; requesting that Bella spend some time with my family and I at our house that day.

"Did Carlisle make you?" Bella asked without warning or ceremony.

The question caught me off guard. We had yet to discuss much about my past. And she had only divulged pieces of her own. For the millionth time I groaned internally, beyond frustrated with the fact that I could not read her thoughts. How did regular people, or even regular vampires, survive day to day never knowing what others were truly thinking? Bella claimed that she always told me the truth, but she edited. And it was the things that she was leaving out that I was desperate to know.

"Yes," I replied finally, nodding. We were curled together on my large leather sofa. Clothes on. Just talking. Speaking with Bella, picking her brain, was almost as sweet, as satisfying, as fucking her. Almost. "When the influenza epidemic hit, Carlisle was working nights in a hospital in Chicago. He had been turning over the idea of changing someone, finding a companion, for some years. He was very lonely. For years he had interacted with humans but avoided familiarity, afraid of being discovered or hurting someone."

Bella sighed, glancing up at the ceiling and nibbling on her lower lip. "I know how that feels." I had forgotten that she too had been so alone for so long. I had always known companionship in this life; even during my wild years I had known that Carlisle and Esme were there, waiting for me to return to them one day.

I cleared my throat, unsure whether the angel beside me intended to continue but she remained silent so I said, "He wasn't absolutely sure how his own transformation had occurred, so he was hesitant. And he was loath to steal anyone's life the way his had been stolen. It was in that frame of mind that he found me. There was no hope; I had been left to die. My parents were already gone. I was alone in the world. So he decided to try," my voice trailed off. Bella was just staring upward with unseeing eyes, her chest still, like a corpse. I wondered what images filled her mind. Had she been by herself at the end? Dying with no one to comfort her? Or had she been like Carlisle, taken?

I waited, twining my fingers with Bella's, holding her close, inhaling the scent of her hair.

"Have you always stayed with Carlisle?"

"Almost," I sighed. If that particular line of questioning progressed I would be forced to tell her what I had done, who I had been in the past. I should have told her already, revealed my true nature after her own confession of murder and guilt. But I was repulsed by my behavior. Bella's had been understandable. She had likely known no other way. And as for the slip-ups, we had all made them. Outside of Carlisle and Rosalie.

Resting my free hand on her hip I admitted, "I had a rather typical bout of rebellious adolescence. About ten years after I was born to this life I went off on my own for the first time."

"Really?" she was intrigued. "And you fed from humans?"

"I did. I could try and pretend that I was very noble about it. Listening in on their thoughts, choosing those humans who were as monstrous as myself but that would not be entirely true. I wanted their blood. The hot rush of it, the fulfillment, the satisfaction one can only get from human blood. It was like a drug. Once it had touched my lips I could think of nothing else." Bella's face was so close to my own that our noses bumped as she shifted. I knew that our vegetarian lifestyle was still difficult for her, that she struggled, but she was so incredibly good at it. She had been at it less time than Jasper and had coped far better. She was amazing. Bella shined at everything she did.

Closing my eyes, picturing their faces, the ones indelibly burned into my memory, I went on. "It took me only a few years to return to Carlisle and recommit to his vision. I saw only the monster in my eyes then, their crimson color reminding me of each and every transgression. My parents welcomed me back like the prodigal son. It was more than I deserved."

Bella merely nodded, her face gorgeously pale in the soft gray light of the room. Her eyes were distant and her expression was sad. "What is it?" I asked. "What are you thinking?"

There was a long, seemingly endless pause, as she gathered her thoughts, her self. "It's only," she began, brow wrinkling in the most adorable way, "it must have been nice to have people, a maker, I mean. A family. I just," she shrugged, wrapping a sweet smelling lock of hair around her finger, "never had anything like that. All I have ever had was Charlie. And for years I was forced to stay away from him for his own safety."

I wanted more. If she was opening up, I wanted to know everything. "We all have a maker," I told her.

"Well, whoever mine was didn't hang around to meet me," she replied, squirming, pulling away from me. I held her tighter.

"You awoke alone?" I already knew the answer and it made her that much more of an anomaly. Like Alice. But Bella was unable to see the future, the life that awaited her. She could so easily have turned into a total savage.

"I did." She breathed deep, her face set and stony. I waited in agony, I knew it was coming, her story. That Bella was entrusting her past to me. "I was in a basement, maybe a root cellar. The walls were cut stone but the floor was packed earth. It smelled dank and abandoned. I remember lying there, confused, staring up into the beams of moonlight that fell through the cracks in the floorboards above me, the dust swirling through the light, dancing, and wondering how I had gotten there. How I could see so well in the dark." Her gaze would not meet my own but she continued. "My throat burned but I felt stronger than I had ever felt. I had no idea how long I had been there or even where there was. And all of that, everything I thought, ran through my mind at lightening speed. Within minutes of waking I was up, out the door, and running through the woods, heading toward Oregon. To my brother, my parent's house, the life that I had known. Somehow though I already knew that it would never be my life again."

"But," I paused, "where were you?" Had she lived somewhere other than Oregon as a human girl? She hadn't mentioned another home.

"I was at college, at Berkley, when I was changed. It was only my second semester," she lifted her shoulder helplessly. "I don't really remember it. That part of my life is so hazy. I want to see it but I can't, it's just scattered images, and nothingness." I stared at her, desperate to know more. To understand. "I have no recollections of another vampire, my maker or otherwise. But why just take me? Who was I? And why just cast me aside? Throw me away? For years I thought I must have been defective. Or maybe," she scrunched up her nose, delicate brows drawn in, "something happened."

Bella was remembering something, a piece of information buried for years. Those first turbulent hours, days even, can be hectic, confusing, and things, moments were easily lost or cast aside. It was so overwhelming.

"The basement, the whole house really, had this peculiar odor. Like burnt metal, you know? Like a car engine that was about to overheat," she shook her head, frustrated. "Fuck, I don't know. But I could have sworn, later, that I smelled it again. In New York. In an abandoned building where this gang of young vampires cornered me."

"What?" I nearly exploded. This fact as well was entirely new to me.

"It was so long ago, I was still very young. They herded me, cornered me, in a warehouse. I had been leaving town. They were," Bella thought about it, "trouble. Killing indiscriminately and people were starting to notice. I mean, New York was a dangerous city in the eighties. A lot of people died, went missing, no one cared. But if you killed the wrong people then you were on the radar. There were whispers about killing sprees, maniacs, gangs. The humans were afraid and I did not want to be there when the problem was," she turned to look at me, eyes serious, "taken care of."

"Volturri." She bit her lip, nodding her ascent.

Another shrug. "I don't know what else to say, Edward. I know that you're curious. I don't need the ability to read minds to know that. Carlisle, I imagine, is as well." And she was correct. On both counts. My father had been sitting perfectly still, in his office one floor below, listening intently to our conversation. His mind was rushing with as many unanswered questions as my own.

I knew the rest of Bella's story, at least the edited version. She had told me of her multiple returns to Charlie, her desperation for companionship, and her fear of others of our kind.

Running my palm over my face and through my hair I sighed, wanting to weep for Bella, for her creation and subsequent neglect. Why had she been made only to be left behind? How could they have done such a thing? And how had the same thing happened to Alice more than fifty years before? Somehow, through one miracle or another, both women had turned out fine, wonderful even, breathtaking, intelligent. And they had found us.

"I love you, Bella Swan," I whispered, lips brushing hers.

She tilted her head, studying me, bruised but beautiful amber eyes seeing right through me into my blackened soul. "I love you too."

"Promise me," I rushed, eyes closed, "you'll never leave me."

Bella did not reply but her answering desperate kiss said what her words could not.

A moment later there was a light knock on the door. "Can we come in?" a melodic voice sounded from the hall.

With reluctance Bella and I broke apart; she struggled to free herself yet again, one hand patting down her disheveled hair, but I kept my arm around her, bringing us into a sitting position so that Bella sat on my lap, back firmly against my unbeating heart as her ass pressed down into my straining erection. I answered, "Of course," attempting to control my annoyance.

Fucking Alice. She refused to wait another minute to be best friends with Bella. Give me a turn, Edward! You can't keep her all to yourself forever. My sister, grinning rather obnoxiously and followed immediately by Jasper, opened the door and stepped into the room. She walked, almost dancing in her excitement, to the center of the room, where she folded herself sinuously onto the floor. Jasper shook his head, shot me a pointed look, smiled then flashed a poorly hidden thumbs up. Bella rolled her eyes as Alice giggled.

"We didn't want to interrupt before, when you were talking," Bella glanced out the window briefly then looked back to the pixie seated before her, "but once, you know, you stopped, Jasper and I just couldn't wait to come and talk to Bella!"

Jasper shrugged, offering me something of a silent apology at not being able to deny his mate anything, and joined her on the floor. "Actually," he smiled in spite of himself, "Alice says there's going to be a real storm tonight, and Emmett wants to play ball. Are you game?"

"Ball?" the girl intentionally squirming on my cock, making me even more uncomfortable and horny, asked, confused and looking from me to our companions.

I was thrilled. "Do you want to go?"

"Uh, sure?" It was more a question that a statement.

"When it thunders we like to get out the old bat and ball and play a few innings of baseball," Alice informed. Bella's face brightened with both understanding and excitement. "Let's go see if Carlisle will come." My sister bounded up and to the door.

"Like you don't already know," Jasper teased her as they made a swift exit. Alice turned to stick her tongue out at him.

"See you tonight, Bella! You're going to be on my team. I saw it. So wear blue." And with that they were gone, the door closing inconspicuously behind them.

"You like baseball," I smirked.

"It's the American pastime," Bella answered with mock solemnity.

The lecherous expression on my face must have warned her what was coming. "Then let me show you how good I am at rounding the bases," my fingers were already brushing the supple, cool skin of her torso, lifting the lavender cashmere sweater she wore.

Bella howled with laughter, snorting, then gasped, covering her mouth in a mixture of glee and embarrassment. "God, that was terrible."

"And yet I do not see you protesting." My hands were cupping her bare breasts. Bella was keening and rocking against me before my hands slipped into her skintight dark jeans and I groaned.

Bella allowed me to walk her back to the house she shared with her brother but once we reached the line of evergreens that hemmed in their property she insisted, "Stay here." I tried to argue. She had promised to tell Charlie about us, finally dropping the charade of keeping our relationship a secret.

"Look, I need to ease him into the idea, Edward. He is not good with change. Give me, I don't know," she gestured helplessly, "fifteen minutes. Then you can knock on the door and I will introduce you properly. Okay?" I grinned. Bella's face however was grim, set in stone. "Stay," she ordered. I froze in place, not moving a muscle, a statue in her garden. And finally she cracked a smile.

I could see Charlie through the kitchen window as Bella let herself in; he was putting fish in the freezer. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. Human's food was like dirt to us; the smell was far from appetizing.

"Hi there, Bella!" he called, pleased to see her. "What did you do with yourself today?"

"Oh, the usual. Hung around the house, some laundry, some reading. I hunted."

Hidden behind my appointed evergreen I rolled my eyes and whispered, "Liar."

My girl shot an annoyed look in my direction and with a sigh she added, "And this afternoon I went over to the Cullen's." Charlie's beer froze half way to his mouth. Bella pretended not to notice.

When he had recovered his power of speech her brother stuttered, "That freaky vampire group?"

"They're a family, Charlie. And they're nice. Certainly no freakier than I am."

"I see," he answered gruffly.

I coughed, still frozen in place, acting the part of the good boy, but Bella needed to get to the fucking point. Or I was just going to barge into that kitchen, sweep her up in my arms, lay her on the table, and kiss her until she was mewling for more. That would give her brother an eyeful. And get things out in the open too.

"Alright," she seethed quietly, the word too fast and low for her brother's ears. "Well, I'm kind of dating Edward Cullen." Triumph. It felt amazing.

Charlie however was clearly feeling a very different emotion. In fact, he appeared to be having some sort of aneurysm. I was very nearly worried about him.

"You're going out with that boy?" He boomed. "The pervert from the bushes?"

Bella bit her lip, trying to hide a smile. Whether she was trying to keep from laughing about my stalking, the full extent of it, which her brother was totally unaware of, or the strangeness of calling me a boy. I was old enough to be Charlie Swan's grandfather. I was however forced to admit that Charlie did make a point; I had made some serious judgment errors while wooing his sister.

"He's not that bad, Charlie. You just need to get to know him." I sighed, Bella was not really helping my situation or building my confidence. Charlie scoffed. "And anyway, he's coming over."

"What?"

"He'll be here in a few minutes."

"And what exactly am I supposed to do? Just invite him in? Grant him full access to my baby sister?" Bella opened her mouth but he cut her off, "I know! You're a grown woman. But that boy, man, whatever you want to call him, he's dangerous Bella. And he only has one thing on his mind."

"Oh, god," she groaned and I decided I could not hide there, cowering, for another moment. Charlie had, for the second time, hit the preverbal nail on the head. I did have only one thing on my mind: fucking his sister. I wanted her forward and backward. Bouncing up and down on my cock. I wanted her little pink nipples in my mouth. Her lips on my neck. And I was hard, so fucking hard. But I loved Bella. She was mine, we belonged together, and I needed to make him understand that. I was a lecherous pig but I would die for her. That had to mean something.

I stepped out into the light misting rain, moving swiftly around the house and arrived on the front porch where I calmly rang the doorbell. Immediately I heard Charlie stalking toward me. I shook out my hair, attempting to dry off, to pull myself together, and adjusted my jeans one more time, hoping to hide the evidence of my affections.

There was a moment of silence after the door was opened, Charlie Swan and I gazing dispassionately at one another, Bella watching from behind, a curl of chestnut hair in her hand. After clearing his throat and seemingly making up his mind, I was invited in. "Come on in, Edward." Bella breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Chief Swan."

"So, where exactly are you planning to take my sister this evening?" We all stood awkwardly in the foyer.

"My family is playing a game of baseball and we have asked Bella to join. She will even up the teams." I winked at the girl in question making one side of her face twitch, possibly in annoyance but hopefully in amusement.

"Vampires play baseball?" He asked finally. But before I could answer he turned to his sister. "You play baseball?" She shrugged. "You must really like this guy. I've never seen you show an interest in sports in your entire life." And chuckled.

Bella rolled her eyes heaven word, biting her lip, and cried, "Charlie!" in exasperation. "I think that is enough humor at my expense. Let's go." Grabbing a hunter green, waxed rain jacket Bella hurried toward the door.

"Don't worry, sir. I'll have her home early," I promised with all sincerity. And then I would sneak right back in through Bella's window, drag her outside, and fuck her in the meadow, keeping her out and with me all night. But that information was on a need to know basis.

"You take care of my girl, all right?" He added gruffly. The man really did love his sister. And I admired that. She was a vampire, a killer, but there was a human man who still loved her enough to act like she was a fifteen year old girl going out on her first date.

"She'll be safe with me. Always." Bella was out the door and I followed her, taking her hand in my own. "Shall we?" And with that we took off into the woods. Bella outpaced me, sprinting and jumping, spinning around to smile in my direction before taking off again. Her ass looked ripe and delicious from my vantage so I wasn't complaining.

We walked the last few feet, moving effortlessly through the tall, wet ferns and draping moss, around a massive hemlock tree, and we were there, on the edge of an enormous open field in the lap of the Olympic peaks. It was easily twice the size of any baseball stadium. My family was already there. Esme smiled, waving to us as we approached. Emmett and Rosalie appeared to be having a quiet but heated exchange. Jasper and Alice played a game of toss, the ball moving so swiftly through the air that no human eye would have been able to see it. And Carlisle was busy marking the bases. He glanced up when he heard us and called the group together.

"It's time," Alice announced, dancing across the field.

"Time?" Bella inquired. But as she asked a deep rumble of thunder shook the forest beyond and then crashed westward toward town. She smiled. The noise would cover our playing, and we could truly enjoy ourselves; showing off our abilities without fear of discovery.

Emmett winked at Bella, smirking. She gazed back in confusion. We already picked teams, Bro. And Bella's on ours. You're not. Ha! "Prepare to be dominated!" He said aloud for the benefit of all.

"Let's go." Alice reached for Bella's hand, "You're with us!" The two of them, accompanied by Emmett, darted toward the field; Bella running fast as a gazelle.

"Bella really is very fast, isn't she?" My mother smiled beside me. I sighed. I was perhaps going to have to work harder for my win than I had suspected. "She is a truly lovely young woman, Edward." You were the first of my new sons. And I have always loved you so dearly. You were the odd man out for far too long; it hurt me to see you alone.

I put an arm around her shoulders, hugged her, "Thank you." Her smile only grew wider.

"Now, go join your team." And I did, running for home plate, where Jasper was holding out an aluminum bat for me. "All right. Batter up!"

Alice was pitching. She was by far the best, graceful, quick, determined. Her style was more stealth than power. Holding the ball in both hands at her waist, and then, like the strike of a cobra, her right hand flicked out and the ball shot toward me. I didn't hit it and a strike was called. Carlisle, playing catcher for both teams that evening, hurled the ball back to my sister's waiting hand. She grinned at me, I flipped her the bird, and then her hand shot forward again. That time the bat connected, smashing into the ball with a thunderous boom, before it went sailing deep into the surrounding forest.

I ran as fast as I could, knowing that Bella was out there. I had not caught sight of her since my swing. She had been watching me, the ball, intently.

"Out!" Esme called from behind me, I was nearly around third base, but there was Bella springing from the fringe of trees, ball clasped in her upraised hand. And she was grinning ear to ear. Alice and Emmett whooped for joy. I trudged, disappointed back to home, where Rosalie grumbled. Looking back to my girl I watched her getting high-fives, making jokes with my siblings, and when she caught my gaze she sent a kiss my way. My annoyance at being bested dissipated instantly.

We were barely into the third inning; Emmett was up to bat, when Alice suddenly gasped. I snapped my head up to look at her. She had seen a trio of vampires, red eyed, moving through our territory.

"I didn't see. I couldn't tell. Everything has been muddled," she whispered.

The others gathered around us and I pulled Bella to me with an intensity, a ferocity, which obviously made her nervous. "What is it, Edward? What's happening?"

Alice turned to Jasper, "They heard us playing and it changed their path."

"Are they a threat?" I asked.

"Other vampires on our lands are always a threat," Rosalie hissed.

Carlisle was more practical, "How soon?"

"Less than five minutes. They're running. They want to play." Our father scowled.

Bella turned in my arms; I was gripping her so hard that I would have left bruises had she not been made of marble. "Edward, it's alright. I've met a lot of us as I traveled. They're probably just hunting. I'm sure it's perfectly safe. You don't need to worry about me." Her lips touched the corner of my mouth, her hand running sedately, calmingly, through my tangled hair.

And maybe she had a point but for the first time I truly understood Jasper's complete and utterly uncontrollable urge to protect Alice. Your mate came first, everything else came second. There was no such thing as too careful.

"How many are there?"

"Three."

Carlisle deliberated, mentally weighing our options, the possible outcomes, and then said, his decision made, "Let's just continue the game."

And we did. Emmett took his turn, then Bella. Finally Alice struck out and we were preparing to change positions. I had been listening but had been unable to catch a sound from their thoughts. They were still too far. And I did not know their voices. I wanted to take Bella and flee. She was mine. Every member of my family knew it but who were these people? Our bond was new. And I did not want to share her with anyone else. More of our kind would be a distraction. And what if Bella did know them? From her travels. They could encourage her to leave.

"What's wrong?" the girl of my every waking thought asked, approaching quietly.

I shrugged, waved my hand toward the trees, and sitting sedately on a nearby stone.

"I'm not going anywhere, Edward." My eyes shot to hers. How had she known exactly what I had been thinking? Tilting her head to one side she lifted her lips in a half smile. "Your fears are written all over your face. You look heartbroken." She stepped between my parted thighs, placing her small, delicate hands on my chest, and kissed me, deep and full, our tongues battling as I held her waist, drew her closer. When we broke apart she was fingering the raised scar on her neck, "I'm yours. Only yours."

Before I could respond I heard them, they were approaching on the right side of the field. I did not let Bella go, keeping her close to me, as we joined the rest of my family. They too had turned in that direction, watching, waiting.

When they appeared, two men and a woman, we closed ranks. It was better to show a good offense than to need a good defense. Their group also pulled together; the red haired woman and the blond man falling behind their third. These were killers. Predatory, cat-like, their red eyes blazed at us from across the clearing.

"We thought we heard a game," called the olive-skinned man standing closest to us. He smiled, relaxing, and his companions did the same. "I am Laurent, these are Victoria and James. We mean you no harm." Nothing in his mind made me think his statement false.

"Hello," Carlisle replied, stepping forward flanked by Emmett and Jasper. "We are the Cullen's," he waved a hand toward the group of us, deliberately not calling attention to individuals. "And I'm afraid that we were just finishing up. But we would certainly be interested in playing another time. Are you planning to stay in the area for long." My father was a master of words; getting the information he wished without revealing his hand.

Thankfully, they had no intention of staying, they were merely passing through on their way north to better hunting grounds. Their leader informed us, "We've been on the hunt all the way down from the Northern Territories," and he gestured in the direction of the Canadian border. Bella cocked her head to the side, suddenly serious, and studied the vampires before us more intently. She had said nothing to imply that she had ever met any of them previously. "We haven't run into any company in a long time," the man smiled, his burgundy eyes bright.

I moved through their thoughts one by one. Laurent was simply happy for more company; he was tiring of his companions. Victoria studied each of us, her mind sharp, aggressive. She did not like us, especially our amber colored eyes. Finally James, his mind was a jumble. It jumped from place to place: an icy tundra, a primordial forest, the sea, dark skies and an empty farmhouse, a haunting red brick building, and city after city.

Alice shifted toward Bella, her fingers reaching to take the hand that I had left free. My sister's mind was a riot of emotions: uneasy and nervous, she did not want the three to follow us home. Bella needs to leave. I want to go. Take us home, Edward.

Why did Bella need to go? Alice had seen nothing in particular; I was scanning her thoughts as well. But when it came to Bella she was at a disadvantage. So I turned, the three of us making our way toward the trees, the slope that would lead us away from the others and back toward Forks.

She's mine. Mine. Mine! Someone seethed from behind. I did not know the voice. It had to be James. Fuck him. Where the fuck does he think he's going with her. I had both Bella and Alice with me. They were both women. But neither of them belonged to that piece of shit. I tugged at Bella's arm, dragging both she and Alice, they caught the strangled look on my face and quickened their pace accordingly.

As we crossed the tree line I whispered, "Run. Run now!" And they took off ahead of me, Alice staring over her shoulder, searching for Jasper, as Bella, stunned and bewildered, gazed back at me, biting her lip but never slowing.

When we were off the peak, sprinting down the dirt path worn by Jeeps and 4x4s, Alice demanded, "What the hell, Edward? You're scaring us. What's going on?"

"I saw his mind. He's a tracker. It's his obsession. What he lives for. And he wants Bella." I had seen her face clearly in his mind. It was my mate he wanted, not Jasper's.

"What?" Bella roared, falling back to move beside me. "Why?" She snarled, teeth bared.

"He's a sick, delusional fucker," I let out between clenched teeth. "He believes you to be his, that he has a claim on you. He wants you."

"But I've never seen him before in my life!" She was incredulous.

Alice was stared from Bella and back to me, anxious, and unable to pinpoint a future that would stay put. Too many minds were unmade; there were too many variables. But one thing did come to her. "The hunt begins tonight."

"The hunt? But," Bella was lost, she stopped running entirely.

"What are you doing," I yelled, grabbing her arm, trying to force her to move, but she struggled against me, unwilling to go farther without further explanation.

"Bella, baby," I kissed her cheek, her lips, "his mind is made up. I don't know his plan. But he wants you and tonight he intends to take you."

She was silent, her eyes scanning my face, before she finally asked, "Take me how? In what way?"

Alice's eyes were focusing and unfocusing in rapid succession. "We need to go. He's going into town. How long before he picks up Bella's scent there?"

And then Bella was sprinting, flying, leaving us in her wake, unable to keep up. "Bella," I called, panic overtaking my voice.

"Charlie! My brother! He's at our house." She was gasping, fear lacing every word she spoke. "I can't leave him undefended. He needs me. I'm sorry, Edward. I'm so sorry." And Bella turned then, her face broken and filled with sorrow. "He's my family," she whispered, "you have to understand." With one last long look she disappeared, phasing out of our range of vision. Bella was gone.

"No!" I screamed, running hard, faster.

Edward!

"Edward!" Alice caught my arm in a vice-like grip, swinging me around to face her. "You have to let her go to him. It's what she wants. You won't be able to stop her." I could see in Alice's mind that she was correct.

"I can't just let her go," I told her, voice hollow.

"You aren't letting her go, Edward. We'll go home. We'll get Emmett and Jasper and then we'll go to the Swan's house. We can protect Bella and Charlie. They're part of this family and we do what we have to do to protect family." I swallowed, breathed. "Bella will still be there in fifteen minutes. She's not going anywhere." So we went home.

A/N - Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Two left to go. I have appreciated the reviews. And I am so happy people are still reading this story. So thank you!

Disclaimer - I do not own Twilight. Stephanie Meyer does. Only this story is mine.