When The Cat Becomes The Mouse 18

“Do humans actually eat dogs?” Kate asked as she held up a package of hotdogs. She and Carmen were shopping for food along with Bella and Victoria. Kate was having a good time with both of the newcomers as they were easy going and fun to hang out with. Well the human was easy going. The red headed vampire was reserved and was constantly scanning their surroundings never letting Bella further than an arm’s reach away from her. The human didn’t seem all that bothered with Victoria’s behavior and had still been willing to engage with Kate and answer all her food questions. Kate had even convinced Bella to try a couple of foods Kate was interested in.

“No, those are actually made of pork byproducts. I’m not sure why they are called hotdogs though.” Bella liked Kate. She had a weird type of innocence that Bella had never encountered before in a vampire. She was a little to energetic for Bella but Carmen had been able to calm her down pretty easily.

“I’ll have to look it up when I get home. These don’t look or smell appetizing, what do they taste like?”Kate thought they smelt like spoiled meat and couldn’t understand why someone would eat it.

Bella held back a gag thinking of what hotdogs were made of.“Well with your vampire senses you are probably smelling all the different parts of the pig that are ground up and made into them. I personally don’t like them but they are an American staple for people having barbecues or are camping.”

“Gross.” Kate put the hotdogs back in the cooler. “I guess it’s better than eating a dog though.”

“Agreed.” Bella turned her attention to Victoria. “Are you ok.”

“Yes I’m fine. Just making sure we are safe.” Victoria told her.

“Do you sense any danger? Should we leave?” Bella asked.

Victoria shook her head.“No nothing yet, it’s just better to be vigilant when dealing with an unknown enemy like we are right now.”

“Don’t worry if anything happens Carmen and I will help protect you Bella.” Kate flexed her arm. “I’m more than just a pretty face.”

“Thank you Kate. I’m sure with you on our side no harm will come to any of us.” Bella told her.

Kate beamed. “I was a warrior when I was human. So I know how to fight. Those Cullen pussies won’t know what hit them if they try to go after you.”

“I am grateful to have you on my side Kate.” Kate reminded Bella a little of Emmett. The difference being Kate was allowed to be herself without someone controlling her and as she learned from Rosalie Carlisle had controlled every one of the Cullens.

“Of course. Now that we got that out of the way, how did you two meet? The Cullens never mentioned Victoria before and aren’t known to be friendly with human drinkers so how did you find out you were mates?” Kate asked.

“We met by accident but at the time we didn’t know we were mates.” Victoria said. “My coven and I are nomads and the three of us smelled vampires in the area we were traveling through. When we found them they were playing baseball in a field. One of my coven mates was a tracker, a very good one but a little unhinged because he had lost his mate decades ago. When he realized the coven was protecting Bella he decided that it would be the ultimate hunt. I honestly believe that he was trying to kill himself in a round about way.”

Bella reached out and took Victoria’s hand giving it a squeeze. “James came after me and the Cullens were able to kill him before he succeeded. At the time we thought Victoria was James’ mate. At least that is what Edward told everyone.”

“Like he would actually tell the truth.” Kate scoffed at the idea.

“Yes well even though I wasn’t James’ mate, my coven mate Laurent and myself wanted revenge. The fact that Bella was human was the reason he was killed. The both of us thought Bella was Edward’s mate as he declared himself to be when we met. I hadn’t actually paid much attention to her because of the tension coming from each coven. I was more worried about protecting myself and my coven then caring about a mere human.” Victoria smiled at Bella. “After James had been killed Laurent had sired a vampire named Riley. It was decided between the three of us to target Bella first for revenge. I found out the Cullens had left and tracked her through the woods one day to finally kill her.”

Bella kissed Victoria on the cheek. “Instead you fell madly in love with me after I rambled about beef jerky and big foot.”

“Big foot? You know big foot isn’t real right.” Kate asked. Taking in the story she had just been told she realized how screwed up the Cullens really were. They left a human that Edward was claiming a mate bond with that Carlisle knew for sure was Rosalie’s mate unprotected while she was being hunted. It would have been obvious that Victoria would want revenge if she were, as they believed James’ mate.When a mate died the other either kills themselves or slowly goes mad because of the grief. They wouldn’t actually rest until they avenged their mate.

“I know that now. I didn’t at the time and it prevented me from enjoying some really good beef jerky.” Bella smiled thinking about the gift Victoria had left in her truck the next day. Now that she knew her better it was such a Victoria way to show her interest.

“So you didn’t know Bella was your mate when you first saw her on the baseball field?” Kate asked.

“When we got there Bella was surrounded by vampires. I only saw the top of her head that was under a hat. I didn’t even know what color hair she had. “ Victoria would always regret not connecting with her mate that day. It would have solved so many of the problems they had now. Well maybe not if what she was learning about the Cullens was true. It also would have most likely pushed Carlisle to change Bella right away if the mind reader caught on to the bond. She held back a growl thinking about Bella being turned by that man.

“So it was in the meadow then?” Kate was a hopeless romantic. She of course would deny it if someone called her out on it but she loved a good love story. The one between Bella, Victoria and Rosalie was turning into an epic tale that the bards of her human years would turn into many songs and would be told throughout the lands. It had all the elements needed, drama, comedy, romance and of course danger.

“In the meadow I was stopped by Bella’s answer to my question.” Victoria chuckled at the reminder. “I had asked her what I should do with her now that I had caught her and her reply was to at least kill her before school the next day because she had to dissect a frog in biology and she was afraid of hurting herself. She never even turned around to look at me when she said it. There wasn’t any fear in her voice at all.”

Kate laughed. “So you spent all this time planning and tracking Bella to kill her and all she was worried about was if you would do it before school?”

“Yes and that’s what made me pause. Not the mate bond. The shear audacity my little human had to request I kill on her own terms. Then she began to ramble about Big Foot and beef jerky.I couldn’t understand anything that was going on so I just walked up to her and sat down next to her. After hearing her side of what had happened I realized that she was simply an innocent bystander who got caught up in something she shouldn’t have been involved in. I hadn’t actually realized it was a mate bond until the next day.” Victoria told her.

“How did Rosalie come into the picture?” Kate asked. “I mean you couldn’t have been happy about a random Cullen coming up to you claiming a mate bond with your mate.”

“Once I caught her tracking myself and Bella I confronted her. She tried to claim she was Bella’s friend but I knew Bella didn’t have any vampire friends. When she revealed she was a Cullen I almost killed her on the spot but Bella had asked that when I went after them for my revenge that I spare Rosalie. That was the only one of them she had vouched for so I refrained from killing her.” Victoria told her.

“So you had felt the mate bond with Rosalie already?” This surprised Kate. From what they were told Bella had been dating Edward. Why would she stay with him if she felt bonded to Rosalie?

“I had felt drawn to Rosalie the first time I saw her. It was when I talked to Alice that she convinced me it was just a byproduct of Rosalie’s beauty. She made it sound like Rosalie had a gift that made everyone fall in love with her. I had no reason not to believe Alice so I ignored my feelings. The only reason I asked that Victoria spare her was because she had been the only one who wanted to follow the rules and change me when James came into the picture. She figured if I was a vampire he wouldn’t care about me anymore.” Bella explained.

“I really want to know what role Alice is playing in all this.” Kate couldn’t figure out Alice’s motives at all and it frustrated her. As a warrior she liked to be able to plan and she couldn’t if she couldn’t understand the motives of all the players.

“I don’t personally know but Rosalie did say that Alice fought against Carlisle and Edward when they moved away from Forks. She didn’t want to leave me.” Bella said.

Kate sighed. “That just adds more questions to the already growing list.”

“I’m done with my shopping if you guys are.” Carmen said as she pushed a cart load of more food than Bella could eat in a month’s time up to the three of them.Combined with Kate’s own cart full of random food Bella was already predicting the extra weight she was going to put on living with the Denali.

“Yeah let’s get out of here and go feed the human. I want to see if those fruit rollup things can actually tattoo pictures on your tongue.” Kate excitedly pushed her cart to the checkout line. She knew they were going to have a lot of serious conversations when they got home but that wasn’t enough to sour her mood. Having Bella around had already proven to be fun and she couldn’t wait until they figured out her gift. If she was really a shield Kate wanted to try to see if she could electrocute the human. Looking at the dangerous red head at Bella’s side she decided she would have to do it while Victoria was not around. It would be better to ask for forgiveness than permission.