When the Cat Becomes the Mouse 16

“Rosalie why have you brought a human and an unfamiliar vampire to our home without telling us.” Tanya the head of the Denali coven asked. Rosalie and Bella had exited the truck and were met with the entire coven lined up in a defensive formation. When Victoria had pulled up and joined them the tension had become unbearable as the coven had recognized how dangerous Victoria was. Rosalie knew the only reason they hadn’t been attacked yet was because of their respect for her so she knew she had to defuse the situation quickly before it broke out in violence.

“The human is Bella, my mate.” Rosalie waved her hand towards Victoria who had Bella positioned behind her. “And this is Victoria, Bella’s other mate.”

“What?” Kate exclaimed. She opened her mouth to say more but was silenced with a look from Tanya.

“Why is it we are just hearing about you having a mate?” Tanya asked feeling a little hurt. Rosalie was close with the whole coven so if she had a mate Tanya thought she would have told them.

“That’s the reason we are here now. Things have come up that I fear put the three of us in danger.” Rosalie told them.

“I feel like you have much to tell us. Why don’t all of you come inside and explain what is going on. It will also give us a chance to properly meet Bella.” Tanya led the group into the log cabin home and settled into the living room. She took a seat in the chair that served as the focal point of the room giving her the informal position of power. Rosalie may be a friend but this seemed like a serious issue that concerned her coven and Tanya wasn’t going to relax until she had all the information. Especially with how little she felt she could trust the red headed vampire. The woman Rosalie had called Victoria had been in protective mode over Bella and Tanya knew that a vampire would fight to the death to protect a mate.

Rosalie took a seat on a couch with Bella next to her and Victoria on the other side of Bella. She waited until Kate and Irina took their seats on the couch across from them while Eleazar and Carmen settled on the love seat before speaking. “To understand what is going on I’ll have to start from the time Bella moved to Forks and met Edward.”

“This has to do with Edward?” Tanya asked. Edward was a name that wasn’t spoken in her home so if Rosalie was talking about him now Tanya knew this was more serious then she thought it was.

“Yes.” Rosalie flinched at Tanya’s tone but knew it was important to tell the whole story.”Bella had moved to Forks after we had already been there for a while attending high school. We all first saw her when she pulled into the parking lot of the school. I locked eyes with her when she got out of her truck and knew right away she was my mate. Unfortunately Edward noticed her as well. Bella is Edward’s singer. If that wasn’t enough to stir his interest Bella also has a gift.”

Noticing eyes on him Eleazar cleared his throat. “I detect that Bella is a shield of some type. It is at least a mental shield and quite powerful if she is stopping my own gift from reading her. Without further testing I won’t be able to actually tell you what it is she can do.”

“Bella’s gift can actually keep Edward’s from working at all. He can’t read her mind.” Rosalie told them. “It was also the reason Edward thought Bella was his mate.”

“I thought you said Bella was your mate?” Irina asked confused.

“She is. I went to Carlisle and told him Bella was my mate and not Edward’s but he used the sire bond to make me ignore the mate bond. He forced me to not speak to Bella about being her mate.” Rosalie noticing the incredulous looks, felt that coming here was the right idea. “He let Edward pursue Bella and didn’t stop the entire coven from reinforcing to Bella that Edward was indeed her mate.”

“If that is true.” Tanya raised a hand to stop Rosalie from replying. “Don’t worry I believe you are telling the truth. What I meant was that being true, why are you here now?If Carlisle prevented you from telling Bella how are you with her?”

“Bella got a paper cut on her birthday at our house. Edward went insane with blood lust and turned the whole event into a huge deal. He used it as justification for us to leave Bella because he claimed that we weren’t safe for her. When we moved Edward went on his own way. It allowed me to safely fight Carlisle’s orders without Edward catching me. As soon as I could I told them I was coming here and went in search of Bella. I originally planned on just checking on her but then I ran into Victoria and we discovered that Bella actually had two mates. It was because of this we felt that we actually had a chance to get Bella away from Edward and Carlisle.” Rosalie explained.

“I knew Carlisle would deny his golden boy nothing but to encourage a false mate bond that’s not something to be taken lightly in our world. Keeping someone from their mate is worse than that though.” Tanya mused. She couldn’t begin to imagine what Rosalie must have felt being forced away from her mate while watching as Bella was being courted by another vampire. “What was Carlisle’s endgame? I know he doesn’t respect the queens but he broke not one but two very important laws. Three if you count leaving Bella with the knowledge of vampires without changing or killing her.”

“Carlisle wants Bella because of her gift. I haven’t been able to properly speak to you as he never lets me be alone with you or I have feared Alice seeing. Carlisle has been trying to fill his coven with gifted vampires. Finding out that as a human Bella has such a powerful gift made him want to sire her so he would have her under his control. I believe if Edward didn’t interfere he would have gladly let me pursue the mate bond because it would have guaranteed that Bella would be a part of our coven. He wants to eventually take control from the queens.” As Rosalie expected the entire Denali coven was outraged.

“He dare think he can overthrow the queens?” Kate couldn’t believe the audacity. They all knew Carlisle was full of himself but this was beyond what they thought he would do.

“He has never accepted the fact that the kings were eliminated. His lack of respect for women is well known. I want to say that I am surprised by this but it seems like something he would do.” Tanya said. “I’ve always kept the peace with him mostly for your sake Rosalie but if he is planning something like this we need to inform the Volturi.”

“The thing is he hasn’t gotten to the point where he can go after the Volturi. I suspect that they will come after me and Bella. Two of his prizes escaping him will piss him off enough he will have to act.” Rosalie didn’t like what she was about to ask but she felt she had no other choice. “I don’t want to involve you in this but I fear for the safety of not only myself but my mate. I want to ask if you would help myself and Victoria keep her safe. Victoria has allies but they are few and we really have no other place to go.”

Tanya thought through what Rosalie told them. If Carlisle was stupid enough to go after the Volturi they would need to inform the queens. Bella being human wouldn’t be a problem because she was Rosalie’s mate and mates were given a pass if they were turned in a reasonable time. The most immediate problem would be if they came after Rosalie and Bella. Tanya wouldn’t turn her back on Rosalie as she had always felt a kinship with the blond. If Tanya had her way Rosalie would have been a part of her coven a long time ago. It was because of that she made her decision. “You can stay. We have always said you were welcome here Rosalie. That hasn’t changed just because you are in danger. We will have to reach out to the Volturi as it is the law to inform them of dangers and the queens deserve to know if someone is trying to undermine their regime. So I know I speak for the others when I say that you have our protection. Both your mate and Victoria as well.”

“Hell yeah we will help. I haven’t had a proper fight in centuries.” Kate smiled at the thought of being able to take out her anger on Edward. She had been held back the last time but now it seemed like she would finally get her chance.

“I want to say I hope it won’t come to a fight but I fear it is almost a guarantee it will. I’m actually surprised that Alice hasn’t called you already to see where I was. I turned off my phone after I left so they couldn’t contact me.” Rosalie wasn’t going to turn it on either. Now that she had the support of Tanya and the Denali coven she felt bold enough to cut ties with the Cullens. There was no need to play their games any longer. Bella’s stomach chose that moment to break her out of her thoughts.

“Sorry. We haven’t stopped to get food lately.” Bella said sheepishly. She hadn’t really thought about stopping and hadn’t realized how hungry she had been.

“Bella you should have said something if you were hungry.” Victoria had been silent during the meeting because these were Rosalie’s people and she didn’t feel it was right to interrupt.

“I wasn’t hungry before now.” Bella told them.

“Unfortunately we don’t have any food in the house but it’s easy to get to town. I wouldn’t mind cooking for you if you’d like Bella.” Carmen was more than excited for the opportunity to use the kitchen. It had been longer than she could remember that she had cooked for someone.

“Uh yeah sure. That would be nice thank you.” Carmen was a nice woman and she seemed sincere when she said she wanted to cook for Bella, so it was easy for Bella to accept her offer. It also would be nice to have someone else taking care of the cooking for a change.

Carmen clapped her hands together excitedly. “Great you can make a list of what you want or you can come with us.”

“If you’re going to be cooking for the human then I want to come to the store with you.” Kate was already planning all the things she was going to get the human to try to eat. She never had a human friend so she never got the chance to learn what human food tasted like. With food being so different from when she was human she had a lot of curiosity about human food. Hopefully Bella was cool enough to go along with her.

“Don’t go crazy Kate, Bella is only one person.” Tanya easily caught on to Kate’s scheme. She hoped Bella was easy going, she had to be with Kate around. She would just have to warn Kate to not be as playful with Bella as she was with others because if the serious look on Victoria’s face was anything to go by the red head wouldn’t put up with much when concerning her mate.

“While they go why don’t we get the three of you settled and then you can explain how Victoria came into the picture. No one has mentioned you before so it would be interesting to know how you became involved with Bella.” Irina wanted to know more about Rosalie’s mate. The fact that the human had two mates was unusual and Irina really wanted to know how it came about.

“Irina why don’t you show them to one of the guest rooms. The largest one with the bathroom attached. Unless you want your own rooms?” When they had constructed the house Tanya had made sure they had a large room with amenities attached for Rosalie. The entire coven had hoped that eventually she would leave Carlisle and the rest of that toxic coven behind and had prepared for that day. Rosalie was like a sister to her just as much as Kate and Irina and she knew they felt the same way as well.

Bella felt Rosalie and Victoria’s gaze on her. “Uhm I think one room would be fine.”

“I think you’ll need to get a bigger bed if you stay for a while.” Irina teased as everyone began going about their tasks, liking the way the human blushed at her comment. She wasn’t sure when Bella was going to be changed but it would be fun to have a human around for a while. It had been a long time since Irina was around one that knew her true nature. Irina had a feeling even with the danger the three of them brought that they were going to bring a lot of fun to the coven. Carmen and Kate were already ecstatic and Eleazar had been looking at Bella with a look Irina knew he got when something interesting came to his attention. She hoped he wouldn’t get to excited about Bella’s gift and scare the poor girl. As forTanya,Tanya was happy to have Rosalie finally home where she belonged. The fact she had a mate was just the icing on the cake. Also the thought of being able to eliminate Edward was very attractive. That would have had Tanya agreeing to anything.