Chapter Text
Chapter 32
The next three days were full of somber chaos and anger. Paul refused to leave his imprint’s side as she went through the change, and Rachel wasn’t much better, which meant Leah was stuck at Rebecca’s side as well. Paul and Rachel both refused to eat or sleep unless Bella ordered them to. Rachel even made it clear that the only way that she was leaving her sister’s side before Rebecca woke up was if they dragged her out of there by force–something Leah absolutely planned to do when Rebecca started showing signs of changing, as there was no way they were letting human blood potentially tempt the newborn once she woke up.
The rest of the pack wasn’t doing much better. Everyone with an imprint besides Bella was glued to them, overprotective to an extreme where even the imprints themselves couldn’t calm their mates down. Seeing what happened to Rebecca, even when she had been surrounded by wolves and should have been thoroughly protected, had shaken them in a way that nothing else had.
Only when they were training did any of the wolves dare to leave their imprints’ sides, and even then, it was done on Cullen territory with the imprints always close by. While Rebecca’s attack had made the shifters naturally more aggressive and wary of vampires, their alpha made sure to keep that side tempered down. When she couldn’t, it was up to Jared and Sam to do it for her, but it was something the shifters took to well, knowing how much the vampires had helped them.
Bella had taken it hard in a way that no one else did. Reminding her that she had saved Rebecca’s life did nothing to make her feel better, and she had started to distance herself from her mates as if she didn’t deserve their touch. Even Charlie, who had come home from the hospital, couldn’t change Bella’s mind or even get her to open up.
Most of the time since Rebecca’s attack was spent running herself ragged. When Bella wasn’t patrolling she was training, and when she wasn’t training she was working with the other wolves or simply hating herself for not being enough to stop it in the first place. Tanya and Rosalie had tried to shake her way of thinking many times, yet nothing ever worked. It was clear that the alpha blamed herself for this, as did all of the wolves involved during that night. Likely, none of them would calm until they found the vampire who had done this as well as Victoria and torn them both limb from limb. Bella especially seemed like she wouldn’t rest until she personally burned the bodies.
Which was why Tanya and Rosalie were trying so hard to get Bella to listen to them.
“I keep telling you I’m fine!” Bella snapped, admittedly sounding much more angry than she meant to. She did her best to soften her voice as she repeated, “I’m fine. I don’t need rest, I need action.”
Tanya and Rosalie both glared at her in response, clearly ready to call her out on her bullshit.
“You need rest,” Tanya said firmly as she reached up to stroke the bags under Bella’s eyes, only for Bella to shy away from her touch as she looked away in shame. Again, appearing like she didn’t deserve to have any comfort.
Rosalie grabbed Bella lightly by the throat, causing Bella’s lip to lift in a snarl. “Stop trying to punish yourself already! We’re your mates, you buffoon, and–”
The moment Rebecca started to wake, Bella sensed it. There was a sharp tug on the bond that held her to Rebecca as if trying to separate Rebecca from the alpha, from the pack, that caused Bella’s gaze snap in the direction of where Rebecca had been changing . It made Bella both furious and afraid, but most of all, it made her urgent. What if changing her into a vampire meant that Bella really was losing Rebecca forever?
“Good, that means at least one will be lucky enough to get away from you,” the woman’s voice hissed in her ear, but for once it wasn’t Bella’s main concern.
“Bella? We’re talking to you,” Rosalie hissed, slapping Bella in the shoulder with a black eyed glare. “Or are you just going to keep ignoring us for caring about your well being?”
“You need to sleep,” Tanya said firmly, her gaze also black. Neither of them had hunted since Rebecca had been attacked, too afraid to leave Bella’s side. They could sense their mate unraveling, driving herself to something well beyond exhaustion. “This isn’t healthy. As–”
“Rebecca,” Bella snarled. In her mind, she gripped the bond tightly, refusing to allow Rebecca to separate from the pack, whether she realized what was happening or not. “The hell is going on?”
Rosalie let out a frustrated hiss at not having Bella’s attention, but Tanya softened. “It’s about time for her to wake up, isn’t it? Go to her–we’ll make you sleep after.”
Bella nodded, unaware of the threatening promise Tanya had slipped in there before taking off toward the pack house while still in human form. She was fast, but was still able to catch both the sight of Rachel struggling against Leah as Leah carried her far away from the pack house, as well as her yelling.
“--I know I shouldn’t be there, but she’s my sister! I should at least be able to stay close, you damned gorgeous pain in–”
That was all Bella could hear Rachel say before she was far enough along that Rachel and Leah had disappeared in the distance. After all, right now she had something more important to deal with than subduing a hellcat Rachel; she had to make sure Rebecca didn’t leave the pack. Didn’t leave Bella’s protection. If it was something she really wanted, then Bella of course would allow it. Yet Bella didn’t think it was. Something just didn’t feel right about the situation. It was as if the pack link was trying to cut Rebecca off from the moment the change finished…and in the process, it seemed to be trying to cut Paul off too.
Paul would never willingly leave the pack. Not even now.
Bella burst into the pack house and moved right to Rebecca’s side. Paul stood to meet Bella, both wary but also clearly struggling with something. Something beyond his imprint becoming a vampire.
Bella put one hand on Paul’s shoulder, shoving Carlisle aside just as Rebecca’s eyes snapped open and she surged to her feet with a furious, feral hiss.
The alpha had Rebecca by the throat and slammed her back against the bed so hard it cracked, glaring into her eyes. Paul snarled, but sensing there was more at play and that his imprint wasn’t hurt, let Bella continue.
“You’re mine, both of you!” Bella growled. “You’re not leaving the pack. Not unless you actually want to.” She could freely see the bonds now that she was in person, and she gripped them tightly, pulling them back toward her. It made the rest of the pack link shake and strain, as if the very magic that bound them together was trying to reject the idea of a vampire and a vampire’s mate, shifter or no, being accepted into the pack.
Not that it mattered to Bella. This wasn’t a vampire and her mate–it was Paul and Rebecca. And it would be pretty stupid for the pack bond not to accept them when it accepted Bella with her two vampire mates, especially with Bella being the alpha.
Except unlike Bella, Rachel and Paul had solidified the bond. Would the magic of the shifter react similarly and try to break Bella away if she ever tried to do the same?
Again, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Bella wanted them to stay in the pack, and that’s exactly what was going to happen.
“Bella? What are you–” Paul said, wincing with a low growl as Bella’s fingers dug into his shoulder.
“I believe it is best that you don’t agitate–” Carlisle started to say, trying to calm things down as best as he could and not rile up the newborn. Yet Bella wasn’t taking any of his advice, and seemed to become even more furious simply because he gave it.
“Shut up, you know nothing!” Bella snarled, her glowing gold eyes snapping to Carlisle’s momentarily. It was enough for the bonds to almost slip from her grasp, and with a roar full of power and magic, Bella’s fingers dug into Paul’s shoulder and the struggling newborn’s neck hard enough to cause Paul to bleed and Rebecca’s skin to crack.
“Bella!” Carlisle said in alarm, echoed by Tanya and Rosalie as they appeared in the doorway of the room. Rosalie moved as if to stop Bella from whatever she was doing, or perhaps simply try to calm her down in some way, but Tanya held her back. She could tell something more was going on, and if they interfered, there was no telling what could happen.
In her head, Bella grabbed the bonds and yanked them toward her once more, tying them to her fully. But it wasn’t enough. Simply attaching the bond more firmly to her wasn’t enough. The magic still tried to shrink away, as if to weaken the two, separate them from the rest of the pack as much as possible.
No. Once again, Bella felt that strange cold rise up in her, and she grabbed it.
“Don’t you dare!” the woman’s voice in her head howled furiously. “Don’t you dare touch that! It isn’t for you, you filthy whore!”
Bella could feel the cold in her pulse, reacting to the voice’s anger, but it was still firmly in her control. No matter what the hateful voice said, Bella felt like the cold was a part of her. Not just that, but it was hers and no one else’s, regardless of what the voice claimed.
Somehow knowing just what to do, Bella fed the cold into the bond of Paul and Rebecca, using the magic to strengthen the bond, to force the pack magic to accept it. They belong with the pack, Bella thought furiously as she fed more and more of the cold magic into the bond. They’re mine. My friends, my pack… mine. No magic is going to try and tell me otherwise, and that’s final. With a last growl and a push, Bella sealed the magic inside not just the bond, but Rebecca and Paul themselves, much to the voice’s fury. As she screamed something about Bella tainting and destroying everything, Paul and Rebecca screamed too. Whatever Bella had done was causing them extreme pain, to the point Bella almost felt guilty. Yet at the same time, she was proud. Strong. Relieved. Because now, she knew they were part of her pack unless they in particular chose otherwise. No one else, not an Elder or even some stupid pack magic, could take their choice away from them.
When Bella removed her hands from the two, she found there was no wound on either of them despite how hard and deep Bella’s fingers had sunk. Instead, on top of the flawless skin, were tattoos. Paul’s on his shoulder, Rebecca’s on her neck.
“Ah, fuck. Might’ve done something I wasn’t supposed to again,” Bella muttered as the two stopped screaming and collapsed. Paul was one thing, as he had pushed himself above and beyond for Rebecca’s sake. The exhaustion that flooded through him would only make sense after the ordeal, especially after what Bella had done. Yet Rebecca collapsed back on the bed with a similar feeling of exhaustion despite vampires supposedly no longer being able to feel such a thing. She gasped for air she didn’t need, her entire body shuddering as it got used to yet another new set of changes.
Strangely enough, despite the extra pain that had been temporarily caused by Bella, Rebecca’s mind felt clear. Not just clear, but even weirdly focused. For those first two seconds that she had been awake before Bella had grabbed her, she had been all over the place. There was a powerful panic and anger driving her, her instincts driving her to attack anything that could be a threat, to fuck her mate, and to drink. The burn in her throat had been enough to nearly drive her to attack Bella, despite how unappetizing she had smelled.
Not anymore. The need to claim her mate was there, as was the burn, but she didn’t feel out of control. She still felt like her and that came as a huge relief. Her head turned to the side, eyes meeting Bella’s as she gave the alpha a lazy smile, noticing how Rosalie and Tanya were subtly supporting her mate from behind in a way her human eyes would have never picked up on. While the alpha appeared more gorgeous than ever before to her enhanced eyes, it was also easy for her to pick up on all of the signs of exhaustion. Bella had never looked so run down before in her life, to the point Rebecca almost felt guilty.
“Give a girl some warning next time,” she tried to joke, only to be startled by the sound of her voice.
“No,” Bella said with a smirk in reply, even as her body sagged with a mix of relief and exhaustion.
Rebecca’s smile turned into more of a smirk, but her gaze moved past Bella and to the man still panting from exertion next to her bed. One hand gripped the mattress as he struggled to hold himself up, and Rebecca covered that hand with her own.
“Paul,” she said softly. The boy’s head lifted, eyes meeting hers, and it was as if Rebecca were being electrocuted in the most delightful of ways. Mine, both Rebecca and her beast purred in delight. “My mate,” Rebecca breathed with a sense of awe. From the moment she had met Paul again, the love between them had blossomed quickly. Yet what she felt before paled in comparison to what she felt now.
Scratching the back of his neck, Paul blushed. “If that’s what you want to call me…” he said awkwardly, trying to hide how flustered Rebecca’s gaze had made him. He quickly made eye contact again, not wanting to look away from her face for even a moment. “I almost lost you, Beccs. I was so afraid you…”
Bella looked away, giving them a moment of privacy as she leaned heavily against the hands of Tanya and Rosalie. Whatever she had done definitely took her remaining strength out of her.
“Sorry about that,” she muttered to them. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I just–”
“Don’t be,” Tanya said at the same moment Rosalie said, “Grovel.” Rosalie’s response had both Tanya and Bella looking over at her, Tanya with amusement and Bella with incredulity, and it made Rosalie frown. “What? It’s the least she could do.”
“You wish, blondie,” Bella said with a snort, which was in part what Rosalie was going for. Seeing Bella crack a smile for the first time in what felt like much too long made all of the chaos and struggling worth it.
“Now…it’s about time to leave Rebecca to Carlisle and the rest. They’ll take care of her and Paul.” Bella opened her mouth to argue with Tanya, her alpha instincts telling her that it was the brunette’s job to take care of her own, but Tanya stopped her with a look. “It’s about time you finally got some rest.”
“You wish, blondie,” Bella repeated. Now that Rebecca was going to be okay, Bella had plans to go back to looking for the bastard that attacked her as well as Victoria.
The darkening of Tanya’s eyes was the first sign that Bella had messed up. “Oh no Bella, you don’t have a choice in the matter. You’re sleeping,” she all but ordered as she gripped Bella’s bicep.
“Even if we have to make you,” Rosalie said with a smug glee as she grabbed the alpha’s free hand.
“Like hell I–” was all Bella managed to say before the pulled her out of the room, ignoring the way Bella cursed and told them to let go. Even struggling did her no good–between her run down state and the strength of the two vampires, there was no way Bella could escape them. She was completely at their mercy.
Together, the two easily dragged the Alpha into a nearby bedroom.
“You two–” Bella started to snarl as the door was closed behind her by Rosalie, only to be promptly tossed on the bed by Tanya.
“Are doing what’s best for you,” Rosalie finished with a huff.
The coven leader smirked before adding, “By any means necessary.”
Then, without any further warning, they both started to strip.