She's Mine Chapter 2

They were as alone as they were going to get while still be surrounded by vampires. Bella really didn’t care if anyone heard what she had to say or not. It seemed the younger women wanted the illusion of privacy; but Bella didn’t understand why they wanted an illusion when everyone present would be able to hear what they said. Did it truly matter if they heard? Would they actually continue to pretend they didn’t hear anything? Bella truly didn’t understand the thinking these younger supernatural’s had; she often teased Sulpicia about the same thing.

“So, we’re sisters?” Kate asked with a tilt of her head, looking towards her mate. They shared a sibling bond with Irina, but it didn’t feel the same. It felt very similar but definitely not the same. Even though Tanya wasn’t much older, she still had more time to learn from their mother, perhaps she had revealed something to Tanya Kate wasn’t aware of.

“No.” Bella answered in amusement. She could tell they were trying to figure out what exactly what was going on. Truthfully, Bella didn’t know exactly either. But she was confident they weren’t siblings. She felt protective of them but more in the sense of obligation. With Sulpicia, she knew with every fiber of her being she would do anything for the annoying blonde woman because she wanted to, not out of obligation. With these two, she felt as if something happened to these two women, she would be able to walk away unharmed whereas with Sulpicia, she would seek revenge. They were not sisters.

“Then what are we?” Kate asked, Tanya deciding to wait to see if Bella knew anything. Kate may be looking towards her for answers, but the only answer she could give, she didn’t want to. She was afraid this woman had something to do with their wayward sister, someone they were currently terrified had signed her death warrant. Tanya didn’t want to think about her sister she was sure she was going to be mourning soon.

“I don’t know.” Bella answered, “But I know we’re not sisters.” Her species was a solitary species, to have one sibling bond was unheard of her for her species. She knew without a doubt there wouldn’t be another sibling bond. Her species simply wasn’t built like that. “Perhaps there’s someone else in your coven I’m meant to meet?” Bella asked. It would make sense.

With Sulpicia, Bella didn’t feel a bond with Aro but she knew, for Sulpicia, Bella would protect Aro if she could. It would make sense if there was someone else in their coven, someone she hadn’t met yet, that may turn out to be her mate. Bella had long since given up on finding her mate. She had gone so long without one, she had begun to believe many centuries ago that she simply didn’t have one. She had seen it before with shifters that were more lone creatures than pack creatures. Pack creatures, like wolves, coyotes and similar tended to always have a mate. But species like her, well, it didn’t always happen.

“There is Irina but, we’re afraid you may never meet her.” Tanya admitted with a frown, unsure how much to tell this stranger. A part of her wanted to tell Bella everything. She could feel how old this woman was, she was strong. Much older and stronger than she and her sisters were. She was even willing to bet Bella was older than the Volturi just based off how much her instincts were telling her not to piss this woman off.

“Is she not here?” Bella asked, feeling a sense of dread creep over her. She was worried about a woman she had never met before. She had to mentally shake off the worry; it was silly to be worried about a stranger. Bella was only here to help protect the child; which she would easily be able to do once Sulpicia and Aro saw her on this side. She wasn’t there to make friends with people she likely wouldn’t ever see again.

Kate and Tanya shared a look, wondering if they would be able to explain what happened without painting their sister in a bad light. They knew it wasn’t necessarily Irina wishing ill will against Edward and his mate and child, it was just Irina had a bad habit of acting before thinking things through.

“She’s the one that saw the child and reported her as an immortal child.” Kate said with a frown, worried about what would happen to her sister because of Irina’s hasty actions.

Bella scrunched her face as she thought about what this missing coven member had done. She was more than familiar with how paranoid Aro was in keeping face. She had no doubt once Aro was shown it was a false report, he was likely to kill Irina just to prove a point. Bella had fought with Aro about this type of control issues repeatedly; afraid that if he kept it up, vampires would eventually want to overthrow his reign like the Volturi had done with the Romanians. It would be Sulpicia’s life would be in danger and she didn’t like this. Perhaps now was the time for Bella to who Aro exactly why she’s been able to survive for so long when everyone else from her time had long since died.

“I won’t let anything happen to her.” Bella promised, barely hiding her own surprise at her words. She hadn’t expect to make that promise but she knew she would die before she broke that promise. She had never promised to keep someone safe since she lost her friends and family from when she was first turned. She couldn’t keep them safe and they were all she knew, so why would she try to protect strangers? For some reason, this stranger she hadn’t even met, she had to keep her safe.

“What makes you think you can?” Kate asked with a scoff. She was very much aware of the power the Volturi held and she found it highly unlikely this woman, definitely a shifter of some sort, could protect anyone from the likes of the Volturi. This woman may be older than her coven but age couldn’t beat numbers and gifts.

Bella smiled, “I have an advantage.” Bella hadn’t even told Carlisle of her connection with Sulpicia. She had no doubt he knew there was something with her and the Volturi but he didn’t know of her bond. She decided it would be best to keep that to herself; it didn’t take a genius to know there had to be several vampires present that weren’t fans of the Volturi and likely wouldn’t take her connection very well. “They have never fought against my kind before; they won’t know what to do.” Bella said with a smile, remembering a very pissed off Caius and Athenodora when they couldn’t land a hit on her.

“How old are you?” Tanya asked with a frown. How long could a supernatural stay alive? If the Volturi hadn’t fought against her kind then she had to be older than they were and that was both good and bad. Good because it meant Bella had strength, bad because there was normally a very good reason lone vampires didn’t stay alone for so long: one could go insane if alone for too long, it was only a matter of time. Was Bella more of a ticking time bomb than an ace in their pocket?

“I’m not sure.” Bella admitted. When she was human and even for a while after she had turned, no one had really kept track of time; there were bigger priorities.

“What are you?” Kate finally asked, the ears of everyone listening perking up to hear the answer.

Carlisle had been tight lipped. He knew what Bella was only because he had seen the woman easily take down a Lycan and had asked questions; lots of questions. But he never shared what he learned with others. Bella didn’t want others to know if she hadn’t met them herself. It had taken her a millennia or two to realize what she was, didn’t exist any longer. She was hunted by humans in her shifter form much too often for her comfort, so she did her best to limit the number of people who knew what she was. There were a lot of people there she didn’t particularly want to know about her but she also didn’t see the harm in them knowing as well. She felt as if these two women would help in keeping her safe, even if her shifted form became hunted again.

“I’m a panthera atrox.” Bella said with a proud smile, “The American lion.” The second name always amused her as she didn’t understand why humans had made that connection but if that was what humans wanted to call her, they were more than free to.

“You’re a lion?” Kate asked with a weird look. Weren’t lions from Africa? Were those older shifters? Weren’t lions a relatively young species?

“Read a book Kate.” Tanya said with a fond roll of her eyes; of course her warrior mate wouldn’t know what Bella was. If Kate hadn’t seen one in her life, which Tanya knew she hadn’t, Kate wouldn’t have any interest in it. She wasn’t one for reading or even watching documentaries; but she could sure kick anyone’s ass in martial arts or video games. “I didn’t know there were shifters of that breed.” Tanya said, ignoring how bad calling Bella a ‘breed’ sounded.

“There used to be a lot of us.” Bella said with a sad smile. “I’m pretty sure the last of my kind died just a few centuries after I last saw natural panthera atrox.” The last she had seen of her kind was someone who had lost their mate and was only following the last of the blood line from their family. Apparently, the shifter gene didn’t get passed to every generation and the other lone panthera atrox only waited a couple generations before giving up. “I haven’t seen any long before Europe invaded this land.”

“Can I see what you look like?” Kate asked, only picturing modern day lion and if they woman was as old as she was illuding to, she wanted to see she looked like.

“No.” Bella asked in a tired voice. Her sister’s mate always asks to see what she looks like. Thankfully, Bella’s mental shield works on Sulpicia no matter how far the two are from each other and seems to block everything to do with Bella from Aro being able to see in Sulpicia’s mind. Bella wasn’t sure how it worked and honestly, she didn’t care. She was beyond amused that no matter what tricks Aro tried to use, he couldn’t see what she looked; it was something she always teased the Volturi leader about.

“She’s under no obligation to show us.” Tanya said before Kate could try her luck at persuading Bella to shift. She could easily see Kate bugging the hell out of Bella to get what she wanted and then having the shifter become annoyed with them. Tanya wanted to prevent Kate annoying Bella for as long as possible. She truly believed this woman would be able to help keep Irina safe; no matter how improbably it seemed. And until Irina was safe, she wanted to make sure the three of them stayed on good terms. And that meant making sure Kate at least waited until after the Volturi left before annoying the hell out of Bella. “Do you know what you are doing here?” Tanya asked, completely changing the topic to derail Kate’s questioning even further.

“Yes,” Bella answered, amused at what the obvious coven leader was doing. “Carlisle asked if I would help and since I had nothing pressing to do, I figured I could be a witness for him.”

“Will you fight to protect Irina then?” Kate asked, making Tanya internally groan at her mate’s lack of tact. At least Tanya would get the answer she was looking for sooner rather than later. “Whenever the Volturi are involved, someone always dies. They never make an appearance and not make an example of someone.” Kate said with a hiss, thinking about what had happened to her maker, to her mother and what will likely happen to her sister.

“I won’t need to fight, I know they won’t hurt Irina or anyone else.” Bella said. Bella was very much aware that while Aro, Marcus and Caius were known to be the leaders of the Volturi, what no one actually knew, unless they were part of the elite guard, their mates held more power than they did. Sulpicia, Athenodora and Didyme, who never left her private wing due to injuries sustained from a Lycan attack, made most of the decisions for the Volturi. Bella knew they had only left their castle to come here instead of sending guards to investigate because Sulpicia knew Bella would be in the area. Nothing else. She also knew because of Sulpicia, the Volturi won’t harm Irina in any way as soon as Bella asked. This fight they were so sure was going to happen was already over before they were even on the field.

“Apparently you haven’t met the Volturi.” Kate said with a sneer. The woman, as much as Kate wanted to believe her, was pissing Kate off. Bella sounded so confident that everything was going to be okay and quite frankly, Kate didn’t believe a word of it. She had seen the horrors of what the Volturi were capable of, she had first had knowledge of how willing they were to kill.

Bella only smiled in response. She knew they wouldn’t understand or even believe her, until they saw for themselves, until they had Irina safe with them, that Bella was fully capable of protecting Irina. No matter what Bella said, they wouldn’t believe it. And that was okay. Tomorrow, they would believe her.