Believe Me Chapter 25

Time went on, at an excruciatingly slow pace, Bella was never more thankful school was a thing. It helped make time move so much faster. After healing completely, Charlie had made her promise to be more careful walking in the woods. Bella never figured out what story was spun about her injury but since she already felt so guilty about plotting to leave him, she was perfectly willing to agree to anything he wanted.

School was another struggle she had. She would have been perfectly fine no longer going to school and spending all her time with Victoria but that was definitely something her dad wouldn’t allow; no matter how much glamour her vampire would use on him. Bella, since there weren’t any threats around every corner with James and his army gone, wanted to spend as much time with her fiery vampire as much as she could. It was almost like she was addicted to her presence. Not in a way that was like an addict needed their next fix, it was more like when she was around Victoria, she felt so happy, so calm, so treasured and all around just complete. Who wouldn’t want to be around that all the time?

Turns out both she and Victoria really did.

Victoria seemed to be struggling as much as Bella did with being apart. Whenever Bella was at school and was near a window, the human was sure if she was able to see far enough, sometimes she could if she squinted, she would see red hair in the forest. Bella was sure if Victoria could stand to be around human teenagers long enough to not strangle one, Victoria may have opted to go to school to be closer to her.

Victoria had lamented nearly every night that she didn’t want to have to say goodbye to Bella, even if just for a little while. Victoria wanted to have complete access to her mate and while her mate attended school and slept half the day away, she didn’t have that. But they were all forced to wait until the storms started in order for Bella’s death to finally happen. Then Victoria would whisk her mate away to Alaska to where her mothers were and change her. The Denali’s had already moved back to their territory and without them as a distraction, Victoria felt like she was going mad while waiting for Bella to get home and then for her to do her homework and then for her to hang out with her father and his friends. Victoria wanted more time, she wanted more of her mate’s attention, she just wanted more of Bella. She really wanted all of Bella.

The Denali’s had already left, much to the aggravation of the sisters. While the sisters would have preferred to stay and prepare everything, they needed to make their home ‘newborn proof’ as they hadn’t had a newborn in the home for a few centuries. They would return for the accident but in the mean time, Victoria was left to be alone to suffer while waiting for her mate.

She couldn’t wait until she would be able to have her mate all to herself and once her mate was turned, Victoria wouldn’t need to be careful any longer. She could wait to do everything to her mate she wanted to without fear of hurting her. Victoria was very much looking forward to having a much better sex life than all the teasing she was forced to endure while her mate was still human.

It was during summer vacation that Bella finally had time to learn what was going to happen between Leah and Esme. She had invited herself over, with Sue’s permission of course, to Leah’s house to learn what was going to happen.

“Come on Leah!” Bella said from the other side of the locked bedroom door. She had been pounding on the door for a while now, the wolf shouting at her to go away. “I just want to know.” Bella knew Leah struggled with being social but Bella was willing to bet she needed to talk with someone just as much as Bella would have wanted to be able to talk to someone when she struggled.

The swung open, narrowly avoiding hitting Bella, “What the hell, Swan?” Leah said with a growl, “I was trying to sleep.”

Bella forced her way in, for just a second thankful Leah actually let her do so, and briefly looked around to see if Esme was there. She couldn’t very well have a girl to girl talk with the girlfriend in there. Especially if that talk was about said woman.

“She left to hunt.” Leah said as she closed the door and moved to plop down on her bed. In all honesty, she was waiting for this talk. Her brother had already tried many times to talk to her about the council’s decision. But she didn’t feel right talking to him about it. Bella was the next best thing since there was no way even her mom could understand.

“Oh, okay. Good.” Bella said as she sat down on the desk chair, “So, what did they decide?”

Bella knew the council and Sam had argued ever since the battle was over about what to do with the new imprint as they had never seen one with a vampire before. Apparently Esme wouldn’t get the blanket protection all other imprints received. Bella knew Leah had been worried about what the council would say about and what would happen to her.

Leah stared at her ceiling, glaring at it and it made Bella nervous. She didn’t have good news.

“They couldn’t ignore the fact that she’s a vampire.” Bella had to hide a smirk at hearing Leah drop the leech moniker and refer to her imprint respectfully.

“What did Sam say?” Bella thought Sam had final say as the Alpha. Couldn’t he override anything the council decided.

“He argued that since Esme is an imprint, she should get the same privileges.” Leah said, turning her head towards Bella. “That’s why it took so long. Sam, my parents and a couple other elders fought for us, but the council wanted nothing to do with a vampire, golden eye or not. In the end, they won’t allow Esme on the reservation.”

Bella’s mouth gaped in shock. “What does that mean for you?”

From what Bella understood, a wolf couldn’t be without their imprint. Jacob had explained imprints were everything to the wolves, the most important things.

Leah looked at her with the saddest eyes Bella ever thought she would see from the normally strong wolf. “They’re giving me a month to leave.” Leah said with a humorless laugh, “They said they won’t kick me out of the tribe, but with Esme not allowed on our land, and Esme can only stay in Forks for so long before people catch on she isn’t human. She’ll need to leave soon and I can’t stay here without her.”

“So, you’re going to leave?” Bella asked, upset for her friend. Leah was in a really hard place. “I thought as a wolf, you needed a pack?” Weren’t dogs, wolves included, pack animals?

“I guess we’ll find out.” Leah said with a defeated sigh.

Bella spent another hour talking with Leah about how Esme was planning on taking her someplace where it would just be the two of them. Apparently, the former Cullen matriarch had access to people that could procure Leah some ID’s and passports and whatnot to be able to get her to cross borders without issue. Leah tried to sound like she was looking forward to getting to spend time alone with her imprint but Bella could tell Leah was hurting. Leah was going to go through a lot of pain without her pack.

Bella only left once Esme had returned. Something told Bella that since Leah would be very much alone very soon, the she wolf shouldn’t be left alone.

As soon as Bella got home, after greeting her dad, before even greeting her vampire, she grabbed her phone and called the only people she thought could help. That she felt she needed to turn to for help. She couldn’t go to Charlie because he didn’t know about wolves and vampires, but the Denali’s, they would know. They could help. Somehow, she was sure they could help her.

Before either of the women who answered the phone, Bella spoke. “I need your help. I don’t know what to do.”

Victoria placed her hand on her mate’s back in a show of support. She had to hide a smirk as she thought about the mild heart attacks hearing those words from their daughter might have called.