Ban Together Chapter 27

It had taken a lot of convincing, a lot of pleading and a lot of pouting for Bella to finally get what she wanted. There were a lot of objections, a lot of growling and finally reluctance. All Bella wanted was to talk with her friends without a horde of vampires standing there that were likely ready to attack if one of the wolves moved at just the wrong speed. After what happened with Victoria, all the vampires were on high alert and seemed ready to attack if a fly flew too close to anyone. Bella knew her friends still struggled with their anger and she didn’t want the vampires to say something stupide because their beasts were on high alert and anger the wolves and then they all get in a pissing match to out anger the other.

Bella only got them to agree for her to talk with her friends alone if she had at the very least Jane with her. When Bella and Jane got to the room, some sort of strategically placed room that allowed all the vampires that wanted to, to be able to get to her quickly, Bella made sure Jane was positioned in the opposite corner of her. Bella figured if Jane was too close to her, she would probably start growling and glaring at her friends for even just needed to breath in her direction. If there had been time, Bella would have wanted her vampire family to go hunt and try to calm down before meeting her friends, but the timing was all wrong. Bella figured if Jane was in the opposite corner of her, she could keep Bella within her sights but her friends wouldn’t be able to see her glares; they would definitely feel it but it had to be better than seeing, right?

“They are on their way.” Jane said from her corner and if Bella didn’t know better, she would have accused the blonde of pouting at having been put in the corner. But the blonde was pouting and if she could get away with it, she wanted to ask one of the queens to get her a camera so she could have proof of when Jane did something no one would believe her about. If there was one thing she had learned from being around Kate, it was to always have proof or it didn’t happen.

“Thank you, Jane.” Bella said with a soft smile aimed towards Jane, hoping it would soften her a little. Jane’s face did soften just a smidge, she still looked like a teenager angry with the world and about to go on a killing spree, but baby steps.

Jane only nodded to her and then turned her focus on the opposite door from her. Jane and the queens only wanted her in a room with two doors in case Jane or someone else had to get her out of the room quickly. Bella thought it was stupid for them to plan for her to escape her friends, but she was willing to go with it since she knew it wouldn’t be necessary and it would get her to see her friends.

It only took a few minutes before Heidi opened the door and allowed her wolf friends to walk in. Jacob, Leah, Seth and Paul walked in. Bella was on her feed in seconds and hugging the closest wolf to her, which happened to be Leah who wasn’t all to okay with physical contact, but she would allow it if pushed.

“I missed you guys.” Bella said with tears in her eyes. Since Kate had kidnapped her, which she would never let the blonde forget, she had wanted to get in touch with her friends. She knew she couldn’t go home, after everything that had happened she doubted her vampire family would let her go so easily. But with her friends there, knowing what she was in the middle of, she didn’t feel as homesick.

“We missed you too.” Leah said as she tightly hugged her friend that they had all thought was dead. “We thought we’d never see you again when we found out it was a vampire that took you.”

“You know Charlie’s planning your funeral?” Paul said with a growl, his main focus on the vampire in the corner of the room that looked like she wanted to kill all of them.

He hadn’t meant to be harsh, Bella knew that. Paul was just very blunt and whatever he was thinking just came out of his mouth with zero filter; it was why he tended to have a lot of trouble with the pack. Hearing Charlie was planning her funeral, hit her deep. She always thought she would be able to say goodbye or to at least see him one last time. Even with all the problems happening with the Cullen’s and Victoria, she had thought she would still see her dad one last time.

Bella focused as hard as she could to not cry, she knew the second a tear fell, Jane would alert the other vampires and they were likely to storm into the room. She would allow herself to fully digest what it meant for Charlie to be planning her funeral later, when she didn’t have to play mediator between supernatural enemies.

“I’m sorry Bella.” Paul said with a frown, realizing how harsh his words would have sounded. “I just thought it was something you should know about.”

Bella pulled away from Leah, suddenly not in the mood for hugs. Well, she wouldn’t turn away a hug from Jane at that moment, but she knew if she asked Jane for a hug at that moment, she would probably start crying at being forced to say goodbye to Charlie so soon. How long had he even tried to look for her? She didn’t think she had been gone for that long.

“I know, I appreciate it.” Bella said after taking a deep breath. She had to gather herself and keep calm, otherwise Jane would do something she didn’t want to happen quite yet. A quick glance at the guard member told Bella the blonde was already suspicious of her. The narrowed eyes pointed in her direction let her know she wasn’t fooling Jane for one second. It was a thin line she was walking.

“Did you even try to call him?” Jacob asked with a harsh tone, a tone Bella thought was entirely reasonable with how she had neglected her own father, the same father that had tried so hard to be there for her. The small growl from Jane’s direction also meant the lone vampire didn’t like the tone either but the wolves thankfully ignored it.

With a sigh, Bella backed up to collapse onto the couch, thankfully Seth quickly followed suit and sat right next to her.

“We don’t mean to be harsh, but since Charlie didn’t hear from you and we couldn’t find any trace of you that wasn’t supernatural, Charlie was kind of forced to say you were missing and likely dead.” Seth softly explained with a frown. It had been hard for the pack to know what happened to Bella but not be able to say anything and especially to not be able to do anything. They had tried to come up with something to tell Charlie and explain she was in Italy, but no matter what they come up with, he would want to see her not just hear from her. They knew he wouldn’t be able to safely go to Italy and expect to go home alive.

“I know.” Bella said with a frown and misty eyes. Charlie didn’t deserve any of what she had done to him.

With a deep breath, she told them everything that had happened to her since she had driven to the Cullen house to say her final goodbyes on that chapter of her life. She explained meeting the Denali’s in the house and how they had taken her to Alaska. From there she explained Victoria’s interference and what all had happened since she had been in Italy. It was a lot to go over in such a short amount of time. It was like her life was a non-stop action film and there had barely any time for her to sleep much less call someone.

As she explained everything in as much detail as she could, she finally realized just how much she had gone through in such a short time; and then she thought about all she had been through with the Cullen’s. In just a few years, she had been introduced to the supernatural, hunted by the supernatural, abandoned by the family that had enthralled her to them, kidnapped by her mate, attacked by a newborn army as she fled to safety, adopted new parents and found a new sadistic mate. She couldn’t even remember if she listed everything off or if something was left out? She hadn’t even touched her wolfish friends.

By the time she was done explaining everything, her wolves were a lot more relaxed as they realized the vampires in Italy and the ones that took her there, were not bad and only wanted to protect Bella. Even Jane had loosened her glare to just a passive look, which greatly helped the wolves calm down as well since they didn’t feel like they were about to be attacked.

They explained what they had been up to, what training they had been doing as they figured out how to get her back. Bella couldn’t stop the tears when she heard the pack was planning on all going over, one way or another, to get her back. It was only when she called and invited them over did they decide who to let go. For barely even an hour as the pack talked about different stories of one pack mate doing something silly or failing to do something simple and they all laughed about it, Bella for a sense of normalcy return. It was a fleeting moment but it was such a desired moment that when the door opened with Heidi saying their dinner was ready, Bella was sad their bubble of happiness had been popped.

Bella knew they were going to have a much heavier talk with everyone else after they ate, but at least she had familiar faces with her. A part of her life was starting to feel normal and with her friends there, she actually felt just a little more confident of the fight that was coming their way. It would have been nice to have the whole pack there but she understood they couldn’t abandon their people for just one person that wasn’t even a part of the tribe; she was just thankful they came at all. She knew after dinner was going to take a very strong toll on her emotions and she already couldn’t wait for it to be over.