Believe Me Chapter 28

Bella stayed curled around Tanya for longer than she was willing to admit. Long enough for Tanya to carry Bella to the lone bed in the room and then to cuddle with her. Bella cried long and hard, harder than she thought she would over the loss of her human life. While Bella did technically tell her dad goodbye, and she did everything she could to bond and make the last moments she knew she would have with Charlie count. She felt like she had cheated Charlie and was the worst daughter in history for building good memories with him knowing she was going to ‘die’.

Tanya kept her arms tightly wrapped around her grieving daughter, keeping her full attention on Bella. She had only spared one glance of thanks towards the redhead that stood near the door awaiting the food for calling on her. The Denali’s had known Bella would struggle with this and while they wanted to all be there, they felt it was safer to remain in Alaska. But when Tanya received Victoria’s text, there was only one option for her: to run to her daughter. She wasn’t happy about why her daughter needed her, but she was thankful she was able to help.

Nearly an hour after Bella and Tanya collapsed into bed, Bella was finally able to calm her tears and pull away from Tanya with an embarrassed smile.

“Thank you.” She mumbled as she awkwardly crawled out of bed with a blush on her face. Just because she felt really comfortable around the woman didn’t mean she was used to being so clingy to someone she really hadn’t known for so long.

“Of course, that’s what I’m here for.” Tanya said with a smirk, more amused at Bella’s shyness than she probably should have been. It was probably a good thing she had come instead of Kate who would have teased the hell out of their daughter. “Why don’t you go get washed up and then you can have breakfast.” Tanya said with a smile as she gestured towards where Victoria had laid out all the food that was ordered.

“We can talk about what we’re going to do next while you eat.” Victoria said as she studied her mate for any lasting affects on her mate. She could tell her mate was still grieving and would likely cry again in the near future but Victoria would be ready and Bella would be surrounded by her coven. She wouldn’t be alone in her grief. She had a real family now and Victoria would make sure that never changed.

“Okay,” Bella said with a shy smile. For the briefest of moments, she thought about asking if Victoria would join her in washing up, if just to be closer to the redhead as the woman was standing on the other side of the room. But with Tanya there, Bella didn’t want to say or do anything that she could be teased about by the sisters.

“Irina and Carmen are finishing setting up a room for both you and Victoria.” Tanya explained as Bella started to eat. Truthfully, Kate had wanted to help as well but the idea’s Kate was coming up with were a bit… concerning. Tanya, Irina and Carmen were originally okay with Kate helping set up her own daughter’s room but when Kate seemed to zero in on doing anything she could to embarrass the young adult, Tanya and Irina had to put their foot down. They finally told Kate to butt out when the mischievous blonde started to look into putting chains at the head of the bed with handcuffs next to it. “We wanted to make sure you two have your own space, so we’ve done everything possible to make it as sound proof as possible and as comfortable as possible.” That was what Irina and Tanya were struggling the most with, they didn’t know Bella as well as they wished to be able to decorate for her but they were doing their best with what limited knowledge they had.

“I’m sure I’ll like whatever you put together.” Bella said with a smile; truthfully, she wouldn’t care what they did for her since they were providing free room and board for her. As far as she was concerned, she would be okay with just plain white walls and perhaps a bookshelf or two for books she could hopefully rope them into buying for her.

Tanya gave her a smirk, “Well, I promise, no matter what you feel about it when you see, you are more than welcomed to change anything you want. We want that room to be yours and Victoria’s, so you two deserve to decorate it in anyway you two see fit. We won’t be offended if you decide to change everything.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Victoria said. She was concerned that the Denali’s would pick a lot of girly things with lots of pinks and rainbows when Victoria tended towards the dark colors and zero rainbows. She just hoped Bella preferred that as well because Victoria would be very disappointed if her mate ended up liking something ridiculously frilly because then Victoria would be forced to keep it that way. She was looking forward though to decorating their room together. “I’m sure Bella and I will make some changes.”

Bella only gave her redheaded vampire a smile as she ate. She honestly thought she would like whatever the Denali’s came up with and if Victoria wanted to make some changes, she knew the redhead would if just to prove the Denali’s didn’t know her as well as they thought they did to maintain her mysterious persona, she would agree with whatever the redhead wanted.

“I can’t wait to see it.” Bella said with a small smile. She was looking forward to starting her new life with the Denali’s, but she was still upset about what she had to leave behind in order to do it.

Noticing Bella’s soured mood, Tanya and Victoria both reached out to rub Bella’s back in comfort. Both women sent a brief sneer at the other, each of them wanting to provide the needed comfort instead of the other, but was smart enough not to say anything out loud since Bella definitely didn’t seem to mind receiving comfort from both of them.

“I think though,” Bella said after swallowing another bite, “I’m going to want to be changed sooner rather than later.”

She had thought a lot about it. Her entire life now included everyone that was a supernatural creature and would no longer age. She didn’t want to be left behind like Edward had wanted her to be. She wanted to be changed and not have to worry about the vampire royalty getting wind of a human hanging out with so many vampires and getting everyone in trouble. But Bella also wanted to finally completely fit in with the people around her. She didn’t want to have to rely on someone to protect her because she physically couldn’t do it. She wanted to be a vampire and to be able to confidently tell Victoria that she wanted the redhead for eternity.

“There is no rush.” Tanya quickly replied, afraid that after the loss her daughter just had that she may be jumping the gun out of grief. Bella was barely eighteen, the Denali’s were all in their late twenties and early thirties while Victoria was likely turned in her late twenties as well. There was plenty of time for Bella to be turned; Tanya was even sure the Volturi would allow it so that the mated pair could be of similar age so as to not stand out amongst humans. It would only take one phone call and a very detailed explanation for them to get the okay with keeping Bella human for just a few more years so her physical age would match better with everyone else. Tanya didn’t want Bella to decide to be changed so soon as an escape from her grief over losing Charlie.

“I know,” Bella softly answered, “But I want. I’ve wanted to for a while now and since I have Victoria, I just want to get it over with.” She explained, giving her redhead a smile.

“I was changed when I was twenty-six, I’ll have eight years on you.” Victoria answered, more than okay with changing Bella whenever she wanted to be but she wanted to make sure Bella wasn’t making a trigger decision because of losing her dad. “You’re stuck with whether you want me or not; if you want to wait a few years to be closer in age to the rest of us, that’s fine.” Victoria just wanted her mate to be completely happy and have no regrets when she was changed; there was no taking back her change into a vampire if Bella were to regret later on that she hadn’t waited longer.

“Why don’t we wait to talk more about it with the rest of our coven.” Tanya said before Bella could reply, “While we will respect any decision you make Bella, I believe it is only fair to get everyone’s opinion and help with planning since taking care of newborn will be the entire coven’s responsibility.” Tanya added and then kept talking when she saw her daughter start to glare at her, likely thinking that Tanya was going to somehow try to talk Bella out of her decision. “We won’t try to change your mind and will do whatever you decide to do. But this is a big decision and plans must be made and that means including the whole coven. They will speak their peace and then go with whatever you decide and from there, we will plan out exactly how to go about changing you and then protecting you and building up your tolerance to blood as a newborn.”

Bella opted not to respond to that, concerned that what happened with the Cullen’s may end up repeating itself. She knew Victoria would do everything she could to respect what she wanted, so at least she knew she had Victoria in her corner. And while Bella had turned to Tanya to help her with her grief over Charlie, Bella thought her being turned and what happened when they were all together would really tell how much she could trust the Denali’s to respect her. It would be almost like a test to see if the Denali’s truly were as different from the Cullen’s as they claimed to be.