My Strength Chapter 19

After a lot of useless arguments with Edward, it was decided the newly mated couples should have some time alone to figure out their new situations given that both Bella and Seth were both in difficult situations. Everyone, most everyone, felt it would be good for Bella to talk with both Zafrina and Victoria to not only Victoria’s full story on what happened with her and James. Given Seth’s recent trouble with his Pack and just the fact that he was technically a pack animal and mated with someone that lived on another continent away from his pack, he and Heidi had a lot to talk about as well. So while everyone else talked about what to do with the bigger pack that wanted a war, Zafrina, Victoria and Bella walked one way and Seth and Heidi went another so everyone could have privacy.

While Bella understood the need to talk about what their new development with Victoria, Bella was honestly just happy to be with them. She did really want to know what happened with James and what exactly Victoria’s role was in all of that since Victoria had to have known what her relationship with the human was. If Bella remembered correctly, she could have sworn that Victoria had been helping the whole time and that Edward had said that Victoria had distracted the Cullen’s from tracking James so the man could get to Bella in Arizona.

Zafrina had willingly carried Bella so that they were just within hearing distance of the others. They figured after the little scare they had with Victoria, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful and be able to hear everyone in case someone from the reservation decided to attack them faster than they had predicted. Zafrina had been okay with going along with Bella’s wishes in being okay with Victoria, but truthfully, the Amazon was very skeptical of the redhead. Zafrina had heard the story of what had happened and for the vampire to have such a fast change of heart was odd in Zafrina’s eyes. She couldn’t understand why someone would willing allow their coven mate to hunt and attack their mate. Zafrina was willing to show solidarity amongst the others but in private, or in as much privacy as everyone was willing to give, Zafrina wanted answers and until she was satisfied with the answers she would not let Victoria get too close to her human.

Zafrina kept her arm around her mate as they sat down on a fallen log that they were sure was sturdy enough to carry their weight and not fall apart. Zafrina knew her mate wanted answers as well, but she also knew her mate would be more likely to forgive Victoria regardless of what the redhead had done. Her mate was very forgiving that way given that she was ready to ignore what the Cullen’s had done and move past it so quickly. She would make sure that Victoria sufficiently answered all their questions and would no longer be a threat to her mate. Zafrina was more than willing to protect her mate from everything, including her mate herself and her mates’ other mate if necessary.

“You hunted Bella.” Zafrina said, immediately kicking off the interrogation of the redhead.

Victoria growled at the accusation. She had opted to stay standing while the other two had sat down because she knew she was going to have to answer a lot of questions and standing in front of them ensured that she was able to look at both of them while talking. But to be accused of something so horrible made Victoria instantly regret having this conversation with the Amazon. She should have known the recluse coven would be as blunt as she was.

“I would never hunt her as James had.” Victoria snarled, trying to reign in her anger.

“We know that Victoria.” Bella said right away, hoping to calm the redhead down before the two vampires pissed each other off enough to possibly start physically fighting. “That was just Zafrina’s way to start the conversation about what had happened.” Bella bluffed, the tight squeeze she felt from Zafrina meant that the warrior did not agree with Bella’s statement. Bella only snuggled into the embrace since she wasn’t about to take it back. Victoria seemed like she could have a bad temper and until Bella could figure out how bad that temper was, she just wanted to safely get her answers and then the two vampires could fight it out later.

“She should work on that then.” Victoria said in a gruff tone, clearly having calmed down but still upset at the other vampire. “For the record, I only ever tried to get James away from you.” Victoria said with a pleading look.

For the next hour or so, Victoria explained what had happened when James had zeroed in on Bella. Apparently, when the Cullen’s had whisked Bella away to Phoenix, Victoria and James both thought they would have sent her to the reservation where they had smelled all the shifters and knew how dangerous it would be for a vampire to be on the reservation with the bad smelling shifters.

Victoria explained that she had thought they had simply moved someplace else more populated in Washington, like Seattle, instead of all the way to Arizona. So when Victoria had sent Bella’s school information, she had hoped that she would be sending James to another state while she could catch up with the others and help by giving information about James to them. When she caught up with the Cullen’s, they had automatically assumed she was there to attack and wouldn’t listen to anything she had to say. She had just given up for the day of trying to talk with the Cullen’s when James had send her word that he had laid a trap for Bella and it was only a matter of time before he got her.

Victoria had never felt so much panic before in her life. Without being able to think clearly, she had immediately ran to Bella. The Cullen’s had been of no help and with James preparing to catch her mate, she ran as fast as she could to find her mate. Unfortunately, she had only been able to finally get to Phoenix after Bella was already in the hospital with her leg. Victoria had never felt such defeat as being unable to protect her mate.

That realization about her inability to help her mate hit her hard. She ended up scouring the surrounding area, further up north where there were forests to better hide in, and simply vented her anger via destruction of trees. Then when Victoria was finally calm enough about her failure and made it back to Forks, the Cullen’s had already left and her mate was spending a lot of her time with the wolves. The closest Victoria had gotten to safely talk with Bella was when the girl had cliff dived and was in the water. It took every ounce of Victoria’s restraint to not grab her mate and pull her to safety herself instead of letting the boy do so. Victoria’s gift was yelling at her that staying near her mate while on the reservation was a horrible idea.

So she waited.

And then Laurent showed up and talked with her. She sent him on his way back to wherever he was staying. She wanted nothing to do with him any longer as she believed him to be a threat to Bella. That was when she realized the Amazon’s were there. She had tried to intercept them, to get Bella back from their hold, but her gift made her hang back. She had always listened to her gift and always would as her gift would keep her and her mate safe.

As soon as she learned Bella was back, she did her best to hang back from everyone and just bide her time until she could safely make contact with everyone. She had heard a little about what was going on with the wolves and knew she needed to offer her help sooner rather than later because she wasn’t going to fail her mate again. She only had to wait for her mate to be alone, just for a moment and then Victoria would go to her.

When she finally found Bella alone and her gift was okay with Victoria made contact, she finally had her chance to earn her mates’ forgiveness. It was finally time for Victoria to be happy and to have her world.

Zafrina couldn’t help but snort at the ridiculousness of the whole story. She couldn’t understand why the redhead had waited so long to be with their mate. All the trouble Bella had been through, all the heartache, it could have been over so much sooner if Bella had one of her mates that much sooner. Zafrina believed that Victoria’s gift made her weak, made her afraid of action.

Victoria snarled once again at the other vampire, not wanting to hear any commentary from someone that hadn’t been there. She only cared about what Bella thought.

Bella just thought Victoria looked hot when she was mad. A fiery temper to match her fiery hair. Bella couldn’t help but compare Zafrina’s cool temperament and preference for action over waiting to Victoria’s fiery attitude and willingness to hide and wait. While both women seemed to be contradictions of themselves, they also complemented each other perfectly. And Bella fit it with them right in the middle. They would all complement each other perfectly.

It would also likely give Edward a hernia every time he saw all three of them together while knowing he had royally screwed up his chance of every being anything romantic to Bella. It would amuse the hell out of Bella for quite a while.

“I think you did what you could while remaining safe.” Bella eventually said, “I don’t think there was any better course of action. Plus, it all worked out in the end right? Your both here now.” She said with a smile, completely happy with the way her life was going… ignoring the whole thing about a pack of wolf shape shifter’s wanting to attack them all.