My Strength Chapter 17

Bella paced back and forth as she thought about what she would do when she went back into the house. Truthfully, while she was hurt about the Cullen’s abandonment, it did teach her a lesson: she wasn’t meant to be in their lives. At least, she wasn’t meant to be a part of her family. It also taught her to not get so caught up in whatever relationship she was in. She had let Edward consume her so much that when he wasn’t there, she had nothing else. It was a harsh reality to face when she lost Edward and his family and she realized she hadn’t any other friends because she had ignored them all to spend more time with Edward. She was sure Edward hadn’t done it on purpose, but he had monopolized her time so much that he was all she had and with him gone, she had been lost.

But then Jacob and the pack happened and she was so much better off for it; at least once she finally got over being depressed about Edward leaving her. That was a whole other situation that she was entirely embarrassed about and never wanted to mention again. She was able to fix her relationships with the La Push kids and felt like she gained a new family because of it. This time though, she wasn’t worried about them leaving her and they didn’t always tell her how close they were to killing her by just being in the same room as her. It was a nice change.

To be honest though, the Cullen’s were really everything she had ever wanted. They were the picture-perfect family and she had wanted so badly to belong to that. After growing up with Renee as her only role model, there was a lot left to be desired after she eventually got to Forks. And no offense to Charlie, at least he really tried and cared a lot more than Renee did, they simply weren’t as close as she would have liked. They had never had a chance to form a bond that most children and parents form and that showed with Charlie being so relax when it came to rules and what Bella could get away with.

Truthfully, Bella was sure it wouldn’t be as hard as it should be for her to move to Italy when the time came. That was going to be easy and as much as it hurt Bella that she wasn’t closer to her father, that was just the way her life had played out.

She was started from her spiraling thoughts as she started to question and doubt everything she had ever done and then blame Edward for it, as she heard movement behind her. While there were wild animals in Forks, there was rarely anything around the Cullen’s house because all the animals knew there were bigger, faster and deadlier predators not too far from the house. She quickly turned around, curious of what was brave enough to venture so close to a vampire’s home and was shocked and afraid of what she saw.

Victoria.

She was literally the last person, or thing in general, she had thought she would see when she turned around. She looked past Victoria, hoping to see the Cullen house and a bunch of friendly vampires that could save her from this vampire that wanted her dead.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Edward’s little mate.” Victoria purred, her eyes darkening. Bella knew what that meant and knew that she was in real trouble if none of the vampires that were supposed to be protecting her from the redheaded vampire were running in to save her. “I’ve been waiting for you.” Victoria said as she walked forward, causing Bella to walk backwards and farther away from the Cullen house to keep the distance between them.

“Well, you’ve found me.” Bella nervously said as she decided that she was going to ask Athenodora and Caius for a cell phone the next time she saw them because she would see them again, there was no way Victoria was going to kill her now of all times.

Victoria tilted her head to the side as if trying to figure something out as she continued to walk forward, careful to make sure her human didn’t walk over something that may trip her. Victoria had seen how accident prone her human could be and she wasn’t about to risk her mate getting hurt before she could properly meet her. She could already smell fear coming from her human and she wanted nothing to do with that. She never wanted Bella to be afraid of her.

“That I have.” Victoria purred. She was about to ask her human about what her plans were for the day when she sensed danger coming. She sensed that her mate wasn’t in danger, but she was. In less than a second her gift figured out that Victoria would be safer with her mate with her as the Cullen’s likely believed her to be a threat. At the same time though, she wasn’t so sure she would be able to talk to any of them and get them to listen to what she was saying. Those Cullen’s were young and she wanted nothing to do with them.

As much as Victoria wanted to run away with her mate and keep her away from all the dangers of the world, she knew that wasn’t really an option. Instead, she opted to face whoever was coming at them head on. She sped to Bella and pulled the human, who was surprisingly a lot more compliant than she thought she would be, into her and looked into the forest in the direction their visitor was coming.

Bella didn’t know what happened to the vampire, but one second she felt like a mouse and the next, she felt more like a hostage as she was pulled into the redhead. She would never admit it out loud, and especially not to Zafrina, but she couldn’t help but feel incredibly safe pulled against the red head. For some odd reason she actually felt just as safe as she did when she was with Zafrina. Once Bella saw who it was though, she wasn’t concerned and actually relaxed into the red head.

“Heidi.” Victoria snarled, upset that of all the vampires in the world it had to be this one to show up.

“Hello sister.” Heidi said with a smirk but was trying to get close enough to get to Bella. Heidi had learned long ago that her gift wasn’t very affective on Victoria; something about Victoria’s own gift getting her mind to evade Heidi’s persuasion. She would need to get Bella the old fashioned way. “I see you’ve found our lost human, please be a dear and give her back.” Heidi said, the fake pleasantness of her tone oozing off the seductress. Heidi and Victoria may have considered each other sisters at one point, but that was a long time ago. And a lot of things had been said and done in between that time that changed their dynamic quite a bit.

“Your human?” Victoria asked, anger leaking into her voice without her permission. She was very possessive by nature and didn’t like others laying claim to her mate. She had already seen that Zafrina Amazon was connected to her mate as well and while Victoria would rather Bella be completely unattached to everyone but her, Victoria couldn’t force her mate to let Zafrina go and think nothing bad would happen. “She’s mine.” She hissed at her former coven mate.

“Excuse me?” Bella asked and tried to turn around but was stopped with a iron grip that would budge. “When I’m a vampire we’re so having a talk about this whole not letting me move when I want to thing.” Bella said with a grumble.

Both vampires opted to ignore Bella in favor of weighing their options. Heidi hadn’t messaged anyone because she hadn’t sensed there was a vampire until too late and once she realized there was a vampire she knew it was Victoria and the thought to message her queen never made it. She knew she would likely get in trouble for not sending a message later but for now, until she figure out what Victoria’s endgame was, she didn’t want to risk her former sister doing something rash because that would likely end up with her own death.

“What do you want with her Vicky?” Heidi asked, purposefully using the nickname that always irked Victoria because she believed it was too childish.

Victoria stared at Heidi for a long minute, weighing her options and hoping she wouldn’t have to do what her gift was telling her to do. Her gift was telling her that it would be the safest to be honest and tell Heidi everything. Victoria wasn’t a fan of laying her cards bare for her opponent to see. But her gift was saying it would be best if she did and the only time she didn’t listen to her gift she lost her coven; she wouldn’t make that mistake again.

“She’s my mate Heidi and I almost lost her twice before when James latched onto her and again when the Amazon’s took her. I won’t survive a third time.” Victoria said, her grip on her mate becoming that much harder as she thought about how close and how many times she had nearly lost her human before she even got a chance to know her. She wouldn’t let her human out of her sight again.

“I’m your mate?” Bella asked, completely shocked at what she was hearing. Wasn’t there only supposed to be one mate per person? That’s what made a couple, just a couple of people, not more than two.

Heidi studied Victoria as the red head started to whisper assurances that she was in fact the human’s mate and that Victoria would do anything for her. She even explained that while James had hunted Bella, Victoria had tried to divert James but when the Cullen’s had whisked her away and James had left and Victoria had no idea where to go, she did her best to find her mate; which was why she broke into the school. But by the time Victoria got to Phoenix, it was already too late, James was already dead and Bella was nearly on her way back to Forks. Then once she was back, Victoria couldn’t get close because of Edward and then when he left, she couldn’t safely get past the wolves. It had taken a lot of time and patience that Victoria admitted she didn’t really have, to wait for Bella when she finally returned to Forks. Victoria kept nothing from Bella and if Heidi didn’t know better, she would have thought Victoria had completely forgotten she was there. Just from seeing how Victoria was holding nothing back and in her own way, begging for forgiveness for letting Bella go with the Cullen’s during the James incident and then not going to her when she was in pain from losing the Cullen’s, Heidi knew Victoria wasn’t lying. If there was one thing Heidi could always safely say about Victoria was that Victoria hated with gusto, showing any sort of weakness. And yet there she was, baring everything to the human, Heidi be damned.

They may not be sisters any longer, but they had once been very close and Heidi wouldn’t forget all the times Victoria helped her when she was a newborn. It was time to repay the many favors she owed the red head.

“Well, I guess we better come up with a game plan that doesn’t end with Victoria’s death.” Heidi said, earning the new couple’s, well Bella likely didn’t see them as a couple but Heidi was already seeing wedding bells in her future, attention. “We wouldn’t want you die before you can have any fun, right Vick?” Heidi asked and saw instant relief flash in Victoria’s eyes.

“My mom is so going to kill you.” Bella muttered as she thought how she could introduce Victoria, the woman Athenodora and Caius believed was out to kill her, as her apparent other mate. She didn’t even want to think about how Zafrinia would react. Probably stoicly if she were to think about it.

“Your mom?” Victoria asked, wondering why she would be worried about a human. Perhaps the Cullen matriarch? She didn’t seem much of a fighter.

“Athenodora is her maternal bond and Caius her paternal bond.” Heidi said with a smirk, knowing exactly how her old friend would react to the news of the very people who helped destroy their coven being her mate’s parental bonds.

“Fuck me.” Victoria groaned. Wasn’t finding your mate supposed to be easy and happy?