Believe Me Chapter 12

“What is she doing here?” Edward asked as he was being held back by his brothers. While it didn’t seem he was about to break through, or even trying that hard to do so, but they weren’t about to risk letting go of him to find out if he was going to attack or not. “She’s going to kill Bella!” He yelled, getting a crazed look in his eyes as he looked towards the redhead that was next to his mate.

Victoria hissed from next to Bella, her arm firmly around her mate, ready to whisk her away if the child actually got away from his keepers. The Denali sisters were all standing in front of them, but Victoria didn’t give her trust very easily and therefore didn’t believe the Denali’s would try very hard if Edward did break through to steal her mate again. She wasn’t about to put her faith in practical strangers, she wouldn’t leave her mates side while they were around the Cullen’s.

“Do you really think I would allow someone that was a threat to be around my family Edward?” Tanya asked, her coven leader tone in complete show. Edward actually felt a little chastised; he had always known how protective of her family she was from the very first day they met. He didn’t need to be able to hear her thoughts to know that. “What has Victoria herself done, to make you assume she is going to hurt Bella?”

Edward’s eyes darted from Tanya to Bella, then to Victoria. His eyes hardened as he looked towards Tanya to answer, “Her mate is hunting my mate! Of course she’s a danger to Bella, I’m sure she’s only fooling you for some sick trick to her mate get closer to us.” Edward said, sure of his answer. He had read both Laurent’s and James’s thoughts, he was sure they were mates.

“You know nothing!” Victoria hissed, gripping her mate as hard as she dared so she wouldn’t hurt her but to make sure she wasn’t about to disappear, “If you actually were reading any of our minds properly you would know I would never dream of hurting her or of letting her be hurt.”

Victoria was sure that while Edward had a very invasive gift, he was untrained enough to not actually be able to use it properly. She was confident enough, after what little she had heard about him and had seen for herself, that he put too much faith in his ability and took it for granted. She was sure that not only did he just hear the surface thoughts, but he mostly heard what little thoughts people had that didn’t put much thought into; the ones that someone thought one moment but forgot the next. With vampires, it was quite easy to have ‘surface’ thoughts that covered their real thoughts. After that first day in the meadow when she met him and realized he had the gift, she was easily able to hide her real thoughts that she actually cared about and allowed the fly away surface thoughts to shine through for him to hear.

“That’s enough Edward.” Tanya said, a hard edge to her tone, “I believe I have already made it clear that Victoria is here with my coven and is to be treated as such,” Tanya completely ignored the glare the redhead sent her way at being include in her coven, “If you have a problem with her, then you should go through your coven leader, and while we are guests in your coven leader’s home, I expect better hospitality than what you have shown us thus far.” Tanya practically hissed.

Edward knew she was right. As much as he knew the vile, redheaded devil was only really after his mate, regardless of what her thoughts projected, Carlisle was the coven leader and he was already dealing with separate problems with his own mate. Edward didn’t want to add to it by acting like the coven leader himself, no matter how well he knew what Carlisle would want.

Edward had to take several deep breaths and mentally prepare himself to keep control and not attack the vampire; she was standing right next to his mate and he didn’t want to accidently hurt her. He would have to wait until Bella was far enough away from the redheaded nomad to get his mate to safety; or to get his family to believe him and help him. As it was at the moment, Edward’s family has betrayed him and with both of his brother’s holding him back, he couldn’t do anything about his mate being in danger. He couldn’t help but think that if it were Rosalie or Alice in trouble, he wouldn’t hold them back to helping his sisters; but apparently he was a better brother than they were.

“I’ll watch myself.” He said in a gruff voice, trying to sound as threatening as possible as he stared at the redhead to let her know that he wasn’t going to let her get away with whatever plan she had. He would make sure his mate stayed safe, even if his family apparently wanted nothing to do with keeping his mate safe.

Jasper and Emmett slackened their hold on Edward, but didn’t let them go; instead, Emmett turned to lead him back into the house to where they would have their talk that Tanya was demanding. Jasper stayed on the porch to let them know what to expect when they got in there.

“I’m happy that you are safe Bella.” Jasper said with a genuine smile. He didn’t need to be an empath to realize how strongly Victoria felt about Bella. Edward was going to be in for a rude awakening once he realized his delusional dream of having Bella as a chosen mate wouldn’t happen. “There’s been a few things that have happened since you three have been gone though.” Jasper said with a frown. “Would you all like to come inside and we can explain?” He asked Tanya directly, understanding that it was her decision to move into the house that held a vampire that likely would attack one of her own if given the chance.

Tanya was concerned that it wasn’t Carlisle welcoming them into the home, or even coming out to reprimand his ‘son’ about being hostile towards someone that Tanya has clearly shown is with her.

“We’ll come in; there are a lot of answers we’re looking for and staying out here isn’t comfortable for everybody in my party.” Tanya said, not too subtly making every vampire in hearing range know that she was laying claim to Bella and the fact that Carlisle wasn’t there to say anything and that Edward hadn’t immediately snarled, Tanya was both concerned and relieved that her plans may not be so difficult in the long run.

“It’s okay, I’m sure they won’t hurt me.” Bella said as she started walking with Victoria into the Cullen house, she could feel how tense the nomad was and Bella didn’t like that. She really liked how fluid and easy going she was, how confident she always was. It always seemed like she owned wherever she was and like nothing got to her. But Edward did. Edward’s mere presence seemed to unsettle the redhead and Bella really didn’t like that. “I’ll be right next to you the whole time, therefore I couldn’t any safer.” Bella said with a wide grin, confident that her confidence in Victoria would transfer over to the redhead herself.

It did. “Good, because there is nowhere safer for you than with me.” Victoria confidently said with a smirk, her mood shifting easily to a better one just hearing the confidence her mate had in her.

“I know.” Bella said with a smile as she leaned in further to Victoria, as close as she could get.

They walked into the room and found that there were spots saved for them in the middle of the couch with Kate and Irina siting on either side. Tanya stood behind the couch, in the sitter, showing her clear position of power over the other women. It was a power play so that everyone would know that she both literally and figuratively stood behind Bella while the rest of her coven stood by the human’s side as protection.

“Where is Carlisle?” Tanya asked, a bit miffed that the other coven leader had yet to make an appearance to greet them or apologize for one his own attempting to attack her party.

Jasper, Alice and Edward, the only other two Cullen’s that were present aside from Rosalie and Emmett, that had been at the house while Bella had been in Alaska. It was odd to not have the coven leader present, even more odd when they were supposed to be cousins and close friends.

“What could be so important that Carlisle doesn’t want to see his old friends?” Kate asked as she relaxed back into the couch with a smile. It was unlike Carlisle to not follow vampire protocol and responsibilities. “We traveled all this way and he doesn’t even bother to say hello?” Kate asked with a faux pout. Truthfully, she wasn’t really annoyed or upset, but she did like to point out that the normally uptight and total protocol following good doctor wasn’t there for the most basic of rituals.

“Well,” Alice started, looking upwards towards where she knew the two vampires, Esme and Carlisle were talking as quietly as they could in as sound proofed room in a house full of vampires could be. “Esme found her real mate and Carlisle doesn’t believe her.” Alice said, turning her attention back towards the Denali’s, catching all of their jaws drop at the information.

“What?” Kate asked, shocked that Esme and Carlisle weren’t mates… even after all the conversation’s they had, had during Bella’s visit.

“Really?” Irina asked, not so much shocked as curious after all they had learned and talked about.

“Who?” Tanya asked, knowing one of the other heartbeats in the house, the ones that didn’t belong to Bella’s lone heart, had to be one of those mates.

“Miss Leah Clearwater is Esme’s mate.” Jasper answered confidently; he had felt Esme’s feelings once the woman had seen Leah after all and there was no mistaking those feelings. “And unfortunately, Leah was hurt during the battle we had to kill Laurent.” Jasper said with a frown.

“That doesn’t sound good.” Tanya murmured, wondering if Carlisle was just as delusional as Edward was.

“It’s not true.” Edward interjected. “Carlisle and Esme are mates, they don’t know what they are talking about.”

“Well now, this sounds like it’s going to be a good story.” Tanya said as she crossed her arms over her chest and waited for someone to tell them exactly what happened before they got there. The other two Denali’s relaxed as well; or at least appeared to relax to the untrained eye. Bella only relaxed into Victoria as the redhead moved so that she was in a better position to pick up her mate and run if needed. “Please, do tell.” Tanya purred, actually excited to hear what happened.