Chapter 2 - Warning
I had never being good at shielding others before the big standoff with the Volturi. I'd got so mad then that I'd managed to really feel the shield like a muscle and see it cover my family and friends in a protective layer. Other people couldn't see it or feel it protecting them from the evil mind tricks of the Volturi guard. Now it seemed so little to extend the shield down my arm and over Alice. As soon as we were far enough from the house for even the keenest of immortal ears she turned to me.
"Bella, what is going on! I see things ... wrong things, things I never want to see," her expression a combination of alarm and disgust.
"What are you talking about Alice?" I snapped. "It isn't my fault, I've done nothing to encourage him, why would I? Yes, of course I'm grateful, but that's it. End of story. I didn't want him to imprint on me. And now I really don't know how I'm going to get him unimprinted"
Alice looked baffled. She turned her soft gold eyes to me, "What are you going on about Bella? Emmett can't imprint. He's a vampire, not a werewolf. And he is your brother, before you forget."
"What ... What are you talking about?" I shook my head. "What about Emmett? What is his problem? Haven't I got enough of my own to sort?" I was cross with her now. Why was she going on about the family when I had such a big problem to deal with? I dropped her hand in irritation and stood staring down at her.
She really did look small today. Even smaller because of the worry written over her pixy-like face and the whole of her skinny little body.
Alice looked baffled again. "Who do you think has imprinted on you?"
"Nahuel, who else," I wailed, shaking my head. "What is Edward going to do? He'll kill him if they are together much longer. No wonder he looks so stressed."
"Well that's not what I'm seeing. I can't see the hybrids anyway, but he is a hybrid not a werewolf so I really don't think that you can be right. Edward would have said something or done something by now. You must be mistaken." Her face now thoughtful, her head shook a little from side to side. "I can't see it."
She paused for a moment in thought again. "You are very beautiful you know. Maybe he just likes to look at you."
I sank to the forest floor to sit on a flat rock, my head in my hands. I knew that look he had on his face. I'd seen it on Jacob's and Sam's and Jared's, all the wolves that had imprinted. "I know it," I said stubbornly, "He's imprinted".
"Is the shield still strong?" she asked. I nodded.
She sat next to me, putting her arm around my back but not quite managing to reach all the way to my shoulder. "I think you have a bigger problem than that, a bigger problem than Demetri's visit," her face full of pity and regret. "I have seen Emmett with you."
"And ... and what?"
"Well, there is no pretty way to say this Bella. You are in an intimate situation, ahem, very intimate. By the look of things you are not too happy about it. But he is."
I looked at her blankly. "What are you saying Alice? Spit it out!"
"Fortunately for me I can't see much, it's dark. I see a wood floor, a light - maybe fire or a candle - and you are there together. And, well, I hate to say it, but there are no clothes and things are very intimate."
I just gaped at her, frozen to the spot. To start the numbness was total. Then after a few seconds my brain started to work at two or three times normal speed, going over and over what she had said.
"No ... No, that c ... can't be."
"Bella, I see what I see. I don't like it, but I felt it best to tell you." Her voice was patient, like she was talking to a small child.
"But he has Rose. How could he ever want anyone else? She is the most beautiful person in the world. Even if for some bizarre reason he felt anything but brotherly towards me I don't think he would ever. Alice I'm a happily married vampire with a child. Why are these men having these thoughts about me?"
"And making these plans," she added. "I wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't of planned it."