Chapter 5 - The Deal
APOV
I blurred out of the house, chasing down the retreating form ahead of me. She would not get away from me this time.
"Damnit Bella", I shrieked, "Get your sparkly ass down from there."
The brunette vampire in question shook her head violently from her perch on one of the tallest trees that surrounded the house. The ex-assassin shivered in fear as I glared at her from the forest floor.
"Don't make me come up there", I growled, "You're only prolonging the inevitable."
Bella glared at me for another minute before conceding defeat. After three days of avoiding me, she was finally giving in. My mate leaped out of the tree and landed next to me with her head hung low. The vampire had the look of someone who was going to the gallows.
"Would you relax", I pleaded gently as I took in her expression, "Its only shopping. You haven't worn anything besides those clothes for almost a week. No mate of mine is going to wear the same outfit even twice in a row."
I flinched as her eyes darkened slightly at the mention of the word mate. This was not good.
"Mate", she repeated as she crept closer to me. "MINE!"
She pinned to the large tree she was previously hiding in while her mouth latched onto mine. Gone was the beaten woman from a moment ago and in its place was the beast that wanted to claim what was her's. My own beast responded to the rough handling and tried to take control of the situation. The tree groaned as we forced our bodies closer, almost making it tip over in the throes of our passion. Our tongues battled for dominance for a moment before I was suddenly struck with inspiration.
With all of my willpower, I pushed myself away from an extremely miffed Bella. Her arousal as well as mine hung in the air like the finest perfume which made her growl deeply as her eyes blackened completely. She tried to close the distance again until I placed a finger on her lips.
"Bella", I cooed, "I'll make you a deal."
Bella's advances froze and her eyes narrowed at my innocent expression.
"If you go shopping with me", I said sweetly, "I'll let us have some fun when we get home afterwards."
The brunette took a step back at the mention of shopping. Apparently even with her memory loss, she was still terrified of shopping with me. Her face then went blank of all emotion for a few minutes, like someone had flicked her off switch. That expression was one that I had come to dislike with great intensity over the past week. Since I couldn't see Bella's future due to her shield, I had to rely on my observational skills in order to see what she was going to do. And if she locked down her facial expressions, I was left completely in the dark.
Bella suddenly grinned mischievously, making me wary of her drastic change of demeanor.
"Deal", she purred and sealed our agreement with a teasing kiss.
Bella jumped slightly when I squealed in delight, grabbing her in an Emmett style hug. She sighed dramatically at my enthusiasm and started to pull me towards the garage. Apparently she wanted to get this over with. Unfortunately we couldn't take my Porsche 911 since this was going to be a major shopping trip. Instead we would have to settle for one of the larger vehicles.
"You won't regret this Bella", I gushed as we climbed into Jasper's lifted Ford Excursion.
Bella climbed into the passenger seat and buckled herself in. "You might", she replied cheekily while her ruby eyes danced with mirth.
I hesitated at Bella's response, making me wonder what she was up to. But I shook it off and started up the beast of truck, the diesel engine roaring to life. Backing out of the garage, I coaxed the vehicle to the front of a shed where I quickly hooked up the thirty foot covered trailer that rested inside. Bella raised an eyebrow at my actions, but said nothing.
"We may need to make a few trips back to the house to unload the trailer", I commented, trying not to giggle when Bella's jaw almost hit the floor.
Throwing the vehicle into gear, I pulled onto the driveway and started our journey to the mall. We made excellent time too, the truck having plenty of power to pull the trailer at the speeds that I wanted without difficulty. Jasper must have upgraded the engine.
As I drove my gaze flickered to Bella every few minutes, her expression not giving me any hint as to what she was feeling. Although she had made an effort to speak to me, even though they were usually one or two word sentences, she always fell back into her emotionless mask at some point.
I reached out a hand to put on her lap, but my arm stopped about a foot away from Bella. She smiled at me as I snarled in annoyance at her antics. Apparently she had put her shield up as punishment for ruining her fun earlier.
"Two can play at that game hun", I chuckled darkly. "You're going to be begging me for mercy before I'm through with you."
She simply stuck out her tongue like a two year old in response.
But while I kept the scowl on my face, secretly I was pleased. Bella was getting more and more playful with me, which was a big improvement from when I had first brought her home last week.
There had been a few incidents when Bella first arrived at our home in Alaska. It resulted in everyone leaving, except for me and Bella, to visit the Denali Coven after she had put Emmett through a wall when he had surprised her in the hallway. Edward worsened the situation, as usual, by yelling at Bella about controlling herself. I had tried, and failed, not to laugh as she proceeded to tear off one of the arrogant prick's arms and started to beat him over the head with it. Tanya retaliated with an apoplectic fit which had me yelling at her.
Jasper finally had to step in and give everyone an excessive wave of calm while I got Bella to cool down since Jasper's powers still didn't work on her. Carlisle and Esme decided after much deliberation that Bella and I would have a month to reacquaint ourselves so that she would feel more comfortable around the house. Then each week after our time was up, two of the family would return and gradually have Bella acclimate to the whole family. Carlisle and Esme would be first, and then Jasper with Kate, Emmett and Rosalie, and Edward with Tanya would be last.
Carlisle hoped that this idea would work, even though that Edward and Rosalie had objected to it.
Bella's voice snapped me out of my reminiscing. "Alice", Bella murmured.
I turned to my love that looked at me with concern etched into her features. Having grown accustomed to her body language, I gathered that she thought that I was upset with her.
"It's ok Bella", I assured her, "I'm just thinking about which store we should hit first when we get to the mall, maybe Victoria's Secret."
And just like that, she was back to her pouting while I laughed at her cuteness. After a few minutes of silence, I decided to break the ice. I had dropped subtle hints over the past few days to Bella about her explaining what had happened to her. Bella still hadn't told me anything and now was as good a time as any to ask.
"Bella", I prompted, "How long were you with the Volturi for?" Screw subtle.
Bella's eyes glanced at me for a moment, she was hesitating.
"Sixteen years, eighteen days, twelve hours, and thirty nine minutes", she sighed. That was the longest she had ever spoken at one time which surprised me. Getting bolder, I asked my next question.
"How long were you a vampire before you joined them", I continued.
Her response was immediate this time. "Three years, six months, two days, eight hours and five minutes", she replied stiffly.
Although Bella was starting to shut down, I forged ahead with my next question without realizing what I was asking. "What happened between you and Demetri", I queried. Her obvious hate for the man made me wonder what he did to her.
Bella's eyes shut tightly and a loud hiss burst forth from her lips. It was almost as though she were in pain. I immediately regretted asking that question.
"Bella", I said warily, "Are you ok?"
Her eyes snapped open, fury radiating off her in waves. It was the same look she had when she tore Demetri to shreds at Volterra.
"KILL", she snarled, "Kill Tracker."
It was then that I knew that this was Bella's beast talking, not her. I had inadvertently set off the beast's protective instinct and now it could only be placated by either blood or sex. Pulling over to the side of the road, I jumped out of my seat and straddled Bella's lap, capturing her face in my hands.
"It's ok Bella", I cooed softly, "He's not here; it's just me and you."
Her eyes locked onto mine. "Threat", she hissed.
Seeing that I wasn't getting through to her it was time to change tactics. I pulled off my top, exposing my perky chest and kissed Bella heatedly. She leaned into the kiss while her hands roamed over my exposed alabaster skin, drawing a moan from me as I arched my back in pleasure.
I squeaked in surprise when Bella nipped at the pulse point on my neck, whimpering a little when I felt her inject some of her venom into the bite mark. She then soothed the burning mark with her tongue, rumbling contently when she drew away like the cat that ate the canary. I turned around and flipped down the mirror in the visor to see the extent of the mark. When I looked into the mirror to see her handy work, I saw that she had left a permanent hickey with her venomous bite on my pulse point, effectively displaying to anyone that saw the mark that I was claimed in every sense of the term.
"Mine", she purred happily. It seemed to be her favorite word at this point.
Effectively snapped out of her anger, I decided to pull my top back on, much to Bella's disappointment. I was only a hairsbreadth away from letting her take me in Jasper's truck, but I knew that our first time would be very damaging to the surrounding area since our inner beasts would try to dominate the other, and Jasper would kill me if we broke his truck.
"We have plenty of time for that", I said sternly when Bella tried to close the distance, "We only have limited amount of time to shop today and we will be using every second."
Bella snorted and crossed her arms while I started the truck, resuming our trip to the mall.
I made a mental note to myself that I would find out what happened to her when she was more comfortable, otherwise she could level the house in a fit of anger. Keeping that in mind, I would have to relatively careful about what I asked her from now on.
"We're here", I squealed in delight when we pulled into the parking lot for the mall.
Bella groaned while her ruby eyes flashing to the door handle as if she was contemplating escape.
"Remember our deal Bella", I said firmly.
Her eyes flickered to me a split second before she put on her sunglasses. Bella's eyes were still too red to be seen by the public, even with her feeding off of bears for a week straight. She nodded in acknowledgement and hopped out of the truck's cab.
"Wait for me", I whined as Bella set off at a brisk pace for the mall's entrance.
When I caught up to her at the door, I glanced at the sign that posted to opening and closing times for the mall which said the following:
Monday to Friday 10:00am - 9:00pm
Saturday 9:00am - 9:00pm
Sunday 10:00am - 6:30pm
I clapped excited when I looked at my watch as Bella watched me wary from behind her dark sunglasses. Today was Saturday and it was only 9:15am. That meant I could have eleven hours and forty five minutes worth of shopping with my Bella. This was going to be good.
Going into shopaholic mode, I grabbed Bella's arm and pulled her into the first clothing store I found with my credit card raring to go.
Moving as fast as possible and still being able to seem human, I grabbed every shred of fashionable clothing I could find that was Bella's size and tossed them into her waiting arms.
"Go try those on and let me see you in each one", I ordered. My tone brooked no argument.
Bella immediately fled into one of the changing room with a small grin on her face. I sat down in one of the chairs outside the changing room and waited for her to come out; I didn't have to wait very long. Within a few seconds of closing the door, she came back out wearing one of the dresses I put on top of the pile. It was a blood red, strapless mini dress with matching stilettos. She twirled around in the dress with the gracefulness she never possessed as a human while I took in every detail.
It fit her curvy form like a glove and showed off some serious cleavage; the perfect clubbing outfit. My eyes were drawn to her breasts, which seemed to have escaped the scarring that seemed to have dominated the rest of her body. She noticed my gaze and bit her lip with a seductive smirk.
"Like it", she chuckled.
"B. . .Be. . Bella", I stuttered, "You look sexy beyond belief."
I instinctively leaned closer to her as I felt my eyes darken, but my face met an invisible brick wall.
Bella laughed evilly as she flaunted her perfect ass a mere inch from my face before she retreated into the stall to try on the next outfit.
"BELLA", I hissed angrily when I snapped out of my lust filled stupor.
Before I could get another word in, she appeared again with a different outfit. This one had a blue halter top with a black skirt that came down to her knees. It still showed off her assets, but not as much as her red dress. I immediately forgot why I was angry and went over the outfit with an expert eye.
"I approve", I stated smugly.
Bella rolled her eyes and grumbled something intelligible while she went back into the stall to try on the next outfit.
For the next ten minutes Bella performed her own fashion show for me, each outfit sexier than the last. My lust was so thick in the air I wouldn't be surprised if a human caught the scent. When she tried on the last outfit though, I saw one of the clerks staring at her with undisguised want. My beast snarled and rattled the restraints that I had put her under. My eyes zeroed in on the threat as I growled. Bella was MINE.
Bella immediately picked up on when she saw what I was upset with, and decided to distract me.
"Alice", she purred softly.
I felt her hands pull my face towards her, even though I wanted nothing more than to shred that pervert at the counter into a million pieces. Bella pressed her lips to mine with a faint moan, effectively displaying to everyone in the store that we were taken. And just like that, I was myself again.
My eyes glanced at Bella for a brief moment before I cast my gaze down in embarrassment.
"I should have better control then this", I muttered, "Sorry Bella."
Bella laughed and quickly changed back into her regular clothes. She then gathered up the pile of clothes that I picked out for her and led the way to the counter with me in tow.
"Your mine", she said simply, "And I'm yours. Nothing can change that."
I blinked in surprise at her talkativeness, but giggled when she shot a death glare at the clerk who paled and dropped his gaze.
"We'll take these", I ordered when we reached the counter.
The man quickly scanned our items and bagged them, all while Bella kept up her icy stare. When he finished bagging Bella's new clothes, I collected them and began to walk out the door until I realized that Bella was still glaring at the man.
"What", he huffed when he noticed that Bella hadn't moved.
I came back and pulled Bella along towards the exit. "She's debating on whether or not to cut off your testicles for staring at her", I said seriously, "As am I since she's my girlfriend."
The clerk gaped at us as we left the store, as were a few of the customers who had caught my comment.
We quickly dropped off our bags at the trailer and went to the next store on my hit list. The guy at the cashier's desk also stared at us when we walked in the door. This was going to be a long day.