Chapter 8: Bella the Fearless

Peter POV

Bella looked up at me as if she was silently asking me a question. I put my forehead to hers and rubbed my nose against hers, giving her an "Eskimo kiss". She smiled at me in adoration and understanding. My girl understood me like no other ever had. I grinned back and looked to Charlotte, waiting for her to answer my question.

"Peter, I'll answer your question if you answer mine. Why have you been hiding from me? I thought you loved me. I understand that we're not mates but I thought we were happy together and that we'd stay happy together until one or both of us found our true mates," she said.

My expression turned grim as I answered her. "Charlotte, you're right, I did love you even though we're not mates. We were happy together. Contrary to your belief, however, I have not been hiding from you. I told you that I was coming to stay with Jasper for a while after I found you in that compromising position with that guy. Did you really think that I was going to stay with you while you were running around with every Tompire, Dickpire, and Harrypire you came across?"

Charlotte shook her head and smiled at me softly. "Pete, honey, I would never cheat on you like that. If you had stayed around to listen; hell, if you'd have listened to your "Spidey-Sense", you would have known that it was for a reason. There was never anything between Jack and I. He's a nomad and came across our scents. He followed them to the house and came in the door without knocking. I just happened to be getting out of the shower, Peter. He saw me and, being a rogue newborn and unable to control his emotions, he pounced. That's when you showed up. As for why I'm here, Rosalie tracked me down and said there was an emergency. She told me that you had 'dazzled' Edward's human mate into believing that you were her mate instead. As soon as she told me, I came here. How could you do this to Jasper's family? How could you tear someone's mate away from them, Peter? How could you do this to me?"

Everyone turned to look at Rosalie but, before anyone could speak, Bella let her have it. My baby sure was fearless because even I'm afraid of a pissed off Rosalie and I'm a trained war veteran.

Bella POV

I'd heard enough. Rosalie thought that Peter had "dazzled" me into believing that I was his mate? Hell no, that bitch had pissed me off enough. I'm tired of being afraid of her, of her trying to make me afraid enough to leave this family. Her petty disdain for me was going to come to an end NOW.

"Rosalie Hale, I am done. I am done trying to get you to like me, I'm done being afraid of you, I'm done tiptoeing around here in fear of pissing you off somehow and disliking me more. I can see now why you never took the Cullen name: it's because you are not a Cullen. Cullens do not behave like you. You are petty, self-absorbed, whiny, infuriating…I don't know why Carlisle decided to save you. You've been right all along: he should have left you there for dead, just like your fiancée and his friends did. You do not deserve this life. You're ungrateful, sniveling, and conniving. You make it impossible for anyone to like you with the exception of Emmett and, honestly, I don't know what he sees in you except for the fact that you saved him. I honestly can't see the part in you that saved him unless it was because you wanted someone good-looking to hang on your arm all throughout eternity.

"I cannot believe that I once dreamt about you realizing that your disdain for me was stupid and coming around to liking me. I can't believe that I wanted you as my sister! I can't believe that you think that I'm so shallow as to skip from one person to the next with no thought of the consequences. I understand that I hurt Edward. Do you not understand that he was hurting me? Every single day I lived in fear of what he was capable of doing to me, to my family. He was forcing me to be with him. Alice and Jasper knew what was going on to an extent because of their gifts but they stayed out of it at my request. I'm glad that Alice had the vision that she did of me finding Peter because she would not have stayed out of it otherwise.

"Do you not care about anyone's happiness except that of your own? I'll bet you only stay with this family because of the amenities that it offers you. I am disgusted that you are a part of the family that I so desperately wish to become a part of. Do you know how many people on this earth would kill to have a chance at the happiness that you could have with this family if you would just look beyond that clouded veil of yours? If it wouldn't cause me extreme physical pain to do so I would not hesitate to punch you right in that pretty little face of yours right now!"

Before I had a chance to catch my breath from my rant, there was a vibrating 'boom' that shook the walls. I looked up at Rosalie and, to my surprise, Charlotte was standing in front of her and shaking her own hand as if trying to make it stop hurting.

"That is for stirring up trouble among people who don't deserve it, for hurting a family that cares deeply for you despite your many flaws, and for hurting the vampire that I love. You are such a bitch! I cannot believe that you contacted me for this."

She then turned to Peter with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry that I had such little faith in you. Can you forgive me?"

Peter smiled and said, "Of course I can. Charlotte, I'd like for you to meet my mate, Bella. Baby, I'd like to introduce you to Charlotte, my best friend next to Jasper. I think you two will get along fantastically."

I smiled and, instead of taking Charlotte's outstretched hand, I hobbled a couple steps closer and pulled her into a hug with a smirk and heard Alice begin to laugh and Jasper tell me not to do it with humor in his voice. "Any friend of my Petey is a friend of mine."

Everyone in the room except for Rosalie laughed as Peter growled, threw me over his shoulder, and began spinning me in circles. "Peter Whitlock, if you don't put me down this instant I'm gonna hurl!"

Peter sat on the couch and plopped me in his lap. He began nuzzling my neck and I giggled at him. That's when I knew: I didn't want Peter just because we were mates; I was now madly and irrevocably in love with him.

I looked up in shock and found Jasper grinning at me wildly. I smiled back and looked over at Rosalie, who was looking at the floor, ashamed of herself. Nobody was talking to her, not even Emmett. I got up from Peter's lap, grabbed my crutches, and swung myself over to her.

"Rosalie, I'm sorry if what I said to you seemed harsh, but you needed to hear it from someone and everyone else here is too compassionate to tell you. You really need to think about how what you do affects not only you but everyone else around you. Despite how you've treated me, I love you dearly. I want you as a part of my family, I really do, but only if you're going to treat me with respect. I don't want to have to worry about if you're going to be here causing me hell or not."

She smiled at me and it wasn't just a half smile for my benefit; it was a full-blown smile, one I'd only seen from her when it was directed towards Emmett when she thought nobody else was watching. This was the beautiful Rosalie that everyone knew.

"Bella, I truly am sorry. I didn't contact Charlotte for my benefit. Well, I kind of did, but not for the reasons you're thinking. I contacted her for Edward's sake. I just want to see him happy and the only time he's ever truly been happy since I met him was when he was with you. I just wanted him to feel that again."

"Rosalie, I understand and I admire that part of your reasoning but Edward is not in love with me, he's in love with the idea of me. He can't hear me and I smell extremely appetizing to him. He's in love with my mental silence, my humanity, and the old me, the quiet, timid me who listened to him all the time without a second thought. That's not me anymore and it wouldn't have worked."

"I know that now. Thank you for saying what you did, it really opened my eyes. Can you ever forgive me?" she asked sincerely this time.

Smiling, I nodded. "I can in time, Rosalie, but believe me when I say that I will not trust you for a long while."

Alice came dancing up to me and gave me a hug. "Bella, as soon as your ankle is healed, I'm taking you shopping!" She smiled and danced away again.

Laughing, I looked at Rosalie and said, "If you help me get out of shopping with the pixie-pire that seems like she's on crack, I'll knock a couple of months off of not trusting you."

"Deal, but only if you let me take you out and buy you a new vehicle. Your choice and I'll check it over and make sure they don't jack up the price horribly just because you're a girl," she said with a smile.

"Agreed!" We hugged and I swung myself back over to Peter and curled up in his lap. Jasper and Emmett had moved all of the furniture against the walls and began wrestling around as everyone else looked on and laughed.

'I'm the luckiest girl in the world,' I thought to myself and smiled softly.

A/N: Thanks a million for reading! Thanks for all of the reviews and adds to the alerts and favorites as well! :-) Don't worry, Charlotte is NOT going to be interfering with Bella and Peter at all; in fact, many of you may be shocked for her purpose in being there and the plans I have for her. *wiggles eyebrows suggestively*

Also, thanks to 01katie for being my pre-reader and getting back to me in a timely manner! She is awesome and gives me all kinds of warm, encouraging words.

I'm sorry it took so long to put this chapter up; I had a beta and haven't heard anything back from her since I sent her the chapter. If she's reading this, I'm not mad at you; however, I will be finding another beta so, if someone else out there is interested, let me know!

If you review, I'll strike up a deal with Bella so that you can borrow Peter for a night of amazing passion!

Disclaimer: I don't own, you don't sue. If you do I'll hit you with my shoe! Lol, not really, but I don't own this at all.