A/N: Oh hey there… please don't kill me, I'm working on the next chapter as soon as I post this one, and hopefully I'll have it up sometime next week. Enjoy!

"How much did Edward tell you about the mating habits of vampires Bella?" Rose asked.

"Not much, he generally shied away from discussing any and all things supernatural, unless it was to tell me that we couldn't do something because it was too dangerous. Or to tell me that he wouldn't change me," I replied sinking into an overstuffed armchair.

"Idiot," Rosalie muttered, "I assumed that he hadn't given you too much information, but to hear you confirm it just pisses me off all over again. Tell me Bella, based off of your own observations of the couples in this house, what do you think about the way vampire mating works?"

I thought about the couples I lived with, I thought about the stories that they had told me about how they met, "You all love each other, unconditionally, but you all love each other in different ways. I mean, Carlisle and Esme are so private and almost out of a movie, Alice and Jasper balance each other, and you and Em… well let's just say it's a good thing I don't really blush too much anymore."

Rosalie chuckled, "I won't apologize for loving my man and letting the whole world see it. And your descriptions aren't far off, essentially everyone is exactly what their mate needs, but that's not what I was talking about. Have you talked to any of us about what our lives were like before we found our mate?"

"No, not really."

"Well, allow me to educate you. Popular culture makes vampires out to be tremendously sexual beings that primarily care about physical intimacy and blood, while all other things are secondary, and they're not too far off. Our first concern is always blood, then sex, and then anything else that may come up. And many unmated vampires tend to make a habit out of, well I guess you could call it 'dating' but I use that term very loosely. They meet someone who they're attracted to, hook up for a while and move on to someone else when they get bored. The coven up in Denali is a perfect example of this, they take human men all the time."

My stomach dropped, Edward had told me that I was nothing more than a distraction to him, but to hear Rosalie tell me that it was true was a crushing blow that I was not expecting. I could feel myself beginning to shut down, but I knew that I needed to listen to everything that Rose had to say.

"Our family has always been a bit different when it comes to that facet of vampire life. Carlisle's faith kept him from spending too much time with the opposite sex, Esme and Emmett both woke up with their mates right there, the circumstances surrounding my change caused me to shy away from men, and Alice woke up knowing that Jasper was out there waiting for her, and all she had to do was find him. Jasper is really the only one who conformed to the more traditional vampire way of life, in both diet and physical entanglement. And then there's Edward.

"Edward was turned at a time in history where any sort of physical contact between a man and woman who were not married was heavily frowned upon, but he was also turned at an age where his hormones were raging, because of this he came into his new life quite conflicted about his sexuality. However the thing that really tipped the balance with him was his mind reading ability. Because of the way he was raised, he found the sexual thoughts of others completely repugnant, and I've always thought that his ability is what kept him celibate, Lord knows he never wanted for female attention."

Thanks, Rose, because I really needed to be reminded of that fact.

"So now that I've covered how vampires act before they find their mates, I'm going to explain a bit about the mating process to you. When a vampire finds his or her mate, they immediately recognize each other, and any and all sexual urges for others disappear. However the bond that ties them together takes time to develop and it happens in stages. Carlisle told you about how he and Esme first met right?"

I nodded.

"Well, because she was so young when they met, and because Carlisle is so noble, he decided to leave her, despite the fact that he recognized his mate, however, it was always his intention to return for her later."

"But why not just stay with her?" I asked, "I mean, if he knew that she was going to be his mate, why would he leave her at all?"

"It has to do with those stages I mentioned earlier, he knew that if he stayed, the bond would only get stronger and stronger until eventually he had no choice but to turn her and run away with her, but he didn't want to take a sixteen year old girl away from her mother, so he decided to leave, but he kept tabs on her and return to her in a few years when she was grown. Communication in those days wasn't the best though, so by the time he heard that Esme was engaged, she was already married, and Carlisle's morals would not allow him to interfere, so he decided to go on with his life, knowing that he would never have the companionship he so desired. Their bond hadn't had enough time to form, and so it was weak enough for him to walk away. However, fate eventually made their paths cross again, and Carlisle couldn't resist when he found her dying.

"It was much the same for Emmett and me, when I saw him laying there, my entire world shifted and all I could think about was saving him. Although, once he was changed it still took a little while for our bond to form completely, longer than any of the others at least."

"While I find this all very fascinating Rose, I'm still not entirely sure what it has to do with me."

Rose shook her head, "I'm getting there Bella, the whole point of Carlisle and Esme's story was to illustrate how strong even the weakest of mating bonds can be. Carlisle was around Esme for maybe an hour the first time he saw her, and yet he still knew when he walked away that she was it for him. I often wonder how long he really could have stayed away from her despite his morals. From what Edward has told me of that time he was already fighting the urge to be with her on a daily basis. I don't think he would have lasted much longer.

"Not many vampires mate with humans, and those that do usually change them on the spot, so there hasn't been a lot of opportunity to study vampire human mating interactions. In the past we didn't have any way of knowing how the human would react to the mating bond, or for that matter to separation. Esme has told me that used to dream about the handsome Doctor Cullen who repaired her leg as a teenager, and that she would always wake up feeling sad after those dreams, but something else would catch her attention during the day, and she'd forget all about her dreams until the next one happened. "

"What do you mean by 'in the past'," I inquired, "has there been a sudden outbreak of vampire Lotharios leaving their human mates behind?"

"No," she answered, "really just the one case comes to mind." And then she fixed her golden eyes on me, "Although I think my brother may object to being called a Lothario."