Cat Got Your Tongue
Chapter 14
The ground is cool and damp under my paws but the forest ground seems to steam wherever my body had once been. Branches tug at my fur in resistance as I push my legs harder to keep up with my pride.
I am by no means slow but my reluctance to reach my destination weighs on me like a truck.
I focus on the sounds around me, the wind pressing into my ears; I can feel my heart drumming a steady beat despite my unease.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump- on and on again and my feet unconsciously pick up the rhythm with the stride.
My ears flick in response to the footfalls beside me, and I let out a sigh as a black and brown pelt brush against me on either side.
I focus on their thoughts, comforting from Ivy and random from Alexis in a way that makes me snort in amusement. A head nudges me from behind, urging me to go faster. We are already late.
I know when we arrive because the smell snuffs out all other. It's a burning sent that is too sweet. Like someone took a bath in perfume.
I had always hated the stuff; it was too strong yet people insisted on ten sprays every hour.
Shortly after, we come to a walk when we reach the edge of a forest line and together we stop. The tallest kneels down to let our alpha to the ground.
Pale figures emerge from the house in near silence. The things glide across the forest so quietly that I have to strain my ears to hear their tread.
A low rumble starts in my throat as they draw closer, and my muscles tense. Aurora glances briefly at me, a warning look, and turns to Carlisle. She is the only one in human form because even though I told them that they only hunt animals, they won't trust a leach.
Carlisle's eyes regard me with regret, and I force my nails to sink into the ground rather than his marble skin.
"I have asked you here to discuss a treaty for our families," he starts.
"State your demands, we might as well not take longer than this needs to be." Aurora again shoots a look at me, and my tail lashes. Before we left, she commanded me not to attack the Cullens unless they initiate the fight.
"We wish for you to abstain from attacking our family and refrain from telling anyone of our origin. And we would also wish for you to leave the residence of Forks be." His eyes once again drift to me as if he already knows that it is me. I force my eyes to remain on his, instead of drifting around the family I once knew, like I actually want to.
"And we could only wish the same as you," Aurora replies in her calm together voice, very much differentiating from my own screaming profanities at my old family in my head. I get a few rumbles in response to my high emotions.
My tail lashes.
Aurora's eyes regard me calmly. "If that is all-"
"Actually," Carlisle steps forward and is greeted with multiple warning growls from my brothers and sisters. Even my constant rumble growls louder in warning. "I would appreciate it if you spoke with the wolves and tell them that we have returned. It would be unfortunate if we came across them by accident."
A yowl of protest stems from Ivy's lips and even Aurora hisses.
"We are not your messengers; if you want them notified, do it yourselves. Our last run in with them was less than pleasant."
'I'd say; they nearly took off my leg!' I stomp in irritation, and we all shift.
'And you nearly made my ears bleed with all your moaning and complaining.' Ian says.
'I was moaning and complaining about you throwing lamps and books at my head.' I retort and Elliot snorts.
Alexis's head bumps him in the shoulder.
"Calm Alexis," Aurora says, turning her back fully on the vampires. Angel steps forward to create a wall and kneels for her to get on his back. "The treaty is set so now we should be leaving."
"Wait!" A tinkling, high-pitched voice calls, and everyone seems to freeze. "Bella, I need to talk to you!"
Her voice is desperate, fearful, regretful. I turn to Alice and memories surface creating a background static as she begs me to stay.
Anger. How can she act so pitiful when I'm the one she left- I'm the one who lost everything. How can she make me feel guilt for what she did. What they all did.
"We had to leave Bella, it wasn't safe for you, it was never safe for you. We thought that we could not be dangerous but we were wrong and we're sorry. I'm sorry for leaving you."
'You're sorry I'm reacting this way; that I'm not running into your cold dead arms the moment you return!'
'Izzy honey, they can't hear you,' Eva says softly.
'Because they don't listen- you don't listen!" My voice, loud and real, tears through the night, scattering birds farther into the woods. "You play these games and leave, then you return and expect everything to go back to the way it was!"
Her eyes go wide at me as I stand feet from her, naked and trembling in rage.
"Don't pretend that you ever loved any of us other than Edward!" She fumes. "You only came over for Edward, you just put up with the rest of us."
"I LOVED YOU ALL! You, Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Jasper, Emmitt, even Rosalie and she hates my guts! Sure Edward was my boyfriend, and yeah I loved him, but I loved all of you just as much. I thought of you as family and I didn't even consider what would happen if I let myself get close to you. I let myself build you up so much in my life that when you left, everything that I had was gone too!"
My chest seizes and my arms automatically go to wrap around myself as pain shreds through my heart. All the agony of their abandonment come to shards in my hands.
Cries of pain come from my family as they experience what I feel and the Cullens look around wildly for anything that could be causing them such hurt. But it's me hurting my family, and just that makes me gasp again as the ache goes even deeper. But I have to finish what I was saying even though Alice looks about ready to cry if she could.
"And I find out that it was all a game to you, that everything that I felt means nothing. I HATE you! The only one that I don't hate is Rosalie- at least she was honest from the very beginning!"
"Izzy I-"
"No!" I snap, anger roaring in my chest as I ignore her desperate look. "You don't get to call me that anymore; only family and friends get to call me that. Not you- never you."
She reaches for me and I turn away from her touch and when I hear her sob, I almost take it all back. Tears pour down my face, choking me from anything that I could say.
"What did he say to you?" Her question ends in a sob.
"The truth." I answer and take off as fast as I can into the trees as I feel the change seize my body, not nearly as hard as it usually comes.
My family whispers in my head words that I don't understand and they become so frustrating trying to comprehend that I change back to human, feeling weaker than I ever have as a cat.
…
Edward's POV
"What did you say to her!?" Alice turns on me, hissing and voice horse. I have never heard a vampire's voice be horse before.
Pain filled thoughts swamp mine and I strain once again to read the cats', any of their thoughts, as they try to recover from whatever it was that was attacking them.
My own chest aches at the way Bella had looked so angry. Alice's eyes are a dark black, challenging me to do anything but answer the question truthfully. I never told them exactly what I had told her.
"I-I told her that I never loved her." I whisper lowly, hoping against hope that she doesn't hear. "I told her that none of us loved her and that she was just a game to us to pass time."
Her eyes blaze like she is physically trying to shoot fire at me through them; and I flinch at her thoughts, all my family's thoughts. Esme's agony and Carlisle's disappointment. Emmitt mentally smashes my face in as Jasper's thoughts convey just how disapproving he is of my actions.
But Alice's are the loudest, the most fury and actual hate directed at me.
"How could you say that- hurt her like that?!" She lunges at me but Rosalie catches her before she can do any damage.
"I thought that if she thought that we didn't care, she would move on faster. I didn't know."
"Even I'm not that cruel." Rosalie comments with a shake of her head.
A voice that belongs to no thoughts startles me out of drowning in the curses from my shortest sister.
"You were not just playing with her feelings?" A girl asks, the one called Ivy, and I carefully keep my eyes on hers. I have hardly ever seen a naked girl before, except by accident. It would be rude to stare.
"Of course not!" Alice exclaims distraughtly. "She's my best friend."
"Best friends don't just leave without a word," the taller girl with dark brown hair behind her said. And I tried hard not to listen to the remorseful thoughts coming from my shortest sister.
She's mine, I think to her, knowing that she can't read minds. That's my talent. She will never be yours like you want her to be.
"If I had gone to say good bye to her, she would have asked me to stay, and I would have."
Everyone is silent, not knowing where to go from there. The werecats look uncomfortable standing in front of us and the shorthaired blond boy changes back into a sandy colored feline.
The most mellow looking girl, though still with a cold look directed at my family, runs her finger through his fur as though to calm him.
Finally Aurora speaks, and it's not as brittle as before. "Regardless of your motives, you hurt Isabella and we cannot forgive you for that. Now whether she forgives you or not, is for her to decide."
The pack leader swinging up onto one of the cats is a clear goodbye, and the rest who were still human quickly changed with glowering looks directed at my family and I, before racing off in the direction my Bella went.
…
Bella's POV
Birds fly up and scatter, sending rain falling from still leaves as I skid to a stop, panting and heart racing. I wait as the scrapes and scratches that I had accumulated during my run to heal, and fall back on my butt.
Mud cakes my legs but the cool, damp forest has no effect on me temperature wise. The sounds of dripping leaves and scuffling of a small animal farther off, or the panicked flight of birds has my heart calming, and the clenching lighten up.
It's so stupid to be having these reactions about them- they left. They don't care about me, so I shouldn't be bothered with hurt feelings about them.
I should just pretend that they don't exist and be done with them.
I flop back into the moss and breathe in the musky sent of forest deeply, calming me even more.
I should be glad that they left, because if they hadn't, I wouldn't have my pack now, be this wild thing that could lay in a forest naked without any fear at all. I would still be strung along, the foolish human, by a group of vampires that cared nothing of me.
At least I know now, and I'm not ever going to be that girl who lets a possessive, controlling boyfriend dictate her life.
I am strong now. I have a pack, a family, and every time I hurt for the Cullens, my family hurts for me.
All I shall harbor for them now, is hate and anger.
A branch snaps somewhere to my right, but I don't twitch or even move, other than my eyes in that direction- I had heard the large padding of footsteps long ago and I already know that it's one of my pack.
I take in the dark brown fur and the glowing green eyes that look over me in concern, before crossing my arms behind my head and stare up at the grey stormy sky.
The cracking and breaking sound of bones makes me wince, but two minutes later, a human body lies down next to me with a soft sigh.
I want the Cullens to hurt, like I did, or leave like they did before so I can be left in peace with my family.
I don't want to be imprinted with Alice Cullen; I don't want anything to do with her, but my cat aches to run back and fling itself down at her feet and beg for forgiveness for hurting her.
I won't let her.
Shifting, I throw my leg over my friend's hip and press my palms into Alex's shoulders to hold her to the squishy ground, my eyes narrowing in concentration.
Her eyebrow lifts in surprise and she opens her mouth to say something, but I lean down and capture her lips in mine with bruising force.
Why can't she be my imprint instead- or Ivy, or Eva, or Ian, or Elliot or Angel?
Why can't it be anyone but a Cullen?
Alexis sits up fast, gripping my hips tightly and returning the kiss with just as much heat.
Her skin is hot to the touch, and it's a lot of skin, as I drag my nails up her back and push my body closer.
"I don't want her," I whisper as she slams me backward and into the ground with a growl. I gasp as real nails sink into my thighs, drawing blood.
"You do," she says lightly biting my neck and then soothing it with her tongue. "You are angry right now, and hurt, but you want her more than anything."
She kisses me hard one more time before nuzzling into my neck and rolling us both on our sides.
"And I love you Izzy, but not as a lover," she sighs, warm breath puffing my collar bone. And it feels so wrong. "You have an imprint, so it's not right for me to keep you from her or for you to keep me from mine."
"Why can't I be yours and you be mine?" I ask, nuzzling into her long dark hair that has a few twigs tangled in it. She smells of forest and wild and freedom. "Why can't it be anyone else but a Cullen?"
She sighs, gently kissing my collar bone. "Because no matter how much you will deny it, she is your other half."
I bite my lip, caressing the bare skin of her shoulder and back absently. Maybe it's a cat thing, being able to cuddle like this, naked, without me feeling the slightest bit awkward or uncomfortable.
"So, you're saying that I should forgive her?"
"I'm saying that no matter what, you will want to be with her. Imprinting does not automatically make you mates, though. You will be whatever she needs, and that can be a sister, a best friend, or a lover. We get the short and of the stick because while they can love anyone, our imprint is it for us."
A bird chirps overhead, and I can hear something digging a few hundred yards away. Being cat is amazing; I can hear, see, smell so much more and I wouldn't give it up for anything.
Especially a Cullen.
"So why'd you kiss me back?"
I can feel her grin against my skin. "Because you needed me to. Plus we cats are very affectionate. I kiss every one else all the time."
"Really?" I ask in surprise, both my eyebrows shooting up.
"Yeah, well, except for Aurora, that'd just be weird. And Ivy and Elliot don't kiss, they actually are brother and sister, but the rest of us do. It's a friendly kind of thing, you know, hello, goodbye, the sorts."
"How come I've never seen this?" I ask suspiciously. This would be something Alexis would joke about after all, and she loves pulling my leg.
She shrugs. "We don't hide it- it's not awkward for us and we don't care what other people think."
…
"Huh," I say in thought.
She releases me and rolls to her feet.
"Well, we should head back now so your dad doesn't freak out about you being gone so long."
I heave a heavy sigh before flipping onto my feet. "Fine, let's go."
I close my eyes, feeling for the moon where it's hidden behind a blanket of thick clouds. My skin starts to itch and muscles burn as my breath hitches in my throat at my pounding heart. It sounds like a war drum as I frantically search in myself for the wild animal that is caged in metal bars.
She had been fairly quiet this whole night, but now I reach for the faintest flicker of her.
I focus on the woodsy smell, the leaves and moss on my bare feet, remember the feel of freedom and strength that I feel while running as a cat.
My stomach is jerked into my throat, making me choke and fall to my knees as I feel the bones in my legs break and grow, stretching my skin painfully as they find a new place and shape.
Finally the pain recedes and I can breathe normally again as I stand taller than a few baby trees.
Taking a deep breath, I look over at my pack mate and see her already staring down at me with glowing green eyes. She nods to me.
'Relatively easy,' she says- thinks- in an impressed sounding tone. 'You're getting the hang of this pretty fast.'
'And you're getting slow.' I say, taking off into the brush in the direction I instinctively know to be the Pisica's house.
A/N: Thanks for reading and please review! I'm can't promise a quick update.
~Silver~