Author's Note: Ugh...chapters, chapters, so many fucking chapters...but I did it. I fucking did it! Enjoy and tell me what you guys think. Also, certain things are going to be coming up soon, so I'm going to need to know now...what do you guys think about me adding an actual sex scene? Know that it'll be my first time doing it so I have no idea how good it'll be...it's up to you, you lovely, lovely people.

Chapter 25

Packing was easy enough, or so it should have been, until B decided to start messing with Kate again. It started when B went to change outfits in one of the guest bedrooms to get the nasty smell from the brimstone ring off, and when she came back downstairs, it was in a tight, short black skirt and an equally tight golden shirt that hung off both shoulders, clearly showing no bra straps and quite a bit of cleavage.

Unable to help herself, she stopped packing a stared, all but drooling, as B sauntered over to her. "Wanna guess if I have underwear on too?" B asked with a smirk as she strode by Kate to pick up and pack her kindle from the table before purposely bending over to put it in her bag, only a few feet away from Kate.

It took B straightening up for Kate to snap out of her stunned staring, only to cross her arms over her chest, muttering, "Tease."

"You know it," B replied playfully, walking towards the kitchen and running her fingers along the small strip of exposed skin on Kate's stomach. Messing with Kate really was getting to be too much fun.

Snapping out of her brief pout, Kate gave B a look of pure, frustrated desire. "That's it! I can't take anymore!" Kate cried, pouncing on her mate and taking them both to the ground in a flash. She pinned B to the floor, staring into her mate's darkening brown eyes as she got a hint of B's arousal. "Come on, Isabella, just one kiss and grope. I need it," Kate murmured as she leaned down, and amazingly enough, B looked like she was ready to give in, and way more than Kate thought she would.

The timing didn't matter, the possible threat didn't matter...all that mattered was B, and how she tilted her head back as if giving Kate her throat.

"Getting busy on the floor, are you? What happened to packing?" the low, amused voice of Tanya had Kate jerking away from B with a snarl.

"Really?" Kate demanded, glaring at her sister. "Did you just have to interrupt us?"

Before Tanya could answer, B twisted out from under Kate and flipped to her feet. "Maybe next time," B said, throwing a flirty smile over her shoulder that made Kate's entire body ignite with need before flitting off to find Carmen.

Realizing that there wouldn't be another good chance to have B tonight, Kate let out a loud, pained groan as she flopped backwards onto the floor. "This isn't fair!" Kate whined, sounding like a spoiled child. "At this rate, I really am going to die."

"I can tell," Tanya said, still sounding highly amused. "It must be especially hard since it's been so long since you've had sex."

"So why did you have to interrupt us?" Kate moaned, lifting her head up just enough so she could let it fall to the floor with a thump.

"Honestly? Because it's fun to see that someone is actually getting under your skin for once." At Tanya's admission, Kate sat up so she could stare at Tanya with disbelief. Tanya only smirked at her and added, "Think of it as karma for all that teasing you've done for the last thousand years."

"You bitch!" Kate exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

"Relax. It's not like she's going to keep you chasing her forever." Or at the very least, B was going to continue to give in once in awhile before making Kate chase her again. While Tanya could see that B was slowly but surely losing to Kate's advances, it was also clear that B took great joy in making Kate squirm. That moment at the dinner table was proof enough.

"I don't care anymore," Kate growled as she turned away. "I'm gonna go put our stuff in the car. B has to have finished packing everything by now." She stormed off, clearly beyond sexually frustrated, leaving Tanya to watch in amusement. She never thought that the day would come when someone could drive Kate as crazy as she now seemed to be every day. And damn, did Tanya enjoy it.

It seemed that breaking up Bella and Kate had been the last necessary thing to do, because everyone else was already packed and ready to go, now waiting on their front porch without anybody actually saying much.

The family all piled into one van with Tanya in the driver's seat, Eleazar in the passenger's seat, with Irina and Carmen in the middle and Kate and Bella in the back. Everyone was silent and strangely somber, unlike their usual mood whenever they went on any type of trip. B, strangely, was more somber than most, and had become that way the second she had stepped out of the house and started walking toward the van.

Now, B looked through the back window to get one last look at the house, already missing it as Tanya drove away. It was strange, but for all the time they spent there––which admittedly wasn't much, although it was more than B had spent in any other place besides the cabin and her childhood home––there was so much that B hadn't gotten to do. In fact, she hadn't even gotten to see more than a glimpse of Kate's room, and hadn't even slept in the house. She realized quickly that now that they were out of the house, the "no seeing B naked rule" was gone. She hadn't even gotten to hold that over Kate's head yet, damn it.

The more she thought, the more tired B became, and she let out a loud yawn, stretching out in the backseat of the van. Kate absently pulled B into her lap so B could cuddle up against her, which B did without hesitation, resting her head on Kate's chest.

"Love you," B mumbled sleepily.

Kate stared down at B for a long moment, a happy pain in her chest as she tightened her grip on the best mate she could have ever hoped to have. "I love you too, Isabella," Kate murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of B's head. "For the rest of eternity, I will always love you."

Soon B was drifting off to sleep, a happy smile on her face, and Kate just watched her.

No matter where they went or what happened, as long as they were together, Kate knew she would be happy.

The road trip was quiet and tense, and the only content one––save for the one that was sleeping and seemed to be having very pleasant dreams––was Kate. She felt good, knowing that B was in her arms and safe, that B had told Kate she loved her, no matter how sleepy and out of it her Kitten seemed, and they were currently driving away from the site of an incredible danger that came from who knew what.

Now, if only Kate could fix the 'unmarked mate' problem. That ,and Kate needed sex. Lots and lots of sex. Kate was seriously tired of not getting any. If those two problems would just get taken care of, then life would be fucking perfect.

She really needed to figure out how to catch B soon. Kate knew that the second she managed to do so, and on her own ability, B would be all hers. She could see it in the longing way Kate caught B looking at her whenever Kate got close, as if she just wanted to stop the game and throw herself at Kate. But Kate could tell that this chase game was important, and Kate really, really wanted to prove herself.

Kate had to have been either projecting her thoughts incredibly loudly, or a certain was purposely keeping an ear out for them, because the second Tanya's car pulled into the driveway, the Cullens came out to greet them. All of them looked excited and pleased to see the Denalis, regardless of Edward, save for Edward, who wore a very clear look of disgust on his face.

"Welcome, everyone! I'm so glad to see you all again, especially so soon," Carlisle greeted the Denalis with a large smile, first taking Tanya's hand, then moving on to the rest of the coven, stopping at the last two members, Kate and B. He held out his hand unsurely, not out of fear, but out of respect for Kate and her newly found mate. Not to mention that Kate was using both arms to carry B, and Carlisle wasn't sure if they could shake hands even if Kate wanted to.

Kate didn't shake his hand, but gave him a warm smile and a nod. "It's nice to see you again, old friend."

"Emmett, what are you doing just standing there? Help them with their bags!" Esme scolded, jolting her son into action.

"Right, right, I got it!" He hurried to the car and grabbed the last of the luggage––the luggage of Kate and B, since both were a little too tied up to take it themselves.

"Thanks, Em," Kate said with a huge grin at the buff vampire, and the vampire responded with a smile just as big.

"No prob, but you still owe me. You, me, your mate, and video games. When your cat wakes up." At that, he chuckled to himself. "Kate's Cat. Damn am I good."

"Whatever helps you get through the night," Kate teased, following Emmett into the house. "Just be warned, if you're on B's team for almost any game...she's more likely to kill you than the other players."

"Damn, you serious? Well, since you're her mate and all, maybe you should, I dunno, show her the ropes? As her teammate and all," Emmett tried to convince Kate, but Kate shook her head.

"Too bad for you, Isabella and I have a...competitive relationship," Kate purred, looking down at her sleeping mate with darkening eyes even as she started going up the stairs, still following Emmett. "It would be so much better to pit us against one another; I believe it will be the only way for her to get better."

"I better train your mate up fast then," Emmett grumbled.

"Good luck with that," Kate said with a soft laugh. "She's the worst player I've ever seen in all of my years." Just like that, they were in Kate's guest bedroom, and Emmett placed their bags down with a naughty grin.

"You two have fun now. Y'know, once she wakes up and all." Emmett winked, and then he was gone.

I'll try, Kate thought to herself as she placed Bella down gently on the bed, taking great care in covering her.

"Maybe the reason she hasn't let you mark her yet is because she knows you're not her mate. Because you're forcing yourself on her," a familiar, irritating voice said from the doorway of her room.

Kate gritted her teeth, hands clenching into fists, and turned to face the biggest pain in the ass since...well, since her. Only this particular ass was a pain in a whole different way than Kate was, and was much more likely to piss people off––like now.

"Edward, what the fuck?" Kate hissed in a low voice, knowing that the combination of a loud voice and her anger would definitely wake her mate. "What business do you have, coming into my room, with my mate sleeping in it?" She wanted to shift in front of the bed more to give Edward less to look at, but didn't want to make him think she saw him as a threat. That would only make his ego bigger.

"You do realize that this is our house? Which means that this room isn't yours; if anything, it's Carlisle's," Edward said with a sniff. "And as I said, she hasn't let you mark her, because she knows she is not your mate."

Kate let out a low snarl. "So I guess that means that 'your' room in our house isn't yours either then, huh?" The Denalis had a thing about privacy, which was why they tried soundproofing their rooms as much as they could, and it's also why, in normal circumstances, nobody would go into another's room with permission. But the second Kate got home, she was so trashing the room where Eddie boy stayed. If anything, he should thank her, since it was either his room or his face.

Edward's eyes narrowed as he heard Kate's violent thoughts, and a low growl slipped out of his throat, one that Kate echoed. The tension had clearly gotten to the exhausted feline in the room, because she woke up disoriented and ready to defend Kate to the death.

At the sight of B flipping to her feet, Edward's gaze turned to the shifter. The shifter whose thoughts he couldn't read, the shifter who had been so scared when she had first woken up that day that Edward could taste her fear, the shifter who had actually been kidnapped by Kate out of some crazy belief that she was Kate's mate. He didn't care that his family was okay with it, he was going to get the girl out of Kate's clutches.

Before anything could get even more out of hand, Irina and Tanya appeared in front of Edward, shoving him out of Kate's room with twin looks of fury on their faces.

"Edward, I think you really need to learn to watch your mouth," Tanya told the boy in a deadly calm tone that hinted quite clearly at how dangerous Tanya was at the moment.

"You shouldn't be encouraging her insane behavior in the first place!" Edward hissed back as he got in Tanya's face, eyes narrowed with his own anger. Tanya was about to show him a few things about respect, but then Carlisle got between them. He looked from the two sisters to his son, than to the sister who was currently trying to comfort her freaked out shifter, and sighed at the situation.

"Edward, please go take a walk. Once again Jasper, Emmett, do you think you could go with him?" He didn't get a verbal reply, but both boys flashed into the room, both incredibly grim, especially given their jovial mood only five minutes ago, and managed to usher Edward out of the room. Everyone could hear Rosalie's scathing comment directed at her mind reading brother, but chose to ignore it.

"I really am sorry," Carlisle said, turning back to the sisters and B. "I hate that this is how you are greeted when you were being welcomed into our home."

"Just keep your son under control when he's around me and my mate, and we won't have a problem," Kate stated in a flat, hard voice, one that left no room for argument––not that anyone save for Edward would, especially after what they heard. Just thinking about that jerk made Kate pull a confused and trembling B closer. B had really just been introduced to the Cullens in the worst possible way, and Kate could already tell that she wouldn't be opening up to any of the Cullens anytime soon.

"Right, I'm sure we can all do our best to make sure there will be no more...transgressions," Carlisle said, a tinge of doubt to his voice.

Well, wasn't that fucking convincing.