Previously:

I pressed my lips onto hers. It was simple, and lingering. The kiss dimmed the anxiety and the entire world. She didn't refuse me or fight. She kissed back, and that was all I needed. The water splashed into the lagoon, the wind sang with the trees, but we could've been in a basement for all I cared. My venom soared through me. It didn't push me the extra mile to twist her face and sink my teeth into her neck. It let me have this.

She was the first to pull away. Her hand tucked a piece of her hair back behind her ear. She grinned, almost embarrassed. How long had it been since she had been kissed?

Her hand played with mine. "Well, thank you for giving me something to write about."

Jasper

Jubilant.

It was a good descriptor for the world I viewed for the next few hours. Minimal words were exchanged between us. She wrote and I watched her facial muscles morph into the reflections of her emotions. She lay on her stomach and I faced her on my side on the cool grass. As the time ticked by and the Earth prepared for its nocturnal sequence by dimming the lights, Elise's expression transformed into a more strained focus. She was trying to reflect as much light onto her paper as possible, meanwhile fighting her droopy eyes to stay open.

She put her pen down and scooted closer to me. Her instinct told her this would give her warmth, but I was the one that was thermally impotent. I stole the heat from her, but she didn't mind. Her eyes finally gave up the silent battle and she fell into a deep sleep. The journal slipped from her fingers and landed on the soft grass. I eyed it carefully.

Taking a peek would do what my gift couldn't. The thought was inviting, but I stopped my hand from reaching out. If she wanted to tell me her feelings, she would do so on her own accord. Reading her private thoughts and exposing them without permission felt wrong. Edward could learn a lesson or two.

Elise's head rested against my chest. We lay on the towel beneath the starry, moonlit light. Her soft breathing accompanied the slow rustle of leaves of the trees around us. The waterfall gushed fully and proudly at the successful day.

As the night grew colder, I wrapped her in the towel and ran her back to the Cullen residence. I tucked her into her bed and left her journal safely on her desk. As I was shutting the door, Rosalie met me in the hallway.

"It's nice to see you like this."

I arched an eyebrow.

"Content. Attentive. The clouds from your eyes have faded." I fought the scoff that climbed up my throat. The detail she observed regarding the lack of clouds was the absence of a red stain in the gold. I hadn't had a human in weeks. Peter would give me hell. And so would Maria.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

She smiled and gestured for us to head downstairs. I followed her into our dimly lit living room.

"As much as I hate that she steals my husband away, Elise has done a fair job fitting in."

"I agree."

She waited a few minutes for a response, then broke the silence. "Come on, Jasper."

Why did everyone and their mother want to talk to me about Elise? I gave her an impatient look.

A smile played on her lips. "Emmett tells me she likes you. You think they don't talk during their adventures?"

"I like her, too."

She crossed her arms. "Fine. I'm just trying to instigate a conversation about your feelings. Keeping them bottled up is just no good."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm an empath. I think I got this."

I most certainly didn't.

She tucked her legs underneath her. "The way she looks at you, and the way you look at her. You have silent conversations during every family event. You anticipate her needs, she anticipates yours. When you're too quiet, she includes you. She's what you needed for the past one-hundred or so years to nudge you back to life. I hope you've noticed."

Nudge me back to life? Sentence me to death, she probably meant. "The attraction is there," I said. "The venom sings."

"And it will sing. Forever," She emphasized.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Are you congratulating me or damning me to hell? I really can't tell."

She pulled a pillow onto her lap. "Jasper Whitlock, you're the most emotionally unavailable creature I have ever met. If she can elicit these feelings in you, she's earned a congratulations from me. On the other end, I pity her. She'll be stuck with this gray wall for the rest of her life."

I cracked a smile. "Your dramatism is why Emmett stays with you, isn't it?"

"No," she persisted. "He stays with me because he is my mate. Just as Elise is yours."

My hands rubbed my face. I felt like a human who hadn't slept in three days. "Have you been talking to Alice?"

"No. Should I be?"

The vulnerability I felt with Elise at the falls came crashing down on me. It was fine if Elise was aware of the mating bond. I could probably deal with that. But the rest of the world? My skin was cracking and the weak points were showing. It was only a matter of time until Elise would be used against me. I should ask the girl myself. By chance, does my counter show when exactly you'll end up killing me? Because you will be the reason for my death.

Rosalie waved a hand around me. "Hello? Will you just tell me what you're thinking? What's this about Alice?"

I shook my head. "Alice has reached the same conclusion you have."

"And you disagree?"

I was mute, and she took it the wrong way.

"You never know a good thing until it's gone," she spoke calmly. "I suggest you open those dreary eyes and shine a bright light on what's in front of you. Elise is certainly no Bella, and you are nothing close to an Edward. If anything happens to the girl, you will raise hell on Earth. I see that fury in you. The protectiveness, the isolation. You're scared and you're afraid of how the feeling motivates your actions. A mate is the highest power a vampire can believe in," Rosalie narrowed her eyes at the ceiling. "And besides, if the psychic has spoken, it's prophecy. She's the modern three Fates wrapped up in one tiny little body."

I watched as Rebecca toppled over in the dirt as another female recruit grabbed her neck. I knew that if I didn't intervene, she would get her arms detached for the third time today. I let her take a break to heal and ordered two other recruits to take the stage.

From the corner of my eye, I watched the newborn. She was getting torn apart quickly and much too often. The irony in that lay in the fact that she would only be useful torn apart. Her shield would effectively be dispersed across key players in battle, but there weren't enough pieces of her to shield everyone. My jaw hardened as I focused on the recruits in the middle. It was a shame. Elise would run four laps over her by the time she crossed her first. The thought erupted pride in me that masked the panic underneath.

Maria smoothed out some particle debris from the newly constructed concrete walls. The recruits had proper shelter and even a den of assorted cannisters of blood. As training intensity increased, Maria decided that it would be more worthwhile to cater their meals and not waste any time on hunts.

Her lips curled as her gaze rested on the newborn who sat quietly at the edge of the dirt, her eyes on the sparring recruits. It was hard to admit, but Maria and I probably shared the same opinion regarding the girl. When I thought she was going to pull me away to talk about Rebecca's permanent role in the camp, she hit me with something that blindsided me completely.

"You smell like that human, again."

Curses echoed through my head. The clouds in my brain were impacting my livelihood, which also impacted Elise. A shower, Whitlock. It's that simple. Water washed scents away. Indoor plumbing was a gift from the gods and I just blatantly ignored it. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I had to play ignorant. Stone was my face as I turned to her. "Who?"

"The one you always smell of. She must be a delicious thing for you to keep her around for months."

I went back to examining the fight. I had no obligation to answer her.

"A little birdie tells me she walks around freely. Not as a meal, but as…" She trailed, not completing her thoughts. She did this quite often as a manipulation strategy. Letting the other side's consciousness complete the thoughts enough to fill in the truth. It was brilliant, but it wouldn't work.

But when had birds suddenly felt okay to fly within a one-mile radius of this bitch? She was the furthest creature from Snow White.

"You know that all of the delegates are somewhat watched. You think you were the exception?"

Had I compromised Elise that easily? I wouldn't have missed that. I couldn't have missed that. Suddenly, Elise didn't feel as safe with the Cullens as I had let myself to believe. How many of the nomads that passed through Idaho were bought out by the alliance? Did they follow us through Montana? Nevada?

Maria tiptoed around me. "But your eyes have been the same, if not worse. Tell me, what do you use her for, Major Whitlock?"

It was always about using. You used people, and they used you. It was an emotionless arrangement that somehow kept the world spinning. Think, Whitlock. Think. Maria wanted a motive. A smart one. One that couldn't leave any gray areas for questioning. Something that would keep her on the sidelines to my problems.

"She's a resource," I said finally. My thoughts adjusted quickly. You wanted to have someone believe you? Believe it yourself. The rest came easy. She isn't your mate. She is nothing. Anything but a resource. "I'm training her."

Her intrigue was evident. "For us? Then why isn't she here with the rest?" She yearned for an explanation on what made this girl special.

I threw her more bones to chew on. "She will be mingled with the rest after she's changed." But why did I keep her to myself? Because my venom sang. I wanted to do anything and everything I could to make her mine. Both were reasons Maria could never know. I needed something better. Something more drastic to shut her up. A justification that would be impenetrable.

A deep breath. "She's a shield." I cursed myself silently after uttering the truth that would shield the dishonesty. "I wanted to test out her capabilities before fully committing her. We don't want another case of Rebecca."

That threw her off, but she maintained her smile. I could see the cogs whirring in her head. "When will she be changed?"

"Two months," I said easily.

Maria crossed her arms. "Good, good. Next time, keep me in the loop. These developments are important to share with the rest of the delegates. Keeps them interested, keeps them supportive. Motivation is hard to come by these days."

My phone buzzed incessantly. I took that as a much-needed excuse to run as far away from her as possible.

"Thank you," I whispered into the phone when I was out of ear shot. I hadn't even looked at who was calling.

"Nice job. You've sold Elise's soul. How do you feel about that?"

I was away from the bitch, but I had ran into the witch. "Alice, don't test me. Not today. I can't tolerate this right now."

She barked through the phone. "Neither can I. Elise probably wouldn't either if she found out you're serving her to Maria on a silver platter."

"Alice," I spoke through gritted teeth. "That isn't happening. Elise sticks with me. Maria can't touch her."

"What if she doesn't want to, Jasper? What if Elise wants nothing to do with the cause? Then, what will you do?"

Was this a trick question? "She's my mate, as you and our favorite blonde barbie doll have confirmed. She has no choice."

"Yes, she does. Your view of a mate is flawed to the tenth degree and it's terrifying. She isn't a robot that's programmed for you to do as you please."

I wasn't saying that. Not at all. I was simply following nature's curse. "The bond, Alice. Her venom would sing the same as mine. She wouldn't want to be anyplace else."

"There is a bond, but she'd do her darndest to break it if she knew all the shit you were pulling."

I had enough. Truly. The phone's screen cracked a little when I hit the end call icon. Alice was wrong. The way Elise looked at me after I tasted her lips was the way she would look at me for the rest of her dead life. If I was cursed with a mate, I would have it committed one hundred percent. I was stuck with her, and she was stuck with me. The psychic had spoken, and it was the truth to be etched into ancient tablets.

I wasn't serving Elise to anyone. The risk would be mitigated because if I fought with the alliance, Elise would do so in a heartbeat. If I ran away from it all, she'd be the one marking the map to our next getaway. This would be our life. We'd stay one step ahead of the game, because the game would use anything against us given the chance.

The phone vibrated persistently again. I should've broken it completely.

"What?" I barked.

Alice was eerily quiet before she spoke. "I'm coming home."

Was she insane? "No, you can't."

"Yes, I can," she kept her voice low, raw with unreleased emotion. "The Volturi are going to issue a hearing with Carlisle. I don't know what they're suspecting or who tipped them off, but I think that gives me the warrant to return to my family before we're torn apart."

A/N: Oh, snap. Maria's getting a glimpse into Elise. But for how long had she been watching? And the Volturi may demand a hearing with the Carlisle. What do they know and how do they know it?

It's my birthday week, so I've had some trouble finding time to update. Apologies for the delay, but you did get two chapters last week!