Rosalie and Bella were both counting down the seconds until the last bell signaled the end of the school day and the beginning of an afternoon spent with their mate and imprint happily.

Bella walked up to Rosalie leaning on her thunderbird and opened the driver's side signaling Rosalie to get in. Rosalie sent a scowl toward Alice when she heard the girl squeal and clap her hands watching them. She had warned not only her siblings but her parents that Bella was coming over and that they were to leave them alone as to not only give them time together but to not overwhelm Bella by surrounding her with vampires. It pleased Rosalie greatly that Bella trusted her enough to even come over and she would be damned if they were going to ruin this afternoon for her.

On the way to her house Rosalie asked Bella about her day and they chatted about classes and schoolwork never venturing into anything deep. It was comfortable and relaxed until Rosalie turned into her driveway. Bella tensed and fisted her hands to suppress her feelings of being in danger and the urge to shift. She guessed she was feeling this way due to the overwhelming smells of so many vampires. Controlling it was more difficult than she thought it would be as she never felt her fight or flight instincts triggered so strongly before.

Rosalie watched Bella closely with concern. She looked like she was in pain and her breathing was becoming faster the closer they came to her house. She had known it would be hard for Bella to be around vampires as she wasn't used to them but she didn't think it would be this hard on her.

"All you alright? We can do this at your house if you want. I don't need to use my garage. I can bring my tools to your house if you are uncomfortable."

Bella shook her head. "No it's fine I'm not just not used to the smell of vampire. You smell different than your family. You smell like blooming flowers. It makes me forget you're even a vampire sometimes."

It Rosalie was a human she would have blushed. That had a be a good thing. Bella said she didn't smell like a vampire so did that mean Bella felt the bond? She badly wanted to ask but knew it was to soon to bring it up. She was more than happy to take things slow with Bella and have them established a relationship before she told her about the bond. That of course would happen only after she told Bella her secret because Rosalie wanted Bella to accept her for herself not because predetermined fate made her.

"You guys love your windows don't you?!" Bella asked as the house came into view.

"We are surrounded by wilderness out here so we can be ourselves. We can't go out in public when it's sunny due to our skin but at home we don't have to hide so we have the windows."

"What happens to your skin when it's hit with sunlight?" Bella asked

"One day I'll show you. It's easier to show than explain." Rosalie said realizing never before would she have shown anyone her skin or any other part of herself . Now she was almost eager for Bella to see all of her. She wanted Bella to know her almost as badly as she wanted to know Bella. It was a strange and exciting feeling.

Bella nodded as the feeling of danger became more intense the closer they got to the house. She could feel her tiger fighting to break out and focusing solely on Rosalie was the only thing keeping her in check. Her scent surrounded her while she was in the car and Bella was worried that once she no longer had that to center herself she would be all the more on edge.

With a deep inhale Bella opened her car door and walked around the car towards Rosalie. Rosalie asked her to stay there while she went in the house to change her clothes. Bella felt grateful and the slightest bit guilty that Rosalie was noticing her unease. She thought she would be fine and could control herself but she had never been put in a situation like this. She just hoped she could relax in a little while thinking the longer she was exposed to the scent the more comfortable she would be.

Alice had been waiting on the backside of the garage for the moment Rosalie went into the house. She had been warned not to bother Bella while she was there but it wasn't in Alice's nature not to go after what she wanted. She just knew Bella would want to be her friend if she got to know her but that wouldn't happen if Rosalie kept Alice away from her. Who knew how long it would be before Rosalie would let her even come near Bella. So now was her chance to make a move.

As she walked around the side of the building she found Bella standing at the entrance to the garage with her back towards her. She approach her slowly and when she was a few feet away she spoke her greeting.

"Hi Bella, I'm Al" was all that she got out before she suddenly came face to face with a giant white tiger. She fell down and scrambled backwards as the tiger stalked her. Emmett was right Bella was huge. She had thought Bella had caught him off guard and got lucky when she was able to tear his leg off but looking at the tiger she realized that he was the lucky one. Lucky that's all she tore off.

"Alice god damn it!! What did I tell you?" Rosalie yelled as she raced in front of Alice putting herself in front of the very, very angry white tiger. She had just finished tying her hair up and hadn't even been gone five minutes when she heard the loud roar that she knew to be Bella's.

Bella was already on edge and as Rosalie suddenly saw the rest of her family come out of the house to surround Alice she knew it was up to her to diffuse this situation and calm down a now growling and snarling Bella.

"Bella, it's ok." Rosalie said softly holding her hands up in a non threatening way. "They aren't going to attack you I promise. I don't know what Alice did to upset you but I know she's sorry and she didn't mean to piss you off. Do you think you could change back and we could talk about this?"

In reply Bella started backing away keeping her eyes only on Rosalie and nodded her head twice.

Rosalie released the breath she didn't even know she was holding. "Ok, Good, that's great. So we are going to stay right here in front of you and not move out of your line of sight and talk this through. Nobody needs to get hurt. "

Bella looked around for a minute until she gave a confused Rosalie a piece of her shirt. It was then that Rosalie realized. "You need clothes because you ripped yours,no problem. Esme is going to go in the house and get some clothes for you to put on. Would it be ok for her to leave to do that?"

Bella nodded and in a few seconds Esme had returned with a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. Rosalie sent her a grateful look noticing the clothes were hers so they would smell like her and hopefully calm Bella down more.

As Bella trotted into the woods Rosalie turned turned towards her family focusing on Alice. "What did you do?! I told you not to bother her. You knew she hadn't been around vampires!Why would you irritate her like that?She could have hurt you Alice. Do you realize how dangerous that was?!"

Alice looked around to each of her family members, they were all looking at her in disappointment even Jasper. She knew he was feeling that way because he was afraid of her getting hurt. The only one who didn't look that way was Edward who was staring out of his third floor bedroom window with a look of glee on his face as he watch the events unfold.

"I didn't do anything wrong. I just said hi. I didn't know she would shift mid greeting. I just wanted to talk to her that's all." Alice said defending herself.

"Alice, you have to understand that as a shifter that has not been exposed to our kind before she was probably seconds away from shifting already. You should have taken that into account and let her adjust to us. Rosalie wasn't telling you to stay away to hurt you,she was concerned about how Bella would feel."Carlisle explained.

Bella walked out of the woods in her borrowed clothes that smelled like blooming flowers. She was embarrassed that she had attacked the small vampire but the girl had scared Bella by sneaking up on her. If Rosalie hadn't gotten there so quickly Bella was ashamed to admit the situation would have had a much more violent outcome.

Rosalie smiled at Bella, holding her hands up in front of her as she approached Bella slowly like she was afraid one wrong move and Bella would shift again.

"I'm sorry that happened. My sister Alice wanted to meet you but went about it the wrong way. I can take you home right now if you want but first let me introduce you to my family. I promise no one will attack you."

Rosalie hoped this incident wouldn't chase Bella away but when she got a slight nod as a go ahead from her she felt some hope that this could be salvaged.

"This is my father Carlisle."

Carlisle step forward as if to shake Bella's hand and then stopped as he thought better of it. " I know your father. He came to me to speak about your condition. It's nice to finally meet you."

When Bella gave him a a slight smile in reply Rosalie moved on. "This is my mother Esme."

Esme gave her a genuine smile that reached her eyes "Hello dear, I've heard all about you."

"You've met my brother Emmett."

"Glad to see your leg is all good. I would say I was sorry but you did kind of deserve it for attacking me." Bella said causing Emmett to let loose a big belly laugh.

"And finally this is Alice and her mate Jasper."

Jasper simply nodded his head in Bella's direction while putting a hand on Alice's arm to hold her back from rushing forward.

"Hi Bella, I'm Alice. I'm really sorry for scaring you,that wasn't my intention at all. I was just excited to meet you. I should have waited for Rosalie to introduce you like she said she would. I got a little excited and jumped the gun."

"You're the one who can tell the future?" Bella asked noticing the surprised faces of the coven members. It would take a while for her to think of them as a regular family as they preferred to call themselves. "No one told me I overheard you speaking about it. You said you couldn't see mine, but why is that?"

"It's because you're a shifter. My gift doesn't work on you. Although neither does Jasper's ability to control emotions or my brother Edward's ability to read your mind. And they aren't affected by shifters usually." Alice sent a look of question to Carlisle hoping he could explain why.

"Alice is correct in saying that their gifts aren't affected by a supernatural's species so it is of great interest that they don't seem to work on you. I would love to know more about you and maybe run a few tests to see why that is possible." At the sound of Esme clearing her throat Carlisle quickly interjected. "Of course that is if in the future you would willing to speak to me. No rush. I get a little ahead of myself when it comes to the science of our kind."

"Anyway" Rosalie interrupted "This is my family and they are going to be going back to doing whatever they were doing before they rushed out here."

Alice understood that Rosalie meant for her and everyone else to leave them alone but now that the danger had passed she wasn't going to let the opportunity go to waste. " I'll hang out here with you guys if you don't mind. I could keep Bella company while you look at her car so she doesn't get bored. That is if you're staying Bella."

Bella didn't know how to reply now that she was put on the spot. On one hand she wanted to go home and regroup, maybe even run through the forest in her tiger form but on the other hand she didn't want to leave Rosalie just yet. Alice didn't seem like someone she had to worry about so maybe it would be ok to stay.

It was Rosalie's hopeful look that made the choice for her. " Yeah, I guess I could stay."