Chapter 3
Rosalie sat in her lounge in the bay window that looked out from her room into the backyard and over the river. She was transfixed with thoughts of Bella and how beautiful she was. She was also consumed with the desire to kill Lauren and all the other students that dared to make fun of her mate. As she went along that train of thought, she began to growl and shake. Her teeth clenched and her eyes changed from their normal golden hue to a midnight black within seconds. If it wasn't for Jasper she would have leapt out of her window and murdered half the town of Forks.
"Rosalie, you know you can't kill all of them." Jasper had moved into the room unbeknownst to Rosalie while she was caught up in her bloodlust. Although she didn't immediately register Jasper's presence, the effect of her gift took hold of her instantaneously. Her shoulders slumped and her eyes came back to their natural color. She glanced up to Jasper from where his hand rested on her shoulder.
"Thanks, Jasper. I know that I can't but that doesn't mean that I don't want to. You haven't seen the way that they treat her! They're horrible. Even the clerk at the store was rude to her when she was buying her groceries. She was embarrassed to buy her groceries in front of me because she had to pay with an EBT card. She almost cried when the clerk told her the total and she almost had to put half of the stuff back. I had to force her to let me pay for her groceries. If my dead heart could break, it would have then." Rosalie's emotions were changing so rapidly that Jasper was barely able to keep up with them. She really was in this thing deep, and it had only been a day.
Jasper nodded and looked off into the forest, contemplating what Rosalie had just told her. He had caught a few emotions coming from this Bella girl their first day of school. First and foremost was fear. She seemed to be afraid of anything and everything. Second was trepidation; it was almost as if she was waiting for second shoe to drop, so to speak. She seemed to know what to expect from the other students as if she had lived with it her whole life and she may have, Jasper didn't know how long she had lived in this town. He was worried that his sister's mate would never feel good enough for Rosalie and would then reject her because of her own fears. If that happened there was no telling how Rosalie would react. But Jasper knew one thing: it wouldn't be pretty. He had to find a way to increase Bella's value in herself.
"Jasper, what are you thinking about?" Rosalie had noticed that her normally quiet brother had been contemplating something for a little while and she was curious as to what it was. If it concerned her mate she had the right to know.
"This is what I felt from her today." Jasper placed his hand on Rosalie's shoulder again and began to feed Rosalie the feelings that he had caught from Bella. He heard Rosalie suck in her breath and felt the change in her emotions. Her contemplative attitude gave way to one of despair. It was almost as if her feelings were calling out to Jasper. He began to feed her happier emotions, simply to keep her from falling into a pit of depression based simply off of her mate's feelings. "Hey, calm down. You need to focus on building your bond with her. How the other students treat her isn't something we can do anything about at this moment in time. Don't even focus on that. Just focus on getting to know her and soothing her fears of you." Rosalie looked up at Jasper at those words. He knew he shouldn't have said that.
"She's afraid of me?" Rosalie looked broken at that. Jasper shook his head and sighed. This was going to be a little harder than he thought.
"She's afraid of everyone, Rosalie. She's been treated like shit by everyone in this town her whole life, probably. It's going to be hard for her to drop her guard and begin to trust you. You just need to stick it out. Don't be discouraged if she's resistant to your attentions at first. I don't think she's ever had someone care about her. And she doesn't know about the mate bond, so she isn't going to understand why you're so persistent and devoted to her. Just tough it out and she'll come around. Trust me, sis." At Jasper's words, Rosalie perked up. She needed that boost to her confidence and he could feel the gratitude radiating off of her.
"Thanks, Jaz. I needed that." Rosalie gave her brother a one armed hug from where she was sitting and then stood up. She was ready to learn everything she could about her mate. She didn't consider this stalking because she wasn't going to get too close, she just wanted a general idea of how her mate lived. She opened her window and sat perched on the window sill for a moment. She looked back at her brother and sent him a wave of gratitude before dropping out the second story window to land on the ground below. When she hit the ground she took off in the direction if the trailer park where her mate lived. This reminded her of her best friend from when she was a human in Rochester. Vera had come from a poor family, much like Bella, but that hadn't stopped Rosalie from befriending her in school. She was the only one who wasn't mean to her because of her family's wealth. Vera had always treated her like a person, instead of some object to either ogle or despise because of her father's wealth.
As she came up on the trailer she knew Bella lived in, she slowed down. She could hear Bella quietly singing to herself and it stopped her in her tracks. The sound of her mate singing amazed her. She didn't think that she had ever heard a sound more beautiful than that. It took a moment to place the song but once she did she chuckled to herself. Of course her mate had a similar taste in music, another thing she would grow to love about her. She now had another thing to try and talk to Bella about during their English class tomorrow.
Just then she another person speaking to Bella and by their scent it had to be a relative of her. Another whiff told her it was a female. A sister? Or maybe her mother? Once the person spoke Rosalie knew it was her mother.
"Hey honey. How was school today?" Rosalie heard Bella's heartbeat pick up and wondered what was causing it. Was she remembering that girl trying to attack her? Whatever it was, it had Bella stuttering as she tried to answer normally.
"I-it was the same as always. I did meet one of the new kids and she was…nice." Bella's hesitation intrigued Rosalie. Was there something else she wanted to say? She'd have to ask Edward about that tonight. She tuned back in to the conversation to listen to Bella's mother respond.
"I'm sorry. I wish I could afford to move us out of this town. I know how terrible everyone at the school is to you but I don't get enough hours at my job to do anything." It sounded to Rosalie like it broke her heart that she couldn't give Bella better than this and that hurt Rosalie. Neither of them deserved the harassment they got from the people in this town. But for now there was nothing she could do about it. Or was there? Rosalie started to form an idea as she listened to Bella sigh. Maybe she could help just a little bit. Just then she heard the sound of the sink in the trailer turn on.
"I know mom. There's nothing you can do. But at least the new girl I talked to wasn't mean to me. Well, she wasn't mean to me today. She even took me to the store…and she bought our groceries." Rosalie could hear the shame in Bella's voice when she said that. It seemed to her like Bella was ashamed of the circumstances she lived in even though there was nothing she could do about it.
"She paid for our groceries? Why would she do that? Did you forget the EBT card?" Rosalie could hear the bewilderment in her voice. She chuckled to herself when she thought about Bella's face when she had swiped her card at the register before she could even protest. If only Bella knew how much she meant to her. She might understand why it was so easy for Rosalie to help her in any way she could. She had the spent the entire ride back to the trailer park apologizing and promising to pay Rosalie back. Rosalie had simply told Bella that it wasn't necessary. Soon, hopefully, Bella would understand.
"I had the card but I guess I did the math wrong for how much the groceries were going to cost. When Brian told me the total I was looking at what we probably could do without and Rosalie just swiped her card and paid for it. I tried to tell her that I would pay her back but she said she didn't want me to do that…I don't know why she did it. Maybe she just felt sorry for me?" Bella sounded hurt that that might be the reason for what she had done and Rosalie wanted nothing more than to run into the house and tell her that what she did had nothing to do with feeling sorry for her or anything of the sort. She knew she couldn't do that though. She would let Bella know tomorrow that she didn't feel sorry for her, nor did she pity her. She just loved her.
"Well…thank her tomorrow for what she did. Hopefully the rest of the family is as nice as this young lady. From what I heard at work today the father is some world renowned surgeon and when he took the job at Forks Medical he took a really big pay cut. I guess he liked the idea of small town living. What's weird is that Billy didn't come in today for his usual. He hasn't missed a day at the diner in years. I really hope he's alright…" Rosalie was confused for a moment at who this Billy was but then it hit her. Billy Black was the chief of the tribe that lived down on the La Push reservation on the coast. He was the grandson of the chief who had originally made the pact with Carlisle when they first came here to Forks. Now that they were back, the Quileute shape shifters wouldn't be allowed in to Forks. She had completely forgotten about the pact when they moved back. She'd missed the meeting they held with the current generation of wolves today because she had been with Bella. She would have to talk with Carlisle to see if the treaty had changed or if it would accommodate the fact that Bella was her mate.
"Billy didn't show up today? That can't be good. Mom I think he's been at that diner every day since you've started. I think I know why too…" Rosalie heard Bella's mom scoff. Could it be that the Swans were somehow connected to the Quileutes? This could very easily cause tension between them and the wolves. She really needed to talk to Carlisle tonight.
"Oh hush. He just likes the coffee and Sharron's apple pie. He's said so himself." Now it was Bella's turn to scoff. Rosalie could almost imagine Bella throwing her head back to scoff and the image made her smile. Her mate was the most beautiful girl in the world. There wasn't a person on this earth that could hold a candle to her and she meant that.
"Mom you can't actually believe that, can you? Of course he didn't tell you that he goes there for you but I promise you he does. Besides, the coffee there is terrible. You've said so yourself." Rosalie could hear Bella's mom sigh but just as she was about to listen in some more she felt her phone vibrate. She pulled it out and saw that it was a text from Edward.
Family meeting in a couple minutes. You on your way back? Rosalie sighed. Just when things were starting to get interesting. She quickly told him that she was and put her phone away. She would just have to be left wondering about this possible love interest between her mate's mom and the chief of the wolves. It seemed like there might be something there and she wanted to know everything she could before she brought it up to Carlisle.
Rosalie began to head back to the house and the whole way there her mind was filled with thoughts of Bella and what lay ahead of them. Tomorrow she was going to try and find out more about her. She had to be a person her mate would grow to love. All she hoped for was that Bella would give her a chance and open up. But only time would tell.
As soon as she stepped foot in the house the members of her family all gathered at the kitchen table. Carlisle held the seat at the head of the table, with his wife and mate Esme to sitting to his right. Edward, Carlisle's first born in every sense of the word, sat to Carlisle's left. Jasper, Edward's mate, sat next to him and held his hand under the table. Rosalie loved both of them and how cute they looked together. Emmett sat across from them with Victoria in his lap. Alice sat next to them as Rosalie took the seat at the other end of the table.
"Rosalie, I've heard that you found your mate? Congratulations. We're all excited for you to have her. When are we going to get to meet her?" Carlisle was smiling at her and she laughed. Leave it to her "father" to want to meet her mate before she had even gotten the chance to get to know her. She loved how supportive her family was of her. Everyone wanted nothing but happiness for her and it seemed that she had finally found that happiness.
"Well since she only knows my name and the fact that we're new to town, probably not any time soon." At that Emmett bellowed out a laugh and nearly shook Victoria off of his lap. She made sure to smack him in the back of the head for that. He winced but then his grin returned as he looked at Rosalie.
"Aw come on, Rosie. You haven't gotten in her pants yet? I was sure that's what you were doing at her house." The sound of both Rosalie's and Victoria's hands connecting with his head resonated throughout the house. "Ouch! That one actually hurt." He rubbed the back of his hand and looked suitably chastised.
"You're lucky that's all I did to you, you oaf." Rosalie's glare would've melted anyone else but Emmett was used to being on the receiving end of that glare. Rosalie sighed. She knew Emmett would never change and if she was being honest with herself, she didn't want him to. But she'd never tell him that.
"You might not but I will." Edward sent her a wink after answering her thought. She sent him a glare as well. As much as she loved her brother and his gift, she hated when he did that. He usually didn't say anything about the thoughts he heard in everyone's head but sometimes he would answer their thoughts just to annoy them. Everyone looked confused at what Edward said but he just shook his head. The meeting continued on and Rosalie stayed quiet about the possible connection to the wolves that Bella had but she told them all about her living situation, something that bothered Esme especially. She was one of the most kind-hearted people Rosalie had ever met and to hear about her daughter's mate struggling was something that bothered her deeply. But she knew that there was nothing she could do about it. As the meeting ended, everyone began to go their separate ways. Alice walked up to Rosalie and gave her a hug.
"I'm so happy for you!' Rosalie knew that Alice was sad about still not finding her mate. Despite that, she always tried to be the most cheerful one out of them. Rosalie hugged her back and let her know how much it meant to her.
"Thank you Alice. I know you'll find your mate soon. You're way too amazing to not have a soulmate. Just hang in there." Rosalie then went up to her room to lay on her bed and wait until the morning when they had to go to sleep. Even though she couldn't sleep, she was consumed with thoughts of her mate and the future that lay ahead. For the first time in her entire vampire existence she felt like maybe Carlisle hadn't made a mistake in saving her.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: So the attention this story has been getting has surprised me. I honestly didn't expect anyone to read this, much less all of you reviewing or following this after only 2 chapters. A special shout out to all of you who have favorited this story. I have some big things planned for this and I really can't wait to get everything fleshed out. I have all the pairings set up and I can't wait to introduce my OC. But that is a few chapters out. Please stick with me and review if you like it. Again, thank you. I can't tell you guys how much this means to me. Stay tuned!