When I heard the Cullens gasp as soon as I got out of the car I couldn't help the smirk that spread across my face. After all, not much could surprise a vampire, and I had done it beautifully. In fact that smirk stayed on my face as I walked with my pride up to the Cullens, only falling when I heard the one voice I really didn't want to deal with at the moment.
"Bella?" Edward called out, but I didn't look at him. I couldn't. I knew that if I did I'd have to use all my control not to rip his head off. "Bella, what's going on?" I couldn't stop myself from baring my teeth in a mix of anger and frustration. "Bella look at me." I couldn't hold back any longer, I turned my head to him and let loose a feral snarl, making him flinch.
"You're going to have to excuse Bella. She's still relatively young for a shifter, so her emotions cloud her judgment." I heard Kat explain to Carlisle, who she easily identified as the coven leader, as she placed a hand on my shoulder, no doubt ready to keep me in place at a moment's notice. "Also, all her emotions from before the change are now amplified, so her anger with your son is a bit stronger than she can deal with civilly."
Rage still had my body humming with energy, the panther ready to escape at a moment's notice. The only thing holding me back was the steady hand on my shoulder, and the knowledge that a fight would end very badly for my family.
"I can understand her being a bit irritated at my son." Carlisle assured Kat. "But to this extent?"
"You have to look at it from her perspective. Edward left her alone in a forest after telling her that she didn't matter to him. Not only that, he took away the family she was under the impression had accepted her." Kat explained.
"I left for her own good!" Edward called out, causing another roar to slip from my lips.
"Kat, this is getting very bad very quickly." Danni came over and grabbed my other arm, speaking to Kat, who had moved her grip so that she was holding me in place.
"I know, but what do you want me to do about it? We need to speak with them." Kat growled back.
"I got this." I heard Rikki speak from behind me, and before I knew what was going on two hands placed themselves on my face, and my head was being forced to move. Rikki maneuvered my head so that my gaze fell upon Alice, who was staring at me with concern. As soon as my eyes met hers all the anger flushed from my system, my muscles all relaxed, and I stopped shaking in rage.
Of course when I realized what Rikki was doing to me I grew frustrated, but it was an emotion I could easily deal with. After all, the giant of a girl had a way of irritating all of us just for fun. "Damn it Rikki." I growled at her, which caused her to snigger quietly.
"Um, what's going on?" Alice asked, still staring at me as if I was going to leap at her brother at any moment.
"That's what we're here to explain." Kat addressed Alice and released me.
"Well then, please come inside and we can talk through all this." Esme said and motioned for us to follow her into the house.
"Try and control yourself Bella." Kat hissed into my ear before moving into the house. I felt awful not being able to control myself at all while Kat could walk into a house of vampires calmly. Considering all that happened in her past, my display was pathetic.
Taking a deep breath, I followed the others into the house, moving to sit on the couch where my pride had situated themselves. I found myself in between Kat and Rikki, most definitely on purpose so they could grab me if things got ugly.
"Obviously a lot has changed since the last time we were in Forks." Carlisle commented, sitting in a chair right across from us. Esme was standing right behind him, Emmett and Rosalie to his left, Alice to his right. Edward was standing a little farther away, clueing in to the fact I was livid with him. And surprisingly, the unknown female pulled Jasper over to another couch, situating herself very close to him.
"Obviously." I muttered.
"Why don't you start at the beginning then. That way we can figure this all out." He prompted.
"Well first things first, this is Kat, Danni, and Rikki." I motioned to all of them in turn.
"It's nice to meet all of you." He addressed the members of the pride. "This is my wife Esme, and my children, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, Edward, Jasper, and Marina." The coven leader motioned to all of the others in the room, ending on the unknown girl.
"Expanding your family? Won't the Volturi be upset?" I asked, eyeing the brunette next to Jasper.
"She's Jasper's mate." My head whipped over to see Alice staring at the floor.
"Oh." I said, fighting the urge to go over and hug the tiny vampire. This Imprint thing was already getting annoying.
"Moving right along." Kat spoke up. "From your earlier comments I'm assuming you know what shapeshifters are."
"A few from my family had contact with the pack on the reservation a while back. But we didn't get very much information from them, and some of my family are completely ignorant to your kind."
"Alright, as simple as it gets, we're creatures given the ability to shift back and forth from human to animal form. Our particular breed shift into felines, specifically big cats. Tigers, lions, leopards, and animals that that." Kat explained.
"And Bella? Last time we checked you were one hundred percent human." Emmett spoke up, eying me questioningly.
"I was human, yes. But Kat changed me to-"
"You turned her into one of you?" Using all my control I didn't look at Edward after he exploded at Kat.
"Let her finish." Kat growled at him.
"Like I was saying, Kat changed me to save my life." I stared at the table in front of us as I spoke.
"Save your life?" Alice asked, and I couldn't help but look up at her as she stared at me with a pained expression.
"Yes. After you all left I started taking hikes in the woods. One hike I met Laurent, and he tried to kill me as revenge for Victoria. Kat and the others stopped him, but not before he hurt me very badly."
"I was under the impression that shifters couldn't change others." Carlisle said.
"Every breed is different." Kat explained. "Our particular kind can change others, and the virus has the ability to heal all wounds the victim has suffered."
"Wait, does that mean Victoria is still after you?" Alice asked, panicking.
"I guess, but it's not like I can't take care of myself." I brushed her fear off.
"And it's not like she's alone anymore." Danni threw in, and I'm sure the vampires caught the accusation thrown in.
"Really, if you were going to pull her into the supernatural world, the least you could have done was made sure she was protected." Rikki threw at Edward, causing him to growl quietly.
"But on with the story." Kat prompted me, trying to avoid another confrontation.
"Right. There's not much more though, I mean, I changed and now I'm part of this pride."
"Personally I'd like to know about the Imprint since no one will tell me what it is." Alice huffed, crossing her arms across her chest, looking quite adorable.
"To be completely honest, I don't even know exactly what it is." I chuckled, looking over at Kat.
"Don't ask me, I'm the only one without one now." She shrugged, making the guilt come back full swing.
"Oh, oh! I can explain it!" Danni exclaimed, bouncing up and down and turning to Alice. "A shapeshifter knows the exact moment they meet their soul mate, and that feeling, and the resulting bond formed is called an Imprint. Bella will want to protect you, and be there for you, and make sure you're safe and loved all your life."
"Think of it like a vampire's mate bond." Rikki threw in, putting her hand on Danni's shoulder so she'd stop bouncing.
"My soul mate?" Alice questioned, her mouth hanging open, causing me to blush and hang my head.
"That can't be. Bella, you don't even like women!" Edward exclaimed, taking a step forward. Of course that prompted Kat to start laughing. Great, now I was about to be outed to a room full of vampires. "What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing. I'm just guessing you haven't talked to anyone around town recently." Kat continued to laugh as she addressed him.
"What does that even mean?"
"It really bugs you that you can't just read our minds, doesn't it?" Kat asked.
"Just tell me." He rumbled.
"It means that since you left, Bella found out she's just like the rest of her pride." Rikki sneered.
"Gay, out, and proud!" Danni supplied, joining in with the laughing.
"So you not only turned her into a beast, you made her think that she was actually interested in women?"
"Hey! They saved my life when you abandoned me! And they didn't make me think anything. I just happened to find out that I loved another woman while I was with them." I jumped up and defended my pride.
"Who?" Edward hissed. Well damn, didn't mean to let that slip out.
"It doesn't matter anymore considering the only person I'm even capable of loving is Alice. That's what the Imprint does." I crossed my arms and looked down at the floor.
"Who was it?" Edward asked again, walking right up to me and grabbing my arms.
"Edward that's enough!" Carlisle scolded his son, but Edward didn't let go, and I was very close to just attacking.
"Back off of her." Kat shot up and ripped him off of me, pushing him away.
"You?" He narrowed his eyes at Kat.
"It doesn't matter anymore, just like Bella said." She told him. I could tell she was doing everything she could not to snarl at him, and I could see the slightest tremor run through her.
"Edward stop it!" Alice jumped up from her seat and yelled at the fuming Cullen, prompting him to turn and glare at her.
"The fact that you're even considering it is disgusting." He spit out at her.
"How dare you!" Danni jumped up and growled, surprising everyone in the room. It was the first time the sweet girl had let the conversation rile her up. "Love is love, and if anything you should be happy that your sister has found her soul mate! She's your family, and family should always stick together." Tears were beginning to form in her eyes. "Family should never abandon one another, ever!"
"Danni…" Rikki stood up and pulled her mate into a hug.
All eyes were focused on the sniffling shifter and her mate; it wasn't until a rather earsplitting crash echoed through the house that all our heads snapped to find the source. Considering I didn't see what happened I didn't know exactly what happened, but just seeing it gave me a pretty good idea.
I managed to turn my head in time to see Kat go flying through the air and land with a loud thud about thirty feet from the Cullen's house. Standing about ten feet from her was Edward, shaking no doubt from rage. The way I figured, when we were all focused on Danni, Edward had thrown the unsuspecting Alpha straight out of the window wall.
Seeing this, I quickly made my way out of the now broken window and ran up to Edwards turned figure. He must have heard me coming because he turned around, but he was definitely not expecting my fist to connect with his face, resulting in a sickening crunch. He probably also wasn't expecting that crunch to be his face, or the fact that the force of the punch caused him to spin and fall flat on his face. But I wasn't done yet; once he was on the ground I planted a foot firmly on his back, grabbed his arm, and heaved with all my strength. I was soon rewarded with the sound of tearing, and before he knew what was going on I had his entire arm separated form his body. I quickly tossed the appendage across the clearing, swallowing bile when I saw the fingers still twitching.
Luckily for the now screaming vampire, I heard Kat moan in pain, and was pulled out of my murderous rage. So instead of killing him I hissed out a warning. "If you ever so much as lay a finger on one of my pride-mates again you will loose much, much more than an arm." It might have been more fulfilling to hiss in his ear, but I didn't want to get that close to him. Wanting to cause just a bit more pain, I raised the foot I had on his back and brought it down as hard as I could, the shattering noise all the reward I needed, but the yelp of pain was certainly an added bonus.
Quickly pushing off of Edward I made my way over to Kat and crouched by her shuddering form.
"I can't believe I let a leech get the drop on me." Kat chuckled, ignoring the trail of blood coming from the corner of her mouth. "I must be getting old."
"Kitty, you're not that old." I tried to chuckle back, but it came out broken.
"Hey now, I'll be fine. I just gotta get the glass out of my back. Trust me, I've had much worse." She assured me with a wink.
"You're going to have to let Carlisle do that. He is a doctor after all."
"Going into a house of vampires while bleeding profusely. My momma would be so proud." She grimaced.
I spun around and called for Danni and Rikki to help me pick up out wounded Alpha, noticing all the Cullens either glaring at Edward or looking at Kat worriedly.
"Edward." Carlisle walked up to his son, ignoring the boy's apparent pain. I was rather satisfied when I saw the large crack on the side of his face where my fist connected. "You will leave and take time to get yourself under control. Once you can think with a level head we will discuss your actions."
With a grimace and a nod the bronzed haired boy wisely went into the woods, making sure to grab his severed arm on his way. Carlisle let loose a large sigh and turned to my pride as we tried to raise Kat up as gently as we could.
"If you bring her into the dining room and lay her down on the table, I think that would best." He suggested before disappearing into the house to no doubt prepare for the procedure.
"How you feeling Kat?" I asked as we carried her into the house.
"Just fucking peachy, how about you?" She growled as we set her down on the table.
"Well, her sunny demeanor is still present. I'd take that as a good sign." Rikki laughed and moved back.
"If you will all move back, I'll begin." Carlisle pushed through and took a look at Kat's back, which at the moment looked like a pincushion for glass.
Rikki and Danni, probably figuring that he needed space, made their way back to the living room to settle on the couch, which left me alone with Carlisle and Kat. That is, until Alice made her way into the room, looking at Kat then at me with an apologetic look on her face.
"Bella I am so sorry for what he did!" She cried before pulling me into a hug.
"Hey, aren't I the one that went through a window because of him?" Kat asked as Carlisle started cutting her shirt so he could remove it.
"Did you want me to give you a hug?" Alice asked Kat as she pulled back from me, sarcasm thick in her voice.
"Fuck no." Kat growled, resting her chin on her arms.
"Didn't think so." Alice crossed her arms and glared at the blonde.
The two didn't have a chance to strike up conversation again due to Carlisle instructing Kat to maneuver slightly so her could pull the bloodstained fabric from her back. I saw him falter for the briefest of moments as he saw the four long scars on her back, but he quickly got to work removing the shards of glass from her skin. After that the room was eerily quiet, the only noise being the clang of glass as it was dropped into a bowl resting next to Kat.
Noticing the rather frequent faces she was pulling in pain, I made my way over to Kat's head and began scratching the area at the base of her skull, the only comfort I could think to give her, causing a loud rumbling to sound in the room.
"Is she purring?" Alice asked, poorly masking the anger in her voice.
"You know, jealousy is ugly on anyone, even a vampire." Kat managed to get out before her eyes closed and her head thumped onto the table as the purring increased in volume.
"What? I'm not- I don't- You aren't- Ugh!" Alice threw up her hands in frustration, and I found myself snickering at the flustered pixie.
"Calm down, I was just trying to help her take the mind off her pain." I told Alice, trying not the laugh at the girl's disgruntled expression.
As Carlisle went to place bandages on her back, Kat let loose a hiss of pain, putting a sudden halt to the purring. "I think two of your ribs may be broken."
"Just great." She grumbled.
"I'm going to set them, but it's going to be painful. I can give you some pain medication if you'd like. But I'm assuming your metabolism is rather fast." He told her, sympathy coloring his tone.
"It is, but I'd very much appreciate some pain relief."
"Alright, hold on." He quickly flashed out of the room and was back just as quickly, only now he was holding a rather large needle.
"Oh Goddess…" I muttered and backed up.
"It's a needle isn't it?" Kat asked without lifting her head.
"Yes." I gulped and made my way to the door, the needle still an irrational fear of mine.
"Great…" She growled as the needle entered her skin.