Chapter 10

"What are you doing?" Rosalie asked, scowling as she stared down at the alpha wolf, who was currently sitting only a few feet away, sprawled out in a comfortable way as if she owned the entire area.

"Sitting. It's something that humans do," Bella said with a cocky grin up at the blonde. "Surely you know how to do it, right?"

"You aren't human," Rosalie replied bluntly as she crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to even gift that other question of Bella's with an answer.

"Well what else am I then? I might be part wolf, but I still feel human. I'm certainly not a monster, that's for damn sure. Just like you aren't," Bella said with a lighthearted laugh, unaware of how her words hit close to home with the blonde.

Rosalie sat down on her side of the border, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Bella, and said, "So why did you call me here, anyways?"

"Didn't you hear me the first time? We need to talk," Bella said, only to get an irritated glare from the vampire. She felt her wolf perk up inside of her, excited to meet what she perceived as a challenge, but Bella told her wolf to calm the fuck down. Realizing she probably shouldn't tease Rosalie too much, she tried to become more serious and business like, but couldn't think of how to do that.

But really, how could Bella act serious when her entire personality demanded she be the opposite?

As Bella thought and struggled to become all alpha-commando, Rosalie simply watched the wolf as emotions and expressions crossed the brunette's face. At one point, her hand actually started to move towards Bella, wanting to smooth the crease between Bella's brows, and she had to grab her own wrist to stop herself.

"So talk already," Rosalie snapped, causing Bella to look up at the vampire with a kind of shock, as if she had completely forgotten that Rosalie was there.

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I almost forgot how to do that," Bella said sarcastically, but quickly shoved her sarcasm down. She didn't want to push Rosalie away, after all. Not until all of this shit was taken care of. "Okay, just hear me out. As you might have already guessed, you're my imprint. And as we clearly hate each other's guts, I decided to do some digging and figure out how to break the bond."

Immediately, Rosalie felt a pain in her heart nearly as painful as her turning. While the rational part of her knew that there was no way to break a mating bond, at least not on a vampire's end, it was agony to know her mate was trying. It made her want to ring the alpha's neck, then fuck and claim her and show her that Bella couldn't be anybody else's but hers. Of course, her desires didn't come from the rational part of Rosalie and the vampire knew it, but that didn't make her desires any less powerful.

Damn this mutt. If Rosalie had just never laid eyes on her, everything would have been fine, and Rosalie wouldn't feel so much agitating agony.

"And did you figure anything out?" Rosalie asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

"Yeah. And let's just say, it doesn't look too good for me," Bella said with a frown. "Which is why we have to do something about this." She then gestured between herself and Rosalie, as if things needed to be made clear.

"Obviously," Rosalie said, fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

Bella frowned, holding back a growl. Her wolf, which had been rejoicing over laying eyes on her mate, suddenly became very unhappy. She didn't like that Rosalie agreed that something had to be done about what was between them, especially when she could tell that what had to be done wasn't claiming and mating.

Shoving down her unhappy wolf, Bella forced a grin. "Right. So, what we need to do is fuck."

Rosalie's startled eyes widened, and she couldn't stop herself from staring at Bella in disbelief. Bella's own wolf seemed just as confused as Rosalie; she knew of Bella's feeling on the matter, and doubted that Bella was ready to just give in and mate.

"What?" Rosalie demanded, finally getting a hold of herself.

"C'mon, it's the obvious answer," Bella said, certain she was right. She had to be, it was the only way she could survive otherwise. "This whole bond shit is pulling us together, and it's going to explode eventually. Hell, it already has." The alpha's thoughts moved to when she felt the desire to protect Rosalie, how it felt to have the blonde beneath her with Bella's fangs on her throat. She would never admit it out loud, but Rosalie was definitely gorgeous. Not to mention her body…

Rosalie could smell Bella's arousal in the air, and her own body started to respond. It was almost as if there was a voice in her head screaming at her, telling her to give in and have sex with her mate, to taste and touch and claim every inch of the alpha and prove that nobody else but Rosalie could do. To make Bella see that Rosalie was the one for her, and would be for the rest of eternity.

Of course, Rosalie did everything she could to squash all of that stupidity down as she started to shake with fury. "Are you out of your mind?" she hissed. "Who the fuck would ever want to fuck you?"

"Quite a few girls, actually," Bella replied cockily. "You included." She could smell Rosalie's arousal, after all, and she was definitely the type of person who would throw that in the blonde's face.

Rosalie stood, fighting the urge to cross the border and strangle the brunette. Then show her how good you can be, Rosalie's traitorous instincts seemed to whisper, making Rosalie even more furious than before. That's it, she needed to kill something.

Realizing that she was losing the vampire, Bella jumped to her feet. "Come on, think about it Rose," Bella coaxed.

Don't call me that! Rosalie all but howled in her own mind as for a moment, just a moment, her resolve to either attack or walk away from Bella weakened.

"Seriously though, you have to be in pain from this thing," Bella said, her voice soft and persuasive. "I know I am. It hurts all the damn time. Every second of every day, my wolf wants to go to you. It drives me crazy."

Once again, Rosalie's resolve weakened, her insides twisting at the knowledge that her mate was suffering. Yet at the same time, knowing that she was driving Bella crazy was also the best thing Rosalie had heard in years.

"We just need to fuck once in awhile. If we stop fighting it all the time, I know it'll keep the edge off. We'll be able to survive, at least somewhat."

Now, even Rosalie's instincts were at war with itself. It was telling Rosalie that she should give in and find a way to completely claim Bella so that Bella could never stop wanting her, but those instincts were also telling her not to, that it might make their relationship unstable, like it wasn't already about to explode anyways.

"You want to fuck so bad?" Rosalie growled, glaring at the alpha wolf, silently cursing her in every way she could think of for putting herself into this situation in the first place. "Then go fuck yourself. I'd rather be burned alive a thousand times over then have to have sex with you, you disgusting mutt."

Bella recoiled from Rosalie's words, then doubled over in pain as her wolf roared to life, threatening to tear Bella apart from the inside. Bella gritted her teeth, trying to fight her wolf, refusing to give up control.

Rosalie didn't see Bella in pain; she was already long gone, knowing that if she stayed, she might actually give in.

As she got home and opened the door, she could hear a wolf's agonized howl in the distance. The need to go back to Bella, to make sure the wolf was alright, was nearly enough to kill her. But she didn't go.

She just broke the door frame instead.

The next two weeks were absolute torture. Not only were things crazy, what with the elders all but biting her ass and Quil Jr turning into a wolf-which only made Quil Sr come after Bella even harder-but Bella was definitely being punished by her wolf for fucking things up. Bella then did everything she could think of to retaliate, because it wasn't her fault that she got an imprint she never wanted and that she was trying to figure out a way to be free.

The agony inside continued, driving her to the border every day to try to catch a glimpse of Rosalie. Sometimes Bella would think she saw her, maybe by catching a glimpse of blonde hair or Rosalie's form, but at the same time, she wondered if she had been driven so mad that she was hallucinating.

Of course, Bella had to do her best to be a good alpha despite all of this. She actually managed to organize pack patrols, making sure the newer wolves partnered with older ones and that no wolf went anywhere alone. Not only that, but she also found time at least once or twice a week for pack play time, so the pack could bond and have fun, pretending that all of those heavy responsibilities no teenager should bear didn't exist. Bella even started to mouth off to the elders only about ten to twenty times an hour instead of trying to cram as much sass into every answer and word that she could.

Seeing as Bella felt like she was being killed from the inside out, she had to admit; she was doing pretty good. And she made a habit of rubbing it into the elders' faces every chance she got. The best part of the last two weeks was when Quil Sr had pointed out that Jake was supposed to be the alpha because of bloodlines, Jacob had cracked up laughing. After pointing out that he was nearing sixteen years of age, he wasn't anywhere near mature-something he admitted proudly-and he had no desire for such crazy responsibility. He had also questioned Quil Sr's sanity, albeit a little accidentally, for wanting to try and change up pack dynamics when Bella was doing such a great job. All of the pack agreed with Jake, even Quil Jr, which had made Quil Sr turn so red Bella was sure he was about to have a stroke.

Speaking of Quil Jr, it was great to have him as a part of the pack. Originally, Bella had felt guilty, despite being unable to control when the kids would shift, because she had taken herself and Quil's other two best friends, leaving the kid alone. And while Quil was quite a ball of energy and a huge jokester, even he had to have been feeling abandoned. But now that he was part of the pack, he was louder and crazier than ever.

The only other problems besides "She Who Shall Not Be Named Unless One Desires An Asswhooping Courtesy Of The Alpha" Cullen, involved the imprints and school. The imprints were a problem because they were happening all around Bella, making the hole in Bella's chest feel a hundred times worse. Rebecca came home for vacation and imprinted on Paul, turning Paul into a sappy weirdo, Jared imprinted on Kim, Sam was still imprinted on Emily, and so on. Meaning, all of the imprints were all people Bella knew. Many of these imprints were also people she had sex with sometime in the past. And for some reason, despite being Alpha, these imprints acted like Bella was a three year old who couldn't take care of herself, constantly nagging at her and making sure she ate right and was sleeping okay.

This led to school, of course, and how Bella was doing, not to mention a few threats-mainly from Rachel-that Bella had better keep up with schoolwork and graduate at least with a B average. Nobody seemed to care that Bella had an aversion to the place, and with good reason too, what with all of those crazy rumors, which only appeared to get crazier, flying around. Everybody who clearly wasn't in the werewolf loop gave Bella dirty, fearful, and many still lusting looks, even teachers. Ew, the teachers didn't give Bella lusting looks. Thankfully, that was just reserved to the student body.

Anyways, Bella had it rough. Every day she went to school, she was called out by a teacher, given a lecture, and clearly being hated on for "corrupting the youths." But damn, the way the teachers made it sound, Bella would think she was converting the entire female population into lesbians and creating a harem.

There was no escape from stress, or the torture. Despite everything she had to deal with, these problems still paled in comparison to Bella's Rosalie problem. Which also included Bella's wolf problem, because even though Rosalie wouldn't leave her mind for a second, her wolf still found it necessary to throw every memory with the blonde at her, reminding her of Rosalie's scent, body, voice…

It got to the point that Bella honestly considered making another desperate call to Rosalie on many occasions. Then she would remind herself that she would have no idea what to say, was definitely not going to do something so pathetic, and she'd be damned if she gave up and crawled back to Rosalie, pleading for a glimpse or a touch. There was no way in hell she'd give that bitchy blonde the satisfaction.

These choices of Bella's have led the alpha to patrolling the border more than any of the other wolves. Not because of some skewed view of responsibility, but because this was the only way she could catch a glimpse of Rosalie without breaking the treaty. And hey, if Rosalie actually caught Bella staring at her, it wasn't like it would be clear that Bella was low-grade stalking her. Clearly, the wolf would just be patrolling. If anything, Rosalie would be the one stalking, since she didn't actually have a patrol job forced upon her and all.

So yes, Bella was patrolling at all hours every day, hoping to get a glimpse of the iciest bitch queen that ever existed. Besides the fact that she was patrolling with Jacob, nothing else was any different.

Or so Bella thought, until she caught a scent.

Immediately, Bella stiffened, a snarl tearing out of her wolven throat. Jacob came to attention next to her, furiously sniffing the air.

The smell of sugary bleach was faint due to distance, but it was also unmistakable. No one had crossed the border; Bella and Jacob could simply scent the vampires because of the windflow. What was upsetting wasn't that they were catching the scent of vampires, it was that these vamps were new.

There was no doubt about it. While each vampire had the same sickeningly sweet smell, there was always an undercurrent of something else, something unique. Even if Bella had never met Rosalie, she would have been able to tell that each vampire's smell was different. And for some reason, these particular scents made the fur on the back of Bella's neck stand on end, warning her of danger. Since Bella doubted that these vampires were with the Cullens, she went from pining puppy to alpha wolf.

Everyone, new vampire scents from across the border! Bella barked in her mind. I need everyone with me. Some of you will need to shift to human, call the others who aren't shifted, and tell them to get their assess over here immediately.

Yes, Alpha! Sam, Jared, Leah, Embry, and Jacob replied, right before Leah and Embry faded from the link ad Sam and Jared started towards Bella.

As Bella waited, she gave Jacob a look questioning his sanity. Damn, Jake, what was that? You do realize you're right next to me, don't you? Answering my command like that just felt weird. It didn't help that Jacob had actually moved closer to Bella after she had issued the order.

If a wolf could look sheepish, that was what Jacob appeared to be. I couldn't help it! He protested, looking at the ground. I just felt compelled to follow your order.

Weirdo, Bella retorted, then bristled once more as the scent got stronger, then disappeared. Damn it, the wind had shifted.

Bella had realized this just as her entire pack had shown up in their mind link, but this didn't make any of them stop. They kept running towards Bella, determined to meet with their alpha and pick up any possible hint of the new scents.

For a moment, Bella glanced back towards the woods, in the direction where she had left her clothes. She couldn't help but feel a little worried, not just for her pack, but for the Cullens as well. Sure, they were a bunch of leeches, but they were kinda alright in Bella's book. Should she take a moment to shift to human, call, and warn them?

Just as she considered it, the wind shifted once more. It was easy for Bella to catch and identify the scents. There were three new vampires, seven Cullens, a human, and...Rosalie.

Danger!

Knowing that Rosalie was so close to three possible threats, something in Bella snapped. Half crazed with the need to protect her mate, Bella lunged in the direction of where the scents were coming from. Before she could make it more than a few steps, her wolves were on her, holding her back. She snapped and snarled, trying to shake them off without actually hurting them, but they weren't about to let go.

Bella, calm down! You need to calm down! Jared pleaded.

Think of treaty. You break it, and we're all screwed! Sam's voice added.

Bella, come back! Seth piped in.

Damn it, Bella Black, now isn't the time to go crazy. I know what you're feeling, but there's too much at risk! Leah added with a snarl that somehow sounded both frustrated yet understanding.

Cool your mojo, she's going to be fine! That was Quil, that time.

Please, Bella, Embry added quietly, grunting as he was kicked in the stomach. But he still refused to let go.

Come on, Alpha. Now's the time to show that great restraint you have. Paul's voice, trying to taunt her. Willing to take the brunt of Bella's rage and desperation if it just meant snapping Bella out of it.

Bells, this is Rosalie. She's strong enough to go toe to toe with you, Jacob was the last to speak, staring right into Bella's near feral eyes. She's going to be fine. Nothing is going to happen to her. Her coven won't let it.

Realizing what was happening, what Bella had almost done, filled Bella with horror. But at the same time, she was detached from that emotion, maybe even detached from her own body as she collapsed in a heap on the ground.

Once Bella came fully back to herself, she would apologize to each member of her pack, as many times as they needed to hear. But now, all she could do was stare in the direction of the vampires, desperate to see her mate, needing to see if her mate was okay and to kill whoever dared to harm her.

But now, with her pack surrounding her, offering help and comfort and sanity, all she could do was lay there and release a broken howl.

Author's Note: Yes, my brain might actually be fixed and able to write again, but I'm not yet one hundred percent sure. Also, if any of you realized what's going on with the vampires and realize that all of these wolves have turned seemingly incredibly early compared to the timeline in the books, I have my reasons. Reasons you shall not get to know, because that would mean spoilers.