A/N: Shout out to everyone who had such a great reaction to my last chapter; you're the reason it took me so long to update. Might be being a bit petty here, but I know what I'm doing, I have a ton planned out, and if you hate what's happening in this story so much, just write your own. To all the awesome peeps out there who are actually cool, you're the only reason I'm still updating this here. Love you guys.

Chapter 25

Bella wasn't the same after whatever happened in the woods, and her whole pack could tell. She didn't even try to hide it, but she also made it clear not to ask. A smile was on her face, but her eyes were distant, and no one was sure what to make of it. Had seeing Irina really put her in such a weird mood, or had something else happened?

The alpha could sense their worries and curiosity, and she soon put her all into bringing the pack back into the swing of partying. Despite her best efforts, she would soon find herself once again falling deep into her thoughts. For once, it wasn't just about her mates; it was about that redhead in the forest. Something about her felt...weird? Just seeing the woman had made her stomach twist and an angry snarl work its way up her throat, in that "I should fucking hate you" way, but it felt much more intense than Bella felt for the other vamps. But why?

There was no way for Bella to be able to untangle all of the weird emotions seeing that vampire had brought upon her, especially while she was drunk. She didn't think she could do it sober, either. Not when Bella didn't know if the woman had even been there or not. Not when Bella didn't know if she was losing her mind. Because no one, not even vampires, could make their scent vanish like that. Or could they?

Inside, her wolf was whining, pacing, circling, but Bella didn't want to focus on her wolf for once. She just wanted to focus on herself, on Bella, and whether she might be going fucking insane.

"Hey Bells, where you going? You just got back." The worry in Jacob's voice and his hand catching hers was what brought Bella out of her head long enough to realize she had stood up and been walking toward the forest. Some part of her had been so driven by her worries over insanity and that vampire that she had started to return to where she had seen the redhead on instinct.

Despite the concern dripping from every member of her pack, the need to help Bella somehow, Bella felt her walls coming up. If she told everyone what had happened and they thought she was insane, then they would believe she wasn't good enough to be Alpha. Might come to resent her, hate her.

Bella couldn't stand to be resented by the people she cared about. She just couldn't. Especially not for something she couldn't control.

The party had become silent, save for the crackle of the bonfire. Even the imprints had become quiet. Somehow, everyone could sense that whatever was going on with Bella, whatever she was about to say, was something so important everyone needed to hear it straight from the alpha herself.

But Bella had no clue what to say. No way to explain the appearance of the redhead. Either she was insane, or she had let a vampire go on pack lands. Both were bad. Either outcome would lead to Bella beating herself up for it, possibly for the rest of her life.

What the fuck could she say to them?

Just as quickly as the fears and anxiety and self hatred had started to build in her, it all vanished as she caught sight of something over Jacob's head. Two someones, rather, one who appeared to be concerned for her for whatever reason, while the other already looked incredibly pissed at her.

It couldn't be a more welcoming sight.

"Holy fuck, my bitches are here," Bella breathed. She didn't even have to wonder if she was hallucinating again for more than a moment. As soon as she laid eyes on them, her wolf started howling in excitement at their appearance and Bella felt that familiar tug in her chest that only ever happened when she saw them.

Rosalie arched her eyebrow at the scene of the strangely silent pack in front of her, but then fixed her glare on Bella. "What did you just call us?"

"My bitches," Bella said, unrepentantly. It made Tanya chuckle a little as Rosalie hissed at her, both of which Bella considered a win. With her imprints here, she completely forgot about the pack and her problems. It might have been her raw emotional state or the alcohol-okay, it was probably the alcohol-that made Bella just want to throw herself across the border and hug the fuck out of both of them. She tried to do just that, but after a few stumbling steps forward, she realized she was taking a struggling Jacob along for the ride. She turned to frown at him, then down at the lines his heels had made from digging into the dirt in an attempt to hold Bella back. "The fuck are you doing, Jake?"

"You can't cross the border, Bella. Just because we said 'fuck all of you and your stupid ass rules' to the Elders doesn't mean we can just run across the border without Cullen permission."

"Oh, did you, now?" Tanya asked, her concentration now torn between wanting to help a clearly drunk Bella and the new information. Seeing as Bella had gone running to the Elders only hours earlier, this new turn of events was quite the twist.

"I can and I will," Bella argued, because damn it, she needed to be closer to them. Needed them to make her feel better, to ground her in that weird way they did. Sober Bella could be horrified at searching for someone, let alone two people who supposedly owned her heart, to help give her strength, but current Bella didn't care. The alpha didn't make it more than another step before Jared, Sam, and Leah sprung from their positions to also grab onto Bella, and only made it another step after that before snarling with frustration. They were too much added weight, it was too hard to keep moving with them all attached to her like this.

Rosalie and Tanya didn't like seeing so many people touching their mate, especially when they couldn't. It only made matters worse that they had felt so many dark emotions boiling in their mate moments earlier; it drove them to go to their mate, to protect, and they couldn't do any of that. Not yet, anyway.

"Bella," Tanya murmured, and all struggling between Bella and her four packmates immediately stopped as Bella's bright eyes found hers. "Give us permission to cross the border, Bella. Then we can come to you."

"Yeah." Bella blinked and straightened, shaking off most of her single minded need to get to her imprints by any means necessary. "Yeah. You both have permission to cross the border. As long as you come to me."

In a flash, both blondes were at Bella's sides, the wolves once holding Bella back from her potential mistake now stumbling away-or being shoved away, in the case of anyone who Rosalie felt was still too close.

"We'll always come to you, Bella," Tanya promised as she tucked some stray hair of Bella's behind the wolf's ear.

"Obviously. We're stuck with you, after all." Despite Rosalie's harsh words, her tone was soft, fond, even loving. Realizing that she had shown her less prickly side to others outside of her mate and Tanya, she quickly glared at the pack, daring them to say anything. A moment later, she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose in disgust. "Ugh, when Irina said you reeked of alcohol, she wasn't kidding. You stink." Rosalie didn't like it at all. How badly the alcohol stench aside, her mate's natural scent was almost completely covered. She wanted to smell Bella, her mate, not the disgusting shit Bella had been drinking.

Bella didn't even have a retort to give, too busy staring at Rosalie and Tanya as if she were seeing a miracle being performed right in front of her. She didn't know whether to tell them how much she loved them-which was the wolf talking, totally the wolf talking-or to just pull them closer. Because damn, they were barely touching her, and it already felt so good. Bella wanted nothing more than to feel the press of both of their bodies against her own, feel just how cool and smooth their skin was beneath those clothes.

"Your love will destroy them," that cruel voice whispered in Bella's ear.

"Shut the fuck up! It won't destroy them, they're vampires! They're almost indestructible!" Bella snarled. Out loud. Like a dumb ass. The second she realized what she had done, she was almost slammed by self loathing. She had been so afraid that her pack would think she was losing her mind, and then she just had to go and talk to a voice that only she had the "pleasure" of hearing.

Tanya and Rosalie both felt her emotions come back, and immediately went into action. They didn't know what she was hearing or what she was replying to, all they knew was it was causing their mate pain.

Tanya pulled Bella against her, draping her arms over Bella's shoulders and nuzzling the alpha's neck. Her mate really did stink of alcohol, to the point Tanya felt she was choking on it, but she didn't pull away. One hand wound its way to the back of Bella's head and pulled Bella's face into Tanya's neck. Tanya didn't quite understand why Bella felt the need to hide her feelings and moment of weakness from her pack after seeing how close they all were. Regardless, she knew Bella needed it, and that's what led her to draw the alpha close like she did. Not just because she craved to touch and hold her mate, which she did, of course she did. But it also gave Bella a chance to recover and hide her weakness in a moment that looked like a need for intimacy that Tanya initiated.

As Tanya worked on helping their mate get herself back together, Rosalie went about trying to get the rest of the pack to leave.

"Have you mutts ever heard of privacy? Now that we're here, we want to be alone. With Bella. Get lost." Rosalie's words and the following snarl made many wolves bristle, of course it did. But this was one of their alpha's imprints, and every wolf inside every shifter could sense it was one of their alpha's mates trying to protect their alpha in some way, and above all, that was what mattered. She was trying to drive them off, yes...but it was for Bella that Rosalie was doing it.

Bella finally managed to shake herself out of her stupor. "Nah, let them party." Rosalie opened her mouth to argue, and Tanya seemed ready to tell Bella that they actually needed some alone time-even it required basically seducing Bella right then and there. However, Bella kept talking. "I need to go somewhere with you guys anyway. This way." Bella grabbed both of their hands in hers and started to pull them away from her pack. Sensing them holding back their desires out of concern, Bella added, "Go ahead, you fucks. I know you want to tease me so go ahead and do it."

Just like that, the air was filled with cheerful wolf whistles and teasing comments. Bella couldn't help but snort at her pack's antics, which made Rosalie roll her eyes in response to both the pack and Bella.

"You're all…" Rosalie started, but quickly stopped herself from saying something rude. She didn't want to start a fight now, not when Bella was holding both her hand and Tanya's of her own volition and clearly upset.

"Yeah we are," Bella agreed goofily. She paused to sniff the air, relieved when she caught her own scent trail. It would've been too embarrassing to have accidentally gone the wrong way in her drunken stupor.

Tanya waited until she was sure the rest of the pack couldn't hear them talk before speaking up. "So, what's going on? We could feel your emotions, and they've been quite...intense, frankly. We've been worried."

Bella froze for a second, giving Tanya a dumbfounded look. It was clear she found it strange that someone would say they cared about her. Her expression quickly became closed off when she recognized the pain and concern in Tanya's eyes at Bella's reaction, and she quickly looked away. Rosalie and Tanya exchanged a glance, agreeing that they'd have to bring up Bella's reaction at a later time. But right now, they had another issue to work with.

"Sorry about that. Must be tough dealing with my shit," Bella muttered. She soon perked up when she recognized the area and started sniffing the air intensely. If Rosalie and Tanya were going to say something, Bella's sudden reaction made them forget about it.

"Bella, are you okay?" Tanya asked. "What's going on?" When Bella didn't respond, she squeezed Bella's hand lightly in an attempt to get her attention.

Bella let out a snarl of frustration, not at Tanya but at her own nose. "Do you guys smell anything?" Please, they had to. Bella couldn't be losing her mind.

Rosalie frowned and took her own sniff of the air before scowling. "All I smell is the goddamn alcohol clinging to you."

"Well if I'm that bad, I can just move away. You don't need to be a bitch about it," Bella muttered and started to pull away from her, only for Rosalie to tighten her grip on Bella's hand before Bella could let go and jerk Bella back to her side. Bella eyed Rosalie for a second, noticing how hard Rosalie was glaring at her. For once, Bella realized it was wiser to keep her mouth shut. "Or not."

"You better not," was Rosalie's response. She was just waiting for Bella to dare and try to leave her side again, but Bella decided it was best to just keep sniffing from where she was.

Tanya regretfully let go of Bella's hand and moved away. While it pained her to do so, she knew Bella was freaking out about something in the area, and she wanted to make sure to soothe the alpha in any way she could.

"All I smell is you and Irina," Tanya said. The area was clearly the place where Irina had caught sight of Bella being drunk.

"No. No, that can't be it! There has to be something else there! I am not losing my mind, damn it." Fear bled into the anger in Bella's voice, and it made the hearts of both blondes twist. Fear was so wrong on the alpha, and the fact she was this distraught because she wasn't able to smell something made it clear something she had experienced had rattled her.

Tanya quickly flashed to Bella's side, pulling the girl into an embrace and stroking her hair. The alpha didn't fight it, breathing Tanya's scent deeply. Then she pulled away just enough to turn in Tanya's arms, pulling a surprised Rosalie against her and burying her face in the younger blonde's neck so she could breathe in Rosalie's scent as well.

Mate. Mine. Safe. Protect. Home. Being surrounded by both scents made Bella relax and calmed her in a way that Bella had never thought was possible for her. Maybe this whole mate thing wasn't that bad after all? After all, something that felt this good couldn't actually lead to some fucked shit, right?

One way to find out.

Tanya kissed Bella's forehead lightly, and got a surprise of her own when Bella captured Tanya's lips with her own when the blonde tried to pull away. It was brief, a simply press of mouths, but it was one of the most intense and electrifying experiences Bella had ever experienced. Tanya felt the same; she had never felt something better than kissing her mate, even with the disgusting taste of alcohol. "I'll keep searching," Tanya promised once they broke away from each other.

"We'll keep searching." Rosalie grabbed Bella by the collar quickly, jerking the alpha against her and kissing the brunette hard and fast before letting her go. She quickly hid how pleased she was at Bella's dazed expression behind a glare. "But if there isn't more of this later, there will be hell to pay. Which means no more running, got it?"

Bella had to blink a few times as she struggled to restart her brain. "No promises, sober me is probably going to run." Stupid sober Bella. Why run from something so amazing?

The dark emotions and fears started to creep in as if to answer her, accompanied by that woman's voice. "Filthy creatures like you don't deserve happiness."

"Then when we're done with this, I'm going to call Carlisle, make him allow you across the border, and tie you to my bed so you can't escape." Not that Rosalie expected Carlisle to put up a fight anyway.

"I'll help her keep you pinned down." Tanya offered Bella a sexy smirk, adding, "And of course enjoy every second of it."

The confidence in her imprints' answer chased away all of the creeping darkness in Bella's heart. She couldn't even hear the woman's voice anymore, and with her two mates daring her to try and argue, Bella found herself grinning at them. "I'm okay with that. But usually I'm the one doing the tying and pinning."

"Things change," Rosalie said dismissively. "Oh, and if you talk about your past experiences with other girls again, I can't promise your safety. Got it?" Her beast was already grumbling at the idea of Bella with anyone but her and Tanya.

"Hot," Bella said with a low whistle.

"I know I am." With that, Rosalie strode away, leaving Bella staring after her with Tanya at her side, holding back her laughter at both Rosalie and Bella's banter.

"I'm still gonna be the one who pins though. I'm dominant," Bella mumbled at last, so drunk she forgot saying something even at a low volume would easily be picked up by vampiric hearing.

"You wish," Rosalie snapped back before taking another sniff of the air. She didn't even glance in Bella's direction Which Tanya felt was truly a mistake, as that meant Rosalie ended up missing Bella's adorable little pout.

"Don't worry Bella, regardless of what happens in the bedroom, you'll definitely enjoy every second of it," Tanya purred. The sudden look t in Bella's eyes made Tanya want nothing more than to answer Bella's hunger with her own, but she had to hold back. Right now, Bella had apparently seen something that freaked her out. While distracted for now, Tanya had no doubt that whatever Bella had seen would eat at her unless they found it. Which meant no sex until they were absolutely sure that nothing else had been there.

The blondes went about searching the area along with Bella, who seemed to get more and more distressed when they couldn't find anything. Bella was about to give up and accept she had gone insane when Tanya suddenly froze.

"I found something. The scent of a vampire I don't recognize," Tanya nearly hissed, barely holding back her fury. She hated that an unknown vampire was so close to her mate, that a danger was so close to her mate, and she and Rosalie hadn't been around to face that threat with her. What if the vampire had decided to hurt her? She was certainly going to thank Irina for interrupting during the light interrogation she was going to give at the same time.

"Seriously?" Bella was stunned to hear that. Did that mean she wasn't crazy after all?

"Where? Let me smell," Rosalie demanded. She started to move to Tanya's side, only to realize that would mean leaving Bella alone. Even if "alone" only meant that she would be ten feet behind Rosalie, Rosalie still didn't want that. She quickly blurred back to Bella, grabbing the alpha's hand and lacing their fingers together. "Are you just going to stand there like a dolt, or are you actually going to check it out?"

"Right." Bella let Rosalie lead her over to Tanya by the hand, but she still was half sure she was hallucinating. After all, the wind was blowing Tanya's scent to her, but not the scent of any other vampires. It made no sense.

As if reading Bella's mind, Tanya started to mutter, "I don't understand it. It's like all of her scent was wrapped up and deposited in one location. If you don't stand directly on top of it, you can't smell anything unusual. I've only seen this sort of thing when…" Tanya's eyes widened in realization. "The vampire used magic."

Magic. This was magic used to quickly hide someone's scent. That meant that this vampire somehow had magic at her disposal-most likely a witch of some kind before she was turned. So this vampire was a hundred times more dangerous than Tanya originally thought...and she had been alone with my mate.

"Holy shit," Bella muttered. "That's possible?"

"Yes. When a magic user is turned into a vampire, their magic is greatly diluted, sometimes to the point that they lose their magic altogether. While rare, it's not impossible; as proven by your little visiter." Tanya couldn't take it anymore. She had to reassure her beast and herself that Bella was alright. Once Rosalie and Bella had gotten close enough that she knew they wouldn't lose the location of the scent, Tanya flashed over to Bella, twining her arms around Bella's neck and burying her face against her throat. Even in her stupor, Bella still wrapped an arm around Tanya's waist and nuzzled her in return, reassuring her while both accepting Tanya's scent and spreading her own on Tanya.

No blood. No fear. My mate is safe. Alive. Fine. It helped calm Tanya immensely, but not completely. Bella is fine, but the vampire won't be. Not after I get my hands on her.

Bella inhaled the smells on the spot indicated before stepping back, furious with herself. That was the scent of the vampire she had seen; which meant she had actually let a vampire go. One that was a dangerous to her pack and every human in Forks. Damn her! How could she be so stupid?

Rosalie didn't let go of Bella's hand, but did step right up to the spot Tanya had been standing in to get a sniff of the scent herself. She released a furious snarl as she realized who it belonged to. "I know this scent. It's Victoria. She was with James and Laurent; they were a group of nomads. One of them, James, decided to hunt Angela because of her scent." And caused a chain reaction that led to me being forced to leave Bella. "Edward said that he was pretty sure Victoria was James's mate."

Tanya let out a hiss of fury. "You mean you all killed one while letting their mate live? Do you realize how stupid that is? Obviously she's going to want to avenge her mate!"

"I wasn't there!" Rosalie snapped back, although admittedly, she was furious with herself even if she hadn't been involved in most of the incident. She had been so focused on Bella she hadn't even paid attention to the whole nomadic situation. If anything, she had tuned it out because she thought Edward's plan had been insanely stupid and knew Angela would be fine if they all just stayed together. "I had nothing to do with it, okay?"

Neither blonde tended to fight with each other, and the fact that they were even directing any anger at each other was incredibly unusual, but they couldn't help it. They were stressed, instincts riding high, and while Bella was fine, she had been in danger, and would continue to be in danger until Victoria was taken care of.

Bella was still staring at the spot the scent had congregated at, but she still pulled both girls against her, letting out a low rumble that was strangely comforting to them both. "Don't fight," she murmured, her voice laced with a little bit of power of an alpha. Not to force her will on them, but to remind them that their mate was strong and that they were in this together.

The anger left as quickly as it came, and both blondes soon settled down and stared at each other unsurely.

"I'm sorry," Tanya said at last. "I know it's not your fault." However, Tanya was going to find out exactly how things went down to make sure that killing Victoria hadn't been in the Cullens' control. "I was just...protective."

"I know, I agree with you completely. We should have killed her," Rosalie said with disgust. Bella squeezed Rosalie lightly so as to make her continue. "And...you know how defensive I get. I'm...I'm sorry." Ugh, Rosalie really sucked at apologizing. But while Rosalie loathed apologizing and hated giving them, Tanya deserved it.

"Great. Now we need to deal with this." Bella shook her head in self disgust once before letting them go. "I'll call the pack."

"I'll call Carlisle," Rosalie said as she pulled out her phone.

Tanya's phone was out a second after. "I'm calling Eleazar. He might have some more insight into this magic."

A howl split the air, the sound a beautiful unearthly song that no human should be able to create. Yet two pairs of golden eyes landed on Bella, in human form, head tilted back as she called for her packmates. She radiated such power and beauty that both blondes felt themselves completely enraptured by their mate. Bella's call reached an instinctive part buried deep inside of the vampires, stirring something hot and primal within them.

Bella finished her howl and turned to Rosalie and Tanya only to find them both staring at her with dark eyes, forgotten phones still in their hands. The alcohol had all but run out of her system upon the discovery of the vampire, but she was still buzzed enough to enjoy Tanya and Rosalie's gaze on her without fear of her own conflicted feelings. Even that evil voice was strangely silent. The only thing that stopped her from doing more than smirking at her imprints was the knowledge that her entire pack, some still human and some turned wolf from the power of her call, were fast approaching them. She was not going to react well to being caught kissing either of them, so she held herself back.

"Don't you two have people to call?" Bella asked when Tanya and Rosalie continued to stare at her.

Tanya offered Bella a wry smile. "Right, I should get on that."

Rosalie sniffed in an attempt to hide how hard she had been staring. "I already called him." Which was true, of course, she had made the call; the only problem was she never responded when Carlisle answered. Carlisle had been worriedly calling Rosalie's name, pausing only when he heard Rosalie's voice.

"Did you now?" Bella asked teasingly. She had to hold back her laughter when Rosalie nodded, only to bring the phone to her ear a few reluctant moments later. If Rosalie were human, she'd have an indignant blush on her face as she glared at Bella. If the cocky jerk dared say anything, she was going to make her pay. Hell, Rosalie already planned on making her pay for finding amusement in this. Creatively, in a variety of different ways. Preferably with Bella naked...purely for punishment sake, of course.

They just had to take care of this stupid Victoria problem first.