(Bella's POV)
I lead the other's up the stairs to Alice's room. We paused at the door giggling like children. Walking into the room they stopped just inside the door while I went right to the nightstand. If I were Alice, where would I keep trashy books? No that's not the right question. I would hide them in my closet where Renee wouldn't find them, but Alice has never had to hide anything. Why would she with her parents?
"I have no idea where to look. I would hide books like this, but Alice would have no reason to." I looked at the other girls. "Any ideas?"
They glanced at each other before slowly walking over to me.
"I don't see a bookshelf anywhere." Grace shrugged.
"Guys, I feel like you have overlooked the box on the bed."
Grace and I turned to the bed. There was a box there with a note taped to the top. Kim reached over to pick it up.
"It has your name on it Bella." She handed it to me. Opening the note I read it out loud.
"Bella, I can see what you girls get up to tonight. That said I didn't want my room too messed up in your quest to find these books, so I set them to the side for you. I'm sure you know this but you can use Jasper's study to read them if you don't want to stay in my room. If those rooms won't work then dad's study is always open to his children. I shouldn't need to say this, but yes that includes you. Love your big sister Alice. PS yes there are vampire writers, and yes these books are from those writers. Who else could about the mate bond, and make it feel real?"
We looked around the room. Kim grabbed the box and walked out of the room.
"I don't know about you two but I don't want to stay in there."
"Okay but let's go to Jasper's room, not his study. He spends hours in his study, but never really uses his room.
"Lead the way." Grace grabbed my hand pulling me over to Kim. Rolling my eyes I led the way to his room. Pushing the others into the room before me I locked the door after us. If I was going to do this I didn't want Esme or Carlilse to see my reading these.
"Okay we have the books. Now what?"
"I guess we skim through them for ideas." Kim put the box on the floor. We sat around it.
"Alice said something about a mate bond. What's that?" Grace looked at me.
"I don't know. Edward called us mates but never really told me what it meant. Maybe we should start there." I reached into the box pulling one out at random.
Love Bite. The cover showed a pale shirtless male leaning against the wall of an alleyway. Turning the book over I read the back. Elizabeth had everything a vampire could want. A city with a thriving nightlife, easy to get blood, and human men jumping to sleep with her. She wasn't looking for a Mate, but when she catches their scent. Their all she wants.
"Okay this says something about mates." I looked at the girls. They each had a book in hand.
"Yeah this one too."
"Same, but aren't these books normally longer?" Kim held the spin up.
"Yeah these seem pretty short." Grace pulled out a couple more.
"You're right, but at least that means we'll be able to read them faster." I pulled out three more. The four in my hand together were about the size of a human romance novel.
"They are getting together in a fourth of the time it takes humans?" Kim opened the one she was holding.
"Maybe it has to do with the scent? The back of all of these brought that up." I looked at the books in my hand at Grace's comment. She was right, they all talked about scent.
"If it is a scent thing, wouldn't Jasper already know if I was his mate."
"It would seem that way." Kim glanced up from the book. She had skipped to about ten pages in. "These two are already fucking."
"WHAT!" Grace and I quickly opened our books. I skimmed the pages till I hit a sex scene. Not even ten pages in. I moved on to the next, and the next, and the next.
"Okay before we freak out let's see if there are any human on vampire ones." Grace said, reaching over and dumping all the books out of the box.
We quickly sorted the books into three stacks. Short, medium, and long. The short ones were all vampire on vampire. The pace was quick. The moment the two mates met that was that. We pushed those to the side. With my whole being human thing the others didn't think they would be much help.
The medium stack was push to the side as well. They were vampire on werewolf or vampire on shapeshifter. Enemies to lovers being very popular it was the largest stack of books. We shared a look.
"Do you think Alice had a thing for wolves? Because even the one where their 'Shapeshifters' they still turn to wolves."
"Maybe? I don't know Grace. However, if we're being honest here I don't care at the moment."
"That's fair, but I think there are same single wolves she hasn't met yet. Maybe you could do something like I don't know a get together?"
"Kim they were all in the clearing today other than Brady." Grace rolled her eyes.
"Oh, right."
"Anyway! Let's each pick a book and skim it for idea's." I grabbed the top one and leaned against the bed.
Bond Blind
Mary didn't know why she felt safe around the man who just moved in next door, but she wanted to find out. It started with her taking him a homemade cake to welcome him to the floor. A week later she thought it would end when he jumped in front of a bult for her. But it didn't.
Seemed like it was from the human's point of view. Could be helpful, but not really what I was looking for. I placed it to the side, and grabbed the next. A quick glance showed a human point of view. I grabbed the next, and the next.
"These are from the human's point of view. Have you guys found one from a vampire's?"
"I found this one." Grace held one up called Singing Blood. "Looking at the back it looks like its from the guy's point of view. Give me a moment to skim through and see if we can use this." Kim and I kept looking through the pile, but it seemed like most if not all were from the humans view.
"Oh this guy mentions how he can feel the mate bond, but it's kinda weak. He talks about not wanting to rush into things because any misstep could break the forming bond. Maybe Jasper is waiting for Bella to make a move?"
"Okay. That's great! Now just what move?" Kim flopped back onto the floor.
"Hold on let me skim some more." I waited biting my lip. Grace flipped through page after page before looking back up. "So short of just outright telling him how you feel. Taking off your clothes and waiting in his room might work. The girl in here waited for him to hunt, so he would be too hungry then used blood like chocolate sauce."
"Okay, but she can't do that here."
"I could at my house. Charlies going to Billy's place tonight, but how are we going to get him to hunt? I think if I texted him to come over he would."
Kim pulled out her phone.
"I'll text Sam to have the group with him hunt. After all, I'm just so worried about our new friends."
"Awesome, now we just need to get some blood." Grace looked outside. "Do you think Jake would ask why we need a dead animal?"
"I mean I hope he would, because that is super weird, but maybe not if it's you." I shrugged.
"Okay I'll ask later."
"You two think too much. Tell him to kill a deer and take it to Bella's house, because she's never been able to cook freshly killed anything and wants to try. Also Sam said he would make sure they did and that we're all safe now."
"Oh you're right, that would work."
"Okay but aren't we forgetting something?"
"What?" They both asked turning to me.
"What if he doesn't want me that way? What if I'm not his mate?"
"Bella, you have to try!"
"Plus even if this doesn't work we can try other things. Like," she flipped through the book in her hands. "Well she tries giving him gifts. He seems to love everything but takes it in a friendly way. She starts keeping blood bags in her fridge for him."
"How would Charlie react to seeing blood in the fridge?" Kim laughed.
I pulled the cover off the bed hiding my face. I could feel the blood rushing to my face. There was no way I could do this. I wasn't bold enough for this! Drizzling blood over my body and waiting for Jasper?
"I don't know if he would be very happy if I tested his control with my life on a platter. Like the sex sure cool I guess, but the blood? Maybe we should try without it first?" I refused to leave the safety of the blanket to look at either of them.
"Wait! Bella, have you had sex before?"
"No. Does Edward really seem like the kinda guy to fuck his girlfriend?"
I heard them giggle, and I was sure I heard one of them fall over.
"Oh my god! Okay, okay. So do you know how sex works?" Kim asked through her giggles.
"I mean I took sex ed, but not really."
"Yeah I don't think sex ed counts." Grace said.
There was a knock on the door. Tossing the blanket off all of our eyes were wide. We jumped to shove the books under the bed.
"Yes?" I called.
"We just got back with dinner. The others texted me that they were on their way back." Carlilse spoke through the door. I flushed. How long had he been able to hear us talking?
"Okay. We'll be down soon."
"Also, Bella, if you need help with anything my door is always open." His voice was kind.
"Kill me now." I muttered. I could hear his laughter as he walked away.
"Okay, let's clean up the books and put them back in Alice's room." Kim reached for the box.
"I texted Jake while you were hiding. He said he would drop off something while he was taking Brady home."
"I really don't know about this guys. What if he doesn't like me? I mean we both just got out of a relationship, maybe I should wait?"
"No! You have to try something Bella!" Kim pushed me while putting the books in the box.
"At very least try talking to him. Maybe you could drain the blood out of whatever Jake drops off and offer him some while you eat dinner. It could be like a date!" Grace added dropping the last book in.
"That sounds nice. It wouldn't be weird would it?" I thought about cooking a nice dinner for just myself or even just a late night snack.
I never made anything big for myself. If no one was going to be home I just had whatever was easy on already on hand. It never seemed worth it to put the extra time and effort into a meal for just one person. Could I even do that? Would Jasper care what I made? Would he even want to have dinner with me?
"Of course it wouldn't be!" Kim picked up the box, snapping me out of my thoughts. I pushed myself up and opened the door for her.
"I'll think about it." They nodded as we walked to put the box back.
Leaving Alice's room we heard the door open. Looking at each other in excitement we raced down the stairs. Our boys were home!