Chapter 17:

Sorry it took a while to get this up, but I've been busy!

Disclaimer: I own N/A

The two of us rose in sync from the booth leaving my barely half-drank coffee behind on the table. Half the café was gaping at us; constantly shifting their gazes between Tanya, me and our hands. The rest of the half was staring at me trying to figure out who I was.

Tanya paid no attention to them as she held my hand tightly with a small affectionate squeeze and smile. I smiled in return as we headed for the door. Max, who was standing behind the register, smirked knowingly and gave me a small thumbs-up.

I rolled my eyes at him and I flipped him off quickly behind my back as we exited. The man was chuckling as the door closed behind me, and my shoulders relax.

Tanya led us to her car and swiftly unlocked it with the keys in her pocket. Without a word, she opened the passenger door for me. I gave her another smile and slid in, resisting the urge to roll my eyes when I saw her satisfied grin. She wasn't even trying to go for a relationship anymore and she was still doing everything she could for me. I partially wondered if it was because of my cancer, but the thought quickly brushed to the back of my subconscious.

The car door shut and I began to buckle myself in as the blonde walked around the car. She slid in a few moments later, turning her car on and putting it into drive. She barely even looked around for a moment before she pulled out into the road and took off towards her house.

Vampires.

She glanced towards me, resting her hand on my leg. "Are you sure you're alright, Bella?" she asked still concerned.

I nodded, taking her hand in mine. I began to rub circles on the back of it. "I'm fine, Tanya," I assured. "This is just another piece of information I believe you and you're family deserve to know."

She nodded, taking in a deep breath. "Alright," she said, relaxing slightly. She took our linked hands and turned our hands to bring my knuckles to her lips. "There is something I think you should know too, but we can talk about that when we reach the house."

I raised my brow and the comfortable silence fell between us again. What did Tanya want to tell me? Did she have a secret that I didn't know about? Maybe she was secretly engaged to someone already? Woo, that would be a soap opera worthy twist…although very illogical.

The only sound that filled the air was the humming of the car as it shot down the road and my breathing. Tanya nor I spoke, keeping our eyes on the road while we sped towards her house.

The silence was thick and heavy, filling the space between us like a void. It both comforted and made me uncomfortable. I pieced my plan together in my head, trying to figure out the best way to ease the Denali coven into who I was; what I knew.

It was going to be hard to really ease them into it, but the plus side was that I wasn't just throwing everything on them at once like my cancer. Now, I had given them doses and this was going to be the final one…if you didn't count the wolves being another.

I mentally groaned and slammed my head against the headrest at the thought. If the Denalis reacted to the wolves like the Cullens did I was screwed. Although, I did have the wolves on my side for trying, so maybe the Denalis could do the same; it would take a lot of weight off my shoulders if they did.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Tanya slowed the car, and came around the bend to stop in front of her house. She glanced at me as I unbuckled my seatbelt, releasing her hand for the action. Knowing she was slightly nervous, I smiled and leaned forward, giving her a chaste kiss on the lips.

When I pulled away, I was surprised by the sudden calmness that had taken over her expression. Tanya didn't appear to be as nervous as before and I made a mental note in a technique to calm her down in the future if needed-it might even stop her the next time we were interrupted.

We climbed out of the car, shutting the doors behind us as we headed for the house. Tanya held out her hand, flashing me a smile that had me smiling in return when I took it. Our fingers flawlessly twined together as we reached the steps, walking up to the front door of her house.

Before we could even open it, the door was thrown open and I had an armful of Kate. I grunted as she gave me a (gentle) squeeze. "BELLA!" she called happily.

"Kate…" I grunted.

She released me, allowing air to flow into my lungs and she gently gave my arm a punch. "I've been waiting for you to come around. I want to hear the story about the date from your perspective." She threw me an evil smirk.

"Katrina," Carmen scolded as she walked forward, "don't rush Bella. She just arrived after all." The Hispanic woman smiled at me and pulled me into a hug. "Hello, Bella. It's nice to see you again."

I returned the embrace smiling. "You as well, Carmen."

She pulled away from me with a smile as Irina came into a view and raised her brow. "Did Tanya bring you here to brag about how she got to you first?" she teased.

Tanya scowled next to me. "Watch it, Rina," she growled.

Irina smirked at her sister and I shook my head. "No," I said. "I actually came to talk to you."

Kate raised her brow, suddenly seeming to sense it was serious. Kate was strange in how she could act so weird and then snap to serious in less than a second. "What about?"

I pursed my lips a little. "It's…kind of another thing I have yet to tell you about myself."

Carmen touched my arm concerned. "Are you in trouble, dear?" she asked. "If so, we can find a way to help you out of it, I'm sure."

I shook my head and smiled. "No, I'm not in any trouble, Carmen. I just need to tell you some things is all-come clean in a way, I guess you could say," I shrugged.

Tanya nodded as she moved to be a little closer to me. "I also thought that maybe we could tell her what we had been discussing the other night," she said, cocking her head to the side to convey a silent message.

The Denalis took a second to realize what she was saying. Kate looked hesitant for a moment with Carmen, but Kate began to smirk as a thought came to mind. She gave a small nod with Irina.

Eleazer appeared in the doorway with a nod of agreement towards Tanya. He jerked his head. "We can talk in the living room," he said, motioning with his hand. As one, the women moved to follow him into the living room and Tanya continued to hold my hand.

Carmen sat on the arm of an armchair as Eleazer lowered himself into the seat. They held hands, twining their fingers together while Irina and Kate took the sectional, leaving the loveseat to Tanya and me. We continued to hold hands as Tanya began to draw her thumb across the back of my hand. "If you wouldn't mind, Bella," she said, "I think we'd like to go first?"

I cocked my head, but slowly nodded. "I suppose," I said. While I usually wouldn't mind her going first, the look in Tanya's eyes made me want to twitch, and her family's postures didn't help me much either. I almost felt like I was in interrogation.

Tanya nodded as she cocked her head, seeming to think in her mind. She pursed her lips and then asked, "I suppose you've noticed how we don't really keep company with a lot of the townsfolk besides a few people?"

I nodded. "Yes, Irina told me that when I first met her," I said, looking at the blonde next to her sister.

She gave me a small smile with a nod. "I did, yeah," she agreed. "And, you see, there is a reason for that-why we don't spend much time around the people in town-I mean."

I furrowed my brow now. This was really starting to sound a lot like the conversation I was going to have with them. Were the Denalis coming clean about being what they were? Were they actually "admitting" to me that they were vampires?

The Denalis, however, took my furrowed brow as confusion or question. "You see," Eleazer continued cautiously from the armchair, "we're different from other families, Bella. We have abilities humans like you do not possess."

Oh god, they are.

Talk about a coincidence.

I couldn't stop myself from shooting my brows up slightly as I ran my hand through my hair, shaking my head. "Wow," I said. I should have seen this coming from in the car, but I was too wrapped up in my dilemma to even think about Tanya's biggest secret just like I had been when Edward dumped me.

Oh, irony.

Kate nodded. "Yeah, I know, it sounds a little weird," she said. "But I can promise you it gets even weirder than that. You see, Bella, we're-"

"Vampires," I finished. "I know."

And-literally-jaws dropped. Carmen's eyes widened comically as she stared at me in disbelief, her mate's mouth held open in awestruck. Kate was frozen, her jaw dropped with Irina just…staring at me in disbelief, and I frankly didn't blame her.

Tanya, however, was holding tightly unto my hand as her eyes bored into the side of my head. Her brow was furrowed in confusion, but her eyes also had a small glimmer of shock in them. It seemed that she was battling with herself in order what to feel first.

Seeing as none of the Denalis were going to speak, I did, "I've known since I ran into Tanya at the bookstore." I glanced at the woman next to me. "It's, uh, kind of why I avoided you at first. I didn't want to get too mixed up with vampires again after what happened the first time-clearly, though-that didn't work."

"You've known this whole time?" Kate asked, leaning forward on her last two words to help with the emphasis. I couldn't tell if it was a trick of the mind, but I was pretty sure her eyes got bigger than they already were too.

I nodded. "Yeah…it's kind of what I was going to tell you."

The pale blonde blinked, shook her head and then threw her hands up. "Why didn't you say anything?!" she called. "Do you have any idea how many tricks I've been restraining myself to holding back on I could've shown off?!"

Wow, trust Kate to come back from shock that fast to say that.

I raised my hands-well, hand as my other was still in Tanya's-in surrender. "Don't blame me for that. I didn't think walking up and saying, 'Hey, how was that deer today?' was a good way to start something off."

Kate huffed and crossed her arms over her chest like a child. "Whatever."

Irina smacked her sister on the arm hard as she fixed her with a steely glare. "Seriously, Kate? We just find out that Bella knew this whole time and that's all you can think of?" she growled.

Kate glared at her. "It's important!"

The blonde snorted and rolled her eyes at her sister before she turned to me as the others around the room relaxed. Apparently, the familiar actions between the two brought them out of their trances. Tanya brought me closer to her body, relaxing when she realized I wasn't afraid of her.

"How do you know?" Irina questioned. "Surely you have friends of some kind? Or maybe an encounter?"

I shifted, suddenly feeling the spotlight come point-blank on me. This was the part I was mostly nervous about-telling them about the Cullens. I looked down. "I, uh…" I trailed off, bringing my hand up to scratch my neck awkwardly. I sighed, letting my hand fall. "The family that left me was the Cullens."

There.

I said it.

The Denalis again stiffened and Tanya suddenly sat up straight. Her hand cupped my jaw to make me look at her. "Who?" she asked, her golden eyes were filled with as much shock as her voice.

"The Cullens," I repeated. "Edward was my boyfriend."

Tanya's body went rigid eerily still. Her eyes changed rapidly in the emotions swimming in them. First there was surprise, obviously from finding out exactly who I was and who had broken my heart years ago. Then it changed to pain, pain to what I wasn't very sure, maybe that I had been with Edward once before her. Then, however, her eyes darkened a shade as the anger began to take over.

Momentarily, I feared it was towards me when her grip on me suddenly tightened a portion and she pulled me closer to her body. "They were the ones that left you?" she growled out.

I slowly nodded and noticed the jaws tic around the room and fists clench. "Yes," I answered carefully.

"They lied to us," Kate growled. Her eyes had darkened a shade since we first started talking with her hands clenched tightly in her lap. She looked ready to attack someone. "I can't believe they lied to us."

Irina hissed in reply to her sister's growl. "The next time I see them…" she grumbled things under her breath that I couldn't hear, but was certain were several threats to the Cullens.

In the back of my mind, I made a mental note of the Denalis' behavior, seeing their reactions to my revelation. It did strike a mark on my radar, but I focused on trying to figure out why they were mad exactly. "What do you mean they lied?" I asked, pushing myself a little further into Tanya to calm the blonde behind me when she began to growl.

Her nose buried itself in my hair, inhaling my scent deeply before nuzzles followed soon after. Tanya removed her hand from mine to wrap her arms completely around my waist, pulling me flush against her to help her stay calm.

Carmen cleared her throat and forced an almost convincing calm mask onto her features. "The Cullens stayed with us after they…left you. First it was Jasper and Alice, and they told us about the party incident. Rosalie and Emmett soon followed. Carlisle, Esme and Edward were last, and they claimed that you had said you wanted nothing to do with them anymore and no longer felt safe around them after everything that had happened."

I didn't respond immediately as I took in the information. They lied to the Denalis about why they left? Why the hell would they do that? They broke my heart and that was their story? That I was the one who called everything off? That I was the one who wanted them to leave?

I couldn't believe what I had heard. I would've at least expected Esme and Carlisle to be reasonable. I expected them to have told the truth and said that things just didn't work out, not pin everything on me.

I swallowed hard, digesting the idea. I took in a breath, keeping myself controlled as I nodded. "Oh," I said.

Kate snorted from the side. "Now you see why we're so pissed," she snarled. Her eyes focused on me. "I get why your dad doesn't exactly trust us now, Bella." She ran a hand through her hair. "If I knew that from the beginning I wouldn't have treated him like I had." She shook her head. "I can't believe you even trust us. After everything."

I shrugged as Tanya hummed, pressing into my hair. "You haven't given me a reason not to," I said. I ran my finger through my hair. "I came to peace with what happened a while ago. Charlie, though, he still struggles with it."

Eleazer shook his head. "I can't blame him," he said. "If I were him, I would have hunted them down and mounted their heads above my mantel."

I smiled weakly. "He's thought about it many times," I admitted.

"I'll help him," Tanya grumbled into my hair.

I rolled my eyes at the blonde, but snuggled into her as a response. "He won't, though," I said, "unless he has a reason to really get pissed off at them. I think he kind of prefers it to be a stone left unturned. I really don't blame him." I picked at my finger nail. "The only reason I came to peace with it was because I was dying. My cancer had come back with and my heart was broken. My whole life seemed to crash in around me and…I don't know. I just felt…I felt like there wasn't much of a point anymore. Living."

Tanya stiffened behind me immediately and Carmen leaned forward, her eyes filled with concern. "You never…?" she asked, trailing off to imply her hidden meaning.

I shook my head. "No," I assured. "I never tried to commit suicide, but I did consider it a possibility." I looked down. "Charlie had to see me at my worst. He could hardly sleep at night without hearing me scream from nightmares and sometimes I think he broke more than I did from it. He hates the Cullens for what they did to me, and he didn't like being reminded of it when we ran into you up here; where I'm supposed to recover. It turned over the stone he'd rather not have turned over."

Eleazer nodded with understanding glistening in his eyes. "I believe I understand your father better now, Bella-both of you," he said. "And, I can personally promise you that we will never put you through any of that. Because it was impossible to resist letting you into our family with open arms, and we do not abandon family."

"Ever," Irina finalized.

Tanya grunted from behind me, kissing the back of my head. "You're a member of our coven now, Bella," she said. "And anyone who wishes to argue with that has us to deal with."

The Denalis nodded firmly at her statement, fixing me with gazes of loyalty and love. The silent promises they made to protect me was something that hit me in the heart, causing me to smile. In that moment, I truly did feel like I was a Denali.