2brown-eyes, iambeagle, and ceceprincess1217 helped me with this, and they rock!
"Rose!" I jump up, our bond pulsing bright orange. "Where is she?"
"Who?" His mood shifts to match my own.
On edge.
Panicky.
"My best friend." Fear fills me with adrenaline, and I frantically search the floor for my clothes. "The applicant!"
It's no use.
They're all shredded.
I move to a nearby dresser, searching for something to put on, but there's nothing.
He doesn't wear clothes.
I can't stay here.
My chest throbs in agony.
"No!" His roar echoes across the empty space between us, marking my soul, and he cages me inside powerful arms. "I can't let you leave."
It should frighten me, but I feel safer than ever before. I don't want to leave him, but I have to find Rose. "Okay." I take a deep gulp of his sweet fragrance, allowing it to center me. "Please, find her. I need my best friend."
Edward's pillowy soft palm rubs a soothing path down my arm and back up again. "She's been recalled," he whispers, his nose nestled in my hair. "We've been requested to return her to Forks."
"No!" I struggle against his hold for the first time. "You can't do this. Royce is insane. I'll never see Rose again."
"I'm sorry, Isabella," Edward offers, his tail brushing ever so slightly against my jaw. "I can't let you go. You belong to me now."
"Then save her." Tears roll down my cheeks, and I turn in his embrace, burying my face in his honeysuckle neck. "Please."
"Come." He takes my hand, and I can barely keep up with his long strides.
Our connection pulses orange when panic rises inside me. "Stop," I say, pulling from his grasp right as he grabs the doorknob. "I'm naked."
His eyes fall, and orange turns to pink as passion burns in his bright green eyes. He licks his lips. "Yes, you are."
Tingles spread in waves over my skin, but I shake my head, refusing to let Rose be returned to Royce. "We can't. She may already be on the way back to him, and we must stop the transport." Tears flow freely down my cheeks at the hopelessness building inside me. "I need clothes. We can't do anything if I'm stuck in here."
Pink fades to black as my mood affects his. "As my one true mate, you'll become the princess of Kingdom Cullen, and that would earn you the right to override a recall, if you choose her to be your personal staff."
"Of course, anything." Hope begins to replace the dread, and our connection basks in it. "What do we need to do?"
"Clothes," he breathes, his heartbeat thundering. "We need to get you covered. I'm fighting every instinct I have by not fucking you this very second." Bright red pulses and flexes. "I'm going to my father, and I'll send in my sister with some things for you."
He closes his eyes to break the connection between us and backs away from my touch. Panic swells inside me. "Don't leave me!"
"Isabella," he whispers, a low purr soothing me. "This is painful for me as well, but please know, you'll never be without me again."
His lips crash into mine, and I sigh, gulping in his delicious taste. His long, agile tongue snakes into my mouth and twirls around my own, thrusting and sliding and driving me mad with need. There is no battle, only compliance as he brands my mouth the same as he has every other inch of my body.
"Fuck," he grunts as he pulls away. "Must. Leave."
He's gone before I can stop him, and I'm glad. Otherwise, I'm not sure I could've let him go. The farther away he moves, the clearer my mind becomes but the tighter the connection between us feels. It's as if I can close my eyes and pinpoint his very location. It's reassuring and makes me wish I had a similar connection with Rose.
I worry and pace.
Stop and listen.
Pace some more.
It feels like forever before there's finally a quiet knock at the door. It isn't Edward because I can feel him elsewhere, so I assume it's his sister. Uncaring that I'm stark naked, I race over and sling it wide.
The princess is different than her brother but also the same. Where he's flowy golden, she's lighter, almost blonde with deep, dark eyes and a much shorter stature, though still larger than me.
"Isabella," she says, holding a robe for me to put on. "Is it true?"
I take it, grateful, but tilt my head at her question. "About Rose? Yes, of course. Royce is a hor—"
"Oh, I believe that." She clasps her hands behind her back as she walks past me into the room, her nose crinkling. "Smells like sex."
"Excuse me," I say, wrapping the thick white robe around my body and tying the belt. "Isn't that how this works?"
She spins, dark eyes questioning. "The mating ritual? I wouldn't know." Her shoulders slump and her voice softens. "None of us do."
"What does that mean?" I've gone from grateful to offended to curious in the span of minutes.
Princess Alice is giving me whiplash.
"No Cullenite has found their one true love in one hundred and seven years." Her eyes are glassy as she blinks back tears.
My heart seizes in my chest. "What?"
"It's true," she says. "So you can see why I'd ask."
I move to the bed, leaning against the edge. "How am I supposed to know?"
Dread builds in my chest, and I start to question everything. The bond between Edward and me turns a muddy brown, distorted by doubt. And that's when I feel him racing my way. My distress is his driving motivation as he leaps through the halls of his home.
The closer he comes, the surer I am. There's no doubt that I'm anything other than his soulmate. Elation thrums inside my chest, stretching through the bright yellow bond and searing his heart. The two organs thump in tune as each stride brings him closer to me.
"Isabella?"
"I do know," I say to the princess, my voice sure and steady. "We are one and the same."
"Fascinating," she muses, studying me like a chemistry book.
We're more than halfway through the already-read portion, and I can't wait to get to the new stuff to see what you think. I have been getting more chapters banked while we posted these, and that was the whole point of taking it nice and slow.
Thank you so much for being here, and rereading this with me XOXO
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See you Thursday.