Downtime

Bella and her mates lie on their master bed in their room. Bella couldn’t believe how much things had changed for her in the past few days. She’s now a royal dragon with three mates. Since her transformation, Bella can feel her mates' emotions towards her. For the very first time in her life, she’s loved, and she knows it’s the truth.

She also loves her mates, a love she won’t deny herself anymore. She tried at first, but it was too painful. But why should she deny her soulmates because of what Edward did to her? She indeed loved him, and he hurt her along with his family, but to guard herself from the true love that is right in front of her is madness.

After they hunted as a family, Tanya told Bella everything she knew about dragons and royal dragons. Both she and Eleazar taught Bella to control her fire. It also turns out that she has a shield as well. It all made sense now—why Edward couldn’t read her mind. The shield is hard to control; it’s like it has a mind of its own.

Kate had sneaked up on her and tried to shock her, but instead, her shield covered her body, extended itself, and pushed Kate away with such force that she was thrown into the air, knocking down a few trees before landing.

Tanya said that Bella's shield saw Kate as a threat, which is why it happened that way. It's good that it can do that on its own, but Bella wants to be able to protect her mates. She doesn’t want her shield to see them as a threat. The only thing she has accomplished is shielding the Denalis' minds and bodies even when she’s not with them, but she doesn’t know if it works yet; they have no way of testing it now.

Here they are, resting after two days straight of lovemaking and marking each other. It was invigorating and amazing like their souls had connected.

Irina kissed Bella on the lips slowly, with passion. She ended the kiss and looked her in the eyes. "What are you thinking about, my love? Having second thoughts?" Irina asked, a little concerned. Her worst fear was that one of her mates would leave her, even though she could sense their love for her.

"Oh goodness, no, Irina, never. You’re amazing, all of you are. I was just thinking of the past and how lucky I am to have you in my life."

"Oh…" Irina was lying beside Bella on the left side of the bed. She wrapped her arms around Bella, touched by her words.

"We are lucky to have you too," Tanya said. She was lying down on Bella’s shoulder on the right side of the bed.

"Well, the way I see it, you all are the ones who are lucky to have me," Kate said in an arrogant tone as she lay on Bella’s stomach.

Irina rolled her eyes; she knew that Kate didn’t mean it. All of them could feel it.

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"Bella!" Carmen shouted, "It’s lunchtime."

Bella loved the way Carmen cooked—it was exquisite if that’s the right word she should use. Esme’s food was great, but Carmen’s was excellent, she doesn’t know the words to describe it properly.

"Coming," she answered, not wanting to move away from her mates.

Sensing this, Tanya got up and stretched out her arms towards Bella. "It’s okay, my little mate. Let’s all have a shower and go downstairs together. You must be hungry; your appetite has tripled after all."

Irina got up to let Bella up. Bella took Tanya’s hand as she nodded in agreement. They all went to the bathroom, smiling.

On The Road

Rosalie was pissed again. She wanted to reach Bella as soon as possible. They could have been there two days ago, but her mate and the others got it in their heads to buy Bella gifts.

They didn’t even know if Bella was actually at the Denali, but as usual, Alice had gone overboard. She had four bags in her arms; it would have been more if Rosalie hadn’t put her foot down. They had to buy a car because they couldn’t run with the gifts—they would have been destroyed.

"Cheer up, Rose," Emmett said. He was sitting beside Rosalie while she was driving. Everyone else was sitting in the back of the van she bought, and the trunk was full of gifts. Rosalie was driving while grinding her teeth.

"Bella will forgive us once she sees the gifts we bought."

"You don’t know if she’s actually at the Denali, Emmett. What we did is a waste of time. We should have been there two days ago."

"It wasn’t a waste of time, Rose," Alice said.

"You would think that, Alice. It was shopping," Rosalie muttered, grinding her teeth.

"Easy, baby, your teeth are going to fall out if you keep doing that," Emmett teased.

Rosalie suddenly stepped on the brakes, stopping on the curve of the road. She put out her hand in a flash, preventing Emmett from going through the windshield.

"Emmett, sit in the back. Esme, come up to the front." Rosalie said in anger.

"What?" Emmett shouted.

"Don’t argue. Move." Rosalie loved her mate, but sometimes—well, most of the time—he grated on her nerves.

Emmett knew when a battle was lost with his wife, so he got out of the van grumbling, and Esme took his place. He was pouting.

"I want everyone to be quiet until we arrive at the Denali."

"But it’s three hours away!" Alice complained.

"I don’t care. If you don’t like it, get out and run to Alaska."

Alice gasped, and Jasper held his mate against him, trying to cheer her up.

Rosalie started the van and drove off. No one dared to say anything—except Emmett, of course.

"Rose, we won’t get Bella back with your attitude."

Rosalie abruptly stepped on the brakes again, flashing out her hand to prevent Esme from going through the windshield.

She turned around and gave her mate a look. She was on edge. She felt this growing urgency to be near Bella. She didn’t know why, but she hoped that her sister wasn’t in any danger.

From what she saw from the scene with the strange creature, she was even more worried by the amount of blood. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her beast.

She had a familiar bond with Bella—she was her sister. Rosalie knew from the very first time she saw Bella at school.

She didn’t tell anyone, not even her mate, afraid that Edward would find out from Emmett or the others. Edward was a maniac. It seemed no one knew that but her.

She kept staring at Emmett; he could feel chills running down his spine.

"Emmett, one more word out of you, and you’ll be running to Alaska and no sex for a month."

"What?" Emmett gasped, then proceeded to lean back in his seat, trying to keep quiet, it was hard for him. But no sex for a month is a great motivation.

Rosalie shook her head in satisfaction and began to drive, she hoped that Bella was with the Denalis.