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Bella's POV | Forks, Washington| 2005
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The sound of rain tapping against glass pulled me from sleep slow and gentle at first, like fingertips on piano keys. Forks had that way of creeping into your senses… all soft grays and muted greens, like the whole town lived inside a watercolor painting no one bothered to finish.
I blinked the sleep from my eyes, wrapped tighter in the soft sheets, and stared up at the ceiling of my room if you could even call it that.
This room was huge. Bigger than our entire Phoenix apartment. The walls were creamy white with gold detailing, a crystal chandelier hung above me like I was royalty, and one entire wall was just glass looking out into the woods. Quiet and beautiful but creepy if I stared too long.
Atlas had this mansion built years ago when Mom first became a vampire. He never lived in it. Not really. Just… had it made. Hidden behind trees and moss and fog like something out of a gothic novel. Perfect place for an immortal blood sucking vampire, I guess.
It was too much for me. All of it but I didn't say anything. Not when Mom looked so happy gliding through the halls barefoot. Not when she tend her large garden and decorate this place to be their home. All while smiling like she hadn't in years.
She looked good, too good. That was part of the problem. Another was she too wanted be close to the man. Involved in his life.
I tossed back the covers and sat up, rubbing my eyes and pulling on my jeans that probably was removed somewhere mid my sleep, I never liked wearing cloths sleeping. It was habit I built in Phoenix to get a reaction from him.
Shaking my head I pulled my jeans above my underwear and slid on my top before standing. The floor was warm beneath my feet, heated tile.
I moved to get something to cover me for outside cold. The closet or whatever this thing is called was a little bigger than my old bedroom and filled with things I hadn't even touched yet. I threw on a soft gray sweater- Atlas had insisted on layering in Forks and stared into the mirror for a second.
Seventeen, still human, still brown-haired, brown-eyed Bella with all human flaws. But completely different mentally because I knew the truth now.
About Mom, about Atlas, about all of it.
I gave myself another look and headed downstairs, the scent of eggs and cinnamon drifted through the halls. Vampire mouths didn't care for breakfast, but Mom still cooked every morning for me and sometimes Atlas when he's around.
The kitchen was all dark marble and steel, way too elegant for something as simple as pancakes, but there she was flipping them in a perfect arc like she'd done this a thousand times. Barefoot in jeans and a soft white sweater, long golden hair tied in a loose braid.
She didn't look like the mom I remembered from Phoenix when I was little. She was different, different from me and all human around us
Her skin was smoother, paler, like porcelain in soft light. Her posture was straighter. Her smile never tired. There was an effortless grace to everything she did now, like she'd stepped out of a dream or into one. It attracted one strangely. Atlas says its natural Vampire charm to attract prey.
Mom looked twenty-five. Not thirty-five her original age. Her eyes weren't red, at least. Atlas had taught her control, fed her on donated and animal blood only, until she could move through the world like nothing had changed. Until she can control herself around me.
I cleared my throat and stepped into the kitchen.
"Morning," I said.
Mom turned, that glowing smile lighting up her face. "Hey, baby. Big day, huh?"
"Yeah." I slid into the stool by the island, glancing at the breakfast spread. Pancakes, eggs, orange juice, cut fruit like I was being prepped for a photoshoot or in some movie.
"This is… a lot," I muttered softly unaudible to any human but mom caught regardless.
She laughed softly. "I know. I couldn't sleep yesterday not that I ever could. Atlas was not here to keep me in the bed either, so I figured I'd keep busy." A blush crept to my neck as I remembered the scene of me finding them on the bed last year.
'Yeah they looked quite busy.' I couldn't help but thought and tried ro change the subject.
"He work too much" I said, a little teasingly or tried because my face felt too hot.
"He's obsessed with projects right now." She smiled again, this time softer, more personal. "New hospital wing, and something about education tech in Africa."
I nodded. Of course. The billionaire genius saving the world. Or a man not knowing what to do with his ever growing wealth. I have read multiple tabloid on him and his professional life.
Although the personal life ones were far off from reality. Not in bad way though.
Atlas was… complicated. He wasn't just some immortal monster or a perfect fairy tale lover from stories. He was real, caring and mischievous sometimes. And Brilliant, in a way that made you feel like the rest of the room blurred into background noise.
And… and I think I like him, a small crush I can't help but admit. I know it's wrong on so many level considering he's mom's boyfriend, her mate. But I can't help it.
Their bond thing had taken me some time to process. Honestly, it still weirded me out. Knowing someone out there can be my soul mate. I thought about my own bond, a thought that made me pause my feelings for Atlas.
I thought if mom and Atlas are soulmate, made for each other I shouldn't become a nuisance to them.
But then I heard Atlas has more mate bond and the one he has with mom is artificial one that his gift created when they were first met due his intense feelings.
When he told mom first about it there were some tension between them but he told her their bond grew as natural as he has with his other mates over time she stopped being angry, not that she could for long anyway the mate bonds made them understand each other. Made them more empathetic with each other.
When I got to know all that I was conflicted but slowly my feelings for him increased more I stopped holding them back. If he was going to have multiple mates why then one more, why then me too.
I already like him too much, he's my only true friend, he's the only one understood me, he's the only one I'm never akward around, he was the only around my age who was mean and called me names. Yeah's he's around my age mom should also understand I reason myself.
I like Atlas too much to give up on and its not like we are related.
As for my real bond I don't care about it. In the first place I don't know if I even have mate and even I did I would rather choose my own mate then to blindly trust fate and let it decide.
"Eat before it gets cold," Mom said, breaking my spiral. She looked me and gave me smile.
I grabbed the fork and smiled back faintly. "Thanks. It smells good."
"Everything ready for school?" she asked as she sat across from me. "I double-checked your bag last night, but—"
"Mom." I rolled my eyes. "I'm not ten."
"You were ten five minutes ago," she said with a grin, then reached over to brush a hair from my cheek. Her fingers were cool, even when she tried to warm them.
It was uncomfortable, something so cold against my skin but I didn't pull away.
I just smiled and kept eating.
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By the time I walked out to the driveway, rain misted over the world like a veil. The trees swayed gently. Fog clung to everything. My new car, a sleek silver BMW waited gleaming under the covered stone archway.
It was a gift from Atlas for my 17th birthday. He said since I already have license and was going to live so far from the school, I deserved a car of my own that wouldn't break down in the rain and snow of Forks. I didn't say no, mostly because I knew he wouldn't backed down and the company that made it was partially his anyway.
Well everything seemed to be partially his, even my life now. But for some reason I don't hate it, in fact it gives me an excited shiver giving so much of control to someone else.
As I pulled out onto the narrow road winding through the forest, I couldn't help but think of my new school. My thought drifted to meeting all those new people. I can already feel the judgeful eyes, whispers and awkward conversations.
"No pressure." I mutter an encouragement and focused on driving.
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[An: So there's already 20+ Chapters on my Patr**n. So if you guys want to read more. Go to my Patr*on/41_Claws. There are currently 20 advance unedited chapters on it…]
Ps~Donate Powerstone for extra chapter tomorrow. Faild for enitre week to reach the goal. Hope this week we reach it at least once. 100 stones target if ya all forget, now, peace.
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