My siblings are there when I arrive. They start asking questions, but I wait for Esme and Carlisle. The former arrives first, Carlisle arriving minutes later.

"Rose, what's going on?" he asks.

"Hayden Taylor. She's in my French class."

"And?" Edward asks.

"She's a vampire."

They all say something along the lines of "what" incredulously.

"Is she vegetarian?" Esme asks.

"No. Have there been any suspicious killings lately?"

"One. But I put that down to nomads. And there was a disappearance of a twenty five year old junior doctor in Seattle a few weeks ago," Carlisle says.

"Guess we know for sure now."

"How did I not see this?" Alice mutters to herself.

"Darlin', it isn't your fault."

"But she must have had this in the works for weeks. I should have seen it."

"No one blames you Ally."

"But..."

"What do we do now? Do we leave?" Albert asks.

"No. I suggest we talk to her. Tell her this is our territory and that if she wants to stay here, we request she drinks animal blood," Carlisle says.

I roll my eyes. Ever the diplomat.

"Do you have another idea Rose?"

"She's putting us in danger by just being here."

"If we can come to an agreement, we should be fine. Us and her."

"Of course you'd say that."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm just tired of compromising with dangers. We compromised with the wolves, now we're compromising with her. Why can't we just tell her to leave. To find somewhere else," I shout.

Carlisle starts growling at me, his vampire instincts as clan leader coming into effect. I growl back. I meet his eyes, challenging him. I hold it until I have to look down. I turn on my heel and storm off. I hear Esme ask Carlisle if that was really necessary and Emmett say that he'll talk to me. I hear his footsteps behind me.

"What happened back there?"

"Nothing."

"It didn't look like nothing."

"Why are you here?"

"Because you're my best friend and there's clearly something up with you."

"I'm just tired of making deals with people who could put everyone I care about at risk."

"But why her? You weren't even like this with the wolves."

"Emmett leave it."

"Why?"

"Just leave it."

"No. Something about her is bothering you. I want to know whether I'm going to have to tear her limb from limb, or I'm going to have to stop you doing so."

"I'm scared okay! There's something about her that I'm missing. And she smells different. Like raspberries. And chocolate. And human blood. And that fucking scares me. Because what if she's it. What if she's my mate."

"Then she's your mate. And she'll become the greatest thing in your life."

"No. If she leaves, I'll never have to know. I can forget she ever existed. I want her gone."

"That's fear talking Rosalie. Deep down you know that."

"I'm fine without a mate. I don't need one appearing now. I don't need her."

"You'll regret her leaving."

"Just because you know who you are and Albert is great and your perfect little life is great with him, doesn't mean that's right for me."

"Rose..."

"Just leave me alone Emmett. Leave me the fuck alone."

"I'll see you at home."

He walks away. I slide down a tree to the floor and collect my thoughts for the first time. It took me so long to work out why she smelt different. Because I didn't want to admit even the possibility of her being my mate. And I just bit off Emmett's head for no reason. I punch the ground. He was just trying to help. I took a deep breath, even though the air going in and out my body was doing nothing. Running my hand through my hair, I get my phone out of my bag. I have two messages. One from the family group chat saying to invite Hayden over tonight and one from an unknown number.

Hey.

I got your number from your phone during class. I know. And I know you know.

I reply, who the fuck is this?

The sender replies nearly immediately.

You know who I am.

And she's right. I do know.

Leave me alone.

I turn off my phone. She doesn't mean anything. Her scent is just a coincidence. Maybe she lives in a candy shop. I know it's highly unlikely, but I prefer that to my other option. For me, anything is better than my other option. I turn my phone back on to send Emmett a message.

I'm sorry I snapped at you. I'm just processing. Talk later?

I see a message from the unknown number.

I can't.

I leave her on read and turn off my phone. Checking my watch, I head back to school, hoping that I don't have any lessons with her this afternoon.