Chapter 16

Bella found it incredibly endearing to watch Isaac stand in front of a class of children. He looked so uncomfortable, it was hilarious. Bella didn’t even know that magic school had Parents Day, a day where the parents of the children could visit the school and sit in on classes to see what their kids were learning. And Isaac didn’t like the idea of having parents in his class. But, here they were.

Caroline had asked Isaac to do a guest lecture on their kind of werewolf to show the children that the supernatural world was more significant than they thought it was, and that was a month ago. She had failed to mention Parents Day, and she had failed to mention that Myriam’s boyfriend Klaus was going to be there, too.

And apparently, Isaac found him quite intimidating, Bella could tell. It was that she was standing next to Klaus and Myriam; otherwise Isaac wouldn’t have dared to look to the back of the class to engage everyone. After he was done, he didn’t know how fast he had to get out of that classroom to get a breather, which Myriam and Bella found hilarious. “Hey man, you did great. Wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Jeremy laughed as he caught up with his friend.

“I’d rather take my chances with a live grenade,” Isaac muttered as he let out a deep breath. “On Parents Day, really?”

“Well, we have to charm the parents, don’t we? And you have quite the charm,” Caroline smiled as she joined them. “Those haunted, innocent blue eyes of yours…” she then ran her hand through his hair. “That hair… and that scruff…”

“Hey,” Bella swatted Caroline’s hand away from Isaac, who looked even more spooked. “Ask before you touch.” She then turned to Klaus as he and Myriam joined them. “And you! Stop intimidating him!”

Klaus blinked at her. “I’m not doing anything, love.”

Bella stared him down, her red eyes flashing briefly. “Turn it off.”

“Aw, she’s asking you to turn off your sex appeal,” Myriam purred as she looped her arm through Klaus’ and took a few steps closer. “Doesn’t she know that that’s impossible?” She whispered in his ear.

It was Bella’s turn to blink in surprise. It was almost as if Myriam was a completely different person around her boyfriend. “I think you two should get yourself a room at our B&B,” she eventually remarked.

Klaus smiled amused at his lover before looking at Bella. “Oh yes, Myriam told me the beds were quite comfortable. Would you like to join us?”

Caroline and Jeremy had taken a few steps back and were now leaning against the wall, looking utterly bored, but this behavior was something Isaac and Bella had to go through to find out for themselves.

Isaac stopped sulking long enough to look up and narrow his eyes on the hybrid. “Do you mind?”

“Well, it’s not like you have a claim on her, mate. Not from what I’ve heard, she’s fair game and Myriam and I love an adventure!”

Bella stared at the nearly millennia old man, her mouth gaping like a fish, speechless. Isaac, on the other hand, while knowing he couldn’t go up against with someone with as much experience as Klaus Mikaelson, let out a low growl as he walked away from his place at his lecture. “You will stay away from her. She left one manipulative bastard and his family, and it’d be a poor job done for me if I’d allow her to go and join another.”

“Oh, the pup’s got bite,” Klaus said amused as he looked at Myriam, who had a big goofy grin on her face as she looked back at him. “Maybe he should join us instead.”

It was now Bella’s turn to scowl at the two. “How about you go find Peter? I think he’d be more interested in your games than Isaac and me. I’m fine right here,” she replied, a slight snarl curling on her words as she took a step closer to Isaac.

“And yet, you bite so wonderfully,” Klaus smirked, and he once again looked at Myriam. “What do you think, love? Are we going to take them up on their offer to take a room at the famous Mystic Night Owl?”

“I think you can find yourself some accommodations out in the woods on your own and stay away from Bella and me,” Isaac grumbled, much to Myriam’s delight.

“Yes, darling,” Myriam purred. “I think they’ll want the place to themselves tonight.”

“No, we just don’t want you anywhere near our guests or us, you freaks,” Bella answered.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Caroline said as Jeremy snickered. She approached Klaus and Myriam and turned them around towards the exit. “Go. Go and do your… business and come back normal, no more playing with the puppies. Don’t make me kick you out.”

As soon as the two were gone, Bella angrily turned on their new friends. “What the hell was that about? Neither of you seemed surprised by any of that? Myriam looked like she was taken over by a purple people eater or something!”

“Yeah, well, this is normal for them, gets quite boring after you’ve seen it a few times,” Caroline shrugged as she put her arms around both Isaac and Bella. “Have you guys ever been on a proper date?”

The wolves eyes grew wide and bewildered as they took in the information. “This is normal?” Bella blinked. “No way! Myriam’s like the most down to earth person and… no, this isn’t normal.”

“Oh, yes it is,” Caroline smiled. “Now, go home, decompress and get yourselves cleaned up. Meet me in the town center at 7 tonight.”

“Why?”

“Because I say so,” she smiled at them as she walked them out the door. “Thank you so much for your class today, Isaac. You should do that more often.” Caroline let go of them and slapped her friends’ asses. “Go.”

Bella grabbed Isaac and started walking back, in a hurry to get away from the school. It wasn’t that she was afraid of them or their new friends. She just wanted some time away from the sudden weird quickly. “What the fuck.”

“Our friends are so weird,” he agreed with a nod. “Well, except for Jeremy,” he added before carefully looking over to her. “You… You wouldn’t consider to actually… you know… to go with them?”

She shot him a ‘go to hell’ glare. “No. Are you nuts? Yes, I’ll admit that I can see the appeal Myriam had been talking about with Klaus, but he’s got a lot of that clout and arrogance that I ran from with Edward and his family. While I do think he can be a very valuable ally, just no to whatever the hell was just going through your head. Not interested in anything more than what we can get in a business transaction. And that’s what we have Myriam now to liaise with his family’s power and contacts.”

He let out a breath of relief and nodded. Glad that she was immune to Klaus’ … charisma. “I’m not going to deal with him. He’s … he may be a different type of wolf, he’s really powerful, and it was hard not to give in to that.”

“We keep Myriam around for that, but if he’s sticking around, then he can stay at the school, and she can go visit him there,” she shrugged. “He comes to us only as an absolute necessity.”

“Yeah… good. Because… you know… I have been meaning to ask you something,” he hesitated as he ran a hand through his hair. “And that something has only gotten a bit of a push with the encounter with Klaus.”

Bella glanced at him, arching a brow. “Is it really that bad that he got under your skin? Because yeah, the guy can be slimy. In fact, I really do want to take a damn shower for the innuendos and hints he was throwing around. I feel like I really need to scrub myself raw with bleach.”

“Yeah, that too,” Isaac sighed, shaking his head. “Ah, forget it.”

“No, we’ll talk about it after I shower. It seems important to you, but I still feel too creeped out to deal with much at the moment.”

~o.O.o~

Isaac had taken a shower himself, and mentally hitting himself for even thinking about this aloud. To her. This was something important, something he had rejected time and time again, but it was necessary. And he wanted to. He was ready, and he fully believed that she wouldn’t hurt him. She wouldn’t push him away or hurt him. She’d let him be himself.

However, after Bella’s shower, she still wasn’t feeling it. They both decided to have something to eat after meeting with Caroline in the town center, only a few steps away from their B&B. They watched some FRIENDS on Netflix instead, to kill time. “You know, we don’t have to go and meet Caroline.”

“I know,” Bella replied as she leaned against him as they usually did when watching Netflix. “I honestly don’t feel like it, either, but maybe she has something to show us or something. I don’t know.”

“She wants us to leave the building more often, that’s what she wants,” Isaac pointed out. “You still haven’t gone on that girl trip with her and Myriam.”

“Because I don’t like girl trips! Don’t get me wrong, I like the occasional spa treatment, but by myself, so I don’t have to participate in girl talk. That’s so freaking annoying!” Bella exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “Shopping for clothes, spending hours in shops!”

“Spending some girl time with girls,” Isaac laughed. “You can negotiate how these trips go, you know.”

“You want me gone, don’t you?”

“No,” he smiled at her. “I want you to have fun, socialize more. They’re your friends. You can spend a girl’s day out however you want to. I mean, I doubt they say ‘no’ when you suggest going to Disney or something.”

“No, I want to do Disney with you, and we can’t do that until you hire some capable chefs to take over when you’re not here, or incapacitated or you know, take a few days off because you’re working yourself too hard,” she let out a whine. “You had some great guys come in.”

“Yeah, but not what I wanted.”

“Well, ask Peter for friends of his. Or maybe Myriam for some of her friends. Surely they know vampires who’ve been cooking for a very long time, and you won’t be able to say ‘no’ to them,” she said smugly. “Stop trying to control everything.”

“I have!” he laughed.

“More. Those vampy chefs are coming. Or, perhaps they know great human chefs. We can pay them more than they’ll ever earn working normally.”

“And what will I do in my spare time?”

Bella was quiet for a moment before shrugging. “Sit still and be pretty?”

“Yeah, as if,” he rolled his eyes at her. “You know I’ll just find something to do.”

~o.O.o~

“What is this?” Bella demanded as they approached Caroline and the little area that she had decorated with… stuff. A picnic blanket with a picnic basket, some fairy lights in trees, candles and was that a portable DVD player?

“Date night. For you and Isaac,” Caroline beamed as she made them sit down on the blanket. She then retrieved a jar out of the basket and set it down in front of them. “With little notes to help you talk about your feelings and all.”

Bella blinked, with little else for a reaction on her face. “Isaac and I aren’t dating. Has Klaus’ mental illness suddenly spread? I had high hopes for you and Alaric.”

“Oh please,” Caroline huffed as she crossed her arms over each other. “Alaric and I co-parent, we’re not compatible. He hates vampires,” she retorted. “And no, I didn’t drink from Klaus’ Kool-Aid, this is a long time coming,” she said all motherly. “We’ve been watching you two walk around each other for a very long time, and you’re both not talking about the thing you two have. You’re both ready for this. Date night. Your first date.”

“Yeah, so not doing this,” Bella shook her head as she got to her feet again. “Come on, Isaac, let’s go home and continue our FRIENDS marathon.”

Isaac looked at Caroline for a moment before pulling Bella back down. “Our friend went through a lot of trouble to do this for us, we might as well go ahead with it,” he told her, before looking back at Caroline. “Thank you, Caroline, for doing this.”

Caroline beamed with pride. “You’re welcome! Now, enjoy, and don’t worry about the cleanup, I’ll do that after you’re done,” she then made herself scarce with help from her vampire speed.

“Who are you and what did you do to my Isaac?” Bella looked at him, head half cocked, a curious look on her face. “Seriously.”

“Didn’t want to upset the preppy vampire,” he shrugged as an excuse and opened the basket to peek inside of it. “She’s got us Alfredo’s.”

“Seriously? She went all the way to Richmond to get us food?” Bella blinked as she peeked into the basket. “Oh man, that food…” She got the food out of the basket and sighed. “Okay, fine, we need to thank her for this.”

Isaac grinned as he tucked into his food. “This isn’t date night. This is good food in the park.”

Bella hummed for an answer as she took a bite of her spaghetti. “This is so delicious… look, I love your cooking, but-”

“Alfredo’s is run by real Italians, Bella, of course, their food is better than mine,” he let out a snort. “I know my limits. Doesn’t take away that I really love to cook,” he smiled at her as he kept eating. “And are decent at it.”

“No, you’re great, I just- sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you or anything.”

“You didn’t.”

Bella opened the jar with the little notes in them before taking another bite of food. Since they were going with whatever this was, why not humor Caroline by playing around with this? “Okay, what’s your favorite food?”

Isaac raised a brow. “Seriously?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what to choose, either. All food is good. Right now I’m particularly fond of this stuff,” she said as she motioned to their food.

He thought for a moment and sighed as he put his food down and looked down at his hands. “Remember I wanted to talk to you about something, earlier?”

“It was food related?”

“No. It has nothing to do with that food question. It’s more of a personal matter, but it’s important. I think. At least I feel like it’s an important matter we need to discuss. Been wanting to talk to you about this for a while now.”

She lifted his chin, so he looked at her. “You know you can talk to me about anything, right? You’ve done so well with opening up to me, why didn’t you come to me before?”

“Because it’s different than all of those other things? It’s nothing permanent or anything, I mean… you’re in control over that.”

“You’re freaking me out, Lahey,” she narrowed her eyes at him. “Stop being so cryptic and just say it. What’s been on your mind for all this time?”

“I want to be your beta if you’d accept me as yours.”

She was taken aback by that. She hadn’t anticipated that. She had been fine with the way they had been for over the last few months since she learned that she was a werewolf, and Isaac had told her then that just because she was an Alpha, he wasn’t just going to roll over for her. He was fine on his own. He’d been hurt and rejected by his previous Alphas, and she understood the reasoning of him rejecting her. She wasn’t particularly waiting on becoming an Alpha with a beta, either. The responsibility alone would make her fuck up, fuck her Isaac up, and she didn’t want to hurt him. She didn’t know how to be a proper Alpha, and she didn’t want to try it on him, either! “Isaac… I-”

“Nothing changes, Bella,” he said as he took her hands. “I am trusting you with my life. I have been for a while. I look at you to be my compass. And spending time with you has made me realize that maybe having someone else around isn’t so bad. That being the lone wolf that I tried to be, wasn’t exactly working out in my favor.”

She stared back at him, entirely unamused considering that the entire day had gone already for them. “You do know what this sounds like right? A really sad proposal…”

“I’m not proposing,” Isaac huffed. “If I were, I’d do it more spectacularly.”

“I know, I get that, but consider the day we just went through- Say what…?”

“It’s actually the main reason I wanted to get this out of the way now, you know. If you’re my Alpha, I’ll be less inclined to feel intimidated by other Alphas. Sure, they’ll still be able to influence me, but less powerful, because I’ll be tethered to you. You’ll be stronger, and I’ll be stronger too. I trust you, Bella, and I think you’ll make a wonderful Alpha.”

“Can I think about it?”

“Do you have to?”

“No, but Isaac, I don’t know what this is going to do for us. With us. I’m not experienced, at all. What if something goes wrong?”

“I’m willing to give you the power to overrule and empower me, Bella, not to take my mind and turn me into a brainless minion,” he let out a snort. “But sure, you can think about it, it’ll be okay if you decide that it’s not a good idea.”

Bella squeezed his hands to make him look at her again. “I am not rejecting you, Isaac,” she said kindly. “I think it’s a matter of confidence that’s getting in the way,” she let out a deep breath then. “For a while now I’ve been feeling like you’re mine to protect, to look out for. Are you sure nothing will change between us?”

“Nothing will change, I promise. If anything, it’ll make us stronger in every sense of the way.”

“Elaborate,” Bella sighed, still uncertain about his sudden change of heart.

“Well, a beta draws his or her power from their Alpha, and in turn, the Alpha does the same. Even when we’re far apart, you’ll be stronger. You’ll gain limited telepathy and mental control to stay in control over me. Like, it’d be easier for you to snap me out of a rage or your roar can help me out. You might have a slight readjustment phase as you’ve been ignoring some of your abilities like sniffing someone’s scent and make sense of it.”

“What?”

“Like dogs? You know, when you see a bunch of dogs in the dog park, they sniff each other and say ‘hey you’re my friend!’ or ‘I hate you!’.”

“You have this?”

“And you too, but yeah, you’ve been either ignoring it or pushing it down,” he shrugged. “Look, if you’re not sure, call your brother or uncle, I’m sure they have a better way of explaining it to you. And they’ll likely want you to reject me or something.”

“You said nothing would change, Isaac, but you’ve just given me a list of what will,” she should feel angry about this, but she wasn’t. In fact, she was scared. She’d been ignoring her own feelings for Isaac, not to have him as a beta but as a boyfriend and she didn’t want to risk it getting out before either of them were ready.

“Isn’t life all about taking risks?” He smirked, still holding onto her hands. “Weren’t you the one who told me to live a little? Live a little, Bella. Trust me that it’ll be alright. And things will change for the better.”

He had so much faith in her, so much trust. And she had the same. She only hoped that she would remain in control over her own emotions and feelings. And he was right. Likely. Probably. Yes. Okay. Better her than someone else, right? “You’re not going to get mad or angry when I get things wrong?””

“You won’t do anything wrong, trust me.”

“Okay.”

“Really?” His face lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Yep,” she replied with a nod. “Now what?”

“I don’t know to be honest,” he said as he felt his cheeks turn red. “It was natural with Derek because he bit me… with Scott… it was easy but… I don’t know.”

Bella shrugged and finished her food. “We’ll see then. Wanna head home and watch FRIENDS?”