AN: This is a fic idea that came to me and took up a huge chunk of my brain power. It was originally going to play on Edward's line to Alice before they leave for Phoenix, "Can you keep your thoughts to yourself?" as she was thinking that turning Bella would solve the James problem. But I decided it wasn't important to use since things kinda went off the rails like they usually do when I try plan out a simple, easy story. That being said, there be smut ahead after chapter 1 so if that's not your thing then feel free to close the tab now.

For those who remain, I hope you enjoy this fic's version of 'mates'. As I finish other works I currently have unpunished you'll come to understand that I'll often be using 'mates' in the sense of soulmates. That being said, not every fic will share the same definition of what the mate-connection means for the vampires involved.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the twilight series, I just like to play out my weird little ideas using the characters as torture victims.

Jasper

A rare smile tilted the corners of my lips as I took in the scene before me. Bella, Alice, and I had arrived in Phoenix the previous evening and had settled into a hotel without much effort. A travel-weary Bella now rested comfortably curled up sideways on the couch, leaning against my wife with a level of comfort and intimacy that neither girl seemed to notice. The poor human was obviously still feeling jet-lagged after the flight, her eyes fluttering adorably as she fought her fatigue in order to remain conscious to whatever Alice was talking to her about. Even though she'd passed out the moment her head had hit the pillow last night, she was still struggling to stay awake after only a few hours of being conscious. Although that could also just be the stress of being hunted by a deranged killer.

Alice's fingers were idly playing through Bella's hair as they mindlessly absorbed themselves in whatever show they had found on the TV across from them. Besides the dresser (which was already filled with Alice's outrageous amount of outfits) and the couch, a nearby king size bed took up the other half of the room. I stood just inside the entryway that led to the adjoining bathroom, simply luxuriating in the love pouring off the women.

I'd observed the two on several occasions over the last several weeks since Alice had first struck up her friendship with the human girl. From the moment Bella had arrived in our lives, Alice seemed to always find ways to be near the girl, despite Edward's controlling attempts to the contrary. I actually found it rather hilarious how easily Bella accepted the tactile little pixie vampire's attention without a second thought, while initially being hesitant to reciprocate Edward's equally hesitant touch.

Yet, for all of her capabilities, my seer of a wife was quite oblivious to what was happening right in front of her eyes. But I suppose that wasn't her fault really. The entire family was laboring under incorrect information, namely where vampire mates are concerned. And since Edward had made claims over Bella, it couldn't be helped that I was the only one to pick up on the subtle undercurrents that suddenly existed whenever Bella and Alice were together.

Still smiling softly, I finally moved into the room, taking up a seat on the other side of Bella who tucked her feet up to give me room. Alice turned to watch my progress, her subtle worry obvious to my trained eye as she continuously checked for my bloodlust. I met her gaze directly, allowing the carefully erected barriers I'd learned to build around my emotions to fall. Alice's eyes widened noticeably, no doubt taking in the perfectly steady gold of my eyes.

Her brows furrowed in confusion as she tilted her head quizzically. I understood her confusion, seeing as I'd been unable to be around Bella at any point before now without feeling the overwhelming desire to taste the beautiful girl between us. Even having fed before leaving Forks wouldn't have been enough to keep my hunger at bay in such closed quarters with the human.

I smirked then, laying my arm across the back of the couch while leaning subtly across the space between myself and the brunette. Bella was so out of it by then that she probably wasn't even aware that I had moved so close. She didn't even flinch when I brought my nose to her hair and drew in a deep, steady breath, a soft hum leaving the girl as she shifted unconsciously against Alice.

The entire time I maintained eye-contact with my wife, her gaze going from nervous to amazed as I pulled away without my eye color so much as flickering. It was always a pleasant feeling when I was able to surprise my little seer, and judging by the wonder filling her eyes, I'd say I'd succeeded. She shook her head as if to clear it, a confused frown furrowing her delicate features as she whispered vampire-quiet across the lulling human's head.

"How are you in control right now?" is what she asked. Why haven't you tried to tear her throat out? is what she meant, and I couldn't even be offended because under normal circumstances my control hasn't always been the best.

Fortunately, these were not normal circumstances. "Isabella's blood does not call to me, Faeuna." She smiled at the seldom used nickname I'd given her the day we met. She had looked to be a fae creature out of legend, her emotions spritely and chaotic, the perfect embodiment of mischief if ever there was one.

Alice raised a brow in question, and I knew exactly what she was thinking about. There had been numerous times I'd had to excuse myself from the room when Bella visited because of my bloodlust, but now that it was just us three alone, for once I felt like I could let my guard down. "You will never know just how much I've hated my gift these last several weeks. It is only now that I'm here with you both alone that I feel not even a hint of bloodlust. Tell me, does her scent make you long to taste her blood?"

Alice's frown deepened as she drew her head back just enough to look down at the drowsing human. She, too, deliberately inhaled Bella's intoxicating scent before her eyes returned to mine, her mouth gaping slightly giving me my answer.

I nodded, affirming her dawning realization. "I couldn't be sure while around the rest of the family, and Edward would never trust me enough to leave you and I alone with her. But now that it is just the three of us, I can say for absolute certain that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a danger to our little human."

My choice of words seemed to strike a cord in her as her gaze once again returned to Bella. For one unguarded moment, every suppressed emotion Alice has ever had seemed to wash over her, but unlike other times that I'd sensed them while in the presence of others, I did nothing to dull them now. A small gasp left her parted lips, her eyes snapping back to mine, understanding and confusion both taking precedence in her emotions.

"But I thought Edward-" she began, voice cutting off as Bella briefly shifted around until she was laying with her head resting on Alice's lap, her feet unconsciously curling up across my lap. A loving smile broke out across Alice's fae-like features, bringing her delicate beauty into sharp relief. When she again looked back up, she seemed surprised by her feelings. Whether it was the brief feeling of guilt I'd sensed from her or the fact that my smile matched hers, her emotions settled once again on confusion.

Edward. There was a hurdle and a half. The boy had convinced himself that Bella was his mate. Admittedly, there was originally pretty convincing evidence; he couldn't read her thoughts, he was enamored with her, drawn to her in unnatural ways, willing to put his entire family in danger to pursue her. Anyone would think that he truly felt a mate pull to the girl. Unfortunately, Bella wouldn't be able to feel a mate pull for Edward until she became a vampire, so we only had Edward's word to go on.

Except I knew better. I knew for a fact that Bella was not Edward's mate. His feelings were all wrong, for one thing. He didn't experience the same instincts that a vampire normally does when finding their mate in a human. Despite Carlisle's belief to the contrary, many vampires have experienced the mating pull to humans. The first phase is uncontrollable lust, urging the vampire to fuck and claim their mate, to spread their scent all over the human so that all other vampires knew to whom the human belonged. This was the only means of tamping down the second instinctual phase: the urge to turn one's mate.

Edward was adamant that Bella remain human, no matter what. Combine that with the fact that he also couldn't get close to her without his bloodlust overcoming him and things started adding up. Without a restraining instinct keeping him from draining the girl dry, his complete disinterest in turning Bella made me start considering other reasons for his obsession, which lead me to realize that Bella is Edward's singer. Her blood drew him in like a drug, and even though he resisted drinking from her by some herculean effort, he would forever be addicted to her scent so long as she remained human.

I shook my head in answer to Alice's question. "Bella is Edward's singer, which possesses all of the intensity of a mate-bond but lacking the intrinsic instinct to turn them lest the vampire lose access to their blood."

Alice turned a surprise look towards Bella who had finally fallen into slumber. There was such unguarded longing in that gaze that I couldn't help but reach the rest of the way across the couch to rest my hand at the back of Alice's neck. It was meant as a comforting gesture, but it seemed to catch my little pixie off guard, judging by the slight widening of her gaze as she turned to look me in the eyes.

There was vulnerability there, a yearning that she tried to stuff back down beneath the guise of friendship. But I wasn't fooled. It wasn't the first time those feelings had slipped past her control, and while I often helped her keep them hidden around the rest of the family, I did nothing to buffer them now. Every single one of her desires now barreled to the surface unfettered. Venom tears began to fill my wife's eyes as her gaze begged for understanding she didn't realize she already had.

"It's okay, my love," I whispered, still far too quietly to disturb Bella. "It's just us here. No family to interfere, no Edward to read our thoughts. For once, we're both completely alone with Bella."

Alice's eyes widened as her emotions went unchecked. Her gaze held a far away look, much like when she fell into one of her visions, only this time she was seeing into her own heart. It was a truth that I'd had to painstakingly keep hidden from our meddling family, one that would never be accepted by our puritanical coven leader, or his son.

Simply put, Edward was not the Cullen that Bella was meant for.

Alice gasped quietly, her beautiful eyes once again clearing as she met my smiling gaze over the drowsing human. "I don't understand," she whispered fervently, a foreign sense of shame pouring off of her. "I know you're my mate. How can I feel this way for her?"

My smile gentled as I kept my fingers braced against her neck to keep the emotional connection open, all the while listening as Bella's heart rate slowed into a deep, steady rhythm of sleep. "I have spent a long time around other vampires, probably more than Carlisle himself. If there is one thing I learned from my time around so many newborns, it's that our kind can, and often do, find themselves sharing more than one mate."

Her eyes widened even more, her emotions running the gamut from scared, to happy, to terrified, finally settling on confused. "Why did you wait so long to say something?"

I held back my cringe at the unconscious accusation in her voice, understanding well her feelings. It had been a special kind of hell to watch Bella being courted by another man. "Unfortunately, I wasn't certain in the beginning. Any time I was around Bella, the family was also present. Their emotions and bloodlust were so strong that I couldn't get close to Bella without feeling like I might lose control. I knew the only way to be sure would be for you and I to be alone with Bella."

Alice's eyes fell to the sleeping girl resting on her lap and a contented smile softened her features. "I've always known she was important to me. I thought, since she was with Edward and I was with you, that it meant I was just supposed to be her best friend. Yet there's always been this voice in the back of my head telling me different. That I needed to be closer to her, even though my conscious mind rebelled." She looked up at me with so much hope in her eyes that I was sure I'd give her the stars in the sky if she asked it of me. "Show me. I need to know it's not just me, that I'm not the weird little freak that everyone thinks I am."

Smiling, I opened the connection fully and allowed my own emotions to pour into Alice. All of the feelings I'd learned to suppress, to hide from Edward and the rest of the family, all of the love and devotion I felt for both of my mates all packed into one steady flood. I watched as Alice's eyes again filled with venom, her mouth opened and eyes unseeing, as the full force of my love for them both filled her. It was intense, and the moment I let up is when I felt those same emotions ebb back into me from Alice.

Her love was like touching a live wire, electrifying and powerful, devastation and absolution. It was passion given form. And it sparked a yearning between us both that had my instincts rising up, urging me to claim our Bella. Alice looked to be having the same thoughts, as I felt a spike of arousal that wasn't mine send a painful need to tighten my groin and cause my jeans to grow uncomfortably tight.

Alice seemed to be seconds away from crawling either onto Bella or over her and onto my lap, only for a longing sigh to slip past the sleeping girl's lips. It was enough to cause us both to cease moving as Bella began to shift around in her sleep, her legs curling up further until she was practically laying in Alice's lap, ending up with her bare feet resting against my groin. It would have been ridiculously adorable if she hadn't just trapped us beneath the warmth of her delicate body with no way to quench our burgeoning arousal.

Alice's whimper was just this side of desperate as she tried not to squirm with Bella's head so close to the source of my pixie mate's arousal. It was a potent scent, and the raging emotions that followed were nothing short of torturous as I was forced to sit with Bella's feet unconsciously rubbing against my straining erection. We were drowning in our newly awakened mating instincts and there was seemingly nothing we could do about it without disturbing the brunette.

That's when a foreign jolt of arousal lit up my senses. Bella was still shifting around slightly, her body restless even in her slumberous state. I would have thought nothing of it if it weren't for the smallest of sounds piercing the silence of the room.

A whimper. Bella's whimper, to be specific. Despite her increasing heart rate and the deep breath she drew in through her nose, she still appeared to be sleeping, though I had no idea what to make of the mouthwatering scent of her tangy, sweet desire filling the air.

Panting. Alice was panting beside me as she no doubt began to smell Bella's desire as well. Gods, this was outright torture, as the scent of both of my mates' delectable need filled the air around me, the emotions rebounding into the room unconsciously from my gift.

Then came the softest of moans from Bella, and it felt as if Alice were seconds away from waking the girl to ravish her. Only problem was we couldn't do that, not without talking to the girl first, and though every instinct in me wanted to pin the human down and have my way with her, I had to remain logical. She was dating Edward, and while that was a minor obstacle we would overcome soon enough, I didn't want the girl to feel guilty over 'cheating'.

I was just gearing up to begin suppressing our desires when a single word slipped past Bella's lips. "Alice..."

A high-pitched whine began to pierce the room, coming from the vibrating vampire to my left. She was seconds away from losing control and I had to slow this down before she did something she would regret. I poured my love and affection onto Alice, sending waves of calming emotions to try and preempt her pouncing our vulnerable mate.

Alice's shaking began to taper off as she settled back into the couch, her breathing ceasing as she fought to keep her instincts in check. "She-She talks in her sleep," she whispered, unnecessarily I might add, but she seemed to need to talk, to ground herself in words. "I always thought it was Edward she was thinking about when she got like this, but she's never said a name."

I drew in a shuddering breath for the both of us, exhaling a tight stream of air before grabbing the back of Alice's neck in a tight grip that had her whimpering. "Well, we now know she feels something of the mate bond, even if it is only subconscious. We are going to need to talk to her when she wakes up. I refuse to send her back into Edward's arms. I've waited too long for this opportunity and I'll be damned if we let this chance pass."

Alice turned onyx-hued eyes to meet mine, her lips peeled back in a silent snarl at the thought of our mate being with someone else. "I won't allow it. I'll turn her my damn self just so she can feel the mate bond. He won't ever touch her again."

Good, this was good, I could use our instinctual anger to tamp down on the raging inferno of our unchecked lust for our mate. I hadn't known it was going to be this difficult being around the girl once we got the chance to be alone with her without suppressing our emotions. "Why don't you put her to bed so she can rest comfortably."

Alice's eyes were still black, though the smirk she sent my way was downright devious. "Yes, and when I come back, you're going to take care of your wife. Isn't that right, cowboy?"

I returned her smirk with my own, tipping my nonexistent hat as Alice slowly began gathering Isabella into her arms to carry her to the bed. Unfortunately it was a single-room suite, with the bed and living area all in the same room. It didn't matter, though, I had plans on how to keep that pretty mouth of hers shut.