Chapter 4

"Peter?" He stared down at me, confusion across his face. "Where did you go? You've been staring off into space for a little bit."

He shook his head, smiling that shit eating grin. "Nothing. Just remembering a little girl I met a long time ago."

That was weird, was he some kind of creepy pedophile? I mean, I had this pull to some strange guy I knew nothing about and that was just starting to creep me out a little. All I knew about him was that he was Jasper's brother and he was... a soldier? Okay, where did that come from? No one has ever said anything to me about his or Jasper's pasts, so how did I know that he was a soldier, and get the feeling that Jasper was too?

I shook my head, ignoring the strange feeling that there was something that I couldn't remember. There was no way I could have met him before, I would remember having met this amazing man before. Unless, of course, he had met me when I was, like, a toddler or something, but there's no way that I could. Renee and Charlie have never mentioned me meeting anyone like Peter.

Alice ran in with a phone and smiled at me. "It's Renee."

I rolled my eyes and motioned to Emmett to pause the game. I didn't want to talk to my mother, but there was no way to get around it.

"Hi, Mom."

"Bella, how are you? Why aren't you at school?"

I sighed, rolling my eyes. "Teachers are on strike. It's a good thing too. Jasper's half brother is actually visiting."

"Oh really?" There was interest in her voice. "What's he like? Is he cute?"

I glanced up to see Peter smirking at that. Of course he'd hear that. "Yah, Peter's pretty awesome." She didn't say anything. "Mom?"

"Sorry, sweetie. I was just thinking." There was an edge in her voice. "Just remembering that summer we went to Texas for the Fourth of July when you were five. Do you remember that?"

"Uh, not really?" I didn't really get what a Fourth of July seven years ago had to do with anything.

"I'll explain later. I was just planning on leaving you a message and letting you know that Phil has a game in Seattle and we were going to come visit."

I gasped. "That's so great, Mom. I'll see you soon then."

"Bella," Emmett groaned, getting my attention. "Come on, I want to kick your butt at Halo again."

"I should go," I told Renee, smiling. "I'll talk to you later, Mom."

I hung up, happy and a little confused. I didn't remember much about that Fourth of July, but I knew that there was something about that day that I had to remember. It was like something was keeping me from remembering. I wasn't sure if it was because of Edward or some other reason. It's not like I would want to remember me being a five year old, but I would want to know what was so important about it.

"Bella, sweetie?" I looked over at Esme. "I just called Charlie and cleared it up so you can stay with us for the week." I nodded, looking confused. "Edward's going up to Alaska for the week so we can sort things out here before everything goes into chaos."

Peter put his chin on my head as he asked, "You're not sending me to Alaska, right?" I turned to him, narrowing my eyes. "What? They all taste like blubber up there."

"And you would know what blubber tastes like?" He shrugged, making me giggle. "Peter, go hunting. I want to talk to the others. Just stay away from the peninsula."

He kissed my forehead before leaving, that strange feeling of longing coming back. I went downstairs with Esme and Emmett to find everyone else already down there. I knew that he had to go feed, but I just wanted to be selfish and keep him with me. I felt so empty without him, kind of like Edward but a hundred times worse. I wondered if it was just me or if he was also feeling that same emptiness within me. Could my family help me figure out what was going on?

"What questions do you have?" Jasper asked, making me shrug. "Alice has promised not to cut you off and to let you ask questions on your own time."

I nodded, looking down. "First off, what did it feel like when each of you found each other?"

"I can't speak for the rest of the family," Rosalie spoke up, getting my attention. We had never been close and I don't think she's even said more than two words to me before today. "But when I found Emmett being attacked by that bear, it was an instant attraction." She looked so wistful as Emmett held her in his arms. "It was like no one else existed in the world other than the two of us."

I could see the others nodding in agreement, making me smile. That was exactly how I felt with Peter, even though I wasn't a vampire and I hadn't found him being attacked by some grizzly bear. If the others were agreeing to that then it must be a mate thing. With Edward though, I had thought for over a week that he had hated me and that attraction to him had to grow instead of just being there from the beginning.

"How about when the other person leaves?"

Esme smiled sweetly at me. "It feels like part of your very being is missing when your mate is gone. They may just be hunting or at work or just down the hall, but that feeling will never be gone until you both are back together. It holds you to your mate no matter what happens."

"What about Peter's reaction to Jasper?" I asked. "Is that normal? I mean, he was so angry, but when it came to protecting me against Edward, he was willing to let Jasper protect me."

"I'll take this one," Jasper told them as I got uneasy looks from that question. "What Peter did is a normal instinct, but Peter and I are different. When it comes to seeing reason against certain things, the monster inside of us takes control. That part of Peter, and myself if I let it out, will never harm our mates, but we will defend them at whatever cost. Even if the person is a brother or a friend."

That explained why Alice told me that I was the only one who could stop him. She knew about this because she and Jasper had probably been through the same thing. I was the only one who could calm that part of Peter down when he was upset. I couldn't ever be near Edward when he was angry, not for a lack of trying though. Either he wouldn't let me around or he would go off and Alice would hang out with me.

When we were running from James, I had never felt the longing to Edward that I had for Peter. I just knew that I was in danger and Edward had been trying to protect me whether because I was his toy or he truly cared about me, I didn't know anymore. At the moment, he was reminding me Renee's friend's kid who I was stuck babysitting one summer. He threw a fit any time someone tried to take away his toy and he would only let his family touch it. That was really beginning to be an exact comparison to Edward's actions.

"I wanted to tell you, Bella," Alice said, looking at me. "But the others said that I had to let you find your mate on your own if it was meant to be."

"What are mates exactly?" I asked, remembering that I had originally wanted that to be my first question.

"Soul mates in basic terms," Carlisle explained. "Humans can spend their entire lives searching for the one person they are bonded with, but with vampires, we have a more likely chance. Becoming mates with a human is rare, but not unheard of. Out of our three couples, two have become mates while one of us was human. Emmett was human and Esme as well." He took his wife's hand, smiling down at her. "Now, I believe I have a meeting at the hospital I have to get to and it's a good thing that it's now raining."

I smiled as he walked over and leaned down to hug me. "Thanks, Carlisle."

"Anything else?" Jasper asked.

I nodded. "Um, you wouldn't happen to have been a soldier, would you?" They all looked shocked at that question. "What?"

"How do you know?" Jasper questioned.

I shrugged. "I don't know exactly. It's weird, I have this strange feeling that Peter's a soldier and you guys are too much alike so I just assumed..."

"Let's get you upstairs," Alice suggested. "You can stay in the guest room across from Jasper and I. It's getting late and you need your beauty sleep." I opened my mouth to protest. "We will send Peter up when he gets here."

I sighed, giving up on arguing and went upstairs to the guest room. I had helped Esme clean--she had tried to get me to do something else the entire time--and had been in the guest room once before. There was a bed in there and I admit that it looked a lot better than Edward's room. The carpet was white and the walls and comforter were both blue. There was a television, a desk, and a dresser. Off to one side, there was a door where a walk-in closet was and on the other side, there was a bathroom.

I climbed into bed, staring at the wall as I wished that Peter was there. I couldn't help but worry that I would wake up the next day and this would be nothing more than a dream. This all seemed to be too out there to just be real, but I wanted it to be. He was the most perfect person I had ever met.

"Did your mommy say anything about soldiers? We're like cops. We protect everyone from bad people."

"Now you be good and no more running away, okay?"

I woke up to a pair of arms wrapped around me. I turned, and smiled as I saw that it was Peter who I was cuddling up to. I moved closer to him, huddling in his arms as I wondered what that voice was. It sounded so much like Peter, but it couldn't be him. I had only met him a few hours ago and he had never told me that he was a soldier. 

Was I going crazy or was there something about everything that I was missing?