The Unwanted Imprint

Chapter 7

TW: Mention of rape

Ever since the incident with Alex, the Cullen siblings made sure to stick close to Nichole while they were in school. Carlisle was none too happy about how Alex had treated Nichole. Nichole had never seen Carlisle truly angry before, but she had a feeling that this was pretty damn close to it.

"Carlisle, I'm fine, really." Nichole protested. After Emmett had brought her home and explained to the others what had happened and the bruise that he had seen, Carlisle had taken Nichole into his office so that he could examine her himself.

"That boy can't be allowed around you," Carlisle said as he looked at the bruise on her arm. "He would have seriously hurt you if Emmett hadn't shown up. I don't want him anywhere around you. I'm going to talk to Chief Swan about this, get a restraining order against him."

"How are you going to do that?" Nichole objected, shaking her head. "I'm still going to be going to school with the guy, so it's not like he'll be able to keep his distance from me."

In the end, it was decided that the Cullen siblings would all be taking turns sticking by Nichole and making sure that Alex didn't try anything, depending on who had what class with her.

Most of them didn't mind, Nichole had quickly become like a sister to them, even though she wasn't a vampire like they were. The only one that had a problem with it was Rosalie.

"It's bad enough that she's living with us now, but you're expecting us to play babysitter?!"

Carlisle had gathered everyone in the living room to tell them what the game plan was. Most of them agreed with it, agreeing that the only way to keep Nichole safe at school was to have at least one of them be with her at all times.

"Rosalie..." Esme said imploringly. "We're just trying to keep Nichole safe-"

"That's all that we've ever done since she came here! I'm sick of it, it's like none of us even matter anymore, it's all about her now!"

"It's not Esme's fault," Nichole said quietly, trying to deescalate the situation.

"No, you're right, it's not her fault, it's yours." Rosalie snarled at Nichole. She zoomed over to Nichole, inches away from her face. "We were perfectly fine until you came along, human. You know what you did? You ruined our lives, things were so much easier without you here, we didn't have to try and control ourselves all the time!"

"What the hell is your problem with me?!" Nichole snapped, she had finally had enough of Rosalie's attitude towards her.

"Uh oh..." Edward murmured. "She's pushed Nichole's limit now."

"I haven't done a single thing to you!" Nichole shouted at Rosalie. "I haven't hurt you in any way, so what the hell is your deal with me? Is it just because I'm human? Is that it?! Well, let me tell you something, Rosalie. Being human isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Do you have any idea how good you have it with your abilities? I would give anything to have what you have! If I had powers like that, I would have been able to stand up to my father, he wouldn't have nearly killed me that night in the woods if Carlisle hadn't found me-"

Rosalie growled and she grabbed Nichole, gripping her by the neck and pinning her to the wall. "Don't think that you know anything about me or anything else here. You know nothing. If you knew what had happened to cause us to become like this, to cause me to become like this, you would be thinking differently. You weren't raped and beaten within an inch of your life!"

Nichole couldn't answer, she was gasping for air, her eyes wide as saucers. Her skin was starting to turn blue, and Rosalie tightened her grip, even more, pure hate and fury in her eyes.

Emmett grabbed Rosalie, pulling her away from Nichole, and Nichole crumpled to the ground, gasping and wheezing as she tried to catch her breath.

"Get Rosalie out of here," Carlisle ordered Emmett as he knelt beside Nichole, helping her to sit up. Nichole tried to speak, but Carlisle shook his head. "Don't try and talk right now, alright? Your throat looks like it's pretty damaged. I'm sorry, I didn't know that Rosalie would take things to this level. I knew that she had a certain dislike for you, but I thought that it was something that she would get over in time. Go and lay down, okay? Don't try and talk for a few days. You'll be fine, but your throat is going to be pretty hoarse for the next couple of days at the very least."

Later that night, as Nichole laid on her bed, she could hear Rosalie and Carlisle arguing downstairs. She knew that it was about her, it couldn't be about anything else.

"She should have never come to live with us!" Rosalie shouted. "She's just made things harder for everyone. You know that Jasper is still having a hard time trying to control his blood lust, do you have any idea how hard it's been for him to try and control himself around her?"

"I couldn't just leave her in the woods, Rosalie," Carlisle said, trying to keep his voice down so that Nichole didn't hear him. "If she hadn't come with us, then she would have died, you know that-"

"Maybe you should have just left her there, I know that things would have gone a whole lot better for us if you hadn't come across her."

Tears started to go down Nichole's face. Was Rosalie right? Would things have been better for the Cullens if she had never come to live with them? It seemed like all Nichole had done was cause turmoil in the family, and that had been the kind of thing that she had been trying to avoid. Nichole walked to her window, sliding it open. Where her bedroom was, there was a sturdy vine of ivy that led down to the porch. Nichole climbed silently out her window, scaling down the ivy. Maybe if she was gone, then things will go better for the Cullens. After climbing down the ivy, Nichole took one last look at the house before dashing off into the woods.