Her compassion

Nicolas came out of the boardroom first and found Bella leaning against Tony's table smoking a cigarette, her gaze out on the garden almost readable and she was not angry, Nic saw the discomfort in what she witnessed.

"Hey Bella?" He asked coming over, but she only gave him a glance.

"I'm sorry about what happened in there"

"Why are you apologizing Nic? You didn't rip someone's head off, you didn't force me to do something I didn't want to do" she answered and lifted a glass of whiskey to drink.

Nicolas looked back to Tony who scratched his bald head then lifted a finger as if remembering something, the large man held a hand to a glass door one side that leads out to the back garden, Nicolas caught the gesture.

"I'm also not fond of such things, so hey... Let's go check the garden?" He said.

"You can see it from here" She said handing a gesture to it.

Nicolas came around the table then took her hand "Hey... Walk with me... Please?"

She looked at him with an almost teared up face then sighed killing the cigarette in an ashtray, she took another sip then placed the glass down, allowing Nicolas to guide her to the door.

Outside Bella realized the garden was twice the size se presumed it would be, stretching around the large house to places she saw from her room, usually in houses this large it sometimes becomes a puzzle trying to figure out where is what that you saw from the inside.

"You okay?" Nicolas asked after he allowed her to breathe some fresh air.

"I'm, fine... I guess"

"I don't want to poke at uncomfortable topics, but I wondered how you would look when you're angry?" He said letting her hand go and placing his in his pockets.

Bella ran her past through her head thinking of the last time she got angry, but it didn't come to her "I'm twenty two this year Nic, and for five years I've been running from humans..." She said looking at him quick, but her eyes went to the ground as she hop stepped slabs that ran through a garden section past the lawn.

"I thought it was two years?"

"Three years with my pack, then two after that alone"

"Oh, now I remember" he said minimally, wanting her to talk, he wanted Bella to open up a little and its best to hear her version of this hunt to maybe understand her better.

"I never got angry, it was more frustration, all I remember feeling most of the time was fear... Can I sleep here safely? Will someone find me tomorrow? Can I go in here to buy food safely? Can I survive the hunt every time they track me on a full moon...?" She looked up to him "I was afraid, I still am, how safe am I truly Nic? Can Tony's men protect me?"

Nicolas took out his packet of Texan and lit one up, thinking of something he could say to comfort her, the only thing he could say is the truth "I think..."

She stopped hopping those slabs and turned to him.

"There is not really somewhere safe for anyone here in society, if you think about it..."

"Don't!" She cut him off "Don't say anything like that to me Nicolas, I know what you mean! Crime, car accidents, sickness, illnesses and diseases! Snakes and scorpions! I know all of the dangers! The difference is I had to cope with that and men with rifles! Have you ever been hunted before Nicolas!?" She yelled.

Nicolas felt like an idiot and broke eye contact with her.

"I..." She was hyperventilating "I saw my mother fall to the ground before I heard the crack of thunder a bullet makes when piercing the sky... I... What are we to them who has so much power over us? Able to kill me from a mile away? How!? Even as a werewolf do I stand a chance against that!?"

"I... I'm sorry Bella" he said, Nicolas found himself in a situation where he couldn't comfort her, in the past, or maybe any time with any other person you usually just slap his back and say 'You'll be fine' but what does he say to her?

He couldn't comfort her, and it now grinded him mentally, making him feel so powerless... He wished he could just wipe away all her sorrow but that means wiping the world clean, an impossible task.

"Nic..." She said and he looked back "Don't bring that up again, please?"

"I, won't, I'm sorry Bella"

"Don't be, you're the first person, the fist human I ever came to know, and I don't expect you to part the sea for me..." She said softly smiling, but she blinked looking at a rose bush close by, it was in full bloom and had many red buds all around it "Deno wants me to get angry... Well I never really could, I never really had enemies"

"That's not true, how can you say that?" He asked.

She shook her head then tapped a rose with a finger "Never did I see the hunters as my enemy, I feared them remember, so it was just a nightmare... A good thing I suppose, I don't want to hurt people"

Nicolas inwardly gasped at this woman, she was more human to him than he felt himself to be "Have you... Ever considered you know? To kill a human?"

She tilted her head as her finger rested on that rose, she slowly pushed it left and right, as if her hand was dancing with it "Once..." She said.

"And?" He asked.

"It was a hillbilly, I know the name might be an insult to many, but hillbillies are crazy sons'a bitches, they live to shoot stuff, and I was no exception..." She said and giggled "Com heee ye floor mat furball ragitty mutt! A got a piece o led here wit yoh name onnit!" She said loudly and swung a fist.

Nicolas stood watching her confused and she giggled again.

"The guy was drunk off his feet, followed me into the forest with his shotgun, ale in hand, tipping and bobbing, I sat there watching him, he had no idea" she said and lifted her hand, her fingers folded and for the first time Nicolas saw her claws come out from under her nails, he heard the stretches and friction of the nails drawing back and the claws pushing out, it sounded slightly gruesome.

Belladonna stood watching those claws as she stretched her fingers out then coiled them again "I thought to myself... He's an easy target, drunk, stupid, alone, he already passed me where I hid and stood with his back to me... Calling into the forest like some lunatic, it would have been no problem to take him down and kill him"

He felt like witnessing a different side of her, or so he thought, after all that softness and fragility he saw from Bella Nicolas knew this story won't end with her making such a blood thirsty move.

Her eyes came to him and she smiled "Then I realized he might be in danger"

"Wait what?"

"Standing there hollering into the woods like a duck quacking he might actually draw in real wolves, or bears, or even mountain lions, so I just sat there, watching him, making sure nothing comes to hurt him"

Nicolas shook his head and chuckled "My God Bella, your compassion is blowing my mind"

She stuck out her tongue quickly "Its one of my many weaknesses"