Ever since Mariella had wandered into the kitchen and witnessed Mimi and Damon really hitting it off, goofing off, laughing, and decorating each other with those gels, jealousy once again bloomed in her heart.
She felt insecure, like she was missing something and losing her grip on Damon. Mimi was taking him as well. Dark determination hit her, and she started to craft a plan to secure Damon back to herself.
But then it happened. Damon showed Mimi his true, pure love. Mimi sent hers to Damon, and their fucking bond, which in this moment felt like a real threat to Mariella, had grown a lot. They loved each other, and there was nothing she could do.
She felt that if she were to seduce Damon, she would get a pretty harsh rebuke, so she wanted to show Mimi she could do this, too. She could make pure love as well and get Damon, as well as the other Salvatores, to herself.
What she did not know was that this was actually Mimi's plan. Mimi, too, being pregnant, felt pretty dominant and wanted to do her own thing, not be ordered by her husbands. And because Mariella's jealousy was fully in the hive, to be felt by Mimi, it gave Mimi some pretty good ideas on how to secure some me time, some freedom from certain husbands, and how to make them flock around Mariella.
Mariella thought she wanted them all, that she wanted them to love her and worship her. But then again, she conveniently forgot how they had been suffocating her with their love. And now number one had learned to do exactly that, meaning one more man was suffocating her with their love. To top it all off, Damon handed her the book about the pack's energies so she could read it herself and realize why it was so important.
"My love, I can read this a little later on, but why don't we go to our bedroom?" Mariella suggested to Damon, trying to keep her seduction mild and not too pushy.
"No, 'ella, you see, you need to read this, and then you learn, and then you have motivation, and I can tell you, making that pure love—oh my god, I have never felt anything like that, well, not in quite some time," he said softly.
Jealousy hit Mariella again like a freight train. It was obvious he was reminiscing about his time with Mimi, when they met and fell in love. She was trying to come up with a plan to make Damon love her, not Mimi, but her jealousy stopped her, at least for now.
A few hours later, Mariella sighed in her mind. Damon was still teaching her how to love, and she just wanted some lust and normal things, meaning sex and whispered sweet nothings, but no. She was sitting on a chair, and Damon gave her the book to read as he went to the kitchen to get something to eat for her, as she was, after all, pregnant.
She had been given by Number Four a daily kind of booster, as one type of spore or mold had hit her during that time in the culvert pipe, and it messed up her system, so Number Four drained something stinging and hot into her neck, which made her neck ache for hours.
No one had talked much about what Mimi had done to her, and to be honest, she hadn't dealt with it herself. She knew at one point that she had gone and poked a hornet's nest and gotten stung, but salvatores helping her felt so clinical, and now this over-the-top obsession with love.
But she opened the book and began to read it, scoffing in her mind because she initially thought this was just another waste of time, and there was no need for her to create pure love energy. Her love energy was strong enough, and she childishly assumed lust was the most important part of it, even though this was not the case. However, a part of her struggles to let go of her ideals of being a lust queen and sex being everything to her.
As she read the book, a whole new world opened up to her; not only did they need love, but as Mariella began to think deeper, she realized that they might need to learn how to create other types of energies, which could then help them with pheromones. She knew number one wasn't as skilled with pheromones as others, which was one of the things that bothered him, and despite this, Mimi had no time to teach him.
Mariella had learned some but not all, and she was aware that she could still learn more. But the big question was how to get Mimi to teach. And then she would have made time for her potion-making lessons for girls; Mimi's four girls were strong and precise, but it was almost a competition between her and Wulfe to teach those four more.
Her own girls were not as skilled or powerful, and Mariella couldn't help but wonder if she had done something during her pregnancy to weaken them—damn pomegranate juice. She vowed to find a better alternative and to mature enough to stop poisoning herself. And, as she thought about it, the best way was to have Damon keep her under control.
But right now, Damon wanted to teach her how to create real love energy, which seemed difficult at first, but as she read on, all of the implications and benefits for the pack became clear, and she realized that it would be a good thing to learn. So she was looking for motivation for that.
But Damon was not so much a good or patient teacher; he just said to her, "Feel the love and let it come out," but Mariella struggled to find what was love and what was lust, so she asked Mimi, hoping maybe she could give some pointers or hints.
She kept her voice groveling as she reached Mimi via hive mind, "Mimi, I know I robbed Damon, but I have now read this book, and I want to learn how to make love energy, but Damon does not know how to teach."
Mimi's voice, as calm as ever, replied to her, "First, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and empty your mind; create a special empty spot in your mind."
Mariella leaned back, placed the book on the table, sighed, and closed her eyes; her empty space was filled with white, like pure whiteness.
"Now what?" she asked Mimi as she prepared to try this.
"Remember your favorite moment with Damon. Not physically, but mentally, when he made your heart race, and you felt like you couldn't live without him. It only takes a moment, and it does not have to be long, for your heart to flutter in your belly, causing your breath to catch."
Mariella focused, recalling that it was early on and they had gone shopping, just the two of them. Damon had been playful, revealing a rare side of himself as he smiled and told Mariella how many humans he could eat and who would not make a good meal. He'd been so funny. Mariella felt that fluttering again, that magical feeling.
Mimi said to her via their hive mind. "Now, let it grow, let it in your heart; just focus on feeling that fluttering moment, let it grow, find its way, and don't force it."
Mariella relaxed more; she kept on remembering that shopping trip, how she had gone to check on novelties, and an older man who had come next to her. Damon had commented telepathically to her that she was not a very good lure for him because that guy was a lousy meal. She kept checking out new things, and if someone came next to her, Damon would figure out why they were bad meals.
The fluttering warmth spread throughout her heart, and for the first time in a long time, she felt genuine love.
She was focused on feeling this incredible sensation and was almost startled when Damon said, "Oh my god, darlin, look, you did it; you have a few tankfuls of pure love. I said you could do it."
Mariella's love energy was not peach but deep crimson with bright blue flecks; she took it out, flooded Damon with it, and their connection deepened so much that she felt Damon on a whole new level, and she knew he felt her as well.
They sat in a dimming light at night, sending and feeling love, deepening their bond, with no idea that this was Mimi's grand plan all along. Snowball knew her ways, and she had made certain that the one creature who might, just might, have a chance to be a brick wall had been removed from the equation for quite some time, and Snowball was now as free as before.
And what would it mean in the long run? Well, they had no idea. But as usual, life had its ways of teaching some damn nasty lessons along the way to happiness, not that happiness was in the cards for any of them—not permanently, at least. Because happiness and perfection made life fucking boring and dull, and it was good to have some spice, some surprises, and some real challenges along the way. Not that all of the challenges were so good to have.
Damon and Mariella felt love in the bedroom, cuddling and feeling each other without needing immediate fucking. Mariella realized the strength of true love for the first time, but her jealousy flared up as she realized that many Salvatores felt this way about Mimi, not her. She was determined to show them she loved them, too, but she couldn't find those moments. But she was making up her mind that she would get moments, and those salvatores would love her too, and then it would be perfect; she would have everything.
Her desire to have them all stemmed from the incorrect type of alpha power. Male-type power meant that males were meant to protect all females in their pride, and males would defend their females, but when male-type alpha power went to a female, she became like Mariella, wanting all males for herself, so she would have them and defend them against other females who might take those males, like Mimi.
In other words, her alpha power was as messed up as it could be, and even though she was a beta female, there was still some alpha power left because it had not merged into her beta power or Damon had not combined it with female-type power, resulting in pack power. There was still a lot to be done for their pack to truly flourish and become the best version of itself, but as immortals, they would have plenty of time.
This messed-up situation with their imbalance of alpha powers was one of the things that kept fueling interpack drama, Mariella's jealousy, and it would take a long time for her to learn to be a beta female, which meant being on Team Mimi rather than Team Damon, as she was right now, but if and when she did, she would be a true savior, second in command, and no more jealousy drama or lustful fantasies that never worked out.
But it would also mean that Mariella might learn new things about Mimi, and she would have to figure out how to balance her innate respect for Damon, her need to tell Damon everything, and what secrets she should keep to herself. Should she gang up with Mimi against Damon, or would she always tell Damon what his superstrong, uber-sly alpha female was all about? Only time will tell if this type of situation arises.