Jacob pawed through the forest, stopping every few paces to check for any further scent of vampire. So far, his patrol had been uneventful. Thinking he'd stumbled upon another cold trail, a fierce gust of cold spring wind made the red-haired vampires scent flare up strongly.
He took off at his quickest speed, easily darting in between the trees. Before Jacob even took notice, he was standing dead in the center of the mysterious meadow Bella had so desperately wanted to find. A low whine rumbled in his throat and chest, but the trail before him was fresh and there was no time to waste dwelling on the past.
Thrusting his nose close to the ground he began sniffing; following the scent to the farthest edge of the meadow, off into the woods. There the scent was at its strongest. He emitted a loud, piercing howl to alert his wolf-brothers as he spied a disheveled looking body lying on the wet ground. Jacob closed in slowly, moving carefully in case this was no more than a trap. He half expected the leech to be close by, waiting to catch him off guard and without his pack.
Now that he was nearly on top of the body he saw that it was not the leech, but a short-statured girl. One who, based on the horrible smell radiating from her, had been extremely and dangerously close to the red-head.
Jacob emitted a wolf's equivalent to a sigh and plopped down beside the body.
'False alarm' he thought with exasperation.
'What do you mean Jacob?' Sam demanded
'I mean, it's just a girl. No leech here. But this girl's been close to her. She reeks'
'We're getting close. Phase and get dressed. We should get her out of here.'
Jacob trotted away from the girl to phase back to his human form and dress. He returned and nudged her with his foot, but received no form of response. He could hear the others nearby, a few of them fumbling to get dressed. Jacob knelt beside the girl and touched her shoulder; he was shocked at the coldness of her. Colder even than the vampire he and the pack were so desperately chasing. God only knew how long she had been lying in the elements.
Jacob brushed back the hair that had blown over her face; he studied her round, somewhat babyish face. Her eyes were wide and almond shaped, leading Jacob to imagine her with a doe-eyed look when conscious; and her plump, pug nose was blistered red from the cold.
Something about her seemed familiar to Jacob, he was pretty sure he had seen her with a couple of Bella's friends a few mornings ago when he was taking a patrol route past Forks High School.
Embry was the first to emerge from the tree-line. "So? What's our verdict?"
"Out cold. Almost in the literal sense. Been here a few hours at least. She had a close run in with that red-head we're after. Smell that?"
Embry was merely a few feet away from Jacob and the girl, when another gust of wind blew his way.
"Ugh" Embry rooted to the spot and wrinkled his nose "Sure she's not been bitten? Or drained?"
"There's blood all over her clothes, but I'm not sure it's hers...Where the hell is Sam?"
"Finish patrol, I'll take her back to Emily. I sent Leah ahead; they'll get her taken care of. See what she knows. When you hit the line, some of the Cullen's are taking over." With that, Sam scooped the girl into his arms and set off back into the forest.
Jacob growled and turned away unable to ignore his alpha's order, no matter how badly he didn't want to deal with any Cullen's today, or ever.
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