"No, Bella, you don't understand! The Ullens are dangerous, they're not-"
"Not what, Jake? Not people? Not capable of deciding to be good, or nice? Because Alice is wonderful, she'd never hurt a fly, and while I don't know the rest of her family I'm sure they're perfectly lovely people too! It doesn't matter what, what, species they are, even if, as you've been hinting, they're not human! They're still people!"
Jacob growled. Literally growled. Bella hadn't even known humans could do that. "Look, this sounds terrible, and, well, I'm not supposed to tell you everything, but... You have to know. They're not people, not really."
And he told her the ancient legend of the Old Ones - and that of their servitor race, the shape-changing Shoggoths, insentient and mindless. When he'd finished the standard legend, he continued.
"They're just following the scripts they're given, they don't have human emotions or feelings. They know enough about humans, about people, to imitate us, to pretend things like, gratitude or caring or anger, but you can't trust that, it's all fake, there's nothing human about them! They don't even have human bodies, those are just, like, blobs of protoplasmic mass coalesced into human shape, they probably keep the other 50 tons of their 'bodies' in their house somewhere!"
"That second bit about their bodies is totally irrelevant! Being a little heavier doesn't change how much of a person you are. That's fat-shaming, Jake, and I won't hear it from you."
He ignored her. "And they're not even good at faking it! Why can't you see this, they eat way more than normal humans -"
"So do you."
"That's different. And they, they - look, at any time, their true masters can change their scripts, whatever you think you know about their personalities won't apply anymore, they'll kill you in some horrible ritual without a shred of mercy! You have to stay away from them, Bella," he finished. "Please?"
"I," she started, her face a mask of confusion, "I, I can't promise that. But I'll think about what you said, I'll take it all into account, okay?"
He didn't look very happy with that answer, but he nodded. "Okay. Promise me you'll be careful, at least. Make sure Charlie always knows where you are, and don't go anywhere alone with them, okay? Promise me that."
"I'll be careful." She wasn't going to make any hasty and specific promises. But she couldn't help but appreciate his concern. "Thanks, Jake."