Chapter 1: Consequences
"How could you do this, Bella? After everything that he has given up for you, how could you?" Alice screamed at me. I had to admit, I did deserve it. But what choice had I? I could not live without him. He was my rock, the thing that had dragged me back to solid ground after Edward had left. Jacob was what held me together after I'd been broken apart, like glue and porcelain. I could not let him down after everything he had done for me.
"Alice, this is none of your concern. I love Edward, you know that, but he hurt me. You don't understand. Jacob is what makes the sun shine in my dark world. It is unfair to Edward, I know that, but Jacob would never hurt me the way Edward did," Reasoning with Alice was pointless now. I had tried to talk to her, calm her down, but she would not listen. She never did.
"Bella, what you don't seem to understand is that while you can live without him, he cannot and will not live without you. Wasn't his visit to the Volturi proof enough that he will not live without you in his life? You are willing to risk my brother's life for your selfishness?"
"Alice, it is not that simple. And if Edward could leave me once, and live without me, he can do it for the rest of eternity. I don't care anymore. Jacob was there for me, cared for me, and he stuck with me through all of my craziness and depression. Edward left me to die, knowing full well that Victoria could come after me in a split second. Do you think Edward could have guessed that Jacob was a werewolf and could protect me? Not even he could have known that."
Alice just looked at me, looking like she was about to cry. Alice was my best friend, and I hated to hurt her this way, but doing what I was doing was impossible to do without somebody getting hurt. I walked towards her, attempting to comfort her, but she backed away.
"Don't even think about trying to comfort me, Bella Swan. After what you've done, I don't even want to look at you. And if you think that you are going to get off that easily, well you can forget it. I am not the only one of my family who is angry about this. Rosalie was prepared to come and rip your little head off this morning after I told her. Esme was in tears, and don't even get me started on how angry Jasper and Emmett are at you. They are already talking about going to destroy the pack, and I am quite sure that Rosalie and I will be joining them."
"And what does Edward think about this? Does he support you butting into his life like this?"
"He is not against it, if that is what you mean. He is just as angry at Jacob Black as he is at you. Bella, you were his whole world. His everything, and now you have taken everything away from him. He will do whatever it takes to get you back, despite what he had said to you in the past. Just because Jacob is yours now, doesn't mean that Edward won't kill him. He will tear out Jacob Black's heart just like you tore out his. Watch out, Bella Swan. We will be coming for your pack, and for you." Alice stood up and was out of the house before I could say another word. I watched her go, feeling even worse about my decision that before. I was putting the whole pack in danger now, not just Jacob. This was going to be an ugly fight.
After the battle with Victoria and the army, I had realized that Jacob had as equal share in my heart as Edward did, and while I loved Edward in a way that nobody could imagine, I couldn't live without Jacob in my life. I got jealous every time I thought of Jacob loving anybody else but me, so I took the opportunity and seized him for my own. I knew doing so would hurt Edward in ways that I could not even dream about, but it wasn't about him. It was about what I wanted in the deepest, darkest part of my heart. And every time I accessed it, it screamed Jacob's name at me like a banshee.
I had to consider the benefits of the situation. While I wanted to be a vampire, I also could not bear to watch my family die around me while I didn't age. Jacob would age with me; we would sit on a porch swing watching our children play in our front yard. We would grow old together, and while Jacob would not be able to age for a while, at least I could grow old with him and have a normal life, though I had been anything but normal since the day I was born.
I got up off the couch, and started for the door, intending to go over to Jacob's and tell him what happened with Alice, and the terrible things Alice had said. Rushing to my car, I started it and sped down the road towards La Push. 10 minutes later, I was in Jacob's driveway.
Jacob came running out to the van, took me into his arms, and kissed me. It was like a fire burned my lips; it was a wolf thing. Their temperature was close to 108 degrees Celsius.
After about 15 more seconds of kissing, I pulled away. "Jake, we need to talk. Something terrible has happened."
"Bella, tell me what's going on. I can't stand to see you like this. What's wrong?" he asked, unaware of the bad news I was about to tell him.
"The Cullen's, they are coming. They are coming to destroy us, and the pack. Alice said that Edward wanted to hurt you, and all of his siblings are coming too. They didn't say when, but judging by how certain she sounded, it sounds like it will happen tonight."
Jacob stared at me in disbelief. After all the recent peace between the Pack and the Cullen family, it was a shock to hear now that they wanted to destroy us.
"Bella, are you sure? Is that EXACTLY what she said?"
"Yes, Jake, I'm sure. But I can't let them hurt you, I just can't. And while I don't want to see Edward get hurt, I can't let him hurt you either. I don't know what to do, Jake. I really don't." I burst into tears, letting Jacob hug me and try to comfort me, though I knew he was the one that was going to need comforting. If Emmett and Jasper were going to fight, the wolves were bound to lose a brother.
"Bella, we need to go tell Sam. Get the Pack together, and get ready for this battle. Alice probably already knows that you have come here to tell me, so they are going to be ready for us. We just need to be one step ahead of them."
We stood there for a few more moments before Jacob phased and he was running through the forest with me on his back towards where the pack usually met: Emily's house. We got there in less than 5 minutes, and before I knew it, the whole pack was there.
"Sam, we need to talk. Bella has just told me that the Cullen children plan on attacking us tonight. According to Bella, Alice said they will destroy us for what Bella and I did."
There was a long silence before anyone spoke again. But Paul eventually broke the silence and said, "Who do they think they are, threatening us like that? This is ridiculous. They are going to cross a line."
"Bella, when did they say the attack would take place?" Sam asked me.
"From the way Alice sounded, it seemed like they were going to march on La Push tonight."
The whole pack growled. I knew that this was going to be tough. We weren't ready, and although we had strength in numbers, the Cullen's had Jasper and Emmett. They were the strongest of the whole clan, stronger than Edward even. Emmett had the kind of brute strength that a newborn vampire had, and Jasper had experience fighting armies of vampires. This was going to be a tough fight, and I knew that I would lose some of my friends on both sides in the process.
"Well, brothers, get ready. It looks like we will have a long night ahead of us," Sam shouted, and just as quickly as they had come, they were all gone, leaving Jacob and I alone.