Temper, Temper: Chapter Two - Socks
The journey back to Forks was simple enough, though Alex's choice to remain human so she and Emmett could talk impacted their speed only slightly. Now they were a couple of feet from the Cullen home, Alex wasn't nervous, just uneasy; the last coven of vampires she held residency with had issues with hospitality.
"Come on then Socks, family is a'waiting" Said Emmett, he had noticed her wolf had white fur that reached from her paws and up to her knees, contrasting with the silver grey fur that adorned the rest of her body, hence the name 'Socks'.
The other Cullen's were in the living room, Alex snorted when she thought of the irony and when Emmett looked at her questionably, she just laughed and hit his arm playfully before walking in.
"Ah, Alexandria! We were wondering how long it would be before Emmett's charm got the better of you" Carlisle stood up and walked over to her, gently holding shoulders. "We are glad you accepted our offer of help" A woman joined the conversation, undoubtedly Carlisle's wife Esme.
After listening to Emmett's constant monologue, Alex had no trouble putting names to faces and after an hour of introductions, things had settled down nicely and now she was watching a basketball game with Emmett.
Carlisle came into the room, quietly,
"Alex" She looked up slowly, eyes still fixed on the game. "Since we don't have a lot of time in regards to…well, you know what, so we thought we better start training for the test, tomorrow."
Alex pondered this with a frown, "What will we be doing?" her eyes darted around Carlisle's face, trying to work out his motives.
"I haven't thought about it yet, but it shall be concerned around your anger issues-"
"I don't I have anger issues" She interrupted,
"Yeah of course you don't" Emmett chuckled, adding his own input before Alex tackled him off the sofa, trying to pin his arms down, he flipped them around grappled to hold onto her arms. Carlisle took this as his cue to leave them to it.
"Say you give!" Emmett shouted,
"No you!" Alex countered.
They carried on until, Esme distracted them be yelling from the kitchen, "Not in the house!" the distraction gave Emmett enough time to pin back her arm, gently leaning on her so her face was held against the expensive carpet.
"AHA! I win!"
When he let her up, Alex knocked the remote he had retrieved back out of his hand,
"Seeing as I win, you owe me one"
"You cheated" She said in a monotone voice before grabbing the enormous bag of crisps Alice had bought her, settling on the sofa and continuously demolishing overflowing handfuls of crisps till the contents of the entire bag was gone in a salty minute.
The next morning, Alex awoke on the sofa. Not that the Cullen's hadn't offered her a room of her own, but this was a temporary thing, having her own room made it seem like her home. It took a while for them to even convince her to take the sofa, originally she had planned to sleep outside, 'wolfing it up' instead as she had put it. Esme would have none of that though.
Her limbs made an ugly crack as she stretched them, squinting her eyes shut as a ray of sunlight reflected through one of the giant windows. Emmett's booming voice made her wince and close her eyes completely,
"SOCKS! We are waiting for you!" Not waiting any longer, her tossed her effortlessly over his shoulder and with intentionally bouncy steps Alex was carried from her slumber.
When she was placed on the grassy floor, Alex said,
"No it's fine Emmett, I didn't have to pee or anything" She was being sarcastic but it was obviously wasted when he stared curiously at her, she dismissed him and turned her attention to the others. Only, Carlisle, Emmett, Edward and Alice were in the flat, forest surrounded clearing where the other vamps were Alex didn't know.
"We thought training would work best in the morning…when majority of people are cranky" Alice said with a smile, giving Alex a hug though she remained unresponsive to the gesture.
"So you're going to try and make me angry?" Her eyes questioned Carlisle, assuming he had arranged what would happen when she finally awoke.
"Yes but you have to try and remain calm, on the test, if you show any sign of struggle then that could mean a fail – We just don't know what to expect"
"Righty oh then, give it your best shot"
"Edward, you first" Edward walked towards her, his stride perfectly covering the distance between them in a split second. Then he just stayed there, his frame bent slightly to be at her eye level. It was like some comic hero had frozen him with a freeze ray. Then he smirked, breaking the deception.
"That's it you're just gonna' stand there?" Alex folded her arms and took a step back from him, he matched her step and a slight frown tugged at Alex's lips. 'Hmm slightly annoying, personal space equals zero'.
After they stayed there for another five minutes, Alex began to get bored, she was fidgeting with the strings of her joggers when Edward began to hum, he earned an incredulous look from her.
"Really? You're really gonna' hum?" Edward smiled again, that annoying 'I'm better than you' smile of his. It wasn't as easy to hold her temper in check as Alex originally thought, everything about that situation was starting to grate on her; his eyes kept going left to right, over and over, that buzzing of his stupid humming drilling her ears. She frowned, jaw set and her eyes unmoving on him.
"Stop it"
He continued.
Heat started to take over her and small tremors began to take over, most noticeably on her shoulders, which were moving the most. At this point Edward stepped back, and nodded with a smile, he had succeeded.
Alex held the bridge of her nose and sighed deeply before opening her eyes once more. Edward's expression had changed from one of triumph to one of anxiety, he quickly ran to Carlisle's side rudely speaking in hushed whispers.
"…we have to go and meet them; they'll wait until we do" The ending of Carlisle's response to whatever Edward said was all Alex could pick up, brushing it off she followed the group. It wasn't very far just a few feet ahead,
"What was wrong with where we were?" The number of w's in that sentence distracted Alex for a moment but Emmett didn't respond himself at first, merely shrugged his globed shoulders feigning indifferent when his expression showed the same anxiety that all the Cullen's were now wearing.
Suddenly, Alex smelt something familiar but different in a sense. Animals, six of them. It was hard for Alex to place what the animals were, all the differences of their scents were mingling together, confusing into one.
Then they appeared, wolves, just like her. They appeared, nine or ten metres in front of them uncovered by the bare landscape. Alex started to breathe quickly, unsettled by the strangers like her, it was all too much.
"What the fuck are they?" She snapped her face to Carlisle, then to every other Cullen with her, landing on Emmett's last.
"They live in La Push, and they're wolves"
Alex frowned deeply, looking at Alice with a vicious expression. She was not stupid.
"Yes I can see that thank you. Nobody mentioned anything about wolves. You didn't mention wolves" She repeated, pointing her finger at Emmett, blaming this nasty surprise on him.
"We have a treaty with them, I didn't think that they would care you're here, you're not a Quilette" Emmett countered, shooting Edward a look, urging him to explain the situation. He didn't get a chance though, Carlisle was walking smoothly over to the black one leading the pack, obviously the alpha Alex thought.
Ten minutes went by while Carlisle was explaining the situation they were in, but in the end he came back to their group with a sullen expression.
"Apparently, the treaty isn't very specific; it says our territory is here, while the wolves' territory is in La Push-"
"Big fucking dealing, I'm not a Quilt or whatever the hell they're called-" Red clouded over her vison, the tremors were back, raking through her body. Carlisle took over from Edward in explaining, using his silk voice in vain to try and calm her.
"That's the point, the treaty says 'wolves' not 'Quilettes'. He paused briefly and cast a look to Edward, "They say you can't stay here"
That did it. There was no way she could calm herself back down. Now she was a wolf again, and her favourite grey joggers were in tatters.
"I don't give a shit about some lunatic old people and a fucking piece of paper, tell them" She was angry now, but managed to form the sentence for Edward to convey.
"She isn't happy-"
"No shit!" Emmett interrupted, staring at the wolf next to him with an amused expression.
"She says that she won't go with them" Edward, made a face at Carlisle then look over at the wolves with a frown. He noticed they had gotton closer to Alex slightly, obviously wanting to ensure she didn't go into destruction mode. Unfortunately Alex noticed the wolves closest to her trying to come nearer to her, she snapped teeth at them jestingly. All the wolves, including Alex had their lips raised over their teeth in warning.
Emmett smiled a little, they obviously expected a calmer wolf when they saw Alex in her human form, 'Guess again' he thought.
"Sam says she either goes with them or the treaty is void" Edward stated, Alex looked up quickly and began to back off, walking backwards slowly. Emmett put his hand on Alex's back gently stopping her silent escape, "Hey Socks, remember that favour you owed me"
"Oh no, no way. That isn't fair" Alex shouted in her head, she was very serious when it came to keeping her word and had a low opinion of anyone that didn't. "Fine" Alex's growl had settled into a low rumble, Edward gave Carlisle a slight smile, thankful they didn't have to kick their newest family member out by their own tongue.
"Well done Socks"
Carlisle walked over to her, and knelt on the forest floor holding Alex's head so she kept eye contact with him,"We're still going to help you, just because you can't have residency here doesn't mean you can't visit…everyday" A sly smirk took over the eldest Cullen's face and despite the anger, which was still prominently in her head clouding her vision, it comforted her.
"Love you Socks" Emmett called out, knowing that she heard him.
