The Ties that Bind

Disclaimer:I do not own the Twilight universe. All recognisable characters, content or locations belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter Three:

Run. Runrunrunrunrun. Away. Run away. Awayawayawayaway. Runaway from the bloodsuckers and the werewolves and the voices in my head. Runrunrunrun.

Trees. Trees. Trees. Dirt. Woods. Green. Brown. Trees. Woods. Green. Brown.

'Bella!'

Run.

Run.

Run.

Awayawayawayaway. Away from everythingeverythingeverythi ngeverything.

'Bella, stop!' Sam. Alpha. Must obey. Must obey. Obeyobeyobey.

Stop? Stop what? Breathing? Thinking? I'm definitely not going to stop fucking running!

Away. Away. Away. Awayawayaway. A long motherfucking way away.

'Bella, stop running, right now!' Sam. Alpha. Must obey. Must obey. Obey. Obeyobeyobey. Alpha orders. Must obey alpha orders.

God damn it!

My paws stopped on the forest floor, my momentum pushing me forward. Forwardforwardforward. Awayawayaway.

I whined, lay flat on the ground with my ears flattened and my eyes closed. Awayawayaway. If I pretend, I can almost imagine this being a ridiculously vivid dream. Almost.

I wanna go home. Away. Away from wolves and bloodsuckers and supernatural shit and fuck, where's my daddy when I need him!

Charlie. CharlieCharlieCharlie. Must-see-Charlie.

Except, of course, the motherfucking alpha order has stopped me from running.

Right. From running. It never said anything about walking.

Walk. Charlie. Must. Find. Charlie. Daddydaddydaddydaddydaddydad dydaddy.

Inside my head, I could hear Embry laughing himself stupid. I tried to ignore it, because fuck, it's not fucking normal to have voices inside your head, but it's hard to ignore.

'Bella, stay where you are, damn it!' Sam. Angry Sam. Angry alpha Sam. Must obey angry alpha Sam's orders. Fucking fuck! God damn it!

Iwannagohome. Iwannahaveamotherfuckingshow er. Fuck my life.

I stopped walking. Standstandstandstandstand. Daddydaddydaddydaddydaddy. Fuck this bullshit. I'm moving to Florida.

'No you're not,' Sam contradicted. 'You're moving to La Push.'

Fuck my life. This is fucking bullshit!

'God, she swears worse than Paul,' Jared thought, slowly and amused.

Fuck you too, dickhead.

Embry was still laughing himself sick. It sounded out of breath, even in his mind. Freeaaakkkkyyyy. Then again, this whole shitstorm was fucked in the head, so that wasn't anything new.

They appeared from the underbrush, all four of them. I glanced over their coats, black and silver and two different shades of brown, but I was drawn back to Paul – more specifically, his eyes. And there my gaze stayed.

It felt like… I don't even know. It felt like my world was simultaneously ending and beginning. It felt like I had died and gone to heaven and like I'd just been brought to life. It felt like I was simultaneously floating and grounded. I felt like I was being torn in two and at the same time, I'd just been completed. It felt like the only thing holding me to this earth was Paul and if he left this earth, I wouldn't be far behind.

'Holy shit!' Embry exclaimed, all laughter gone. He was simply surprised now.

Thirdwifethirdwifethirdwifet hirdwifethirdwifethirdwife. I knew that story. Something about soul mates and sacrifices and never changing again and holy fucking shit! No motherfucking way!

I had enough of that soul mate bullshit with Edward Cullen, thank you very fucking much!

'Bella, calm the fuck down!' Sam. Angry swearing alpha Sam. Must obey angry swearing alpha Sam's orders. Fuck this shit. How the fuck does he expect me to calm the fuck down!

Run. Runrunrunrunrun. Wanna run. Wanna run. Wanna fucking run!

'No! You're staying right fucking here!' Sam ordered and then, as if as an after thought, said, 'That goes for you too, Paul.'

Of fucking course it does. Because we're imprints. Fucking imprints. Imprintimprintimprint. Fuck my life. Fuck this spirit animal shit. Fuck it all!

Wow, Paul had a pretty wolf.

Queue Embry dying from laughing.

Queue insulted growl from Paul.

Queue Jared hitting the ground – hard – right there with Embry.

Sorry. Not really. It was just the right thing to say, you know?

'I feel imasculated.' Paul. It was the first time I'd heard him speak. Then again, this freaky mental communication shit probably doesn't count, does it? Semantics…

Is that even a word? I don't know. I don't really care. I wanna run. Run. Runrunrun. I don't want to be a motherfucking wolf. I want to be pretty. IwantIwantIwant.

I want Paul to be happy.

Fuck!

What. The. Fuck!

This is fucking bullshit!

'You're telling me!' Paul agreed.

Eh, at least we were on the same page on something.

I sighed.

When I was young, I remember thinking my father was the most important man in the world. Boys were icky and the men mommy brought home were even ickier. I wish I could go back to those days, where shit like hormones and imprints didn't exist. Back then, I could sit on my father's shoulders and it would feel like I was on the shoulders of a giant. I could touch the sky and the clouds and the moon and the stars and I was so, so happy.

Except now those days were gone and I was here, in Washington, involved in a world that shouldn't have existed. Vampires and werewolves and imprints and what-the-fuck-ever shouldn't have been real. At least for me.

But then it was and I couldn't pretend otherwise. I wished I could – I really, really wished I could – but now I was bound to an asshole stranger until death do we part. Fucking wonderful. Absolutely motherfucking wonderful.

Paul and I were still standing, Sam between us, but now I was resisting… something. I didn't know what it was, but Paul seemed to be resisting it too. Meanwhile, Sam stood between us – probably to ensure we didn't try to kill each other. That had me wondering if a wolf had ever tried to kill their imprint, or viceversa. I was pretty sure that would be a first, followed right after by the wolf/imprint going mad as a result. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if madness came with a rejected imprint. If the Gods were sadistic enough to make us lowly once-humans turn into beasts of the carnivorous sort, I wouldn't put it passed them to make insanity a punishment of the fucked up variety.

'You both need to calm down," Sam's voice filtered through my thought process. After the shock had passed, I'd established that this complete and utter lack of privacy was going to get really, really old, really, really fast.

'I just got dumped by a frigid fuckwit, got lost in the woods, turned into a motherfucking wolf and imprinted on a complete stranger and you want me to calm down?' I fumed. Another thing that was going to get really old really fast was Sam's alpha bullshit. 'Get this, Sam, you can't tell me what I can and can't feel. If I want to be angry, then I'll fucking be angry!'

Sam bared his teeth in warning. I didn't stand down, instead bared my own teeth in response. 'Get out of here, Bella.'

'That's what I wanted to do in the first place,' I snarled, turned and took off again. 'Fucking assholes. Fucking spirit animals. Fucking bullshit!'

I reached Charlie's house, though I had no idea how I got there. My knowledge of the forests were minimal, only really spending time in a small part of the woods that surrounded my grandmother's house in La Push and my father's in Forks. My Uncle and Grandfather had taught me to track and navigate the forest, but I'd never been interested in it – though I had learned – for their sakes anyway. It didn't mean I was very good at it. In fact, I was abismol at it.

Charlie was awake, pacing the length of the living room. I was a wolf and there was no way in hell I'd be getting passed him unnoticed. I also didn't really feel like giving my father a show, so I pulled an Edward Cullen and scaled the tree outside my window. Man was I glad Charlie lived on the end of our street and that the house was bordered by forest.

Fortunately for me, this freaky wolf business actually provided me some grace, so I managed to get through my window without harm.

I immediately wished I hadn't.

My room smelled something awful. It didn't take a genius to work out that the sickly sweet stink was Edward Cullen, former resident vampire – mortal (immortal, I suppose) enemies and all that fuckery.

After pulling on some clothes, I exited back out my window and made my way for the back door, smiling when it opened without a problem. I was still in a craptastic mood, but my night was just about to get worse: Charlie was angry.

On second thought, angry wasn't a strong enough word for my father. The man was… livid. Furious. Appaplectic. Seething. In short: Charlie Swan was not a happy camper.

Ah hell.

"Isabella!"

Oh hell. Not the full name. Crapcrapcrapcrap. "Daddy!"

"Where the hell have you been! Do you know how worried I've been? I was this close-" he gestured with his middle finger and thumb to show how close, "To calling a search party to find you!"

"Sorry," I muttered, feeling genuinely guilty. I hadn't left him a note or anything, instead just leaving. "I was feeling better this afternoon," lie, but Charlie didn't need to know that, "And went for a walk. I errr… got lost." That was true, if you tilted your head and squinted a little. Then again, I wasn't going to tell him the truth now, was I? I was pretty sure he'd have a stroke if I'd told him I'd turned into a giant wolf this afternoon.

Charlie engulfed me in a hug. It surprised me, but nevertheless, I let him hug me. It was obvious he needed it and to be honest, I was pretty sure I needed it too.

"Don't ever do that again, do you understand?" Charlie asked sternly.

I nodded. I'd be all too happy to avoid the woods. And La Push. And, you know, anything freaky. Forever, if I had to.

"Now go have a shower, you look like something out of… I don't know. Just… go shower."

"Happily," I grinned and took off, up the stairs and into my bedroom. I grabbed up my toiletries and headed for the bathroom. I showered, pulling out dirt and bark and leaves and twigs out of my hair. It looked like I'd been rolling around the forest, not walking, but I didn't care. My hair was clean, my body was clean and by God did it do wonders to my mood. My frayed ends were soothed, my temper cooled.

Mellowed out and more relaxed than I'd felt all day, I thought over my actions today. Aside from being a complete douchebag all afternoon, I was of the opinion I responded rather well to everything. No one could have been calm when they realised they'd just turned into a wolf, right? My response was normal, wasn't it?

In hindsight, I figured it didn't matter. None of this magic, spiritual mumbo jumbo was normal – at least in my opinion – so why would a normal response even be relevant? Was there even such a thing?

After showering, I readied for bed. I was beat, because my day had been long and I was both physically and mentally drained. All I wanted to do was sleep and so sleep, I did.

-!- -#-

Author's Note: Enjoy. Thanks so much for your favourite/alert/review-loving! It's all very much appreciated. Also, thank you to the reviewer who translated my French review. Anyway, I have two days off school this week because of state testing that I'm not a part of, so here's hoping I can try get a few chapters written (but not posted). Drop me some reviewlove, if you please

T