Anger
EPOV -
"Edward! Edward, fuck calm down! Stop!"
Jasper continues to yell directly in my ear and everyone's thoughts swarm around in my head like angry birds, pecking at me, snagging me.
Her smell is almost totally gone now, only lingering in wisps on the greenery that she touched and the air that she breathed. As the scent dissipates my anger subsides slightly but my desperation holds firm.
"AHH hahahahaa…ahhh!". I scream - sobbing - still struggling with all my might to get loose and follow her fragrant trail. All three of my captors only tighten their hold on me as inhuman yells and growls spill out of me. We must look so ludicrous out here, dog-piled on top of one another, my siblings all gripping me desperately, knowing that it will be quite a while before I regain control.
They're right. My mind is still reeling, grasping to form plans of escape. As the distance between us grows, my hysteria mounts.
Get a hold of yourself, Edward! Please! Stop fighting us. Please calm down, let me help you!
The individual thoughts of my siblings batter me, and I hitch in a few shallow breaths but it only succeeds in draining more of the fight out of me, my fury being replaced with deep seated self-loathing. I am failing as her protector, how can I allow myself to be held down after she's been taken?
"Carlisle's on his way, just a few more minutes now", I hear Rosalie say breathlessly, still struggling with my legs. Her thoughts are the quietest, but still whisper disbelief and pity.
"Bella! B-Bellaaa!" I scream in answer, still delirious and scattered, barely registering the name of my sire. "Please!" I manage to shout at no one in particular, my voice cracking with strain.
They are unrelenting, and I'm held down against my will for several more minutes, eventually settling down slightly under the direct pressure of Jasper's hands. While Rosalie continues to grapple with my legs Emmett lies across my chest, keeping me pinned firmly to the ground and incapacitating the use of my only attached arm. Jasper is pressing his cool hands into both sides of my face, conveying heavy doses of complacency which I fight relentlessly. His mind focuses on controlling his gift - giving me artificial peace while trying to ward off the unstable emotions that permeate the air around us. Jasper's eyes are clouded with his effort.
Suddenly Emmett sits up off of me, allowing me to wrench my arm from out between us and slap Jasper's palms away from my cheeks. Within seconds my other siblings stiffen as well, and I am obviously the last to notice the scent on the breeze, understandable given my level of distraction.
Wolf musk - heavy and noxious - floats toward us. At the edge of my range I hear the first, rabid thoughts of the angry pack.
"Carlisle's almost here", Rosalie states again.
"There's no time", Emmett says, "They'll catch u-"
"We wait. Alice is with him." Jasper's voice is firm. Seconds later, his phone rings. My siblings and I all cringe when Alice's voice screeches from the Bluetooth secured in Jasper's ear.
"I can't see you! I can't see any of you! Oh god, Jasper….oh god! I can't see a way through, I've been trying but everything's black! Jasper! I love you, I can't lose you!"
The pack's mind grows louder the closer they venture, and as I lie pinned to the forest floor, I see hundreds of flashes of my Beloved, each one slightly tinted by the perceptions of the mind that originally witnessed it. I see her directly after I left, curled up like a child in the dead leaves, misery pouring out of her and blue circles already making themselves at home on her face. I see her slight, soft body wither away until her translucent skin stretches over fragile, bird-like bones as tightly as a drum. Through one young pup's furious mind I witness Bella screaming, thrashing around in her tiny bed before being shaken awake by the viewer and a haggard looking Charlie.
The last thought startles me, and I nearly stop fighting my siblings while trying to locate this particular mongrel among his brethren, the one with obvious knowledge of my Beloved and her home. Eventually I pinpoint the boy and I realize it's Black's grandson. I growl deep in my chest, knowing of Bella's history with him. As my growl deepens my anger returns, coiling in my shoulders in chest.
I force myself to stay focused on that anger, knowing that if I delve too deep into the rest of it, I drown in my insanity again.
"We'll fight." I state. For now I have to concentrate on staying alive. I have to find her, take her back.
As I speak Emmett pushes my arm tightly back into its socket while still keeping a firm grip on my waist. Outwardly, he is still calm, but our struggle combined with the instinctual unease the wolf's smell brings is beginning to affect his mind's chemistry. He's becoming angry in a way I've rarely seen from him – preparing himself for battle.
"We run!" Jasper and Rosalie state together, half a second after I speak. The discussion is closed when we hear Carlisle echo the sentiment in the phone, his voice barely perceptible underneath the piercing wails of babbles of Alice.
I'm jerked off the ground by my siblings and we take off.
Emmett and Jasper still hold onto me, gripping my arm and shoulder respectively as we run through the trees. Bella's scent weaves around us, and while we aren't following her exact path the freshness of her trail tells me that we are headed roughly in her direction. The fact allows me to submit to my gruff escort away from my crime.
I may be able to outrun the pack on my own, but my siblings are not as quick, and the wolves are gaining on us at a rate that will end in our capture before we reach the sea.
The way the animals' minds work is astounding. Almost like an intranet of thoughts, each individual recording visual for group contemplation, processing ideas as one while still clinging to their own perceptions, offering up their own opinions. A single goal for all - different motives for each.
I see now that I am viewing the forest through two distinct angles. The wolves are flanking us, the second group barely out of our scent range but approaching quickly to ambush us. My siblings' minds are still unaware of the strategy, but it doesn't take long for comprehension to dawn in their eyes when they begin to feel enveloped in the horrible stench from all directions.
As we continue to run, we begin to hear the pounding of several dozen paws. I know from my gift that there are exactly eight wolves, but my siblings only know for sure that we are outnumbered. The same primal mindset that has taken root in Emmett's mind begins to form in his wife's as well. Emmett's grip on me loosens further and his other hand clasps Rosalie's tightly.
Alice is still screaming and pleading directly into Jasper's ear as we flee, but he can't bring himself to turn off the device even though strategically it is a distraction. Alice's power is impotent, no use but to cause cracks in his focus, but he is very aware that her hysterical yelling may be the last sound he ever hears. His own gifts make this situation especially difficult for him, even with all of his past practice, and the wolves' ire seems to press on him from all directions. Under our own anger and dread runs a ice cold stream of fear, he tries desperately not to think of it and cause it to grow.
Finally, Jasper's own fighting instincts begin to take hold; we will have our backs in a corner very soon.
"We fight!" I scream again, and it seems to be enough to resolve everyone's minds. Emmett and Jasper finally let go of me.
I turn immediately and let out a roar that momentarily stuns the young dogs surrounding us. Quickly they realize that the chase is over, and they sprint with a new level of rabid speed across the few hundred feet that still lies between us.
A large black wolf is the leader; the first turned…the alpha. He leaps through the cover of the trees, teeth and claws first – his powerful back legs pushing his body gracefully through the air, a full six feet off the ground.
I meet him with my feet planted firmly on the ground, my arms lifted up above my head - having the advantage of knowing all his well laid plans. My bloody hands wrap like vices around his throat and I use his own momentum to arc his body above me, falling backwards onto my back and slamming him his spine into the tree roots jutting from the ground. In the same second we land I twist my fists in opposite directions, much like an Indian sunburn, and without ceremony the black dog's neck cracks and his heavy body goes lax.
Immediately the pack's mind seems to implode, all of its bureaucratic order gone. Now there is only revenge and bloodlust and rage. I barely have time to sling myself up off my back before seven more blurs of red, gray and black streak forward to meet us.
A/N: Bella's chapter will be out by the end of the day. More of an author note on that one as well. Stay tuned…