Bella

Sam had dropped me off to my first class – English Lit – and had soundly kissed me goodbye before walking me into the classroom and introducing me to my first teacher, Professor Kent. Professor Kent was an older man, balding and stocky about the middle. He smiled at me but was eyeing Sam in trepidation. I felt safer with Sam around and was hesitant about him leaving; I didn't want to be alone. Shaking my head to clear it, I reminded myself that finishing high school was non-negotiable if I was going to leave my father's house.

I'd taken a seat in the back of the classroom in the corner and was copying down Professor Kent's notes from the board when other students started filing in. They were all looking at me with curiosity so I assumed that word had travelled around the Res about a new student starting today.

I let my hair fall from behind my ear and partially cover my face as I focussed on my notes, hoping that no one would try and speak to me and I'd have to embarrass myself by being unable to respond. I felt a sudden pang of loss for the home I had known in Phoenix and the friends that I had at school there. Before I could let my mind drift to memories of my mother and Phil, a shadow fell over me and I tensed in anticipation of the pain – Charlie.

"Hey Bella, I'm Jared. Sam told me that you'd be here. SO sorry I'm so late – Sam is going to kill me!" The kind voice startled me as I saw a huge hand appear in my line of vision, as if offering a shake. I took a moment to gather my courage before looking up and taking in a man almost as tall as Sam but not nearly as handsome. He had the same muscular build but was still not as imposing as Sam and he didn't stand with the same authority. I raised an eyebrow in question as I took his hand, deciding that the lopsided smile on his face seemed genuine and he was harmless enough for the minute.

"I ahh.. I work with Sam. I'm a senior this year, too and I should be in most of your classes. Nice to meet you!" He seemed kind so I smiled back at him, noticing his hand was as warm as Sam's. It must be something to do with the Quileute blood, I dismissed. I quickly wrote down Nice to meet you, too. I'm really glad to see a friendly face! and passed Jared the note as he took the seat beside me. "I promised Sam I'd take care of you. I'm just glad to see him happy after such a long time."

Before I could ponder that statement too long, Professor Kent started the class. He introduced me to the class and Jared glared at the girl in front of him who stared at me for too long until she turned around in fright. We were studying Pride and Prejudice – my favourite book – so I was easily able to catch up on the content Professor Kent was discussing and started making plans for my essay outlining the complexities of the female role in the household and society in Austin's text compared to modern society. Professor Kent mentioned that our essays would be due in two weeks' time and that we would then be moving on to a modern biographical literature study.

Jared and I passed notes back and forth throughout class and he told me that he was trying to learn sign language but it was difficult for him because he hadn't known it since childhood like Sam. Knowing that Sam's mother was deaf made it difficult for me to be grateful for his signing ability. After all, it meant that someone in his life suffered with a debilitating and often humiliating disability like I had. I realised that I liked Jared very much as we talked more and was beyond glad that I could have someone to chat to and distract me from my nervousness. My nerves seemed to be heightened since the accident and even more so since moving in with Charlie because I was so terrified of doing something wrong.

Just as the bell rung to change classes, I had a text from Sam.
How's the day going so far, angel? Did Jared find you OK? I smiled, feeling the now-familiar warmth fill my stomach knowing he was thinking about me.
Today has been good so far. Jared is great. Thank you for thinking of me, Sam. He replied quickly, telling me it was nothing and to let him know if I needed anything. I smiled, putting away my phone and saw Jared standing above me again.
"You have Biology now, don't you? I do to. You can be my lab partner if you like?" I smiled, nodding and followed him into the hallway and to the next building over. People looked at me oddly as I shook with silent laughter, Jared recalling the last time that he and Sam had gone fishing and he'd gotten the hook caught in his calf, Sam having to rip it out.

As we took our seats in the Biology lab, Jared introduced me to the teacher – Professor Knight – and she giggled, eyes wide as he spoke to her. Clearly she had a little crush on him and it was amusing to see her fumble over her words, trying to clear her head. It reminded me of how dumbstruck Sam made me when he kissed me and I sighed in longing for him, rubbing at my chest to ease the ache. Jared looked at me with understanding in his eyes, noticing my hand on my chest and I assumed that he thought I was nervous. I smiled to ease the concern on his face and we focussed as Professor Knight started the class.


As the lunch bell rang, Jared and I headed in the direction that Sam had pointed the cafeteria to be in earlier that day. He'd been in all of my classes that morning and was in all but one of my classes this afternoon – I had Music when he had Shop. "What do you feel like? Salad bar is over there," Jared pointed to it and he headed towards the hot food to grab his lunch. "I'll just be a sec," He called over his shoulder as I nodded and headed for the salads.

I piled my tray with spicy chicken and mixed salad and grabbed an apple but before I could make my way to pay I found myself in front of a tall but lanky male with a sneering look on his face. He had dark skin and raven black hair, standing just under six foot with a frame of purely muscle and bone. Strong cheekbones and a chiselled chin, he was ruggedly handsome despite the ugly expression that contorted his features. His nose was slightly crooked, as if he'd been in one too many fights in his life, but it was his eyes that I focussed on – they were pure onyx, angry and everything I recognised in a man ready to explode.

"Wasicun winyan,"(Translation: white woman) he all but hissed at me in what must have been Quileute, "What do you think you're doing here? Come to see how we poor Indian folk live on the Reservation?" I could feel my eyes widen as I balked at the disgust in his tone. I opened my mouth slightly, knowing full well that my throat wouldn't produce the words that I was so desperately looking for. I couldn't understand the hatred he had directed towards me; I didn't even know him!

I looked around for Jared frantically but couldn't see him anywhere. When the boy took a step towards me, I flinched and tried to step back but terror had frozen me in place.

Worthless.

Useless.

Disgusting.

I hate you.

Charlie's words filled my head, a sickening mantra repeating over and over as I watched the boy move even closer to me. I could feel the room closing in around me, tension thickening and clawing at my skin.

Piece of shit.

Pathetic.

Ugly.

Scum.

The burning hatred in his eyes was so incredible that it was as if I could feel the flames licking at my soul, searing the darkness into my very being. We don't want you here. We don't want you here. The chant continued. Charlie's laugh cackling maniacally inside my head, deafening me. The room spun.

"You don't belong here." It took me a moment to realise that the boy was talking again as I shook my head to clear the fog of my father's words clouding my mind. He was challenging me as he raised a hand as if to shove me in the chest. I was flying backwards before I felt the impact, the wind escaping my lungs with a sharp jolt. In a panic, I threw my lunch tray towards him and he swatted it away before it collided with his bicep. The fire in his eyes burned brighter, fiercer as he took another step towards me. My mind screamed in terror, realising his intention as my stomach clenched and the breath caught in my throat.

Everything went quiet as my brain raced and tuned out the sounds students all around us in the confined cafeteria. I knew it was coming, I could almost feel the pain of his fist as he made to close the space between us. And as I began to close my eyes and brace for the inevitable, the boy suddenly flew backwards, landing on his ass as his back smacked against the cafeteria wall with a sickening thud that echoed throughout the whole cafeteria.

A ringing sounded in my ears, the pressure in the air so thick that I was choking, struggling to gulp air into my lungs. The familiar tightness in my chest alerted me to the fact that I was in the beginnings of a panic attack and so I kept my eyes firmly closed, focused on the beating of my heart and tried my best to stabilise my breathing. After what felt like hours, I opened my eyes wearily and waited for them to refocus, only to see Jared standing in front of me, slightly crouched and in a clearly aggressive stance.

The terror that was overtaking me faded slightly as I saw him there, challenging anyone who was planning on coming near me. I must have been closer to a panic attack than I realised as the image of Jared before me started to blur slightly again, as if he was vibrating violently. I shook my head to clear the haze and stepped forward towards Jared, arm outstretched.

"This is Chief Uley's woman. She is under his protection." A thick tension filled the air, unspoken words hanging in the stale room whose walls seemed to be closing in on me. Jared didn't raise his voice but it echoed throughout the whole of the cafeteria, the silence following almost deafening. Jared came towards me then, wrapping a protective arm around my shoulders. I didn't relax. My eyes were darting in every direction, anticipating the next attack.

Bitch.

Useless.

Unwanted.

Cursed.

Charlie's voice was in my head again, echoing the sickening satisfaction I heard in his voice when he was beating me. He enjoyed teaching me his lessons. He enjoyed breaking me. The last word had surprised me; Charlie had told me that I was cursed more than once. I assumed he blamed me for my mother's death. After all, I had survived when she had died. Maybe I was cursed? Maybe I was the reason she was gone? Maybe Charlie's treatment of me was my just desserts?

Jared tugged on my shoulder slightly and we started walking towards the exit as the rest of the students watched on with unreadable expressions on their faces. Silence remained, suffocating me. Suddenly we stopped and Jared turned to the boy who had shoved me as he was struggling to get to his feet using the wall for support. "You have been warned, Black." Jared hissed with venom I hadn't expected before he lead me out of the building and towards the parking lot. I heard a screeching of tyres an vaguely registered the smell of burning rubber as we made it out into the fresh air before my vision started fading, the first tears falling down my cheeks and I succumbed to the darkness.


Sam

After I'd dropped Bella off at school I'd made my way back to my house and dropped off my truck before stripping and phasing to start my patrol. I ran the western perimeter first, by the school, and failed at convincing myself it wasn't because I wanted to catch Bella's scent from within. Making my way through the trees, I inhaled deeply as my wolf hummed in appreciation for the delicious aroma of her skin on the wind. I spent too long lingering before I could convince myself to move on and continue my patrol; I had a serious purpose to do and couldn't spend the whole day pining after my woman.

When I couldn't put Bella completely from my mind – her chocolate doe eyes had ruined me for any chance of total concentration – I tuned further into my wolf, letting my instincts take over. Breaking out into a full run, I revelled in the feeling of my paws hitting the moist earth, the wind racing through my coat, the fresh, pure scent of the woods filling my nostrils. Being one with my wolf was a freedom I hadn't known as a human and one that filled me with strength and purpose; I could let the animal take over and run on instinct as easily as I could do anything as a my human self. Jared hadn't been able to achieve the same level of connection with his wolf since he'd started phasing a few months ago and Paul was still too new to connect with anything but his wolf's rage.

As I followed the familiar lines of the Res perimeter, I started to analyse the wolf connection that my pack had experienced, in comparison to my own. Jared had been such a happy guy that it had taken him months to phase after he'd started showing the signs. If the Cullen leeches hadn't come back into town I doubt he would have phased at all. Once Jared had phased and I'd caught up with him, he was able to calm down in a few hours and phased back in the hours following that. Had he not been the second to phase, I would have made him my Beta based on that level-headed, calm demeanour. Paul, on the other hand, phased within a week of showing signs and took almost as long to phase back to human. Each time he tried to phase back and failed, he made himself angrier and then compounded the issue. I'd felt so sorry for Paul because he'd phased the week that the Cullens left Forks; he didn't need to be cast into this life.

Without intending to, I followed my memories back to the time immediately after I first phased. I'd been terrified, alone and far too young for the change. I didn't know what had happened to me and had never heard the legends so had run through the woods for weeks, hiding from people and hunting as my wolf when I needed to eat. Before I could fall further into those dark memories, I caught myself and shut off that thought path immediately.

I'd run the perimeter for two hours before I realised and had caught no scent of leech anywhere in the area. Content that both my reservation and my woman were safe for the time being, I headed home to grab my truck before heading back into the town centre. The feeling of comfort surrounding me was one that I hadn't felt since I'd met Bella; I finally felt that I could keep her safe on my Res where she was under my protection completely.


Four hours. It had been four hours since I'd dropped my Bella of at the school and I now found myself trawling mindlessly through the Res archives, looking for more information about the wolves and imprinting from the last pack. Taha Aki had not been smiling down on me and all I'd been able to find were the same scrolls I'd already looked through twenty times and what seemed to be a recipe book written for tribal ceremonies by Marie Ateara – old Quil's mother.

I could feel just how much I missed Bella but I couldn't feel her emotions like the archives said that I should unless I was touching her. Even then, they weren't overwhelming. Was something wrong with our imprint connection? As I thought the words my wolf dismissed them vehemently; nothing was wrong with our connection to our imprint, our mate, our Bella. Our Bella – those two words sent a shiver down my spine as I contemplated, once again, my incredible fortune in finding this incredible woman. Bella had ignited my soul and set my heart on fire. In a matter of weeks she had completely changed my life by bringing colour, vibrancy and delight to my days. When I wasn't with her, I was craving her presence. When I was with her I was craving her touch. I was completely unapologetically addicted to her very being and could hardly remember a time when I didn't feel this way.

As I was considering this, I started returning different scrolls and journals to their respective places on the shelves of the small, underground room. All of our tribe's records were contained in this small space, away from the eyes of the rest of the Reservation. I growled in frustration at my lack of results as I thrust a scroll harshly back into the chest it came from. So soft that even my highly-attuned ears nearly missed it, I heard the distinct click in the base of the chest like something had broken or fallen off. I pulled out the scrolls and found that the chest had a false bottom, which had fallen away at the pressure exhibited when I'd put the other scroll back. My heart started thumping in my chest as I reached to move the thin piece of wood away, revealing a hidden book with a leather cover and the intricate figure of a wolf and a woman carved into the deeply stained red material.

I lifted the book from the chest, my instinct telling me that this was important. My wolf seemed to recognise the text on some level. As I turned the seemingly ancient text in my hand, I noticed the inscribing on the spine under another carving of a wolf - Wiconi Tehila (Translation: life lover). As I read the inscription, my heart accelerated in my chest and my wolf's reaction got stronger; could this be what I'd been looking for?

Without warning a feeling hit me that was so heavy it froze me in place, piercing my chest and knocking the breath out of me. Filled with a fear unlike anything I'd ever experienced before, I fell to my knees under the sheer weight of emotion. The edges of my vision went blurry as the tightness in my chest restricted my throat and I was gasping for breath. A voice, poisonous and threatening, filled my head and brought with it a terror strong enough to make me gag. It encompassed me, filling my heart, my lungs, throat, mind.

Useless.

Worthless.

Cursed.

The voice cackled, seeming to enjoy my struggle as I clawed at my neck desperately trying to slice through the panic sealing my throat. Breaking through the darkness in my mind, my wolf registered one thing: Bella. Without a moment's thought, I found my legs and bolted for my truck. I flew through the Res towards the school only now realising the emotions that had debilitated me were Bella's. I didn't know how she'd managed to reach me so far away or how I'd felt them but couldn't feel her any other time there was distance between us; all I knew was that she was in danger and needed me.