Liberty for Wolves
Part Two: The Heat
Chapter Seven: The Strings
'Liberty for wolves is death to the lambs.' – Isaiah Berlin
LFW
We're all just pathetic little puppets, aren't we?
LFW
bella:
the warmth.
is it possible to ever forget this warmth? the way it reaches down through every vein in my body, finally – after so long! – freeing me from my frozen state. it was different, here, in this strange place; the sun didn't shine quite as bright, and not for as long. but i had done it.
i was free. at least, until winter came again.
Edward:
I couldn't speak, couldn't move. I could hardly think. My family seemed to be in quite the same state, as I had heard barely a word escape from their thoughts ever since… well.
I didn't even know how to explain it. How could my Puppy, my wolf, go from being such a beautiful, astoundingly warm creature of the forest into… this, while equally beautiful, so fragile and shaking a girl? The entire thing reminded me of the wolves across the border, but they could change on will. Surely my Puppy couldn't, or she would have done it before.
She was making an odd sound between that was somewhere between a sob and a whimper; little by little, it was breaking my heart. But how could I comfort her when I didn't understand. She was so warm in my arms, so much more fragile than she had seemed before. Now she was only human, and there are so many tiny, inconsequential things that could harm her. Where she could protect herself with her sharp claws and teeth before, she was too soft now, breakable.
Carlisle stepped forward. She must have seen it from the corner of her eyes as she instantly snapped her head up, looking at him, startled. Her eyes were wide, and from my close position (how closer could you get than holding someone in your arms?) I could see that dark lashes framed them, but were accented even more so by a light smattering of freckles that dusted her cheeks. She was magnificent, in any form, really, but different.
While Carlisle was trying to decide how to approach the matter, Alice suddenly launched herself forward, knocking me out of the way to get a better look at my newly-formed imprint.
"Oh, you're so cute!" she said finally. "I can just imagine how good you'll look in a nice, blue chiffon blouse. Maybe we'll get some black jeans to go with it and-"
"Alice, dear," Jasper spoke up. "Perhaps now is not the time?"
She paused, staring deeply into the wide, shocked eyes of my imprint, before conceding. "Fine," she spoke with a shrug, stepping back into the front my family put up before us. Again, Carlisle moved forward, seemingly taking in everything with wonder.
My imprint let out a little noise, making me turn my full attention back towards her. Her hands were rubbing at mine that were around her waist, putting a slight pressure on them. I realized I had unknowingly tightened my hold on her, and instantly loosened it, helping her stand as she made the motion to.
She wasn't short, but she wasn't exactly tall, either. I suppose she would be considered just a little over average height. She reached my shoulder, in any case, and as I watched her stretch a little I noticed that there were small, stringy muscles just underneath her skin that I could not feel. It was possible that she wasn't exactly fragile, then, but certainly not strong anymore. I felt my instincts changing, making protecting her my number one priority, whereas before it had been slightly less important.
She spoke again. "Um… hi?"
We remained silent for a moment, before Emmett started laughing. While, I'll admit, it was amusing, it only served to make Rosalie angry.
"Hi? That's all you have to say after" she made an odd, choppy hand motion towards the ground "all of that?"
She cocked her head to the side as she stared at my blonde, infuriated sister. Rosalie's mind was full of thoughts of the wolf that had eagerly run outside just an hour ago. How had that relatively normal action culminated in this happening?
And then she smiled, and it was such a wonderful smile that I couldn't keep myself from smiling with her. I'm sure Emmett would tease me for the rest of eternity for this moment of what he would call, 'sappiness'. As if he wasn't the exact same way with Rosalie.
"Oh, of course." She finally said, nodding at Rosalie, her smile dimming. "I suppose you, um, want to know… what I am?"
My sister rolled her eyes. "That would be nice."
It seemed Esme had had enough. "Rosalie," she said sharply, causing my eldest sibling to back off. "Why don't we go inside, dear, and you can explain there?" She addressed my Puppy next, smiling gently.
The perfect creature nodded her head slowly, carefully stepping forward as if testing her weight. She seemed to find it okay to walk, and nodded again. "That sounds fine."
She walked quite slowly towards the house, clearly getting used to the function of two legs instead of four. My family was patient with her – well, except for Alice, who had run ahead to find a more suitable outfit for my Puppy. She wasn't nude, which is what – thinking back on it – I would have assumed if I had ever thought about witnessing such a change. But still, she was clothed; she wasn't wearing much, however. Clearly her stint as a wild animal had caused quite a bit of damage to her clothing. They seemed to fit her fine, but there were odd rips and tears that seemed to be shaped like claw marks, as well as an oddly shaped hole around the shoulders that seemed to be long-stained with… blood.
It hurt me greatly to think that she had ever been hurt enough to bleed. But through the many holes and tears, I could see nothing but perfect, smooth skin. Not a scar to be seen.
As we sat on the couches in the family room, Puppy sighed. She looked suddenly weary, and warm. I wondered for a moment if she would protest to us turning off the heaters now. Alice joined us, gently placing a folded up outfit on the coffee table, knowing it could wait until after.
"Well," she drew out. "Basically, I'm, uh, a werewolf."
Silence. And then one word from Carlisle. "Explain." It wasn't strict, more curious.
She looked at us all, stopping on Rosalie, as if sensing she was the most judgmental. I nearly growled at all of the thoughts filling my sister's head. "Some years ago, I was walking home from school. I had joined a book club, and had remained behind after one of the meetings to help clean up. It was already dark by the time I got outside.
"My house was situated on a quiet street, with an expansive forest across from it. There had been talk for years of going in and tearing down the trees, perhaps put a park or an apartment building, but they hadn't gotten around to any serious decisions yet. It was a rather frightening place, and I didn't like being near it, but for some reason – perhaps some wrong calculations in the process of building the neighbourhood – it was along the edge of the forest where the sidewalk was. There were many trails going off into the forest, but nobody dared enter the trees in nothing but broad daylight, unless you were a hunter.
"There were many different kinds of animals in the forest; often, in the middle of the night, you would hear the hollow clunking sounds of moose fighting, or the call of some kind of bird. The hunters loved it there; maybe that's why they didn't cut it all down," she mused, shaking her head to clear it. "Basically, it was a dark, scary forest and I had to walk along it to get to my house.
As I was walking, I heard…" she hesitated, testing a few words before continuing. "Well, I heard screaming. It sounded like a child." She swallowed heavily, her eyes growing distant. Rosalie and Esme both gasped. "It was terrible. I'd never heard anything worse in my life.
"I didn't even think. It was instant, my reaction. Before I knew it, I was running through the woods, just trying to follow the screams as best I could."
She stopped again, obviously returning to a scene of the past. I couldn't help but put my arm around her. My family was silent, waiting patiently for the rest of the story.
"I can't explain what I saw; even now, when I know how it feels, it is… still too strange," she sighed, closing her eyes and leaning back, relaxing both into me and the couch, clenching her hands into fists. "It was a child, couldn't be more than eight or nine, I'm still not sure. And she was… changing into an animal. At least, that's all I could figure out then. There was blood everywhere, and she was an absolute mess… I wanted to help her.
"So I went to her. I didn't know what to do, how to fix it, how to comfort her. I didn't understand what was happening. She didn't sense me until I was already reaching out for her. I didn't realize it at the time, but she was too much of an animal for her to realize that I was trying to help her. She only knew that some unknown being was approaching her, and reaching out for her." She breathed out deeply. "So, she did what any animal would do and attacked."
I stiffened, angry at the thought that anybody – even a child – could harm my mate this way. I was furious.
"I didn't feel anything, surprisingly. I blacked out right away, and woke up in the hospital with my mom and sister hovering over me. My dad was in the hallway, arguing with the doctor about something." She chuckled. "The story they told me was that I was found in the woods, apparently having wandered in and passed out. I wasn't injured in anyway, merely being treated with exposure. I thought, perhaps, that they were telling the truth and that the… incident had been nothing but a horrific nightmare.
"And then winter came and everything changed." She sat up now, animated, looking at Carlisle with wide, bright eyes. "I don't know why, but every time it grows cold, I change. I'm that wolf you first brought into your family, but I'm not. I'm human. My mind, my heart – it's all human! I'm so cold all the time, and each year it takes more and more heat in order to help me change back. By summer, I'm myself… but when winter comes, I'm not. I'm a dog. A Puppy," she said, looking pointedly at Rosalie.
She stopped talking then, taking deep breaths. It didn't seem like anybody was going to say anything for a while, until she spoke again. She was sad, now, clearly thinking about her predicament. "And to think, all I wanted to do was save a child, and I get this as a reward. It's pathetic, how far one will go to help somebody else. We just let ourselves be pulled along, doing good thing after good thing, and for what?
"What did I do to deserve to become an animal?"
I just held her, not knowing what to say.
LFW
Author's note:And here it is, as promised. Almost 2,000 words! The longest chapter for any Strange Imprints story to date. Hope you like it.
I have to say, I'm a little disappointed in you guys. Only two of you noticed that there was something wrong between the end of chapter six and the intermission I posted on Saturday. Chapter six explained the change, but the intermission described a completely different happening. I'll explain it, even for those of you that didn't notice. The intermission was not part of the story line; as you can see, this is chapter seven. The intermission was my first vision of the change, wanting her to run away in order to do so, to show some strength instead of mindlessly following Edward's wants. It became clear, however, that I couldn't fit that side of the change in very well, so I wrote it a different way. The intermission is merely a parallel to chapter six. It does not belong in the story line at all. Think of it as an alternate chapter, or an outtake, if you will. I hope that isn't too hard to understand! This chapter is connected directly to chapter six, NOT the intermission. I will be going back and putting an author's note at the top of the intermission so nobody else gets confused, now that I've explained it to you.
I'm starting to get back into this story. Let me know how you feel about how Bella became a werewolf, and if you're at all interested in MAYBE getting the full story in a short "Before the Imprint" story of pre-wolf Bella.
Review, please, and remember me.
