Beta: The wonderful, fantastical Feebes86


I thought I saw a man brought to life

He was warm, he came around, and he was dignified

He showed me what it was to cry

There's nothing where he used to lie

This conversation has run dry

That's what's going on

Nothing's fine, I'm torn

I'm all out of faith

Torn by: Natalie Imbruglia


CH.8 Torn

Pack –Leah's Pov

Complete chaos surrounded me. The room was filled with snarls and screaming, sobs and the feeble attempts of Billy to bring order to the meeting. Ppsh… fat chance, I thought looking around me as my pack brothers blurred with the need to phase.

Both Jake and Paul were oddly quiet. I wanted to hear what they had to say. I wanted know how and why.

Sam stood up, "ORDER!" He roared in the double timber of the Alpha voice.

The room fell into silence, but it was anything but order. Embry's form shook to the point his chair was moving and Seth… fuck, I'd never seen him look so lethal before.

"How the fuck can you say this is a meeting about pack unity?" Embry roared, coming out of his chair so fast it clattered to the floor. "You fucked everyone over!"

"Stand Down!" Sam shouted rising from his seat. He shook his head in attempt to rein his own temper in, "I made a choice that was in the best interest of the pack. The pack I lead," he declared.

"Then maybe you shouldn't lead," Quil yelled standing at Embry's side.

"That's not for you to decide," Old Quil reprimanded him.

Quil stood fuming as he stared down Sam, and then each of the Elders including his own grandfather. "Maybe it should be, maybe it should be the pack's decision. Our Alpha lost any respect I had for him, and so did you."

Well damn. I'd never heard Quil be serious about anything. He was right though. How could we follow a leader who betrayed us? How could we respect our Elders who had known about the betrayal and sat silent?

I looked around the room, noticing the one absent wolf. "Where's Jared?" I wasn't sure if my voice had been heard over the snarling, but Seth caught my eye and scanned the room as well. "Go get him. He should be here," I mouthed to my brother.

Seth stood up and slipped out of the council building unnoticed. Embry, Quil and Sam were shouting back and forth. Emily and Kim were crying, and the elders were talking amongst themselves. What a fucking mess, I thought.

Jared's Pov

I quickly drove to Forks, and pulled into the parking lot of the only bank. I tried to calm myself enough to go in and not scare the general population with the look of murder I was sure graced my face. After sitting for twenty minutes, I wrenched open the door of my truck and headed inside, ignoring the stare from the security guard and the peppy hello from the teller. I withdrew every penny I'd ever saved.

I made it back to my truck, pulled out onto the 101, and drove. I had no idea where the fuck I was going. Hell, I didn't have anywhere to go. I had no friends outside of the pack. It had been easier that way. There were no college buddies I could call to crash on their couch. I never got to go anywhere, my duties to the pack and reservation had kept me in La Push. I didn't have any family outside of my parents and brother, or the pack.

I had accepted my wolf, embraced my imprint. I had let go of my dreams of leaving La Push, of college or baseball. I had been happy. I had brothers in the pack, a good job, a girl I loved and was going to marry. I figured there wasn't much more I could have wanted.

I was a fucking idiot!

I should have been more specific. I should have specified that I wanted a fiancé who wasn't a whore, who didn't fuck my best friend.

I pounded my fist against the steering wheel, cringing when I heard it crack. Fuck, I hissed.

I knew I had to get far enough that my fucking Alpha wouldn't be able to order me back to La Push. We had learned from Jake, that if you got far enough away from the Tribal Lands, you could phase and go undetected. I drove until I had to stop for gas. I quickly filled the tank, used the bathroom and grabbed a couple burgers from the truck stop restaurant and was back on my way to nowhere in under half an hour.

I'd never been outside of Washington before, hell; I hadn't been farther than Seattle in years. It felt odd and little freeing when I passed the 'Welcome to Oregon' sign.

Charlie's Pov

It hadn't been hard to find her. I called in an APB on her rental car, and waited. Officer Hines of the Port Angeles PD radioed in the location. I pulled into the parking lot, almost at the same time that Bella walked out of the hotel lobby. She walked to her car, opened the door and was about to climb in the driver's seat when I pulled in next to her.

I quickly put the cruiser in park and got out. "Bells…"

She stood just inside the open car door. "I don't have time for this. I have to get home and get back to work," she told me with a flat voice.

I shut the cruiser's door, and walked around to stand in front of my daughter, "Bells…I'm sorry."

"Thanks, I gotta go," she said tossing her purse onto the passenger seat.

I reached for her arm, placing my hand on the crook of her elbow. She looked at my hand on her arm, then up at me. "Bella, just… talk to me, please."

"Talk about what? What do you want to talk about?" She asked. The anger and hurt in her voice made me flinch. My daughter had always been on the shy side. Quiet and reserved, I wasn't sure what to make of the woman who stood before me.

"I… I'm sorry," I repeated. Hell, I didn't know what to say. She sighed and brought the car keys from her left hand to her right hand, "Bella, you're my daughter. I…"

"I heard you left Sue," Bella arched a brow at me.

"Yeah," I admitted feeling uncomfortable.

"You know when I moved in with you, we both knew it was to give Mom time with Phil. She didn't fight it. She cried about how she would miss me, but in the end she let me go. It wasn't because it was best for me, it was what she wanted. I knew it then, even at seventeen. I understood she was picking Phil. But, it was okay, I really did want to get to know you. The truth is we didn't know each other. I remember thinking that despite the fact that I'd never really lived with you, or even knew you, we had so much in common. I used to try to figure out why you let Mom take me. But you had your job and your friends here, so it made sense." She reasoned.

"Then I met Edward. He loved me. Of course it was my blood and silent mind he loved, not really me." Bella closed her eyes for a minute before opening them again. "He left telling me he couldn't pretend anymore. He did what was best for him. I can't really blame him for it."

"Jake. I loved him, just not the way he wanted me to, or you wanted me to. I tried and maybe there was a small part that thought and felt it could be romantic, but it wasn't a big enough part to let it happen. But of course that had to do with Paul. When I accepted Paul's imprint, Jake stopped talking to me. He ended our friendship; he said it was too hard. It was easier to walk away then remain my friend."

"Paul… I saw my entire future when I looked at him. Marriage, children, maybe even a cat." She said laughing at the cat part, as if remembering some funny inside joke.

"We were going to have it all. Family, friendship, love. I remember thinking if he fought so hard against me, then he would go to battle for and with me." She mused looking down at the ground. She took a deep breath and looked back up. I could see the resignation in her face, and I knew whatever she said next was going to hurt both of us.

"You should go home. Charlie, go back. Go back to your wife, to your family. I'm fine. I've watched everyone around me do what was best for them, and now I'm doing what's best for me. I'm walking away," she told me as she slipped behind the wheel of her car. The sound of the car door closing echoed in my head.