Previously: Jacob smiled and looked over at Nessie, Bella and Edward. "Well Jacob, while they talk about the legend, will you drive me home?" Edward tossed Jacob a set of keys and Jacob nodded as he and his father left the house.


Chapter Seven: The Wolves

After we heard the soft purr of the engine starting and then hum down the street, Bella sighed and looked over at Edward.

He shook his head calmly and kissed her forehead.

"Okay Mom, Dad." Bella said sitting up even straighter, if that was even possible.

"Mom, please go sit with dad and Sue." I did as I was told and from left to right it was Sue, Charlie and then me.

Nessie then came running back into the room.

Wait. Where did she even go?

"I don't know where to begin. Um Edward?" Bella said looking at her husband.

"The exact timing of where this story begins is unknown. Many think it began the same time or shortly after humans began. There are the ones that chose to be evil and those who choose to be good, somewhat holy. Some live their lives as they would if they were still human."

Edward looked at me and then to Charlie.

"What are we talking about exactly?" I asked calmly.

Edward smiled and I felt my heart flutter.

Bella kind of looked at me and then to Edward.

"Well like what Billy said, he would tell you his side of what needs to be told and then Bella and I would tell you our side. Billy explained the legend and history of his people. Jacob will be back to explain the dynamics of everything." Edward spoke, being very calm about everything.

Nessie jumped from Bella's lap and went over to sit with us; meaning me, Charlie and Sue.

She placed herself on top of Charlie's lap.

Her little body touched mine as she did so.

She was warm, so this couldn't be about the cold ones Billy spoke of.

Could it be?

Edward took a deep breath and began again.

"We will be talking about five different subjects. We'll begin with 'how it works' and 'ways of life'. Then we'll talk about mates, hybrids, our stories and The Volturi."

At the word 'Volturi' Nessie visibly shuddered and leaned further into Charlie's chest.

"Like I said I'll start off with ways of life first. There are mainly two ways to live, either on humans or animals."

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

What?!

My eyes widened as Edward said all this.

"The ones who hunt humans can be vile, wild and uncontrollable. They are able to massacre an entire city in only a matter of hours."

I was too stunned, I couldn't move.

Every little hair on my body was standing on end.

What was going on?

"They mostly travel alone as nomads or in two, three's or at the most four; a mated pair and or two mated pairs. Some covens or families have five. The ones that live off animals have much more fulfilling lives. They often live in large families. Well, there are only two known covens that live that way together. The three largest covens slash families that are known consists of two 'vegetarian' or animals hunters and one group of human hunters. One family had nine and now is down to five. Another has nine or more if you count other 'species', I guess would be the right word for now. But again if you count the number of 'people' it would come to twelve. Last would be the Volturi, the ancients and their mates would have made six but there are now only five. The makeup of the guard is from twenty-seven or more members."

My eyes felt like a turkey dinner plate, I looked over at Charlie and his were about the same size as well.

"How? What are they?" Charlie stuttered, his voice almost un-hearable.

Edward sighed.

"Again like Billy and Jacob said they are the 'cold ones', 'bloodsuckers' or what you would know them as, is vampires."

Charlie gasped quietly and so did I.

"But how?" I asked under my breath.

Bella spoke up this time, lifting her head and looking up at us.

"Werewolves have only one enemy and that's vampires."

"Werewolves?!" I shouted, interrupting Bella.

She sighed and stood up, motioning us to follow her.

Sue excused herself so she could start the dishes from our early lunch; she seemed really unfazed by all this.

Lucky.

Edward handed Charlie and I our jackets and we walked out the back door, out the back gate and into the woods.

Little Nessie followed behind us stomping her feet in the snow.

Bella motioned for us to stop with her hands.

Nessie plopped down in the snow playing with it calmly.

I gasped as I heard a soft thud and Charlie and I looked to our right.

"Don't scream mom." Bella told me softly, as she said that, a giant sandy colored wolf appeared through the trees.

His massive muscles showed through his thick fur.

His paws were as big as a hubcap.

He walked up slowly, his eyes shined in the low afternoon light.

I was trying not to hyperventilate.

Charlie looked slightly startled but not as much as I was.

The giant horse sized wolf laid down about ten feet away from us.

His long tail thudded softly against the snow.

When Nessie saw the wolf she quickly ran over to it without a second thought.

I was going to reach out to stop her but she was already there.

I felt my blood pressure rise along with my anxiety.

The wolf wasn't attacking?

I glanced to Charlie and then back to my daughter.

Bella smiled softly at me and walked over to the wolf, rubbing his head as she walked by.

"Mom, dad come on over here please. I promise he will not hurt you. I asked him to come because he is one of the smaller ones."

The wolf snorted and I swear it rolled its eyes.

Edward laughed and bumped his fist against the wolf's big nose.

Charlie walked closer and looked in the wolf's mighty brown eyes.

The wolf stood up and licked Charlie from his stomach to the top of his head.

Nessie started laughing so hard she fell over into the snow.

Edward and Bella started laughing with her as well.

The wolf laid back down and it almost sounded like he chuckled.

"Bella how do you know this giant wolf? Why do you know any wolf?" I asked still standing in the same place as before.

I was starting to sink in the deep snow.

Bella who was casually leaning against the wolf shrugged and smiled.

"Mom it's only someone you were sitting with in the same room not only an hour ago."

I gasped and so did Charlie.

The wolf snorted and let out a small howl of laughter.

"Who?" I stuttered out, shaking as I watched the wolf, but before anyone could answer, a light gray, slender framed wolf trotted over to the sandy colored one and sat.

It glared over at us before lying down and licked its giant paw.

Nessie waved to the gray wolf and it wagged its tail softly.

I looked up as I saw two more wolves joining us.

One was a chocolate-brown and the other was another gray but this one had dark spots.

They both walked over to Bella and sat.

"Okay Dad, Mom I want you to guess who these wolves are okay?" Bella laughed as the chocolate wolf started playing with little Nessie.

Edward was watching every move the wolf made; he was in complete protector mode.

Charlie took a deep breath and looked over at all the wolves.

"Well none of them are Jacob." Charlie said after a few minutes.

I gasped loudly and watched as Bella nodded.

"Right Jacob took the Volvo back to the house; he should be back in a few."

Charlie nodded.

That's when Sue walked outside with some folded clothes and a tray full of blueberry muffins.

The sand colored wolf whined loudly and rolled over on his back, wagging his long tail again.

Sue rolled her eyes and laughed.

"Go on." She said as she walked back into the house.

The sand colored wolf practically ran over to the muffins and picked one up; eating it as all the other wolves got theirs.

"You still want me to guess?" Charlie questioned Bella.

She laughed.

"Yes where is the fun in me just telling you?"

Charlie made a 'humph' sound and Edward laughed.

"Fine." He grumbled.

"Is one Seth?" Charlie asked after a second.

He seemed almost afraid to ask.

Bella nodded her head quickly.

"Fine I will tell you names but you have to guess which wolf is which. Okay?"

Charlie and I both nodded.

"There is Seth, Leah, Quil and Embry." Charlie gasped again as he looked over the wolves again.

"These wolves are one pack, excluding the Alpha. Where he is? The other pack has twelve. There are seventeen wolves total. I will explain why there are two packs in a minute."

I was shocked.

"But I thought Billy said only three or four changed at a time." I asked quietly.

Bella shook her head.

"Not when there were two separate vampire attacks in a very short time span." Sam Uley said as he appeared out of the tree line and walked up to Bella.

"Where do you want me chief?" He asked with a smile, he looked like he was silently laughing at his own personal joke.

"You can change over there. Jacob will be here soon." Bella told Sam.

Sam Uley nodded and stood in the center of the clearing.

Bella then turned back to me and Charlie.

"Edward thought it was a good idea to show the sizes of the alphas and others and between the two alphas themselves."

Bella nodded at Sam and there in the middle of the clearing he shifted into a big black wolf, shredding the clothes with the phasing.

"You were the bear?!" I jumped as Charlie shouted this out of nowhere.

"No Charlie the wolves were mistaken for bears as they hunted the rouge vampires that were in the area." Edward said looking at Sam.

To say that Sam's size was bigger than the others was an understatement, he had to be at least a head taller than the biggest one there.

A loud, piercing howl crackled through the snowy afternoon; it made all the hair on my body stand up on end.

Little Nessie reacted differently though, she jumped up from the snow bank and ran into the woods towards where the howl came from.

Edward and Bella stood back over by Charlie and me.

"Where did Nessie go?" Charlie asked, worry clearly clouding his voice.

"She went to Jacob." As Bella calmly said that, an enormous rustic colored wolf walked through the trees, little Nessie was sitting on his giant shoulders.

Little Nessie jumped down and we watched this Jacob wolf stand by Sam.

Jacob was at least nearly two heads taller than Sam.

Sam growled lightly.

Jacob showed every one of his large white teeth and Sam kneeled down and walked away, he nodded once at Edward and then cantered off into the woods.

Jacob walked up and sat in front of Charlie and me.

Sighing, he then laid down, stretching out like a lion.

Nessie went over and laid by Jake's massive head and cuddled up in his neck.

Jacob groaned and closed his eyes.

"Dad, it's time for you to guess so they can go home."

Charlie looked up at Bella and then looked over at the wolves.

"The light gray is Leah."

The gray nodded and trotted off back into the woods and not thirty seconds later ran back out dressed in nothing but shorts and a tank top as Leah.

Leah smiled grabbed another muffin and went into the house.

The three wolves looked at Charlie waiting for him to guess.

"Seth has to be the sandy colored one."

The sandy colored one jumped to his feet and like Leah came back as Seth.

"Good job Charlie only one more to guess and then the other is of course who is left."

Seth disappeared into the house.

"I would guess Quil is the brown one."

The brown wolf grinned and shook off the snow and ran towards the reservation, stopping by a tree, waiting for the other wolf.

"And the last has to be Embry."

As soon as Charlie said his name the wolf nodded and ran off with Quil.

Jacob nudged Nessie and she ran over to Edward.

Jake stood up and howled, causing goosebumps to rise up on my skin.

Seth and Leah came back out of the house and changed in mid stride; they then followed where the other two wolves had gone.

Jacob walked over behind a tree and disappeared.

He walked out in only a pair of shorts.

"Okay let's get this story on the road before Ness falls asleep." Jake said laughing, as if on cue Nessie yawned.


Surprise

"Do we just jump right into it or what? How do we even approach this?" Bella asked Edward right after Jacob took Billy home.

Edward shook his head and kissed her on her forehead.

"We'll just play it by ear. I have a plan of action."

"Alright."

"Here we go." Bella thought to Edward.

"It's okay, love." Bella cooed softly to her daughter when the word 'Volturi' came up.

Bella sighed and then heard Seth approaching and stood from her seat.

"Are you ready Edward?" Seth asked Edward silently.

Edward nodded slightly and said 'yes' under his breath.

"Jake took your car back to the main house. He'll be here soon. So will Sam."

Edward nodded his head again, letting Seth know he heard him and then told Bella what Seth told him quietly.

(They already had most of this planned out for when they told Charlie, but since Renee was there they just mixed it up a bit.)

'Smaller!?" Seth scoffed. Edward laughed and bumped his fist against Seth's nose.

Sam thought he was funny calling Bella 'chief'.

{Not very important what was growled between alphas}

Sam bid Edward good luck, good evening and Merry Christmas.


A/N: So here it is!

Thank you my lovelies,

~TLG