A/N: Dan and Bella meet the wolves of La Push...
Chapter 8
Dan rises from his hunched over position, his chest still rising and falling rapidly. Running a hand through the short black strands of his hair, he shifts his glance to the wolves and then back to Bella. He's hyped up on vampire blood too, she realizes, even though she could have easily guessed that with the Olympic jump he'd pulled off not too long ago.
Bella notices for the first time that he looks like something – a wolf or two, or several – mauled him. His clothes are torn, his long sleeve shirt nothing more than a few strips of cotton across the upper half of his body. There's blood on the side of his head, running down from his temple into the neckline of his tattered shirt. Blood has also soaked into his clothing as well, and she can see some of it drying on his skin where his clothes are torn.
"Wha—" Dan starts, breathing through his nose. He shakes his head, glancing to the wolves again. "Why are you out here?"
Bella turns her head to look at the wolves now also. A solid black wolf makes calm eye contact with her, yellow eyes boring into her dark brown. She watches as it then shifts its intense stare to the other wolves – they begin to settle down. Turning back to Dan, she deadpans. "I was just taking a quiet little stroll," she's unable to keep the sarcasm from tainting the tone of her voice. "And then I made some friends. Why the hell are you out here?"
He ignores both her sarcasm and her question. "Let's not, um, do this here, you know?"
With the vampire blood and her adrenaline from her close encounter still thrumming relatively strongly through her veins, she's so very tempted to snap at him, but barely manages to bite her tongue. She lets him guide her away from the wolves. She can feel the black wolf's heavy stare on her back (she refuses to let herself look back) until they walk well out of sight of the wolves.
"So," Dan breaks the tense silence that descends between them. "Out for a stroll, huh?"
"Yeah, that's it," she shrugs.
He takes in her appearance, no doubt assessing the blood covering her knuckles, one of her arms, splattered across her face; no doubt noticing she's without her jacket, and has a large tear on the bottom of her pants leg. "Looks like the stroll kicked your ass."
Bella rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "As if you look so much better, right?" she quips. "You never answered my question."
"It's a long story."
"A long story," she repeats his answer in a bored tone. "You only say that when you—" Bella cuts herself off. Anger flashes hot across her face, heightened by the supernatural blood flowing through her, and then she rounds on Dan "Wait, did you know about them?"
"Kind of—"
"What! What the fuck, Dan?" shocked, she can't keep herself from screaming at him, the anger tightening its grip around her. Her heart beats hard in her chest, as if it wants to strangle the fucker as much as her fingers are itching to do. "You knew there were house-sized wolves lurking around here and you didn't think to share that tidbit with me? In case you couldn't tell I was almost killed by them!"
"Hey!" he yells, his fists curling up at his sides. He sighs then, rubbing his neck. "Just let me finish, alright? It's not as bad as it sounds."
Bella glares at him.
"Wow, if looks could fucking kill," he mumbles.
"I heard that."
"Good," he snorts. Before she can open her mouth, Dan continues. "I swear, I was going to tell you. But I wanted to make sure. I think they're the werewolves the old hag was talking about."
"They're not werewolves, Dan," she informs him with a blank expression.
A smile comes across his face, his slightly crooked teeth easing some of Bella's anger. "You know, I knew you'd say that. But yeah, I figured that one out after what just happened."
"When I told you I was going to check out the outskirts of town a few days ago, I came out here," he says, gesturing around to the woods on either side of them. "I came across one of them, and pretend you didn't hear this from me, and it scared the shit out of me. I drank some blood, pulled a knife on it, and yelled that I was going to kill it if it didn't go away. He didn't like that. I landed a good kick on it, heard his buddies in the distance and decided to just run away."
"I wasn't sure if it was a werewolf or not. And no one in town has really said anything about seeing or hearing huge wolves at night, so I kind of just put it on the backburner. I wanted us to focus on the vampires that are in town, you know? When you went to the store I was still mad, and on a wild hair decided I was going to find out if they were werewolves. I really didn't think you'd come out here because it's so far."
Bella just looks at him – she understands, partly, because Dan has never maliciously kept information from her. Guilt makes itself known in the back of her mind – she honestly has withheld information from him because she felt it wasn't the right time to tell him, so why was she giving him such a hard time? And she still has to tell him about the dinner invitation. Her face falls.
"Okay, I know it's really stupid. I just never got around to telling you, you know?" Dan sighs. He then squints, scrutinizing Bella. "Were you following me?"
"No," she answers honestly. "I was still kind of ticked and hadn't wanted to go back to the house. I just rode the bike up here, parked it, and decided to take a walk in the woods to clear my mind. And," she pauses. "I have some news for you when we get back to the house."
Dan looks at her funny. "Let's go, then. You good to run?"
"Yeah."
Bella and Dan take turns using the shower. After she is done with hers, while he is showering, Bella prepares a dinner for them both. She prepares both her and his plates.
When he's done, he comes downstairs, and thanks her. He reaches into the fridge for a beer, but Bella closes the door before he can grab one. She hands him a glass of water instead as he's asking what's her problem.
"There's still some vampire blood in our systems," she tells him matter-of-factly. "Besides, I think you should be completely sober for this."
His eyebrows furrow. He then laughs, deep and loud. "What, are you pregnant or something?" he moves to sit on the couch, dinner plate in hand. "I thought you were gay, Bella."
"I am gay," she affirms, laughing a bit, taking a spot next to Dan on the couch. "No, I'm not pregnant. This is serious. It's about the Cullens."
Dan stiffens beside her, setting his plate on the coffee table in front of the couch. He takes a sip of the glass of water, holding it in his hand and staring intently down at the clear liquid when he's done drinking. "Let me guess, when you went to the store you saw one of them, right?"
"Yeah. Alice."
"Wow. You know, they always seem to catch you while you're alone," he takes another sip of his water, setting the empty glass down on the coffee table with a little more force than actually necessary. "Maybe we should start sticking together more."
"Maybe," Bella agrees half-heartedly – something deep inside of her wants to see Alice more. Alone.
She blocks it out.
"What happened?"
"I … received an invitation from Alice."
Dan's eyes go squinty. "What? To where?"
Bella runs a hand through her hair, her eyes focusing on Dan's empty glass sitting on the coffee table. "To dinner. Tomorrow. At their house. With their family," and then she adds as an afterthought: "She said the invitation was extended to you, too."
Turning her gaze to meet his eyes, Bella watches as he opens to mouth as if to respond and then closes it again. He scratches his chin, his short nails making a whispering like sound against the days old stubble. "Okay. I want to get this straight," he says. "You went to the store, got invited to dinner by Alice Cullen, which is tomorrow night, at her house and with her family. I'm invited too. Oh, and, they're vampires. All of them. Did I get it right?"
"Suspected vampires," she corrects him. "But otherwise, yes."
"What'd you say? To the invite."
"I told her yes," she answers.
Dan nods rather absentmindedly. A hand moves to idly scratch at his chin again. She waits, preparing to defend herself as best she can against his oncoming onslaught of objections, which were bound to be mostly based on reasonable, valid facts. Why didn't she decline? She doesn't really know what she's going to say – and she absolutely refuses to tell him that she'd only accepted the invitation because a part of her is rendered helpless, seemingly incapable of saying no to Alice Cullen.
"Huh," he shrugs a bit, almost as if he doesn't know what to say. "You know, I didn't think you'd say yes. You're full of surprises today."
She regards him suspiciously, "What are you getting at?"
"Come on, Bella. You don't take big risks unless you really, and I mean really, have to since you know what happened. And this is a fucking huge risk," he explains, shrugging some more. "Walking into a house full of what, seven vampires? Putting in all the chips, aren't ya?"
"Dan-"
"Don't whine at me. It's gutsy as hell and you know it," he pauses, then hums. "We can ambush them. They wouldn't see it coming, you know."
Bella shoots him an incredulous look. "You're kidding, right? Let's keep in mind there's seven of them. You even said it yourself."
"Yeah. But if we bring all our weapons and can manage to befriend the wolves..."
Her mouth falls open before she snaps it shut a few seconds later. She can feel her patience wearing thin, reaching the end of its (long, might she add) rope. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Bella closes her eyes. "Hopefully you're still joking," she says evenly, the tone of her voice tight. "Or did you already forget they tried to kill us a few hours ago?"
Dan rolls his eyes, his own exasperation showing. "Think about it," hazel eyes look at her pointedly. "They most likely only came after you because of me."
Considering his point, Bella takes a moment before responding. "I was ambushed, Dan. It was like they were waiting for me."
"Because of me," he reiterates. "All I'm saying is that tomorrow before the dinner, you should go talk to the wolves. Remember the barrier thing? It wasn't too far from where I landed. I know where it is. They shouldn't be able to get you."
"And what about you?"
"I'll take some blood, run in and get them all riled up and drag them to the barrier thing. I'll go hide somewhere and listen in."
Bella takes a moment to think it over in her head, going over Dan's plan in her head. It seems solid enough for the moment – they could go over the details in the morning. There's just one thing…
"Okay, I'll talk to the wolves," Bella agrees, pausing at Dan's approving smile. "But only under the condition that we strictly treat the dinner as a recon mission," As Dan starts to protest, Bella then adds: "We'll finally determine whether the Cullens are vampires. Deal?"
Dan covers his face with a hand, sighing. "Fine. Deal."
Something inside of Bella doesn't really care if the rest of the Cullens turn out to be golden-eyed vampires – she just hopes that Alice is not, that maybe she is some other supernatural that has managed to live peacefully amongst a coven of vampires…
Late morning comes sooner than Bella finds herself truly ready for.
Dan has already taken a dosage of vampire blood. He carries her on his back, and his legs move at the same speed as a vampire's. The trees are but a brown and green blur to Bella as they whirl through the forest and dizziness envelops her – no vampire blood is in her system, so the speed is unnatural to her body. She tilts her head up, focuses on the dark grey of the clouds miles above the surface of the earth to ease the queasy feeling in her stomach.
Dan comes to a complete stop, jarring Bella from her trance induced by the grey sky above. Dismounting from her perch on his back, she stumbles just slightly as her feet come in contact with the ground. He grins knowingly at her.
"Not dizzy, are you, Bella?" he teases lightly, grinning.
"Shut up."
He guffaws, lifting a hand to ruffle her hair and sending brown strands flying every which way.
She swats as his oversized hand but he draws it back before she can actually hit him. Bella glowers hotly at him. "Can you focus, you ADD ridden brat?"
"Ouch. So feisty lately."
Bella sighs, not wanting to tell him she's snappy because somehow she's back at the place where a hungry pack of horse-sized wolves came so close to literally ripping her apart, not even 24 hours earlier. "Are we here?"
He nods, pointing with his thumb behind them. "That's where I landed yesterday," cracking his neck, he takes a couple steps forward so that he's in front of Bella. "I'll be back in a sec."
Bella barely has time to whisper, "Be careful," to him before he's gone in a blur.
Not more than a few minutes after he's gone does Bella hear the howls. Soon, maybe a few seconds after, she hears the footsteps – not loud as before, but that's probably because before she had vampire blood coursing through her veins – and the trees and low shrubbery shake. Dan runs past her, and she assumes that he's going to find a suitable hiding spot to listen from as they had discussed earlier.
The wolves come next, their numbers less than what she remembers from yesterday. This time, there's only four of them; the black one, a reddish-brown wolf, the mixed brown one that joined in on attacking her the day before, and a dark silver wolf.
As the four of them come to a halt maybe a foot away, the black one stands tall directly in front of her, and Bella internally fights not to step back into a defensive crouch and draw a weapon. It doesn't growl or snap its jaws at her like the others; it only stares intimidatingly down at Bella, yellow eyes unblinking, the muscles of its large frame completely tense and unmoving. She gets the impression that this black wolf is probably the leader.
"My name is Isabella," she speaks directly to the black wolf. "I wish to do you all no harm."
The other wolves have quieted down at this point. Except for the one with dark silver fur; a low growl rumbles in its throat, raising a paw to slam it into the earth below. She simply observes as it snaps its maw at her. The reddish brown wolf growls as well, directing the threatening sound at the silver one, which snaps at the reddish brown one instead. The black wolf turns its head towards the two, baring its teeth at them. They both grow quiet, the silver wolf cowering.
"I wish to speak with you," Bella says then, projecting confidence in her voice. Her hands ball into tight fists at her sides, steeling her resolve.
A snort shoots out of the large nose of the black wolf, its yellow eyes narrowing in scrutiny at Bella. It then turns its large head to the other wolves, as if somehow communicating telepathically, and retreats into the trees, the thick brush hiding its large form. Bella half expects the other wolves to leave as well, but they remain glued to their spots – the reddish brown one even sitting – and watch her intently. More menacing growls come from the dark silver wolf.
Where the black wolf had disappeared, emerges an extremely tall, shirtless man, clad in nothing more than a pair of worn jean shorts. The color of his skin reminds Bella of copper in its untouched, natural state. His unreadable face and eyes fix on her, the well-developed muscles of his upper body flexing as he walks towards Bella. He stands in the spot the black wolf had occupied, towering over her much like the animal had did before.
That stare, though dark brown eyed, is the same – this man is the black wolf.
Some kind of shapeshifter? Bella immediately thinks. If so, then they're all shapeshifters.
"Isabella. I'm Sam Uley," the tall man's – Sam's – voice is a gravelly sort of deep. Bella also notices the large tattoo of a howling wolf on his right arm. "Why is it that you and your friend repeatedly trespass across our lands?"
"Forgive us," Bella says, her eyes widen slightly in a dawn of realization – she remembers the sign she had passed yesterday on the motorcycle. It had said something about a reservation… "We were only exploring the area and were unaware that these were your lands."
The mottled brown and dark silver wolves both emit a low growl. The reddish brown simply repositions its forepaws, its claws flexing and digging into the dirt below.
Sam regards her with suspicion. "You'll be wise to keep off our lands unless invited," he instructs. "Are you a resident of Forks?"
"Yes," she answers. "And so is Daniel."
"Is Daniel your friend?"
"He is," she answers again. At that, the red-brown wolf turns and trots into same nearby brush that Sam had gone into before.
A minute passes, and out comes another russet colored man, his hair cropped short, the same wolf tattoo on his left arm. His face appears younger than Sam's however, but his jawline is sharp, and she can see the muscles are tense as he approaches them, standing beside Sam; he's taller than Sam, with largely the same definition of lean muscle.
"Who are you?" the new addition demands fiercely, stepping forward so that he is in front of Sam but still behind whatever imaginary boundary they're forbidden to cross. "Or what are you? You're not human."
Sam places a hand on the other guy's shoulder. "Jacob—"
"They're threats, Sam!" Jacob roughly shrugs off Sam's hand, turning to Sam and throwing a hand in Bella's direction. "They crossed our borders what, three times now? We shouldn't be playing nice."
"Hey, now," Bella raises her both hands in what she hopes is a placating gesture. "I assure you that Daniel and I are not threats. At least not to you all."
Sam's eyes harden considerably. "Explain."
Not feeling in the slightest bit comfortable about giving up information about herself and Dan, Bella sighs to collect her racing thoughts before responding honestly. "We're Hunters. Not exactly human, as you guessed."
"Hunters?" Jacob's eyes narrow into tiny dark brown slits.
"What do you hunt, exactly?" Sam asks, his deep voice even and calm – a contrast to Jacob's, whose voice is more on the side of forceful and demanding.
"Vampires," Bella shifts her gaze between the two tall men towering over her. She really doesn't want to tell them that they actually hunt all supernaturals – or that she comes from a specific Hunter lineage that specializes in those that 'skin walk' or shapeshift, because she's pretty confident that their pack consists of some kind of shapeshifters.
"What? You guys are Vampire Hunters?" Jacob openly gawks, appearing rather boyish standing next to Sam's stoic face.
Sam nods, as if slightly impressed. "Interesting. Have you come here for the Cullens then?"
Bella hesitates in her answer. By now, the other two wolves had shifted into their human forms – both approach to join in on the conversation, both possessing russet skin and clad in shorts. A beefy one, though still muscular, pushes past both Jacob and Sam, his nostrils flaring like an angry bull. "Bullshit," he hisses, his muscles flexing dangerously across his broad chest. "We're the only hunters of the Cold Ones!"
Bella turns to him, "Cold Ones?" she asks, but directs her question more towards Sam and Jacob. "What are you guys, exactly?
The same beefy guy answers, his eyes livid and voice raising to a near shout; Bella gets the impression that he's quite the hothead. "What's it to you? We're the only true enemy to the Cullens. So how about you fuck off," he spits venomously.
Bella simply raises a brown eyebrow up at him.
Jacob pushes the beefy guy back, who glares daggers at him. "Don't be stupid," Jacob hisses at him. "It's good they," he seems to spit the word, and Bella has a feeling that he's speaking about the Cullens, "have more enemies than just us."
"Paul," Sam seemingly barks at the beefy guy. He then gestures to the one nameless russet skin man, who coaches Paul into calming down and slowly drags Paul by the arm away from Bella; she can't help but notice how his entire frame shakes and trembles. Sam turns back to Bella. "We're werewolves."
"No, you're not," Bella's reaction comes out before she can really stop it, and as the copper skinned men before her bristle in offense, she tries desperately to amend her objection. "Are you allergic to silver?"
In that moment, Paul comes storming through the bushes, muscles rippling, his chest inflating and deflating with his shallow rapid breaths. Hands in solid fists at his sides, his entire frame shakes violently, his brown eyes filled with some kind of primal and utterly animalistic rage. Bella feels threatened, and steps back, reaching for the loaded gun strapped to her ankle.
"What?" the trembling man bellows disbelievingly. "I'm not a fucking werewolf! I'll—"
He erupts into a hulking wolf, dark silver fur bristling and reflecting the sunlight dulled by the clouds above, lips curved back to reveal sharp canines. A deadly snarl tears from its – Paul's – throat, paws kicking up dirt as it charges straight for Bella.
The mottled brown wolf crashes into the wolf form of Paul before he can reach Bella. Growls and snarls are exchanged. Sam raises a hand, directing a silent order to the mottled brown wolf, who then directs its intense gaze towards Paul. After a staring contest, it seemingly forces Paul to follow it back into the bushes.
Sam turns back to Bella, frowning. "Sorry," he says, voice short – as if he were just saying the word out of common courtesy. "No. We're not allergic to silver."
"I've encountered werewolves – they're allergic to silver," she explains quickly. "Does your power change with the phases of the moon?"
"We phase when we desire; we don't worry about the moon."
A rather tense silence falls over the three of them. Bella sighs. "I'm sorry," she apologizes. "I don't know what you guys were told, but please trust me when I say you all are not werewolves."
"Then what are we?" Jacob queries. The features of his face darken.
"Shapeshifters? " Bella shrugs, and then she switches the topic, not wanting to explain how she knows. "And to answer your earlier question; yes, we're here for the Cullens," she takes a breath.
"So you're here to take out the bloodsuckers?" Jacob asks.
Bella's chocolate brown eyes widen, and she feels something drop hard in her chest. "Bloodsuckers?" she furrows her eyebrows. "You mean vampires?"
"Yes," Sam's head moves up and down in a slow nod.
"What else?" Jacob sneers, his top curling up in apparent disgust.
The Cullens are vampires, the thought echoes inside her head repeatedly, like a mantra. The inkling in the back of her head confirms itself, and then she can almost hear Dan telling her, "I told you so."
Alice is a vampire…
She shakes her head as if to clear the invading voices away. Sam eyes her weirdly, and she fidgets. She has to answer the question that has been plaguing her all this time: "What's with their golden eyes?" her question comes out exasperated, and she can't stop herself from tossing a flippant hand in the air. "Vampires have red eyes. It doesn't make any sense."
Jacob snorts and Sam's gaze softens, his stance relaxing just the tiniest hint, as if he understands her frustration – that he understands why her and Dan haven't just simply eliminated the Cullens if they were experienced Vampire Hunters.
"They don't hunt humans," Sam informs her.
Jacob emits something akin to a growl, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "Else we would have killed them all by now," he mutters darkly.
"You stand on their land," Sam points a large finger to the spot next to Bella's feet. "We have a… treaty with the Cullens. They can't come onto our lands, nor hurt a citizen of Forks. In exchange we keep off their land and refrain from killing them."
"And this treaty has upheld?"
"So far," Jacob grumbles.
Another russet man runs up to Sam, eyes wide and breathing quicker than usual. "She came back again. Leah spotted him at the north border," he informs Sam hurriedly, the words of his sentences almost stringing together.
Jacob starts and quickly dashes off into the brush. "Come on, we have to get him this time," he yells.
Sam motions for the other man to follow Jacob. "I must go now," he says to Bella. "I'm not going to consider you a threat anymore. Just know that you are not supposed to come onto our lands unless invited; come to this location if you wish to speak or come onto our land."
With those words, he, like the rest of his pack, disappears into the thickness of the forest.
After a minute or two, Bella releases a breath she hadn't been aware she'd been holding. A sense of relief washes over her – the pack of wolves are no longer an enemy bent on killing her and Dan, but not exactly a friend either. Another feeling – one that Bella is unable to exactly place – pangs in her chest because the Cullens (as far as Bella is seriously concerned, Alice Cullen, really) are vampires…
She hears the bushes some ways behind her rustle in stark contrast to the quiet forest that surrounds her, and starts a little. But, she realizes as a familiar figure comes into her line of sight, it's just Dan coming out of whatever hiding place he had found.
Dan stretches languidly, groaning as he does so. "Man," he shakes his limbs loose, and then cracks his neck followed by his knuckles. "It's so hard staying in one place for so long. You should be proud of me, you know?"
"I am," Bella says absently. She begins walking towards the general direction of the house. Dan follows beside her.
"No, really, it was so hard not to jump out and kick that hot-headed guy's ass," he insists. He falls silent for a moment, but then continues. "So we got shapeshifters and vampires. Hey, can I say it?"
Bella groans, closing her eyes and reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. She stifles a gasp as an image of a smiling Alice Cullen flits behind her closed eyelids. "Yeah, whatever."
"I told you so."
