Previously: Then I smelled it, the unmistakable sickly sweet smell of vampire. Victoria! Fuck!

Ch 10: Seth

Mixed in with the heavy stench that I knew to be Victoria's was one that I would know anywhere. Bella's light strawberry and jasmine scent led me forward as I moved at a cautious pace deeper into the green canopy of the forest. I was aware of other wolves' voices in my head but operating at such an instinctual level that I wasn't communicating with them. Finally I felt Jacob's almost alpha voice break through the animal in my head. "Seth. I'm coming. Hold on, man. Don't do anything stupid. Just see if you can get eyes on Bella and I'll be there in less than five." His panic and determination were fighting for dominance even in his wolf voice.

The scents I was following took me through terrain that could have never contained trails. The undergrowth and number of fallen trees made it impossibility. The forest was so deep in parts that it no pieces of sky could be seen through the treetops. It almost looked dark and certainly felt ominous. My chest was clenching and unclenching with anxiety. I needed to find Bella and I needed to do it now! When the dark-haired leech had almost drained Bella in the meadow that day he'd talked about what Victoria wanted to do when she found her. I relived these memories as if they were my own as Jacob's mind cycled at a frenzied pace. The minutes I was wasting being careful and in waiting on backup might be costing Bella her life… or they might be prolonging whatever demented torture the redhead had been planning out for so long.

Then the wind shifted and I caught a new wave of their combined scents. It was fresher and swirled with the saltiness of Bella's tears. I pushed my enormous body low to the ground as I stepped cautiously through a particularly dense bit of forest. And I saw them; Victoria with her red hair flying wildly about her like flames and Bella, held painfully against a tree by her upraised arms with tears streaming down her face and her mouth in a determined line.

"Thank God she's still alive." Jake prayed. "I'm coming, Seth. I'm coming." I didn't want to immediately rush into the situation and have Victoria panic and kill Bella just to make sure she got the job done, so I watched, steadily moving closer when I could find good cover. It seemed that Victoria was talking to Bella. Her voice was so low that if I wouldn't have been able to hear it without my enhanced senses.

Victoria was pissed. "What I don't understand is how could your mate just leave you, you little piece of shit? I am truly baffled. I mean, even by vampire standards Edward was attractive, but he seemed truly devoted to you, a pathetic human. He didn't just fuck and run, he revealed our secret! He fought to protect you! He killed my mate, James because James wanted to have you! And then he just fucking left!? Why would he do such a thing?" Victoria's voice was crazy but honestly curious. She wanted answers. She needed to know that her mate wasn't killed because of a meaningless fling or obsession. Bella simply listened.

Even with the end of her life dangling dangerously real before her I could see how Victoria's words cut Bella as her eyes that had been bright and frightened suddenly dulled. "I asked you a fucking question you stupid bitch! Why did your mate leave you?" Victoria screamed into Bella's now lowered face.

Bella was forced to answer now. This was the question the pack had wondered about many times over the years as our friendship with Bella grew, but no one had ever gotten the courage to ask her. Maybe no one had wanted to be that much of a dick to ask Bella to reveal the details about most painful event in her life, but Victoria seemed to have no problem stomping on whatever was left of Bella's fragile self esteem.

"He didn't want me." Bella's voice was barely a scratchy whisper, but she went on, knowing that this simple answer was not what Victoria was looking for. "He told me he was tired of pretending to be human with me… in my world and that I didn't belong with him and his. He wanted to move on. It was time for him to move on. He told me that I wasn't…" Bella trailed off here, but Victoria was not going to let this go, and rewarded Bella's unwillingness by squeezing one of her fingers until the tiny bones cracked. Bella barely reacted to the physical pain. Whatever emotions she was reliving at this point were clearly worse than what her body was feeling, but she understood what Victoria was doing and she went on. Her voice was a bit louder, but somehow sounded weaker at the same time.

"He said he didn't want me, he didn't love me and I wasn't good for him. I was never good enough." That last sentence was more of a whisper and with those words I saw through my own pained eyes as Bella gave up. She gave up being smart and looking for ways out of this terrible situation, and she gave up keeping her feelings of worthlessness locked away.

Victoria looked Bella up and down with disdain. "Well… what did you expect… you're so…."

Surprisingly, Bella supplied the answers for her. "Weak. Average. Plain. Boring. Clumsy. Mousy. Pathetic. Naïve?" My heart broke as I heard Bella's description of herself, the reasons why she was never felt good enough for her beloved leech.

Victoria laughed. "I was going to say human, but you've done a bang up job of filling in all the details." She looked at Bella's face for a few moments. "You are pathetic. Yet you do not seem afraid. Maybe you actually want to die, to be put out of your misery? Even if I wasn't going to kill you, your life would be nothing but disappointment. You, my little hemoglobin thermos, are ruined for humans anyway. Between those disgusting dogs who guard you with their worthless lives and the good work of our dear Cullens you would never really be able to live a normal human life at all."

I watched Bella's face as she took in what Victoria said to her, absorbing it like rain on sand, accepting it. I had thought that Bella was better. Maybe not completely fixed brand-new, but I had thought that she was happy. She seemed so happy. Then I heard Jake's low growl. I had been so absorbed in the scene before me I wasn't sure whether I heard it mentally or out loud, but my attention was returned to the rescue at hand.

Jacob circled around the scene and decided to approach it from the opposite side as me. His fury at seeing Bella being held against that tree, feet dangling, shoulder jutting at an obviously painful angle made his tactical decision a quick one: kill the vampire bitch now.

Jake's huge form launched itself from behind a tree straight at his undead target. Clearly her instinct for self-preservation was stronger than her desire for revenge so her hand released Bella's arms and Bella's body flopped lifelessly to the forest floor. I wondered briefly if it had all become too much for Bella and she had finally succumbed to unconsciousness, but then I heard her soft whimper. Victoria had snarled menacingly and slashed her arm at Jacob's wolf so quickly I had missed it. Blood poured from a wound that went from his ear to his shoulder. I knew it would heal quickly, but that shit still hurt when it happened and it slowed us down a bit. Jacob's wolf cried out and then growled as he lunged toward the leech again. Victoria was evasive, moving in and out of striking range like a prize fighter. To my knowledge she was still unaware of my presence… but I felt torn. I wanted to rip Victoria to shreds and light her like a fucking firecracker on the fourth of July, but I also needed to check on Bella and really make sure she was okay. Bella seemed to get a grip on herself and came to a sitting position right about the same time Jacob landed a glancing blow to Victoria. His offensive maneuver left him off-balance and vulnerable and Victoria was ready to exploit that opportunity. With Jacob's weight momentarily resting on his right front paw, Victoria kicked at it with a vicious snap, causing Jacob to collapse onto the leg. "Jacob, no!" Bella screamed out. Her sobs were coming out violently as she expended no effort trying to hold them back. Jacob's howl was agonized, but I knew my window of opportunity had just opened and I was ready to jump through it. With Victoria's attention on Jacob's downed form I moved silently toward her back before jumping to her shoulders and knocking her hard cold body to the ground. The surprise on her face didn't last long as it was mere seconds before her head was removed from her body.

I worked quickly at removing the rest of Victoria's ruined limbs and piled them methodically, gagging at the sick taste of vampire flesh between my teeth. I went to Jacob's semi-conscious wolf and phased, pulling his clothing from the tie around his ankle, searching out the lighter in his pants pocket. Soon, Victoria was nothing more than stinking purple smoke and ashes. I turned to Jacob and asked if the rest of the pack was on their way, but heard them myself as the words left my mouth. Jared, Sam, and Quil walked up still pulling their shorts on, having just phased human. Sam threw an extra set of shorts at me and I gratefully pulled them on. Jacob's clothes were still tied to his leg and Sam removed them cautiously while trying to get Jacob to phase back human. Between the gash and the shattered leg, he was in some serious pain, but it was easier to assess the damage when in human form.

Suddenly I remembered Bella and looked over to her. Her wide eyes met mine in a question. "Seth?" she asked tentatively. I just nodded, not knowing what to say. An ordeal like this was probably still working itself out in her mind. She stood up and moved like she wanted to come to me, but turned and saw Jacob's now human body still lying on the ground on the other side of her. She stood in the middle, her head turned back and forth, from one of us to the other and she looked… conflicted for a moment before rushing to Jacob's side.

Her eyes traveled up and down his body with concern and once she was satisfied that he wasn't in mortal danger, Bella launched herself onto Jacob's chest, careful to avoid the shattered arm. "You moron! You complete idiot! What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed! I could have lost you!" Bella began to sit up, but Jacob used his good arm to hold her body close. "You can't leave me, Jacob. You promised. You can't just do that," she cried, biting back sobs. Bella picked her head up enough to look Jacob in the eye- enough to let him know she was serious, and then it happened. I saw something snap in Bella's face and she leaned forward and put her mouth on Jacob's, her full, pink lips moving frantically on his. The hand on Jacob's good arm moved to Bella's hair, fisting it, pulling her impossibly closer. My imprint and my future alpha were lying on the forest floor devouring each other's mouths while I watched in a daze feeling... happy for her? What the hell was going on!