XXX

There was no attack thankfully and a day or so later, we started to feel a little more at ease, we knew we weren't out of the woods yet, no pun intended, but I think we all felt somewhat safer with Seth, Jacob, and Leah. Not that any of us would admit it out loud. Seth, Leah, and Jacob took turns running the line watching for signs of trouble.

Bella knew something was up, it was impossible to keep that from her, but she didn't mention anything. Mainly because she was still so weak, each day that passed she was growing weaker and weaker and there wasn't anything we could do about it, which sucked, and left an atmosphere and smell of death in the house, something that had never been in our house before.

Having the wolves around made things a lot better, okay I'll rephrase, having my best friend around made things a lot better. He was still doing his duty, running the line, keeping an eye out for the pack, but unlike Jacob and certainly Leah (who was not only refusing to be human around us, but was also refusing to come near the house at all), Seth kept venturing into the house to hang out when he could, or meet me in the garage where we'd play video games up in the loft of the garage, just trying to keep some normalcy and sanity to what was otherwise an insane situation for both of us.

I felt bad for them, Seth especially. I couldn't even imagine what he was going through, I've never been away from my family for an extended period of time, even when I was up in Alaska, I was still with family, friends are great, but you feel a helluv a lot better when you're with family and all three were away from theirs'.

Seth and Leah's mum must've been going bonkers with worry about them and I can imagine Mr. Black was too.

I mean they had given up their pack to protect Bella and in all reality us, they were in danger from retaliation from the pack, and it wasn't fair to them. It was cool having my best friend basically living in our front yard and in the house, made things a lot easier and less stressful when it came to Bella's roller coaster health, but I still felt bad.

The day after the initial planned attack, Bella's condition hadn't changed, she was no worse, no better than before. Prior to this I wouldn't have even considered leaving the house for any reason, after all I had refused to go hunting with my parents because I did not want to leave Bella's side.

I do not however, handle being cooped up very well, I have a short attention span to begin with and well, I get edgy very easily. I needed an excuse a reason to get out of the house, away from the property for little while.

So I didn't think twice about taking my dirt bike into the town of Beaver to the mini-mart to pick up some junk food for the Seth, Jacob, and Leah. I figured this was safer and less conspicuous than going into Forks.

Esme has been making sandwiches and other meals for the wolves, Leah wouldn't touch any of them, but Seth and Jacob willingly wolfed them down. But still it's all pretty healthy stuff that mum is getting from cookbooks and the cooking channel. I figured junk food was a necessity here.

I wasn't entirely sure what constituted junk food though. I mean I've seen the crap my friends at school ate, so keeping that in mind I went shopping. I figured sugar was number one so I loaded up on candy bars.

As I was filling the basket I actually stopped and questioned myself. My friend was for all intents and purposes a wolf, therefore a canine. Weren't dogs allergic to chocolate, I mean a wolf logically would be too? But I've been wrong in the past and like Carlisle constantly tells me in regards to Chaplin, he's not a vet and neither am I.

So I grabbed a few Hersey bars for the heck of it; if they were in fact allergic to chocolate I just hoped they'd have the good sense to you know not eat the chocolate, besides, Hersey bars are one of the few candies I remember from my childhood, it was off ration during the war of course, but even now smelling it triggers some pretty good memories of my father sneaking it into the house when I was younger, before the war.

It just sucks that I couldn't enjoy it, but at least my friend, his sister, and Jacob might be able to and I could still smell the bloody thing so that worked in my favor too.

Just in case my assumption about the chocolate allergy turned out to be true, in addition to the chocolate, I got soda, chips, and as a joke a rubber chew toy for Seth.

In my opinion he was lucky on that front, there was an entire aisle of canine related items I could have purchased, including this clicker device used to train dogs to obey commands, give the command, click the device, give the dog a biscuit if he completes the command properly. Believe me I was very tempted to buy this device, but I did the decent thing and left it alone. Maybe April fools would be a better time.

Once I paid for my purchase I shoved them all in my backpack, hopped on the dirt bike and headed for home.

I was just pulling down the road that leads to our drive when I felt a wave of literal cold wash over me. I could smell wolf, not just one, a few, the emotions were strong, and it was all anger and determination.

I saw a flash of fur out of the corner of my eye through the woods and instantly I realized what was going on.

Bloody hell I was being hunted. The pack was seriously taking this whole thing too far, two days of virtual quiet, no sign of the pack, now all of a sudden they want to attack? Come on, this was ridiculous.

I gunned the engine picking up speed. Though in the back of my mind I knew there was a chance and a crappy one at that, that I may have to dump my bike and go on foot, like it or not the wolves are fast as hell, they could easily out run my bike. I'm pretty fast myself and I might be able to beat them on foot, but it was a risk.

I could see one of them preparing to make a move, thankful for my ability in a rare moment, I did the most logical and probably the most risky thing I could've done, I gunned it and headed towards the woods.

I know the paths pretty well, for the most part my dirt bike can handle any terrain path or no path. This was no different as the path soon faded out leaving just the forest floor. It's the quickest way home.

I could feel the emotions of the wolves, they were stunned at my reckless move because it literally brought me into their line of sight and in their path.

But it's quicker than staying on the road, and I used their surprise to my advantage. I zipped through the forest zinging around trees and hurdling over downed ones. I could feel the wolves gaining on me, clearly getting over their shock pretty damn quick.

I could feel my dirt bike losing momentum, and taking a deep breath, I got ready to jump off. Before that thought had even crossed my mind, I felt another set of emotions and could profile something else coming.

It was Jacob, followed quickly by Leah, both were racing towards me as the other three wolves were also closing in. Jacob leapt over my head and landed behind me blocking his former pack mates from pursuing me.

Instinct took over and I ducked, losing control of my bike for a moment as the front wheel turned back and forth, sending dirt, leaves, and pine needles every which way, I hate to admit it, but I nearly dumped my bike, by accident this time.

Suddenly Leah was there too, only instead of joining Jacob, she gave me a death glare and ran alongside the bike as if she was protecting me. I skidded to a stop and she growled at me, no translation needed, she was telling me to keep going.

"We gotta help Jacob!" I exclaimed dumping my bike. I started to go towards him but Leah jumped in front of me, baring her teeth.

I wasn't about to listen, Jacob had now saved me twice and I wasn't about to let him get hurt on my account, I owed him that much and a Callaghan always pays his debts.

Leah wasn't having any of that, she growled again and pushed me to the ground with her paws. She stood over me snarling, making sure I understood her perfectly clear, she put most of her weight on the paws that was on my chest holding me down to the ground, I could feel the weight crushing my chest and for a brief moment my mind flashed back to the night I was nearly killed, the night that brought me to Carlisle in the first place. I could feel the building weighing down on me, crushing me.

It took a few seconds for me to call myself back to the present, literally yanking my mind out of the past, remembering there was a giant wolf sitting on me, growling.

I growled back, but I wasn't in the mood to get eaten by my friend's sister so I gave in reluctantly. Believe me I wasn't happy about it. I don't like being held down or trapped like this and it went against every part of me to NOT fight her.

All of a sudden the growling from Jacob and the others stopped. One of the wolves not sure who, snorted his answer glared blatantly at me baring his teeth before they both turned and went the other way.

Jacob trotted back over to me and growled as Leah let me back up. I don't speak canine, but I can read their emotions and Jacob was PISSED.

He nodded violently in the direction of home and gave me a look that clearly said NOW.

I hesitated and he growled louder, showing his teeth. Grumbling I picked up my bike and jump started it, my own personal furry bodyguards on either side of me, escorting me home.

When I got back home Edward was on the front porch waiting and he was not a happy camper.

"What the hell were you thinking Chris?!" He hissed looking towards the house making sure Esme and Carlisle were not in earshot. "What were you doing!?"

Jacob darted behind a tree and changed back to human as he stomped towards me, if I thought he looked scary mad as a wolf, it was almost as bad as a human.

"Being a damn idiot is what he was doing and as far as thinking he clearly wasn't doing that either!" He shouted "you almost got yourself killed you stupid little flea! I should've just let them eat you!"

"Hey don't go all rabid wolf on me." I shot back "I was handling myself just fine."

"Yeah would've handled it fine as a meal."

"I don't know why they were after me anyways. I thought they want Bella. What the hell did I do to 'em?" I argued.

Seth came jogging around the corner of the house when he heard all the commotion. His eyes went wide when he saw my bike and my overstuffed backpack.

"Oh crap," he muttered

"Oh crap is right Seth, your stupid buddy here decided to go for a bike ride and almost got himself eaten." Jacob growled at him and Seth's head dropped in shame, like a little kid getting scolded by a teacher.

"Hey!" I exclaimed "I didn't do anything to them! I was minding my own business! Who declared it 'randomly attack the vampires?! You guys said there hadn't been any sign of the pack. Forgive me if I took that meant going the opposite way of the reservation to a completely different town was a stupid idea."

Jacob looked at me in shock then at Edward

"You didn't tell him?!" He exclaimed, accusingly.

"Tell me what?!" I said loudly

Jacob groaned and glared at Edward

"You really are a piece of work," he muttered "you're dumber than junior here."

"Hey!" I growled

"I didn't tell him because I didn't want to worry him or make him do something stupid. Clearly the latter happened." Edward replied shaking his head at me.

"Look someone better explain to me what the bloody hell is going on!"

Seth winced and stepped closer to me.

"Chris," he said carefully "look, there's a big reason why I left the pack and came with Jake."

"Go on," I growled glaring at my brother and Jacob. I knew they had both kept something important from me and I didn't like that at all. And to know that Seth, my best friend had kept it from me too, that was the last straw.

I've gotten used to Edward trying to keep things from me, Jacob I trust him about as far as Bella could throw him, so betrayal from those two doesn't surprise me, annoys me yes, but no surprises.

But Seth and I are friends, we've become best friends in the last few months and there's a trust developing between us that only comes from friendship and the very basis for that friendship may have just been broken.

"When Sam found out about Bella he began formulating a plan of attack. How we would take out Bella and her baby."

I nodded we all knew that, well 'cept Bella herself, Edward was making sure to keep that from her though Bella is not an idiot I'm sure she knew something was going on. Seth, Jacob, and Leah being around, yeah she knew, I know why Edward was trying to keep it from her, but I also know it's pointless.

"Yeah your point?"

Seth looked miserable telling me this, like he thought he was betraying our friendship somehow.

"Chris the truth is Sam wanted to use me to get you to drop your guard long enough for him and Leah...to...to" he stumbled over the words but I figured them out.

I dropped my bike to the ground and followed it down, sinking to my knees in disbelief. Seth seemed unable to continue so Jacob picked up.

"Sam knew you could manipulate our emotions, he knew you'd be the most dangerous one to the mission, make the pack vulnerable, make it so we wouldn't want to kill Bella, because of that Sam wanted you eliminated first."

"Bloody hell," I muttered. Because of my ability it takes a helluv a lot to surprise or even scare me, but this one definitely did.

"I couldn't help kill my best friend," Seth explained "and I wouldn't let anyone else do it either. So I came with Jacob to protect you guys."

"You're still priority number one kid, Sam still figures they take you out, their job will be easier. They've practically got a bounty out on you. Not to mention, he figured aside from your changing our emotions, you'd be the easiest to take out first, easiest to get to that is."

I growled, I hate being reminded of my size, especially compared to my brothers, I know Jacob wasn't trying to be cruel with his words, but they seriously weren't helping his case either.

Edward walked over and took my backpack. He opened it up and rolled his eyes, before his face went sympathetic.

"I'm sorry Chris," he said "this was my fault."

"Don't apologize Edward, it means nothing, the truth would've been more affective. You should have bloody told me!" I growled at him. "You shouldn't have kept that from me, I'm not some stupid little kid who needs to be babysat and I'm not some reckless nutter who will go looking for a fight, I thought you were my brother, I thought you'd at least know me well enough to tell me, to bloody trust me."

Edward's face went stiff and his shoulders dropped a little when I mentioned him as my brother, he's felt so guilty the year or so when it comes to our family, mainly because of how many times he's turned his back on us over Bella.

"Chris don't be like that,"

"Don't be like that?! You bloody lied to me Edward, in trying to protect me you could've gotten me killed, you're making me look the fool." I paused my anger swelling faster than I could contain it. "Do mum and dad know?" I managed to growl out between gritted teeth, I wasn't sure I really wanted an answer to that one, it was bad enough to know that my brother hadn't trusted me and had lied to me, to know that my parents had done the same thing was not going to help.

"Carlisle does yes, we figured it was safer if we didn't tell Esme." Edward paused "now I'm thinking telling mom might have been a good idea if it kept you home."

"Right yeah let's tell mum, let's tell Alice, Jasper, Emmett, the whole bloody world, let's tell Bella for Christ sake, but make sure we don't tell Chris, clearly he can't handle this. Clearly we all think he's mentally unstable." I growled.

Jacob had averted his eyes, like he was uncomfortable to be in the middle of this, Edward was trying to regain some ground, but he was failing miserably, and Seth, Seth looked ashamed and apologetic, but wasn't getting the bigger picture here.

"You're safe only if you're here, out in the woods you're fair game Chris." Seth added

"Right," I muttered "fine," I grabbed my bag back from Edward and tossed it to Jacob, hard. "Anyone needs me I'll be in the garage. An' no one better need me!" And with that I picked my bike up and wheeled it towards the garage. I could feel the three of them staring at my back but I didn't turn around. I wanted nothing to do with any of them at that point.

I felt betrayed and honestly hurt, I was also afraid if I stayed and talked to them, I'd say something I would regret. I didn't understand why they hadn't told me, why they hadn't trusted me. Did Edward really think that I was stupid enough to go out and annoy the wolves just because?

I may joke around and take risks, but that was a risk I wouldn't have taken had I known. It didn't matter how many times they apologized, I wasn't going to accept their apology right away…Scottish pride, it goes a long way and well takes a long time for that wounded pride to heal.

I honestly don't know what made me feel worse, the fact that my best friend and my brother had kept something this big from me or the fact that I was on a werewolf pack's hit list. Edward had said that Carlisle knew, so that was one more person who had kept this from me.

I felt my anger growing, I had known something was up, the look that Jacob kept giving Edward that first night they came running into the yard. I blame myself on that particular one though, I was too focused to properly profile, I had purposely ignored the looks because I was more concerned with Bella's safety.

I glanced towards the door that leads into the kitchen, speaking of Bella, her and Rose were probably wondering where I was. I hadn't told anyone I was going into town, I hadn't wanted to worry them…but was there more to that, had I known deep down that leaving our property was a bad idea? Was I just kidding myself into thinking it was safe?

That didn't change the fact that I'd been lied to, that something extremely important had been kept from me.

This just made me more angry, I could feel it swelling up inside me and I seriously wanted to hit something, I don't have a temper, at least I've never thought I did, but this whole thing had made me hit my breaking point. I knew I had to focus on something else, had to find a quick shift into something that would calm me down.

I knew instantly what would calm me down, I wanted to go to Neah Bay, I wanted to look out over the ocean from my favorite cliff, jump off that cliff into the ocean and go down as deep as possible…stay there until I could calm down.

I knew this was out of the question, the wolves were still out in the woods, lurking, waiting to destroy us, well, apparently me. I knew that meant I was going to be housebound. Instead of calming down because I was picturing my favorite spot in the world, it had the opposite affect and I felt my anger swelling up again, this time because I was under house arrest, all because of the bloody wolves.

"Bloody hell," I hissed, instead of punching something like I really wanted to, I settled for kicking something.

Rose had left the metal raisers out, we use them when Emmett's not around to get the cars up quickly, without using the lift. They were also easily replaceable so I had no qualms about kicking one of them as hard as I possibly could, sending it flying out of the garage towards the woods. It's better than kicking one of the cars or kicking my large tool chest out into midair.

"HOLY CRAP!?" Seth's voice exclaimed as he peeked around the corner of the garage, "dude that thing almost hit me, I had no idea this was a fly zone." I didn't answer my friend, at least not with words, I growled at him and turned my back on him. Pretending to be fascinated with the hood of Edward's Volvo. "Chris come on please don't be mad, look I wanted to tell you, but Jacob thought it was better if it came from Edward or Carlisle, and they were afraid if you knew, you'd…you'd well try to keep the pack away from here, by any means possible."

"I'm warning you Seth, leave me alone," I replied

"Why, you going to kick me like that metal thing?"

"Maybe," I growled back "keep bugging me and we'll find out."

I could practically feel Seth roll his eyes at me.

"Come on Chris, I'm sorry, I'm apologizing here."

"I don't want to hear it right now, you guys lied to me, you guys shouldn't have kept that from me…you shouldn't have kept that from me."

Seth was quiet for a few seconds, and if I couldn't hear him or smell him for that matter, I would have sworn he left the garage. I slowly turned around, Seth was sitting on the floor, like he was sulking and suddenly I felt really bad for snapping at my best friend. Granted I was still pissed as all hell at him, but I hated to see that literal pathetic puppy face.

"I wanted to tell you, believe me, but Jacob and Edward, what they said made a lot of sense, that telling you would be a bad idea."

I sighed and leaned against Edward's car

"Go on," I said softly, giving him the chance I had been refusing to give moments before. I took a deep breath "why me?" I finally asked "why would Sam figure I was a bigger threat than Emmett or Jasper. Sam has seen them fight, he knows how strong they are, both of them have a stronger battle sense than anyone in our family, he knows that doesn't he?"

Seth didn't reply for a second, then he nodded

"He knows, but he also looked at the bigger picture,"

"The bigger…picture?" I repeated "what bigger picture?"

"You're ability, he knows you can sense our emotions when we're wolves, he also knows that given the chance you can alter those emotions."

"Yeah maybe on one or two of you and only for a brief moment, I could certainly never handle the entire pack."

"Sam figured it was to much of a risk, if you had the chance to change even one of our minds about attacking…B-Bella, you had the potential to do the same to the entire pack. In Sam's mind, you're the biggest threat of the Cullen family, at least to the pack." Seth paused and let that sink in, "I-I'm sorry Chris," he whimpered a little and I knew how hard this must have been for him.

"Look, Seth I'm still pissed as all hell that you didn't tell me right out, but I get why you didn't and…you were only doing what you were told, it's Edward, Jacob, and even Carlisle who I'm really pissed at."

"If I tell you something, you promise not to get mad at me again?" Seth asked cautiously I shrugged it was the best answer I could give because I wasn't making any promises "Sam had this whole thing planned out, and think you should know how it was supposed to go down."

I had a feeling I wasn't going to enjoy this at all, but I also was grateful that Seth was willing to repeat the earlier discussion, I was way too pissed off outside to listen properly and I knew deep down I really needed to know exactly what the pack was planning.

"Go on," I replied and Seth nodded

"Sa-Sam was going to use me as a distraction, he figured you'd let your guard down around me, that would give him and Leah the chance to come at you, then the three of us would take you out."

I slowly slid to the floor, my knees buckling from under me as Seth's words played over and over in my mind.

"Seriously?" I asked slowly and Seth nodded

"Yeah, Sam wasn't taking any chances, you were priority number one, take you out, then the rest of the pack could focus on everyone else." Seth paused "I wasn't going be to be used as a tool to kill you and I wasn't going to kill my best friend. When Jacob managed to break from Sam's orders, I didn't even hesitate to follow him." He paused again "I'm sorry I didn't tell you and I'm sorry Edward and Carlisle didn't tell you either, they were probably trying to protect you, they just didn't think it all the way through."

I ran my hand through my hair and sighed

"I think I'm going to stay out here for a little longer, I'm not ready to face my parents, and I'm certainly not ready to forgive my brother."

Seth looked out towards the woods for a second before he came back in and tossed me my backpack.

"What the hell is in that thing anyways?"

I slowly stood up, walked over to the bench and dumped the contents out, Seth's eyes went -wide and I swear I saw him drooling a little as his face broke into a huge grin and he smacked his lips.

"I felt bad for you guys so I figured I'd go into Beaver and pick up some junk food for you."

Seth literally slapped his forehead

"You idiot," he mumbled, but I could hear the joking in his voice,

"We've already determined that," I reminded him

He pulled out the giant Hersey bar and ripped off the wrapping, shoving the whole thing in his mouth

"I gotta say," he mumbled around the candy bar "you stupid move is delicious."

"Thanks," I replied dryly, watching him eat

"Oh dude, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be eating this in front of you, I mean you guys can't eat human food right?"

I chuckled

"We can eat it to keep up appearances, but it doesn't go anywhere, we have to er…hack it up somehow eventually." Seth's face went green and he stopped mowing down the chocolate bar "sorry," I added shrugging

"That is so nasty," he replied and went back to eating his chocolate bar "so you don't want any then?" he asked and I shook my head

"Er, definitely no, human food has no taste for us other than gross. Believe me if I could I would join you, I loved Hersey bars as a kid." I paused "and you can eat that right, like you're not going to drop dead of anaphylaxis shock are you?"

"Ana who?" Seth asked

"You know, have a severe allergic reaction to that chocolate and drop dead on me."

"Why would I drop dead from eating chocolate?" I raised my eyebrow and waved my hands gesturing to what I thought was pretty obvious, it took Seth a few seconds to understand what I was talking about "ohhhh, the whole wolf thing, yeah no I'm a chocoholic, haven't dropped dead yet.' Seth explained, he eyed the bag "dude did you get rice cakes?"

"Uh, yeah, they were in the snack food aisle."

"No one eats rice cakes willingly."

"But they were in the snack aisle," I repeated "why put them there if no one is going to eat them. Seems like it be a waste of space."

"It was a trick, so suckers will think they taste good. You seriously need to get out more,"

"Yeah I'll work on that."

"But seriously, thanks Chris, you didn't need to do this."

I shrugged

"Yeah whatever," I replied "just enjoy them so I know my sacrifice wasn't in vain."

Seth grinned and nodded as he dove into the bag of Doritos. I rolled my eyes and was about to put on the radio to work on the cars and take my mind off of everything when the garage door flew open, there was Esme standing in the doorway looking madder than I have ever seen her. Seth looked up when the door opened and exchanged a horrified look with me.

"Christian Aiden Cullen, we need to talk. NOW."

"Oh hell," I muttered, sliding off the work bench and heading slowly towards my mum.

"Nice knowing you," Seth whispered.

"It was nice to be known." I replied following Esme into the house.

xxx