A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews and feedback. I know I've got lazy with replying individually but I've been working on the out-take of the pack POV from the trip so please forgive!
Disclaimer: Twilight is the delightful creation of Meyer and I own nothing except an overactive imagination and a love for mythology.
I opened my eyes and stretched, wow I felt good. Leaning back on the pillow I allowed my mind to drift back to last night. I couldn't believe what Bella had done, and how seriously amazing it had been. I was a lucky lucky wolf! I rolled over and listened to the house, I could hear her and Billy chatting in the kitchen, he was telling her some more of the stories of the tribe while she was cooking. Mm mm, breakfast, time to get up. I wandered into the kitchen and kissed her on her forehead, and got a happy little smile in return but I could tell she was wrapped up in the story so I left her to it to jump in the shower. It was as if we were already a happily married couple, no need for big dramatics and grand gestures, just content in our own little world. It occurred to me that I'd never actually even taken her out on a real date. That night at the movies with vomiting boy didn't exactly count. Maybe we should try and do something one of these days.
I stood in the shower, relaxed and feeling really happy. I was just scrubbing my hair, no need to really wash it now it was so short, just soap it up like the rest of me and scrub, when I heard Embry say my name. I jumped and turned round, skidding about in the shower, then realised he wasn't actually there. I tried to tune in to him, feel for him and the slightly sick feeling came back as I felt his consciousness attach to mine.
"Oh man, I didn't know if it would work, Quil and I spent ages trying to talk to each other last night but it seems like it's just a one-to-one connection with you". He sounded excited, like a child with a new toy.
"Let me get this straight, you guys were at a party with loads of girls who were hot for you after the dance routine, and you spent ages trying to talk to each other??" I teased, I mean he walked right into that one.
"No!..not like that, I got my game on! Don't hate on the player" Embry was protesting heavily, and I would have loved to keep ribbing him but this talking in my head thing wasn't making me feel great.
"Sure, sure...hey, you giving me brain ache for anything in particular? 'cause I need to shut it off otherwise. Think this might be a Bat phone kind of deal you know, emergencies only". I was having to hold on to the wall, it felt like the room was spinning.
"Mom got a call from one of her friends this morning, it seems that this woman's daughter never made it home last night. Mom woke me up to ask if I'd seen her." I snapped to attention, despite the fact that the room was still spinning. "Wake the pack, Leah too. I want them down here as soon as they can". I locked Embry out of my head and took some deep breaths to try to calm the sick feeling.
I stumbled out of the shower wrapping the towel round me and stood staring in the mirror. I thought back to the leech that Sam and I had hunted last night, had it been her...was she someone's daughter? Did something take her from my party and turn her, then I slaughtered her? A shiver went through my spine. I was made to destroy the leeches, but I had always thought of them as something else, inhuman, evil. What if I came upon a leech wearing the face of somebody I knew? Somebody I cared about. I felt the darkness inside of me burst from behind it's shield as I could see my beautiful queen, her skin ice cold and pale, her eyes blood red and hungry. The agony ripped into my heart and I dropped to my knees, a painful howl releasing from me.
Suddenly she was there, I felt her hands gripping my face, calling my name "Jake, baby, don't do this again, stay with me, I'm here baby, I'm here". I felt her grab my hand and place it on her heart, I could feel the steady beat, the thump thump that reassured me, and slowly everything calmed. We were on the bathroom floor, dad had rolled in and was looking at me with a pained expression. "What did you see son?"
I looked up at him, my eyes widening. "How did you know?" He nodded his head slowly, "Your grandfather used to say that his heart used to show him what he was fighting for, remind him to give it his all every time".
Bella was looking between us, "Was it like a nightmare?" I nodded and she rubbed my head and helping me up. She kissed my eyelids softly and whispered in my ear "I'll have to keep giving you better things to dream about then!" I chuckled then, remembering what she had giving me to dream about last night and hugged her tightly. I loved that she didn't press me on what I saw for once.
"Come on, I'm making you breakfast". "Bells honey, can you throw some extra together, the pack will be here in a little bit for a meeting". She glared at me in horror and I flinched, I may be a super-wolf now, but I still didn't want to get on the wrong side of this feisty little woman.
"The pack...my first pack breakfast...and you give me how much notice?" She screeched at me, grabbing a towel and viciously, well for her anyway, swinging it at my head. She ran out of the room then and I heard pots and pans clattering away, along with a few choice words I hadn't heard Bella use before.
I threw on some shorts and wandered outside, hoping that the fresh air would clear my thoughts some more, and also discretely trying to avoid any further wrath of Bella. I was poking at some loose guttering when I saw the cruiser pull up out the front. I knew straight away that this was business as Charlie was in uniform despite it being Sunday. I headed straight over to meet him by the car.
"Charlie, has there been any word on the girl?" He looked at me in surprise. "Word travels fast" I shrugged, hoping that he didn't read too much into it. He nodded towards the garage and I followed him in, clearly this had become our preferred spot for 'man-talk'. He was agitated, clearly shaken and gripping a manilla folder like it contained some government secret.
"Jake" he faltered, clearly trying to chose his words. "I need to know some things..." He trailed off again and I took a breath, becoming fearful of where this talk might go. Whether this was a Bella talk or a things that might possibly be associated with a large wolf pack on your doorstep talk, I wasn't feeling particularly confident about answering either.
Charlie sat down hard, putting his head against the sides of his head. He shook his head then and stood back up, clearly as uncomfortable with whatever he was thinking of asking as I was trying to answer it.
"Son, do you know how I met your father?" I frowned, OK not the conversation I was expecting, but clearly better than either than answering questions about my relationship with Bella without thinking about last night; or talking about missing girls without mentioning wolves and vampires. I shook my head.
"I couldn't have been more than about 6, I was out in the woods, roaming around, see my dad wasn't exactly...well he had the problem with the drinking after my mom passed...so anyway I used to roam around a lot to be out of the house and one time I was not far from here and I fell down one of those drops out by the edge of the old Uley land. I couldn't get back up and there was no one around. Night fell and I was really cold and so I tried to climb back up again but my fingers were frozen stiff and I lost my grip and fell further down, smashing up my arm good and proper. Anyway, I must of passed out from the pain because the next thing I knew there was this huge guy picking me up and jumping and leaping back up the cliffs. I had never seen a guy that big before and I was terrified of him. He looked me up and down before continuing.
I thought he was going to hurt me or eat me or something but he took me back to his home and cleaned me up and fixed up my arm and made a bed up for me. In the morning this kid comes in and says "Hi, I'm Billy and my dad says we are going to be best friends for life".
Charlie was looking at me intently now. "Ephraim took me home the next day, with Billy as well. Sent me and Billy up to my room and talked to my dad until nightfall came again. When we came down for dinner, everything had changed and nothing was ever the same again".
"You know when I walked in this house the day Bella came back from Jacksonville I thought I was seeing a ghost. I swear I thought it was Ephraim standing next to her."
I swallowed deeply then. I knew the stories of my grandfather, I knew he was the Alpha of the the last pack to stand before mine. I didn't remember him, he had passed before I was born. Billy had never mentioned what Charlie knew or didn't know, but it was clear that he was allowed much closer to the Elders and the tribe in general than most outsiders. I wondered how much influence my grandfather had had over that. Would he have known that he was saving the father of the next Alpha's imprint? Was that why he took him to his home, rather than taking a scared little boy back to his own home as most people would have done?
"He was a good man, a strong leader. The Council still speak highly of him to this day". I answered him, Charlie nodded at me.
"From that day, all my life from then on, I trusted him. I trusted him when he told me to become a police officer. I trusted him when he told me to let them go and that she would find her way back to me. I trusted him with my life and with those of everyone around him." I had known Charlie for such a long time and I had never heard these type of things from him. I scared me but it also made me proud, of who I was, who I came from.
"Billy and I have been friends a long time, Harry too. I've never troubled them for Council business and I've minded my own, even when we disagreed on things. I never troubled them when Sam walked out of the forest with my baby when no one else could find her." Charlie gripped the folder and handed it to me but I continued to stare at him.
"I'd been working on some other missing people cases with some of the local forces and they had one of them shrinks involved. He said that this looks more like a serial sex attacker, that someone is targeting these girls. I need to know Jake, when you said that you would protect my baby, I need to know if you meant like that like a boyfriend, or if you meant it the way Ephraim would have said it? I was trembling, not shaking like I was going to phase, but trembling now. I loved this guy to the core, why was he asking me this? if he knew, really knew like he seemed to, about the Council, about the rules, why was he asking me questions if he knew I couldn't answer him?
Charlie snatched the folder out of my hands and opened it, laying it out on the hood of the car. He spread out the photos, there were six girls in all, all late teens to early twenties, he picked them up furiously, thrusting them in my face "Look at her!", a girl with the same long brown wavy hair curling over her shoulders. He thrust another "Look at her!" another with the same pale skin, and a fragile looking body. "Tell me I can trust you, tell me I can trust you like I trusted him". He was sobbing now and the pain of this along with the terrible truth that was lying on the hood of my car had tears rolling down my face as well.
I looked at the photos again, picking up those of the two we had killed in the last few days, as a leech I hadn't seen it, even when Sam had tried to imagine the first one whilst she was still human, but here was undeniable proof. Each of these girls, looked similar to the beautiful angel cooking furiously inside. This was not random, this was a message, someone was coming for my queen.
There was a lot of noise coming our way, and I pulled Charlie up straight as the pack descended on the garage. There was immediate silence as everyone took in the tense atmosphere between us. I grabbed the remaining 4 pictures and addressed my wolves, minding my words in Charlie's presence. "You will eat, then you will find". I passed the photos to them, flinching as I heard the gasps as everyone saw what I had.
"Jared and Quil to the South, Paul and Embry to the West, Seth and I will go East, converge North. Eat now, and remember to thank Bella for the food." They headed straight to the kitchen. "Leah, Bella is to go to your house, keep her busy. I want a study programme drawn up, probably 3 afternoons a week, for all the guys, I think with you and Bella tutoring everyone it should work". She nodded and filed over to the kitchen.
Sam was looking between Charlie and myself. "Jake" his thought broke into my mind and the sickness wobbled me, "he's still an outsider". I cut the connection and nodded. "Charlie, Sam and I ran in to some trouble recently near the res, we frightened off a guy who was getting too close to someone. Perhaps if Sam was to help you with a description, you could circulate it to the schools, encourage girls to be on their guard?" Charlie nodded and I waved Sam to the kitchen. I looked at Charlie then "You should eat too, it's going to be a long day".
Charlie shook his head. "I'll leave you to do your thing, I'll wait for Sam at the station". He turned and moved towards the door. I breathed a deep sigh, thankful that for the second time today I wasn't being pushed any more. "Jake, just one thing" he turned, a small smile appearing on his troubled face "Leah at Bella's school, that's your doing isn't it?" I looked at him softly and smiled, rubbing my hand over my hair. "You have a good day now, Chief Swan" I said with a nod. He nodded back and smiled wider, heading out to the cruiser.
I headed in, all of the pack were eating heartily, as was dad. Bella stood, leaning against the counter, her face a picture of smug satisfaction as she nibbled on a piece of toast. I kissed the top of her head and grabbed my plate. Quil piped up "Was the leech you guys took out last night the one who went missing from the party?" Bella's expression changed into a look of confusion. I moved to her side "It's going to be OK". She nodded "I'm alright, but...you know it can't be right?" She had everyone's attention now.
"Honey, why don't explain what you mean". I was as interested as the rest of them. "OK, well if you attacked a vampire that was up and moving, it can't have been someone from the party. When someone is turned, it will take three days for the transformation to take place. In that time they will be in a painful coma almost, burning from the inside. They would be noisy and screaming most likely. The one you found last night would have had to have been turned maybe Wednesday? That would mean you won't find the person from the party until at least Tuesday".
She stopped, then trembled slightly. I rubbed her arms. "Thank you". She leaned against me, I could sense her tiredness already. This must be hard on her, like two worlds colliding, except this time she on the other side of the battle. It didn't take long for the guys to demolish her hard work and then they were all piling out the door, saying their 'thank yous' as they went.
I went to follow them and felt her little arms wrap round my waist. I turned inside them and smiled at her little worried face. "Come home safely"she said, her voice breaking on the last word. I pulled her up to my height and crushed her against my chest. "I'm the big bad wolf, it's them that should be afraid".