Chapter 28

Alec

I could not look at Seth. His head had an immense gash on his head, he had half-healed cuts and bruises, along with open and bleeding cuts all over his body. He arm also stuck out at an abnormal angel. I turned away as Jake put Seth's shorts on him, carefully avoiding his multiple cuts and bruises.

"Seth," I heard Jacob Black say, relief evident in his voice.

"Hey…Jake….." Seth said very weakly, slurring his words.

"Shhh…" Jacob commanded, "don't talk Seth, just do not talk. Paul will carry you to the Cullens' house, okay? Carlisle will fix you up really good, do you hear me? You will be back causing me a ton of trouble in no time, you got that?"

Seth weakly gave Jacob a half smile. Another massive wolf went into the forest and less than a minute later, Paul came out of the woods. There was a hard look on his face, masking the concern evident in his eyes. He went over to where Jacob was kneeling by Seth.

"Seth," Jacob began to say again, "Paul is going to carry you. He will try to move fast, yet keep from hurting you. Bear with us, alright? You will be a Carlisle's soon enough."

Seth simply gave a little nod, and grimaced in pain.

Jacob turned to me, "Ready?"

I shook my head no. "I am going to stay here until she," I pointed to the burning vampire, "is nothing but ash. Then I will run back to Carlisle's," I told him shortly.

Jacob nodded, thinking. "Paul," he commanded, "you and the pack will get Seth to Carlisle as fast as you possibly can, got that?" Paul nodded, as did the rest of the wolves in surrounding Seth. "Alec and I are going to stay here and make sure that this vampire bitch is dead. We will catch up with you as soon as it is done. Am I understood?" The wolves howled in response.

"Sam," Jake turned to the other pack leader who was still in his wolf form. "You and your pack can do whatever the hell you think is best, but I would really appreciate if you went to the Cullens with my pack, and then went to La Push and to tell Leah, her mom, my dad, and whoever else is worried sick, that Seth is with Dr. Carlisle and he will fix him up." Sam nodded his head in response to Jake's request, and howled at his pack.

"Go," Jacob commanded, "go now!" The two packs howled in unison, and big burly Paul scooped up the bloodied and wounded Seth into his arms. With a short nod at Jake, he and the pack ran through the woods.

"I hope to god that he makes it out ok," Jacob said so softly, almost to himself.

"I will be," I assured Jake, also trying to convince myself. Seth was tough, but even so. He was bleeding everywhere, his arm was broken, and he had sustained a serious head injury. And in this case, the healing factor that he had would probably do more harm than good.

"I…I want to thank you," Jacob said, turning to face me. "And I…I also want to apologize." That last bit startled me.

"Why?" I asked.

"I want to apologize…for not trusting you," Jacob said slowly. "I thought that you and Alexandra were here to destroy Nessie, and that the whole story about Lexi's sister was made up. That it was a ruse in order to allow you two to stay here. I thought after you gained enough information about us, you were going to call the Volturi and everyone was going to come and destroy us. That is why I my pack and I never welcomed you. Seth," Jake's voice got husky when he said Seth's name, "Seth, of course, decided that you guys could be trusted. He always sees that best in people. So when he went over to the Cullens' house during those movie marathons you had, and that Harry Potter weekend that Lexi and Renesmee decided to have, I decided to use Seth to spy on the two of you. He had no idea of course. When we were in wolf form, I would ask him how you two were doing, and his excitement and the images would convey any information that I wanted to know. I slowly realized that maybe, maybe Lexi's story was true. But I think I did not want to believe it. It was probably the hatred of you from a few years ago clouded my current judgment. I am apologizing because I realize that you are not here for that reason; you are not here to exterminate the Quileute population and wipe out the Cullens. And I see that you actually do care about Seth. And for mistrusting you… I am deeply sorry. I should not have judged you, and should have been willing to trust you. After all, you saved one of my pack. And you saved Renesmee. Clearly, you are a much more decent person then I thought you were." Jacob ended his confession and stared to the last few embers left from the burning female vampire. I thought about what he had said, letting it sink in.

We stood there and watched it burn in silence. When all that was left was a smoldering pile of ashes. I went over to the ashes and scooped then up. I then walked over to a nearby tree, and punched a hole in the ground. There I unceremoniously dumped the ashes into the hole. I covered the ashes with dirt, and spit on it in disgust. I turned and saw Jacob staring at me. I figured I should probably say something to him, as neither of us had said a word since Jacob bore his soul to me.

"Jacob," I cleared my throat and began again, "Jake…everything you told me…thanks for telling me. It took a lot of guts to tell me that. And I want you to know that it does not matter what you thought of me; you had every reason to mistrust me. And I am glad that I can tell you, truthfully, and set your fears at rest, that I am not a spy for the Volturi, I am truly here because Lexi is looking for her sister. And I really am hoping that Seth will be ok." I paused, and looked up at Jacob Black. "And I forgive you."

Relief was obvious in his face, but he just simply nodded. He took a deep breath and gazed around what earlier had been a battlefield of sorts.

"Are you ready to go," he asked. I nodded, and he went off into the woods to phase. I headed in the other direction, sniffing the trees. It was just as I thought. There were more vampires here than just the two that Lexi and I killed. I would keep the bad news to myself until we got back to the Cullens' house. There was no need for Jacob to risk himself. And I felt that we should have a group of us. The vampires would probably travel together because of what had already happened to two of their kind. I heard a growl and turned around. Jacob was waiting for me. I gave him a simple nod and we began running like crazy back to the Cullens' house.

I could tell by the way that Jacob was straining himself to run that he was more concerned than he had let on about the welfare of Seth. I was beginning to struggle a little in order to try and keep pace with him. At the same time as I was running, I was taking in the air around me, trying to smell any vampires that were not the Cullens and that were not already dead. Thankfully, there were no unfamiliar scents. I slowed as we neared the house, and Jacob went behind a bush and phased. He came out and I immediately noticed the pained look on his face.

"Let's go," he said shortly, and silently nodded. We ran up to the door and Jake flung it opened.