Chapter 29 – Divided
Sam's POV
"So what do you think?" Emily asked.
I opened up my tired eyes and tried to focus on what Emily was showing me. In her hand was a burning candle of multiple colors. The smell made my nose wrinkle up in disgust.
"It smells like burnt tires."
"Well, that's not my fault. The next time you decide to buy useless items like candle wax at the store, try to pick up some scented wax. I think this one came out pretty good my self."
"Yankee Candle couldn't have done any better. It's great Em, really." I sat up from where I was lazily sprawled on the couch to give Emily's work my full attention.
She had been on a roll the past month making one new candle every week. This was her fourth creation. And with it, went the last of the candle wax supplies. It actually did look really good. Too bad it stunk so badly.
Emily sniffed as she put her cherished creation proudly on the table next to the couch and sat down next to me. I reached over and pulled her on to my lap and softy started kissing her neck. She giggled for a moment before pulling away.
Emily glanced at me coyly and said, "So are you ready for a fun filled afternoon of shopping?"
I groaned in response. Emily and I had set the date for the wedding and booked a church and reception hall. We were now planning a shopping trip to Port Angeles to get things set up.
Emily's mom and sister-in-law, who were staying with the Clearwaters, were coming with us. Sue had been asked to go as well but decided to stay behind. Billy and Old Quil were coming over to her house for a meeting. I was taking a break from patrolling for a few hours. I had left Collin and Brady to patrol on their own for a while so that I could go shopping with Emily. I knew Jacob was around though and they only had to howl if there was trouble.
We heard a knock on the door and Emily went to answer it. Soon the air was filled with the excited chatter of Stacy and Emily's mother, Eva, from the kitchen. Stacy walked into the living room and I went over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"The girls didn't want to come with you?" I asked looking behind her for Cora and Claire.
"Cora decided she wanted to stay at home with her dad. Claire is at Sue's. She keeps crying for Quil so I think Sue was going to call and see if he could stop by. That little girl of mine sure does think the world of Quil."
Emily and I exchanged smirking glances. Stacy sat carefully down on our overstuffed living room chair. I eyed her round pregnant belly warily.
"Are you sure you're up for this?" I asked.
"Yes," Stacy snapped, before smiling apologetically, "Sorry, you sound like my husband. But as I told him, I still have a month to go. I'll be fine, don't worry."
We all piled into Eva's car and headed for Port Angeles. Emily and I sat in the back seat holding hands the whole way down. We stopped by a party store first to look at invitations and table settings.
Who knew trying to decide what to place in the middle of a table at the reception could be so challenging. The women took over and it got to the point where I just sat back in nodded. After a while I noticed Emily also sit back as she let her sister-in-law and mother take over. It was finally decided that we would have mirrors placed in the middle of the tables with candles on top of mirrors.
Next we moved on to invitations. The women were excited over these as well. I protested only once when the invitation that Eva and Stacy agreed would be "just perfect" was too sappy. I knew that if it was sent out to the pack members, they would never let me hear the end of it. There seemed to be an endless amount of books filled with different invitations and my eyes began to gloss over.
"How bout this one, Sam?" Emily said laughing.
I looked at the card she was holding up for me. On the cover was a wolf howling at a heart shaped moon with the saying "we're moonstruck."
"Yeah, that's the one." I agreed and Emily rolled her eyes before flipping through another book of invitations.
When everything was finally ordered, we moved onto the next stop, which was the caterer. I was actually looking forward to this one because I was promised free cake samples. We walked into the shop and a tall, thin man approached us.
"Ello, ow may I elp you?" The man asked with an incredibly over the top French accent.
Yeah, like Port Angeles was the cuisine capital of the world that would draw international caterers. If this guy wasn't really from Portland or Seattle, I'd eat my shoe. I snickered out loud and felt Emily's elbow my stomach. Not that it hurt, but the implication was clear. I stopped laughing immediately.
We told the man what we were there for. He scoffed when he learned we were getting married the Saturday after New Year's. But he still agreed to make the cake anyway. We tried different samples and decided what we liked.
We started to head towards the florist shop next. I looked at Stacy in amazement. Even though she was eight months pregnant, she looked like she could go for another eight hours. I felt like I was going to drop on my feet as I begrudgingly dragged myself to the next stop. When my phone rang, I jumped at it like a lifeline. I excused myself and walked outside the shop.
"Hello?" I asked.
"It's Seth. Listen, Charlie Swan was trying to track down Billy, and he finally got a hold of him at my house. I guess Bella and Edward are back, but Bella's really sick."
I froze for a minute, before asking "Does Jacob know?"
"I don't think so. Paul was hanging out with Rachel when Charlie called there, but when I talked to him, he said that Jacob had stepped out. Paul said he thought he heard Jacob on the beach with Quil and Claire."
"Okay, listen. Don't tell anyone else what you told me. We don't need Jacob going off right now. I'm on my way back." I said before disconnecting the call. I stepped back into the shop and walked over to Emily and her family.
"Listen, an emergency just came up and I need to leave." I told Emily, cradling her face for a quick kiss before I whispered for her ears only, "Its pack business."
Emily nodded in understanding, but looked disappointed. I pulled her in for another quick kiss.
"But how will you get back?" Eva asked.
"Uh…I know someone in town who can give me a ride back. Sorry to run out, ladies," I said before reaching out and kissing Emily's hand.
I let it go and turned and walked out of the shop quickly and ran faster than what was probably humanly possible. I ran until I hit the forest. As soon as I was out of sight, I phased and headed back to La Push as quickly as I could. Collin and Brady were still on patrol so I quickly filled them in. I felt Seth phase and told him where to meet Collin and Brady.
All of us were concerned. Jacob was filled with vengeance right now. He wanted nothing more than to attack and kill all of the Cullens. It was about revenge, pure and simple. I had already had to talk with Jacob more than once about why we wouldn't attack the Cullens. I kept having to remind him that we wouldn't break the treaty, until the Cullens breached it first, but he wouldn't listen.
Quite frankly, he was getting on my nerves and had been ever since he came back from his little jaunt. Whenever I thought of Jacob anymore, I felt this nagging anger at the back of my neck. Talking to him made me feel like a broken record. I kept saying the same things over and over and it was pissing me off.
I was getting to the point where I just wanted to order him to stop thinking of the Cullens, but while I knew I could stop his actions, I couldn't stop his thoughts. The problem was he was too emotionally tide to the Cullen situation and couldn't think objectively. He was putting his own needs before the needs of the tribe and I was tired of it.
I got back to La Push in minutes. As soon as I reached the border, I let out a howl and soon felt several simmers in the air as people phased. I focused on the one voice I was most concerned with.
Jacob was thinking about Bella's wedding. How he had wanted to kill Edward Cullen so badly that night. I could see he was also angry at me for putting the Alpha order on him not to attack. He hated when I gave him an order.
"So self-absorbed all the time," Leah chimed in.
"Yeah, no hypocrisy there, Leah," Jacob sneered back.
"Can it, guys," I said.
Leah took offense to the word "guys." I was waiting to feel Jared and Quil, but they hadn't joined us yet. I thought that Quil was with Jacob?
"Where's Quil and Jared?" I asked.
"Quil's got Claire. He's taking her to the Clearwater house." Jacob replied.
"Good. Sue will take her."
"Jared was going to Kim's" Embry said. "Good chance he didn't hear you."
We all shifted uncomfortably. None of us wanted to see inside Jared's head right now. I'm sure Kim wouldn't want us to either. I let out another howl so the rest of the pack would find where I was waiting with Seth, Collin, and Brady.
"Well, we're not waiting all day for him. He'll just have to catch up later." I told them.
"Sup, boss?" Paul asked.
"We need to talk. Something's happened." Those of us who knew that Bella was back shifted our focus to Jacob. I felt him wonder in return why we thinking of him.
"Seth, tell them what you heard." I instructed at the same time I heard Jacob mock Leah for claiming she was the fastest wolf.
"Claim this moron," she yelled.
"Jake, Leah, give it a rest." I said irritated before adding, "Seth?"
"Charlie called around till he found Billy at my house." Seth responded.
"Yeah, I talked to him," Paul added.
I felt a tremor go through Jacob's body. This was what we were waiting for. Seth hesitated before continuing.
"So he's all flipped out. Guess Edward and Bella got home last week, and…"
I paid close attention to Jacob's emotions as Seth repeated what he had heard. Bella was home and she was sick with some rare disease. Charlie had been told that she was under quarantine and no one could see her. He had talked to her a couple of times on the phone, but she had sounded worse when he'd talked to her today.
Jacob was furious. He was wondering if they were going to tell Charlie that she "died" of this disease. If they were going to bury her, and she would have to dig herself out of her vampire grave. He was still thinking these thoughts when Leah and Jacob burst into the clearing that we were standing in.
"Beatcha again," Leah said, but Jacob ignored her.
"What are we waiting for?" He asked, looking at me. I hesitated and felt the same reluctance from the rest of the pack.
"Oh come on! The treaty's broken." Jacob yelled.
"We have no proof—maybe she is sick…" I started to say but Jacob interrupted.
"OH, PLEASE!"
"Okay, so the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong," I replied, "Still, Jacob. Are you sure this is what you want? Is it really the right thing? We all know what she wanted."
"The treaty doesn't mention anything about victim preferences, Sam!" Jacob argued.
We went back and forth on the issue with Seth chiming in, in favor of the Cullens. We continued until we heard Quil say, "Dang, what'd I miss? Heard about Charlie's call…"
"We're getting ready to go," Jacob responded, "Why don't you swing by Kim's and drag Jared out with your teeth? We're going to need everyone."
The nagging that always seem to be in my neck whenever Jacob was around anymore seemed to shoot down my spine and I became so angry that I actually saw red. He wasn't the Alpha male. He turned his back on that path a while ago.
"Come straight here, Quil." I spit out. "We've decided nothing yet." And Jacob growled like the whiny bitch he was. I took a deep breath to calm myself.
"Jacob, I have to think about what's best for the pack. I have to choose the course that protects you all best. Times have changed since our ancestors made that treaty. I…well, I don't believe that the Cullens are a danger to us. And we know that they will not be here much longer. Surely once they've told their story, they will disappear. Our lives can return to normal."
"Normal?" Jacob asked sarcastically. I was getting fed up with his attitude.
"If we challenge them, Jacob, they will defend themselves well."
"Are you afraid?" He sneered.
"Are you so ready to lose a brother?" I asked and felt Leah wince, so I added on lamely, "Or a sister?"
"I'm not afraid to die."
"I know that, Jacob. It's one reason I question your judgment on this."
"Coward." He yelled. Fury raced over me.
"Enough Jacob. You're overruled." I told him in my Alpha voice. I looked at the rest of the pack and told them also under command that we would not be attacking the Cullens because of Bella's choice.
Jacob went storming off saying that he was going to say goodbye to his father since there was no point of staying around here any longer. As he fled, he started blocking us from his thoughts as he thought about the time he had lived completely as a wolf. And then there was silence as he phased back into human form.
There was something in his rebellious arguments and attempts to block us out of his mind right before he phased, that made the nagging pain in my neck explode over my entire body.
A/N – Please Review
