Chapter Twenty Nine: The Hunt
Thankfully a storm had rolled in during the night and soaked the water-logged earth of La Push and Forks, erasing almost all evidence of wolf activity. The past couple of days have had no sightings of the wolves or anything other than squirrels and birds. There hadn't been any deaths or disappearances either. Even Isabella was almost staying out of trouble. She had taken a trip down to La Push to see Jake the day after her hike and had started some trouble, but had locked herself in her room since to sulk about Jake's rejection.
Sunday we didn't go into the trees till one, after the churches got out and everyone had the chance to get ready to return to the search. I was relaxing in the living room when there was a hard knock on the front door. Leah irritated toward the door before she gathered Alex in her arms and took him upstairs for a diaper change. I sighed and got up to answer the door. When I opened the door I was surprised to see Paul on the other side. He looked pissed. He was only in a pair of cut offs and there was a slight tremble that ran over his skin like an electric current.
"What's wrong?" I asked as I stepped out onto the porch and shut the door behind me.
"Bella knows." He growled out between gritted teeth. It took me a second to comprehend what he was talking about.
"What?" I asked in disbelief.
"How?" I demanded
"Jacob figured out a loop-hole around Sam's order. Apparently, he told her about the legends last year when she came down on a beach trip with some of the kids from Forks. He helped jog her memory to help her piece what he wanted her to understand. Why he couldn't hang out, talk, and why he had been avoiding her." Paul muttered angrily.
"Damn it! Why'd he go and do that?" I seethed. It was bad enough she knew about vampires, but to know about the pack is like putting a target on her back. She knows too much and anyone can see she's a danger to the secret their keeping.
"He thought if she knew he would be able to spend time with her again and make her better like he thought he was before he wolfed out." Paul said as he glared out at the trees angrily. I stared off into the trees with him and could see where Jake stood with his decisions, but I also knew this would complicate things. Like hiding my knowledge from her, it would become harder with us hanging around with the same people. One slip of the tongue from any of the guys and the wolf would be out of the bag and hurricane Isabella would hit the shore hard.
"She can't know about me." I said as I stared at the old birch that stood crooked and half dead. Paul turned to look at me.
"She's not dating that blood sucker anymore. What's it matter if she knows or not?" Paul asked as he looked at me curiously.
"Because if one of them ever came back. She would pick them in a heartbeat and I refuse to put myself and my family in that position where she uses me as a go between for a couple of years before they send out word of her 'death'. She is not to know." I said firmly. Paul nodded and laid his hand on my shoulder before standing up and running back into the forest. I stayed on the porch thinking for a few minutes before going back inside.
Today was gloomy and there was an odd feeling to the air. Something wasn't right and I feared it had something to do with Isabella. There was a storm moving in and we were going to head home early this afternoon to be out of the forest when the storm hit. I was hanging back bring up the rear of the group with Harry as we were coming to the end of today's search.
"Harry there's something I want to run by you." I said as we walked. He looked toward me and raised his eyebrow. I took a deep breath before continuing.
"I wanted to know your opinion on proposing to Leah. I wanted to know if you thought it was too soon and if I should wait." I said. Harry was quiet and I was starting to worry that he didn't agree with me marrying his daughter. After about a minute Harry laid his hand on my shoulder and with a proud smile nodded.
"You two are meant for each other. You already live together and are raising a child. Why not make it official and put a ring on her finger?" Harry said and I grinned at him. He held out his hand and I shook it easily. Happy that I had Harry's approval to marry his daughter.
"Harry! Come up here!" Dad shouted from the front. Harry gave me another pat on the shoulder before he hurried up front to see what dad had called him for. I hung back still. I was momentarily floating on cloud nine till I heard the trees ruffle behind me. I turned to see a blur of red fall from the tree and land on the ground in a crouch.
The women stood and I know immediately know what she was. She had pale flawless skin, a mass of untamed red hair, and piercing eyes the color of fresh blood. She gave me a bone chilling smile before she lunged at me. The last thing I remember is a mass of red blocking my vision and deep growl that I could barely hear over my own shout of distress.
Leah POV:
I had gone over to my parent's after picking Alex up from Emily. It had become routine to head over to mom and dad's after work and wait with mom for dad and Eli to back from the wolf hunt. I was stressed and being here with mom made it a little easier with all her distractions. I helped with the housework and cooking.
It was almost noon and I had just put Alex down for his nap when I heard dad's truck pull into the drive way. I was relieved that they were pulling them out of the forest early today because of the storm. I smiled at dad as he came through the door, but the smile slipped when I saw the look on dad's face and the lack of Eli right behind him. Leah we have to go. Now. He said and grabbed my jacket and threw it to me as he ran toward the kitchen where mom was. I was shocked, what was this about. I set the jacket down and rushed after dad into the kitchen.
"What's going on?" I demanded as I got into the kitchen. Mom was white as a sheet, this worried me more. Dad tried hurrying me out the door again, but I planted my feet. I refused to go anywhere with knowing what was going on first.
"What the hell is going on? Why do I need to go with? Why can't you go on your own?" I demanded and dad was getting frustrated. He let out a stressed sigh and ran a hand through his thinning gray hair.
"Eli's hurt and they're transporting his to the hospital. We have to get down there." Dad said and my emotions went rampant. The worse case scenarios were running through my head like a film reel that I couldn't stop. I could feel the tears run down my face as I let out a sob. I could feel the pain in my heart and the anger that Eli had broken his word that he had gotten hurt. I could feel myself start to shake before a pain started all over my body. I let out a scream as I collapsed onto the floor on the kitchen and writhed at the pin that was coursing through my body. I felt as my boned broke and reformed and my skin exploded. My scream turned into a howl and my emotions seemed to dim. Suddenly there were voices in my head, but I ignored them as I heard a gasp for hair and a thud as my father fell to the floor clutching his chest.
"Dad! Dad!" I tried calling, but only succeeded in making an unrecognizable high-pitched whining. I heard the sound of Seth running from his room and saw as he looked on in horror at our father on the floor with mom crouched over him trying to do CPR. His eyes turned to mine and his eyes widened at the sight of me. I didn't bother to look down. I heard Seth let out a scream as he clutched at the wall before he fell to the ground. The sound of what had happened to me echoed in the room as Seth morphed from my lovable little brother to a giant wolf. That was when I looked down at myself to see grey fur.
My mind was on overload when the voices started to seep through my mind and a face I knew as one of Sam's flunkies appeared in front of me. He was only in a pair of cut off shorts, he looked deeply concerned.
"Leah! Leah! We have to get you and your brother out of the house so we can get the paramedics in here without scaring them away." Jared said and I growled lowly at him before whining as I looked at my dad as he laid unmoving on the floor. Jared opened the large sliding door and motioned for my to come through the door. I looked over at Seth who was nudging dad with his nose as he whined and a large tear from his eye into his sandy colored fur. I whined and nudged his shoulder. He growled and snapped at me. I bit his ear hard enough to get his attention before nudging him toward the door. With some help from Jared we finally got my brother out the door and he set off into forest as he let out a loud piercing howl. I ran after him to have a large black wolf block my path.
'Leah stop! We'll get him." A familiar voice said/thought. I knew that voice. I thought about it before my anger returned in force and over powered my grief.
'Sam?!' I growled out. The wolf in front of me seemed shocked that I had connected the two so quickly and started back tracking.
'Leah calm down and we'll talk you through this.' Sam said trying to remain calm, but I saw red and the next thing I knew I was seeing red and Sam was my target.
