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Chapter 29

It had been three hours since I had stormed into our house and I still hadn't calmed down. I had started shouting every time my dad or Bryan wanted to open a window. I'm sure my dad is now under the impression that I'm having a mental breakdown but I don't care. At least it made him stay at home. Bryan had already called his friend Nathan to say he won't stop by tonight because his sister turned into a lunatic.

My dad had sent me to bed early. He said a good night sleep would fix everything. But it didn't. During the evening I had been plagued with the images of the afternoon and they only got worse at night. I dreamt of men changing into giant wolves and tearing all the people I loved to shreds. It certainly didn't help that I woke up several times during the night by a wolf howling.

When morning finally arrived, my dad walked into my room, saw the state I was in and called the school to tell them I was sick. It wasn't a lie. I really felt the most awful I had ever felt in my entire life. Even a terrible hangover can't compete with this trauma. I was under the impression that if I just stayed in my house forever, everything would be alright. Of course, the universe had to go and prove me wrong.

"Hey, Erin."

I jumped up and screamed when a voice suddenly started talking to me. It was only when I turned around and saw Jackie standing in the doorway of my bedroom, that my heart calmed down a little.

"I didn't mean to scare you but you're dad said you were up here. He didn't want to leave you all alone in the house so he called me."

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"Normally yes but after what happened yesterday, I thought you could use my help."

Did she just say what I think she did? How the hell did she know that?

"This isn't how you were supposed to find out. Jacob would invite you to a bonfire, Billy would tell us the legends and then Jacob would gently break it to you that he's a shape-shifter."

Wait, What? Bonfire? Legends? Shape-shifter? Is she trying to tell me that the legends are actually real stories?

"Wha- I mean... Could...Huh?"

"I know it's a lot to take in at first but you'll eventually get used to the idea of dating a protector."

"What are you talking about!"

"Jacob did explain you everything last night, right?"

Yeah right! As if I'd let him into my house. I don't really have the ambition to become a wolf snack any time soon. So I just gave her the What-the-hell-are-you-talking-about-face.

"You don't know what I'm talking about, do you?" Works every time!

"Well, what exactly happened last night?"

Ouch, this is the part where I have to tell her half our High School is made up out of Bigfoot's pets. Even worse, I have to tell her she's dating one.

"We were walking home from school when suddenly this man comes out of the forest. I guess man is not really the right word because there was just something not right about him and then there is also the fact he moved at the speed of light."

"Oh my god! What was he like? I've never met one in person."

"..."

"Oh, right! The story. Please continue."

"And then he just started shaking and got so angry."

"Wait, are we talking about the man or Jacob?"

"Why would the man start shaking?"

"I don't know. Maybe the cold does affect them."

Pretty much everything that was coming out of Jackie's mouth was gibberish to me.

"And then suddenly he changed into this giant wolf and attacked the man. Out of the blue a lot of other giant wolves stepped out of the forest and the man called one of them Sam! Do you know what that means! The entire La Push Gang are flesh eating wolf-bears! Embry changes into a wolf!"

It was extremely setting me off that all she did during the story was nod as if it all made perfect sense to her. I just announced to her that she's going out with one of nature's mistakes and she is not freaking out. Why is she not freaking out!

"You knew."

She had known all along! The look of guilt that passed her face right now, said it all. She probably knew from the very beginning: when she asked me to meet Embry, when she had pushed me into going out with Jacob, when she had wanted to know if I liked wolves!. She had known the truth this entire time and kept it from me.

"You lied to me!"

"No Erin, I didn't. I wanted to tell you but I couldn't."

"It isn't really that hard to open up your mouth and pronounce words!"

"It's not something you can just announce to the entire world!"

"But I am your friend, I am your best friend! And you pushed me to go out with Jacob while you knew what he was."

"It's not a bad thing! They protect the tribe, they're almost like heroes."

"Heroes don't change into things like that!"

"You're making them sound like abominations."

"They are!"

I didn't mean that. Well, not completely. Men changing into giant wolves practically screams freaks of nature to me but we were talking about boys I went to school with. I had known these guys my whole life and yes, we don't actually get along but that doesn't make them monsters. I was just totally freaking out at the moment.

"I want you to leave."

"Erin! I'm trying to help you."

"How? By just pointing out that everyone has been lying to me all along?"

"We weren't lying."

"Then what would you call it?"

Oh, now she was speechless. She opened and closed her mouth several times but clearly couldn't think of anything to say.

"Are you going to talk to Jacob?"

"Why would I do that? I have absolutely no intention of including any one of you in my life."

I saw the shock on her face but in that moment I truly meant what I said. I just couldn't see myself forgiving any of them in the near future and then there's also the fact that those guys changing into wolves, scares the hell out of me. I don't even know if I could ever look at Jacob again, let alone tell him everything is cool between us. It just doesn't work that way.

Without saying anything else, Jackie left my room and a few seconds later I heard the door slam shut. I couldn't believe how much my life had changed in the past 24 hours. Yesterday at this hour I was walking hand in hand with Jacob through the school wondering why he was acting so strange. Now I'm guessing he was probably thinking of a way to tell me he's secretly a wolf.

It had been two days since I had last seen Jackie. I had convinced my dad not to make me go to school since I was still terrified of what was outside the comfort of my safe home. But during those days something that Jackie had said, kept replaying in my mind: "This isn't how you were supposed to find out. Jacob would invite you to a bonfire, Billy would tell us the legends and then Jacob would gently break it to you that he's a shape-shifter."

Embry had been very strict about me knowing the legends and Jackie had brought them up as well. Maybe that had something to do with them being all wolves. I could vaguely remember legend about shape-shifters. I quickly got up from my bed and searched my room for the book Embry had given me a few days ago. He had said I should know the right version from every legend. I had just took it because he wouldn't take no for an answer but I hadn't really read it yet. Maybe the book could explain a few things to me. Jackie had called Jacob a shape-shifter at a certain point so it would only be logical that I would find what I was looking for in the chapter on shape-shifters.

The Shape-shifters are descended from the ancient Spirit Warriors of the Quileute tribe. Back then, Warriors and chiefs could leave their bodies and wander as spirits, blow fierce winds, communicate with animals and hear each other's thoughts.

Well, that's disappointing. It says absolutely nothing about changing into a wolf. Or does this mean they can also be like ghosts but I can't see them? Maybe Jacob was even in this room, watching me and I didn't even know. I shivered. Now I was just being ridiculous. Then again, people changing into wolves was also pretty ridiculous but that didn't make it any less true. I decided to keep reading. Maybe I would find my answers later on.

The legend goes that one spirit warrior, Utlapa, wanted to use the power to enslave neighbouring tribes, the Hohs and the Makahs. Unwilling to use the warriors' powers for such monstrous purposes, his chief Taha Aki banished him from the tribe. One day, the chief left his body in a hiding place to sweep through the valley in his spirit form, searching the area for anything that may pose a threat to the tribe. Utlapa followed him and possessed his body, then cut his own body's throat to prevent Taha Aki's return.

The chief wandered for a while in spirit form, watching the thief do unspeakable things to his people. One day, the chief's spirit found a large, beautiful wolf in the woods. Though jealous of the wolf's physical form, an idea came to him. He asked the wolf to share his body with him and the wolf agreed. Rushing back to the village as the wolf, he met a party of warriors and he tried to make himself known by yelping Quileute songs. One of the warriors, an elderly man named Yut, realized that the wolf was under a spirit's control and ,disobeying the usurper Utlapa's orders not to enter the spirit world, left his body to talk to the beast. The false chief, alarmed at Yut entering the spirit world as he feared that his treachery would be revealed, killed the warrior. Taha Aki became enraged and lunged forward intending to kill the man. His emotions were too much for the wolf and it transformed into a magnificent human, the glorious flesh interpretation of Taha Aki's flawless spirit. The false chief was killed and things were rapidly set right. Taha Aki sired many children and found out that his sons, at the age of manhood, could transform into wolves as well. That is how the wolves came to be.

This was a lot to take in at once. Was I suppose to believe that Jacob and the others are all descendents of the first shape-shifter, Taha Aki? If I hadn't seen them myself, I would never have believed it but I had witnessed it with my own two eyes. Somehow that made this story so much more realistic.

But I still had so many questions that were left unanswered: Why would they change into wolves? Why hadn't Jacob told me about this? Why did he get so angry the other day? And most importantly: What was that man? Since there are clearly supernatural beings in La Push, I don't find it hard to believe that man wasn't human either. Then what was he? I found my answer in another Quileute legend.

Many years after Taha Aki had given up his spirit wolf, several young Makah women went missing and the Makah tribe blamed the Quileute shape-shifters for the disappearances. They were uninvolved and Taha Aki tried to pacify the Makah chief, but was unable to. Not wanting a war on his hands, he sent his eldest son, Taha Wi, to find the true culprit. Taha Wi and five other wolves searched the mountains for the missing Makah girls and came across a sickly sweet smell in the forest that burned their noses to the point of pain. They followed the unfamiliar scent and further on discovered human scent and blood. They knew that they had found the enemy who had kidnapped the Makah women. The journey took them so far up north that Taha Wi sent half of the pack, the younger wolves, back to the Quileute village to report to Taha Aki. Taha Wi and his two brothers never returned. The younger wolves could find no trace of their brothers and Taha Aki mourned for his sons. His grief was so convincing that the Makah chief believed him and tensions ended between the two tribes.

Two years later, two more Makah girls disappeared from their homed during the night. The Quileute wolves were called at once and they found the same sickly stench all through the Makah village. They followed the smell but only Yaha Uta, the youngest member of the pack, returned, carrying with him a strange, cold, stony corpse in pieces. He and his brothers had found a creature that looked like a man but was hard as granite, with the Makah girls. One was dead and drained of blood, the other was having her blood drank by the creature who snapped her neck. His lips were covered in her blood and his eyes glowed red. The wolves attacked him but he was immensely strong and fast. One of the wolves fell, the other two continued to fight. They discovered that their teeth could damage it and started to tear chunks out of the creature. Yaha Uta's brother was being crushed by the creature when Yaha Uta managed to tear its head off and rip it to shreds.

Yaha Uta brought the creature's remains back to the harbour and laid them out for the tribe to inspect. The creature, which they called the Cold One and the Blood Drinker, tried to reassemble itself, so they burned the pieces and scattered them.

Immensely fast and strong? That sounded like the man I'd seen the other day but his eyes had not been red, they were golden. I felt like everything was supposed to become clear to me but there were still so many pieces of information missing. I knew exactly who could give me my answers but I didn't know if I was ready to face Jacob so soon.

Hope you liked it. For all the people who wanted Erin to get mad at Jackie, are you happy?

I'm in a good mood because I've just finished chapter 30 and if I do say so myself, it's a good one! So if you want to read it soon, I suggest you review...