My heart thundered in my chest as I stared with wild eyes at my bedroom window. The scratching had turned into a sharp tapping, and I felt a scream bubbling up inside of my throat. No! I couldn't make a sound! If this was Victoria come to kill me I needed to save Charlie, to convince her not to take him, too.
I scrambled out of bed, backing away from the window and trying not to hyperventilate, but it was difficult when the large, dark shape lurched towards me like it was going to smash through the window. My hand flew to my throat as my back hit the wall next to my door, and I shook as the terror crashed over me in waves.
"Psst… Bella!" a familiar, husky voice whispered, slightly muffled through the windowpane. I froze, uncomprehending for a moment, then bolted forwards, tripping on a pair of shoes before I got to the window, pressing my hands against the glass.
"Jacob?!" I hissed, my mouth open in shock.
"Ouch! Dammit… ouch ! Can you open the window? OW! "
I needed a second to shake off the horror from a moment before, my heart racing like a horse out of the gate. I shook my head, wondering if I was dreaming after all, and pulled up my window.
"What the hell are you doing?" I whisper-yelled, my eyes finally adjusted to the dark enough to see Jacob clinging precariously to the spruce that grew just outside my window. His weight had bowed the tree towards my house so now he swung precariously about 20 feet above the ground next to my window. The thin branches at the tip of the tree scraped against the side of the house again with a grating squeal.
"I'm trying… to keep," he huffed. "My promise!"
I blinked my wet, blurry eyes, positive I was dreaming now. How did he even get to the top of the tree?
"When did you promise to kill yourself falling out of a tree?"
Jacob snorted, unamused.
"Quick, move out of the way." I gasped as he swung his legs to gain momentum and I realized what he was going to do.
" No, Jacob! " I scrambled away because I was too late. With a grunt, he launched himself towards my open window.
Another scream built in my throat as I waited for him to fall to his death, but to my shock he landed in my room with surprising agility. His momentum carried him a little too far, though, and I lost my balance trying to back away too quickly. He tried to catch me, but we both landed on the ground with a loud thud . We both froze, listening for Charlie, and finally relaxed when we heard a muffled snore.
A wide grin spread slowly across Jacob's face, he seemed extremely pleased with himself. It wasn't exactly the grin I knew and loved, it was a new grin that held a bit of cockiness.
I then realized our compromising position. Jacob had landed right on top of me, and I was caged in his arms, trapped under him. He seemed to realize that the same second I did, and jumped up as quickly and casually as he could.
It was a bit much for me.
I'd just cried myself to sleep over this boy. His harsh rejection yesterday had torn a hole in my heart- and now he was here in my room, smirking at me as if none of that had happened? Worse than that, even though his arrival had been noisy and awkward, it reminded me of when Edward used to sneak in through my window at night, and the memory stung my raw emotions.
All of this, coupled with the fact that I was dog-tired, and had thought I was about to die not two minutes ago, did not put me in the best of moods. I stood up and brushed myself off indignantly.
"What the hell are you doing here? You need to leave." I hissed, not bothering to be nice.
He blinked, his face going blank with surprise.
"No," he protested. "I came to apologize."
"Well I don't accept!" I said petulantly, trying to shove him back towards the window, but I may as well have been pushing a brick wall. His skin was burning hot, like his head had been the last time I'd touched him, like he was still sick with fever, and I suddenly realized he was wearing nothing but a pair of cut off shorts. My face heated and I dropped my hands quickly, ignoring the pleasing shape of his muscles in front of me.
He didn't look sick to me. He looked huge. He leaned over me, so big that he blocked out the window, tongue-tied by my furious reaction.
Suddenly, it was just too much to handle. It felt as if all of my sleepless nights were crashing down on me at once. I was so brutally tired that I thought I might collapse right there on the floor. I swayed unsteadily, my eyes brimming with tears again.
"Bella?" Jacob whispered anxiously, gathering me up in his arms as my knees buckled. He guided me back to the bed, and my legs gave out when I reached the edge, and I flopped into a limp heap on the mattress. "Honey, are you okay?" Jacob asked, worry creasing his forehead.
I looked up at him, the tears not yet dried on my cheeks. "Why in the world would I be okay, Jacob?" I sniffed pitifully.
His eyes were anguished again. "Right…" he said sorrowfully, and took a deep breath. "Shit. I'm so sorry, Bella," he apologized, but there was still a bitterness pulling at his lips that I hated.
"Why did you come here?" I asked, suddenly too tired to argue or fight.
"I know you probably don't want to hear my apologies right now, Bella, but I really am sorry. I just couldn't leave things the way I did this afternoon. It was so horrible. I'm sorry."
The tears seemed like they would never stop coming. I shook my head wearily, wiping at my cheeks. "I still don't understand anything."
"I know," he growled, suddenly frustrated."I wanted to explain-" he broke off suddenly, his mouth open, almost like something had cut off his air. Then he sucked in a deep breath. "But I can't," he bit out angrily. "I wish I could."
I scooched up so I was sitting propped up against my headboard, and he shuffled so he was sitting right in front of me, our crossed knees touching.
I buried my face in my hands, shaking my head back and forth. My brain was hardly working.
"Why?" my voice came out muffled.
He was quiet for a moment, and I dropped my hands, pulling my knees up to rest my cheek on them so I could look at him without holding my head up. His expression surprised me. His eyes were squinted and his teeth clenched, like he was struggling to push a boulder up a hill.
"Uhh… Jake? Are you good?"
He exhaled heavily, and I realized he'd been holding his breath, too. "I can't do it," he growled in frustration.
"Huh?"
He ignored my question, pursing his lips thoughtfully for a moment. He grabbed my stuffed bear off my nightstand, tossing it gently between his hands as he thought.
"Bella, have you ever had a secret you couldn't tell anyone?" He glanced up at me with knowing eyes, and my thoughts immediately jumped to the Cullens. I hoped I didn't look guilty. "Something you had to keep from Charlie, your mom… something you won't even talk about with me? Not even now?" his voice was suggestive enough that I knew exactly what he was referencing, but I shut my mouth, glaring at him obstinately.
A wry smirk pulled at his lips and he nodded as if I'd answered his question.
"Could you understand that I might be in the same kind of situation...?" He was struggling to tell again, seeming to fight for the right words. "Sometimes… loyalty gets in the way of what you want to do. Sometimes, it's not your secret to tell."
Alright, that was fair. I couldn't argue with that. I could see where he was coming from now. A secret you felt bound to protect, even if it wasn't exactly yours.
...A secret that, suddenly, he seemed to know all about.
I tried to piece this new information together with what he said to me yesterday, but I still couldn't see how this fit in with the Cullens, or some sort of 'damage' already being done.
"Okay…" I said slowly, nodding. "I'm trying to understand, Jacob, and I get that whatever it is you can't talk about it, but I really hate talking in riddles," I complained.
"I'm sorry," he sighed. "This is so frustrating."
We looked at each other for a long moment in the dark room, both our expressions hopeless.
" Ugh! The part that kills me is that you already know," he growled. "I already told you everything! "
"Huh?" I was thoroughly confused now.
Jacob sucked in a startled breath, and grabbed both of my hands in his, causing my knees to fall to the sides. He leaned towards me so our faces were inches apart, and I felt my heart start to drum in my chest at the proximity. I wasn't so sleepy that he had no effect on me.
His face had shifted from hopelessness to blazing intensity in a second, and it took every bit of strength I had not to glance down to his lips that were suddenly so close to mine. My breath started to come in shallow pants as he spoke, his warm breath washing over my face.
"I think I see a way to make this work out, because you know this Bell! I can't tell you, but if you guessed it…! That would let me off the hook!" he whispered, jubilant, and I could barely comprehend his words over the completely unrelated tangent my mind had raced down.
"Guess… you want me to guess?" I breathed, swallowing hard. My body was hot suddenly, and I was keenly aware that we were both wearing minimal clothes, sitting an inch apart in the dark. On my bed. Alone.
Oh, fuck .
"My secret! You can do it- you know the answer!"
I was thankful Jacob was too triumphant to see what his proximity was doing to me, because I was swiftly melting into a puddle. My exhaustion made it harder for me to act normal. I blinked twice, trying to clear my head of the fantasies running amok in it.
He took in my blank expression, then took a deep breath. He froze for a second, seeming confused by something.
"Are you wearing perfume?"
"Huh? No?" I frowned, and to my dismay Jacob was leaning closer to me, breathing in deeply again.
"God, Bella, you smell amazing ," he groaned, and the deja vu snapped me out of my dazed state with a little stab of pain.
"Um… it might be my shampoo?" I coughed nervously, suddenly very self conscious. Why was everyone always telling me how good I smelled all the time?
He nodded, shaking his head as if to clear it, leaning back again.
"Right, sorry." He thought for a moment. "Hold on, let me see if I can give you some help," he said, a vein standing out on his forehead as he clearly began struggling with his words.
"Help…?" I asked, trying to keep up. I realized I was staring at him and biting my lip, so I crossed my arms furiously, hands tightened in fists so I wouldn't do anything stupid. Like kiss him. Or worse.
"Yeah… like clues," he muttered, his breaths sounded labored, and I was suddenly worried he was having some sort of episode.
He took my face in his enormous, too-warm hands, and held it just a few inches from his again before I could blink. My heart stuttered, then started beating a frantic tattoo as if to escape from my rib cage. He stared into my eyes while he whispered, as if trying to communicate something besides the words he spoke. My body was heating up traitorously, and my will power was beginning to falter as I thought about what his lips might feel like on mine.
Best friend! Best friend! Best friend! I chanted frantically in my mind, fighting my impulses.
"Remember the first day we met when you moved back here? Down on the beach in La Push?"
"Of course I do…" I whispered.
"Tell me about it," he breathed, and my emotions rioted in my chest, fighting a battle I wasn't sure I could win. He was so close, I could vividly imagine swaying forward a few inches, tilting my head up…
I took a deep breath, trying to concentrate. "Um… You asked about my truck…"
He nodded, urging me on. His thumbs gently stroked my temples and my breath caught. The heat blazed low and traitorously in my abdomen, refusing to abate.
"We talked about the Rabbit…"
"Keep going."
"We went for a walk down the beach…" my cheeks were growing hot under his palms as I remembered my poor attempt at flirting, but he wouldn't notice, hot as his skin was. He was nodding, anxious for more.
My voice was cracking under the onslaught of emotion and desire coursing through me. "You told me scary stories… Quileute legends."
He closed his eyes and opened them again. "Yes," he breathed, and the sound of it almost ended me. The word was tense, fervent, like he was on the edge of something vital. A memory of my dream about him reared up in my mind and I blushed even more furiously.
He spoke slowly, making each word distinct. "Do you remember what I said to you?"
Even in the dark he must have been able to see the colour of my face change. That was the day Jacob had told me inadvertently that Edward was a vampire.
He looked at me with eyes that knew too much. "Think, Bella."
"Yes, I remember," I murmured.
He inhaled deeply, struggling suddenly. "Do you remember all the stor-" he couldn't finish the question. His mouth popped open like something had stuck in his throat.
"All the stories?" I finished for him. He nodded mutely. His thumbs moved down to stroke my cheekbones and I lost my train of thought, leaning forward unconsciously into his touch.
My head churned. I had focused more on the story that had really mattered at the time, but I remembered he had begun with others… what were they?
I started to shake my head in defeat, about to apologize.
Jacob groaned and jumped off the bed. He pressed his fists against his forehead and breathed fast and angry. The loss of his proximity felt like a bucket of cold water being dumped over my head.
"Oh, Bella! Come on, you know this, you know this!" he muttered to himself, pacing back and forth. I took a deep breath now that I was unlocked from his hold and his gaze, trying to steady myself and the wild feelings whirling around inside of me.
"Jake… I'm sorry I'm just so exhausted, I haven't been sleeping lately… Maybe in the morning…?"
He took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, of course. Maybe it'll come back to you if you sleep on it. I guess I understand why you only remember one story," he added in a sarcastic, bitter tone that made my heart ache with guilt.
He plunked back onto the edge of the mattress beside me, and I reached out unconsciously to stroke his shoulder, greedy for more contact. I admired how soft his skin was under my fingertips as I traced the line of his shoulder blade to and fro.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question about that, actually?" he asked, still sarcastic, and my guard went up, my hand freezing in place. "I've been dying to know."
"A question about what?" my heart was thrumming with trepidation, now.
"About the vampire story I told you."
I bit my lip, staring at him with guarded eyes. He asked his question anyways.
"Did you honestly not know?" his eyes bored into mine, his voice turning husky. "Was I the one who told you what he was?"
My teeth clenched together. Why did he have to believe the stories now ? My throat felt tight, but I couldn't answer.
He laughed, but there was no joy in it. "See what I mean about loyalty?" his voice was even huskier now. "It's the same for me, only worse. You can't imagine how tightly I'm bound."
I didn't like that, didn't like the way his eyes closed as if he were in pain when he spoke about being bound. More than dislike, I realized. I hated it. I hated anything that caused him pain, or took him away from me.
Sam's face filled my mind.
"Is there any way for you to get free?" I whispered, my hand moving up to touch the rough edge at the back of his shorn hair.
His hands began to tremble as he stared down at them. "No. I'm in this for life. A life sentence." A bleak laugh. "Longer, maybe."
"No, Jake," I protested stubbornly. "What… What if we ran away? Just you and me? What if we left home and left Sam and all of them behind?" I said desperately. I would do anything to keep him.
"It's not something I can run away from, Bella," he whispered sadly. "But I would run with you, if I could." His shoulders were trembling now, too. He took a deep breath. "Look, I gotta go."
"Why?" I protested, even though I was fighting for my eyelids to stay open.
"For one thing, you look like you're about to pass out any second. You need your sleep, honey. I need your brain firing on all pistons. You gotta figure this out. You have to," he insisted.
"And? Why else?"
He frowned. "I had to sneak out… I'm not supposed to see you. They've gotta be wondering where I am." His mouth twisted. "I supposed I should go let them know."
"You don't have to tell them anything," I whispered harshly.
"All the same, I will."
Anger flashed hot and sudden inside of me. "I hate them!"
Jacob looked up at me with wide eyes, surprised. All the trembling in his hands and shoulders stopped. "No… Bella. Don't hate the guys. It's not Sam's or any of the others' faults. This is all on me. Sam is actually incredibly cool. Jared and Paul are great, too, though Paul is kind of…" he grimaced briefly. "Well, Paul. And you know Embry, he's always been my friend. I feel really bad about all the shit I used to talk about Sam."
"Incredibly cool…?" I echoed, shaking my head in disbelief, but let it go for now. It was hard to argue with the sincerity in his voice. "Then why aren't you supposed to see me?" I demanded, jealous suddenly..
"It's not safe," he mumbled, looking back down at his hands.
His words sent a thrill of fear through me, and I looked at the window in brief panic. Did he know there was a vengeful bounty on my head?
"If I thought it was too , too risky," he continued, "I wouldn't have come, but… Bella," he looked at me, the pain evident in his eyes. "I made you a promise. I had no idea what would happen, that it would be so hard to keep… but… that doesn't mean I'm not going to try, dammit."
He saw the incomprehension in my face. "After the movie night," he reminded me. "I promised you that I wouldn't ever hurt you… and basically immediately fucked it up. I really blew it yesterday, too." he sighed sharply, shaking his head in frustration. I couldn't help the small smile that tugged at my mouth.
"It's okay, Jake. I forgive you," I said softly.
"Thanks, Bella," he took my hand, rubbing his thumb over my skin. My hand felt small and delicate in his. I found myself really liking the feeling. "I'm going to do what I can to be here for you, just like I promised." He grinned at me suddenly. "It would really help if you could figure this out on your own, though. Put some effort into it."
I made a weak grimace. "I'll try."
"Okay. I'll try to see you soon," he sighed. "They'll try to talk me out of it though."
"Well, don't listen to them," I said stubbornly, and he laughed quietly.
"Alright." He shook his head, as if doubting his potential success. "Come and tell me as soon as you figure it out," his mouth twisted as if something terrible occurred to him just then. "If… if you want to."
"Why wouldn't I want to see you?" I asked, indignant. I had basically thrown a temper tantrum yesterday after just two weeks without him.
His face turned hard and bitter. "Oh, I can think of a few reasons," he said darkly. "Look, I really have to go. Could you do something for me?"
I nodded, worried sick about what he must be going through to make him look so miserable.
"Just…" he struggled for a moment. "At least call me… if you don't want to see me again. Let me know if it's like that."
"You're not getting rid of me that easily," I sniffed haughtily.
He raised one hand, a smirk pulling at his lips. "Just let me know."
He stood and headed back to the window.
"Don't be an idiot, Jake," I complained. "You'll break your damn leg! Use the door. Charlie's not going to catch you."
"I won't get hurt," he muttered impatiently, but he turned for the door. He hesitated as he passed me, staring at me with an expression like a man fighting to stay above the waves of a storming sea. He held one hand out, pleading.
I took his hand without question, and he yanked me right off the bed so quickly I barely had time to gasp, then I was crushed against his chest.
"Just in case," he murmured into my hair, squeezing me so tight I struggled to get air into my lungs.
"J-ake! Air!" I squeaked.
"Oops, sorry," he chuckled, loosening his arms, but still held onto me, rocking us side to side for a long, peaceful moment. I sighed, burying my face into his chest, squeezing him back. I let myself bask in his warmth, selfishly glutting myself in the warmth and feel of his arms around me. My Jacob. My personal sun .
He finally let me go, a strange look in his eyes that I couldn't place. He scooped me up without warning into his arms, cause me to make an indignant squeak as my hands shot out to grab his shoulders and steady myself.
He laid me gently on the bed, hovering over me for a second too long. I watched his eyes flicker down to my lips, and my heart fluttered in my chest. He blinked, swallowing hard, and pulled the covers over me, leaning forward and kissing me gently on my forehead.
"Get some sleep, Bells. You've got to get this head working, alright? I know you can do this. I need you- to understand. I won't lose you, Bella. Not for this." His voice was soft and urgent, and I lost myself in the intensity of his eyes for a moment. He was so close again, all it would take was a slight movement of my head…
Then he was at the door in one stride, opening it silently. He disappeared through it just as quickly, and it closed without a sound. I listened for him to hit the squeaky step on the stairs, but there was nothing.
My head fell back onto my pillow, my mind spinning. I was too confused, too worn out, too overwhelmed by feelings I wouldn't put a name to coursing through me. I closed my eyes, trying to make sense of it all, only to fall swiftly, deeply, blessedly unconscious.
My sleep did not remain peaceful.
I found myself wandering along the beach in La Push, looking for Jacob. I called out for him again and again, distraught. I could smell the brine of the ocean, the wind whipping at me cruelly, making me shiver.
"Bella!"
I turned towards the call, peering into the dark forest that reached to the edge of the beach.
"Jake?" I said, my voice sounding like I was talking underwater. I didn't want to leave the sunny beach, but my surroundings shifted to the forest nonetheless, and I whirled around, trying to find my bearings. I could still hear the ocean, but where was it?
Suddenly, Jacob was there pulling me back further into the darkness of the forest.
"Jacob, what's wrong?" I asked, alarmed. I tried to crane my neck to see the retreating brightness of the sun, but it was quickly lost in the trees. I looked back at Jacob, and it was the frightened face of a boy that gazed back at me. His long hair was swept up in a ponytail again like it used to be. He yanked at me with all my strength but I resisted, digging my heels into the dirt.
"Run, Bella! You have to run!" he whispered urgently, eyes panicked. I turned again, searching through the trees for something… something…
Chills ran down my spine as the deja vu hit me. I had been here before, in this dream before.
Jacob yelped in pain, collapsing to the forest floor.
"Jacob! No!" I yelled turning to reach him but he was already gone, and in his place was a giant rust-brown wolf.
I tried to back away in fear, but my feet were glued to the forest floor. The wolf let out a guttural snarl like thunder, and I turned to see Edward step lithely out of the trees, looking so icy and perfect I wanted to cry. I reached out towards him, but the wolf snarled again. I gulped as I saw Edward's eyes for the first time.
They were a deep, blood-red.
He smiled, fangs glinting, and beckoned me towards him.
I stumbled back, feeling like I was facing Laurent all over again, when the wolf leaped at him.
"No! " I screamed.
I woke up with a gasp, hyperventilating and tangled in my sweaty bed sheets. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest, I wondered how it didn't wake the entire neighborhood up.
Jacob…
I remembered it now. Every single word he had said to me on the beach.
"Do you know any of our old stories, about where the Quileutes came from, I mean?" he asked.
"Not really," I admitted.
"Well, there are lots of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive, like Noah and the ark," he smiled then, to show me how little stock he put in the histories. "Another legend claims that we descended from wolves, and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them.
"Then there are the stories about the cold ones," his voice dropped a little lower.
"The cold ones?"
"Yes. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the wolf legends, and some much more recent. According to legend, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land," Jacob rolled his eyes.
"Your great-grandfather?"
"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf, well… not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You might call them werewolves."
"Werewolves have enemies?"
"Only one."
My throat felt tight, choking on the word I could hardly make myself say.
"Werewolf," I gasped.
The whole world lurched, tilting the wrong way on its axis.
What kind of place was I living in? Did this world seriously exist along Port Angeles shopping trips and movie nights? Ancient supernatural battles raging around the borders of tiny, insignificant towns while the townspeople worried about taxes and prom?
Did this mean every impossible fairy tale was grounded somewhere in truth? Was there anything sane or normal anymore or was everything just magic and ghost stories?
I clutched my head in my hands, feeling a fierce headache coming on with a vengeance.
A small, dry voice in the back of my mind asked me what the big deal was. Hadn't I already made peace with the existence of vampires? What was one more little monster? Why the hysterics this time?
Wasn't one insane myth enough for a lifetime, though?
Besides, there had never been one singular moment that I hadn't been completely aware that Edward was something different, something not-normal.
But Jacob? Jacob… my Jacob. My best friend, the only human I'd ever really clicked with.
And he wasn't even human.
I buried my face in my pillow, stifling a frustrated scream.
What the hell did this say about me ?
Was I doomed to attract every supernatural being within a thousand mile radius? Was this my lot in life?
I knew the answer to that question, and it twisted bitterly in my stomach. Clearly there was something deeply, deeply wrong with me. Why else would my life suddenly be filled with monsters and fairy tales after years of just being the quiet, awkward one? Everyone else living in the Olympic Peninsula seemed to manage being normal . Maybe I was cursed.
In my head, everything spun and shifted, the pieces rearranging so that things that had once confused and baffled me before suddenly made sense.
There was no cult. There had never been a cult, never been a gang. No, it was so much worse than that.
It was a pack.
A pack of five mind-blowingly gigantic werewolves that had stalked right past me in the meadow, and chased a vampire. With a shock, I realized that one of those wolves had been Jacob.
The thought of Jacob, my Jacob , facing down an indestructible immortal had panic seizing my throat again.
Suddenly, I was in a frantic hurry. I glanced at the clock. It was way too early but I didn't care. I had to get to La Push now . I had to see Jacob so he could tell me that I hadn't completely gone off the rails.
I pulled on the first clean clothes I could find, not bothering to make sure they matched and took the stairs two at a time, holding onto the railing for balance. I almost ploughed into Charlie as I skidded into the hallway, heading for the door.
"Where are you going?" he asked, as surprised to see me as I was to see him. "Do you realize what time it is?"
"Yeah, it's fine. I have to go see Jacob."
"Bells, are you sure…?"
"It doesn't matter, I have to talk to him right now."
"You could call," he suggested, glancing at the clock again. "It's really early." He frowned when my expression didn't change. "Don't you want breakfast?"
I was pulling on my boots, realizing I had pulled on two different socks but it didn't matter.
"Not hungry," I said quickly. He was standing in my way, blocking the door. "I'll be back soon, okay? I just thought of something and I think it'll help," I offered vaguely.
Charlie frowned. "Straight to Jacob's house, alright? No stops on the way?"
"Uh… yeah, sure. Where would I stop?" I asked, confused.
"I dunno," he admitted. "It's just… well, there's been another attack. The wolves again. It was real close to the resort by the hot springs, and there's a witness this time. The victim was only a dozen yards from the road when he disappeared. His wife saw a huge grey wolf just a few minutes later while she was searching for him, and ran for help."
My stomach dropped like I'd hit a drop on a roller coaster. "A.. wolf attacked him?"
"There's no sign of him, just a little blood again," Charlie sighed, his face twisting into a grimace. "The rangers are going out armed, taking armed volunteers. There are a lot of hunters who are eager to be involved… there's a reward being offered for wolf carcasses, and it worries me." He shook his head. "When people with guns get too excited, stupid things inevitably follow."
"They're going to shoot the wolves?" My voice shot up three octaves as horror washed through me.
"What else is there to do? Why, what's wrong?" he asked, studying my face curiously. "You aren't turning into a tree-hugger on me now, are you?"
"N… No," I tried to laugh but it came out more like a choking sound.
"Look, honey, don't let this scare you. Just stay in town or on the highway, okay? No stops, and no going into the woods," he ordered.
"You got it," I repeated, feeling weak in the knees.
"I've got to go."
I watched Charlie sling on his gun belt, feeling dread pool in the pit of my stomach. I noticed he had his hiking boots on as well.
"Hey, you aren't going out there after the wolves, are you, dad?" I asked, suddenly worried. My worst nightmare was Charlie getting caught in the crossfire in an accident, and there were a lot of trigger-happy gun owners around.
"I've got to help, Bells. People are disappearing."
My voice shot up again, almost hysterical now. "No! Don't go. It's too dangerous!"
"I know what I'm doing Bells, I gotta do my job. Don't be such a pessimist, it'll be fine," he turned and kissed me on the forehead briefly, then held open the door. "You leaving?"
I hesitated, my stomach doing uncomfortable loops. What could I say to him?
"Bells?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm going. I'm gonna grab a bite first though," I said.
"Alright. Good luck with… y'know."
"You too." I watched as he stepped out into the rain, shutting the door behind him.
As soon as he was out of sight I slid heavily down to the floor and put my head between my knees.
I needed to warn Jacob. If he really was a… I cringed and forced myself to think the word: werewolf , then people were going to be shooting at him! I needed to warn him and his friends that people would try to kill them if they kept running around as giant wolves. I needed to get them to stop. They had to! Charlie was going to be out there in the woods… would they care about that? Up until now it'd just been strangers disappearing… Did that mean anything? Or was it just coincidence?
I needed to believe that Jacob, at least, would care about that. I had to warm him.
Unless… the wolves did seem to be present at a large number of these disappearances if their tracks were anything to go by. Could it be…?
I shook my head. There was no way Jacob and his friends were murderers. They wouldn't kill innocent hikers in cold blood. No way.
I refused to believe that. There had to be another explanation.
Even so, I'd clearly had no problem getting over the numerous murders the Cullens had freely admitted to committing. Edward included.
I was having trouble separating out my preconceived notions of werewolves. I kept thinking of Professor Lupin, or the old time-y movies with big hairy half-men creatures with foaming mouths and rabid eyes. I didn't know what made them hunt, or whether they experienced hunger or the desire to kill during a full moon.
One thing was clear. I had no idea what exactly Jacob and his friends were, and I needed to find out really soon.