BPOV
Edward and I ran as fast as we could towards the Cullen's house. We were greeted by the worst stench I had ever encountered. I thought I might be sick if that were even possible as a vampire.
"Hold your breath if you need to. It's the wolves."
"You could have warned me." I said.
"Would that have helped?" Edward was trying hard not to laugh.
"No, but still."
"I'll remember that next time."
"There better not be a next time!" I insisted.
"Oh, there will be a next time alright." He purred in my ear. "Just maybe for something different."
"Don't tease me. I'll grab your ass and run back through the woods faster than anyone can find us."
Edward stared at me, his eyes darkening by a few shades before he burst out laughing. "So, this is the wild newborn phase everyone warned me about."
"No, this is just Bella. Let's get this over with." I said, looking down at the ground and trying to focus on current events.
"Then I look forward to getting to know this Bella a lot better." He took my hand and we walked up to the house.
The Cullen's living room was packed full of people. On the couches sat the entire family plus Charlie, and easily 10 Quileutes stood around in their human forms, as well as a few massive wolves who bared their teeth at me and Edward as we walked in. Edward held me close to his side, his arm around me in such a way that he could grab me and run with me with only a second's notice, I noted.
"Edward. Bella." Carlisle greeted us warmly and gestured for us to sit with the family. I could tell from his expression that he was silently updating Edward on what we had missed with his thoughts. "Alright everyone." Carlisle called the room to order with his usual grace and authority. "Now that we're all assembled, would you like to tell us why this surprise meeting, Sam? In our home I might add." He looked into the eyes of one of the wolves.
"He's asked me to act as his spokesman since he can't speak aloud in this form." Billy said from where he sat beside Charlie. "As one of the elders, I am fully briefed on the situation at hand."
"Very well." Carlisle agreed.
"First of all, we just wanted to verify that Bella Swan was alive and that you hadn't killed her. Although, I see you've as good as done that by taking her life away." Billy said. I growled. Edward pulled me into his lap and wrapped both arms tightly around me. I felt Jasper's hand on my shoulder as he tried to calm me down. Charlie looked pale as a ghost.
"You were told as much on the phone." Carlisle stated calmly.
"Indeed. Since there hasn't been any evidence of the strange vampires around recently, we wanted to compare notes."
"And this involved a full compliment of wolves and Quileute elders?" Jasper asked.
"He's lying." I said, surprising myself.
"Excuse me, Bella?" Billy asked.
"You're lying, Billy. You aren't here to 'compare notes.' You're here to accuse my family, the Cullens, of being the murderers even though they were thousands of miles away and with my dad, I might add. Do you think that Charlie would lie to you about their whereabouts?"
"Well, no." Billy said. Charlie smiled faintly at me.
"What is it then, exactly? Were you checking on Charlie? Afraid he couldn't be trusted alone with my kind?" I asked.
"No, we just wanted to ask some questions about these mysterious vampires. That's all."
"Then why are the wolves thinking about how to murder my mate?!" I asked, enraged at the mental images I was seeing when I looked at the wolves. Edward's arms around me were firm, but I knew I could fight him off if I wanted to. I felt Jasper trying unsuccessfully to keep me calm. I was near tears and I wanted nothing more than to take off running with Edward, but what logic I had left told me that running would not go over well.
"Your mate?" Billy asked.
"Yes. Edward is my mate. I chose him. I chose this. I wanted him to change me to be like him. I must have asked him hundreds of times." I was finding it difficult to speak rather than snarl, but I was trying my best.
"You were too young to make that choice."
"I was 18. I made my decision. This has nothing to do with you all!" I yelled. I sensed Jasper trying to spread calm around the room.
"It has everything to do with us. They broke our treaty."
"Enough!" Charlie shouted, surprising me. Billy jumped. "I don't care who's a wolf and who's a vampire and if anyone is a witch or a fairy, let's just have them come out and join the party now too! You all are my friends and family and there is no need for this fighting. I ought to arrest you all!"
"I'd like to see you try." Emmett whispered too quietly for him to hear.
Charlie continued, undisturbed. "Innocent people are being murdered in Forks. That's what we need to focus on. For the record, although I was just as upset as you all at first, I'm extremely happy for my daughter, no matter what she is. She is happy. She is loved. That's all that matters."
"You support this, Charlie?" Billy asked, surprised.
"I have given them my blessing." He replied.
"Look, I respect you all. I know that your goal is to protect innocent humans, and I am so glad that someone is looking out for them with all of the supernatural creatures out there. The Cullens are not your enemy. They don't harm humans. Look at their eyes. Edward and I are mates. He changed me because he had no other choice. It is our instinct. The Cullens all have mates now. Mates are for life. This type of thing will never happen again. So, can we just focus on protecting Forks?" I asked, doing my best to stay calm. Esme and Carlisle were smiling at me gently.
The room was quiet for a minute or two. The wolves stopped plotting murder and instead whined quietly, much like large dogs. The elders exchanged meaningful looks with each other. Edward kissed below my ear, where he was resting his head as he held me in his lap. I shivered with pleasure. Jasper giggled.
"Fine. The treaty is re-instated as it were, only because of Charlie's reassurances. If any of you ever bites a human again for any reason, mate or not, you will all be banned from Forks and we wouldn't hesitate to kill you on sight."
"Deal." Carlisle said, standing up to shake hands with the elders. Some of the wolves were growling, but a sharp bark from one of them made them all lie down in the floor.
"Let's go upstairs." Edward whispered in my ear. I needed no further encouraging to stand up and follow him to his old room, now empty except for his couch and some shelves.
Edward sat down on the couch, pulling me into his lap once again. "Have I told you how amazing you are?"
"Maybe I could use reminding." I said.
He chuckled and wrapped a hand in my hair. Then he looked deeply into my eyes. "You are the most amazing creature that walks this Earth." He said as he slowly leaned in to kiss me. Feeling his soft lips on mine made all of my worries disappear and for a few minutes, there was nothing but us. This wasn't like the crazed, passionate kissing earlier. This was simply love and happiness found only together. "You don't even realize what you did." He said, shaking his head when he stopped kissing me, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight coming through the glass wall behind us.
"I yelled at a bunch of old men and werewolves?"
"You read some of their thoughts."
"What?" I was sure that I hadn't done anything quiet that cool.
"You said they were plotting murder. No one said that out loud. How did you know?"
"I saw what they were thinking. They were going to hurt you!"
"Exactly." he whispered, leaning in to kiss me again.
"Wow." I said, just before his lips met mine. I guess I had read their thoughts after all. I happily kissed Edward back for a minute before it was my turn to pull away. "How did I do it? Help me do it again."
Edward laughed. "I'll try. But listen, it gets pretty overwhelming if you can access my full gift. It took me decades to learn how to tune people out and how to try to not listen to everything. Are you sure you want this?"
"It will help keep you safe."
"You as well." He added.
"Exactly." I said, mirroring his earlier statement.
"Alright, how did you hear what the wolves were thinking?"
"I just looked at them and wondered what they were doing here."
"So, you focused on them. Focus on me. See if you can figure out what I'm thinking."
"That much is obvious." I said.
"Oh?" he asked.
"You love me."
"I do. What else though?"
"You wish we weren't interrupted in the woods earlier."
"Bella, you don't need to hear my thoughts to know that." He laughed. "Remember what I told you when we first met? I may not be human, but I am a man. Focus, though."
I looked at Edward intently, trying to focus on hearing his thoughts, but I kept getting distracted by his eyes. "Close your eyes. You're dazzling me."
He laughed and complied. I don't know how long we sat there, but I never could hear his thoughts. What I did hear was Charlie coming up the stairs, his heavy human gait unmistakable. I slid off of Edward's lap to sit beside him just before Charlie knocked.
"Are you all decent?"
"Come in, dad. We're just talking." I laughed.
"Even better." My dad said, blushing as he opened the door.
"Thank you for speaking up for us, Charlie." Edward said, standing up to offer him a seat beside me. Charlie happily sat down and looked at me for a moment.
"No matter how much I know that you're still my Bella in there, the eyes are really freaky." He said. I laughed.
"They'll change in a few months, I hear."
"That's good. Listen, kids. I'm sorry. I hate that you all felt like you had to keep secrets from me. I feel like I'm partly responsible for some of this mess too. Maybe if I had been around for you more, Bells, you wouldn't have worried so much about telling me the truth."
"It wasn't that dad. You know I love you. I was afraid the Volturi would come and kill you if I told you."
Edward started to step outside the room. "No, Edward. Don't go, please."
"I thought you all might like some privacy."
"After seeing what the wolves were going to do to you…" I shuddered. "I really don't want you to not be right with me for a while."
Edward smiled gently and stepped back in the room. "I wonder if Alice found my secret stash when she packed my room up." he mused, stepping into the closet, still attempting to give us a little privacy at least. I couldn't help but laugh at him.
"Don't tell me you vampires still do drugs or something." Charlie said, smiling in the direction of Edward.
"Trust me, if we could, Emmett would have found a way to decades ago. He is such a party animal." Edward called out from the closet.
"Animal is right." I said, giggling.
"What were you talking about, Bella? Seeing what the wolves were going to do to Edward?" Charlie asked, curious.
"It seems that I read their thoughts."
"You can read minds now too?"
"Not exactly. Edward thinks that I was accessing his gift, like he is my shield or my bubble or whatever we're calling it. But I tried to read his mind just before you came in and I couldn't."
"And they really wanted to hurt him?"
"Yes. They wanted to. Their thoughts were incredibly violent. I had to see mental images of them tearing his limbs off and dancing around a fire with both of our ashes."
"Both of you?!" Charlie was concerned. "I think I need to rethink who my friends are."
"We're their natural enemy, or so they say." Edward said, stepping out of the closet with a small box in his hands. "If I thought for a second that Bella was really in danger, we both would have been gone faster than you could have seen us stand up."
"I believe it." Charlie said, not at all surprised.
Edward placed the box in my hand. "Open it." He was smiling devilishly.
"I'm scared to if that's the look you're going to give me." I grinned back at him.
"Just do it." He said.
I lifted the lid off the box and cracked up laughing. It was a picture of Emmett and Jasper wearing vampire costumes with capes, fake fangs and even fake blood splattered all over them. I handed it to Charlie who also cracked up laughing at it.
Edward's bedroom door flew open with a loud bang. "Why you little!" Jasper yelled, sounding very much like an angry Homer Simpson.
"I thought we made you destroy that!" Emmett added.
"And you think I didn't make copies?" Edward was laughing. "Alice! Why did you tell them!" he shouted downstairs.
"I'm going to kill you!" Jasper said to Edward.
"Bella told me I can't leave her sight tonight. Sorry, boys. You know Esme doesn't condone murder in the house. You'll ruin her floors."
"Bella?" Emmett asked, raising an eyebrow at me playfully.
"Take him." I answered. "Only you two are allowed to try to murder my mate." Who was I to ruin their fun?
"Bella!" Edward screamed, laughing loudly as Jasper and Emmett each grabbed one of his arms and threw him out the window, leaping behind him. We could hear them all laughing and hitting each other.
Charlie and I were cracking up and watching the action from above, just before they all disappeared into the edge of the woods. They stayed close enough that we could still hear them.
"Is this what they're like normally?" Charlie asked me.
"All the time."
"Edward really is 17."
"Yes." I laughed. "Although, I think Emmett and Jasper act much younger than they really are."
"He loves you."
"He does." I said.
"He was miserable without you. This is a completely different Edward than the one I saw searching for you. He definitely wasn't acting like this then. I don't think I ever saw him smile."
"It felt like having half of myself taken away while we were apart." I admitted.
"Bella, I'm sorry for how I treated you while he was gone. I had no idea."
"It's alright, dad. You have nothing to apologize for. If he would have been any normal teenage boy, I would have been overreacting really badly. I appreciated what you were doing for me, trying to make me not throw my life away being miserable over him. I've always known that Edward was the one though. This was something so much different, so much stronger than anything I think I could ever explain.
He was in every thought I ever had from the second I saw him. Almost immediately, it gave me anxiety if I couldn't see him every day at school. And he tried so hard to stay away from me. He didn't want to put my life in danger. He ignored me and made me think he hated me for months once when we first met. There was a time when I thought he even regretted saving my life in the van accident because of how hard he was trying to stay with me. He even left…to protect me." I said quietly. "But all I've ever wanted was Edward. And I know why now. It's because I wasn't meant to stay human. I'm the other half he needed to be whole, and he's the other half I needed to challenge me, encourage me, and to help me be something I never dreamed of."
"That's beautiful, Bella." Charlie said. "I'm really proud of you two. I'm glad you have each other and that he stopped fighting it."
"That means a lot, thank you." I said, giving Charlie a hug in an uncharacteristic display of affection for us. He blushed.
Edward leapt back up through the window, scaring Charlie and making me laugh. "I see you're still in one piece." I said.
"It's not that we didn't try!" Emmett yelled from outside.
"There will be a rematch!" Jasper insisted.
"Carlisle wants us all downstairs." Edward said, reaching for my hand. "Unless you all would like some more time alone."
"No." Charlie said. "We're good. Edward, thank you for taking care of my baby girl. I know you won't let anyone hurt her. I'm happy to see you two together. She is a lot happier."
"As I am. Thank you." Edward said.
We all walked downstairs and got seated back on the large couch they had left behind. Rosalie and Alice were complaining about the wet dog stench and planning to burn the entire couch before we left.
"We have some new information." Carlisle said. "Some of this is just speculation. Alice still can't see very much. But combined with the Quileutes, we are now confident that Victoria is behind both the attacks and the rampant newborns in Seattle. We are going to trade off with the Quileutes guarding key areas in Forks, such as the Swan house, the hospital, the school, until we get this under control. We believe that Victoria is using the newborns because Alice has never seen them or met them and thus, she can't see their futures to know what they are planning to do. We do believe that she intends to lure Bella and perhaps Edward as well, away somewhere to torture them. We aren't sure if she knows that Bella is no longer human or not. The Denalis will be here shortly. They are going to stop in Seattle and check for clues on the situation there as well."
"What do we do?" Emmett asked.
"I can't let any more innocent lives be taken." I said.
"What are you proposing, Bella?" Carlisle asked.
"Victoria obviously wants me. Why don't we lead her to me?"
"Absolutely not!" Edward shouted.
"I didn't say let her get me. We could at least let her know that I'm in Forks though. We all agreed that after our hunt today, we'd stay in groups of four or more. My dad is protected. Plus, you and I have my shielding power, so she might not even be able to touch us."
"Might, Bella. I'm not risking your life."
"How are you suggesting that we let her know you're in Forks?" Jasper asked.
"I'm guessing my scent is all over my dad's house, for one. Why don't we go around Forks and spread my scent and then wait to see if she finds us? I still smell much the same, right?"
"That's right." Jasper said.
"What if we spend some time in my dad's house and then keep him here with us or with the Blacks instead until this is dealt with? Then we can leave it unprotected for them to pick up on the scent again. Perhaps then the newborns will come from Seattle and we can deal with it all locally."
"I'll call the Quileutes." Carlisle said.
"You aren't going anywhere alone. I am not losing my mate again." Edward said.
"I wasn't planning on it. I just want them to stop hurting innocent people and come where we can take care of them."
"Where we can take care of them." Edward said. "I don't want you fighting." I stared at Edward intently, trying and failing to glare at him as I had done many times before when we argued. I got lost in his eyes too easily. But rather than expressing my anger, I felt a deep sense of protectiveness radiating from him, mixed with love, and desperation. My mate. I will never let her face danger ever again. We've had enough of that. I will make her happy. I will keep her safe.
"You do, and you will." I said. Edward's eyes grew wide. I giggled. At least his mind wouldn't have to be a mystery to me anymore, it seemed.
"Oh great, more people who can communicate silently!" Emmett said sarcastically. We both smiled at each other, tuning everyone out for a few minutes.
"But I still can't hear you."
"Maybe you will in time."
"Perhaps." He said. But you can hear how much I love you? How much I adore you? You are my life. You have been ever since…he trailed off with words, instead showing me his earliest memories of me, including our first accidental touch in Biology and how we both felt the spark although we didn't know what it was, many glances at each other across the cafeteria, the day he quizzed me about my favorite color, books, etc. and the day he rescued me from Tyler's van. The whole time I thought he hated me, he was completely spellbound by me. He was beyond fascinated.
"Earth to Edward and Bella!" Alice said, giggling. I was sitting beside Edward with my mouth slightly open. Edward was lovingly gazing into my eyes.
"What, sorry?" He said.
"You mean you weren't listening?"
"No." Edward said simply, smiling my favorite smile.