42 Out of Control
Bella and I relaxed for most of the day. At sunset we all sat on the patio, perusing some new samples of fabric that Alice had imported from India. Bella was comparing two similar swatches when she froze and looked up.
"Charlie's awake."
Bella's hearing was extremely acute; she heard minutia that we missed. It might have been because she was newborn, or it might be a gift that was manifesting.
Carlisle headed up the stairs with Bella at his heels. I dutifully followed.
After knocking, Carlisle cracked the door and peeked inside. Charlie was sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked down as his stomach growled.
"How long has it been since I had anything to eat?"
Carlisle smiled. "That depends. Did you have breakfast on Sunday morning?"
Charlie grimaced and sighed. "It seems like such a long time ago," he finally admitted.
"It's been three days at least," Carlisle said. "What would you like?"
"I remember when I was in and out of consciousness...I smelled cheeseburgers." He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, as if it were a very good memory. "Kincaid's, I think. I'd love one of those with extra onions, pickles..." He went on to describe the perfect burger.
"...And a coke."
I slipped out to call the order in. Jasper heard me, saying he and Alice would pick it up.
Bella came down after a few minutes. "Charlie's taking a shower. His temp is a degree shy of fully-changed members. Carlisle says that might be as high as it goes for him."
Charlie joined us after a few minutes. Bella and I had picked up some of his things for him, but the jeans and button-up shirt were a little too small now. He had already bulked up, and it had been only three days.
He smelled the food before Alice and Jasper had pulled into the garage. His mouth literally watered at the thought.
Charlie was an incredibly disciplined individual. His thought process was ordered and precise, but not flowery or descriptive. Now, just scant days after the ceremony to save his life that changed him to a supernatural shapeshifter, his thinking was expansive and flowing. Where before there existed just black and white, now there was swirling color.
Infinite possibilities existed for him and he embraced them all.
Alice placed a box on the table in front of him. It was larger than he'd anticipated for a cheeseburger and a coke. In addition to his order, she'd added two pies, a malt, and an order of onion rings.
He glanced up at her. "Thanks, honey. What do I owe you?"
She just laughed, patting him on the back as she walked away. He dove in, devouring the food in record time. Bella sat with him and I joined the family in the living room. Jasper had built a big fire and we all sat around it.
Jasper quietly vented his frustration with the situation on the mountain, wishing he could have gotten his hands on Quil.
"That wouldn't have solved anything." Esme shook her head, thinking that Jasper needed to take a step back and calm down.
"Maybe you wouldn't be so cavalier if it had been Carlisle backed up against a stand of trees with two motherfucking huge wolves bearing down on him." Jasper was usually softly southern; where Alice was concerned he was fiercely protective and unforgiving of transgressions.
As Bella and Charlie joined us, all remarks about the incident in the woods stopped. Charlie looked around. "I'd like the whole story, if you don't mind," Charlie said to the room at large. "I'm part of this now, so you might as well clue me in to what's going on."
Carlisle started at the beginning, with the treaty forged between himself and Ephraim Black, ending with the altercation in the woods earlier when I'd been injured.
"I'm concerned that the situation between our family and the pack is worsening," he said sadly. "They all showed up here the night I arrived and stayed until you were stable. There was no enmity that I could discern, other than some stray comments from one individual that the others seemed to dislike."
"Well, there certainly was enough enmity go around out there on the mountain today," Jasper said acidly. "Jacob has to get this bunch in line. What'll happen if they decide they don't like the way he's running things and toss him out like they did to Sam?"
Esme frowned. "Sam wasn't the Alpha. They can't—"
"We don't know what they can or can't do," Jasper spat. "Don't you think I know that Jacob is the Alpha? They don't fucking care, Esme! Open your eyes! We are on the brink of war here!"
He said the last bit very slowly, his voice rising in increments until at last he was shouting.
Carlisle stood up. "That's just about enough, Jasper. Esme's right. The situation between the pack and Jacob is different."
Jasper jumped to his feet, glowering at Carlisle. With his blond ringlets hanging in his face he looked like an angel, but he exuded a raw anger that I found disquieting.
"I'm not waiting around here for the fucking wolves to find the old bastard and haul his mangy ass over here. Alice raised her eyebrows in surprise as he kissed her and walked toward the door.
"I'm going out. Call me if the world gets ready to explode. Other than that, I'll see you later."
He slammed the door behind him, leaving Carlisle standing with his mouth open. Esme extended her hand and he took it, sitting heavily.
Emmett stood. "I'm going as well," he stated simply. In a moment we heard one car pull out of the garage. Rose and Alice looked at each other with their eyebrows in danger of disappearing completely.
"So I guess Bella and I are on opposite sides of the fence here? Charlie asked. It all seemed very abstract to him but he hadn't yet phased. I wondered if he'd be so casual once he'd transformed.
"I've never fully understood the hatred between the vamps and the wolves," Bella answered truthfully. "I don't feel any differently about them now than I did when I was a human."
"That statement didn't really answer my question, though, did it?" Charlie asked.
"There seems to be a natural...revulsion...that we feel about each other," Alice admitted. "It's like cats and dogs. And the smell—"
Alice grimaced and pursed her lips. Rose shot her a look and she said, "Sorry! But it's true! It can't be any better for him, to be in this house with all of us."
Charlie gave Alice a sideways glance and then grinned. "That's what the smell is? It's all of you? The...family?" He was trying not to think vampires and succeeded.
"What did you think it was?" Rose asked.
"I didn't know!" he said with a laugh. "I can smell so many things, even things that are far away. I didn't connect the st—" He caught himself before he could say stench—"With you all."
Esme kicked her leg rhythmically. "Carlisle, you don't think Jasper would provoke the pack, do you?"
Carlisle thought for a moment. "No. He knows what's at stake." He turned to me. "What do you think, Edward? Alice?"
I'd been worried about it since we'd all walked home from the original confrontation. Jasper was beyond angry. Retribution, bloody and final, had been the only thing on his mind, eclipsing even the ever-present thoughts of sex. That alone seemed ominous to me.
"Both Emmett and Jasper know that further violation of the treaty is in no one's best interest. However, I can hear their thoughts, and they're both livid, over what happened with Alice and with the injury I sustained to my arm."
Alice sighed and flopped dramatically back against the sofa cushions. "I've never seen Jazz so pissed but I don't think he or Emmett would be stupid enough to cross into Quileute territory." She looked to Rose, who nodded in agreement.
"Em and Jazz are a lot older and have a better handle on their tempers than the pack, who, other than its newest member," she gestured toward Charlie, "are all just young, impulsive boys."
Esme's foot was in danger of colliding with the coffee table and smashing it into kindling. "So we wait and hope for the best?" She and Carlisle were both consumed with worry, but she was right.
It was wait and hope for the best. Not the finest way to spend a night, in my opinion.
Jasper POV
Emmett didn't want to drive. I opened up the BMW on the road to Port Angeles but even the terrific speeds I achieved didn't distract me from my black mood. Emmett sat impassively in the passenger seat, not bothering me with extraneous conversation.
After making an incredibly illegal u-turn in the middle of the highway we headed back toward town but took the road up toward the reservation. Right before we crossed the line I pulled the car off into the brush and we ran in a section of the forest we usually avoided. I needed any distraction available.
We pulled down a couple of deer but kept running. The trail was new to me, as it had been remodeled by weather and animals since the last time I'd been here. The twists and turns of a relatively fresh path kept us consumed for about half an hour and when we finally stopped we were deep in the untamed wilderness.
The trail narrowed and then disappeared completely as we forged deeper still into the vast, unpopulated backwoods of the Olympic Peninsula. The wind howled through the trees, blowing my hair in my face. I wished I'd worn a hat.
About a quarter of an hour later Emmett stopped and looked back at me. "Did you hear that? It sounded like...chanting, or something."
"Yeah. From over there." Burning wood accompanied the sound, bringing to mind a small campfire.
I pointed in the direction of the Reservation. Emmett glanced at me and we ran toward the noise, realizing as the cloying blanket of mutt settled on us that it must be Old Quil, camped out here in the literal middle of nowhere.
A wrinkled raisin of a man, he sat cross-legged in front of a meager firepit, a woven blanket thrown over his shoulders. It flapped forlornly in the whipping wind.
He didn't seem to hear us approach and kept up a steady stream of chanting in a language I wasn't familiar with, interspersed with mumbling and raving.
Emmett and I glanced at each other. He stuck his hands in his pockets and nudged the ground with the toe of his shoe. "Whatever you want to do is okay by me," he said.
"Everybody is looking for him," I whispered. "We gotta take him back with us."
I crouched down. "Mr. Ateara?"
"The red eye...looks through the Mother...to the bright sister..." It was muttered slowly, in between lilting chants.
"I heard Jacob tell Carlisle that he sometimes comes up here and eats a hallucinogenic fungus that grows wild," Emmett said seriously. "Maybe he's on a trip of that stuff right now."
"Mr. Ateara?" I asked again, this time touching him on the shoulder.
He looked up and smiled. "I know what the prophecy means now. I need to see Jacob right away."
"How 'bout we take you to see Carlisle? We can call Jacob when we get there."
"That is a very far walk. Jacob's house is just over the ridge." He pointed with a withered, shaky finger.
I shook my head. "We can't go onto the Reservation. Anyway, Jacob and the entire pack are looking for you."
He'd been looking toward La Push, but glanced back sharply. "Why?"
"Long story, and I'm really not the one to tell it. But Charlie's awake, and he's at the house with the family." I thought for a moment. "Oh, and I'll carry you out, if it's okay."
He looked gratefully at me. "Thank you. I am weak, as I have not eaten since I arrived. It is necessary for me to fast if I am to properly interpret the prophecies."
Emmett crawled inside the tiny tent and pulled out the Ziploc bag with the notebook inside. "Is there anything else, or can I go ahead and collapse this?"
"That is all."
I carefully picked him up and we doubled back the way we'd come. At the last turn where the trail straightened and led to the road, Emmett stopped short.
I stopped behind him and he turned, his eyes wide.
"Where's the fucking car?"
Shit.
"This is where we came in, right? Just before the sign to La Push?"
I nodded.
"Then where is the fucking car?"
It was gone.
Emmett's jaw was set. "The only scent I recognize is Brady's. There are two others that I don't know. Not pack members." He turned to me. "Do you agree?"
I nodded.
"Let's run Mr. Ateara to the house and figure it out from there. It's too cold out here for him."
We crossed the road and ran through the woods, paralleling Quileute land. It was the quickest way to get home, although it took us dangerously close to the border. I thought about calling Alice, but we could be home before she arrived by car.
As I ran I began to appreciate my fragile cargo. This man had spent years trying to decode the prophecies for our family alone. Unlike the stupid, uneducated punks that comprised the pack, this gentleman was level-headed and sincere.
I tucked the blanket around him tighter, pulling it carefully to cover his head. Glancing ahead, I noticed Emmett had stopped again.
A line of wolves stood across the path, their red eyes gleaming in the anemic moonlight. Six stood shoulder to massive shoulder, teeth bared, spittle dripping from snarling jaws.
Instinctively I held Mr. Ateara closer to me but he pulled the cover from his face and looked around.
"Put. Him. Down." Emmett didn't look at me as he spoke.
I cautiously placed the aged Indian on his feet, careful to pull up the blanket so he didn't fall, but in his emaciated state he toppled over. I reached out quickly to steady him but the wolf directly in front of me phased to human and caught him, grabbing him away from my grasp.
"What the fuck are you trying to pull, Cullen?"
Quil raised his hand to speak but Brady ignored him. "You're on our land, bloodsucker!" Brady was wild-eyed and gesturing animatedly.
We'd made sure we hadn't crossed the line so neither of us was worried about that. "You're full of it, Brady. Now, where is Jacob, and where the fuck is my car?"
Emmett nudged me and I looked up to see the entire line of wolves slowly advancing on our position, trying to force us over the boundary line. That way, they could freely attack and claim we had provoked them.
"Where were you taking Quil?" Brady demanded, as he took a step forward.
"We found him out in the middle of damn nowhere, and he asked us to take him to Jacob—"
"Jake's house is that way!" Brady spat. He took another step. The wolves followed.
Emmett and I both took one step back. We both knew the boundary loomed incredibly close. "I know that! We can't go on the Res! We were taking him to our house—"
"Over my dead body are you taking him anywhere." The words came out in a venomous hiss, through gritted teeth. It seemed a bit surrealistic, having this heated conversation with a naked Indian in the middle of the night.
Quil began to shiver in his blanket. I was losing all patience. "Look, kid, does your mama know where you are?"
Brady began to tremble and shake, but Quil leaned over and spoke to him in a low voice. The wolves around him started to paw the ground. A smaller red one threw his shaggy head back and howled.
I could hear Emmett breathing beside me. If he jumped at them we'd both be dead before we could leave the clearing. I needed to call Edward, but before I could grab my phone, Emmett said in a low and menacing voice, "Where. Is. My. Car?"
Brady laughed. "Don't know what you're talking about, man."
"You lying son of a bitch!" Emmett ran at him and had a hand around Brady's throat just as Brady phased into the enormous russet who, with a single, sickening chomp, separated that arm from Emmett's body.
It fell to the cold ground with a dull finality. Emmett's yell of pain and shock was punctuated by growling and snarling. Quil protested weakly but nobody listened to him.
I pulled Em back, grabbing the arm. If this continued, we'd never survive the night. I'd envisioned how I might finally part company with this world but never did I imagine being pulled apart by a giant, stinking dog. It was repulsive to the last.
Emmett howled in agony and anger, clutching his body where the arm had ripped away. We needed to get to Carlisle right away.
The russet wolf smiled and walked toward us even as we retreated. The line of wolves around us was effectively herding us ever closer to the line. I fought the impulse to run, knowing that by sheer strength of numbers they would force us into their territory and kill us.
The other wolves, snarling and deadly, descended on us with slow, deliberate steps. I thought they might attack if I pulled my phone out, but decided to chance it. Pulling Em's arm in front of me, I gently urged the phone from my pocket, flipped it open and hit last caller.
Edward answered on the first ring.
Upon hearing his voice, the wolves knew what I'd done. Just as Brady prepared to leap at us, Mr. Ateara found his strength and his voice.
"Stop."
He'd stepped between us and I took the opportunity to talk to Edward.
"Hey, we got trouble over here. I need you to bring Carlisle. Is Jacob there?"
"Where are you?" Edward was no-nonsense, just the person I needed in a situation such as this.
Five minutes later Carlisle and Edward arrived. Edward's mouth actually dropped open. "Who takes responsibility for this?" he growled.
"I do, leech," Brady had phased back to disgusting human, or whatever he was when he wasn't a stinking mutt. "What of it? He was on our—"
Edward looked over to us. "No. We never crossed the line, although they tried to force us over. Go over there and smell. Our scent isn't there."
"I don't have time to discuss this with you now," Carlisle said coldly. "But, rest assured, we will discuss it. You don't have carte blanche to attack my family. We all have as much right as any of you do to frequent these woods." He held his hand out and I handed over Emmett's arm. I'd never hated them so much.
Crunching twigs alerted us to Jacob and Seth jogging up the path. Jacob's face was contorted with rage.
"What the fuck is going on here?" He'd passed Emmett and Carlisle heading for the car. I could still hear the solid, unbroken string of swear words emanating from Emmett.
"Seth and I went to Quil's house and then talked to the neighbor lady who helps take care of him. It wasn't until we phased to run in the woods behind his house that we heard this nonsense."
The wolves backed up under Jacob's glare, all except Brady, who stood his ground.
A soft whump drew our attention. Mr. Ateara had collapsed.
Jacob spit on the ground and swore again. Carefully he picked the gentleman up and ran toward the car. I called for Carlisle to wait, and minutes later Jacob returned.
Looking severely at the pack members, he said, "Can you explain any of this to me, to the fucking ALPHA?
"Jacob, I've got something to say to this motley crue." Edward turned and faced the pack head on. They'd all phased to human and milled around uncomfortably.
He narrowed his eyes. "The only thing that has preserved the Quileute shapeshifting population has been the treaty. If not for that, Jasper, Emmett and I would have waited for you, hidden behind rocks or brush, and picked you off one by one." He glanced at Jacob, then back to the pack.
"It's really up to you, but trust me, you won't have the opportunity to attack with the entire pack again. What was it tonight? Two against six? And you still had to resort to trying to push Jasper and Emmett over the line? What were you thinking?"
Jacob shook his head. "I can't explain it," he said to us in a low voice. "I thought we'd made some significant progress but the last couple of days they've been out of control."
He leaned closer in, looking around conspiratorially. "It's like we're heading toward something. It's got them all riled up. When I get them alone, they'll all calm down again, and then something will happen and they'll just lose it."
Edward and I ran home in the woods beside the main road, far from the stinking reservation. When we arrived minutes later, the house was in an uproar. Rose was screaming for Quileute blood as Esme held Emmett's remaining hand while Carlisle cleaned the entire area. The arm lay on the table, the fingers still curled.
Old Quil lay on Carlisle's sofa, covered with a clean blanket. He had an IV in his arm. I frowned and Carlisle nodded to him. "Severely dehydrated. He'll be out for awhile." He then refocused his attention on reattaching Emmett's severed arm.
Bella sat with Charlie in the living room. They both looked upset. When she saw Edward, she jumped up and hugged him. "What's going on? Why did they do that?"
"I don't know," Edward answered truthfully. "They were crazed, trying to push Emmett and Jasper over the line. Maybe when we talk to Quil we can get some answers. Jacob certainly didn't have any."
Alice sat on the stairs, her head on her knees. She was waiting for me, and when I finally stood in front of her, she sat up, sobbing openly. I smiled down at her, pulling her to stand.
"I love the family, Jazz, but I can't lose you. Let's go to Alaska until this sorts itself out."
I drew her into a hug, feeling the same way, but knowing we couldn't abandon the family. Nobody knew what was provoking the wolves to behave as they did. The truth was, it could get worse before it got better, and we all had to stick together.
But after the night we'd all had, it didn't seem the time for that truth. The night was cold and severe, the wicked wind offering no emotional refuge.
Tomorrow, hopefully, the sun would shine. Even the gray dawn would warm us and give us hope for a peaceful resolution to whatever it was that was going on.
If we made it that far.
Glancing out the window, I caught sight of six pair of red eyes in the distance.
Edward looked out and swore softly.
It was going to be a long night.