BPOV

We had been living on the reservation for around a month or so daddy told me, we'd finally got the roof on the house meaning we could get inside and start plastering the house… I'll admit that I listened into a few conversations when Sam and Daddy thought I was sleeping. They didn't talk about anything fun though, I wish they did it'd make it so much more exciting.

"Bella darling." Sue's voice made me turnaround from staring at the house where I knew Sam was working, I smiled at her and gave her a quick wave.

"Hello Sue." She gave me a quick hug then knelt down slightly.

"Bella, we've got to go pick out some colours for your room and some furniture. There's a carpenter in town as well as a painter." She held out her hand wanting to lead me away from the house.

"Okay Sue, let me just go say goodbye to daddy and Sam." She nodded and patiently waited whilst I ran up the little log steps to our new house, the walls were already up inside the house, so I made a quick detour once I was inside. I ran down the hallway, past the study and living room, the kitchen to where my bedroom was in the back. Sam obviously heard my footsteps because his large frame was suddenly in my doorframe. I stumbled slightly not expecting him to just appear so when I began to trip, he reached out with his large arms and caught me.

"Woah, slow down there Bella." He laughed.

"Sorry Sam, where's daddy?"

"He's in his room, why?"

"Sue wants to take me into town, daddy always tells me not to go anywhere where he can't see me without letting him know first." I rolled my eyes at his question; he was still smiling as he nodded his head in approval.

"Alright have fun Bella." Sam ruffled my hair, and I ran to daddy's room.

"Daddy!" stayed in the doorway whilst he was doing something with a measuring tape against a wall.

"Bells, what's up?"

"Sue wants to take me into town to get some stuff for my bedroom."

"Awesome Bells see if she can pick up some paint and furniture for the house too. Neutral colours for the house baby." I nodded and chanted furniture paint, furniture, paint, furniture, paint continuously until I had run out of the house and back to Sue.

"Dad wants furniture and paint." She chuckled and nodded whilst holding out her hand for me to take, I gripper her hand in mine and we walked to town. It wasn't too far of a walk, about 30 minutes or so which I was so thankful I was wearing my walking boots.

From walking into the town, I could see where the dirt road changed into the cobblestones, it started out with only small, scattered stones into a nice pattern in the road. Sue and I made small talk on our walk, asking about favorite colours, whether we liked reading, what kind of books we liked. She was really interesting, she spoke a lot about her family at home, how she loved to cook all these random recipes.

"I have two kids you know; Leah is only a year or so older than you, Seth is a couple of years younger than you." She looked out the corner of her eye when she spoke. "Leah doesn't have my friends, maybe you'd like to meet her one day?"

"That'd be nice." I nodded trying to shut down the conversation, even going to school in my old home I didn't make friends easily. Somehow a kid that prefers to read every break doesn't make a whole lot of friends, I expected it.

Sue opened the door to the carpenters and let me in first, I saw many wood carvings of wolves, bears, and owls along the wall, I walked along and lightly traced my finger along a wolf that was stained black. He reminded me of Sam.

"Sue Clearwater, what are you doing here?" A woman who was as tall as my father came from a back room; she had an eyebrow raised as she looked at me then back at Sue. I smiled politely and went to stand behind Sue.

"Rachel, this is Bella Swan. She and her father have moved into the reservation, the boys are helping build their home but it's getting close to the final stages. We're in need of some furniture to fill the home." Sue moved me towards a small chair in the shop that faced the window towards the street, I patiently stayed sitting until Sue finished speaking with Rachel.

"Fine Sue we'll be able to have it ready by the end of the week, I expect Sam to be over to help out though." Hearing Sam's name I turned to look at the woman, she had faint blushing in her cheeks. I felt an anger bubble inside of me, I frowned but went back to staring at my feet.

"I'll mention it Rachel."

"Okay Bella, do you know what you want for your bedroom?" Rachel came over to me and knelt in front of me with a book with drawings of the different types of furniture I could have.

"I just want a simple bed, a bookcase and a bedside table." I didn't like his person, but I knew I had to play nice.

"Okay that's definitely do-able. Did you want any animals carved into the wood?"

"I don't care." I didn't want to look at her.

"Okay, plain works just as well as anything else. What of the rest of the house?" I started making fists with my hands, my muscles were tensing. I wanted to run away from this woman. "Bella?" I couldn't hold back any longer, I pushed off the chair and ran out of the store and began to run back to where I thought my house was, I heard Sue screaming out my name, but I couldn't hear her.

I felt the tears running down my face, I couldn't stop them. I tripped and stumbled so many times I'd lost count, but I knew I'd run into the forest somewhere, I realized I'd scratched myself on the branches and multiple times I'd fallen over. I fell to the ground and tried to curl myself into a ball trying to forget about that woman and why she said my Sam's name the way she did.

SPOV

After Bella had run out of the house, I went to back to fixing up her room as best as I possibly could, I'd done a building trade when in school and I picked up a bit of work doing this for the other residents, I'd put a lot of work off when Bella had come to us. I knew everyone was aware of the meaning the little girl had in my life, no one was complaining I was trying to make her as safe as possible.

It'd been around an hour since Bella had left when I got this troubling feeling settling into my chest, I was rubbing the spot where it hurt subconsciously, I didn't notice until Charlie had spoken up about it. "Have you got a rash or something son?"

"No… Something feels off." Charlie looked uncomfortable when I said this, he was looking around trying to think of what could possibly be wrong.

"How long has it been since it felt off?"

"The last ten minutes or so… Look Charlie I hate to run off, but I want to check up on Bella."

"Yeah, look son I get it, if she's having a good time though can you just try to watch from a distance? She needs to grow up as normal as possible." I nodded, I can't be everything for her, she still needs to make friends, and do kid stuff. I get it.

I ran out of the house quickly shifting into my wolf and ran into town, I took the most direct path through the forest and shifted back when I saw the small town come into my range. I shoved my shorts on and ran to a distressed Sue who was out the front of Rachel's shop.

"Sue! Where's Bella?" The closer I got the more worried Sue began to look, I could see she had been crying, her voice course from screaming Bella's name, she was now beyond reasoning as shock and worry took ahold of her body. I turned to Rachel.

"Where is she?"

"The little pale face went into the forest. I doubt you'll see her again anytime soon." She had the audacity to simply shrug, I felt the wolf inside me rage at her words, a ferocious growl escaped my lips, I turned away from her and shifted into my wolf form again and followed the scent of Bella's blood through the town. She had run away in a hurry; she'd tripped over her own feet. I kept following the scent until I saw the forest which she started to run into.

Feeling my rage, the others shifted to see what the problem was.

Where's Bella? Paul was the first to respond, he'd shifted through my memories of the last conversation I'd had, and I felt his rage at her words. Fucking heartless bitch.

Fuck, what is her problem? Jared had begun to love Bella just as much as Paul had in the time they'd spent together. Where Paul was the friend she ran everywhere with Jared as the one who liked to challenge her to random trivia and other things that stimulated her brain. She loved it and I couldn't stop myself from staring at her in awe, she was incredibly smart

What the fuck do you think her problem is? She's jealous of little Bella, she knows what imprinting means for me, she's nothing compared to Bella. I practically spat the words out.

Surly as a 23-year-old woman she'd know better than to be that big of a bitch to an 8-year-old girl...

She made it pretty far before she stopped, I saw her lying the curled up on the forest floor and it broke my heart. I howled to let the others know she was found and went to lie beside her, to keep her warm as she cried her heart out. She got out of her little ball and turned into me and hid her face in my neck.

I don't know how long we stayed there but I made every voice inside my head disappear as I focused on only her. Her sobs began to slow, and I pulled my consciousness out to the world around me, I knew Jared and Paul were standing behind the trees watching us to make sure nothing happened to hurt Bella or myself whilst I zoned out. Paul came closer and dropped some shorts on a branch, I got up from Bella and quickly shifted back shoved the shorts on and went back to her. I cradled her in my arms, soothed her by rubbing circles on her back.

"Bella…" I ran my nose in her long curly locks, breathing in her scent reminding the wolf that she's safe and in my arms. She didn't respond to my words, so I hummed a lullaby my mother song to me as a small child.

"That's a pretty song." Her words were so soft I nearly missed them.

"It's a lullaby my mother sung to me when I was sick or hurt.

"I don't remember my mother." I looked down into her eyes that conveyed a maturity beyond her age.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember my father." I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as I looked at her, tears were still welling in her eyes. She threw her arms around my neck hugging me tightly.

"My daddy always told me that if people don't want to be part of our lives, we shouldn't cry over them." She whispered in my ear, I hugged her back tightly before pushing her away for a moment so I could look her in the eyes.

"Bella, you need to tell me why you ran."

"The girl wasn't nice." She shook her head as she spoke not wanting to look at me.

"What girl?"

"Rachel, I didn't like the way she spoke about you. She didn't look at me like Sue does, or even how a normal person would. I didn't like it." I blew out a puff of air, I didn't think the imprint would impact her so much at a young age. "I didn't like it because you're my Sammy, she doesn't have the right to talk about you or blush over your name."

"Bella, she doesn't mean anything to me anymore. Remember what I said about the wolf wanting to be everything to you?" She rubbed her nose on the back of her hand.

"Yeah…."

"I meant it Bella. If you don't like someone you need to tell Sue so she can take you back home or help you through it. You can't run off."

"But you told me I'd always be safe." She argued.

"I meant it Bella, but what if you ran into the forest and someone came to hurt you? Do you think I'd be able to stomach something happening to you?"

"No Sam, I don't." She started crying again so I pulled her back into a hug, I rubbed soothing circles on her back until she calm down again. Once she calmed down again, I stood from the ground and held her hand as we headed back into town. "I'm sorry Sammy."

"It's okay Bella, just try not to run next time okay? Or tell Sue so she can grab me." I smiled down at her getting rewarded with her brilliant smile in return. We made it back to the town and I walked her back into Rachel's shop.

Bella was already frowning as Rachel came rushing out the back and began to run towards me. Bella stood in front of me and glared at her. If this were any other situation, I'd find it funny, but after just finding Bella I know I need to talk to Rachel and let her know that our fun times are over.

"Bella, thank god." Rachel knelt down on the ground to make eye contact with Bella, I remained a few steps behind her.

"Rachel, I'm sorry for running away from you. It wasn't nice, and Sammy has told me it wasn't the right thing to do. I want to thank you for making my furniture for me…" I looked at Rachel and saw she was shocked but smiled softly.

"It's alright Bella, I'd like to apologise too. I know I said something to upset you, and I didn't try to stop myself from continuing to hurt or upset you. I know Sammy is yours, and I don't want to come between that, I promise." Bella nodded and gave her a big smile.

"Then we can be friends?" Rachel nodded enthusiastically.

"I'd really like that Bella." Both girls nodded and gave each other a big hug. "Would you like to add anything to your furniture Bella?"

"If it's not too much to ask, can I get the four seasons carved into my bed posts?"

"Like Summer, winter, autumn and spring?" Rachel's head titled slightly.

"Yes… Is that possible?" Rachel nodded and added it to the notes.

"It'll be done Bella. Sue is over at the painters shop currently, Paul and Jared swung back after finding you and Sam, she's calmer now she knows you're safe." Rachel waved goodbye to us and me escorted Bella to the shop.

"Well done Bella, I'm proud of you." I ruffled her hair earning a pout.

"She's your friend… I don't want you to dislike her because of me." After her words it'll be a long time before I can consider Rachel a friend again, but I'm not going to tell Bella that, so I merely nodded.

"BELLA!" Paul shouted her name and immediately started jogging over to her, he picked her up and swung her around in a circle.

"PAULIE!" She held her arms out like an airplane as Paul swung her around, I merely raised an eyebrow and watched.

"How are you duckling?"

"Duckling?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's her nickname. She likes to land on the ground so much and get drenched in rain she reminds me of a duckling… And well, her last name you know?" I laughed loudly at that.

"I am NOT an ugly duckling Paul!" She complained as Paul had her hanging upside-down by her legs.

"Says the duckling!" Paul retorted.

"Boys will always be boys." Sue complained. "Put the girl down Paul."

"Sue!" Bella ran over to Sue the minute her feet were on the ground and she hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry for running Sue, I promise I'll try not to in the future." Sue merely nodded and hugged her back. They reminded me of mother and daughter, the way they interact with one another.

"The paints ordered, we ordered a nice light blue for your room, lovely neutral greys for the rest of the house and your daddy is getting a darker grey for his bedroom."

"He'll like that." She grabbed Sue's hand and my hand as we started to head back to their home, she requested multiple times that we swung her between us as she held onto our hand. We couldn't deny her, when she started giggling, we all had smiles on our faces. I was right… She was going to be a handful growing up.