A/N: So, fun little fact; the other day, I got to a point in writing this story that got me so excited, I almost gave you guys the next chapter Thursday instead of Sunday because I was impatient to get to the point of the story that I had just finished. I bet you all would have loved that, huh? I obviously didn't, I'm determined to stick to this schedule thingy, for the good and the bad, as long as I possibly can.

Extra A/N: Just wanted to say how much I appreciate and love you peeps. Not only do the reviews you guys give me make me super happy and eager to continue this, but just the overall positive reaction from you all is something I super appreciate. I hope you guys know how important you all are to me, we're like one huge extended family at this point. To me, anyway. So yeah, take a moment to give yourselves a pat on the back, tell yourselves how fucking awesome you are, and let's get on with the story.

Chapter 15

The next day found Riley over at the Cullen house much earlier than planned. She was only supposed to be there for dinner, but then Bella had begged her to come over sooner because she didn't want to be alone with the Cullens after everything that had happened the day before. Things between her and Edward were still apparently strained and awkward, and Bella needed backup.

Which was exactly where wingwoman Riley came in, quite literally. It was only ten o'clock when she waltzed through the front doors like she owned the place without so much as a single knock. Despite hearing her heartbeat as she approached, her brazen attitude and lack of manners left all of the vampires stunned.

"Welcome, Riley," Carlisle said, doing his best to be polite despite his surprise. Riley offered him the best smile she could while being so close to a doctor, but she made sure to pass by him quickly.

"I didn't see her," Alice whispered. Yes, she already knew how hard it was to see Riley's future. However, it was another thing to have a human walk into her home and cause chaos, and for Alice to be blind to what was about to happen.

Jasper sent out a wave of calm toward his mate, moving closer to press their sides together in comfort. Alice sent him a look of appreciation and adoration, and Jasper responded by directing the love he felt for his mate to her, along with a small smile.

"What are you doing here?" Rosalie hissed as Riley plopped herself down on Bella's lap, wrapping her arms around the other human.

"You guys are rich and don't eat, I'm poor and do eat. So I decided to come back over and see if I can squeeze a few extra meals out of you," Riley answered cheerfully, her stomach growling loudly in agreement.

"Have you ever heard of manners? Who just barges into someone else's home without permission like this?" Rosalie narrowed her eyes at Riley in a glare, becoming even more annoyed when the girl appeared completely unaffected. Bella, on the other hand, was trying her best not to look in Rosalie's direction at all.

Riley's cheerfulness still didn't falter. "Just me and Jehovah's witnesses." She kissed Bella's cheek, making sure to make eye contact with Edward, who was standing stiff as a board across the room. "I have to say, I should've guessed you'd be here, Bells. We've missed you so much down at the rez. It's a shame you couldn't spend the night with me." The purr Riley added to that last sentence made Edward glare down at the floor, his hands curling into fists at his sides. Good, let the fairy boy suffer. The way Bella blushed and stared mutely at Riley, wide eyed and frozen, only made everything better.

"Just get the hell out. Nobody wants you here."

Riley smirked and lifted her shirt. Not to show off her abs, but to make sure nothing muffled the next roar of protest from her stomach.

"Nonsense, Rosalie, of course we want her here! Please try to be nice while I cook something for the dear. It sounds like she hasn't eaten in days!" Esme quickly rushed off to the kitchen to get to work, and Riley shot Rosalie and the other still frozen Cullens, aside from Carlisle who was still behind her, a gloating smirk. Esme might make Riley as uncomfortable as hell, but the woman sure was easy to manipulate if needed.

"Listen Rose, you might be one of my favorites, but that doesn't give you free reign to hurt my feelings. You've treated me so badly, I've decided I'm not going to play with you until you apologize-"

"Like I care," Rosalie interrupted with a roll of her eyes.

"-but I'm taking your husband with me! Let's see how you like it when I steal your husband away for adventure, and you have to sit at home being bored like a loser!"

Emmett let out a cackle of glee, unrepentant even after Rosalie glared at him. "Don't encourage her!"

"C'mon, Rose, you have to admit, she's just as much fun as Bella! What's wrong with enjoying the little munchkin?"

At those words, Riley froze.

"Uh oh, here we go," Bella muttered under her breath in an exasperated tone, but couldn't stop the fond smile from curving her lips as Riley jumped from her lap.

Slowly, Riley started to stalk toward Emmett, murder in her eyes. "Did you just call me a munchkin? A munchkin, really? How about I show you how much of a munchkin I am by shoving my whole munchkin body up your ass!"

"That's disgusting," Rosalie said, making a face at Riley's words.

"Sounds uncomfortable too," Emmett said with a chuckle.

"You think I care, you goddamned ape man? I oughta-" Riley felt a hand on her shoulder and immediately whirled, fist flying in the direction of whoever touched her in a moment of pure instinct.

"Shit!" Riley realized in a second she was about to hit Jasper, but to make matters worse, she had once again swung with her injured arm and there was no way she could stop it in time. She was going to show how strong she really was and fuck her hand up again all because she couldn't get a hold on her instinctive reactions to surprise touches.

Thankfully, Jasper dodged and took a step back, giving Riley space so that she could recover without potentially reacting again. The way he looked at her, a mix of concern and respect, but also understanding, hit Riley in a way that took her off guard. On some level, he understood why she had reacted the way she did. He saw that she was a fighter, a warrior; not on battlefields with soldiers at her side like him, but in disgusting, dirty alleys and dark, empty streets, surrounded by gangs and enemies. Jasper certainly understood her on some level, and Riley wasn't sure if she liked that or not.

Despite knowing he understood, Riley didn't feel any less embarrassed by her violent outburst. She hated the way everyone was staring at her with a range of emotions, none of them good in Riley's eyes. "Sorry about that," Riley grunted, absently rubbing her slightly aching arm. "I didn't mean to...when someone touches me by surprise and I don't recognize the touch, I just…"

"I'm sorry for surprising you too, I didn't mean to," Jasper said, nodding silently to show, once more, that he understood and accepted what had happened. "I don't have a tendency to yell, which was why you probably didn't hear me when I first called you."

No, Riley had heard him, vaguely enough. She had just been too focused on Emmett, trying to strike the fear of the tiny bitch into him.

"I wanted to wait until things settled down first, but from the way things were going, I could tell they would only get more chaotic. Do you have the time for me to ask you a few questions?"

Just like that, Riley's walls came back up, even stronger than before. "What kind of questions?" Riley asked. She didn't even bother to hide the suspicion from her voice. Fuck, was this all some kind of ploy to get Riley to let her guard down so he could try to figure out more about her? Maybe try to use Riley in some way?

"We didn't get to go into detail about how you came to those conclusions about what Victoria might be planning yesterday. I want to know more about how you realized those possibilities so quickly, and just hear about your opinions, from one survivor to another. Perhaps we can even talk strategy." Jasper was completely honest about his intentions when talking to the human. He might not be able to read Riley's emotions like he could with everyone else, but he could still see the emotions displayed on Riley's face. Even now, he didn't want to make Riley uncomfortable. Protecting his mate and his family came first, but it was clear that this human had been through a lot, and she never got the support Jasper did. He felt a kinship toward her, even a bit of protectiveness. This was a girl who was used to being alone, used to having everyone against her, and regardless of how at ease or happy she acted, those scars were still very present deep down. "Only if you feel up to it, of course. I don't want to push."

Riley was silent, still sizing up the situation, taking note of how everyone was trying to pretend they weren't paying attention to her and Jasper's conversation.

"Food is ready!" Esme called, immediately gaining a grumble of joy from Riley's stomach. The motherly vampire either had the worst timing ever, the best, or she was simply trying to break up what she saw as a tense moment. Perhaps trying to help Riley in some weird way?

It was clear the woman didn't mean any harm by it, and neither did Jasper or the others, but Riley hated how they tried to tiptoe around her feelings. Yeah, Riley was fucked up, but she wasn't some fragile, easily breakable piece of glass because of her past. She had scratches and gouges, but she had been remade into something stronger.

The way they treated her made Riley want to bite back, maybe shut down so that they wouldn't get whatever they wanted from her regardless of how hard they tried. But she couldn't. She wouldn't. Because doing it now would be selfish, could potentially put Bella and the Cullens and even the wolves in more danger. She wasn't about to let her pride get in the way of people's safety.

Speaking of...Seth apparently got fucked up in the battle when a newborn wrapped its arms around him. She loved the kid, and even knowing he would heal didn't lessen her worry. Riley wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to him at all if Riley could help it. She remembered the Denalis and how they wouldn't join the fight unless they had the chance to kill the wolves in vengeance for Laurent's death. Riley understood wanting vengeance, especially if the person killed was a mate, but surely there was a way to convince them to help. Maybe if the Cullens had more time to convince them? If they had time to realize just how serious and deadly the fight could be? Surely they weren't the type to actually let their cousins potentially die in brutal and violent ways once they got over their initial rage. After all, Irina had been willing to go apologize for her behavior, which had been what led her to seeing Bella's baby. There had to be a way to speed up the Denalis' desire to make amends. Having strong, older vampires would be an amazing addition to their own little army.

"Sure, Jasper, whatever. Just let me eat first," Riley said, getting a nod in reply from the blond vampire. She sat over at the table with Jasper sitting across from her. Even though she was sure Bella had already eaten, the brunette walked past Riley to sit on Riley's left, reaching under the table to squeeze Riley's hand. The girl was trying to show support, and had Riley not been so afraid to show weakness, she would've given Bella a grateful look. Instead, she gave a light squeeze back before letting go.

It was then that Riley noticed there was no pain, and came to another realization. Bella had sat on Riley's left instead of her right on purpose. Had even carefully made sure to grab Riley's left hand even though Riley had put both hands in her lap.

Was it sad, knowing that Bella was more aware of how much Riley tended to fuck up her right arm much more than Riley was? It felt like everyone was constantly aware of how badly injured Riley's right arm was and went out of their way to cater to it. Despite the near-constant pain in her right arm, the only ones who constantly forgot about the dangers of using her right arm were Paul and Riley herself. Riley just tended to act first, and whenever she did something with her arms, expected it to be the bad arm that she had done stupid shit with.

"First off, we're still not completely sure what they're planning, right? We only know that they're after Bella because of the whole James shit." Food was placed in front of her, and Riley muttered a thanks while doing everything she could not to look in Esme's direction. She didn't want to encourage Esme to try to mother her. "But it's definitely something bad; bad enough that you're asking a teenage human for help strategizing."

Jasper grimaced. He hated knowing that there was a partially unknown threat coming for his family. "That's correct."

"Well, maybe we can just prepare for the worst just in case here? You know, in case it turns out we're well over our heads. Surely there's other vampires more than happy to help you, right?" Please tell Riley this was enough. Riley didn't know how to push about the Denalis anymore without outright saying she knows they exist.

Thankfully, Carlisle's eyes lit up. "Of course! I should contact the Denali coven. While they're still a tad...upset... with us at the moment, I'm sure they'll be more than willing to help due to the potential dangers of the current situation. Let me call them right now. At the very least, they might give us some advice."

"Cool, sounds like a good idea," Riley said. She didn't have high hopes for her little plan, but trying was worth something. Now that her job was done, she focused on eating and talking strategy and ideas with Jasper. It was actually kind of fun. They had only just started speaking when Bella leaned against Riley, content to listen to the conversation, her eyes sparkling with interest but not having much to contribute.

Alice had been busy, between watching Jasper and the humans talk and shooting concerned glances at a silent and sulking Edward, but once Carlisle started to leave the room to make the call, Alice rushed after him. She needed something to do, and right now, talking to the Denalis was the only thing she could think of. "Let me help you Carlisle."

Riley wanted nothing more than to listen in, but needing to split her attention between such intense conversation with Jasper and trying to listen to the phone call without accidentally giving away her secret super hearing was hard. Incredibly hard. Even doing her best, she only managed to make out enough to tell the phone call didn't go well. At all. It was expected, but still disappointing. Riley would only know if her gamble had paid off once the newborn army actually showed up.

"Surely there's some way we can convince them," Riley heard Alice say. She sounded like she was in distress, and by the way Jasper twitched, eyes leaving Riley for the first time to look in the direction of his mate, she could tell he was worried about her. Maybe he would leave long enough that Riley could focus on the conversation happening in the other room? A girl could hope. "There has to be a way!"

"Alice, I know it's hard, but you heard their conditions. We'll just have to hope that we will be enough to take on whatever threat that comes our way."

Jasper didn't even think to excuse himself when he got up to go to his mate's side. He was solely focused on helping Alice in any way possible. There was a fierce, intense look in his eyes, like he was ready to do anything and everything to make Alice happy, even kill. For Jasper, it was clear that Alice was his world. It was actually pretty admirable; there was no way Riley could ever be so tied to someone else. The idea of loving someone else to such a degree was terrifying and, frankly, impossible for someone like Riley.

"What's wrong?" Bella whispered.

Riley was aware that Rosalie and Emmett were watching them. Even if Rosalie hadn't been so openly glaring at Riley, Riley wouldn't have expected privacy. So of course, Riley kept on acting clueless.

"No clue."

"You're a terrible liar. Why don't you tell the truth?" Rosalie snapped. Riley looked over at Rosalie and Emmett in surprise. Rosalie was standing now as was Emmett, and Emmett had a hand on Rosalie's shoulder as if trying to calm her and hold her back if necessary.

"The fuck are you talking about? I'm a great liar!" She would have probably said even more stupid shit, had she not seen the worry Rosalie was trying to hide in her eyes. Rosalie was worrying about her? Why?

"So you were lying to me," Bella said. She didn't sound upset, just amused, so Riley didn't feel too bad about being caught.

"Maybe you are, but not when you have such an obvious tell." Rosalie gestured to Riley's chest, and immediately, Riley's mind went to the gutter.

"My tits don't tell you anything! You aren't some booby whisperer, you pervert!" Riley used her left hand to shield her chest from Rosalie's eyes, and the fact that she used her left hand should have been enough for Riley to notice something was wrong. "I mean, if you want to look or touch, that's one thing, but talking to my tits isn't something I think I can get behind. Even for a hot blonde like-"

"I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about your necklace!" Rosalie hissed. It was weird, looking at someone and knowing they should be blushing, yet never seeing it. "You're touching your necklace, that's your tell!"

Riley looked down and realized Rosalie was right. She had been holding the bag with her locket in it between her fingers, stroking the face of the locket through the cloth material with her thumb. Despite the increasing ache in Riley's hand, Riley hadn't noticed what she was doing at all. Seeing Jasper behave like that for someone he loved, thinking about how Alice was his world, reminded Riley of Sasha. Of the one person she had ever truly loved. It wasn't a sexual or romantic love, but at a time when Sasha was alive, Sasha had been the closest thing to Riley's world regardless.

"Oh," was all Riley could think to say.

"Now, are you going to tell us what's wrong or not?" Rosalie growled.

Riley let go of her locket and looked away. No weakness. "No, I don't think I will."

"Damn you, if you think I'm going to let you worm your way out of-"

"Wow Rosalie, for all of your thorns, you sure do love Riley. Emmett better watch out." Bella's laugh turned into a squeak as she hid behind Riley's body. Still, the look Rosalie gave her didn't completely extinguish Bella's fire. "Glaring at me just proves I'm right!"

"Don't worry babe, no matter how much your feelings stray, I'll always-"

"I swear, if you finish that sentence Emmett, I'll-"

Emmett immediately covered his crotch, knowing exactly what part Rosalie was about to threaten. "Okay, okay, no jokes about your secret love!" That got a furious hiss from Rosalie, who looked ready to launch herself at her husband.

"I don't have a secret love! I don't care about her at all!"

Bella just couldn't help herself. "You say one thing, but your actions…"

Usually Riley would have to join in with the teasing by now, but she was too distracted by the conversation still happening in the other room.

"No Carlisle, there has to be something I can do! Bella is in danger, and I'm her best friend! I need to help her somehow. That's what best friends do, right? They don't just show up out of nowhere and try to seduce you, they do everything they can to help." Oh shit, Alice was totally jealous of Riley. Damn was it hard to hold back a smirk. "I just...I want to be there for Bella. I have super senses, super strength and speed, I even have visions! But what good is all of that if I can't protect my best friend? These visions can't even help one pers-"

The sudden silence would have been a bit alarming to most, but Riley knew that with Jasper there, nothing bad would happen. She most likely had a vision or some shit. Maybe Jasper decided to go caveman and carry her away.

"I had a vision. I'm not sure of the details, but I know one thing for sure. If the Denali sisters come down here, something will make them happy. I need to get them down here!" Alice exclaimed excitedly a second later. "Give me the phone Carlisle, I need to call them now! This is going to be great!"

Riley had to hide a frown. She didn't remember a vision regarding any member of the Denali coven's happiness happening in the book, let alone one that happened during such an important time. Alice wasn't one to lie about her visions, which left Riley all the more confused about the situation as she tried to figure out what Alice could be referring to. Despite how hard she thought, she came up blank, driving her insane with curiosity.

What could possibly be in Forks that would make the Denalis change their mind? For the first time since ending up in Forks, Riley was left completely in the dark.