Chapter 3
I open my eyes slowly. The right side of my face feels tight and hot. My brain feels sluggish. The white ceiling tiles above me look vaguely familiar. After a few minutes my ears seem to turn on and a steady beeping reaches my ears. I know that sound, that's why the ceiling looks familiar. I'm in a room at Forks General Hospital. I've been here before, though it's been a while. The last time I was here Carlisle was my doctor. I hear what sounds like a person shifting next to my bed, and for half a second I expect to see Edward sitting there. I struggle to turn my head, pain shooting from the top of my forehead down to my neck.
The dark hair tells me it is not Edward, and for the first time in months, I'm not disappointed by that fact.
"Dad." I manage to get out the movement of the one word making the pain in the right side of my face worse.
"Oh Bells," he sits up and moves to the edge of his chair "You really scared me this time."
"What happened?" Tears prick at my eyes from the effort of speaking.
"Sam and Jake brought you in. They said they found you in the woods near Billy's place. Bells you were attacked by an animal, we think maybe the same bear that those hikers saw."
I try to process what he said, but I can't move past the first words. Sam and Jake brought me in. I remember yelling at Sam, the way I stepped towards him when faced with the unknown guy's anger. I swallow blinking slowly.
"Are they still here?" I ask Charlie not wanting him to think that I'm overly eager to see a man that I barely know.
"Jake had to get back to school, but Sam hasn't left the whole time you've been here."
I look at him confused trying to figure out how long I've been here. Charlie's got a fair amount of stubble on his jaw, more than usual which tells me he hasn't been home or to the station in several days. He must know that I'm trying to analyze him because he just squeezes my hand gently and tells me it's been 6 days. I hear the door to the room open with a heavy click and turn my head to see who it is, but the movement makes the pain flare again and I can't help but cry out.
"Quo pat!" I hear Sam's deep voice exclaim, the door slamming shut behind him as he moves to my side.
His large hand grabs a hold of mine, his deep brown eyes staring into mine, and again I feel something shift.
"Dad, could you get a nurse?" I ask wanting a minute alone with this man who's gripping my hand like it's the only thing holding him to the earth.
Charlie nods and pushes himself out of the chair to go find my nurse. I blink slowly staring up at Sam. It's been six days since I went to visit Jake. Six days since I was attacked by- by Sam. I stare up into his guilt ridden eyes as I realize the truth. I was not attacked by a bear. I was attacked by a massive black wolf that erupted out of Sam. My breath catches in my throat as I start to wonder if there is nothing normal in this world. If vampires and werewolves are real, are fairies and trolls and other things real too?
"Isabella please, say something." His deep voice breaks me out of my thoughts.
"Just Bella." I respond automatically, though for some reason when he says my full name it doesn't grate on my nerves the way it did when Edward would say it, or anyone else for that matter.
"Okay, Bella." He says softly his thumb caressing the uninjured side of my face. "I'm so sorry. I should never have lost control like that. I hurt you."
"I'm ok." I whisper feeling an overwhelming need to comfort him, to take away the pain I can see in his eyes.
"You're not. Bella, you'll carry the scars of my carelessness the rest of your life." His voice is full of shame, guilt, pain.
"Explain this to me." I can almost hear the pleading tone in my voice. "Why do I feel bound to you?" I shift slightly in the bed, my body feeling stiff from laying still for so long.
He moves to help me adjust on the firm mattress before beginning to speak. Once I'm settled in an upright position with no less than four pillows surrounding me, helping to prop me up, he sinks into the chair that Charlie had occupied to begin his tale.
"I know you know about the Cullen's. I know you were involved with them. This wasn't the first time they've come to Forks. A long time ago, one of their kind attacked my people. Our spirit warriors were almost completely wiped out trying to protect the tribe from the cold ones. We have a treaty with the Cullens, they don't come on our land and we leave them be, but in the last 10 months, more of our boys have begun to turn, the presence of the cold ones activating our genes."
"I was the first of this group of spirit warriors to phase, the Alpha of the pack. That pull that you feel to me is because I imprinted on you Bella. I'm not sure if it was the night that I found you in the woods or if it was when you confronted us in the meadow behind Billy's house, but neither of us can deny it happened." I feel the calluses of his thumb against the smooth skin of my hand.
"Imprinted, what does that mean?" I ask, feeling my skull begin to pound as I try to process all of this information.
"It means that gravity doesn't hold me to the planet anymore. You do. It means that we are meant to be together forever, blessed by the Great Wolf . It means that I will be whatever you need me to be. A friend, a protector, a lover."
I suck in a deep breath staring at him. I know he's right, I can feel it. It's overwhelming though, this thought that I could be mated, destined to be with this person that I've only known for a few months, and that's being generous because if we are being honest I don't know him at all.
A knock on the door breaks me from my thoughts and saves me from having to say anything else to Sam. The door opens and Charlie walks in with a doctor. Again for a split second I'm expecting it to be Carlisle but it isn't. It's a woman with sleek blond hair in a tight braid.
"Hi Bella, I'm Dr. Capshaw, how are you feeling?" She asks walking over to the side of my bed opposite from where Sam sits.
"My head is pounding but other than that I'm ok." I say knowing better than to try to hide my pain when it's this bad.
"Ok, I want to go ahead and look under your bandages and make sure that things are still healing well."
Once I've nodded my assent she moves to remove the bandages covering the left side of my face. I whimper softly and find myself gripping Sam's hand tightly.
"You're doing great Bella, just one more piece of gauze." His low voice reaches my ears and I find comfort in it.
"They look better, would you like to see?" She asks me softly.
I swallow and look at Charlie and then at Sam. Charlie looks a bit green around the gills, but Sam just looks like stone, firm and immovable. I nod still clinging to the large man's hand, a bit afraid to let go. Dr. Capshaw moves to the side table grabbing a small rectangular mirror out of the drawer. She holds it up for me and it takes me a moment to realize that I'm looking at my own face. The right half of my face looks mostly normal but the left side is red, irritated and swollen. Deep angry red claw marks segment my face into pieces. Just by looking at them I know they will scar awfully.
"Thankfully while they got close to your eye, and trouble you have with your vision should only be temporary. You're healing well with no sign of infection. I want to keep you for a couple more days but I don't see any reason why you can't go home with your father on Monday."
I nod again slowly biting my lip. I'm 18, technically I could leave right now if I wanted to but I know Charlie would have a fit.
"Ok" I say softly, looking away from the mirror not wanting to look at the angry red lines anymore.
Dr. Capshaw puts the mirror away and leaves as a nurse comes in, putting a cream on my cuts before rebandaging my face. I lay back against my pillows exhausted. I vaguely hear Sam telling Charlie that he's going to go call Jake and give him an update, but I'm too tired to care, my few hours of being awake have completely exhausted me.