"Have you seen anything?" Edward asked.
"No," Alice replied. "Now that we know they're there, I can watch them. The Volturi won't move against us until they can come up with a different plan."
"Can I ask a question?" I asked. "Aro said you had a... misunderstanding with the Volturi years ago. What happened?"
Renesmee, the half-human, stood up and walked over to me. "Here, I can show you." She grabbed my hand, like Aro would to read my thoughts. But instead of her reading my mind, she showed me what was in hers. She showed me the clearing that rested close to the Cullens house, the arrival of the Volturi and their attempts to start a fight with the Cullens and the allies that they had gathered.
I took a few minutes to process it. "No wonder Aro was so angry," I replied. "That kind of confrontation would humiliate them."
"The Volturi don't appreciate being stood up against," Carlisle agreed.
"So what do we do?" Rosalie asked. "Gather allies again like last time?"
Alice snapped back to reality, shaking off the far-away look that had been on her face. "That's an option," she replied.
"Not a good one," Edward muttered under his breath. "It'll end in a bloodbath." Now he smirked.
Carlisle frowned. "Does it really have to come to violence?"
Alice, looked resigned. "Maybe not this time," she replied. "But they won't stop coming for us, Carlisle. They're always going to want Edward and Bella and me. He won't stop until he gets us.
"If we want to avoid a bloodbath, we're going to need an even bigger gathering than we had the last time. And it might still come to that," she warned.
"We need an army," Jasper said, looking like he was already preparing himself for the possibility of war.
"Jas, no," Alice replied, looking upset. "You can't. Please."
"It's the only way we can chase them off again," he told her, gently grabbing her hand.
"He's right," Edward agreed.
"Fine. Then I'm going with you," Alice protested, glaring at Jasper with a scowl on her face.
"Going where? Are you leaving us again?" Bella asked, looking heartbroken.
"Jasper wants to travel South to find Maria," Edward replied, reading his and Alice's thoughts. "She still has an army, about 30. They're well controlled - she doesn't have too many brand-new ones with her now, but they're still remarkable fighters."
Jasper turned to face Alice now, stroking her cheek. "You can't come with me," he told her. "You need to stay here to keep an eye on the Volturi."
If vampires could cry, Alice would have. She began to protest but she was interrupted by someone walking in the front door.
"Did you say Volturi?" the man, clearly not a vampire, asked. He was tall, and his tan skin nearly rippled with muscle. He wasn't wearing a shirt, so his abs were on display for everyone to see.
His scent hit me the same second he noticed me, a new vampire, in the room.
I hissed, jumping back to the far wall. "What is that doing here?" I spat, trying not to breathe in the foul scent that was radiating from the werewolf.
"Jacob is the leader of the wolves from the Quileute pack," Renesmee explained, walking over to him and taking his hand. She quickly gave him a rundown of what was happening.
"Wait, they're here?" he confirmed. "I need to tell the packs. I'll be back." He ran out the door at full speed. Seconds later, I heard the sound of clothes shredding followed by a high-pitched howl.
Renesmee sighed, looking slightly amused. "I'll go get some new clothes for him." She disappeared upstairs.
Alice and Jasper had also disappeared, but we could still hear them arguing about Jasper going to this Maria woman alone. I gathered that they had a history together, one that greatly upset Alice. Jasper was right, though - she needed to stay here and keep an eye on the Volturi. She knew it, but she didn't like it.
They discussed the plan some more before he left, using all the information I could give them.
"Do we leave?" Bella asked. "We've been in Forks so long now. It's almost time to move, anyways."
"She's right," Rosalie said. "It's almost time. And Esme just designed that lovely place in Maine for us." Edward, Esme, and Carlisle agreed.
Emmett and Jasper thought differently, though. "We can't outrun them, not with Demetri's tracking powers," Jasper said. "We have to make a stand, here and now. We may as well do it on familiar territory. We need to round up whoever we can, as soon as we can. Get to work on that while I go talk to Maria."
It was a good point, and it was decided the Cullens would stay until the confrontation was over at the very least.
Jasper left, giving Alice a passionate kiss goodbye and promising to return soon. She promised she'd be keeping an eye on him, too, and would be there if he was in any danger.
The rest of the Cullens, minus Alice, started making calls. Alice kept Renesmee and I updated. "The Denali clan will come," Alice told us, seeing their decision as they made it. "They'll make it here in time."
She named a few others, but saw that except for two nomads named Peter and Charlotte, would not be able to make it in time. Still, it was nice to know reinforcements were coming. They would know what happened here, if it came to that, at the very least. Maybe they'd be able to do something about it.
Jacob arrived back, with a few more wolves. "What's the plan?" he asked.
The wolves balked when they noticed me, as Jacob had. "Who is this?" one of the larger ones growled, trembling.
Jacob placed his hands on the guy's shoulders. "Paul, calm down. She came to warn the Cullens about the attack. The Volturi changed her, but she left them."
"She could be a rat, giving us false info," Paul spat, not calming down.
"Alice would see that, Edward would see that," Jacob tried to reason. Paul's trembles got worse. He was mad enough that I could tell he couldn't be reasoned with.
He lunged at me, knocking me through one of the wall-length glass windows in the kitchen. We crashed in the woods outside. I snarled, getting ready to fight, when a sharp "NO!" came from one of the other wolves.
Another member of Jacob's pack had somehow jumped between us, placing himself between Paul and me. He looked younger than the others - around 19, I guessed. He was only a few inches shorter than Jacob, and almost as muscled.
"Back off, Seth," Paul warned, teeth bared. "I don't want to hurt you."
"If you hurt her you will," Seth pleaded.
If you hurt her, you will? I repeated in my mind. What the hell does that mean? I was plenty strong, certain I could hold my own against Paul, even in wolf form. I didn't need some knight in shining armour to do it for me.
Paul glowered, but backed off. "Damn it kid," he snarled. "Well done." Apparently unable to stop himself, he launched past us, turning into a wolf right then and there. He looked at me, snarled once, and took off into the woods.
Seth turned to me, and I got a good look at him for the first time. His black hair was a little on the shaggy side, though not as long as Jacob's. His eyes were dark brown, reminding me of the colour of dark chocolate. Honestly, it looked like Jacob and Seth could have been related. I read his aura quickly - kind, like Carlisle, with a little vulnerability and an almost childlike naivete mixed in. And something else, that seemed to be at the forefront of his mind. Love?
"Are you okay?" he asked, way more concerned than I expected him to be.
"I'm fine," I confirmed. He came over to me, looking me over just in case. "Are you? You're...pretty freaked out."
"It's a long story," Jacob said, walking through the gaping hole the shattered window had left. "Come back in, and we'll explain." Seth looked sheepish now, but followed me inside.
Jacob and Seth took turns explaining some of the old Quileute legends, including the origins of how their forefathers first became wolves. The wolves, apparently, had an ability to 'imprint'. Renesmee showed me, rather than having the boys struggle to explain it. Jacob had imprinted on her, so she knew firsthand what it meant.
"Oh," I gasped, feeling all of the feelings that apparently came with an imprint. They truly ran the gamut - a feeling of loneliness, despair when an imprinted pair was separated, and an almost euphoric elation every second they were together. "But, why me?"
"We have no idea how the imprinting thing actually works," Jacob admitted. "The legend goes that we're supposed to imprint with the ones who give us the strongest chance of carrying on the pack, but there seem to be exceptions to that rule."
Renesmee rolled her eyes. "Jacob, please. We don't know if I can reproduce or not."
"And you won't find out for a long time yet!" Bella shouted from upstairs, making Edward chuckle. Renesmee laughed.
"You're the first vampire any tribe member has imprinted on," Jacob said. "We didn't even think it was possible, since vampires and wolves are so incompatible."
"Maybe that's changing," Seth said. "Maybe since we've been acclimating to living in the same proximity as vampires, the rules are changing. We don't see them as enemies anymore. Not these vampires, anyways."
"Maybe," Jacob agreed.
"How are you going to deal with the smell?" Rosalie asked. She didn't seem snarky about it, rather genuinely curious. "I know we don't smell good to you, and its the same for us."
I said "he doesn't smell" at the same time Seth replied "she doesn't smell." Everyone in the room turned to look at us, their faces question marks. I hadn't really noticed that he didn't smell like the rest of the wolves before, but another sniff confirmed it.
"Huh," Jacob replied.
"Stranger things have happened around here," Edward muttered, chuckling to himself.
"Do I still smell to you?" Jacob asked. I sniffed again, in his direction.
I thought about it for a moment. "You don't smell quite as bad. Its still lingering, though."
The vampires and Jacob mused over it for a second, while Seth and I just looked at each other. "You'd think we were the freakiest people in this house," he joked.
I chuckled, appreciating the joke. "Right? Like we're not surrounded by all kinds of freaky super powerful vampires," I joked back, earning a laugh from the rest of the house.
"Leah, Paul, and Brady are coming back," Edward told us. "I guess it's time to fill everyone in on what's happening."
Seth groaned. "Not Leah," Seth groaned. "She's my sister. And she's not exactly going to be thrilled that I imprinted on you."
"She'll have to deal," Jacob said. "It's not her business."
Seth nodded as we heard three wolves phase - a sound I was starting to recognize now - and walk up the path to the house.
I frowned as I saw Leah's colours. None of them were particularly happy, and they were all stormy, swirling violently around each other. She was angry, but she was also in a lot of pain. It seemed she had been for a long time. "Oh!" I gasped, looking at each of the wolves. A silver, barely visible thread connected Jacob, Leah, and Seth. A similar one connected Brady too. The threads didn't stop there though, extending past where I could see.
"What?" Seth asked.
"Your auras, you're all connected," I replied, smiling. "Well, you, Jacob and Leah are. And so are Paul and Brady."
They looked confused. "I can see people's auras...they're kind of like, colours, that surround you. It says a lot about a person, who they are at their very core," I explained. It earned a few weird looks from the wolves, but Seth nodded as if it made perfect sense. "Yours are connected by like a thin, silver line. I've never seen anything like it before."
"When we're wolves, we can hear each others thoughts," Seth told me. "It's how we communicate. We have two packs - we're in Jacobs. Paul and Brady are in Sam's."
"The lines make sense then. They must be reaching out to your other pack mates, too."
Alice flew in, interrupting the musing. "Jasper found Maria. No decisions yet."
"And the Volturi?" Carlisle asked in his gentle manner.
"I watched them too, but I couldn't find anything concrete. They're waiting for us to make the first move, now that their cover is blown," she reported. She snapped out of her vision, and looked straight at me. "They're going to kill you, you know."
"Like hell!" Seth roared.
"It's okay," I told him, placing a hand on his arm. "Nobody here is going to let anything happen."
He took a minute to process what I was saying, but seemed to agree. He stayed close to me, which should have felt a little bit awkward since we'd literally just met, but it was comforting. The imprint was at work, I guessed.
"There are two ways this can end right now, without Maria deciding anything," Alice continued. "They'll come for us once Jasper returns empty handed, demand we hand her over, and leave us alone when we do. They'll be back, though. Like I said before, they'll never stop. Or, we say no to handing her over, and it turns into the bloodbath I saw already. I don't know how that ends because the wolves are involved."
"We can't just hand her back to them!" Seth protested, now putting a protective arm around me.
"Of course not, Seth," Edward reassured him. "We don't do that in this family."
Alice nodded. "That choice is made, then. Now all we need to do is wait for Maria."