Chapter 7: Explanation
She woke in a bed with soft dark purple sheet and a quilted blanket. The room was nice with shelled wind chimes hanging from the ceiling and other trinkets for the beach and ocean, a wolf in the corner carved out of a piece of draft wood. Soft curtains hang over the window, turning the evening sun a soft glow. It was cozy and warm, but it was not her room, well not the room she had grown accustomed to at the Swan house.
She sits up in the bed and feel a shooting pain in her side. Looking down, she sees bandages wrap around her middle and left arm, touching her side, pain soars up her side again. God that hurt. She moves her arm with the bandages, no pain. She decides to unwrap her arm, she leaves the ones around her middle; she had faint slash marks on her arm from the attack that afternoon. She was a shifter, so she healed quickly, it most have been bad to leave scars on her arm and for the wounds on her torso not to be healed yet.
She moves stiffly out of bed and quickly finds a sundress laid out for her, or that's what it looked like. She puts on the dress, a light-yellow dress with pretty flowers, and walks out of the bedroom. As she moves to the stairs, she hears voice form below.
"So, what are we going to do now," someone says.
"Kill the bastards," she was sure of that one, it was Paul's voice.
"They're shifters like us though," someone returns.
"Who cares," Paul.
Her eyes go wide, and she stops on the stairs, partway down, she can see them through the railing of the stairs. She's near the top so she crouches down to see them better, she could easily run back up and maybe find a window to jump out of. Paul didn't care about kill shifters? She feels a sharp pain in her chest. Of course, he would hate her kind, her wishful thinking was just that, wishful. But, what did they mean by 'shifters like us' then she remembers the wolves?
She sees Paul standing with his arms cross over his brood chest looking irritated; Embry, Jake and Emily sit at a small wooden table. She met Emily at the barbeque, she was a kind-hearted woman and Sam's fiancés, Emily had beautiful copper skin and soft brown eyes with silky black hair. Daiane didn't say anything about the scars on the right side of her face, large lacerations like she was mauled by a dog but now she wondered if it was a wolf.
"We are going to get the whole story first before we do anything," a commanding voice says as Sam moves into her view.
Paul's eyes shoot over to the stair before she can move to hide and the whole room locks their eyes on her, except Emily, they most have scented her, shit. She jerks and tries to turn and run, only for the pain in her side to hit her, stopping her and making for slip on the stairs.
Paul is up the stair in the next second, hovering over her, his arm outstretched to stop her from felling down the stairs. Why was he so concerned, he wanted to kill her, didn't he? She pulls away from him, afraid that he was only going to hurt her. He looks hurt at her reluctance to touch him. What did he expect, he just said to kill them?
"Are you hungry?" Embry asks from the table. There was a large bowl filled with oversized muffins on the table.
Her stomach growls, but she looks around at them confused. "You aren't going to hurt me?" she asks, timidly.
"Why would you think that?" Paul says in bewilderment.
"No, we aren't going to hurt you," Jacob says, waving his hand in welcome. "Come and talk with us. We've never met another shifter before."
"My grandmother always told me stories about other shifter," she says, timidly. "She used to talk about falcons, bears … Wolves."
"Well," Embry exclaims, holding his arms out wide. "Here we are."
Paul suddenly wraps his arms around her and effortlessly pick her up and carriers her down the stair, she goes stiff in him arms. He is gentle as he carries her, trying hard not to irritate her wounds. He puts her in a chair at the table, gingerly. She looks up at him as he moves away from her, surprised by his actions. After putting her in the chair, he still stands protectively next to her.
"Umm," she says, unsure.
Jacob pushes the bowl of muffins in her direction, there was an assortment of oversized muffins, blueberry, chocolate, raspberry, and others that she couldn't tell what they were without biting into one. She hesitantly takes one and puts it in front of her, but she doesn't eat it. Paul moves closer to her and leaning over her to say, "You need to eat." She freezes in place, afraid.
"Paul, back off," Sam says, and she hears a growl come from Paul. Oh God, she was going to die.
"Why did they attack you?" Sam asks, getting right to the point.
What should she say? Would they kill her for running? She didn't need two packs chasing her down. Well, what could she do, if she lied, she would be hunted; if she told the truth she would be killed? Damned if she did; damned if she didn't.
"I'm a runaway," she says, playing with her muffin.
"What are you running away from," Emily asks in a kind voice.
"I didn't approve of the new Alpha's methods," she explains. "My grandmother was Alpha before, and she said that to bind pack members with the Alpha voice was wrong and that she would never wish for anyone to follow her if they didn't want too."
"What does that mean," Embry asks.
"It went an Alpha makes it so a shifter can't leave the pack," she says.
"They can do that," Embry enquires.
"Well, yes and no," she answers. "It more that the pack member gives the Alpha permission to do it."
"And that's a bad thing," Embry continues.
"Yes," Daiane nearly shouts, but after her outburst she shrinks down and looks over at them warily. "I mean—It's not what my Grandmother—I just—"
"Go head says it," Sam says, he waits patiently for her to gather her thoughts.
"Umm, you see, it's like this. When an alpha binds a shifter to the pack, that shifter can never leave the pack. That means they can't stop shifting. Umm, so if a shifter wishes to grow old and one day die, they can't."
"Sam here says he's going to stop any day now to be with Emily," Embry says, between bites.
Sam smack him on the back of the head, showing his displeasure, "So what if that's what they want, what's the problem. It's all voluntary, right?"
"But what about their mates and callings?" Daiane exclaims.
"What's a calling," Sam asks.
"It only happens to male shifters," Daiane says. "It's when they see their mate or a human that means—well, everything to them… They just know deep in their souls that they are the one. My grandmother said that the Gods could never trust men to make good decisions so they had to take even their choose in mate away, so the species wouldn't die out." Her Grandmother uses to say a lot of things about how they thought too much with their lower brain too.
Emily laughs at that and says, "Your grandmother sounds like a very wise woman."
"Yeah, she was," Daiane murmurs under her breath.
"Hey that sounds like imprinting," Embry says to Sam.
"So, you left so you wouldn't have to bind yourself to the pack," Jacob asks.
How should she answer this one? They didn't seem angry at her yet. "Ummm no, I was getting ready to leave but…" She didn't want to talk about this and closes her eyes, she can feel tears growing in her eyes. "He wanted me to—mate with him."
A dangerous growl came from her left, from the man—wolf—next to her. She jumps at the sound and nearly runs for the door if the pain in her left side didn't slow her down so much. She falls to the floor at the pain, but Paul catches her gentle and wraps his arms around her and brings her back to the chair. He crouches down next to her and puts his hand protectively on her thigh, he looks up at her with cold dangerous eyes, but she can see something else in his chocolate brown eyes, something she can't name.
"Paul, you need to calm down," Sam says.
"No, I need to kill that bastard," Paul growls.
"Paul," Sam warns.
"I'm sorry," she whines. They were angry and it was clearly at her. Her words seem to make Paul angrier, and she pulls back instinctively from him. She was crying now, fear and uncertain of them.
Paul pulls her over to him again and says, "No I'm sorry."
"I couldn't do it," she says in fear, not hearing Paul's apology. "I couldn't bind my soul to his. It would be torture when he heard the call for another. And I would never be able to leave that torture. I'm sorry, I know leave my family was wrong and selfish. Please don't kill me." she pleads.
Paul hushes her and strokes her hair, holding her to his warm body. He hugs her close saying, "I sorry I didn't mean to scary you." She cries and pleads more into his chest, "No one will hurt you here," Paul soothes.
When she looks up again from Paul's chest, Jacob and Embry are gone, they must have been uncomfortable with her crying. Sam is sitting at the table now; he has the commanding presents of an Alpha about him. Emily sits next to him softening his harsh attitude.
"Paul's right no one will hurt you here. We won't talk about that anymore, okey," Emily reassures her, reaching a hand out to her. "Please can you explain a few more things?" Emily looks at Paul then and says, "Paul, stop growling."
Paul pulls back but stays very close to her. He nods quickly to Emily as Sam starts, "Did this Alpha take over your pack?"
"No," she answers wiping at my eyes. "After my grandmother died, there was a few who were strong enough to be Alpha but they had all heard their callings and had already decided to stop shifting to be with their mates. There were a few young cats who thought they could be Alpha. But Triago came out of nowhere and the younger shifters flocked to him. I had never met him before, and with my grandmother being Alpha, I met a lot of shifters, and he was not one of them." She puts her arms on the table and toy with her muffin again, trying to conpose herself. "We are Jaguars, and we don't necessarily need a pack but a lot of us choose to be a part of one. Safety in numbers."
"So, you don't have the pack mind thing," Emily asks.
"What's that," she asks.
"We wolves can hear each other's thought when we are shifted," Paul answers.
"Ummm, no, we don't have that. An Alpha's will is known to the whole pack but Jaguars are solitary animals. We don't hear each other."
"Why would your people choose to chase you down and kill you for not liking the Alpha," Sam asks.
She wasn't sure what to say, it was like they didn't know anything about shifters and the things they could do. "Well, when an Alpha gives an order and Alpha's orders get obeyed. Once Triago gave the kill order the pack has no choose but to obey."
Sam's eyes go wide, like he was suddenly scared of himself, he looks to Emily who looks at him concerned. They share a look that only they can understand, but Emily gives him a compassionate look and puts her hand on his shoulder and shaking her head, silently communicating with him. Sam relaxes at her touch and turns back to Daiane.
"So, they would kill you because the Alpha says so," Sam asks.
"Yes, they may not want to but the moment they see me they would have no choose," she explains. "I didn't want anyone in my family to live with that guilt, so I ran away. If they didn't see me, they wouldn't have to kill me." She would never wish for anyone in her family to live with that guilt, of killing her against their will. "I can never see my family again," she finished in a whisper.
"That's messed up," Paul says.
"Mmmm," she agrees. "My grandmother always said that the Alpha was to protect their pack not command it."
"How did your grandmother die," Emily asks. From the way she asked, Emily must think that Triago killed her grandmother. Well, that didn't happen, her grandmother was way stronger than Triago even in her old age.
"She died with her mate, they died together," Daiane says.
"But how?" Sam says. Did they really not know what that meant for a female shifter to die with her mate.
"She died when my grandfather died of old age," she answers. "Female shifters don't hear the call like males do. Female shifters choose their mates," she pauses looking around at them. Blank stares are the only things that greet her, did they really not know this? "Ahh, female shifters choose who they mate with by initiating a mating bond with the man of her choosing. She binds her life to her mate. A female shifter couldn't survive without their mate. My grandmother mated with a human man and when he died of old age, she died with him."
"So, Triago didn't kill her," Sam asks.
"No," she answers. "It happened well before Triago came, I was 16, four years ago, they said they were tried and went upstairs for a nap. An hour later my aunt found them, in bed wrap in each other's arms. I think my grandmother felt that the time was near for my grandfather and they always said they would die in each other's arms."
"Wow," Emily utters her eyes fulling with unshed tears. "They must have loved each other a lot."
"Yeah, female shifters take mating very seriously, there are some who never form a mating bond with their spouse. Some just choose to stop shifting like males and live out their lives with the one they choose but never mate with them. It seen as the ultimate act of love to mate with someone, because the mated pair die together so it is believed that they will be joined together in the afterlife too." she explains. "So, if I was mated to Triago I wouldn't even be able to escape him even in death."
"That sounds wonderful," Emily says. "Well, other then that part about that asshole. I'm glad you escaped him." Emily takes her hand and squeezes it; her eyes are kind as they share a look. Emily was a really kind woman, with a good heart. She could see herself being good friends with this woman in time, but that probably wasn't in the cards. They wouldn't let her stay here, not with the threat of another pack on her tail.
"My mother wasn't as lucky as my grandmother," Daiane tell them. "I still hear her scream when she felt the death of my father when he was out of town on business. We don't really know what happened to him. But my mother was home and all of the sudden she screamed and fell down died. That how everyone knew that he was died too." She was only 8 when both her parents died, she and her younger sister went to live with their grandmother after that. It was also the first time she shifted.
"Oh god that horrible," Emily says, sympathy in her eyes as she pushes the muffin at her again. She must know that she was too uncertain to eat but she still was trying to get her to eat. Daiane took a bite of the muffin just to appease this kind hearted woman.
"Well," Sam says in his commanding voice. "You are safe here and welcome. You don't have to run from here."
Shock covers her face; they weren't going the cast her out? They were going to let her stay here?
"You can stay with us on our lands too," Paul offers. His offer warms her, but she would like to stay with the Swans for a little longer, if Bella was ok this it.
"You just have to keep our secret," Sam says. "No telling Charlie or anyone outside of the tribe and even then, only a select few kn—"
"Wait does Charlie know about you," Emily asks, grabbing Sam's arm stopping him from talking. Some Alpha's would have been angry at such an interruption, but Sam just bows his head to her, like she is an equal.
"Oh God no," Daiane answers. "I've told no one. We learn from an early age that this is something that can't be shared with many. Does Bella know about you," she asks. If she didn't know before, she knew after the scene at the barbeque.
"Yes, she knows thanks to that asshat Jake," Paul says, annoyed with a shrug of him shoulders.