Chapter Four: Stunned
I could only stare for a minute.
"You're… Quileute?" I asked her, my expression twisting further into confusion. "What do you mean?"
"I was born and raised in the reservation, Bella," Renee said, smiling. The heat in the room now had maxed out at a simply uncomfortable level for the time being. With my new senses, I could tell that it was very, very slowly coming down small bits at a time. Renee continued, "I learned about the legends. I participated in my fair share of them as well."
I still did not see the extreme significance she was obviously waiting for. What did she mean 'participated?' Maybe like when Billy and Quil had read the legends? She read them to somebody too?
Edward's face suddenly transformed to wonder, as some unspoken words spread a look of understanding bewilderment across his handsome face.
"Mom, I don't—" I began, but Renee saw where I was going with that sentence.
"Bella, honey, I'm a shape-shifter," she said bluntly. "Edward has already seen what I'm talking about. He only barely remembers me, but never in this form."
Edward was still in shock. I joined him quickly, just staring at my mother. In the background of my consciousness, I saw Emmett slide Jasper a small wad of folded bills.
Finally, Edward melted, and once he moved I felt myself melt from our silent staring.
"That was you?" he asked in a low voice. "The big, brown wolf?"
Renee nodded, a small smile breaking across her face.
"The big brown wolf, that was me," she said slowly, as though her memory was being jogged.
I suddenly realized why it was so hot.
"Mom, you're—you're superheating!" I said. I still couldn't quite believe my ears, but my senses did not lie. My mom, Renee Dwyer, was a shapeshifter?
She reached down and felt her arm. "Am I? It's been a while since I was anywhere near a catalyst. I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later, honey."
I blinked. "A catalyst?"
Renee smiled at me, leaning over and handing a sleeping Renesmee back to me. "You're clever honey, think it through. If you really need help, Jacob can tell you what I'm talking about."
A catalyst. Where had I heard that from before? Jacob had said it once. A catalyst…
Vampires. Vampires were a catalyst for the shapeshifter gene to activate, so that the Quileutes could phase into werewolves.
Which meant…
"Mom?" I asked, my silvery voice shaking. "Are you saying that right now, right now, you could shift into a—"
Renee stood, and winked at me, motioning for me to follow her. Edward rose, and offered me his hand. I took it, as though in a stupor, my eyes trailing Renee as she walked out of the door.
She went down onto the grass below. I, Edward, Renesmee, and the rest of the vampires in the house all waited on the front porch. I was the only one who was not wearing an expectant grin. I half-hoped that this was all a joke. Surely, my mother couldn't have kept this secret from me for so long; something of this magnitude…
With excellent or horrible timing, Jacob turned the corner, just in time to watch as Renee's form suddenly exploded, and a huge brown wolf stood in front of the house, staring up at us. Jacob yelped and leapt backwards in surprise, automatically phasing and shredding his clothes. Renee melted back into existence, and there were four expressions of surprise to find, pleasantly, that her clothes weren't even stretched.
"How—" I began, before Renesmee giggled and ran forward, stopping only just a few feet from Renee.
"How did you phase without breaking your clothes?" she asked, touching Renee's jeans as if to make sure they were actually there.
"Well, once you destroy enough button-up blouses, you learn tricks," Renee said. She turned to address Jacob, who looked mournfully at the snarled-up mess that had been a set of sneakers. Jacob looked up at her as he felt her gaze. "I can teach you sometime. It involves simply pouring your shape into your clothes again, Jacob."
Wolf-Jacob nodded, before slinking off further into the woods, where the Cullens' kept a spare set of clothes for him, for the occasional accident.
I put one foot forward, then another, then another, until I was in front of Renee. I stood eye-level with her now, and I could feel her excessive heat rolling off of her from even the space of two feet away.
"Mom?" I finally asked. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
Renee looked appropriately abashed, though she also didn't exactly look sorry.
"Bella, if I had told you, early into your life, that I was a werewolf, that vampires were real, and lived with your father, would you have believed me? Worse, if you had believed me, would you be paranoid for the rest of your life? Jumping at every shadow and gust of wind?"
I was about to protest, but Edward came up, chuckling softly.
"I'm very glad you didn't," he said, kissing me. "I got to experience all her backwards reactions myself."
Renee smiled again. "Then she must have reacted to the truth much better than I would have thought."
I found another question on my lips. "Why did you leave La Push?"
This time, Renee looked down at her feet. This was worse for her, whatever it was. "Bella, I can see in your eyes what you think about being a vampire. I saw it before, when Edward visited us, and I saw it at the wedding. You love them. You love him.
"So you should understand when I say that we're alike in more ways than one. I didn't feel the hate towards the Cullens that all the rest of my pack did. They singled me out because of it, but I didn't really care."
"You were always welcome here," Carlisle said warmly and almost softly. "This was your hiding-place from the pack."
Renee smiled at the unmentioned memories. "That it was. I came here whenever I felt like the pack was getting too oppressive. Funny, you'd think that they'd get even angrier, but by the time I decided it was time to go back, things always had cooled down with my pack by then.
"But like I was saying, I didn't feel the hate. I couldn't see why we had to hate the Cullens just because they were Cold Ones, or vampires I should say. They had never threatened us, or hurt us, or even stepped across our borders. They were always polite whenever we did have interactions, and very hospitable."
I just stared open-mouthed at my mother. She was right. She was exactly like me, when it came down to how we felt about the treaty, and both parties involved.
Renee continued. "So I grew close with the Cullens. I spent many nights over, curling my hair and watching movies on the ancient television set they had for guests with Alice, or played chess with Jasper and Emmett…"
"You still owe me a rematch," Emmett grumbled behind me. Whether he was talking to me or my mother I didn't know. Every time I beat him in an arm-wrestle he wanted another rematch. My newborn strength was almost gone, and it was getting hard to beat him.
Renee smiled. "You got it. I want black," she said to him over my shoulder. Then she turned back to me. "The pack didn't really appreciate my spending so much time over here though. I'm sure you know the rest."
Jacob turned the corner, shirtless but at least wearing the jeans I had set out last time.
"Seth's got a kindred spirit?" he asked as he approached. "And Renee's a shapeshifter?"
Renee put a hand against her mouth as she stared at Jacob. Her eyes twinkled as she studied him head to toe. After a few moments of this, she fanned her face.
"Geez, boy, not even Billy ever looked that good. Did you work out before your first growth spurt?" she finally asked.
Jacob, Edward, and I all blanked as we all focused in on one piece of information.
"Billy was a shapeshifter too?" Jacob asked after a few more awkward moments. His teeth gritted a little. Probably feeling the same feelings I had felt a few moments before. Why hadn't Billy told him?
"Yes he was. He was our Alpha. But he was never so—" Renee said, waving at Jacob's exposed torso to express her meaning.
"Mother!" I said, finally coming around. There would've been a bright red blush in my cheeks, if there had been any blood in my body left, and Jacob only laughed at my expression.
"Thank you, miss—"
"Just Renee, Jacob. You'll be my grandson-in-law soon enough," Renee said, as though this was perfectly natural response.
Seeing Edward and my (mostly just my) reaction, she laughed and waved her hands as she spoke. "C'mon, it's really not that hard to see an imprint between two people."
Carlisle was the first to shake us all out of our gazes of confusion.
"Well," Carlisle said warmly, "can we interest those of us who do eat in something?" he said, gesturing towards the grandly open door. We all walked inside for much needed explanations and for those of us who might be hungry, nourishment.
Renee turned to Carlisle. The wolves were silently fuming. Her diversion wouldn't last long. She couldn't have chosen her family, because the Cullens were innocent. She couldn't choose the vampires, because then she would be considered a threat, and could be disposed, and her daughter would have lost her mother moments after having met her.
"I'm sorry doctor, but I can buy you a few minutes. Run," Renee whispered, so softly that not even the super ears of the werewolves had a chance of hearing it.
Carlisle nodded, his eyes full of his hidden thanks. Renee turned around to face Billy, Quil, and Harry again, and she only felt the slight rush of wind as Carlisle departed.
Billy's expression was the wolf's equivalent of speechless surprise. Renee snorted, seeing that Billy had nothing else to say to her anymore, and began to leave with her daughter in her arms.
She heard a faint shimmering in the air behind her, as all three men transformed. She made sure not to turn around; she was the only wolf who had learned how to keep her clothes intact so far, and she wasn't sure if any of them had taken safety measures.
"Renee!" Billy shouted. "Where are you going?"
"It's not that hard, Billy. I'm going away," Renee said, her voice hard. Maybe she could buy the Cullens enough time to get back in their safety zone; the wolves wouldn't be allowed to cross that line. Only she was allowed in, via their permission.
"You…" she heard Billy growl in his human form. "You would choose the Cold Ones over your own family?!"
"Family doesn't give family ultimatums, Billy, they don't ask to choose between friends or family. As far as I'm concerned, unless one of you three can give me a REALLY good reason why I should stay, this child in my arms and the man at home are my family. Nobody else here deserves that title anymore," Renee hissed back sharply.
Renee could hear the hurt her words had inflicted, but she had had enough crap from these three. The Cullens were respectable people. Why couldn't anyone else SEE that!?
"Renee…" Billy said, softer this time. More repentant. That was good. "…we have to protect the people from the Cold Ones. You know this. We NEED you to—"
Renee burst. She very nearly whirled around, before stopping herself just short.
In a voice that quivered with her rage, she quietly spoke. "Are you three decent?"
There was a pause.
"We are now," Billy said.
Renee whirled around, giving her newborn daughter a slight dizzy spell.
"How dare you," she seethed. "How dare you even speak to me about protecting the people, by trying to harm perfectly good people like the Cullens? Does nobody even value 'innocent before proven guilty' anymore!? How can you three seriously look me in the eye and tell me that we have to kill the Cullens for NOT committing a crime? The legends say that the dangerous Cold Ones have red eyes, but the Cullens clearly have golden eyes, and even swear they only hunt animals! I've seen them only hunt animals!"
The three men looked down at their feet. Renee just fumed.
"The pack is supposed to be something greater. THAT'S why we were given this power, gentlemen," Renee said. "Not just to defend our people, but to defend against all those who are a threat, and based on everything I've seen or heard, the Cullens do not fall into that second category. This is not who I am, Billy. When you've changed your mind about them, you know where to find me."
Renee began walking off, her anger fuming and running over. But tears began leaking out of her eyes as she stalked away towards where Forks should be. She almost considered phasing to move faster, but she could hear Billy's shouts behind her as she neared the edge of the forest. If she went into wolf-mode, he could use his Alpha-tone to force her to come back. And she was done coming back. She was done with the pack, she was done with La Push.
"Renee!" was the last cry she heard before she left La Push for the last time.
