–Jacob–

The sound of Bella's scream pierced me like glass shards shredding into my heart. I watched in terror as Renee dropped to the ground her gurgled yells underlying Bella's bloodcurdling scream. My arms shook around Bella as I tried to calm myself, holding her trembling, kicking body. She tried desperately to break free from my grasp but I couldn't let her go. I couldn't let her run to her mother as much as I knew she desperately wanted to.

It was destroying me.

"SAM!" my voice sounded different, almost as though it wasn't my own. I don't know why I called his name, maybe it was because I was waiting for an okay to rip his head from his limbs. But, I didn't need an answer because I knew as soon as his venom had entered into her bloodstream that the treaty had been broken and that there was nothing left to lose…except maybe the woman in my arms.

I had to tell myself that she would forgive me.

I pushed Bella behind me and lunged forward, my muscles straining and stretching as I shifted, over her head as I launched through the air, and landed on all four paws. She could try to run to Edward, but I was faster and there was no way that he would get to her first. Over my dead body.

Her strangled cries echoed in my head as I zeroed in on his pale face. Renee was writhing on the ground in front of him, her body stiff as she thrashed around on the ground. Edwards's eyes met mine and he smiled. I was doing exactly as he wanted, I was leaving Bella behind me and my rage took over. I paused, my paws digging into the ground as I skidded to a halt halfway across the field.

He could hear every thought, mine and the packs. I snarled at him, knowing that the leech was in my head. I shake my head and turn back towards Bella, only to realize that she is sprinting across the field behind me. Damnit.

Within a few bounds, I am next to her, stretching my leg out to block her path. Conscious aware that there are two humans on the field and the one right next to me is the main target. I heard the colliding of marble flesh against teeth like steel, the thoughts of those around me scattered in an array of images and tension. Through the jumbled mess, I was somehow able to focus on Bella, and the bloodsuckers as a few started their way toward us. I didn't know how I was going to do this. Fight them while still somehow managing to keep Bella safe and not sprinting across the field right into his trap.

I willed Bella to not be a martyr for once, wishing that somehow she would hear me and stay still, but that wasn't going to happen and there was no way that I would be able to protect her here, not like this. I needed a distraction, and I needed to get her away from all of it. I leaned down and nudged her with my nose signaling for her to climb onto my back. Her panicked eyes met mine and I winced at the amount of pain they carried. I wondered if she was able to read my desperation because she climbed wordlessly and without protest onto my back, her frail arms wrapped tightly around my neck.

–Bella–

I grasped onto his fur and buried my face into his russet fur. This didn't make sense, none of it did. I didn't know where we were going but there wasn't any way that Jacob was letting me across that field and I knew that the circling newborns weren't something that he could take care of without putting his life on the line. My mother's screams rang out in my head as he turned, carrying me deeper into the woods. I listened to the patter of his large paws against the solid ground as my tears soaked his fur. I didn't know how far into the forest we had gotten before suddenly I was flying through the air, my body weightless as I soared almost like a feather.

I swore that I heard Jacob scream my name but I knew that it wasn't possible when he was in the form that he was. It seemed like forever, and yet only mere seconds at the same time before my body hit the ground with a horrifying thud. I wasn't aware of how far I had landed, my head bouncing off of the ground.

I heard a loud snapping sound and my eyelids fluttered open. Everything was spinning, the trees were rotating and everything hurt. My ears were ringing, although somehow it sounded almost like a train whistle being blown constantly. I tried to stand and failed my normally clumsy feet failed me. I grasped onto a tree and tried again to pull myself up, my eyes scanning the forest although all that I could make out were constantly moving shapes. I steadied myself and stood, slumped against a tree as my vision started to come back to me, although I questioned if it was or not when I saw a flash of white through the forest.

I gasped suddenly when I realized that the flash was actually Edward and he was weaving toward me through the trees. Another flash behind him drew my attention and I made out the distinct blond hair of Jasper weaving behind him. "Jacob…" I called his name, although it came out in a raspy whisper. Deep down I knew that he would be able to hear me. I stumbled forward again, grasping onto another tree as I slowly made my way further into the direction I thought that I had been tossed.

My sense of direction had always been fucked, a moral compass pointed directly into danger.

I sensed his presence before I saw him, marbled white and painstakingly beautiful against the green lush of the forest. It hurt to look at him, he was too perfect and I was disgusted. I wanted to throw myself at him, pound him with my fist until he was nothing but a pulp but I knew that wouldn't get me very far. He took one slow step toward me, and I stood still. If this was going to be my death, so be it. He had taken so much from me already. I didn't know where Jacob was if he was alive–let alone my mother. Charlie, oh god this would break him…but I knew that if I did this then nobody else would have to die.

"Bella, my love." My gut twisted at the sound of his voice. "Come with me."

I glared at him from under damp lashes. I mustered what ounce of strength I had left in me to reply, "No." My raspy breath betrayed me, I didn't sound strong–I sounded like the weak human that I was. "If you want me, then kill me. But I will not become one of you. I would rather die than spend eternity with you." As I said the words I realized that was how I had felt all along, I just didn't know until this moment that I wanted to live. I wanted to live so badly that it hurt.

But what was the point without my hair-brained mother, or my beautiful Wolf?

What was the point of any of it?

What was all of this over? A mere human life that could be taken tomorrow in a plane crash, or in five minutes from a newborn.

Wasted casualties.

I pulled the knife from the pocket of my jeans and pressed it against my throat with shaky hands. I closed my eyes and whispered my goodbye as cold hands pressed against my skin only to disappear as suddenly as they appeared. I opened my eyes reluctantly at the scene before me. Edward had Alice in his grasp, her chin resting soundly in his hand and the other wrapped around her neck. I screamed and stared as the sound of breaking glass shattered right in front of me.