~Chapter 9~
Isabella took a deep breath, pulling up her hood, concealing her features. She was slightly more unnerved about this than she let on, but she took a step across the boundary line. Almost immediately the scent of dog came to her nose, though it was different than what she smelled from the dogs she had encountered earlier in the day.
She began to walk slowly deeper into the territory, toward the direction she remembered the Quileutes living in. She made no secret of her approach, moving slowly, with hands at her sides as she walked purposefully through the forest.
Isabella made it almost a mile into the territory. A snarl was her only warning as a dark silver blur suddenly charged her from her left. The attack was sudden and vicious and almost certainly would have succeeded if Isabella hadn't been on edge from the moment she crossed the boundary line. She ducked, using the leaping bodies momentum to send it tumbling far beyond it's intended target.
"I'm not here to fight! I need to speak to your alpha!" Isabella shouted but she didn't have time to do anything with her advantage, as a slightly smaller sleeker wolf with black spots in its fur, attacked head on. Isabella thought the wolf seemed familiar but had no time to dwell on it. The wolf lunged in snapping at Isabella's hooded face. She just barely managed to keep out of his range. Isabella spun with the next lunge, slipping around the side and kicking the wolf in the ribs, causing him to skid along the ground, until he slowed enough to roll to his feet.
Isabella turned immediately; the vaguely familiar dark silver wolf was charging her again. Instead of dodging, she met the charge head on. Plowing into him, Isabella got a grip on the fur of his chest. She twisted her body sending the wolf sailing into a nearby tree.. The wolf fell to the ground amid several broken branches, only to regain his feet again immediately snarling loudly.
"Paul? Is that you?" Isabella asked, disbelief in her voice as she recognized the familiar form of the wolf. The question stopped the wolf cold as it regarded her, curiosity warring with urge to fight.
Sensing her advantage at the wolf's reaction Isabella turned to look at the other wolf, who had stopped moving when he'd heard Paul's name. "Embry? Is that you too?" Isabella's tone was still filled with shock. A slight whine escaped the wolf at the question, and he looked over to the slightly larger wolf clearly they were unsure of what to do.
"I'm not here to fight, I need to talk to whoever the current alpha is." Isabella said, her voice still expressing shock with the familiar wolves.
The two wolves seemed as if they were debating for a moment before one of them settled back on their haunches and howled loudly. After 15 seconds or so, there was an answering howl off in the distance.
Isabella watched the two, and murmured. "It would be nice to actually have a conversation with your alpha, and I'd prefer to do so with him in some clothes, if you wouldn't mind reminding him." She watched as the two wolves looked at her. The smaller wolf, the one with grey fur with black spots, lolled his tongue out and huffed in short bursts in what she assumed was laughter.
It wasn't even two minutes later when she heard the patter of paws as not one, but four wolves joined the first two, watching her.
She saw all four of the wolves but she focused on the largest one. She stared in shock at the large wolf with russet brown fur. "Jacob?" Her face stayed concealed in the hood so they didn't see her staring in open mouthed surprise, but there was no disguising the shock in her tone. The wolf tilted his head slightly before turning and leaping away into the tree. He returned less than a minute later in human form, barefoot and dressed only in jean shorts.
Isabella stared as he came back into view, another shock to her system. He looked almost exactly the way she had remembered him. Short dark hair and a tribal tattoo on his right arm. About the only thing change from the person she remembered so vividly, was his slightly scruffy face, as if he hadn't shaved in a few days, and the scowl on his face. She corrected her thoughts after a moment, because she had seen that look on his face before, but it had never been directed at her.
"What are you doing on our property leech? You know the treaty is void if you trespass on our land." Jacob demanded, despite his human form the wolven snarl was still in his voice.
"I am not a member of the Cullens. Your treaty is with them, and therefore not void." Isabella replied, struggling to regain her equilibrium as she faced someone she never expected to see again.
"Who the hell are you? How the hell do you know who we are? Why shouldn't we kill you where you stand. You're a bloodsucker. Your life is forfeit." Jacob snarled again voice full of contempt.
"My life was forfeit a long time ago. But I hardly think it fair for you to threaten to kill me for being a vampire since it's partially your fault." Isabella shot back, her irritation rising.
"My fault?" Jacob asked, now thoroughly confused.
"Partially your fault." Isabella snapped at him. Her irritation momentarily getting the best of her, she reached up and jerked the hood back from her head, looking into Jacob eyes. "You swore I was safe, and you would protect me. Well, take a long look at just how good a protector you were." Isabella half yelled at him, her voice rising for a moment
She was rewarded by seeing his jaw drop, and his face drain of color.
"B..Bella?" He asked, stunned. "I thought you... I thought you were dead. I thought the red-haired bloodsucker killed you."
Isabella waited for him to get over his momentary shock. "No... she didn't. Sometimes I wish she had. What she did was so much worse, and I don't mean turning me."
Jacob frowned, looking utterly at a loss for words.
Isabella took a deep breath, before continuing apologetically "I'm sorry. I… didn't expect to see you. It's been so long. I thought…" She trailed off a moment before squaring her shoulders and looking him in the face. "You told me once no matter what happened, you'd be my friend. Does this change things?"
She watched as Jacob's jaw worked slowly. This meeting was something she'd never imagined. Isabella recalled the discussion she had with him where he told her so long as they shifted they didn't age, but she'd assumed he would have stopped shifting when the vampires left. While he was working it out in his head, Isabella saw in her peripheral vision one of the smaller wolves, which had arrived with Jacob, turn and leap away into the woods.
Jacob finally responded. "How could this not change things? I thought you were dead. Now you're one of them. I don't know." Jacob sounded completely confused for a moment. "I think... I think we need to bring this before the council. But... I will allow you on our lands provided you don't hunt. At least until the council makes a decision."
Isabella nodded her head, though she couldn't stop a flash of disappointment from crossing her face.
Jacob shrugged, looking uncomfortable. A pretty woman with short dark hair, in a light tank top and jean shorts walked up to join him. She looked like she was 21 or 22, with loose black hair, cut at her shoulders. She slid her hand into Jacob's giving it a gentle squeeze of reassurance. He turned to look at her for a moment before turning back to Isabella. "I would like to introduce you to my wife and my mate. This is Tekali."
Isabella stared at the woman for a moment before her face broke into an honest grin. "Jacob Black! You told me you hated the idea of imprinting!" He to blushed a bright red and Isabella could see a flash of a young boy she had once called her own private sun.
Tekali hesitated only a moment before she walked forward and offered her hand to Isabella. "Hi there, believe it or not I've heard... and seen a lot about you, and despite the circumstances, it is a pleasure to meet you."
Isabella reached out after a moment's surprise with one of her gloved hands and took the offered hand, frowning in confusion. "Seen about me?" Isabella asked.
Tekali tapped the side of her head with a finger. "Wolf pack. No secrets."
Isabella looked Tekali up and down once before grinning over her shoulder at Jacob. "You totally lucked out with this whole imprinting thing didn't you?" Prompting Jacob to blush a bright red and Tekali to burst out laughing and exclaim. "I like her!"
Isabella looked at Tekali a moment and then at Jacob, and hesitated a moment. "With your permission I am going to do something which will surprise you, but please don't freak out." Isabella looked at Jacob and grinned. "Especially since I doubt you brought a second pair of pants." Her remark made Tekali giggle again.
After seeing Jacob nod, Isabella stepped back as Tekali took a few steps backward to her husband's side.
"I have someone of my own to introduce you to." Isabella said. There was a sudden small sound of a tree shifting as the black cloaked shape of Eliza seemed to materialize mid leap from one of the trees. Several of the wolves tensed, one even started to snarl, as she landed on her feet in a partial crouch in front of Jacob.
"It's nice to finally meet you Jacob. Believe it or not, I've heard and seen about you too." Eliza said teasingly as she straightened to stand erect, echoing Tekali's statement from a few moments earlier. Eliza pushed back her hood and gave an impudent bow.
"I would like you to meet my daughter, Eliza." Isabella said dryly.
Jacob stared at the girl in front of him with wide eyes, surprised for the second time in as many minutes. "Daughter? You have a daughter? And she's a vampire?" He asked, looking absolutely befuddled, but equally unable to deny the resemblance between the two women.
Isabella shrugged slightly. "The relationship is... complicated. I didn't give birth to her, but... yes I'm her mother. It's a long story."
Jacob struggled, trying to sort out the emotions he was feeling as he looked at the two women. "This is a lot to absorb all at once... I... like I said, I think I need to bring this to the council," he finished.
Isabella nodded, understanding what he left unsaid. Her presence there had come straight out of from left field and he was still processing everything. "Well, your next council meeting will probably be a long one, because we all have a major problem."
Isabella's statement prompted Jacob to frown at her, so she nodded to her daughter, and Eliza tugged the backpack off her shoulder and tossed it to Jacob, hitting him right in the chest. "Take a whiff of what's in there."
He caught it with a confused expression, opening the bag and taking a deep breath and then looked up at Isabella with a still puzzled expression. "What is this?"
Isabella shrugged her shoulders. "I was hoping you could tell me. I picked it up this morning in Seattle. I ran into two wolves in a warehouse."
Jacob frowned more deeply tossing the bag in front of the dark silver wolf Isabella had identified as Paul. It took a long sniff before shaking his head as well.
"None of the pack was anywhere near Seattle today." Jacob stated with certainty.
"Then we have an even bigger problem, because not only did I run into the two wolves there, they had killed a human, and were working with vampires."
Several of the pack members to growled and Jacob to straightened up to his full height, his expression deadly serious. "I think I better hear the whole story."
Isabella nodded slowly, and then began to share everything. She explained the reason for their presence in the area due to the recent spate of newborn attacks. She purposefully digressed as she explained what exactly what was happening and what it meant, before relating the events of earlier, up to and including the deaths of the three vampires, and the escape of the two wolves.
Jacob listened to the whole story and then turned to regard Paul who, like the others, hadn't switched back to human form. "Paul. I want a meeting including everyone. Tonight. Get the Council. Get all of the Elders. Get the entire damn pack. No excuses. No exceptions." Jacob's voice exuded authority and Paul turned then bolted back toward the reservation.
Jacob hesitated a moment as he turned back to Isabella then spoke. "I would like to extend an invitation for both of you to join us this evening." There was a snarl from one of the two wolves who'd come with Jacob, but it was cut off immediately as Jacob glared at the offending wolf. The wolf shook slightly and bowed his head in submission or apology before Jacob turned back to Eliza and Isabella.
"It will take a few hours to get all the Elders. Would you be willing to meet us again this evening?" Jacob asked formally.
"What time?" Isabella asked
"Let's say 10pm at the boundary line?" Jacob answered.
"We'll be there." Isabella nodded, gesturing for Eliza to follow her.
Eliza followed Isabella, who stopped once more to stare at Jacob for a few moments, before turning back toward the boundary line. They walked at normal speed, though they could both hear the patter of paws as the wolves followed them until they crossed the line.
