Disclaimer: I own nothing from Twilight. Stephanie Meyer does. My characters are my own.
'Shared Pack Mind/Mindscape'
'Thoughts'
Timeline: Set after the Cullen family leaves. Harry Clearwater isn't dead in my story.
Chapter 5
Just as they were about to leave the shop, a familiar figure was seen running down the tree line at top speed. "Seth?" Leah muttered, alarmed. He was supposed to be resting.
Seth did not stop as he came barreling towards them. They all had to support the weight of the youngest member of their pack. "There's-." Seth tried, but was gasping for air. He had never ran so hard in his life. Wait, yes he had. A week ago when creatures straight out of a horror film had chased after him.
Worried, Leah pushed in front of the others. "There's what Seth?"
"There's a-. No a," Seth tried again, taking in lungful of air.
Leah held onto Seth, partly annoyed but mostly worried. "There's a what Seth? Use your words."
Seth took in a deep breath and said it all at once. "There's a fucking five year old kid who phased."
Everyone froze. "What did you just say?" a horrified voice asked from the doorway.
Everyone turned around to see Sam, Jared, Billy, and Quil Sr standing on the wooden porch. They were looking at Seth with shock. Seth's face reddened as he realized what he just said. "Sorry about the language."
"That's not the issue Seth," Leah said, giving a small sigh of relief. This was the first time in weeks she's seen her little brother acting normal again. Minus the language of course. He probably picked that up from the guys who came by the house more often. "Not only did you phase despite us telling you not to," she continued, "but you left that kid alone in the forest?"
Seth shook his head no. "That's the thing. He wasn't alone. He was surrounded by three golden wolves." Seth's voice quieted. "They were the same ones from a week ago." His eyes widened and exclaimed, "They were huge!" Seth waved his arms into a big circle to emphasize their size. "They were bigger than us. Next to the pup was another wolf, but he was the same size as us."
"Where Seth?" Billy asked, alarmed. There has never been cases in the pack journals like this before.
Seth paused and frowned. He then mumbled, "In the small beach where the borders of La Push meets No Man's Land."
Embry, Paul, and Quil froze. That was near the same area that the woman disappeared to. The three took off with Leah hot at their heels.
Sam cursed and quickly said, "I'll come back and get you later Billy." Halfway down the road with Jared beside him, Sam yelled, "Seth, stay here!"
Once they disappeared into the tree line, Billy looked at Old Quil "What could this mean?" Billy asked.
"I am not entirely sure. But I will talk to our ancestors in hopes of finding an answer," Old Quil said as he flipped the sign to the shop to say 'Closed.' "We can do it here while we wait for the pack to return." Looking at both Billy and Seth, he continued, "Come."
Billy nodded as they all reentered the shop.
--
When John and Will had went to the car, John was still shocked that he had imprinted. He never thought that it would happen. It was hard not to turn back into the shop where his imprint was. Feeling Will squeezing his palm, John focused on the little tike. Placing his hand on the trunk, the car unlocked itself. The trunk opened to reveal some of the snacks Maya had stored in her plastic bins. John picked up Will to have him sit inside the ledge of the trunk.
"What would it be kiddo?" John asked, trying to remain focused on the task at hand.
"PB with milk please Uncle John," Will replied.
John nodded. "Okay. One PB for the pup, and two large sandwiches for the adult wolf."
John pulled out the necessary ingredients to make them both lunch. They've been surviving from fish he had caught in the lakes. Seeing a cooler by a plastic bin, John opened it to see a freshly poured glass of milk and orange juice for them. Grabbing the cups, he gave Will his milk, while he grabbed his orange juice.
As they ate, Will asked, "Do you think there's more like us here Uncle John?"
John shrugged. "There must be a reason why Maya wants to live in a town surrounded by forest in the middle of nowhere, so maybe."
"Do you think they'll like Mama?" Will asked.
"Because she's not like us?" John asked.
Will nodded. This was a conversation that they had frequently when Maya wasn't around. They all knew that Maya was always searching for others like them. 'To have a pack,' she says. But what she didn't understand was that they have always been pack, despite her being different.
"Of course they will," John said. "If they don't, we'll just stay in our own little pack with Maya."
Will smiled at John as he nodded and bit into his peanut butter and jelly sandwhich.
After a few minutes, Will cocked his head to the side, "Do you think Mama will let me fight alongside you and the others?"
John gave him a look. "You're still a pup kiddo."
"When I'm older?" Will asked.
John laughed. "Tell you what, when you're older and if Maya doesn't teach you, I will." John went to tap Will's nose. Will scrunched his nose in response. "For now, you just focus on being my favorite kiddo, okay?"
Will nodded. "Okay Uncle John."
As they finished up the last of their food, Will asked excitedly, "Are we going to go to the beach now?"
John nodded. "Yeap," he said, popping his p. "Just let me pack up."
John grabbed a blue backpack and filled it with the items Maya suggested. Once done, he lifted Will out of the trunk and onto the pavement. Holding onto his hand, John grabbed the backpack, closed the trunk, and twirled his fingers. The sound of the car locking was heard. Picking up Will to his chest, John said, "Off we go."
Will laughed as John took off towards the tree line. Running beside them, they felt a familiar warm buzz wash over them. They've been around Maya long enough to know what that warm buzz meant. In their human forms, they couldn't see them but they knew that the golden wolves were near. The golden wolves only showed themselves when they want to, and only spoke when needed.
Once they entered the tree line, they stripped off their clothes and placed it in the backpack. In a blink, a horse sized black wolf with white speckled spots appeared. Beside him was a small golden brown pup with russet brown spots. Both grinned at seeing three golden wolves. Even sitting down, their heads were touching the tops of the canopy.
John bent down to grab the backpack in his mouth. 'Let's go.'
The duo took off deeper into the woods with the three golden wolves surrounding them.
When they arrived to a small secluded beach, Will laughed and rolled around in the sand. John plopped down beside him. After a few moments of both rolling around, Will playfully bopped John's nose with his sand covered paws. 'Tag. You're it.'
John laughed. 'You're on kid.'
Will squeaked and started running around towards the water with John chasing after him. After an hour of tag, they plopped back to the sand, panting. That's when they felt it. It was new and different, but it felt familiar somehow. Then a voice.
'What the-?' a young high-pitched voice asked in confusion.
Will being Will greeted the unknown voice. 'Hi! What's you're name? I'm-.'
John could feel the newcomer starting to freak out.
'What? How? When?' the voice said in frantic.
'Calm down kid,' John urged.
His voice went unheard as he saw the kid starting to pace back and forth. Images of a tree on the left came to view as it panned out to the right to another tree. Back and forth the images went.
'I think he's scared Uncle John,' Will muttered.
'He's panicking,' John said softly in the mindscape. 'Hey kid. It's okay. Calm down.'
'What am I going to do? There's a kid. A KID!' John heard in the mind scape. The newcomer stopped pacing as John got an image of one of the men he recognized from the wooden shop. 'Gotta tell Sam!'
'Wait, kid!' John called out but was too late as the familiar feeling came back and the voice disappeared.
Will looked at John with glee. 'There's more of us.'
John nodded. 'Yeah.' Feeling excited and worried at the same time.
Fifteen minutes went by before Will and John both heard a series of voices in their mindscape. Will moved closer to John and whimpered in response. John growled. 'Will all of you put a sock in it? You're scaring the kid.'
There was silence. Will relaxed slightly but stayed close to John.
'You're Maya's brother,' Quil recalled, remembering the voice. 'John, right?'
John could see them closing in on their location. Soon enough six wolves entered the beach. He felt the strong pull to go towards the smaller gray wolf.
'Woah, Seth was right.' Jared said, making John turn to look at him. 'They are huge.'
John and Will looked at the newcomers with curiosity and wariness. Remembering the question being asked but couldn't tell who said it, John said, 'Yeah. I'm John.'
Will piped up from between John's paws, 'I'm Will, William Emanuel Black.'
Hearing this, the pack of six gazed at the small pup in shock. They looked at John.
'You a Black too?' Sam asked.
John looked at him and scowled. 'What's it to you?'
Sam gave a small glower. 'Is Maya Quileute?'
John tensed at the question. 'What does being Quileute have anything to do with this?'
Sam let out a soft growl, only for Leah to growl right back at him in warning.
Looking at John, she said, ' Only Quileute phase into wolves. It runs in the blood apparently.'
John looked at Leah and muttered, 'Johnathan Black. My mother was Nora Black. Never met my father. Will's my nephew.'
Hearing his name, Will brought up his paw and gave a wave. 'Hi!'
Sam and the others looked at John before greeting Will back. 'Maybe we should go back to the shop to talk to Bill-.'
Sam paused mid sentence when he saw the three large golden wolves immediately stand up. Their hairs were sticking out on ends. They kept their eyes on them, but their ears were flickering to and fro in another direction. They were definitely alert.
John turned towards them, worried. 'What's wrong?'
They did not give an answer.
Will let out a small whine. 'Mama...'
Hearing this, the three shifted their gaze to look at the pup then to John.
'Stay,' a gentle voice said softly into the shared pack mind. One of them glowed golden before disappearing completely, leaving two of the large golden wolves at the beach.
Alarmed, John quickly stood up as well. 'Where's Maya?'
One of the remaining two golden wolf turned to look at him. 'Do not follow,' a gruff deep voice said.
'Like hell I won't,' John growled out following after the warm buzz up ahead.
Knowing that he would lead them to Maya, Paul, Quil, and Embry took off after John. Leah soon followed after them when she realized who they were following.
The golden brown wolves growled. 'Foolish pups,' a deep gruff voice said into the pack mindscape.
One of the remaining two golden brown wolves walked towards Will and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck before running towards the opposite direction. The remaining one disappeared after the five.
Overcoming his shock, Sam let out a growl as he followed Paul, Quil, and Embry. Somehow he knew that the small pup will be kept safe. His pack members though, he wasn't sure. Jared quickly followed Sam. Running behind the large golden brown wolf, he was surprised to see that it left no paw print whatsoever. In fact, the wolf was gliding across the forest floor silently. He also noted how it didn't disappear like the first one. Whether or not it was because it wanted him and Jared to follow, he didn't know.
--
John jump past some shrubs as he landed on his paws and ran towards where he could feel where the warm buzz was the strongest. He heard low growls and roars in the distance. He then heard flesh being ripped apart.
'I'm almost there, Maya. Just hold on,' John urged.
John entered a clearing. He heard a few gasps in his mindscape. In the middle of the clearing was a circular cloud glowing darkish red. Inside the cloud were multiple large golden brown wolves. They had a black goopy creatures in their mouths. There was a larger golden brown wolf in the center.
'What the fuck are those things?' Paul asked. It was different than the ones chasing after Seth, but also similar. His wolf knew that they were dangerous though. He watched as largest golden brown wolf tore the head apart.
'A soul sucker,' Will's voice whimpered out.
'Kiddo, you're not supposed to see this,' John growled out as he picked up speed. He saw a black creature sneaking up on the larger golden brown wolf.
'I can't phase back knowing Mama is in danger,' Will replied.
John let out a curse. 'You need to kiddo. You know Maya doesn't want you to see this.'
'Okay,' Will mumbled. 'Bring her back, okay Uncle John?'
'That's the plan,' John growled out. He was relieved when he felt Will phased out.
Seeing the creature slinkering near Maya and about to attack, John let out a howl. The howl was loud enough to warn the large golden brown wolf. It back flipped, place it's jaws on the creature's head, and ripped it off as it landed. As black goop spilled out from the creature's neck, the golden-brown wolf spit the head out of it's mouth. Only for her to be taken by surprised by another creature that was hiding underground. It struck it's hand out of the soil and straight through her abdomen.
When the golden brown wolf howled out in pain, Paul, Embry, and Quill also cried out. Immense pain erupted through their abdomen. The rest of the pack let out low whines as they felt it too through their pack bond. The creature flung the golden wolf to the side. It whimpered as it landed on it's side.
'Maya!' John cried out, forcing his legs to move faster.
Hearing the cries of wounded wolves, the golden brown wolf looked over to see the incoming pack as she glowed. Instead of a large golden brown wolf, it was replaced by a fully clothed woman that Paul, Embry, and Quil recognized. They sucked in their breaths at her bloody side.
Maya's eyes looked at John.
'No,' John called out, recognizing that look instantly. 'Don't do it, Maya. Don't you fucking dare!'
Maya reached her hand and closed her fist as the glowing dark red portal started to get smaller. John cursed and picked up speed. Paul, Embry, and Quil pushed through the immense pain to run alongside John.
'What is she doing?' Embry asked.
'She's closing the portal so that we can't enter,' John growled out.
Paul, Embry, and Quil growled as they also picked up speed. Neck to neck with John.
Leah looked at the portal with worry. She saw one of the creatures had stopped running towards Maya and sniffed. It then gazed directly at her, making her suck in a breath. It ran towards the portal. Just as his hand was about touch the portal, it was impaled by a sword made of fire. As the creature landed with a thud, the fire consumed the creature. Maya ran and jumped over another creature as another sword made of fire appeared behind her. She grabbed it with her right hand and sliced the creature through with it. Running towards the portal, Maya sliced through another creature, ignoring the pain that flared at her abdomen the best she could.
John could see Maya defending the portal so that the creatures couldn't exit. John took a giant leap. Just as he was about to enter the portal, something heavy crashed landed on him. He went crashing down towards the ground. John quickly looked up. His eyes widened as he saw the portal close with Maya inside it. As the cloud whisped away, he heard a low grunt.
'Are you a fucking idiot!' John roared at the russet brown wolf who landed a few yards away. John got up and growled at him. 'What the fuck is wrong with you? I was almost there. I could've helped Maya.'
Jacob's eyes widened as his vision cleared. 'What the fuck are you talking about?'
John eyes narrowed at his response.
Jacob growled when he saw an image of the girl in the shop pop into his head. 'Why the fuck would I care who she is? I don't even know her.'
John growled and tackled Jacob to the ground. Jacob faked left, and made a move to the right but John was faster. John turned to bite Jacob's muzzle. Jacob jumped back to create space. Jacob was bleeding heavily on his snout as he glared at John. Angered, Jacob lunged at John, only to be stopped by a very large paw that came down right in between them. Jacob looked up to see a very large golden brown wolf.
''Enough!' it's gruff voice entered the mindscape. 'Pack brothers do not fight one another.' The golden brown wolf lowered its head to peer directly at Jacob. 'You know better than this.'
Jacob winced. His wolf let out a soft whine, feeling chastised. Growling at the absurdity of it all, he glared at the golden brown wolf. 'Who the fuck are you?'
The golden brown wolf gave him a disappointed look before hardening his gaze. ' Neglecting your duties due to ignorance is one thing. Purposefully doing it, is another, pup.'
Jacob bristled at being called pup. He growled lowly at the golden brown wolf. 'I don't care if your bigger than me, I-.'
'The longer you stand here, the faster the young pup suffers,' the golden brown wolf interrupted as he turned to look at Leah.
'Seth,' Leah whispered into the mindscape.
The golden brown wolf said in confirmation, 'It's much to soon for him to be parted from the pack. His wolf spirit isn't strong enough yet to be left on his own. A wolf without its pack means death.'
John winced as images of a bloody ashy brown wolf with russet spots laid still in the snow. Hearing multiple gasps he quickly rid his mind of his memories. Looking at Sam then Leah, he said, 'Go. I'll get Will and meet back at the shop.'
'I'll come with you to take you both back,' Paul said.
John gave a glance. 'Thanks,' he muttered. Looking at Leah, he softly brushed his nose against hers. 'Get to Seth. I'll see you in a bit.'
Leah could only blink in surprise as he took off running with Paul. Snapping out of her daze, she muttered, 'Right, Seth,' she muttered and took off towards the shop. She didn't see Sam's confused lingering gaze.
The golden brown wolf turned towards the remaining pack below him. 'Return as well, pups. It's not safe to linger here.'
They watched as it glowed then disappeared. Jacob blinked at it in shock. Before he could ask, Quil and Embry immediately turned to look at him.
Where were you? You didn't feel the pack calling for you?' Quil asked incredulously.
'I mean, I know we howl for emergencies, but there's the pack pull too,' Embry added.
Jacob frowned. 'No. I was with Bella, and-.'
'Of course you would be with the leech lover,' Paul growled out into the mindscape.
Jacob growled in response. 'Watch it, ass. You're lucky you aren't here.'
'Give me time and place, baby alpha?' Paul taunted.
A warning growl from Sam was heard. 'Stop fighting,' he demanded. Giving Jacob a look, he stated, 'Pack meeting with Billy and Old Quil, now! And no, you cannot go back to Bella first!'
Jacob glared at Paul before taking off into the forest back towards Little Carvers. Sam sighed. 'Jared, make sure he actually stays there until the rest of us arrive.'
Jared gave a quick nod and followed after Jacob.
Turning to look at the remaining two, Sam looked at them. 'You two going to tell me what's going on?'
Hearing this, Paul let out a frustrated growl. 'Fuck off Sam. It doesn't concern you.'
Sam blinked when he got an image of a girl from Thriftway. 'Did you all imprint on the same person?'
Hearing this, three growls was heard in the mindscape, taking Sam aback as he looked at Embry and Quil in surprise.
Walking past Sam, Quil muttered, 'Grandpa's looking into it.' He didn't want to answer anymore questions. Not when he didn't have answers to give.
'And you didn't think to tell me?' Sam asked, turning to look at the only wolf left with him.
'Wanted to focus on Seth first,' Embry said softly.
Hearing this, Sam let out a wince. Letting out a tired sigh, he muttered, 'Let's just get back to the shop. Hopefully Billy and Old Quil could give us some answers.
Embry gave a hesitant nod as he looked back at where the portal entrance was.
'You heard the golden brown wolf, Em. Its not safe to stay,' Quil reminded.
Embry let out a soft whine as he ran with Sam back to the shop.
'She'll be okay, right?' Embry asked. 'For all we know, she could be-.'
' Dont,' Quil said. 'Dont you dare think like that.'
' We would've felt it, Embry,' Paul added gruffly. He was also worried. He didn't know if Maya had fast healing abilities like him. Even if she did, he never want to see her in that state ever again.
Images of what had occured flashed through the mindscape, a choked gasped was heard. 'What the fuck are those things?' Jacob asked.
Paul let out an irritated huff, but remained silent.
Glancing at him, John brushed his shoulder agains Paul's. 'She'll be fine. She's tougher than she looks.'
Paul gave him a contemplative look. 'This isn't her first fight.'
'We're made to take down bloodsuckers,' John said nonchalantly. 'Maya? She's made to take down soul suckers.'
Paul could only gape at him, making the older man chuckle.