As hard as I tried, I couldn't ignore the blood that was slowly seeping into my clothes and staining my skin.

Your fault. This is all your fault.

My vampiric instincts were raging inside of me, utterly deranged, I could feel the beast throwing himself against the bars of his cage, frothing at the mouth in his furious rage – unable to be set free and destroy the thing that had hurt my Mate, the monster was eager to place all the blame on my shoulders.

Right where it belonged.

I cradled Bella's broken body in my arms as I rushed towards home, the forest nothing more than a blur of green and brown, with each step I could hear Bella's stuttering heartbeat and wet, gurgling breaths – she was dying. The house finally came into view, and Carlisle pushed himself faster to run ahead and gather his medical bag. Dining table. Carlisle managed to think in my direction as his mind was inundated with a million other thoughts – a mental catalogue of Bella's injuries based on what he had seen and heard so far, a hurried over-view of what little werewolf anatomy he knew which was overlaid with hundreds of different medical diagrams, images from the thousands of medical textbooks that he had read in his life.

I place Bella on the hard wooden table as gently as possible. She was still unconscious, and I was unsure if it were a blessing or a curse – at least if Bella remained unconscious she would not be able to feel her many injuries. Bella's blood began to pool on the table, thick and viscous the crimson liquid began to drip off the table to land on Esme's perfectly polished floors. My eyes scanned over Bella's naked body, a stunning display that I shouldn't have been privileged enough to see until our wedding night was marred by dozens of slashing claw marks. For all my medical training, I was lost on how to help her, so I clasped her bloodied hand in mine as I waited for Carlisle to return and prayed to every deity I could think of to spare the life of Isabella Swan.

Carlisle returned with a harried look on his face, his white baseball jersey already splattered with blood. Bella's blood.

Your fault!

Bella's hand twitched in mine, sending an electric jolt through my arm. Bella's mouth opened, and I waited with baited breath to hear her heavenly voice, but the only thing that escaped passed her lips was a sputtering of blood. Bella coughed and gargled, struggling to breath through the blood that was choking her.

"Bella!" I cried, and at the sound of my voice Bella opened her eyes, but from they way they darted around frantic and glassy I wasn't sure if she was actually seeing anything. "It's okay, you're going to be okay." I tried to soothe her as she continued to struggle to breathe. I didn't know if my words were true or not, but by God I hoped they were. As Bella returned to consciousness, her awareness grew and progressed until she was writhing on the tabletop, her cries and gurgling wails sending brand new shards of pain through my chest.

Carlisle was a blur of movement as he examined Bella's wounds and came to a final prognosis – She'll live. The thought wasn't directed at me, but I caught it nonetheless, however as Bella continued to thrash on the table as she struggled to breath it gave me no comfort. Some of the more violent bleeding had slowed, although none of Bella's wounds had closed, despite that fact I noted in blinding relief that I could no longer see the jarring whiteness of Bella's rib-bones.

Bella tried turning her head, instinctively searching me out amongst the chaos, and the movement caused her to wail and howl in pain as tears streaked her blood splattered face.

I groaned, sounding like a wounded animal as I sat there helpless to stop her pain. "Carlisle! Help her!" I pleaded.

Carlisle had his tools carefully laid out, and was holding a large hypodermic needle in one hand, a fierce frown of concentration on his face. "I don't know if I can sedate her." He replied sternly as he wiped down an area on Bella's side with an alcohol swab. "Bella, if you can hear me just try to stay still. This is going to hurt a lot, but it will help you breathe." Carlisle's voice was kind, comforting almost as he stared resolutely at Bella's side.

I reached over and with a quivering hand, I coaxed Bella's head to turn and look at me. Her watery brown eyes snapped to mine, her pupils reduced to tiny pinpoints in her pain. Bella's bloodstained lips opened slightly, trembling as if she were trying to form a word. Bella's eyes widened dramatically as Carlisle's needle pierced her flesh.

Your fault.

Bella arched off the table, involuntarily moving away from the source of the pain as Carlisle began to pull the air from her chest cavity. From the corner of my eye, I saw Rosalie's strong arms holding Bella's forearms, effectively pinning her to the table – when did she get here? How long had she been here?

When Carlisle pulled the needle out of Bella's chest cavity, relief flooded Bella's tear soaked face as she gasped – finally managing to take in deep lungfuls of air.

"Bella, can you speak?" Carlisle asked as he continued to work.

Bella took a few more gasping breaths, her eyes never leaving mine, and then they rolled back into her head as she slumped back against the hardwood tabletop – unconscious.

"Carlisle!?" My voice broke as I looked up in fear at my father.

"It's okay, son. She's passed out because of the pain. It's a blessing." Carlisle replied, his voice deathly calm as he began to press the ragged edges of Bella's wounds together and stitch them in place. Seeing the trouble Carlisle was having with a particularly large gash with terrible frayed edges, Rose moved around the table to help, her long fingers quickly becoming coated in Bella's blood as she pulled the flayed skin closed over the exposed muscle and held it there while Carlisle worked.

"Thank you, my dear." Carlisle murmured. My eyes left Bella's face – seeing her face so slack, so inanimate in her unconsciousness was unsettling, even when she slept her face was never this empty, this void of life – and trailed down her blood soaked form to watch Carlisle work as he dug the curved suturing needle into Bella's abdominal muscles.

Bella's legs jerked, and then she was moving. An inhuman roar, loud and terrifying, filled the room and Bella lurched off the table, the movement caused several of Carlisle's stitches to pull loose and tear from Bella's body – ruining his hard word. I looked up and was about to start murmuring soothing words of comfort to try and calm her down, but when I looked at Bella's face her brown eyes were lost in a sea of glowing yellow. Bella ignored me completely, and instead turned to the source of her pain, lunging at Carlisle with bared teeth she tried to swipe at him, her fingers curled into claws. At least she wasn't transforming – maybe she was in too much pain – whatever the reason I was sure it would have been much harder for Carlisle to treat her if she were a wolf, rather than a human.

In a flash, Rose was at the head of the table, holding Bella's shoulders back to the tabletop as Carlisle and I tried to secure her torso and arms. Bella didn't like that, not one bit. She howled and thrashed about like a trapped animal, flailing her arms about and kicking out with her legs, anything to try and free herself from the grip of the vampires pinning her down. One of her legs caught Carlisle in the chest, the air from his lungs was forced out of his mouth in a startled groan as he flew through the archway into the kitchen, luckily he did not collide with any of the walls or furniture – Esme already had enough to deal with, what with her dining room being turned into a MASH unit.

Carlisle was already on his feet and returning into the room in a blur of speed. "Bella! You need to stop, you need to calm down!" Carlisle bellowed, his tone scolding. Bella's head snapped to the side – the movement was jerky and inhuman as if she were possessed – instinctively facing the sound of Carlisle's voice, but I knew, this wasn't Bella, not anymore. This was the wolf. Just like on that first full moon, there was nothing human behind those eyes, the wolf was running things now, taking control of Bella's body and doing it's best to protect her from the threats she was surrounded by. Bella snarled and snapped her jaws menacingly at Carlisle, although it was a lot less threatening considering she was still in her human form.

"God damn it. Damn it all straight to Hell!" Carlisle cursed, his voice falling into his old English accent due to the stress of it all as he began to pull vials of clear liquid from his leather doctor's bag. Bella continued to thrash about, spittle falling from her lips as she growled and snarled ferociously, utterly relentless in her mission to tear Carlisle's head from his shoulders – human teeth be damned. Carlisle filled a needle with liquid from a variety of different little vials.

I currently didn't have the mental capacity to comprehend what Carlisle was doing, apparently Rosalie wasn't having the same issue. "Wont that kill her?" Rose asked in a gasping growl as she struggled to restrain the writhing werewolf.

"I don't think so." Carlisle mumbled in reply as he studied the contents of the syringe.

"Carlisle, what is that?" I asked warily.

"Ketamine… mostly." Carlisle replied a second before he jammed the needle into Bella's neck and depressed the plunger, filling Bella's veins with the drug.

"That's enough to knock out a horse!" I shouted.

"She is a werewolf!" Carlisle shouted back, his eyes blazing, his pale face marred by splatters and smeared drops of Bella's blood. "And I can not help her if she is continually trying to kill me!"

Bella's limbs began to sag and her movements became sluggish as the drugs took effect. Eventually, her eyes flickered shut and she slumped back onto the table with a heavy thud.

"We should move her." Rose spoke up, she was still watching Bella warily, as if she would spring up and attack at any moment. Most of Bella's wounds had stopped gushing blood, and only a few still leaked a small steady stream of blood, and yet none of them had closed. "Move her somewhere we can secure her." Rosalie added.

"The guest room." Carlisle nodded. "Edward, pick her up." In his mind I could see that he thought this this safest option, believing it unlikely that Bella would seriously hurt me even when she was lost to the wolf. "Rose, go grab something to restrain her." Carlisle ordered as he collected his tools to take upstairs.

Moving slowly as to not jostle her too much, I gathered Bella in my arms and cradled her closely against my chest. I followed Carlisle upstairs and after he had stripped the bed of all the linen other than the bottom sheet I placed Bella down in the centre of it. Rosalie returned swiftly, clunky chains rattled in her hands as she held them up in a silent question.

I hated it. I hated the thought of chaining Bella up like a rabid animal. But I knew it was necessary. It had taken all three of us to retrain Bella, and we weren't very successful at it either, who knew how much stronger she would get as she healed – and there was still so much work for Carlisle to do. If we wanted to help Bella, we needed her to cooperate, and unfortunately she was unable to be reasoned with at present. I nodded my head morosely and Rose set to work chaining Bella to the bed frame, and securing each limb with a heavy padlock.

Carlisle returned to his work, cleaning away the blood from Bella's skin and stitching closed the gaping wounds. As more and more of Bella's skin was cleaned away, the more uncomfortable I became being in the room, but at the same time I knew I couldn't leave. So instead, I turned my back as Carlisle and Rose worked, hoping to give Bella a tiny bit of privacy during this terribly vulnerable moment.

"Okay." Carlisle sighed. "That's the worse of it dealt with." He ran a tired hand through his hair, smearing the blonde locks red. "It seems her internal injuries are healing without intervention, which is a relief." Carlisle continued in a mumble, from the corner of my eye I could see that Carlisle was running his hands over Bella's body, cleaning it of blood as he examined each part of her more thoroughly. "Her arm has healed incorrectly." Carlisle heaved out a tired sigh. "Rose, come over here and help me, please." A moment later the sharp sound of snapping bone shot through my skull and I recoiled, drawing into myself. As the pair began to manoeuvre Bella's bone into the proper position, she regained consciousness once more – howling like a wounded animal as the mental chains clattered noisily.

An agonising sob wrenched itself from my chest. "I'm-I'm sorry." My voice hitching as I fought back the sobs. "I-I can't" I manage to spit out before I left the room in a flurry of speed. I rushed out of the room, trying to escape the sounds of Bella's harrowing screams. I sped down the stairs, out the front door and collided directly with Chief Swan.

"Edward!" Charlie huffed out, grabbing me by the shoulders and holding me steady. "Esme called me, told me Bella killed a rogue. Is she alright?"

I blinked owlishly at the werewolf and tried to answer his question, but all that came out of my trembling lips was a pained whimper. I expected Charlie to shake me, to shove me aside and race inside the house, perhaps even to slap me across the face and demand a response – what I was not expecting was for him to pull me into a hug, his warm hand, large and calloused, pressing my head against his muscled chest. "Breathe, son." Charlie's tender voice rumbled against my ear, I followed his order on instinct, and for the first time Charlie's scent did not send me into a downward spiral of fear. Remarkably, his fiery scent and warm body was a comfort to me. "Listen, now. Do you hear that?" Charlie's voice, kind and compassionate, was beginning to take on a strange accent – it was something vaguely European, but I could not place it. I strained my hearing, trying to understand what he was talking about. Charlie's strong heart reverberated in my ear, his breath whooshed through his lungs, but outside of that, I could hear Bella's heartbeat thundering along upstairs. I nodded my accent, my cheek scratching over the Chiefs smartly pressed uniform. "That's Bella's heartbeat. She's alive. Now tell me little one, what happened. Is Bella alright?"

Charlie slowly pulled me away from where I had been grasping at his uniform – when had I done that? I didn't remember moving my hands. "She-she was hurt, but Carlisle's fixed her up." I rasped out. "Bella killed a vampire, but the others got away."

"Others?" Charlie repeated, his expression murderous.

"There's two more. I-I don't remember." My chest felt tight. It was so very wrong not to be able to remember something. "I don't know where they are." I admitted weakly.

"Do you remember where this happened?" Charlie asked, and I nodded mutely – as if I could ever forget. "Show me." He ordered as he turned on the spot and became a massive wolf mid-step, his clothes tearing apart along with his human skin. Charlie was much larger than his daughter, where Bella's wolf head reached my mid-chest, Charlie's towered over my 6ft frame with ease. I took off in the direction of the baseball field, and Charlie followed without hesitation. While Bella's wolf form was dark, all browns and blacks that melted together until she looked like a living shadow, Charlie was a soft golden colour – as if he were the exact inverse of his daughter. Charlie's sandy fur was still covered in blood and speckled with bits of his human flesh, but he didn't stop to shake the debris free from his fur, choosing to follow closely at my side as I lead him towards the field.

We arrived to the baseball diamond and seeing what we had turned the field into Charlie raised his enormous wolf head and gave me a strange sort of look as if to say – really?

Charlie chuffed out a breath and shook his head, almost like he was laughing at me, before he bounded across the field to the expanse of grass that was soaked with dark venom and Bella's drying blood. Off on the other side of the field was a funeral pyre, the thick purple-black smoke still billowed ominously, filling the air with the putrid stench of death. Alice's vision flashed in my head:

Three pairs of blood red eyes, the colour of rust. A dirty fur cloak. Thin lips twisting into a sinister smile. The unmistakable scent of death.

Everything she had seen had come to pass, and my knees felt weak as I realised that the scent of death was not Bella's as I had feared.

Charlie was investigating the area with single minded purpose, and I pulled myself together so I could offer him any assistance. So far I had been beyond useless. I had frozen like a coward as Bella had fought James, and then unable cope with the sounds Bella had made as Carlisle broke and reset her bones I had fled the house like a feeble-minded child. No more. I would be of use. I would help.

Your fault!

I stamped the thought down as I approached the blood soaked ground. Charlie was snuffling around in the grass and I too breathed deeply, even leaning down closer to the ground in an attempt to puzzle out the quagmire of scents. It was no use. With Bella's blood and James' venom mingling together I could not get a clear read on any tracks left by Victoria or Laurent. Not to mention the stench of the funeral pyre still billowing away and befouling the air. Charlie, on the other hand, was not struggling in the slightest.

With a look at me and a loud chuffing noise, Charlie took off towards the treeline, nose to the ground he tracked the scent. I followed behind dutifully. Charlie ran slightly ahead of me, but clearly not running at his fastest speed which allowed me to easily follow him in the dense woods. After a while, we came to a creek and Charlie bounded through it without hesitation. If it were me, that would have been more than enough to lose the scent, but it didn't bother Charlie in the slightest – to be fair, I still couldn't sense the scent we were following to begin with.

I followed Charlie, who followed the scent, and eventually we came across my siblings – Alice, Jasper and Emmett were pacing in agitation on the bank of a river. The treaty boundary. Damn it.

If my siblings were surprised by the werewolf at my side, they didn't mention it. "We followed Victoria to the boundary, been standin' here debating whether or not to cross for the past damn hour." Jasper snarled in way of a greeting.

"There are no shifters!" Emmett growled, "But I guess it doesn't even matter any more, since Victoria will be long gone by now!" He stepped up closer to Jasper, his chest heaving as he growled and glared at Jasper, challenging him to do something about it.

I looked to Alice in alarm, but she was just staring at Charlie expectantly. I followed her gaze just in time to watch Charlie chuff exasperatedly. Then, as if he were putting on a theatrical stage production, Charlie's hackles raised and he growled in a perfect imitation of an aggravated wolf. He padded over to the feuding pair, and bodily shoved himself between them. In his monstrous wolf form, Charlie loomed over even Emmett's almost 7ft frame. He swung his massive head between the battling vampires, giving each of them a hard stare and disapproving snarl – his colossal wolf chest rumbling with the noise.

The reaction was immediate – and utterly astonishing.

Both vampires took a step back, eyes falling to the ground as they lowered their heads submissively, Jasper went one step further and tilted his head to the side, exposing the length of his scarred throat – a shocking display of respect and submission, not to mention trust. I looked at Alice, only to see her smiling that annoyingly smug and knowing smile.

Charlie cuts of the threatening noises and chuffs out a hard breath of air as he stamps his front feet on the ground, then using the side of his head he nudges my brothers away from the boundary, urging them to stand at my side. Remarkably, they do as they are told, coming to stand on either side of me. After a moment, Charlie moves to stand in front of me, he stared down at me with those massive wolf eyes, more orange than yellow. Then, he looked pointedly towards the direction of home, then over his shoulder towards the shifters territory, and then back to me – he lowered his head and when he pressed the top of it against my chest the message was clear: Go. Be with Bella. I will continue the hunt.

I nodded silently, and without a sound we both turned away from the other – Charlie, running off in search of Victoria, and me, running towards home. My siblings followed without complaint, my brothers were still reeling from being chastised by a giant wolf and Alice was too anxious about Bella to speak.

I was relieved not to hear any screams – or growls – when I returned home. Upstairs I could hear Bella's heartbeat and steady breathing, the familiar sounds offered me some measure of reassurance. I found Carlisle sitting in the parlour, he had washed away the blood from his face and hair and was wearing clean clothes, when he looked up to greet me his still damp hair fell limply over his eyes.

"How is she?" I asked nervously.

"Sleeping. Or… unconscious." Carlisle replied wearily with a shake of his head. "Not sure which." His eyes scanned over our group before he asked, "Where's Charlie?"

"Hunting Victoria." I answered as I moved to run a hand through my hair, but paused when I saw it was still caked with dirt and dried blood. I lowered my hand back to my side. "She crossed over to the reservation."

Carlisle nodded in understanding before he rose to his feet. He crossed across the parlour and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "You should go wash. I'm not sure when Bella will awake, but it wont do anyone any good for her to see you like this." He said, gesturing vaguely towards my clothes.

"Yeah, yeah alright." I mumbled quietly. I drifted upstairs silently – I felt numb inside, like everything was muted, or far away. I felt tired.My limbs moved on auto-pilot as I started the shower and peeled off the clothes that had become stuck to my skin. I stepped under the spray and the water swirled red.

Your fault.

I began to scrub madly at my skin, a piece of Bella's skin flaked off my arm and floated down the drain.

Your fault.

I clawed at my chest, tearing at my iron flesh in a deranged effort to cleanse myself of this horrible sin.

YOUR FAULT!

Dry, heaving sobs echoed in the tiled bathroom – my sobs. I don't remember when I started to cry. I tucked my naked legs up to my chest and curled my arms around them, unsure of when I had collapsed to the floor of the shower.

"Easy there, brother." A voice drawled from somewhere in the room, somewhere close.

I peered over the tops of my knees to see Jasper crouching near the shower door. "Jazz?" I croaked helplessly.

"Yeah, brother. It's me." Jasper replied softly. "You gonna let me help you?" He asked.

I nodded weakly. "Help." I agreed.

Jasper sheds his dirty jersey and pants, but kept his boxers on as he climbed into the shower with me. Jasper squeezed out some shampoo into his palm, and the moment his hand connected with my scalp I felt Jasper's Gift take hold. A gentle wave of calm washed over me, like an incoming tide it slowly chased away all of the guilt and self-loathing. Jasper wordlessly washed my hair, using the skin the skin contact to increase the effectiveness of his Gift.

"Thank you." I whispered into the quiet.

"Don't mention it." Jasper replied without thinking as he scratched at my scalp, rinsing the shampoo from my hair. "I tried to help from outside, but your emotions were too strong, all over the place."

"Thank you." I repeated, louder this time.

Jasper gave me a wry smile. "Come on, out you get. Alice will be very put out with you if you use up all the hot water."

I hadn't thought I had been in there that long, but apparently I had been in there for over an hour, slowly but steadily losing my shit before Jasper decided to intervene.

When I came downstairs, my family were kind enough to ignore my temporary mental breakdown. Even in their thoughts they were carefully avoiding the topic. It was only a little bit awkward.

Thankfully, the air of awkwardness was broken by a giant wolf banging against the backdoor. Alice answered it, handing Charlie a black duffle bag filled with some clothes, Charlie took it with a chuff of thanks before disappearing into the night.

When Charlie returned, he was dressed in a pair of Carlisle's jeans that were a little too short and a button-up shirt that didn't quite fit as Charlie's shoulders were much broader than Carlisle's. "I lost her at the coast." Charlie said, not bothering with any sort of greeting. "How is my daughter?" He asked, already leaving the room and heading up the stairs.

We all followed close behind, keeping quiet as to not wake the sleeping werewolf. Charlie opened the door to the guest room, and from over his shoulder I watched as he took in the sight of his child, heavily bandaged and chained to the bed. Panic clenched in my chest and tightened my throat as Charlie took two steps backwards, clicking the door closed as he went, and when he turned around to face us in the hallway his expression was one of quiet fury.

"Downstairs. Now." He hissed under his breath before he shoved through the group and stormed down to the parlour. Again, we all quickly followed, but this time we were all more alert, more wary, unsure of what the old werewolf would do. "Someone better start talking." Charlie growled lowly.

"Bella was seriously injured during her fight with James." Carlisle answered calmly as he moved to the front of the group, automatically putting himself between us and the potential threat. "Her wounds were not healing quick enough, I was forced to treat her."

"Was she bit?" Charlie asked shortly.

"Yes. On her shoulder." Carlisle reported.

Charlie clenched his fists, and turned away from us, growling out what I assumed was a string curse words in a language I couldn't understand. He scrubbed a tired hand down his face and faced us again. "Okay, alright. Vampire venom fucks with our healing abilities. But you fixed her, right?" Charlie's glowering face promised violent retribution should Carlisle not answer in the affirmative.

"That is correct."

I could see Charlie's jaw move as he clenched his teeth. "Then could you please enlighten me as to why you have my daughter chained to a fucking bed!?" Charlie bellowed, advancing upon my father.

Carlisle did not move, unerringly calm in the face of a raging werewolf. "Bella was not herself. As I was treating her she attacked me. I sedated her, but as I am unfamiliar with werewolf anatomy I was sceptical of the drugs efficacy to keep her from harming me. I could not save her life if she was threatening my own." Carlisle spoke as if he were delivering a report during rounds, calm but with unquestionable authority.

Charlie didn't appreciate it at all. "So, what you are telling me, is that not only did you put my daughter's life at risk by exposing her to volatile rogues, but you drugged her and chained her up like a fucking animal!" Charlie took another threatening step forward.

I had no idea how Carlisle was managing to maintain his composure in the face of the furious werewolf. "I saved her life."

"Her life wouldn't have needed saving if it weren't for you!" Charlie roared, and in a move quicker than I thought possible, the Chief had Carlisle pinned to the wall, his forearm on Carlisle's throat. The wall rattled, the items on the shelves teetered dangerously, but the wall didn't break as the Chief pinned my father in place, eyes blazing orange as he growled fiercely.

Esme gasped and brought a hand up to her mouth, tears brimming in her amber eyes. Emmett and Rosalie lowered slightly, hissing and snarling quietly in warning. Alice wasn't present. She was there in body, but her mind was elsewhere, dozens of blurry visions of the near future whizzing through her head.

Jasper sent a powerful pulse of – relax. Calm. Peace. - through the room. It seemed to work perfectly on all the vampires, but the potency of Jasper's gift seemed slightly diminished on the werewolf. "I think we all need to just calm down." Jasper drawled, doubling down on the attempt to manipulate the werewolf's emotions.

Charlie's arm left Carlisle's throat, and his hand flashed out and grabbed a glass vase off the nearby shelf, hurling it towards Jasper, who ducked out of the way and the vase shattered against the wall in a cascade of glass. "Calm down!? You have no right to tell me to calm down!"

Seeing one of her favourite vases explode against the wall seemed to shake Esme more than seeing her Mate pinned by a werewolf. "Charlie Swan! That is quite enough!" Esme marched forwards, hands on her hips as she scolded the Chief with a disappointed expression. Everyone froze, unwilling to upset Esme further. "I understand you are upset, but no one here is at fault for what happened tonight." She lectured sternly.

"I understand that, but-" Before Charlie could continue, Esme cut him off.

"Bella was injured, and Carlisle did everything he could to save her life. Which he did." Esme narrowed her eyes for a moment, daring Charlie to say anything, when he remained silent Esme nodded once. "Good, now apologise to my husband." She demanded.

I stared, wide eyed at Esme, dumbstruck by the audacity. And then, to my complete surprise, Charlie sighed and nodded, holding out a hand to Carlisle who took it immediately. "I'm sorry," The wolf growled.

"It's alright. I would be in a similar state if it were one of my children."

Then, the sound of clinking chains, and then a pained whimper. Everyone stilled. The chains moved again, and Bella groaned. Charlie surged forward, racing up the stairs without a word to anyone. I followed – if Bella was waking up, I wanted to be there. I needed to be there. I had to make sure she was okay, that she was healing, and I had to know why she had attacked when she did. The nomads had been leaving, but she had attacked anyway. The sight of her lunging at James replayed in my mind, the sounds of Bella's gurgling cries echoed in my ears – I loved Bella more than life itself, but she had some explaining to do.