CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
(JPOV)
Anger poured over me like hot coals, the fiery heat spreading through my body with a rapid speed that made my transformation almost painful. I was on all fours in seconds after darting from the house and heading for the woods, my paws digging deep into the marshy earth below as I ran.
They were coming for her.
On our lands.
A rage fit to be tied steadily consumed me as the threat roamed through my mind.
Bella was everything to me.
We didn't need a supernatural connection to share what we had.
Imprint and marking be damned, none of that would have mattered in the end.
She was it for me.
She was my heart.
My soul.
My beginning and my end.
There was nothing that would have ever been the same had she chosen to end her life with the Cullens.
I would've died right along with her that day.
Two lives would have been lost forever.
I sprinted through the dense cover of the trees until I was connected to the pack mind, the frantic thoughts at my phase in from Leah enough to cause my pace to falter some.
"Jake! Did you see Sam! Is he headed for the elders! We're so screwed. These leeches are gonna end us!"
"LEAH! FOCUS!" I harshly replied. "KEEP YOUR HEAD ABOUT YOU!"
"Okay, Okay! But we're outnumbered! By a lot! Jared and Paul just caught another fresh trail a couple minutes ago. We're running out of time here!"
"Where! Tell me where the trail is headed, Leah!" I demanded.
"I couldn't tell! They were phasing in and out, making the mind link hard to focus on for longer than a few seconds." She worriedly replied.
"Why would they do that! Being on two legs right now is too damn risky. Try to remember what you saw before losing the connection."
After a few more minutes, she opened up her thoughts more to me, sharing the last vision of what Paul had seen while chasing after a blur of black and red. The figure weaved in and out of the forest with blinding speed. I caught the tail end of the rivers edge, before Leah lost her focus again and the shared memory through our linked minds vanished.
They were close enough for me to intercept.
"The border. They're headed over the border. Go back to the Reservation and guard my house! I need you there!"
"You can't head this on by yourself! Are you mad!" She argued, causing my temper to rise even further.
"Listen! We don't have time for this right now. I know you don't always agree with me or respect my part in this pack and I know Sam is alpha, but I'm telling you to do this! Follow instructions, Leah!"
She briefly held her tongue then and huffed my way, before turning on her heel and bolting back for the house.
"Don't be stupid with this, Jake! I'm pretty sure Bella wants you alive after tonight!" She thought back, as we ran in opposite directions like the hounds of hell were after us.
They were.
"No matter what. You promise me you won't let anything happen to her or Charlie or Billy till I get back?"
"Promise."
I was at least ten miles outside of the borders edge when the sickeningly sweet stench struck me hard in the face, the smell potent enough to knock the wind out of my lungs and cause my nose to burn as I charged on.
The emptiness in my head was alarming and eerie. Too still and too quiet.
Paul and Jared would have never phased back to human form unless they had no choice. Paul especially. He would have died first before ever submitting to one of them willingly.
I cringed at the thought and followed the sick trail until it sharply changed course, leading me straight to the water. I huffed in frustration and skidded to a halt at the river banks edge, the sliding rocks tumbling down beneath the weight of my skidding paws now.
Something was off.
I could feel it.
I stilled and lowered my head to the ground, easily peering through the darkness as the splashing sound from the water below echoed out around me.
I froze where I was when the wind sharply shifted then, blowing the disgusting stench my way again. I narrowed my gaze, searching the water below and catching movement there under the dark flow of it. The ripples were subtle at first, but soon became thrashing and loud.
Rising from the water, Paul staggered in the current, with a trail of vivid red running down his side. He was in human form and trying to get back on dry land when he lifted his head to catch brief sight of me there high above him.
"Jake-..." He yelled, the gurgling sound in his voice causing me to rush down over the embankment, hurdling over the larger rocks and narrowly missing the trees by mere inches as I bolted to get to him.
I ran into the water, bracing myself there next to him. He could hardly move, his body covered in more gashes than I could count.
He coughed and the sound was choking and wet, as he collapsed back down into the shallow water around us.
I phased back to human form and took hold of him then.
"Paul! Grab hold of me. Come on'- I got you."
"They're coming back. Jake- GO! GET OUT OF HERE!" He managed, as I half dragged him to shore.
"No! I'm not leaving you behind! Where's Jared!" I hedged, laying him down in the dirt. "Where is he!"
"I don't know-... I-... I lost sight of him when we were chasing them."
My skin crawled at this and I hated how exposed we were right now, not knowing what was lingering overhead.
"How many?"
"Two...-but there's more coming. She said there was."
"Who? Who said there was?"
"Chelsea." Paul coughed, bringing up more water as he tried to sit up.
"No, stay low. You're in rough shape man. Don't push it. Your body is working in overtime to heal right now."
He grabbed my arm roughly, making direct eye contact now with his heated words.
"Jake, I'm telling you get the hell out of here! They're coming back!"
He no more than said the words when an eerie laugh echoed out to us from across the river.
I scanned the water again, but didn't see a damn thing. My body was hit with a wave of tremors then that physically put me down to the ground there next to Paul, the wolf forcing a phase with a painful urgency from the danger lurking all around us.
I didn't fight it, I crawled away from Paul, putting as much distance between us as possible before I submitted to the phase.
I erupted and landed on all fours with a menacing snarl as the eerie laugh reached me again.
"You're not a match for me. I assure you. No more than your friends were. Pity really. I wouldn't try it."
Her tone was unrecognizable and I stayed put until I could get some kind of visual.
A blur of black flew over the towering trees ahead, my wolf gaze catching it just in time before she could swoop in and attack me from overhead.
I tore off in the opposite direction and she hissed above with irritation.
Her speed worked to her definite advantage.
When I reached the other side of the river, I saw Jared creeping in, his position perfect for a counter defense.
"I ran the other one off, Jake. No telling when she'll circle back though. Is Paul alright?"
"He'll make it." I assured him, my head whipping up in every which direction in the hopes I'd catch the red eyed leech before she could get the upper hand on us.
Without warning, she descended down from the trees, swooping in with blinding speed and landing in front of me with a violent hiss.
I charged for her before the wind had the chance to stop blowing in her long dark hair. She turned and took off with me hot on her heels.
"Jake! Don't go alone!"
"Stay here and take care of Paul! Send out an alert to the others, Jared!"
I blocked out the rest of his shouting in my mind and focused solely on catching up with the leech who had nearly killed Paul in the river.
She was on our lands and I was gonna tear her apart one way or another.
I pushed myself harder, snapping my muzzle at her disappearing feet while she desperately tried to escape from me.
When we reached the surrounding forest of Forks, I closed in on her, my sharp teeth coming in contact with her granite arm as she swung and tried to connect with my side, before I tore into that limb without mercy. She screamed, the sound ear piercing as she whirled around and landed a kick to my front. I didn't let go and the loud sound of her screaming continued when I tossed the appendage into the trees and snarled at her.
"I'm gonna kill you for that!" She raged. "You and your whole pack!"
I let out a roar and charged for her again, her red gaze wide as she tried to fight me with her one good arm still remaining.
"Stop!" She screamed, landing a blow to my muzzle that sent me back a few feet from her. "I have information you might find valuable."
"Bullshit." I thought back fiercely.
She seemed to read my mind in the same way Edward used to and it unnerved me when her head tilted to the side in response to my non verbal response.
"What I say is true! I came here to find you! I am part of the Volturi. The strongest one of them all. I hold them all together. I link them to one another. It's all my doing."
"I don't believe you."
"You should! I can read minds. Just like I'm reading yours right now. You're wondering how that's possible. Edward and I, we have very similar telepathic abilities, but my talents and gifts go far beyond that. I control the emotional connections of all those around me. One might say I'm the key to loyalty where there shouldn't be any. If you want any kind of look into the mind of Aro. To know how he works, you'll need me to do it."
I snarled again with my response.
"I wouldn't trust you if you-"
"Oh, but you should. I know his plans for you and your Bella. Keeping me around would greatly benefit you. Destroying me would work against you. Choose wisely." She warned, in a hiss.
I tried to stop the image of Bella's face coming to mind then, but my head went there anyway, giving her a good look for herself.
"I don't need you. We're gonna end them. You're out of luck with any kind of bargaining chip. If you came here to get close enough to our lands and warn us of it, you wouldn't have attacked my brother and left him for dead in the river."
"That was Sulpicia. My traveling companion. She is Aro's wife. It's true that I helped her fend him off-"
"Good, I'll rip her apart too! Right after I'm done with you." I menacingly snarled to her, closing more of the distance between us with a calculated stride forward.
She looked like a cornered child and it filled me with a sick satisfaction that I was the one who had placed that kind of fear in her.
"You don't understand what I'm saying. Your friend was hostile. He tried to come at us before we had the chance to explain our reasoning for being here."
"Your kind are never welcome on our lands." I hastily informed her. "Nothing more to explain."
"I have a way out of this massacre for you." She hurriedly stated then.
"Why would I listen to you-"
"Because, I have the ability to change the lure of Bella's blood to Edward. To separate the connection once and for all. Something that would change the course of things in an instant. My gifts are unlike any other. Under my manipulation, she would no longer be his singer, and Aro would no longer hold enough leverage over him to course him into joining them in return for this attack that's brewing against you all."
"Aro is already here. What kind of fool do you play me for?! He made contact with Bella."
"Yes, he did. From Italy. Aro enjoys toying with his prey before he devours them. He gets off on it."
"Your kind is really sick you know that! Evil at it's finest." I huffed in return. "He's not even here...-"
"Not yet, but he is coming and soon. He sent me and Sulpicia on this mission to be sure to toy with you before he made his arrival with the others."
"So, you're the reason why my pack has been losing their shit tonight. Running around here and leaving a potent trail for us to follow back and forth for hours. But you're asking me to listen to you!? How stupid do you think I am!?"
"I know things that wouldn't make sense unless I was telling the truth. For example, the Cullens came back here with more than the purpose of relocating. They came in search of Bella. Her blood drew Edward in like moth to a flame. She is his reason for existing, but she wasn't made for his world. Ask me how I know this?"
"How...-" I snarled.
"I am much older than Edward. With better developed skills, and I know what takes place within our own walls in Volterra. Edward is a master of manipulation. It's one of his under appreciated skills, but he couldn't have drawn her in all on his own like he planned to when she arrived here. He acquired my help, but there was a... complication in the mix." She stated, pausing to meet my wolf gaze with her eyes of crimson and like a missing puzzle piece, it all snapped together for me.
"Me-... I was his complication."
"Yes." She confirmed. "Long before Edward and the Cullens departed again from Forks this last time, he was more than aware of your tie to Bella. Both your human and your supernatural. Unlike Aro, I do my adequate research with all the endless free time I have being stuck in this frozen frame forever. I've read all about your kind in old published scribes I found on the internet. Edwards fascination with Bella struck some curiosity in me and I couldn't help myself, Jacob. That's your name, right?"
I'd had enough of her games and did the unthinkable then.
I phased back to human form in front of her, not caring about my nakedness or her close proximity. I wanted answers as to what the hell she was talking about and I intended to get them.
She looked me over, pausing long enough to lick her venom soaked lips as her red gaze fell to a point far south of my waist.
"Tell me what you know or I'll end you. You know I can. Even if I have to phase back and chase you again. I'll catch you and tear you limb from limb. If you want your arm back, I suggest you start talking and fast. I won't spare you when my pack catches up to us, which they will soon."
"Okay- Jacob Ephraim Black. Son of Billy and Sarah Black, who is now deceased due to an unfortunate vehicle accident when you were just nine years old. Just a boy. You have twin sisters, who no longer live on the Reservation with you and your ailing father. The blood that runs through your veins is true Alpha blood, but you have yet to claim that role as your great grandfather has done long before you. Your first phase was shortly after the Cullens came back to forks. Sam Uley is your leader. He and his wife live on the Reservation, along with the rest of the pack. You come from a long line of defenders. You've known and loved Bella Marie Swan since she was just a child. The two of you are connected beyond the magic around here. It's a force that rivals even my own master manipulation of emotional connections. It's larger than that. Bella carries with her a gift of her own. This is why she is sought by Aro and desired by Edward. They want to use her and you stand in the way of that. It's fascinating really."
I stared at her, trying to process what she'd just told me, my mind running through all the times I'd sensed how manipulated Bella had been when she was with Edward. Even on the day of her wedding.
"You have my attention."
"Good." She sighed needlessly before continuing on. "While, my gift of emotional manipulation and bond is skilled, after Edward visited Aro seeking to be destroyed by the cause of exposure to the humans in Volterra then for the festival, it got me wondering about how Bella was doing without him. Without the emotional control he had over her being present. I took a trip back here. Back to Washington and saw for myself. The night I wandered close enough to her fathers house, you were there with her, but you looked unwell. Sick with the kind of fever that I knew was prompting your initial phase after doing all the research I'd done. I could read your fearful thoughts but Bella's remained a blank page. Much like they do to Aro and Edward. She is special in that way. Shielded. Her thoughts remain to be her own. Maddening really."
"-or perfect." I sharply injected. "Your kind don't need to be in her head."
"That's exactly the point of our little discussion I'm heading to. You see, no one, not the Cullens, or even Aro and Edward, has ever been able to figure out why Bella's mind is off limits to the vampire world and those in it. Why she's protected at that level." She paused, looking me over again. "But then there's you."
"What about me-" I quipped in irritation.
"You were born a defender from our kind. I believe your connection with Bella is what enabled her mind shield in the first place. So she would always be protected even when you weren't around. This protection grew stronger and stronger when the two of you got close in Edwards absence. It is why her feelings of loyalty and mystification for Edward faded as they did. Even after he and the Cullens returned once more. It's why she could never break away from you completely. The art of my gift became nearly useless on her the closer she got to you. Same for Edwards alluring attractions he has as one of us. You, Jacob Black, changed the very course of everything for her."
A/N: Thanks for reading and please leave a review!