Again, thank you to Fran S. Flower for her wonderful beta work, and my two fantastic pre-readers, BrierLynn03 and Wh1teOw1.
Chapter 23 - Regression (part 2)
None of Edward's family dared approach him as he stood guard at the very edge of the woods, staring at Bella's window.
It stayed closed.
The rain poured down harder, soaking him to the skin.
At some point, when he sensed Charlie and Sam Uley approaching in Sam's car, he came closer just long enough to put her truck back together. He slipped in the front door of the house — which Bella had maddeningly neglected to lock — and returned Charlie's key before resuming his place outside in the worst downpour he'd seen in a decade.
Because his night wasn't bad enough yet, putting her truck back together turned out to be yet another mistake.
A huge one.
Charlie lit into Bella almost immediately after Sam dropped him off outside in the driving rain, the very moment he made it inside and found Bella sitting at the kitchen table waiting for him.
How the man couldn't see that she had been crying, Edward couldn't explain. But Charlie's thoughts were all over the place, bitter and hurt. His own emotions had been through the wringer that day, starting with Edward's visit that morning and getting worse when he had to perform CPR on his dying friend for an endless half-hour while paramedics searched for them. Being left stranded by his own daughter at the Forks line, with Sam Uley, was the icing on the cake.
At some point, Charlie had started trying to add it all up in his head. He'd considered that deed to the cottage Edward had shown him that morning, added it to Bella's subsequent failure to be there for him that night, and come up with the wrong fucking answer.
"Where the hell were you, Bella?" her dad accused without so much as a hello, while Edward's heart ached for her. "First, you tell me you're coming to pick me up, and then Sam Uley suddenly says you're meeting us at the line instead. He waited there with me for nearly an hour when he wanted to be helping out at Harry's house. And yet here you sit."
If Edward had expected Bella to go off again, he'd have been wrong. Fresh tears filled her eyes, but there was no bite in her tone when she replied. "I'm so sorry, Dad. My truck, um...it just wouldn't crank. I'm really, really sorry."
Charlie's jaw clenched, again coming to the wrong conclusion. He saw this as a pattern of behavior — his daughter caring about no one and nothing other than herself and Edward Cullen.
He didn't believe her story for one single second.
And he'd had enough.
"Oh, really? Well, by all means, let's find out what's wrong with it."
He snagged her keys from the table and marched out the door into the pouring rain, straight to her truck. Which, of course, fired up on his first try.
Bella still hadn't moved when the man went back inside, where Edward could once again see her through his thoughts. She stared at her hands on the table, not even looking up when Charlie tossed the keys back onto the table with a little too much force. She barely even startled, but Edward's muscles tensed with the need to go to her.
He didn't dare.
"You want to try again, Bells?" Charlie asked coldly, furiously, as he stood in the puddle of water dripping off his clothes onto the floor. "Where the hell were you tonight when I needed you? With him?"
Bella's voice stayed soft. "I was...I was here. I'm sorry. I don't know what else to say. I'm just really sorry."
Charlie shifted his weight back and forth, hands on his hips. He shook his head and looked up, trying not to imagine what she and Edward might have been doing under his roof that she didn't want to tell him about, something that had her so preoccupied she forgot all about the death of her dad's friend.
"Well, you know what?" Charlie spoke, not even trying to hide his emotion as he usually would. "You should be. You let me down tonight, Bella. You let Sam Uley and Sue Clearwater and a lot of other people down too. Including Jacob, who deserves a hell of a lot better from you."
Bella just nodded. Her complete lack of reaction worried Edward as much as anything else.
"I know." This time, her voice was a mere whisper.
Despite his fury, Charlie hadn't forgotten the threats Edward made that morning. He didn't want to push her so far that she ran away again, straight to some love nest with him.
"There are going to be a few different memorials," he gruffly changed the topic. "The public one is tomorrow afternoon. Sue doesn't want to drag things out, for Leah's and Seth's sake. It starts at 2:00, and I don't care what plans you have with Edward Cullen. You're coming with me."
Bella's face crumpled, a whimper escaping before she regained her composure, clenching her fists. "I can't. I — I really can't. I'm sorry."
Disgust flooded Charlie. "Well, I wish I could say I'm surprised. But I don't even know who you are anymore, Bella. That boy's changed you, and not for the better. I just...I don't know. I'm going to bed. It's been a long day."
"Okay." It was barely audible that time. Charlie didn't even hear it.
Long after Charlie stomped off and Edward could no longer see Bella through her father's mind, he could hear the sounds of her getting the mop, quietly and mechanically cleaning up the mess of rainwater and mud Charlie had tracked into the kitchen.
That mess paled in comparison to the one he had left her to deal with.
He expected that window to open when she went upstairs. He really did. Bella would need him after the harsh words her father said to her.
So he watched from the edge of the woods closest to her room for hours until he no longer heard the sounds of her moving; until he could hear that her breathing and her angrily accelerated heart rate had slowed, indicating she'd finally fallen asleep.
The window remained closed.
Through the pouring rain and thunder, he did get to hear her call and check on Jacob, not long before she fell asleep. The mutt had apparently made it home with Billy at some point. His high temperature and wolf metabolism must have burned off the alcohol quickly, because he already sounded his typical arrogant, assuming self. He wasn't any nicer to Bella than Charlie had been, wanting to harangue her for not having her priorities straight.
Hearing her apologize timidly to Jacob, just as she had with Charlie, all while carefully protecting him and not putting the blame where it rightfully lay, was another low point to Edward's night.
He had been halfway afraid she would ask the dog to come to get her and take her back to La Push so she didn't miss the funeral. He had no idea what he would have done if that happened. He didn't really want to know, but he had an uncomfortable idea it would have involved him crossing even more lines than he already had.
He knew one thing. He was utterly miserable, and it had little to do with the deluge of rain being dumped onto his head by the angry Forks sky. Jacob Black might be the one relentlessly pursuing a woman who had made it clear she had no feelings for him, but Bella had reacted to Edward's protective actions like he was the stalker.
He felt like it, standing in the woods outside her house when he knew he wasn't welcome.
But he couldn't leave, either, not with Albert still out there, regardless of what Alice's vision maintained about the timing.
He'd never felt so alone in his entire existence.
So far, his mother and the Denalis had had the good sense not to encroach on that self-imposed isolation. They'd stayed deep in the woods behind him. So he tensed, at first, when he realized Esme was walking in his direction, approaching him quickly. She kept her thoughts blank as she neared, coming up to stand in front of him and offer him a gentle smile. She was just as soaking wet from the rain as he was.
Reaching up, she took hold of his face, tipped his head down, and kissed his forehead. It was affectionate even for Esme. But he didn't pull away. He kept his head bowed, trying to hide the emotions flooding through him.
"Go home, son," Esme told him softly. "Gain some perspective. I'll watch over your Bella for you."
His eyes flicked toward the house, and she noticed.
"No, probably not the same way you would," she said, and he half wondered when she'd started reading minds. "But all the Denalis are here with me. We won't let any harm come to her. You have my word."
He was over 100 years old. But if tears weren't a literal physical impossibility for him, he'd actually have stood there and sobbed on his mother's shoulder.
Instead, he spared the quiet house one more glance and then accepted the gift Esme was offering — if only because he saw just how much it meant to her.
But by the time he reached the Cullen home, he'd had time for anger to start seeping back in. Anger at himself, at Bella, at Jacob, his siblings, Victoria, Albert above all, and anybody else that came to mind.
So when he slammed the front door behind him, he wasn't really in the mood for a smug, smartass comment from Emmett.
"She tell you to fuck off for good, or just for now?"
That was a crude but accurate representation of the question currently scaring the hell out of him. His furious snarl on his way up the stairs was answer enough.
Emmett had the audacity to find that amusing.
To make matters worse, they all wanted to talk to him again, his siblings — Alice included. They were waiting for him. It was some kind of damned intervention. And it was probably the reason Esme sent him home in the first place.
Betrayal from Esme. Well, at least that was new. Not unlike Judas, she'd even kissed him as she sold him out.
He ignored them all completely and shut himself in his room, slamming that door too, so hard it nearly broke. His thoughts were all over the place, as uncontrolled and violently scattered as his emotions.
He kicked his sopping wet shoes off his feet, nearly managing to knock a hole in the wall in the process.
Bella was stubborn. And reckless.
He smoothly peeled his drenched shirt over his head and sent that flying too.
Bella was his mate. His. If she was in danger, it was his job to put a stop to it. Whether or not she liked the damn danger was irrelevant.
Pants and boxers followed the same path as his shirt and shoes, his frenzied outrage reaching a peak at the same moment.
Bella was disrespecting her mate, and he wouldn't stand for it.
He jerked open first one drawer and then another, angrily pulling out the first pieces of clothing his hands hit.
Bella was ... she was...
She was his entire world.
It felt good to step into dry sweatpants, even if cold rain didn't really bother him. They were soft and warm...but not as soft and warm as his mate.
Bella was...
She was utterly furious with him, and he hated it. Quite possibly even more than he hated Jacob Black and the damn wolves.
He pulled a T-shirt over his head, slammed the last drawer shut.
Bella was...
He caught a glimpse of his own angry reflection in his window, and he stopped in his tracks. He stared. The fierce look on his own face nearly made him recoil.
Was that what Bella had seen when she looked at him tonight, as he was hissing angry words at her about being his?
God, he hoped not. Especially after...everything.
Bella was...
He stared at himself some more. Felt like he'd been kicked right in the gut.
Bella was right. About him crossing the goddamn line, and pretty much everything else.
And if anything shook him more than that realization, it was the conversation from the living room he was clearly supposed to hear. Evidently, the intervention was a go, with or without his presence. They all knew he could hear them. Rosalie, of course, kicked things off.
"I'm starting to think he wants her to hate him. Maybe he finally realized what a bad idea this whole relationship is."
He answered in the privacy of his mind only, not giving them the satisfaction of a response.
Wrong, Rosalie. Even more wrong than usual.
"No. I don't think he's actually thinking anything right now. He's just the vampire equivalent of a walking drunk dial."
Colorful, Alice. Still wrong, but colorful.
Emmett tried the hardest to goad him, not bothering with the pretense that he was talking to the others instead of directly to Edward.
"If you want to play caveman, Eddie, skip the petty shit. Just chain her to that kidnap bed and show her who's boss, already."
Jesus. Stop. I get it, damn it.
"I mean, it's not like you haven't done it before."
Edward winced at that reminder Emmett tagged on. He had tied Bella down to a bed the first time he kidnapped her, when James was after her, out of fear she would try to escape when he finally found it necessary to hunt. And he was pretty certain he'd scared her to death in the process. The bruises on her tender wrists from her struggles to break free had tormented him for weeks before they finally faded.
Emmett really, really needed to shut up now and let him work on that epiphany he was trying to have. So, of course, the idiot kept talking.
"You know, if you'd just take your head out of your ass for a few minutes, she might even like it when you tie her up and show her who's boss."
Vile. Repulsive. Not happening in a million years...
Unbidden, he remembered the scent of Bella's arousal when he caged her in against her bedroom wall...the way her eyes had dilated...her theory about how mates solved disagreements...
...or at least, not until she's changed... if she wanted me to...
"Ow!" he heard Emmett whine a second later, and he couldn't help it. He nearly laughed. Apparently, Rosalie had just shown Emmett who was boss — much like Bella was currently in the process of demonstrating to him.
And with that one interaction, his potential future stretched out in front of him with blinding clarity. He kind of longed for the day that Bella could hold her own against him, that he'd really feel her playful swats. Or her not so playful ones. When he wouldn't have to worry about how infinitely breakable she was.
When they would be equals, physically. Because they weren't yet, not really. But that didn't necessarily carry over to the other aspects of their relationship. Or at least, it shouldn't.
He had been acting as if it did, he realized. From day fucking one of this whole nightmare they'd found themselves in when Alice had her vision.
And if he didn't put that in check, mate bond or not, he was going to lose her. He'd come damn close tonight — scarily goddamn close.
But it wasn't too late. All wasn't lost. He and Bella still had a future, things to look forward to. Alice showed him in her head at that very moment, deeming it the right time for him to see it. Himself in a tux, carrying a human Bella in a lovely white dress across the threshold of their cottage, his lips attached to hers as they both giggled like lovestruck idiots.
Yes.
He wanted that future. He wanted it desperately. He just had to get a handle on his need for control — and yes, that was his real problem, and not necessarily a strictly vampiric one, he grudgingly admitted to himself. If he didn't want to destroy that vision before it ever got started, he had to comes to terms with this reality.
At least one of his family had sensed the change in his mood, the release of that tight ball of anger in his chest he'd been carrying since the day he left town.
"Okay, that's enough," he heard Jasper's drawl from downstairs. "He's taking his head out of his ass as we speak."
He could see in their minds how they took credit for the change, their thoughts tinged with surprise that it was that easy. Only he knew the truth.
It was Bella who'd saved him before they ever said a word — by sending his ass packing, ironically. But regardless of her methods, it was Bella who'd been saving him since the day she walked into his life and turned it upside down.
Early the next morning, Edward stood just at the edge of the woods closest to Bella's window, his hand nervously turning the new little cell phone in his pocket over and over.
Not his phone. Hers.
She was going to need it when he made the offer he was getting ready to make — the only possible way forward to repair his relationship with Bella.
He had to do this. It grated across his raw nerves like sandpaper, going contrary to his very nature, and it scared the absolute fuck out of him — but this was something he had to do.
And when he made this offer, he had to mean it.
He actually held his breath like a real seventeen-year-old boy when he first heard the sounds of Bella beginning to stir, preparing to awaken.
Would she even agree to speak with him? Would she be willing to hear him out? Or would she demand he leave the premises the moment she saw him? He deserved no less.
If his dead heart could, it would have been beating a thousand times per minute. He listened intently to every sound coming from her room.
Her heart rate steadily increased as she neared consciousness. He could hear her moving around but knew from personal experience that her eyes wouldn't be open yet.
He was aware of it the very moment that happened, because there was a tiny gasp. He could hear the pillowcase rustling as she turned her head, looking for him. He was concentrating so hard on every tiny sound that his eyes were squeezed shut. It was all he had because Alice would give him nothing. She had taken a side, and that side was unquestionably Bella's.
"Edward?" Bella called, sounding sleepy and confused.
So it hadn't all come flooding back to her yet. But it would.
Not yet.
He clenched his hands, willed himself to stay put. He kept his eyes closed.
I'm right here, Bella.
Like she had heard his tortured thoughts, the next sound he heard was the covers being thrown back, her delicate feet pounding toward the window at a dead run.
She flung the window open as fast as she could. "Edward?" she called out into the yard softly, probably trying not to wake Charlie. But despite its low volume, her voice held an edge of panic.
He was on the side of her house, clinging to the wall just beneath her windowsill — close enough to touch her — before the echo of that one word faded.
"I'm here."
She stared down into his eyes for two of the longest seconds of his life. Then she practically threw herself out the window to grab hold of his neck and try to drag him inside.
He didn't make it through the window as gracefully as he might have under normal conditions, mostly because he was trying to keep both Bella and himself from toppling right back out of it. But she didn't seem to care. The second he was inside and on his feet, he had his arms full — and not of his own doing. Bella plastered her entire body to the front of his desperately.
"I didn't mean to fall asleep," she told him urgently, into the side of his neck, standing on her tiptoes to get as close as she could. "I just woke up. I was so scared you wouldn't still be here."
He had kept his hold gentle at first, somewhat tentative — still expecting the other shoe to drop when she came fully back to awareness and remembered what he'd done...the awful things he'd said. But sensing her need for reassurance, he now tightened his arms around her securely. "Of course I'm here," he soothed. "I've already told you, love. I'm never leaving you again. That doesn't change just because we have a disagreement."
She shivered hard in his arms, and he cursed himself for a fool when he realized exactly how cold her body was. The storm the night before had ushered in a bitter cold front, unusual for so late into the spring. Even the weather lately was abnormal.
He barely noticed the cold for himself. But Bella was freezing. He'd left her window open after they entered, and his own icy touch wasn't helping.
Realizing his mistake, he let go of Bella to swiftly close the window behind him and retrieve a blanket from her bed. He had her wrapped in it and back in his arms, almost before she had time to miss him.
Almost.
"You changed clothes," she observed fearfully, now that she'd gotten a look at him. "You did leave."
Despite her having been the one to lock him out, her abandonment fears had been brought strongly to the surface again by waking up and finding him not there. Her words carried a ring of accusation, her tone hurt.
"I wasn't gone long," he assured her. "Esme sent me home. She wasn't much happier with me than you were."
He was trying to lighten the mood — because it certainly wasn't as though Esme or anyone else could have made him leave if he chose not to.
But Bella winced, pressed closer. "God, they probably all hate me even more now. Edward, I'm so sorry."
He pulled back to look at her, stunned. "You imagine my family or I blame you for what happened here last night?"
No answer was required. He could see in her eyes that that was exactly what she thought. And why wouldn't she? All the humans in her life had certainly given her enough grief the night before. Why shouldn't the vampires be the same?
"Please allow me to set the record straight," he told her firmly. "Every last one of my family is on your side, Bella, as they should be. I was wrong."
She stared up at him, her expression one of shocked disbelief. Her mouth opened and then closed a couple of times as she processed what he had said.
"Even Rosalie?" was the question she finally came up with.
He barely managed not to roll his eyes. "Especially Rosalie. She really let me have it last night. As did Alice, Jasper, and Emmett." He offered her a crooked smile. "And as for Esme and Carlisle, you replaced me as a favorite child the moment they laid eyes on you. You can't imagine how little you have to worry about there."
His poor mate had been through a lot. She was starting to look a lot like Edward imagined the literary Alice might have looked when she fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. His own apology was clearly unexpected. The idea of Rosalie being on her side was just one shock too many.
And there was still more to come.
He took advantage of her stunned silence to reach down and take her hand, pulling it out of the blanket and into his own.
"Here. I want you to take this with you today." And with his other hand, he pressed the brand-new cellphone into her palm.
She looked down at it, then back up at him, utterly confused.
"Take it with me?" she repeated questioningly.
God, this was hard. Harder than he'd thought it would be. And absolutely necessary. There was more to Bella than simply being Edward's mate; he'd finally come to realize that fact as he stood outside her window, impatiently waiting for her to awaken. As long as she was human, she would still have a human life. And Jacob Black and the wolves were a big part of that life now, thanks to his own mistakes, whether he liked it or not. It was not his decision to make.
That was exactly what she'd tried to tell him the night before when he wasn't doing a particularly good job of listening.
"Yes. When Jacob comes to pick you up for the memorial," he clarified, and his voice only shook a little. "There's going to be some type of memorial council meeting on La Push Beach this morning, prior to the memorial service this afternoon. A telling of the histories as it relates to the Clearwater family or some such. You've been invited."
Maybe he should have made her sit down first. Bella was completely white.
"Invited? By who?"
He managed not to snarl the name. "Jacob. I called him a few hours ago and asked for the arrangements. I expressed my desire for him to accompany you to the funeral himself. He's better able to protect you than Charlie. Your father left early this morning anyway, not expecting you to attend. Jacob will be here soon to pick you up."
A myriad of emotions crossed her face as he talked. Shock that Edward had called Jacob. Pure surprise that he would not only allow her to attend the funeral but that he had taken the initiative to arrange it himself. Amazement when he admitted Jacob could protect her. Sadness that her father hadn't even bothered to tell her he was leaving and given her a chance to 'change her mind,' undeniable proof that Charlie was still angry and hurt with her.
And finally, there was panic evident when Edward said Jacob was on the way.
She looked down at herself. "I have to get ready! I haven't showered, and — and I don't have anything to wear. I mean, nothing appropriate. You said it's on the beach?"
His eyes flicked toward the window. He hadn't even considered that issue himself — he might be a vampire in the beginning stages of much-needed reform, but he was still a man — but there was a certain fashion-loving pixie who could see the future and would have definitely thought of this, the moment his course of action was decided.
And sure enough, there she was, holding a garment bag and lightly tapping on the window.
He would have liked more time alone with Bella — more time to make sure everything was truly okay between them before he let her leave his side and go somewhere he couldn't easily follow. But he was to be denied that desire. Alice timidly entered the room, her eyes apologetic, and was thrilled when Bella gratefully hugged her. And then the two girls disappeared into Bella's bathroom.
That left him alone with the rock in the pit of his gut, hoping against hope that he wasn't making a horrible mistake by letting her out of his sight.
Bella reappeared, looking warm and cozy — so heartbreakingly beautiful that his insides flipped over, his fingers itching to just get his hands on her and touch.
Alice had clearly taken the cold weather into account, not to mention the conditions on the beach in La Push. Bella was dressed in a dark gray sweater dress, belted at her slim middle and falling to just above her knees. From the knees down, a brief sliver of the thick black tights she wore beneath was visible, the rest covered by warm but fashionable boots that stretched up to just below her knee.
She carried a thick but sleek black coat over her arm, one that would protect her from the elements. And in her hair, which was glossy and shining, was a gray headband that matched her dress and kept her hair pushed back off her face, prepared for the harsh, whipping wind on the beach.
Everything about her looked soft, feminine...and God help him, so very, very damn fragile. His lamb, trustingly thrown to a pack of wolves, by his own hand.
Panic surged up in his throat.
He wasn't sure he could go through with this.
He had to do this.
"You look beautiful," he told her and meant it. But his voice was thick with emotion, and she noticed it.
She came to him immediately, wound her arms around his waist, looking up at him. "Hey...I'm going to be fine. I told you, they won't hurt me. Jacob won't hurt me."
Venom pooled in his throat and even seemed to prick at his eyes as he rested his hands lightly at her waist. If he put his arms around her, he wouldn't let go.
"I know." He didn't sound any more convincing than he had a moment ago.
She hesitated. "Thank you for the phone. It's really too much. You didn't have to do that."
The fuck he didn't. If he didn't know she had that on her — complete with GPS tracking linked to his own phone so he could run straight to her in an emergency — he'd never be able to do this.
Alice knew that too. Probably why the dress had a deep pocket that was perfect for carrying her phone and protecting it from the elements — and also concealing it from the notice of anyone who might want to take it from her.
"I know how you feel about gifts," he said firmly, leaving no room for discussion. "But that one is non-negotiable. Use it, Bella. My number is already programmed in. If anything goes wrong, I need to know you'll call me."
"Okay."
His body stiffened suddenly, a hiss escaping his lips. A very unwelcome mind had just entered his range.
A natural enemy was coming to take his mate away from him — and he was going to allow it.
"Jacob's a couple of miles out," he told her tightly. "He'll be here soon."
And fuck it all, he'd promised himself not to do anything like this, but he was going to do it anyway.
He pulled her tightly against him, looked deeply into her eyes as he ran his hands possessively all the way up the back of her soft dress and into her even softer hair. Bella's lips parted expecting a kiss, her fingers reflexively gripping the back of his shirt in her fists. Alice discreetly slipped out the window to give them a moment of privacy.
Edward's hands bunched glossy waves between his fingers, urgently leaving his scent there. He used his grip in her hair to tilt Bella's head, as his mouth went not to her lips but her jaw. He trailed his lips along her jawline, then her chin, soon traveling down and around her neck, back up to the other side — planting kiss after wet kiss and sealing it with his cold breath.
Bella melted against him, throwing her head back. "You know, I know what you're trying to do," she told him breathlessly. She tried to make it sound disapproving, but she was even less convincing than he'd been a moment ago. "You're marking me again."
He usually refrained from such language with her. But this time, it slipped right out, his voice husky and possessive. "Yeah. I sure as hell am." His tongue gave the spot below her ear a lick; then he closed his lips around the lobe.
Her breath caught in her throat. She liked that, it seemed — the marking and his unfiltered, gravelly words. The light scent of her beginning arousal hit him, washed over him.
And that wouldn't do at all when he was about to send her off with Jacob Black. That scent belonged to him and him alone. He didn't need to do anything to further it at the moment.
But he couldn't resist a goodbye kiss.
His hands gently engulfed her chin and throat, thumbs tenderly cradling her face while his long fingers possessively curled around her neck. He brought her mouth to his, gave her one sweet, chaste kiss on the lips.
And then he let her go, aside from the hand he took to lead her downstairs to the front door to meet Jacob. The dog had no business in her bedroom.
If Edward had been anxious about letting Bella go even before Jacob got there, it paled in comparison to the shot of terror that coursed through him when he did a deep dive into Jacob's thoughts as he opened the door, trying to get a feel for the boy's frame of mind.
He didn't even want to think about what would happen if he had to take back his promise to let her go, but he was prepared to make that call if he had to. The boy's slurred, aggressive words on the phone the night before, which Edward had heard through Alice's memory, still gave him pause.
Jacob was sober, at least, which was the only way Edward would let Bella get into a car with him. Not even hungover, thanks to his wolf metabolism. Maybe a little bit embarrassed by his memory of his last conversation with Bella. Rather than responding favorably to his declaration of love, she had only chided him for being drunk.
That wasn't the part that worried Edward.
It wasn't even the realization of Jacob's secondary plans for the day. He'd apparently overheard Charlie complaining to Billy about the house his daughter now owned with her boyfriend. And Jacob had concluded that today might be his last chance to get through to Bella and plead his case for her heart. He was going to get her alone at some point and lay it all out on the table.
That was certainly alarming enough.
But no, the part that ran Edward's venom cold was the revelation of exactly what had happened to Harry Clearwater.
Specifically, the fact that it was Jacob Black who had lost control in the woods and accidentally killed him.
Even more terrifying was why.
Everything that had happened to Bella since the moment she opened her eyes that morning was unexpected. If anything, it all felt like a dream.
But even more unexpected was what happened when Edward opened the door to Jacob.
Jacob smiled at her and opened his arms for a hug. But when she took a step forward, Edward grabbed her arm and jerked her back, none too gently. His back appeared in front of her face, putting himself abruptly between her and Jacob.
"Edward!" she cried out in surprise. "What are you doing?"
"What the fuck is your problem, Cullen?" Jacob demanded over her, instantly aggressive.
Bella tried hard to see around him, but Edward was a brick wall, matching her movements to keep his body between her and Jacob — whom he was staring at with deadly focus.
"No way. Forget it, Black. This isn't happening now."
"Edward!" she tried again.
"Why don't we let Bella decide that?" Jacob all but snarled.
"Fine. Then why don't you tell her why you were too drunk to help her out last night?" Edward snarled in return. "And don't leave out any details."
She was finally able to peek out from behind Edward just enough to see Jacob scoff. "That's a pack matter, leech. Not your concern. And since when do you care about letting Bella in on the details, anyway?"
Her hand rested in the middle of Edward's back, hoping to keep him from starting a fight. So Bella felt it when he tensed even harder as those words hit home.
"Here's a detail for you, dog," Edward said through clenched teeth. "That vampire you saw out there, right before you lost control and phased right next to Harry Clearwater? The one you all assumed was just a nomad? That was him. Albert Rowe. And you let him get away."
The world suddenly seemed to be spinning so fast it made Bella lightheaded. Too many things were happening at one time.
Jacob killed Harry?
Albert had been on the reservation?
Albert had been on the reservation while Charlie was there?
Albert had been close enough to her father's hunting party that Jacob had seen him?
She couldn't breathe, her hand pressing more tightly against Edward's back.
"I left my handy-dandy field guide at home today," Jacob sneered sarcastically. "Who the fuck is Albert Rowe?"
Bella was barely paying attention. Her head was spinning.
Jacob killed him. Jacob killed Harry Clearwater in exactly the way Edward had feared him hurting her.
Charlie had told her on the phone that Jacob was a mess last night...that he saw the whole thing. He'd said Jacob needed a friend... Jacob had been drunk...
There was no denying it. Jacob accidentally killed Harry Clearwater.
And Edward knew it.
"He's the one who hurt Bella," Edward clarified icily, his voice dropping low, loathe to say it in front of her. "The one you've let get away twice now."
Only a slight tightening of Jacob's eyes showed that Edward's words had hit home too.
"We had a deal, Black," Edward went on. "The treaty was formally amended. We share information on this one. If an unknown vampire shows his face on the reservation, you call us. And vice versa. For Bella's sake."
That was the first she'd heard of that. They had agreed to work together? When had that happened?
"How the fuck was I supposed to know it was him?" Jacob shot back defensively. Then he went on the offensive. "The last time any of us saw him, he was on top of Bella. And the funny thing is, he looked exactly like you. Maybe there is no Albert Rowe. Maybe it was you all along."
"Edward, don't," Bella instantly intervened when Edward surged a step forward. She went with him, her hand at his back sliding all the way around his waist to his stomach and holding on for all she was worth. She had no hope of holding onto him if he decided to go, but she hoped her touch would at least calm him, as it had once before, during her first confrontation with Charlie. And it seemed to work. The tension in his back, which was now pressed completely against her front, lessened slightly as he intentionally relaxed his muscles.
"For Bella's sake, I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that in front of her." His voice was quiet, deadly, enunciating each word clearly. "But she's not going anywhere with you now. Not today, not ever."
"Edward!" she protested. "You promised!"
He didn't turn to look at her, staying eye-to-eye with Jacob. But his voice was frustrated. "Bella, you have to trust me on this. He's proven himself untrustworthy. If he lost control once, he could do it again."
She stepped up to his side, feeling him tense as that brought her closer to Jacob. "No. You have to trust me. I need to go to the funeral, Edward. I need to. Please."
"Bella..."
"You don't tell her what she can and can't do, Cullen," Jacob challenged, and Bella squeezed Edward a little more tightly. "If she wants to leave here with me, she's leaving with me."
Edward was grinding his teeth so hard that Bella physically heard it. She could feel his muscles straining forward. If Jacob said one more word, there would be no stopping him.
"Please, Edward," she said softly, for only him. She ignored Jacob completely, her chin pressed to Edward's bicep as she looked up at his tense profile from behind. "Let me do this. I know you weren't expecting this. I know that, okay? But I promise you — I promise you — I'll be fine. I'll be back in a few hours. But you have to let me do this. You just...you just have to."
His eyes went unfocused for a moment, and she knew he was checking Alice's mind. Although, whether Alice could see anything or not, thanks to the wolves, she couldn't possibly know.
Edward still never turned to look at her. It was the way his breathing shallowed out that told her she had won — and that he hated it. His jaw clenched, jumping dangerously. He took another half step forward.
"My family and I will follow you as far as the line," he told Jacob, cold and formal. "I want you to arrange for backup to meet you on the other side — at least three of you, experienced fighters. He could still be in your territory; this is not the time for arrogance."
"Agreed." Jake's voice was even icier than Edward's. The whole thing was surreal.
"And one more thing," Edward said, his voice deceptively calm. "If you allow anything to happen to her ... if you phase too close to her, or even if you don't return her to me exactly as she is now — and I mean if she comes back to me with so much as a papercut — there is no treaty and no pack that will stop me from tearing you limb-from-limb and beating you to death with the pieces."
"Edward!" Bella cried out softly, shocked at the violence in that statement.
"Do I make myself clear, dog?" he reiterated, deadly quiet. "If she walks out this door with you, I will hold you personally and fully accountable for her wellbeing from that moment forward."
But Jacob only grinned — just as dangerous, in his own way, as Edward.
"Maybe I just won't bring her back, then. Maybe she'll decide to stay with me."
Still holding onto Edward with one hand and never taking her eyes off him, Bella held out the other toward Jacob, palm out, the classic stop it gesture. "Jake...really not helping right now."
But Edward had spoken his mind, and he was done with it. He turned toward her, put his arms around her; he was clearly terrified, but he tried hard not to show it.
"We'll do this your way," he vowed, his voice low and intimate. "On one condition. I don't want you alone for even a second. Promise me, Bella. Promise me you won't go off by yourself, for any reason. Promise me that you'll stick close to Jacob."
"I promise," she said quickly, not wanting to give him any reason to again change his mind.
Edward's eyes were intense. "I'll be waiting when you call after the funeral, and I'll pick you up at the line myself. Call me, Bella. Promise that too."
"I will. I'll call you."
There was nothing left to say. She glanced nervously toward Jake, beside them. She felt uncomfortable with any PDA in front of him, knowing his feelings.
"Okay," she started her goodbye with Edward awkwardly. "Um...I guess I'll see you later."
Edward had no such concerns. His arm around her lower waist tightened as he pulled her in flush against him, quick and abrupt. His other hand came up to cup her cheek firmly as he kissed her, passionate and intense. The second kiss in two days that felt like goodbye — a terrified, desperate, permanent goodbye. He seemed to be trying to brand the taste of her into his tongue, his fingers clutching her just shy of too tightly.
She pulled away when Jacob scoffed and started muttering under his breath.
"I love you," she promised Edward and stretched up to kiss his cheek. "I'll see you tonight." He looked like he was in agony, a man silently burning at the stake, too agonized to even scream.
But he let her go. His hands slowly dropped to his sides, his struggle evident in the tension of his fingers.
And moments later, she was in the Rabbit with Jacob, speeding away toward Quileute territory.
TO BE CONTINUED...