It took much longer than Bella would have liked for them to set up a meeting with the wolves. She would have liked to let them in on everything that was going on within the first few days of being back in Forks but it took a lot of convincing to get their alpha to agree. Not even the fact that one of his pack mates was mated to one of the vampires could make him more receptive to the idea of spending any amount of time with them.
Still they managed to get something set up none the less. They managed to set it up as a barbeque at Charlie's house so that it would be on neutral territory, the pack would be there a long with all of Charlie's friends from the reservation who had agreed to distract the man so the vampires and wolves could actually discuss what they needed to without him listening in on it.
That being said, Bella was extremely grateful that it was nice enough out that they didn't have to be crammed into Charlie's tiny little house because even being outside the stench of wet dog was strong in the air. Granted judging by the scrunched faces they were receiving from the wolves they must not like the smell of vampires either. The only ones that didn't seem affected by the smell in the group of supernatural beings were Alice and Jacob. Obviously something in their bond made it so the smell didn't affect them, which so not fair if you asked Bella.
"Why did you call us here blood suckers?" The alpha asked eyeing Bella wearily when they were sure that Charlie was out of hearing range.
"Well Balto, as I'm sure you've gathered by now Scooby and Alice are mates.." Bella started calmly though her shoulders were tensed as if waiting for one of the wolves to attack.
"My name is Sam, Blood Sucker. We are aware of the bond between Jacob and…her." The alpha, Sam, growled obviously not liking the thought of one of his pack being bonded to what they considered to be their biggest enemy.
"As I was saying Balto," Bella picked up again ignoring the glare he sent her. "Scooby and Alice are mates so we thought it would be nice to inform you that there is another vampire out there that has a grudge against me for some reason, and has been using a gift they have to influence her to act against me for the majority of the year. Once I realized what was going on I was able to block her from the influence however I would be incredibly surprised if they haven't figured it out yet which means that sooner or later they're going to come after us again more aggressively than they have thus far."
"What is it that they've done so far?" Sam ground out.
"There is a well protected Coven of our kind that serve as basically royalty to us. They are our authority and when our secret is not well hidden we answer to them, more often than not with our deaths. Thus far they influenced Alice into going to this coven to report me in an attempt to have me killed."
"What crimes did you have piled against you that they were able to do this? If you are a criminal even to your own kind why would we care to listen to what you have to say on anything?"
"My entry into the vampire world was not as kind as others. My sire did not have the compassion that Carlisle does, when he created the members of his family he created them from people with no hope of surviving, people inches from death, and then when they woke from the transformation he taught them that they didn't have to be monsters. He showed them a better way to live this life. Maria was not like that. When I was sixteen years old I was living in Phoenix with my mom and her husband, my dad, Phil. Just after dark one night a strange woman let herself into our home and in less time than it would take you to walk across this yard she had killed both of my parents and bitten me. The only reason she didn't kill me as well was because she could sense when a person would have a gift as a vampire. She could tell that I would be stronger than any other and nearly unstoppable so she decided to keep me. When I was born into this world I wasn't faced with compassion and love, I was taught war and hate. It took me close to 2 years before I was able to escape, however whether I was forced to work for Maria or not is irrelevant to most in our world. Just being in proximity of the type of life Maria was living is nearly enough to warrant death in most cases."
"And yet you managed to escape death when faced with your authority?" Sam questioned skeptically.
"Before I came to Forks I made sure to clean up the mess Maria had made of the south. I destroyed her as well as the army she had created, in addition to sending the coordinates of several other camps like hers to one of the Royal guard. Not to mention I could likely easily take on the entire guard if I didn't have anyone I cared about around where they would be in harm's way. I have no doubt that if they had more leverage on me I would not have walked out of our meeting. I would either be dead or forced to take a place as part of their guard."
"If you are so incredibly strong on your own why inform us of any of this at all?" Sam asked eyeing her in obvious disbelief of her stated power.
"We chose to inform you because the mate of one of your pack has already been used as leverage at one point so it seemed like it would be in poor taste to leave you out of the loop. In addition to that, while I can take them on my own and not be harmed it does not mean that there would not be casualties of others. I assume that the well being of your tribe would be a concern of yours if nothing else. Have no doubt that should they bring a fight here they would not hesitate to attack you on your own land as a way to try and distract me. I thought, hoped really, that we might be able to work out a sort of truce to work together to protect the humans in this area from hostiles that may be coming. Our families are linked after all."
"We will never accept blood suckers as part of our pack," Sam snarled immediately glaring at her. "Nothing will ever endear your kind to us. Don't think that just because Jacob made the mistake of imprinting on a monster that we will accept any of you, or help any of you."
At the Alpha's words Jacob made a wounded sound in the back of his throat as he moved a half step in front of Alice as if to protect her from possible threats. Sam growled lowly in response, however at least half of the pack was staring at their alpha as if they couldn't believe what he had just said.
"Sam, you know we don't have any say in our imprints. Just look at you and Emily…" A young boy said frowning at the man.
"Stay out of this Seth, just saying that makes you almost as much of a traitor as him." Sam snarled.
"Aren't you a fucking hypocrite, Sam." A girl, the only girl in the group, spoke up then. "Aren't you the one that told me you couldn't help the fact that you'd imprinted on my fucking cousin when she came to celebrate our engagement? Why is it different now? Are you saying that you could have rejected your imprint on Emily even though you told me it wasn't possible?"
"Leah this is different. I didn't imprint on a monster."
"No, you didn't. You're just the monster that ruined his mates face and then dumped his fiancé without any explanation other than saying you only had eyes for her cousin." Leah snarled right back at him.
"You need to back of Leah, I'm the Alpha here and you're out of line. I refuse to work with blood suckers or have them anywhere near my pack."
"You aren't the rightful Alpha though." Jacob's voice was quiet but easy for everyone in the group to hear with their advanced hearing.
"Excuse me?" Sam snarled.
"Being Alpha is my birth right and I won't reject my imprint just because you don't like it. If you expect members of your pack to walk away from those that were made for them then you do not deserve to hold the title of alpha. I never stepped up because until now you were fair and seemed to put the packs needs first but now I see just how selfish you are and our ancestors would be ashamed. They wouldn't want you to be one of the protectors and they definitely wouldn't want you to lead us." Jacob growled at the older man seeming to grow before their very eyes as he stood toe to toe with him, claiming his rightful title of Alpha.
"I will never stand with somebody like you." Sam glared right back before spitting at Jacobs feet and striding away from them.
"If anyone else has a problem with my imprint I suggest you leave now." Jacob growled making eye contact with each remaining member of the pack, none of them so much as twitched and slowly he relaxed.
"I'm impressed Scooby." Bella said casually as a way to break the tension after a moment. "I take it I can expect your support should the need arise in the future?"
"Have I mentioned lately that I hate you Selene?" Jacob asked turning his attention to Bella.
"As if. If you're going for insulting you should totally try for somebody a lot less bad ass than Selene just so you know." Bella grinned at him. "Now how about as a reward for being such a good boy I get you a Scooby snack?"
"I will make a bonfire with your body parts." Jacob growled at her but his eyes held amusement in them.
XxXx
I honestly have no excuse for why I suck so bad. I'm sorry this is taking so long, I promise I haven't given up on this story. If you're still hanging in there with me then you are seriously a trooper. I swear that eventually I'm going to complete this thing if it kills me. I've invested nearly 8 years of my life into it so far so there's no giving up now. I literally make it a resolution to finish this thing every year at new years so maybe 2018 is my year. I am also currently going over the earlier chapters to edit them. I don't plan on making any changes to the early plot I just want to fix the spelling and grammar and overall flow of the story. I feel like I've grown a lot as a writer since starting this story (hopefully you all agree with me on that) and I want it to be as close to the best that I can make it for you by the time I finish it.
I assume everyone understands the Balto and Scooby Doo references. If you aren't aware Selene is a vampire from the movie series Underworld and she's a serious bad ass.
As always your reviews give me life.
Love Always,
Emily Rai
