A:N/ Hi everyone. Sorry for the wait, but I was stuck on part of the chapter and wanted to get it perfect before I posted.
Chapter 44: Negotiation
BELLA
I sat by Edward's side, watching the family closely while the rest tried but failed to make small talk.
Sue was like any typical, preteen. She went back and forth between acting like a child, building castles in the mud she dug up from the creek to trying to act like the adults around her, piping in whenever she could.
She was a cute little girl, with her long curly hair that annoyed her as it whipped around her face in the wind. From under her bangs, her eyes shone as she looked at all of us in fascination. Her smile was shy, but held no fear at being faced with strangers. It was an endearing sight, but also a disturbing one. Clearly, she hadn't learned to be distrustful of strangers, which wasn't good.
She was especially interested in Edward who gave her a kind smile whenever she tried to get his attention. I understood her crush. If I'd met him when I was her age, I would have had a massive crush too.
Philip went back and forth between being reserved like his mother to curious about us. It was clear that none of them had been around people outside their family in years.
However, it was the mother that I watched the most closely because she was the one I couldn't get a read on.
She was short, only a little taller than me, but she was a solid woman, not fat, just solid. The way she stood with her feet slightly apart and her back straight showed that she was ready to take on anything that came her way.
She watched us all in silence, not speaking up unless her children said something she thought they shouldn't.
Conversation was stilted amongst everyone. There wasn't much to say because small talk didn't exist anymore. There was no more, "What do you do for a living?" or "Where are you from?"
Therefore, it was Sue that filled in the silences.
"Edward?" Sue asked, interrupting the quiet that had stretched uncomfortably long.
"Yeah?" he asked, looking at her with a smile.
"Your face is swelling up. Do you want a cold cloth?" she asked, getting to her feet.
Edward reached up and rubbed his jaw where John had punched him. His face was swollen and there was a purple shadow, blossoming along his jawline.
Without giving him a chance to respond, Sue grabbed one of the cloths from my first aid kit and dashed to the water, soaking it and then rushed back to Edward.
"Thanks, Sue," Edward said, pressing it against his face. "That does feel better."
"Sorry about my brother," she said, sadly. "Dad taught him to defend himself against the bullies at school. But now he's just a jerk."
"Sue…" her mother admonished.
"Well, your father's a good teacher," Edward said with a wry smile and then winked at Sue.
"My dad's name is Owen and my mom's name is Arlene. They were in the army-" she began, but then was cut off by her mother.
"That's enough, Sue," she said, reaching out and pulling her away from Edward. "They don't need to know our life story."
Sue sighed in frustration and thumped down on a log next to her brother.
"It's going to take Dad forever to find Jack," Sue said, looking at her mother. "Can't we bring them back to our house? There's more to do there."
"No," Arlene said firmly. "They're not staying, Sue. The minute your dad and John get back, they're getting in their boats and leaving."
Sue sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.
Things fell silent again as we waited.
As the time stretched longer and longer, I gripped Edward's arm and leaned close to him.
"I'll be just over there," I said, pointing to the trees nearest us. "I need to use the washroom."
Edward looked at the woods and then at me and gave a nod.
I wouldn't go far, just out of sight range.
After I finished, I started back to camp, but before I was able to take a handful of steps I heard the snap of a branch behind me.
Before I could turn around, an arm grabbed me around the waist and a hand clamped over my mouth.
I struggled in the person's grasp, feeling my feet leave the ground as someone pulled me close against them, dragging me further into the woods. I knew that I only had a short window of opportunity to call out for Edward, so I kicked back at the person and with my free arm grabbed at the hand that was pressed over my mouth. I even bit the person's hand hard, trying to get them to release my mouth. But besides a whimper of pain that told me my captor was a man, he didn't lose his hold.
Trying to get a better grip on me, he hoisted me higher in the air, high enough for me to kick him hard on the inside of the knee, which caused him to stumble. But he quickly righted himself and gripped me even harder.
We were getting further and further away as I fought to escape.
My free hand flailed beside me, at the wrong angle to grab at any branch or tree to slow us down. So when that didn't work, I reached up and grabbed a hold of my captor's nose and yanked hard.
"Fuck," the man hissed, finally dropping me.
But before I could scream for help, something struck me in the head, knocking me unconscious.
I woke to the sickening motion of hanging upside down over someone's shoulder.
I hung limply for a few moments, trying to get my bearings.
"You shouldn't have hit her," the man who was carrying me said.
"Don't be an idiot, Jack," a woman said. "She was going to yell for her buddies."
"She's going to be pretty pissed when she wakes up…" the man said with regret.
I let out a cry of anger when the whispered words brought back to me that I'd been kidnapped. I slammed my fist into what I thought was the man's kidney.
With an oof, the man dropped me again, jarring me from the impact with the ground.
I reached for my gun in my belt but it wasn't there and neither was my knife.
Panic coursed through me as I tried to look everywhere at once for an escape.
I screamed for help as loud as I could as I tried to scramble to my feet, but someone gave me a shove with a foot, knocking me over.
"Don't kick her, Caroline," the man growled.
"Why not? She hurt you, Jack," Caroline snapped.
I looked up in surprise, suddenly registering the names. These were the two who had taken our boat.
With the sunlight coming from behind them, the first thing that I noticed about the two of them as I squinted up at them was their hair. With the sun filtering through it from behind, it looked like a halo of light framing their faces.
Both of their hair was a pale sun-bleached blonde, but it was clear that they'd tried to dull the shine with dirt and mud. I looked to the man who was talking.
Jack was tall and thin, but muscular. It was clear that the clothing he was wearing wasn't his by the way they hung on him, but I was envious at the layers he was bundled up in. The cool wind of the ocean chose that moment to gust which caused me to shiver.
He was probably around my age, but he might have just looked older because of his long gnarled hair and scraggly beard. That paired with his unwashed skin made him look like the hill-billy Sue's father had described.
His sister Caroline was probably around sixteen with the same blonde hair and height. They looked almost like twins.
I returned my attention to Jack and focused on his face. And what I saw alarmed me, the look of on his face seemed to almost be… fascination?
I scrambled to my feet again and this time they let me. But before they could say anything, I bolted. I had no idea which direction I needed to go in, but I just knew that I had to put distance between me and the two of them.
My feet slipped outwards on the wet leaves as I ran, slowing me down too much. However, I didn't call out for Edward because I didn't want to give away my location to the kidnappers.
I didn't get far before Jack suddenly burst out of the bushes in front of me.
"You're going the wrong way, you know," he said with a smug grin.
"Get the fuck away from me!" I shouted. "EDWARD! EDWARD! HELP!"
My voice echoed off the trees, but there was no response.
I turned to run in the opposite direction, but I was cut off by Caroline.
"She's more trouble than she's worth, Jack," the girl said. "Let her go."
Jack looked over my shoulder at his sister while still blocking my way as I weaved from left to right to try to get by him.
"Shut up, Caroline! She's staying with us and you better get used to it," he said before looking at me again and grinning.
What did they want from me? I thought in fear.
He took a step towards me in determination, but again I tried to dodge by him. However, this time he grabbed my arm as I tried to pass.
"Whoa… Just calm down…" he said, holding my arm firmly.
I swung towards him and punched at his face, hitting him in the side of the head.
His head snapped back, but when he recovered he smiled wryly his eyes alight with an impish gleam.
"I told you she was a spitfire," he said, his grin becoming broader.
"Let me go," I said, unable to smother the fear in my voice.
"Don't be so hasty," he said. "You don't know what I'm offering yet. My name is Jack and my sister's name is Caroline."
I couldn't understand what was happening. He didn't look angry or threatening, but it was clear he was determined not to let me go.
I decided that I needed to use a different tactic, so I took a deep breath to calm myself.
"What do you want?" I said, squashing the quiver in my voice.
"Nothing," he said. "I want to give you something."
My panicked heart kept a furious beat in my chest as I wrestled with understanding what he was getting at.
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.
"You're going to become part of my family," he said as if that made perfect sense. His eyes were wide with excitement as he grinned at me.
"What?" I asked in confusion.
"I've been watching you," he said with a smile. "You're strong and capable, unlike the others in your group."
"I don't understand…"
"It's time to get past day to day survival. People have to start procreating."
It took me a moment to comprehend what he was saying.
When I did, I screamed as loud as I could and fought to get past him.
For a second, he cringed away from me.
"Shit," he said with chagrin. "It's never a good thing when a woman shrieks."
"Don't touch me!" I screamed, holding my hands out in front of me to keep him at bay. "I'll die before I let you rape me."
"Rape you?" he gasped, his eyes widening in alarm. "I'm not going to rape you. You're going to be my wife."
He said this like it was the most reasonable thing in the world.
"I'm sorry I can't woo you like in the old world, Bella. Your name's Bella, right?"
When I didn't acknowledge him, he continued. "but I can provide for you and our children. Come home with me and I'll show you."
"Not a chance in hell…" I snapped, throwing another punch at the lunatic when he blocked my path again.
"You're so stubborn," he said with a frown of disappointment as he dodged my punches.
"I'm already married," I said, desperately trying a different argument when I realized I couldn't fight him off.
"No, you're not. You're too young," he said.
"If I'm too young, then why are you propositioning me?" I asked, my voice getting shrill in frustrated panic.
But before he could say anything else, I was struck again and knocked into unconsciousness.
I woke up inside a darkened enclosure that was only lit by the orange glow of a fire.
I was laying on my side with my hands tied behind my back.
"I'm really sorry Caroline hit you again. She can be a real bitch sometimes," a voice said from nearby. I looked around the enclosure I was in and realized that it was a small hut.
I sat up groggily, my brain muddled with a dull headache.
Jack was sitting next to a small fire staring at me with a worried look on his face.
"Here," he said, standing up and coming towards me with a wooden cup and something in his other hand that looked like wood shavings.
"No," I said, turning my head away when he tried to put the wood shavings in my mouth.
"It's just water and willow bark," he said, patiently. "It tastes like shit, but if you chew on it, it'll get rid of the headache."
"I don't want your help. I want to go back to my family," I said.
He shook his head sadly and said, "I can't let you go until you see reason. You don't belong with those people. They can't even take care of themselves."
"My husband will be looking for me," I said. "Edward won't stop until he finds me and if you want to survive this you better let me go before he gets here. He'll kill you to get me back."
"You mean the loser with the red hair?" Jack asked with a smirk, returning to his place by the fire. "I'm not afraid of him. He couldn't even handle that douchebag John. Plus, he'll never find us. Owen and Arlene have been trying for months, but our home is camouflaged."
He laughed brightly as he settled into his chair that was carved from some kind of log.
"Do you like our home? We made it ourselves. We know a lot of things and I'll teach you and our children."
It was strange. Even though I was tied up, Jack seemed to be relaxed and cheerful. He was most definitely crazy, but he didn't make a move to attack me. It seemed like he truly believed that he could convince me to stay with him.
I stared around at the inside of the hut. It was like a tent, but bigger and instead of metal poles, Jack had used saplings bent into the shape of a dome and tied with twine. The walls were made from the bark of trees and fir boughs which would make this place really hard to find as it would blend with the forest around us.
In the center was a hearth, consisting of a fire pit encircled by stones with a smoke-hole above it. Jack and Caroline had even built sleeping platforms on either side of the hut.
It suddenly occurred to me that it was very similar to the wigwams that Native Americans had used in the past which I'd seen them in my history textbook.
My thoughts were interrupted again by Jack.
"I want you to think seriously about this. I can provide for you in this new world. Edward, or whatever the loser's name is that you say is your husband, can't. He didn't even dress you properly for the weather. When I found you, you were shivering from the cold. What kind of provider is he?"
I looked down at myself and noticed that Jack had put some kind of poncho on me over my clothes. It looked like a blanket that he'd cut a hole in where my head could go through and the sides were stitched to hold it closed.
"You do realise that you've kidnapped me and are holding me against my will, don't you? In what universe does that make you good husband material?" I snarled.
"It's not the way I envisioned this happening," he said regretfully. "But I'll make it up to you once you're settled here."
I shook my head and looked towards the entrance, hoping to see Edward come through the doorway.
Carefully, I struggled against the ropes tying my arms. I had to do it quietly so Jack didn't know what I was doing.
"Where's your sister?" I asked, trying to distract him.
"She's getting some shellfish for supper. Wait until you see what I'm going to make you," he said, excitedly. "My seafood stew is delicious. Only the best for you."
"I'm not going to eat your food," I snapped.
"I think you will when you get a whiff of it," he said, ignoring my tone. "I'm a really good cook and now that we have a new boat Caroline can get some wild rice from Pendelton island. My sister and I know how to live off the land. Can you say the same about Edward?"
"I don't care what you say. I'm not becoming your brood mare," I said, shaking my head.
He tsk'd at my description and shook his head, but didn't respond to my comment.
"Look," he said, hauling out a basket from under one of the sleeping platforms.
Inside the basket was an assortment of vegetation that I didn't recognise except for fiddleheads and that mushroom that he left in our remaining boat.
"I got all of this from just this island," he said. "If you become my wife and the mother of my children, you'll never go hungry, you'll never go cold. I'll take care of you. I promise."
I sighed in exasperation.
"I don't understand why you're rejecting me," he said in frustration, tossing his hands up in the air. "Obviously, I'm the best choice."
I hissed in frustration, but he plowed on.
"Let's list the reasons," he said, counting on his fingers. "First, as I've said I know how to live off the land. Second, I know how to defend myself better than the guy you claim is your husband. Third, I'm young and healthy like you. Fourth, I'm a great cook. Fifth, we'd make strong children together."
He saw my jaw clench and my eyes blaze in anger.
"Not right away, of course. You need time to get used to me."
I looked away from him to stare out the doorway all the while working away at the ropes that tied my hands.
Jack seemed content to work silently after that, pulling ingredients out of his basket and washing them in a bucket of water that was set up in the back of the hut.
Then, he sat down and picked up what looked like a tulip bulb and began peeling it.
I tried not to be interested, but my eyes kept straying to what he was doing. If we were to live on McManus island, we'd have to forage until we were able to grow our own food.
Jack looked up at one point and caught me staring which made him smile.
"The Ojibwa and other Native American tribes considered arrowhead tubers as a highly valued food source. They ate them in all kinds of ways, boiled, dried, roasted, mashed, ground into flour, or even soaked in maple sugar. I don't have any maple trees tapped right now because it's not the season. We'll do it in a couple of months."
I stared at him in astonishment. Who was this guy?
"Who are you?" I asked, echoing my thoughts.
"My name is Jack," he said, looking worried. "I already told you that... Maybe Caroline hit you too hard."
"No, that's not what I mean," I said, shaking my head. "How do you know these things?"
"Oh, I'm an amateur botanist and history enthusiast," he said.
"You're too young to be a botanist. How do you know all of this really?" I asked.
"You're right. We should use this time to get to know each other," he said, putting down his knife and the root he was peeling in his basket.
"My name is Jack Mallory and I'm 17 years old. I know this stuff because my dad was a botanist and he liked to spend as much time outdoors as he could. He taught me a lot of this, but the rest I learned on my own. My mom thought I should spend more time with other kids my age doing sports and crap like that, but I didn't really like being around people and they didn't like being around me."
I looked at him closely and realised that maybe some of his strange behaviour existed before the world ended.
He suddenly looked at me worried.
"But I'm different now. I like people. People are great."
I just stared at him without acknowledging what he said.
"Okay. That's me. What about you? Tell me a little about yourself," he said, gesturing towards me.
"I want to leave," I said in response.
He sighed in disappointment and picked up his knife and arrowhead tuber again.
"I understand that you're unhappy with me, but soon you'll realise that you belong with us."
He worked in silence for a bit, but the quiet must have been getting to him because he began talking again.
"I also have this little book that's like my bible. I stole it from a library when Caroline and I decided to come here."
I looked over at him and saw that he was holding a book called A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America
I stared at it for a few moments, realising that this was my chance to get him to untie my hands.
"Can I see?"
"Sure," he said with a grin. "You're going to have to learn these things too."
He went to hand it to me, but I looked at him with a disarming smile.
"You'll have to untie my hands because I can't hold the book," I said, casually.
Jack froze and then just looked at me intently. But finally he took a deep breath and nodded.
"Okay," he said hesitantly. "I'm going to trust you because a marriage needs to be based on trust to succeed. Please don't do anything to make me regret it. I don't want to have to keep you tied up until you see reason."
I nodded.
Jack crossed the hut and crouched down behind me.
When he untied my hands, I hissed in pain as the blood rushed back into them.
"Shit!" he hissed. "I'm sorry. Caroline tied them too tight."
He pulled my hands in front of me and began rubbing them to get the circulation going again.
"It's okay. You didn't know," I said, gently.
I needed him to relax so that I'd get my chance to escape. It had to be before Caroline got back because she was far more suspicious of me than Jack was.
He gave me the book like it was the most precious thing in the whole world which I guessed in a sense it was. It had kept him and his sister alive, possibly for years.
I pretended to scan the pages as I surreptitiously searched the hut for weapons, but I couldn't see any except for the knife in his hand.
They probably kept them hidden, I thought in frustration.
I looked out the doorway again, praying that Edward was close.
EDWARD
When I finally noticed that Bella had been gone longer than she should, my heart nearly stopped in my chest.
I hadn't noticed at first because I'd been helping Sue build a sand castle as we waited for the others to return.
I stood up and looked around frantically.
"Bella?" I called out.
Everyone looked around in surprise.
I spun around, looking to see if she was nearby.
"Bella?!" I cried out, when I didn't see her. "Where is she?!"
The others shot up from their seats at the same time, looking around the area for her.
"She told you she was going to the washroom," Sue said in confusion.
"She's been gone too long," I said, hauling out my gun as I rushed in the direction she'd gone in.
"BELLA?!" I shouted.
Emmett was immediately at my side.
"Stay calm, bro. She wouldn't have gone far," he said, although he'd drawn his weapon too.
I didn't say anything, focused on finding her.
At first, I couldn't find any sign of her. I tried to take in every detail no matter how small—broken twigs, disturbed grass.
Finally I found her tracks in the mossy undergrowth.
Her footsteps had beaten down a path in the grass and I followed it. However, after walking a couple minutes I saw with growing fear where the ground had been disturbed by several other footprints of at least two other people that had converged on hers.
"Shit!" Emmett gasped, spinning around to stare into the trees.
"BELLA!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, rushing after the trail of footprints that could clearly be seen in the wet mossy earth.
"BELLA!" Emmett shouted behind me and I could hear others calling for her too.
The others soon caught up with me and Ben panted out instructions as we continued at a furious pace.
"You and Emmett follow the trail and we'll run parallel to you," he panted. "Don't approach them until we see what we're up against. They might hurt Bella if they see us coming."
"She might already be hurt," I said, hoarsely.
All I could think was that Bella was missing and I hadn't noticed. It was my fault. I should have noticed sooner. She could be hurt and waiting for me to rescue her.
How long had she been gone? I couldn't remember when she left. Why couldn't I remember?
We followed the trail for a while until we came across another spot where it looked like a disturbance had taken place.
"She tried to get away," I practically whispered.
Bella had been fighting to escape, but I'd been too busy making sand castles to realize that she was in trouble.
Emmett found where one set of tracks broke off from the others, heading in the opposite direction, so I followed it while Emmett followed the other pairs of footprints.
It wasn't long before the footprints all converged again.
"They caught her," I practically whimpered.
Then, there were only two sets of footprints, but one appeared more sunken in the mud than the other meaning that Bella was probably being carried.
We ran harder at that point, knowing for sure now that Bella hadn't gone willingly. However, once we got past the mossy undergrowth the trail began to disappear and then was gone altogether.
We continued in the same direction where the footprints seemed to have been heading, but eventually I had to admit that I had no idea where I was going.
I kept screaming her name, but it just echoed off the trees with no response from her.
My breaths came in gasps and I felt like I might black out from my heart hammering inside my chest. She was gone, she was taken and I hadn't noticed.
Covered in sweat and legs quivering in exhaustion, I collapsed on a rock to try to catch my breath.
Emmett slumped to the ground next to me, too tired to say anything for a few minutes.
"What do we do, Emmett?" I asked, once I'd caught my breath.
"We just keep looking. It's an island. They can't get away," he said.
"They can if they're the ones who took our boat," I hissed in frustration.
I heard the cracking of branches and brush behind me and I spun towards it, praying that it was Bella. However, it was Philip, Sue, and Arlene.
"Have you lost the trail?" Arlene asked in concern.
"I lost it a while back. I have no idea where to go from here. Do you?" I asked.
"I'm sure it's Jack that took her. It's the kind of weird thing he'd do," Philip said.
I sat up straight at the word "weird."
Noticing my look, Philip spoke hurriedly. "I don't think he'd hurt her. He's always seemed kind of harmless."
"Harmless?" I said, incredulously. "He took her against her will. That's not harmless!"
"Edward," Emmett said. "You need to calm down."
"SOMEONE TOOK BELLA!" I roared. "Don't tell me to calm down!"
Emmett flinched away from me in shock.
I glared at the rest of them.
"Don't try to feed me a line of bullshit!" I snarled, staggering to my feet. "She's been taken god knows where for god knows what reason! I have to find her!"
"Edward," Philip said. "Dad's been looking for Jack and Caroline for months but we've never been able to find their shelter."
"Fuck!" I screamed at the sky and then fell silent.
"Jack isn't bad. He'd never hurt anyone," Sue said.
I spun towards her, my anger getting the better of me for a minute.
But then I saw that she was hiding behind her mother, clearly afraid of me.
As much as it pained me, I tried to relax my posture and unclench my fists.
This family was my only hope of finding Bella.
My eyes trained on Sue and I noticed a slight fidgeting that gave me the impression that she knew more than she was letting on.
"I'm sorry I'm scaring you Sue," I said, trying to compose myself. "I need to find my wife."
I ran a hand over my face in exhaustion and sat down again.
Sue stepped gingerly away from her mother and came over to me.
Patting me on the shoulder, she leaned in and quietly said, "Don't worry, Edward. He's probably just taken her to his house."
Everyone froze at her hushed words that were easily heard despite the fact that she'd tried to whisper them.
I tried to cover my desperation at her words. One wrong reaction and she'd stop talking. Clearly, she considered Jack a friend.
Her mother strode over to us and pulled Sue away from me.
"Sue Ann! Do you know where Jack and Caroline live?!" she snapped. "You know that your father and I have been looking for them for months. How could you keep it from us?"
Sue ducked her head and tried to avoid looking at her mother.
I held my breath, praying that she'd admit that she did know where they lived.
"You hate Jack. If you knew where he lived, you'd kick him off the island," Sue said defiantly to her mother.
Not wanting to scare her, I walked over to her and knelt down.
"Please, Sue. I need to find Bella. She's probably scared. Jack is a stranger and Bella and I haven't been apart for years. I know that she misses me."
"Jack is a good guy. He wouldn't hurt her. He probably just wants to show her his stuff," she argued. "He's collected some cool stuff from the island."
"Please, Sue. I need to see her. I miss her so much," I said as calmly and sincerely as possible.
"I promised Jack not to tell anyone," she practically whispered.
"Sue! Just tell Mom and Edward!" Philip snapped in frustration.
Sue glared at her brother and opened her mouth to argue, but I interrupted.
"I just need to check that Bella's okay," I said. "I'm a worrier, so I'd feel so much better if I could see her."
"You're mad at Jack. You're going to fight with him like you did John," she said, reproachfully.
I tried to smother the anger, knowing that if she knew what I was going to do to the bastard that she'd never tell me.
I must not have done a good enough job because she tried to hide behind her mother again. However, I reached out and took her hand gently.
"I fought with John because he was trying to hurt me. If Jack isn't hurting Bella, then I have no reason to fight with him, right?" I tried to say sweetly.
Sue stared at me, trying to read my expression.
She must have seen what she wanted because finally she nodded.
"Fine. I'll take you, but I'll be really angry with you if you fight with Jack," she warned me. "He's my friend."
I nodded in acceptance and then followed her deeper into the woods.
None of us would have ever been able to find the hut without Sue's help. It was tucked within a copse of fir trees that grew close enough together that the bark and branches that made up the hut blended perfectly.
I crouched down behind a bush while the others hid as well, but Sue looked around at us in confusion.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Shhhh," Sue's mother said, grabbing her hand. "Get down, Sue."
"No!" she said, wrenching her hand away.
"Jack!" she called out before anyone could stop her. "It's Sue! Come on out!"
There was a moment of silence before a head popped out of the hut and then he stepped outside.
The scrawny bastard didn't look like much. He was tall, I'd give him that, but I knew that I could take him in a fight. I tried to look behind him to see if I could see Bella, but he was blocking the entrance of the hut.
"What are you doing here, Sue?" Jack asked, scanning the trees.
"Do you have Bella?" Sue asked, point blank.
He looked at her in surprise and then his expression turned guarded.
"Do you?" she demanded.
"How did you know?" he asked, carefully.
I burst out of the trees, and lunged towards him.
"Where is she?" I snarled. But before I could grab him, he jumped back.
"Edward!" Sue yelled, grabbing at my arm.
I wrenched away from her.
"Don't hurt him!"
"Sue Ann!"
"Edward! Stop!"
Everyone was yelling, but it was one voice that came from behind Jack that stopped me cold.
"Edward?"
"Bella!" I cried out brokenly as she slipped by Jack who was distracted as he pulled Sue behind him and away from me.
I reached for her, but before I could take her hand Jack stepped between us.
I spun towards him, my blood pounding in my ears.
"She's staying with me," he said.
"Like hell, she is," I said, grabbing at the axe on my belt.
"Whoa… whoa…" Emmett said, stepping forward and grabbing my arm.
"She's staying with me. We're going to procreate," Jack said, confidently.
I didn't know what that word meant, but from the way Emmett growled and released my arm. I knew it wasn't good.
"Let her go and I might not kill you," I hissed at him.
"Not going to happen. She's going to be the mother of my children," Jack said, firmly.
"What did you just SAY?"I asked, this time pulling my axe out of my belt.
"Now, just wait a minute-" Bella began, but I cut her off.
"She's not yours!" I snarled. "She's my wife!"
"Did you have a ceremony? Did you sign a contract?" Jack asked, smugly as he stood up straight and stared me right in the eye.
Without consciously doing it, I took a step forward.
Then, the bastard did something that kicked my anger into overdrive. He stepped in front of Bella like he was protecting her from me.
But with an extreme strength of will, I forced myself to calm down. Bella could be hurt if Jack and I got into a fight.
So, I ignored Jack and looked at Bella.
"Bella," I said, reaching out a hand to beckon her. Bella sighed in relief when I didn't take the bait and started to walk towards me.
However, as she tried to pass Jack, he grabbed her arm.
"No," he said, firmly.
Bella tried to yank her arm away from him, but he held firm.
A sound ripped from my throat that I couldn't even describe.
The only thought that pounded through my head was MINE. It drowned out everything else.
I raised my axe because I was determined to cut the fucker's arm off to get to Bella.
However, suddenly something struck me in the arm causing it to go numb and I dropped the axe.
Before I could figure out what had happened, I was knocked to the ground with someone on my chest.
I looked up in confusion to find that it was a girl with long blonde hair that was kneeling on me and glaring with a knife at my throat.
"Don't you dare touch my brother," she hissed with murder in her eyes.
"Caroline. It's okay. Let him go."
"Get off of him!"
"Don't hurt him!"
Everyone was shouting around us, but the two of us were having our own conversation.
"She's my wife," I hissed, not afraid of this young girl.
"I don't care," she said and this time she pressed her knife against my throat.
"Okay… okay…That's enough, Caroline," Jack said, leaning over us and pulling his sister off of me.
The minute she was gone Bella was at my side, examining my neck.
I sat up quickly and cupped her face between my hands.
"Are you okay?" I practically whispered.
She nodded, but tears brimmed in her eyes.
"Did he hurt you?" I asked, fear making my voice hoarse.
She shook her head.
"Did he touch you, Bella?" I choked out, terrified of her answer.
"No," she whispered back.
I pulled her against my chest in a crushing hug.
It was then that I noticed that Ben and the others had arrived and had placed themselves between us and Jack and Caroline, giving us their protection and a bit of privacy.
"I wasn't going to hurt her," I heard Jack say in almost an offended voice.
"I just wanted to show her that she had options for a mate. That's what things are all about now. We need to procreate so we don't go extinct," he continued.
"You're insane," Emmett said. "This isn't cave man times, you moron. You can't just club a woman on the head and drag her back to your cave to make her your wife."
Bella pulled away from my chest and gingerly touched the back of her head with a wry smile on her face.
Alarmed, I felt the back of her head. There was a distinctive lump there that told me that this was exactly what had happened to her. My whole body tensed and I stood up, pulling her with me.
"It's okay, Edward," Bella said. "I'm okay."
I looked down at her and nodded, but I couldn't quell my anger.
I pulled her with me to the front of the crowd to confront her kidnappers.
But before I had a chance to speak, Bella began talking.
"I'm not a thing to be bartered for, Jack. As much as you want me to be your wife, you can't make me. So all of this arguing is just stupid. I'm staying with my family. And unless you want this to end in a fight, you're going to accept my decision."
Jack looked like he was ready to argue, but Caroline spun towards him.
"Enough, Jack!" she snapped. "If she doesn't want to stay, then she doesn't want to stay with us."
"But our family is going to die out… It's just the two of us now," he said, sadness filling his voice.
I felt no sympathy for this kid. He'd tried to take my Bella from me.
"I'm not the only girl left in the world," Bella said with a huff.
Jack looked around at the others in our group with interest.
I noticed how Emmett grabbed Rose's hand and Embry edged closer to Katie.
"I don't mean in our group," Bella said in annoyance. "I meant in the world."
Jack seemed to deflate at that.
"Not much hope in that," he grumbled.
"The colony on McManus is not interested in letting in outsiders and I'm not going to the mainland. That's a death sentence."
It was at this point when Ben spoke up for the first time.
"What do you mean by "colony on McManus'?"
"There's a group of thirty or forty survivors on McManus. They've been there for a couple of years, but they don't let strangers get anywhere near the island. That's why we came here."
Ben's shoulders sagged at that.
McManus had been our light at the end of the tunnel.
I felt the crushing defeat as well.
However, Bella interrupted the silence.
"What about Pendleton island?" she asked. "You mentioned it earlier."
Jack shook his head.
"There's no one that lives there. Caroline and I checked it out before coming to this one," he said sadly.
A spark of hope ignited inside of me.
"Is the island habitable?" Emmett asked.
Jack looked at us in confusion.
"I just told you no one lived there," he said.
"No," Ben said. "We want to know whether a group could live on Pendleton island."
Jack shook his head again.
"It would be too much work for a group your size to make it liveable. It's dense forest with a marshy lake in the middle. It's great for foraging, though."
"Is the entire thing marshy?" Bella asked.
"No," he said, grudgingly, glaring at the way Bella was leaning up against me. "But any land you'd want to use for farming would be a lot of work to clear without machines."
"We have the manpower," Ben said. "We're part of a larger group."
Jack perked up at that.
"Are there any single women?" he asked in excitement.
"I'll answer your question when you give us our boat back," Ben said, firmly.
With the promise of being introduced to any eligible women that would return with our group, Jack offered to take us to Pendleton and show us around.
We decided to camp for the night and leave at first light.
By late afternoon, Owen and John returned from their search for Jack and Caroline.
As they stepped into the clearing they were shocked to see us sharing a small meal around our campfire.
"What the hell is going on?" Owen barked, causing us all to jump in surprise.
"Honey," Arlene said, standing up. "Things have been sorted and they're leaving in the morning."
"Hi Owen," Jack said, from his perch next to his sister by the fire.
A red flush crept up Owen's neck as he glared at Jack.
"You, son of a bitch," he snarled, taking a step towards him. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I'm going to help the group get settled on Pendleton in exchange for a woman," he said, matter-of-factly.
Owen's eyebrows rose in shock and his mouth dropped open.
Ben choked on a bite of food and fell into a coughing fit.
When he finally caught his breath, Ben stuttered out, "We're not giving him a woman. We said that we'd introduce him to the people in our group some of which are women."
Owen seemed to relax at that, but still stared at all of us suspiciously.
Arlene walked over to him and looped her arm with his before having a quiet conversation that couldn't be heard above the voices around the campfire.
At one point, he looked over at Bella and me in concern, but after more words from his wife he nodded.
Bella was nestled closely against my side and had been there since we found her. Both of us were unsettled even with the news that we were one step closer to finding our home.
Every muscle in my body was tense. Guilt gnawed at my stomach every time I looked in her eyes, so I avoided making eye contact.
She didn't know. She didn't know that I hadn't noticed her missing that morning.
I could sense that she was watching me, but I pretended to be interested in what was being said by the others.
Eventually, after eating our meal of seafood stew that Jack had made, people began settling in for the night.
Owen and his family left for their home and so did Jack and Caroline, leaving only our group.
The others had taken the opportunity throughout the afternoon and evening to pull Bella into their arms and tell her how afraid they'd been and how happy they were to have her back. However, I'd remained silent, not knowing what to say.
Then, one by one the others fell asleep except for me and Bella.
We sat by the fire silently, staring into the flames.
"Come with me," Bella whispered, wrapping her hand around mine and pulling me to my feet.
I followed her willingly as she led me into the woods and away from the fire.
Once we were out of the glow of the flames, I could barely see her face in the shadows cast by the trees which at the moment felt like a good thing.
Bella pulled me to the ground and then straddled my lap with a sigh of happiness. Cupping my face in her hands, she kissed me hard, throwing all of her relief into it.
However, I remained frozen still torn between guilt and the fear of almost losing her.
"What's wrong?" she whispered as she pulled away.
When I didn't say anything, she said it again more firmly.
"Edward, what's wrong?"
I thought about lying for a moment because I didn't want to admit what I'd done. But then I remembered what it was like not too long ago when there had been a rift between us over my hunting the dead.
"Please tell me," she said.
"I'm so sorry... I didn't notice you were missing," I choked out. "Jack was able to take you right from under my nose while I was busy making sand castles with Sue."
She sighed and kissed my forehead.
"Edward," she said. "It's not your fault. I don't blame you."
I shook my head because I knew she wasn't getting it.
"Bella, it's my job to take care of you. I vowed a long time ago that I would die before I let anyone hurt you and when it was time to do that I didn't even notice you were gone."
Bella ran her fingers through my hair.
"You did rescue me, Edward," she said.
"But I took too long. He could have hurt you. He could have-"
But before I could say anything else, Bella kissed me, cutting off my words.
"He didn't. I'm okay. Everything is okay now," she said again.
I shook my head.
"Edward, I'm not some damsel in distress. Yes, you're stronger than me, but that doesn't mean I'm helpless. Before you arrived, I'd already convinced Jack to untie me and I was just looking for my chance to escape."
"You shouldn't have had to-" I began again, but she interrupted me.
"I love you, Edward," she said, punctuating it again with a lingering kiss. "I'm okay. Everything is okay."
I shook my head again, unwilling to accept it.
When she realised words would have no effect, Bella took it upon herself to make me forget.
Her hands and lips were everywhere as she worked to replace my tension and guilt with desire.
But my mind wouldn't let it happen even though my body was all too willing.
"Edward," she whispered in my ear once she'd nipped her way up my throat. "I need you... I need you so much."
For some reason, it was those words that I'd needed to hear.
My whole body shuddered as I gave in to her, all my fear, all my anger, all my guilt turning into an uncontrollable need to have her and for her to have me.
Our clothes quickly disappeared as we frantically searched for a release of all the feelings that were consuming both of us.
When we came together, it was almost a shock for both of us, causing us to freeze.
A stillness settled over us as we enjoyed the closeness that we'd almost lost.
Then, Bella began to move on top of me and I couldn't help but break our eye contact as my eyes fell shut in pleasure.
"Bella…" I moaned loudly.
"Shhh," she said, falling forward to whisper in my ear. "The others might hear us."
"Fuck…" I hissed, grinding up into her. "Let them hear."
She laughed softly as she kissed me, which caused me to smile too.
I wanted it to last at the same time as I craved the feeling of taking us both over the edge.
I tried to slow us down, but Bella was having none of that. She brought herself down harder and faster on me as she brought my hand forward to touch her as well.
Soon we were both toppling over the edge with Bella collapsing on my chest.
Catching my breath, I held her close to me as I stared up at the stars.
In the haze of pleasure, I felt an immense relief that she was in my arms and that we'd survived yet another confrontation.
I couldn't help thinking about what tomorrow would bring.
Would Pendleton Island be our sanctuary, our new home?
I looked around at the trees surrounding us and thought about the fact that here we were lying out in the open without weapons in our hands. I never thought that would have been possible with the dead walking. Yes, there were dangers here, but there was also the possibility that tomorrow we'd find a place that we wouldn't have to constantly be looking over our shoulders.
Bella sighed and sat up with a smile.
Without a word, we pulled on our clothes and then quietly crept back to the fire.
I was surprised to find that Emmett was awake, standing guard while the others were asleep. I hadn't even thought about the need for a guard because I'd been too caught up in my feelings of guilt.
He must have heard us returning, but he didn't look over at us as we created a place for ourselves by the fire and settled down to sleep.
Soon, the heat from the fire and the heat from Bella's body lulled me into a state of complete relaxation and I fell asleep.