A/N: I had someone ask me why didn't Edward want to go get Bella right away. He did but there are several reasons why he didn't. 1.) He knew he'd have to wait for someone to bring her back from La Push anyway. 2.) He knew she was in good hands with the wolves. 3.) He knew they were just as worried about her as the family was. He wanted to give them some time for a reunion as well. So that's why they didn't go to her right away. Also, I wasn't intending on doing Edward's part of the last chapter from Bella's side but BgirlAngelSpike requested it so I'll see what happens.
BELLA
I cried as Kyle carried me, bridal style, through the woods. I didn't even have the energy to try and fight him off. Plus, I was still reeling about what he had done to Angela. Why did he have to bring her back? Why couldn't it have been Jessica or Lauren? I would've even been semi-okay if it was Mike? Not that I wanted any of them to die but Angela was the sweetest most wonderful person I've ever met. She didn't deserve to be a meal for a vampire.
She deserved to be able to finish college and get married. Maybe even start a family sometime. She was suppose to die old and peacfully in her sleep. It wasn't supposed to be so soon. She wasn't supposed to be afraid or unsure of what was happening. She was supposed to be found and mourned by her parents. Now she was probably going to be reported as missing and nobody would ever find her. Even if they did find the pile ashes on the floor of the crypt, they'd have no way of knowing they belonged to a human, let alone Angela Weber. I couldn't help but feel that it was all my fault. I should've done something to save her.
I was so busy wallowing in my own guilt, I didn't realize that Kyle had put me down until my feet hit the ground. I flinched as he grabbed a bunch of my hair at the roots and began dragging me forward. I looked around and realized we were in the clearing where I'd play baseball with my family. Looking a little further ahead, I saw my family standing there just waiting.
I could tell all of them looked as though they wanted to rip Kyle's head off. I was glad to see they were restraining. Who knew what else Kyle was capable of? I was going to do everything in my power to keep them from getting hurt. Even if it meant I had to spend the rest of my life as Kyle's play thing. I would do it to keep them safe.
I heard a deep low growl as we got closer. Edward was standing there looking torn between sadness and rage. I wanted nothing more than to tell him everything was going to be alright but I knew there was no way it would be. Jacob was a few feet away from him. He looked like he was fighting the urge to phase. I noticed how badly he was trembling. Carlisle was in the front of the group. They were probably going to have him act as mediator. I needed to make sure that they didn't give him anything. I knew what he'd do the minute he got what he wanted.
Edward, Jasper, Roxanne and Alice were standing behind Carlisle. Great. They were absolutely prepared to do this. Did they really think it was going to do any good? The others were further back looking as ready to attack.
Kyle came to a stop about fifty feet from Carlisle. Pulling me roughly to a stop. Not wanting to give the family a reason to attack, I didn't make a sound. Instead, I focused my attention on Edward. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to drag me away from Kyle. I assumed he was trying very hard not to read what Kyle's intentions were. They didn't want to take away any of the leverage they had against him. I noticed Roxanne had her hand wrapped around his wrist like she was holding him back.
As hard as I tried to not show my fear, I was trembling from head to toe. I was worried about what was going to happen right now. I prayed they weren't planning actually giving in to him. I was vaguely aware that Carlisle started speaking.
"Bella, are you alright?" he asked me. I could tell by his voice that it was taking a lot for him to stay calm.
"Y-y-yes." I stuttered out.
"Come on, Bells." Kyle taunted. "Why don't you tell them the truth?"
My shaking increased at his words. I thought about the dreams I was forced to indure of the past twenty four hours and of my inoccent friend who was now a pile of ashes on the floor of the crypt. The truth was, I knew I wasn't anywhere near okay and Kyle knew it. I wouldn't let my family know that truth though. I wasn't going to give them any reason to attack him. At least not until I found a way to keep them from doing exactly what they planned on doing.
"Let's just get to the reason why we're here." Carlisle said trying to keep things from getting out of control. "You have something we want and we have a few things that you want. Is there anyway we could negotiate some kind of trade?"
"See there's one problem with that." Kyle stated. "I still want what I already have."
I felt him brush his lips against my earlobe and couldn't help but flinch. I heard another growl from Edward. I prayed that he wouldn't do anything. I was racking my brain trying to find a way to communicate his intentions to them without Kyle hearing. I knew it was impossible though. So I did the only thing I could think to do,
"Don't give him anything!" I yelled.
"Shut up!" Kyle yelled and yanked my head back further.
I let out a small whimper but wouldn't give him the satisfaction of any other reaction. I had already noticed the whimper was too much because Edward had dropped into a crouch. I could tell how badly he was losing it. I had to keep myself in check. I couldn't let him go after Kyle.
"Bella, you know if it helps you will do it." Carlisle stated.
They obviously didn't get it. He wasn't planning on taking their powers and letting all of us walk away. You'd think Roxanne would've known that. Despite my fear, I found that I was angry at her for leading my family to their slaughter. Did she seriously think that he would just let me walk away? She should've known after everything he went through to get to her. I guessed the needed me to spell it out for them because they obviously weren't getting it now.
"But it won't!" I yelled. "He'll just kill you anyway!"
"Stupid slut!" Kyle yelled and shoved my to the ground.
I think he forgot the others were there. His rage at my giving away his plan seemed to be the dominate emotion. He started kicking my in the stomach. I struggled to get my breath back as he continued to kick me. I was in so much pain that I couldn't hide my whimpers.
I wasn't sure of everything that happened after that. He stopped just as suddenly as he started. The next thing I knew, Jacob, in wolf form, was beside me and I was crawling onto his back the best I could being tied up like I was. Then we were running through the forest and everything went black.
JACOB
I forgot about everything else. The only thing that mattered was getting Bella as far away from that sadistic asshole as possible. Sam had told me to ignore the treaty and take her to my house. He'd explain it all to the Elders after everything was over. I could only pray there would be a Sam left when this was all over.
Her body was limp against mine and I had a feeling she had passed out from the shock of the whole ordeal. When I reached the edge of the forest just before my house, I let her slide off of my back and phase back. I quickly untied her and carried her to the house. I hoped Alyssa would be there like she promised. I wasn't sure what Kyle had done to Bella. I didn't want to make her uncomfortable by allowing her to wake up in my bed with me standing over her.
As I approached my house, I noticed Alyssa was holding the front door open for me. I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Lay her on your bed." Alyssa told me as I walked through the door. "Then get me a shirt to put on her."
I did as she told me to. I watched as she slipped the shirt over Bella's head then laid her gently back on the pillow.
"I don't know what to do now." she stated. "It looks like she maybe in some kind of shock or something. "The best thing to do might be to just let her sleep it off."
I nodded and started pacing. Part of me wanted to run back to the clearing and join my brothers. I knew, however, that I was needed here. I was Bella's last line of defense if Kyle happened to get through the Cullens and my brothers. I screwed up once on my promise to protect her, I wasn't going to do it again.
"Look if you wanna go into the woods and listen to the others, you can." Alyssa told me. "She's safe with me. I won't let anything happen to her."
"Nice try but I won't risk anything happening to you either." I responded. "Besides, Sam said if I haven't heard from anyone in an hour then I should go looking for them. Until then, I'm staying in the house."
Alyssa nodded. I stared down at Bella's unconcious form and coudln't help but shed a few tears. This was all my fault.
"I know what you thinking." Alyssa said. "And it's not your fault. It's not anybody's fault. Except Kyle's."
"But I never should've taken her away from the Cullen house yesterday. She was safest there with all of them. And I'm trained to find, fight, and destroy vampires like Kyle and I couldn't protect my best friend from one."
"Jacob, some things are just meant to happen." she told me. "We can't stop them even if we try. Look at you and I. I know there's a small part of you that still wants to be able to love her and that part of you hates the fact that your destined to be with me." She sounded so sad.
"Lys." I said reaching out to grab her hand. She took and smiled at me.
"Don't say anything. I know that I'll always be your number one but a piece of you is always gonna wonder about what've could've been with her." she stated. "But that's not the point. The point is you and I are destined to be together and nothing and no one can stop that. It's the same with what just happened to Bella. Kyle was going to get his hands on her whether or not you did what you did yesterday. And who knew what would've happened if he attacked the house."
"But she's hurt. I promised her that I'd help keep her safe. And I didn't do that, yesterday." I argued.
"Maybe not but you're did it in the clearing and you're doing it now. Do you think that Bella's gonna care about what happened when she got taken? Because she's not. All she's gonna care about is that you and the ones she loves are safe. And that she's alive. You helped do that. And that's all that matters."
I nodded knowing she was right. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head. I honestly didn't know what I would do without her. She knew me better than anyone else, even Bella. She always knew exactly what to say and when to say it. I sat down on the foot of the bed and pulled her onto my lap.
We sat there in silence just enjoying the comfort of each other's company for about ten minutes before Bella started stirring.
BELLA
I was in a warm bed with a pounding headache. This didn't seem right. The last thing I remembered was being on the ground with Kyle standing over me. I moved around a little to try and assess where I was. I didn't want to make it too obvious that I was awake just in case I was in the worng persons hands. Once I figured out that I was definitely in a bed, curiousity got the better of me and my eyes fluttered open.
There were two people looking down at me. Jacob and some girl that I didn't know. I assumed it was Alyssa by the way he was holding her. Confused, I attempted to sit up but my head was throbbing horribly. I ended up laying it back on the pillows.
"Bella, you're awake!" Jake said excitedly and reached down to embrace me. I flinched away from him. The hurt look on his face as he pulled back broke my heart. "I'm sorry Jake. It's not you."
"It's okay." he said. "How do you feel?"
"Okay, I guess." I replied. "I have a terrible headache."
"That's to be expected. Do you remember what happened?"
"I remember Kyle, the clearing..." I racked my brain for more. I knew I was missing something very important but I couldn't remember what. I closed my eyes trying to remember. That's when it hit me. "The Cullens!" I exclaimed. "What happened to them? Where are they?"
I was starting to panic. There was no way they could fight this battle without losing someone. I couldn't live with myself if one of them died because of me. I had to get up and go back to them. I started to climb out of bed but Alyssa pushed me gently back down.
"You can't go anywhere." Jacob explained.
"I need to be there. Maybe Kyle will leave them alone if I give myself back to him." I said as I tried to get out of the bed again.
Alyssa kept her hands firmly on my chest.
"It's okay Bells." he said and reached out to stroke my hair but thought better of it. "I'm sure their all fine. You have to stay here though. Just until we get the all clear. Then I'll take you back to the Cullens. Okay?"
"But how do you know it's going to be okay? They can't fight him by themselves. I have to go help."
I struggled against Alyssa hold but she was pretty strong for a girl.
"They weren't alone. The pack was hiding and waiting for Roxanne's cue. They had no intention of giving him anything. We had a plan all sorted and your little announcement kick it up a few notches."
"So you knew what you were going to do all along?"
"Yes, the powers thing was just supposed to be a distraction. We knew what we were doing. We had forgotten to account for you though. We should've known you would think they planned to give him their powers to save you. It was a miscalculation but we adjusted. I got you away like I was supposed to and I heard Roxanne give the cue about halway here." As he was explaining there plan, I began to calm down and Alyssa released my shoulders. "I'm sure it's all over and they're just cleaning up the mess now. The pack will be back any minute." I nodded and laid my still throbbing head on the pillow. "Do you want some tylonel?"
"That would be great." I stated.
He was gone and back almost as fast as Edward would've been. It might've had somehting to do with the size of his house but I was impressed all the same. I took the two tylonel and the water he gave me. Once I had swallowed the pills and water, I relaxed a little.
"By the way, this is Alyssa." Jacob said blushing slightly.
"I figured." I stated.
Alyssa and I smiled awlwardly at each other. We were saved the trouble of making conversation by a distant howl. Jacob smiled.
"Kyle's dead and everyone is just fine." he stated.
A/N: Okay, so I couldn't figure out an ending for this chappy. I didn't want Jacob to have to leave and have an ex meets the new one type moment. Which is why I decided that Jacob just knew his pack well enough to know what the different howls meant. I hope this one turned out alright. The next chapter is her reunion with the pack and the Cullens. I hope you liked this one. Please review!
