CHAPTER FOUR: Fight

Word came that more vampires were on their way to invade our territory. We needed to be ready.

When the battle came our numbers had swelled to ten. My brother, Seth, and two others, Colin and Brady, newly turned at age thirteen, joined the pack. In my mind all three were babies and far too young for battle, though Seth disagreed, vehemently. He was thrilled to be a wolf.

"It's better than World of Warcraft," he said when he first changed. It was like nature or something knew that we were shorthanded, and enlarged the pack accordingly.

Only Jacob, and Sam too of course, seemed to feel the drawbacks and regrets of being a werewolf.

Sam.

I still loved him. Some part of me withered each time I saw him with Emily, so happy, so in love. I wanted him back.

I began to wonder if anyone could ever fall in love and stay that way. Did Jacob have a chance with Bella? He seemed to think so, but what if she chose him and he imprinted on someone else? Quil had just imprinted on a two year old little girl. Jared imprinted on Kim. I saw through their eyes, felt with their feelings, and knew the terrifying force of imprinting. How could you trust any man, especially a Quileute one, to make a commitment and stick with it?

Embry's mother was a case in point. Some Quileute man, a descendent of the original chief, had impregnated her while married to someone else. She'd moved to our reservation and settled here to raise Embry. I wondered what his father thought of that, if he was still cheating on his wife. I don't know why I was so interested. I had no great love for Embry, who constantly thought of me as stupid and weak, but questions like that whirled around my brain. It annoyed him and the others when my thoughts drifted off in that direction, but I couldn't help it.

I kept expecting the pain of Sam's betrayal to go away. I thought that realizing the inevitability of imprinting would make me stop hurting, but it didn't matter that Sam's love for Emily wasn't his fault, not where my heart was concerned.

Then Jacob did something completely unexpected. He suggested we ally ourselves with the bloodsuckers.

Weird doesn't begin to cover how we felt in that meadow, being schooled in vampiric tactics by the Cullen coven. When we entered the meadow in wolf form, I thought I'd pass out from the stench.

Sam's voice steadied us, and we were able to watch and learn. It was instructive. In wolf form, my senses were already attuned to fighting, inborn instincts ready and able to kick in at any sign of threat, but hearing from the bloodsuckers themselves how they thought and fought gave us insights we'd need.

They were so fast. We were too, but watching them laugh and joke about it was, I admit, intimidating. I don't know how Jacob could stand being near them. Jacob even walked right past the ones called Edward and Alice to lick Bella's face. I felt his laughter in my head. Most of the pack emanated disapproval, but Jacob ignored it. Bella was the one he loved. I could understand that.

I walked past the bloodsuckers with the others, inhaling their wrongness, memorizing the subtle differences. For Jacob's sake, I'd avoid killing these vampires.

'Assuming you manage to kill any,' Embry scoffed in my head.

'Leave my sister alone!' Seth, my brave little brother, was quick to defend me.

'Calm down, you two.' It was an order from Sam, so they quieted.

I noticed that for the next training session Sam sent only Jacob. When in wolf form we'd know everything he'd learned, so it made sense, but it rankled too.

I came to be grateful for the instruction when it came time to fight. According to plan, we split the bloodsuckers into two groups. They were wild, and the sense of wrongness rolling off them was even worse than that of the Cullens.

We let the Cullens take on the group in the meadow while we, well, we did what we do best.

The newborn vampires moved through the forest quickly, in a flanking maneuver. We trailed them soundlessly, our minds and hearts linked. This was what we were born for.

One of the vampires in the back paused just as the breeze shifted. He'd caught our scent!

I lunged forward, knocking him off his feet. One yell, one shout and he'd alert the others. We weren't ready yet. I went for his throat, my teeth scrabbling against its marble-like surface. He lowered his chin, instinctively protecting it, so I drew my teeth up a little and ripped off his jaw. Something grabbed my tail. I resisted, whining a little at the pain, and took the thing's head completely off. The headless thing kept clenching at me; then Sam was there, ripping at its arms. The vampire loosened its grip on my tail and I took out its legs. Between the two of us, Sam and I had it in pieces.

We got them where we wanted them and attacked, herding them where we wanted them to go. I felt my pack brothers engaging the enemy around me, felt answering snarls in my own throat as battle lust coursed through me. Paul, Jared, and Sam, the oldest of our bunch, took on the bigger ones while the rest of us took what we could get. My jaws clamped down on rock hard limbs, crunching, grinding them into gravel. My speed was an asset now, and I kept away from the vampires' reach. I found that if I could just get them on the ground, the others were able to rend them more easily, and there was always someone there to rend. With our mental bond we worked as a team. It was effortless, like a well-oiled machine, and I felt glad to be a part of it.

All too soon it was over. Their stench filled the forest, their pieces still twitching. Sam went from body to body, crunching a few last bits just to be sure. The adrenaline was just beginning to fade, when Embry and Quil began their good-natured wrangling over who had killed the most vamps. They began reminiscing over all the kills.

Embry was more than happy to point out that I alone hadn't made any solo kills. Each of the vamps I'd incapacitated had been dispatched by the others. Sam rumbled a warning in the form of a growl.

All of a sudden my elation disappeared. I withdrew to the edge of the clearing.

Then I smelled it, another vampire, its scent complete and not in pieces. It was hiding…there! In the crook of an ancient cedar. I shot after it. I'd show Embry I was perfectly capable of killing a bloodsucker on my own.

I charged as it came at me, going fast, so very fast. I feinted right, feeling its rock hard fingers scrape my sides. I turned, but it had already pivoted and was swinging its arms together. I wasn't going to be able to get free of it in time!

I sensed Jacob's intention before I felt him knock me out of the way. The vamp's arms closed around him instead of me. I heard Jacob's bones crunch, felt his agony like it was my own.

Growling, I sprang up from the dirt and crunched down on the top of the vampire's skull. It released Jacob. I leapt away with the top of the creature's head in my mouth, and spat out the foul tasting hair. Then Sam and Paul were there, knocking the creature off its feet, completing the unbalancing maneuver I'd started. It was over quickly. Sam took the top half and Paul the bottom.

Jacob was writhing in agony. I licked at his ear and whined while thinking my apologies at him. We had to get him home, to La Push, as quickly as possible. We all knew it. There were other reasons to leave as well. Another group of vampires was coming, and the Cullens needed us gone before they arrived. So we left.

Jacob nearly died because of me. He had to stay human so he could recuperate. During that time Bella visited him. The moment he became wolf again, we all felt his pain. She broke his heart.

My guilt doubled. I was weak, useless. I couldn't help him.

Guilt's a funny thing. When you wallow in it, it can make you do crazy things, the opposite of what you wanted to do.

I watched and felt Jacob Black grieving over his Bella after she rejected him. He mooned around for days and days.

I went to the cliff, where he'd gone to mope some more, intending to snap him out of it. Instead I picked a fight with him. I was angry that he was sad. I did everything I could think of to make him angry too. Anything was better than this bone deep despair. I had enough despair of my own without his too.

All I did was bait him into hurting me back. He threw Sam's love for Emily in my face, and made fun of the fact that I was still in love with Sam, hopelessly, desperately, in love with him.

I spat at him, actually spit like a schoolgirl in a playground fight, and ran away.

Jacob ran too. I was in wolf form when it happened. I felt him go, felt the memory of getting Bella's wedding invitation, and knew how it ripped him up inside. Quil and Embry ran after him, but Sam called them back. I phased back to human form when Sam commanded it.

He let Jacob go.

Sam actually let him go, and for the first time I felt hope bloom again.

To Be Continued…