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Chapter Six
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Bella arrived at the Cullens' residence shortly after running out of the house without an explanation to Cara, leaving only two words with Charlie. "Cullens. Emergency!"
She opened the door as she stepped out of the truck and immediately ran to the front door, Alice opening it when she was only a few minutes away. "Alice! What-"
The short vampire took hold of Bella's wrist and led her inside, closing the door behind them. "Bella's here," Alice yelled as she dragged Bella to the kitchen, not noticing her best friend fumbling quite considerably behind her.
"Alice, what's go-" But Bella couldn't finish her sentence, for it caught in her throat as she saw Emmett lying motionless on the island in the center with Carlisle bending over him and examining.
"I don't see why I'm not allowed to move," Emmett groaned as Carlisle looked on the opposite side of where Bella had entered. She was too busy watching to even feel Edward's arm wrap around her waist.
Esme frowned as she watched over and asked, "Is he going to be alright?"
"Oh, he'll be fine." Carlisle replied with a smile. "I just need to check it out before we jump to any conclusions."
Rosalie kept a hand on Emmett's shoulder as she watched as well, her eyes not leaving her husband's. That was when Emmett groaned as Carlisle's tools probed.
"That doesn't feel too nice, Car." But Carlisle ignored his son's complaints.
Bella felt the confusion wash over her body as Alice stood by Jasper. She knew what was going to happen obviously, so why did she act like a wreck?
"Emmett," she heard Esme ask. "What exactly happened?"
He growled as Carlisle poked him mercilessly, pushing down his body to keep him still. "He attacked me while I was hunting. I had smelled him, but I knew that I wasn't in the territory."
He winced as Carlisle pulled away while taking off his gloves. Why wearing gloves mattered, Bella didn't know or care. Right then, she just wanted to know what in the world he was talking about.
"Wha"-
"I'm so sorry, Emmett. I should've seen this coming," Alice apologized, as she stood strong next to Jasper, who merely watched her. No doubt he was trying to calm Alice's emotions.
"No, it's fine. You can't see with their kind," Emmett replied with a smile.
Bella decided to look to Edward, who hadn't spoken at all.
When her gaze met his, she felt like he was hiding something, something very important.
"Edward, what's going on?"
Edward looked around to see his family watching the two of them now. He obviously didn't like being in the spotlight.
"Emmett was attacked," Rosalie merely replied, not caring what the girl learned of or not.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Bella still had to ask. She didn't know what or who attacked him.
"Emmett was attacked by a wolf, Bella," Carlisle replied while bandaging his son up. That sent shock through her. Why? Why had it happened to Emmett?
Alice nodded and replied, "Yes. And I wasn't able to see it."
"Do you know who it was," Bella immediately asked.
"No." That was Rosalie. That was just great.
Suddenly, Bella felt herself being lead to the front door. She looked up, only to see Edward. Of course.
"Edward, where-"
"I'm taking you back home. I don't want you around this."
"Edward, no! I want to be here with Emmett!"
Her boyfriend immediately stopped them in front of the entrance. "Listen, Bella. He's fine. Carlisle just wanted to examine for other purposes. To know for certain it was a wolf or not."
"And?"
"I was certain when I smelt him, but Carlisle found a few fibers of fur and teeth marks depicting large canines."
It sounded like wolf, but how could they still be certain. Would they move now?
Oh God, I hope not.
"But Edward, I still feel like I should be here."
Edward sighed as he wrapped his arms around her. "Don't, Bella. He just needs a few minutes to heal. Carlisle and Esme will treat him well. Rose will see to that. But right now, you need to be in bed."
At the mention of "bed", Bella knew that he was hiding something. The way he said it, made the thought sound repulsing. It was as if 'bed time' was the worst time ever now.
"Edward, what's wrong?" She decided to try again, to try and find what was up.
He sighed and began to lead her to her truck, placing her into the passenger seat. When he got in the driver's seat and started the engine, Bella leaned forward and asked again, "What's wrong, Edward?"
He let out another sigh as he turned to her. "There are wolves around. We never told you, but they live in La Push."
"What?!" But the sudden thunder blocked out her exclamation.
"Yeah. A lot of them live there, where a line separates our territories. If we cross over it, we break a pact and it means war.
Bella didn't know what to say to that. After this whole time that she lived in Forks in peace-ish, she hadn't really thought that a threat like that existed. Again.
"And that's not all."
Great. What else?
She braced herself as Edward pulled out of the driveway, only to receive silence. She looked to see if it was too hard for him to say. But she only saw him staring out to the road, making the necessary turns to get her back to her "mansion."
"Edward?"
"Your new brother and sister are wolves."
That was shock of a lifetime. This whole time she had been living with the love of her life's enemies. And she hadn't known it.
Then she remembered that Emmett had said that he had smelled his attacker. And she also recalled that Edward had a hard time sitting in the car with his window cracked.
"You knew all along."
"Yes," he merely replied as he stopped at a stoplight. Little raindrops were falling onto the windshield and hood.
Rain was definitely not required right now. Especially with a breeze coming through and rushing through her ventilation and windows.
Bella sighed and looked out of the window as the rain began to pick up.
"Why didn't you tell me?" She didn't know what to think right now. He had kept so much from her. And if Alice hadn't been reluctant enough to tell her certain things, she would still be in the dark.
"To protect you."
What? Why did he always use that as an excuse? It was her family members! She had the right to know and plus, how would telling her that wolves in her house would prevent protection?
"Edward, how-"
"You would've hinted to them in some way that you knew. And you already smell of vampire around them. So, they might be tempted to hurt you."
That, actually, sounded plausible. But she still didn't see herself as that obvious.
"But they wouldn't hurt me." She began to think over everything that the Cullens had explained about wolves. "Right?"
"Anything could set them off, Bella. So I can't really give you a solid answer."
He had a look of complete regret on his face and Bella wished she knew at the moment of what she could do to soothe his confusion and frustration.
"It's okay, Edward. It'll be fine," she said with a smile, reaching for his free hand.
When he sighed and his crooked grin reappeared, she smiled wider. Bella didn't want him to be stressed out. Not when Emmett needed him at this moment. Not when wolves needed to be confronted.
Peacefully. She didn't want anyone to fight. No matter how vicious one was, she didn't want a fight.
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Bella walked up to her house at around one o' clock after kissing Edward goodbye. But she wasn't able to even get to the door safely.
Cara was already standing in the doorway with Charlie behind her. Her arms were crossed and faked worry was apparent on her face. Charlie, shockingly, looked calm and seemed to have been comforting Cara.
"Where have you been," Cara asked while giving her a once over, no a twice over.
"I was at the Cullens'. There was an emergency."
"Oh really? What kind of emergency?" She began to look suspicious. And that was probably the only sincere emotion that crossed her face since Bella first met her.
But she couldn't tell her that Emmett had been attacked, seeing as her children might be the cause of it. Was she one, too?
"There was something wrong with Emmett, but it was really just a false alarm. Carlisle said that it was nothing to worry about."
Cara nodded and began to walk everyone inside, Charlie closing the door behind her.
Bella was standing near the stairs when Cara began to get motherly. "It's after midnight, a time where girls like you should be asleep."
I'm an adult now, and she thinks she can tell me when to go to bed?
"Yeah, but-"
"No buts, young lady," Charlie suddenly chimed in.
Bella was shocked but merely nodded and headed off to bed. She couldn't believe what was happening.
But when she got to her door, she saw Jacob standing in the hallway, writing in a notepad again. When he looked up, Bella noticed that his nose scrunched up.
To think that he was a wolf and she didn't know it shocked her.
She walked into her room without another glance, only to see Ivy walking around with her hair in a towel. Her nightgown was ruffled behind what she saw, was Edward's gift!
"What are you doing?!" Bella rushed forward, taking the dress immediately from Ivy's hands.
"I was just seeing if it would look nice on me."
"Well, don't. It's mine." Bella placed the dress back into the box neatly and slid it back under her bed.
"You said that any of your clothes were mine, too. So what's the difference with this one?" Ivy began to reach for the box.
"It's a gift. That's why. Don't ever touch it again!" She pushed Ivy away, making her fall onto the bed. Bella rose and looked down at her, anger pulsing through her veins. That was Edward's gift to her, not Ivy.
Suddenly, the door opened and Cara walked in. "What's going on in here?"
And then Ivy began to cry as she looked at her mother. "Big sister is being mean to me. I was just looking at her dress and telling her that it was pretty, but she got mad and started yelling at me."
Bella was utterly shocked by the whole ordeal now. She looked to Cara and saw the suspicion again. But this time, it was more intense. Like Bella was the source of all of the problems.
Charlie then came in, putting his shirt on. "What's going on?"
"Just a sibling spat," Cara replied, still looking Bella over. "You two go to sleep and we'll talk about this tomorrow."
Cara gave Bella some kind of look before her and Charlie left for bed.
Bella looked over at Ivy to see her glaring at her. "Spoiled brat," Bella muttered.
"Stingy know-it-all," Ivy muttered right back.
The two lied down and Ivy fell asleep almost instantly. But Bella was still steamed. How could Ivy had touched something so precious without asking?
And not to mention at a time like this. Emmett was hurt because a wolf…
That was right! Ivy was a wolf too! And she had been missing earlier today.
Had she been the one to attack Emmett?
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To Be Continued…
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