Author's note: Hopefully this chapter is half decent ….. right.
Disclaimer: All Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. Unless stated otherwise. This plot belongs to me, please respect artistic creativity. This is a non-profit story. No copyrights infringements intended.
I knew I was unconscious …
For a while the only sounds I could discern were my own thoughts. And I found serenity in the solitude. Until I felt a shift in the darkness around me, and the unfathomable black void turned into a slightly dark shade of gray where I could barely hear sounds, voices, that were not conjured from my own head. I only knew that because I had no control over them. And they seemed to be communicating with each other …
"Impossible! It stands against everything we know. Are you even sure?" – The sound of a male, deep and wise ….. But also fatigued with age.
"I swear to you. A sensation like this …. there is absolutely no mistake." – This one was younger, but just as deep, with a rich baritone that bordered on a growl.
"This goes against our legends, the way of our ancestors. The Elders will not be pleased to hear this. Are you certain? Because if you have any doubts .." he was relentless. I could hear the stubborn cling of hope in his words.
"I have no doubt about this. I know I am basing this on someone else's experience … but that type of … pull … The description of it …. I have never felt so sure …. Ever."
A long defeated sigh. "I will take your word on it, then."
"Will I …..I mean … am I going be in trouble?"
"Trouble? Nonsense ..We can't dictate what The Great Spirits has planned for us, my boy. But we can rely on them to guide us along the journey. And do not ever forget that we are still a tribe that looks after our own."
"I need all the guidance you can offer. I don't know what to do about this, or about … Her."
Her?
"Don't be too hard on yourself, son. You look tired, go and rest. I will give you an update once I discuss this with the Counsel."
"What about the pack?"
"For the time being, you keep this between you and us Elders."
"What about …. You know."
"Keep a close watch. Let me know when she awakens."
"What if she d-doesn't? I'm no expert on her kind, but aren't they always … awake?"
"She has always been special. That girl has been through hell and back to be quitting now. She is a fighter."
"What if she asks questions? Things that I am not exactly sure I know how to explain."
"Then be gentle with your answers, my boy. She may have reserve on her thirst and temper, but such a curb doesn't stretch in handling matters like this."
"I just wish .. t-that she .."
"I know … believe me, so do I …"
The conversation grew further away. I tried to focus, to make the voices clear once more, but they turned into a subdued drone before my surrounding was submerged into darkness again. Darkness. But not silent, at least not for a brief moment– somewhere in the faint distance there was the oddest and clearest of pulsing sound before everything went out.
I didn't know if I was out for hours, days, or even months. When I was human the only thing that ever managed to wake me up wasn't my alarm clock, because I hit the snooze button on that sucker so many times that one day it just decided to fall right off my clock. And it wasn't because I was a morning person. Charlie was the morning person. No, the only thing that dragged me from bed was my hunger. The sole reason to hauling myself away from the domain of my bed was to get breakfast, and only after I filled my stomach did I remember that I had school to get ready for. It always used to surprise me how I used to arrive exactly on time. But I considered it a gift, and you never look a gift horse in the mouth.
But this time it was different. I opened my eyes and immediately there was strong morning sunlight on my face. My eyelids burned from the scorching rays and I closed them again and turned to my side, and away from the direct contact to light. I didn't know if it was from the initial exposure, but it reminded me of when I would pass my hand over the stove fire. Even if there was a great distance between my hand and the flames, that type of flash heat was unbearable.
And my limbs. Oh god. They felt like jelly. It took a few seconds for some of my strength to slowly come back. It wasn't much at the moment, and not full of that vampire stamina that I confidently sported. But it was enough for me to try to open my eyes, and lift my upper body, very carefully and very slowly.
Thankfully my head was working faster than my body. I could already feel my mind working it's gears into it's usual pattern. And the first thing that I comprehended about my surrounding was that I was in a stranger's bed, covered by someone's duvet that had his or her's scent heavily saturated in it.
It was a heavy scent, natural, earthy and extremely masculine that it just dominated the former scents. A quick scan around the room and the minimal décor confirmed that I was in a man's room, sleeping in a man's bed.
The second thing that I instantly comprehended was that I needed to get the fuck out of there!
I felt myself panicking and threw the covers off me. I looked around the room. Definitely not a space I recognized. I felt both appalled and offended that someone even dared to feel so comfortable in assuming I would even accommodate myself in their private space. Thump thump thump. There was a heavy pounding next to my ear, or in the distance .. Was it outside? I don't know. But I couldn't be bothered to focus on it.
And then when I looked down at my body, my annoyance grew into rage, because I was wearing a different shirt and shorts than what I had when I fell unconscious. I also remembered how filthy my skin was when I floored face first into the rain soaked and soft forest mud. Thump thump thump. Was someone cutting up wood outside? Seriously, they needed to stop!
My legs felt like they had no bones left in them as I tried to get on my feet. Toddlers had much better coordination than me at the moment. But then I remembered I was still pissed, and why I was pissed. So someone had the audacity to not only strip me of my clothes, but to also thoroughly scrub my naked body clean. Did they use a loofah? Did they use their bare hands?! It doesn't matter .. I'll kill them! Whoever it was .. Thump thump thump. I. will. kill. them. Then whoever is hammering so early in the godforsaken morning. They are going to be next. I'll bury their bodies side by side!
In my fit of fury I nearly collapsed on myself like a house of cards, almost hitting the floor but I reached my hand at the last moment and grabbed the bed frame. Unfortunately that wasn't enough, and I underestimated how weak I was and hit the ground anyway with a generous crash on the hardwood tiles.
Apparently I wasn't alone as the sound of my fall was loud enough to reach across the house. Someone was climbing what sounded like a set of stairs. And judging by the sound, they were heavy yet incredibly fast footsteps – and god help them, because if they were the culprits behind my current state of dress then they would need their next of kin to arrange their funeral.
The footsteps got closer and reached outside the bedroom door. Immediately the door swung open, and I shouldn't be so surprised at who was standing there, yet I was.
"Sam?" My voice was thick and sluggish, like my brain-to-speech control was high and doped on cough formula. Y'know the one that was a hairline between the taste of sterile medicine and generic candy syrup. But just like my intellectual capabilities, my speech was recovering fast. "Where the fuck am I?"
Thump thump thump.
Sam looked slightly alarmed, but slowly his facial features relaxed. "At least your charming personality is still intact." He replied. He tried to crack a smile but it faltered pretty damn quickly, while his eyes dropped to his bare feet.
I tried shifting my body into sitting on the floor rather than being sprawled like a crime scene cadaver. Sam's eyes snapped to my lying form, instantly taking notice that I wasn't lounging on the floor intentionally.
What I didn't expect though, was for him to walk over to me and offer assistance. Hell, none of the pack boys offered me any physical assistance, not that I needed any in the past. But it was only natural that they would rather kick each other in the crotch than touch me. And to be honest I was uncomfortable with being touched by anyone. Since I first awoke as a vampire, no one ever touched me. Ever.
I started to back myself away when Sam held his hands up. "Relax, Swan. I'm just going to help you back on the bed." He explained in a gesture of benign intention.
Thump thump thump.
"I don't think so. First tell me where the fuck I am!" I screamed at him. With my current position and him standing over me, I literally felt like a cornered animal.
"This is my house. We are in my bedroom." He replied.
"Why didn't you put me in another room instead?" I didn't know why I was asking this but somehow my mind reasoned that it just made sense. That it was logical. That I did not belong here.
"Because this was the only room in the entire house that has a bed. And I was raised to know better than to put an unconscious girl on the floor." I could tell that Sam was starting to get agitated. I looked up at him, and really no wonder. His eyes were puffy and red. His hair was a mess. And his clothes looked like he slept in them, his t-shirt was beyond disheveled.
"How long was I … out?" I was almost afraid to ask, but I had to know.
"Almost two days." Sam replied. I wasn't sure if I should be worried or relieved.
"And if your done with your inquisition, can I now put you back on the bed? You can continue interrogating me when your eye level can reach higher than my feet."
I didn't respond, although Sam took my silence as an acceptance anyway. And taking the last few steps, he approached me, and bent down to wrap his massive hands around my biceps. There was no hesitation in his movements.
I was preparing to feel the scorching heat of his skin touching mine. I grimaced in anticipation of it. Even when Sam or his pack mates were standing so close to me, the heat of their bodies felt similar to throwing my own body near wild hot flames. But the moment his fingers wrapped around my arms they felt warm. Extremely warm. But it wasn't scalding like before. I felt the confusion written all across my face. This wasn't right.
Thump thump thump.
Sam wouldn't allow his torso or any other part of him to touch me. In fact, he literally kept me at arm's length. And our contact lasted seconds as he picked me up and helped me to sit at the edge of his bed, and then removed his hands like I was the one who burned him.
But he surprised me again because I thought he was going to put distance between us. But instead he sat on the bed next me. Even if he left a big gap between us, yet I didn't let myself linger on that little detail.
My thoughts were halted by Sam's deep and rich voice. "How do you feel?"
I took a second to ponder his question. I felt confused, disoriented, lost, fed up, irritated, and was close to being royally angry. "I feel fantastic." I replied.
Thump thump thump. That's it! This noise is going to be the death of me.
"Sam, can you like tell whoever is doing that to knock. it. off!"
Sam peered at me through the corner of his eyes, he looked bewildered, like I sprouted another head before his very eyes. "Tell who to stop doing what exactly?" he spoke slowly.
Thump thump thump.
"That! Just now, did you hear that?!" I was getting really irritated because I was not imagining that sound.
Sam ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "You are going to have to be more specific than that, Swan. I hear a lot of things, but you need to tell me exactly what it is I need to look out for."
Thump thump thump. I held up my hand, and with my pointer finger I tapped it to the beat. Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump.
"That right there! Do you hear it?" I looked toward Sam. For some reason he went a little paler than usual, and he had an odd look on his face.
He swallowed thickly, his adam's apple bobbing with the motion. "That … is a heartbeat, Swan." He answered, and he was watching me very intensely, very closely.
I knew it didn't belong to him, because I can hear his heart beating strongly and steadily, and much more rapidly than the average human. The one I was focused on was beating erratically and it had no steady rhythm that could belong to any human. The gap in time between each beat sequence would be considered mortally deadly to a human, and I do not need to be a doctor to know that.
Thump thump thump.
"Is there someone else in the house?" I asked after a moment. I turned to Sam and nearly blanched when I noticed that he never took his eyes off me.
He was observing me, expectantly. "No. Just you and me."
Thump thump thump.
"Is there another house nearby?" I clinched my hands in my lap.
There was a heavy tension building between us. And for some reason we were locked in a staring match. I felt my body beginning to coil like a tightly wound spring. It was unquestionable that Sam felt the same way.
"There is only one other house in this area, since I own this patch of land. But there is no one home at the moment." He spoke cautiously.
Thump thump thump.
Just like awhile I go, I got the same feeling of being cornered like a weakened animal.
Thump thump thump.
Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump.
The 'heartbeats' were slowly increasing. My hands twitched in my lap. I could feel Sam stiffen beside me. Because I was as fucking sure as he was about what my next question was going to be. The tension now was so violent and electric that I could feel it rippling across my skin.
"Sam." I spoke carefully.
"Yes?" He replied equally as cautious.
"Whose heartbeat am I hearing if it is not yours?"
Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump. Thump thump thump.
Sam held my gaze for a long while before he finally answered: "That heart beating belongs to you, Bella."
I was shocked to silence. When slowly and warily Sam reached over and took one of my clinched hands in his own. I was even staggered to notice that the hand he took instantly relaxed in his vigorous grasp. He took the opportunity to twine his strong fingers with my own slender pale fingers.
I stared at our joined hands for a moment like they were a mystery yet held all the answers all at once.
I looked up at Sam and visibly flinched as I saw how profoundly intense he was staring at me with his unfathomably deep and beckoning black eyes.
That was the first time I had ever seen such deep emotion other than anger or calm reflected in his eyes since I have known Sam.
Sam, with all his responsibilities. Sam, with his morals and sense of duty. Sam, with his leading authority and Alpha guidance. Sam, with his fatherly wisdom and brotherly protection.
Sam, with the weight of the world resting on his shoulders.
In that one moment Sam bared all to me. I could see it all in that one stare.
In the way he held my hand and stroked his thumb gently over my skin. Welcoming my touch like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Why?" I barely managed a whisper.
He paused the warm and gentle movement of his thumb. And I would be a naïve fool to admit that I felt bereft of that slightly amorous gesture.
"Because, Bella Swan, we have imprinted on each other."