Chapter 16 - Movin' on out

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, New Moon, or Eclipse. I just like having fun with the characters and world the wonderful Stephenie Meyer created.

A/N:I got a review asking about a few things, so I wanted to explain - Polygamy is when you are married to more than one person. Polyamory is when you love more than one person at a time. Utah was founded by Mormons who, at that time, practiced polygamy. Polygamy is now not allowed by the Mormon church, though there are small groups of off-shoots from the Mormon church that continue to practice Polygamy. /end long AN.

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Bella POV:

Whatever fun we might have had that night together was interrupted soon after I sat down after my laps around Edward and Jacob - Emmett returned with a very scared and submissive looking Mystic. Her tail was tucked under her legs and she was shaking.

"What the heck did you do to my dog?" I asked Emmett, pulling Mystic into my lap, where she huddled against me.

"You said I could take her for a run!" Emmett answered, sounding defensive.

"OK, but she's never come back from a run looking like this. What's up?" I asked.

"We didn't just go for a run." Emmett admitted, looking pained by the admission.

"What. Did. You. Do?" I said slowly, gritting my teeth.

"I thought that while we were running I could quickly grab a snack, so I took her for a run deeper into the forest."

"What happened, Emmett?" Edward interjected, sounding incredibly frustrated. I guessed that Emmett was blocking his thoughts somehow.

"There was a bear nearby, and he was really too close to civilization for it to be safe. Since he would end up shot anyhow, I figured he could be my dinner instead. Mystic barked when I was approaching the bear, and he charged toward her before I took him down. It seems to have scared her quite a bit. I had to carry her for part of the way back." Emmet said, his eyes looking at the grass, not at us.

"Let me get this straight." I said, wanting to make sure I wasn't over-reacting. You asked if you could take Mystic for a run, and I said OK. You didn't just take her for a run, you took her hunting, and then seem surprised when she is scared by a bear. Am I right?"

"That's not how I'd put it. But yeah, that's what happened." I don't think I had ever seen Emmett look so sheepish.

"NO MORE DOG RUNS. Period. You're grounded, buddy." I wanted to shout, but I didn't want to scare Mystic further, so it came out stern.

"But, but, but she loves me! She loves going for runs with me!"

"She did, yes. But now I'm going to have to work with her to keep her calm, we'll see if you can have a chance to play with her and show me you can be trusted. I'm really glad she wasn't hurt, Emmett. You don't want to see how pissed off I'd be then."

"OK, Bella. I'll go home now Bella. Can I do anything for you, Bella?" Emmett looked so sad.

"Can you tell Carlisle and Esme that Edward and I are moving to Northeast Utah, and see if there's somewhere reasonably close where everyone can live? You owe me big after traumatizing my dog - this is a do it and ask questions later thing." I answered, figuring someone else could Google locations as well as I could, and I needed to pack.

"Yep. I'll ask questions later." And with that, Emmett ran off. I admit I was rather surprised he didn't put up a big fight about asking questions later. He looked like he would balk when I first said something, but then he agreed.

Mystic stayed curled around me, needed my protection. Jacob and Edward scootched closer to me so we could continue talking.

"So, Jacob - what do we know about the situation in Fort Duchesne and the reservation? It would be good for us to know what we're getting into. Plus, do they know you're bringing a vampire and a vampire/werewolf hybrid?" Edward asked. Of course, Edward would keep focused on the details.

"My contact is a guy named Parker Sawok, he's one of the members of the tribal council for the Ute tribe at the U & O reservation. The Ute tribe is really made up of several smaller tribes that were all moved onto one reservation by the US government."

"OK, so is it one of the subsets that's got the werewolf spirit guides, or all of them?" I asked, curious. I didn't know if werewolf spirit guides were a normal part of the Native Americans across the US or if it was specific to certain smaller tribes.

"It's just one - the Kapota tribe members. They're starting to have a few teenage boys transforming, and because of the way the tribes are separated and yet mixed together, there's no clear alpha. Without a clear alpha, they can run amok. Add cattle ranching on the reservation, and you get a big mess."

"I don't think it would be easy to get a worse way of starting new werewolves!" I said. Edward rolled his eyes at me - he may accept Jacob right now, but he never thought there was any good way of creating werewolves, ever.

"Yeah, It's not a good scene. I wanted to get a more clear picture, but the Sawock guy didn't want to talk on the phone. He said he'd talk when we got closer, just to head southeast."

"That's so helpful." Edward said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "We're moving there to help him, and he can't even talk to you on the phone for a few minutes? He must be more charismatic in person if he's on the tribal council. Or he's so worried that he sounded rude without meaning to be rude."

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that," admitted Jacob. "He probably was short and vague with me because he is worried about what's going on. He just wanted me to get there quickly."

"That does sound smart." Edward agreed. "I was thinking we should get an SUV, but we'd be OK arriving there in the volvo, and getting an SUV for the Utah terrain once we get there. Jake, if you can hang with Mystic, Bella and I will go pack. If you can help Mystic run for a short bit, then bring your Rabbit over to our house, and transfer your stuff from the Rabbit to the Volvo. We can leave in an hour or two at the most."

"Hey, what happened to our night of relaxing." I asked, almost completely kidding.

"If the tribal elder wants us there quickly, we need to leave ASAP. Now that we know more about what's up, it's clearer what we need to do." Edward replied.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it was necessary to move quickly." Jacob said, a wave of relief passing over his face. "I think we've been on borrowed time here in this area anyhow - Bella's been declared dead, she can't be spotted."

"You're right. OK - lets go pack. I don't want to be spotted, and if we leave at night then no one in the area will notice the Volvo leaving. The rest of the family can figure something to say and catch up with us soon." I said, and stood up. Mystic was still huddled by my legs.

Jake called Mystic, and she was happy to run to him, barking happily. Jake went into the brush to phase, and as soon as he came out as a russet wolf, Edward and I nodded to him and ran to the Cullen house.

Carlisle and Esme met us at the door. "What's going on?" Esme asked.

I looked at Edward, and he nodded and started speaking. "Right now, Bella's dual nature has us linked with Jacob." Carlisle nodded, but Esme looked surprised. "Jacob has been sent out to the U & O Reservation near Fort Duchesne, Utah. The tribe's needing some help with a combination of newborn vampires, young werewolves with no alpha, and cattle ranchers. Jake is an alpha, he's just never wanted to challenge Sam. So he's been transferred out there. I know how to deal with newborns, and Bella has a cattle dog, so hopefully we can help out a bit. We'll have to see what happens once Jacob meets with the tribal leader. He was quite vague over the phone."

"Thank you for that explanation. It makes a lot of sense. I can tell the rest of the family, as they went off to hunt at my suggestion - I had a feeling Jacob would be coming here, and I didn't want a scene." Carlisle replied.

"I looked near Fort Duchesne, and since the rest of the family needs to steer clear of the reservation, there's a pretty big boundary we're trying to avoid. I did find a lovely little town called Dinosaur, Colorado. Colorado is an easier state to trick with IDs than Utah, thanks to the Mormon interest in genealogy. We'll go scope out that area after we pack up this house. I hope we can come back in 75 years or so - we'll leave things covered up in case anyone has to come back sooner." Esme said.

"We need to pack so we can leave soon." I said, loving how Esme took care of everyone, but needing to Just Get It Done!.

"Of course, dear. Take what you can, either Alice, Rosalie, or I can take whatever you need to leave behind."

"Thanks Esme. Do you think someone can arrange to get Jacob's car shipped down? We're taking the Volvo, but he's going to want his car. I wish I could have my truck, but it would be better if I just got another one since mine is parked at Charlie's house."

"I think you're right, Bella. It would be suspicious if someone stole your truck, but didn't touch any of our cars. We need to have some of our cars transported, so we'll just toss Jacob's car on there too. No problem."

"Thank you so much!" I hugged Esme, and could feel that I would have cried, had I been able to.

I popped open my MacBook, and hooked it up to the printer, plugging in directions for a trip from Forks, Washington to Fort Duchesne, Utah. Yikes, 1,128 miles! It's supposed to take 18 hours, but it will likely take less since Edward's driving. He couldn't go too fast until we got onto the I-90, but then we would be going over 100 miles on that. There was a LOT of highway changing, so I made sure to print out the directions and leave them open on the laptop so I could double check the maps as we were driving.

While the maps and directions printed, I started packing my stuff - a duffle bag filled with clothes (thank goodness Alice wasn't there to sneak in lingerie and supermodel clothes!), a crate of pictures, scrapbooks, sketchbooks, and other memories. Plus a garment bag of some dresses - just in case I needed to look dressy for something before the rest of the Cullens could arrive. I needed one more crate for Stripes & his gear, as well as Mystic's food and gear. Then I was all set. Thank goodness a Volvo trunk was big!

I put my stuff on the front porch, only to see Edward's next to mine. My essentials versus his were hysterical. I wanted to make sure I had my laptop, a small sketchbook, and an iPod in my "carryon" type bag. Edward's was stuffed with CDs. My clothes appeared to take up much less space than his, too. I rolled my eyes at my boyfriend, but he caught me.

"I'm going to get that look off your face!" Edward said, smiling.

"Oh yeah, how?" I teased, still pretending annoyance.

And then he kissed me - hard. He was right - I didn't feel annoyed about his packing style when he kissed me like that. I think I heard a growl from me! But then I did hear gravel crunching under tires, and I broke away from the kiss just before Mystic and Jacob turned the corner on the driveway and approached the house.

Edward brought the Volvo to the front of the house, and we easily loaded everything into the trunk. We each kept our little carryon bags (although I'd argue against Edward's being "little") for the car ride, and Jake had the crate with pet supplies for the back seat - Mystic would be traveling in the back with Jake, and Edward had put a nice fleece throw across her side of the back seat. The fleece was supposed to be comfortable for Mystic, but I knew it was to protect his nice leather seats.

"Thank you for everything Carlisle, Esme. Please give my love to the rest of the family. I look forward to seeing all of you soon!" I said, hugging them both.

"Dinosaur, Colorado is less than 60 miles from Fort Duchesne, so we'll be seeing you a lot, dear. Don't you worry!" Esme said, giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "We'll miss you both until we can have our family together, though."

Edward said goodbye to his parents, and we got into the Volvo and started our drive to Utah.

If anyone had told me 6 months ago I would be sitting in a Volvo, driving to Utah to live with the two men I loved - because of which I was a vampire/werewolf hybrid, I would have said they were insane. Now I was in the car with Edward and Jake, plus Mystic and Stripes. Life can be stranger than fiction! I know this trip will be long, I just hope we're all still able to stand when we get to Utah!

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A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review if you have a minute! Ideally, please don't flame me. This is also one of the last chapters - I just need to get them settled in Utah. I need to be finished before Halloween, I'm writing a novel in November for NaNoWriMo dot org.