Disclaimer- None of these fine creations belong to me, they belong to Stephenie Meyer, a true genius!!
Authors note- Please review with ANY ideas, improvements or comments, good or bad, I am dying to know what you all think. Many thanks fellow Twilighters!
Another author's note- this is a bit slow to begin with, but it gets better as I write more of the story! (Well, I Hope!)
P.S Sorry about the chapter length...but I thought it would be better than really long ones! And sorry about the long first paragraph too!
I am going to dedicate this chapter to Rhiannon, my dear friend and the most recent to join us Twilighters!
All Bella Point of View
Chapter four
There was an eruption of cheering as we stepped through the door, not only was Esme, Carlisle, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice and Jasper there, but they were surrounded by lots of beaming faces, the entire population of Forks no doubt. I shuddered as I read the banner hanging above the cheering crowd 'Congratulations Bella and Edward', that was going to take some getting used to, people knowing how serious Edward and I really were. All my friends from Forks High School were there, Mike, Tyler, Ben, Angela, Jessica and lots of familiar faces, people we knew from around Forks were there as well as some of Carlisle's associates. The only people missing were my old friends from Phoenix and Tanya's family from Denali, but more importantly: my parents. I decided to ask questions later and for now play the dutiful host. I was glad of this morning, appreciating Alice's efforts, it made sense now why Edward would trick me into Alice's Barbie routine, and I was truly grateful as I felt, like earlier, that I belonged on this god's arm. Edward led me around the room enthusiastically, encouraging me to converse with people and we both welcomed the congratulatory hugs from everyone. The room was decorated beautifully; I would have to thank my family later. Pink and silver ribbons weaved and twisted along the walls, paper bells hung from the ceiling and the food spread was amazing, I was astounded at what brilliant taste the Cullen's had when it came to food, canapés sat temptingly upon crystal platters which I would thank Alice for later as Edward wouldn't let me near the crystal plates all night and of course vegetarian options were to the right of the long table, the Cullen's still had to keep up with their 'vegetarian' facade.
Finally the night was up and Alice insisted that I go up to bed and get some much-needed sleep whilst they cleared up, I was going to protest but Alice chimed in happily "Come on Bella, it's not like we have anything else to do tonight!" I chuckled, she had a point, but I wasn't sleepy and so I gently pulled Edward aside into the kitchen and through the sliding doors into the garden. Realising that I wasn't going to bed, Edward scooped me up in his muscular arms to save my shoes from the slightly sodden grass and placed me delicately on the small white bench in the middle of the garden. We both sighed contently, and I blushed slightly from embarrassment, I couldn't understand why, but Edward instantly flashed his heart- melting smile after seeing me blush, he loved that about me, and I wondered how he would cope when that blush had gone and had been replaced by a stone- hard face as white as snow.
"Did you enjoy tonight" he asked sheepishly, he must have felt bad for surprising me
"Surprisingly yes I did" I replied "thank you"
"Good..." he broke off, lost in his thoughts I thought until he turned and scowled in the direction of the house.
I interrupted his scowling "Why didn't Tanya and her family come" I asked
"We didn't feel it would be entirely appropriate, not only were we putting all those people at risk tonight with seven vampires in the same room, although we took precautions, but Tanya's family would have made the place completely unsecure, like lambs to the slaughter if one of them, god forbid, were to get too overwhelmed and also, do you remember what I said about Tanya?"
I thought hard, desperately trying to remember when it hit me, Tanya had liked Edward!
"Yes" I breathed
"Well, Tanya is a good friend and we didn't really want to make her uncomfortable by inviting her to our engagement party, plus they are still a little annoyed over what happened last year, as they did get rather close to Laurent"
"Oh" was all I could manage, I had forgotten about Tanya's family declining our plea for help last year when we were in desperate need of help to bring down Victoria and her army of newborns.
Edward leant over to kiss me, but not in the constrained, controlled way he normally did, he was going to control himself but he was going for passion, I braced myself taking a deep breath, I knew would need it, as we both leant in our lips just touching, there was a rustle in the nearby hedges. Edward immediately jumped up and spread his arms across out in front of me as if to protect me from the approaching threat, then a dark figure emerged slowly making Edward growl from the pits of his chest, his intensified senses gave him the advantage of knowing who was there before me.
A/N- I was going to have a cliffhanger here but I decided not to!
"What do you want dog?" Edward growled
"I want to talk actually" Jacob replied in a loathing tone
"Fine" Edward said abruptly, I could see the implemented manners of last year were long gone, replaced by instinct reactions towards their natural enemies. The last time I had seen Jacob Black had been after the battle against Victoria when Leah Clearwater had single-handedly tried to take on a vampire in combat, which made Jacob to intervene resulting in the entire right hand side of his body being crushed. I had gone to see him when he was recovering and admitted I loved him, not as I loved Edward, but loved him nonetheless, and he vowed to always be there waiting in the wings in case things turned sour with Edward, he would always be my back up plan, but I vowed to myself that I would never use it, no matter what it took. "Make it quick, we are actually busy" the acid this was spoken with oozed from Edward's mouth, seeming to contaminate the air around us, I didn't like it one bit.
"Please can we try to be civil, for my sake at least?" I whispered, looking at each of them in turn, I felt like I was going to cry, I didn't like these confrontations.
"Another warning...though not so polite this time blood-sucker, remember the treaty, you bite her..." he eyed me disgustedly, clearly imagining it "...and face our wrath!"
"Is that all" Edward replied in a monotonous tone, obviously bored by the constant reminders from the werewolves concerning the treaty.
"For now" Jacob spat as he turned towards the bushes again, but turned back to face me. "Bella" he nodded, then looked at with Edward with pure loathing "Any of you" were the last words I heard from his delicate lips as he ran off back into the darkness.
"I am so sorry about that Bella" Edward turned to me taking my face in his ice- cold hands, he observed my face for a moment then resumed what we had started earlier and went in for a long (as long as things went with Edward) and passionate (!) kiss.