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Chapter 8

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Victoria looked livid. She was so sure that her plan would work. Now, as she and Riley sat in the tree tops, they watched as their plan unraveled right before their eyes. The wolves- mutts protecting the Cullen's pet- had destroyed the very army she created- the one hell bent on killing Bella Swan.

"How did they even know?" Riley hissed.

Victoria moaned. "Of course! The seer! She must have known and warned them."

"Why isn't the girl here with them?"

"If she's not here, then they've hidden her. I will find her. My friends will be avenged."

Riley's eyes softened as he looked at her. "Of course, they will."

For her part, Victoria merely nodded her agreement. She thought about the places the girl could be. "Her house!" She finally said. "Her father will know where she is."

"You'd kill him to find your answers?" Riley seemed taken aback.

"Riley… they're food. Nothing but sheep." She huffed.

He sighed. "Alright. Let's go."

The pair stopped, startled when they saw more wolves circling just inside the trees. Victoria's eyes lit up when she caught sight of Bella in the kitchen window. She was just about to leap down from the trees when one of the wolves circled under the tree where she and Riley sat.

"Wait! Look!" Riley hissed.

Bella made her way out to the wolves with a basket of food for them. Victoria giggled with glee. "So unassuming… so stupid."

It was too easy.

Seth phased back and blanched. "Bella! You need to get back inside, please! Paul and Sam will kill us if they know you're out here."

"I can't not feed you three. You're working to keep me safe too, you know." Bella huffed.

Brady was the next to phase back. "Bella! Seth is right. It's not safe yet. You shouldn't even be here! You should have gone back to the rez!"

"I'm going back inside, ok? And I told you, I won't put anyone else in harm's way. You guys shouldn't even be here, but you are anyway. So this is my thanks." She said before hugging them.

A bone chilling laugh behind them had the two wolves growling and Bella frozen in fear. She turned and came face to face with the red head who'd tormented the pack for the past few months.

"How touching. It's too bad the three of you will die for a mere child."

"Victoria." Bella gulped and stepped backwards.

For her part, Victoria raised her eyebrow. "Funny, I don't remember telling you my name."

"Laurent did… just before the wolves killed him." Bella snapped, feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline.

"Bella." Brady warned. "Be careful…"

"You should listen to your friend, little girl." Riley said from his place against a tree trunk behind them.

Seth whirled around and growled, narrowing his eyes. They were cornered and he didn't like it. His hackles rose; all he needed was enough room to phase. Riley sensed his actions and pounced on him in the second it took for Bella to blink. She yelled when Seth went sailing through the trees before slamming into a rather old, rather sold maple tree with a thick trunk.

Her horror doubled when Brady was tackled in front of her and flung against the same tree. Both wolves lay unconscious, their human bodies not able to stand the assault as well as their wolf forms would. As a duo, the vampires prowled towards the boys and Bella panicked. If she didn't do something now, Seth and Brady wouldn't survive. Her eyes lit up with determination when she felt the knife in her hoodie pocket.

"Victoria! Leave them alone!" Bella hissed.

"Or what? Will you attack me next, pet?" She sneered.

They didn't consider that Sam told Collin to stay back until they got there. He'd seen it all through the pack mind and while he felt grateful that Bella wanted to take care of the wolves, Seth was right, she really should have stayed inside the house.

When Riley continued towards a sprawled out, unconscious Brady, Bella had enough and used the pocket knife to slice the skin of her palm open. Her blood filled the air around them, causing both Riley and Victoria to fixate on her. It gave Collin the opportunity he needed to attack Riley. His body was torn into pieces by an annoyed wolf pup before he had the chance to scream.

"Hey mutt!" Victoria grinned when Collin turned and growled at her. "Don't even think about it." She snapped when he took a step towards her. She held Bella close to her so he could see.

"Sam… what do I do?" Collin was frantic as he watched Victoria run her nose along Bella's jaw.

"She's taunting you. We're nearly there!" Jacob huffed.

"Hurry up guys! She looks half mad with blood lust. Bella cut her hand to distract them… it worked a little too well…"

"Victoria. Let him go." Bella choked out around the hand gripping her neck.

Victoria laughed. "And why would I? He's due to be put to sleep. He's just a mutt after all." She hissed. "I'll have fun toying with him after you're dead and gone. He looks fun to tease."

"If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it by now." Bella muttered. "I think you're scared. You're no match for a wolf on your own."

"Shut it. That pup has nothing on me." She growled.

"Even James went off on his own… Remember that day he found me? I think he wanted to be away from you." Bella winced when Victoria's nails dug into her skin.

Collin kept pacing. The pack was nearly free of the newborns. He just had to keep the leeches' attention until then. Bella would be ok- unless she kept running her mouth.

Like now.

Even Jacob admitted that Bella's mouth would be her downfall.

Victoria hissed at the girl in her arms. "You know nothing, pet! He loved me!" Her grip tightened to the point Bella's bones snapped.

Tears ran down Bella's cheek but she refused to scream. Whimpers escaped her as she tried to think past the pain racing up her arm. "How can someone love a pebble in their shoe? In your case, a girl who thinks she knows how to handle a man."

"You little bitch!" Victoria hissed.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't looking to replace you." Bella said with a smirk.

Said smirk was replaced with a gasp of pain when Victoria flung her into a rather sharp branch seconds later for her cheek. The vampire's nails cut into her side, and before she knew it, Victoria had her by the throat again with an angry hiss coming from her lips.

"You. are. nothing! You know nothing. No one even wants you! You were a pet to the Cullen's, and you're a pet to the wolves! They don't love you!" She took great pleasure in raking her nails down Bella's side, opening the tender flesh even more and spilling precious blood from the wounds.

Paul growled as he raced towards Bella. She was long past the point of trying to keep the painful cries suppressed. He watched as Collin made a swift decision and barreled into Victoria's side while she'd been distracted, taunting Bella to get up after breaking her ankle. He saw Bella drop to the ground, her breath coming in labored pants. She'd made a target of herself to keep Brady and Seth from being killed, she'd kept the attention off of Collin just long enough for him to take advantage of it, and she'd bought the pack precious time in order to destroy her.

He knew there was a reason he'd chosen her as his mate.

Sam and Jacob pounced after Collin, attacking Victoria and wearing down her defenses. First went her legs- up to her knees. Then went her hands so she was unable to scratch any more than she had. It was Paul though, who's wolf went feral at the sight of a now unconscious Bella. He shouldered his way towards the red headed vampire, malice and an intent to kill mirroring in his eyes.

Victoria hissed at him, her eyes wild with fear and panic. She started crawling away on the stumps of arms she had left. Paul let her for a minute before he pounced and raked his razor-sharp claws down her sides. He backed away again, circling her to see where next she'd try to flee. Another minute found him taking a bite from her shoulder and after that, her left arm was gone and burning.

"End it Paul we need to get Bella to the hospital! Now!" Jacob called.

Paul growled deep in his chest. With a final attempt to flee, Victoria's eyes widened at the sight of gaping jaws coming closer to her. Mere seconds later, her head was ripped from her body with the satisfactory sound of grating metal. The rest of the pack had shown up then and with careful ease, Quil and Embry picked Seth and Brady up to carry them away. It left Sam, Paul, Jacob and Jared to carry Bella.

The doctor in charge of healing the pack took one look at Bella and asked to know exactly what happened to her. When Paul told him that she'd used herself as bait against a vampire in order to keep both Brady and Seth safe while they were unconscious, the man's eyes welled with tears. He promised them he'd do his best and hurried to stabilize her after Jacob told them her blood type. He had to remind Paul just how close his family was to hers before he phased out of jealousy.

"We have to think of something to tell her dad." Sam said as they sat in the waiting room of the tribal clinic.

"Tell him we went for a hike. Because of the rain, she slipped and fell down the side of the old ravine down Black Crow trail." Jacob said.

"And the scratches? The bruises that look like she was choked?" Jared needled.

"She got caught up by her hoodie. There's a lot of jagged rocks down that trail. And if we need, we can pound on one another to get bruising too." Sam offered.

Paul was quiet. His mind showed him over and over every time he'd needled at her or spoken ill of her. How many times had he judged her or sneered in her direction? She'd kept it all locked in- the pain of it. He felt it but he'd ignored it. Then he'd heard her talking to Emily. He wanted to tell her that he'd fallen for her before he left her house. Something told him to tell her. Yet again, he'd ignored it. When he heard Victoria screaming that she was unloved, he wanted to rip her lips from her face- it just wasn't true… Bella was more loved than she'd ever realize.

"Paul?"

He didn't acknowledge them. His pack mates looked to one another- each with worry in their eyes- before turning back to him. Hands landed on his shoulders to offer a small respite to the pain he felt now. He'd wronged his own imprint in so many ways. How had he not seen it?

"Paul! Easy!"

Sam caught him as he fell to the floor, the pain racking his body finally hitting him full force. "Come on, Paul. She'll be ok. She's a fighter!"

"I can't… it hurts."

Jacob must have known what he meant. He knelt beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "We're not gonna lose her. She'll pull through this."

The doctors tried to call Charlie, Billy and Harry, but the area they'd gone to fish had poor cell service. Bella was a legal adult in the state of Washington, but the clinic still preferred to notify her next of kin- especially since she'd undergone a blood transfusion. Charlie Swan was the chief of police in Forks- and best friends with the chief of the tribe. The last thing they needed would be something going wrong.

Once she was in a room of her own after a successful transfusion and surgery to stop her internal bleeding, Paul took a seat and refused to move. Jared, Sam and Jacob sat with him for an hour before leaving to their respective homes. They promised to bring the rest of the pack by to see her later and Emily, to be sure, would want to see whether she was awake or not.

Paul sighed and leaned his head against the wall with his eyes closed. The doctor told him the extent of her injuries, up to and including internal bleeding as well as blood loss due to her many sustained wounds, which caused her to lose consciousness. Her body was recuperating, and with the blood transfusion, she would more than likely wake within the next few hours. Her right shoulder had been dislocated and fixed and her broken bones- her left arm, left wrist and right leg- had all been set. Now, they had to sit back and wait for her body to wake itself.

He grabbed her hand in his and stared at her. "I kicked ass, Swan." He told her. "You were right… no one was hurt. You had faith in us, so now I'm gonna offer you the same courtesy. Just… wake up, ok?"

"Paul.."

His head turned to look towards the door. Emily stood there watching him with a sad smile on her face.

"Hey Em.."

"You ok?"

"I'm trying. I was… and she's just…"

Emily smiled. "You still have time. She's a fighter." She said moving to sit next to him.

"I know that. She didn't deserve the way I treated her. I acted so harsh."

She nodded in agreement. "You were."

He smiled wryly. "Hit a wolf when he's down, huh."

"Nope. I just agree with you. I also think you're punishing yourself too much."

His eyebrow arched in question. "You don't think I deserve the self-hatred I feel right now?"

"Paul, when have I ever thought bad about any of the wolves?"

"Ok… ok… but… how do I make it up to her?"

"Do you love her?"

"The wolf does."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Do you love her?"

"I think I do, Em." He looked at her, in shock of what he'd just said.

For her part, she hid the smug smile. She'd known how the two felt about one another for a long time. "Then I suggest you keep doing what you're doing. You can only grow closer. Treat her right, Paul. She deserves that. Respect her. She'll do the same to you. No relationship is perfect- the way you two used to fight is example enough. I know you though. You have your moments when you can be an ass… but you'd give the shirt off of your back to a friend in need without a second thought. Be that to her. Be a friend first, a lover later."

"You think she wants me like that?"

"Paul… it's you. You could charm a snake to dance without much effort." She teased.

He didn't even bat an eye. He merely smirked. Just like that, the doubts and insecurities fell away. He shook his head and sighed. "We'd be kinda lost without ya, Em. Sam's lucky to have you."

Emily smiled. "I just wish sometimes it'd been different."

"Leah will understand. In time." He told her.

"You sure?"

"Positive. She'll understand."

Emily nodded to Bella. "She will too. Just, be yourself." She said before kissing his cheek and making her way out of the room.

It left Paul alone with his thoughts again. He usually didn't mind the quiet, but, seeing Bella laying there so still without a smile on her face, didn't sit well with him in the slightest. He sighed and settled in for a long wait. He'd have to tell Charlie tomorrow that his daughter was injured and he wasn't sure he had the strength to do it without some sleep first.