Chapter 17

The ache was still hovering underneath my skin, a reminder of the unfortunate advents. The sound of my beating heart echoed in my ears, while I thought about how I could have saved him. Sam was at my side before my thoughts could run wild with guilt and could haves. He seemed to have a detector on him, always knowing when I need him. He made everything better and that much easier to cope with. Sometimes I felt like the guilt was crushing down on me at all directions, making it harder to breathe or even take the next step. His presence was the key to continuing. I let my stiff muscle relax into his strong and protective ones. We didn't need to say anything to voice out thoughts or feeling which I was grateful for.

The days felt longer and everyone was restless with the events happening around then. Everyone was on edge after the death of Charlie. The argument I had the other day in the kitchen had somehow got through to the boys. Each guy was attending school and keeping up their grades while in the spare time they would spend with their imprints. I noticed smiles from Emily whenever I saw her working at the store, Leah wasn't as angry at the world with Jake hanging around her, Kim and Cora had somehow talked Jared and Embry to taking them shopping, and Quil was a happy young man, he had taken the time to look after little Claire while her mother had been working late. The pack seemed to be back together, almost normal except for the missing presence of Charlie on the baseball games.

Will and Court had fit in well with everyone, Court seemed to spend a lot of time with Quil and Embry, when they were with their imprints he'd be spending time with Sam unless Brady was somewhere nearby. Will and Collin had taken a liking to each other, Collin enjoyed showing Will the new steps of life and showing him the great positives of being a wolf. The young wolves even went cliff diving a couple of days ago, never heard the end of it.

Everyone and everything was calm, but you know what they say...its calm before the storm.

...

We had finished eating the roast lamb that I cooked for dinner. Sam and Will were happily talking about the next weekend the pack would get together for a BQQ, it had turned into one of Wills favourite events. Court pardoned himself from the table and left for the backyard, I couldn't help the sign come from my lips as I walked him walk away.

Sam and I shared a look before I followed him out to the chairs and table outside. I didn't bother been quiet, he'd hear me either way. I sat down on the wooden chair next to Court, leaving some space between us, not wanting to over crowd him but I could feel his trouble mind bubbling over.

We sat in the silent night, I waited for him to speak while he sorted out his own thoughts. My fingers traced the lines in wood and listened to the wind moving the tree tops around us. "It seems...perfect." Court crossed his arms and looked at the table instead of me. "To perfect."

I breathed through my nose and out my mouth. I had an idea what he was saying, when I moved to Forks, my world was like scramble eggs. That was until I met Sam and the Pack, I finally found my ground again. "I thought the same." Court snorted next to me. "I moved to Uncle Charlies from Arizona, imagine my shock- hot sunny Arizona to Cold and cloudy Forks."

"What's so bad about that?" He gave me a disgusted tone.

"My mother died when I was 14." I waited for Court to interrupt but he didn't. "It was a car crash, I didn't know anything about my real father, about Billy so I stayed with my step father for 4 years. He was an alright guy, but he had his problems." Smoking, drinking, being violent towards life. "Once I became the age, I left for Charlies. Soon became a part of the pack, not to mention the crazy emotions from imprinting on Sam. I had no idea what was happening to me."

"You're mum...past away." He had trouble with finding a word. I nodded my head, not sure if it was a question or not.

"You know, I'll never try to replace your mother. I'm simply an older sister." A small smile twitched onto his face.

"Were you scared?" For once the cockiness in his voice had disappeared.
His scared.

"Yeah, but you knew what?" He hummed and looked up at me. "Everything turned out fine, and I have a family that is always there for me. Believe it or not, so do you. You'll have one hell of a time trying to get me away." I ended it with a joke, knowing he didn't like soft talks. "How does Apple pie sound?"

"Sound good, real good." He nodded his head and got up from the table, he waited for me to stand with him before walking back into the house together.

That night as a fell asleep I couldn't help but feel that I have accomplished something.

...

A burning sensation filled my nose, almost making me whimper in pain. 'Paul...' My voice sounded weak inside of my own head, I could feel the same worry flowing of the wolf near me.

'I know.' Even with the emotions flying off him, he still stood tall and confident about the situation. 'Run.' We whipped around and headed for home, only to be blocked.

'Paul...' I stared hard at the creatures in front of us. I could hear more in the forest, silently surrounding us.

'Let's give them a show.' His cocky voice broke through my thoughts.

'The pack?' I questioned and saw him nod his head in agreement. My howl echoed through the trees, it was followed with angry snarls and they leaped at me. A male tried to rip out my throat to stop the call, I dodged him and smashed into another beside me. 'We're out numbered.' I spoke out my concern after beheading one of the vampires.

'Head further into the forest led them away from the towns and hopefully buy us sometime.' Paul nudged me towards the direction deeper into the forest. I side stepped a couple of vampires and knocked a few back for a good measure of extra time.

Seconds later, the light sound of millions of feet hitting the ground was closely following behind us. I couldn't help but let out a sign in relief when I felt the rest of the pack shift and swiftly head in our direction.

I felt the cool breeze behind me and dared a look over my shoulder. A small female blonde gave me a chilling smile before gasping to reach my tail. I picked up my speed, making her struggle for the contact that she would never get. I checked behind me and smiled sweetly at the blond vampire. I looked forward and smacked hard into something soiled, making me flip over it and do several summersaults at full speed. 'Bella.' A chorus of voices shouted at me, adding to the pain in my body when sharp claws entered into my shoulder blades. As quick as it came, it disappeared and I could feel the wound stitching together.

I saw a black wolf behead the blonde vampire and he gave me a grin before jumping onto the next one. I heard Jake howl- calling for Nathan's Pack. The Snarling and nipping echoed in my ears from the fight, it started, they made the first move.

Clearing my thoughts I made a move on finding my next victim. I jumped onto a pair of vampire, giving Embry a hand. We went back to back, keeping our eyes on each vampire. The dark skinned one was the first to attack and Embry took him down, while he had his back turned the other new born vampire tried to attack Embry. I pushed the new born out of the way and suck my teeth into the arm, successfully ripping it off.

I stepped back and circled my prey, watching as it hissed at me with red eyes. It lifted itself up with one arm from its knees and crouched into a defence position. I circled around it, once I got behind its back and it got a chance to look over its shoulder, I dug my teeth into its neck, sending its head rolling on the ground. This attracted attention to me, when it rolled past another new born.

After dealing with few new borns, she stood on top of rock and looked over at the battle field, the fight was slowly dying down. The field covered in smashed bodies of vampire and both Packs fighting against the still moving ones. But there was one I hadn't seen yet, it put my body into nervous when the red head wasn't seen anywhere. Surely she would be close by, Sam was in the mix of the battle with the rest of their pack, and her prize was insight of me, than where was the bloodsucker.

Walking off the rock and out of sight, I staked low in the bushes keeping out of view. I was going to be ready for her. I let my senses take control, making my hearing stretch for any little sound while my nose burned with the scent of vampire.

My heart almost skipped a beat when I realised who was missing from the action, I watched his twin take down a vampire on his own and the huge smile that appeared on his lips at his success. My panic must have called out to him because he looked over at me in alarm. I didn't pay any attention; I searched the ground for the other and found he wasn't the only one missing.

I caught her scent and swirled in the direction behind me, took off running full speed in the direction of the fight. The thoughts going through my head made it pound along with my heart, she was after Sam not them.

I came to a halt when I entered a small clearing, standing in the middle was five vampires including the redhead. Near their feet Collin laid unconscious while Will was on pinned his back with three vampire on him, I could feel the pain inflected on him through the Pack bond. "Its nice to meet you again Isabella, long time no see." Victoria gave me a sweet smile full of promises. "You remember our conversation in the forest. You know the one about revenge in our mates, well i'm here to collect." I growled low in my throat and bared my teeth at her, telling her my opinion. "I grew curious when news travelled about a pair of twins, than I couldn't help the plan of...troubling your weak spots with these young wolves here." My heart yanked at the idea she had in mind for the two wolves.

Will took this chance to try and escape them, only to get bites and claws digging into his back, making him howl out in pain. I almost whimpered myself at seeing the bite and claw marks covering his body. 'Bella.' I thought it was Will talking to me until I realised it wasn't his voice, Quil. I could see the plan building in his mind and the other wolves with him. Five vampires and eight wolves, two of them injured.

"You know what? After I've dealt with your precious babies, I'll move onto Sam and-

I made my move, cutting her sentence off. At the same time I jumped at Victoria, five wolves joined in making sure Will and Collin were out of the way.

She moved to the left, successfully dodging my attack and we started circling each other. I tried not to blink, knowing that it only takes a second for them to disappear, and there was no chance of that happening today. She hissed at me and I returned her bad nature with a growl. Behind me I could hear Quil, Embry, Court and two of Nathans wolves handling the four vampires, but I kept my eyes trained on the redhead.

She took a swipe at me, getting my right shoulder just missing my head. I jumped back and growled at her, she took that time to run in the forest. I growled louder, determined not to let her go. This was my chance to finish this so called game of revenge.

Following my led, I sprinted into the forest, going between trees and keeping my eyes set on the redhead a few metres in front of me. I growled at annoyance when I realised her plan, she was going to jump, jump into the water and out of my sight. I picked up speed, feeling my paws slink into the slightly damp ground from the rain shower the other night.

The trees started to became less crowded and the opening of light was flicking into the forest, the cliff was coming into view. I could hear her chilling laugh as she realise there was no way for me to reach her, we both knew but I still didn't give up, pushing harder.

I watched as she was ready to take the leap of the cliff and a howl ripped through my throat. I helpless watched as she took her final leap, only to have something flash to my right and a black object flew at her, knocking her to the ground and away from the cliff. Second later, other wolves joined the black one, taking chunks out of the redhead.

I slipped to a stop and laid down onto the ground, curled up into myself trying to catch my breath. There was a slight tug of sadness that I couldn't finish the job, I almost failed, again. But it quickly vanished when a black wolf stood in front of me protectively even though there was no danger anymore. He nudged my side, assisting me to stand up on my four legs next to him. I laid my head in the cave between his neck and shoulder feeling exhausted. 'We need to head to Harry's house, Nathan is going to stay back.' Jakes voice echoed through my head, making it pound more. I was thankful for Nathan Pack, I wouldn't have to stay behind and clean. I couldn't wait to get to Harry's house away from here. Harry's house?

'Did someone get hurt?' When no one answered me I looked up from Sam's shoulder, a few of the pack members were here but not all of them.

'Let's head out.' Jake took off and everyone followed in order. It reminds me of Charlie, letting my throughs running wild.

I stayed close to Sam the whole run there and couldn't help the sight of relief at seeing Paul standing out of Harry's house. I quickly shifted, not even bothering about clothes and started walking up to the house with the others close behind slipping on their clothes. I could imagine Paul smirking me at any other time for my choice in clothing, which meant worse news than good. "Paul?"

"Sues working on them, Billy called a couple of the other Docs to help." I walked straight pass him and worked into the open doorway, to halt inside of it. Spread around the lounge room was some of Nathans wolves injured, Cora and Emily were walking around the room to assist any of them. I blanket was put around my shoulder, and I almost knocked it off until Sam came into my view, giving me a slight glare, I wrapped the blanket around my frame for a dress and continue up stairs dragging Sam along with me.

Walking into the first bedroom I found Collin and Will. Collin was in the far right of the room laid on a bed with a wet cloth over his forehead, he was still unconscious. Will had beads of sweat running down his skin, the vampire bites in clearer view as they slowly healed. I went over to his bed and placed a hand on his forehead, brushing the damp hair from out of his eyes. "They put him to sleep to ease the pain, though his temperatures burning through it." I nodded my head to Sam and kissed Will's sweaty check before doing the same to Collin.

I closed the door behind us as we left the room and trailed down the hallway, passing other rooms with a few wolves in some and a few empty ones, they came to Seth's bedroom. I looked at Sam questioning, not sure if I wanted to see what was behind the door. Sam made the choice for me and twisted the handle, pushing the door open to see an upset Seth standing next to the bed. I felt my own tears running down my cheeks as I saw Seth's watery eyes. I moved towards Seth and brought him into a hug before moving towards the bed to a pain Brady lying there smiling even though it wasn't the time. I bent down and pulled him into a hug, trying to not squeeze him too tight to hurt him. I kissed him on one cheek, than the other followed by the forehead, showering him with kisses. "Can you do a favour for me?" Brady's smile disappeared at the edges as he tried to stay strong. I nodded my head, afraid that my voice would only make matters worse. "The letter on the desk, can you give it to a girl called Amanda?" I nodded my head, thinking of the girl I've seen a couple of times around school with Brady.

There was a knock at the door, and Embry walked in trying to smile like he usually did. "Move out of the way Bella, it's my turn." He pushed her away slightly joking around and kneeled down beside Brady. We Sam and I didn't move, Embry cleared his throat and looked around the room. Getting the idea of them wanting alone time, Sam and I moved out of the bedroom to leave the boys, taking the white envelope with us.

...

AN: Ahhh...Reviews would be great for the chapter, have no idea how people are going to feel about it. Some detail in the review would be good