Disclaimer:
All characters and known situations belong to their respective owners. Everything else came from my own mind- scary place that it is sometimes. In no way shape or form have I made or intended to make a profit from this story…. All rights still belong to Stephanie… though it's a shame she never did anything more with the wolves… ah well.. There's always fan fiction

Author's Notes:
FINALLY! Three songs gave me the inspiration for this- one is Night of the Hunter by Thirty Seconds to Mars, the next one is Unknown Soldier by Breaking Benjamin, the last is Breath by Breaking Benjamin. Hopefully I'll do this chapter justice when its all typed out compared to what was in my head .

Author's Note 2: Ok, so in my sleep induced haze this morning, I accidentally copied over the first copy of this chapter. All of it is the same till the end half. Again, I'm sorry you guys. All I can say is I won't post anything again until I've had at least one cup of coffee and my kids have gone outside for at least an hour to run off some of the energy they seem to wake up with .

Chapter 10

Bella woke to the feeling of cold wind at her back. She huffed and reached beside the bed to unplug the large box fan Jacob had in his window. She grumbled as she sat up and stretched. Little did she know that Jacob was snickering from behind the door as he listened to her curse werewolves and their supernatural heat. With a shake of his head he knocked gently on the door and made his way inside.

"Morning." Bella said after a large yawn.

Jacob shook his head. She was in nothing but one of his old tee shirts and he'd never seen anything more beautiful in his life. "Hey. I brought you breakfast." He said placing the tray in his hands on the nightstand.

"You're sweet. But I only just woke up. How long have you been awake?! What time is it, even?" She wondered.

He laughed. "It's a little early yet. Our dads just left a half hour ago. I didn't want to wake you up. So I told them you were asleep and made it look like I slept on the couch all night long."

"And my dad fell for it?" She asked with an arched eyebrow.

Jacob shrugged. "Charlie loves me." He said giving her a cocky grin.

"You sure about that?" She teased.

Jacob pouted. "Hey!" He whined. "That's not cool, Bells. It's not nice to tease the guy who loves you, ya know!"

"I only tease you because I know you can handle it. I love you too, Jake." She told him before pulling him on top of her. Their lips met in a sweet kiss before Jacob sat up a little and grabbed a bowl of freshly cut strawberries.

"Open up." His voice was husky as he dragged the fruit over her slightly parted lips. He watched in avid fascination as she bit into the berry, her lips closing over the end seductively. Her eyes were dancing with the growing lust she held for him and it made his chest rumble in satisfaction.

Bella groaned when Jacob moved his lips from her neck towards her plump, strawberry juice stained lips. She welcomed his weight over her and spread her thighs readily. They fit together beautifully, his caramel colored, near flawless skin against hers- alabaster and smooth. There were a few moments of shuffling around in which his boxers and her lacy black boy shorts were removed before he was once against settling his weight over her. She gasped when she felt the length of his dick pressed against her wet and waiting pussy, and groaned when he slid easily inside. His movements were almost torturously slow as he rocked back and forth inside of her. This wasn't the hurried passion they normally shared, this was about showing one another their love and devotion.

The slow buildup was almost too much for them both. Just before the were lost to the insanity of pleasure coursing through their bodies, they cried out in almost perfect unison. Their releases were simultaneous and together the came back to earth after the pleasure had threatened to send them both flying high into the heavens.

Bella clung to him, her lips placing sweet kisses to his cheek and the side of his neck as he rested most of his weight on his arms above her. She pulled him closer, assuring him she was fine and laid a sweet kiss to the corner of his lips. She was more glad now that she had given in to him than ever before, and if she was able to, she was going to spend the rest of her life showing him just how happy she was.

A knock on the front door had Jacob growling quietly. He didn't want to leave her. Bella giggled at him and shook her head. "I don't want to go." He whined.

"You never told me what time it was." Bella told him, ignoring the words he had just spoken. She needed to be strong for him. He didn't need to know that once he left, she was probably going to break down in tears.

"It's time for him to go! Come on Jake!" Embry called out, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

Bella sighed. "You come back to me! Keep your brothers safe!" She whispered.

Jacob nodded. "Easy. We'll be done in no less than an hour." He boasted.

By the time Bella was dressed and her food eaten, she was met with the worried faces of her friends. Emily, Kim, Angela, Nicole and even Rachel were all in Jacob's living room. Seth was out on the back porch in his wolf form along with Collin. Brady was inside with the girls, trying to keep their minds off what was going on.

"How are they, Seth?" Jacob asked again, for the seventh time in a half an hour.

For his part, Seth understood why they were so worried and indulged them. "They're fine. They're watching a movie with Brady inside. Do what needs to be done. They want you guys home soon."

"We got this!" Jared was confident they could handle anything thrown at them.

Collin whined from his place beside Seth. "Don't get cocky." He warned.

The wolves emerged into the clearing from the tree line as a seamless unit. It impressed and awed Jasper to see. Edward sneered from his place beside Alice, having read their thoughts already. He growled when he tried to read Jacob's thoughts with very little success. It seemed Jacob had learned how to mask what he wanted to stay hidden rather well in the past week. He shook his head and looked to his family. They would forgive him in time for what he had planned.

Ten short minutes later, with the wolves hidden from sight, Victoria's newborns- all ten of them that there were- walked into the clearing. They had followed the trail of Bella's blood directly. It had all but put them into a frenzy when they had first smelled it. Under Victoria's command, they settled and made their way to where the smell was the strongest.

The usual song and dance was played out. Riley- the one leading her merry band of monsters to their death- told them what they wanted. Bella was to be killed at the hands of Victoria, and with her death the Cullens could go free. When that failed, he told them they had signed their own death warrants. Jasper had been correct, Sam mused. The newborn vampires, while they lacked in tactics, more than made up for their young 'age' with their ferocity and eagerness to fight.

They rushed head first into the scrimmage with no tactical logic whatever. They were readily dispensed of by both the wolves and the Cullens. What they didn't take into account for was the ten more hiding inside the tree line. Edward had heard them prowling but had said nothing. He leapt into the trees and watched as three of them attacked Paul, only to be thrown off by Sam. He smirked when he watched the last newborn left wrap his massive arms around the great black furred wolf and squeeze. The resounding crack and piteous whimpers were all that was heard before Jared and Embry leapt to his aide. Carlisle rushed to Sam's aide, working to check that nothing major was damaged, such as his heart or lungs. When it was established that it was his ribs broken, he asked Paul and Jared to help carry him back to his home in order to help reset them. They agreed reluctantly, and only after Carlisle told them they could stay to watch his every move.

Victoria appeared then, having been sure the Cullens as well as the wolves would be killed off. She was mildly surprised to find that only Riley and Laurent were left alive. She shook her head and sighed. She should have known better. It was her belief that you never send a boy to do a man's job, and you never trusted when it came to revenge. It was an art form of the most precise making.

"Well, it seems you've survived. Tell me, where's your pretty mate, Edward." She hissed at him. She was circling him, looking for an opening.

Jacob growled low in his throat. Bella was his! He watched while the vampires circled one another. When her back was turned and she was thoroughly distracted, Jacob took his chance. He caught her shoulder in his massive maw and sunk his teeth into the marble like flesh. Her screech of indignant fury was all that was heard before she turned to face off with the angry behemoth.

"Why are you protecting her?!" Victoria snarled. "She's nothing but a mere girl!"

Jacob growled again and snapped at her side. She dodged in time, now circling him instead of Edward. He was the bigger threat she was now realizing. He would be the one to do any serious damage. Edward would only run from her again. She wasn't quite quick enough to dodge his teeth again when he lunged, but she was able to sink her nails into his side. Gaping wounds appeared where the flesh over his ribs was torn wide open. Through the pain, Jacob held on, shaking her arm from its socket.

The remaining Cullen's and the remaining wolves watched on silence as Jacob and Victoria circled one another again. It was his fight, and his alone to finish. Bella was his mate and so she was his to defend. Edward was the only one who thought different. He said nothing and watched, waiting to see just who survived. With his luck, Jacob would die and Bella would have no choice but to lean on him.

Rearing up on his hind legs, he lunged again, snapping his jaw and he aimed for her throat. Victoria smirked and caught hold of his left paw, crushing the bones of what would be his wrist in his human form. She danced away from him, knowing that if she wanted to escape, she'd have to kill the wolf attacking her. Watching how he now favored his front paw, she made a calculated decision to attack that side of his body. His leg was crushed and therefore deemed unusable. She didn't take into account the sheer determination Jacob possessed.

Embry had always been a tactical thinker. He could see Jacob was favoring his front leg. He could also see that Victoria took notice. Even though they were told not to interfere unless he fell unconscious or was killed, he still commanded Jacob to listen to him. He could feel the appreciation through their shared mind link as she attacked his favored side once again. The wolves all smirked when a chunk of her body went into the fire after being thrown from Jacob's mouth. They stared on in shock as Victoria dropped to the ground in pain.

Esme must have seen their heads tilt in confusion. She moved closer to one of the wolves, knowing if one knew they all would. "You already know the only way to destroy our kind is to tear us apart and burn the parts. IF a part is torn off, it can be reattached. If a part of us burns after its detached from us however, we feel it as though WE are being burned. It might help Jacob. It could give him an advantage. He's tiring AND losing blood."

Jacob heard it and snorted. He would win this. He had a mate to go home to. When she lunged again, he was waiting. He didn't dodge her like she thought he would. He met her head on. In retaliation, her nails dragged down his tender underbelly, opening four rather large gashes in the sensitive flesh. Jacob backed off again, whining in pain as he circled once again. He wasn't going to last much longer, but he was determined she'd go down before he did. The piece of marble flesh in his jaws flew into a nearby slowly burning fire. When she sunk to her knees, panting from the pain, Jacob attacked.

In a move that both shocked and impressed both Emmett and Jasper, Jacob used his remaining strength and caught Victoria's head in his open maw. He shook her body with enough force to sever her head from her neck and threw the still wide eyed, gaping mouthed appendage into the flames. Her body was descended upon quickly by the remaining wolves and vampires. Jacob stood just long enough to bare witness to her burning body before he collapsed. The adrenaline was gone from his body and all that was left was the pain and dizziness from his wounds.

Edward had watched the proceedings with boredom. He smirked the second Jacob had fallen and his family as well as the wolves turned to watch in shock before falling over themselves to help him. They whisked him away to Carlisle, leaving the clearing free of any supernatural life save for his own. Bella would be his for the taking now. Regardless of the fact she had given herself to a wolf who held her heart in his hands, she would be his. With so few wolves- mere pups- left to guard her and the other wolves' mates, it would be an easy catch. He raced through the trees so as to have some advantage over the mutts and smirked when he landed at the back of the Black's family home.

He could hear the heartbeats inside, as well as smell the tears from the girls in the house. There was only one he wanted to see right now, however. His only problem was, how to get to her without anyone inside knowing it was him. The opportunity presented itself when he saw her walking into the kitchen on her own. The dogs were all in the front room and un phased. He did however, have to plan his moves ever so carefully. If he was in his right frame of mind, he would have found it very odd that he couldn't hear any of them. The only thing on his mind at the moment was getting Bella away from tribal land.

"- in a second you guys. I'm gonna take the garbage out."

Edward smirked. Opportunity had knocked. Bella was just stepping outside with a bag of garbage in her hands. Before she could even shriek, she was in his arms in a fireman hold. He had mere seconds before she realized what was going on.

Bella gasped when she looked over her back and saw a head full of copper hair. She screamed loud enough that the three wolves inside were running out of the door in time to see her being whisked away. In mere seconds he was cornered. He hadn't even gotten 100 feet away before they had phased. He knew from training sessions that these boys could hold their own, and these three in particular worked extremely well as a unit.

"Why can't I read your minds?!" He snarled in aggravation.

Bella whimpered. "They've gotten really good at hiding their thoughts, both from you and from each other if they don't want something personal known. That's more than likely what they're doing to you now. Just let me go. They'll go easy on you, Edward. Please, just let me go back with them. Jake is going to be home soon."

"Jacob is dead!" He hissed.

Bella's eyes went wide. Her bottom lip quivered as tears bloomed in her chocolate irises. As soon as Edward smelled her tears, the anger left his body. "Shh. Don't cry love. We can be together now." He cooed.

She fell limp against him, the pain of losing her mate encasing her heart like a lead weight. She didn't want to believe it and her brain screamed at her not to. But the pain of her worst fears coming to life was a little too much at the moment. Edward stared in shock. He hadn't even tried to enthrall her. It was as if she no longer had the will to live now. It was everything he had heard had happened when he first left- only now it was because he had told her Jacob was dead. He was her mate, she should be happy to be with him again.

Brady had phased back while Edward had been distracted. It a calculated move, he tackled Bella away from Edward, being sure to wrap his arms around her protectively and roll in such a way that he took the brunt of the impact to the hard ground. He sat up with Bella in his arms to watch Collin and Seth pin a shocked Edward to the forest floor. One wolf's jaws on his arm, the other set around his throat. He looked at the woman in his arms and frowned.

"Bella? Sweetie, can you hear me?" He asked quietly.

She made no move to even hint that she had heard him. Edwards harsh words played on repeat in her mind.

"Bella! Come on… you've got to snap out of it! He's not dead! Ok. He's hurt, but not dead! I'll take you to him!" Brady all but cried. His emotions were a heady cocktail of angst at the moment- anger at Edward, worry, fear and pain for Bella, and a little shock that Edward had been that bold.

Edward stared at Bella as he was hauled to his feet. She was an empty husk of herself now. And like this, she was uninteresting save as an easy meal. the inner demon in him could smell the deliciously fragrant blood coursing through her veins and he craved it. He lunged towards her, his eyes completely black with hunger. The wolves were quick to restrain him which only added to his blood lust as he fought to get to the woman in front of him.

"I'm taking her out of here. She needs to see Jacob before she gets worse. Find some way to restrain him. Jacob can have him when he's better. Bella is the Alpha's mate, leech. You signed your own death warrant messing with her. I'd say it was good knowing you, but I can't stand the smell of you and I won't even think about you when you're gone. I'm sure Bella wont either." He sneered.

Edward roared with indignant fury as he struggled to get away from the wolves holding him down. "She's MINE! You have no right!"

Seth phased back and ripped Edwards legs from his body. Collin phased back and did the same thing with both of his arms. They didn't want to take a chance on him escaping. They both rolled their eyes when he continued to rant and rave. He swore revenge on the wolves, and he swore Bella would be his. Seth merely shook his head. They needed somewhere to hide the body.

"My dad has an old cabin a little further in on the rez. We can take him there." Collin said.

"You must have been reading my mind." Seth teased. Together they gathered the pieces and made their way back to Jacob's house. It was slow going, and their wolves' grumbled and complained with them for leaving the leech alive, but they wanted their alpha to have the satisfaction of killing it.

To say that Kim and the other girls were shocked to see Bella laying almost completely limp in Brady's arms was an understatement. She had never seen the brunette as anything other than the strong willed, fearless, fierce yet so very compassionate woman they had come to love and respect. Around her she heard the gasps and cries of her friends. Bella's eyes were dimming, the life in them leaving her slowly.

"Brady, what happened to her?" Emily asked in horror.

"Edward took her. That's why we ran out of here so fast. We caught him before he got away, but he told her Jake was dead. It's like the life left her. I need to get her to the Cullen's so she can see he's ok. She always called him her sun, but I don't know right now. She's starting to REALLY scare me."

In a flurry of movement, all the girls went about getting ready to leave. All but one. Rachel stared at Bella in stoic curiosity as a single tear made its way down her cheek. She knew now what was going on, Bella wasn't breaking down like Brady and the other girls thought. She was in shock. It was the way she and her sister had been after they'd lost their mom.

"Rachel, are you coming?" Emily asked before the walked out of the door.

"I'm staying here. I- I just need a few minutes." She told them quietly.

Brady growled something quietly under his breath. "Whatever." He knew she didn't want to see Paul. The whole pack knew it. For Brady, who had been taken under the silver wolf's wing, it was like a slight against his big brother. If Rachel had known that, she was only just now acknowledging it.

"How's Paul?" She barely whispered.

He sighed and bit back a scathing retort. "I'll tell you when you REALLY want to know." He told her firmly before whisking the girls away in Kim's SUV. Bella was his main priority right now, and he had made it perfectly clear to her.

Rachel still didn't know what to think of Bella. She had certainly changed. She thought back to what had been said last night before the bonfire. She had been watching the intricate relationship with Bella and the wolves ever since then. Even her bonds with the other imprints were well and above what Rachel expected. She wasn't an imprint, her brother had merely marked her as a mate. Surely that meant she would be beneath her and the other girls who had been chosen for their wolves by the spirits. Their last conversation replayed on her mind in a loop.

"Look Rachel, lets just get one thing straight. I don't like you. I never have and I probably never will. I DO, however, like Jacob. So for him, and for Billy, I'll try to refrain from being too harsh when I say this."

Rachel arched an eyebrow and waited while Bella seemingly gathered her thoughts. "Well?! Spit it out. I haven't got all day. I want to go down to the beach sometime soon. Paul is in with the other boys, it'll be the perfect time to go without him chasing after me."

Bella shook her head. "You don't know how much I want to slap you for that comment Rachel Lynn Black. For the longest time, I wondered if you were well and truly that much of a bitch or if it was all an act to hide the pain of your mom's passing after the accident. Now I see it was just you being yourself. You are one of the most insensitive, narcissistic, obnoxious PATHETIC excuses for a woman I have EVER met, and that is to INCLUDE myself after Edward left me enthralled for 6 months."

"EXCUSE YOU?!" Rachel hissed.

Bella shook her head. "Paul is one of the most caring men I have ever met in my life. He's loyal and he takes the time to make sure a person is worth it before they're let into his life. But when they are, when he accepts someone, he's protective, he's funny, a little proud, he's helpful and best yet, he's a wolf. And he's stuck with you!"

"What's that supposed to mean, he's stuck with me?!"

"Rachel, you don't even take the time to get to know him. You just assume that because he imprinted on you, he'll know everything about you and be ok with the fact that you don't give a rats ass about anyone but yourself. You left your little brother to care for your handicapped father at the most opportune moment. You started all kinds of drama in school just to sit back and tell people I told you so, if the rumors are to be believed. You want the center of attention to be on you all the time and don't care who you have to step on to get what you want. So yes, he's stuck with you."

Rachel was struck stupid as she stared at Bella. This was not the same meek little girl she had known as a teenager. In front of her was an aggrieved woman on the rampage. She shook her head. "You have no clue what you're talking about Isabella marie Swan. You don't know me."

"No, Rachel. All I know, is if your mother was alive to see how you've chosen to live your life, she'd be more ashamed of you than your own brother. She would also be the one to tell you that Jacob hates the fact that you were imprinted on for fear that you'll run away and leave Paul like you did the family that has NEVER been able to count on you for anything other than being just another pretty face. And even THAT will fade in time."

Bella moved to step off the porch. She turned and looked over her shoulder. "Tell me Rachel. When you look in the mirror… do you see Sarah, or do you see the monster that everyone else does? Because while you look like your mom, you will NEVER be her. You're heart is turning as black as your last name."

With that in mind, Rachel stood, grabbed her keys, her purse and a jacket and called Brady's number. She had found it in her brother's phone after deciding she was going to drive to the Cullen's home. She needed to see him, and then she and Paul would have to talk. She had wronged him for no other reason than her own apparent selfishness. It was something she knew deep in her heart she would have to change if she wanted to see anything happen between them. With a hopeful heart, she started her car and headed off to start her life in the pack that had claimed her.