Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns it all.

Rated M for several reasons.

Chpt 37 Dead to Me

JBPOV

My thoughts are not for sharing with my brothers. Not tonight.

My sharp eyesight is unfocussed as I dangle from the cliff over First Beach, fingertips digging viciously into the edge. Only the need to concentrate on my grip prevents me from giving into the vibrating heat in my body and the raging desire to phase back into my wolf form. Which is why I'm here, you learn a trick or two, with time.

I'm totally unprepared to deal with this, I haven't thought about her in a long time and I if I had I'm pretty sure this would not have been what I imagined.

Sam dismissed me as soon as we'd finished planning our response, he's a good leader and was happy to give me my alone time. He trusts that ultimately I will do what needs to be done and I hope that confidence isn't misplaced.

The unexpected visit from Doctor Cullen has rocked my world to the foundations.

Sam recognised his scent immediately and we followed him as he skirted around the edge of his territory. Even though he stayed inside he was dangerously close to the border, setting our hackles rising. For some reason The Olympic Peninsula is mecca to vamps, bloodsuckers are always passing through here, not always successfully thanks to the pack. But this was different, this was a leech who has a treaty, one who has a right to be here. His presence is unwelcome on a whole other level, were they moving back?

Sam and I found him eventually, squatting on a rock on the opposite side of the creek, clearly waiting for us.

We stared at each other for a long time, fucking leech hadn't changed at all and for all his supposed difference as an animal drinker his stench was just as offensive.

'After the awkward introductions have been made Sam and I drop down onto our haunches willing to hear his explanation of why he's here at least.

"I need to speak with you about Bella." He begins.

I growl, rising to my feet, beside me Sam does the same. If he or that ginger Cullen he calls his son have changed Bella they've broken the treaty.

"She moved to LA, when she left here." He rushes on, sensing our anger, "My son, Edward, he cared for her deeply and although he wanted her to lead a normal human life he kept a watch on her, to ensure she was safe.

Then she disappeared."

He pauses, looking down at his hands for a long time. While Sam and I regard him stonily.

"As you probably know, my other son, Jasper attacked her on her 18th birthday. Which is what triggered Edward to leave. Jasper is a vicious, soulless monster and we expelled him from our family immediately afterwards, we had tried so hard to help him change but the incident with Bella was just too much."

He sighs heavily.

"When Edward checked on Bella that last time, he discovered that Jasper and his new coven had found and befriended her in LA. She was having some difficulty at work and they lured her away. He managed to trace them, they were using Bella's charge cards, stealing her money.

You know that Charlie left her everything?" He looks up.

We nod.

"He caught up with them in Wyoming, we went to help him. But it was too late, on so many levels.

She was already changing when he found them. Slowly and painfully, Jasper had injected her with so little venom it was taking far too long. Ed . . . . Edward told me of her physical injuries, the deep lacerations, broken bones and evidence of . . . ." His voice breaks and he stops for a moment to compose himself. "Of sexual abuse. He still couldn't read her mind and for once I believe he was glad for that fact."

I howl in rage and Sam snarls viciously.

"He tried to challenge them." Cullen continues. "But three against one was too much. He managed to escape, barely and call me, to tell me everything. When . . . ."

He stops again, dropping his head briefly into his hands. As he speaks again his voice is muffled and strained.

"When my family and I arrived at the rendezvous Jasper and his coven had obviously got to him first, he was. He was gone. Burnt. Murdered."

He raises his head pained golden eyes searching ours for a sign of understanding or sympathy. I don't know if he's finding it, I can only think about Bells, a dead leech means nothing to me.

"Of course we went after them. We went to try to save Bella. I understand that you think all vampires are evil and should be destroyed but please believe me when I tell you that is not true. If we had been able to get to her, to save her in time, she would have led a good life, a good existence. She was a wonderful girl. We love, loved, her very much.

They were very hard to track but we did catch up with them eventually.

To my shame a part of me will always wish we hadn't.

On top of the loss of my son the reality of Bella's new existence was, is, unbearable.

She cannot be saved. She is one of them. It saddens me, deeply. We tried. But what they did to her. How she died. How she awakened. It was too much. Oh God, she bathed in blood, human blood. She revelled in it. She was gone. Whatever walks with the Whitlocks is not my beloved daughter Bella."

He waits, voice drowned out by our yipping and snarling. The urge to kill something is almost irresistible. Sam calms first and eventually I can follow his lead.

Nodding in understanding the Doctor continues. "Still we, I, couldn't abandon her. She deserved better. And so we tracked them.

Which is how we discovered that they were doing it again. Targeting another innocent human girl.

I tried to stop them but we were too late. Again. They took her. Killed her family, fed on them.

We followed and this time, this time, we were close enough to intervene. I still don't know how we managed it, the Whitlocks are a powerful coven, but we did. We got her away from them before they changed her.

I wish we'd been earlier. We could have spared her so much pain and suffering. They abused her, just as they did Bella and she is damaged, but she is alive, and she is free.

Now I have to find a way to keep her that way. And that is why I need your help. My family is not strong enough to keep her safe and there is no other vampire I can trust. But you exist to preserve human life. With your help I can keep her safe.

To be completely honest. I cannot see any other way. They will follow us here. Only you can end this. I am relying on you to save this girl and end their evil existence. I apologise because I am bringing danger to your door. But I had no other choice.

Please forgive me. Please help me." He pleads.'

Sam phased briefly and we took our leave, agreeing to meet him again after we had spoken to the pack and the Elders. There was a school of thought to send him away, we couldn't kill him because of the treaty. Well we could, but our ancestors gave their word to the Cullens and wasn't our place to break it.

In the end right won out. We exist to protect human life against bloodsuckers, it's what we do. Despite being one Dr Cullen was really only asking us to do something that comes naturally to us. And so, in the end, we agreed.

Planning was easy. We are not the young amateurish wolves we were when the pack first began to form, far from it and this Whitlock coven will be no match for us. The dead Doctor enhanced his creditability by informing us of the gifts possessed by his kind and the Whitlocks in particular and he told us how to counter them. We wanted to hide the girl in La Push but unfortunately she's so traumatised by her horrific experience she can't bear to be around strangers, Dr Cullen and his wife are the only ones she trusts at the moment. We don't like the idea of leaving her with the leeches but once the Whitlocks are gone we will discuss it again.

Fuck.

I can't wait to sink my teeth into that evil blonde fucker, Jasper. It's a shame the ginger one is dead and I can't kill him too, for dragging my friend into this unholy mess. Even supposedly 'safe' leeches spread nothing but death and destruction.

My vision is red, red with rage as I hang over the ocean.

How could she have been so fucking stupid as to go off with three vampires, one of whom had already tried to kill her! Bella, you naïve child. Why?

If she were here now I would shake her by her scrawny neck. Ugh!

My vision darkens. Him. I vaguely remember him. The quiet one, always looked like he was in pain. Hah, I bet it was hard for him to resist all that juicy young flesh at the High School. I hadn't begun to phase when they moved away so I only remember him with my weak pre-wolf eyes but Sam tells me he was covered in scars and exuded an air of menace which always made him uneasy.

Stupid fucking Cullens. Taking a monster like that into their ranks and trying to change him. Bringing him here.

Hatred is too weak a word for what I feel for him. It's visceral, my guts cry out for his painful death. I hope he does come. I'll be waiting for him.

Why? If only those fucking bloodsuckers had never come here, if she'd never met them and fallen in love with Edward. What if we'd got back to her house sooner the night Victoria attacked Charlie, if I hadn't tried to kiss her we wouldn't have gotten into an argument, we would have made it back in time to save him. Paul wouldn't have died and she wouldn't have felt she had to leave, we would have been able to protect her. If only she had been her usual passive self and hadn't attempted to defend Charlie with her regrettable instinct for disaster.

Suddenly I haul myself back up onto the cliff top, body wracked with heaving sobs.

It's tearing me apart. Nobody deserved this, least of all sweet innocent Bells, she only ever wanted to take care of everybody, make everyone happy. I've barely thought of her in the last few years I realise guiltily, long since learning to accept her absence from my life but at one time she was my best friend. I was the only one who got her sense of humour, her strength, her beauty. My first crush, my first love, unrequited.

Dead. Tortured, raped and killed by a vampire psychopath. Made Monster.

He will pay for what he did. And for what we will have to do because of it.

My tears finally dry leaving my heart heavy with loss.

If they come here she will be destroyed, once I helped Sam spare her from the pack, but now she is dead nothing will save her. I won't protect her, I can't.