Chapter Twelve - Wolf Worries

A Quileute man stepped out of the forest. "Well, WE do think death is preferable to becoming a leech, and you've just broken the treaty!"

"Hey, he just saved my little sister. He didn't kill her or drink from her!" Emmett protested.

The man nodded and was suddenly flanked by two giant wolves. I knew instinctively that these wolves were dangerous to us and, like Children of the Moon, their teeth and claws would likely slice through our skin. Carlisle had informed us of the tribe's history when we first came here, but he was under the obviously mistaken impression the wolves had died out with Ephraim's generation. We needed to tread carefully if we didn't want to get into a fight that could end up with one of us being hurt or killed. "The treaty doesn't say kill or drink from – it says bite. We witnessed him biting her."

"Did you watch her kill herself too?" I demanded angrily. Had they seen what she was doing, but not intervened? Could they have stopped her?

The man shook his head in distress, as the wolves whimpered. "What are you talking about? We heard the gunshot and came to investigate."

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Look, we don't want to fight you. We don't want any trouble. We are leaving town today and won't be coming back."

The wolves growled and nodded their heads enthusiastically. The man ignored them and put his arms across his chest. "What about the girl?"

"She'll be coming with us."

"Who is she?"

"Isabella Swan."

The wolves growled fiercely. "What? You changed Chief Swan's only daughter?" the man shouted, stepping forward threateningly, his hands now by his sides and his fists clenched. He seemed to be shivering violently. "She's under Billy Black's protection! She's considered one of us by the elders of our tribe! This is war!"

"Stop!" I commanded, sending them a wave of calm and obedience. "She would have died, if I didn't change her! I saved her! At least now she'll have the chance to live and love. If your tribe truly cares about her, surely you'd see it's better than her being dead!"

The man and the wolves all shook their heads negatively, glaring at me. "She's better off dead than a cold, emotionless, murdering monster!"

I scowled and rolled my eyes. "Yes, I agree with you." That threw them all for a loop and they looked back at me in confusion. "There are certainly many vampires who are sadistic bastards and would fit that description. I've personally killed quite a few of them. However, we're not like that and we'll make sure she isn't either."

"You kill your own kind?" the man exclaimed incredulously.

I smirked. "I've killed thousands of my own kind. I know you can see my scars. Every one of them represents a vampire that no longer walks the earth. Emmett and I killed one just a few months ago after he attacked Bella in Phoenix. If we hadn't gotten to her when we did, she'd have come home in a body bag, rather than a cast. The sadistic bastard decided to torture her before eating her, which ironically bought us the time we needed to catch up to them and save her. Of course, if Edward hadn't sucked the bastard's venom out from where she was bit, she'd have been a vampire way back then."

"She was bit and you prevented the change? You can do that? Why did you?" The guy was flabbergasted. He clearly wasn't expecting anything like that.

I sighed. "It's nearly impossible to do. Usually when vampires smell fresh blood, they go into a feeding frenzy, like a shark. Once they taste it, they're pretty much lost to pure instinct, to the inner beast, and it's nearly impossible to stop drinking until the blood is all gone, unless they are interrupted by another vampire and start to fight over their prey or they have excellent control enough to deliberately change someone. My family loves Bella though, so we were able to be there for her and save her from the other vampire without losing control, even though she was gushing blood from multiple wounds. Carlisle would have been the ideal one to remove the venom, as he is immune to the scent of human blood, having trained himself and having never drank human blood in his entire 360 years of existence, but he was too busy stabilizing her other wounds. He had to stop the bleeding from other places if she was to have the tainted blood removed. Carlisle chose Edward to remove the venom, believing he would never be able to hurt his mate, but I know he wouldn't have been able to stop without my help. Thankfully, I was able to stop him from drinking too much, and we rushed her to the hospital. I will admit though, it was only because we all feel so strongly about Bella, considering her a daughter, sister, and friend, a part of our family, that we were able to do what we did for her."

"Why did you stop the change then, only to go and change her now?" the wolf leader asked in confusion, much less hostile than he had been up to this point.

I sighed, hoping they could understand, "We stopped the change then, because she had a chance for a human life, and we all wanted her to stay human if possible. None of us were given a choice to become a vampire, and it isn't an existence we would choose for someone else if they had another option. We drink from animals because we don't want to be monsters or murderers. None of us like having to survive on blood, so we do the best we can to cage our inner beasts and let our human side rule our lives, except when we have to hunt. While I have a lot of issues with being what I am, and there are a lot of downsides to being a vampire, I still think it is better than being dead."

The Alpha looked even more confused than before. His wolf companions had stopped their low growling and backed off slightly from their aggressive stance. I sent them calming, trusting, accepting waves as I continued my explanation. "Our family has been able to do a lot of good for a lot of humans over the years. Not all vampires are the same, just as not all people are the same. An evil, greedy human will make an evil greedy vampire. Then look at Carlisle – the son of a preacher. He went out vampire hunting with a group of parishioners wielding torches intending to kill them and had the misfortune to actually find one. He hated what he had become and tried to kill himself, but he soon found out that vampires are rather hard to kill. He ran out of London, refusing to feed, trying to starve himself to death, when he came across a deer in the forest. His instincts took over and he drained it. He'd eaten venison when he was human and was able to accept his existence feeding off of animals. But even that wasn't enough for him, so he trained himself to become immune to human blood. He has spent the last 200 years working as a physician to save human lives and make their lives better, helping hundreds of thousands of people. A compassionate, loving human becomes a compassionate, loving vampire."

The man was clearly conflicted and was running his fingers through his short dark hair and periodically tugging on it. He looked up at me with an intense stare. "That doesn't match with our legends. How can this be? How do I know you are telling the truth and not just trying to save your own skin?"

I rolled my eyes, but I was happy he was at least questioning his beliefs, instead of stubbornly clinging to them in the face of contradictory information. "Look, why don't you and your buddies come over here and take a look at her? I'll back away and allow you safe access. You'll be able to see the old bite scar on her left wrist, as well as her current injuries. She shot herself in the head and then fell on the rocks. There is no way she would have survived this as a human. The venom hasn't started healing the wounds yet, so you'll be able to judge it for yourself. Also, I have a gift. I am an empath. I have the ability to sense the emotions of others and send my emotions to them. If you are willing, I can show you all exactly how I feel about Bella, and even how my family members feel about her too. That will prove we aren't emotionless at least."

The man bit his lip and tugged on his chin as he considered it. "Alright. Jump up to the other two, and we'll take a look at her. Then we'll decide from there."

I reluctantly agreed and joined Rose and Emmett on the bridge, knowing this was our best chance at solving this amicably. I knew Carlisle would hate it if we had to kill the wolves, as he respected all life, whatever form it took. Rose began berating me in a mere whisper for leaving Bella alone with the dogs. I ignored her and kept my eyes on Bella's limp form, making sure the mutts didn't do anything to hurt her or try to kill her. I carefully monitored their emotions, ready to knock them on their butts with the pain of the change if they tried anything.

The gray wolf kept his eyes on the three vampires while the other two inspected Bella. The one in human form sighed as he spotted Charlie's gun a few feet away from the body. He looked up at me warily. "You're right, bloodsucker. She wouldn't have survived, even with a doctor on site at the time. However, I still don't like the idea of allowing another leech into the world. It would be better if we just put her out of her misery now." The wolves both nodded in agreement.

"No!" I shouted, tense and ready to pounce. The man started trembling violently, but held his form, as I stayed in place. He barked out a command in his language to the other two, keeping them from attacking.

He furrowed his brow, looking from me to Bella and back again. "Go ahead and show me, bloodsucker. Show me why I shouldn't kill her. Prove your existence is justifiable," he reluctantly challenged.

I thought about my myriad feelings for Bella and sent them all to the three of them in a big wave. The man gasped and all three jaws dropped in shock, which was slightly comical to see on two vicious, horse sized wolves. "That's how I feel about Bella, and this is how Carlisle feels about her," I announced, sending his paternal love, affection, protection, pride, devotion, and concern. I had one more cocktail up my sleeve to use for evidence. "And this is how Charlie feels about her."

It was very similar to Carlisle's mix of emotion, though not as intense or rich. It didn't have the same depth. Charlie truly loved his daughter, but it was a fairly abstract love. He had hardly spent any time with her at all in her seventeen years of life and didn't really know her. He loved her because she was his daughter, not because she was Bella, whereas my family had come to love her for herself and welcomed her into our family, giving her the appropriate titles, like daughter and sister, accordingly. So while Charlie loved her because she was his daughter, she was Carlisle's daughter because he loved her. Charlie would have loved her just as much even if she was just like Jessica, whereas if she was like Jessica, she never would have become part of our family. It was a different kind of love they each offered, though both considered her a daughter, and both types of paternal love, represented by the two men, were good and right in their own way.

The man bowed his head in thought and acknowledgment. His face was deeply lined when he raised it up again, the outer reflection of his inner turmoil. "I cannot deny the complexity of your emotions. It is just like a human's, only stronger. I think you and the other Cullens are exceptions to the rule though, and I can now understand why Ephriam deemed you different enough to grant you a treaty, rather than simply destroy you. A treaty you did just violate."

I was getting frustrated. "Well, I didn't know the Cullens back then, so I'm not actually on the treaty," I explained, not sure it that would help or hurt our case. "Look, I will give you my word that I will take care of Bella and teach her to respect human life as we do. I will teach her to hunt animals. We will leave and go far away from here, so you need not fear for your families or your tribe."

The man growled. "We are not only concerned for our own families and tribe members. We cannot have it on our consciences if she is killing other people's families elsewhere in the world, when we could have prevented their deaths by removing the threat."

I frowned. "I just told you I would teach her to hunt animals, not people. We will take her to one of our houses in the wilderness that doesn't have any humans around for hundreds of miles, so we don't have to worry about any accidents while she's learning to control her thirst. We don't want her killing anyone any more than you do, not just for the humans' sake, but for hers as well. She would carry the guilt of her actions for all eternity. It would haunt her forever, as vampires have perfect memories, and thus can never forget past mistakes."

The man stared into my eyes, judging my sincerity. He pursed his lips as he considered it. "If we agree to overlook this, to allow you to leave peacefully with Bella, you must never return to this area. The treaty will hereby be considered null and void, and if you do not vacate the area within the next two days, we will attack. You must be gone before she awakens, or we will destroy her. You must never return to settle within a sixty mile radius of La Push, for all eternity. Your presence causes us to become wolves. It's too late for us, but we don't want any more of our young men suffering through the change and the repercussions it has on our lives."

"My apologies," I offered sincerely. "We thought the wolves had died out with Ephriam's generation. We had no idea there was a cause and effect relationship between our kind and yours, or we wouldn't have come here."

That statement, out of all of them, seemed to have the most effect on him. His shoulders relaxed a bit, and he sighed and nodded. "I suppose you couldn't have known," he muttered resignedly. He looked up at me again. "You have heard my conditions: You must be gone before she awakens. You must never return. You must keep your promise of teaching her your ways and keeping her from feeding off of humans. If we later discover she is feeding from humans, we will hunt down your coven and destroy it. Do you accept and agree to these conditions?"

I knew technically it wasn't my place to be making agreements on behalf of the Cullen coven, but the situation was already touch and go, and I knew Carlisle would approve doing whatever was necessary to get Bella out of their safely and with the least amount of bloodshed. "I do."

"So be it," he intoned. He and the wolves began moving toward the forest. "We will help clean up the investigation here, for Charlie's sake. He needs the closure of believing she's dead, though this is going to be really hard on him."

As soon as they had moved a safe distance away from Bella, I jumped down and scooped her up in my arms, thankful the wolves had decided not to try to kill her. I would never have allowed it, of course, but she still could have gotten hurt before I destroyed all three of them.

I flitted quickly over to Bella's truck, the movement startling a frozen Rose and Em into action. Peering through the window, I noticed the suicide letters she'd left on the seat. Rose opened the passenger side door and grabbed the envelope addressed to our family. I left her to take care of business and raced through the woods to the house, knowing Rose would read the other letters to make sure they didn't expose our secret.

xxxxxxx

AN: *breathes sigh of relief* One more crisis averted. Well done, Major.