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Chapter 164
Trip
Edward
"I feel a bit like a princess. You're the prince who might not have arrived on a white horse, but you did arrive in a silver Volvo. And instead of a glass slipper, I got a glass house," Bella tried to explain to me while I was still sitting on the desk.
"What do you want with just ONE slipper, too?" I questioned, whereupon she stuck her tongue out at me again.
I pulled her close to me and took her face in my hands.
"I love you, Bella. My one and only in this beautiful world!", I whispered and kissed my goddess with all the love, with all the enthusiasm that was possible for me.
I did not know how much time elapsed between our lips, but it was unimportant. In my opinion. In the back of my mind I thought I heard something like 'Dinner's ready', but I couldn't pay any attention to it right now. Bella's lips were so incredibly sweet.
"Dad! Edward! Mom! Bella!" they screeched all at once, startling me.
Reluctantly, very reluctantly - ! - I opened my eyes and ended the kiss.
I sighed.
We looked to the side. At our five children, who were grinning maliciously - that's how it seemed to me - to themselves.
All. Ced too!
So we turned our attention back to our children.
After all, that had been my wish. A whole day with my family and this day was unfortunately already nearing its end.
We returned to our now cozy eat-in kitchen.
I smiled.
So slowly I learned to see through my Bella. The look on her face when we were in our kitchen and then she was standing in Sonya's. Or in Peter and Stan's. The two of them were passionate about cooking and had a correspondingly spacious kitchen. I had only entered it once, but when Bella told me about it, there was a little envy in my fiancée's eyes, which really was out of character for her.
The fact that food usually had to be chewed was still a bit too strange for Ced for the time being. It was contradictory to the liquids from the bottles he was used to. But he could be persuaded to a little mashed potatoes with rendered bacon cubes in it. Afterwards, however, he still preferred two baby bottles. One with milk, one with blood. Then we sat down in the living room on the floor in front of the sofa, after we had pushed the table a bit into the room. So that Ced, who was anything but asleep, could crawl back and forth between all of us unimpeded as he pleased. We talked for half the night.
Jake talked about his accident and how he came to the conclusion of needing to just run away.
I had already told Bella, which is why she stayed pretty quiet.
No one accused him of this, but he promised that should he have any funny thoughts again, he would say so clearly in advance and not think it over quietly and secretly. In the course of this Jake thanked me again for his new cell phone, which I had brought him yesterday. It was the same model, only a newer generation.
I had even been able to save the internal data storage and transfer it to the new device. Thus, all contacts, pictures, videos, and chat histories were preserved for him.
From an educational point of view, I actually thought it was wrong. It looked like I was still rewarding him for his actions or, conversely, trying to buy my apology. But the fact was that my son needed a phone. Today alone he had received six calls and countless messages. One of those calls was from Abigail, which Becky noted very jealously. However, she only asked for the phone number of someone named Jessie, which reassured Becky to some extent.
We also talked about school, which would start again on Monday. Leah brought up the subject of whether or not I would go back.
We discussed it. Factually and objectively, we weighed the pros and cons. One thing became clear pretty quickly.
Yes, I wanted to go to medical school. I didn't want to depend on Carlisle for that anymore. What if he wasn't around and one of my loved ones was seriously injured? Jake or Leah, who couldn't go to a regular doctor. Ced, who couldn't either. Among other things, his temperature was above that of a human, and his skin was of a more vampiric than human texture, which a human wouldn't necessarily notice, but a doctor would inevitably notice during an examination. Or the humans were so badly injured or sick that I could not help. My last report card was too old for my looks, so I definitely needed a current one. There was no way around it. Of course, we could also forge it if necessary. It wouldn't be the first time. On the other hand, this time I was very happy to go to school. Within the last century, my school visits were like a sleep-like state. I went there because it was expected of the doctor's son. And precisely because of the unproblematic report cards that we had thus always acquired quite legitimately. But now I went to school with my children. That was interesting. Music lessons with Becky, biology with the twins together, and geography and sociology with Jake only. This I was very reluctant to give up.
We agreed that I should graduate now, when I only had half a year to go.
However, I was in good hope that I could convince Mr. Taylor, with Carlisle's help, that I would not have to do the full seven classes. Just as Jake had suggested the day before yesterday. Half-day student. With the new schedules, it was certainly possible for us to have a class together again, despite the shortened teaching schedule for me.
Bella was very enthusiastic about this plan. She had resolved to work specifically on her doctoral thesis and to travel to Milton Stewart two or three times a week at the most to do so.
I approved of this plan so that Bella would continue to have contact with other people. Ced would stay so long with Esmé.
But unlike before, she only wanted to do the pure lab work at Milton's, and then produce the written elaboration of the results at home. Maybe when Ced would be asleep, or if I came home at noon - just then.
She had forbidden that I help her with it,. I respected this wish and could even understand her. I'd write her doctoral thesis in one night without depending on any laboratory results. But she would allow me to check her work for spelling and grammar.
When she was finished. Only then, not a minute earlier!
The children had a ripping good time over this further clarification by Bella. It was an exhilarating twist. For the children, I could do all the chores in a few minutes, and they would welcome it, but with them I refused. And with Bella, I was not allowed.
Not the only funny incident of this evening.
We always fetched something from Ced's play corner. A stuffed animal had fallen for him, and he hardly let go of it the whole time. Actually, only when it hindered him to climb on us or when he needed both hands to play. A purple kraken with big yellow eyes.
In the book on sea creatures that I had shown Ced yesterday morning, such a cartoon character had led through the topics.
Even the almost grown-up children found some interesting things in the corner. Marcus and Jake, for example, were sitting over a game that involved pressing a button to use the mouth of a hippo to catch small balls. The ladies, on the other hand, took colorful ribbons and knotted them into bracelets.
Ced watched the two as closely as if he were checking their efforts for accuracy. He doubted some things seriously. When Leah and Becky knotted their ribbons into a key chain and attached it to Ced's key, our son was extremely pleased with the result. He also picked up the chip crumbs that Bella had accidentally scattered when she opened the bag. Every single one.
Only after midnight we went to bed.
Ced had already fallen asleep on Jake's lap. He had not managed to persuade him to swim at night.
I turned out the lights everywhere and we went up the new, back stairs to put all our kids to bed.
"Why do I have the last room, anyway?" Jake took the opportunity to ask, a little offended, as he leaned in his doorway with Becky.
"Because your thoughts are the loudest!" I answered directly.
He smiled sheepishly and thought about what he was really putting my gift through sometimes.
I had already mentioned that I knew all of Becky's tattoos, right?
We wished everyone a good night and then stood in Ced's room.
We had considered that Ced because of his immense development should learn to sleep in his own crib.
I really liked having both Bella and Ced in my arms at night. However, Bella had asked me how I would feel about Jake lying between us. Every ... single ... night ... Because that's what it would come down to if he got too used to it.
"I'm not comfortable with the idea of leaving him alone in his room," I stated my concerns, however.
"Me neither," was fortunately Bella's opinion as well. "He's always slept with us so far, and he doesn't know this room yet. After all, if he wakes up and gets scared, you won't necessarily get that right away ... without his thoughts."
So we took the cradle into our bedroom and Bella fell asleep in my arms.
I hadn't realized how different the night was when there was no baby between us. I found this instinct of Bella's very interesting and thought about it for some time.
The last few nights she had only moved very carefully while sleeping. Only one hand stretched out to me or something similar, so as not to endanger the baby. But now Bella nestled and snuggled close to me. Just like our first night when we had destroyed Samantha. I feasted on her unhindered closeness. On her warmth, on her scent, on the fine pulsation that my lips picked up on her carotid artery. In everything. Even her nighttime monologue about glass Volvos who parked in white garages and needed to be fed.
Fortunately for me, Bella woke up quite early.
"Good morning, my beauty!" I whispered and breathed a kiss on her lips.
A tender kiss that Bella was not willing to let come to an end. It became playful and finally eager. One hand slipped under the pajama top in her back, one of hers wandered to my butt. And they both kept wandering. I rolled over my angel, whereby her legs wrapped around my hips. I left her sensual mouth, kissing my way down her throat, caressing the skin that I was gradually ridding of excess nightwear fabric. She moaned softly and voluptuously to herself while she tousled through my hair and massaged my shoulders. My center had been awakened for some time and was already urging to unite with Bella ...
"Wha you?" was suddenly asked behind us, though, and we didn't move another millimeter.
Quite disenchanted, we looked at each other. Offended at first, but we began to smile when our son spoke up again questioningly.
"We're parents," Bella stated.
I nodded and gave my angel a kiss on the tip of his nose before rolling myself off the bed. I walked over to the crib and my son looked at me, giggling, as if he knew perfectly well that he had interrupted us doing something. And as if he found that fact pretty funny.
"Good morning, my little one," I picked him up and gave him a kiss.
I waited a bit longer for Bella to button my pajama top back up until I returned to bed with Ced. He immediately crawled towards his mother to get his 'good morning' kiss from her as well. Clumsily, he propped himself up with his hands on her breasts.
Well, if he knew what you could do with those, I chuckled to myself. Or how the associated girl reacted to it. He would probably find that out on his own one day.
While Ced babbled in fluent baby gibberish at his mother, I picked up my cell phone and headed for the kitchen.
It was just before eight o'clock in the morning.
I had received a text message.
Carlisle.
He had rolls in his house for my family.
We did have a fully automatic coffee machine that offered different variations, but this was only used when everyone was downstairs. In this respect, I turned on the normal coffee machine. I quickly conjured up some croissants, put them in the oven and ran over.
I found my parents, lovingly facing each other, in the middle of the stairs.
"Good morning," I wished formally.
Somewhat embarrassed, they sorted themselves apart.
Carlisle had been at the hospital tonight and had just returned. On the way he had brought the rolls with him.
I thanked them both profusely. For our house. To my siblings, I would catch up on it. They had all spent the past weeks every free minute with it, my extensive rebuilding and extension plans into action. That's why they had made themselves so extremely scarce since the Christmas days. They had hoped to get it done during vacation so we could all explore it together without being hindered by our day-to-day duties. Marcus' work at the diner, for example, or the twins' training.
But they assured me that they would have loved to do it, for their family. Even if my specifications had been even more exclusive and even more extensive.
Before I went back, Esmé let me know that she had two more boxes of picture frames in case the one we had wasn't enough.
That was good to know. After all, Bella now had a lot of space room for photos.
I got the croissants out of the oven just in time, quickly set the table, filled the cups and a baby bottle, and put everything on a tray. Without it I would be too clumsy for five cups and a baby bottle. But my dexterity was enough to jump up in the gallery to the second floor without spilling a drop.
I began at Jake's.
As I basically expected, he was in his own little attic with Becky.
I was a little puzzled.
I knew Becky had her period, there was no denying the blood, nevertheless, things seemed to have gotten hot in there last night.
Her clothes scattered across the lying surface. Becky lay on her stomach as if looking out the windows. Jake lay with his head on her butt, one arm wrapped around her legs and the other holding one of her hands.
Fortunately for me, her butt was clothed. But nothing else.
"Jake," I whispered, tickling through the back of his neck. The big strong wolf liked that.
He stirred, let his face run over Becky, knowing of course exactly what body part was under him, and set to an affectionate bite. He paused when he saw me after all.
"Dad ... you found us," he stated, still a little sleepy.
I laughed.
"Where were you last night that you thought I'd have to look for you?" I asked exhilarated by his dream.
He sat up laboriously and ran his fingers through his hair, without letting go of Becky.
"I don't know, but somehow we were gone," he commented smiling.
"I will find you anywhere!" I vowed.
"We'll see about THAT in a minute!" he announced, however, doubtful and confident of victory. "The room is great. Thanks, Dad!" he followed up seriously.
"It's our home," I replied, giving him his kiss on the forehead.
I left him again.
He loved Becky's sleepy first look and wanted to elicit it from her himself.
I went up here upstairs through the intervening room.
In Leah's attic, a very similar picture awaited me. However, the two lay here so cuddled together that they could continue their love game directly. If they were awake. Body parts and blankets were intertwined and tangled, with Leah's head resting on Marcus' shoulder.
"Leah," I whispered, gently stroking her cheek.
Her eyelids fluttered. She turned over - stretching - a bit on her back, with the stuck blanket partially exposing her naked body.
Everyone involved had understood that I did not put any value on seeing my daughters unclothed. The implementation was still a problem at times. Situations like these, in which I could not gallantly turn away because I wanted to wake up my daughter, were abhorrent to me. It just wasn't proper. After all, Leah was no longer a little girl. Even though I was her father and felt nothing else for her, I could not help but notice that my princess was a truly breathtaking beauty, which was no wonder given her mother's genes.
While Leah quickly sat up, she therefore pulled the blanket higher again.
"Good morning, Dad," she said, already quite chipper.
"Good morning, little one," I replied, wanting to give her her kiss, but not getting around to it.
Marcus apparently missed Leah's warmth, unconsciously sought it, and turned so that he had it back. With that, he buried her under him, and Leah fell back on her back.
I put the cups down on the surface next to the lying surface and left my daughter to her fate.
She was quite satisfied with that.
So I was on my way to drop off the last of the beverages.
When I briefly checked in my mind whether everyone stayed awake and did not fall asleep again, I unfortunately noticed that all my children were about to be delighted. And I?, I thought, offended. Wasn't a father also entitled to the joys of love?
When I opened the door into the bedroom, though, I smiled.
My two angels had fallen asleep again.
I picked Ced up in my arms and sat on the edge of the bed.
I expected him to open his eyes at any moment. But he did not. He slept. Deep and sound.
A quick glance at his beautiful mother.
She wasn't sleeping nearly as soundly.
In short, I put Ced in his crib and decided to continue where he had interrupted us. Before that, I woke Bella up, of course, and my request apparently pleased her very much ...
One by one, everyone arrived for breakfast. All in comfortable sports clothes.
Jake and Leah were going to the woods with me, preferably with nothing on, and Becky and Marcus would jog around the grounds after breakfast and then use the gym over at Carlisle's house.
My angel was also not yet showered. Our son wanted to swim again. Bella had refused to let me help her into her bikini. She preferred a swimsuit.
I did not understand. She was beautiful, even with the clear signs of being a mother, which were not yet gone, but she was uncomfortable with her belly.
I took a backpack and packed besides shoes and clothes for my wolves a bottle of water and something to eat. According to a preliminary estimate, the two would be hungry again in an hour at the latest.
"And when can you be expected back?" asked the head of our family after the kitchen had been tidied up again.
I shrugged my shoulders ignorantly and looked questioningly at my children.
They didn't have an answer either.
"I have my phone with me and will call you in between," I stated, saying goodbye to my beloved for an indefinite period of time.
Ced peeked quite ... unbalanced.
"When you're big enough, we'll take you with us," I promised him.
He laughed merrily. And stretched himself quite strenuously, whereby he also pushed his arms up into the air.
"That's not quite enough, I'm afraid," I chuckled.
It was wonderful to run through the forest with my children.
It was beautiful weather - by vampiric standards. The cloud cover hung so high in the sky that it was still really bright. Moreover, it was dry, as it had been on the previous two days.
We raced each other.
I took the opportunity to hunt, with the two of them wanted to help me. They led me on a direct path to a fox den.
"What am I supposed to do with these?" I asked contemptuously. They weren't even enough for an appetizer.
'Diet?!' they teased me, and I pursued them directly.
"You need them more!" I shouted after them, but they only yelped loudly.
From laughter.
We wrestled with each other. Fooled around. We teased a black bear together, which we rather accidentally deprived of its hibernation. He ended up as a little snack in between. We jumped rivers, climbed mountains - if you could call it that in Maine - and sat on the edge of Lower Richardson Lake for a little snack.
The twins pitched in over the ready-to-eat cakes and sandwiches I had packed as if they hadn't eaten in days.
But we had also walked quite a ways so far, and without a break worth mentioning. About a hundred miles lay between here and our home, and we had hit a few hooks to bypass busier areas - even here … if you could call it that in Maine.
"What do you think about a little trip to Canada, and I'll show you where we lived about forty-three years ago?" I inquired.
"You used to live in Canada?" asked Leah, quite perplexed.
"Um ... yes ... I hadn't mentioned that before?" I asked cautiously.
The twins shook their heads in sync.
So I told them about my past places of residence, while my children listened in silence while they ate.
We set off again and crossed the border in the middle of the forest. Until we stood in front of our former house. As usual, very secluded from any people. Two buildings, which were connected with each other by a garage. In the smaller one my siblings lived, in the somewhat larger one I lived with my parents. I didn't have the front door key with me, for which I humbly apologized, so I broke into the garage.
After all, we still owned the property. The building was, in a sense, antique. Esmé had run riot here for weeks before we were able to move in. Esmé had always been a stickler for the details, so she had restored the house rather than renovating it.
"Well, I can't imagine Rosalie in a dirty old house like that," Jake chuckled.
"In our time, it was considerably cleaner. Esmé does not tolerate dust!" I made clear.
My children were well aware of that.
"That was my room," I said when we reached the last room upstairs.
"You can't even fit a bed in there," Leah stated, downright horrified.
"I didn't need one," I opined, however.
But I had a balcony to which I pulled open the French doors. As in those days, I sat down in the right-hand corner of the balcony and looked through the wrought-iron railing into the forest.
My children sat down to join me.
"Forty-three years ago, I had no idea about love. I read about it, heard it in people's thoughts, saw it in movies. But I didn't understand it. It was incomprehensible to me how one could lose oneself in another person, as I was being shown every day here in the house by the three couples present. I was seventy-nine years old at the time. A stately age to have lived a life. To be able to look back on beloved things. But I saw nothing there. And I lived with the conviction that there would be nothing more to come ... It wasn't until I met Bella, twenty-four years later, that I knew what love really meant ... And then it took another twenty years for me to experience it firsthand in all its facets," I said sentimentally, and they leaned their heads against my shoulders.
Leah on the right, Jake on the left.
I gave them each a gentle kiss on the forehead. So we sat there for a moment, enjoying the fact that we had each other.
Well, it was noon, and my predators were always hungry by default. In this respect, they also wanted to see the city where we had gone to school and worked.
Sherbrooke.
Emmett had actually worked here. In a nightclub at the bar, because he really wanted to know how it worked with the cocktails that were starting to become socially acceptable at the time.
We ran to the city limits, the kids got fully dressed, and we caught the bus for a trip into town.
First I went to an ATM, because I had no Canadian money. The buses were in the meantime all equipped so that you could pay by card.
There were all kinds of little delicacies - or so they said at least - that we didn't have, and the twins tried a lot of them.
For those staying at home, we would bring cookies.
Giant cookies. Almost twelve inches in diameter.
The inhabitants of the town spoke mostly French. The children took note of my mastery of this language in amazement.
"Vous pouvez apprendre tout ce que si vous voulez juste. Même l'économie," I said to Jake, who, however, just looked at me cutely confused. "You can learn anything if you just want to. Even economics," I translated immediately, and he contorted tormented his face.
"Do you speak any other languages?" asked Leah, chuckling.
"A few," I downplayingly replied.
The answer was not enough for her, so I named a few. She interrupted my enumeration.
We took a cab back to the outskirts of the city. As a tip I left him all the Canadian dollars I still had. It was twice the actual fare.
I wrapped the cookies very carefully in the children's clothes so that they did not break.
About one hundred and ninety miles lay ahead.
For a direct return without a break, I would not need an hour and a half. The twins were almost as fast as I was, but they couldn't keep up this pace permanently. Therefore, I planned a time span of about three hours, since all three of us did not necessarily want to hurry. Since it was still early afternoon, my little plan would probably work out.
We ran back rather leisurely.
Temporarily.
Then we chased each other again.
On the way I took a Wapiti elk, which had simply run before my feet and then hunted my son afterwards. For his comment that I would eat any cute little animal.
Then he chased me because I made disparaging remarks about wolves. Especially two of his species.
We talked a lot.
Okay, let's say I talked a lot. The wolves thought their part. Mostly some trivialities or we teased each other.
Jake also carried me on his back for quite a bit for fun.
It was a wonderful feeling. So high on horseback.
After this statement, I was sweepingly dropped off again.
On Douglas Mountain we took a short break and enjoyed the view on top of a very steep cliff. Almost fifty yards went down in front of us, the untouched world at our feet.
We sat down, they put their muzzles over my legs, and I cuddled my children's ears.
They both liked that, even if they would prefer that other hands do it, but they purred comfortably.
I also showed my children how well my equals could climb trees. They clung to my back in human form - like spider monkeys - and I transported them one after the other into the crown of a fifty-one yards high Weymouth pine. We could not see the sea from here, but we could see the Sebago Lake. But it was also right in front of us.
I peered at my watch. Everything was going according to plan.
"Since we're already here in the area ... why don't you show me where you always camp," I challenged my kids.
They agreed and we climbed down again.
In the meantime, I had a moderate heart attack. A branch broke off when Jake grabbed it. Fortunately, he was able to catch himself on the next one, but dislocated his arm. Snivelling, he then sat on the ground and cursed under his breath. I had the syringes with me, but Jake wouldn't hear of them. I wanted to set the joint again and it would hurt, but ...
"Can't we just wait for this to heal on its own?" he pushed my hands away.
Leah, by the way, just laughed at him, which didn't help my son's mood much.
"Jake. There's nothing there to heal. Nothing is broken!" I tried to say and put my hands back on his shoulder. The cooling alone would do him good. "Why does Becky have a bruise on her tailbone anyway?" I inquired.
My son turned bright red on cue, and at the moment he was about to look me in the eyes with embarrassment, I nudged the joint back into place. He dropped to his side, cursing, and held his shoulder while the blush disappeared.
I smirked.
I knew the answer without him. Through Becky. Sex in a bathroom, with him pushing Becky against something on the wall. I had seen the hematoma from this by chance this morning.
My son needed a moment to recover from these strains.
That's what he called it.
He let Leah carry him all the way to Lisa and Jason's grandparents' cabin. By the time we got there, he didn't even notice one bit of it.
We were still a good distance from the cabin when I noticed light.
"Are the grandparents there, by any chance? Or Lisa and Brandon who are having a little downtime?" I inquired.
"I'm sure they aren't. The cabin has no heating," Jake shook his head.
The children got dressed. They wanted to check if everything was in order.
Whoever was in there, two naked teenagers would still look strange. In January. Only a few degrees above freezing.
They finally sent me ahead.
I was their dad and had to protect my children from any dangers. Even from dangerous burglars.
I crept up carefully, silently, and very gently pushed the door open.
A woman ... whom I immediately took to task.
"What are you doing here?", I asked her brusquely.
Instead of answering, she just shrugged her shoulders.
"Ma'am. You have no authority to be here!" I stated and approached her.
She put her arms around my neck and pulled me down to her lips. The taste of the forbidden was sweet. I pushed the door shut behind me with my foot and surrendered. And laughed at the thoughts of my children.
"Dad?!" they promptly followed and rushed through the door.
To free myself from the clutches of this woman. To avenge their mother.
"Mom?!" came right after.
"Did you really think I would cheat on your mother?", I laughed at my children some more.
"Of course not!" they unabashedly lied to me.
The little plan had worked. Bella's little surprise.
She had set up an extensive picnic on the table. Roast chicken, salad in canning jars, small pretzel sticks in which bacon and cheese was baked, fruit skewers, juice, lemonade.
I could almost hear the children's mouths watering.
While the kids didn't leave a crumb, we entertained Bella with our tales from today.
Bella had already eaten. Today at noon - with Becky and Marcus together. And later, when we were back home, there would also be dinner for my humans. For the predators it was more like a late afternoon between-meal snack, which they would have forgotten in two hours at the most.
After that, Bella unwrapped the dessert. Cupcakes. With chocolate icing and sugar decoration.
"Becky made that one ... this one Marcus ..." she placed one in front of each of them.
One with a star on it, on the other probably represented a unicorn. It was also written there for safety's sake, in the very likely event that it was not recognizable.
"... and Ced decorated that one," she then held one out to me.
All the baking decorations that could be found in Esmé's kitchen or ours would probably be found on this one.
"... and this is what the bakers looked like afterwards!" she also pulled out her cell phone and showed us a picture.
I laughed and passed the cell phone.
All three had chocolate and colorful sugar sprinkles on their faces.
"Is there a picture like that of you too?", I inquired.
She shook her head vehemently.
I didn't believe her, so I secretly asked Marcus and Becky via text message.
"Would you rather drive home or run?", I asked the kids as I packed up the empty bowls and boxes with Bella.
"How long do we have until our ice cream movie night?" asked Leah.
"It certainly won't start without you, no matter when we get home," I countered.
"Then we run," Jake clarified, who came out of the small bathroom.
"But you could take our clothes," Leah now called out from the bathroom.
This was a disadvantage for the two when they were longer in the forest. They did not like to answer the call of nature as wolves.
I took the cookies out of my backpack so they wouldn't break after all and repacked the clothes instead.
"You were in CANADA?" asked Bella in horror as she looked more closely at the box.
Immediately I kissed my angel so that she forgot her horror.
It worked. It took a moment while the kids laughing heartily, but it worked.
Naked as God created them, the twins went to the riverbank.
They allowed their parents a brief undisturbed moment.
Bella locked the door, whose key she had borrowed from Brandon.
I carried the bag to the Audi, which Bella had left a little way up the path so the kids wouldn't see it ahead of time. On the way, my cell phone beeped.
"You lied to me!", I stated dryly. The picture was unambiguous. My angel had sugar sprinkles hanging in her hair and her lips were full of chocolate, which Ced generously applied to her.
"Damn it," she cursed softly to herself.
I put the now empty basket, the backpack, and two more unopened bottles of soda in the trunk and then confronted my fiancée. I grabbed her hands and hustled her - playfully threatening - against the side of the car.
"In another time, I would have put you over my knee for that lack of respect," I muttered, with a bit of an underlying growl.
My fiancée was not particularly impressed by this. She tried in vain to stifle her chuckles.
For this impertinence I kissed her persistently on the neck, but so that it tickled. So that she also truly had a reason to chuckle. Her plea for forgiveness stuck in her throat, while she tried to free herself from my arms and squirmed in all directions.
Bella had always been responsible for the fact that my senses manifested themselves solely on her. So I did not immediately notice that we were no longer alone. The acrid smell of wolves reached me. The only problem was that they were not our children.
Immediately I turned around, shielding Bella behind me, who was still gasping for air before she grasped the situation.
Two wolves approached us, growling, looking menacing, and stopped not four yards from us.
With the car at our back, we were therefore surrounded.
They were larger than normal wolves. A common free-ranging wolf measured up to thirty-three inches in shoulder height. With my children it was a yard more. These ones measured at most a yard and twenty inches, though that was hard to discern in their crouched threatening posture, ready to jump at a moment's notice. The smaller of the two was gray. Light gray with dark gray fur markings. The other was mud-colored and appeared dirty.
They growled at us.
They were Spirit Warriors! They growled at ME!
"Let go of me, Bella!", I prompted my angel.
She clawed at me fearfully, but she was not in danger. It was me. I was the enemy. If they attacked me while Bella continued to cling to me, something would only happen to her.
I mentally kept an eye out for my twins, but they were on the shore of the lake trying to push each other into the icy water. One hundred and thirty-nine yards away from us. I could call out to them, but what would happen? Possibly these foreign wolves assumed that I would call for others of my kind and would therefore not even let me get a word in edgewise.
A thousand things went through my mind.
I was afraid. For myself. And not less for my angel right behind me. Two wolves against me. This could truly end badly for me. I was not ready to die. I had only just found Bella again. My twins lit up my life. And I hadn't even really met my baby yet. It wouldn't be fair to have to lose my life now. Now that everything was finally perfect.
Adrenaline would undoubtedly be coursing through my veins if my body still contained such a thing. Instead, every muscle fiber tensed, ready to respond to whatever would happen.
But I also heard the jittery and chaotic thoughts of the wolves in front of me, which only made me more nervous.
They were excited, seemed childish, which was not conducive to the situation. One careless blink and it could escalate.
'We got him!'
'Woah ... how it stinks!'
'What do we do now?'
'We're going to take him to task!'
'Hadn't we better wait?'
'What's that Auntie peeking so funny at?'
'We're animals, you dumbass!'
'Oh yeah.'
'But aren't we better than that blood drinker? After all, he was just about to enjoy his dinner?'
'Uh ... she doesn't have a scar on her neck at all.'
Should I say that I heard them? Ask who they were going to wait for? Say that I was not a danger? That there were others besides them? Right here? I did not know.
Because as soon as I moved just a millimeter, even moved my lips a little, the growl became more threatening, and the dangerous teeth were bared.
I thought feverishly about what I should do.
However, I thought I heard my heart echoing in my ears. It was probably only Bella's. Her I had to protect. At all costs!
Again, a mental glance at my children.
They made no attempt to move away from the lake yet. I prepared defensive strategies and paid close attention to the movements of the wolves. Because they were smaller than the twins, they would certainly be more agile. And they were in twos. But they were not leaders. Their thoughts were not united. They did not act as one wolf, as Leah and Jake would in this situation. And neither of them had that weird command tone that I had heard from Seth at the time.
"I know what you are!", I now pronounced very carefully.
'Eh ...?'
'Is he trying to force a conversation on us now?'
'What is he talking about?'
'Does he know that we understand him?'
"There are others like you. Spirit Warriors!", I continued, with what I had not yet revealed from my gift.
'What kind of spirits?'
'What does he want to tell us now? We are unique!'
"Your task is to protect humans. From creatures like me!"
'Err ...'
'Wherefrom ...?'
Now that my twins had both landed in the water and were equally offended by it, they approached us. Finally. But slowly.
But the wolves also noticed them.
'Come on. Let's finish him off!'
'Before more humans show up here!'
I held myself ready, my muscles already tensed to be able to react immediately.
They jumped at me simultaneously.
In a flash I turned to Bella, wrapped my arms around her and pulled her with me.
Because one dead vampire meant many saved humans for the wolves. A woman who accidentally came between them didn't really matter.
I ducked away under the little gray one and dodged his muzzle by a hair's breadth. His paw grazed my back of the neck, but I was still able to give him a blow with which he flew against the other wolf. A bestial, pulling pain stretched in four deep furrows over my stony skin.
I suppressed the impulse to cry out under the torment. I would only scare Bella even more.
The wolves slammed together against the Audi, whose alarm system immediately went into operation.
The children heard it, looked at each other and ran.
I put Bella on her feet and pushed her in their direction.
"Run!", I yelled at her. Only out of the danger zone!
The mud-colored one looked after her in confusion while he struggled to his feet.
He wasn't seriously going to chase after a human, was he?
I threw a stone at his skull so that he turned to me growling.
"You want me!", I snarled at him.
Oh yes, he wanted me. Now more than ever.
Again they both jumped towards me.
As before, I wanted to duck away, but this time they were prepared for something like this.
We found ourselves in a scuffle.
The little beasts were actually more light-footed than my children, although far clumsier, they were nevertheless tough and persistent. I merely tried to defend myself and not to inflict too much damage on them. But everything happened so devilishly fast. I managed to throw the smaller one off me.
He landed at Jake's feet, who had finally reached us.
"HEY!", Jake yelled at him. "What do you think you're doing?" asked Jake further.
The wolves were quite gobsmacked that a human dared to shout at them. The gray noticed that these people smelled somehow different, but he could not conclude anything from it.
I quickly freed myself from the other, kicking him aside just enough to get up.
"Don't you have any manners?", Leah even reprimanded the two, standing very confidently in front of them and bracing her hands at her sides.
'Woah ... is she hot!' thought the mud-colored one.
I hit him on the head with which I had bared teeth in front of me. I angrily grabbed his muzzle and twisted his body so that he lay with his back on the ground.
"That is my daughter. Think about what you're thinking!" I threatened him.
A low whimper came through his throat.
My grip was deadly. Or would be.
I let up and moved away from him so he could see that I would not attack him further. He gasped for air as he straightened up.
'I don't understand anything now!' the little gray one thought now, almost whimpering as he had been intimidated by Jake's human demeanor alone.
'We must destroy them. They are defending a bloodsucker! They are enemies!', thought the other.
I translated to my kids, but hurriedly went to Bella, who they had dropped off a little ways down the trail on a fallen tree.
She must have been terrified, but nothing more would happen to the twins. I was sure of that. The two unknowns were physically inferior and very inexperienced. Leah and Jake, on the other hand, knew what they were doing and were already at an advantage because of their mental unity, if there were to be any riots between the warriors.
They just phased to put a final stop to the two and it worked quite well. If the foreign wolves had already been in a way impressed by the human attitude of my twins, they were now completely speechless/thoughtless with awe. Astonished they looked up to the twins.
"Bella," I knelt in front of her. She was pale and trembling. "Do not be afraid, my heart."
"What's happening right now?" she asked.
I smiled.
"They're just explaining to those two in a very graphic way that they should first grow a bit before they mess with anyone," I said more cheerfully than I actually felt like saying.
Bella smiled, even if it seemed a little forced.
I hugged my angel relieved.
We had survived the brief perilous moment. Nothing more would happen, our children would take care of that.
I rose up with her.
We had to resolve this situation. Explain to the foreign pack that we were not a danger. Especially that Bella was certainly not my dinner.
We made only a few steps forward when a third wolf faced us.
He was very quiet and just looked at Bella and me. The growl from his muzzle was rather subliminal. I heard no thought. Heard only instincts. He was concentrating. And he was beautiful.
His fluffy lush fur was tri-colored. Around the eyes and up to the nose, like a mask, it was a light reddish rusty brown. Just like Jake's. Underneath, down to the front legs and probably beyond the belly, it was white. Like Leah's. Above the eyes, the ears and the entire back were black. The insides of his legs white, the outsides brown and elegant looking black paws. Like he was wearing shoes. The eyes black.
Leah had approached the stranger from behind, but she kept her distance. As long as this wolf would not attack, neither would she. But she was prepared. And she growled to make that very point.
The wolf looked just a little to the side.
He saw Jake further up the path, unsettling the two foreign wolves with his own towering wolfish size.
He only casually noticed Leah's body. She was standing too far behind him to see her clearly in his field of vision, since he didn't want to leave me, in particular, completely unobserved.
But he paid close attention to Leah. Listened closely at her. Whether she moved, growled, breathed, or even changed the orientation of her nape fur.
'I am Nanuk ... Who are you?', the tri-color asked mentally.
He was the lead wolf of the pack. Not only did I hear the echo of his thought-voice in the minds of his pack, it was the way he thought them. Awe-inspiring without being condescending. Jake and Leah heard it, too. Apparently the Alphas could communicate with each other, because he also heard the twins' shared voice. It puzzled him, the unity he heard from the two of them equally, but he didn't let it show in his posture. However, he had seen through my gift when I so unseemly admonished his companion to hold back with thoughts of my daughter.
"I am Edward Stone. A vampire, as you can easily see, but I do not hunt humans. I live with my family not far from here. This is my fiancée Bella Black. A human. And these are our children Jake and Leah. They are like you Spirit Warriors," I said calmly.
'Spirit Warrior?', I heard him ask himself how to interpret the term.
He did not know this name. In his tribe they were called Blood Wolves. They phased into wolves to hunt the blood drinkers and this ability was passed on through the blood. The children mentally formulated that among the Quileute they were called Spirit Warriors or Shapeshifters and according to the legends they protected their people from the 'Cold Ones'.
In a calm tone, both sides indicated where they were coming from.
The Quileute of Washington State, with a reservation right on the ocean. Nanuk and his pack were Pequawket Native Americans. There were only a few of them left living here in the Saco River area. Most of them would have already joined the reservations in Canada in the last century. But some were still here, living scattered around the Peaked Mountain.
"We came through the area," I reflected. I hadn't smelled any foreign wolves. In my defense, though, I must say that I had crossed the area on Jake's back. There my nose had hardly a chance to smell anything else.
'We followed your trail. It was unclear. Only shortly before Hiram we could identify you as a blood drinker and started the hunt for you,' Nanuk explained.
"When I got off Jake's back and ran myself," I admitted.
Nanuk looked at Jake, who was still keeping the two wolves about fifty yards up the path from doing anything. They just sat there. Intimidated by Jake's imposing appearance and further quieted by the command of their Alpha.
'You're carring a blood drinker?' asked Nanuk contemptuously.
'He's our dad!' immediately resounded thunderously in his head.
'How can they be your children?' he asked me.
"The biological father was the Quileute chief, and Bella is their mother. What belongs to Bella also belongs to me. They are our children," I explained.
'That's not possible!' he stated irrevocably and aggressively.
'What do you know about it, you ass!', Jake felt he had to casually voice his opinion about the shared thoughts.
If it were any other situation, I might have smirked.
"Jake, please. Nanuk has been very polite to us so far! Say you're sorry," I sternly admonished my son.
"What did he say then?" asked Bella.
"Ass," I relayed.
I had been translating for Bella all along and now she was giving her son an angry look.
The thought-voice of our twins had meanwhile mumbled a rather rude 'Yes, yes. Sorry' muttered under their breaths. That seemed to interest Nanuk little, neither the unseemly choice of words nor the apology. He could not grasp something else.
The wolves were already mentally discussing things very loudly.
'You're taking orders from a blood drinker?' asked Nanuk without any understanding.
He even turned his gaze to Jake and took a few steps toward him, since there was no way he could understand this. However, he continued to watch me very attentively through the eyes of his pack.
'He doesn't give us orders!' retorted Jake, annoyed.
He was so weary of this topic right now.
'He's a bloodthirsty monster!'
'Hey, watch what you're saying!', Leah interfered, but the three-colored wolf barely paid attention to her.
Jake was the one for him with whom he spoke. The one he assumed was the Alpha. Of whom he believed that he - and I quote - no longer had all the cups in the cupboard. That these wolves were actually two Alpha wolves was beyond his imagination. And certainly not a woman! Not that he would not consider ladies as equals, as he made himself clear, but not as a she-wolf! That had never existed before!
'How can you kowtow to him? It is your duty to destroy him!' Nanuk thundered, not directing this thought to the girl diagonally behind him.
Their fulfillment of duty was the highest priority in his eyes. Only for that there existed both him and his pack and these wolves in front of him. He couldn't really believe that he would have to make that clear to Jake.
'Are you going to tell me what my task is now?' said Jake mockingly, stepping towards the wolf in his turn.
They growled at each other subliminally and threateningly.
Nanuk, of course, was attracted attention by the wolves' odd size, but he was not as intimidated by it as his companions were. Because of the choice of words and the obvious naiveté towards our kind, he did not assume that he was dealing with an adult in Jake. A boy to whom the things of life still had to be explained. Just as it had been explained to him. It was not possible that they - proud and dangerous wolves, the protectors of the humans - let themselves be degraded to a pet by a single blood drinker. Without any resistance - and that one defended this blood drinker, too!
Of course, my children heard these thoughts as well and it reminded them both too much of the words of Seth and Billy.
They became angry. They were no longer children to whom the world had to be explained. But they were ready to assert their point of view. By force, if necessary. Never again would anyone humiliate them as Seth had done during his visit. Insult our family as Billy had done.
They screamed at each other mentally, all five wolves. Various growls boomed through the forest. Tempers continued to flare while they ignored my attempts at appeasement. I pushed Bella behind me, just to be on the safe side.
Fortunately, I had done that.
All five wolves insulted each other, verbose and loud. I could hardly follow. Jake then apparently said/thought something that Nanuk could no longer let pass unpunished. I hadn't understood this, but the three-colored wolf was charging furiously toward my son. Too stupid only that he had forgotten Leah. The latter rammed him from the side so that he rolled across the ground. Exactly there along, where Bella had stood before.
Immediately, I pushed Bella further back, protecting her from the rage-blind predators who were having a spectacular fight on eye level without once looking each other in the eye. They paid attention to each other's paws, the muzzle or even some muscle parts to gauge the opponent's reaction, but not a single glance into the eyes.
Like that time between the twins and Seth, I was powerless.
Jake and the other two wolves came closer panicking, mentally talking at the struggling wolves, but no one dared intervene. It was happening too fast. The two disparate bodies merged together.
I smelled blood, heard painful yelps, vicious growls, saw fur flying leisurely and somehow unreal through the air. They threw each other off their feet, but both got up again with verve. Leah shook herself, she limped with her left foreleg. The other had hit his head on something, looked around confusedly for a breath, but then they were back in front of each other baring their teeth. Not ready to give up. But the threatening demeanor subsided instantly.
"No!", I mumbled to myself.
Jake and the two little wolves also just stood there. Gave no sound from themselves. They were mental witnesses of what was happening.
Everyone watched Leah and Nanuk, unable to say anything.
How they looked at each other. Even when they changed back at the same time, their gaze remained in each other's eyes. Nanuk did not take note of the graceful, unclothed body of my daughter. He saw only chocolate brown eyes and drowned in them.
"Edward, what's going on?", Bella asked me nervously.
"Leah imprinted," I stated matter-of-factly, thinking of Marcus waiting at home for his wildcat.
Thanks for reading!
