A/N: Oh boy, I am really nervous about this chapter y'all. Fight scenes are so not my thing. I just hope it's not as awful as I think it is. A warning, too, for extra bad language. Thank you all for reading!
Jasper's plan to end Victoria quickly essentially boiled down to tricking her into thinking she was catching Bella alone, and basically herding her to an area of their choosing.
The wolves were on round the clock patrols through a wide area around Forks and La Push not just for Bella's safety - though that was Jasper's most important priority - but also so their scent was heavy everywhere.
Surrounding Victoria on all sides, even at the distance they were planning, would only work if she wasn't aware the wolves were currently nearby. As the wolves had such a unique scent to the vampires, it had to saturate the whole area.
Alice and Jasper, on the other hand, stayed mostly around the Swan house, the Cullen's house outside of town, and Bella's high school. They wanted Victoria to assume Bella was heavily protected in those areas, leaving her more vulnerable anywhere else.
Jasper was also banking on a few assumptions about the redhead. First, that the loss of her mate made her somewhat irrational and reckless, that she would be more emotion-driven rather than using logic and reason. Second, that she underestimated the wolves. She'd seen them, and gotten away from them, on numerous occasions, which hopefully led her to believe they posed a minimal threat to her. She would have no idea that they had been trained specifically to take her down. And lastly, he was hoping that her gift led her to be overly-confident, her ego making her willing to take more daring chances because she relied heavily on her gift to save her when necessary.
Two days before Alice saw Victoria returning to Forks, the seven wolves, two vampires, and one human had a final meeting to solidify their plan.
The night before Victoria's arrival, Alice and Jasper would change into clothes that had been worn by Bella and Charlie, the latter's having been snagged by Bella out of his dirty laundry. They would head to their chosen spot and find a tree with the best vantage point, climbing to the top and hiding in the foliage. Once in position they would use their vamp ability to stay completely motionless so as not to give their position away. If there was any need for the two to communicate, they could do so using Jasper's empathic gift.
Jasper believed that if Victoria got suspicious for any reason, she would take to the trees, where the wolves couldn't follow her. Alice and Jasper would be ready to intercept her if that happened.
The morning of the fight, Leah would take the 'Bella-bait' items, as Bella called them, and leave them at the base of their tree, then make her way to the Swan's house, where she and Bella would get in Bella's truck and go the Reservation. Leah was chosen because, if there was a need to get Bella away quickly, she had the speed and agility necessary. She had also taken her fight training extremely seriously, even asking for extra sessions, so she was - just as Jasper hoped she would be - a force to be reckoned with.
Leah may not have known that Bella was Jasper's mate, but she did know that protecting her was his highest priority, and she was honored that he saw her as the best one for the job. She had come to respect the warrior in his own right over the previous days, and it showed Leah that he had a high level of respect for her also. Respect that, honestly, sometimes the others of her pack lacked.
It was easy for the wolves to see Leah as less capable because she was a girl, but Jasper - who helped lead the army of the south's only female warlord - knew better than to ever underestimate a woman.
Once Bella was on the Reservation, the rest of the wolves would then make a wide perimeter around 'ground zero' while leaving open the path Victoria would take from the east. As soon as she was on their radar, they would close the loop behind her and start slowly moving in.
Bella had been the one to contribute the best ideas for the Bella-bait. Not only was there one of her bedsheets, which was more heavily saturated with her human scent than her worn clothing were, but she'd also come up with the idea of recording her heartbeat. They could run it on a loop and tuck it in the sheet. It wouldn't fool Victoria for long, but they only needed it to work until they had her surrounded.
When Bella had offered her blood, however, Jasper and Alice hesitated while Jacob let out a bark of laughter.
Bella simply rolled her eyes and explained. "I'm not offering myself up as lunch, but maybe I could put some of my blood in the bag with my sheets, then when Leah opened it and left it there, my scent would be even stronger. Maybe if Victoria thinks I'm hurt and bleeding in the woods, she'll assume that this will be a piece of cake and drop her guard."
Jasper couldn't deny it might work, and this was Bella's fight, too, so she deserved a voice.
He quickly glanced at Alice, who gave him a wink, and they agreed to Bella's plan.
Bella was actually a little shocked at how quickly and easily the group accepted her ideas and incorporated them into their plan, although she probably shouldn't have been. The wolves and these two vampires had never disregarded her thoughts and opinions the way Edward had. He was always quick to point out that he had ninety years on her so surely he knew best.
The patronizing ass.
Jasper was more than sixty years older than him and Alice roughly the same age, and those two were always happy to hear her out.
Once every detail was ironed out, Alice asked the pack to make a decision to do all of this in their human forms, rather than as wolves, so she could search her visions to see if their plan would be a success. Seeing their confusion, she explained that she could see them clearly in one form, but they were blurry or completely blacked out in the other. They would be wolves the day of Victoria's arrival, obviously, but Alice needed them to 'decide' to be humans so she could see as much as possible.
A few moments later, the group watched intently as the pixie's eyes unfocused as she scanned the future.
Just at that moment, Jasper's phone vibrated with an incoming text.
It'll work, Major. PW.
When Jasper felt Bella's curiosity, he merely shook his head with a fond smile. He'd explain Peter's gift-that-wasn't-a-gift when they had more time.
A few seconds later, Jasper couldn't keep the brilliant smile off his face as he felt Alice's confidence and satisfaction grow, and as the wolves and Bella saw both Alice and Jasper grinning, they broke into triumphant smiles of their own.
Alice pulled Bella into a hug. "It's a go."
The morning of the fight dawned cold and rainy, which actually worked in their favor. The rain would cover the wolves scent just enough that it would be harder to detect old scent trails from new.
Alice's vision about what path Victoria would take remained unchanged, so all were feeling optimistic, and in the wolves case, excited and eager. It was the first time they would be fighting a vampire, after all.
While Jasper's natural instinct was to eliminate the threat to his mate himself, he felt confident that the wolves could take Victoria down. The wolves were the natural protectors of their tribe, and Jasper wanted to give them a chance to fulfill that destiny. If there was ever a need to protect their people in the future, when they didn't have any vampires backing them up, Jasper wanted them to have faith in their ability to do so.
Yes, Jasper and Alice were there if the wolves needed help, and the two of them were ready in the trees if Victoria tried to escape that way, but he wanted the wolves to find some confidence in their natural abilities so he was content to let them take the lead.
Bella and Leah, meanwhile, had made it to the Reservation without incident and Bella settled in at the Black's house to wait. Billy Black, Jacob's father and the Chief of the Quileute tribe council, knew about the events taking place, and offered to have the girl stay at his house with him. Billy and Charlie Swan had been best friends since they were children, so Bella had known Billy and his family her whole life.
The Black house also had the advantage of being bordered on three sides by forest, which meant Leah could be close enough to see Bella at all times, but not run the risk of the humans of her tribe getting an eyeful of an alarmingly large wolf.
Bella knew she needed something to keep her mind occupied, and she had always enjoyed cooking and baking, so she decided to put her time to good use and feed her loved ones. She'd already had an early start of it, making breakfast for her father and herself before he left for work, and she was rewarded with a fond smile from Leah when Bella greeted her with a tupperware full to bursting with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and toast, along with a to-go mug of coffee and a bottle of orange juice. Bella just hoped it was enough, because the wolves had huge appetites.
She had loaded her truck with bags of groceries before Leah had arrived, so once they got to the Black's, she set to work unpacking everything and started on making Billy some breakfast. Even though the tribal elder had been a bit disgruntled with her when he found out she was dating Edward Cullen, Bella loved the man like an uncle and never minded helping out where she could. He was a widower with a shapeshifting teenage son, along with a tribal elder, so his life wasn't always an easy one.
After sitting and chatting with Billy while he ate, Bella stepped out the back door to check on Leah. Because she was in wolf form, Leah was connected to the pack and could see everything they were seeing. Bella figured that if things were running smoothly, Leah would stay relatively calm, which in turn would help her keep calm.
Bella was nervous, yes, but not paralyzingly so. Having both Alice and Peter's gifts reassuring them of their success, Bella was calmer than she would have been otherwise. The girl had a tendency to be an over-worrier, and her mind could sometimes veer off into a panic.
She just continued to remind herself that she had nine supernatural beings between her and the vampire who wanted her dead, and that she trusted her friends with her life for good reason. She couldn't think of a more deserving group to put her faith in.
Bella also knew, in some deep, instinctual part of her, that Jasper Whitlock would do anything necessary to not only keep Victoria from reaching her, but to keep the wolves safe as well.
And so, after she checked on Leah, Bella took a deep breath and headed back to the kitchen to start baking up a storm for when the wolves returned.
Jasper Whitlock stood at the top of his tree, preparing himself for whatever was to come. He may have lived a peaceful life for the past sixty or so years, but it took no time at all for the man to slip back into warrior-mode. The life of his mate was at stake and he would burn the entire damn Olympic Peninsula to the ground if it meant the threat to her life was eliminated.
He pushed all of his senses as far as he could, and when he felt the first tinges of malevolent vengeance heading towards him fast, he knew Victoria was getting close. When he got a taste of her gleeful satisfaction, he knew she was already convinced of her own success.
Victoria was so focused on her goal of getting to Bella Swan that she didn't even realize she'd fallen into a trap. When she registered the heartbeats coming from behind her, she glanced back to see three wolves hot on her trail. She immediately veered off to the right, only to be cut off that way as well. She stayed focused on her goal, though, and put on a burst of speed to reach the stupid human girl bleeding through the trees ahead of her. As long as she killed the girl before the wolves caught up to her, her revenge for James would be accomplished.
Victoria refused, however, to go down without a fight. She knew the wolves could kill her, but she would go down kicking and screaming. If she took out the human and some of the wolves… well, that would be even better. They were a threat to her kind and deserved to rot in hell.
Jasper and Alice watched as Victoria came tearing into the clearing, then skidded to a halt with an ear-piercing screech of rage when she realized Bella Swan was not in those woods. If Jasper wasn't concerned about giving away his position, he would've laughed out loud.
Before Victoria could make her next move, a russet wolf came flying at her faster than she could dodge. She instinctively lifted her arms to cover her face, but rather than going for her head the way she assumed it would, the wolf dove towards the ground and latched onto her ankle.
Jacob Black never stopped his forward motion, simply flicking his head and letting his momentum fling Victoria into the air, her foot still held tight in his jaw. Victoria screamed out her fury as her foot came off in the iron grip of the wolf's razor sharp teeth.
Jacob quickly spit the redhead's foot out - because damn, vampire venom was nasty - and quickly made his way to the edge of the clearing to ensure there was no break in their line.
Paul watched, his body crouched low and ready to spring, as the redhead did some kind of vampire ninja flip in the air, landing with a skid on her one remaining foot, her hand sliding across the ground to keep herself upright.
Before she even stopped moving, the dark grey wolf lunged for her, knocking into her chest and pinning her to the ground.
"I don't think so, you filthy fucking mongrel," she snarled through gritted teeth, and managed to get enough of a hold on the wolf's front leg to toss him off her.
Paul rolled as he hit the ground, just like Jasper had taught him, and he was back on his feet within two heartbeats, a low growl rumbling out of him.
As Victoria was looking for a path through the wolves, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. An absolute beast of a black wolf was making his move and she knew it was time to get the fuck out of there. She would lead the dogs on a merry chase from the treetops, where she could swing with ease, then circle back around for her foot.
Jasper was practically radiating pride as he watched the wolves put all their training into practice to weaken the redhead. When he felt a little bit of panic bleed into Victoria's emotions, he became laser focused, knowing she was going to try to escape.
Victoria bent her knee and pushed off the ground with her good leg, grabbing onto a branch higher than the wolves could reach just as they all moved in below her. She was pulling herself up when she heard a deep voice ring out from above her.
"Ah, ah, ah, Victoria. You're not trying to run away so soon, are you?"
Victoria's head shot up and she locked eyes with the blond vampire who had murdered her James.
"You!" she screeched, her voice at a pitch that had the wolves cringing.
Jasper smiled coldly and started hopping down, branch to branch, almost lazily, like he had all the time in the world.
"Oh good, so you do recognize me? You know I'm the one who killed your mate?" he asked, that cold smile turning into a vicious sneer. "James was a pussy who went down so easily he took away all my fun."
As Victoria screamed again, Jasper dove for her and had her face down on the ground, arms pulled all the way back, knee between her shoulder blades, before the wolves could blink.
Hearing a bubbly laugh ring out, the pack all snapped their heads up just in time to see Alice drop to the ground by Victoria's head. As the enraged vampire struggled against Jasper's hold, snarling and growling in her rage, Alice crouched down and grabbed a fistful of red hair, yanking Victoria's head back until she was looking in her eyes.
"Did you honestly think we would ever let you get near Bella?" Alice asked with a too-sweet smile.
Victoria didn't answer, she simply growled and gnashed her teeth at the fae-like vampire who helped kill Laurent.
Alice quickly glanced at Jasper. The man looked entirely at ease, as if keeping Victoria pinned took no effort at all, but his eyes were black and hard and she could see the rage swirling there. At his nod, she moved her hands to either side of Victoria's head, her touch looking gentle enough to be a lover's caress. In the blink of an eye, however, her face turned cold and she looked every inch the vampire she was.
"Bella Swan is ours, Victoria. We never would have let you get your hands on her," Alice growled. "You thought it would easy, no trouble at all to kill a mere human, so I'm assuming you don't know who the man holding you down is. First rule of warfare… know your fucking enemy, you spiteful little bitch."
And with that, she tightened her grip and wrenched her hands, and Victoria's head came off with a vicious twist.
When her body slumped to the ground, Jasper released her and took a step away, just in time to see Alice giving the wolves a beaming smile.
"Catch, boys!" she said with a bright laugh, and tossed Victoria's head in the air.
At the same moment, miles and miles away, a single wolf howl echoed through the forest around La Push. Bella Swan had just slid a cake in the oven and her head snapped up so fast it made her dizzy.
Without even bothering to close the oven door, the girl tore through the Black's house and practically ripped off the back door in her haste to get outside.
As she ran across the backyard towards the light gray wolf, Leah Clearwater phased back to human and grabbed Bella, spinning her around with exultant laughter.
"They did it!"
Bella certainly wasn't expecting to find herself swept up in a hug from a naked Quileute girl, but after letting out a squeal of surprise, she erupted in giggles and just held on, tears of pure relief falling from her eyes.