Back to the Start
Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.
A Waiting Game
In all the confusion Bella found herself suddenly swept off her feet. She turned her head in alarm, only to find Embry transformed back into his human form. She saw him jerk his head in Jacob's direction, with Jacob giving him a quick nod in return. Bella suddenly realized that this had all been preplanned between them. Jacob had known this was coming, and he had asked the pack brother he trusted most to take charge of her safety amid the chaos.
Before Bella could say or do anything, Embry took off at a fast sprint toward the trees. He kept a steady pace, a brisk jog that a fit human could keep up with…across a level plane…if they weren't burdened with a hundred-plus pounds as he was.
"You don't have to run, Embry. You'll get tired." Bella finally found her voice. "We don't want to get too far away…"
"Running doesn't make me feel tired." Embry cut in before she could protest further. Jacob had already warned him that Bella would try to persuade him to take her back, and he was told not to listen to her pleas. Jacob wanted her as far away from the fight as possible. Embry's breathing remained even as he ran-like the fixed tempo of a marathon runner. "Besides it will be colder soon. I can already sense the change in temperature."
Bella glanced up the greying sky. Storm clouds were gathering. She was glad she was wearing her thick parka. "You think it's going to snow?" She asked anxiously.
"I don't like the way the weather feels." Embry admitted. "It's making me feel edgy. Notice how we haven't seen any animals?"
"Um, not really."
"I guess you wouldn't. Your senses are too dull."
"Sucks to be human." Bella muttered.
Embry caught her tone. "Sorry, Bella, I didn't mean any offence."
"I know, Em." She sighed.
As more minutes passed, the tension inside Bella grew. She knew these next few hours would either pass as a blip in the course of her life, or they would be the final trauma that broke her.
"Em, why didn't Jacob tell me this was happening?" Bella asked. It had been bothering her, that Jacob had kept this all such a secret. He was usually open and honest with her about everything. He never tried to shield her from the truth. So why now? Why when they had reached such a dangerous tipping point?"
Embry looked down; his expression thoughtful. He didn't answer her immediately as he considered his response. The pathless way he took began to climb more and more steeply, but it didn't slow him down. He leapt easily from rock to rock, not seeming to need his hands at all. His perfect balance reminded Bella of a mountain goat.
"Its not that he wanted to keep it secret from you, Bella. He considered the plan you made to be watertight, colluding with the Cullens to end the newborns seemed a logical step to take. However, something kept bothering him. Call it a hunch or whatever, but Jake thought it had all been engineered just a little too smoothly. He never trusted Carlisle. It seems he was right. He wanted to be prepared for every outcome." Embry gave her a grim smile. "You weren't actually supposed to be here, but he guessed you'd be too stubborn to stay behind."
Bella's eyes tightened at the corners with stress. "And now my being here has taken one of the strongest fighters away from the battle." She cried in anguish.
"That's not true, Bella." Embry attempted to soothe her frayed nerves. "Jake was not going to leave you unguarded, even in Forks. I was always going to miss the fight. Jake's a smart guy. He looks at all sides of the decision."
"He trusts you the most, Em." Bella acknowledged with a wan smile.
"We've been best friends for years…no…more than friends…brothers. Jake's always had my back. I'll have his. You're the most precious thing in his world, Bella. I'm honored that he trusts me enough to let me take care of you while he prepares for the biggest battle of his life."
The admiration and sincerity in his voice brought tears to Bella's eyes. Friendship was a precious kind of love, she thought. It was the kind of bond that can span a lifetime. Though months and years may pass between communications, a true friend was timeless. And Embry was definitely one of those. It was why Jacob had chosen him to take care of her. He knew he could count on Embry to defend her to the death, that he wouldn't kick up a fuss about being asked to stay out of the fight, which someone like Paul would have done. As Embry himself said, he considered it an honor, a compliment to how much Jacob thought of and depended on him. It showed complete trust and faith. It was clear that Embry considered his assignment a gift and not a burden.
Bella looked up at the sky again. A solid wall of purple-black cloud was racing in from the west, blackening the forest beneath as it came. She noticed Embry looking up too. He was frowning, clearly as worried as she was, that the worsening weather may hinder the wolf pack as they fought for their lives.
She thought about the pack, how they had been drafted into a war they didn't know existed. There was no choice. It was so final. She wished she knew what was happening. Waiting was torture. She could only imagine what it felt like for Embry to leave his brothers behind to fight without him. He was showing an immense amount of courage and restraint leaving them behind.
Bella stared up at him, feeling an unexpected kind of awe for Embry, much the same emotion she felt whenever she was around Jacob. They were so alike in a way, both so mature beyond their years, showing a quiet majesty that only those who knew them well would suspect.
"Angela is a lucky girl." She said suddenly.
A warm smile ghosted over Embry's face, his dark eyes turning soft. "I've been meaning to thank you for the introduction. She's special. One of a kind. Like you. I was so happy for Jake when he found you. You complete him in a way that I always envied."
Just then the wind shook more fiercely through the trees around them, and it felt like it was blowing straight off a glacier. The sharp sound of wood cracking echoed in Bella's ear, making her wince in fear. The grisly cloud continued to make it seem like pitch black, but even so Bella could still see the little white specks that fluttered past them.
Embry stepped up the pace, keeping his eyes on the ground now as he flat out sprinted. Bella curled against his chest, recoiling from the unwelcome snow, seeking reassurance as well as warmth. She closed her eyes, imagining it was Jacob who held her so carefully in his arms.
Minutes later, Bella felt Embry stop. She opened her eyes. More snow flurries were falling all around them, but the wind was too fierce to let them settle anywhere. There was a little open clearing ahead of them, where a small tent had been pitched. Jacob really had thought of everything. She looked up at Embry, whose hair and face were sprinkled with snow.
"Is that for me?"
"Yeah." Embry grinned. "Jake had Colin and Brady pitch the tent earlier…just in case." His grin faded quickly as he looked up at the sky, now black with the storm, sprinkled with swirling bits of snow. His nostrils flared. "I'm going to change." He told Bella, gently setting her down on her feet. "I want to know what's going on. You get inside the tent and keep warm. Bella. I won't be long."
Then he walked into the murky forest without a backward glance, leaving Bella staring tensely after him.
The wind shook the tent, and Bella shook with it. The temperature was dropping. She could feel it through her thick jacket. She was fully dressed, hiking boots still laced in place. It didn't make any difference. How could it be so cold? How could it keep getting colder? It had to bottom out sometime, didn't it?
While Bella's body ached with the cold, her heart ached with worry about what was going on in the clearing. She was on tenterhooks waiting for Embry to come back and put her out of her misery. What if he was delaying because something bad had happened and he was building up the courage to tell her?
Bella pushed this gloomy thought from her mind. She had complete faith in Jacob and the wolf pack. Apart from the two youngest, they were all seasoned fighters. Jacob had clearly planned everything with military precision, she was impressed by how much thought he had put into it, considering there had not been much time to alter the plan. She yearned for it all to be over, so she could sink into his warm arms again, feel his strong heart beat pulse in her ear.
Where was Embry?
Waiting alone was sheer torture. A minute felt like an hour, an hour like a day. Time passed so achingly slowly. Jacob and his brothers might be engaging in a physical battle, but Bella was in a battle with her own mind. It seemed like every second her frazzled brain came up with a million different "we're screwed" scenarios, her inner voice giving feedback on every single one. It was exhausting.
By the time Embry returned, Bella was a jumbled mass of nerves. He found her, crouched down on her knees in the tent, her hands clenched into tight fists, nails biting painfully into her palms. Embry gently pried her fingers apart and smoothed them out. He spoke soothingly all the while as he explained what he had seen happening in the clearing through his brothers' eyes after he had phased into his wolf form.
"The newborns reached the end of the trail, with Jasper leading them, splitting them into two groups. Sam and Jared headed off to ambush one of the groups."
Suddenly Embry glanced at Bella's pale face, the blood had drained from it completely as she listened intently, forgetting to breathe.
"Breathe, Bella." He urged.
Bella struggled to do what he asked. She tried to keep her lungs at an even pace, so that she wouldn't hyperventilate. "Go on." She gasped.
"The first group got to the clearing, but Jake and the guys were ready for them. The fighting was intense." Embry laughed darkly. "Paul was enjoying himself. He ripped several of the newborns apart before going for the big vampire – Emmet."
Bella made herself take another deep breath. That sounded so like Paul.
"The second group waited behind, held in check by Jasper, meaning to send them into battle after the first surge, but he didn't factor in the ambush." Embry's face was fierce as he spoke, his eyes burning with pride at his brothers' genius move. "Sam and Jared snuck up and took several of them down before they even reached the clearing. Then they engaged with Jasper together, knowing that once they took him down, then the newborns would most likely be sent into a frenzy."
"And did they?" Bella pleaded.
"Yes." Embry said through clenched teeth. "That Jasper is a veteran-a skilled and dirty fighter-but working together, Sam and Jared managed to pull him apart." He stopped going into specifics when he saw Bella grimace. "Without their leader and main strategist, the newborns just fell into a bloodthirsty rage. They were directionless and much easier to take down after that. Jacob was amazing, he seemed to be everywhere, diving in and out, helping each pack member whenever he could. Even Colin and Brady took one down between them. They had them on the defensive."
"So, Jasper and Emmet have been dealt with…but what about Carlisle? He was the main instigator. And what about Edward? And the females- Alice, Esme, and Rosalie?"
"It was hard to see. The fighting was intense. Fires were burning. There was so much smoke where the guys were trying to dispose of the remains." Embry rose into a low crouch. "I knew you would be freaking out, so I thought I better come back and tell you something of what was happening. The guys were holding their own and pushing the newborns back. I'm hoping when I phase again, the worst of it will be over."
"Go, Embry." Bella urged him. "And hurry back with good news."
Embry nodded curtly, then quickly backed out of the tent, leaving Bella alone again to her waiting game.
Bella's hands twisted together in agitation. Time seemed to slow down again as she waited with baited breath for Embry to come back.
It was the sudden absence of sound that was the only warning. The tent flaps were suddenly pulled apart.
Bella stopped breathing-too frightened to even make her lungs work as she realized that it wasn't Embry kneeling at the entrance to the tent… it was Edward Cullen.
Oh no! No! No!
So quickly that Bella wasn't sure exactly how it happened, she was on her feet, the tent collapsing in ragged shreds around her. Had Edward ripped it apart? Why? To make it easier to get at her?
Bella blinked, shocked, into the brilliant light. Dawn had broken and she hadn't even noticed. Embry was all she could see, right beside the shredded remains of the tent, tense and alert, his muzzle only inches from Edward's surprised face. They stared at each other with absolute concentration for one infinite second in a silent standoff. The newly risen sun shattered off Edward's skin and sent sparkles dancing across Embry's fur.
Had two entire seconds passed? It felt like hours. Bella was terrified to the point of nausea by the knowledge that something horrible must have gone awry in the clearing for Edward to make it all the way here.
Before Bella could utter one syllable, she felt as if she was being flung through the air. She felt Edward's icy cold hands wrapped around her upper biceps as he lifted her as easily as a newborn baby-moving so quickly that the sensation was like falling asleep. And then her world view turned upside down as she lay dangling over one stone shoulder.
Edward took off at a fast run, his form a blur, as he whizzed back and forth between the trees, to the sound of Embry's angry snarls and snapping jaws as he gave chase.
A/N-thanks for reading!