Death or Life

Emily, Chelsea, and the wolves came downstairs just as Bella was finishing her snack, and she quickly put her bowl in the sink and gave Seth, Leah, and Paul long hugs.

"Are y'all okay?" Jasper asked as he hugged each wolf also. He could feel some sadness in them, but their relief was more prominent.

"Yeah," Leah answered as they moved to the living room and sat down. "It's a little bit of a relief, honestly. They didn't seem capable of changing enough that I felt any confidence that they wouldn't keep hurting people."

Jasper nodded his understanding. From their emotions, not to mention their actions, he agreed with Leah.

"Bella," Emily said hesitantly. "I'm really sorry about your dad. I tried telling Sam he was wrong but he refused to listen to me. I'm so sorry you lost Charlie because of how small-minded and stubborn he was."

Bella gave her a small smile. "Thank you, I appreciate that, but I don't hold Sam's actions against you. And I'm sorry your life was turned upside down by a supernatural bond you didn't want."

Chelsea gave her a bright smile. "We talked upstairs and I told them I'm more than happy to come to Washington in the future to sever imprints that one or both parties don't want."

"Good," Jasper nodded. "It's not fair on anyone to be locked into a bond that's too powerful for a human to deny. Although it seems like you gave it your best shot, Emily. You're strong for holding out as long as you did."

"I love Leah," Emily said with a small smile. "I'd never hurt her intentionally."

"Did you guys come up with any reason for Sam to hurt Emily?" Bella asked all of them. "Jasper and I weren't all that successful."

The wolves and Emily shook their heads, but Chelsea shrugged. "I had a fleeting thought but it seems highly unlikely. I'd rather wait to hear what Edward has to say."

"Then why don't we head outside. He should be ready to talk soon and I don't particularly want his torso in here getting venom anywhere," Jasper said as he got to his feet.

They all trooped outside to where Emmett was helping Edward finish up the bobcat, and Bella and Emily looked on curiously as Edward's skin began to knit together.

"You vamps are super fucking weird," Bella said as she shook her head.

Jasper just smiled and shrugged. He couldn't deny it was true.

When Edward was finished, Bella wrinkled her nose. "Em, could you like, put that literally anywhere else maybe?" she asked as she nodded towards the dead animal.

Emmett laughed and nodded, and then everyone sat down in a big circle on the lawn - Jasper, Bella, Leah, Paul, Seth, Emily, Esme, Rosalie, Emmett, Peter, Charlotte, Chelsea, and half of Edward.

Only a second later Jane came running over from the direction of the kennels. "Sorry, they're just too much fun to torture," she laughed as she sat beside Chelsea, then glared at the telepath. "If you don't behave I'll rejoice in hurting you also."

"I don't know why I should tell any of you anything," Edward scowled. "All you're going to do is kill me when I'm done. What's in it for me?"

Everyone rolled their eyes at him.

"The warmth in your heart of doing a good deed?" Bella snarked.

"Who knows, we might decide not to kill you," Peter said with a smile.

"I doubt that," Edward scoffed. "You do know I can hear your thoughts, right?"

Jasper glared at Edward. "Talk, asshole, or I might change my mind about killing you quickly," he growled. "You've seen some of my memories from the south so you know I can make your last minutes or hours or days an absolute hell on earth."

Edward huffed in annoyance but couldn't deny Jasper was right. If anyone knew how to torture another vampire, Jasper was it. And Jane, too, he conceded in his mind.

"Fine," he sighed. "You know most of the story by now anyway. Emily did try to deny the imprint. When she got back to Neah Bay after meeting Sam, he was waiting there for her. He told her about the legends and that he was now one of those protectors, and then explained imprinting. Emily listened and when he was finished she told him to leave, to go back to Leah. In her mind, there wasn't even a second of doubt," Edward told Leah. "She had no plan of ever betraying you that way."

Leah nodded. She'd already come to the same conclusion.

"She was also telling the truth about the elders coming to see her," Edward continued. "Not only did Sam return over and over to try to wear her down, the elders all made multiple trips also. What Sue said about wanting Emily to 'fulfill her duties' was a sentiment shared by Billy, and from what I heard in their thoughts, Old Quil felt the same."

Rosalie scoffed and rolled her eyes. What utter bullshit.

"Here's where it gets a little jumbled," Edward said. "The elders had a belief about the 'magic' that allowed Sam to phase. When they told him, he initially refused. He didn't want to hurt Emily. But as time passed and Emily was as unyielding as ever, he started considering it. The day Sam hurt her, he was still on the fence about it. From Billy and Sue's thoughts, I'm not a hundred percent sure Sam made a firm decision to do what they wanted beforehand, but Emily made some accusations about Sam and he got angry enough that he phased without meaning to. Once that happened, he was lost in his rage and clawed her face," he explained, then hesitated for a second. "That's where the idea the elders had about the 'magic' came in. They believed that if Emily's blood and Sam's blood… mingled, I guess, that Sam's 'magic' would be transferred to her in a way that she wouldn't be able to deny the imprint any longer."

"Oh gross," Leah said with her nose scrunched up in disgust, while Emily just sat frozen in shock.

Edward nodded. "When Emily passed out, Sam phased back to human and cut his finger, then ran it over the gouges on her face to get his blood inside the wound. Only after he'd done that did he call for help. By the time Emily woke up in the hospital, the magic had done its job. Emily accepted the imprint."

Everyone sat in stunned silence for a minute.

"That's…" Paul shook his head, not sure what word to use.

"Awful?" Esme said.

"Despicable?" Charlotte growled.

"Fucking disgusting?" Rosalie sneered.

"Unhygienic?" Bella added.

Everyone laughed at Bella's answer, including Emily, then nodded at Esme, Charlotte, and Rosalie's.

"Was that what you were thinking, Chelsea?" Jasper asked curiously.

Chelsea nodded. "Pretty close, although I had thought it was saliva rather than blood."

"What, you thought he'd licked her face when she was bleeding?" Bella laughed.

"I think that might be the vamp in you talking, Chelsea," Paul smiled.

"Could be," she laughed. "I was making a correlation with venom, I suppose."

"You didn't lick me to ensure I was your mate, did you, Jas?" Bella asked, keeping a surprisingly serious expression on her face despite her amusement.

Jasper shrugged, looking a little too innocent. "Even if you weren't my mate, I'm dead certain you'd want to be with me anyway just because of my—"

"Please don't," Edward cut him off with a scowl. "No one needs to know about your 'wicked tongue skills' and I definitely don't want to see any of those memories."

"Wicked tongue skills?" Rosalie laughed. "Is that why Alice resorted to devious and psychopathic desperate measures to keep you?"

"You said it, not me," Jasper shrugged.

"Okay, Casanova," Paul laughed and rolled his eyes.

Jasper pouted and turned to Bella. "He's makin' fun of me, sweetheart. Don't you wanna defend me honor?"

"What girl doesn't appreciate an attentive and exceptionally skillful partner, Paul?" Bella shrugged.

"Aw, thanks," Jasper said, trying his best to look bashful.

"Please," Bella laughed. "Like you don't know you're a sex god."

"Now might be a good time to kill me," Edward said in a dry ass voice that had all the former Cullens and Bella looking at him in shock.

"Did you just… make a joke?" Rosalie asked, eyes wide.

Edward scowled at her. "I do have a sense of humor, Rosalie," he snapped.

"Uh, no you don't," Emmett scoffed. "This might be the first on-purpose funny thing I've heard you say since 1935."

"What? I've made you laugh before," Edward said indignantly.

"Oh, absolutely," Emmett nodded. "But never on purpose. There's a difference between laughing with you and laughing at you. There's been an awful lot of the latter but just about zero of the former."

Esme, Rosalie, and Jasper vigorously nodded their agreement, making Edward's scowl deepen.

Emmett pointed to his face. "That's the expression you usually have on when we're being funny on purpose."

Edward was prepared to protest but when he looked back, he couldn't deny they were right. Their humor always felt stupid and immature to him and he never missed an opportunity to tell them so. Whatever, Edward mentally shrugged. Sometimes being a genius meant your relationships suffered. People didn't like being in the presence of someone with a superior mind and some took pleasure in tearing you down.

"Seriously, where the fuck does your head go?" Jasper asked him incredulously. "First you think we're wrong, then you acknowledge we're right, but then you quickly veer off into smugness and superiority. What, you realized you did make scowly faces when we were funny but then decided that since you're so much more intelligent than we are that it doesn't matter?" he guessed. Feeling Edward's surprise, he nodded and rolled his eyes. "Thought so. With how dumb I am it must've just been a wild stab in the dark that happened to land, huh?"

"Edward, we've talked about this," Chelsea said disapprovingly. "Didn't I illustrate very clearly how not bright you are? That nearly everyone around you is more intelligent? If you'd like me to, I can run through all those memories again," she offered.

Edward opened his mouth to insult her but before he could, a loud growl and a bloodcurdling scream rang out from the direction of the wolf cages. Everyone jumped to their feet but Jasper hesitated as he looked at Bella and Emily. He didn't know exactly what was happening but he was pretty fuckin' sure it wasn't safe for the humans.

"Go," Bella smiled. "I have no desire to be anywhere near what sounds like an enraged wolf in my current form."

"I'll stay behind with you," Esme offered. "We can get a start on making dinner. Emily, would you like to give us a hand?"

"Um, sure," Emily nodded. "Just a warning, all of you, that growl sounded an awful lot like Sam."

Jasper kissed Bella quickly and then took off running with the other vamps and the wolves. As they got closer they could hear the sound of metal twisting and a lot of screaming, along with the growling. Jasper felt nothing but rage, despair, and fear from the five Quileute wolves. Oh wait, four? Three?

"Someone's dead," Jasper told the others as he put on a burst of speed, then promptly skidded to a halt in a spray of dirt as he cleared the trees.

All the others did the same, and when the cloud of dust settled they just stared in astonishment at the scene in front of them.

Sam was the only one completely in his wolf form, though it looked like Jared had attempted to phase but was killed before he could. The result was a bloody and mutilated boy with wolf legs that appeared broken. From the way he'd landed, it looked like his neck was broken also. Off to the side near the mangled and flattened cages, another Quileute boy was nothing more than a huge lump of blood and flesh and broken bones. Even with his eyesight, Jasper wasn't entirely sure who it was. Seeing that Jacob and Quil were still relatively in one piece, he realized it was Embry. He was completely unrecognizable by how badly he'd been mauled.

Quil was attempting to both protect Jacob and talk to Sam.

"Stop!" he screamed as Sam growled and took a step towards him. "How could we know this was going to happen?"

Sam lunged and snapped at Quil's leg, opening another massive gash and causing him to scream in anguish. Before his scream even died, Sam bit down on his arm hard enough that it nearly tore clean off. Quil's screams died as he passed out. Within seconds, his heart started slowing down and beating in stuttering fits and starts.

Jasper turned to Charlotte, who was the fastest in their group. "Would you please get Edward and bring him here?" he asked quickly. "I'm sorry, I promise I'll make it up to you somehow that you have to carry him, but he's our only chance at finding out what's happening."

Charlotte nodded and took off like a shot.

The group watched wide-eyed as Jacob was finally able to phase. Judging by his emotions, he knew Sam was going to kill him and his desperation to fight for his life overrode the pain that was keeping him in his human form.

Immediately, the two Alphas started circling each other with loud growls. It was obvious Jacob was in pain by how he was moving, but he apparently wasn't going down without a fight. Their emotions were fluctuating in such a way that Jasper knew they were talking to each other through the pack telepathy. Sam was equal parts enraged and grief-stricken, while Jacob was mostly defensive, though there was a fair amount of rage in him as well.

Charlotte came to a stop next to him with Edward tucked under her arm. With how small she was, it was an amusing sight.

"What's happening?" Jasper asked Edward quickly, pushing his amusement aside.

Edward focused for a minute, his face constantly changing as he gathered information. "Sam thinks all of this is Jacob's fault. If he hadn't…" Edward hesitated, making Jasper roll his eyes.

"If he hadn't listened to you, yes. We already know, asshole. You brought Jacob's pack here and you've heard our thoughts about spying on your little meeting. You're not incriminating yourself when we already have the information. Seriously, how the hell are you so convinced of your own superiority?" Jasper snapped. "Just fuckin' tell me what happened."

Edward glared at him but nodded. "If Jacob hadn't listened to me, they would never have come here, which means he wouldn't have lost Emily," he explained, then paused as he listened some more. "They've all been fighting since Chelsea broke their bonds. Similar to the way the imprint created bonds in Emily to the pack and the elders, their 'wolves' created bonds between the five of them that didn't exist before they each phased the first time and joined the pack. Jacob and two others were friends, but the five as a whole were not connected to each other. I'm not sure how to explain it properly. Sam and Jacob aren't thinking in very linear thoughts and Quil's mind is almost entirely quiet with how close to death he is."

"That actually makes sense," Leah agreed quietly. "Paul and I both felt something inside us snap the night Charlie Swan was killed. If what snapped was that fabricated bond between us and the others, it makes sense that we were no longer part of Sam's pack."

Jasper nodded as he listened, though he didn't take his eyes off the two wolves fighting. Because Sam had attacked all the others while in his wolf form, there had been no harm done to him. Jacob was already injured before he phased so Sam definitely had the upper hand right from the start.

It looked for a minute like Jacob might just have a shot, but Sam got in a particular vicious bite that left him howling on the ground, his chest heaving with how hard he was having to work to get in any oxygen.

"That's…" Edward paused for a second. "Jacob knows he's close to dying, he's begging Sam to spare him," he whispered.

Almost faster than even vamp eyes could keep up with, Sam lunged one last time and locked his massive jaw around Jacob's throat and then twisted his head to snap Jacob's neck.

"Guess that's a no," Peter laughed.

Sam stood still for a minute to catch his breath, not even glancing at any of them, though he undoubtedly knew they were there. They watched his big wolfie eyes take in the carnage he'd caused and then grief exploded out of him so forcefully that it made Jasper gasp and fall to his knees.

Peter immediately knelt beside him to prop him up, then pressed his hand to Jasper's neck to try and drown out whatever strong emotion had felled his brother. He focused on staying as calm and possible, though he wasn't sure how effective it was when Jasper was still gasping for breath. Charlotte saw her brother was having a hard time separating from Sam's emotions so she set Edward down and wrapped her arms around him from behind and focused as hard as she could on sending him as much serenity as she could conjure up inside herself.

It took a minute, but eventually Jasper took a deep breath, then another, then another. He lifted his head and nodded. "I'm alright," he assured them. "I'm alright."

Seeing Jasper was okay, everyone looked back at the last wolf standing. Sam seemed to sway for a few seconds before suddenly collapsing on the ground and closing his eyes. His heartbeat started to slow and his emotions began to fade.

"What's happening?" Jasper asked Edward. "He wasn't injured enough to be dying."

Edward frowned as he tried to grasp Sam's thoughts. "His thoughts aren't coherent at all. A random image of Emily's face, a snippet of what appears to be a childhood memory, a snapshot of Jacob lying dead at his feet. It's almost as if he's dreaming," Edward explained. "I think… I think his wolf is dying. What little I can make out, it seems like he's grieving what he's lost and grieving what he's done."

Jasper just nodded. Sam's emotions were nearly entirely absent now, which was unlike anything he had encountered before. Sam wasn't asleep or unconscious, and his heart was still beating - though it was getting slower by the second - so Jasper should have been able to feel something more from him. There was grief there, but it was just a faint trace. If he wasn't focusing so intently he easily could have missed it.

They all stood perfectly still as Sam's heart finally fell silent.

After a minute, Leah let out a shaky breath. "What was that?" she whispered. "Did his grief kill him?"

Edward took a second to answer. "The best answer I can give you is that it was a combination of grief and dishonor. His actions since he first set eyes on Emily and imprinted have been disgraceful, and he was aware of that. Whatever 'magic' was given to him, he corrupted it. They all did. I don't know if the magic was… rescinded somehow or called back, but his wolf died. And once they shared a body, the human side of him couldn't survive without his wolf."

"Well, that's…" Jasper trailed off and shook his head. "I don't know what that is, honestly."

Peter looked around at the carnage. "A fuckin' mess, that's what it is."

"Yeah, it's definitely a fuckin' mess," Jasper laughed, then heaved a deep sigh. "Cleaning this shit up is gonna be gross."

Jane and Chelsea exchanged a quick glance and nodded. "We'll do it," Chelsea offered. "We both know how to hide a massacre so it'll be no problem."

"You sure?" Jasper asked, though it was a token protest at best. He really didn't want to wade into that nastiness and then go home to his pregnant, human mate.

"Absolutely," Jane nodded. "And we'll take a dip in the river or one of the hot springs before coming back to the house," she added.

"Thank you," Jasper smiled. "I appreciate both of those offers."

"I'll grab y'all some clean clothes from the house so you can put dry clothes on afterward," Charlotte said with a smile, relieved as all get out that she didn't have to wade into the middle of all that wolfie grossness.

On the walk back to the house, Jasper put his arm around Leah. "You good?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," Leah nodded. "I really am. All of this was a direct consequence of their actions. The five of them ultimately destroyed themselves, even if Sam's teeth and claws dealt the death blow."

Jasper nodded his agreement and they all walked - or were carried, in Edward's case - in silence.

Walking into the house, Jasper smiled to see his mate, Esme, and Emily dancing around the kitchen while they cooked. He walked up behind Bella and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his hands on her Lilly-bump.

Bella spun in his arms with a smile, then quickly turned serious when she saw everyone's expressions. "What happened?"

It was Leah who answered, rather than Jasper, and she spoke to Emily. "I'm sorry, but he's dead. They all are," she said quietly.

Emily nodded and let out a shaky breath. "I was kind of expecting that. Sam killed them? Blamed the rest of them, or at least Jacob, for losing me?"

"Yeah. Then, according to Edward, his wolf died, or the 'magic' was rescinded or something," Leah explained. "Human Sam couldn't survive without Wolf Sam."

"He killed the whole pack?" Bella asked in surprise.

"He did," Jasper nodded as he quickly washed his hands and then grabbed a knife and started chopping vegetables for the salad. After a couple seconds, he put the knife down again and turned to look at his family with a sigh.

"I think it'll be fine, I really do," Peter smiled and nodded.

Jasper laughed at how well Peter knew him. "It's not just my decision to make. Everyone has a say on this."

Bella looked at her mate for a moment before nodding. "You don't want to kill Edward."

"I just… there's been so much fuckin' death lately. Particularly today, obviously, but it started with your mom and dad, then Carlisle and Alice, now the elders and the whole pack. I guess it just feels like maybe it's time to say enough, to decide which is more important to us - death or life."

Bella nodded again. "So let's vote."

In the end, it was unanimous. Peter and Charlotte didn't care if Edward was killed but they also weren't all that bothered by him staying alive either, so they were happy to go along with what everyone else decided. Even Rosalie grudgingly agreed that there had been enough death. The only stipulation she had was that Jasper question Edward about what he'd do if they let him go.

"If his emotions tell you he won't try to get 'revenge' on us some other way since his plot with the wolves was such an epic failure, then fine," she said.

While Emmett went to get Edward's legs and other arm, Jasper talked to him outside. Edward eventually said he'd probably go up to Denali for a while and assured Jasper that he would leave them be. He'd seen in all of their minds when he first got to Montana that the whole Whitlock clan would've let him live in peace if he hadn't been so determined to make them pay for what happened in Volterra. Edward would rather cut his tongue out than admit this out loud, but every single negative thing that had befallen him was of his own making.

Satisfied that Edward was being honest, Jasper left him outside for Emmett to put back together. He figured he oughta think of something real nice to do for Emmett to make it up to him that he kept being the one to put Edward's pieces back in their rightful place.

Walking inside, he was greeted by Esme. "Are you alright?" she asked quietly, letting him feel her love and concern.

"I am," Jasper assured her with a smile as he gave her a hug. "Now that we're done with death, we can focus on life instead."

Esme agreed with a smile. Focusing on life, particularly the little life Bella was working on growing, seemed like exactly the right place to put their energy.

"Besides, Edward still has to report to the kings in Volterra at the end of June, and then every six months until they think he's no longer a threat to anyone," Jasper smiled. "That should be enough to keep him on the straight and narrow. And if it's not, Aro will make sure we're aware of it."

"True," Esme laughed.

For now, they had a house in Washington to fix up, a tribe to help find a better future, and a precious little flower who'd be joining their family in just over four months.

Edward Cullen was entirely unimportant in the grand scheme of all their lives. He'd tried to tear them down but had only succeeded in drawing them even closer together.