A/N: I'm posting two chapters today, though this little interlude is probably too short to count as a real chapter, so make sure you don't skip Chapter 25: The Ball is Rolling.

Thank you for reading! ~ M. x

And So It Begins

The phone ringing woke Sue Clearwater up. Having all of the tribe's protectors away from the Reservation had made her slightly uneasy so it had taken her some time to fall asleep. Glancing at the clock, she saw it wasn't quite five in the morning.

"Hello?"

"Bad idea lettin' all the wolves go, Mrs. Clearwater. Now they're in my hands and there's no one at all there to protect you from me and my kind."

Sue gasped and sat up. "Who is this?"

"My name doesn't fuckin' matter. What does matter is that I'm the one who's gonna rain hell down on you, your pathetic wolf pack, and the rest of your worthless elders. Do you love your tribe, Mrs. Clearwater?"

That question confused her a little bit, but Sue was proud of the way she and the other elders ran their tribe. "Of course."

"And what would you do to ensure your human tribe members were safe?"

Sue only hesitated for a brief moment. In her mind, the wolf pack was more important than the humans of her tribe. "Anything," she said eventually.

"Good answer. Do you have a pencil handy? If not, get one. And be fuckin' quick about it, I'm not a patient man."

Sue climbed out of bed and walked into the kitchen, all the while trying to think past the fear that was making it difficult to breathe.

"What is it you're expecting me to write down, leech?" she said, aiming for angry but her voice shaking too much to really pull it off.

The vampire on the line laughed at that. "You really are somethin' else. Leech, huh? Well, I guess your teenage wolves had to learn their racist bullshit somewhere. You'll learn your lesson soon enough, just like they will. Now write this address down before my patience gives out."

Sue wrote out the address in Montana he gave her. "Whatever it is you're trying to do, you won't get away with it. Our wolves will tear you to pieces."

"It's cute you think your pack has any chance at all against me and my family. If they were the fearsome protectors you seem to value so much more highly than the rest of your tribe, they wouldn't have walked straight into a trap and left the rest of you entirely undefended," he laughed again. "You have sixteen hours to get to that address. For every fifteen minutes you're late, I kill one of your precious wolves. Once they're dead, if you're still not here, I'm comin' straight to your home and I'll slit your fuckin' throat before you even know I'm there. After that, I go from house to house and do the same thing to anyone I come across. Your tribe will be wiped out in less than an hour."

"You can't—"

"I can and I am. So gather the other elders up, grab that backstabbing whore Emily, find a fuckin' car to drive, and get your ass to that address," the vampire growled. "And before you start thinkin' y'all are smarter than me and try to pull somethin' tricky, let me just remind you how good our eyesight and hearing are. I've got a fuckin' ring of vampires surrounding La Push, including in the water. If you or any of the others speak a single goddamn word about where you're going or why, or try to get the message across in a note or text or email or any other fuckin' way, they will march straight onto your Reservation and burn every last building to the ground," he growled. "If you have any doubts whether this threat is real, why don't you take a look out your front door."

Sue slowly walked to look out the window beside the front door. "My car!" she cried.

"Your car is only the first thing that'll be destroyed if you open your fuckin' mouth," the vampire snapped. "You have sixteen hours, Mrs. Clearwater. Clock starts now."

Sue looked at the phone in her hand as the call disconnected, then looked at the clock. Caught somewhere between anger, fear, and indignation, she hung up the phone and raced out her front door, stopping only for a moment to see the damage done to her car. Every window was shattered, the tires were slashed beyond recognition, and the hood was up so she could see that someone had dumped a can of red paint over the engine. The body was covered in deep scratches and the words 'heartless bitch' were scratched into one of the doors.

Sue quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and took off running for Billy Black's house.