Chapter 40:

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Sorry it took so long, but I'm working on getting my updates to be a little more constant. Hopefully it'll happen soon!

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Yes, Bella," Tanya urged, "you need to call them and tell them what they will be finding up here."

Her right hand played with the ends of my damp hair from behind my shoulders. I was curled into her body against the headboard with my head lying on her shoulder and her head resting atop of mine with the phone ringing in my ear.

"Are you sure?" I pressed. "This may not go very well."

She huffed. "If it doesn't I'll run down to Forks tonight and make them feel sorry for whatever wrongful thing they say to you," she said. "Kate and Irina wouldn't mind helping me, either."

"Of course they—"

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ems," I said, abruptly changing my sarcastic voice to Belly Smurf. "How's it going?"

"Bella?" she asked. "I'm fine, I guess. I'm just cleaning up dinner with Leah's help. What's going on?"

I glanced at Tanya, who nodded, and pursed my lips. "Well…there is this tiny-itty-bitty-teeny-weeny thing I need to add to your information before coming up here," I said.

"This doesn't sound so tiny-itty-bitty-teeny-weeny."

"Uh…"

There was a small scuffle and I could hear her calling Sam's name along with mine. Then, more scuffling until I heard Sam through the phone. "Hey, Bells, what's up?" his deep voice rumbled.

"Hey, Sam," I smiled. I cuddled closer to Tanya and grabbed a piece of her hair to twirl around my finger. "So, I have this little bit to add to what you need to know when you meet the Denalis…"

"Ems said you had something. What is it? Don't tell me that they have decided to move and it will be the end of this month," he said, actually sounding serious at the last part.

Tanya huffed. "As if…" she grumbled. She nuzzled the stop of my head.

I smiled at her and shook my head. "No, they aren't," I said. "It really doesn't have anything to do with the Denalis as much as who is with them at the moment…"

"Bella…You better be kidding me. Please tell me that the damn—"

"They're here, Sam," I sighed. I bit my lip nervously. "The Cullens arrived about four days ago, and they've been staying with the Denalis. They were there when you called to say you were coming up."

The line was dead silent for a second before I heard a simple, "Hang on," then the line was silent again. Well, it was silent if it wasn't for the, "Are you fucking kidding me? Those fuckers are up there with our fucking sister in the same fucking state! AAAAHHHH!"

I waited patiently while looking to Tanya who seemed amused with his outburst. She gave me a small smile and leant forward to place a small kiss on my forehead. I smiled and tilted my head up to connect our lips instead in a quick peck.

I relaxed my head under her chin again when Sam cleared his throat, took in a breath, then, "Continue."

I raised a brow. "Are you sure? I can wait a little longer if you want to…" I motioned around with my hand and clicked my tongue.

He took in a breath. "Yeah, I'm good," he said. He cleared his throat. "So, the Cullens are there and have been there for the past four days? Has anything bad happened during that time?"

I snorted. "Well, I mean I've had to break up possessive vampire fights in the war Denali vs. Cullen a few times, but besides that nothing really. The Cullens are just trying to get on my good side again after what happened. They took the cancer thing to heart pretty well, and they definitely aren't getting it easy with the Denalis. It's a constant battle of who will get to hold my hand, this minute."

He snorted through the phone. "Good," he said. "Those fuckers don't deserve to have you around them. I'm giving another one of my points to the Denalis."

"Thank you, Sam," Tanya spoke up.

"Who was that?"

I glanced at Tanya and rolled my eyes. "That was Tanya. She's in my room right now."

"Did we cock-block you, or, in your case, pussy-block you?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, Sam, you did not. I called you, remember? Now please focus on the task at hand and let's get this phone call over with," I begged.

He sighed. "Fine," he grumbled. "I'll tell everyone else tomorrow about the situation. I'm sure no one will be happy to hear about it, but I'm glad you told us so we didn't start a whole scene. I don't want that happening at any time, and I'm sure it won't." He paused, and then, "Oh, and Tanya, I want you to know that we will be pulling you aside to give you the natural sibling talk about what will happen to you and your family if you hurt Bella."

The blonde chuckled. "Naturally," she said. "I wouldn't expect anything less from Bella's shifter side of the family."

He hummed and said, "I'll let you two lovebirds get back to loving and leave you alone. I need to help Emily with the dishes anyway if that's all you got for me now."

I nodded. "Yeah, that's it. I'll see you Friday, okay?"

"Sure thing, Bells."

The line went dead and I let out a breath, setting my phone on the table next to the bed. Tanya hummed, kissing my hair. "See?" she asked. "That wasn't so bad now, was it?"

I snorted. "Shut-up."

She giggled and adjusted our position until we were lying under the covers; spooning. "Why should I when there are so many words to say in your presence?"

Well, it was Thursday, and I was freaking out.

I mean legitimately freaking out. Everything was in complete shambles on how the Pack would be getting here, what time they would arrive, where they would stay, how long they would stay, and how many were coming…And they were coming tomorrow. It had to be the most disorganized reunion I had ever been involved in.

And that included the Cullens.

I was overly stressed with the chaos, and I found it incredibly impossible to relax—not even music helped. I had been moving since I woke up that morning, and that was why I wasn't objecting to the backrub Esme was currently giving me.

I was still mad at the woman for what she said about the Pack, don't get that out of your head, but I had no energy to object. She had just sat down behind me on the floor when Tanya was away for a second and began to rub my shoulders without a word. I was happy to let her ease the tension out of my muscles—even the glares casted her way for it were worth it.

Tanya sat in front of us with her legs crossed and was watching me intently. Her eyes scanned over my body while it relaxed again and again with each grab, pull and knead of Esme's hands on my muscles. She was truly doing magic to them, and Tanya could especially see it after how tense I had been all last night and this morning.

Carmen cleared her throat for my attention. I glanced up at her from the floor and she smiled. "Do you want something to eat, miel? I could go make you something," she offered.

I bit my lip in consideration. "Maybe in a little," I said, "but I'll be okay for right now. Thank you, though, Carmen." I gave the Hispanic vampire a small smile of thanks.

She smiled, but her eyes flickered to Esme when the woman pushed my body forward ever so slightly with one of her kneads; her smile became strained. She nodded. "Of course, miel," she said. "Just tell me when you are ready and I'll make it."

I nodded with another smile before I went back to relaxing. Esme made her massage a little more powerful and thorough when my attention was back again on relaxing, and I happily let her continue. Tanya reached forward and took my hand in hers and started her own massage on the appendage.

It was strange at first, but then I realized how pleasurable the hand massage actually was. Her hands traveled up from my fingertips to my palm and then to my wrist. It was quite soothing—especially with Esme's backrub on top of it.

I let out a small sigh and turned my attention onto the TV where some random reality show was playing. No one was really paying that much attention to it from either being lost in thought or doing some other sort of activity like reading a magazine or playing a game. I looked away from the TV and closed my eyes to relax with a deep breath.

I released the breath slowly and began to draw in another. Tanya was now massaging my other hand and Esme was working her way down on the sides of my spine. I bent over slightly to give her better access to my lower back when Alice plopped down suddenly right in front of me. She was practically in Tanya's lap.

Tanya frowned at the pixie and shifted herself to not support Alice, and then continued her massage on my arm without further interruption. I arched my brow at the smiling Cullen. "Yes, Alice?" I asked.

"Do you want to go shopping?"

I internally flinched at the thought. "Shopping?" I echoed.

She nodded excitedly. "Yeah," she said. "We haven't been shopping together in two years and we need to go! We must carry on the tradition!"

I blinked with zero enthusiasm.

"I believe," Esme spoke up from behind me, "that shopping may not be the best thing right now, Alice. Bella is trying to relax after all."

"But shopping is relaxing!" she argued. "Plus, we can get her even more clothes and every girl needs more clothes!"

I shook my head. "I don't know if you haven't noticed, Alice, but my wardrobe is decently sized. I think I'll be alright to not worry about losing any clothes for a while."

She pouted. "But, Bella…" she whined.

"Alice…"

Alice pouted and huffed before she rolled her eyes. And, begrudgingly so, murmured, "You can buy one of the outfits yourself."

I paused to consider it. I never got to buy my own outfits with Alice…as in never. Damn, that vampire must have been desperate to have me go on a shopping date. And, with that rare of an opportunity, who I was to deny it without taking some advantage of it? I smirked at her and arched a brow. "Two outfits?" I asked.

She shuddered and grimaced. "Yes," she grumbled.

I hummed and then shrugged. "Fine," I said. "I'll go shopping with you."

Alice squealed and wrapped me in a hug. She kissed my cheek, then blurred off shouting, "I'll be ready to go in two minutes!"

Every vampire in the room turned their attention to me genuinely concerned—even Edward who had been brooding since I got there. "Bella," Rosalie said lowly, "I don't think you need to be dragged around a mall when you need to relax."

I smirked devilishly. "That's why you, Kate, Irina and Tanya shall be coming with me. I'm not dull when it comes to shopping with Alice. I know to make you guys suffer along with me."

Tanya snorted in front of me. "Thanks a lot…" she grumbled.

I winked at the blonde vampire just as Alice blurred back into the room with an excited grin and purse. "Come on," she squealed impatiently. "Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"

So, shopping with Alice was actually just as terrible as I remembered. The moment we had stepped into the mall, she had grabbed my hand and hauled us to the nearest expensive store. Within ten seconds she was stuffing my arms with clothes and it took every vampire present to make her slow down and not pile everything on me at once. We left the store thirty minutes later with the others carrying most of the bags Alice had bought for me (they blatantly refused to let me waste any energy I would need for shopping).

After nearly an hour of shopping, we were forced to go to the car and store the bags in the trunk of the car and then start to shop for more. Alice was determined to make up for the two years we didn't go shopping together in one run, and it was driving me insane.

By our second hour, Alice was happily grinning and skipping ahead of the group. I practically had Tanya and Rosalie carry me to keep my energy conserved for just the shopping portion. I gave an exasperated sigh when Alice happily trotted into another store and Rosalie leaned towards me, "Do you need a break?"

I shook my head. "I'm fine," I said. "I just need to build up my Bella Barbie endurance again."

The two women snickered and let me walk myself into the store. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Alice wasn't immediately shoving clothes on me, and decided to move to the other side of the store while the others fanned out. Tanya stuck with me, but allowed me to have my space when we arrived at a rack.

She went to the opposite side of me and we began looking.

I was pawing through the clothes quickly, but intently. I frowned on a few in distaste of the cut or color before I moved on to the next. I was about to turn the rack, but paused when I saw Tanya was still going through the clothes on her side with a slower pace than me, and decided to wait.

I went back to another shirt that was semi-attractive to save some time when I heard a voice speak up from behind me, "May I help you, ma'am?"

I turned around to find a smiling young man about two years older than me. His eyes quickly drifted over my figure and I barely kept in the restraint of rolling my eyes. Instead I smiled and shook my head. "No, I'm fine," I said politely.

He raised his brow and raised his eyes from my chest. I again restrained the urge to roll my eyes when his eyes met mine. "You sure?" he asked. He moved closer and set a hand on the small of my back. "We have some clothes on sale if you'd like me to show you?"

I shook my head and stepped back from him. "No, thank you."

"Really, I think you'd find something you'd enjoy," he said. He smiled and tried to touch me again. "It's a pretty good deal for most of the clothes in the store, and may I say, that some of them would look amazing on you."

I again stepped away from him and didn't miss how the vampires around the store were now watching his movements intently. I could literally feel Tanya's stare through her eyelashes on my back.

I shook my head. "No," I said more sternly, but with a smile. "I'm fine."

He looked crestfallen for a second, then a little annoyed, then amused. "You really don't catch on, do you?" he asked, giving a small charming smile as if he was joking.

I raised my brow. "Pardon?"

He shrugged, still smiling. "I'm just trying to be charming, but you haven't really noticed, I guess," he said.

"No, I noticed. You just suck at it."

Tanya gave a huff behind the rack proudly.

The guy blinked. "Oh…" he said awkwardly. He scratched the back of his neck and shuffled his feet. "That's a first."

"First time you ever were turned down, or the first time you ever found out that your lines aren't that good?"

"Uh, both, I guess…" He cleared his throat and shuffled his feet in place. "So…can I have your number?"

Tanya snapped her head up behind me from the corner of my eye, and I could see a few of the others heading our direction to get the dude off of me. I simply said, "I'm gay." I cast a small look behind me towards Tanya, trying to give him a small hint that my partner was here with me.

The guy spluttered and looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "You're…uh, you're—"

"Gay, honey, is the word you're looking for," I said.

He swallowed and looked like he was torn between freaked out and even a little disgusted. Great, he was homophobic. He frowned and crossed his arms. "So you're a dyke?"

As soon as he said the word, it was like a switch flipped. The women immediately made a beeline towards us and Tanya was moving around the rack to come to my side. She wrapped a protective arm around my waist and the others joined us.

"What did you just call her?" Rosalie growled. She moved to stand in front of me with her dark eyes focused on him intently. Kate was just behind her with her shoulder pressed into mine and Irina and Alice stood on either side of Tanya and Kate.

The guy, even when surrounded by angry vampires, simply motioned. "Well, that's what she is," he said, as if it was obvious. "She's a dyke."

Kate snarled. She moved forward. "You little—"

I immediately grabbed her wrist to stop her. "It's alright, Kate," I said calmly. I pulled her back and focused my eyes on the guy again. "I'm not offended if all he can come up with is dyke. It's just so original for a hircismus like him."

The women around me sniggered and his face reddened. "What the hell did you just call me?" he snapped.

I arched my brow. "Get a dictionary and look it up," I said. "Maybe it will give you better insults."

He took a step forward. "You—"

Rosalie was about to push herself between us when another deep and—to me—extremely familiar voice spoke up, "Well, I sure do hope you aren't talking to her, dude, because if you are, you just signed your death warrant."

The one and only Jacob Black stepped forward in all of his buff russet skin glory with a thin shirt on his usually bare chest. His face was set into a deep scowl and he towered a good few inches over the guy, making him seem even more intimidating. Behind him were Paul and Leah dressed similarly.

A bright smile overturned my lips when I met Leah's gaze. She winked at me then went back to looking at the dude who was currently digging his own grave with eight supernatural creatures that could kill him with the bat of an eyelash if they wanted to.

He raised his chin. "Butt out," he sniffed. "This is between me and the tom." He jabbed a finger at me over Rosalie's shoulder. The vampires sneered at him.

"Oh," Paul chortled. He raised his hands and cracked his knuckles. His massive body lumbered forward. "I was just hoping you would say that. Now, I have a reason to kick your ass for harassing my little sister."

"Our sister," Jacob corrected.

A switch must have flipped in his head, because his eyes widened when he realized he was in the shit house. He backed up when the two men advanced and raised his hands. "Look, I-I—"

"Excuse me," an older woman called. She appeared to be the manager with her lance around her neck and walkie-talkie on her hip. She scowled at the group with a raised brow. "What's going on here?"

Jacob motioned. "This prick called our sister a dyke and has insulted her for dating a woman," he said. He then motioned to the vampires. "He's also been disrespectful to these women and us as well."

She scowled at the boy who was now blushing a deep red. "Is this true, Benjamin?" she asked.

"I…" He trailed off and then sighed. "Yes, ma'am."

She hummed. "At least you were honest," she said. "Benjamin, go to my office where I shall speak with you." The guy glanced back and then begrudgingly trudged towards the back while the woman looked at us. "I'm sorry for this. Everything is free if you wish to take anything?"

Tanya frowned. "I think it would be best if we all just left," she said.

The woman nodded. "Of course, and I again apologize." With that, she turned and walked off to talk with the employee.

Immediately, I turned and threw myself at Jacob. The man caught me with a chuckle and lifted me up in the air with a gentle squeeze effortlessly. "Jake!" I called happily.

"Hey, Bells," he smiled. He set me on the ground and grinned down at me. "Fancy meeting you here."

"I thought you guys were coming tomorrow," I gushed. I looked between the three shifters present rapidly—shit eating grin still on my face.

He nodded while Paul stepped forward. The man swept his massive arm forward and answered for him. "We were," he started. He pulled me into his chest and I happily wrapped my arms around him the best I could. "But your girlfriend and her family thought you'd like a surprise and had us come early."

I grinned and pulled away to smile at Tanya. The blonde gave me a small smile and nod. Her shoulders began to lose the tension they had gained during the small skirmish. I then turned to have my attention directed at Leah and quickly pulled the woman in for a hug. "Hey, Leah."

She squeezed me with a hum. "It's good to see you again, Bells. We've all missed you," she said. She gave another small squeeze then released me.

I smiled at her happily and pulled away to cock my head at the trio. "Where are the others at?" I asked.

Jacob jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Sam, Emily and Seth are here with us at the car and Sue's at the house with Charlie, but the others had to stay down at the Reservation. They weren't happy about it, but we had to leave someone down there to make sure it wasn't harmed," he said.

"We're supposed to bring you out to them," Leah added.

I nodded and behind me, I heard Alice say, "I guess we could call it a day and all head home. I need to put my shopping bags away anyhow."

The vampire women gave murmurs of agreement and the three wolves smiled. "Great," Jake said. He glanced to the vampires. "Perhaps we should get the introductions going. I'm Jacob Black—Bella's awesome brother—and this is Paul Lahote along with Leah Clearwater."

Tanya moved forward and flawlessly wrapped her arm around my waist with a smile. "It's nice to meet you," she said, "and I also appreciate what you did just now for Bella." She raised her chin just a fraction. "I'm Tanya Denali, and these are my sisters Kate and Irina along with Rosalie and Alice from the Cullens."

The wolves shifted their gazes to the two Cullens present, and while I could see the smallest breath taken, they remained neutral and gave polite nods. I smiled and mentally applauded them on the reaction. I wasn't kidding when I said they matured rapidly after the first year.

Leah smiled at Tanya; appraising her. "So," she said, "you're the one who's stolen our little Bella's heart, huh?"

Kate sniggered. "Well," she drawled, "I would say Bella stole her heart first. Tanya was tripping for her soon as they met."

Tanya growled lowly at her sisters while they laughed with the three shifters. I just rolled my eyes and (softly) punched Leah in the shoulder. "Oh, can it, Leah, and let's get moving out of this store."

The woman grinned, but shrugged and we left. I took Jacob's hand flawlessly in mine and the man smiled at me. Paul came to my other side—causing Tanya to wrinkle her nose slightly at her his sudden proximity to her nostrils—and held out his arm. "May I?" he asked.

I chuckled, but took his elbow. Tanya had to remove herself from my side to allow the move, and I could see her pout from the corner of my eye. I made a mental note to make up for it later. "You may," I responded.

"Hey," Jake protested, "shouldn't I get the honor of escorting Bella?"

"Dude," Paul said, "I'm far cooler than you and you already have her hand. Let's just handle this like men and take what we've been given, alright?"

Jacob frowned and grabbed my hand that was holding his in his opposite hand. He removed it from his, hooked his arm and slid my hand into it so he was also escorting me. He gave a smirk of triumph. "Better."

"Prick," Paul grumbled.

"Ass."

"Bastard."

"Bitch."

"B—"

"Boys," I groaned, "you're both pretty. We get it, and I'm sure your penis is bigger than the others', now shush."

Leah giggled behind. "Just like being back in La Push all over again," she teased from behind us.

Us: "Shut-up, Leah."