Stephenie Meyer owns the Twilight Saga. I own twitchy fingers that enjoy writing for no profit.

Chapter 12: Bloodsuckers and Bewilderment

Sam POV

We hadn't even gotten out of the truck outside Chief Swan's house when he opened the front door and came out to meet us, leaving the door open behind him. Two wonderful scents wafted behind him from inside; One was, of course Bella's, and the other had my mouth watering in a completely different way. My stomach rumbled loudly, reminding me I'd not eaten since my early lunch, and begging me to find the source of that second smell and shove as much of it as I could manage down my throat. I climbed out of the truck, Jared following suit on the other side and walking round the front to join me just as the Chief got to us.

"Sam. Thanks for coming by." he said, holding his hand out to shake. "Oh, and Jared, isn't it? Jared Cameron?" When Jared nodded, he shook Jared's hand too, and then gestured to the side of the house. "The biggest job I need doing is stripping the old shutters off the windows on this side, where the damp is worse, and then replacing them all with new ones." He pointed out the tatty shutter to us, and we launched into a discussion about materials, paint colours, and timings. Inside, the house phone rang and whilst of course, the Chief couldn't hear a thing, Jared and I could hear every word on both sides of the call.

"Swan residence" Bella answered the call, her voice a little wary. I guessed she'd been either fielding calls from the town gossips wanting to pass on their lies to her father since she got home, or had been avoiding answering the phone at all for fear of the same thing.

"Hello there, dear. Is your father there?" Even with the distortion of the phone, I, and through my memories, Jared, recognised the voice as one of the biddies in the store earlier that day.

"Yes, he is, thanks." Bella replied, and hung up the phone, making Jared and I burst into surprised laughter. "Nicely done." I thought appreciatively and then quickly excused our strange behaviour to the Chief, blaming a stupid inside joke Jared and I had just shared for our roars of laughter.

The Chief asked us to follow him inside to continue talking about the work that needed to be done, as the rain was beginning to worsen, and we followed him, still chuckling, to find Bella laying a fourth place at the kitchen table. I wondered who they were expecting for company, a little jealous both of the fact that someone else would be eating whatever smelled so delicious, and that someone else would be getting to spend time with Bella.

"Bells, this is Jared Cameron. He works with Sam." As the Chief introduced him, Jared held up a hand in greeting. She nodded at him politely.

"Hi. Nice to meet you. I'm Bella." She said, with a small smile, then looked at the Chief and asked "So are they joining us? Only it's all ready and I don't want it to get cold." The Chief looked at us questioningly. "Awesome." I thought. "I get to eat whatever smells so great, and I get an excuse to spend a little more time getting to know Bella. Perfect. Jared had better not balls this up."

"You want to join us, guys?" The Chief asked. "Bells here makes the best lasagne you've ever tasted, and there's plenty to go around." I looked over at Jared, silently communicating a promise of slow death if he screwed up here. I needn't have worried; he was clearly just as eager to try some of Bella's cooking as it smelt so fantastic, and was almost as eager to get to know her a little in person, instead of just through my memories.

"That'd be great, yeah, if you're sure?" I sent a small smile to Bella, and she smiled back, saying;

"Really, it's fine. I made extras anyway, so please." We all sat together round the table and were just taking our first bites, when the phone made a horrible shrill tone to announce an open line and Bella jumped up to fix it. "Ah. So that's how she's been avoiding the phone ringing off the hook. Clever. Simple but effective." I thought, just as the phone began to ring. I then fell quickly back to eating, partly because the food was so amazing I couldn't not eat, and partly to cover the fact that I was planning on listening in to the call.

"Stupid fucking busybodies" Bella grumbled under her breath, not realising Jared and I could hear her as clear as day. Jared barely caught his laugh in time to prevent suspicion, so I whacked him heavily on his back, disguising his laugh as choking on a mouthful. Easily believable with the rate at which he was devouring his lasagne.

"You ok?" Bella asked him, solicitously, and Jared nodded at her, his hand over his mouth to cover his laughing, and completing the charade that he had choked a little. Bella shrugged a little and then turned her head from us to glare at the phone in her hand.

"You gonna get that, kiddo, or shall I?" The Chief asked her and she spoke through gritted teeth.

"No. I'll get it." She took a breath and pressed the call button. "Swan residence"

"Put your father on the phone, you little tramp" Yep. Another member of the gossip brigade. I nearly let loose a growl at the vicious tone of voice, and the rude name she'd called Bella, and I felt Jared tense beside me.

"Sorry, he won't fit." Bella replied in a cool tone, without betraying a single hint of emotion, and then hanging up the phone and pressing what I guessed was the silent button. Jared and I both struggled to hold in the laughter this time, and Bella looked at us, confused, not realising that we had clearly heard both sides of the call. She shrugged, and sat down, turning to the Chief and saying. "Well I guess I'd better tell you what happened this afternoon before they start knocking at the door next." He looked baffled and asked

"Before who start knocking? Was there a problem at work or something today, Bells?" She chuckled bitterly.

"Yeah, or something." I gave her an encouraging smile and jumped in.

"Tell you what, Chief, you'd have been proud of your daughter today if you'd seen her in action. I only caught the second act, and that was impressive enough, but I'm guessing the first act was a real show stopper." I said, and we all turned to Bella to see what she would say. She blushed bright red and struggled to begin.

"Yeah ... Ummm... See at work today..." She stared down at her fingers which were picking at each other, as she related the story of what had happened with Mrs Newton at work, and whilst I'd gathered the gist of it from what Bella had revealed earlier at the store, I grew madder and madder as she told us word for word what Dianne Newton had said, and more and more impressed as she repeated her own parts of the fight.

"And that's why I was driving around town aimlessly when I found those bikes." She finished off, still with her eyes firmly on her hands, and I wondered absently, "Bikes? What bikes?" We all sat in silence, Jared and I looking at the Chief to see his reaction, and his eyes still on Bella.

"So if that was the first act, what was the second?" He asked me, and I looked at Bella to make sure she was ok with me telling the next part of the story. She nodded at me, and I began telling the the Chief (and pretending to tell Jared) about how amazing she'd been in the supermarket, leaving out the hilarious condom incident, at which she looked very relieved. She reddened again, and I smirked a little to myself, realising she must be remembering her embarrassment at the time. I didn't relate what I'd heard the gossips telling each other; not wanting to cause unnecessary upset, but I did repeat everything that had been said at the checkout. Silence reigned once again after I'd finished my part and she, Jared and I looked at the Chief again for his reaction, while he stared at Bella. His moustache began to twitch.

"And on the phone a few minutes ago?" He asked. She filled him in on the call, minus the 'tramp' comment, obviously wanting to protect him from realising just how unpleasant some of the women were being to her. The Chief's moustache twitched even more. Suddenly he could hold it in no longer and great roars of laughter filled the air. After a few seconds, Jared and I couldn't help but join in, even Bella giggled along a bit.

"Oh Bells, hon, I'm so proud of you. You really gave all those nosy bitches what they had coming, but never once crossed the line. You even managed to stop Mrs Green in her tracks, get her back on the right track, and managed to make sure there were no hard feelings. Truly a masterful piece of work." He stood up from the table and went round to her side, giving her a weird hug combined with a noogie, obviously he wasn't too comfortable with public emotional displays, but she seemed to appreciate the gesture.

The Chief's cell phone rang just then and he went into the living room to answer it. Jared and I could hear the person on the other end of the line telling him about yet another missing hiker, and we looked at each other covertly, and I jumped up to clear our plates. We had to leave to investigate, but couldn't look suspicious.

"Thanks for dinner, Bella, it was amazing." I said, and Jared caught on quickly.

"Yeah it really was. Best lasagne I've ever had. I'll definitely be coming back here again." Jared joked, sitting back and rubbing his stomach appreciatively. We both fell silent for a moment, hearing Paul's howl from the forest. "Fuck. Vampire again. Probably the red head. Fuck!" Bella looked like even she could feel our tension a little.

"I'm really sorry to eat and run, Bella, but I've just realised the time, and Jared and I need to get back to the Rez. We promised we'd give another quote for a house over there this evening. Thanks again, it really was an awesome dinner." I flashed her a large grin, trying to disguise the stress, and she waved me off.

"It was no trouble, really. I'd already cooked it all, you two just helped us eat it. And you helped that whole gossip telling thing go better too, so I owe you some thanks I think." She smiled at us both as she walked us to the door, and I took a few extra, precious seconds to lean down, take in a last lungful of her amazing scent, and whisper in her ear,

"That's two you owe me then." And smirking to myself, I hurried into the truck, with Jared right behind me and we drove off, only to pull up round the corner, out of sight, jump out, run into the forest and phase.

As soon as I phased, I was aware of Paul's barely controlled rage, as he valiantly tried to keep the red headed leech away from a terrified hiker who was in a tight ball on a lower limb of a tree, whilst also trying to keep out of sight of the same hiker. The red head was laughing, lips still red with stolen blood, obviously from the dead body lying broken and forgotten behind her. A pair of missing hikers then, not just one. She seemed to playing with Paul; lunging forward, the dancing back out of range of his teeth as she taunted him about how delicious the other hiker had been.

"You're doing great, Paul." I commended him. "Just keep it up for another few minutes. We're coming up behind her. Hopefully we'll be able to trap her between us this time, and put an end to her pointless sick game." I put on another spurt of speed, trying to run as silently as possible so as not to alert her that she had more company.

"Trying, Boss." Paul replied, his mental voice strained as he pushed himself off from the ground to leap in front of another forward lunge from the red head. "It's weird; she wants to get past me, but I get the feeling she's not really after his dude in the tree. It's like she wants to get by me for another reason. Though fuck if I can guess what it is she's really after." I looked at his memory of the fight so far. He was right. She didn't seem to give. Shit about whether she got to murder the other hiker or not. But she definitely wanted past Paul.

Jared and I slowed, and sneaked the last few hundred yards on our bellies, getting as close as we could without alerting her to our presence.

"On three, Jared and I will jump her." I ordered tensely. "Paul, you be ready to do the same from your side, and we'll pin the bitch between us. One," Jared and I raised ourselves a little, tensing for the attack. "Two," we crouched on our haunches, ready to leap. "Three! Oh fuck!" As we all pounced, her head shot up, as if she somehow knew we had her, and she made her own leap; straight up, and grabbing a branch, she swung herself over the top of us and landed a few yards behind where Jared and I had paused, waiting for our moment. Jared, Paul and I all collided painfully, and landed in a tangled web of furry limbs, and she laughed, and raced off, calling over her shoulder.

"Bye for now, doggies. I'll be back for what's owed me. You can't keep me away from it forever."

"That BITCH!" Paul was nearly frothing at the mouth in fury, as we all scrambled to our feet to give chase. Tearing through the forest, following her over-sweet, bleachy scent, I asked the others "Any ideas about what the fuck she thinks is owed her?"

"Not a clue" came Jared's reply, right on top of Paul's "No fucking idea, Boss" and I growled a little in frustration. "I get the feeling she's gonna keep in coming back til she gets what she wants." I said. "Or until we kill her." They both snarled their agreement to that last part and we ran on. Suddenly, we all came to a screeching halt. The trail had ended. Just like that; a sudden dead end, with no clues as to where she had gone.

"Shit!" Jared growled, looking upwards into the branches above. "She's gone up into the trees. We won't be able to follow her scent, and for all we know, she could be doubling back, trying another tactic to get past us." Paul and I both knew he was right, and, no signal necessary, all three of us turned tail and headed back to Forks and he rez to keep her away from whatever it was she was after in one go hose two places.

"Ok." I said "Paul, you run a loop round the Rez, Jared do the same round Forks. We need to check if she's come back this way. I'll head back to the hiker, and make sure he's safe. Paul, once you've run your loop, if its all clear, you grab some shorts for Jared and me, and meet us by my truck." They both nodded once in agreement as we ran, and after another five miles, we began to veer away from each other, all set on our particular tasks.

I ran on until I had once again found the hiker in the forest. There was no sign of the leech being back to get a second course, but I was reluctant to abandon him all alone with his friend's body, so I lurked in amongst the trees until I could hear part of the search party breaking through the undergrowth not far away. The hiker seemed o be in shock; sitting stock still in stony silence, and I was a little concerned that the search party might pass right by him, so I decided to try to jolt him out of his shock. I figured that if I let loose a bit of a growl, and allowed him to catch I fleeting glimpse of me through the trees, his mind would make the logical leap and think I was a very big bear. If I was really lucky, he would make he further assumption that that same bear had killed his friend, and reports of a rogue bear might serve to keep people out of the woods for a while, cutting down on the red heads buffet bonanza. I examined my plan carefully, and, seeing no holes in it, I set it in action. Growling lowly, I made as much noise as possible, breaking branches as I passed, and starting any small animals in my path as I moved through the trees, careful to only allow him a few, slightly obscured glances at me. It seemed to work; the next time one of the search party called out his and his friend's names, he screamed back

"Here! Over here. Come quick. A huge bear attacked my friend and its still here somewhere." Snorting internally at the stupidity of the man for yelling so close to a supposedly mad bear, drawing attention to himself, I silently crept back into deeper cover, and, once I saw the first member of the search party reach the hiker, I ghosted off deeper into the forest to loop back around towards the truck.

Jared was already there, having completed his run around Forks, and just as I arrived, so did Paul.

"Anything?" I asked them both, already knowing the answer, but too wired to just stand there in silence.

"All clear. No new scents." Jared reported, and phased back, collecting a pair of shorts from where Paul had dropped them on the ground.

"No sign of the bitch at the Rez either." Paul confirmed "Whatever it is she's after, it looks like she's given up for tonight."

"Ok, good job, Paul. You did really well to hold her off til we could get there." I complimented him. "I'll take patrol now. You and Jared head on back home and get some sleep. We're going to have to keep our guard up from now on. She was far too close to town for my liking tonight. We'll have to run wider sweeps and try to cut her off before she gets so close next time." Once Paul had phased back, I let him tie my shorts to my hind leg for me, then waited til he and Jared had gotten back into the truck and driven off before I melted back into the forest and began a loop of my own around Forks.

My route took me right past the Swan house, and I could hear Bella inside, mumbling something about explaining something to the Chief, without lying to him. Wondering what that was about, and figuring she must be on the phone - either that or she was having a conversation with herself - I flopped down in the undergrowth just inside the edge of the forest behind the house, and waited to see if she'd explain more. A light came on in a window next to the tree in the back of the house, almost directly in front of where I lay, and then quickly went off again and I heard her breaths evening out into a sleep pattern almost immediately. "She must've been exhausted to fall asleep so fast" I thought, then it occurred to me that until the Chief returned, she was completely alone in the house. I decided to hang on where I was til the Chief got back, now that the hikers had been found I figured it wouldn't bee too long before he was home.

Bella had been asleep for around half an hour when the screaming started. Just before it began, she'd been mumbling in her sleep. Begging someone, I didn't have to think too hard to guess who, to come back, not to leave her. My heart bled for her as I heard the misery and loneliness in her voice, but then she began a blood curdling scream which put all my fur on end, and I shot to my feet, looking around for a sign to show me what was attacking her. The screams cut off suddenly, and all I could hear was her crying, her sobs almost more terrible to hear than her screams had been. I realised she had been screaming in her sleep. "Is this why she looks so exhausted all the time?" I wondered. I had to admit, if my sleep was interrupted like that, I wouldn't do much sleeping either. She seemed to regain control of herself quite quickly, and I listened as she schooled her breathing back to a steady, rhythmic pace. I knew she had fallen back asleep, when I heard her mumbling start up again. This time it was something about a woman named Victoria, and blood, and a knife. The poor girl was positively riddled with nightmares. At some point though, her dream must've shifted, as her mumbles shifted into moans and sighs, grunts and groans. From the sounds of it, whatever she was dreaming now, it was good. I felt a familiar heat curling in the pit of my stomach as the thought of Bella moaning and sighing for me popped into my head, and I grew uncomfortable listening to her having such an intimate dream. I felt like a voyeur, and I was honestly relieved when my sensitive ears caught the sound of the Chief's cruiser approaching the house. I loped back into the forest and ran another loop around Forks, then a few loops around La Push, before calling it a day and returning home to get some sleep of my own. And if I dreamed about having a certain brunette writhing and moaning underneath me... Well that was my own business.

I slept like the dead until a little after noon, knowing that Jared had early patrol and would call if anything was wrong, and when I finally woke up I felt completely refreshed and full of energy, if more than a little hungry. After a quick shower, and a big breakfast, even by my standards, I headed down to my moms house. She worked on Sunday afternoons, and I tried, whenever possible, to do a few chores around her place while she was out. She might not be talking to me, but I loved her fiercely still, and if I could do any little thing to make her life easier, I would always try to do it. I chopped some wood for her, and stacked it under the back porch, and then I made a start on fixing a few loose shingles I'd spotted on her roof. It took me a few hours to get the whole roof repaired, and I jumped down and ran the hose over my head and upper body to get the worst of the sweat and grime off. I had to meet up with Billy Black to discuss the latest leech attack, and I didn't want to walk into his house stinking and filthy. Deciding to walk along the beach to his place, rather than go straight through town, I headed down the beach path, and not long after I'd passed the driftwood trees that piled themselves up in the same spot every year, I caught, once again, that glorious scent. "Bella? What's she doing down here again?" There was the faint smell of the Chief overlaying her own scent, and I wondered if she'd come out for a walk with him once more, or if she was wearing one of his shirts again. Looking ahead, I couldn't see any sign of her, or anyone else for that matter, and the gusting wind made it almost impossible to narrow down exactly where her scent was coming from. I continued to wander along the beach, allowing the waves to wash over my feet every so often as the frigid water had no effect on me with my higher body temperature. Her scent grew stronger as the wind occasionally washed it around me, and I stopped, looking around me to see where she was. Still no-one to be seen. Puzzled, I remained completely still for a few minutes, listening hard to try to catch anything above the crashing waves and blustering wind. There it was. Slow, almost impossibly slow, measure breathing, and an almost worryingly slow, steady heartbeat. I turned my head a little to try to gauge the direction. It seemed to be coming from a fallen tree on the edge of the beach, so I wandered towards it to investigate. Her scent grew stronger. It was definitely her, but I was confused by the alarmingly slow heart rate and breathing. Was she ok? As I got closer to the tree I realised that the way it had fallen had created a sheltered hollow under the root end of the tree, and this appeared to be where the sounds and her scent were coming from. Not wanting to startle her I called out her name in a low voice.

"Bella?" There was no reply. The wind was probably blowing my voice away from her. I tried again a little louder as I stopped right by the wildly blowing roots that covered her sheltered spot.

"Bella. It's Sam. Are you ok?" Still nothing. I was getting worried. Her breathing and heart rate showed no sign that she had heard me at all, even though I was calling in a loud voice straight into her shelter. I held some of the roots to one side to peer into the hollow.

"Bella? Can you hear me? It's Sam." Still nothing. I was right in front of her. With her eyes wide open like that, she must see me, but still there was no response at all. "Oh fuck. Has she gone back into her zombie state? What happened?" Her face was shadowed, but I could see her well enough to see that her eyes were open. I nudged her shoulder.

"BELLA? Are you ok?" Still a big fat nothing, and I could feel panic rising. "Was Paul and that evil biddy in the store right? Was she on something?" I couldn't smell any drugs, but the slow heart rate, the low breathing, the spaced out expression, they all certainly hinted at something being in her system. I decided to give it one more try before I just reached in, picked her up, and ran her to the clinic. I shook her shoulder and yelled right in her face.

"BELLA!..." Suddenly her eyes snapped into focus and she was actually looking at me. Her heart rate rose, along with her breathing, and I was almost weak with relief "Oh! Thank fuck for that! Are you ok, Bella? Have you taken something?" the look she gave me was filled with indignation.

"No! Of course not! Shit. Can't a girl have a little nap in a warm cozy spot without being scared half to death?" She snapped at me, and tried to shove me back, out of her face. All she achieved was shoving herself back into the root system behind her, with my strength and size, I didn't budge an inch. I was filled with shame at believing, even for a split second, one of the ugly rumours that had been spread about her. I knew better than to believe anything those nasty bitches had said. Trying to cover my shame, I got a little snarky. I raised an eyebrow.

"You always nap with your eyes wide open and staring?" I asked her.

"I don't know what to tell you, Sam. I was minding my own business, thinking and relaxing, listening to the waves, I fell asleep and was dreaming when someone" She glared hard at me, a kitten thinking it was a lion, not realising she was staring down a wolf, "shoved me and woke me up." I didn't believe thats what had happened. People don't sleep with their eyes wide open like that, but it might've explained the heart and breathing rate. Sleep would slow both. But not that much. I'm sure my confusion, disbelief, and amusement at her fierce attitude made my face a picture. I took a couple of steps back, standing up outside her shelter, and holding back the dangling roots that were dancing in the wind.

"Well I'm very sorry, Miss Swan. I didn't mean to wake you" for some reason, when I was unsure of myself, sarcasm always seemed to be my default position. "it's getting dark, so maybe me waking you from your nap was a good thing. Wouldn't want the Chief worrying about you." She seemed even more annoyed that she couldn't deny I was right, I held back my smile at her irritation.

"Damn him. Can't he at least have the good grace to be wrong when he's being this annoying?" She groused to herself under her breath, and gave me another glare, which only grew more angry when she noticed I was sniggering behind my hand; she couldn't have known that I could hear every word, despite her low volume and the wind and waves trying to swallow her words.

"Fine. I'll just be going then." She grumbled, pulling at one of the roots above her to haul herself to her feet. When the root she used pulled free, dumping her down onto her ass, I couldn't help bursting into laughter. I put a hand out for her to grab.

"Here, I'll help you up." She took my hand, and I hauled her to her feet, enjoying the feeling of her tiny hand in my own giant one.

"Thanks." She muttered, with more irritation than gratitude, and she pulled the hood back over her head, tucking her hair inside it before stepping out into the wind.

"Come on, I'll walk you back to your truck." I offered, and for a second, I thought she would refuse, but for some reason I couldn't explain, she actually accepted my offer.

"I'm parked up by Billy Black's place." She told me, which kind of worked out perfectly, so I gestured with his head, in a 'let's go then' sort of way, and we set out to Billy's. She walked slowly, in silence, her head down, I'm assuming to keep the wind from pulling her hood back. I tried to break her angry silence.

"So why were you holed up under a fallen tree, napping?" I asked her, and while she ignored the sarcasm, I could sense she wasn't too impressed with me being so obnoxious.

"I noticed the spot the other day when I was walking with Charlie, and when I needed peace and a place to think today, it just sprang to mind. Why? Is it a problem me being here?" She looked worried, like I was going to ban her from the Rez, and I quickly spoke to reassure her.

"No, no, it's fine, Bella. I was just wondering, that's all" I held up my hands at her defensive tone. When we reached the truck a moment later and she lifted her face from the ground to say goodbye, The wind instantly tore her hood back and set her hair to whipping about her face. She ran her hands through it and pulled it back behind her head "Beautiful." I thought. "She looks a little more rested, though if what I heard last night was her having a more restful night, i shudder to think how other nights have sounded. The bags under her eyes are nearly gone, her skin looks a little healthier, that wonderful hair, flying wildly in the wind, that bruised cheek and black eye ..." My silent stock take of her beauty ground to a shuddering halt at that last part. My hand flew up and, reminding myself to be gentle, my fingers gripped her chin. I gently but firmly turned her head to the right. At the clearer sight of the bruising, I couldn't help the low growl that escaped me.

"What's this? Who hurt you?" I demanded angrily, my whole body tense and shaking, "Oh shit. I can't phase in front of her, and definitely not this close to her. I'd rip her to shreds. And with my hand already on her face, once I have claws I'd scar her face for life!" I forced myself to calm down, and tried to gain control over my shaking pulled back a little. "Shit. I've scared her now." I thought to myself, finally regaining my control

"That'd be my kitchen floor." She shrugged. "I fell last night and smacked my face against it pretty hard." I stared at her face for a moment, obviously searching for the truth of her statement. Satisfied, I gave a small smile.

"Well hell, Bella. Try not to put dents in the floor over there, won't you?" She smiled back.

"Ok. I'll make. Point of trying." She agreed. She unlocked her truck, and went to climb in. "You need a lift anywhere?" She offered, and I shook my head.

"No thanks, I'm just stopping in to talk to Billy for a bit. You take care now. Oh! And thanks again for dinner last night. Jared won't stop going on about how awesome your lasagne is. I swear the guy is probably off somewhere right no writing sonnets to it." She chuckled at the thought.

"Well I look forward to hearing them. Bye Sam." She clambered in to her truck, started the noisy thing, and drove off. I watched her til she rounded the corner, and then trotted up the few steps to Billy's door. To my surprise, it was the Chief, and not Billy or Jacob who opened the door for me.

"Sam." He said cheerfully. "Just the man, and perfect timing." He walked behind me as I passed through the narrow hall into the sitting room, where Billy was already parked in front of the tv.

"Perfect timing?" I asked, looking to Billy to see what the Chief might mean. Billy just shrugged, and turned to the Chief.

"So what's up, Charlie?" Billy asked. "And what's so perfect about Sam's timing?"

" Well" the Chief replied, sitting down comfortably in the couch, and gesturing me to do the same. "I was coming to let you know, Billy, that the surviving hiker from last night reported a rogue bear in the forest, but seeing as its almost certainly not a bear, and rather one of your wolf protectors, I'd say that Sam here is the perfect man to discuss it with. Wouldn't you?" He sat back with a smug look on his face and Billy and I froze, neither of us having a clue what to say.