Big thanks, as always to Leelator, author of "How to Seduce a Werewolf" for her insightful and amazing betaing skills. She's a genius people, really.
Chapter 17 – I'll Be Watching You
EPOV
"It's not what you think, pup."
I actually couldn't tell what the mongrel was thinking because he was howling so loudly. Foam gathered at the corner of his mouth, and his incisors shone in the moonlight. It was most unsettling that, after he looked up at me, his mind seemingly closed. Or I supposed his tiny brain just couldn't formulate words to express his feelings. I thought it prudent I get a handle on the situation before he got himself into trouble.
"Remember the treaty, young one. You are on Cullen land," I called down from my perch in Bella's tree.
He snarled up at me, and I still found it difficult to hear his thoughts.
"I haven't done anything to violate the treaty," I said, "so you shouldn't either." He appeared to breathe deeply and attempted to suppress his shaking body. His breathing returned to normal, and I was able to hear him again. His thoughts were quite clear.
"Mine."
How very caveman-like of him—monosyllabic sentences to express his thoughts, was half surprised he hadn't urinated on the tree I was in. It was all I could get from him. All I could get from him was the chant of mine, mine, mine replaying in his head.
Both our attentions were diverted to Bella's room as the light went out, and she called out her goodnight to Charlie. The sound of her voice seemed to calm the beast below me, and I felt comfortable enough to use the distraction to extricate myself from the tree. His eyes closed as he focused himself back into human form. I tried to ignore the fact that he was naked.
"Okay, creep. Care to explain what you're doing sitting like a fucking stalker in a tree outside my girlfriend's window?" The pup was breathing through his mouth, and each word he spat out was carefully controlled.
"It's simple, really. After she dismissed me from our study session, no doubt because she was overly worried about YOU, I was concerned for her academics. I was merely out here in case she was stumped, and then I would be able to conveniently call her to discuss the question."Of course, that wasn't the only reason. Alice would be able to tell if Bella was struggling. I simply found it comforting to watch over her, especially now that she was dating a dog. Young werewolves were highly unpredictable; it wasn't safe for her. She clearly needed my protection, even if she didn't know it.
"Bella's not your concern, leech," the mutt barked out.
"I beg to differ, puppy. I am a friend of Bella's and have her best concerns at heart," I replied. "There is nothing in the treaty that limits where I can go on our land." I subtly reminded him that if he were to attack he'd be in the wrong. He snorted at me, dog like, despite his human form.
"You don't have a heart, at least not one I can hear, corpse. Bella's friend or not, if I catch you spying on her again, no treaty on this earth will stop me from coming after you." He was seething, and I could perceive the mental effort it took him to not attack me outright. I heard a rustling behind him to discover two more wolves approaching. At the same moment, Carlisle's Mercedes flew up to the house. Carlisle and Alice instantly appeared at my side.
The mutt changed form the second that the car materialized. If Bella or Charlie had looked out their window, they would have seen the strange sight of Alice, Carlisle, and me faced off against three horse-sized wolves. There was really no plausible explanation for what was going on, and I can't imagine what we would have told Charlie had he run out the door with his shotguns at the ready.
"Edward, get in the car." I was surprised that Carlisle was ordering me to retreat but could respect that he felt the need to keep the peace. It was so … Carlisle. I felt Alice grip my arm and yank me towards the vehicle.
"Carlisle, this is our la …" I began, but was abruptly cut off by a look from my father.
"Edward, now." He stood there silently glaring at me.
"My apologies for this misunderstanding, gentleman." Carlisle offered his palms out in a gesture of remorse. "Rest assured that an incident like this will not occur again." He glanced my way before getting into the car. Alice pulled me into the Mercedes, and I believe that the wolf looked smug. One last peek into his mind told me he was still is his Paleolithic mentality.
"Mine."
The ride home was in relative silence. Both Alice and Carlisle were doing their best to block me. I was somewhat indignant over Carlisle's decision to make us leave. According to the treaty, I'd been on our land. The mutts had no right to run us off, particularly that young cub, Black. He seemed to be disregarding all the rules anyway."
Carlisle skidded to a halt in front of the house, not even bothering with the garage and called out in a voice that was louder than necessary.
"Family meeting, now."
Everyone silently gathered around our dining room table, unusually quiet given Carlisle's raised tone.
"Carlisle," Esme asked, gently putting his hand in hers. "Why don't you start from the beginning?"
Alice shifted uncomfortably in her seat and shot me an apologetic glance.
"That would begin with me, Esme. I had a vision of Edward, and then suddenly he disappeared. The only way his future reappeared was if both Carlisle and I left to retrieve him." She took an unnecessary breath before she continued. "As you know, we've put together that when I started having my visions go blank, we knew somehow the wolves were involved. Up until tonight, I always saw our futures past the specific event."
"Up until tonight?" Rosalie asked. Alice nodded morosely.
"When I realized what was happening, I went through all the possible outcomes. The only one that had a clear result was for Carlisle and me to leave immediately. Everything else ended in Edward's … death." Alice looked down at the table, and Jasper reached out to rub her shoulder.
"Well, that settles it." Emmett rose from the table. "Let's go kill us some wolfies." He rubbed his hands together as he mentally pondered how many wolves he could take alone. Whatever deity might exist, may he have blessed my loyal brother. Rosalie stood to join her husband, ready to eliminate the threat to our family.
"Sit," Carlisle ordered. "We are not done here." Emmett and Rosalie's shock took over their expressions. They quietly slid back into their seats giving me a questioning stare. I simply shrugged, having no idea what had gotten into Carlisle.
"Edward," he asked "what exactly were you doing at Ms. Swan's house? My understanding was that your study session was cut short?" His mind was open, but he wanted an explanation of the vision Alice told him about on their way over—the vision of me sitting in Bella's tree.
"I feel very protective of her, Carlisle. You know more than anyone how fragile humans are. And now she has a werewolf for a boyfriend!" My hands assaulted my hair to relieve some of the frustration I felt. Why could no one see how much danger she was in? "Bella's not safe without me. She needs me, Carlisle."
"Edward, please understand that this is a very delicate situation." Carlisle looked up to the rest of the family. "Firstly, while both Alice and Edward have a friendship with Bella Swan, she is human. Moreover, she is romantically involved with a wolf. We've smelled at least four different wolf scents at the border, and now there's the addition of Ms. Swan's beau. That's five of them, significantly larger than the last pack we encountered."
"So what, Carlisle?" Emmet shrugged. "They added two new wolves. We added Alice and Jasper. And Jasper is a kick ass strategist and fighter. We could take them, easy." He leaned back in his chair with his hands linked behind his head.
"Emmett, this isn't about if we could take them. It's about the loss of life, human life," Carlisle pleaded.
"Werewolves hardly count as humans." Emmett snorted. I couldn't help but agree with my brother.
"Emmett McCarty Cullen, you will respect your father's words when it comes to valuing life," Esme chastised. He at least had the sense to look remorseful, although I could tell he really just wanted a good brawl. He winked at me across the table.
"Regardless, it would seem that Bella Swan is a delicate subject when it comes to the wolves. Despite her house being on our side of the treaty line, I think it would be best if you were not over there uninvited, Edward." I began to protest, but Carlisle raised his hand to silence me. "I'm not saying that you must terminate your friendship, however, despite your best intentions, you are in a sensitive situation. For the time being, we should not aggravate it further. Give me your word."
"Carlisle, this is preposterous. Her house is on our land, she is my friend, and she clearly lacks any instinct of self-preservation. She is in need of my services."
"Edward, this isn't forever." He gazed at me sternly. "Your word."
Feeling defeated, I conceded to please my father.
"I give you my word that, for now, I will wait for an invitation to visit Bella." I rose from my seat and retreated to my room. Shortly thereafter, I heard a knock at my door.
"Not now, Alice. I want to be alone." I rolled over and turned up the music I was listening to.
"I'm sorry." She apologized mentally. "They would have killed you. I couldn't lose you."
I sighed.
"I know, Alice. I'm not mad, I just want to be alone." She left silently, planning on going for a hunt with Jasper to alleviate some of her tension and guilt. I couldn't blame her. I would do the same if she were in danger. As if the wolves posed any danger to me. I knew I could have outrun them if I needed to, but I was also a decent fighter. With my gift, I'd never lost to Emmett or Jasper when play fighting. I spent the remainder of the night worrying about Bella.
JPOV
"Sam, this is serious—like stalker serious." You have to let me tell Bella the danger she is in." I was desperate. We were standing outside my house after the peeping tom incident. I had to think of some way to let Bella know that she wasn't safe with the Cullens. I didn't want to mention the window thing; it was just too creepy to think about, and I didn't want to freak her out.
"I'm sorry, Jacob, but the rules are very clear on this. She isn't your imprint, so we can't break the treaty to tell her about them. We will obviously have to step up vigilance given their interest in her, but you can't reveal any tribal secrets." He regarded me for a moment and then softened. "I truly am sorry Jacob, but I won't change the Alpha decree I gave you earlier." He left with Jared in tow, and I had no choice but to retreat into to my house. I did not sleep well. My dreams were full of vampires running off with the girl I loved and me unable to stop them. Not the dream I was hoping to have of Bella. I was hoping to have a dream to recreate the last time she was in my bed with me. No such luck.
Fuck my life.
The wolf in me was very unsettled by what just happened. As much as I tried, I couldn't get back to sleep after my nightmare. Something inside me needed to be close to her. I ran to her house in wolf form and watched from the tree line. The wolf demanded more. He needed to know she was safe after the leech had spied on her. I carefully crept closer to her window and that stupid tree the bloodsucker had been watching her from. I needed to think of a way to warn her about her peeping vamp. My keen eyesight noticed a footprint at the base of the tree.
Eureka!
I just needed to show Charlie the shoe print (clearly smaller than my own foot, but larger than Charlie's) and let his overprotective nature fill in the blanks. It was only a temporary solution to the vampire problem, but my wolf was somewhat appeased by this. He wanted me in Bella's bedroom guarding her; personally, I wanted to be in her bed as well. The wolf seemed okay with that plan too.
Bella's bed. Bella, last time she was in my bed. Naked Bella. Things I could do to Bella in her bed.
I shook my head to clear my fantasy. The last thing I needed was to mentally replay that night while in wolf form. So far Jared and Paul hadn't said much to me as I watched over Bella, but Paul was sure to give me a hard time about it later if I let those thoughts go any further.
I followed Bella to school to ensure she got there safely, but was forced to leave when I got within sniffing distance of the vamps. Stupid treaty, with stupid Forks on their side of the line. I needed to find some way to move Bella onto the rez. Maybe she would consider transferring to the rez school? I doubted it, even if I could have told her the truth.
"Hey, Bella. Just so you know—your boyfriend morphs into a giant, hairy dog because your two closest friends at school are vampires. Do you mind transferring to the rez school so I can keep an eye on you, and so the Creepy Undead don't watch you at night?" Right, like that conversation would ever happen.
My only real hope lay in those damn scrolls that Sam kept bringing over. The council had been brought up to date on everything since it appeared that Bella was in semi-imminent danger. Old Quil also went out of his way to parade almost all the girls on the rez past me at some point or other. That just pissed me off further. First of all, I wasn't going to imprint on some chick because it was convenient for the council. Secondly, I wouldn't abandon anyone to be vamp bait. Lastly, Bella was going to be my wife and mother of my kids one day; I knew it. Old Quil could suck my balls. Fortunately, my dad adored Bella, and Harry's daughter was on the bad end of imprinting, so neither of them ever pushed anything on me.
Billy did, however, find the story about my phasing due to my desire to mate hilarious. He kept teasing me about Charlie's gun collection. I was not amused.
Bella seemed eager to see me after our forced, temporary separation. She worked through her lunch every day so she had less homework and more time to spend with me. I truly didn't deserve such a wonderful girl. Unfortunately, she always reeked of leech when I went to see her. Stupid, stinking vampires kept breathing their horrifying scent all over my girlfriend, and it drove me nuts. I hadn't had the pleasure of Bella's undiluted smell since I phased. It made being close to her very difficult. I was stuck in an awful cycle of being exposed to leech stink every day, worrying about Bella, and having my hands tied so that there was nothing I could do about it.
My only saving grace was that Charlie flipped out when I pointed out the footprint to him. He cut down several large branches of the tree, and thinned it out considerably. He stopped short of cutting it down altogether, but it was pretty sparse by the time he was through with it.
I had a mini-breakthrough with the scrolls while Bella was working at Newton's on Friday night. It dealt with a story from the pack six generations before the last.
"Sam, look at this. Look!" I thrust the tattered scroll under his nose, waving it around.
"Jacob, I can't read it while you're shaking it in my face." Sam snatched the scroll away from me, probably before I vibrated it into non-existence. He solemnly sat reading and rereading the passage. "I don't know Jacob. This seems like a long shot. It sounds super rare, rarer than imprinting even. In all the scrolls we've looked over, it's only mentioned this one time. Maybe it didn't have anything to do with the wolf. Maybe, it was a respect thing. May …"
"Maybe nothing, Sam." I cut him off. "It's worth investigating. We can, I dunno, try it out." I knew I might have been grasping at straws, but I was desperate to protect Bella from the leeches.
"Jacob, I don't want to be cruel. But Bella isn't of our tribe. She's not even native. The likelihood that she could be this is so small." Sam looked at me apologetically. I could tell he was trying to not hurt my feelings. I knew that Sam didn't have problem with Bella being white, but I could see it being an issue with some members of the council. They would laugh at the thought that the woman from one of our legends could be an outsider.
"Look, let's just test it out before we bring it before the council. Please, Sam? If it doesn't work, no harm, no foul. I will keep looking. But this is the best lead I've found in not only keeping her safe, but being with her without fear of imprinting." It was a low card to play, but I knew Sam was still sensitive about imprinting with the whole Emily/breaking Leah's heart thing.
"I don't know, Jacob." He sighed deeply. "I don't even know how we'd begin testing it, or who we would subject to it. They'd have to be kept in the dark for us to judge accurately." He rubbed his face and exhaled. "It's too bad that Quil's not a wolf. It would have been funny to watch with him as the target." We both chuckled quietly at that.
"You don't think he'll phase do you?" Although I felt bad for the time I spent away from Quil, I didn't wish such a bizarre existence on anyone. "I mean, the pack is already bigger than the last few generations."
"It's hard to say; his bloodline is strong. And previous generations didn't have seven leeches living so close." We sat and pondered how the Cullen's affected our tribe, both in our great grandfather's pack and ours. After several minutes of silence, I spoke again.
"We'll use Embry in the test. He won't mind once I tell him. He's a good guy and will understand. I'm afraid Paul would lose it if we tried to use him or Jared." Sam nodded in agreement to my proposal.
"What did you have in mind? We can't exactly have Bella play Simon Says with him." I laughed at the mental picture I conjured up from Sam's suggestion.
"I'll start with small stuff. The hardest part will be getting Bella to ask him for something. She's so independent that she's not going to like bossing him around." I racked my brain to see how I could make it work. "Maybe I can tell her it's a game."
"So, when? Is she coming to visit this weekend?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, she'll be by tomorrow after another shift at Newton's. Hopefully she won't reek of vamp." I shivered at the thought of having to spend a whole day with that smell lingering in my nose.
"Okay, but if this doesn't work you have to drop it, Jacob. We'll find another way." He patted my shoulder as he left my room.
All I needed to do was to figure out a way to test my theory that Bella was the Alpha's mate, the Alpha female of the pack.
