A New Beginning ~ Chapter 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Jacob shook his head. “You forgave him that quick, huh?”
Bella had the alarming sensation that as she gazed at his soul, he was seeing hers as well. “Not entirely. There’s still some anger.” She didn’t bother to explain that she was angry primarily because Edward had been as miserable as she for the last year. Jake probably wouldn’t have taken that well.
“Good!” he spat, predictably. “It’s about time you stood up -” He stopped speaking abruptly. An image of what Bella had to be angry about - Sam carrying her out of the forest the night Edward had left - had darted behind his eyes, but that wasn’t what had silenced him. He’d heard a low groan from the East. Bella had heard it also.
She rolled her eyes, but didn’t change her tone of voice. “He was supposed to be making sure Irina didn’t figure out you were here and leave the house to follow us,” she explained.
Jake tensed as the wind changed, and they both turned their eyes toward Edward as he came toward them, looking rather sheepish. Just as he reached them, he closed his eyes briefly, then scowled at Jacob. “Well deserved but unnecessary. Bella kindly explained to me what an utter idiot I’ve been.”
“Yeah, well it won’t hurt you to see it again.”
“How did you know?”
Jake only smirked in response. It was Bella who said, “You’re part of the Quileute legends. And you weren’t likely to be upset by anything he was saying,” she pointed out. Edward had closed his eyes again, his forehead crinkling together as if he had a headache.
“Jake! Stop it.” Bella looked between the men with more than a little distrust. “Can you just, please, not bait him? This is all hard enough…”
“Motorcycles?” Edward asked, sounding a bit weak.
Jacob tried and failed to look contrite. “He shouldn’t have been eavesdropping. Not my fault if he doesn’t like what he learns, is it?”
Bella put a hand to his shoulder and shoved him, something which would have had no effect when she was human. He stumbled sideways three steps and glared, but she could see there was playfulness in his eyes. “Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be?” he asked. Then he smiled, a bit sadly. “See if I bring you any more books!”
Bella laughed in spite of herself, noticing Edward frown and look away as she did. She didn’t need Jake to bring her books anymore, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t grateful. She wasn’t looking forward to what came next, but she steeled herself and said it anyway. “You can’t stay long this time. You have to get home before the next time Irina hunts - she might catch your sent if she comes out here in the next few days, and I don’t want her catching up with you before you reach the pack.” Truthfully, she didn’t want Irina catching up with Jake if he HAD reached home either. She didn’t wish the woman dead, for all the enmity she felt from her. And she knew that if Irina encountered the entire pack, that was the most likely outcome.
“Aw, and I was so looking forward to sleeping in a cave and eating day-old sandwiches while I tell you all the latest gossip!”
“More drama? What could be weirder than Quil imprinting on a toddler?” Bella asked, curious in spite of herself.
Jake threw a gloating expression toward Edward, who snorted with something like amusement. He was starting to feel a bit better about Bella and Jacob’s friendship. Minus the motorcycles, it really seemed pretty harmless. Surely if there was more between them, Jacob would be sending him visions of romance, not pain. Jake continued without more prompting. “It’s Leah, she’s -”
But Bella never got to hear what Leah was up to. At that moment a shrill shriek rent the air, and Irina slammed into Jacob’s back, her long fingernails out before her, tearing at his shoulders. She’d circled around them and come from the West.
“NO!” Bella cried as Jake morphed, his sweats exploding away from him. He turned in the air, jaws snapping. If he’d finished the morph a second faster, his snout would have been long enough to take off Irina’s hand.
In an instant, Edward was pulling Irina away, dragging her to a safe distance. Jake followed in a half-crouch, blood already matting the fur on his right shoulder. Bella stood, frozen in shock for a moment before she realized that Jake was stalking them. Then she was standing in front of him, fast enough that his eyes couldn’t track the movement. She didn’t blame him when he growled at her, low in his throat. “Just let him calm her down,” she whispered. She could hear that others were coming, now. Jasper arrived first, while Bella was examining Jake’s gouged shoulder and Edward was still forcibly restraining Irina. He wrinkled his nose at the werewolf in distaste, but went to help his brother with the out of control vampire without comment. Nothing they could say seemed to have any effect. Alice arrived as well, but kept her distance from both camps, though Bella and Edward both knew that if Jasper was put in harm’s way, she’d take a side.
Bella was starting to worry. They were lucky that Jasper and Alice had been nearby, probably due to Alice’s nervousness at not being able to See what would happen, but they needed a cool head. They needed Carlisle. She couldn’t hear anyone else coming. Particularly not over the alternating sobs and screams coming from Irina. She watched as Jake’s wounds healed before her eyes. He lifted a paw and rolled his shoulder, checking it, and then he morphed and stood. Bella turned her back instantly, and missed his sudden grin.
“Don’t worry, I came prepared,” he said, laughter in his voice. “But if she makes me do it again, I won’t have anything.” He trotted off. While he was gone, Edward met Bella’s eyes, both of them surprised that Jake wasn’t spoiling for a fight after what had just happened. Bella rolled her eyes, wondering what Edward thought of Jacob’s indecent exposure, and his stern expression faded after a moment. He was still trying to speak soothingly to Irina. Bella took a step toward them, but Jasper looked around and shook his head, so she went to stand by Alice instead. Aside from the low murmur of Edward’s voice, the forest was still. Irina had fallen silent the moment Jacob spoke. When he’d been gone several minutes, she wrenched her wrists out of Edward’s grip, but only took a step away before turning to face him.
Edward saw what she intended, and he let it happen. Her hand flashed out to slap his face. He turned his head out of politeness. Though it had made a resounding noise, it hadn’t hurt him. Bella gasped and was at his side in an instant, but she had a bit more control, already, when it came to curbing her own propensity toward violence. She detachedly analyzed her desire to remove Irina’s arm and decided that it wouldn’t accomplish anything. If she noticed how Edward’s hand hovered beside hers, in case he needed to restrain HER next, she didn’t give an indication. She’d very nearly decided that maintaining a friendship with Irina wasn’t high on her priority list when Bella noticed Jacob dashing back through the trees - new sweat shorts and all.
“You’re didn’t make a treaty with them, you made it with us,” Edward said, in response to Jacob’s train of thought as he slowed his approach.
“There’s a difference?”
Four vampires hissed. One huffed reproachfully and walked over to him. “Go home, Jake. You came to say goodbye and now you’ve said it. Go home.” Bella was glad it was so easy to sound cold. The look on his face was enough to make her wish she could take it back, but she couldn’t. A year ago, her voice would have broken, and she’d have been wiping away tears by now. But she didn’t want this to escalate, and couldn’t think of any other way to get him to leave quickly.
“Bells, in case you’ve forgotten, she attacked me!”
“But you’re on her land,” a new voice said. They all turned toward Tanya, whose eyes were narrowed dangerously as she approached. “If she were on YOUR land, how would this have turned out?” Though she kept her voice quiet, her anger was apparent. And Bella was sure that it wasn’t just Jake she was angry with. Bella, after all, had brought him here. She was glad to see that Carlisle, Esme, and Kate had also come. But she sensed that Jacob was not.
“I apologize for that, Tanya. As you know, I have no idea how far your land extends. I’ll be glad to see him to the edge of it.”
Carlisle spoke up before anyone else could reply. “I think that would be wise. We’ll take Irina back to the house. Come,” he said gently, holding out a hand. Irina didn’t take it. She raised her chin and averted her eyes from Bella and Jacob as if they were lepers. Then she walked right past Carlisle, with Tanya close behind her. As she went, Edward moved to keep himself between Irina and Bella. Jasper drifted away to stand with Alice.
Everyone heard Tanya instruct an embarrassed Kate to stay until she was sure there were no more filthy dogs on their property, at which Bella pursed her lips in annoyance. Jacob swallowed a hasty retort under Edward’s disapproving gaze, while Kate told them how far they had to go.
“I’ll be back soon,” Bella said quietly. Then she took Jacob’s hand and pulled. She left a very quiet group of vampires behind her.
Edward, surrounded by his family, suppressed a sigh. Every single one of them was thinking the same thing. No need to explain, then, that he’d be following them. “Just, make sure Irina actually goes home?” he asked dejectedly.
“What just happened here, Edward?” Carlisle said softly.
“We were talking. She jumped him. He was showing me what Bella was like while I was gone, and I wasn’t paying attention, so I didn’t realize she was coming.”
“But you can hear her thoughts now. What was her reason?”
Edward was itching to be with Bella. It was bad enough when they were apart, but knowing she was with Jacob was suddenly making it ten times more difficult. He hesitated a second to consider. “She wasn’t thinking anything coherent. Not until Tanya arrived, and then she calmed a bit.”
“Are you wondering if she’s feral?” Jasper asked suddenly, and Carlisle nodded.
“She’s been isolating herself for so long…”
Jake kept ahold of Bella’s hand as they ran, unconsciously remembering all the other times she’d let him hold it. They were approaching his fastest two-legged speed, but she didn’t seem to be struggling. In fact, she grinned over at him at one point, and he shook his head without glancing at her, not wanting to take his eyes off the trees as they wove between them. But he didn’t speak until she slowed to a walk. Even then he was silent a while, just enjoying the solitude. He tried to think it was like when she’d been alone in the forest, waiting for only him, but it wasn’t the same. “You’re really staying with them, then?” he asked finally.
“I doubt it. Carlisle’s already making plans for us to leave,” Bella replied.
Jake shook his head. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
Bella stopped walking and turned to face him without letting go of his hand. He tightened his grip, just in case she was considering it, and she smiled faintly, squeezing back. “You saw what it did to me, trying to live without him.”
“So you’ll forgive him because you have to, to survive, instead of because he deserves it?” Bitterness crept into Jacob’s voice and he couldn’t prevent it.
“He deserves my forgiveness as much as you did when you stopped talking to me,” she began, but Jake was already shaking his head.
“That was different. I wasn’t the one you loved and I knew it. You’d have been fine without me.” But they both knew that wasn’t entirely true.
Bella didn’t contradict him. Instead, she tried to explain another way. “He left because he thought I’d be safer without him.” Jake snorted with derision, but she soldiered on in a more gentle tone of voice. “Like Sam, when he tried to keep himself away from Emily after he’d scarred her face.”
Jake looked away, toward the ground, then, and kicked a stray leaf with his bare toes. THAT resonated. How many times had he seen, through the pack’s shared consciousness, Sam’s utter self-loathing for what he’d done to Emily? He wondered if it was really that way - if Edward had really gone through that kind of torment over all that he’d put Bella through. “I guess he’s a more decent guy than I thought,” he allowed at last, “for a bloodsucker.”
Bella let go of his hand and narrowed her eyes. “He did pull the crazy one off me,” Jake hastened to add. He didn’t mention that he guessed it was more to keep the vampire safe than any desire on Edward’s part to help a werewolf, but he couldn’t be sure of that.
Bella’s expression softened, and then turned sad. “I’m sorry,” she said as she took his hand and started walking again, more slowly.
“Not your fault,” he said automatically.
“I just stood there!” she contradicted, suddenly more animated. “I was so surprised, I didn’t do ANYTHING to help you.”
“Yeah, well, we all know your fight or flight instinct has a factory defect,” Jake said wryly, smirking at her. She chuckled a little. “Normal people run from vampires, Bells, not to them.”
“And normal vampires run from werewolves?” she supplied.
“Something like that.” Or crush their heads without remorse, he thought, but held his tongue.
Bella turned abruptly and threw her arms around his neck. “I love you, Jake! I’m going to miss you so much.” For a few brief moments he squeezed her back, as tightly as he could. She didn’t seem to notice - no gasping for air. He recalled how she used to beg for air, before…. Then he pried her arms off with some difficulty.
“Don’t do that. Don’t act like this is a final goodbye.”
“It could be a long time before I’m safe enough around humans to return to Forks.” Jacob didn’t reply, just bit his lip and waited. “Goodbye, Jake,” Bella said after a moment.
“Bye.” He squeezed her hand one more time and kissed her cheek. And then he was walking away. She stood, as still as marble, waiting until he was out of sight. Then she stood some more, until she heard his gait change to paws instead of feet.
At last, when she couldn’t even hear the whisper of his paws through the autumn leaves, she spoke, still staring South into the forest. “You learn fast. He had no idea you were here.”
Not having any werewolf’s volatile temper to consider, Edward was by her side long before she’d finished speaking.
Chapter 5
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Jacob shook his head. “You forgave him that quick, huh?”
Bella had the alarming sensation that as she gazed at his soul, he was seeing hers as well. “Not entirely. There’s still some anger.” She didn’t bother to explain that she was angry primarily because Edward had been as miserable as she for the last year. Jake probably wouldn’t have taken that well.
“Good!” he spat, predictably. “It’s about time you stood up -” He stopped speaking abruptly. An image of what Bella had to be angry about - Sam carrying her out of the forest the night Edward had left - had darted behind his eyes, but that wasn’t what had silenced him. He’d heard a low groan from the East. Bella had heard it also.
She rolled her eyes, but didn’t change her tone of voice. “He was supposed to be making sure Irina didn’t figure out you were here and leave the house to follow us,” she explained.
Jake tensed as the wind changed, and they both turned their eyes toward Edward as he came toward them, looking rather sheepish. Just as he reached them, he closed his eyes briefly, then scowled at Jacob. “Well deserved but unnecessary. Bella kindly explained to me what an utter idiot I’ve been.”
“Yeah, well it won’t hurt you to see it again.”
“How did you know?”
Jake only smirked in response. It was Bella who said, “You’re part of the Quileute legends. And you weren’t likely to be upset by anything he was saying,” she pointed out. Edward had closed his eyes again, his forehead crinkling together as if he had a headache.
“Jake! Stop it.” Bella looked between the men with more than a little distrust. “Can you just, please, not bait him? This is all hard enough…”
“Motorcycles?” Edward asked, sounding a bit weak.
Jacob tried and failed to look contrite. “He shouldn’t have been eavesdropping. Not my fault if he doesn’t like what he learns, is it?”
Bella put a hand to his shoulder and shoved him, something which would have had no effect when she was human. He stumbled sideways three steps and glared, but she could see there was playfulness in his eyes. “Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be?” he asked. Then he smiled, a bit sadly. “See if I bring you any more books!”
Bella laughed in spite of herself, noticing Edward frown and look away as she did. She didn’t need Jake to bring her books anymore, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t grateful. She wasn’t looking forward to what came next, but she steeled herself and said it anyway. “You can’t stay long this time. You have to get home before the next time Irina hunts - she might catch your sent if she comes out here in the next few days, and I don’t want her catching up with you before you reach the pack.” Truthfully, she didn’t want Irina catching up with Jake if he HAD reached home either. She didn’t wish the woman dead, for all the enmity she felt from her. And she knew that if Irina encountered the entire pack, that was the most likely outcome.
“Aw, and I was so looking forward to sleeping in a cave and eating day-old sandwiches while I tell you all the latest gossip!”
“More drama? What could be weirder than Quil imprinting on a toddler?” Bella asked, curious in spite of herself.
Jake threw a gloating expression toward Edward, who snorted with something like amusement. He was starting to feel a bit better about Bella and Jacob’s friendship. Minus the motorcycles, it really seemed pretty harmless. Surely if there was more between them, Jacob would be sending him visions of romance, not pain. Jake continued without more prompting. “It’s Leah, she’s -”
But Bella never got to hear what Leah was up to. At that moment a shrill shriek rent the air, and Irina slammed into Jacob’s back, her long fingernails out before her, tearing at his shoulders. She’d circled around them and come from the West.
“NO!” Bella cried as Jake morphed, his sweats exploding away from him. He turned in the air, jaws snapping. If he’d finished the morph a second faster, his snout would have been long enough to take off Irina’s hand.
In an instant, Edward was pulling Irina away, dragging her to a safe distance. Jake followed in a half-crouch, blood already matting the fur on his right shoulder. Bella stood, frozen in shock for a moment before she realized that Jake was stalking them. Then she was standing in front of him, fast enough that his eyes couldn’t track the movement. She didn’t blame him when he growled at her, low in his throat. “Just let him calm her down,” she whispered. She could hear that others were coming, now. Jasper arrived first, while Bella was examining Jake’s gouged shoulder and Edward was still forcibly restraining Irina. He wrinkled his nose at the werewolf in distaste, but went to help his brother with the out of control vampire without comment. Nothing they could say seemed to have any effect. Alice arrived as well, but kept her distance from both camps, though Bella and Edward both knew that if Jasper was put in harm’s way, she’d take a side.
Bella was starting to worry. They were lucky that Jasper and Alice had been nearby, probably due to Alice’s nervousness at not being able to See what would happen, but they needed a cool head. They needed Carlisle. She couldn’t hear anyone else coming. Particularly not over the alternating sobs and screams coming from Irina. She watched as Jake’s wounds healed before her eyes. He lifted a paw and rolled his shoulder, checking it, and then he morphed and stood. Bella turned her back instantly, and missed his sudden grin.
“Don’t worry, I came prepared,” he said, laughter in his voice. “But if she makes me do it again, I won’t have anything.” He trotted off. While he was gone, Edward met Bella’s eyes, both of them surprised that Jake wasn’t spoiling for a fight after what had just happened. Bella rolled her eyes, wondering what Edward thought of Jacob’s indecent exposure, and his stern expression faded after a moment. He was still trying to speak soothingly to Irina. Bella took a step toward them, but Jasper looked around and shook his head, so she went to stand by Alice instead. Aside from the low murmur of Edward’s voice, the forest was still. Irina had fallen silent the moment Jacob spoke. When he’d been gone several minutes, she wrenched her wrists out of Edward’s grip, but only took a step away before turning to face him.
Edward saw what she intended, and he let it happen. Her hand flashed out to slap his face. He turned his head out of politeness. Though it had made a resounding noise, it hadn’t hurt him. Bella gasped and was at his side in an instant, but she had a bit more control, already, when it came to curbing her own propensity toward violence. She detachedly analyzed her desire to remove Irina’s arm and decided that it wouldn’t accomplish anything. If she noticed how Edward’s hand hovered beside hers, in case he needed to restrain HER next, she didn’t give an indication. She’d very nearly decided that maintaining a friendship with Irina wasn’t high on her priority list when Bella noticed Jacob dashing back through the trees - new sweat shorts and all.
“You’re didn’t make a treaty with them, you made it with us,” Edward said, in response to Jacob’s train of thought as he slowed his approach.
“There’s a difference?”
Four vampires hissed. One huffed reproachfully and walked over to him. “Go home, Jake. You came to say goodbye and now you’ve said it. Go home.” Bella was glad it was so easy to sound cold. The look on his face was enough to make her wish she could take it back, but she couldn’t. A year ago, her voice would have broken, and she’d have been wiping away tears by now. But she didn’t want this to escalate, and couldn’t think of any other way to get him to leave quickly.
“Bells, in case you’ve forgotten, she attacked me!”
“But you’re on her land,” a new voice said. They all turned toward Tanya, whose eyes were narrowed dangerously as she approached. “If she were on YOUR land, how would this have turned out?” Though she kept her voice quiet, her anger was apparent. And Bella was sure that it wasn’t just Jake she was angry with. Bella, after all, had brought him here. She was glad to see that Carlisle, Esme, and Kate had also come. But she sensed that Jacob was not.
“I apologize for that, Tanya. As you know, I have no idea how far your land extends. I’ll be glad to see him to the edge of it.”
Carlisle spoke up before anyone else could reply. “I think that would be wise. We’ll take Irina back to the house. Come,” he said gently, holding out a hand. Irina didn’t take it. She raised her chin and averted her eyes from Bella and Jacob as if they were lepers. Then she walked right past Carlisle, with Tanya close behind her. As she went, Edward moved to keep himself between Irina and Bella. Jasper drifted away to stand with Alice.
Everyone heard Tanya instruct an embarrassed Kate to stay until she was sure there were no more filthy dogs on their property, at which Bella pursed her lips in annoyance. Jacob swallowed a hasty retort under Edward’s disapproving gaze, while Kate told them how far they had to go.
“I’ll be back soon,” Bella said quietly. Then she took Jacob’s hand and pulled. She left a very quiet group of vampires behind her.
Edward, surrounded by his family, suppressed a sigh. Every single one of them was thinking the same thing. No need to explain, then, that he’d be following them. “Just, make sure Irina actually goes home?” he asked dejectedly.
“What just happened here, Edward?” Carlisle said softly.
“We were talking. She jumped him. He was showing me what Bella was like while I was gone, and I wasn’t paying attention, so I didn’t realize she was coming.”
“But you can hear her thoughts now. What was her reason?”
Edward was itching to be with Bella. It was bad enough when they were apart, but knowing she was with Jacob was suddenly making it ten times more difficult. He hesitated a second to consider. “She wasn’t thinking anything coherent. Not until Tanya arrived, and then she calmed a bit.”
“Are you wondering if she’s feral?” Jasper asked suddenly, and Carlisle nodded.
“She’s been isolating herself for so long…”
Jake kept ahold of Bella’s hand as they ran, unconsciously remembering all the other times she’d let him hold it. They were approaching his fastest two-legged speed, but she didn’t seem to be struggling. In fact, she grinned over at him at one point, and he shook his head without glancing at her, not wanting to take his eyes off the trees as they wove between them. But he didn’t speak until she slowed to a walk. Even then he was silent a while, just enjoying the solitude. He tried to think it was like when she’d been alone in the forest, waiting for only him, but it wasn’t the same. “You’re really staying with them, then?” he asked finally.
“I doubt it. Carlisle’s already making plans for us to leave,” Bella replied.
Jake shook his head. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
Bella stopped walking and turned to face him without letting go of his hand. He tightened his grip, just in case she was considering it, and she smiled faintly, squeezing back. “You saw what it did to me, trying to live without him.”
“So you’ll forgive him because you have to, to survive, instead of because he deserves it?” Bitterness crept into Jacob’s voice and he couldn’t prevent it.
“He deserves my forgiveness as much as you did when you stopped talking to me,” she began, but Jake was already shaking his head.
“That was different. I wasn’t the one you loved and I knew it. You’d have been fine without me.” But they both knew that wasn’t entirely true.
Bella didn’t contradict him. Instead, she tried to explain another way. “He left because he thought I’d be safer without him.” Jake snorted with derision, but she soldiered on in a more gentle tone of voice. “Like Sam, when he tried to keep himself away from Emily after he’d scarred her face.”
Jake looked away, toward the ground, then, and kicked a stray leaf with his bare toes. THAT resonated. How many times had he seen, through the pack’s shared consciousness, Sam’s utter self-loathing for what he’d done to Emily? He wondered if it was really that way - if Edward had really gone through that kind of torment over all that he’d put Bella through. “I guess he’s a more decent guy than I thought,” he allowed at last, “for a bloodsucker.”
Bella let go of his hand and narrowed her eyes. “He did pull the crazy one off me,” Jake hastened to add. He didn’t mention that he guessed it was more to keep the vampire safe than any desire on Edward’s part to help a werewolf, but he couldn’t be sure of that.
Bella’s expression softened, and then turned sad. “I’m sorry,” she said as she took his hand and started walking again, more slowly.
“Not your fault,” he said automatically.
“I just stood there!” she contradicted, suddenly more animated. “I was so surprised, I didn’t do ANYTHING to help you.”
“Yeah, well, we all know your fight or flight instinct has a factory defect,” Jake said wryly, smirking at her. She chuckled a little. “Normal people run from vampires, Bells, not to them.”
“And normal vampires run from werewolves?” she supplied.
“Something like that.” Or crush their heads without remorse, he thought, but held his tongue.
Bella turned abruptly and threw her arms around his neck. “I love you, Jake! I’m going to miss you so much.” For a few brief moments he squeezed her back, as tightly as he could. She didn’t seem to notice - no gasping for air. He recalled how she used to beg for air, before…. Then he pried her arms off with some difficulty.
“Don’t do that. Don’t act like this is a final goodbye.”
“It could be a long time before I’m safe enough around humans to return to Forks.” Jacob didn’t reply, just bit his lip and waited. “Goodbye, Jake,” Bella said after a moment.
“Bye.” He squeezed her hand one more time and kissed her cheek. And then he was walking away. She stood, as still as marble, waiting until he was out of sight. Then she stood some more, until she heard his gait change to paws instead of feet.
At last, when she couldn’t even hear the whisper of his paws through the autumn leaves, she spoke, still staring South into the forest. “You learn fast. He had no idea you were here.”
Not having any werewolf’s volatile temper to consider, Edward was by her side long before she’d finished speaking.
Chapter 5