#fandome

Chapter One: The Fight

Sam led the way to Jacob's house through the woods, his expression one of annoyance. It was 3 o'clock and this kid was still sleeping, didn't he know we had leeches to kill? Sam was pissed. We broke through the trees and I could see the Black house in the distance, something in the air seemed off, a scent I recognized but which was unnatural to the house. As we got closer, a figure exploded from the back door, a flurry of brown hair sprinting toward us. Bella Swan, the leech-lover. What the fuck was she doing here? She closed the distance between us in seconds.

"What did you do to him?! What did you do?!" she screamed at us, getting too close to Sam for my comfort. What a brave girl, she had no idea who, and what, she was dealing with. Then again, she willingly hung around bloodsuckers. Her hair fell wildly around her face, her eyes blazing with a rage I've only ever seen reflected back at me through the packs hivemind. It was actually kind of adorable.

"What did we do? Huh? What did he tell you?" I couldn't help but smirk. "He didn't tell me anything because he's scared of you!" she spat back, and at that I could hear Embry and Jared echoing my chuckle behind me. Scared of us? If she only knew! She'd never understand how deeply bound we all were to each other, if he was scared if any of us, he couldn't hide it from us. It was in that moment that I felt the dull sting of her hand on my face, the sting becoming a burn and the burn becoming an inferno that engulfed my entire body. She had smacked me. Of course, she couldn't have possibly imagined what the consequences would be, she thought she was hitting a normal human. But it triggered something in me and it took only seconds for the rage of it to consume me. I could hear Sam faintly, like he was far away, "Bella, get back! Paul, calm down." Jared's words sounded like he was underwater, "Too late now."

And then my body was flung forward by the force of the transformation. The sensation was familiar now, it didn't bother me much anymore, the burning subsided once my skin became fur, but the sound of my flesh and clothes ripping apart still rung in my ears even after I had fully phased. I shook my fur out and took a step toward the girl who dared hit me, my lips curling back into a loud snarl. She took a step back, the anger on her face replaced by fear. I felt no sympathy at all. Don't poke the wolf or whatever it is they say. The sound of Jacob calling her name from the back porch seemed to rouse her from her near frozen state, because she turned and started running back toward the house, yelling for him to run too. He ran, that's for sure, but straight at me, and I could sense his transformation coming. He nearly smashed right into Bella before leaping over her and phasing on the fly.

"Enough!" I could hear his thoughts now. "You will not hurt her!"

"She smacked me in the face!" I thought back. "You expect me to let that go?"

"I don't care what she did! Back off!" He snarled and launched himself at me.

My teeth met the fur and flesh of his throat as his body slammed into mine. Why was he making me do this? I didn't want to fight my own brother. I wished I could tell him that, but all thoughts became a jumbled mess and neither of us could find a coherent sentence in the others mind. We threw ourselves into each other over and over again, snapping jaws and growling like it was the only thing we could do. I barely noticed when we took the fight into the woods, my wolf mind focused on getting Jacob under control. It felt like forever before I could find a broken thought in his mind, "Stop ... fighting ... not going to hurt her ... she knows now ... no point", but when I pieced together what he was trying to say, I knew he was right. Bella had seen both of us phase. There was no secret now. I had inadvertently broken Sam's order.

"Are you guys finished?" Sam's human voice broke through the calming growls. I pulled myself off of Jacob with a huff, nodding at Sam in reply. Jacob whined a little. "Good. Bella's back at Emily's place. I'm heading there now, feel free to join us, as humans" He looked highly disappointed in both of us. We deserved it. He shook his head and headed back to the west. I watched him until the trees swallowed him and then I turned to look at Jacob.

"Truce?" I thought.

"Truce." He thought.

We phased back into our human forms and made our way to Emily's to meet up with everyone else, joking about how ridiculous the whole fight was.

[Page 1]

I could smell the fresh muffins from the edge of the woods. Emily never failed to have some delicious thing or another waiting for us, even when she wasn't expecting company. She was the mother of wolves. She took care of us like it was her life's purpose, and she enjoyed every moment of it. Sam really lucked out on that one. The whole Quiluete tribe loved her... except for Leah Clearwater. That girl put lemons to shame with how bitter she was over Sam imprinting on Emily and not her. Not that Leah wasn't beautiful or anything, but we can't choose who we imprint on. Sam didn't "pick" Emily, it just happened that she was meant for him.

As we crossed the front yard to Emily's house, I turned to Jacob and smirked, "I call the blueberry!" He laughed and nudged me playfully. "You're the only one who likes them" he said. I bounded up the front porch steps and walked through the open door to find the rest of the pack sat around the dining table. Bella stood by the far wall and it took everything in me not to burst out laughing at the look on her face. I pulled up a chair and deliberately sat right in front of her, turning my head around to say "sorry", with a huge smile on my face. She just nodded to me and looked down at the floor. Jacob said she was awkward.

Jacob appeared in the doorway and motioned for Bella to follow him. Almost like an obedient dog, she went to him. A weird feeling welled up in the pit of my stomach as I watched her leave with him, like a sinkhole had opened up inside it. I'd never felt anything like it. Sam brought me back to attention as he said, "Paul, now that Jake's off smoothing things over with Bella, I'll need you and Jared to do a perimeter check around the treaty line."

"Sure," I said with a shrug, "As long as he doesn't hold me back like last time".

"Hey!" Jared yelled, definitely offended, "You said it was no big deal!"

I rolled my eyes a little and then winked at him, he had to know I was only joking. He must not have seen it though because he leaned back in his chair with a solemn look on his face.

"I'm kidding, you dork!" I said. He perked up.

Jared and I set out after scarfing down a couple more muffins and Emily decided that she'd like to spend the rest of the night with Sam alone. I was sure we'd have to endure the very intimate memories that leaked from Sams' brain later so I gave Jared a look and we took off without another word. The sun was starting to set below the trees, the other predators were getting ready to roam the forest, I'd already spotted a bobcat not too far from the well in Emily's backyard. You'd think they'd be able to detect an apex predator in their midst but apparently in human form, we smelled like regular humans to them. Jared and I walked in silence for quite a while before he piped up and said, "Do you think Bella will tell anyone?"

"I don't think so," I replied, "She didn't tell anyone about the bloodsuckers, and I can tell she cares about Jake. I don't think she'd put him in danger."

"That's good." He said and then he was quiet again. None of us were confident that our secret was safe with her, I could sense Sam was upset with me and Jacob both, but we just had to trust that Jacob would convince her. If she did tell anyone, we could always chalk it up to a teenage girl looking for attention after her boyfriend dumped her. No one would believe her. Either way, I wasn't too worried about it.

Jared broke the silence between us again when he stopped dead in his tracks. We'd reached the eastern gorge that separated the two territories, Quiluete and Cullen.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I can smell the red headed one here" he whispered.

I lifted my nose to the air and breathed deeply, sure enough, the pungent stench of a vampire lingered in the air. It was sickeningly sweet, like someone shoving a candy scented smelling salts directly up your nose, it made me want to vomit. Every vamp has this scent, but they also each have their own unique scent mixed in. This one smelled like fire and bourbon.

"That's her alright" I growled. It didn't smell like she'd crossed over to our side, but she was definitely closer than I would have liked. She was probably testing how close she could get before we attacked. "Let's go back and tell Sam, if she happens to come back and make it into our territory, he's gonna want first dibs." We started back, hoping we wouldn't find Sam and Emily in a compromised position. We'd shout out a howl when we got close, just in case.

It was going to be a long night.