Chapter 02
Almost like clockwork, the moment the sun went away Bella gathered her bag and left the unnecessary things – the brand new pop-up tent and a few towels – on the beach and dragged him off to the nearest hotel overlooking the beach. The moment they got into the room she plopped down on the couch and held up the room service menu. “Order anything you like.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” He sat down next to her and looked at her. “You talk of wanting to celebrate your freedom, but since the night in Paris you haven’t been out in the dark.”
“It’s not your problem,” Bella said as she handed him the menu.
“It sorta is, you dragged me into this.”
“And you can leave whenever you want to. No strings, remember?” Bella said, slightly agitated, realizing that indeed, she dragged him into her mess. She could get him hurt. “Maybe you should leave.” She needed to visit a few ATM machines soon. Maybe that would hamper the search for her even further.
“Tell me this, are you in trouble?”
She sighed and nodded.
“Then I’m not leaving, Bella Swan.”
“The fuck!” She exclaimed as she leapt off the couch and ran to the other end of the room – the door – as to create as much distance between her and him as possible. “How do you know my last name?”
He regretted having shown his hand, Bella’s expression was one of panic and pain and he could hear her heart break just a little. “I asked a favor of a friend,” he said holding up his hands defensively. “Something’s off and I just want to help.”
“What kind of favor? Are you working for them? A werewolf? Working alongside them?” She walked to her bag and picked it up before returning to the door. “I knew it! Picking you up was too easy!”
“Bella, please,” he started as he got off the couch as she fumbled in her bag. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he continued as he slowly made his way over to her.
“Stay back!” She got a can of mace out of her bag and held it up. “Our arrangement is over. You can go home, Isaac. I’m going to leave and you won’t be able to find me.” She sounded on the verge of tears. “I won’t be able to get away from them, but I can sure as hell try and disappear for good.”
“Tell me what’s going on. I can help, Bella.”
“No, you can’t.” She valiantly kept her can of mace up as she eyed the door.
He could hear how fast her heart was beating. She was afraid, but was it because she was unstable or was she truly afraid of something? “You know, if you truly believe that I am a werewolf, you do know that I can get to that door faster than you, right? The mace won’t slow me down that much.”
She narrowed her eyes on him as she hugged her bag against her chest. “I can sure as hell try to get away from you.”
“Can I explain myself to you?” He asked calmly as he backed away. “Let me explain myself to you and then you can do whatever you want, I just want to help, Bella. I haven’t done anything you didn’t want me to in the last few days, so please, give me that.”
She nodded slowly as she took a step towards the door.
“Look, I may not look like it, but I’ve been through my fair share of complicated shit. I’ve been in fights. I’ve seen scary stuff. Before that, my father made my life a living hell. When your behaviour changed so abruptly yesterday, I got worried, okay? At first I thought you were just insane. Maybe you are, but you’re definitely capable of coherent thought so I give you that,” he started, calm and reassuring. Her heart rate slowly went down, this was good. “You weren’t giving me anything to work with, I realize that it’s part of our agreement and I accept that, but you can’t fault me for trying to find things out about you when I feel something’s wrong.”
“What did you do?” She asked with a whisper, tears welling up in her eyes and her heart rate elevated again.
“As I said, I asked a friend for a favor. His dad is the sheriff and —”
“No… please, please tell me you didn’t ask the sheriff to look me up…”
“I didn’t. I asked his son to ask his dad,” Isaac deadpanned and saw a small smile appear on Bella’s face. “Did you know you were registered as a missing person?”
“I’m not surprised… but Isaac… you’ve made things even more complicated…” She had to admit, it was sweet of him to try and do his best but he did make things harder for her now. She definitely had to stop using her phone and credit card now.
“The report says you’re unstable. Are you?”
She huffed as she sat down against the door and put the can of mace back in her bag. “I told you that I ran from my overbearing, manipulative son of a bitch boyfriend, didn’t I? I left him at the altar, his step-brother helped me with that, but imagine an entire family of overbearing, manipulative asses. They lie and get whatever they want. They probably told everyone, including my parents, that I had a mental breakdown and that I need to be found.”
“Oh,” Isaac let out and sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. “I’ve made things worse by asking my friend,” he realized that he, indeed, despite his best intentions, had screwed her over.
“My dad is the police chief of Forks. He’ll know that someone pulled up the missing person’s report. They will start looking for me and if they find me, I’ll have to go back and depending on what my ex’ family has told everyone, they’ll make sure that I’ll never run again. They have a freaking precognition vampire on their team. She’ll know what’s going on the moment I decide things.”
“Vampires, again? Is that some sort of metaphor?”
“If you wish,” she sighed as she banged her head against the door. “They’re not the only ones after me. If the Volturi catch me, I’ll be dead.”
“Who?”
“The vampire overlords. I was stupid enough to make a deal with them. Either I get turned or they kill me for knowing too much about the vampires.”
This definitely sounded like some sort of mental break, a fantasy, but he did believe that the people she was running from, her ex-boyfriend and his family, were real people. Seeing the future was something that could happen. Scott would want him to help her, she was someone in trouble, if he’d walk away now, she could very well get hurt. “Are you sure about them? I mean…”
“Isaac, at one point they started to control what I ate. I wasn’t allowed to see my friends anymore but they had to come to our wedding so they could see I was doing fine. They hated my best friend, Jake, who’s a werewolf. His tribe is supposed to protect the humans from the vampires but stood down because of me. Because I was so stupid to fall in love with Fuckward,” she then sighed. “I’m not crazy.”
“Let me help.”
“How? It’s bad enough that I’m telling you this, I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”
“I know people. Here in France, or even back in the States. Let me help you.”
She shook her head and got back to her feet. “No. I’m sorry, Isaac, but this is my mess. I’m sorry I dragged you into it, I shouldn’t have. I’m leaving now.”
He crossed the space between them and put his full weight against the door so she couldn’t escape. “And then what? Spend the rest of your life running?”
“If I have to.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let that happen,” he took her bag and got her wallet out of it before returning it back to her. “And you can think that I’m a controlling asshole for this, but I am going to save your life, Bella Swan, whether you like it or not,” he said with the biggest, goofiest grin on his face.
How could she resist that face of his? She didn’t have any option and if he really wanted to waste his time on her, what else could she do? Maybe it was good to leave the decision making to him for now. Besides, he was a werewolf. He could take out the Volturi if he wanted to. “Fine.”
“Good,” he said with a nod. “First order of business, we’re going down to the restaurant and have something to eat. Out in the open.”
“No.”
“Yes. And I shall tell you my story, it’s only fair.”
“What if they find me?”
“Then they’ll find you and we’ll see what we’ll do then,” he said with a shrug. “Just one question, why don’t you mind being outside when it’s daylight, with the sun shining?”
“Vampires sparkle in the sun, they don’t want to be caught out or maybe they just don’t want to embarrass themselves. That’s another possibility. But it’s both.”
“Well, there’s enough tacky light in the restaurant downstairs so I’m fairly certain they won’t come and get you.”
“You don’t get it, they sparkle in the sun but they can be seen in normal light, you know.”
Isaac sighed as he played with her wallet for a moment. There were simply too many rules for these vampires not to be real, but he would really believe her if he saw them with his own eyes. On top of that, her heart beat had elevated again. She definitely didn’t want to leave this hotel room despite her threatening that she’d leave. “You’re that scared to go downstairs?”
She nodded for an answer.
“You haven’t had much sleep, have you? Over the last few days?”
She shook her head. “I was playing with you,” she smirked. “It’s fun.”
“Well then,” he rose to his feet and pulled her to hers as well. “Tonight I won’t sleep. Instead, I”ll make sure no one will hurt you while you rest. I’ll order us some food from room service and all you’re going to do is relax. Let me worry about things for a couple of hours.”
“I don’t…”
“Please, Bella, have a good night’s sleep. It does wonders.”
“Fine, but I’m going to raid the mini bar too,” she gave up as she threw her bag onto the bed and walked into the bathroom to draw herself a bath. She knew Isaac was right but it felt so wrong to involve him in this, despite him insisting on it. Now that he had her wallet, she couldn’t run because her bank card was in it and that had been a great tactical move of his part. But part of her couldn’t stop but wonder if he was truly on her side.
She undressed herself and waited for the bath to run as she watched Isaac from the door. He was busy calling room service to order food and once again, a feeling of guilt washed over her. He looked like such an innocent puppy. An innocent, very talented, puppy, a little naive maybe. No, this was wrong. She was going to figure out a way to get her wallet back and leave Isaac behind. But first, a good night’s sleep was indeed what she needed.
~0~0~0~
“First things first,” Isaac said as he ate the remainder of breakfast. After dinner last night, he had given Bella a thorough massage in an attempt to loosen the knots in her muscles for at least a while and she’d eventually fallen asleep. He had slept lightly, just so he could stop her if she’d try to run again, but it seemed like he had nothing to worry about; she had slept all the way through the night and woke up around 9 am. “We’re going back to Paris.”
“I’d rather not revisit cities I’ve been to, Isaac.”
“No, we’re going to Paris and then I’ll take you somewhere where I can help you.”
“What part of ‘you can’t help me’ don’t you understand?”
“And what part of ‘I can help you’ don’t you understand?” Isaac retorted as he looked at her. “Trust me on this, okay? I know people.”
“You haven’t even confirmed you’re a werewolf.”
“Why should I? I think vampires don’t exist, why should werewolves?” He retorted playfully and then realized his own words. He knew of werewolves. He had seen a handful of weirdo wolves like the twins. The veterinarian was a druid. To think that vampires didn’t exist was just ridiculous.
“Fine,” she replied as she got dressed. Even though she thought she was beyond saving and all she could do was run for the rest of her life, what harm could it do to believe that Isaac indeed had a solution? That he could truly help her? She was already doomed, wasn’t she? “We’re going back to Paris.”
No, they weren’t going to Paris, she discovered once they got to the airport there. Isaac had asked her if he could use her bank card and she had given her permission to do so. Apparently, he had a knack for running away and making sure there wasn’t any trace and even if there was, they wouldn’t be coming after her straight away as things took time and by making sure she was kept out of the loop of where they were going, it was going to be sort of alright.
They flew to Amsterdam after having landed in Paris and spent the night in a hotel near the airport, both falling asleep as soon as they hit the bed. The next day they flew to Rome and back to London before they caught the plane to Los Angeles. When they arrived there, Bella had finally relaxed enough to feel comfortable and not look around her like a skittish foal.
He paid for a rental car – well, Bella did – and then had her get some money out of the ATM machines scattered all over the airport, enough to tide her over until she was safe again. He explained that if they could look into her bank statements, they could tell where she was. Still, with multiple withdrawals it would certainly raise a red flag, but California was a big state, no one had to know they were going to drive for nearly 6 hours to get to Beacon Hills and she certainly wasn’t going to use her card there. He’d forbid it.
Isaac had been thinking about giving his friends a heads up. Scott would definitely want to know that Isaac was coming back to town. Now, he didn’t necessary have to stay at Scott’s for the time being, because Bella was going to stay at a hotel and he wasn’t going to leave her alone, unless they could stay at the Argent’s… He sighed as he looked at Bella’s sleeping form next to him in the passenger seat and decided to call Chris Argent. Yes, it was probably going to be painful to be in Allison’s home, but it was the safest place he knew. Chris Argent was an expert hunter and there were weapons. He let out a breath. This was going to be hard.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Mr. Argent, it’s Isaac.”
“Hey! How are you doing? Are you enjoying France?”
Isaac snorted as he shook his head. “Why did you leave there, all by myself? I mean, your relatives are nice and all but there was no need to just leave me there.”
“What do you mean, ‘there’?”
“I’m on my way back.”
It was quiet at the other end of the line for a very long time.
“You don’t want me to return?”
“Yes, of course, but you know… a lot of things have happened.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” Isaac snapped. “I’m coming back because I’m trying to help someone who’s been dealing with vampires.”
“Vampires?”
“Do they exist?”
“Well, yes, of course they do. Did this someone mention what kind?”
“There are different kinds?” he asked surprised. “Seriously? She wasn’t making that shit up?”
“Isaac, what did you get yourself into?” Mr. Argent sounded worried and he could even hear a sigh. “Drive straight to my place. Are you joined by that girl?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, drive. Don’t stop. Just drive.”
“I’ll be there in about four hours.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
Isaac blinked when Argent disconnected the call. He had truly sounded worried and that kinda freaked Isaac out. He looked to the passenger next to him and wanted to wake her, ask her some questions but she hadn’t slept much over the last few days. Neither had he, but she needed her sleep, nervous wrecks were terrible to be around at.
It was a good thing that they could stay at Argent’s house and that he didn’t need to ask. The full moon was coming soon and even though he could control himself, Isaac wanted Bella to be with someone who could protect her if he was incapacitated one way or another. Maybe he should wake her up and tell her that he’s a werewolf.
No. He was going to wait until she was awake.
Of course, it was just his luck that she woke up when they were about to enter Beacon Hills. “Morning, sunshine, just in time.”
“Huh?” Bella yawned as she stretched her arms above her head as well as she could in the car. “For how long did I sleep?”
“Almost the entire way,” Isaac replied with a smile in his voice. “So, I’ve arranged for us to stay with someone who has experience in dealing with… uh… monsters.”
She narrowed her eyes on him. “I’m not crazy, Isaac.”
He blinked at her before focusing back on the road, trying to find a reason why she responded to that, but they had just driven passed Eichen House and mentally hit himself. “No, oh, don’t worry, he’s a real monster hunter. He hunts things like werewolves, ghosts and whatever goes bump in the night.”
“So you do believe me,” she stated as she pulled her hair out of her ponytail and fixed it again.
“Well… I didn’t know what to believe until he confirmed for me that vampires were real.”
“And you’re a werewolf.”
“Yes.”
“I knew it!” She punched his arm in her excitement. “I knew it!”
“Ow! Easy,” he laughed. “I’m driving here!”
She punched him again before crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t like it when people lie or deceive me, Isaac. It’s been done to me for a very long time.”
“I’m sorry, Bella, but it’s a bit weird that you know about werewolves, we try to keep a low profile, you know. I’m not supposed to tell the first random stranger I meet.”
“Yeah, I understand but with me saying you’re a werewolf, the least you could have done was to confirm it.”
“Once again, random stranger.”
She huffed as she stared out of the window as they drove deeper into Beacon Hills. “So we’re going to a friend of yours?” Beacon Hills reminded her a little of Forks – albeit in a thankfully warmer climate – but with more apartment buildings. It wasn’t until she saw the town’s center that she felt at home.
They drove into a suburban area, a nice cul-de-sac, and it reminded her of home. Not Forks, home, but really California home. Even in the darkness, she felt homesick to her childhood. Charlie used to drive up and down every summer to come and visit her for two weeks because she hated Forks so much. Even though she’d only been gone for a week or so, she lost track of the days, she missed Charlie and really hoped that he was okay.
Isaac parked the car at a driveway of a house where a single light had been left on. Yes, it was nearly midnight, but didn’t Isaac tell his friend that they’d be arriving quite late? Where were all the lights? “Stay behind me, okay?” Isaac told her after she had stepped out of the car. “My friend is a little bit jumpy.”
“Huh,” Bella huffed as she fell in behind Isaac as he walked to the front door. Before Isaac could even knock on the door, the door swung open and all she could see was a flashlight. Isaac scowled as he got pushed to the side.
Bella wasn’t impressed as she looked past the light to try and find a face. “Look, my dad’s a cop, I know what you’re doing, it’s not working.”
“What do you think I was doing?” the man replied, keeping the light focused on her.
“Blind me? Make sure I don’t see your face? Want my license and registration, Asshole?”
Isaac snorted when the flashlight dimmed. “He was checking your eyes to see if you’re truly human.”
“Can’t be too careful,” the man replied before switching on the regular light.
“Well they aren’t red, and certainly aren’t gold so you can shove it,” she glared at them as she covered her eyes while they readjusted to the change of light.
“Oh, great, Isaac,” the man quipped. “You managed to run into a girl who has trouble with the Cold Ones. Well done. Of the two vampire species you could have chosen from, you picked the Cold Ones. Awesome.”
“Tone down your snark,” Bella snapped as she blinked against the light. “I picked him, not the other way…. fuck!” she said as his face began to clear in her eyes. “It’s you!”
Isaac looked at Bella. “You know him?” He asked confused as he scratched his head before looking at Argent, who didn’t seem too pleased with the entire situation. “You know her?”
“Oh, even better, you found her.” The hunter rolled his eyes as he pulled the two teens into his home and bolted the door.
Chris Argent forced both teens to sit down on the couch and keep quiet while he put some lights on in the house before taking his place in front of them, on the coffee table. He looked at Isaac first, glad that he was still in one piece and definitely looking better than the last time he’d seen him. He quietly observed Isaac, who was used to his scrutiny by now and then looked at Bella, who looked him straight in the eye with a bored expression on her face.
He was glad that the girl was still a human. The Quileute wolves had been afraid for her; that she’d be turned into a Cold One and that they might have to kill her. It would have meant that the vampires had broken the treaty that had been signed between the Quileutes and the Cullens and all hell would have broken loose.
In all honesty, he hadn’t been a fan of this treaty because all vampires were sneaky bastards and he had been more than willing to take out the entire Cullen family for the safety of the town. However, the Chief of the tribe had persuaded him to back off, that they had everything handled and that things had grown complicated because this girl, Bella Swan, who was basically a part of the tribe, had fallen into league with the Cullens.
He didn’t go after the Quileute shifters because they had been created by magic to defend the humans from the Cold Ones in the first place, but yeah, it had been a rather unsatisfying hunt and a waste of time seeing as Beacon Hills was infested with werewolves around the time he had to go to Forks.
“You should call your father.”
“I will do no such thing,” she said stubbornly, not breaking eye contact.
“Or Chief Black.”
“Nope.”
Isaac looked between Bella and Argent, confusion all over his face. “So, when are you going to tell me how you two know each other?”
Chris ignored Isaac for a moment as he kept looking at her. “The wolves are looking after your father, he’s safe. He’s worried sick. The moment Billy called me that things were going awry and that you had run I wanted to go back to Forks and get rid of the problem, but he said they had it under control.”
“It’s not them per sé,” Bella replied as she relaxed on the couch. “There’s nothing you can do about it anyway, I only allowed Isaac to take me here because I have nothing to lose.”
“Oh, I got it,” Isaac said with a nod. “You were in Forks when Bella was there.”
“The problem is though, that not a lot is known about the Cold Ones. The other species of vampires have been chronicled about so many times that there’s an excess of information. I can’t help you until I know more.”
“And if I tell you more, you’ll be in danger.”
“Isaac, what did she tell you?” Argent shifted his gaze from the stubborn girl to the young wolf. Isaac could be a little bit sheepish at times, but he was an intelligent young man and an excellent observer.
Bella’s face turned even more sour as Isaac recalled almost every conversation they had had over the last few days, even remembering her mentioning the Volturi and the deal she had made with them in order to save the person she was running from. It was hard for the hunter not to verbally attack the foolish young girl for falling for the charm of a Cold One.
Argent sighed as he folded his hands behind his head and stretched himself when Isaac was done recalling the last few days. “How did you two meet?”
Isaac scratched his head. “She tried to get me drunk.”
“No, I didn’t. I paid for your drinks, you got yourself drunk because I was drinking.”
“You were flirting with me!”
“I wanted a fuck! And you’re hot and I thought you were human at first!”
“So if you would have known I was a wolf, you wouldn’t have come on to me like that?”
“I wouldn’t even care about that. I mean, I told you, my best friend is a werewolf. I don’t discriminate.”
Argent couldn’t help but laugh when he saw the dumbfounded look on Isaac’s face. At least it sounded that he finally got some help dealing with his daughter’s death. Even though he had his own tricks to deal with the death of his daughter – sadly ingrained in his blood as he came from a long line of hunters – he had hoped that Isaac would have found a way in France when he had left him there. If only it hadn’t been this girl.
He made a mental note of calling Scott first thing in the morning, the teenager was probably still asleep right now. He needed to alert him about Bella’s condition, he wasn’t sure if he should tell her or even tell Isaac. Chris needed to confer with Billy, the Quileute chief, first. This was something that even he didn’t want to explain to this volatile young woman.
“How about you two get some sleep, huh? We’ll talk more in the morning,” he eventually said. “Bella, you can sleep in my daughter’s old room.” The pained expression on Isaac’s face said enough. “Isaac, you can sleep on the couch.”
“I’d rather not,” Isaac replied. “If she’s really in this much danger, i prefer to stick with her.”
“She’s safe, Isaac. You came to me, remember?”
“No. Yes. But still, I’m going to stay with her.”
“Are you sure?”
Isaac nodded as he got up from the couch and pulled Bella to her feet. “Come on, I know where it is.” He took her upstairs and opened to the door to Alison’s bedroom. It was still as he remembered it.
The window where he had stealthily tried to get through to get into her room, only to be caught by Alison and thrown onto the floor. She had turned him around onto his back and shoved a knife against his throat. Or that other time where she had put electricity on her windows simply to fuck with him. Yeah, that had been fun.
He noticed that there was still a picture of him and her on her nightstand and quickly moved to hide it from Bella. He didn’t know why. Maybe he didn’t want her to find out that this was Alison’s room, the person he was mourning in France. Bella had saved him, in a way. It had only been a couple of days but… this was just fucked up. Why was there such a strong connection with Bella? It had taken longer to fall for any kind of girl before this and he simply could not explain this.
He opened the closet and Alison’s scent wafted in his face. Taking a deep breath, he pulled out some of her sleeping gear and handed it to Bella. Isaac was relieved that the scent didn’t hurt as much as he had expected it to. His brows furrowing in thought over this realization.
Bella had been watching Isaac’s movements the moment they set foot in the room, how he know where to move and how he looked at the window, almost as if he was remembering things. “Can I make a guess?”
“Are you really guessing when you say that or do you just know stuff?” Isaac retorted with a smile as he pulled back the duvet to make it easier for Bella to get into the bed. Why was he doing that?
Bella shrugged as she plucked invisible lint from the clothes he had given her. “My guess is that man downstairs is your dead girlfriend’s father and that this was her room.”
“Awkward, huh?”
“If you really believed that, you wouldn’t even be here with me right now,” she smiled at him and gently caressed his arm.
He sheepishly smiled at her before walking towards the door. “I’m going to talk with Mr. Argent a little bit, okay? I have the feeling that I’ve missed a lot and I don’t want to be surprised when we run into my friends.”
“Your pack, you mean.”
“My pack and my friends. Well, Scott’s pack has wolves, humans and other supernatural creatures so… yeah. Pack is a good word, I guess.”
“It’s okay to use those terms around me, you know. I already know a lot of things and stuff.”
He flashed her a cheeky grin before disappearing through the door, quickly making his way down the stairs. “Uh, Mr. Argent, is it alright if I make us a cup of tea?”
“Of course,” he replied as he followed his surrogate son into the kitchen. “You like her, don’t you?”
“She’s something, yeah. Not sure if I like it,” he answered as he put on the kettle. “She’s nuts. She was high on the possibility to be completely free when I met her and then it changed the day after. I do know that she needs to be saved, to be protected.”
“Did you have protected sex?”
Isaac blinked at him. “That is so not an awkward question.”
“It’s a simple question. I know that Alison always made sure that you guys did it safe, she was like that.”
“She slept with knives, of course she made it be safe,” Isaac retorted with a snort as he grabbed two mugs and avoided looking at him while he searched for tea bags.
“Then at least tell me you did the responsible thing the day after?”
“She took off before I could!” Angrily, he set down the mugs on the counter and looked at Argent. “And then, when I did catch up with her again, I didn’t get the opportunity to do it because she was being insane. Paranoid. Black cloaks, vampires. And the day after… well, it was simply too late, wasn’t it?”
The hunter rubbed his hand over his face and groaned as he leaned against the wall after closing the kitchen door. “We need to talk.”
“I already know about the birds and the bees and I already got stung, thanks,” he scowled.
“Not about that. About the girl. How I know her.”
“Why? I don’t see why that’s important.”
“But it is. You see, a couple of years ago we got wind of a huge vampire uprising in Washington. I tracked it down to Seattle and then Forks. Some Cold One was creating others like her to go after this young girl and the Cold Ones she was running with because they killed her mate.”
“Okay.”
“You have to realize that until I met Scott and until Alison convinced me that not all monsters are bad, I’d kill without even thinking twice about it. Fortunately, this happened last year, but unfortunately, it was a mistake.”
“What do you mean?”
“Some Native American tribes have legends of mighty warriors turning into wolves or bears to protect those they love or deem worthy to protect, ordinary humans, for example. There’s a tribe in Forks that had its teenagers turning into wolves, shifters, after a family of vampires came to town. More teenagers of this tribe turned when this girl started to hang out with this vampire family a bit too much for their liking.”
“Are you talking about Bella and her best friend Jacob?”
“Indeed I am. Bella’s father and Jacob’s father have been best friends for as long as they both could remember and Bella spent most of her summers at the reservation when she was visiting her father. When she permanently moved to Forks, the bond between her and Jacob got stronger, much up to the point where he even got jealous that she was dating a Cold One.”
Isaac scowled. There was a possibility that once this was all over, she’d go back to Forks and to her best friend. She kept talking about him non-stop anyway, he should have seen it coming. Maybe he’d kill Jacob first. Yes. What?
“Anyway, I went to the reservation to talk to their chief after finding out that some of his tribe shifted into werewolves. Yes. I know I said I’d shoot first, ask later, but blame Scott for that. I was more curious than trigger happy. I couldn’t say the same for the chief, Billy, who’d rather have shot me on sight, saying that they didn’t need outside-help and that they had everything under control.”
“And?”
“At that time, it seemed like they did, even temporarily forging an alliance with the Cold Ones to defeat the army of newborns,” Argent said with a nod. “But when I met with the chief, Bella was there, with Jacob. The chief explained that he understood my feelings of duplicity; knowing that I would have shot everyone on sight. The wolves were created to kill Cold Ones and yet, they were only making sure the treaty wouldn’t be broken, not kill them on sight. When I asked why, Billy pointed to Bella and told me her story.”
Isaac ran his hand through his hair as he poured the boiling water into the mugs with his other. “There’s a reason why the Cullens and the Volturi are so interested in her, isn’t there?”
“Of course. The main traits what sets a Cold One apart from a regular, Dracula type of vampire, is that they’re even more elitist, arrogant and obsessive. From what I heard is that the Cullens are a coven of gifted vampires, such as telling the future or reading minds.”
Isaac snapped his fingers as something connected in his head. “Bella told me about that. It’s based on decisions. She’s been allowing me to make them for the last few days as not to paint a bigger bullseye on herself, but that I had to be careful as by now we’ve probably been seen together.”
“Great,” the other man replied, somewhat irritated. “That means we probably don’t have long until they’ve tracked you down.”
“But what do they want with Bella? I mean, she’s awesome and a tiny bit crazy but who wouldn’t be after what she’s been through?”
“Now here it starts to become interesting,” Argent said as he leaned against the counter top and looked at the werewolf. “She doesn’t know what I’m about to tell you and I’m not sure if she should, I’d have to ask permission from Billy Black first.” he then thought for a moment. “Let’s wake up Scott, having him get his ass over here so I can tell the story once.”
“He won’t like it.”
“Bella’s a human who’s in trouble, he’d want to help because you brought her back with you,” he pointed out as he grabbed his phone and dialled Scott’s number.
While Argent was calling Scott, Isaac brought Bella’s tea up to the bedroom, she had already settled in bed, but was staring at the ceiling instead of trying to sleeping. “Not tired, are you?” he said with a small snort as he set the mug on the nightstand and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” she said as she looked at him. “They’re going to find me here and they’re going to kill everyone who’s in their way. I have to keep moving.”
“See, that’s what I don’t understand about you,” Isaac caressed her hair out of her face. “At one point, you seem to have given up and given in to the idea of you dying or turning. You don’t want me to help you and you certainly don’t want to take a stand and fight. On the other hand, you keep running and you’re scared. You don’t want to die.”
“I thought I was free, then I realized I wasn’t.”
“Yes, you are free. You’re free to do whatever the hell you want, give those Cold Ones the middle finger and throw your head in the wind. Who cares?”
“So, does that mean I can go?”
“No, because I do care,” it was out before he realized it and shrugged when he saw the look on her face. “I don’t like it when people are in trouble. I like to cause trouble, that’s a whole other thing.”
Bella huffed. “You and I are going to get into so much trouble tomorrow. Not in this house. That would be weird.”
“Definitely. Glad we understand each other. Go and try to get some sleep, I’ll be downstairs for a bit longer and then I’m coming to join you, okay?” He got up from the bed and looked at her. “Please don’t leave, give me a chance to make this right for you.”
“Still here. Not going anywhere.”
“Good.” He could already hear the front door opening. It was typical of Scott to rush towards new things that he could fix whenever he wasn’t too busy, but even this had been a bit too fast. He was probably spending the night at Kira’s, she only lived a few blocks away.
As expected, Scott was happy to see Isaac again and after catching up – the cliff notes, mostly, Argent started to tell the story of Bella as told to him by Chief Black.
“Bella’s parents were divorced and on occasion, Bella would come to Forks for a few weeks. Mainly during the summer holiday. Seeing as Chief Black and Bella’s father Charlie are close friends, she got to spend a lot of time on the reservation to play with Billy’s son, Jacob.” Chris grabbed himself a beer from the fridge as he continued. “When she was ten years old, she spent a couple of days as some sort of sleepover because Charlie had a police function he had to go to. Bella, Jacob and some of the other kids decided it would be fun to go to the woods at night.”
“Somehow I doubt I will like where this is going,” Isaac muttered as he took a sip of his tea.
“The kids were attacked by a werewolf. Seeing as the Quileute boys already had the shifter gene, they were unaffected – back then told it was a miracle and a gift from the ancestors, but Bella was affected and the following day she started to exhibit strange behaviour.”
“A ten year old became a werewolf?” Scott said incredulous. “That Alpha must have been seriously deranged to go after kids.”
“She’s a werewolf?”
“The Quileute shaman, a gifted and powerful man, bound her werewolf side with a spell. Like you said, a ten year old girl to be a werewolf was simply too dangerous for everyone around her.” He took another swig from his beer. “With the binding, he also took away the memory of being in the woods and bitten.”
“Not that I’m not agreeing, but when she finds out, she will be pissed,” Isaac offered. “Because this means that outside forces have been messing with her for longer than she realized.”
“I think that she simply needs an Alpha to make sure that things won’t turn into one gigantic mess,” Argent said, nodding to Scott. “Which brings me to the next portion of the story. The spell cast on Bella can be broken.”
Isaac’s face lit up. If she was his kind of werewolf and going to hate the Quiletes for protecting her, it meant that he still had a shot. He cursed himself for even thinking like this but he couldn’t help but feel a connection with her and now it started to make sense. “How?”
“Seeing as they’re rare, the shaman thought it would be a good idea to only have the spell being broken by a true Alpha, in case she’d run into other Alphas. A safety, of some sort.”
“Oh great, so if the tribe doesn’t agree with you telling her, we’d have to keep her away from Scott, one of the people who can help her.”
“Not necessarily,” Argent replied. “The way I gathered was that the spell gets broken when the true Alpha uses his power over his submissives.”
Scott grinned as he slapped Isaac on his back. “That means not to getting angry beyond no point of normal return.”
Isaac rolled his eyes at Scott. Yes, he had an anger problem and yes, Scott had always been the only one to get him out of that even when Scott hadn’t been an Alpha. But surely, it would be safe for Bella to hang out with them?
“The full moon is in a few days, thought of that, Isaac? I’ve seen the way you look at her, how you care. Do you think you could control yourself when she’s around you, knowing what you know now?”
“I have to, don’t I? For her sake, I hope that those vampires show up so we can tear them to pieces.”
“Dude, you’re so not going to be around her.”
“No, I will be tearing up those vampires.”
“And if they’re not here, you’re so not going to be around her,” Scott said again, calmly as he looked at his friend. “Seriously. Last thing we want is you getting into wolf overdrive and sex her to death.”
“That’s a thing?”
“I don’t know, is it?” Scott looked at Argent, who looked at the two wolves with a humorous look on his face. “What?”
“You tell me, Scott. You haven’t seen Isaac in a while, what’s different about him?”
Scott looked back at his friend and shrugged before sniffing at him. “Dude.”
“What?”
“You’re wearing her scent. It’s like… masking your own.”
“Yeah, we’ve had sex. Several times.”
“Oh no, this is something else alright.” He then looked at Argent, confused. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure, but I think that Isaac’s fallen head over heels for this girl and has subconsciously mated with her. I think it’s safer to ask Dr. Deaton, he has more extensive knowledge about how you wolves work than I do,” Argent said with a smirk.
Scott hit Isaac on his head. “Dude! You’re so not going anywhere near her at the full moon, nor near anyone of us because you’ll rip us to shreds.”
They talked some more about other things, like Scott going back to school with Kira, Stiles, Lydia and Malia and after a while, Isaac could hear Bella groan in her sleep. “Excuse me,” he said as he got to off the couch and bounded up the stairs, finding Bella all tangled up in her sheets, crying. He had expected this to happen. Even though she hadn’t slept much during their trips across Europe and their stay in hotels, when she did sleep, she had been kicking him.
He crawled onto the bed and pulled her into his arms and quietly shushed her. “It’s okay,” he said softly as he rocked her back and forth and flinched when his kindness was returned with a punch to his chest, quickly followed by several more. “Hey! Ow! Wake up!”
“You will leave them alone!” she threatened, still stuck in her nightmare as she fisted Isaac’s shirt. “I didn’t tell them anything, I’ll come…don’t hurt them.”
“Bella, shh, wake up, hey,” he caressed her hair but was smacked in the face.
“No!” she yelled as she pushed Isaac away from her. “Leave him alone! I said I’ll go!”
“Hey!” Isaac started to shake her, which was met by more punches coming from her. “Bella please don’t hit me, I’m not a punching bag.”
When Bella started screaming, both Argent and Scott appeared in the doorway, looking shocked and Isaac felt helpless. He had been able to pull her out of the nightmares before, but that was because they had been on the run and she wasn’t sleeping properly anyway, but for some reason, she had sunken deep into her sleep, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. “Bella, it’s okay. I’m here.”
“Don’t… stay with me,” she sobbed as she clung on to him. “Wake up, Isaac, wake up.”
“I think she has a crush on him too,” Scott whispered to Argent.
“I heard that,” Isaac glared at his Alpha before dodging another punch. “Oh come on, this is worse than PMS.”
When Bella started screaming again, random words this time and hitting the nearest solid mass in her sleep, Scott looked at the hunter next to him. “I need to calm her down, will that break the spell?”
“You’re a true Alpha and you’ll be using your power. What do you think?” Argent retorted. “Don’t do it.”
“I don’t care about those wolves, you can tell them that when you call them and tell them that I fucked up.”
“Scott, don’t. It’ll be the full moon soon and she won’t be able to control herself.”
“Do it,” Isaac said. “Whatever you need to do, please do.” He couldn’t stand seeing her suffer like this. Nightmares were bad enough, Isaac knew that from experience but this was a night terror she wasn’t able to get out of without some assistance. He knew she was aware of him as the punches kept landing on him, but she couldn’t make the connection that it was him. Scott could get through to her. He knew that because Scott always got through to him.
“Bella, stop,” Scott said as he was standing in the doorway, not partially shifting or using his abilities, but it didn’t work. He was confident he had to break the spell. He walked over to the bed and pried her hands off of Isaac before turning her so he could look at her properly. He could feel his face change as he leaned over her. “Bella!” he commanded her, roaring as he said her name. Isaac visibly cringed and nearly lept off the bed even though he had known it was coming.
Bella jolted up and looked at the stranger’s face, his red eyes and ridiculously long sideburns. “Who the fuck are you?”
His face turned back to normal as he let go of her. “I’m Scott McCall, nice to meet you, Bella.”
She huffed as she looked around, seeing Isaac on the edge of the bed, looking at Scott and then turned back to him, snickering. “You’re his daddy.”
“I’m … not?” Scott said confused as he took a step back, but Isaac was sniggering.
“Oh, just great. Another one. Good job, Scott. Your pack should be called the pack of snark,” Argent remarked before walking away. “Get some rest, we’re going to see Dr. Deaton in the morning.”
“Nuh, you’re going to tell me what happened and why you all were in the room!” Bella demanded as she pulled Isaac closer to her.
“Good night!” Argent called from his room.
“Yeah uhm…” Isaac said hesitating, looking at Scott for direction but he shrugged in return. “You were having a really bad nightmare and uhm… I couldn’t wake you.”
“So you had ugly face scare me half to death?”
“Hey!” Scott said defensively. “I have a handsome face.”
“Keep telling yourself that, honey,” Bella said, not taking her eyes off of Isaac. “There’s more. Tell me.”
“We needed an Alpha to wake you up,” he whispered cautiously as he met her eyes, nervous of her reaction.
“Why?”
“Because you’re a werewolf.” Scott said simply. “You have been since you were ten years old.”
Bella started to laugh hysterically. “Keep smoking the good stuff. You can share it with me if you like but there’s no way I’m a werewolf. I wasn’t bitten nor am I magical.”
“You are magical,” Isaac quickly said. “The way you wrapped me right around your pinky …”
“Hey. This is not funny.” Bella said sternly. “I didn’t want to turn into a Cold One, why should I be happy about this? This isn’t even possible.”
“Call Chief Black in the morning. He’ll explain.”
Bella’s face fell as she let the words sink in. “Who told you about him?”
“Argent.”
“And who told you I’m a werewolf?”
“Argent.”
“How does he know?”
“Chief Black told him.”
“Fucker.” Bella grumbled as reality set in. She reached for her phone and dialled his number. “I’m going to wake his ass and I’m going to kill him.”
