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I jumped to my feet and glared back. "No, you're not!" I shouted. "It's not what you are, stupid, it's what you do!"

 

"What's that supposed to mean?" He roared, his entire frame quivering with rage.

 

I was taken entirely by surprise when Edward's voice cautioned me. "Be very careful, Bella," his velvet voice warned. "Don't push him too far. You need to calm him down."

 

Even the voice in my head was making no sense today.

 

I listened to him, though. I would do anything for that voice.

 

"Jacob," I pleaded, making my tone soft and even. "Is it really necessary to kill people, Jacob? Isn't there some other way? I mean, if vampires can find a way to survive without murdering people, couldn't you give it a try, too?"

 

He straightened up with a jerk, like my words had sent an electric shock through him. His eyebrows shot up and his eyes stared wide.

 

"Killing people?" he demanded.

 

"What did you think we were talking about?"

 

He wasn't trembling anymore. He looked at me with half-hopeful disbelief. "I thought we were talking about your disgust for werewolves."

 

"No, Jake, no. It's not that you're a… wolf. That's fine," I promised him, and I knew as I said the words that I meant them. I really didn't care if he turned into a big wolf—he was still Jacob. "If you could just find a way not to hurt people… that's all that upsets me. These ate innocent people, Jake, people like Charlie, and I can't just look the other way while you—"

 

"Is that all? Really?" he interrupted me, a smile breaking across his face. "You're just scared because I'm a murderer? That's the only reason?"

 

"Isn't that reason enough?"

 

He started to laugh.

 

"Jacob Black, this is so not funny!"

 

"Sure, sure," he agreed, still chortling.

 

He took one long stride and caught me in another vice-tight bear hug.

 

"You really, honestly don't mind that I morph into a giant dog?" he asked, his voice joyful in my ear.

 

"No," I gasped. "Can't—breathe—Jake!"

 

He let me go, but took both my hands. "I'm not a killer, Bella."

 

I studied his face, and it was clear that this was the truth. Relief pulsed through me.

 

"Really?" I asked.

 

"Really," he promised solemnly.

 

I threw my arms around him. It reminded me of that first day with the motorcycles—he was bigger, though, and I felt even more like a child now.

 

Like that other time, he stroked my hair.

 

"Sorry I called you a hypocrite," he apologized.

 

"Sorry I called you a murderer."

 

He laughed.

 

I thought of something then, and pulled away from him so that I could see his face. My eyebrows furrowed in anxiety. "What about Sam? And the others?"

 

He shook his head, smiling like a huge burden had been removed from his shoulders. "Of course not. Don't you remember what we call ourselves?"

 

The memory was clear—I'd just been thinking of that very day. "Protectors?"

 

"Exactly."

 

"But I don't understand. What's happening in the woods? The missing hikers, the blood?"

 

His face was serious, worried at once. "We're trying to do our job, Bella. We're trying to protect them, but we're always just a little too late."

 

"Protect them from what? Is there really a bear out there, too?"

 

"Bella, honey, we only protect people from one thing—our one enemy. It's the reason we exist—because they do."

 

I stared at him blankly for one second before I understood. Then the blood drained from my face and a thin, wordless cry of horror broke through my lips.

 

He nodded. "I thought you, of all people, would reali2e what was really going on."

 

"Laurent," I whispered. "He's still here."

 

Jacob blinked twice, and cocked his head to one side. "Who's Laurent?"

 

I tried to sort out the chaos in my head so that I could answer. "You know—you saw him in the meadow. You were there…" The words came out in a wondering tone as it all sunk in. "You were there, and you kept him from killing me…"

 

"Oh, the black-haired leech?" He grinned, a tight, fierce grin. "Was that his name?"

 

I shuddered. "What were you thinking?" I whispered. "He could have killed you! Jake, you don't realize how dangerous—"

 

Another laugh interrupted me "Bella, one lone vampire isn't much of a problem for a pack as big as ours. It was so easy, it was hardly even fun!"

 

"What was so easy?"

 

"Killing the bloodsucker who was going to kill you. Now, I don't count that towards the whole murder thing," he added quickly. "Vampires don't count as people."

 

I could only mouth the words. "You… killed… Laurent?"

 

He nodded. "Well, it was a group effort," he qualified.

 

"Laurent is dead?" I whispered.

 

His expression changed. "You're not upset about that, are you? He was going to kill you—he was going for the kill, Bella, we were sure of that before we attacked. You know that, right?"

 

"I know that. No, I'm not upset—I'm…" I had to sit down. I stumbled back a step until I felt the driftwood against my calves, and then sank down onto it. "Laurent is dead. He's not coming back for me."

 

"You're not mad? He wasn't one of your friends or anything, was he?"

 

"My friend?" I stared up at him, confused and dizzy with relief. I started babbling, my eyes getting moist. "No, Jake. I'm so… so relieved. I thought he was going to find me—I've been waiting for him every night, just hoping that he'd stop with me and leave Charlie alone. I've been so frightened, Jacob… But how? He was a vampire! How did you kill him? He was so strong, so hard, like marble…"

 

He sat down next to me and put one big arm around me comfortingly. "It's what we're made for, Bells. We're strong, too. I wish you would have told me that you were so afraid. You didn't need to be."

 

"You weren't around," I mumbled, lost in thought.

 

"Oh, right."

 

"Wait, Jake—I thought you knew, though. Last night, you said it wasn't safe for you to be in my room. I thought you knew that a vampire might be coming. Isn't that what you were talking about?"

 

He looked confused for a minute, and then he ducked his head. "No, that's not what I meant."

 

"Then why didn't you think it was safe for you there?"

 

He looked at me with guilt-ridden eyes. "I didn't say it wasn't safe for me. I was thinking of you."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

He looked down and kicked a rock. "There's more than one reason I'm not supposed to be around you, Bella. I wasn't supposed to tell you our secret, for one thing, but the other part is that it's not safe for you. If I get too mad… too upset… you might get hurt."

 

I thought about that carefully. "When you were mad before… when I was yelling at you… and you were shaking…?"

 

"Yeah." His face dropped even lower. "That was pretty stupid of me. I have to keep a better hold on myself. I swore I wasn't going to get mad, no matter what you said to me. But… I just got so upser that I was going to lose you… that you couldn't deal with what I am…"

 

"What would happen… if you got too mad?" I whispered.

 

"I'd turn into a wolf," he whispered back.

 

"You don't need a full moon."

 

He rolled his eyes. "Hollywood's version doesn't get much right." Then he sighed, and was serious again. "You don't need to be so stressed out, Bells. We're going to take care of this. And we're keeping a special eye on Charlie and the others—we won't let anything happen to him. Trust me on that."

 

Something very, very obvious, something I should have grasped at once—but I'd been so distracted by the idea of Jacob and his friends fighting with Laurent, that I'd completely missed it at the time—occurred to me only then, when Jacob used the present tense again.

 

We're going to take care of this.

 

It wasn't over.

 

"Laurent is dead," I gasped, and my entire body went ice cold.

 

"Bella?" Jacob asked anxiously, touching my ashen cheek.

 

"If Laurent died… a week ago… then someone else is killing people now."

 

Jacob nodded; his teeth clenched together, and he spoke through them. "There were two of them. We thought his mate would want to fight us—in our stories, they usually get pretty pissed off if you kill their mate—but she just keeps running away, and then coming back again. If we could figure out what she was after, it would be easier to take her down. But she makes no sense. She keeps dancing around the edges, like she's testing our defenses, looking for a way in—but in where? Where does she want to go? Sam thinks she's trying to separate us, so she'll have a better chance…"

 

His voice faded until it sounded like it was coming through a long tunnel; I couldn't make out the individual words anymore. My forehead dewed with sweat and my stomach rolled like I had the stomach flu again. Exactly like I had the flu.

 

I turned away from him quickly, and leaned over the tree trunk. My body convulsed with useless heaves, my empty stomach contracting with horrified nausea, though there was nothing in it to expel.

 

Victoria was here. Looking for me. Killing strangers in the woods. The woods where Charlie was searching…

 

My head spun sickeningly.

 

Jacob's hands caught my shoulders—kept me from sliding forward onto the rocks. I could feel his hot breath on my cheek. "Bella! What's wrong?"

 

"Victoria," I gasped as soon as I could catch my breath around the nauseous spasms.

 

In my head, Edward snarled in fury at the name.

 

I felt Jacob pull me up from my slump. He draped me awkwardly across his lap, laying my limp head against his shoulder. He struggled to balance me, to keep me from sagging over, one way or the other He brushed the sweaty hair back from my face.

 

"Who?" Jacob asked. "Can you hear me, Bella? Bella?"

 

"She wasn't Laurent's mate," I moaned into his shoulder. "They were just old friends…"

 

"Do you need some water? A doctor? Tell me what to do," he demanded, frantic.

 

"I'm not sick—I'm scared," I explained in a whisper. The word scared didn't really seem to cover it.

 

Jacob patted my back. "Scaled of this Victoria?" I nodded, shuddering. "Victoria is the red-haired female?" I trembled again, and whimpered, "Yes."

 

"How do you know she wasn't his mate?"

 

"Laurent told me James was her mate," I explained, automatically flexing the hand with the scar.

 

He pulled my face around, holding it steady in his big hand. He stared intently into my eyes. "Did he tell you anything else, Bella? This is important. Do you know what she wants?"

 

"Of course," I whispered. "She wants me." His eyes flipped wide, then narrowed into slits. "Why?" he demanded.

 

"Edward killed James," I whispered. Jacob held me so tightly that there was no need for me to clutch at the hole—he kept me in one piece. "She did get… pissed off. But Laurent said she thought it was fairer to kill me than Edward. Mate for mate. She didn't know—still doesn't know, I guess—that… that…" I swallowed hard. "That things aren't like that with us anymore. Not for Edward, anyway."

 

Jacob was distracted by that, his face torn between several different expressions. "Is that what happened? Why the Cullens left?"

 

"I'm nothing but a human, after all. Nothing special," I explained, shrugging weakly.

 

Something like a growl—not a real growl, just a human approximation—rumbled in Jacob's chest under my ear. "If that idiot bloodsucker is honestly stupid enough—"

 

"Please," I moaned. "Please. Don't."

 

Jacob hesitated, then nodded once.

 

"This is important," he said again, his face all business now. "This is exactly what we needed to know. We've got to tell the others right away."

 

He stood, pulling me to my feet. He kept two hands on my waist until he was sure I wasn't going to fall.

 

"I'm okay," I lied.

 

He traded his hold on my waist for one of my hands. "Let's go."

 

He pulled me back toward the truck.

 

"Where are we going?" I asked.

 

"I'm not sure yet," he admitted. "I'll call a meeting. Hey, wait here for just a minute, okay?" He leaned me against the side of the truck and released my hand.

 

"Where are you going?"

 

"I'll be right back," he promised. Then he turned and sprinted through the parking lot, across the road, and into the bordering forest. He flitted into the trees, swift and sleek as a deer.

 

"Jacob!" I yelled after him hoarsely, but he was already gone.

 

It was not a good time to be left alone. Seconds after Jacob was out of sight, I was hyperventilating. I dragged myself into the cab of the truck, and mashed the locks down at once. It didn't make me feel any better.

 

Victoria was already hunting me. It was just luck that she hadn't found me yet—just luck and five teenage werewolves. I exhaled sharply. No matter what Jacob said, the thought of him coming anywhere close to Victoria was horrifying. I didn't care what he could turn into when he got mad. I could see her in my head, her face wild, her hair like flames, deadly, indestructible…

 

But, according to Jacob, Laurent was gone. Was that really possible? Edward—I clutched automatically at my chest—had told me how difficult it was to kill a vampire. Only another vampire could do the job. Yet Jake said this was what werewolves were made for…

 

He said they were keeping a special eye on Charlie—that I should trust the werewolves to keep my father safe. How could I trust that? None of us were safe! Jacob the very least of all, if he was trying to put himself between Victoria and Charlie… between Victoria and me.

 

I felt like I might be about to throw up again.

 

A sharp rap on the truck's window made me yelp in terror—but it was just Jacob, back already. I unlocked the door with trembling, grateful fingers.

 

"You're really scared, aren't you?" he asked as he climbed in.

 

I nodded.

 

"Don't be. We'll take care of you—and Charlie, too. I promise."

 

"The idea of you finding Victoria is scarier than the idea of her finding me," I whispered.

 

He laughed. "You've got to have a little more confidence in us than that. It's insulting."

 

I just shook my head. I'd seen too many vampires in action.

 

"Where did you go just now?" I asked.

 

He pursed his lips, and said nothing.

 

"What? Is it a secret?"

 

He frowned. "Not really. It's kind of weird, though. I don't want to freak you out."

 

"I'm sort of used to weird by this point, you know." I tried to smile without much success.

 

Jacob grinned back easily. "Guess you'd have to be. Okay. See, when we're wolves, we can… hear each other."

 

My eyebrows pulled down in confusion.

 

"Not hear sounds," he went on, "but we can hear… thoughts—each other's anyway—no matter how far away from each other we are. It really helps when we hunt, but it's a big pain otherwise. It's embarrassing—having no secrets like that. Freaky, eh?"

 

"Is that what you meant last night, when you said you would tell them you'd seen me, even though you didn't want to?"

 

"You're quick."

 

"Thanks."

 

"You're also very good with weird. I thought that would bother you."

 

"It's not… well, you're not the first person I've known who could do that. So it doesn't seem so weird to me."

 

"Really?… Wait—are you talking about your bloodsuckers?"

 

"I wish you wouldn't call them that."

 

He laughed. "Whatever. The Cullens, then?"

 

"Just… just Edward." I pulled one arm surreptitiously around my torso.

 

Jacob looked surprised—unpleasantly so. "I thought those were just stories. I've heard legends about vampires who could do… extra stuff, but I thought that was just a myth."

 

"Is anything just a myth anymore?" I asked him wryly.

 

He scowled. "Guess not. Okay, we're going to meet Sam and the others at the place we go to ride our bikes."

 

I started the truck and headed back up the road.

 

"So did you just turn into a wolf now, to talk to Sam?" I asked, curious.

 

Jacob nodded, seeming embarrassed. "I kept it real short—I tried not to think about you so they wouldn't know what was going on. I was afraid Sam would tell me I couldn't bring you."

 

"That wouldn't have stopped me." I couldn't get rid of my perception of Sam as the bad guy. My teeth clenched together whenever I heard his name.

 

"Well, it would have stopped me," Jacob said, morose now. "Remember how I couldn't finish my sentences last night? How I couldn't just tell you the whole story?"

 

"Yeah. You looked like you were choking on something."

 

He chuckled darkly. "Close enough. Sam told me I couldn't tell you. He's… the head of the pack, you know. He's the Alpha. When he tells us to do something, or not to do something—when he really means it, well, we can't just ignore him."

 

"Weird," I muttered.

 

"Very," he agreed. "It's kind of a wolf thing."

 

"Huh" was the best response I could think of.

 

"Yeah, there's a load of stuff like that—wolf things. I'm still learning. I can't imagine what it was like for Sam, trying to deal with this alone. It sucks bad enough to go through it with a whole pack for support."

 

"Sam was alone?"

 

"Yeah." Jacob's voice lowered. "When I… changed, it was the most… horrible, the most terrifying thing I've ever been through—worse than anything I could have imagined. But I wasn't alone—there were the voices there, in my head, telling me what had happened and what I had to do. That kept me from losing my mind, I think. But Sam…" He shook his head. "Sam had no help."

 

This was going to take some adjusting. When Jacob explained it like that, it was hard not to feel compassion for Sam. I had to keep reminding myself that there was no reason to hate him anymore.

 

"Will they be angry that I'm with you?" I asked.

 

He made a face. "Probably."

 

"Maybe I shouldn't—"

 

"No, it's okay," he assured me. "You know a ton of things that can help us. It's not like you're just some ignorant human. You're like a… I don't know, spy or something. You've been behind enemy lines."

 

I frowned to myself. Was that what Jacob would want from me? Insider information to help them destroy their enemies? I wasn't a spy, though. I hadn't been collecting that kind of information. Already, his words made me feel like a traitor.

 

But I wanted him to stop Victoria, didn't I?

 

No.

 

I did want Victoria to be stopped, preferably before she tortured me to death or ran into Charlie or killed another stranger. I just didn't want Jacob to be the one to stop her, or rather to try. I didn't want Jacob within a hundred miles of her.

 

"Like the stuff about the mind-reading bloodsucker," he continued, oblivious to my reverie. "That's the kind of thing we need to know about. That really sucks that those stories are true. It makes everything more complicated. Hey, do you think this Victoria can do anything special?"

 

"I don't think so," I hesitated, and then sighed. "He would have mentioned it."

 

"He? Oh, you mean Edward—oops, sorry. I forgot. You don't like to say his name. Or hear it."

 

I squeezed my midsection, trying to ignore the throbbing around the edges of my chest. "Not really, no."

 

"Sorry."

 

"How do you know me so well, Jacob? Sometimes it's like you can read my mind."

 

"Naw. I just pay attention."

 

We were on the little dirt road where Jacob had first taught me to ride the motorcycle.

 

"This good?" I asked.

 

"Sure, sure."

 

I pulled over and cut the engine.

 

"You're still pretty unhappy, aren't you?" he murmured.

 

I nodded, staring unseeingly into the gloomy forest.

 

"Did you ever think… that maybe… you're better off?"

 

I inhaled slowly, and then let my breath out. "No."

 

"'Cause he wasn't the best—"

 

"Please, Jacob," I interrupted, begging in a whisper. "Could we please not talk about this? I can't stand it."

 

"Okay." He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I said anything."

 

"Don't feel bad. If things were different, it would be nice to finally be able to talk to someone about it."

 

He nodded. "Yeah, I had a hard time keeping a secret from you for two weeks. It must be hell to not be able to talk to anyone."

 

"Hell," I agreed.

 

Jacob sucked in a sharp breath. "They're here. Let's go."

 

"Are you sure?" I asked while he popped his door open. "Maybe I shouldn't be here."

 

"They'll deal with it," he said, and then he grinned. "Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?"

 

"Ha ha," I said. But I got out of the truck, hurrying around the front end to stand close beside Jacob. I remembered only too clearly the giant monsters in the meadow. My hands were trembling like Jacob's had been before, but with fear rather than rage.

 

Jake took my hand and squeezed it. "Here we go."

14. FAMILY

 

 

I COWERED INTO JACOB'S SIDE, MY EYES SCANNING the forest for the other werewolves. When they appeared, striding out from between the trees, they weren't what I was expecting. I'd gotten the image of the wolves stuck in my head. These were just four really big half-naked boys.

 

Again, they reminded me of brothers, quadruplets. Something about the way they moved almost in synchronization to stand across the road from us, the way they all had the same long, round muscles under the same red-brown skin, the same cropped black hair, and the way their expressions altered at exactly the same moment.

 

They started out curious and cautious. When they saw me there, half-hidden beside Jacob, they all became furious in the same second.

 

Sam was still the biggest, though Jacob was getting close to catching up with him. Sam didn't really count as a boy. His face was older—not in the sense of lines or signs of aging, but in the matunry, the patience of his expression.

 

"What have you done, Jacob?" he demanded.

 

One of the others, one I didn't recognize—Jared or Paul—thrust past Sam and spoke before Jacob could defend himself.

 

"Why can't you just follow the rules, Jacob?" he yelled, throwing his arms in the air. "What the hell are you thinking? Is she more important than everything—than the whole tribe? Than the people getting killed?"

 

"She can help," Jacob said quietly.

 

"Help!" the angry boy shouted. His arms begin to quiver. "Oh, that's likely! I'm sure the leech-lover is just dying to help us out!"

 

"Don't talk about her like that!" Jacob shouted back, stung by the boy's criticism.

 

A shudder rippled through the other boy, along his shoulders and down his spine.

 

"Paul! Relax!" Sam commanded.

 

Paul shook his head back and forth, not in defiance, but as though he were trying to concentrate.

 

"Jeez, Paul," one of the other boys—probably Jared—muttered. "Get a grip."

 

Paul twisted his head toward Jared, his lips curling back in irritation. Then he shifted his glare in my direction. Jacob took a step to put himself in front of me.

 

That did it.

 

"Right, protect her!" Paul roared in outrage. Another shudder, a convulsion, heaved through his body. He threw his head back, a real growl tearing from between his teeth.

 

"Paul!" Sam and Jacob shouted together.

 

Paul seemed to fall forward, vibrating violently. Halfway to the ground, there was a loud ripping noise, and the boy exploded.

 

Dark silver fur blew out from the boy, coalescing into a shape more than five-times his size—a massive, crouched shape, ready to spring.

 

The wolf's muzzle wrinkled back over his teeth, and another growl rolled through his colossal chest. His dark, enraged eyes focused on me.

 

In the same second, Jacob was running across the road straight for the monster.

 

"Jacob!" I screamed.

 

Mid-stride, a long tremor shivered down Jacob's spine. He leaped forward, diving headfirst into the empty air.

 

With another sharp tearing sound, Jacob exploded, too. He burst out of his skin—shreds of black and white cloth blasted up into the air. It happened so quickly that if I'd blinked, I'd have missed the entire transformation. One second it was Jacob diving into the air, and then it was the gigantic, russet brown wolf—so enormous that I couldn't make sense of its mass somehow fitting inside Jacob—charging the crouched silver beast.