Jared, Paul, and myself were out the door in the blink of an eye.

The meeting was going to have to wait.

I phased in midair. The pain of shifting was long forgotten as my thoughts were centered on my packs safety and the danger that was imminent.

"Sam, where are you?" I thought.

Jared and Paul shifted right behind me and their thoughts were quick to follow. "Where are they?" Paul growled.

"What is going on?" Jared asked.

"Focus!" Sam ordered. "I am heading inland. I caught the vampires scent on the other side of the border. The vamp hasn't crossed over yet so I am shadowing them. Paul meet up with me at the treaty line. Jared head with Bella on the other side. Stick together."

My paws dug into the soil to slow down enough to turn around and then I hauled ass to the other side of the Reservation.

Jared was quick to follow but he was slower than me and fell behind.

I tried not to let their grunts and growls sidetrack me. As I got closer I picked up the scent and tracked it to the border line. It was fowl and my breathing sped up at having to choke the scent in as I moved faster.

It was the same smell from the shirt sleeve that my dad had shown me. I was on their tail. As I closed in I could hear them just up ahead. My claws dug into the ground beneath me to increase my speed. I was practically on top of them when they banked right, going farther inland than I could go. I followed as closely as I could without stepping one foot of the Res.

"I'm practically on top of them." I thought.

"Stay on them Bella. We are coming from the other side. We will cut them off and herd them toward you." Sam said.

Paul grunted in agreement.

"I'm right behind you Bella." Jared huffed, gritting his teeth in effort to go faster. He was still too far back.

This was definitely the scent of the vampire who had killed someone. Their smell was everywhere now. I was gagging on it. They had been in this area for some time because there was evidence of them all over. Footprints, broken tree limbs, their odor and stench, it touched every crevice of this forest, right on top of the boundary line between us and the Cullens.

And unfortunately, their scent wasn't the only one I was smelling.

My pace quickened as a sickly sweet smell tickled my nose. The wind picked up and carried it over to me. There were other vampires here and I knew it was the smell of the Cullens.

My mouth dried up and I faltered, slowing down. Sensing my pause Sam asked with urgency, "Bella, what is it? What do you see?"

It was Jasper. His back was to me. He was hunched over in a crouch looking for something. 

The sweet smell had been his, very similar to Edward and Alice's but also different. Each one seemed to have their own signature in their fragrance.

He turned with haste as if sensing me on his heels and drew up short as did I.

His teeth were snarled making me take a step back before he jerked in caution and stood up, straightening out of his attacking stance. He frowned, no longer growling in the distance.

His eyes narrowed bemused as he stared at me. The hairs on my back were rising. My muzzle was pulling back to reveal my teeth in a growl. I couldn't believe it. Was this evidence that the Cullens were killers? Were they teaming up with one?

The sting of pain at being fooled gave way to rising anger as I snapped my teeth at him. Jasper stepped back hastily throwing his hands up as if to fend me off.

"Bella, talk to me? What is going on?" Sam demanded. I could see through this thoughts that they were closing in soon.

"I'm almost there." Jared added.

I faltered. I had him pinned but why wasn't he attacking? He appeared to be trying to ward me off gently with his hands as if to say 'Whoa, easy there'.

Suddenly he stiffened all over and I raised my paw ready to pounce on him when his eyes went wide looking behind me before connecting with mine. "Look out!" He shouted in warning.

I felt wind stir at my back before what felt like a freight train slammed into me from behind.

A cascade of red filled my vision like dancing flames before my world went black.

Time seemed to go on without me. I could feel myself being carried, that sweet scent so familiar to me coating my body. My heart beat faster. I was gently placed down as growls and grunts followed by hushed whispers echoed around me.

I could hear the beat of my mother's heart followed by her unsteady breathing as she held my hand. "Bella, wake up." She begged

Time escaped me as I stayed trapped inside of myself.

I could feel different people moving around me but I couldn't make sense of the voices or the yelling. "Wake up, you have to wake up now."

My arms were glued to my side. I couldn't break out of the darkness that held me down, immobile.

Bella, snap out of it. My chest felt tight. I remembered what happened.

Sam howling, the race to the border, spotting Jasper, being hit like a battering ram from behind.

All I saw was red before I saw nothing at all.

Suddenly my vision was filled with honey, golden eyes. Edward!

"Bella, wake up." My mom pleaded.

I gasped, flying up from the imprisonment of my mind as I broke through.

My mom jerked beside me as I took in my surroundings. I was in my room, and human again.

My hands flew to my side as agonizing pain traveled up my core. I sucked in a sharp breath. My torso was wrapped in gauze and was spattered with red. Blood. My blood.

"Bella," My mom choked out. Her hand went to my face to cradle it between her palm. "You're awake." She stated tearfully as if to assure herself.

"Mom?" I asked confused. How did I get here?

She nodded to herself, swallowing around the lump in her throat and carefully pulled my head to her chest as she hugged me to her. "Everything is alright now.  You're alright. But you have to take it easy. No sudden movements. Your body is still healing."

"Sue, is there any change on ......" My father trailed off as he stood in the doorway to my room. His face paled considerably as he stared at me.

I pulled away from mom, holding my stomach together as I looked at my father.

He was disheveled, his clothes were wrinkly and half hanging out from where it had once been tucked in. My mom's hair was sticking up every which way.

I had never seen them so rumpled and in such a state of disaster. But it was their eyes that had me stiffening in fear. They looked broken as if they had stood on the edge of no return.

"You two look worse than I feel." I croaked.

My father stiffened at the sound before crumbling onto my bed and wrapping his arms around my shoulders.  My mom's hand wrapped around his holding me as her face fell more.

How bad of shape was I in?

"Am I okay?" I felt terrible but I was breathing.  That had to be a good sign.

"Of course," My father shuddered. "Of course you are. Everything is fine now. It's just when they brought you in....." He stuttered.

I pulled back. "Then what?"

"You were so still Bella. I thought that you--" My mom sobbed. "I heard the howls. I knew what they meant, that you were out there. I heard your father's shouts outside and it jolted me because I knew something was wrong."

My father nodded and picked up when my mother couldn't continue. "Sam carried you inside here. There was a lot of blood and you were unresponsive."

My mom blew her nose so her voice was muffled when she spoke but still tight with hysterics. "I wanted to take you to the hospital but by the time I got you bandaged up the bleeding stopped and your body started to heal. After that it was just a waiting game." She tucked several wayward stands of my hair back behind my ear.

"What were you waiting for?" My raspy voice asked.

My father kissed the top of my head before answering. "We were waiting for you.  For you to find your back to us." What an agonizing time that must have been. I hated waiting. I didn't like being stuck inside of myself unable to escape.

And at the hazard appearance of my parents, I knew it had been a worse torture for them.

"Hiw long was I out? Is the pack okay?" My voice was dry as cotton and it made my voice croak even more. And my parents winced every time they heard the cracks in it. "What about the vampires?" Jasper?

I felt cold.

"You've been unconscious almost a full day." My mother shushed my dad to silence.

"The pack is fine and nothing you need to worry about right now." My mom said giving my dad a stern look. "What you need now is rest. You are sore because your body went through a trauma and it needs to heal without you worrying about something else or rushing back out. I'll fix you some lunch."

My mom was on her way to the door when I looked at my dad expectantly.  I needed to know. "Dad?" I asked.

My mom tensed as my dad grumbled under his breath. His eyes met mine. His were bloodshot and weary but also resolved. "The vamp got away and the pursuit was called off. The main focus was getting to you. The pack lost contact with you. There were multiple vampire scents all over and it muddled yours. They knew you had been hurt but they didn't know where you were. There were trees knocked down and shattered. They couldn't find you Bella." His mustache twitched in agitation.  "What do you remember?"

I let out a shaky breath.

I remember thinking Jasper was going to attack when instead he was warning me off of the vampire who stuck me from behind.

I remembered I was the reason the trees were broken as my back had crashed through twenty of them when the vampire pushed me through it.

I remember seeing red flames light up the night sky but I couldn't pin point what that was as my world had started to go black.

But most of all I remembered with dawning clarity was Edward followed closely behind by Jasper.

Edward picked up my werewolf form. He had no idea who I was, he definitely couldn't have known it was me but he could hear the howls of my pack trying to locate me. And he had known I was injured and in danger.

He risked breaking the treaty by stepping over the boundary line to place my wolf form on my side of the border so my pack could find me.

He could have been caught by my pack who would have attacked him thinking he was the one who had hurt me. But he had chosen willingly to harness those risks and found it worth it to save the life of a werewolf.

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