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CHAPTER NINE ᴀ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴘɪᴇᴄᴇ
"Alice! Elide!"
Edward's scream came from Carlisle's medical room, where Bella still silently lay. It was a pained call that barely passed his lips, sending us both bolting toward the front door where he reluctantly stood, for we could sense it too. The baby was born. Bella was out of the way. The wolves were coming.
"Are they really doing this?" I asked, fists closing at my side.
Edward simply nodded from where he stood between us. Blood coated his hand, pinged his crumpled white shirt. He couldn't look at the crimson colour. What he must have thought about himself- what the pack must have thought- she couldn't comprehend. This was a man who was broken, and they were coming to batter him down even further.
"We're outnumbered," I stated, fear making my words simple.
Alice shared my glance. "By a lot."
"I won't let them hurt my family," Edward said.
He began to sprint forward, leading us to meet the pack halfway.
There must have been at least eight of them, even without Jake and the Clearwater siblings, all large and all growling with snarling teeth. The greeting left no room for compromise. It was Sam, with his dark, chestnut coat and huge paws, who met Edward first, barrelling down on top of him, only to be pushed away by two feet.
In the heat of it all, I couldn't recognise the wolf I was fighting. They pounced forward, gliding over my body as I rolled out of the way, taking fingers nails into the dirt, stiffening the landing. The snapping wolf turned in an instant, prowling forward so slow that I worried. It was in that same moment, that another one of the pack pounced down behind me, forcing my knees into the ground, flattening my body under its weight.
I cried out, readying to push back and throw out a hand, but the weight was suddenly lifted. In the wolf's place, stud a grinning Emmett, his sleeves rolled above his elbow and fists clenched into a fist.
"Oh, thank God."
"Don't thank God," he said as he began to turn away and head back into the fight, where Esme, Carlisle and Jasper now helped. "Thank me."
With a hardened resolve, I followed him, joining Alice in the very centre of the fight, arms brushing before she jumped upwards, swinging against a branch, landing squarely on the back of a slim, grey wolf. Elsewhere, Edward had pulled back, eyes widened dramatically, head searching frantically behind us all, toward the house, as if he expected someone to appear. For a moment, I expected Bella to emerge from the doorway, like an angel fresh from death. But Jacob's earthy scent flooded my nose as he came bounding forward in wolf form.
His snarl sent each head of the pack snapping his way. He growled again, and the Cullens pulled back to stand beside him as the wolves retreated to stand guard by the tree line. Sam padded forward to meet him, back arched and shoulder blades rigid and ready to send him pouncing forward. Jake held his head up, black eyes gleaning, snarl deepening. Then Sam recoiled in a sudden and sharp movement, paws staggering backwards until he reached the line of his pack.
