The Little Things

6. Discovery

"Dad? Bella? I'm going for walk. I'll be back in a while," I called into the stillness of the house. No one answered, so I decided to leave a note on the table.

Going out for a walk. I'll be back
before supper. I have my phone. L

I grabbed a bag with some snacks and a book and made my way into the forest behind our house. The trees were a mix of spruce, pine, and oak, all covered by a carpet of green moss that gave the air a clean, fresh sent. One of my favourite places to go when I wanted to be alone was a little clearing surrounded by tall oak trees, hidden deep in the woods. One of the oak trees had a branch that was perfect for sitting on, about seven feet off the ground. That was the destination I headed for. I walked for twenty minutes before I reached it. I clambered up the tree and settled down to read.
An hour later, I had just put my book away when I heard it.

Snap!

I froze, carefully looking around the clearing.
Dad always said to be careful in the woods. That there are bears and wolves and other animals to watch out for.

A moment later two huge wolves stepped into the clearing. One, black as night, the other, a spotted brown.

I held my breath, praying that they wouldn't notice me. They didn't seem to notice me and slowly padded into the clearing. I watched in fascination as I had never seen any wolf as large as those. I rarely saw wolves at all in these parts.

Those wolves are huge! The size of those teeth!

Suddenly, to my utter bewilderment, the wolves turned into naked boys. I began to gasp and my vision started to go grey at the edges.

The next thing I knew, I had fallen out of the the tree, and the boys, thankfully now wearing shorts, spun around and looked at me.

"Uh oh." One of them groaned.

Two huge boys-men, I guess-stared at me in panic. One looked a little taller and older than the other with more angles and lines in his face. The other was had softer features and and kind looking face. They were clearly from the reservation with their russet skin, black hair, and dark eyes. They each had a tattoo on their right shoulder. Their very broad and naked right shoulders.

"Wha, wha, what are you? How did that happen?! Please don't eat me!" The panic building up inside me was so intense I started hyperventilating.

"Hey, hey. It's okay. Shh. We're not going to hurt you." The older looking one said. He was the tallest man I had ever seen, which was saying a lot as my friends were not short.

That's Sam Uley. Somehow my panicked mind was able to decipher who he was. He had been engaged to Leah Clearwater, and I had seen him sometimes when Dad and I went to visit them. But them something happened and he broke up with her, and since then, Leah had been acting different. But that was irrelevant to the problem in front of me.

"What's happening?! You were wolves! Now you're not!" I backed away on my elbows. I didn't care who he was, I had just seen them being wolves and that was not right.

"We'll take her to Emily. Jared, you run ahead and tell her we're coming," Sam told the other boy.

As the boy, Jared, ran off into the woods, Sam turned to me and crouched down to look at me.

"Okay. You're Charlie Swan's daughter, aren't you?"

I nodded shakily.

"What's you're name?" He asked.

"Liana,"

"Liana, I'm going to take you to my girlfriend's house and we will explain everything," he said slowly.