Sunshine and Pine (A Sequel to Everything to me)

Pit

The heavy rain from this morning has turned the air misty, and all I can see from my kitchen window is fog. After watching Aunt Sue drag a half-asleep Seth around the kitchen all morning, insisting he learn this stuff so he can treat a women right one day, and sitting down to a family breakfast together, my shirt is now fifty percent water as I scrub dishes in the sink, mostly staring out the window pondering life.

I'd been cautiously excited when moving to LaPush. Knowing I needed to get some space from my trauma, but also, change is freaking terrifying. But never had I imagined life would take such an amazing leap into wonderful territory.

It's in the middle of this daydream that a howl resounds somewhere deep in my bones, making the plate I'm holding clatter to the bottom of the sink.

My head whips around to see Leah and Seth behind me. They're both standing at full attention. Something about the sound of that howl has all of our hackles up, and we all break for the backdoor and into the woods. The sound of clothes ripping echoes around me and then my mind is flooded with images. Horrible images of bruises and pain. Someone's head is being ripped off. I see a baby, but it's not quite a baby. It looks normal and innocent, but then all of a sudden its eyes are bright red and it's the one ripping people's heads off.

It takes me a while to sift through it all and put the pieces together.

Jacob is talking to Bella, his eyes fall down to her stomach which has ballooned out and is more black and blue than not. Bella tells him everythings going to be alright. Edward says he can kill him. Bella rubbing her belly and smiling. The Cullens are arguing "The fetus isn't good for Bella!" Alice hisses. But Jacob is looking at Bella, she's trying to mask her wince. "It's just a little baby!" "Possibly".

Possibly.... Possibly. What is growing in there.

That's when the rest of the pack's thoughts start to chim in. I can feel everyone's rage. Everyone is seeing red. We're all running towards Jacob. We're breaking through the treeline and I still haven't decided how I feel about this.

My head turns towards the big black wolf as Sam starts to talk through the mindlink.

"We have to protect the tribe. What they've bred won't be able to control its thirst. Every human will be in danger."

"We're ready" "No time to waste." Everyone starts voicing their approval.

Everyones getting ready to go kill Bella like right this second. The cloud of outrage surrounding me is making it hard to make up my own mind. I keep sifting through the memories Jake showed us, but the one that keeps coming back is Bella, holding her belly and gazing down at it, so much love in her eyes.

While I've been processing, Jacob has charged off. I don't even realize that I'm slowly retreating until a massive gray head is whipping in my direction.

"No" Paul had been so consumed by everything he hadn't tuned specifically into my mind until right now. "Lucy, you can't be serious."

"I can't do this Paul. WE can't do this." And my mind is flashing back to that loving look in Bella's eyes. "It's just a baby."

Paul echoes the words we heard in Jake's memories. "Possibly."

I haven't stopped inching backwards while we talked and my feet squish into the dirt of the forest floor.

Every part of me is pulling in a different direction. My body seems to be moving of its own accord, drawing me towards Bella. My mind is trying to tell me that I should never leave my pack like this. THEY'RE my family, not some band of silverspoon leeches.

My heart and my soul are the only two working in synchrony. Screaming in desperation to stop moving away from the gray wolf in front of me, the emotion in his eyes completely human. The minds of everyone else are obviously still there, but I can't hear them anymore. All I hear is Paul. He seems to be going through a similar battle to mine. Up until he felt me retreating, there wasn't a doubt in his mind on what was happening. Honestly, there still wasn't. But he could feel his very soul dragging her feet hesitantly through the dirt. Moving further and further away from him. He was battling between the outrage that his partner and packmate dared defend the enemy, and the dark pit that sank deeper and deeper in his chest with every inch I retreated.

We'd obviously been physically apart before. But this was more than that. This was physical, mental, emotional and everything in between. The imprint embedded into our genes wants to reach out and smack us both upside the head, shove us back together. But we've never been so far apart.

"Bella hasn't done anything wrong. Jacobs right, our protection applies to her too." The words pour out of my mouth without thought, as if I'm running on autopilot. Like a puppet on a string. The pull - correction, the vicious clawing - to run back to Paul's side seems to have no say here. That pit that Paul could feel, starts to unravel in my chest too.

"Come on Lucy, tell me you aren't that stupid." And that's what does it. I can feel that Paul regrets his words immediately after he's thought them. But that's the tricky part about sharing thoughts... Everything is always out on full display.

The image of my wolf form turning full tilt into the forest, clouded in pure agony is all I see in my head as the trees rush past me. The farther I go, the deeper and darker that pit sinks into both of us.

The last thing I see before my link to my pack is severed, is everyone else watching as the fight leaves Paul's body, and his naked body slumps to the ground. His hand is clutched to his chest like he's trying to keep the pit from consuming him whole.

It's not until I see the Cullen's house peeking through the greenery, that I allow myself to stop running and collapse into a ball of fur in the dirt.