The Phantom Wolf

Chapter 78 (Honouring Pearl)

*3rd Person POV*

Inside of Bree and Pearl's room, Jasper had finally made a breakthrough with Bree. She had started talking again and her emotions were slightly more prominent. Although she spoke very little, what she did say, caused the Texan great concern.

"I'll kill them." Bree muttered. Her usually chipper voice, was cold and calculative.

"Bree..." Jasper spoke quietly. He didn't understand everything that she was going through, but he could feel her emotions. And seeing the numb emptiness, get replaced by an unparalleled amount of rage, unnerved him greatly.

"They... killed... her..." Bree finally said it out loud. After days of that phrase going round in her head. She finally let it reach her ears.

Jasper stared at Bree, concern and worry evident on his face. His eyes however, showed a similar amount of rage to what Bree was feeling. The Uley pack had killed a member of their family in cold blood. Of course, he wanted to return the favour to the shifters.

"They will die, for what they've done." Bree spoke determinedly as she faced Jasper and met his gaze.

The Texan vampire stayed silent as he looked into Bree's dark gold eyes. He agreed with wanting revenge, but logically, he knew that now wasn't the time to get it. If they got into a fight with the entire Uley pack, they'd likely loose.

Bree saw his hesitance and looked at the ground. Breaking eye contact with her brother.

Sensing her disappointment and growing anger, Jasper explained, "They will pay. But the fact of the matter is, that if we start a fight right now, we will loose. We'll need everyone to stand a chance. Bree... avenging Pearl... will have to wait."

Downstairs, the front door could be heard opening and closing. With the sound being accompanied by the smell of a wet dog, the two vampires knew that Jacob had returned.

"Come on." Jasper said gently. He took her hand and started to lead her out of the room. Intending to go to the furthest part of the house. Away from the shifter.

As Jasper pulled Bree along, Bree had one singular thought in her mind.

'Fine. I'll do it myself.'

*With Bella and the others*

After successfully distracting the Uley pack, which allowed Carlisle, Esme and Emmet to escape the area to feed and retrieve more blood for Bella, Jacob returned to the Cullen house to check on the pregnant human. Greeting Edward, he was able to confirm that the vampires had indeed made it out okay.

The two guys entered the room Bella, Rosalie and Alice were in, to discover that Bella had chosen a couple of possible names for her child. And that Rosalie was trying to talk the human out of them.

"Why don't you tell Jacob what you've decided?" Rosalie suggested.

"What now?" Jacob asked, mainly confused but slightly concerned as well.

"Rose is trying to talk Bella out of her baby names." Edward answered the confused shifter.

"She hates them." Bella adds while giving him a soft smile.

"Well, then I'm on your side no matter what you picked." Jacob declares as he returns her smile.

"They're not that bad. If it's a boy, EJ. Edward Jacob." The human announced.

"Okay, fine, that one's not awful. Why don't you tell him the girl's name?" Said Rosalie.

"I was playing around with our moms' names. Renee and Esme. And I was thinking... Renesmee." Bella said carefully.

"Renesmee" Jacob said hesitantly, trying not to botch the pronunciation.

Edward laughed at his attempt, then tried to quickly cover it up with a cough.

"Too weird?" Bella asked.

"Um, no, that's not too weird." Jacob tried to reply in a convincing manner.

Edward took over for Jacob, and reassured her. "It's beautiful."

Bella smiled warmly at her husband and paused. She had an idea earlier but hadn't brought it up to anyone yet, since she was worried how they'd all respond.

Picking up on her nerves, Edward asked, "What is it?"

Everyone turned to the human, concern evident in their eyes. Bella bit her lower lip and hesitated a little more before responding. "I've been thinking about middle names, for our child. And... I'd like to honour Pearl in that." Her tone was quiet and cautious. This was something she wanted to do, but seeing how raw everyone's feelings were on the subject of the fallen hybrid, she was aware that they could react negatively to the idea.

The group was slightly taken aback by Bella's choice to include Pearl in the name, but they all understood why she would want to.

Edward smiled at his wife sweetly and said in a calm manner, "I think that's an excellent idea."

Rosalie and Alice were quick to voice their agreements, and Bella looked at Jacob for his opinion, he gave her a firm nod, with a small smile on his face. Choosing not to mention what Paul had said in the forest.

Bella smiled back, but before she could say anything else, she let out a gasp of pain and collapsed to the floor as her spine snapped.

Edward was quick to stop her head from crashing into the hard wooden floor.