The Consequences {Jacob Black}

Chapter CXXVIII

"What was that?" I managed to stutter out.

"Nessie left," he repeated. I could see a sadness in his eyes. "Yesterday," he clarified. Why would she leave? She had told her mother that she wanted to stay here. I honestly didn't have a problem if Nessie wanted to go and live with the Cullens, but I wish that she had told some of us. "She left us this," Dad added, holding out a piece of paper.

Jake and Ryanne,

I'm sorry to leave like this. But I think it's for the best. I shouldn't have left with you and Jake. I belong with my family. Who would live with a Pack of wolves? Now that I've had time to think about it, little of me wants to stay with you. Believe me when I say that I mean it. I'm sorry for the hurt that I have caused.

Renesmee Cullen

Jake pulled the small note from my hand, his mouth muttering along with the written words. He threw the paper down on the ground and stormed outside, his entire body shaking. "We'll be right back," I told the men in the house. I stooped to gather up the note and followed him outside.

"I welcomed her into our family!" he shouted. "I wanted her to feel welcome, like there was somewhere that she could belong. She was a kid again; we let her be a kid for the first time in our lives and this is how she repays us?"

"Jake," I began, looking down at the paper.

"No; don't try to defend her, Annie. She played all of us just like her mother. I can't believe -"

"Jake!" I shouted. He stopped immediately, mostly because I never shout at him. "I know that you read it, but did you see her note?"

"Of course I saw the note," he shot back.

"Then you saw that Nessie underlined some letter?" He stopped and pulled the neatly scripted letter out of my hands. I grabbed a stick and started playing in the dirt while reading over Jake's shoulder. I-D-O-N-T— W-A-N-T-T-O-L-E-A-V-E. I spelled out. "Jake," I said, tugging on his shirt sleeve. "Jake, look," I repeated when he wasn't looking down at the dirt scratched ground. "I don't want to leave. She's trying to tell us that she didn't want to go. Someone forced her, Jake."

The color drained out of his face a little as he realized that he had judged the little monster so harshly for something that she didn't want to do. "We have to go get her," he said then. I was shocked that he was the one saying that we had to go get her. I knew that Jake had started caring about her, but not to this extent.

"You just went on a rant about how she played us and now you want to go get her?" I asked incredulously.

"I'm an asshole; you know that, Annie." He shrugged like I shouldn't be bothered by it. "I worry about how much influence your sister has over her, you know? She ages so quickly and learns so fast that I just worry about what she picked up while she was with them."

"Clearly not as much as you and I have had on the kid, Jake. Look at the note. She barely underlined the letters that she wanted us to find. She knows that she has to be sneaky with the Cullens. She knows because we taught her that," I whispered to him. "But we have to get going. We have to get her. We can't just leave her to deal with them, Jake." He nodded and sprinted off to the forest, reappearing a few moments later as a wolf. He sank down to the ground and growled at me lightly, telling me to hurry up. "Now? You want to go now?"

There was a look on his wolf face that told me that I needed to get up on his back. I'm sure if he was a human he would be sitting there saying, "There's no time like the present, Rye," in his dorky deep voice. I climbed up on his back and fisted my hands in tuffs of his hair. I pulled a little, anxiety dripping through me when he shoved to his feet. I wanted my niece back. Because no matter what I had said before, she was my family. Let's not even talk about all the things that I had done for Bella because she was my family. And I don't even like my sister. But I like Renesmee. I love that little girl, even if she isn't really a little girl anymore. She was aging so quickly and she was smarter than all of us Pack put together.

Jake loped off into the forest, his muscles stretching to their maximum length and then snapping together as he sprinted with speed that I didn't even know that he had. We made it to the treaty line in what had to have been a record time. Jake slammed to a stop, sending me crashing chest first into his back. He growled deep in his chest and then roared a bark. Carlisle appeared on the other side of the riverbank. "Please, come across," he said with a wide sweep of his arm.

Jake sprang over the river and bolted passed Carlisle, trusting the doctor not to hurt him while we ran. I'm not even sure if Jake was fully at a stop when I jumped down. I do know that he hadn't lowered himself to the ground, my knees trembling gave evidence to the distance that I hadn't realized was there. "What did you do to her?" I asked the first person I came across. Blondie... Rosalie. I really needed to stop hanging out with Paul so much. "Where is my niece?"

"She's my niece to, you know," she spat back at me. I glared at her, ignoring the low warning growl Jake gave when I went to stand chest to chest with the vampire. "She's in the house," she finally said. There was a whisper and shudder in the air as Jake phased out and pulled a pair of cut offs on. I didn't even look back at him as I marched straight into the house and started looking for Nessie.

"Nessie!" I shouted from the living room. "Renesmee Carlie get your ass down here before Dad grounds you," I threatened, sounding more like a parent than I ever wanted.

It was only an instant later that Nessie appeared at my side. She looked so sad, like she had no desire to be at the Cullen house. But there was worry in her eyes too, like she knew that I was in danger just being in the house. "You shouldn't be here," she whispered, her head resting just underneath the line of my sports bra. "Mom is real mad, Ryanne."

"Is that why you came back here?" I asked. She reached up and pressed her hand against my cheek, too afraid to say anything out loud in front of her mother.

I was standing in front of the treaty line, Bella glaring at me on the other side. Her red eyes were waning a little, some honey drizzling into her rubies. But I stayed where I was. "Renesmee, come back here. Your family misses you," Bella said. I shook my head.

"I want to stay here, Mother. I like living with Grandpa Charlie and Ryanne and Jake," Nessie's voice said. "I'm not going back."

"All of these people are gathered here to protect you, Renesmee. You will obey your mother and come back and behave yourself," Bella instructed.

"Behaving properly is overrated," Nessie replied. My chin... I guess it was Nessie's, jutted forward.

"Do you see what you're allowing her to do to you?" I didn't budge. "Listen to me, Renesmee Carlie Cullen, you are only putting them all at risk by living with them. If it wasn't for your birth, the Volturi wouldn't even know that your aunt was still alive. You being around there is putting your grandfather, your aunt, and all your friends in risk. You're going to get them all killed. Come home with me, Renesmee," Bella instructed. My eyes felt blurry with tears that I quickly blinked away.

"Yes, Mother."

"Get your hand away from my daughter!" Bella screeched. Nessie jumped away from me and backed to the staircase, almost tripping as she tried to get away from me as quickly as possible. "You taught her to run away from any problems that she had and disrespect her parents. What are you doing here?"

"I was only wanting to raise her to be just like her mother, Bella. Oh wait, you would have stayed with your family because they would be safer with you. No, your daughter did what I would do. She tried to get away to keep her family safe. That's not exactly your selfish ways," I spat at my sister. I wrapped my hand around Nessie's and pulled her to me. "We're going home. Trust me when I say that the guys know what's going on and none of this is your fault. In fact, we could just start blaming my sister, your mother."

Edward appeared at Bella's side. "You won't talk to my wife in such a manner," he said sternly.

"You really want to start with me?"

"Say what you feel necessary," he replied.

"Okay, douche-bag, here we go..."