Running With Wolves

Chapter 3

The silver eyed huntress sat astride her companion, racing through the forest in the darkness. Bow in hand, a quiver equipped with arrows made for piercing supernatural skin strapped across her back. The other wolves had Joined in chasing after the vamp, seeing only flashes of fiery red hair. Arrows whistling softly as they sailed past the maroon eyed nomad, missing her by a hair.

The vampire had come to scout, see how far the wolves' territory extended. What she hadn't expected was to come across a human whose features almost completely matched that of her target. This human was as short and pale as the Swan girl,hair seeming to be the same rich brown colour. Though this human had her hair cut, falling to about her shoulders, at least it would if it weren't for the dual braids she had it in. Not to mention her eyes. Instead of chocolate brown, this human's eyes were a very light, striking grey that seemed to pierce the soul.

To find this girl sitting in a clearing well past midnight, armed, and leaning against one of the aforementioned wolves was even more shocking to Victoria.

She hadn't expected the audible gasp that escaped her mouth at the sight, resulting in both the girl and the wolf snapping their gazes towards her.

And thus the chase began.

Bella watched in horror and awe as Charlie smacked Paul on the arm once he'd phased back. "This the last time I'm letting you take Dorothy anywhere. I had to ride a god damn motorbike in my shorts, Paul, shorts!" He chuckled, shoving her shoulder playfully. "Oh fuck off with that. I know you love me, truck thievery and all." Charlotte responded by jumping on his back, both laughing as Paul grabbed onto her legs and ran into the house in front of them.

Seeing as Bella now knew about their secret, she got invited over to Sam's house to hang out with the wolf pack. Hesitantly stepping over the threshold after her sister, she was met with a very welcoming, cozy home. And an entire wolf pack.

She knew Jacob and Embry, even kind of knew Sam, and she'd just properly met Jared and Paul because even if they were Charlie's best friends, she'd only ever seen them at a distance until today. But other than Charlotte, she didn't know any of the humans, the girls seemed friendly enough though. She learned that the one with the scars across her face was Sam's Fiancée, Emily. And that the shy one, Kim, was Jared's mate. Emily and Kim were easy to be around. The same could almost be said of Charlotte, if only she'd stop making ridiculous faces every time Bella made eye contact, even going so far as to playfully flip her off a few times.

At one point Bella caught Paul looking at her, muttering something under his breath. Instantly all the wolves in the room stiffened, glancing warily from her to Paul, then Charlie. For her part, Charlotte looked pissed at the man beside her, like she was moments away from hitting him.

She very much was.

Charlie cuffed Paul on the back of the head as hard as she could, uncaring of the damage potentially done to her hand. "What did I say about calling her that, Paul?" She asked incredulously. She was livid, and everyone knew it. "Bella's name isn't 'Leech Lover', and it'll do you well to remember that. If I ever hear you, any of you, call her that again, I swear I won't hesitate when I tear your throats out with my bare hands."

Everyone stared for a moment, before slowly jumping back into conversation, acting as though her sister hadn't just threatened to kill an entire wolf pack for calling Bella names.

The Paul incident aside, Charlotte was pleasantly surprised by how easily everyone warmed up to Bella. The girls had taken to the younger Swan almost instantly, the rest of the pack occasionally jumping into the conversation, cracking jokes and sharing their opinions. If only her father were here, Charlotte would be able to say that her entire family, blood relation or not, was all in one place. The pack was her family just as much as Bella and Charlie always had been.

Bella knew her sister had trouble sleeping, she'd heard Renée on the phone with a frantic Charlie at 2 am more than once when she was younger. Renée explained that Charlotte would get vivid nightmares involving vampires and werewolves when she was little, that no matter how many times she was told they didn't exist and they couldn't hurt her, she was spooked. Not only had Charlotte been afraid to sleep due to her nightmares, but she'd wanted to defend herself if they came for her.

Renée had put her daughter in karate, kickboxing, wrestling, boxing, anything she could think of to ease her daughter's mind and maybe help her sleep at night. But while the fighting and self defence lessons had helped improve the girl's mental state, she'd never quite grasped the ability to sleep a full 8 hours.

Eventually, Charlotte decided to start practicing in the time she spent awake. She would walk around with the lights off in the middle of the night, punching and kicking at nothing. Fighting an enemy that wasn't there. Finally, Renée bought her a punching bag to spar with on nights like this. Figuring Charlotte just needed a change of pace, their mother had decided to send her eldest daughter to camp one year, and Charlotte had loved it. Not for the people she'd met, though she met some great people, or being away from her family for a month.

Charlie had fallen in love with the archery range.

So when Bella woke up just past midnight to find herself still on Charlotte and Paul's couch following the previous nights impromptu movie night, she knew her sister well enough to know she wasn't sleeping, even if she couldn't hear someone outside. Bella decided to follow the soft grunting she heard towards the back of the house.

Charlie was standing on the back deck in the darkness, shoulder-length hair in a loose bun hastily thrown atop her head, kicking the bag with a surprising amount of force. She was grunting and muttering to herself as she went.

"Thought the vampire drama would've left with the Cullens."

Growl.

"But no."

Punch.

"Just when I finally got Izzy back."

Kick. Grunt.

"'They aren't real sweetie, go back to sleep.' Fuck you, Mom."

Punch. Growl. Kick.

"Can't get more real than this."

She gave one final punch and, with a cry of anguish, sank to the deck floor. Charlotte put her head in her hands and laughed darkly. "As if I didn't already have to deal with pulling my sister out of a vampire ex-boyfriend induced funk, an entire wolf pack, my best friends both being a part of said wolf pack, not to mention that I have a reputation to maintain as the police chief's eldest daughter.

"Oh, and I still have no clue about how I feel about Paul, or how Paul feels about me, or why that even matters when we have that red headed vampire playing some sick game and toying with the pack as though she's just biding her time, waiting for us to make a mistake."

Charlotte turned sharply at the sound of Bella's gasp, but Bella wasn't paying her any attention. "Victoria," She breathed, legs collapsing under her as she joined her sister on the deck. "She'll kill me."