“This ends now!”

As Jacob spat the words, I watched his frame shudder violently before it had changed shape entirely. In a split second of ripping fabric and angry snarls, he was a dog. He launched himself towards me, teeth bared, intentions clear. I braced myself, ready to catch his weight and throw him off of me. Maybe if I was careful enough I could throw him into the audience of his pack members and disorient them enough to give my family an advantage.

Jacob didn’t make contact with me, though.

The moment he was in the air, another ripping noise mirrored the first and a large mass of fur collided with him, sending him several feet off course and crumpling him to the ground. Jacob whirled, snarling angrily at his attacker and then quieting immediately when he realized that it was a wolf rather than a vampire.

I recognized the thoughts of the dog as Sam Uley’s, and I was immediately grateful.

Jacob’s thoughts were even more biting. Sam shook his head and then paced back to rest of the pack and stood on four paws before them. The one I recognized as Brody pulled the blanket that Bella had been using off of her chair and tossed it over Sam. Sam bobbed his head in appreciation and in a split second, the fur appeared to absorb into his body, revealing the tan, toned skin of his human form. Quickly, he had used the blanket to cover the area of his body for which the clothing lay in shredded pieces around him and righted himself to face the rest of the human-formed pack members.

A low growl sounded from Jacob before he did the same, though not having anything to replace his ruined clothing articles.

Sam, being the valiant and moral being that he had proven he was, ripped the blanket in half with one too-simple gesture and tossed it to Jacob who snatched it out of the air expertly and wrapped it around himself.

Something told me that the only reason for their attention to decency was because of Bella’s presence, which I did appreciate. Being what they were, though, I expected that nudity was something that they had given up on avoiding. I suddenly felt a pang of guilt as I noticed two females among the pack. It was shocking enough that the werewolf gene had somehow spread to incorporate females, but knowing the exposure they were subjected to among the dominant population of males among the pack made me feel just a tiny bit sympathetic towards them.

“Sam.” Jacob addressed him firmly, concerns that Sam was betraying him running rampantly through his mind.

“You gave me a choice, Jacob, and I have decided. I will not be a tool in your games any more. You know this isn’t right.”

“Sam, I am your Alpha.”

“And I have chosen to disobey you.” Sam’s voice was firm, strong, and decisive. He turned towards Bella who was quivering on the ground, Alice crouched next to her with her teeth bared at the several members of the pack that had advanced towards her. Sam extended his hand and Bella took it with her own shaking hand and he helped her to her feet.

“Go to the car, Bella.” Jacob repeated as he watched Sam‘s kind gesture towards her, his fists clenching and unclenching as he struggled to maintain control.

Bella debated for a moment, biting down on her lower lip, her eyes full of fear and uncertainty for a brief second before she said again, “No, Jacob.”

“Don’t tell me no, Bella. I’m your-”

“You are not my husband, Jacob. You never will be.”

“Excuse me?!” he roared. “Just because he’s back, the entire wedding is off now? You can’t do that, Bella. He’s not worth it.”

“Don’t you dare tell me what is worth it, Jacob. You don’t know the last thing about what is worth it.” A sob caught the last word as she spoke it and I saw tears welling behind the hardened surface of her eyes.

“Nothing in this world is worth anything without love, Jake. You know as well as I do that I have never loved you like that. And you know what,” She sniffled, realization crossing her face suddenly, “You can’t convince me that you love me anymore, either.”

“Bella.” He warned, his voice was threatening.

“You wouldn’t hurt someone you love.”

“Well then how could you think he loves you?!” Jacob roared, causing Bella to flinch backwards slightly. “He hurt you! Why are you so quick to forgive him!?”

Her face contorted several times before a calm and peaceful look finally settled.

“He left to protect me. He thought that he was doing what was best for me. He tried to make sure that I was happy… which is more than I can say for you, Jake. You thought that just because you saved me from my burning house you automatically had full reign over my life. You knew that even though I hardly knew you at the time, that I wouldn’t turn down a place to live. You… you took advantage of my situation. You made me dependant on you..”

“That’s not true, Bells.” Jacob tried to force a nicer edge to his voice, but his thoughts were acidic. He was growing more and more angry by the second as Bella embarrassed him in front of his entire pack.

“I’m not that girl, Jake. I’m not that girl that people feel sorry for because her husband beats her and she just takes it. I’m done accepting the abuse as a side effect of what you are.”

Jacob blinked several times before narrowing his eyes at her in disbelief.

“But I have a choice, now. A choice that you cannot manipulate with threats,” she continued.

“And what exactly is this choice you have made.” He growled, his entire body visibly trembling with effort at this point.

“I choose love,” Bella stated simply, throwing a sidelong glance at me, drawing me back into reality. She then turned and looked behind me, letting her eyes travel over every member of my family individually before turning back to Jake and adding - “I choose my family.”

I had been somewhat disconnected from reality for a minute, watching the dialogue exchanged as if it had been more of a dream sequence than actuality. I felt my lifeless heart jump into my throat as Bella met my eyes for the tiniest of seconds. It seemed almost unreal to me that she had just defended me like that, and it took a moment of convincing before I actually let myself believe it.

“And the people on this reservation haven’t been more than a family to you?” He narrowed his eyes at her again, challenging her to keep arguing with him. She did.

“I love them, yes. I appreciate them, definitely… But I don’t belong here, Jacob. This was never my home.”

“Bella,” Jacob’s voice was now pleading. “This is not the time or place for this conversation.”

“Well then when is, Jacob? When we’re alone and no one else can hear or see? When we’re on our way to the wedding that we both know is wrong?”

“You getting married to me is not wrong.” He argued quickly, “What’s wrong is you getting married to that!” He gestured to me by jerking his thumb in my direction. “At least with me you can have kids… and a pulse.” He spat.

“Maybe that’s not what I want,” Bella whispered.

“Maybe you don’t know what you want.” He retorted coldly.

“Maybe I do.”

“What do you want that I couldn’t give you, Bella?” He demanded.

She released her breath in a short huff, resembling a snort almost, but kinder. “Love,” she repeated.

His face hardened for a moment before he scoffed. “Well today is not your day, then. The treaty expressly forbids them leaving with their lives… or whatever you call the phenomenon that their existence is..”

“No, Jake.” She said softly. “Leave them alone.”

“I’m sorry, Bella. They are at fault here. I am just following the rules set out by our ancestors.” He shrugged. “Well, my ancestors.” He corrected, throwing a distasteful glance at Carlisle.

“So you will fault them for caring about me?” Bella frowned.

He faltered at her words, a retort stalling on the tip of his tongue as his arms went limp with near defeat. “You know that’s not…” He started, throwing a glance at the faces of his pack members, all standing quietly, watching the conversation as if it were a tennis match. Their brows were pulled together in tight frowns. In their human form, Jacob couldn’t read their minds like I could. Jacob didn’t know that the majority of his pack had lost over half of the respect they had had for him as an Alpha. “Bella, you really should go to the car. I don’t want you to witness this.” He warned her, feigning concern.

Ignoring him, she took several steps towards me and slipped her hand into mine, looking back at my family quickly and then up at me as she said - “Lets go home.”

“Bella, move out of the way. It would be a shame for you to get hurt because of this.”

“It’s not like you’ve held any aversion to hurting her in the past,” Rosalie snarled from behind me.

Jacob ignored her, turning his head to the pack and gesturing towards Rosalie as if he was giving them permission to take her out.

No one moved.

Jacob repeated the gesture, waiting for one of them to understand and phase to obey their alpha.

Again, no one moved.

Everything was still for several moments before Sam made a motion. All eyes turned towards him as he turned away from the scene unfolding before him and began climbing the slope away from us.

We watched his steady ascent up the sand covered hillside. I tried to glean some insight into what was going through the minds of the rest of the pack at that moment, but all I could hear were Jacob’s loud and violent thoughts of anger and rage. Sam was his right hand man. Sam was one of the strongest in the pack. Maybe even stronger than Jacob himself. Losing Sam was something unthinkable to Jacob and he knew that it would come with its consequences. His departure would no doubt hold some sort of influence over the rest of the pack. Even Quil and Embry looked entirely shocked at Sam’s actions.

“He’ll be sorry.” Jacob muttered under his breath, more as a warning to the rest of the pack than a reassurance to himself, though.

“Well at least one of you is able to show some backbone.” Rosalie rolled her eyes again, fueling his aggravation further.

“Will one of you please just take the blonde bitch out..” He groaned, turning back to face the pack.

“Do it yourself.” a teenage looking boy in the front said. According to the shocked minds of the boys surrounding him, his name was Seth and disrespecting the alpha was something that no one had thought him capable of. He recoiled, however, as Jacob sent him a vicious glare. “I just mean… your clothes are already ripped.” He backtracked, throwing his gaze to the ground immediately.

“My attentions are of better use on her brother, Seth, and since you were so kind to voice your opinion, I designate the job to you.”

Seth’s eyes grew large as he looked back up to Jacob. He made no motion to oblige, though.

“Well, sic her.” Jacob’s face contorted into a terrifying grin as he made a direct order.

I noticed Emmett move to stand in front of Rosalie, but she was quick to punch him in the shoulder and give him a ‘what-the-hell-are-you-doing’ glare causing him to return to his previous spot throwing her a surreptitious and concerned glance.

Seth was still hesitating, looking between Rosalie’s poised figure to Jacob, a look of both fear and loathing in his eyes.

The mental voice in which transmitted that message was mainly Seth’s, but it was the same, only in different wording, among the 16 others standing around dissecting the situation with distaste.

“No thank you, Jake.” Seth finally said politely, a slight degree of wavering in his voice.

“Excuse me?” Jacob snarled.

Seth hesitated a moment before finally responding through a prominent frown. “I don’t know what happened to you, Jake. You’ve changed. You’re not the same Jacob you used to be.”

“Regardless, Seth, I am still your alpha.” Jacob snapped.

“No. My alpha, the Jacob I knew, would never have hurt Bella. My alpha would never willingly sacrifice a member of the pack unless it was absolutely necessary. You are no alpha, Jake. You are something dark and… evil. I don’t want any part of this.” He shrugged, finally, and turned to follow the footprints Sam had left in the sand.

Desperate, Jacob turned to the remaining pack members. Fear entered his thoughts for the first time as he read the uncertainty in each of their eyes as they looked between Seth’s retreating form and Jacob.

One by one, they turned, following Seth up the hill slowly, deliberately, until only two of them remained. Quil and Embry exchanged knowing glances before crossing to Jacob. Quil stepped forward and placed his hands on Jacob’s shoulders for a moment, meeting his eyes with an apologetic frown before turning to make his exit. Embry followed behind him, not making eye contact with Jacob, but simply clapping him on the shoulder and trotting after Quil.

Jacob stood, silent, his thoughts shockingly calm as his chest heaved with the effort to repress his emotions. It was obvious who had won, and I fought a smile off as I turned, placing my hand in the small of Bella’s back to lead her away with me. To my great joy, she didn’t hesitate to look back at Jacob. There was not a tear in her eyes as she turned with me, determination and relief tangibly emanating from her, and began walking away. My family followed suit, their thoughts victorious, though in Emmett, Rose, and Jasper’s case, slightly annoyed that no real punches had been thrown.

I felt it through Jasper, first. Jasper noticed the sudden, irrepressible swell of anger exploding behind us as the reality of the situation hit Jacob. I saw his actions in his mind with only a split second to spare.

“Alice.” I hissed, pushing Bella away from me and towards her. She reacted quickly, catching Bella expertly and pulling her out of the way as I felt Jacob’s wolf form slam into my back. Had I not taken the moment to get Bella out of harms way, I would have been able to retaliate immediately, but the risk was too great. I was not going to let Bella get hurt if there was anything I could do about it.

As soon as Bella registered the situation, a scream of terror broke through her lips and Alice released her in shock. I turned over, pushing myself off of the sand and slamming Jacob backwards with my other arm. He flew several yards through the air, crashing into the sand close to the smoldering glow of the fire, immediately springing back up to attack again. I was already at his throat again before he could attack. It was better if I kept the fight away from Bella. His teeth snapped dangerously close to my neck and I pushed him farther away from me, my nose wrinkling at the repulsive scent of him.

“Bella!” Alice squealed, suddenly realizing that Bella was no longer at her side.

“Jacob, No!” Bella’s voice startled me as I realized that she was much closer than she should be.

Even for a vampire’s heightened reflexes, everything happened so quickly, then. I whirled just in time to see Bella trip on a log and go sprawling through the air. I saw the hot dog poker laying in the sand and even without Alice’s psychic ability, I knew what was going to happen. I didn’t get to witness it, or even react to it, though. Bella’s proximity had given Jacob just the amount of distraction he needed and I felt his strong and powerful teeth connect with my shoulder. With a huff, I fell to my knees. The smell of Bella’s blood paralyzed me. Had it not been for Emmett and Rosalie stepping in, Jacob may have had my head, then.

Fear coursed through me as I thought of Jasper in such close proximity to Bella’s spilled blood and I immediately searched for his thoughts. Confirming my fears, he was battling the same blood lust that I was, though with less distractions.

“No!” I shouted, turning to watch as both he and Alice darted towards Bella. I pushed myself to my feet to rush to Bella’s aid, but at that exact moment, Jacob evaded both Rosalie and Emmett somehow and took a second snap at my shoulder, knocking me to the ground again. Knowing that it was too late to get to Bella before Jasper did now, I hoped that Carlisle and Alice would be able to stop him from killing her as he would undoubtedly feed from her freshly wounded arm. I turned quickly, throwing Jacob to the ground. He emitted a light yelp, but recovered quickly. I dodged his teeth again as he lunged for my throat. Rosalie and Emmett backed off slightly, not knowing whether I wanted to take on the dog alone or not. I motioned with my head that their assistance would be appreciated, knowing that the sooner he was taken care of the sooner I could get to Bella.

“Go. We’ll take care of him.” Emmett offered, understanding my body language surprisingly well.

I knew that the two of them together would be more than able to handle Jacob, so I didn’t hesitate in turning back to run to Bella’s side. Jasper’s blood lust had doubled, and I was certain that if he hadn’t already gotten to her, that they were struggling to fight him off. Much to my surprise, though, he wasn’t doing either. Instead, he was kneeling beside her, her head in his lap. His face was covered in a frown, but he was concentrating on keeping his control. I felt a pang of guilt for immediately expecting the worst from him, but was quickly distracted from it as I noticed that Bella’s eyes were closed and her face was pale.

“She’s fine, Edward.” Carlisle assured me, “It didn’t hit any major and consequential veins and the bleeding should stop soon.” He promised. “She looked at the blood and immediately fainted, though.” He added, slightly confused.

“She hates blood,” I informed him. He caught the irony in the fact immediately, but did not let his amusement show through. He nodded once and joined Esme at Bella’s side. I crouched down next to Jasper and placed my hand against her cheek.

“She’s okay.” Jasper promised me. I looked up at him questioningly and he edited his words, “I’m okay.”

I nodded once. I knew he was telling me the truth. He could handle this now. He was prepared for this and he wasn’t willing to lose his control. I hadn’t breathed since I had first smelled her blood, but I could feel it in the atmosphere. I could taste the scent on my tongue, even. I gulped down a mouthful of venom.

“Edward,” Emmett called grimly. I turned to face him and found him and Rose standing next to a limp mass of fur on the ground.

Limp, but not yet lifeless.You deserve the final blow.

I gulped and crossed the beach towards them again. They stepped back as I approached the quivering pile of fur collapsed on the ground. His breath was ragged and coming out in short, weak whimpers of defeat. His thoughts were no longer angry. His thoughts were self loathing and embarrassed. He lifted an eyelid to stare at me as I stood over him.

I decided then that he would live.

I could tell that he had no intention of ever crossing my family again. His temper had placed him in the hands of death and the only thing that could save him was undeserved mercy. I knew, though, as did he, that living with the shame of losing his entire pack to selfish blind rage would be harder than death. Death was too easy of an out, and I wasn’t willing to supply him with it. I locked my jaw and narrowed my eyes at him in contemplation. He would live, if given the chance. Emmett and Rose had roughed him up pretty bad, but he could physically pull through. Mentally though, he would never recover. That was enough for me. That was better than killing him, in a way.

Without addressing him, I turned and walked away, uttering a short, “Leave him,” to Emmett and Rosalie as I did so. They seemed to expect that from me, almost, because they didn’t ask any questions. They exchanged a regretful glance and fell into stride behind me. As we neared the rest of the family, I spotted Carlisle’s glance at the living body of Jacob left in my wake. I met his eyes firmly, not wavering on my own decision. He nodded once and turned his attention back on Bella. Do you want me to carry her. She’s still bleeding a little bit, but not much. It should stop as soon as we start running.

“I’ll carry her,” I said decisively.

The scent of her blood hit me like a force heavier than anything else, but somehow, I ignored it. I slipped my arms beneath her, curling her limp body against my chest as I straightened up and echoed Bella’s earlier words.

“Let's go home.”