Chapter 2

Bella walked with purpose as she tried her best to remember the path she used to take; it was just unfortunate that every other time she was on the path it was when she was going so fast she couldn’t make out anything around her. But she was determined that since she had been there so often, surely she could find the meadow on her own.

Bella hadn’t originally wanted to go to the meadow; definitely not on her own when she had never gone by herself before. But there was a part of her that was determined to do this by herself. Charlie had been trying to get her to go out and do something. It wasn’t that Bella hadn’t want to go out, she just didn’t see the point. She had been isolated from her friends, if she could call them that anymore, she wasn’t sure they would want to hang out with her after she had basically just ignored them since she had started to date Edward and then when she was moping around after the breakup.

The breakup had originally first devastated Bella. She had felt like her literal heart and soul had been ripped from her body and for a brief moment, she hadn’t thought she would ever get over the loss. Her mind had still been so stuck on everything to do with Edward and his family that she never even thought of how pathetic and obsessive she seemed. She had been to consumed with her loss to see anything else.

It hadn’t been until she had spent more time around the reservation and then learned of them being shifters after an unfortunate argument between her and Jacob, that she seemed to snap out of it. It had been a random remark that had really confused her, that hadn’t, and still didn’t, make any sense. All of the shifters had complained that she still smelt like the leeches, their words not hers, specifically Edward. That had really confused Bella.

After some convincing from Jacob and even Leah, Bella talked Charlie into getting her some new clothes. The chance was practically instant.

After getting new clothes, she had stayed away from her room, falling sleep downstairs after watching a movie. The next day she wasn’t nearly as depressed as she had been about losing Edward. After a couple days, she was more angry than sad about the way he and his family left after they had supposedly ‘adopted’ her into the family.

The shifters thought that perhaps since vampires used their scent and good looks to lure their prey, to lure humans, Edward and maybe even all of the Cullen’s had used their attributes to practically chain Bella to them. Bella hadn’t wanted to believe that was the case, but seeing that she was no longer crying her eyes out at the loss of the Cullen’s, she wasn’t sure. Add to that, that all the few friends she had made before getting close to the Cullen’s weren’t really friends anymore, well, it was something she was considering.

What now really concerned her, was why. Why would they hook her so deep in their clutches and then abandon her? Jacob assumed it was because they may have actually been planning to return at some point and then Bella would be even more in their clutches because she would have been so happy they were back and would likely do anything to avoid them from leaving again.

That was actually what led her to wanting to find the meadow. She wanted to find it and say a formal goodbye to her life with the Cullen’s. She wasn’t so sure she would ever see them again, if she was honest she doubted she would ever see a vampire again, but she wanted a proper closure to that part of her life. She had been through so much since she discovered vampires were actually a thing, it was almost a whole other life since moving to Forks. She just wanted to move on to the next stage of her life and she felt saying a proper goodbye to the Cullen’s, thankfully without them there as she wasn’t sure what would happen if she were to see them again, would be the best way to let them go.

Even though she really wanted to know what their plans with her were, why keep her so addicted to them for so long, just for them to leave her like they did, she wouldn’t be upset if she never saw them again. Her curiosity wasn’t that intense that she neededto know. Hence why saying goodbye, she felt that was the best she would get. Then, she would go and meet the pack at the beach and do whatever it was they had planned. She was excited to be done with this part of life, to just completely let go of the Cullen’s and vampires all together. She would let the pack worry about vampires from then on.

The trek to finding the meadow was much longer than she had thought. Thankfully she had been on the right path, but it was much longer than she had thought it would be. She knew it would be longer since she was walking in human speed, but she truly hadn’t believed it would take that long. But after over two hours, she had finally found the overgrown meadow.

It seemed like poetic justice that the meadow she had once thought was perfectly kept from a magazine picture was now just an overgrown clearing in the middle of a forest. It wasn’t anything special anymore.

Bella walked to the center of the clearing and took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure what she had wanted to say, she didn’t have anything planned. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to say anything out loud or in her head. She really only knew she wanted to get there, to be there to say goodbye. She wasn’t even sure how long she would be there, if she had just wanted to look around and then leave or stay there for a little. She had no idea.

But anything she had wanted to do, whether to say some words or just look around, her choices were taken from her when at the other end of the meadow, a familiar face showed up.

Bella felt the blood drain from her face. She hadn’t accounted for him.

“I see you are doing well.” Laurent said with a gentle smile. If it wasn’t for his red eyes, she would have probably believed him to be a nice person. But the fact that he had been a part of James coven meant he wasn’t as nice as he probably wanted to appear.

“Yes, I was just out enjoying the view.” Bella said, unsure of exactly how to get herself out of her predicament.

“Perhaps we can enjoy the view together?” Laurent asked as he took a step closer to her and it took a lot of willpower for Bella to not take a matching step backwards. She didn’t want him to think she was afraid of him; that would likely only encourage him like it had James.

Just as Bella opened her mouth to rebuke his offer, 3 tall figures appeared around her. Two were next to her, just behind her, and the third was in front of her. They were surrounding her. All three women were dark skinned, very beautiful, like all vampires, but what gave away their age, were their clothes… or lack thereof. They were all wearing something she had never seen people of today’s age wear: loin clothes and just enough material on their chests to maintain their modesty. What really concerned her though, she could just barely see from the two next to her, they had red eyes also.

This really didn’t bode well for her.

“You can leave now.” The woman in front of her said with an accent she couldn’t quite place. Her voice was commanding and if it were Bella, she would have left already. Laurent clearly didn’t care.

“You’ve made new friends Bella?” Laurent asked, fishing for information and that concerned Bella. What exactly was Laurent doing in Forks when she was fairly positive he had been sent to the Cullen’s cousins in Alaska, she wasn’t sure, but she was sure it couldn’t be good.

“Leave, before we make you.” The woman in front of Bella said.

“Are you three just passing through?” Laurent asked, definitely fishing for information and that definitely made Bella concerned. There was no reason he needed to know anything.

At the same time though, she wasn’t sure which was worse: having Laurent around, or these three new vampires around. At least with Laurent, she knew him and could possible try to guilt him into leaving her alone; maybe. But these three new vampires, she had no idea who they were or what they were doing there. As far as Bella was concerned, since they had red eyes, they were only protecting her so they could eat Bella themselves. She was starting to put some serious thoughts into getting a blood transfusion somehow so that vampires would stop trying to kill her.

At that point, Bella was just hoping the vampires kept talking long enough that they all distracted each other so she wasn’t attacked and to give the wolves enough time to get to her. Surely they had someone on patrol, as they always did, that realized there was a vampire, more than one vampire, in their area. She was positive she just needed time and the wolves would save her.

“Leave now.” The woman repeated, her voice somehow sounding more tense than before.

One of the women reached her hand out to rest on the lead woman’s shoulder, seemingly in a way to calm the woman down. No sooner did the woman’s hand touch the other woman did Laurent take off running. Bella barely had time to register the French vampire’s disappearance before big wolves zipped by, so fast that Bella was barely able to tell what was happening.

“Hey!” Bella yelled as loud as she could, hoping one of the wolves would realize she was there.

At her voice, the three women moved closer to her, either to make sure she didn’t try to run or as a better way to set themselves up to protect themselves from the wolves. At least, that was what Bella thought. Their movement was going to make it harder for the wolves to get her, but she was hoping their sheer size and possible unknown status with the vampires would give them an advantage.

Bella had thought all the wolves had gone already, but the tense stance the women had taken and their tense stare-down with the forest let Bella know she still had a chance. She was about to open her mouth again, but as if one of them could read minds, a hand was placed over her mouth and the leader was looking at her.

“Stay silent, we will keep you safe.” The woman said in a commanding tone that didn’t sit well with Bella.

The woman was offering her safety, but how long was the safety going to last? Just until they were alone long enough to drain her? If Bella wasn’t so sure they would hurt her if she yelled again, she would of. Not only just to spite the command, but to try and get the wolves attention again. Thankfully, she didn’t need to yell again.

Three very recognizable wolves creeped out of the woods into Bella’s sight, snarling fiercely and Bella couldn’t stop the smile forming on her face if she tried. But the words the leader spoke next made Bella drop the smile as quickly as it had come.

“If you come closer, we will kill you shifters.” The woman warned.

Not only was Bella slightly concerned for the wolves, three on three weren’t necessarily good odds for the wolves; Bella wasn’t sure when the others would come back. But Bella was also concerned that the vampires knew what they wolves were. Just from her experience with James and his coven, she had thought they had no idea what the wolves were. Knowledge was power after all, if they knew what the pack was, there was a decent chance they knew how to fight them. Bella was seriously starting to think her chances of escaping were dangerously low.

The wolves only snarled in response, obviously unwilling to shift back to human form to talk with them. Perhaps one of them couldn’t read minds if they weren’t communicating.

“Zafrina.” One of the women warned just loud enough for Bella to hear and Bella could hear the warning in her tone loud and clear.

One second Bella was standing in between all three of the vampires and the next she was in the arms of who she believed to be Zafrina, being carried away from where they were and from the thundering sounds of hooves on the ground and howls around them, away from the wolves, her rescue.

“Jake!” Bella yelled once more before the vampire took to the trees and somehow managing to pick up even more speed. This vampire seemed a lot more accustomed to running away from something as large as the wolves while carrying a human.

As the world blurred together too much for Bella to make out even a tree much less anything else outside of the woman carrying her, her hope of being rescued from the red eyed vampires was completely drained away to nothing.