Waxing Gibbous

Instructions (B)

"When will our guests arrive?" Carlisle asked Edward.

Edward concentrated for a moment, and then sighed. "A minute and a half. But I'm going to have to translate. They don't trust us enough to use their human forms." He threw a glance at Rosalie, who merely shrugged.

Though I could see the faint smile on her lips. Edward didn't seem to hold it against her though. Everyone was happy that she was happy. Even I noticed it in the small amount of time I was with her. And this also meant that when I joined the Cullen family I still had someone from my human life.

Carlisle nodded. "This is hard for them. I'm grateful they're coming at all."

I stared at Edward; my eyes stretched wide. "They're coming as wolves?"

He nodded, cautious of my reaction. I swallowed once, remembering the times I'd seen Jacob or Alex in wolf form - the first time in the meadow with Laurent, the second time behind Jacob's house when Alex had gotten angry at me and when Jacob hurt Alex...They were all memories of terror.

A strange gleam came into Edward's eyes, as though something had just occurred to him, something that was not altogether unpleasant. He turned away quickly, before I could see any more, back to Carlisle and the others.

"Prepare yourselves - they've been holding out on us."

"What do you mean?" Alice demanded.

"Shh," he cautioned, and stared past her into the darkness.

The Cullens' informal circle suddenly widened out into a loose line with Jasper and Emmett at the spear point. From the way Edward leaned forward next to me, I could tell that he wished he was standing beside them. I tightened my hand around his.

I squinted toward the forest, seeing nothing.

"Damn," Emmett muttered under his breath. "Did you ever see anything like it?"

Esme, Lucia, and Rosalie exchanged a wide-eyed glances.

"What is it?" I whispered as quietly as I could. "I can't see."

"The pack has grown," Edward murmured into my ear.

Hadn't I told him that Quil had joined the pack? I strained to see the seven wolves in the gloom. Finally, something glittered in the blackness - their eyes, higher up than they should be. I'd forgotten how very tall the wolves were. Like horses, only thick with muscle and fur - and teeth like knives, impossible to overlook.

I could only see the eyes. And as I scanned, straining to see more, it occurred to me that there were more than six pairs facing us. One, two, three . . . I counted the pairs swiftly in my head. Twice.

There were nine of them. It was a huge pack, nearly triple the original one.

"Fascinating," Edward murmured almost silently. Carlisle took a slow, deliberate step forward. It was a careful movement, designed to reassure.

"Welcome," he greeted the invisible wolves.

"Thank you," Edward responded in a strange, flat tone, and I realized at once that the words came from Sam. I looked to the eyes shining in the center of the line, the highest up, the tallest of them all, or she would have been if she were standing at her highest.

It was impossible to separate the shape of the big black wolf from the darkness, but my I found the undeniable green eyes. She was more relaxed her head lower and she was looking directly at Rosalie.

Edward spoke again in the same detached voice, speaking Sam's words. "We will watch and listen, but no more. That is the most we can ask of our self-control."