Beauty and the Beast | Embry Call [HIATUS]

neuf

Nodding, she spun on her toes and walked to the side of the road. "Alright, keep up. I want to know what's going on," she stated before shoving off again, leading a clear path back to the house the fastest she could go.

Jacob kept close to her heels, speed close to her own, and the other, smaller wolf panted after them, his heart thrumming erratically in his chest. Reyna felt bad, realizing that they must have been going to fast for him.

It didn't slow her though, not until they were drawing to a stop in front of the house, Edward flanked by Jasper and Emmett on the porch.

"What's wrong?" Edward demanded.

Reyna shrugged, rolling her shoulders in one swift motion. "It's just them. Is it good news?" She asked hopefully.

The dimming of Edward's expression was clear, the way he became rigid and firm - leaping off the porch with a loud hiss.

"They want to kill Bella?" He demanded, livid, and Reyna grew still, hackles raising defensively and skin flickering in and out of focus like patches.

Emmett and Jasper were jumping down now, standing protectively and prepared to attack when Edward called them off. "Not them, the others - the pack is coming."

She had not realized that she was snarling and spitting until a cold hand was on her elbow, firm, and she was looking up at Emmett's equally dark, sympathetic eyes. The red haze to her vision clearing as she leaned against him for comfort.

Seth was gone, she noticed, Jasper as well, and Edward and Jacob remained there talking.

"What of Embry?" She muttered, staringly pleadingly at Edward. "Was he going to kill her? Kill us?"

Neither answered and Reyna released a shuddery gasp, laughing breathlessly. "Who was going to kill me? Did they have it settled or was it an unorganized free-for-all?"

Jacob whined, looking away purposely from her direction and Reyna realized that they had, in fact, decided who would attack who.

She turned expectantly to Edward, skin crawling with any possibility of what he was going to say but there was no response. They either thought her unworthy to take out or too much a threat - she didn't know which she'd prefer.

"Fine," Reyna hissed angrily. "I'll ask him myself."

She yanked away from Emmett, hands clenched dangerously at her side. Every part, inch, centimetre hair space, wanted to run to him, to hear the words from his own lips and know that she was deserving of such a fate - to let him gauge the phantom of her heart from its place in her chest cavity where it was slowing building anew, let him watch her burn as she was deserving.

Because how else was she meant to feel something, to feel human in those final moments where she could be closest to him, to the self she used to be, the last few moments spent as a human in an inferno that was her own body.

Reyna was ready to fly to the border, stand by the shattered remains of the treaty line and let him come to her - because he would come, when she was tackled by a large mass of fur, a weight on her back that she easily could have shoved off, but then the warmth was human-like Bella, and Reyna remembered how much she was needed to protect the baby because no matter what the pack thought of her, she knew her talent was unexpendable.

"Okay, I get it. Please, get off," she asked as politely as she could.

The wolf settled down, dropping himself fully on top of her, and Reyna sighed in dismay. "Jake, I'm sorry, I'll stay put. Please, just get off."

He didn't move, only groaning as he turned his nose away. He must have been tortured by the smell so close to him, but Reyna didn't find it so bad, having familiarized herself with the scent of wolves through continuous trips to the border. It was comforting despite how awful the others claimed it to be.