HEART. ❪ new moon ❫²

𝐱𝐢𝐢. FORBIDDEN FRATERNIZING

"They'll deal with it," he said, and then grinned. "Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?" 

"The three little pigs," Bailey answered swiftly, getting out after him. 

"Ha ha," Bella said. But got out as well, hurrying around the front to stand close beside Jacob and Bailey. She remembered only too clearly the giant monsters in the meadow. Her hands were trembling as Jacob's had been before, but with fear rather than rage. 

Jacob took her hand and squeezed it. To be fair he took Bailey's as well, but she wiggled out of his grasp not in the mood to be touched. 

"Here we go," he said. 

Bailey had a plan for how this was going to go. She was rather excited to meet the other wolves and observe how they compared to the little information she'd gotten from Paul. But she had to keep herself composed. She was still angry at him, Paul, for being radio silent. She was going to ignore him, give him the silent treatment. It was only fair—cause and effect. 

With her mind clear, Bailey was starting to come up with some theories. Was it just a coincidence that both the wolves and Edward had telepathic abilities? Just how did their telepathy work? Furthermore, they killed Laurent and Jacob said it was rather easy. Was that because there was a pack of them or because the wolves were significantly stronger than vampires? 

Bailey stopped suddenly when she noticed that her shoelace was untied. She glanced up at Bella and Jacob. During all her thinking she had begun to trail behind them; she'd catch up with them a little bit later. Bailey bent down, still thinking to the point that it was distracting her from tieing her lace. 

At that time Bella and Jacob had arrived at the meeting place just as the other wolves appeared, striding out from behind the trees. They weren't what Bella was expecting. She'd gotten the image of wolves stuck in her head. These were just four really big, half-naked boys. 

They moved in almost synchronization to stand across the road from them, the way they all had the same long, round muscles under the same red-brown skin, the same cropped hair, and the way their expression altered at exactly the same moment. They started out curious and cautious but when they saw Bella there, half-hidden beside Jacob, they all became furious in the same second. 

Sam was one of the biggest, though Jacob was getting close to catching up with him. Sam didn't really count as a boy. His face was older—not in the sense of lines or signs of aging, but in the maturity, the patience of his expression. 

"What have you done, Jacob?" he demanded. 

One of the others, one Bella didn't recognize—Jared or Paul—thrust past Sam and spoke before Jacob could defend himself. 

"Why can't you just follow the rules, Jacob?" he yelled, throwing his arms in the air. "What the hell are you thinking? Is she more important than everything—than the whole tribe? Than the people getting killed?" 

"She can help," Jacob said quietly. 

"Help!" the boy shouted angrily. His arms began to quiver. "Oh, that's likely! I'm sure the leech-lover is just dying to help us out!" 

Bailey thought about how anger was the trigger for a transformation for wolves. Was there a scientific reason for that? She thought that anger was a bit of a misunderstood emotion. It had a very bad connotation attached to it. People didn't like anger, they feared it, and they distanced themselves from it. But that was preposterous to Bailey. Anger was just another human emotion, it was a primary emotion like sadness, joy, and fear. Choosing to repress it had far greater consequences than facing it head-on, right? But anger also causes the brain to release stress hormones, adrenaline and noradrenaline, chemicals that help the body control heart rate and blood pressure. Maybe that's what actually triggered the transformation the release of those chemicals simultaneously.