Running With Wolves

Chapter 8

Paul phased back the instant he saw Charlotte. Shoving his shorts on, he raced towards her, sliding on his knees and stopping before her. She was writhing in anguish, paying no heed to the damp earth clinging to her. Paul reached out tentatively, brushing a hand across her cheek. As though sensing him, Charlie's frantic movements slowed to a stop, head lolled towards him. Her eyes were glassy and unseeing, yet somehow locked onto his in an instant. The part that horrified him most though, had to be the moment her jaw dropped open and that same earth shattering wail escaped.

But instead of recoiling, he lifted the small woman into his arms and carried the still-screaming Charlotte through the wilderness and into their house. Placing her gently on his bed, he brought her limp hand to his lips. Just like that, the screeching ceased. Charlotte's mouth was still hanging open, but she made no sounds. Her eyes, now closed, were racing around frantically, and suddenly his hand was being crushed in her grip where he still held her. Charlie's heart sped up, and up, and up, and up until it was beating almost to fast to even beat at all. Which of course is exactly what happened. One second she was holding his hand in such a brutal grip that he could feel the bones in his hand grinding together, and the next it was limp again as her heart finally succumbed to the bite.

Paul was knelt beside her, sobbing into her lifeless shoulder when he heard the one thing he didn't think was possible in that instance. Charlotte's heart gave a small stuttering beat before roaring back to life, and the girl Paul had been helplessly in love with for the last fifteen years gasped and sat upright in his bed.

Given the choice between endless anguish and endless darkness, most people would choose the latter. Charlie wasn't most people. She'd choose pain over darkness any day; to feel pain was to be alive. You have to take the good with the bad, and if enduring this hell was the cost of living, then so be it. Charlotte didn't know when the darkness had consumed her, but she knew it had and she wouldn't stand for it. She pushed back against it with everything in her. She wasn't going to let the darkness win. She wasn't going to let Victoria win. She would do what she was good at, fight for her life.

The instant her heart started again- it stopped? Yes, yes it had. It must've. Why else would it need to restart?- she sat bolt upright with a loud gasp. Taking in her surroundings, she quickly realized she was no longer in the woods like she expected, but instead found herself in Paul Lahote's bed. "How, in the ever-loving fuck, did I get in the house?" She mused aloud.

A deep chuckle emanated from beside the bed. Turning, a little too fast for human capabilities, Charlie found a rugged looking Paul kneeling beside his bed. His warm eyes were puffy and red. Tears still fell freely down the man's face as he gazed at Charlie in wonderment. His russet skin was covered in cuts and scrapes from running through the bush all day, but neither one really cared. "I carried you here from outside." he said, not taking his eyes off of Charlotte. She didn't know what she'd done to get such a look of reverence from the shifter, but she soaked it up while she could. So of course that's when Bella, Embry, Quil, Jacob, Jared, and Sam loudly burst through the back door of the Swan/Lahote residence.

Bella was the first to reach them, followed but the herd of elephants Charlie considered family. The boys all stood in the doorway of Paul's bedroom as Bella walked slowly towards her sister. She was the only one here to know the severity of the situation, the only one who had first hand experience of the pain her older sister suffered through. Bella had to throw it all out the window however, when Charlotte turned her head sharply to face the youngest Swan. Because, of course, her sister would be the exception to the rules. Chocolate brown met silvery grey and it was like time stopped. Bella was frozen in place, nearly two feet away, and promptly fainted.

Multiple people cursed at once, diving to catch the girl before she could do any damage to herself. To everyone's surprise, Charlotte got there first, cradling her little sister in her arms as though she weighed nothing at all. The wolves were flabbergasted. The best guess any of them had was that the bite didn't fully take. How else would someone as small as Charlie be supporting someone the same weight as her like it was nothing, and how had she gotten to Bella so fast? But her eyes were still the same erie silver they'd always been, and she hadn't tried to take a bite out of anyone. What the fuck even was Charlie Swan junior?

A loud ringing broke through the tension like a knife. Before any of the boys could think to search for the source of the jarring noise, Charlotte had already pulled Bella's phone out of the unconscious girl's pocket.

"Bella's phone, Charlie speaking." The pack collectively held their breath.

"Hello Charlotte. I'm Alice, Alice Cullen."

"Oh. Hello, Alice." What Charlie meant to say was "Go fuck a cactus, Alice."

"Can I talk to your sister for a moment?"

"No, you can't. She fainted."

"She fainted? Is she alright? Do you know what caused it?"

"I don't know, Cullen! She took one look at me and passed out." Charlie was growling softly.

"Why would that be?" Alice was frustrated and confused.

"I was bitten." Charlie was beyond irritated with the conversation by this point.

Alice gasped loudly, "Bitten by what?"

"The abominable snowman. What do you think, Alice? A vampire!"

"But who-"

"Try the revenge driven, scarlet haired nomad your coven somehow pissed off that's been hell-bent on killing my sister in order to get back at fucktard for whatever reason." Charlie's growling grew in volume and intensity, to the point where she was speaking through bared teeth by the end of it.

"Victoria" Alice deduced.

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner." Charlotte snarked, snapping the phone closed and tossing it on the bed.

"Well, that was fun." Quil qupped sarcastically.