Jasper and I walked through the woods hand in hand, happy to be alone for just a moment.
"Thank you for defending me," Jasper said, breaking our silence.
"I'll always defend you when you're in the right," I responded. "Though I am sorry they always doubt you."
"That's not your fault, Emma," he told me.
"I know."
As we spoke, we continued walking farther into the woods, slowly getting farther and farther from the house.
"Are you leading me somewhere specific?" Jasper asked me as I continued to lead the way.
"No," I replied. "I was just wandering. Why?"
"You're leading me to Sam's house unintentionally."
I looked up at him as he laughed slightly at my reaction. "I didn't even realize that's where I was going. How do you know that?"
"It's the same way I would walk to meet you at the edge of the Rez. I memorized a million different paths so I could get to you."
I smiled as I realized how much effort that would have taken him. "You're such a-"
"Stop." His words cut me off, and he stopped moving altogether. He glanced around at the air briefly before unfreezing.
"What is it?" I asked him.
"We have to go," he replied.
He quickly moved toward me and picked me up in one swift motion. A gasp left my mouth in surprise, but I wrapped my arms around him, securing myself to him. Without a moment of doubt, he ran as fast as he could with me in his arms toward some unknown destination. I put my head in his chest, not liking the sensation all of a sudden.
Then, as fast as he started, he stopped. I lifted my head as he set me down. He put an arm around my waist as my feet touched the ground, but my eyes shot open in confusion.
"Emma?" Sam asked, running toward us. "What happened?"
"It was a hostile vampire. I wouldn't have been able to stop her alone, and you were closer than our house," Jasper replied, slightly panicked.
I looked behind Sam to see the rest of the pack pilling out of his house. Jasper had disregarded the treaty a second time and gone straight to Sam's house.
"So, we're just ignoring the treaty now, are we?" Jacob yelled from the porch.
"I'm sorry," Jasper said honestly, looking at Sam. "I didn't want her getting hurt."
"I understand that more than most," Sam replied, looking down at me and then back up at Jasper. "Maybe we should sit and talk about this hostile vampire."
With that, our unlikely group made our way into Sam's house and sat in the living room to talk. Jasper stood next to the couch I sat on, not wanting to make his smell permeate everything in the room.
"Who is this vampire?" I asked Jasper as everyone sat down.
"Victoria," he said, looking down at me.
"Is she the redhead?" Jacob's words made Jasper and I look at him in confusion.
"How do you know about Victoria?" Jasper asked him.
"She's been coming around here a lot since you left," Sam said. "We keep chasing her away, but she keeps coming back, and we don't know why."
"She's probably after Bella and Emma," Jasper told him. "We killed her mate; now she wants to kill ours."
"Wait," I said, interrupting everyone. I looked at Sam before asking, "Why didn't you tell me she's been coming here?"
"You were kinda busy being upset about Jasper," he responded. "We didn't want to tell you about her so that it wouldn't add another thing onto your plate."
"We need to get rid of her if she's after Bella," Jacob said, getting everyone's attention.
"She's also after Emma," Embry shot back at him.
"So we'll stop her," Sam concluded, "and we'll protect Bella and Emma in the process.
"You'll have our help, too," Jasper said, addressing Sam. "We kinda caused this whole problem in the first place; we won't leave you alone to fix it."
"We can do it on our own," Jacob shot back.
"Thank you, Jasper. We'd love the help." Sam's words were final. The wolves and vampires would, for the time being, work together to stop Victoria. Then Sam turned to me. "I'm sure she's gone by now. You guys can head home, and we'll do a run to see if we find her."
I looked briefly from Sam to Jasper, unsure what I wanted to do. I wasn't totally sure if I felt comfortable staying with the Cullen's quite yet.
Jasper, feeling my hesitancy, spoke up. "You can stay here, Emma. I'll go back, and we can do a run. If that's okay with you, Sam."
"Of course," Sam replied. "You're always welcome to stay, Emma."
"You sure?" I asked Jasper, turning to look at him.
"Positive," he replied. "And I'll see you soon. You can come over and hang out, or we can go somewhere."
"Okay."
Jasper gave me a quick hug before making his way out of the house. Before he walked out the front door, Sam called out, "Jasper! I think it would be best for all of us if I just let you come onto our land. So, you and only you are allowed to come onto the Rez to see Emma, but you have to leave when we say so."
Jasper smiled at Sam. "Thank you," he said before walking out the front door and heading back home.
As he did, Sam turned to me and said, "I think there is a lot you need to catch us up on."