The Only Exception

Jacob hated the fact that today, while the pack when on patrol to look out for anything unusual, I was going over to the Cullen’s home for the day. I honestly hadn’t the clue on what was so wrong with them. They were vampires, I got that. But I was dating a wolf, so I told him that he shouldn’t be so hypocritical.

Jacob claimed that they were monsters because they drank blood – I reminded him that they fed off of animals. But apparently, Jacob had planned for a comeback with ’they still drink blood. Yes, they did, and I saw where he was coming from, but still.
Arguing against Jacob hadn’t really stopped from then on.

I rolled my eyes at Jacob, who was currently trying to explain to me why the Cullen’s were so ’horrible’. “I mean, come on, Bray, they kill things!”

“Yes, and so do we – maybe not us directly, but we eat what is killed.” I threw back at him. Paul let out a loud snort from the other end of the table. I’d just remembered that we’d been having this discussion in front of everyone at Emily’s place.

Rolling his eyes Jacob stuffed four pieces of bacon in his mouth before muttering, “But that isn’t the point, Bray.”

I gave him a glare and countered with, “Then what is the point, Jacob?”

Flinching at his full name that he particularly did not like, he swallowed down his food and answered, “The point is, is that they are still monsters, and I don’t want you around them.”
I didn’t like how he was treating the Cullen’s. They’d been to kind to me ever since I met Emmett in the forest. Jacob was my boyfriend, and the pack was my family, but I still had my right to protect my friends.

Huffing, I pushed myself away from the table, walked over to Emily and kissed her cheek before walking out of the house. I heard heavy footsteps following me, so I turned with a glare set on my face.

Crossing my arms I said, “You’re a monster too, you know.”

Letting out a husky chuckle Jacob shook his head, “We save and protect our people from those kinds of leeches.”

I scoffed, taking my hand and running it through my hair, “You and your…big over-sized doggy friends are the ones stomping through the forest and killing every poor little plant trying to have a life! You’re not so innocent either!”

Okay, maybe that wasn’t my best reason, but it worked, because Jacob’s muscles let loose and a smile cleared away the irritation on his face.

Walking closer Jacob put his hands around my face, cupping both sides. He inches closer and closer, and each second his tortured me with this, sent fire through my veins. He’d won that round when I lost it and grabbed him in for a kiss.

Chuckling, Jacob pulled back, “You’re unbelievable, Braylin.”

~

“Since I’ll be on patrol, have one of the Cullen’s send a message for me if you need anything, and I’ll come get you, alright?” Jacob kissed my forehead, he really didn’t like this idea, but I would be fine.

I nodded, reaching up on my tip toes to kiss Jacob’s warm lips. “I will, Jake, but I’ll be fine.” I smiled up to him as I set back down on my feet and began to walk up to the Cullen’s door.
“I love you,” I heard him yell from behind. I looked back and gave him a small smile; he was already getting into his car before I could even try to push out those same words. So I turned around and before I could knock on the door, Emmett had me in a crushing hug.

“You’re here!” He roared with a chuckle after he set me down so I could breathe again.

I smiled up at him, “Well of course, Emmett,” I laughed lightly as Alice ran into the room, squealing about how happy she was that I was there.

After getting greeted by everyone in the house – Bella of course was there, and she gave me a small smile, Emmett and I had gone over to the couch to watch some hockey. Of course it didn’t take long for Emmet and I to start yelling at the TV, and with his temper problem lately, I wasn’t surprised if Emmett broken the television.

And once the game was over, I guess I could explain it best as being passed around to play with, by everyone in the household. Everyone was currently in the large living room, watching Emmett and I play checkers.

Thanks to Edward, I was winning each round.

“His next move will be the center black, nearest your piece.” Edward whispered to me. I nodded with a smile and watched Emmett take his turn. After he’d placed his piece down, I took mine quickly and jumped his.

“Checkmate!” I yelled as I stood up and raised my hands in the air. Edward and the others chuckled at my response and shook their heads. “What’d I do wrong?” I asked.

Esme chuckled lightly and said, “You say ‘Checkmate’ in Chess, dear.”

Making an ‘o’ shape with my mouth, I sat down and let out a small groan as my mouth formed into a frown. Rosalie and Alice cooed me and rubbed my hair and my back to make me feel a bit better.

Emmett looked at me from across the small table and laughed at me, pointing with his finger and covering his mouth with his other hand. Glaring at him I took a checker piece and whipped it at his face. His faced instantly faltered and set into an expression of pain.

Sniffling, his face etched into a deformed facial expression and he made a loud cry and whined, “Rosey! She threw that piece at me! Put her in time out, Rosey!” My eyes widened as I turned to Rosalie and the instant we looked at each other, us and the rest of the family began to burst out in laughter.

“My, it’s not too often you see this everyday,” Edward mumbled as a small smile crept onto his face.

Emmett scoffed, “Hell, Edward, I’m never like this unless she’s around,” He mused, throwing his head to the side, as if to gesture of to me. Rolling his eyes, Edward got up and grabbed a gentle hold of Bella’s hand.

“Where are you going?” Emmett asked with insane amount of curiosity.

Edward chuckled lightly before answering, “I’m taking Bella home. I will be back quite quickly,” It was like in a blink of an eye as Edward hoisted Bella onto his back and ran inhumanly fast out of the house.

I sighed, dropping the last of my checker pieces. Emmett glared at me and crossed his arms, obviously not okay with it.

“What?” I asked in confused shock.

Scoffing, Emmett rolled his eyes and looked over to his right, where Carlisle and Esme were sitting together. “Now what are we going to do?” Emmett asked a second later, his head turned back to me.

Alice gasped, a small squeal escaping past her lips. “Oh, Braylin, you’re going to love this!” I gave Alice a confused expression right as Edward ran back into the house.

“There is a storm coming, yes, Alice, we all know when there is one to come with that look on your face,” Edward mused with a small smirk. Rolling her eyes, Alice hopped off the back of the couch and ran around the house, grabbing supplies of some sort.

Confused, I interrupted, “What is so great about a storm? I mean, dancing in the rain is fun, but…” I trailed as the others began to get up and help Alice. “Never mind, then,” I muttered to myself. But as vampire’s hearing is greatly enhanced, Rose ran over to me, pulled on my arm and steered me towards the garage.

“We’re going to play baseball, silly.” She said with a light laugh that sounded like such beautiful chimes ringing through my ears.

Believing that we’d be taking cars, I walked over to one of the Cullen’s very many cars, and waited for one of them to unlock it. I huffed as I waited impatiently, then turned around to find most of them smirking and snickering.

My eyes widened and I asked, “What am I doing wrong now?”

Edward sighed, shaking his head and walking over to my side, “It’s a true waste of time and gas to use cars. We have a much more thrilling and quick way,” And with a small smirk, inching wider and wider, Edward took a hold of my arms, lifted me onto his back just as he did with Bella, and before I could even react or question what was going on, I, along with the rest of the Cullen’s, were practically zooming into the forest.

This was in fact, a much better idea. Safer, I hoped. And I did know, that if Jacob were to find out about this, I’d be in deep –

“Shit!” I gasped as Edward leaped over a river that connected both the north and south sides of the forest. I heard him chuckling, along with Emmett and Alice, and ignored the temptation to open my mouth and say something not so nice.

Within at least five minutes, maybe less, we’d all stopped in the middle of a very large field. I remember Jacob telling me about a place that they’d used for practice, and the imagery that was explained, matched perfectly with what I saw with my eyes.

Edward helped me off his back and I totally regretted moving so quickly; I was light-headed and I knew I’d found myself losing balance, but was lucky enough to have one of the Cullen’s catch me.

“Are you alright?” Esme asked calmly as she turned me around to face her. I smiled genuinely and nodded, of course I was alright.

“Okay, now that we’re here and the storm is seconds away from starting, well, let’s do this!” Emmett boomed loudly, his voice echoed off into the trees and birds were sent flying off into the east. Giggling, I made my way up to where Emmett had grabbed his bat.

“Excuse me,” I said with a wide smirk. Grabbing the bat right out of his hands, I tapped the top of his on the ground and got into a batting position.

I heard a scoff from Emmett, and turning around with a smile on my face, watched as his face morphed from disbelief of humor.

“What in god’s name –“ I began, but was cut off by Rose and one of her ice cold hands on my shoulder.

“You sure you want to play with us?” Her smile never faltered, but I knew that it’d be impossible to play against vampires. But I nodded anyway and got back into position.
Alice skipped over to the pitcher’s mound while other’s got into place. Giving Emmett a deathly glare, I sent him a short nod before swinging my bat up and ready. I watched as Alice’s body moved swiftly and quickly enough, the ball was sent flying threw the air and closer to me.

Taking my best shot, I swung the bat towards the ball and heard a clink as the two things hit together before the ball went shooting up into the sky. It wasn’t too high, but it made me feel accomplished. I hadn’t understood what Rose and Alice were yelling until I pulled my head out of the clouds and listened.

“Run, Bray! Run!” Carlisle yelled with support. Nodding quickly I dropped the bat and began for the run. I didn’t even make it to first base when Emmett and gotten me out. Grumbling, I kicked him in the shin in stomped off the field.

I hid the pain that surged through my foot, and kept my head high, and a smile etched onto my face. But it didn’t take long for me to give up and ask Carlisle to take a look. As he did so, Emmett and Edward were in the background laughing their butts off.

Glaring at the two had given my a great distraction from Carlisle as he bent my foot to the side to observe what I’d done. Though mostly my glare was for Emmett, I’d given it to Edward for joining in, at the least.

“Well, we’ll need to ice it quickly, Braylin, and seeing as me don’t have any ice…” Carlisle trailed off as he looked around for something. Smiled when his eyes landed on Emmett, he called him over to us. “Since you were the one that hurt her foot, you get to ice it with your hand.”

And if anyone could have seen Emmett’s face at the exact time Carlisle had told him what to do, they would have fallen over laughing to the extreme. I giggled as he whined about it not being fair because it was my fault that I kicked him.

Finding a spot next to me on the ground – and still whining, and mumbling, he took his hand and placed it on top of my right foot. The coolness of his hand sent shivers up my spine, but it non the less helped soothe the pain in my aching foot.

“I hate you,” Emmett pouted, while we both watched the other’s play baseball. I laughed just hardly, seeming as I didn’t want to make things worse, and tried desperately to ignore the throbs in my foot.

The current amount of points each team had was briefly the same. They’d been into their 6th inning and the storm had only managed to make the game more entertaining. And if you were an addict to shock and surprise, you would have loved the next part.

Stopping her arm from swinging, Alice’s eyes went wide as she yelled, “Stop!” Alice moved quickly over to Emmett and I, and the others had followed instantly.

Everyone’s attention was turned to Alice, who had frozen in her spot. She was looking out into nothing, but in her mind something was playing for her.

“Alice, what is it?” Jasper asked calmly, pulling Alice onto the couch slowly as she regained her sight.

Her eyes were full of worry, and her lips began to quiver. “Bella was right; it is Victoria behind all of this. But she’s letting someone else make the decisions for her. And…” She let out a small sigh as she looked over at me and then back to the Cullen’s, “There is someone else easing their way into this fight. I don’t know who this person is, but I can feel it –“

Alice had stopped and shook her head; she covered her face in her hands as Jasper rubbed her back reassuringly. “Alice, what is it?” Carlisle asked calmly.

She sighed and looked up, “All that I can see it that this man has a destination and he won’t stop until he gets what he wants. But what he wants, I haven’t the clue. But I believe that he has something to do with this war, and something to do with the boy who is making these decisions.”

And it was after Alice spoke those words when I cleared my thoughts. I wouldn’t leave now, maybe not ever. I needed to be here for everyone, my friends, my family, Jacob. I was going to stay and keep everyone reassured, as best as I could.

I couldn’t think of how I’d do this, or what would be the outcome of such a decision, but whatever was to happen, I’d do my best to keep everyone safe. No matter how worthless and vulnerable I might be.