I Never Meant to Start a War

We left my home at one in the morning and arrived in the grand field that would be the battleground for the fight. Beforehand, while we sat wrapped in each other’s arms, Jasper had told me that him and his family normally used the expansive open field as a playground for sports ranging between football to baseball to soccer. It was almost a morbid joke to hear about how this field would soon be the grounds for a massacre.

His family was gathered far up ahead from the fringe of trees that we stopped at, Jasper immediately setting me down and taking my hand gingerly in his. I looked over to him and saw him staring at me with smoldering eyes, a small smile. I felt myself blush.

He stopped far from his family, giving us our own little bubble of intimacy even in a moment where we knew, realistically, that we had none. Distance didn’t mean that they couldn’t see and hear us, and we certainly caught his family’s attention even though we never meant to. I wasn’t oblivious to the fact that, although they held up a steady conversation, three of their eyes directed toward me immediately. Rosalie, who was looking at me with a sour, distrustful expression; Emmett, who was looking at me with the most calculating expression that he could muster; and Alice, which caught me off guard.

She looked at me for a long moment, when she thought that I couldn’t see her. She wore a blatant frown that didn’t fit with her bubbly appearance, but what stunned me was that it was directed right to my back. I assumed that she was thinking about why I could be missing from the future, why she couldn’t see . . .

Her and Jasper’s eyes met, his eyes set on fire, and she rolled her eyes before she looked away.

He pulled me a little closer on reflex, our hands connected in a vice grip. “I’m beginning to get second thoughts on you being here.”

“You worry too much,” I told him, smiling a small smile. I knew it was a lie, because lately, I had done my fair share of worrying. I suppose we had a similar reason—it all had to do with the La Push werewolves.

He made a face but it immediately dropped when his head snapped over to the trees, where Edward with Bella in tow was striding from, their hands connected as ours were. Rosalie let out a small growl that Bella didn’t hear—Edward sent her a death glare. Alice immediately skipped over to give my best friend a hug.

I felt my heart tug.

I shouldn’t be surprised that she doesn’t favor me—not only did I steal the heart of her mate, but she was undoubtedly beginning to realize that I am more than a monster than any being will ever be.

Since hiding my thoughts didn’t matter anymore, Edward heard the dread echoing through the words in my mind, and he glanced over and sent me a pitying gaze, knowing that I would catch it. It was gone before anyone could ask.

Bella and Edward made it to us soon, and when they did, Bella sighed. “I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Of course it is,” Jasper bluffed. “How else will we be able to study their fighting styles?”

Edward hid a smirk while Bella looked at Jasper with wide eyes, and I managed to roll mine, giving him a look.

“Don’t worry her,” I scolded him, but I was sure someone had to hear the panic that raced under my words as I pictured the same thing that Bella was—the Cullen family and the La Push wolf pack, at war, this time against one another . . .

It took all I could not to shiver, because now I had something to lose. And something to ignite the fire that Jasper was so slightly looking for.

Edward met my eyes for a quick second before his and Jasper’s heads snapped in the direction of the woods opposite us, and I managed to hear Jasper’s breath suck in with a quick gasp. I looked toward the dark woods but I could spot nothing. Instead, I relied on the reactions of the vampires around me.

They all looked shocked.

“What?” Bella asked, squinting into the distance. “What’s going on?”

Edward answered shortly, “They’ve been holding out on us.”

Bella and I glanced toward each other in confusion, trying to figure out his riddle, but coming to the same conclusion—the wolves have been hiding something.

I felt a frown etch onto my face, but I should have known better than anyone that I would be left out of the loop.

It was until the moonlight reflected off of their eyes that I understood why the Cullen family was taken aback, because there were a lot of eyes staring back at them. I counted them and it seemed as though Bella was doing the same. I counted. And I counted again. I felt my stomach plummet to the earth.

Four new wolves. Their pack was growing.

Bella and I exchanged a glance as Edward squeezed her hand, moving forward slightly, announcing that he was going to act as an interpreter, that they are not going to phase into human form. Jasper dropped my hand as well as Carlisle stepped forward and performed the pleasantries. Jasper watched unwaveringly as Carlisle explained in a condensed version, filling them in and answering Sam Uley’s questions. When Sam was done with his inquisition, it began.

Carlisle introduced Jasper and beckoned him over. Jasper looked back at me to give a fleeting smile before he appeared beside Carlisle, answering to a slight chorus of growls from the wolves. To my surprise, there was more than one.

Edward’s eyes darkened, but he said nothing, nor acknowledged them. Neither did Jasper.

Jasper stepped forward and began to explain about how a newborn would attack and how to answer its attack. Bella nudged me and beckoned for me to join her on the ground, and I settled down next to her, watching Jasper curiously. I moved my gaze only when I felt as though I was being watched.

A silver gray wolf was watching me with soft, familiar eyes that exploded into a wicked sparkle when ours met. I felt my face burn as I quickly looked away, at the sky, at the man I should be thinking about, at the friend sitting beside me. Anywhere but at the werewolf that imprinted on me.

Edward rejoined us then, his face a little sour as he sat on the ground beside Bella, reaching a hand out and taking hers. The sour look disappeared, but he knew I saw it, and I knew that Paul must have thought of it.

I looked away. I didn’t like keeping this sick joke of a secret. Since when had I turned into someone so distrustful?

All thoughts of everything I had to worry about disappeared when the fighting began, and the nausea appeared.

Watching them fight, even though it wouldn’t bring harm, was nerve-wracking, to say the least. I felt my fingers eventually dig into the earth underneath of me as I watched Jasper tango with every member of his family, snarls and growls and hisses filling the air. What made it worse was that I knew he was enjoying it, that he had been anticipating being able to use something he knew so well to help his family. But that certainly did not help my state of mind.

When Alice stepped up to face him, I was pretty sure I made a face. But I don’t recall. I couldn’t even say if anyone saw me or not.

I was sure that Paul hardly took his eyes off of me the entire time. Due to Edward’s expression, I was pretty sure that if he wasn’t looking, he was thinking. And that, to me, wasn’t very different.

No matter what, it was still obvious.

The biggest relief of the night was when it was announced that it was all over.

I breathed out a long sigh and glanced over to Bella, who looked just as exhausted as I felt. Edward had gone up to fight Jasper and had stayed hovering in that area, so, at first, I didn’t notice the intense expression he was wearing. But when Jasper stopped from walking over to me to stare at him in confusion, I noticed the strange expression on his face.

Edward’s voice echoed over everyone’s. “Would any of you be willing,” he said as he turned to face the wolves, “to fight him?”

And when he gestured to Jasper, I knew that what happened next was to be as final as signing away your soul.

I felt my face go completely pale as Jasper smirked in anticipation, and I knew Edward had just moments before plucked the fleeting wish directly from his thoughts and turned it into a reality. A slight murmuring of growls echoed through the wolves, considering and apprehensive, until finally a silver wolf slunk forward with a hateful fire in his eyes, his gaze set right on Jasper.

I felt my heart speed up as everyone else stopped to breathe.