Charlotte

Nine: Explanations

"They're not bears! They're wolves!" Bella shouted, storming through our house. She tugged me along by my wrist, stopping in front of Dad and Harry Clearwater, who sat at the dining table. 

"Dad, they're wolves! In the woods!" Bella explained, realising that Dad was a bit confused about what she was saying. 

"You've been in the woods? Bella, why've you been in there? What's wrong with Charlotte?" Dad stammered, immediately pulling out a chair for me to sit down.

"I think she's in shock," Harry offered.

"She's fine, we were just hiking, yano, going outside for a bit, some fresh air." I wasn't fine. At all. I'd completely lost feeling in my hands and feet, I was shaking violently, and I felt ice cold. I was more than shocked, I was terrified. 

Bella didn't allow Charlie to answer, already dragging me up the stairs. She led me to her room, her cold hands still latching on to my wrist, and pushed me towards her bed. She then disappeared, returning with one of the blankets from my bed. She threw it at me, then took a seat next to me,

"Get comfy." And so I did, wrapping the blanket around me and huddling into it.

"Was he a vampire - Laurent?"

"Yes. Keep your voice down, Dad can't know!" Bella snapped. 

"Vampire's exist?" Bella just nodded, looking at me as if I was dumb. 

"He mentioned the Cullen's, Edward, were, are, they vampire's?"

"Yeah, but like, they're vegetarian vampire's." Bella explained.

"I thought vampire's needed blood, not like, vegetables?"

"Vegetarian means that, like, they only eat animals, not humans. They're good vampire's."

"You willingly dated a vampire?" I was horrified. I'd said hello to that vampire, he'd offered me lifts to school, he'd even invited me to a dinner at his family's house. And the little one, Alice, she'd tried so hard to become friends with me. She always chatted to me in our English classes, and our German classes. 

"Yeah, I loved him..." Bella trailed off sadly, clearly still not over her vampire boyfriend. Vampire boyfriend. Just saying that made my skin crawl.

"But, well you're human. He's like immortal, you'd die, and he'd be alone," I muttered. Bella didn't answer, just staring at me with an uncomfortable expression.

"Wait. No Bella! You were gonna let him make you one of them?" I exclaimed, not hiding the disgust that I felt. My sister wanted to become a vampire? She wanted to become a blood sucking, evil monster?

"Shut up! And yeah I was, wouldn't you? If you loved someone, wouldn't you do anything to have forever with them?"

"Bella. I wouldn't fall in love with anything supernatural."

"Do you think I planned to fall in love with a vampire?" Bella asked, sending me a glare. I mean. she had a point, but I still would've ran once I'd found out that my boyfriend wasn't actually human. 

"This is insane. It's a dream, I know it is. I'm just gonna go have a nap, and then I'll wake up and it'll all be over," I muttered, already pulling myself off of Bella's bed. I pulled my blanket with me, dragging it along the floor like a toddler would.

"Go have a nap, but Charlotte, you can't tell anyone." I nodded - I may have been slightly delirious, but I did understand the consequences of people learning this secret. I collapsed onto my bed, curling up into a little ball in the middle of my bed. I soon fell asleep, dreaming of vampire's, fairies, and werewolves.

---

Jacob's POV

"What's up Harry?" I asked through a mouthful of blueberry muffin. We'd just returned from ripping that vamp with the dreads to pieces, and Harry Clearwater had shown up with a very unimpressed expression. 

"I've just been with Chief Swan," he explained, taking a seat at the dining table, and putting his coat on the back of it. 

"How is he?" Sam asked, whilst he held Emily in his arms. The two of them were honestly disgusting, kissing and cuddling in front of the whole pack. The PDA was unreal, and I had to stop myself from retching. I wasn't scared of taunting them for the punishment that Sam might give me, I was scared of Emily withholding her baked goods from me.

"He's alright. His girls just came back from a hike in the woods, raving about a wolf. Well, Bella was, poor Charlotte was in a right state," Harry explained.

"Charlotte, she the one with the darker hair?" Paul asked. Why did he care? It wasn't as if he'd imprinted on her. 

"Yeah, she is," Embry confirmed. I'd felt awful. We'd all heard her sobs and heaves, watching as she broke down and cried. I so badly missed her, I'd barely seen her when Bella was around, and now I had to completely avoid her. If Sam hadn't snapped at me in that clearing, I would've transformed right then and there, just to comfort her. 

"She was a mess," Jared acknowledged. No shit. 

"Can you blame her?" Sam asked, a concerned expression on his face. I'd never seen her in such a state, she usually was so much more composed. In all the years that I'd known her, I'd never seen her break down like that, but it was completely understandable. 

"I don't think any of us can. It was her first interaction with this world, and it was anything but pleasant, I assume. Anyways, are you any closer to finding that couple?" Harry asked, gratefully accepting the coffee that Emily had offered him.

"We got the guy." Sam offered. All of us were slightly ashamed that we had yet to get rid of this leech. She was just too slippery. 

"Yeah, we did. Absolutely destroyed him, didn't we?"  Jared cheered, offering a high five to Paul. Paul just grunted at him, unamused by Jared's childishness. Embry reached over the hothead, slapping his hand against Jared's, also letting out a cheer.

"We're close with the woman, we just can't figure out what she wants. If we knew, it'd be a lot easier to find her," Sam explained, and I could see the cogs turning in his head as he spoke. 

I was thinking as well, but not about that leech. I had to tell Bella and Charl.