It was so hard to let Claire go in the morning, but I needed her to get home and then get out of La Push before it got any later. I wanted to tell her how glad I was to have spent the night with her, but I decided against it. It had been such an impulsive thing for her to do – almost reckless – and I didn’t want to encourage that. But I couldn’t lie to myself. I knew that if she’d stayed at home, I would have worried about her all night. Having her next to me let me know she was safe.

 

After she left, I headed over to Sam and Emily’s place. Sam had asked me to come by early and Emily had wanted to fix a big breakfast for us. Jared was there as well – we had some last-minute planning to attend to.

 

“Our big advantage is that we know they plan to attack us today in the forest,” said Sam. “But there are several things we don’t know.”

 

I nodded. These were all potential scenarios we’d gone over before: Are they planning on trying to pick us off in small groups? Or are they going to try to lure the whole pack into an area where they have the advantage?

 

“Staging themselves in the trees so they can drop down on top of us is what would give them the most tactical advantage,” I said. “But if they go with that strategy, they’ll need to get the whole pack to come to where they’re hiding.”

 

“I think you’re right. That would mean finding a way to lure us there,” volunteered Jared.

 

I had a disturbing thought. “I hate to say it, but they’ll probably try to lure us with the body of someone they’ve killed.”

 

Sam agreed. “Okay. So, if their plan is to set a trap for us, we need to figure out how to turn the tables,” he said. “Give ourselves the advantage.”

 

“The best way to remove their advantage of being up in the tree canopy would be to fight them in a clearing. There’s the clearing where we faced the army of vampire newborns,” Jared suggested.

 

“And the Volturi,” I reminded him. “I agree that it would be the best place to fight them.”

 

“But how do we get them there? It’s not likely we’ll be able to chase them to the clearing.”

 

“No. And we can’t just all head to the clearing and wait there for them. That will make them suspicious if they have any brains at all.”

 

“What if we lured them there instead?” Jared ventured.

 

Sam nodded. “How are you thinking we’d do that?”

 

“Have just one or two of the guys hanging out there – out in the open so they can be seen and look vulnerable. We’ll be staked out on at least two different sides of the clearing so we can charge them when they enter it.”

 

“Okay,” said Sam with finality. “I’m thinking we split into two groups, with each group approaching the clearing from opposite sides. Once we’re in place, we send a couple of guys into the clearing. Maybe have them roughhousing so they don’t seem to be on guard.”

 

I had to agree – it was the best plan we had. Then it was time to head out into the forest.

 

 

We met up at our usual place, all phased and ready for battle. Sam relayed the plan to the guys and then split us into two groups.

 

“Jared – you, Quil, Paul, and Embry approach from the south side. The rest of you will stick with me and we’ll make a wide arc around so we can approach from the north side.”

 

Sam and his group took off first – they had the farthest to travel – while the rest of us held back for a while.

 

After a few minutes, Jared led our group out into the forest toward the clearing. We all kept our noses to the ground, even though we didn’t expect to pick up any vampire scent. Nothing seemed amiss or out of the ordinary at first. Then I heard something that made my stomach lurch.

 

“Quil! I’m here! Quil!” I skidded to a standstill. Claire was in trouble! I had to go to her. I took off in the direction her voice had come from.

 

Jared howled after me. “Quil! We have to stay together!”

 

I kept running, almost blind with fear. Then I slowed a bit. I was losing the direction. I howled.

 

“Quil!” Claire yelled again.

 

I took off at a dead run again. By this time the other three had decided to follow me, but they hadn’t caught up yet. I slowed as I came to a grouping of trees. I was sure this is where Claire’s voice had come from. I cocked my ears and looked around but there was no sign of her.

 

Suddenly, a vampire was standing on the ground facing me. He was at least fifty feet away, but I was sure it was the guy from the photo Charlie had shown us. I growled and began to approach him slowly.

 

Then he opened his mouth. “Quil!” he yelled with a smile. It was an exact mimic of Claire’s voice. Then he began to laugh. He was clearly proud he’d managed to trick me into his trap. I tore off toward him, ready to rip his limbs off but before I got close enough, I was tackled from above by another bloodsucker. I stopped short in an effort to throw him off my back, but he had a firm grip on me. Then vampires began to drop out of the trees all around me. I gave a throaty howl I hoped would reach Sam and the others, and then I smashed myself into a tree in an effort to crush the vampire on my back.

 

That loosened him enough that I was able to throw him off into the trunk of another tree. At least two more were immediately on me. I got hold of one by the head and ripped it from its neck. I tore at the other one with my claws. By this time, Jared, Paul, and Embry had caught up and were fighting vampires too. There was too much happening at once for me to get an exact count, but we were clearly outnumbered. The four of us fought for what seemed like an eternity. At one point, Paul was thrown into a tree trunk. He let out a sickly yap, but then he recovered and was back up and fighting. I was still trying to get to that nasty mimic who had tricked us, but other vampires kept coming at me, keeping me from reaching him.

 

One of them got hold of me by the neck and held on. He was incredibly strong and was constricting my throat so tightly that I thought I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen. Then Sam, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, launched himself onto the bloodsucker, pulled him from me and tore his head off. With the rest of the pack now in the fight we were more evenly matched. But we were still getting pretty beat up. Embry sustained some kind of injury and was having trouble protecting himself. The next thing I knew, Seth and Leah had shown up to fight – and Jacob was with them. Then two new vampires joined the fray – Edward and Bella.

 

With these reinforcements, the tide quickly shifted in our favor. I was finally able to get to Gary – the creep who had stared this whole thing. I swear, I saw a look of sheer panic in his eyes before he turned to run away. I caught him before he got very far. Of course – these ringleader types who put on a good show of being a bully were always complete cowards. He barely tried to fight me as my jaws closed around his head. I ripped it from his body and spit it onto the ground.

 

It didn’t take much longer to kill the rest of them off. We dragged their bodies, heads and limbs into a pile and Edward set it on fire. Then we phased back to our human forms to assess our injuries. It looked like Embry had a broken leg. The rest of us seemed to have gotten away with just bruises and some scrapes and cuts. Jared and three of the other guys lifted Embry between them and started carrying him back to La Push.

 

Sam thanked Edward and Bella for their help. “I don’t know if we could have done it without you.”

 

“We’ve always fought as a team,” Edward said, offering his hand to Sam – a handshake Sam gladly accepted.

 

“But how did you know? How did you find us?”

 

“Jacob told us about what Alice had seen,” Bella said.

 

“And these guys weren’t hard to find,” Edward said with a bit of a laugh. “Their collective thoughts acted like a megaphone. I think I could have heard them from Seattle.”

 

“Of course,” said Sam with a nod. “I always forget about your special gifts.”

 

That made something click for me. “Yeah … special gifts. I wonder if the ability to mimic other people was this guy’s special gift – the one who organized this whole thing.”

 

“Is that how he lured you here?” asked Sam.

 

“Yes. He was able to mimic Claire so perfectly, he had me completely fooled.”

 

“I heard him too,” said Paul. “Sounded just like her – and it was exactly what she yelled when we found her at that cabin.”

 

“I thought he must have gotten to her again before she and her family were able to make it out of town,” I said. “The thought of it made my fur stand on end.”

 

“So that must have been why he kidnapped Claire,” said Sam. “He needed to hear her call to you so he could mimic the sound.”

 

“That makes a lot of sense,” I agreed. “Not a bad plan. I wonder why it took him so long to come back.”

 

“I didn’t get a chance to focus in on many of his thoughts before you ripped his head off,” Edward said with a glance toward me. “I did get the very distinct impression that he thought of himself as very important. But I didn’t get anything from the other vampires to indicate that they held him in very high esteem.”

 

“So, he had trouble convincing enough of them to come here and take us on,” said Paul.

 

“From what Claire said about him, he was just looking to distinguish himself,” Sam said. “Hard to win over a lot of followers who will risk themselves for someone else’s glory – unless you have some kind of hold over them.”

 

“And I didn’t get the impression he was particularly charismatic,” said Bella with a laugh.

 

I noticed that Jacob was kind of hanging back. Like he wanted to talk to me away from everyone else. I went over to him.

 

“I can’t believe you made it. You know you didn’t have to – but it’s so appreciated,” I said. Then I moved a bit closer and quietly asked, “how’s Nessie?”

 

“Carlisle showed up last night, so she’s in good hands.”

 

“I’m glad.”

 

“Me too. Didn’t want you guys to have all the fun without me,” he said with his typical grin.

 

Jacob had a way of making everyone around him smile.

 

I suddenly realized I was completely exhausted – and not just physically. I was emotionally drained as well. It must have been plain on my face. “Why don’t you go give Claire a call,” he suggested.

 

“Yeah. Good idea.” I clapped Jacob on the back, gave Edward and Bella a nod of appreciation, and waved a quick goodbye to Sam, Paul, and the rest of the pack, then phased back into a wolf – that was the fastest way to get back home where I’d left my cell phone – and took off through the woods.

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Read Chapter 14