The Consequences {Jacob Black}

Chapter CXIV

"You're not going down there; we're leaving," Jake said after a few silent moments. He was probably making sure that no one else could hear us.

"Jake, Carlisle has never really done anything bad to us," I argued. "I'm not saying that we should trust him -"

"Good, because we're not going to. He's still a vampire Ryanne. We're leaving."

"Jake, you're being unreasonable." He kept his hand wrapped around my arm, but he didn't pull. I stayed rooted where I was. We had no other plan of attack. We had no other ideas as to how we're going to take care of the Volturi. Carlisle's hope, feeble as it was, was the only thing that I had going. "What's the magical master plan?" I asked.

"Seriously? Carlisle just asked you to go downstairs to meet vampires who eat people and you're going to ask about my secret plan?" he snapped at me.

"I'm starting to question its existence," I admitted. There were very few things that Jake wouldn't tell me. And the list of wolf-related things that Jake wouldn't tell me was even smaller. The fact that he wouldn't tell me about this had now forced me to question whether or not Jake actually had an extra plan.

"I do have a plan; you're just not going to like it," he replied. I sighed and glared at him, daring him to keep this from me. "The wolves are prepared to fight, Ryanne," he finally whispered.

"Jake, you can't do that. There are too many of them; you guys won't make it." He was being ridiculous. They would get hurt. I couldn't let my guys get hurt. "I won't let you do this, Jake."

"I figured; that was why I wasn't telling you, Rye," he replied. "I know that you don't want us to get hurt. But all of the guys know the risks. They know what could happen; they just want to protect you."

"And I want to protect them, Jake. I can't let them fight the Volturi. There are too many of them."

"I'm not letting your safety depend on a group of leeches!" he shouted at me. "Okay? I can't let a group of monsters that I don't trust be responsible for whether or not my imprint lives. I can't do it, Annie. I'm the only one who is supposed to be responsible for you," he said, his voice kind of sad. "I'm the only who should be protecting you."

"You are, Jake. You're the only person I trust to keep me safe," I said, moving to sit on his lap. I let my arms fall around his neck. "Look at me, Jake," I begged. He did, his eyes dead. "We have no plan, Jake. I won't let you guys fight them. We need to come up with another idea, Jake. In the meantime, the least that we could do is what Carlisle suggested. You don't have to let any of them touch me. You don't have to let me go within ten inches of a vampire. But this is probably the only thing that we can do while we figure out another plan," I whispered.

It was the only thing that we could do. I wasn't one who could sit there and just wait around. I was someone that needed to take action at all times. And currently, the only course of action that I had was to go downstairs and meet the witnesses who had gathered. Jake's arms tightened around me as he thought about what I was saying. "Fine," he breathed. "You can go downstairs and meet the rest of the. But the second that I smell Bella, we're leaving. Your sister-turned-demon has messed with you enough."

I agreed easily enough. I had no real desire to be around my sister and her vampire friends. He wrapped his large, warm hand around my own and stood us up. "The second Bella is in this house, we're leaving," he reaffirmed. I just nodded again and began the slow descent to the living room, every red eye in the room on me.

It became abundantly clear that I was the only one in the house with a beating heart. "Not the only one," Edward said at the bottom of the stairs. "Renesmee," he called, waving a hand towards him.

A little child who didn't look much older than nine bounced forward, her auburn ringlets shaking as she made it to her father's side. Her heart shaped face was paler than a normal human, but not as pale as the vampires around us. There were several vamps around me that turned to look at me with wide open eyes. "Aunt Ryanne!" she exclaimed. She traipsed up the stairs, her arms open like she was going to hug me. She turned her big brown eyes on me, eyes that mirrored my sister's back when she was human. I hadn't seen Bella since her wedding, but I was sure that her eyes were the same rubies as the rest of the people in the room.

Jake pulled me two stairs behind me, his arm pushed back to keep me away from the monster child. "Jacob?" she asked quietly. "That is my Aunt Ryanne, isn't it?" she continued, her voice like a bell ringing in the darkness. "I just want to say hi," she whispered.

"No," Jake snarled.

"Jake," I whispered, resting a hand on his bicep. He growled at me, prompting me to smack his arm. "We're supposed to be meeting people," I muttered. The faces of the vampires around me proved that they were seeing Jake as the exact opposite of what we needed to see him as. I stepped down to his side, making sure that I was slightly backed away from the hybrid spawn here in front of me. "I'm not your aunt," I said. "You can call me Ryanne."

"Ryanne," she repeated like she was testing it on her tongue. "My mother said that you were my aunt," she said with a frown on her face.

"She is," Edward assured her.

"I'm not," I countered. "Your mother was wrong. I am not your aunt. Jake will not be your mother's friend again. We are here because Carlisle asked us to be," I insisted. "But I'm not your family," I paused, wanting to add her name, but I couldn't quite remember it.

"Renesmee," Edward filled in. I waved a hand at him, not really caring about her name.

"Ryanne, Jacob," Esme greeted. She bounded up the stairs and gripped my hand in hers. Jake started shaking, his grip on my hand tightening. Esme didn't grab for Jake's hand, which was probably for the best. "Come, meet our friends." She tugged on my hand a little. I tripped down the stairs, glad that Jake kept his hand on my waist to hold me up. "These are our friends from the Amazon: Kachiri, Zafrina, and Senna," she said. The first woman lifted her hand to mine like she was going to shake mine. Jake growled a little, but I just squeezed his hand.

"You'll have to excuse me if I don't shake your hand. I'm a little cautious," I said politely, trying to maintain my facade that I was pretty sure that she saw right through.

"Your dog is cautious," another one said, her eyes painted in a black band. "Senna," she said with a nod, not putting her hand forward. "I thought the children of the moon were dead," she said, looking Jake up and down.

"They are," Jake assured her, his grip constricting again.

Another one of them cocked her eyebrow as she surveyed Jake too. "And then we have our friends from Egypt," Esme said, tugging on my hand. Would it be considered rude if I pulled my hand away from her? She was just so fucking cold; it was hard to hold her hand the entire time. "This is Amun, Tia, Demetri, Benjamin, and Kebi," she said, gesturing to each person.

The one named Amun stepped forward and extended a hand. He spoke something in Arabic. "It is nice to meet you," he said in English, his accent nonexistent. "Bella has said many things about you," he added. Jake's shaking increased.

"Stop it," I warned him. "You need to know who it is that is coming into our town, Jake," I whispered. "It's nice to meet you. Take that from both of us," I said, patting Jake's arm. "And I'm sure that whatever my sister has to say about me has been great," I added, swallowing my sarcasm.

And so it went. I was reintroduced to the Denali clan, who apologized for the things that Jonas had done. That vamp was no where to be seen. Then it was the Irish coven and the various nomads that had come around to help us. Each group seemed to have something special, someone with an ability like Edward's or Alice's. I was worried that the Cullens were thinking what Jake was about fighting. Them I didn't care about, but I cared about the Pack.

"Ryanne," the quiet voice tinkered.

"Fuck," Jake muttered, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the door. "We're leaving."

"Please!" Bella appeared in front of me, her daughter in hand. "I just want to talk."