Defective - Jacob Black {1}

Chapter 60: Not-So-Happy Holidays

Last Christmas was spent in awkwardness, Jesse wasn't talking to me, I was a fresh newborn, and all walls were up around my mother to keep her clueless.

This Christmas was our last goodbye, our last happy moments with our human family members, for them to remember us. Bella and I's mothers wouldn't be joining us, they were together in Florida away from the drama, I didn't think I'd be able to handle saying goodbye to both parents.

My dad hosted Christmas. Edward, Bella and Renesmee, along with Charlie and Sue, Seth and Leah came to celebrate with us. Jake brought his father and Rachel and Paul as well, my siblings also included their respective imprints. With Uncle Charlie's presence it was hard not to mention the upcoming events but it was a day of forgetting about what was coming, we just had to live in the now.

Together, Dad and Sue cooked a massive feast, enough to feed triple the amount of guests Dad hosted in our average sized house, but of course all plates were cleared thanks to the pack members. You could always count on Jake and his brothers to fill any room with bellowing laughter and excitement, though that was partially due to the coming fight, that got their blood flowing.

Presents were shared, a few board games were played, and Paul being Paul lost his temper and flipped the table during a game of Monopoly. It was a Christmas to remember... too bad we wouldn't be around to.

That night Jake and I spent the evening with just his family, nothing about the confrontation was mentioned, but Billy and Rachel acted like this wasn't the last time we would all be together but they were thinking it.

Returning to the Cullen house lifted a huge weight off of everyone's shoulders. Putting up the 'everything is going to be okay' facade was exhausting, it felt like we had been holding our breaths struggling to break through the surface, ready to explode with emotion.

Bella and Edward, Seth and Renesmee, and Jacob and I all made it back to house within seconds of each other, but the taste in the air was different to when we had left. Hostile.

Inside the house an argument was brewing, building tension. It seemed everyone was inside, whispering between their own covens, it was intense. Carlisle and Amun's voices were the loudest.

Jacob took my hand, holding it tightly as he led the way into the house, now in protective alpha mode with his face serious and careful, his shoulders straight. Seth followed right behind us, and the smaller part of our family behind him. Something had happened and Jacob was determined to get the information he needed.

"Alistair is gone," I murmured as we darted up the steps, I had to practically jump the stairs to keep up with Jake.

The lounge was where the action was happening, all around the glass walls were our guests, speculating, all except for Alistair and the three involved in the heated argument. Esme, Kebi, and Tia were the closest to the three vampires in the centre; in the middle of the room, Amun was hissing at Carlisle and Benjamin.

Edward's jaw tightened and he moved quickly to Esme's side, towing Bella by the hand as she clutched Renesmee tightly to her chest. Jacob and I followed as well, flanked by Seth, standing on the other side of Carlisle and Benjamin.

Amun wanted to take his coven and run but Benjamin was refusing.

"Amun, if you want to go, no one is forcing you to stay," Carlisle said calmly.

"You're stealing half my coven, Carlisle!" Amun shrieked, stabbing one finger at Benjamin. "Is that why you called me here? To steal from me?"

Carlisle sighed, and Benjamin rolled his eyes, I refrained from letting the growl rumble through my chest.