Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

The Human Strikes Back

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 08:

JPOV

Okay so maybe taking my shirt off in Washington State in December was not the brightest of ideas but at least I got a laugh. That seemed to be the “Ice breaker” as everyone started walking over to us. The first guy to Bella picked her up in a bear hug and spun her around. The rest of the guys and a few of the women walked up too and were giving out welcomes. The biggest one put her down and turned to me sticking out his hand. “Sam Uley”. “Jason Connolly” I said taking his hand. Hmmm this guys hand was burning up. Judging by his shirtless state I would say the rest of him was warm as well since he didn’t appear to be fighting back shivers like the macho man that I am.

Bella came up to me and put her arm around my waste.

“Baby let me introduce you to everyone. But first you should probably put on your shirt. The guys here are used to Washington winters. You’re used to Texas winters.”

“Good point” I gratefully agreed putting my long sleeve shirt back on.

“This is Sam and his fiancee Emily.” “Over there is Jarrod and his girlfriend Kim, Seth, Paul, Leah, Embry, Quil, Brady and Colin. “

“Nice to meet ya’ll. Bells has told me a lot about you all. I feel like I know every curse word you ever taught her.”

“We’ve heard quite a bit about you and apparently its all true” I heard Leah, Sue’s daughter? say.

“Well good, I hate to disappoint.”

Sam POV

We smelt them before we saw them. All eyes turned towards our Bella. Next to her was her new man. Jake refused to come tonight and right that instant I was glad. I could tell by looking at him that this was no shrinking violet who would be intimidated by someone of Jake’s size or his attitude. And I didn’t feel like refereeing a pissing contest tonight.

I had reminded the pack that an outsider would be here and to wear shirts. Of course they didn’t and thought if we all went shirtless it would be a way of marking our territory so to speak. An opportunity to show we were tougher than the big bad ex Marine. That idea last all of two seconds before I saw Bella’s guy smirk like he knew exactly what was going on and threw his shirt off.

I have to say everything about the guy screamed danger. His upper body had more than a few scars on it. A slash mark went across his chest. A couple of smaller scars were around his ribs. Looked like healed gunshot wounds. A vertical scar about two inches long was just above his pant line on his right side. Looked like the remnants of a stabbing motion by a very big knife.

“Dammmm” I heard Emily mutter. I could admit he was in pretty decent shape. Kim looked like she was about a step away from drooling. I went up and hugged Bella and shook Jason’s hand. Strong grip. Something flashed in his eyes. I realized he had just noted that it was freezing and we were not only comfortable but hot to the touch. Strangely though, unlike most people he said nothing about it. Almost as if he filed it away for a later time. We all walked back to the fire so the imprints could warm up. Billy was there and Bella went to him and gave him a hug. She introduced Jason to Billy and I could tell though his smile was a little sad that Jake and Bella never got together.

I understood where Bella was coming from. I didn’t understand why Jacob could just not move on. I mean she has told him to move on. She has moved on. It has been two years. Sometimes I think something is wrong with that boy’s thought processes.

We sat around the fire eating. Sue and Charlie showed up. Questions were asked of Jason and I was impressed. I never heard answer so many questions and actually say nothing. The man gave away nothing. Not what he did. Not what his family was like. Not his past in the military. Finally it was his turn to ask a question when our litany of inquiries was over.

“Sam can I ask you if there are any local legends I should know about?”

“Well there are many native American legends and the Quilieute are no different. Why do you ask?”

” Sam I tell ya, I was out runnin in the woods the other morning and I about fell into some of the biggest tracks I ever saw in my life. Huge. I can’t imagine a man or beast that could make a track that size. Bigger than a bear track it was. You know what I think it was Sam?”

Uh oh.

“Why don’t you tell me Jason?”

He got real quiet, looked around at the suddenly still faces and in a serious tone said…

“BigFoot”.

Absolute quiet. Then he smiled and the entire group began laughing. But it was a nervous laugh. I looked at Bella and found her looking at me with a worried look on her face.

“But seriously Sam those were some big damn tracks. What do you think could have caused them? I imagine you know these woods as well as anyone. Bells told me you were the guy who found her when her asshole of an ex left her in the woods. Figure you must be a good tracker to do that. “

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen tracks that big Jason but I will keep an eye out.”

“You do that Sam. I wouldn’t want something sneaking up on you.” Jason said.

“So” Jason asked next, “Where the hell is the gym around here? I’m getting tired of situps and pushups all the time. Need a little variety in the routine, ya know?”

Jarrod handled this one. “Nearest gym is Port Angeles. Its about an hour away.”

“Wow you guys drive all the way to Port Angelis to work out?”

“No…” Jarrod answered.

“Then how the hell do you guys all look like body builders? I mean seriously you guys eat like horses and your muscles have muscles. Even shooting up on roids you would still need weights.”

“We all have good genetics” I offered.

Jason looked me in the eyes. The look told me he didn’t believe a word of it but he would let it slide. “Well this has been a blast guys but I need to get to bed. Got up early this morning trying to follow giant wolf tracks and its time to head to bed.”

That didn’t go unnoticed and there is no way he accidentally said it. He doesn’t accidentally say anything. I didn’t know much about him but I knew everything he did was deliberate.

Paul spoke up after he and Bella and Charlie and Sue had said their goodbyes.

“Well he definitely is not a vampire or a shapeshifter but he definitely falls under the “Other ” category. Did he seem like if he stayed another 20 minutes he could have told us more about ourselves than we could.

“Yep” I said popping the freakin P.