Authors Note: Hey, I would like to thank all of you, my lovely readers and reviewers =] You make my days so much Brighter! I think I answer a lot of questions here, so Enjoy =]

Chapter 16

EPOV

I was standing outside of Esme's bedroom waiting for Bella to finish changing into warmer clothing. I hadn't been able to produce anything she could ware outside from my closet or the makeshift wardrobe Alice had sent with us, so we had to barrow some from Esme. We had dug around for some smaller clothes Esme had and ended up finding a maroon sweater and jeans in Bella's size. "Thank you so much" I heard Bella say.
"Your welcome dear, they look better on you anyway." Esme chuckled. And they did. It's not that I was "watching" Bella change, because I wasn't, I could just see Esme's thoughts. I had politely averted my attention away from her thoughts during the brunt of her changing, but now that she was standing in front of Esme, completely dressed, I decided to take a peak. Her hair hung down, brown and silky, looking Amazing against the deep color of the shirt. I decided Bella could be dressed in a brown paper bag, and look beautiful. She had what I called true beauty, something no amount of make-up could achieve on other girls.

The door clicked open and Bella and Esme walked out. I shoved off the wall I had been leaning up against, and turned to look at Bella.

"Good they fit." I noted.

"Yeah, and they're warm."

"They look good on you." I complimented and she blushed.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. Are you ready?" I asked. She nodded and I took her hand, leading her down the large staircase. I stopped by the back door to grab my brown leather coat. I slid my arms in and zippered it, not because I was worried about getting cold, but so I would seem more normal to Bella. When I was done zippering up the coat I retook her hand, and lead her through the door to go out on the back patio that sat before the gardens.

Outside the air was crisp and brisk. The ground was still pretty much solid from the recently melted snow, and our feet made thumping noises as we stepped off the stone patio onto the grass. I began leading Bella around the grounds and we took a right, heading toward the unplanted gardens instead of veering left, which would have taken us down a set of stone steps to that led to another, bigger patio.

We started on the path, which was a long tunneled arbor, where brown ivy had crept up and grown around, keeping most of the sun out. The tunnel was long, but we walked through taking our time. When we reached the end, it dumped us out onto a set of three turning, stone stairs. Up the short flight of steps, was a small arched, wooden log bridge. The bridge was made of rough, natural wood, looking as if someone had just strung several logs together. It lead over a small creek that ran through our property, twisting around several bends and cascading down several small waterfalls. I lead Bella up the side of the bridge and stopped once we got to the middle.

"Wow." She said, looking speechless.

I chuckled. "You like it?"

"It's beautiful, of course I love it. If I owned this house, I could come out back her for hours just getting lost and enjoying it." I smiled as I looked around at all the browned bushes that were usually lively green ferns and wildflowers. Out her was like a jungle when everything was in bloom, I adore it.

"That's what I like to do." I agreed. "It's a place to go where I can be alone and not have to listen to everyone else."

"Must be nice." She said turning halfway, looking up at me.

"It is." It's one of the few places I usually have a clear mind. I felt her gaze linger on my face for a few seconds, and then she turned back to her view over the creek and sighed.

"Bella, tell me." I said, turning to hover over her.

"What?" She asked. "Tell you what?"

"Anything. You seem to me like you have something to say."

"No. Nothing, to say exactly, just…questions." She hesitated. Suddenly then I was aware. I knew the questions she was interested in asking weren't about my house with the amazing back yard, but about my kind.

"Okay, ask then." I told her.

"A-Are you sure you don't mind?" She sounded nervous. I didn't want my Bella to be nervous around me, although she had a right to be.

"You have a right to know." I said, shrugging. She nodded, taking my hand again, and started to play with my fingers.

"I was right about what I had said before, wasn't I?" She didn't specify on what she was referring to, but I knew she was talking about her theory of us being Vampires. I swallowed for effect before answering.

"Yes, you took a very good guess."

"It wasn't a guess; it was an educated statement, based on facts placed together with legends."

"Oh yeah? And what are these facts you used in your logic?" I smiled and tapped her temple.

"Well your strong, you don't eat, your eyes change color, and your skin is icy cold." She rattled off, and I'm sure she could have kept going if she hadn't seen the smile slide from my face.

"And that made you absolutely sure I was a vampire?"

"Well…that and when Carlisle told me your name. The…wolves were always hesitant whenever the name 'Cullen' came up."

I laughed. "They like to talk about us?"

"Not at all. Your name made them angry."

"That tends to happen when you're mortal Enemies." I reminded her.

"True." She agreed. We stood there in silence for a few minutes and the wind started picking up. It wasn't could enough that we could see our breath, but it wasn't warm enough that you could go jacketless. As if on cue, Bella shivered next to me, and I mentally cursed myself for being such an idiot. I released her hand and shrugged out of my jacket. I took the soft leather and slid it around her shoulders.

"Sorry, I forgot to grab you a jacket. Next time remind me."

"It's okay, here I'm fine, you can take it back you don't have long sleeves on." She tried to take the coat off and give it back to me, but I held it to her.

"It serves no purpose to me, I don't get cold." I smiled.

"Are you saying that cause vampires don't get cold, or because you're trying to be a big tough man, secretly freezing his butt off, who won't admit it because he's trying to impress me."

I barked a laugh at her. "No, my kind doesn't get cold."

"Oh, then thanks." She motioned to the coat.

I nodded back to her.

"Don't you want to know what I eat?" I asked, suddenly.

"You already told me what you eat."

I was taken aback. I was very positive we have never had a discussion about me throwing back blood. "What do you mean?" I demanded.

"You told me you were a vegetarian, and I could tell you weren't lying. When you said you were vegetarian that had to mean something."

I had to give her credit for putting that together. "Oh. Your right, my family does consider ourselves to be vegetarian. We only drink from animals."

"It's nice of you guys." She said, and I let the subject drop. Sure. Nice. Whatever.

"It's my turn to ask questions. Well, kind of a question. Can I try something?" I was nervous. Not only have I never done this before, I was always worried about rejection. I could see most girls fantasized over me, but not being able to see into Bella's mind left me scared.

"Yeah." Was all she said.

"Don't move." I instructed her, knowing that she would listen to me. This would be a challenge for me. I looked into her eyes and saw realization when she figured out I was going to kiss her. I was surprised to find her eyes telling me they wanted me, not for me to pull away. I slowly got closer until I could feel her soft, warm lips against mind. I was able to keep them there until a gust of wind blew her scent into me and I pulled back.

Bella's eyes popped open and met mine, causing her to blush a bizarre shade of red.

I smiled at her. "I've never seen a blush, quite that bright." I put my hand on the side of her face, which only made her go darker.

She looked down embarrassed. "Oh, I hate that I do that."

"I don't, I find it lovely."

She leaned up against me and put her arms around me, placing her head against my chest. We stood there embracing as the sun sunk lower in the sky, and the moon began to rise.

"Edward?" She whispered and I kiss the top of her head.

"Yes, Bella?"

"Will you be honest with me?"

"Of course."

"Before, earlier today, why did you want to take me somewhere?"

"To find you your warmer weather." She pulled away from my chest and looked into my eyes.

"No, that's not the real reason. Really, what's going on?" Her eyes were firm, not letting me lose my gaze in them. "Tell me." she urged. She was very smart, and she always knew when something was up.

"Everything's fine Bella, nothing going to happen to you. You're safe with me and my family."

"Does this have to do with Jacob?" She sounded utterly terrified, and choked up at the sound of his name coming from her own voice. When I didn't answer right away she stiffened and started to shake. "You have to tell me Edward! I have a right to know!" She was right; I knew I had to give her a truthful answer.

"Bella do you trust me?" I asked her.

She looked at me confused. "Yes, you know I do."

"Then I need you to listen to me. I want you to hear me out, and let me finish before you freak yourself out over nothing." My tone was harsh, but I felt it was needed to get my point across. "You know there was an accident, and that's how you came into our accompaniment. I messed up, so I took it as my responsibility to help you. Turns out later, we found out you were one of them, not physically a shifter, but involved with them. Being enemies with them, we couldn't turn you back over to them without starting a war over having hurt you, so I packed up and left with you. You seemed so willing to go with me." I smiled at the memory. I hadn't been able to smile then; I had almost resented her before. "So I brought you here, endangering you completely, which was awfully stupid of me. I should have just returned you to them when I had the chance, I thought." She started to protest but I put my finger to her lips. "But here, over time I got to know you better, and I'm glad I did, because Bella, truthful you're the best thing that's ever happened to me.

But now something's happened. I don't know how everything's unfolding so badly now, when we've been able to hide you from them for so long already. That phone call I got this morning, it was from my brother, Emmett. He told me the pack knew. They know your with me, how they know that, I don't know. They must have picked up on your scent with mine. Since they have the scent and a trail, they've decided to take advantage of it, and come looking for us. They're running so I'm not sure how long it will take them to arrive, but I give them several days at the most. This is why I want to take you away, with your permission to keep you safe of course."

I watched her facial expressions, they went from scared to, shocked to, happy, then fell to sadness and worry. I had caught a hint of anger in her, and I could only hope she wouldn't hate me and how I had ruined her life.

"Tell me what you're thinking." I asked.

She blew out a breath of hot air; I hadn't known she'd been holding. "I'm thinking a lot of things. I won't know where to start."

"Just try, I urged."

"Well…I'm just kind of shocked. I mean, I had known something had happened, and I'm still not exactly sure what exactly did, but I know more than I had before."

"Are you angry with me?"

"No! I'm eternally grateful of you saving me, from them. You say it was your fault, but I'm glad whatever happened, did. I'm actually happy with you." She smiled. "But then again I'm scared. Please don't let them take me back, Edward! You say they're on their way here?"

"Yes. And Jacob's in the lead. Please, Bella. Let me take you far away from here."

"No." What? She didn't want me to take her away, but she had just asked me to keep her safe from them. I was confused. "If we leave, they're just going to find our trail again, and keep following us. Sure we might be safe for a few days, but then they would come. I don't want to have to run and hide from him anymore. I want to stay here, and wait for them."

"Bella are you crazy?" I screamed before I could think and she flinched backwards. I hadn't meant to insult her. "I didn't mean that. I meant that if we stay here, there's no way I can guarantee what will happen. Several of them are coming, and it's only me and Esme here, the numbers aren't in our favor." I tried to explain to her, that a fight now would only separate us.

I could see the gears turning in her head, thorough her face. "You have me too, that makes three on three."

I laughed. "Bella there dangerous, they'd hurt you. You can't fight them."

She frowned. "I still want to wait for them."

"What do you think is going to happen when they get here? They're not going to be willing to sit down and talk about this; they're going to be looking for a fight. There's no easy way or solution to deal with this."

"Then I guess we'll have to kill him." She said, surprising me as she nuzzled her head back into my chest, wrapping her arms around me again.

After the sun had set, the temperature had taken a downward fall, sending us running for the house, to escape the bitter wind. We ran back over the bridge and through the ivy tunnel like we were kids, with Bella giggling next me. It seemed peacefully, like we had nothing to worry about. We were laughing at ourselves as we stepped back onto the patio which glowed yellow from the light streaming out of the windows of the house. When we returned inside, Esme had a glass of hot chocolate waiting for Bella, who took it gratefully, holding the warm cup close to herself in attempt to warm up.

The next few hours we wasted watching TV, talking and making plans. I informed Esme of our situation while Bella ate her dinner, hungrily. Emse nodded and shook her head, while Bella chewed; seemingly enjoying the chicken and asparagus Esme had cooked up for her.

It was well after one in the morning, when I had just gotten off the phone with Carlisle, who I called after I had put Bella to bed. We had a long talk and finally managed to come to a reasonable decision. He told me that earlier today; the rest of the pack had taken off to follow Jacob in our direction, as backup. He had calculated they were at least two days or three behind the original three wolves. We had a plan to take down Jacob Black, but it wasn't going to be easy, and it needed to be executed perfectly and in a tight, timely fashion.

The rest of my family, who had stayed back at home in Forks were going to hop on a plane tomorrow morning. They would be here by tomorrow night, which would give us exactly two days to prepare for the arrival of the first set of wolves. We would take the wolves then as soon as they arrived before they could rest from they're travel and while they're numbers were smaller than ours, before they're back up could come in.

So the decision was decided, the plans were made, and the only thing left to do now was wait.

Authors note: So another update within the next week! I'm happy =]

So in the next chapter the rest of the Cullen's are reentering the story! I'm excited! But also sad as well because that means my story's almost over =[

I have pics for this chapter on my profile. There are only two, but they looked magical to me, and I adore them, so I posted them.

Anyways. THANK YOU for reading my story! I know there was a lot of Dialoged in this chapter, do you guys like that or do you like a little less, with more descriptions and what not?