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CHAPTER THIRTEEN: RULE OF WOLVES
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THE DRIVE BACK TO Bella's house passed by in a blur. Soon, the red truck was rumbling to a stop in her driveway, and Bella was throwing her front door open and sprinting inside with Maggie rushing to catch up to her.
"Dad, I saw them!" she heard Bella shouting in the kitchen. Inside, Charlie was sitting at his dining table with a coffee in front of him. Harry Clearwater was at the sink, his eyes wide as he looked between the two girls.
"What's the matter?" Charlie asked, confused but concerned.
"In the woods," Bella gasped out, just out of breath as Maggie was. "They're not bears."
"Wait, what do you mean 'in the woods?'" he repeated with a frustrated sigh. "Bells, what the hell were you and Maggie Sullivan doing out in the woods?"
But Bella didn't have time for his disappointment. She needed to tell him what she and Maggie had just seen. "They're wolves, okay? I mean, they're like, huge wolves."
Maggie watched as both men had two very different reactions. Charlie sat up straighter in his seat, coffee long forgotten, though he still seemed sceptical and lost. Meanwhile, Harry had made his way over to them, wide eyes now narrowed in a way that had Maggie's suspicions rising. Why did he look so nervous, like he wanted them to stop talking?
"Are you sure about that, Bella?" he asked, sounding strangely panicked.
"Yeah, I just saw them. They were after... something," she said, completely oblivious.
Harry looked away then, but Charlie still wasn't sure. "Wolves? You saw them?" he said, like the thought was just ludicrous. Maggie would've said the same had she not seen it with her own eyes. They were unlike anything she'd ever seen, six feet tall with eerily human-like responses. If vampires were real...
"Maggie was there, too," Bella pointed out, finally acknowledging the girl beside her. "Mags, you saw them, right?"
For a moment, Maggie stayed quiet, feeling the weight of both Harry and Bella's stares on the side of her face. Strangely enough, she felt like Harry didn't want her to agree with Bella, but she couldn't lie with Charlie looking to her for confirmation. It was his job to investigate this. So with a sigh, she nodded and said, "Yeah, I saw them."
"Alright then," Charlie muttered, deciding to play into it now that it wasn't just his daughter saying it. He was aware that Bella wouldn't make a joke out of something like this, but he also knew for certain that there was no way Maggie Sullivan would go along with it. If there were wolves out there and she was coming to him for help, then it had to be investigated. "Harry? You feel like going hunting? Get some of your guys together?"
Again, neither Bella or Charlie noticed his hesitation, but Maggie did. With a frown on his face, he forced himself to nod in agreement. "Sure. I'll just, uh..." he trailed off, gesturing to the door for an explanation. Charlie seemed happy with the confirmation, calling Bella over to look at a map and point out the region they'd seen the wolves. Maggie lingered before following Harry outside, feeling suffocated inside the stuffy kitchen.
