Pure of Heart

Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight, I'm just borrowing it for a bit.

Renee's smug expression fell from her face when she realized her mistake. Phil had been horrified when his wife explained her duplicity but that was pushed from his mind the second his brain registered the night sounds just beyond the campfire died. He knew they were both dead before Renee's blood splattered on him. It wasn't fear but pity he felt when the creature attacked him and he felt bad that Bella would have a rough road ahead of her along with the grief.

Ch. 1: Prowler

SPOV

The muffled noise of movement downstairs woke me up. My loving husband was still blissfully asleep and ignorant of our prowler. At first, I thought it might be one of the kids but Leah was on patrol and Seth was staying over at the Cullen place; no doubt playing video games with Emmett. Even if the noise hadn't pulled me from sleep, the sudden craving for a Tabasco peanut butter sandwich would've. Reluctantly, I shook Charlie but he was too tired. As Chief of Police for Forks, Washington, he'd practically worked triple shifts because he was going to take a few months off when baby came. He was exhausted so I wasn't surprised he slept like the dead.

I rolled out of bed then padded over to the large gun safe in the corner of our room. After I punched in the combination and pulled out my father's old Winchester rifle, I made my way silently downstairs. All the noise seemed to come from the kitchen.

"Bloody Hell! There's enough food for an army and I still can't find anything that sounds good," an English accented feminine voice mutter from inside the refrigerator.

The lower half of a young woman stuck out from behind the open door of the appliance. I flipped on the light but lowered the rifle. I heard a gasp and the intruder jumped then turned to face me. She was seventeen, with shoulder length brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and the same chocolate eyes that often made me weak in the knees. The rest of her facial features belonged to her mother, Renee.

"Bella," I whispered then put the rifle down all together and opened my arms. My stepdaughter flew into them. Once she was secure in my embrace, the teen started to sob. I stroked her hair while cooing soothing words in her ear. When she calmed down, I released her then guided her a chair at the table.

While she sat down, I gathered up all the ingredients for my sandwich as well as turkey and mayo. Bella's nose wrinkled as she saw what I made for myself but perked up after I handed her a turkey on whole wheat. We ate in silence and I used the opportunity to get a better look at the younger woman. Her normally alabaster skin looked almost ghostly now and dark circles around her eyes. She was grossly underweight; in short, she had the appearance of somebody that was strung out.

"Renee and Phil died. My uncles thought it best I stayed with Dad for a while," Bella whispered before I asked about her unexpected visit.

That explains why she looks like that, I thought then asked, "When did it happen?"

"Last month, there was an… accident. It took awhile to settle their affairs. If it's too much bother, they left me more than enough for a place of my own," she answered hoarsely.

"You're family; there is always room for you here. The kids would love to finally get to know you and we'll need plenty of help when the Little One arrives," I gently admonished her for considering we wouldn't want her. She smiled then moved to kiss my cheek.

Charlie Swan had been a young Marine assigned to be an Embassy Guard in London when he first met Renee. He once told me that she was so wild and full of life. Renee distracted him from his pain and loneliness; conditions that were caused when I married one of his best friends. I'll never forgive myself for the pain I caused both of us. Their brief affair lasted two weeks then she moved on to her next adventure and Charlie returned to the States. His discharge came through then he moved back to Forks and joined the small Police Department.

Three months later, Renee called to say she was pregnant. Being the honorable man he was, Charlie offered to marry her and bring her to America. She refused but explained how she still wanted him to be a part of their child's life. My daughter Leah was just over a year old when Isabella Marie Swan came into the world. Her father was there for her birth but it nearly destroyed him to return home. Up until she was seven, Renee brought Bella to see him twice a year. Over Christmas of that year, the girl had caught some virus and nearly died. After that, her mother never let her daughter out of her sight and vehemently refused to bring her for visits.

I divorced Harry just after our son, Seth, was born and Leah was four. It was at my father's funeral that I learned how the prick had tricked me into marrying him. My father, like all of our ancestors, had been the Medicine Man of the Quileute tribe. In the distant past, one of our greatest Chief's learned how to shapeshift into a wolf. That gene spread to his descendants before diluting through the rest of the tribe. Whenever a supernatural threat entered the area, the wolf gene was activated and our young men started to shapeshift. Normally, it was those from the "Stellar Bloodlines" that phased. Those whose ancestry made them direct descendants of that bygone Chief.

One of the abilities of the wolves was something known as Imprinting. When they looked into the eyes of the girl that was their best genetic match, their Soul Mate, then it was instant and irrevocable love at first sight. The Elders never told us that daughters of those bloodlines had the ability to imprint as well.

Charlie had been born and raised in Forks. His white father, Nathan Swan, had been an avid hunter and wilderness guide. Through him, his son learned a love of the outdoors and how to survive in the wild. But his Spirit came from his Hopi mother, Marie. He spent as much time among my people on the La Push Reservation as he did with the Anglos and became friends with Harry, Billy Black, Quil Attera Jr. and Joshua Uley. The five boys were inseparable growing up and constantly found their way into trouble.

The summer before our junior year of high school, Nate brought his family to one of our bon fires. While the other boys had tried to get with me since Junior High, I'd never actually met Charlie. My father had kept me damn near sequestered while he taught me everything I needed to know to eventually replace him. The younger Swan accidently knocked me over during some rough housing with Joshua. He apologized then helped me up. The second I looked into his eyes nothing else existed. My heart sped up and the only thing I wanted to do was throw him down then have my way with him. I had felt lust before but this was something more. Underneath it was the overwhelming need to love the chocolate eyed boy and take care of him. It wasn't until my father's funeral that I learned I'd Imprinted on Charlie Swan that day.

Harry, who had tried to get into my pants the hardest, witnessed what happened and realized what it meant. Throughout the school year, he kept demanding that I date him but Charlie and I were together. The fucker brooded through our last two years of high school. Joshua and my unrealized imprint had graduated early from their respective schools then enlisted in the Marine Corps together. They were set to go off to Boot Camp the day after the rest of us graduated from the Rez School. Just before finals, Clearwater snuck off and told the Elders that I'd Imprinted on him. Despite my father's protests to the contrary, they forced me to marry the fucker. It'd broken my heart but it completely destroyed Charlie. I was already pregnant with Leah when the Tribal Elders learned the truth.

After Boot Camp, Charlie spent the rest of his two-year hitch overseas. Because he knew our legends better than most Quileute's, he believed Harry's lies and suffered in silence while he remained friends with both of us. Renee was the only girl he dated during the four years we were apart. Once everyone knew the truth, my divorce was pushed but Harry kept joint custody of our kids. I moved the three of us into Charlie's house when my father's funeral was over. It was cramped but I hadn't wanted to spend another minute apart and he felt the same way. That night was the first time either of us had felt whole in years.

Harry remained a prick about everything until he passed away from a heart attack a couple of months ago. He used to take the kids on a road trip whenever Renee brought Bella for a visit and tried to poison them against Charlie. I'd been pissed the first time he bad mouthed my love in front of the kids. Turned out the kids were angrier than I was. To them, Charlie was the dad just as much as Charlie saw them as his own. That upset my ex more than anything else.

We continued with small talk while Bella finished her sandwich. My stepdaughter yawned so I told her which room was hers. I kissed her on the forehead then wished her goodnight as she shuffled past me. Charlie and I built this house a few years ago because the old one was just too small. It was on twenty acres between Forks and La Push with bedrooms for all three kids, two guest rooms, a study, our master suite, restaurant quality kitchen and the large living room stuffed with a state of the art entertainment center/home theatre. Esme Cullen had helped with the overall design and decorating but it was her sons that influenced the living room. I had to admit, the soft spoken but motherly vampire knew her stuff.

Thinking of my friend, I grabbed the phone off the wall then gave her a call to check on my son. Vampires never had to sleep so I knew someone would pick up at… 3 a.m. The phone rang once then somebody picked up.

"Hi Sue, Alice said you were going to call," Esme laughed on the other end and I smiled.

"Hey Esme, how's Seth? Has he eaten you out of house and home yet," I asked. I heard an argument over a video game in the background.

"Seth's…upstairs, he and Rose spent most of the evening at a car show in Seattle so he didn't have a chance to raid the fridge. However, breakfast will be a different story. I have a feeling he'll be starving," the Cullen matriarch replied and I could almost hear the grimace in her voice on the last statement. I felt sorry for anything she might've overheard during the past few hours.

The Cullen's were a family of vampires that first moved to the area seventy years ago. Their leader, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, convinced the Alpha of our last pack to sign a treat. Unlike others of their kind, they only drank animal blood. They lived in Forks for six years then left. The family moved back two years ago but it triggered the wolf gene.

Seth and Leah were spending the weekend with Harry when the Cullen's returned. Charlie went out of his way to befriend the doctor and his family. He believed that their lifestyle proved they were good people. When word spread through the Rez that the Cold Ones had returned, my ex was on a bender. The bastard beat both of my kids in a drunken rage then keeled over from a heart attack after they phased for the first time in order to protect themselves. My imprint and I were surprised when neither of them felt guilt when Harry died in the hospital. In fact, it seemed like a weight had been lifted from their shoulders.

Carlisle invited our family over about a week after Harry's memorial. When Seth looked in Rosalie Hale's eyes, he imprinted. My twelve year old son had found his Soul Mate. After the pain Charlie and I had gone through, I wasn't going to keep them apart but decided to lay down some rules. We explained what happened to the Cullen's. Ironically; Rose never tried to fight against it. The blonde vampire had been hurt by men in her human life and it had made her skittish. Seth's tender, innocent, adoration helped heal her emotional scars. Her love for my son has only grown but I decreed no dating until he was in high school.

Now that Seth is a freshman, nothing kept them apart other than when he had to go out on patrol. The imprinting had the added bonus of ending the animosity between the pack of Tribal Protectors and the Cullen's. If they could be imprinted on, then they had souls and must be good people. It was only a matter of time before the sexually frustrated vampire and the hormonal wolf had sex. The weekend after school started, my little boy became a man. Charlie and I had come back from a double date with Carlisle and Esme when we caught them in the act in our living room. Of course, Esme insisted on buying us a new couch. I offered to buy her a new dining room table a few days later.

The sound of Bella's sobs drifted down the hall and were loud enough for Esme to hear on the other end. It surprised me that they hadn't woken up Charlie.

"I thought Leah was out on patrol, what happened," my friend asked worriedly.

"She is. Bella showed up a few minutes ago, Renee and Phil are dead. The poor girl looks like she's been through Hell," I replied and my own concern carried through.

"I can imagine what you are feeling, go comfort her and I will let the others know we need to circle the wagons," Esme commented back then hung up.

Circle the wagons was the phrase our extended family of Swan's/Cullen's/Pack used to convey both the need to protect one of our own and our secret. Whether she knew it or not, Bella was one of us and she needed need our support in her time of need just as much as we needed to keep our secrets safe from the girl until she could be prepared. Another round of sobs pulled at my heartstrings and I bolted to comfort my second daughter.

ChPOV

I hadn't realized how exhausted I was when I came home from the Station last night. Sue continued to bug me about cutting back on the extra shifts but with the time I was going to be off when the baby was born, it made feel like I wasn't pulling my weight. The smell of my wife's cooking had woke me up. I made my way downstairs then leaned against the doorway of the kitchen and watched her dance around sampling the breakfast that she cooked.

Sue caught me while I stared at her, she pounced into my arms and kissed me before directing me to a chair. She returned to the stove and finished her cooking. I noticed that three place settings, Leah must've come back from patrol. I knew it wasn't Seth because he was over at the Cullen's. I doubted that he and Rosalie would crawl out of her bed before noon. Sometimes I wished I still had that level of stamina but I more than made up for it with experience. My imprint had no complaints.

"BREAKFAST," she yelled then placed an omelet on each plate along with a heaping pile of hash browns.

The soft padding of bare feet stumbled down the hall and a noticed a slender female form the corner of my eye. Years of police work had honed my senses to just short of supernatural levels and I knew the girl that had walked into the breakfast nook wasn't Leah. She had been drying her hair but I gazed at her alabaster skin and hope blossomed in me. I gasped when the towel was dropped and I observed my daughter's haggard features.

"Hi Daddy, Mum… it smells delicious. I hate to say I haven't eaten much lately," Bella rushed out before she fell on her food like a lumberjack. Sue mouthed that Esme had Circled the Wagons. I nodded and waited to learn what happened to my little girl.

Once the meal was over, Sue led Bells into the living room with me right behind them. After a few seconds to compose herself, the haunted looking girl told me how Renee and Phil had been mauled to death while camping in the forests of Eastern France last month. As much as I hated the bitch the woman had become after Bella had gotten sick, I never wanted anything bad to happen to her. If I were honest with myself, most of my grief was reserved for Phil. He treated Bella the same way I treated Leah and Seth, as if she was his own.

I pulled my little girl into a tight hug when she started to sob and I had a feeling she had been doing that a lot. Sue shot me a glance while Bella's face was turned into the crook of my neck that sent a couple of messages. The first was there was more to mauling story than we'd been told. The second was that there was something off with Bella. Something that went outside her obvious grief but that was nothing new. There had been something wrong with her since her illness. My police instincts gave me a few ideas of what it was but for now, I decided to watch, wait and do a little digging.

Carlisle stopped by in the afternoon to check on Bella. Esme had passed along what Sue had told her earlier in the day and his compassion made him come check on Bells. We all noticed when she flinched away from him as he approached her. Reluctantly, she agreed to a brief examination. The vampire doctor frowned because Bella was twenty pounds underweight, and it worried all of us. Our concern deepened when she admitted that she hadn't had a decent nights sleep since the accident.

"Bella, I am going to prescribe a mild sedative for you. It will help soothe your nerves and help you sleep," Carlisle commented as he dug a prescription pad from one of his coat pockets.

"That won't be necessary, I brought some Belladonna with me; used in small doses, it soothes nerves. I've studied herbalism and homeopathy since I was nine. Last year I became a certified herbalist so I already know all the arguments you might have. If you all will excuse me, I need to put a kettle on," she explained. The three of us gawked at her as she made her way into the kitchen.