When Dawn Breaks Chapter 25

"Thank God." Rosalie said as she got out of the backseat of Emmett's jeep. She tried to be a good sport when Emmett proclaimed Bella needed to ride shotgun and she was forced to sit in the back with Alice. The trip started off fine but throughout the hour it took them to drive to the Home Depot in Sequim Emmett had decided he wanted to show Bella what all the features in the Jeep were including his custom speaker system. If Rosalie was human she would have been car sick from the way he drove. As it was she could almost swear that she had the beginnings of a headache. She was going to make sure she was the one who drove on the way back home.

"Are you ok?" Bella asked her as she held out her hand for Rosalie.

"Yeah I'm fine." Seeing Esme and Charlotte already in front of the store Rosalie and their group walk up to meet them. Before everyone started making their way into the store she spoke. "Alright before we begin I want to remind everyone of the budgets I gave each of you. If there is a problem with your budget you are to come to me about it. You will not try to get Bella alone to give you your way."

"Fine I get it." Emmett said holding his hands up seeing the glare Rosalie gave him. "I promise I will stick to the very small budget you gave me to make your mate's house more comfortable for her to live there."

Rosalie ignoring Emmett turned to Bella. "Sweetheart would you push the cart while you and I look for curtains and other things to go into your room. We already have it painted so we just need to put in furniture which we will get elsewhere and some odds and ends that we can pick up here."

"On it." Bella kissed Rosalie's cheek and went to grab a cart.

"I'm going to check out the stuff I need for the closet then I will meet up with you guys." Alice said grabbing her own cart and disappearing into the store.

Esme smiled at Alice's enthusiasm. "Charlotte and I will go look at the stuff we need and then meet up with you to figure out when it can be delivered."

"I'm going to find the coolest things I can to make Bella's living room her favorite room in the house." Emmett declared and grabbed a pallet cart causing Rosalie to sigh thinking of all the times she was going to have use the word no before the shopping trip was over.

"Come on Rose, let's go pick out curtains and lighting fixtures." Bella said arching her eyebrow as she asked. "Do you want ride in the cart?"

"No I don't want to ride in the cart, Bella. I am an adult." Seeing Bella's disbelieving look Rosalie huffed. "Fine but not in the cart on the end is fine."

Bella smiled as Rosalie stood on the end of the cart and held on while Bella started pushing it. "That's the spirit let's make this a fun trip not a stressful one."

"Bella, I love you, but we both know this trip is going to be stressful no matter how much fun we have to counterbalance it." Rosalie told her. "Go down that aisle I want to look at curtains first."

"Then curtains you shall see." Bella turned the cart down an aisle. "Do you know what you want for the room or is this just a trip to just get ideas?"

Rosalie jumped off the cart and began flipping though curtains.”I kind of have an idea but it's your room so it should be more of what you want than what I want."

"It's our room. Charlie expects you to be staying there from now on." Bella reminded her. "And honestly I don't have a clue about decorating anything. As long as the furniture is comfortable I'm perfectly happy. You can have the green light to do what you want."

"Promise me if you don't like something you will tell me because I know you Bella. You would just go along with everything to make me happy." Rosalie said.

Bella was about to reply when she suddenly sensed danger coming towards them. Pushing the cart out of the way she grabbed Rosalie and pulled her behind her back.

Rosalie sensing Bella's mood change asked. "Bella what is it? What's wrong? Should I get the others?"

"No, stay right where you are." Bella told her as two men and one woman of various sizes came walking down the aisle towards them.

Rosalie pulled away from Bella and jumped in front her, as she dropped into a crouch, she growled. "Stay back or I don't care how many humans are around I will end you."

The largest man who was about half a foot taller than Bella held his hands out while he and the other two people came to a stop. He had shaggy black hair, a long beard, deeply tanned skin and was wearing clothing that showed off his extremely muscular body. "We mean no harm. We wish to have an audience with the Great White Tiger."

"Are you the Great White Tiger?"The woman of the group was about the same height and size as Esme with long dirty blond hair and when Bella nodded in reply her eyes went wide. "But you're so young."

"I have found that destiny doesn't particularly care about one's age when it's determined for something to happen."Bella put her hand on Rosalie's shoulder and pulled her to her feet. Rosalie stood but positioned herself in front of Bella prepared to defend at a moments notice. "Why did you seek me out?"

"We followed many rumors to find out were you lived in hopes that you could help us." The bearded man said.

"What do you need from me?" Bella asked. As the man looked around she offered. "Let's find someplace private to speak."

Rosalie pulled out her cell phone and called Emmett. She spoke before he could.”Get the others and meet us in the parking lot."

"Why what's up?" Emmett asked.

"Just do it." Rosalie growled into the phone, hanging up before Emmett could reply."My family will be meeting us in the parking lot. Let's go there."

The group silently made their way to the parking lot waiting at Emmett's jeep for the others. As they walked up Emmett called out. "What's going on? I didn't finish testing out the carpet."

"No now Emmett." Bella told him causing him to recoil at her tone. Before he could voice his hurt feelings Bella motioned to the three strangers. "As for what is going on, they were just going to explain that to us."

Rosalie cleared her throat when no spoke causing the biggest man to look at her embarrassed. "My apologies. We have never been around vampires before. None of us expected the first time we met them they wouldn't be hostel."

"Regardless, what do you need?" Bella asked impatiently.

"Of course White Tiger. My name is Gil." The biggest man said holding out his hand. As Bella went to shake it Rosalie growled and pushed Bella behind her causing Gil to take a step back and retract his hand. "I am a bear shifter. My sleuth and I live in Maine. Two of our cubs were kidnapped a week ago. One had already shifted and the other wasn't quite old enough yet. While trying to find them we come upon Patsy's and Dereck's people."

"My name is Patsy." The woman said. "I'm a lynx shifter. Although the regular lynx is more of a solitary creature I belong to a community of lynx shifters also in Maine. Two weeks ago a group of our young went out to practice their shifting when some men in black tactical gear began shooting at them. Out of the five of them two got away but the men took the other three. When we went to investigate we found a tranquilizer dart they must have missed when they cleaned up after themselves."

The last man stepped forward. "My name is Dereck. I am a wolf shifter. Three days before we met Gil we had five of our young taken. We were able to track them to a heavily reinforced building that was guarded by men with guns and what looked like the same darts that Pasty found."

"Jesus." Rosalie whispered. "They are hunting shifters and have prepared themselves specifically if your people try to retrieve them."

Gil nodded. "That's exactly the conclusion we came to. We had heard rumors about your existence and followed a few leads that eventually led us to Forks. We would have come to you there but the smell of other shifters and vampires was overwhelming and we didn't want to start any fights on your territory.I apologize for ambushing you like that in the store but we just didn't know what else to do."

"No need to apologize.I understand why you did it and would have probably done the same in your situation." Bella told them. She looked at the horrified faces of the vampires and made a quick decision. "Where are the three of you staying?"

"We hadn't worked that out yet."Patsy said. "Our priority was finding you. We rented a car and planned on going from there after we talked to you."

"Would you be willing to stay with other shifters while we work out exactly what we are going to do?" Bella asked.

"You're going to help us?" Patsy asked seeing Bella's nod her eyes filled with tears.

Rosalie pulled Pasty into a hug and patted her on the back as Pasty sobbed into her shoulder. "We are going to try our hardest to get your young back. We don't know how yet but you can count on us."

"Thank you so much." A teary eyed Gil said.

"Don't thank us yet. We need to make a plan." Bella looked at the group."We know a pack of wolf shifters, the ones you smelled probably and I know they would be willing to let you stay with them while we make a plan. Will that be ok?"

"Of course White Tiger. We will go where you wish us to." Dereck told her.

Bella looked at the vampires. "You guys can continue your shopping or go home, but I ask as a favor if Emmett and Alice can ride back with you Esme."

"What? No, Bella we are coming with you." Emmett said. "You can't leave us behind. This is a mission for team teeth and tails."

Bella held her hand out for Emmett's car keys. "Not this time Emmett. You can't go on the reservation. I promise we will let you know what's going on as soon as we know something."

"I don't like it." Emmett said handing over his keys." How are we supposed to keep each other safe if we don't know what the threat is?"

Rosalie laid her hand on Emmett's shoulder. "That's what we are doing right now. We are finding out the threat so we can get the whole team together and defeat it. Even if Bella can't come over tonight I will make sure I come and tell everyone what's going on."

"OK. Just be careful." Emmett told them. "I don't want either of you getting hurt."

"We will be fine." Bella assured him. Handing the keys to Rosalie she addressed the shifters. "Follow us in the Jeep and we will call and tell the wolf shifters we are on our way."

"Of course White Tiger." Dereck said as he and the other two went to get their car.

As they settled into the Jeep Rosalie turned to Bella. "I know this is serious and I really want to help them but do you promise we will still get our week in Vermont when this is over."

"I promise you will get your week in Vermont." Bella told her. "No matter what I have to do, you and I are getting our week of privacy."

"Clothing optional." Rosalie said.

Bella kissed Rosalie's cheek. "Clothing optional."