Chapter-by-Chapter: New Moon, Chapter 14

I did a recap on where we got up to last week, so let's jump straight into the next chapter.

It's Chapter 14: Family.

What Happens?

Bella gets to meet not only the werewolf pack, but also pack mum, Emily. The guys put together a plan to protect Bella and Charlie which also involves using Bella as bait for the vampire. There's absolutely nothing that can go wrong with this plan.

Thoughts as I read:

This chapter is called Family and I'm guessing that it's not going to be Bella's family we're meeting here. She's going to be getting to know Jacob's new family, Sam's gang. And I wonder how well this is going to go down.

I cowered into Jacob's side, my eyes scanning the forest for the other werewolves. When they appeared, striding out from between the trees, they weren't what I was expecting. I'd gotten the image of the wolves stuck in my head. These were just four really big half-naked boys.

And this is clearly why the films were so popular.

These guys look pretty similar and they're not pleased to see that Jacob has brought Bella with him. Sam is the most annoyed of all, though one of them does refer to Bella as 'the leech-lover' which is a really bad attempt at a derogatory name, Mudblood has way more impact as a put down.

One of the guys, Paul, is so angry that he completely loses control and pretty much turns into a wolf right there in front of Bella, leading to this awesome description:

Paul seemed to fall forward, vibrating violently. Halfway to the ground there was a loud ripping noise, and the boy exploded.

Umm. Cool.

Then Jacob does it to and protects Bella from Paul. Bella's really the ultimate damsel in distress.

Jacob and Paul have a full on dog fight so Sam orders the two other guys to take Bella to someone called Emily's house. These guys are Jared and Embry and they seem to find the situation quite amusing. It seems that Paul getting worked up enough to transform into a wolf happens fairly regularly and they think it's funny because he's torn up another set of clothes; Hulk-style. Being a werewolf is expensive business.

After a few minutes of this, they seem to realise that Bella is still there for all of thirty seconds, then they go back to debating who is going to win the fight. Paul's got experience on his side but Jake is faster, or something. They're nowhere near as worried about the pair as Bella is.

Actually, it's like Bella's not even there. They all get into the car and the boys are just talking about her as though it's just the two of them. That is, until they realise that Bella knows about them when there's an 'injunction' preventing Jacob from speaking about what they are. She lamely explains this away with her guessing the truth. You'd think they'd have some better way of concealing the secret, practically anyone could guess that.

And we finally find out who Emily is; she's Sam's fiancee. Bella's given the instruction not to stare at Emily. I wonder if that means that she's super hairy or something, some sort of wolfwoman. We get a little into the whole Vampire/Werewolf thing. Embry actually asks Bella whether Laurent was a friend of hers because they're not wanting to interfere with 'the treaty' which seems to be some sort of agreement that the werewolves don't attack the vampires unless the vampires attack a human. Seems fair enough to me.

Oh and the reason Bella's not to stare at Emily, we find that out when we get to her house:

The right side of her face was scarred from hairline to chin by three thick, red lines, livid in color though they were long healed. One line pulled down the corner of her dark, almond-shaped right eye, another twisted the right side of her mouth into a permanent grimace.

Bella's grateful for Embry giving her the heads up not to stare, because she's the sort of person who'll apparently eagle eye anyone who looks slightly different unless you tell her not to. Seriously?!

Despite this, Bella and Emily seem to hit it off right away, what with one being the 'wolf girl' and the other being the 'vampire girl'. I guess they can bond over their love of supernatural beings. About this time Emily uses the word 'brothers' to refer to the other guys in the pack, that ties in nicely to the title, doesn't it?

We also learn that Emily has scars all down her arm as well, which Bella puts down to a risk of hanging out with werewolves. I really hope that's not the case. If my boyfriend and his friends left me with seriously disfiguring scars, I'd be noping right out of there!

Sam, Jacob and Paul show up and everyone is friends again. Well, that's good, I suppose. I mean, at least they're not all at each other's throats any more. Not only that, Paul has a rapidly healing scratch on his arm. That's a wolf thing, it would seem.

Jacob fills everyone in attendance in on what Victoria is after, and why. Jared is thrilled about this because they can use Bella as bait to lure the vampire in and then get her. Bella doesn't get any say in this but she doesn't voice any immediate complaints either. She really does have a death wish, doesn't she.

Bella will be kept at La Push as much as possible, and they'll take care of Charlie as well so he's safe too. So Bella hangs out at Jacob's place and Billy invites Charlie over to join them. Charlie obviously seems to think that Bella and Jacob are an item now. I'm so glad they're not.

Jacob's actually looking forward to getting out hunting some vampire and he tells Bella as much as he sees her and Charlie off that evening.

Charlie, meanwhile, is a bit annoyed at Bella since not all that long ago she was complaining about Jacob falling out with her and joining a gang. Charlie also fills in that Emily was mauled by a bear, though Bella still seems pretty convinced that Sam was the culprit.

And we're into the traditional pattern in these books; the chapter ends with Bella falling asleep and dreaming about being in the woods with Emily. She uses the phrase 'waited anxiously for our werewolves to come home'. Jeez Bella, leave Jacob alone, look at how messed up Edward was after you hooked up with him!

I wonder if anyone's going to get hurt in this little plan.