The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide (47 page)

This history was passed down through oral storytelling. Originally the entire tribe would learn the account; in the last century, however, the sharing became more secretive, passed only from werewolf descendants to the next generation of potential werewolves. All tribe members know the basics, but think of the stories as myths rather than facts.

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n 1936, cold ones again entered Quileute land. They were different from the vampires who had come before. Their coven was larger—three males and two females—and the eyes of all the members were golden rather than red. The leader, Carlisle Cullen, somehow knew that the wolves had human intelligence. He told the wolves that the Cullens meant no harm to the wolves, the Quileute tribe, or any other humans. He claimed that they did not drink human blood, and offered a treaty between his coven and the werewolves. The three werewolves in the pack were outnumbered, so Carlisle had no need to make this offer other than an honest desire to refrain from killing the wolves. For this reason, Alpha wolf Ephraim Black believed Carlisle was making a genuine offer.

Ephraim insisted on two main points to the treaty: The vampires could not injure any humans (either by hunting them for food or by transforming them into vampires, as the Quileutes viewed this transformation as equal to murder), and the vampires were never to trespass on Quileute land. Carlisle agreed to these terms and proposed adding the concept of mutual secrecy: The Quileutes would not be able to tell anyone the true nature of the Cullens, and vice versa. Ephraim agreed, and they worked out the boundary lines for their respective lands. The Quileute territory covered all of
the reservation, plus some of the land that had traditionally belonged to the Hohs and the Makahs. In some places, the boundary line followed the main road, now Highway 101, but in others it followed the old tribal lines. In turn, the werewolves would not cross into Cullen land. The town of Forks, along with a few other surrounding towns, and the highway were “truce areas” where both the Quileute werewolves and the Cullens were allowed to venture.

As the years passed and the Cullens moved elsewhere, the younger members of the Quileute tribe began to think of the treaty between the cold ones and the werewolves as part of a legend, not factual truth.

As the years passed and the Cullens moved elsewhere, the younger members of the Quileute tribe began to think of the treaty between the cold ones and the werewolves as part of a legend, not factual truth. The Cullens returned to the area in 2003, and Jacob Black later told human Bella Swan that the Cullens were vampires who had made a treaty with his werewolf great-grandfather, Ephraim. He thought he was only telling her a scary story, but in fact, he unknowingly broke the treaty.

The Cullens’ return had a huge impact on the tribe, especially those who had inherited the extra chromosome and who were in the right age range to transform. Werewolves hadn’t existed in the Quileute tribe since Ephraim’s pack. But the number of vampires in the Cullen coven caused an unusually large number of tribe members to become werewolves. The result was the largest wolf pack the tribe had seen since the days of the first shape-shifter.

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