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Bella POV
There it was, coming closer. Pausing in my sweeping I turned to face the setting sun, looking through the trees. My heart clenched. Maybe...maybe this time...this time it would come to me, and I would be able to finally see what it was that this feeling was pointing me to. Maybe this time it wouldn't pass me by and keep on going. Maybe...
Jasper POV
Chasing after Alice I followed her through the forests of North Dakota. We were going to meet the Cullen's Alice said. She said that they didn't kill humans, that they drank from animals and they were living in Oregon right now.
In the short amount of time I had known her I found Alice to be rather pushy when it comes to getting her way. Since she sees something happening that is the way it is going to be. It was difficult getting to write a letter to Peter and Char telling them where I was going. Alice almost didn't even spare me the time to go back to my lodgings and collect my bag of clothes and possessions. She kept saying we had to get moving, it didn't matter that I had the letter done in 3 minuets and was able to post it on the way out of town. She hadn't seen it happening so she wasn't going to do it.
We were close to the border of Montana when it hit me. Stopping in my tracks I felt like a vice was constricting around my heart and was pulling me north. After a few minuets Alice came running back through the trees looking worried having continued on ahead before she noticed I stopped. Her eyes had that far away look in them that I knew meant that she was scanning the future.
"Jasper...what is it?" she asked, "Do you feel someone nearby?"
I shake my head my hand clutching at my chest. "No...no one is close to us. But I need to go and check somethin' out." I turn my head to the north my eyes scanning the horizon, missing the look of resentment that passed over Alice's face. "I shouldn't be to long, only a few hours. I can hunt while I'm searchin' so that we don't have to stop as soon. If you want I can meet you at the border before midnight and..."
Alice cut me off, "No. We need to keep going nothing's up there but trees." I looked back at her feeling the deception coming off her in waves. "It's probably a human you scent. We should get moving as soon as we're over the border it'll be gone and everything will be fine."
This time I can practically taste the lie in her words. What is it that she doesn't want me to find? Keeping my face neutral I reply, "I wont be gone long Alice. I need to see what this is, then we can be right back on the road..."
"No Jasper." Alice states. Pausing for a moment, I can feel her nervousness building, then she continues. "We're meant to be together Jazzy and if you do this I'll leave without you. Then where will you be huh? Right back to where you started when I found you at that run down diner."
I chuckle feeling the Major stir, he never liked being threatened. Even if it was empty. I don't even need to feel her lie this time. With all the emotions that I felt while with Maria I knew what the pull of mates felt like when they first saw each other, when they were with each other, and when one was lost. "Oh Alice." I say with a sigh, "I've told you already we're not mates. I've felt that time and again back in the south, and what we feel for each other isn't even close to that." I hold up a hand when she opens her mouth to try to refute me. "I've been there for the first moments for dozens of them, and we don't even have the spark necessary to begin with." I think back to when Peter first saw Charlotte. They thought I didn't know, and that they had managed to keep it a secret. Even with the level of apathy I was in I saw their connection. "Also, I wont be right back to where I was before you appeared in my life. I can now hunt without guilt, and that is a damn slight better than where I started."
"Please Jazzy." Alice tries, "Please come with me. We could be happy."
I stare at her for a moment. Feeling that if I went with her I could be happy, but there would always be that piece of me that stayed in the back of my mind whispering that I could have had more. In the end the answer is simple, and I can tell that Alice knows what my answer is going to be as well. "Goodbye Alice. I wish you the best." I turn to go getting a few steps away before I half turn back words spilling from my mouth coming from somewhere else. "It's better for all of us this way. You'll find you own happiness all the sooner now." I then turn back and run off, heading north following the pull in my chest.
I cross the Missouri River an hour later. The pull all the more persistent that I go to where it is. A short time after I watch as the trees thin, and suddenly I'm at the edge of a large clearing. And there standing of the deck of a log cabin is the location of the pull.
Bella POV
There. Getting closer, maybe this time it would finally come. My eyes jerk south just as he steps out of the woods. Tall with honey blond hair that fell in waves down the sides of his face. The button up shirt and trousers he had on looking worn and frayed at the edges. He's barefoot but I could see a pair of boot tied to the bag he had over his shoulder. My gaze traveled up his body catching glimpses of corded muscle as he came to a stop as well as multiple scars on his lower arms and neck. Catching his eyes with my own all I have time to notice is that they're gold and a feeling of finally coming home settles around me before my mind goes blank.
Jasper POV
The first thing I notice about her is that she is barefoot. Her pants though worn look well cared for, a skirt over top of them falling to her knees, and a blouse with the sleeves rolled up over her elbows under a vest. Scars dot her forearms and I spy a few on her neck as well, before my eyes fall on her hair. Wavy mahogany brown falling to her waist with a few pieces curving around her jaw. My gaze lands on her own golden eyes and I feel the pull change into a feeling of home. Sweeping around me before settling lightly on my skin.
Taking an unneeded breath I walk up to the foot of the stairs. "Major Jasper Whitlock darlin' and it's a pleasure to meet you." I say taking a slight bow catching a hint of strawberries and freesia on the wind.
"Bella...Isabella Swan" she replies clutching at her broom. I smile up at her my hand sliding under one of her's and dropping a chaste kiss on her knuckles. Looking back up I catch a smile of her own. Yes this is home.
