AN: This is my first attempt, so thoughtful tips and reviews would be much appreciated.

I do not own Twilight. S.M. owns it all.

Renessme's POV

Chapter One: What I Always Dreamed Of

Like a lightning bolt through the forest I ran swiftly on the pads of my feet. I was hunting. Unlike my typical prey, this one was hunting me too.

I spotted him through the trees, standing tall glancing wildly through the forest. Barefoot, shorts clinging to the edges of his muscular frame, his tan chest rose and fell with aggression. He had not yet seen me.

I was burning...on fire from the inside out and no one could do anything about it. I tried to douse the flames every chance I got, but they just became more intense with each passing thought. This fire...this desire burned within me more than it had ever before. "This is wrong," I muttered to myself. He is like my brother. I thought.

His eyes darted right to me. Our eyes locked. Cover blown, damn superhuman hearing! I leaped at him, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. Not so much different than any other playful bear hug I normally gave him, but in my heart I knew it was something much more.

Laughter. Of course. He was laughing at me. "You always give yourself away by talking," Jacob said sweetly. "What was it this time? Not right that I hadn't noticed you first? I know, I know. I am far superior at the hunt, I just didn't want you to feel bad, so I let you win."

I smiled, pulling my head back to look into his eyes. I was almost seventeen (in half human half vampire years) and I knew exactly what I wanted for my birthday.

"Ugh. You only wish," I said with a beaming smile. He was the only one that could make me smile like that. "Don't fight nature, Jacob, I will always beat you at the hunt... you know, now that I am older and wiser..." I grinned madly. Of course I was talking about Jacob never having matured past sixteen (in human years) and I could never let him live it down.

"I'm like twenty-seven, just ask your mom. She lost this debate years ago," he said smiling back, making my heart beat more wildly than usual.

My smile faded as my eyes held his lips in their gaze.

His smile faded too. "What's wrong Nessie?" Worry registering in both this voice and furrowed brow.

"Nothing. I-I-I was just think about calculus," was all I managed to get out and I stumbled over that even. He'll never buy it.

Turning his head to one side, starring more intently at me with one eye than the other. "Really? Calculus?" His brow still furrowed, but with more of a 'rriigghhtt' look than a worried look.

I looked down. Mortified by what I was thinking. Placing his cinnamon finger gently under my porcelain chin, he lifted my face parallel with his. "Why so long in the tooth, kid?" he asked with both a teasing and concerned tone.

That did it.

I stared into his eyes with the intensity of 10,000 fiery suns. If I had to feel like I was burning, then so did he. "Kid?" was all I managed to say. Kid! Was that all I was to him? All I would ever be to him?

"Wow! Are you mad at me? It's just an expression, Nessie," he said, looking at me with complete puzzlement. "Ok. Enough is enough. What is really wrong, Nessie?"

I stared at him, long and hard. Just say it. It will all be over in like two seconds. Just blurt it out. 'I think I'm in love with you.' It's that easy. Only it wasn't. Instead, I did what felt natural. I threw myself tight against his muscular chest and planted my lips against his. He stood still, eyes wide for just a moment. Then they closed gently as did mine. I was in paradise...and just as quickly, I was in hell.

Reaching behind his neck he grabbed my wrists and wrenched himself from the hold of both my arms and lips. My legs, however, did not budge and inch from his waist.

"Renessme!" he shouted.

That was it. I had done it. He only used my real name when he was angry with me. I relinquished my hold from around his waist and slid against his body to the ground...defeated. Before anything else could be said, before I could be any more mortified, I ran. I ran faster than I ever had before.

The sight of my home, the little stone cottage in the forest, could not come fast enough. He was behind me running, but not fast enough to catch me. Since I knew I could never out-run him, I assumed he just wanted to make sure I got home safe...I was just a kid to him.

Grabbing the darkened brass knob of the cottage door, I wrenched it open, slamming it shut just as fast, and ran for my room. My sanctuary. I slammed that door too and threw myself on the bed thinking the waterworks would start at any moment. Then I realized, they already had. Crap. How long had that been going on. Did my eyes betray me right in front of Jacob, or did I manage to escape first.

Something else came in that moment, just like I knew it would. A knock at the door.

"Renessme? Are you OK honey? Can I come in?" Mama asked.

"Yyyyeeeesss," I wailed. I never had gone through the rebellious stage of not wanting my parents around. Maybe it was the sacrifice both of them had made to save me as a baby. There's something about someone giving up their life, human life at least, to save you. It forged an unbreakable bond...a bond that not even raging teenage hormones could break. Dad of course already knew what had happened and was probably looking for Jacob that very instant.

"What happened, love?" Mama asked with deep concern.

"I-I-I and h-h-he dooeessnn'tt waanntt meeee!" I blubbered. Gibberish, complete gibberish. My only hope for her to understand me was that dad was able to tell her what happened before I even got home...and of course he had.

"I promise you that is not true. It's just that he thinks of you as a little sister right now, that's all," she said calmly with a small sympathetic smile.

If she thought she was helping, she was dead wrong. I was furious and for the first time I did not want my mother around. So much for the unbreakable bond theory. Her words had made the cascading water stop, only to be replaced with a death stare...straight into her eyes.

"Just what I wanted to hear, thanks. Too bad you didn't learn more about human emotions before you turned to stone," my tongue sliced like a razor-blade.

Smiling back she said "I was a teenage girl once and I do remember a little. Renessme, you have to trust me on this one. Jake will not always see you as a little sister. He just does right now and you caught him off guard. He was scared, that's all."

Scared...right. He looked at me like I was the most repulsive thing in the world. Scared would have warmed my heart a little, but there was nothing about him that looked even remotely frightened. "I suppose he told you all of this, did he?" I asked snidely.

"He didn't have to. Well, actually he did, but that was like 7 years ago," she smiled and I knew she was getting to something good. Something I would want to hear.

"Actual, or half human half vampire years?" I asked. The answer would determine my next question.

"Actual," she said, knowing I was probably getting warmer.

I knew right away what she was saying. I had seen it happen to almost every shapeshifter in our strange supernatural family. Jacob had imprinted on me...as a baby. So now what. What did that mean? I only knew the imprinted ones as being completely head-over-heels madly in love with each other. I felt sick to my stomach...a baby.

"What? Why? Gross? A baby?" My words were not the composed question I had in my head.

Again. Laughter. She was laughing at me this time. "It's not like that. If it was, myself, your father, or any of the others would have taken him out of this world long ago."

I just looked at her, waiting for the rest of the explanation...and she knew it.

"Imprinting can mean many things to many different couples. At it's core though, it means that Jacob would do anything for you, be anything for you, when ever you want, where ever you want. Plain and simple, the sun rises and sets in you," she explained more dramatically than simply.

"In me?" I repeated in shock.

"First he was your...well, basically your nanny." She rolled her eyes at that one. "Then he was your big brother. Now your friend, and if you truly want, he will be your...your...," she couldn't bring herself to say it, just as most mothers couldn't.

So I said it for her in a light whisper. "Lover."

"I certainly hope not just that and not for a long time, but your soulmate. Your life mate," she clarified in a stern fashion.

"How long until he will feel for me the way I feel for him?" I asked.

"He already does. The moment you kissed him told him what you wanted from him. It only takes an instant," she said.

"Then why did he push me away? That does not sound like someone that wants that person for their life mate. I mean at that moment he could have thrown me under a bus and I would have been quite contented to just die there. I can't ever face him again," I cried and the waterworks were back on.

She grabbed me a held me close. "As much as he loves you, he wanted to speak with us first. He wanted us to know what you had chosen first, before you two became all crazy with love. You have to understand, he has great respect for your father and I and would never want to hurt us, or be on our bad side...so to speak. It's one of my favorite qualities about Jake, he's totally traditional."

"Great. My hormones are raging out of control and I fall for the cool, calm, collected shapeshifter. Just what I always dreamed of," I said in my most petty tone.

Laughter. Again.

"You sound like me, when I fell for your father. Only I didn't have the benefit of knowing that he would do anything for me as you do," she sounded almost envious as she spoke.

"So, what do I do now?" and that wasn't a rhetorical question. I truly had no idea how to go about being normal around Jacob again.

"Well, for starters you could go outside and comfort Jake. Your father has been trying to do that for the entire time we have been in here...to no avail I'm sure," she said with slight concern.

"OK. Go out there and say what exactly? 'Sorry for attacking you earlier. I guess I should have let you know that I wanted you to jump my bones rather than be my brother.' Weird. That is not going to help my situation." Now I was being the dramatic one.

"Then just go tell him you are sorry. An leave everything else out. That will be enough," she said trying to comfort me.

"Alright," I said pouting, plopping down from my bed.

I slowly opened my bedroom door and took very small slow steps to the front door. I hesitated at the knob wondering if I truly could do this without dying of embarrassment. I decided either way would work for me. I would live through it or it would be a quick swift death.