AN: Hello readers! This fic is what is affectionately called a 'tropefest.' We've got 'wolf-instincts,' 'alpha-imprints-weird,' 'vampire-allure-makes-Bella-strange,' and many other tried and true favorites in the Twilight Fandom. It's also a fix-it fic, because eleven years later, I'm evidently still not over it.😉That being said, I hope you enjoy my take on a Jacob ending!

PS: This fic will be 3 parts plus an epilogue, and an eventual smut outtake on A03 if I get enough interest. It is already written and will be updated daily through the epilogue.

Jacob lay in his bed, staring at the door where the love of his life had just quietly left the scene of her crime; the scene where she had tenderly and lovingly eviscerated him. Again.

Being used to the pain that Bella Swan inevitably brought in her wake didn't actually lessen it.

Time is what he'd asked her for but it was a lie. Every bone in his body ached and quite a few were causing him actual agony as they knit together way too fast but the throbbing that ripped through his soul at the thought of Bells not being around made all that pale in comparison. His wolf clawed at him, furious at the sight of her walking away again and his agreement to let her. She was his everything; his absolute imprint without the actual voodoo and none of the fringe benefits. But for all of the anguish she caused, Jacob just COULD NOT let her go completely. He couldn't; not to HIM.

But hell, there she was, walking away again whether he could give her up or not.

He knew Bella was convinced that he was holding on so stubbornly because he loved her so damn much but that wasn't entirely true. Yeah, he really did love her enough to live for her, die for her, burn for her; he also loved her enough to let her go. His wolf may have raged at the thought but the man would never agree to keep her if it wasn't what she wanted.

He could let her go, he could. But he couldn't fucking let her die.

Taking aside her planned suicide by blood sucker, something was so incredibly wrong with the way she was with that leech. Something always niggled at the back of his mind and he couldn't abandon her to that fate even if it hadn't meant she'd become a walking corpse. Recently, his suspicions had grown into full blown paranoia but surprisingly it was that kiss, that kiss that she had offered him in fear and hopelessness, that truly convinced him that he needed to do something more than beg her to live for him.

It was in the way Bella's lips had pressed into his. She had kissed him with enough desperation and terror to damn near bring him to his knees. Jacob always assumed a real kiss with his Bells would make his wolf purr the same way her hugs and touches did, but this kiss; it made his wolf whine. Her arms had latched around his neck like he was the only air at the bottom of the ocean, the water all around waiting to fill her lungs and drown her (which, frankly, was painfully accurate imagery.) He had been looking to pour his love into her, looking to shake her foundations enough that she'd understand the depths of his devotion, but instead he had found his Bells screaming into him with fear and he just knew he was missing something vital.

Then she came to him after the battle, after his bones had been rent, healed all wrong, and broken all over again and it was just too much. Because she had told him that she loved him, she did, but it wasn't enough. And he was so tired of fighting, wasn't he? All that shit about not being able to save someone if they didn't want to save themselves ran through his mind. He'd been fighting vamps, fighting his shifting body and the animal split in his soul, fighting for her acknowledgement and her heart. Part of him, the tired and broken part of the MAN, had thought maybe it was time to truly give her up.

Except...

When she said goodbye, when she stood and walked away from his bed, Bella's eyes were already dead. The light that always burned, that always lit her up from the inside, had gone out at the moment she forced herself to walk away from him. And that just couldn't be right, because to date, her heart was still beating.

Something was WRONG. The wolf agreed.

So he'd take the time he asked for, but it wasn't going to be spent getting over her. He was going to figure out exactly what was wrong and he was going to do what Jacob did best.

FIX it.

Jacob waited until his bones were mostly mended and he had use of both his wrists before he drug himself out to his garage and started out with a list.

He wrote down what he knew about his Bella, what made her tick, and then what he knew about Edward's Bella. It took him two hours but when he was done, he sat back and bit his lip hard enough to almost draw blood.

The discrepancies were a little unnerving.

Edward's Bella needed him. She needed the leech more than she needed her next breath, more than she needed water, more than she needed anything. Without Edward, she had no will to survive. With Edward, she had no will to survive either, but that was another story entirely. Everything lost its meaning if he wasn't around for her to filter the world through. She absorbed everything as a facet of him instead of as an individual thing. Food wasn't food anymore, it was something that Edward didn't consume or need. Her truck that she loved was an eyesore that Edward didn't like. Her room was not a place she slept but a place that Edward held her (or watched her sleep. Totally normal behavior.) Nothing existed as it did before him; there was only every single thing in the universe and how it all shifted to revolve around Edward.

Jacob's Bella, though, didn't need Jacob as a filter. Sure, she wanted him to hold her hand as she figured things out and he loved that; loved that she trusted him to make her safe, keep her steady. She wanted him at her back before she took a scary, new step into the unknown. But at the end of the day, she wanted Jacob as training wheels. He was there to help her figure it out for herself, not make her dependent. It was Jacob's job to build her up and then set her free.

Then there were the things that Bella allowed Edward to get away with. He lied to take her away to Phoenix without telling her about the danger she was in? She forgave him. He abandoned her in the middle of the woods and she almost died from hypothermia? Fucking forgave him. He stole the engine to her truck to keep her from seeing her friends on the rez? Forgave him. On and on and on, whatever Edward wanted, Edward eventually got.

Jacob, however; Jacob she wouldn't hesitate to leave in the damn dust for bad behavior. He disappeared on her when he went wolf and she chased him down. She called him out for breaking a promise and despite her insecurity and her discomfort, she put him in his place. Hell, the first time he kissed her, she literally punched him in the face and that was after she knew he was a shifter.

Bella wasn't assertive by nature, but with Jacob, she'd found enough comfort to demand his respect, at least a little. She seemed incapable of doing that with Edward and she just took whatever he gave her. The ONLY time she demanded anything from Edward was when it came to matters concerning her relationship with Jacob.

When he thought about it, Edward and his family pulled Bella under in the tide of all that they were. They pushed at her and pulled at her until she began to liquify to fit in the mold they forced her into. He didn't even think they did it on purpose, almost like it was just the nature of the leeches, but it happened all the same. Seriously, what was all that 'Bella Barbie' stuff she had complained to him about? Jacob would beat the shit out of anyone who tried to force Bells to change or made her feel inadequate. She was everything, and she was perfect. So why did Edward let his sister do it?

Bella just wasn't Bella with the leeches. She was some watered down, half alive, overly pleasing version of herself and it literally turned his stomach. Why did she do that and how did it happen? It was fucking weird, because it was like an abusive relationship but it was even sneakier than that. She literally DIMMED around them. She just became... less. Pliable. Flat.

The wolf HATED it.

Jacob sucked in a breath through his teeth as he studied his list, his eyes widening even as his fists clenched and his heart began to pound. He'd better be wrong about this; he NEEDED to be wrong about this and he needed to talk to his dad.

He didn't pause as he burst through the front door, having quickly jogged the few feet from his garage to the small, rundown house he called home.

"What do we know about the Cold One's sway? All of it," he demanded without preamble.

Billy blinked up from the TV dinner he was poking at and met Jacob's eyes with his own, confused ones.

"What's this about, Jake?" Billy asked slowly, setting his plastic fork down and studying his son carefully.

"I've been thinking, Dad," Jacob said, collapsing into the armchair and muting the TV. "About Bella and what we have and what she has with the leech. I know she says she loves him and I know how they are together and something about it just seems really wrong to me."

"Aside from the obvious, vampire with a human girl thing?" Billy said wryly.

Jacob grimaced and ran his hand down his face. "Yeah. Aside from that."

Billy sat back in his chair and rubbed his chin, eyes going slightly out of focus as he considered. "Well, you know I've read all the same journals you have, but our understanding of the effects of the vampires is still limited. We do know that their scent and the sound of their voice can have a narcotic effect on their selected prey. Of course, they're also inhumanly beautiful and if they aren't the focus of that vampire's attention, rather than drawing the human in, people find them off putting. It seems the sway only starts once the vampire focuses on their victim."

Jacob's throat tightened and he had to swallow several times before he could speak again. Edward was certainly focused on Bella. Finally, he forced the words out of his mouth, biting back the instinctive growl that was trying to rumble through his throat. "Long term effects?"

Billy's eyes snapped to Jacob's and held, but he could see his dad's brain firing quickly, drawing conclusions and connecting dots. "You don't think-"

He stopped himself and took a deep breath, the air whistling in through his teeth. "That's kind of hard to say. There really are no stories documenting any long-term effects sway would have on people, as they aren't normally around long enough for any to be seen. Some of the more obscure legends talk about some of the overarching consequences for spirit warriors in times of war, when their exposure to the scent and venom is highest, but even then, regular humans are not exposed over long periods of time."

Jacob's eyes narrowed. "I thought venom killed us."

"In the bloodstream? Definitely," Billy said with a solemn nod. "But in the air or on the skin? No, it isn't fatal. You should know that from your reading. It can make you real sick, though. Like the worst flu you can imagine and it can sometimes even cause temporary psychosis. It's poison, son."

"Dad, if leeches can affect the wolves so badly over time, what the hell are they doing to little Bella?" Jacob fought a whimper as his chest constricted, his wolf pacing in agitation at the conclusions he was drawing. "We're not even affected by that vamp mojo, and they still mess us up. Do you remember how she was, so fucking out of it and damn near comatose? She used to hallucinate Edward's voice, not to mention the way she described that god damn hole in her chest. She swore when he left, he took her heart and lungs with him."

Jacob shook his head to clear it, pushing down hard on the wolf's tumultuous movements before glancing over once more at his father's grave expression. "I mean, I hate the fucker, but I think Cullen really does think he loves Bella. I don't think he'd keep her under the sway all this time, but she's so... not right with them. I mean, even if you ignore her willingness to die to become one, she's still just not Bells, not really."

Billy sighed and rubbed at his chin again. "Who's to say that the sway is even something they do consciously? It's a hunting instinct and no matter what the Cullen's try to do, in the end, humans are their natural food source. They can only fold themselves into that fake humanity so much."

Jacob groaned, feeling at once helpless and really, really stupid for not figuring this out sooner. He had just been so damn busy, what with the turning into a wolf thing and then trying to protect the woman he loved from an army of newborn vampires, not to mention dealing with the OTHER bloodsuckers.

"Why didn't you tell me this shit, Dad?!" He gritted out, a growl wrenching its way from his chest without permission. "Don't you think I had a right to know these things could be happening!?"

Billy laughed without humor. "Jacob Black, every last bit of this is in the journals, the journals only YOU as the rightful alpha and the Elders have access to. I TOLD you to read them and I assumed you had, although now I'm realizing you obviously didn't. I love Bella, you know that, and she's important to me, but I don't spend nearly the time you do thinking about that little girl. Besides, she's YOUR mate. It's your right to manage that relationship how you see fit."

Jacob's head shot up and his mouth gaped open as he stared at his father. His wolf was purring suspiciously, but Jacob chose to ignore him. "She's not my imprint. It's not like Sam and Em, or Jared and Kim. I love her and I'd do anything for her, but it isn't some damn mystical wolf thing."

Billy huffed and crossed his arms, glaring at his son in open disapproval. "Did you seriously not read ANY of the journals?"

When Jacob didn't answer, Billy simply ignored him and continued.

"You're the ALPHA, son. Nothing is quite the same for you as it is for them. You gotta be able to keep your head, keep your focus, no matter what. All this 'do anything, be anything' business would make you a pretty shit leader if you imprinted and she begged you to leave the pack entirely and you just did. No, for the true alpha, you get a mate, but it doesn't subjugate your will. Every other wolf in the pack will bow to the alpha and if they are blessed with one, they bow to their imprint. The alpha, though; the alpha bows to no one."

Jacob just continued to stare suspiciously at his father, unable to speak. Billy rolled his eyes.

"Think about it this way, son," he continued. "The only thing that can temper the imprint bond is an alpha order, right? Well, the alpha doesn't have anyone to order him to do the right thing. He has to have the will within himself. You get a mate, but the wolf just points her out; no compulsion and no pull at first. The man can choose to deny her, unlike with an imprint, though I imagine your wolf wouldn't take that laying down. It's about the marking, with the alpha, and only the alpha gets to mark a mate."

His wolf was preening under the discussion of mates, but Jacob's head was reeling. "No, that's not right. The other guys have bitten their mates."

"Bites ain't the same as marking," Billy replied with exasperation. "Look, wolves like to sink their teeth into what's theirs, no surprise there. But marking is different. The actual mark is a -what did ya call it? A 'Mystical Wolf Thing.' Imprint benefits and pack status after the marking, but no subjugation of will. In your case, you've loved Bella all your life. Seems to me the man selected a mate and the wolf approved."

Jacob closed his eyes for a moment and looked to the wolf pacing in his soul, wondering if his father could possibly be right. The wolf looked back with determined eyes and a smug growl. Fuck, how exactly had he missed that? Probably because he didn't even know what he was looking for.

He really should read the journals.

"It's one of the reasons, sooner or later, you are going to have to take your place," Billy continued. "Sam is always going to put Emily first; he can't help himself. The pack needs YOU to come along and put the pack first."

"I always put Bella first," Jacob stated firmly.

"Well, yeah. You ain't the alpha yet," Billy reasoned. "Trust me, you'll get what I'm saying once you take the reins. In the meantime, though, if you don't want to lose your mate to the undead, you may want to get your head together. Sounds like you're finally ready to actually do something about this mess with the leech. Is it finally time for you to pull that stubborn head out of your ass and accept that maybe Bella needs a little more than you just crying for her to pick you?"

Jacob took a deep breath, allowing his lungs to expand fully even though his ribs still creaked with pain. Part of him - and he could now own up to that bit- part of him had been holding back out of fear he'd imprint. He'd been terrified on some level that he would be wrong and he'd break her heart worse than Cullen ever had. He'd thrown himself into to keeping her alive, but he'd held back when he tried to keep her for himself. Now that he knew, now that he could see how his wolf was ready to claim his mate and had chosen her just as much as the man, he simply nodded.

"Good," Billy said firmly with a wide grin. "Cause I got an idea."