I'm sitting at my kitchen table with my headphones on, trying to use music as a way to ease me through a particularly difficult math problem. Without warning, my headphones are knocked off my head and I'm faced with silence and polynomials to factor. I look up, determined to see what caused my lack of music in the face of math.
"You little piece of poop!" a familiar face stares into mine, covered with a mixture of annoyance and excitement.
"Excuse me?" I've been called a lot of things by my cousin, but this is a first.
"How come you didn't tell me?" Quil demands. I'm not entirely sure what he's referring too, but one thing in particular comes to mind. But I have no intention of telling Quil about that for fear of being mauled by an angry Alpha wolf.
Jacob strolls in behind Quil. "Quil joined up," he explains quickly. His arms are crossed and he seems in a serious mood, not that that's anything new.
I turn back to Quil and away from my brother's grouchiness. "Welcome brother Quil!" I stand and open my arms wide, and Quil playfully swats them away with his newly burning hands.
"Nice try, kid. I cannot believe that you knew," he points to me, "before I knew!" he gestures back to himself. Quil has a habit of talking with his hands when he's excited.
"Yeah, Jake's not the best at following rules," I tease.
"You figured it out by yourself," Jacob grumbles.
"Either way, I couldn't tell you or Sam would go ballistic!" I insist. "Plus, I did tell you that it wasn't a cult and that Jake was fine," I add defensively.
"Which only scared me more. I thought Sam got to you too!" Quil's joking aura disappears for a moment. He really had been afraid for us.
"Sorry, Quil," I go in for a hug. His arms are just as warm as the others'.
"It's cool. I'm just so thrilled to know what's going on!" Quil lets me go, practically jumping up and down in excitement. I can tell he doesn't care if he's part of a pack of werewolves or a pod of whales. He's just thrilled to have his friends back, and finally know the secret of the neighborhood cult.
In stark contrast with Quil's overwhelming happiness, Jacob is sulking in the corner. He's never been thrilled to be a werewolf, but lately he's been treating it as a death sentence rather than a mildly annoying form of selective service. Aside from the first few days, where he couldn't tell me what was going on, he's usually been pretty optimistic about the whole thing. Especially when he found a way to tell Bella.
I knew he was missing Bella, but he'd acknowledged that it was too dangerous for her to be around him anymore. But, eventually he decided it was more important to keep the promise he'd made to her before he'd phased than to worry about her safety. After all, this girl already knew about vampires, what difference did another mythical creature make?
The pack was a lot less accepting towards Bella than they had been towards me. In their minds, Jake's sister who kept him sane and was yelling at him for being in a cult was one thing. His would-be girlfriend who had dated a bloodsucker? Totally different ballgame.
But, they'd all warmed up to Bella once she offered information on what the redhead terrorizing the forests of Forks wanted- her. After that, we both got to enjoy the benefits of being the kid sister and almost-but-not-really girlfriend of the pack. It was short-lived, but Jacob was at his happiest.
That all changed when the Cullens came back. Jake still hasn't gotten over the fact that she chose Edward. Heck, she went off to Italy to save him. Why a vampire needed human help was beyond me, but afterwards all the Cullens returned to Forks.
The pack wasn't happy about this, because they'd had to bring back their patrol lines in accordance with the treaty, lessening their protection of the people of Forks, though still containing La Push. Luckily, the redhead is nowhere to be found, or I know they'd really be complaining.
Either way, Sam sent Jacob on a routine assignment to give the Cullens a message. That ended really badly when it turned out that they really needed that warning. The Cullens are planning on eventually making Bella one of them, which is in direct violation of the treaty they made with our ancestors. But I'm sure that's not what Jake was thinking when he completely lost his cool. I'm sure it was something more along the lines of the painful truth that she'd chosen Edward over him.
And so, Oscar the Grouch has been in a serious mood ever since. With all the pent up anger and rejection, I'm surprised he hasn't accidentally wolfed up more than the once.
"So when did you phase?" I ask Quil.
"Friday," he answers. It's Wednesday.
"And it took you this long to come yell at me?" I laugh.
"Well, it took me a while to figure out how to phase back. I was a wolf for almost two full days!" I can't tell if he's excited or upset about that.
"Really? It didn't take Jake that long."
"Well, Jake's Ephraim's great-grandson, isn't he?" he replies with a hint of bitterness.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I ask.
To my surprise, Jacob answers, "Ephraim was the last Alpha wolf, so I inherited the most "wolf genes" I guess you could call them. Out of the pack, I've got the closest blood line to Taha Aki. You know, the first wolf?"
"Yeah, I know. Wait," something suddenly clicks. "The position of Chief is a lineage thing. So that would make the Alpha position a lineage thing. Wouldn't that make you the Alpha?"
"Sam's Alpha," he answers with more authority and finality than I've ever heard Sam use.
"Okay," I reply, not wanting to make him angry.
"C'mon Jake, let's go," Quil breaks the tension by being excited again. "It's time for my first patrol!" He fist pumps the air in his excitement.
Jacob actually cracks a smile watching his best friend act like an idiot. "Alright, let's go before you phase from excessive excitement, if that's even possible."
"Bye, Sarah!" Quil calls over his shoulder, already out the door. Before following, Jake catches my eye, and I suddenly think I know why he doesn't want to be Alpha. It's the same reason he doesn't want to be a werewolf. It's because of Bella.