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JACOB

1. Change

I ran up the mountainside, past the trees and snow, towards the sounds I could hear: the tearing of a monster's body, its awful screams of rage, and the sound of two werewolves snarling. Sam and Jared had found a vampire who was intent on killing, and she was putting up a fight. Sam had called for a helping hand, and luckily I was in my wolf form when he did. I had been running. Running as a wolf gave me a way to escape everything; my thoughts, reality, everyone else…except for those I shared my mind with in this form.

Sam had asked for help because they couldn't get the vampire's head and she kept trying to bite them, which was bad news. Sam thought I'd be able to get at it with the element of surprise.

As I entered the clearing of the mountain, I saw the female clawing at Jared, so I leapt onto her, and was able to quickly rip her head off as she gave a final scream. Then it was all over. We started communicating through our thoughts as we ripped the rest of the vampire apart, trying to ignore the teeth clenching metallic sounds made with every laceration.

I need to get back to Kim… Jared said rather ruefully after we had caught our breaths.

Go ahead, I'll finish up here. Jake, I'm gonna need you to take her back to your house, if you don't mind, Sam said.

Ever since Sam and I had created the agreement of our packs working together again, he had always made sure he wasn't authoritative towards me. Not that it made a difference since I was now alpha of my own pack, plus Sam and I both hated using the alpha voice. The way we communicated was definitely different than before though, as we now had even more respect for each other and decisions regarding the packs were made together. After Sam and I had resolved our issues following the events of the previous months, both our packs were able to communicate with each other as well as if we were subsets of a larger pack. We weren't sure how this was possible, since none of us had acquired The Beginner's Guide to Being a Werewolf, but we all saw eye to eye on pack decisions and that was good enough for everyone.

But I now stared at Sam with wide eyes. Sam, you're not actually talking about the vampire, are you? I asked in disbelief as Jared ran off. Why on earth would I want a bloodsucker that's been ripped to pieces in my house?

Sam shook his head and barked; he was laughing at me.

What?

Instead of answering, he turned his head towards the snow. I hadn't even realized, but there was a girl lying unconscious on the ground.

What's she doing here? On the mountaintop, by herself? It reminded me of something Bella would've done… Bella, who was now a vampire and with someone she truly loved. After she hadn't chosen me.

Jake, focus. Sam waited until I looked at him to continue. I'm guessing she was just an unfortunate victim of the leech. You better take her to your house soon, or she'll freeze.

Right. Are you okay here?

Yeah, I'll just take this higher up the mountain and burn it, and I'll let the others know what happened. We need to be careful if this thing has a mate. We don't want that again.

Yeah. I squinted a little at the memory. A year ago I'd had to fight off a bunch of newborns that were surrounding Leah, who had been stupid in thinking she needed to prove she was as strong as the rest of us. She was the only girl werewolf in our pack history. Wasn't my favourite day, for more reasons than that one…

I shook my head and phased back to my human form before I could think too hard into the recent past. Sam was right; I needed to focus.

I put my shorts on that were tied to my ankle as Sam collected the remains of the vampire and loped off. I went over to the girl. No wonder I didn't notice her, she was surrounded by the putrid smell of the leech.

She was lying on her back with her face away from me against the snow. I couldn't see any major damage other than a bruise on her cheek. I carefully picked her up, just in case there were any broken bones. The girl was really light for me, so I easily picked her up. There didn't seem to be any bone injuries, so I started running towards my house. Billy, my dad, would be there, and he could call Emily, Sam's wife. She was good with first-aid stuff. Hopefully we had a few thick blankets lying around too, because this girl was really cold against my bare chest, even though my skin would probably feel close to an oven for her.

When I got home a few minutes later, I opened the door and saw Billy on the phone, probably to Charlie. When he saw me, his eyes got wide.

"Charlie, I'll call you back… No, we just had a bit of an accident. No, no, nothing like that… Yep, see you."

I walked past my father and moved the couch close to the heater with my leg. I put the girl down and went looking around for blankets.

"What happened?" Billy was wheeling behind me, following me to each room.

I found three blankets, and I thought they'd be enough. I'd stay close to her if they weren't, as I was absolutely sure that would warm her up.

"Jacob, what happened?"

"A leech was after her. They were both on one of the mountainsides. Jared and Sam had found the bloodsucker and were trying to kill it, but they needed some more help. Can you call Emily?"

"Yeah, I'll get right on it. Make sure she's warm enough, she looks really pale," Billy said as he wheeled back towards the phone on the wall of the kitchen.

I turned back to the girl. I realized she was tiny, a few feet shorter than me. Although, I was pretty tall. Her face looked peaceful, and I took in her soft features: her dark eyebrows, her full lips, her high cheekbones and the slight pink colour that was returning to her cheeks. She was quite beautiful. Though my dad had said she looked really pale, which she did, I was pretty sure her skin was naturally that colour.

While I tried not to think about who had had the same skin colour before the "transformation", I noticed the girl had a cut on her other cheek. I hadn't seen it before because that was the side that had been in the snow. I gently turned her head and let her long, dark blond hair fall to the side so I could see the cut clearly, and just as I touched her face, she started to open her eyes. She looked at me with big deep green eyes, specks of a honey colour around her pupils, holding my stare not with fear but with curiosity and something else that I couldn't quite place. But she looked serious. Her lips parted slightly, then her eyes fell shut again.

I suddenly felt myself sliding down against the back of the couch as my breathing quickened and my mind began to race. A glowing heat began rising throughout my body, a completely different experience from my natural body heat. I felt disconnected from my body and everything else, and the only force that was keeping me grounded was her; she was my new gravity. Nothing mattered except for her. I couldn't see anything other than her eyes, her beautiful eyes, eyes that had brought me to the floor that I now leaned on for support. I tried to slow my breathing as I attempted to process what had just happened, but it was no use. In the exact moment that we'd made eye contact, everything changed…