.


/ So why don't we just play pretend / Like we're not scared of what's coming next / Or scared of having nothing left


Leah whines, a low sound drawling from her throat.

Jacob eases, holding her elbow and rotating the cuff of her shoulder. "It isn't dislocated. Just bruised."

She nods, allowing him to further inspect the damage of today's training.

His palms run up her arm, over her shoulders, collar bones, and neck. He slows as he cups her face. He runs his rough thumb over her cheek, gently, over the cut under her right eye.

Embry had managed to tag her with his claws, but just barely.

"Embry's getting better." He hums, rubbing until the cut no longer stings.

"Maybe I'm just getting slow," she snorts, leaning back from her Alpha's touch.

He gives a half smile. "Not possible."

Her chest blooms.

Jacob's recognition, after being under Sam's thumb so long, is welcome. She presses her lips together to maintain her usual stoic expression, fighting off a smile.

Jacob sighs as he walks to the window, resting his forearm against the frame above his head. He stares out of the small house, eyes surveying the area.

She can feel that he wants to say something, wants to tell her something.

But he was holding back. Just as he always did.

Jacob may have been Alpha but he is still growing into the position. He has all the traits, all of everything a leader needs, he is just yet to figure out how to apply it in a literal sense.

"You think it'll snow tomorrow?" Leah asks, adjusting her shirt and cradling the ache in her arm.

Jacob glances back at her, taking in her slightly messy jaw length hair and her hazel eyes.

Not eyes like Bella, not eyes like Renesmee. But beautiful, none-the-less.

He shrugs, looking back at the tree line outside the window.

"Maybe."

.