Lunar Eclipse
Chapter One
"...I should have known from the look on your face, but I was too blind to see.
The fire slowly turned to pain, I walked for miles trying to find my way..."
~ I saw you Die, Apollo Drive
Jacob Black ran.
It was the only thing he could do, needed to do. He ignored the cries of his father, Sam and Charlie as they called for him to come back. His blood pumped furiously through him, his heart beating in time with the howl that threatened to be released. God, how he wanted to cry his frustration, his anger, his desperation. But not here, not here were the pack could hear him, could slip past the walls he'd been applying the last few months in hopes of them never finding out the truth - it was the only thing he'd hidden from them.
Bella Swan was merely the smoke screen to his truth, let them believe his heart was breaking for her - when it was his soul was being torn for someone else, someone he'd never have. He welcomed the forest as it opened up just for him, like it always seemed too. The smell of rain and pine and spruce and upturned earth invaded his slightly higher sense of smell. He'd be able to smell more if he wasn't forcing the phasing back.
Not yet, not yet, he cried internally to the wolf, who whined and howled and snarled in its rage and sorrow. His legs pumped faster, the trees blurring around him, his lungs burned. It was a good burn, because maybe then it could out burn the inferno engulfing his heart. Or the ice that was slowly encasing his soul. Hot and cold and somewhere in between. He and Him hot and cold, fire and ice. Vampire and Werewolf - natural enemies, but how could nature be so cruel to give him someone so wrong? How could she defy her very nature and say his soul belonged to his natural enemy.
Perhaps a few months ago, he might have cared. But not now, he'd long since accepted the imprint. But he could feel his body weakening, dying. Just because Jacob accepted it, didn't mean his imprint did. No, his beautiful very male vampire, didn't know. He'd been hiding it from him too. A half accepted imprint stopped him from dying a quick death, but it wasn't strong enough to stop the inevitable. One half could not live without the other.
Jacob hadn't always been in love with Edward Cullen. No, he absolutely hated him. It was hatred, then desire, then lust and devotion, and then only then after all the arguments, all the plays of false jealously between them, well not really false, he had been jealous, but not of Edward, but of Bella. Because it was she who got held by him at night, it was her who he whispered sweet nothings too, who he kissed, who he loved. After it all, the pain and the newborn army and time spent in the proximity of the creature that held his very soul - he'd somehow fallen in love. Being in his presence had given the imprint strength and his body enough energy to survive. One way or another he had always been around him.
But now. Not now. He needed to get away, far away from it all. He just, he just wanted it all to go back to the way it was. Somewhat normal. He'd never give up the wolf, he'd grown too used to it, grown to love it.
Nothing made sense anymore, only Edward. From the pale marble skin to his topaz golden honey eyes. He just made sense, when the world was falling apart around him.
Jacob shook as he saw the La Push border mere meters before him and with little effort the wolf burst from his skin, the russet fur shone like fading blood beneath the weak Washington sun. Paws pounded into the earth, ripping the ground beneath him. Nothing could hold back the rumble in his chest.
His cry split the air, resounding loudly through the forest. Every emotion he was feeling was conveyed in it as he crossed the border onto Cullen land. He didn't stop, he continued on ward to where - he didn't know. To anywhere. The Cullen's sickly sweet scent was all over the place, and he smelt the one that tamed his wolf. Freshly turned earth and pine, the smells of the forest, his favorite scent belonged to his very soul.
He ignored the cries of his brothers, ignored the Alpha call that resounded through his head. And he vanished within the forest.