Thank you all, so much, for your kind words and reviews. You guys rock. Don't hate on Eddie too much. His just an overprotective dad with a daughter that's grown up too fast for his liking (or his unchanging Vampire mind)

Speaking of; happy fathers day to all you overprotective dad's out there. (It's Fathers day here in Oz) Your daughters thank you... eventually.

Hope you like where I've taken this chapter. I've given every one a little more restraint than they deserved. It's only short (for me) and it's all in Nessie's PoV.

Namaste, Marina.

"You will never touch my daughter again. Do you hear me Black?"

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Chapter 4

The other two wolves had been growling menacingly until the men inside, who had still managed to hold on to their own skins, had had the time to process daddy's words and who had said them.

"Edward?" Seth said, his simple word was a question, a statement and an expression of betrayal I didn't understand.

"Daughter?" Embry asked, straightening from his aggressive stance. "She's his daughter? What the fuck is going on Jake?"

Jacob's eyes left the gemstone yellow of my father's and flicked to the worried and confused eyes of his pack brother. They shared a silent message with simply their eyes. The Alpha of the pack was asking his Beta to trust in him. We had not had a chance to explain my heritage to the other wolves in the room and now my father's rash and meddling behavior had potentially put us all at risk. The vampires, the wolves, and the humans. Amber was still in the bathroom but I could hear the water turning off. There was much at stake, with little time to enlighten. There was not any room for impulsive actions.

I placed a firm hand on my father's shoulder squeezing the marble-like surface. My eyes met Jacob's as dad still held him by the throat. I was proud of Jacob, he was tremoring slightly, but had resisted phasing. Even with a vampire so directly threating him. I can't imagine the restraint that must take for a wolf.

"You have it wrong Renesmee," my father sneered, listening— as always— to my thoughts. His head inclined towards me as he squeezed Jacobs's throat tighter. "I think he's shown a distinct lack of restraint."

Jacob's eyes flashed back to my fathers, a cold look of loathing blinking across his face before it morphed in to a smirk. I can only assume he started to recall just how unrestrained we'd been earlier in the shower and even earlier during the night. My wolf already knew of daddy's gift of mind reading and was using it as the only weapon he safely had at his means.

"Why you… disgusting dog," daddy hissed, his hand tightening on Jake's trachea.

I felt a little twinge between the bond that had developed between my mate and me. I felt a stab of his fear and my own panic that accompanied. My father was going to kill him.

"Dad, don't!" I snarled at him though gritted teeth. He just could not understand that I was an individual, capable of making my own choices. He always thinks he knows better. "Stop this madness."

"Renesmee," dad hissed, turning his head further but not taking his eyes off Jake. "My car is parked at the front of the building, go downstairs now; I have to speak with your friend."

"NO!" I cried. "I'm not going anywhere. You cannot talk to him! Or, try to intimidate him or threaten him, or whatever it is you think you're going to do! Moreover, he is not simply my friend, Edward. He so much more. He's my wolf and I'm his imprint." There was not even a flicker of surprise on his face to my admission. The omniscient know-it-all had almost certainly acquired all the facts from all our brainwaves already.

"Yes Renesmee, I've got too much information, far too much," he answered back.

I could not believe this was occurring. I had just had the most remarkable night of my life. I had met my equal. I had bonded with my soulmate. I had experienced sexual pleasure greater that I could have ever envisaged. I had felt a connection and depth of relationship far greater than anything I had ever experienced previously.

I had met my mate. I had fallen in love. This should have been the most jubilant day of my life...But my father was fucking it all up.

"What are you even doing here?" I asked, frustration coloring my tone as I turned to my father who was still holding Jake at arm's length… by the larynx.

"Alice saw your future go blank late last night. And you've not been answering your cell. We were worried. We came to find you."

Oh.

My cell.

I had still not developed the habit of talking it with me when I left the apartment. All my life, I had never had the use for one. I suppose that was because I have never been left alone long enough to require one. Even unaccompanied, I still did not see the need of a mobile telephone; I was an immortal, superhuman, hybrid. Unlike many of my peers walking home, alone, late at night, I had little to fear in this human world. And even less at a crowded fraternity party.

I should have guessed they would worry. But… "Why would my future go blank?"

"She can't see us," Jake answered, his breath a husky wheeze as my overbearing father continued to hold him at arm's length—still by the larynx.

"Who?"

"Your Aunt Alice," dad said. "She can't see the wolves."

I wondered if my future had disappeared the moment Jake and I imprinted or when we'd mated, a memory of his naked body moving above me, in and out flashed through my mind.

"It's their mere presence that block her, not the things they do," dad hissed.

I reached a single finger to my father's cheek, pressing against the marble skin. Father, if you don't like it, don't listen.

"You know I have no choice, sweetheart."

My arm dropped to my thigh with a loud slap that echoed through the room. Oh, yes he did. There was an excellent way for him not to intrude on my innermost thoughts.

"Where's mom?" I asked, letting the irritation emerge. Her mind-shield would be quite convenient right now.

"I told her to wait in the car," my father answered automatically.

Typical chauvinistic dictator. Heaven forbid Bella be included in anything less than savory. Like my father attempting to intimidate and rip the throat out of her old friend and my new mate. Who incidentally was still maintaining extraordinary composure throughout this entire farcical ordeal.

I think Jake knew— and so did I— that as dramatic and threatening as he was behaving, Edward would never intentionally do anything that would hurt, either physically or emotionally, the two most important people in his life. His wife and his child.

"Mom!" I called out. It wasn't loud, but I knew she would hear it. They always hear everything.

My eyes met Jacob's, I could feel his trepidation. I could feel is apprehension over seeing my mother again after so many years. I felt the bond between us pull and pulse. A part of me felt ill at ease with the relationship they had shared and the flame he'd held for her. But, even by his own admission, his feelings for her weren't the same as the feelings he felt for me. I believed him. I felt it too.

A silent breeze flowed through the little and crowded kitchen. I could hear the out-breath of shock from Embry and Seth as my mother entered the room. I suppose they had only ever know her as human. Father always said she had changed extensively after her transformation.

"Jake," she said, her bell voice ringing through me. The longing and pining was apparent in her tone. Her pull to Jacob had obviously not altered with her transformation.

I watched as his eyes left mine and moved to my mother's. There was a comfort in their gaze. It was a look between old friends that held many secrets. I felt my chest getting tight and the small amount of scrambled eggs still left in my stomach attempted to resurface. Had I underestimated their bond?

I realized with a painful sense of appreciation, that this was what jealousy felt like. I was jealous of my own mother. My eyes closed at my envy and I sucked in a deep breath, trying to dispel the puerile emotion. The scent of Jacob and my family and his pack brothers swirled around my head. Like it or not, we were all now linked together.

When I opened my eyes, Jacob was looking at me once more. Still pinned to the refrigerator with my ridiculously over protective father's hand still tight at his throat, he was looking at me. There was an adoring sparkle to his eyes. His lips parted, softening his eyes even further as I felt a pulse of love and affection course though our bond.

"You can let go of me now Edward," Jake said quietly, his eyes never leaving mine. He reached out a hand, his fingers stretched towards me. My hand came up and linked fingers with his. I sent him no message with my gift, our eyes were expressing enough.

My mother stepped in to my peripheral vision, her hand reaching up and gently laying a hand on my father's arm, the arm that was threatening to choke my mate. "Let him go Edward," she said, "this is not how we treat our friends."

"Can you shield us mother?" I asked, breaking my gaze with Jake to meet mom's. She gave me a small nod and immediately I saw a significant relaxation of the tension my father had held in his body. As often as I felt irritation and resentment at his mind reading, I knew it was involuntarily. He couldn't help hearing the things he heard.

"Mother?" Embry said. I had almost forgotten their presence in all the commotion. "Your imprint is Bella Swan's daughter?"

"Cullen. My name is Cullen now," she responded, her head snapping to look at him over her shoulder before a flicker of an old memory seemed to flash in her golden eyes.

Embry seemed to ignore her correction, still focused on his Alpha. "What kind of fucked-up-ness is this, Jake? How the fuck is that even possible?" he asked. "Bella's only been dead for seven years?"

"Dead?" I asked spinning in the spot, my hand sill gripping Jacob's tight.

"Well she's not alive!" Embry returned, a defensiveness for his friend bubbling up.

"Yes she is!" I seethed, coming to my mother's defense.

"It's all just semantics," my father interrupted. "The girl is coming out," he said, nodding his head to the bathroom down the hall. "Renesmee, I want you to come with us."

"No," Jacob growled, pulling me suddenly into his arms.

By not saying anything or really doing anything when my father seized him by the throat, Jake had called Edward's bluff. However, the idea of a vampire taking his imprint away was too much for the wolf. I could feel the low base of his simmering growl reverberate from his chest through to mine.

The vibration spoke to me on a basic level. My mate was defending me. Protecting me. Threatening the enemy. Preparing to display his strength.

At his show of dominance, the animal with in me responded, as she should. Physically.

I leaned back and pressed myself into Jacob's front, pressing my bottom in to the hardened phallus beneath his pants. I allowed the sound of his growl to vibrate through to my soul and let it settle between my legs. A simple, soft, guttural purr emerged from my throat in reply. It was an unfamiliar sound; one that I'd never heard myself make before.

It shocked both Jacob and me back into the room. We both relaxed the force that we had been using to press against the other. His arms gripped securely and lovingly around my shoulders as he held me gently to his chest. I let myself melt against him once more, this time letting the tensions of the past few minutes dissolve at his touch.

His voice took on a deeper, more gravely timber as he spoke again, as if the wolf within was expressing himself through the man. "You cannot take her from us Cold One. We have only just found her."

"Only to talk," dad clarified his hands up in placation. My father was no fool; he knew not to poke to latent beast. "We haven't seen our daughter for several weeks, we miss her."

"How the hell is she your daughter?" Embry demanded again, still somehow unaware of his Alpha's struggle with the wolf.

I felt Jacobs's arms tremor around me, the wolf receding and the man's attention now directed to his friend. "Emb, it's a long story," Jake answered with a little sight of exasperation.

His hand pressed against the cotton of my dress, splaying his fingers under my ribs as he held me to him. "I'll explain. Just wait a minute okay?" His thumb absently traced the swell of my breast as he spoke with his beta. The innate simplicity of his touch sent a shiver of anticipation over my skin as his heat grazed closer to my hardened nipple.

Daddy gave Jacob another stare that would melt tungsten steal. I clasped Jacobs's hand, shifting it from the edges of my breast and resting him palm firmly on my stomach. The warmth and humming safety of his touch settled through my body even more. I'd decided to kowtow on the public displays of affection for now, but Daddy was just going to have to get use to the open physicality blooming between the wolf and I. God knows, I had endured watching the couples in my family engage in pre and post coitus embraces all of my life. The actual act of coitus was always been kept private from me, nevertheless, my ears had still heard— far too often. Daddy would have to simply have to get used to seeing Jacobs hand on my body.

Seeming to leave his disapproval of Jacob's wondering hands be for the time being, father shifted, taking my mother into his side. His arms wrapped around her as he inhaled the scent of her hair. It always had a mollifying effect on him. I have always thought her hair smelt like strawberries, not that I find the berry palatable, but I too find her sent comforting.

"Jacob," my father began, bringing me from my thoughts. "I suggest you explain the situations to you brothers while Renesmee comes with us. We'll just go up to the San Gabriel mountains. Hunt for an hour or two."

I could sense a spectrum of emotions coming off Jacob. Mistrust and hatred, a sense of placation, and then an amalgam of affection and trust. He was awash with contradictions.

I spun in his arms, looking up. My fingers reached to his jaw, tracing over the defined line of his mandible and lovingly stroking over his cheek.

"It'll be okay Jake. It will only be for an hour, and then I will be back. Explain to them everything we talked about last night," I said, nodding towards his pack waiting on the periphery, "and I'll get my father to understand. I'll meet you back here in an hour."

"It might be two," my father interrupted.

I felt Jake tense as his eyes met my dad's. "An hour and a half. No more," he snarled.

"Listen here Black; these boys might follow you around like you're the boss—"

"Hey!" Seth called, apparently aggrieved at being regarded as a boy. By my calculations, he was at least twenty-two and judging by the deeds he and his pack brother got up to with Amber last night, certainly no child.

"But I don't take orders from you," Father continued, ignoring the upset wolf and pointing a threatening finger at my mate.

I could feel the growl bubbling up from Jacobs's chest, the wolf within him once again rising to the challenge.

"Jake don't," I said quietly, a soft palm resting on his chest. I could hear the bathroom door opening; we had run out of time.

"Edward," I started, looking down the hall to my roommate who had thankfully stopped to check her hair in the hallway mirror. "Jake doesn't want me to go at all, and to be honest I don't really want to leave him right now, either. But I will for you, daddy. Because I love you. However, things have to change. Firstly, with this aggression. Jacob has compromised and yet here you are, the one who is still acting like a boy. An hour and a half is plenty of time."

"Edward," my mother said quietly, "look at me darling." Her granite hands reached up, cradling my father's cheeks. Instantly, his steely demeanor crumbled in her hands. "Let's go for a drive to the mountains."

"Very well," he smiled, kissing her gently on the forehead. "Let's go Carlie," he said as Amber made her way into the kitchen.

"Whoa," she smiled, her eyes skimming over all the new people in the room, lingering on my father's chiseled good looks. She seemed much taken with my father, mesmerized by his handsomeness with her human eyes.

Looking between my father and I, "this must be your brother," she smiled; everyone always comments that the resemblance is striking.

"The bone structure in this room really is phenomenal!" she commented again, still unaware just how phenomenal all of our structures really were. Then Amber looked invitingly over to the other two 'siblings' in the room, her eyes flashing to my fathers, before back to Seth and Embry once more. "Family reunions all round this morning," she said, winking to both Embry and Seth.

"Bella," my father beseeched through ground teeth. I assume it was a plea for her to extend her shield. At the human's slight flush and increased heart rate, I presume she was recalling her reunion with the wolves… and maybe imagining what it would be like with my father added in also… in high definition.

"Hey Amber. Yeah, this is my overprotective brother Eddie and his girlfriend, Bella. And this is Amber," I said, ignoring her futile attempt to flirt with my father, instead pointing to each person as the introductions went around. "They're just here for the day so we're gunna go out for a bit."

"And my brothers and I are gunna go for a run," Jake added, the tension still apparent in his tone but without the gravely timbre of the wolf. Jacob the man, my mate, my lover, was back in control.

"Oh! Maybe I could come with you guys," Amber chirped in, oblivious to the feuding supernatural beings only a hairsbreadth of restraint away from shredding one another in our little off-campus apartment. "So long as we can walk a little," she added, "you guys wore me out last night."

I could feel the tension building in Jacob again, it pressed on our bond like an abscess waiting to explode its exudate on us all. He needed to run; I could sense it. My wolf needed freedom and the space to stretch his paws. The last thing Jacob needed was to be around a female—who wasn't me, wearing the scent of other wolves—who weren't him. He wasn't going to simply 'walk it off' in human form.

Both Embry and Seth must have felt their Alpha's tension also. "Nah, Amy," Embry started.

"It's Amber."

Seth clipped his bother on the back of the head, rolling his eyes. "He's a forgetful idiot Amber," Seth interceded, walking over to hold the human. "But he's a fast, forgetful idiot. We all are. Unless you run five miles in close to thirty minutes, you're gunna struggle to keep up honey. My brothers and I have been training for years. And we're competitive. We don't really do the walking thing," he said, nuzzling into the crook of her neck. "But…" his lips grazed over her pulse point in an attempt to placate and distract the female, "we do other things. Things that are best done at a far slower pace, and indoors, and with far less clothing on."

He sucked on Amber's earlobe, paying with it and making the poor girl week at the knees. "We'd be more than happy to do them with you when we get back." Seth was whispering, giving her human ears the illusion of privacy, but to the rest of us, the color change in her cheeks, the change in her scent and the fact that we could all hear Seth as if he were talking through a megaphone, left no doubt to the subject of their conversation.

"Really Seth?" my father started, his disapproval and disgust apparent in his tenor, "what happened to you?"

"He grew up Eddie," Jake growled, coming to his pack mate's defense. "Just like Nes… Carlie has." The growl rolling from his belly increased in volume and pitch. I was concerned it was soon going to reach Ambers hearing level.

My arms wrapped around his waist and I pressed my cheek to his chest. "Sssh, it's fine Jake. I'll only be gone for a little while. Then I'll be back." I whispered knowing only the preternatural ears would hear me, "Go be with your pack. Talk to your bothers back home."

I reached up kissing him softly on the lips, silencing the growl and tempering the hard muscles of tension he had built up. It was truly overwhelming how that simple sensual touch could so obviously relax us both.

Jacob lent down, pressing his lips harder into mine; my soft kiss quickly deepened into one of desperation and anguish from Jacob. His hands tangled through my hair, pulling me closer to his lips as my mouth opened to give his tongue access. My tongue wrapped around his, playing and enjoying the velvety feel of his kiss. It was as if our mouths fused as one. His heat, his adoration, and his comfort surrounded me. I found myself lost in the arms of my mate; lost in sea of hot-blooded need.

After a time— minutes or seconds, I wasn't sure— I recalled our location, and our audience; and pulled back from his lips. Panting for breath, we hovered with mouths just grazing the others. With pupils yawning into the depths of our souls, we held on to one another. Neither willing to break apart.

My fingers found the edge of his shirt, winding under to touch the warm brown skin beneath. I don't want to let you go, even for an hour or two.

"I know. I can feel it," he whispered, his fingers drawing patterns across my back. "But you're going to have to be the one who leaves Ness. There's no way the wolf is going to let me turn away from you. They might be your parents but all he sees and smells are leeches, and even without that, this thing between us is too new for him to leave you."

I nodded my understanding. I was going to have to fight my instincts to walk away from him, too. My hands lifted to his face, memorizing the feel of his skin before running my fingers through the cropped lengths of his hair. We were only going to be apart for short time, but the bond was strong and resistant . It was like trying to pull two carbon atoms apart at an atomic level with sheer force of will. It couldn't be done. My atoms had redistributed to his. A mutual attraction electrically linking us. Covalent.

Our bond was as strong as diamonds.

I was just beginning to realize just how powerful the imprint was for the wolf and for the imprint too.

"We'll be back before midday Jake," mom promised. "You have my word."

"Sure, sure Bells. Your word," he let out in a breath of sarcasm. I suddenly felt his hurt at their broken friendship. I couldn't feel the heartbreak of a lost love as I'd expected and initially thought. Instead, all I could sense from Jacob was a platonic friendship towards my mother, and a mistrust that was longing to be resolved.

"Wait, you guys all know each other?" Amber asked, still completely oblivious to the tension in the room. Humans really can be very obtuse; the tension rolling of most of us was so thick I could practically taste it.

Jake squeezed me tight, looking at the human tucked underneath Seth's arm. "Our fathers are old friends," he said, an honest answer yet withholding so much more.

"Huh. What are the odds? This day just gets weirder and weirder!" she squealed, jumping as Seth's broad hand wound over her bottom and squeezed it in a full, meaty embrace.

"You're telling me," Embry scoffed, stepping over and pulling Amber into a distracting, goodbye embrace.

"Come on Carlie," mom urged, her gaze blinking to my father who had been conspicuously quiet for some time, "before the weather turns."

It was a cloudy day outside, but it was unlikely to stay that way here in California. However, I knew what she really meant was, "let's go before your father cracks." For a vampire renowned for his amazing self-control, he certainly did not seem that restrained when it came to his daughter and her lover.

"Okay," I whispered, nodding to my parents but with my forehead still pressed against Jacob's hard chest. I tried to sort out the chaos of emotions running through me as I worked up the strength to pull away from him. I was going against every fiber in my being to leave Jacob's side. The carnal animal in me was frenetic. Wild and fighting to stay with her mate. However, the logical person in me was determined to find peace and balance between my lives. My life was now categorized in two: the time before I had met Jacob and any time after our eyes had first met. That was how I now based my existence's timeline. Around the other half of my soul. No, I did not want to leave his side, but for the sake of balance and at the rational uneasiness of him becoming an obsession, I would. But only for an hour and a half.

I leaned against Jacob's solid form, allowing him to hold me up as I let the gravitational pull I felt from him hold me to the earth and give me mass. I let his arms and his sent envelop me. I turned, pressing my ear to his chest and listened to the steady thump of his heart reverberate thought me. I breathed in deeply, letting the completeness of him… of us… center and ground me.

His strong hands held me close, one hand pressed into the middle of my back as the other patted in long, loving strokes over my hair and down my back. It was soothing and supporting.

For seventeen seconds, we simply stood in the middle of my kitchen, my family, and friends looking on as he held me and I listened to the steady lub-dub of his heart. Our hearts were beating as one. Our bodies had aligned, in every conceivable way.

No, I didn't want to leave him. Nevertheless, with a bracing sniffle, I stood, flicking a look over my shoulder to my parents. "At least let me change before we go," I asked, but with my tone demanding and not open to discussion.

Mom nodded, mouthing, "sure,' as daddy stood ridged by her side. I could see he was anxious to go.

Tough luck I thought to myself…I wasn't.

Quite deliberately, I pulled Jacob in for one last kiss and a soul-healing embrace. My hands sought out the bare skin of his forearms as I gazed steadily into his deep, dark, mesmerizing eyes. As crazy as is seems—and possibly it's nothing more than just the biology or the supernatural influence— but I've fallen in love with you overnight Jake. It feels as real as your flesh and your bones. I can not remember a time in my life where I have been this happy and at peace. I never knew I was missing something until I found you, Jacob. I'll be back soon, I'll see you before the sun reaches its zenith, my love. I wanted my touch to leave an imprint on his heart the way my presence had on his soul.

He nodded, watching me with a heated, crazed look while sending a pulsing emotion of love and craving into my heart as I stepped out of his arms and turned.

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A bit of an anti-climax, I know. But there's more to come. They needed a moment of calm before the storm that's coming up.

Next Chapter should be up this Wednesday.

X... M