Disclaimer: I do not own these characters! Duh!
Note: Some lemony fun is heading our way real soon! I promise when these two finally bond it will be worth the wait! Xoxxo August
Bella found herself tired. Jake caught her yawning several times. He finally got her to relent and take a small nap in the guest room. Several minutes passed as he checked in on Lizzie who was still softly snoring in her tiny bed. He took a peek to make sure Bella was indeed laying down. He saw she was sleeping too, he was struck at the irony that like her daughter Bella was snoring as well.
Walking to his room he laid across his own bed. He was still trying to take it all in. Bella was his imprint. If he ever doubted it he knew now for sure. The pull between them was growing stronger. The more time he spent with her the more the pull was felt between them. He wondered if she felt it too? Did she know what it was? Nah, she couldn't or she would be asking him questions by now.
Closing his eyes he drifted off to sleep with one ear open in case either Lizzie or Bella needed him.
The woods were so dark. She was still trying to figure out why she had been stupid enough to walk into the woods in the first place. She did not like this eerie feeling that kept creeping up her spine the further she went into the woods. She squinted her eyes as a small flicker of light caught her eye. It seem to be drawing her toward it. She picked up her pace as she felt an empowering sense of courage hit her the closer she drew to the light. Something good was there. Something safe.
Pushing back a long leafy limb she saw that the light was coming from something on the ground. Kneeling down she hesitantly began to extend her hand to touch it but then she heard a loud growl from across from her. Lifting her head up very slowly she saw a massive size dog or wolf creature growling at her. Her heart leapt out of her chest. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before.
It was a russet color animal. His eyes were so large. His teeth were pointy. She knew she should step back and run for her life but something warn her not to do anything. To just stay put. Wait. Wait. Licking her lips she found herself staring back at the ground where the shiny object laid. Why was the creature protecting the shiny light? Did it belong to the creature?
Bella watched as the wolf took a steady step toward her. She felt tears sliding down her face. She was going to be killed by this mysterious creature. She was not ready to die. She had so much to live for, at last. She had found her daughter. She had found a miracle. How could her life end like this, now?
"Let me leave please." Bella whispered as her throat crackled from the fear that felt like a anchor in the pit of her stomach.
"NO." It growled.
Bella blinked. Did that animal just speak to me? What the hell is going on?
"I won't hurt you. I won't tell anyone I saw you, just let me go." Bella sobbed as she watched it draw closer to her.
"I know you won't. I know you will protect me. You belong to me." The wolf said in a sensual tone that made Bella's skin tingle, her stomach released the fear, instead she felt a bit warm and fuzzy inside. A soothing almost serene feeling coarse through out her body.
"What are you?" Bella asked as she looked in awe as she openly stared into the animals eyes.
"You know. Deep down you know." It replied still showing its teeth.
Bella frowned. How could she possibly know what the hell that thing was? A flicker of light reflected from the shiny object making Bella turn her attention back toward it. It seemed to compel her. She wanted to touch it, to discover more about it.
"Don't look at it. Not all that sparkles is safe, Bella. It appears pretty but it is quite dangerous." The wolf warned her.
"How can that be dangerous? You look more dangerous than that." Bella pointed toward the unknown object.
"Trust me I can be dangerous if crossed but that…that detestable thing is why I exist." The wolf growled loudly as he glared at Bella with soft eyes. Bella suddenly realized that the wolf like creature was not mad at her but the object. It was like he was trying to protect her from it. But why? How could some small shiny object hurt her?
"You exist for the shiny thing?" Bella asked with a questioning look that let him know she doubted him.
"I exist to eliminate the world from sparkly things Bella. There are creatures that look shiny and beautiful to the human eye but are truly one of the most evil things in the world." He answered as he drew closer to her.
Bella began suck in her breath heavy and loud. She knew deep within herself that the wolf was not going to harm her but it did not stop her from fearing the slim possibility she could be wrong.
"Go back to sleep Bella. You will need me and remember I will always be there for you." The wolf nudge Bella as she fell back on the cool dirt filled ground. Closing her eyes she fell back to sleep.
Bella felt something cool touching her cheek. Opening her eyes she saw a pair of bright red eyes staring with in a mere inch of her face before she could scream for help it had flashed out of the window as if it, it had never happened at all.
Bella sat straight up in the bed with one hand over her chest and the other over her mouth. Her body trembling. Her head screaming loudly that she was not dreaming when she saw the red eyes in front of her face. She could hear the sobs as she covered her face with the palms of her hands.
What the hell had happen? What had been a dream and what had been real? She then recalled the dream of the large wolf size creature. Why had she dreamed of such a thing? Why was it when she woke up she felt as if she was still dreaming. Shaking her head in denial she knew with out a doubt those red eyes had not been a part of her imagination. Throwing her legs over the side of the bed she took one step off the bed toward the door when it was automatically flew open with Jake standing in the doorway looking as frighten as she felt. He seem to be sniffing the air in the room. Then his eyes stared straight at her.
She began to weep. She could not explain it but somehow she knew that there had been something terribly threatening in the room with her while she had been asleep. Something so frightening that even Jake had somehow sense it in the house. Was that possible? Or did he just hear something that had stirred his curiosity? Grabbing the wooden bed post she slowly began to slide to the floor as she felt everything beginning to spin around her. She was going to pass out she was sure of it.
A pair of warm strong arms encircled her waist as he lifted her up and placed her gently back on the bed.
"Tell me what you saw?" He asked. His voice was soft to her ears. It made her know however that those red eyes had been real after all and not part of her freaky ass dream.
"Red eyes." Bella whispered as she closed her eyes. All she could see behind her closed eye lids were red eyes and …red hair? Was that real? Had the person with the red eyes have red hair or did it just seem like that? So many questions boggled her brain.
"Anything else?" Jake asked continuing to speak to her like a parent to a scared child.
"Red hair? I think." Bella mumbled as she opened her eyes to look into Jake's dark brown eyes. Funny, his eyes somehow reminded her of the wolf's eyes from her dream. She seriously had to pull it together or Jacob was going to think she was insane.
"Did it touch you?" Jake's voice shook as he asked this question.
"I don't think so? I woke up and it was there and then it was gone." Bella turn her head to look at the open window where she was sure it had fled.
"Have you seen this before? This person?" Jake felt his heart skipping erratically. It had been inside of his home. How could it have gotten past the pack to locate his home? Why was it here exactly? Surely the stench of the wolf would have warned it off. So the big question remained why had it chosen his house, this room, and on this very day that Bella was here?
"No. Nope." Bella shook her head as she wiped away the tears from her face.
"Do you want a drink or a wet wash cloth?" Jake asked as he sat next to her on the bed.
"Drink. Definitely a drink. A very strong one." Bella chuckled weakly as she tried to sit up in the bed. Jake took her arm helping her sit upright.
"I have some whiskey, will that work?" Jake offered.
"Yep." Bella answered as she smiled weakly at him.
"Be back in a minute." Jake stood up, walking to the open window and closed it back, placing the lock on it.
"Go check on Lizzie." Bella suddenly felt alarms go off in her head as she recalled that her daughter was in another room with out either of them to protect her.
"Already did." Jake answered as he nodded at her.
"Oh. Of course." Bella was relieved.
Jacob left the room. Bella sat on the bed staring around at the walls. What had happened while she slept in here? What had entered the room? Had it been a person? Could not be possible. People did not exactly have red eyes, well unless they wore those silly colored contact lenses.
All she knew for sure was the fact that it had not been a dream, she was not completely losing her mind. She also knew that somehow Jacob had to have heard or seen something to make him check on Lizzie and then her. What had it been exactly? How did he know that someone had been upstairs? She had a few questions for Jacob Black once she had a few drinks she would have the courage to ask she told herself.
Jake had did a few runs around the house, sniffing for any clues to which vampire might have been dumb enough to enter his domain. Once he knew the girls were safe he made Bella a quick drink then called Sam to ask for a meeting immediately. He would not tell him exactly the cause until they arrived. He went back upstairs to find Bella still looking as if she was staring off into space.
It had been so hard not to come unglued in front of her when he entered the room earlier. He had woke up when he smelled the horrible overwhelming sweet like scent of a vampire. He raced to Lizzie's room, he saw she was fast asleep and unharmed then it hit him harder as he sniffed toward Bella's room. He heard a soft voice speaking to someone. It was not Bella's voice he was sure of it. When he opened the door he saw Bella's eyes. He knew she had seen something.
He wanted to jump out of the window and chase the damn blasted blood sucker and rip his or her head off their cold lifeless body. He could not do it. He had to hold the wolf in him back. He had to remain there at the house. Just in case it was some sort of trick to get him to leave Lizzie and Bella unprotected. He was still unsure how it got here and why exactly it came here but either way he knew he would have to do some serious upgrading on security. He could not always be here with them and he did not like the thought of patrolling leaving Bella and Lizzie unprotected.
Handing Bella the drink he laughed as he watched her face squint up from the harsh bitter taste of the Indian whiskey he had given her. She handed him the glass back half full.
"Yuck." Bella cried out as she stuck her tongue out trying to get air on it.
"Sorry, should have warn you that it can taste a bit hot to outsiders." Jake apologized but could not resist finding the humor in her expression.
"It's also a bit strong. I mean you white folks could not handle it before you got real drunk fast." Jake continued to explain how his tribes idea of whiskey was far more potent than the stuff you bought at the local whiskey and beer store.
"I can tell." Bella felt her chest heat up as the pit of her stomach began to feel like warm coals had been sat in the pit of her stomach. Looking up at Jake she felt a bit dizzy. It was not bad. It was almost like when she use to take sedatives to help her sleep when she had been suffering from her bouts of depression after Colleens death.
"Damn, I can bet it also helps you guys grow chest hair." Bella shook her head as the affects of the strong liquid fire.
"It might have." Jake laughed as he recalled several times in his youth when Quil would swear that it was what had helped him grow hair when in truth it was just part of being a wolf and the change of becoming a man.
Jake pushed back some loose hair from her face to behind her ear as he stared into her pinkish cheeks. The liquor had set in already he could tell from the silly smile on her face.
"What the hell happened exactly?" Bella asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Jake wasn't sure how to respond to her line of questioning. He was not prepared to reveal to her his sacred secret even if she was his true imprint. She was not part of the tribe. She would not accept it right away. She might even take Lizzie far away from him if she thought he was a threat some how to her safety.
"There was something in my room. How did it get up two stories?" Bella's eyes darted to the closed window.
"I don't know. I mean I thought I heard something but I think it was you talking in your sleep." Jake shrugged his shoulders.
"No, well….I might have been talking but then why would you go check on Lizzie?" Bella's eyes narrowed in on his face suspiciously.
"I always check in on her. It's a habit." Jake replied instantly. It was true.
"Oh. Well, why did you ask me what I saw? You knew something had been in here." Bella pointed out.
"I wasn't sure. I mean you seem pretty frightened like you had saw a ghost." Jake hoped like hell that sounded reasonable to her. She was far more perspective than he had expected.
"A ghost?" Bella shook her head. She refused to believe in the idea of a ghost. She did not believe in magical or evil creatures that went bump in the night. She knew it was just stuff made up to scare people into thinking that there was something bigger and more frightening in the world than their already daily problems in life.
The door bell rang. Jake was filled with relief. He had a excuse to leave her while she let the alcohol continue to affect her logic.
"Be back." Jake jump off the bed closing the door behind him.
Bella stared at the closed door rubbing her upper arms. She knew that she had indeed saw something and she knew that Jake believed her, what she did not understand was why he was suddenly acting as if it had all been in her mind.
Jake opened the door, immediately stepped out onto the porch where the pack stood wearing puzzled expressions on each of their faces.
"Do you smell it?" Jake nearly growled as he sniff the soft scent that still linger in the air.
"Yeah. I started smelling it about a hundred feet from the house." Sam answered with a equally angry face.
"How in the hell had a vampire got this damn close to my house? Also why was it here? Those two questions need to be answered quickly. I can not chance it happening again." Jake warned each of them in a deep Alpha stern voice that made all of their insides tremble with fear.
"We were on patrol but we did not smell it remotely close to here until Sam called for us." Paul answered as he took a step forward.
Jake's eyes glared daggers at him.
"Who was with you?" Jake demanded.
Leah stepped up next to Paul with defiance clearly shining in her eyes.
"I swear we were seriously patrolling the entire time Jake. I told you guys that I had begun smelling a new vamp closer to our lines." Leah snorted as she looked back at Quil and Sam.
"So this did not just occur today and I am just now hearing about it?" Jake's fists were clenched by his side as his eyes glowed furiously at his pack members.
"We did not see any reason to be concerned. You know as well as I do that once the vamps smell our scent they run from this area." Sam explained as the Beta of the group.
"Well, guess what it did not turn off this arrogant ass. So you better step it up. I want to know everything at every second, do I make myself clear?" Jake's voice was more than threatening it was down right a promise that someone would be getting their ass hole ripped a new one if they did not do as they were ordered.
Each of them bowed their heads in compliance to their leader.
"Did you see it?" Quil asked curiously as he stared up at the second story.
"NO. It was in the room with Bella. I am glad to say it took off moments before I entered the room or else I would have had a lot of explaining to do." Jake sighed loudly as he wrapped his hands around the back of his neck.
"Bella? Bella who?" Leah asked with a nasty snicker.
"Bella is Lizzie's biological mother." Jake paused as he watched all of them except Sam look perplexed for a moment.
"It seems that when they discovered Lizzie's cancer they also realized that she was not biologically mine or Sienna's daughter. We had to locate her real mother to see if she was a bone marrow match. We are going down to the hospital tomorrow to run the test." Jake explained as he watch each of them. Each seem to be shocked, scared, sad and upset.
"Then where is your child?" Embry finally spoke up as he stood in the back of the group.
Jake's face switch from a fierce leader to a sadden parent as he revealed the truth to them. He knew that he had to always remain honest and open with his pack or they would all fail to work together and this would ultimately kill them.
"She died. Bella and her husband believed she was theirs. They had to grieve for her loss. Bella is no longer married to her husband. She is here with my blessings. She finally got to meet her daughter today for the very first time." Jake stated as tears misted in his eyes.
"Damn." Paul sighed sadly.
"I'm sorry Jake." Quil reached out patting Jake's shoulder.
"It's okay. I …well…it will be better." Jake answered as he sucked in on his lower lip trying to prevent his pack from seeing him cry. It was not a good sign if your pack saw you as weaker than them he warned himself as he lifted his head, raising his chest up high.
Sam seem to look at Jake waiting for the other shoe to drop. He knew that Sam was waiting for him to announce how Bella was also his true imprint. He was not prepared to tell them that. He knew once they learn about this major factor they would all not only be in shock but thrilled for him. He did not want any congratulatory shouts and cheers. He might use the imprinting to seduce Bella into staying by his side while he got the opportunity to raise Lizzie but he was not about to let himself announce it yet. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the council picked up on it and would demand that he finish with the imprinting celebration and true bonding ceremony. He was not ready to deal with that bullshit. It was not fair. He did not want to be apart of that dumb shit. He was okay with the idea of Bella being Lizzie's mother. It all made sense and it did help him in this odd circumstance but he was not prepared just yet to let the rest of the world know just how truly close Bella was to his wolf side.
"Back to the vamp issue. We need to find this vamp. We need to find out why it came here? Why it was in Bella's room? Something does not add up. I mean why did it not try to harm her or take her? They feed on humans not watch them while they sleep. Something doesn't feel right about this. For now I want everyone on double duty until we locate some answers or the damn vamp that was stupid enough to come into MY home." Jake gave the final orders as they began to disburse into the woods. All of them except Sam.
"Why did you not tell them about the imprint?" Sam whispered.
"I'm not ready yet. I'm not ready to accept it yet. Also how much do we really know about her? Isn't it strange to you that a vampire was in her room and left her unharmed." Jake thought out loud.
Sam scratch his head as he look at Jake sadly.
"You would love it if she was some sort of villain. That way you could take Lizzie from her and find a loop hole that prevents you two from being together." Sam stated.
"No. Yes. I don't know." Jake sighed loudly.
"Well, you better figure out rather you want to protect her or throw her to the damn leeches because either way she is here to stay in your life. As long as you want Lizzie around Bella is a given. She is her mother Jake. She is her own flesh and blood. No good, loving, decent mother abandons her child." Sam hated making that final statement because he knew that Jake would take it as an insult to Sienna but it was the truth. Jake needed to face a few hard truths about life.
One, he was the alpha. Two, he had a imprint now. Three, he was going to have to let the dreams of him and Sienna go once and for all.
He just prayed that his Alpha and good friend figured it out before it was too late.