A/N: Hello everyone! It's shout-out time again! Cyber hugs to these readers who added my story to their alerts: niffs178, 36sakuya76, RinDey, Segala, SharonD03 and squirtlee16. Cyber hugs and high-fives to these readers who added my story to their favorites: MegzieBeth and 36sakuya76. Cyber hugs, high-fives and candy to these readers who took the time to review my story...you guys really make my day!: nataliemarrs (thankyou for reviewing every single chapter!), polly2010, Segala and squirtlee16. I hope you enjoy this one guys, have a great week and please, please, please review if you can! Reviews make me happy dance my troubles away! Oh! One more shameless plug... check out the great Twilight stories nominated at the Sunflower Awards, and vote with your heart!
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. I just play there when I dream :-)
Jacob was fighting for breath. He was trapped in the middle of a nightmare straight out of the fiery bowels of hell. Of course, with just a few miniscule tweaks, this nightmare could have just as easily become his most treasured fantasy. Unfortunately, once again it seemed as though the only luck Jacob Black could ever claim was bad luck.
His imprint, the woman of his dreams whom he had long denied himself, was straddling him enthusiastically, kissing him softly and literally whispering her desires into his ear. If he didn't have an ironclad control of his desires he woud have flipped her beneath him and tasted her already. Faster than you could say "biggest mistake ever!" he would have made her his in every way possible. Hell, he could probably be arrested for even thinking some of the things he wanted to do in an office that any of his staff could walk into at any given minute.
Jake however, was nothing if not a proponent of reality. Dreadful, heart-wrenching reality. Sadly, in his experience, tempting morsels were always held out to him, enticingly and just out of his reach. However, the second he dared to stretch out his hand, eagerly reaching for the forbidden fruit, he ran the risk of losing a digit at the least, a limb at the most.
"You smell so good Jake."
She whispered as she nuzzled his neck right beside his jugular and inhaled his scent deeply, as though she wanted to eat him alive, as though he was the sweetest dessert she had ever had the privelege of savoring.
When her lips lingered over his pulsing jugular vein he held his breath...not from fear of her next actions, but from anticipation. Damn his soul to the pits, he wanted to feel her bite, wanted to give her his. His entire being screamed for him to crush her to his body, to whisk her away from the world so it could just be the two of them...alone...together.
"I can't stop thinking about you, Jake..."
Her voice was a siren's song and she never stopped murmuring as her hand slid into his shirt to touch his overheated skin. With a roar Jacob pushed her off of him and stumbled to the other side of the room. He closed his eyes against the sight of her slightly parted, bee-stung lips. He clenched his fists until his nails scored his own flesh and fought the desperate urge to pull her back into his arms and touch every inch of her. When he spoke, his voice was a barely recognizable growl.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing? Do you think this is a game?"
Her eyes hardened with determination, but she didn't attempt to move any closer to him. At least she wasn't a complete idiot. He felt slight tremors begin to run over his skin and he clenched his fists.
"I don't know what this is, Jacob Black. You know what I do know? I know that a month ago I had to come to Forks, even though I've never been anywhere without my family. Even though coming to Forks meant that I would leave the only people who have ever protected me, taught me and loved me for the first time in my entire life...I had to come. I defied my parents, my grandparents ... and had my aunts and uncles been there I would have defied them too. Why? I couldn't tell you. I know that as soon as I got here I felt as though I was home. Here. Forks. A place I have never been. A place that my Aunt Rosalie has disparaged at every given opportunity. That was before I met you Jacob. Jake. You make me feel alive. You make me feel like a woman. Your woman. Are you going to stand there and tell me that you don't share these feelings, these urges?"
She gave a short laugh and leaned against the door.
"My experience may be non-existent, but I know enough to tell when a man is very interested."
Jacob felt his face flush as Nessie slowly raked her gaze over his body, lingering at his crotch, as a smile tugged at her lips and she licked them. When he spoke his voice was as cold as an Arctic wasteland.
"You must be a sucker for punishment. Or rejection. I couldn't have been any clearer in the woods. This thing doesn't exist. Will not exist. That's the long and short of this story. You don't even know me and I don't want to know you. You mentioned Charlie telling you I had a crush on your mom. You think I couldn't take her from your father so I'll make do with you? Never."
Nessie just shook her head.
"I doubt you were thinking of my mother five minutes ago, Jake." She sighed. "Look, I'm sorry if I'm coming over like a pushy bitch but ... I won't just ignore this. I can't. Please, can we have lunch somewhere? How about right at the diner down the street, it's in full view of men, women and children. I promise nothing but a little conversation."
She flashed that damned smile which was so reminiscent of Bella, but uniquely Reneesme and looked so innocent and hopeful. He couldn't hurt her, he just couldn't hurt her. It was as though the man who knew that it was insanity to get anywhere near Reneesme Carli Cullen was struggling with a wolf. A wolf that was clawing at his insides to get to its mate. The man didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell.
"I take a 45 minute lunch. Meet me over there in about 10 minutes. I'll just clean up here and head over there."
...La Push...
Leah Clearwater might consider herself something of a celebrity if she were more conceited. As it was, she was more of a realist. She had long stopped caring that she was well known for a number of reasons. She was the only known female werewolf. The only female, who just happened to be ornery as hell and had made the life of one of the Alphas in the tribe miserable before jumping pack ship for the lesser of the two evils. As a wolf she could run faster than the wind and fight dirty. Well, she fought dirty as a human too. But as both human and wolf she was tenacious as a bulldog when something or someone caught her attention or interest. Hence the less than mature reaction to the end of her relationship with Sam. Unfortunately for her Alpha and sometimes friend Jake, he had very recently drawn the attention of her curious nature.
It wasn't that he was acting strange. It was Jake for the love of God! Strange for the pack members was normal for him. The dude was wrapped too tight. He worked too hard, worried too much and took too much responsability onto his wide, capable shoulders despite the fact that he had an amazingly capable Beta. However, this was Jake. The reason he was abruptly garnering more attention from her than he normally would lay in the fact that suddenly there was an anxiety and tenseness that surrounded him constantly. He was like a tightly stretched rubberband that was one hiccup away from snapping.
Leah would be the last one to admit it, but in her own way she loved Jacob as much as she loved her annoying, disgustingly pesky little brother. Jacob was one of the few people, male or female, wolf or man, in the entire tribe who understood the pain and anger she had endured since the nightmare of the La Push wolves began with Sam. Perhaps the only one. When it really came down to it, he had saved her life when he accepted her into his mini pack. He could have rejected her like she had been rejected over and over in the last few years, but he had taken her in ... and made her his right hand. She was respected in a way that she never would have been if it wasn't for Jake. She owed him her loyalty ... she owed him her life.
It didn't take a detective to figure out that something was terribly wrong with him. Could it just be the stress of running the pack and the shop? Maybe. She didn't know how he even did it. He was Alpha. It was Jacob, not Sam who organized the patrols for both of the packs. Jacob who volunteered and actually led every single vamp hunt and almost always made the kill. Lately though, he never gave himself any downtime. He was at the shop before dawn every single morning, he patrolled the outskirts of town during the day instead of taking a much needed break from his duties. At night he organized and ran Pack Patrol ... then there were his solo runs. Leah shook her head and sighed as she sped up her pace.
No-one forgot those awful months when Jacob had forsaken his humanity and lived as a wolf. Many had feared that he would never return. It was as thouugh the loss of Bella to the Cullens had broken something inside him leaving him unable to cope as a man. Then just when everyone except his father had given up hope ... he had returned. In recent months it seemed that he was heading in that hopeless direction again. He was already the only member of either of the packs who had the ability to completely shut his thoughts off from the collective. Such a thing was unheard of, Sam himself had tried to duplicate Jacob's ability, probably just to say he could, but so far he had been unable to do so. Leah wasn't so sure Jacob's ability was one that should be emulated. God knows she hated hearing the thoughts of her pack brothers almost as much as she hated the idea of them hearing her thoughts. It may be the worst kind of soul baring ever experienced by sentient beings, but there was a comfort in the pack mind that no human was capable of sharing. Her pack brothers knew when she was hurting, angry, alone, happy, it didn't matter the emotion. Whatever the emotion, they reacted to it, sending her their comfort and support through the collective mind and in person as well. She knew this because she had experienced it many times herself and reciprocated many more times. Just last week when Seth had been anxious about a final exam, no-one had said anything to him directly, but their soothing and comforting thoughts had calmed him. Within an hour, Leah had arranged for a friend of hers to show up at the house for a private session. At first the collective pack mind had been weird, creepy and invasive. Now... now it was a comforting presence that was always there. It was a presence Jacob had coldly cut himself off from five years ago. She never knew why, never even thought to question it.
Five years ago... it was weird, it all seemed like such a crazy blur. One minute they were right in the thick of Bella/Cullen/Vamp drama. The next ... there was an eerie calm and a feeling that they had all missed something momentous. Enter stage left a cold, angry, maniacally dedicated Jacob. She had thought about it many times but who was she to criticize? Hadn't she lost the love of her life too? Hadn't she been irrevocably changed? Of course, if one really got down to the nitty gritty, Sam may have been a disgusting cockroach, but he was a cockroach who had thrown her over for human, not a blood-sucking, soul stealing leech.
Everything else aside, something was off with Jacob. He was hiding something, and knowing Jacob, it was probably something that could get his crazy ass killed. Then where would she be? Alpha? Hell no! Jacob Black may not like it, he may even try to Alpha his way out of it, but his Beta was going to be keeping a much closer eye on him until she figured out what was wrong with him and how the hell she could fix it.
