Changing Tides
A/N: Ok, here it is, the big reveal, I hope it lives up to your expectations.
Ch 9 – Showing the Truth
….
So now I was even more confused. There are four of us, and four of them on the football team; so who was the vampire warning Nessie about?
Well, who would a vamp be more afraid of? – Seth asked as we were patrolling in the woods.
That depends on what kind of monster they are. – I answered him the best I could
I would guess vamps would be more afraid of us. Remember those newborns we fought against? They were terrified when we came onto the scene. – Embry thought back excitedly
Well, I know that Victoria and Riley sure were afraid of me, well Riley was anyway. – Seth remembered his experience during the same battle.
Yes Seth, we all remember how you took out that vamp with Edward, but damn, why do you have to remember their names like that? Just call them vamp one, or leach two, and so on. - Embry thought to Seth
You just called Edward by his name. – Seth rebutted
Well Edward was our ally, and he did marry Bella who we all spent time with, and his name was always running through Jake's mind so… - Embry thought
Enough, both of you! Can we just stay focused on the now instead of going down that happy memory lane? – I told them. This is when I really wish Leah didn't have to stay back with Ness, because she always backs me up on their idiotic off topic conversations. But then again as my Beta, it was sort of her job to back me up.
Sorry – They both thought at the same time.
Like always, we didn't come up with anything on our patrol, but I hated that there was a potential threat on campus, and Nessie still wouldn't be around me so I couldn't protect her. I couldn't stand it anymore, I hated being so separated from the center of my universe, and my steel cables were being stretched too thin (Not that it was ever possible for them to break). It was so obvious what I needed to do, and I couldn't believe I waited so long to do it.
Uhh, you sure that's a good idea bro? – Embry thought while hearing my plan in my mind
Don't listen to Em, I say go for it. It's worth the gamble man. – Seth encouraged.
I didn't need either of their support, but hearing Seth agreeing with me, just gave me that extra nudge to push me over. So I ran back to campus, phased, and humanly ran to Nessie and Leah's dorm, butterflies were protesting inside of me the whole way.
It was past curfew, so I knew the front door to the building would be locked, so I stood under the window and texted Leah to open it. Leah's confused face peered out the second floor window, and then she opened it as wide as it would go.
I didn't tell her my plan, so I expected her to be confused, but she didn't question me.
"Ness, stand back for a moment" I heard Leah tell her knowing I was about to jump in.
"Why, what's going on?" She asked confused
"Please just trust me and stand back" Leah asked
If I was in wolf form, I could have easily cleared the second floor window, but as a human it wasn't possible to do it in one leap, so I climbed the tree first then jumped to the window before climbing through.
Nessie was shocked
"Jake, what are you doing here?" She asked me in a confused resentment. "And how did you do that?" She added upset, but I knew her well enough to know that she was concerned for my safety more than angry about my intrusion.
"Do you want me to hang out?"Leah asked me guessing as to why I was there.
"Leah, you can't leave its past curfew." Ness said to her than turned to me "And you can't be here, you need to leave" Leah and I ignored her.
"No Lee, do you mind taking off? But don't go far just in case, I'll text you if I need you." I told her.
"Sure, I'll go crash in your bed; I bet Seth and Embry are going to love that." Leah said with an evil smirk then headed for the window before adding "I'm only a minute away, 'course if she freaks at you, she probably won't want to see me either."
"Leah, you can't jump out the window, we're too high…" Ness started to say, but then Leah was gone. Nessie rushed to the window and looked down, but Lee was the fastest out of all of us, even as a human, so she was already out of sight.
"Oh my god, where is she?" Ness said in a panic.
"Babe she's fine, I promise." I half expected her to yell at me for calling her babe when we technically weren't even friends anymore, but she didn't. Instead she looked up at me for a moment with tears in her eyes, and then wrapped herself around me holding me tightly. It only took me a second to know that she missed me as much as I missed her, and I held her securely against me and kissed the top of her head.
"I love you so much Nessie" I whispered to her. I never actually told her that before, so she looked up at me surprised and the tears started flowing down her cheeks.
"I love you too." She said softly "But Jake, it's just not enough, we're too different…" I shut her up by planting my lips to hers. I would never force myself on her, but I knew in that moment that she wouldn't want to push me away.
All of our other kisses were soft and sweet, but this one was forceful, passionate, and completely amazing. Before I knew it, she had my shirt off and we were lying on her bed, more than making up for our time apart. She had her hands locked in my hair but then they moved down my bare back and as much as I didn't want to, I knew I had to pull away from her.
I sat up and had to take deep breaths to calm myself and clear my head. She sat too, wrapped her arms around me and kissed my shoulder then waited for me to be ready to talk.
"Babe, I…"
"Jake, I'm so sorry. I love you so much, but…"
"But nothing. I came here tonight because I need to tell you something, and if you choose to tell me something in return, then that's up to you." I wasn't about to let her tell me again how she can't be with me. At least if she knew the truth and still says that, then there would be a real reason.
"Okay, go ahead" She told me sounding unsure.
"I haven't been honest with you, at least not about who I am. Everything we've done together, all the time we've spent when it's just been perfect, that was me, the real me, so I don't want you to think that what we have isn't real because it's the most real and important thing in my life." I paused to take a deep breath, and she waited. "Do you remember that picture I showed you, of me and my dad?"
"Yeah, the one with the address on the back."
"Yeah, that was one of my little lies."
"Ok, why would you lie about a picture?"
"Not the picture, just the number on the back. You were right, that was the date."
"But it was eight years ago, and you looked exactly like you do now?"
"Yeah…I'm actually 24." I said slowly
"Twenty four? So you were sixteen in that picture? Why are you in high school if you're twenty four, and that still doesn't explain why you look exactly the same in that picture. You should have changed somewhat in the past eight years." I found it odd that she didn't even seem to be upset at my age; she was more concerned about my lack of change over time.
"Well, that's the thing, I stopped aging at sixteen." I said then waited to see her reaction.
"Stopped aging? How, why?" She wasn't freaking out yet, just confused.
"My cousins and I, ok well, we're not actually cousins. Seth and Leah are brother and sister, but they aren't related to Embry or me, and we're not related to each other either. But we're close because we all have the same gene that allows us to…phase into wolves." I said slowly and watched her face carefully.
"Wolves? Jake that's not funny; I thought you were going to be honest with me." She really thought I was messing with her. At least I knew now that the vamp wasn't warning her about us, because she would have believed me right away if that were the case.
"Babe…Ness, I'm not kidding, I'm being perfectly honest. I'm a werewolf, and I have been since I was sixteen, so I don't age anymore and I won't ever again, unless I stop phasing."
"You were born like this, a gene caused it?" She asked disbelievingly. I nodded, so she said "I thought werewolves had to be bitten like vampires do?"
"All I know is that my pack and I were born like this, we all phased for the first time around sixteen, and we don't need a full moon to do it." She was taking all of this really well, I would have expected fainting or screaming out in horror.
"Fine, let's see." She said and motioned for the window. I was a little shocked. I wasn't expecting this reaction and I certainly wasn't prepared to show her my wolf. But then again, she did talk to vampires without any noticeable fear, so maybe she was just used to the supernatural somehow.
"I don't think that's such a good idea, I don't want to scare you."
"Do I look scared? If you want me to believe all of this, then just show me; I'll go first." She said before crawling out the window, and jumping to the tree. I was shocked. It wasn't impossible for a human to make that jump, I just never thought she ever could.
I bypassed the tree and just jumped straight down landing easily on my feet. She watched me carefully.
"How did you make that jump to the tree?" I asked her
"My dad loves climbing trees, so I've spent a lot of time in them growing up." She said casually. I wasn't sure if I believed her or not, but in the moment, I just didn't care.
"Ok, you sure you want to do this? We're going to have to go into the forbidden forest to do it." I said teasingly. Maybe it wasn't the time for jokes, but she actually seemed amused by it.
"Well if you're really a mighty werewolf then there isn't much out there that can hurt you right?" She said with a crooked smile.
"Exactly, I tried telling you I was perfectly safe out there." I smirked
"Well, that remains to be seen." She disagreed lightly
We headed out to the forest, but stopped at my room first to get some flashlights and an extra pair of shorts. I didn't need the lights, but I didn't want Ness to be blind in the dark forest. We walked about a mile out before she stopped abruptly and said "This is far enough."
"Uhh, Ok. When I phase my shorts will rip off, so I'll need to go into the trees when I phase back to dress again. I won't be able to talk to you, but I can understand you so you can talk to me just don't expect an answer." I said in a rush, I was really nervous but for some reason extremely excited at the same time.
"Ready?" I asked
"Go for it"
I phased easily and stood in front of her waiting for a reaction. Her eyes became wide while looking me over, but then she relaxed and took a step closer to me. I laid on my stomach so I was closer to her level as she reached her hand out to me. She ran her fingers through the fur on my head, and all the way down my back. Her hands were steady because she wasn't afraid, not even a little bit. She continued to stroke my back and it felt so good that I couldn't help the low rumble in my chest. She wasn't even afraid of the noise, but she took a step back to look at me in the face.
She nodded her head and said "Ok, I believe you."
I ran back into the cover of the trees, phased and got dressed, then ran back to her.
"Are you Ok?" I asked even though she looked completely fine.
I had to remind myself that she was my imprint, and imprints are supposed to accept this without being too afraid. Emily accepted it right away, so did Kim, and Rachel accepted when Paul told her, but she did have a hard time with the idea of her little brother being a wolf too. Even Claire as a three year old would ride on Quill's back when he was a wolf.
"Yeah, I mean I'm just a little surprised that's all." Nessie told me
"Ok, do you have any questions, or maybe something you want to tell me?" I asked hoping she would understand what I meant.
"Like what?" She seemed to really not have any idea what I was asking, but I knew that she did.
"Come on Nessie, what was up with the vampire you were talking to the day you broke up with me?"
"Vampire?" She asked like she was confused.
"I know you know what I'm talking about, that guy you snuck out of the restaurant to talk to was a vampire, I know a vampire when I see one, I can smell them."
"Look, I wasn't lying when I said I never saw him before, I swear. He just came up to me because he was concerned about…"
"Someone on the football team, yeah I heard that part. What exactly did he say, and how do you know about vampires in the first place?"
"I know about vampires because of my family. We've been so many places, practically everywhere, we were bound to run into different monsters along the way. I've seen a lot of things actually, and by the way, you are not a werewolf." She told me abruptly
"Wait, what?" I asked confused
"I've seen werewolves, and that's not you. Werewolves only come out during a full moon and they stand upright like a man, and like I told you, they are created like vampires, by being bit."
Ok, so my imprint was a monster expert, how did this happen? I didn't know what to think about everything especially the fact that I wasn't even a werewolf, so instead I asked the more important question at the moment.
"What are our offensive players?" I knew she must know, the vampire told her to be careful of them and she seemed to know everything else anyway.
"They're a coven of witches, or warlocks, whatever you want to call them"
"Witches?" I had to chuckle a little bit, was she actually serious?
"They're very dangerous Jake, you have to be careful. Alone they aren't very powerful, but together they can be deadly, even for monsters. They're main enemies are vampires, but they'll take down anything they see as a threat and I'm guessing that if they find out what you are, they'll want to kill you too."
"Ok first, me and my pack are not a threat; we protect people from bloodsucking leeches, that's our whole reason to exist. Second, why would the vampire tell you to be careful of them if they are just enemies of monsters?"
Nessie was quiet for a few moments like she was thinking of something.
"Because, even though I never met that particular vampire before, we had mutual acquaintances and he knew that if the witches found out that I had associated with vampires in the past, that they might see me as a threat." She said slowly and it was obvious she just made the whole thing up as she went.
I was starting to catch on to her lying habits, and I could hear it in her voice now. But as much as I wanted to question her further, and tell her I knew she was lying, I just didn't have it in me. She obviously ended our relationship for a reason, and now I felt like she was coming back to me. The last thing I wanted was to push her away again, so I let it go.
We walked back to campus, and I watched her climb the tree by her window and jump lightly into her room. I questioned that in my mind as well, but I didn't want to hear anymore of her lies tonight, so I kept it to myself.
"Jake, please just promise me you'll be careful around the witches? I know you don't believe me when I tell you they're dangerous, but please just trust me." She said.
The strange thing about Nessie was the fact that I did trust her; I knew when she was lying, but for some reason I knew she was lying for something important, and I trusted her enough to just go with it. I could feel her love when she looked at me, and I knew she was worried or afraid of something beyond witches and vampires, so I would wait until she was ready to tell me the whole truth. As long as she allowed me to be a part of her life, I was certain I could protect her from whatever underlying threat she was afraid of.
*I hope it didn't disappoint and you aren't too angry at Nessie for not telling Jake her truth, she has her reasons. Please Review*
