AN: Holy carp you guys. This is seriously record time for me. This will not happen again. It really really won't. I don't know where all these words came from, but they are here so I guess you can read them, but only if you promise to review afterward. Just leave a smiley face or something. Seriously. Just something.

As always, this would not be possible without the love & devotion of glasscannon. Also, a big thanks to my lovely ladies on twitter. You guys make me excited to write every night :D


Chapter 8 – The King

Renesmee

I was in awe.

We had descended from the mountains just as the coast began to curve away to the west again, keeping to the road as it continued northward into the expansive forest beyond. Forest seemed like such a bland word for the giant trees that sprang up to surround us. They spread back from the seashore as far as I could see in all directions, taller than the buildings in any of our most affluent cities, primeval and unmoving and somehow alive.

I tilted my head back as we passed beneath them, staring up at the enormous trunks and crisscrossing branches in open-mouthed wonder. The sky was reduced to distant patches of pale blue beyond the very highest of them, the sunlight filtering down in dusty, shimmering beams. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before.

I was struck with a sudden sense of treading somewhere ancient, somewhere holy. My breath sounded loud in my ears, my heartbeat thudding out a raucous, steady pulse in comparison to the hush of the trees. This forest was a cathedral, nature's shrine grown up here without the help or hurt of man's interfering hands.

"Why didn't you tell me it was so beautiful here?" I murmured, finally tearing my eyes away from the heights to look down at Jacob. His head was only a few inches below eye level from my seat on Noble's back. He met my gaze, smiling softly, but then he stiffened, his eyes flicking away at a movement off to our left. Two wolves, easily as big as any of the young men running alongside me, had emerged from behind the huge tree trunks along the road and now stood watching us, their heads lowered and tails hanging motionless behind them. Embry nodded to them as we passed and Jacob kept his eyes trained on them, seeming wary and tense.

"You know them?" I asked quietly, trying to catch his gaze again.

"Yeah," he grunted, finally looking away as the wolves turned to lope back into the trees behind us. He glanced up at me and seemed to relax marginally. "We all know each other in the Pack," he explained. "There's more of us now than there's been in a long time, so it gets confusing sometimes with that many voices in your head, but..." He trailed off, shrugging.

"Voices?" I asked, leaning forward. "You… can hear each other's thoughts?"

I saw Quil and Embry exchange a look up ahead of us. Embry seemed to be keeping one eye trained on me, only half watching the road as we jogged along. "Can you always read each other's thoughts?" I asked, watching Embry right back. He turned away, facing forward again.

"Oh, no, thank the gods," Jacob replied, huffing out a sardonic laugh. "I think I'd go nuts without a little privacy once in a while. No, it's just in our wolf forms."

"How?" I asked. "How is that possible?"

Jake glanced up at me, looking mildly surprised, as if he hadn't realized this was something that needed explaining. "It's the Packmind," he said, then seemed to search for the right words when I still looked down at him uncomprehendingly. "It's, uh, like a hive mind, I guess. It lets us move as one, see what the others are seeing, smell what they smell. It's the only way for the Pack to be effective. Without it, we'd just be a bunch of mangy dogs running around aimlessly," he said, grinning up at me.

"Not that we aren't a bunch of mangy dogs as it is," Quil added, flashing a smirk back at me over his shoulder.

I smiled slightly at his joke, turning my attention back to Jacob. "So the whole pack knows everything that any one wolf knows? Like those two back there? Everyone knows we're here now?"

"Well, we can shield our thoughts, to some extent…" Jacob started.

"But we do share information," Seth interjected, smiling up at me from my other side when I looked over at him. "That's the whole point, ya know? Like, for instance, word's probably getting back to Sam right now that we're here, if he didn't know already."

I blinked owlishly down at him. "Who's Sam?"

"Sam's the Alpha," all four of them said in unison. I stared around at them for a moment before looking to Jacob for clarification.

"The king," he said, sounding slightly peevish all of a sudden. "I- We're supposed to take you straight to him."

"Oh." I tried to keep the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach from showing through in my voice. What was going to happen once we got there? What would this king do? Would… Would I be separated from Jacob? I bit my lip, refusing to give that thought time to take hold in my mind. "So he's Ephraim Black's grandson? Or… great-grandson, I suppose?" I asked, looking to distract myself with names and dates, hard historical facts. He must be the son of the King Samuel I had read about in the travel logs of Grandfather's emissary, Matthias. And there had been one other king, briefly, before that first Samuel but after Ephraim. I added up the years in my head, wondering if it was enough time for that many generations to have passed.

I didn't miss the way Embry and Quil both stiffened at my words, or how Seth suddenly looked sharply over at Jacob. His face split into a wide smile, watching Jake over Noble's back. "Oh boy, are you in trouble," he laughed, shaking his head.

"Shut up," Jake growled at him, then looked up at me, now looking decidedly sour for some reason. "No. It's Sam Uley," he said gruffly. "Ephraim Black's family fell out of power over thirty years ago."

"Oh," I said again. Of course – Matthias had written about the unsteady political situation around the time of his visit. It was a brief account, barely more than a mention, really, but I should have known. I'd poured over his journal enough times over the years to practically have it memorized. I shivered, remembering the violent means with which Ambassador Matthias had been driven from the Quileute lands. That was the father… Could his son be just as merciless? "What's he like? The king?" I asked, biting my lip as I glanced down at Jacob again.

"Sam?" Jacob asked, looking back up at me.

"He's a good guy," Seth said. "Pretty serious most of the time, but good."

Jake nodded, though his face was grim when he met my eyes once more. "He won't hurt you, Ness. I promise."

Embry was watching me out of the corner of his eye again. Quil was frowning out at the forest as he ran, his brows knit. I looked down at Jacob, my voice hesitant. "Okay…"

Jake let out a breath, dropping my gaze. "I don't know what he has planned for your arrival," he admitted, his voice edged with a growl. "But… they'll probably want to put on some kind of spectacle."

"Oh." I seemed to be saying that word an awful lot today. There just weren't words… I had no idea how I felt, how I was supposed to react.

"It'll be okay, princess," Seth said, smiling encouragingly up at me.

"Thank you, Seth," I replied hollowly, my mouth dry. On my other side, Jacob growled quietly, and I couldn't tell if he was agreeing or disagreeing with the younger wolf.

We ran in silence for a while after that, until I heard Jake draw in a deep breath, as though preparing himself for something. His teeth were clenched when I looked down at him.

He shook his head, frowning as he looked up at me. "Just… ignore everyone, okay?"

I felt my brows knit in confusion, but I didn't have long to wonder at his meaning – up ahead, a town of sorts was emerging from the forest. It seemed to have been built in and around the massive trunks, the trees a part of the village's structure rather than being cleared out to make way for the buildings. There were treehouses resting in the branches, wide staircases spiraling up to them from the ground – wide enough, I realized, for three wolves to walk up shoulder-to-shoulder easily. Burrows were dug into the ground below, the trees' thick roots framing the top edges of their entrances. Animal carcasses hung from the fronts of the buildings in various states of cooking and dressing, making me cringe at the sight and smell.

I spotted several wolves watching us, some of them growling quietly as we rode up, but the majority of the population seemed to be as human as me. Jake had said that most people couldn't shift at will like he could; for the most part, they only changed into wolves on the night of the full moon. Still, there was something distinctly canine about them as they stopped whatever they were doing, their dark eyes intense and focused, seeming to silently close ranks as we approached. I swallowed, feeling very much like an outsider in the face of these people's unity.

I wasn't prepared for the jeering.

It took a moment for it to start, the townsfolk seeming surprised by our appearance at first, but then one voice in the crowd barked out an insult, and it quickly spread from there. The people moved forward to line the street, shaking their fists and raising their voices in an angry outcry, some running to keep up with us as we passed. My companions all went rigid, glaring out at them, and I could see Quil and Embry ball their hands into fists, ready for a fight. Jacob kept up a steady growl beside me.

"Dirty bloodsucker!"

Jacob snarled, his eyes sweeping the crowd for whoever had spoken.

"We don't want your kind here!"

Seth bared his teeth at them, looking every inch a warrior despite his young age.

"Filthy demonspawn!"

I swallowed, feeling my eyes prick, and pushed Noble into a faster canter.

"Go back where you came from!"

Embry caught the arm of a teenage girl just as she was about to throw something at us. He wrenched it away from her, and, my stomach turning, I saw that it was a handful of raw, still-bleeding meat.

"You'll pay for what you leeches did to us!"

Quil had to shove a man back as he tried to rush out into the road to block our path. The man fought for a moment, but he was no match for the huge young werewolf.

"Little vampire whore!"

Jacob seemed to snap, turning toward the last catcall with a roar. His body shook, ready to transform and leap into the crowd, but then Embry was there, pushing him back toward me before turning to face the people.

"If you want to interfere with official state business, be my guest – but you'll have the Pack to answer to!" he yelled, glaring out at them. "The whole Pack."

"Come on," Jacob said, urging me forward again with a warm hand on my calf, though he was still shaking with fury. I nodded numbly, and we made our escape as Embry stared down the irate villagers, Seth and Quil close behind. The wolves at the edge of the town snorted derisively as we passed, but they made no move to stop us.

I managed to keep the tears at bay until the sounds of the villagers faded into the forest, their angry voices mingling into a dull, malicious rumble behind us, but then I couldn't hold back any longer. I hunched down in the saddle, my vision blurring as the hot droplets rolled down my cheeks. I felt like I had cried more in the last twenty four hours than in the entire course of my life before then, but I was too far gone to care anymore. I was scared, I was homesick, and thinking about any of it simply hurt.

I was a fool. I couldn't believe I had let myself think for a second that the fate I was going out to meet would be anything less than horrible, that I could possibly be happy here, that I could have a life here. Quil and Embry and Seth had all been so kind to me that I had thought maybe, just maybe, everyone in Quileute didn't hate me. And Jacob…

"Ugh, I'm such an idiot," Jacob muttered, and then he reached up and gently pulled me from Noble's back mid-stride. I hiccupped in surprise, swallowing a sob as he settled me against his warm chest.

"Sorry," he said. "I should have known better than to… I should have expected something like that." His hand rubbed soothing circles across my back, though I could still feel him growling quietly, the sound reverberating through both of us as he held me. I sniffled and closed my eyes, wrapping my arms around his neck and wishing I could forget everything but the feel of his arms around me.


I must have dozed off at some point, lulled into unconsciousness by Jacob's steady warmth and the sound of his heartbeat under my ear. The sun was much lower in the sky than I remembered, the dusty beams of light now cutting between the trees in orangey, slanting rays as dusk approached. I let my eyes slide closed again, wishing to return to the quiet world of sleep and peace and Jacob.

"You're gonna have to put her down soon, you know." Embry.

Jacob grunted in reply, his arms tightening around me, but I felt him slow to jog, then a walk, and finally a stop. He met my gaze when I looked up at him, blinking drowsily.

"Where are we?" I croaked, my throat feeling sore and dry.

He pursed his lips. "We're almost there."

"Oh. Do I… need to get back on my horse?"

He nodded reluctantly.

I swallowed, and some childish part of me wanted to demand Why? Why did I have to leave this peace and comfort, why did I have to go back out into the real world where everything was cold and mean and hurt? Why? But I simply nodded and shifted, letting Jacob set me on my feet again.

I looked around as we walked back to where Noble and the mule had been following us, my horse's devotion to me outweighing any fear he might have felt at passing through these hostile lands. Jacob stayed within arm's reach the entire time. We were on a gradual incline, the ground seeming to climb slowly upward towards our goal, wherever and whatever that was.

"We're going to hit more populated areas soon," Jacob said, his hands going to my waist to steady me as I climbed up into Noble's saddle.

I nodded, not meeting his gaze as I settled in.

"Nessie…"

I bit my lip and looked over at him. "It's going to be a hundred times worse than that little village back there, isn't it?"

He sighed, his troubled expression all the confirmation I needed. "We managed to skirt around a few other dens on the way here," he said, "and we're gonna keep trying to do that, to keep you out of harm's way for as long as possible, but at some point it's not gonna work anymore. It'll just be too densely populated to go around."

"So what do we do then?" I asked, pulling Noble's reins up between my hands.

Jacob suddenly gave me a lopsided grin, looking decidedly wolfish. "We make a break for the Summit," he said, turning to lead the way back up to where the others waited. "Don't worry, once we're there, you'll be safe. Sam won't put up with any crap like what we saw earlier."

I nodded, feeling a small glimmer of hope once more. If their ruler was as even tempered and compassionate as the werewolves around me had proven to be, then perhaps I did stand a chance here. Perhaps it was only the common people, the very lowest class, who would act that way toward me. Perhaps my fate wasn't so dire after all.

We set off up the road once more, the four werewolves falling into a loose formation around me and the animals, Jacob never more than a few feet away. It wasn't long before they were directing me off the road, cutting across the soft pine needle carpet of the wild forest to trace a wide berth around some settlement that was still too far away for me to detect. We did that thrice more, and every time that I looked back over my shoulder upon regaining the road, the town we had just skipped past was little more than a cluster of shadows, disappearing behind into the growing evening gloom.

The next time Embry made to dart off the road again, though, Quil shook his head, stopping him. "There's less than a mile between this den and the next one," he said, holding his course on the road.

"That's better than just going straight through the middle of this one," Seth piped up from his place to the right and slightly behind me. "I mean, then we'd at least have a little bit of buffer room…"

"More like we'd have two clans gunning for us instead of one," Quil grumbled, but he and Embry both looked back at Jacob to decide. Jake thought for one moment, and then flicked his head to the side, and we took off across country once more.

I could just make out the shapes of the distant burrows and treehouses on either side of us as we passed between the two settlements. Some people at the edges of the villages stopped as they spied us sneaking past, but they didn't make any move to pursue us. I heard Jacob let out a tense sigh of relief beside me as we left them behind.

We didn't return to the road again, instead keeping to the trees as the ground continued to steepen below us. The next settlements we came to were much closer together, with less than a half mile separating them. As we swept past, I glanced off to the right just as a middle aged woman emerged from between some trees on the very edge of her village. Our eyes met, and even from this distance I could see the emotions wash over her face: surprise, recognition, rage, and finally blackest hate.

I jerked my eyes away, shivering.

The trees began to thin as we climbed higher still, the scarlet rays of the setting sun breaking through the boughs to paint the forest in a bloody haze. More and more dugouts seemed to be popping up around us every minute, more and more of the trees covered in the spiraling architecture of the wolves' treehouses. And then, up ahead, I saw them – no longer clusters of dens and buildings, but a veritable wall of them. I squinted, trying to see a path through, a way to sneak past without charging directly through them, but the thin, winding streets between the burrows seemed to be the only route.

"Jake," Seth said, his voice strained.

"I see it," he answered, nodding once. "Time to make a run for it," he said, looking up at me. He glanced back at the pack mule, struggling along behind Noble from the long run, and swore under his breath, no doubt wondering how we were going to get a little more speed out of the poor animal.

"On it," Quil called, apparently following Jake's train of thought as well, and spun mid-step to fall back behind Noble and me. I blinked, his sudden movement making me jump. The animals both shied away from him, Noble whinnying nervously, but Quil darted in, grabbed the tether between the two beasts, and bit it, snapping it easily with his teeth. "Go!" he yelled to Jake, and then, eliciting a panicked squeal from the mule, he grabbed the animal under the ribs, saddlebags and all, and lifted it up in his arms without even breaking step.

"Come on, Ness!" Jake cried, his voice all but swallowed by his growl, and I urged Noble faster still. We barreled up the hill side by side, the dens and burrows growing closer and closer, and then we were in them, darting past them, people yelling and jumping out of the way as Jacob and Embry ran ahead of me, clearing the path, Seth and Quil following close behind. It was only after we were well out of reach that I could hear people beginning to shout and rant as they realized who had just darted past them.

The ground tilted further upward as we dashed through the veritable wolf city, the trees growing increasingly sparse, and then they were gone altogether, the forest falling away behind us as we finally emerged onto the grassy, windswept side of a mountain.

I felt my mouth fall open as I took in the sight before me. The slope up to the mountaintop was pocked with small, fortified openings, not unlike the residential burrows below us in the forest, but distinctly more military, and not just because of the enormous wolf faces that I could see peering down at us from within. The ground turned rocky as we continued to climb, our pace never slowing, all four of the wolfmen staring intently up at the peak of the mountain. There, a huge cave opened in the sheer rocks, its mouth yawning wide like that of a dragon or some other terrible creature of myth. We made straight for it, and I had to try to shake the image of being swallowed alive by a great, stone demon.

We finally slowed as we neared the dragon-cave, well away from any threat of the common people following us out of the city. The wolves guarding the mountainside growled at me as we passed, but Jacob paid them little if any heed and they didn't give any indication that they would leave their posts to give us trouble. I did my best to follow his lead and ignore them as well, though each new snarl and flash of teeth sent a shiver through me.

I studied the rocks of the cave opening as we drew near. It was at once crude, almost primitive, and magnificent. If it hadn't been for the obviously man-made walls and fortifications leading up to the entrance, I would have thought it was a completely natural formation. It might have been, I supposed, once upon a time, but the Quileutes had since carved it out, smoothing the floor and ceiling of stalagmites and stalactites and carving sconces into the walls for candles and torches.

Jacob and Embry slowed to a stop in front of the cave, both nodding at the huge sentry wolves that looked down at us from either side of the opening. I reined Noble in and slowly slid down from the saddle, looking to Jacob for direction. He blew out a breath, looking almost as nervous as I felt.

"Sam's waiting for us inside," he said quietly. He hesitated for one moment, and then held his arm out to me. I gazed up at him, carefully slipping my hand into the crook of his elbow like I had the day before as we walked side by side out of my homeland. Had it really only been a day? It seemed so long ago now, like a distant, fond memory of a more peaceful time, just him and me, walking along without anyone else in the world.

It was the most dignified way to be presented to the king, and no matter what else happened, I would be eternally grateful to Jacob for this. I would be escorted into the wolves' fortress like a lady, rather than led in like a prisoner. I was able to hold my head high and feel all the generations of royal blood coursing through my veins as I stepped forward with Jacob. This man, Samuel Uley, was a king, but I was a princess, a daughter of kings, and I would not be cowed by his presence. I came to him now as an equal, subject to his will perhaps, but a representative of all that my people held in highest esteem.

The inside of the cave was clean and dry, the multitude of candles set into the walls reflecting on the dull black facets of the stones and illuminating the hall with a dim, golden glow. It was much deeper than I expected, and had several visible hallways branching off of it, sloping quickly down and out of sight into the belly of the mountain. Several wolves and a handful of humans stood along the walls, acting as guards or awaiting instructions I didn't know, but they all looked up as Jacob and I entered, Embry, Quil, and Seth fanning out behind us. There was a small group of men standing at the very back of the hall, looking deep in discussion.

I knew which one was the king the moment I laid eyes on him.

It wasn't just that he seemed to be the tallest in the room, or that he wore a black bearskin cape across his broad shoulders, or even that he seemed to be the center point around which the other men oriented themselves, each powerful and grand in their own right and yet somehow deferring to him in their very body language. All of these could have been indicators, but they were not what drew me in.

It was the eyes.

The king's gaze had zeroed in on me the moment we stepped into the cave, reminding me suddenly of the first time I saw Jacob. I remembered the ice and the fire that had shot through me when our eyes met, the lightning when we touched. Even now, my skin hummed being in contact with his. But there was no fire here, no ice, no lightning – only the deep blackness that exists between the stars. When I met Jacob, I had known, certainly and instinctually, that his face was that of my destiny, that he somehow represented all that Fate had in store for me.

When I looked at this man, I saw only doom.

We stopped several yards from them, Jacob holding his silence as he waited to be acknowledged, his face set in an expression of military stoicism. The clustered men stilled after a moment, slowly turning toward us as they followed the line of their ruler's attention. His eyes never leaving my face, King Samuel separated himself from their midst and stepped forward, looking down at us as he rose to his full height.

He seemed to study us for a long moment, his eyes traveling from me, to Jacob, to our linked arms, and finally back to my face. I refused to so much as blink while his dark gaze was on me.

Finally, he spoke. "You've done well, Jacob," he rumbled, speaking loudly enough for the entire room to hear. It sounded like a formality, almost ceremonial.

Jacob didn't make any verbal reply, but bowed his head, keeping his eyes lowered respectfully. I saw him swallow reflexively out of the corner of my eye.

The king looked up then, addressing the rest of the room in a tone that was clearly meant for the history books. "We are all witnesses today," he said loudly, his voice ringing, "to the arrival of the Princess Renesmee, daughter and representative of the Cullen Kingdom, our neighbor to the east."

Quiet mumblings from the onlookers. The sound of feet shuffling. I kept my eyes locked on the king.

"The treaty is fulfilled," he continued, "as set forth by our forefathers. It was begun by Ephraim Black, our great ruler of old, and now, so very fitting, it is finished by Jacob Black."

I stiffened, feeling my eyes go wide. "Jacob… Black?" I mouthed, turning my head a millimeter to stare at him out of the corner of my eye. "You're-"

"Nobody," Jacob cut me off in a whisper, then met my gaze, his eyes softening. "I serve the Alpha. That's all."

King Samuel turned back to us then, his eyes dark and calculating as he surveyed me once more. I knew he couldn't have missed our little exchange just now.

"You have done well, Jacob," he said again. "You have loyally served your Alpha, your Pack, and the entire Quileute nation. You have done well indeed. And now," the formal tone faded from his voice, a smile quirking one side of his lips. It didn't reach his eyes, I noted. "Let's prepare for the festivities!" He jerked his head, and one of the giant wolves we had passed earlier stepped away from the wall, padding up beside me.

"Sam-" Jacob started, looking alarmed, but the king sent him a sharp look, nostrils flaring, and he fell silent. I tightened my hold on Jake's arm, looking nervously between the huge wolf beside me and the towering man in front of me.

"Take the princess down to her chambers," Sam said, addressing the wolf. "There's a dressing room all ready for her there."

"A dressing room?" I asked, at the same time that Jacob said, "Sam-"

"Enough, Jacob," Sam cut him off. He nodded to the wolf, who grumbled in the back of his throat and butted my shoulder with his nose.

"Jake," I said, my voice sounding small and frightened even to my own ears, looking up at him as the wolf nudged me toward one of the tunnels leading down into the mountain.

"You'll be fine," he tried to reassure me, standing helplessly as we were pushed further apart. "Just…" He trailed off, grimacing. "You'll be fine," he said again, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than me.

He held my gaze as I was led away, looking like he was in physical pain, and I kept my eyes on him, staring back over my shoulder until the walls of the hallway closed around us, blocking him from my view.


Jacob

He waited until Nessie had disappeared from sight, the sound of her light footfalls and the clicking of the wolf's claws slowly fading down the corridor. Her scent lingered behind her, clinging to him. He breathed it in, steeling himself, telling himself that they would be together again soon enough, that she would be fine, that it would be okay. Then he turned to face Sam.

"What are you planning?" he asked.

Sam raised an eyebrow, looking up from the papers one of his advisors had just handed him. "Why do you care?" he asked in return.

He opened his mouth to reply, but then stopped, biting off the words. He had to be careful what he said here.

Sam watched him struggle for a moment, then handed the paperwork back to the old man at his elbow. "Come on," he said gruffly, gesturing with his head for Jacob to follow him as he made his way to the entrance of the northern corridor that was set in the very back of the cave. It was the only tunnel that led upward from the Main Hall, ending at the Alpha's personal study in the top of the mountain.

"Close the door," Sam ordered, shrugging out of his bearskin mantle once they were both inside. Jacob did as he was told, making sure the ornate wooden door was firmly latched before turning back toward the older man. Sam stood with his back to Jacob after hanging up the cape, his hands on his hips. He let out a long breath and then turned around.

"First," he said, pointing down at Jacob's makeshift kilt, "what the hell are you wearing?"

"I had to phase on the fly," Jake said defensively. "We got attacked."

"I heard about that," Sam said, walking over to the bureau set against the side of the room. "That why you've been favoring your left arm?" He uncorked one of the bottles of wine arranged on top of the antique piece of furniture, pouring himself a small amount before looking up at Jacob again.

Jake nodded, rolling his shoulder. He could feel it beginning to mend, but it was stiff and still sent twinges of pain across his back if he moved it too much. Carrying Nessie around this evening probably hadn't helped any, but he hadn't been able to stop himself after what happened when they passed through that clan's den. "We were just lucky Quil and Embry were so close, or things could have gotten really ugly out there."

"Mm."

"And Seth," Jacob added, realizing in a back corner of his mind that he was beginning to babble, giving away his nervousness. "Though I was kind of surprised to see him that far out from home. I thought Leah was pretty determined to keep him close by-"

"Jake," Sam said, his voice stern. "I think we both know we're not here to talk about Seth."

Jacob closed his mouth with a small snap and felt himself tense, almost as if for a fight. Sam took a sip of his wine, titling his head back to gaze up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Do you feel sorry for her?" he asked after a moment.

He blinked. "Yeah. Yes. Of course." It wasn't a lie – just an omission of the whole truth.

Sam leveled his eyes back on him. "You're worried about her."

He hesitated a moment longer on that one. Dread began to curl in the pit of his stomach. "Yeah."

Sam took another sip from his glass, a slight, skeptical sneer pulling at his lip. "You can't afford to get attached to this girl, Jake."

"Sam, she's completely alone-"

"She's supposed to be!" Sam suddenly growled, cutting him off. He set his wine down on the bureau behind him somewhat harder than was necessary. "Dammit, Jacob, have you completely forgotten why she's here in the first place? Have you forgotten what she represents? What her people did to us?"

"It was forty years ago, Sam! It's not her fault!"

"It's what we agreed on," Sam snarled, his voice deepening as he asserted his dominance, his place as the Alpha. He towered over Jacob, dark eyes blazing. "It's the price they have to pay for what they did! For gods sakes, her own family sold her life away to save themselves."

"That's exactly why-" Jake tried again, feeling scattered, out of control. "Sam, she's been through so much already-"

"So, what, you spend a few days with her, and now you're her guard dog? You would choose her over your own pack?" Sam demanded.

"No- It's not-"

"How exactly did she get under your skin like this, Jake? She flirt with you? Did she look up at you with those big, brown eyes, and bat her lashes and ask you to protect her?"

"Sam-"

"Did she let you bed her? Is that what took you so long on the way back here?"

He felt a flash of rage of the sort that normally would have catapulted him into transforming. He held it back, barely, but the words were harder to control. "I imprinted on her!" he bellowed – and then he froze.

Sam was staring at him, his eyes slowly narrowing as some mixture of revulsion, betrayal, and righteous anger began to rise in his expression. "What?" he asked, very softly.

Jacob shook his head, his mind a panicked blank. There was nothing he could say now. "I- I don't-"

"You imprinted on her," Sam repeated, his words dripping with sarcasm. He had never sounded so furious before. He leaned forward then, glowering down at Jacob, and enunciated every word carefully and sharply, "Only the Alpha wolf can imprint, Jacob."

Jake threw his hands up, helpless. "I know that! Gods, Sam, I know. I have no idea why this happened, or how. All I know is that it did." He pursed his lips, shaking his head. "I mean, my grandfather was an Alpha. Maybe it just got… passed down from him, or something. Leftovers." He shrugged, looking up at the older man beseechingly.

Sam glared hard at him for another few moments, his eyes searching Jake's face. "Maybe," he said at last, grudgingly. Jake let out a breath, looking down at the floor as Sam straightened, turning to pick up his glass of wine again.

"The girl's no longer your concern, Jacob," he told him, pinning him with a domineering, quietly furious look, "no matter what may, or may not, have happened over the last few days. Stay away from her."

Jacob swallowed, not trusting himself to respond past the knot in his chest.

Sam took another drink of his wine, pausing to raise an eyebrow at Jake. "Well? I'm sure you have things you need to attend to. Go."

Jacob nodded shakily, turning to let himself out of the study, but Sam's voice stopped him again.

"Oh, and Jacob?"

He turned back around, feeling the dread squirm in his stomach, claw at his lungs.

"Don't say anything about this imprinting nonsense to anyone else. Understood?" Sam said, looking down at him imperiously.

Jacob straightened, clenching his teeth. That was a promise he could keep. He nodded once, curtly, and then turned, yanked the door open, and fled.


AN: The beans, they are spilt!

Please review. Seriously. You can even click the review button and then just smash your head on the keyboard. I will appreciate the effort. And it will make me laugh. Seriously. Please?