Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of the characters in the story.

Seriously though, have I told you guys yet how absolutely AMAZING you are? Because you guys are blowing me away! Thank you SO MUCH for all of the incredible feedback you continue to give me! I love reading your thoughts on all of the chapters! It's great :) I hope you enjoy this chapter, and as always, happy reading!

Chapter Nine

For the rest of the afternoon Isabella spent her time talking with Emily, meeting the rest of the people at the barbeque, and stealing glances at Jacob.

She learned that Emily and Sam had been married for about eight months and she was six months pregnant. However she looked like she was going to explode, and Isabella joked about it. Emily laughed with her and told her that the little bugger was also very antsy. During the day she had put Isabella's hand on her stomach and she'd felt the movement of the baby inside Emily's womb. For a moment Isabella's world froze.

In her mind's eye she saw her future, her own belly rounded with a child kicking inside of her. And then the scene changed and she was watching three children with dark heads of hair running through the yard of her father's house, playing with each other and the other young kids that had infested the area. Isabella was slapped back into her body with a jolt and she realized how badly she wanted that idea of the future to become a reality. She wanted it more than anything.

Emily continued to tell her the names of the rest of the boys that had decided to start a game of touch football with the other able bodied men at the cookout. She explained that they were all a close group of friends... They were more like brothers, she told Isabella. And she could see it. They way they joked and played together, the way that they sometimes argued, but ultimately got along with each other could only be described as the bond between brothers.

Isabella was introduced to Billy Black by her father, and she had to admit that she felt nervous meeting the father of Jacob. He was kind man though, and he gave her a hearty hug, even from sitting in his wheelchair. She felt a sense of relief wash over her after meeting him and knowing that he already liked her... But maybe after he figured out that her and his son had some odd kind of connection he would be a little less understanding. After all, she was supposed to be a professional.

The day continued on, but all Isabella could think about was how her talk with Jacob would go later. She had been watching him play touch football with the other boys. Her stomach had clenched every time she watched him twist expertly out of reach of the other guys, and she'd lost her breath every time that one of the boys collided with him, trying to intercept a pass. However as if on cue, each time she looked at him, he looked up from whatever he was doing and looked into her eyes. And every time, she found herself at ease. It was a magical spell that Isabella had been cast under, but she was unsure that she wanted to be freed from it.

-8-

"Hey Bella, don't be a stranger anymore, okay?" Charlie called to her as she walked out the front door of his house.

"I won't. Maybe I could come over for dinner sometime this week?" she responded as she gave him a wave.

"Sounds like a plan, kiddo!" he smiled at her and she nodded, then continued to her car. She waited a moment by her door, looking around until her eyes settled on Jacob Black standing on the opposite side of the street, next to what looked like a metal death trap. Said metal death trap was actually a motorcycle.

"You want to follow me to someplace we can talk?" he asked. She nodded, not trusting her voice and got into her car. Even through the windows she heard the roaring of Jacob's motorcycle as he started it up. Isabella backed out of her spot and pulled out after Jacob, following him down the road towards... Somewhere. She realized she had no idea where he was taking her.

They drove for a while until she knew that they were headed to somewhere on the reservation. It wasn't long before they turned off the main road and drove down a slightly overgrown path. The path finally opened up to a small dirt parking lot overlooking a beach.

Isabella parked her car and got out slowly. She was a bit nervous of what was going to happen now, and she didn't trust herself not to say or do something stupid.

"You don't have to be nervous, Bella," Jacob said softly as he walked over to her. She looked up at him out of surprise at the use of her childhood nickname. He looked like he'd been caught and he tried backtracking, "Is it alright that I call you that? Isabella is just a mouthful."

Isabella couldn't help but giggle at him, "I guess that's fine for now." She wasn't going to admit how much she enjoyed him calling her that. It was silly how she suddenly loved the nickname again just because he had liked it as well.

"Let's go for a walk. No one ever comes on this part of the beach, it's too hard to get to," Jacob reassured her as he held out his large tan hand. Isabella looked the hand for a moment before placing her small pale one inside of its heat. Jacob's smile made her heart skip a beat and he began to lead her down towards the sand. She looked out at the beach as they walked. The sun was low in the sky, but sunset wasn't for another few hours. Jacob tugged on her hand gently and led her over to a bleached driftwood log.

As they reached it Jacob sat down, still holding onto Isabella's hand firmly. She took a seat beside him and finally looked back into his face. His russet colored face, with the dark eyes and incredibly handsome features. He looked like a creature of perfection,though she knew that he had some faults.

"Bella, you've asked me a lot of questions, and I intend on answering each of them, but you have to promise me that you won't speak until I'm done. You have to promise me that you won't walk away from me," Jacob asked, his eyes pleading with her. She knew that there was no possible way that she could ever say no to this man.

"I promise, Jacob," she whispered to him and he squeezed her small hand in his. For a minute he looked out over the water, and she watched his face. Every feature on his face made Isabella want to kiss it. She wanted to push herself closer to his warm, bronzed skin until she could no longer tell where he ended and she began. She saw Jacob's lips twitch into a smile, but he still remained silent. Isabella was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to speak, when he finally opened his mouth.

"My tribe has always had legends among them. Our ancestors believed that we were descended from wolves, and that our Gods had given us the gift of a spirit guide. It's believed that some of the ancestors also had alternative identities as spirit warriors. They were able to change from their human form into the form of a wolf in order to protect the people from the cold ones. Cold ones are what are now called vampires," Jacob said in a slow, steady voice. Isabella watched him, completely mystified as to where this was going.

"The legends remain the same that descendents of the original tribe still carry the spirit guides inside of us, and only the threat from the cold ones will make them reappear... Well, a few years ago, a new family moved to Forks. They called themselves the Cullens, and they are a large group of cold ones that had apparently decided to create the facade of being a human family. It was a few years ago that the boys from La Push, including myself started to phase into the wolves that our ancestors had described," Jacob looked into her face, searching for something. Or maybe he was waiting for her to run away screaming. She could feel her heartbeat in her chest and while she would have scoffed a few months ago if someone had told her this story, she could only sit, completely mesmerized by his words. She knew that he was telling the truth, no matter how insane it sounded.

After he'd decided that she wasn't going to run away from him, he continued on, "So now, since I am the next in line to be chief after my father dies, I am the alpha of the pack. They follow my commands and we all protect the tribe from any threats, supernatural or otherwise... But there's also... One more thing," he sighed. Isabella couldn't possibly imagine what else he was about to tell her after telling her that he could transform into a wolf.

"There's a part of being a wolf, involving finding their true mate... It's called imprinting. There isn't really a simple way to explain it, but I'll try my best... It's kind of like a "love at first sight" deal, but the effect is a thousand times greater. The wolf inside of the man identifies the female that is best suited to carry his seed, and the best match for the wolf's personality. I'm sure the elders have a better way of explaining it but basically the wolf is bound to that one female. We are inclined to always protect them, we can never let anything harm them, and when the time is right we are supposed to impregnate them. But also, the man becomes anything that she needs. Whether it's a friend, or a brother figure, or a romantic relationship, the man that the wolf is carried by is also bound to that woman. They are forever devoted to them, no matter what."

Isabella's breathing felt harsher now as she stared at Jacob with wide eyes. He couldn't be telling her what she thought he was telling her...

"Bella, I'm trying to explain that you're my imprint. My wolf has figured out that you are our soul mate," Jacob whispered finally, staring into Isabella's eyes. He was pleading with her not to run away, not to yell at him. But she found that she couldn't think straight. She had no idea what to do with this knowledge. Her mouth opened and words tumbled out according to her thought process.

"My chest was throbbing-"

"Because of the separation between your soul and mine," Jacob finished her whispered sentence. Isabella averted her eyes and stared out over the ocean. The air was cooling substantially and the sun was casting golden light over the beach.

"You're bound to me?" Isabella asked.

"Forever," Jacob answered simply. She nodded and stared at the waves. She was quiet for a long time, just thinking, and he let her. Her thoughts were a jumble in her head, but he knew that she had to figure this out by herself. The only reminder that he was there still was his warm hand encasing her own and his thumb rubbing her skin.

"Can you show me?" she asked suddenly, bringing her eyes back to the patient dark brown ones that belonged to Jacob. He understood immediately and tried to hide the smile that graced his lips.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to be freaked out," he asked her, a bit wary. Isabella shook her head.

"I need to see what I'm dealing with," she muttered. She had always like to think of herself as a rational thinker, but this conversation, this whole experience was something that she could not rationalize. And she accepted that.

"Okay, wait right here," Jacob said as he stood quickly, holding up his hands in front of her as if to make her stay put. He jogged away towards the forest line as she watched in confusion. Standing up she brushed off her jeans and stared at the forest where Jacob Black had entered.

Not even a minute later her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as she watched an enormous russet colored wolf walk out of the underbrush. It walked towards her, and she stood her ground. Her heart banged against her rib cage, but she did not flinch as the horse sized wolf walked up to her. It stopped only a few feet away and they stared at one another. Despite the fact that the body was completely different, hell the species was completely different, when Isabella stared into the creature's eyes she was filled with the same calm that Jacob's gaze brought her.

The eyes were completely the same. Dark, deep brown in color. Entirely soothing, and endlessly filled with emotion as they stared at her. Except this time she felt that he exuded nothing but power. She knew that there was still an underlying tenderness for her, but this was not Jacob Black the man standing in front of her. This was Jacob Black the alpha of the pack, protector of La Push, and now keeper of Isabella Swan's soul.

Isabella felt her knees wobble from the feeling of raw emotion that pounded into her and she saw the wolf quickly step towards her, allowing her to grab onto the thick coat on his body to steady herself. His fur was still warm, and while his coat was coarse, she enjoyed the feeling of being so close to him. She felt her body relax to the the highest degree. Her soul recognized that there was nothing that she had to worry about in that moment. She had her protector next to her and nothing would happen to her.

"Jacob... This is... Incredible," Isabella spoke softly. She ran her hands through his fur and felt a growl rumble through his body underneath her hands. She smiled slightly and leaned in closer. She could smell the scent on his fur, something like the earth and a decidedly masculine scent that Isabella could not identify, and the overpowering urge to rub her face against him came over her. There was no more room for rational thinking inside of her mind, and she understood that everything he'd told her was true. She truly was his wolf's soul mate, as well as his own. Who was she to deny the wishes of the Gods that had so obviously brought them together? Who was she to argue against hundreds of years of legends that she now knew were true? She'd had no power over her soul merging with Jacob's and she knew that she would have no power over attempting to break their souls apart.

"I don't even have words for what I'm feeling right now," Isabella murmured as she once again felt the need to press and rub her face into his fur. Without warning he pulled away from her and trotted towards the forest. Less than thirty seconds later Jacob was running towards her, dressed in his jeans and well fitting black t-shirt. In that moment, after finally understanding why she was so drawn to him, and actually accepting what had happened, she was finally able to truly appreciate how incredibly handsome he was.

His height of over six foot five was daunting, but he was proportionally muscled with smooth russet skin flowing over the pure muscle of his body. His face had not an ounce of fat on it, with a wonderfully strong jaw line, and amazing facial features. His black hair was not as short as the other boys but still jaggedly cut, and then there was his eyes. Those eyes that Isabella had absolutely no words for.

They stared into Isabella's as he finally stood in front of her, just as he had within his wolf form. She knew that he was studying her features just as she was doing to him. There was a certain acceptance that hung in the air. There was the taste of a promise on the sea breeze. And so they stood there for moments on end, just looking at one another. Taking in the realization that they had finally found each other. It felt, almost, like the calm before the storm.

And then all at once, they had lunged towards one another. Isabella was unsure of who had moved first, or if they had just moved at the same time, but they both were overcome with the blinding need to be closer to one another. Isabella nearly slammed into Jacob's chest as she ran at him, but he caught her smoothly as if she weighed no less than a feather, crushing her into his body while her legs automatically wrapped around his waist. Her arms flung around his neck as she buried her face into the crook between his neck and shoulder. She could smell the distinctly earthy scent from his fur that was now etched into his skin. She breathed him in deeply and a searing heat raced through her entire body. It was as if she could physically feel her soul touching and merging with Jacob's for the first time.

"Oh God, Bella. My Bella," Jacob whispered brokenly into her shoulder as he nuzzled against her, his arms wrapping around her tiny frame and holding her to his own body with the pure intent of never letting her go. She felt him move and realized in the back of her mind that he had sat down in the cold sand. She felt tears start to leak from her eyes, but she had no explanation other than the enormous surge of emotion that had swelled through her entire body. Jacob's hand tangled itself in her hair as he drew her head a back away from him, but only enough for him to be able to skim his lips up the column of her throat. She felt him nuzzle in the soft spot below her ear, and her body's temperature rose until she felt as though she was on fire.

Her fingers were frantic as she leaned back and touched the lines and edges of his face, light as a feather. She watched Jacob's eyes close as he let out a shaking breath, letting her touch him as she pleased. Letting her explore him as he was also trying to do to her. His hands moved from her hair to both of her flushed cheeks and he opened his eyes once again to stare into her own. There was a fire raging in his eyes, and while he was now phased into his human form, Isabella could feel the familiar aura of power that had oozed from his wolf form.

In that moment Isabella could feel the war inside of her own body. Her primal soul was clawing and fighting with her rational mind for dominance. The only thing her body wanted to do was submit to the powerful alpha that held her body in the cage of his arms. She wanted nothing more than to give her body over to the man she had no doubt was her soul mate. She could see Jacob's face leaning closer towards her own, and every nerve in her body screamed to close the distance. Instead her mouth opened and she spoke before she could stop herself.

"Jacob, I need to go home soon..."


I can't be giving you guys too much of the good stuff... yet! I hope you liked the chapter, feel free to leave any feedback you might have, and thank you for reading!