Inevitability
10
Jacob's Point of View
"What did you say to her?!"
That stupid, arrogant, good-for-nothing, cocky, son-of-a -
"Keep it PG, Jacob."
Leech.
My shaking was near uncontrollable, I was quivering so bad I felt like I was having a seizure or something, though I knew that it was only anger.
How dare he, that stupid piece of -
I growled, realizing that, during my inner monologue I had phased, and no longer had the power of speech. I didn't want to speak anyway, I wanted to fight. The Alpha was reared up in anger, teeth bared and low growls coming from his chest.
Edward stood impassive, but Bella's eyes were wide with shock. She took a slight step back - I guess the force of my anger surprised her. But how didn't she see this coming?
How else would I react to the disappearance of my imprint.
"What did you say to her?" I asked the bloodsucker mentally, not trusting myself to keep control enough for enough time to speak through human ways.
"We only told her the truth," he replied, quietly, eyes never leaving mine.
"You bastard! What the hell is wrong with you? If anything happened to her I swear to God I'll kill you!"
Psychic leech waltzed through the door then, a worried frown on her face.
"Jasper can't even come in, there's so much anger, what's going on?" Oh, right, can't see the future. Haha, that was a great trick of evolution right there.
"Jacob is a little mad right now," Edward replied, his eyes not leaving mine. Smart move, leech. He smirked.
"Understatement of the fucking century, leech. She ran away because of something you and Bella said to her. She's gone and she could be God knows where by now. What. Did. You. Say?"
"Jacob, please," Bella said, stepping forward in front of Cullen. I growled at her; I just wanted to rip him apart, because I knew that anything he did, Bella would go along with it, just like he would with her. It's fucking sickening; at least Nessie has a choice with me. "We just…needed to talk to her about what would happen…when we moved."
I had chilled enough by now to actually listen - I cocked an ear towards her.
"When we leave, then your daughters will come with us. There is no argument with that, which means that you and Nessie will come also."
"He's not seeing the problem, yet, love," Cullen leech murmured to her. I growled, but didn't do anything else.
"Well…what about your pack?"
It all clicked, then; what I would be asking them to sacrifice for me. Quil wouldn't abandon his imprint, and Claire was only, like, twelve; she wouldn't want to leave home yet. And then there was Seth and Leah and Embry…I knew that Sam wanted to give up his position to be with Emily…
Damnit.
The growling stopped, then. I was beginning to understand, at least.
"But why would you drop the bomb on her so soon?"
"Because we need to move quickly; our family is growing too large, and now with the addition of you, Alex and Jessie, we are far too conspicuous. There are only so many relatives that could possibly live together without raising questions. Besides, this is the longest we've ever stayed in one place - over ten years, Jacob - people will talk about our lack of aging. There's only so much we can put down to chemicals." He smiled slightly.
I nodded my head. "I'm going out to find her."
"I wouldn't expect any less of you."
I ran out of the door as fast as I could, searching for the consciousnesses of my pack members. Luckily, they were all phased.
"Dude," said Seth, who's voice came through first, "I heard what happened. Bummer."
"I know. I'm going to have a talk with all of you later, but first I want a full patrol looking out for Nessie, alright? She's somewhere in the forest; she must be found."
"I have her scent here, it's old, but I think I can track it, at least," Quil chimed in. "And…uh…Jacob?"
I heard the trepidation in his voice. "What is it, Quil?"
"Um…there's another wolf with her. A male."
My mind went blank for a moment, then, through the shock, a haze of anger and despair washed over me. Another male wolf? Well, of course, I shouldn't jump to conclusions; there were probably several reasons for this.
I couldn't think of a single one.
Well…that wasn't quite true.
"Just find her, and tell me where she is." My voice was little more than a snarl, and their minds quickly withdrew to background noise.
I forced myself faster, the trees blurring to green and brown canvas as I pushed my limbs to their limit, my lungs inhaling as much air as I could to keep my pace.
Eventually, I came across her scent, and Quil's. He must be following it. It seemed quite recent, so I followed it, catching up to my Beta quickly. I nodded to him as I joined his side, and he gave a worried twitch of his ears in response, probably gauging my mood, which was curiously blank right now. The only thought was finding her. I was determined not the be the 'shoot first ask questions later' kind of guy.
We were moving faster than she was - her scent grew in potency as we came closer. I could hear her heartbeat now, as well as the lower, slower heartbeat of the male. I couldn't hear his thoughts, as he was in human form; I could hear his human voice.
"It appears your ride is here," came the voice of the stranger. I growled slightly, hackles raised as I stepped through the final barrier of trees.
Nessie turned around to look at me, her beautiful brown eyes widening in shock at my temper. I could see the little cogs turning in her mind as she guessed at the reason for my anger.
My eyes flickered to the other human - the male. His scent was…oddly familiar, now that I was up close. It reminded me of someone I knew…He smiled at me, only making me anger flare more and the growling increase, which made his chuckle, incensing me further. Damn cocky smile - I had gotten enough of that from Edward.
One by one, I felt the minds of my pack disappear completely. At first I thought they had phased, but when I looked to my left, Quil was still there as a mass of chocolate fur. I cocked an ear towards him and he seemed just as confused as I was, if a wolf face could portray that kind of emotion.
"Greetings, Jacob." Woah. If there was ever a voice that could be compared to some sort of God, that could have come very close. With those two words years and years of experience spoke through, of every emotion and feeling, and an awesome sense of power behind it all.
It was freaky. And unfamiliar.
I looked back to my imprint and the other human - well, not human anymore. While I had been preoccupied, the man had phased into this - holy shit - giant black wolf. Easily three times my size. Like some super-steroid-user or something.
Or just an old wolf. Not a streak of grey matted his fur, but I knew that this wolf was very old to have grown so large, though the man had only been about a head taller than my human form. Go figure.
The Alpha timbre was also very strong, like my mental thoughts when I was angry. I tried very hard not to use the voice on my pack; I wanted free will in them and the sensation of forced servitude was all too recent to forget - when I had been in Sam's pack.
He was waiting patiently, his conscience completely blocking out the rest of my pack.
"…Hello?" I replied, strongly feeling the inadequacy of my own answer. "Who are you?"
"My name is Ephraim. I believe you know of me."
No fucking way. Ephraim? Like, as in, my ancestor Ephraim? Shit! I was growling at my great grandfather!
The growling stopped.
He chuckled.
"I thought that you were dead." I suddenly felt very inferior in the presence of a legend, of the man who had founded the alliance between our tribe and the Cullens.
"I let the younger generations think so. Your father knows, and all of his generation and the one before, those who still live. When my imprint died, I went wolf and stayed in the forest. I'm sure you know the desire to be an animal for a while."
I nodded; I remembered. The invitation to Bella's wedding had been enough to throw me over the edge. The death of an imprint…I was glad that I would never have to face Nessie's natural death.
"I'm sorry."
"It happened a long time ago. Ancient history for some. Anyway, I still live in the forests, because at some point all of the younger generations need my guidance. Even when you ran away, your father never worried, because I was there, watching over you."
I knew that, were he human, he would be smiling in that old granddaddy way.
"You were watching me?"
"Of course. Legends do not just disappear. They always hang around. I just…took it one step further."
Wow. I felt kind of…honoured, really. I was proud that my great-grandfather would keep himself here, even after the death of his imprint, to watch over our tribe. It was…humbling, really. The sacrifice.
"Is that what you were doing with Nessie?"
"The poor girl…I think she needed my help."
"Do you think you helped her?"
"I think I gave her something to think about."
I'll take that as a yes, then. I walked over the Nessie, nudging her shoulder gently as she climbed on my back, patting my head gently and laying against my neck. I smiled inwardly as she touched my fur, showing me her conversation - both with her ancestors and mine. I nodded to Ephraim, who bowed his great head in return, then turned back to Quil. As we headed back towards the Cullen house, I felt the minds of my pack return.
"Dude, where'd you go? I could like, feel your mind, but I couldn't hear you. What the hell happened? Is Nessie alright?" Seth's worried thoughts were - as always - the first to break through.
"Yes, Seth. Everyone's alright. We met a lone wolf; Ephraim Black, actually."
"You mean, like, Billy's grandfather? Holy Shit!"
"Seth! Language!"
"Sorry," Seth mumbled at his sister's reprimand.
"Alright, people. Nessie's safe and I'm not at risk of homicide anymore. I will, however, want to talk to you guys later." A flash of Nessie's conversation with her parents entered my thoughts, right before I phased. I didn't get to hear their responses.
Wren's Point of View
Jacob stopped to let me get down before he phased back to human, pulling on the cut-offs tied to his calf. As soon as he was at least half-way decent, I threw my arms around him and sobbed into his chest.
"I'm so, so sorry, Jacob. I shouldn't have run away." I let myself be enveloped in his heat as he wrapped his arms around me, stroking my long hair. His slow heartbeat was soothing, and I relaxed almost immediately.
"Shh, Wren. It's fine. Let's get you inside, alright?" I nodded, and we walked into the main room of the Cullen mansion. Bella looked up, obviously having been pacing the entire time that I was gone. She gasped in relief and ran over to hug me with bone-crushing force.
"I'm sorry I ran away, mom," I whispered.
"It's alright, honey. I'm sorry that your father and I dropped that weight on your shoulders; it wasn't fair."
"But it's true. I don't know what to do!"
"Wren, I'm going to speak to my pack today. And Sam's, too. We're going to let everyone decide, and it'll be fine. Everything will work out. Besides, when we all leave, the Quileute's will no longer have a reason to phase; the werewolves will have no active pack."
"But…"
"No arguing, Wren. We're going to do this the right way. I won't force people apart."
I looked between Jacob and my mother; both with pain in there eyes, but a willingness to sacrifice to keep the majority of our families together.
Jacob's Point of View
That night, I called a meeting of the two packs. Sam and I stood, wolves, side-by-side, so that he would be able to relay all my pack's thoughts, through me, to his own. I realized just how small his pack was now - only he, Paul and a few younger wolves, triggered by the influx of Vampires, still remained. The rest were with me. We all formed a wide circle, resting in a lying position while Sam and I stood at the head, metaphorically.
"Alright, we all know why we're here. The Cullens are leaving, and I will be going with them. Sam, as we all know, intends to give up his position as Alpha to Paul, to be with Emily.
So, I am giving each pack member a choice, as Paul had graciously taken up the position of Alpha in both mine and Sam's absence. Each one of my pack members can choose to go with me, or to stay here. With the vampires' departure, we all know the ability to shift will eventually fade. For those of you who don't want to stay as we are, I recommend that you remain here, with Paul's pack."
"But…Jacob…"
"No Seth, we are decided. I will give you tonight to decide; time is short, and the Cullens are leaving tomorrow. We will meet again here at dawn, and each member will decide."
They dispersed, one by one, and I felt a strange sadness come over me as I watched the wolves, knowing that I may never see any of them again after tomorrow.
"It's hard, isn't it?" Sam said, looking over at me. "Losing pack members."
I nodded. "I never realised."
"Being used to the minds of others, having them disappear is like a burned-out light…it's painful. I still sometimes imagine I have the voice of Quil, Embry, Seth and Leah in my head."
"I am sorry."
"Do not be. I will be with my imprint, and you with yours, and our packs may go where they choose."
I nodded again, hoping that it would all be so simple and easy as Sam made it out to be.
Author's Note: Well, had to have a little heartbreak there, didn't I? I hope this satisfies. Love you all and I'm sorry but I was tired when I wrote this.
HigherMagic x