I'm behind on replies, but I wanted to get this out… later than I'd hoped. I'll catch up with you soon.
So this chapter's dedicated to Tayjayfan for her pre-reading and support.
We start off with another one of my all-time favorite poems. I truncated it for the sake of this story, but it speaks the Truth (imho) about something that is both so simple and difficult and is irrefutably central to all of us. Oh, just a reminder... this story's a romance at its core.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.
'
'
"On Love" - from The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran (truncated)
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
and weep, but not all of your tears.
'
Chapter 10 - Love Beckons
'
Bella bolted upright in bed.
For a moment she froze in bleary anxiety, her gasping breaths tiptoeing through the darkness as her eyes darted to the green led numbers on the clock on her night stand:
4:07 a.m.
What had awoken her? Hell, she was shocked she'd even fallen asleep.
Charlie and she had gotten home just before midnight and she'd spent another hour just sitting across the kitchen table lending the silent comfort of presence to her grieving father. Finally he'd abruptly stood and, without a word, headed upstairs to presumed bed. Bella had closed up the house and trudged after him.
And spent the next long hours staring at the ceiling of her bedroom… thinking.
Feeling.
Hurting.
In these wee hours, last night seemed like nothing more than a nightmare. Bella knew it wasn't. Her head was pounding, her body was stiff and her brain felt like a toxic wasteland courtesy of the surely illegal levels of cortisol and adrenaline that had been sprinting through her veins. But all that was inconsequential compared to that deep throbbing ache in her chest….where her heart used to be. She was pretty sure those words falling from Jacob's lips - those freaking traitor words - had finally shattered it.
"I don't need you."
It was a boldfaced lie.
Even though she knew it was, hearing him say such a thing still hurt. It had physically hurt. Maybe it was her imagination, maybe it was the imprint, or maybe it was just that her heart had been abused enough over the last year and was finally giving up the fight.
Bella felt like giving up too.
She was tired. Bone-deep, soul-weary tired. Rubbing her hand absently over her chest, Bella sniffled wretchedly as her eyes panned the room on her way back down to the pillow on her other side.
Her gaze snagged on a looming shadow in the corner and adrenaline once again charged through her veins. With a squeak of fear, she yanked her knees up to her chest as her hand shot out to the lamp on her side table.
"Shh, it's me," a deep croon washed over the room along with the moon-blue lamplight.
Jacob's new hulking body was leaning against the wall by her open window. His hands caged behind his hips, he was peering up through the shadows cast by that heavy brow.
What was left of Bella's heart had lunged up her throat in a frantic bid to flee. "J-Jake?" she choked around it.
Jacob nodded loosely and bowed his head toward the floor, darkness swallowing his features. Drawing in a shaking breath, Bella cautiously uncurled as she searched for clues and context. Dressed only in cutoffs, the dirty smudges from last night still mottled his skin. The soft light caressed the harsh topography of his form and folded into dramatic shadows nestled into the hard lines of his musculature.
As sentience trickled into her sleepy shock, Bella valiantly tried to tame her body's reaction to the mere sight of that magnificent body. Much to her chagrin, desire still siphoned heat through her veins on the heels of the ebbing icy adrenaline and she shifted in the bed uncomfortably.
She needed to get herself under control - for many reasons, but especially because there was something incontestably hopeless and broken in his stance. His head was hanging and his shoulders were bowed like they'd finally lost battle and caved.
Concerned, Bella pulled her legs under her and leaned her elbows on her knees.
"Hey, 'you okay?" she whispered.
Jacob's thick swallow was audible in the predawn silence. "We gotta talk."
Bella pressed her lips together a moment.
"Yeah, we do," she murmured, as she slowly pushed forward on her hands and knees. Watching him carefully, she left the blankets behind and crawled down to the foot of her bed, slipping her bare legs over the edge and absently wiggling her toes.
On second thought, she reached behind her and pulled her sheet up around her shoulders like a cape. She was certainly decent enough in one of Jake's old shirts and some silky boxers, but every time she was around that glorious body of his, she somehow felt naked.
He didn't so much as glance at her but just stayed pressed up against her wall, as still as a statue.
But now that she was closer, she could see that every last muscle was taut and quivering, the dim light tracing the lithe lines with harsh shadow like a charcoal sketch. Frowning with concern, she took him all in, her gaze automatically slipping down that massive frame.
She promptly yanked it back up to those despondent shoulders while a rush of heat slammed into her cheeks - all parts of his body were tense, apparently.
But the stakes were too high right now for prude girlishness, because it was blatantly obvious that Jacob was hurting. For the first time in this whole thing, he wasn't even trying to hide it.
And Bella needed to set her own bitterness and pain aside because this was what she'd been waiting for. It was single fragile moment of time that held both of their hearts in its quivering hands and hanging onto hurt and resentment could ruin it.
Bella drew back her shoulders as she took a deep resetting breath and let all that darkness slip from her shoulders like shadowy shift.
And suddenly Bella knew she had it. She'd always had it where Jacob was concerned:
Faith.
Faith in him. Faith in herself. Faith in the filaments of love and acceptance that had knit their hearts together over all these years and were now pulling them closer. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he'd never try to hurt her and that he always did his best, but that didn't mean he wouldn't make mistakes.
But she did love him enough. Enough to bet her heart and soul in this thing, even with the odds so stacked toward losing it all.
And she certainly loved him enough to listen.
A sudden soft snore rumbled from her father's room across the hall and finally Jacob shifted against wall with the dry rustle of cloth against sheetrock.
"So talk, Jacob," she urged softly. "I'll listen."
Jacob's body didn't even twitch in response, but his muscles seemed to jump at her offer. She heard the crisp sound of his tongue over his lips in the shadows of his bowed head.
And she waited, pulling the sheets tighter around her shoulders. He'd been through so much this year: did he have enough faith left? Did he have the strength to fight his way back? He'd made it to her room, hadn't he? Or was had he come to push her farther away …
Faith, Bella.
She could feel the tension in the room threading her heart and cinching it tight - the anticipation was unbearable.
Finally she heard his slow rallying intake of breath.
"I need you."
The words were expelled in a formless rushing whisper and yet still that softness sliced the string restraining her heart. It lunged forward in several giddy skipping beats.
"I do need you, Bella," he murmured as he shifted uncomfortably against the wall. A hand slipped from behind his hips to rake brusquely through his hair and he stole a glance at her from shadow. "So fucking much."
Bella pressed her lips together as she held that bottomless midnight gaze.
"And I don't wanna need you, Bells," he continued quietly, the words tumbling over each other as his face quirked with anguish on its way back down to the floor. He shoved his hand back behind his hips and drew in a deep breath. "All this shit… it's so fucked up," he hissed on his exhale. "I didn't want you to hafta go down with me. It's not fair."
Bella's lips popped open but she caught her words in her throat: he needed her to listen.
"It wasn't s'posed to be like this," he spat, with a terse shake of his head.
He barked a single bitter laugh as he looked back up. "I mean, finally you're home." His eyes met hers and darted intensely between them. "And I coulda finally asked you out. Taken you to some stupid movie… held your hand… kissed you in the Rabbit at the top of the cliffs. Slow, simple… easy as breathing."
"Jake," Bella whispered. Her hands dropped the blanket as she leaned over her thighs. She couldn't stand to see him suffering any more. It hurt… it physically hurt.
He shook his head again as he tipped his face to the ceiling. "I can't even stand it I want you so bad," he breathed as he hit his head against the wall in punctuation.
Bella swallowed, rearranging herself on the bed with the whisper of sheets. She knew the feeling.
"I mean, fuck. Look at this," he laughed caustically as his face tipped down to sneer at the hand he'd ripped from behind his hips. It shook like a leaf like he was some kind of strung out junkie. "I'm going nuts, Bells. Fucking nuts," he shoved his hand back behind him and tipped his face back up to the ceiling. "Just like Sammy."
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, her head reeling and heart bucking in her chest.
"No! I wanted to give you time!" he rasped, his impassioned face snapping back with flashing eyes. "I wanted to you give you time to fall in love. To want me like I want you," he paused, licking his lips before his voice softened to a dusky tenor so intimate that it melted the distance between them. "I've always wanted you, Bella. I've loved you since the day I was born…you know that, right?"
Bella blinked at him, every fiber of her being freezing in stunned silence. He'd always been so generous with that heart, he'd told her loved her many times over the years.
But not like this.
Her heart felt like it had plunged down to her toes, pulling a soft gasp from her lips with the force. It arduously tried to climb back up her chest.
"I mean it's so fucking unfair, Bells," he continued in a whisper whose edges subtly hardened. "That I gotta ask you, right now, if you wanna choose me for the rest of your life," he bit out as his brow furrowed. "That I gotta ask you to sleep with me to do that. That I got nothing to offer if you do… except a fucked up life filled with fucking demons." He pressed his lips together and held her gaze intensely for several heartbeats.
"I wanted to give you more."
His last statement was no more than a breath of defeat as those unfathomable midnight eyes held her captive with their pain. Bella felt like she was trying to swallow down a golf ball. Or maybe it was just the messy ball of angst and ecstasy that knotted in her chest.
She drew in a long, slow breath.
"Jake," she murmured, slipping her bare feet down to the cool hardwood floor. "I don't need more."
Jacob froze. His breath was rapid and shallow and it subtly tugged at those massive stalwart shoulders.
Bella's brow knit as she took a tentative step toward him, and then another.
He straightened up against the wall as she approached him and she struggled to keep her feet from faltering - he looked even taller when she was barefoot and, honestly, he was still a little bit intimidating.
"All I need is you," she continued softly, looking deeply into his eyes. "Right now. This moment… the next. One day at a time. You're right, this is some crazy crap, but didn't we always get through the worst stuff together?" she asked with a raise of her brow. Her feet stopped an arm's length from that body.
His breath was now jerking his pecks in quick jumps like a frightened animal and, like last night, she wanted to soothe him. Touch him.
She needed to.
Jacob blinked several times as her hand tentatively reached out to him.
Like the plasma globe in physics class, it felt like electricity crackled out to meet her fingertips. That tingle siphoned up her arm until she grounded it with skin on skin. Palm to heart.
Bella gasped as her body combusted.
Jacob crumbled like he was made of sand.
Hand riding his chest with his descent, she had to take a step back as he slithered slowly down before her, his breath catching wildly as if trying to slow his fall. His knees hit the floor with a low hollow thump.
"Jake," Bella whispered softly, as she took a step back toward him , tenderly smoothing her palm over the slick smooth skin of his chest.
Slowly, he sat back on his heels, his head bowing along with his shoulders.
"Jacob," she crooned again as her hand slipped over the delectable line of his collar bone to be joined by the other as they fluttered up to cup that angular jaw. Her palms molded to his face with gentle pressure but his resolute chin ignored the petition and stayed tucked to his chest.
She needed to see his eyes.
But Bella was a patient girl, a loving girl - she was starting to truly appreciate that. He needed her, he loved her. He'd finally said so himself. It was a strange and wonderful thing that settled in all the little restless cracks of a heart that had been damaged by blunt force trauma: by long empty days away from her best friend.
The boy she'd always loved.
The man she now craved.
So she softened her hands to cherishing and stroked a soothing thumb over the rough shadow of stubble along his jaw.
And she waited.
Jacob sucked in a hitching breath. "I'm so sick of fighting," he breathed to his lap. "So fucking sick of fighting everything."
"Then stop," she whispered, tipping her head to the side as her gaze followed the slow strokes of her thumb. "Stop fighting, Jacob."
She felt his swallow under her fingers.
"Please," she pled quietly as she again urged his face up with tenderness.
This time he submitted; slowly his face tipped up in her hands.
Their breath caught in unison.
Those eyes.
With a soft sigh, Bella drowned in the dark yawning oceans of his soul and was lost.
Found.
"Jacob. I love you," she whispered, quiet, but sure and true. Because she did - and monsters and magic and curses couldn't change that, he had to understand. "I'm already in love."
His eyes blinked, sentience surfacing from that same heady intoxication that she felt. His soul still openly displayed, his eyes paced between hers, raw, hurting …unsure. She marveled at such an utterly vulnerable expression set into those severe masculine features. It was the first time she'd seen his heart beat in his eyes since they'd hardened along with his body. She reassuringly squeezed his huge face between her hands.
"I'm all in, Jake," she whispered.
With that she leaned forward to seal the vow into his skin with a kiss. But oh, those russet lips; full, moist, tender. Bella gasped as she brushed her mouth over their warm silken give and suckled the sweetness of his breath over her tongue. It made her head spin and her hands slipped down to his muscular shoulders to steady herself and pry her mouth away.
But his lips followed her flight.
They chased.
They caught her mouth in a soft smacking kiss, dipping up for another as he rose up under her like a wave rearing up from the deep. She rode the swell, tipping her head up to capture more. Warm hands slipped to her waist, brushing up her sides with a hummingbird tremble that sent chill bumps racing down her spine.
Jacob congealed to his feet, his palms slipping up to cup the back of her head as he drank from those silken lips. Sweet and soft like butter mints, they melted under his mouth. He tipped his head to the side to tempt them open.
And magically they parted.
He wrapped her delicate sigh around his tongue like cotton candy and dove into the moist sweetness of her mouth. The warm velvet of her tongue dragged a low growl of ecstasy from his throat and she answered it in a dreamy hum. He broke the kiss to lick it off her lips like raw sugar before he again submerged himself in her warm welcoming mouth.
Her hands felt small and cool as they dug into his shoulders. Stepping closer, her back arched as her body searched for his.
Hunched over as he was, it was out of reach.
Without thought, his hands dragged down the curve of her back, incidentally committing each millimeter to memory. His palms slowed over the feminine flare of her hips; their pert fullness filled his hands perfectly. While his lips continued to explore that giving mouth, he straightened, luxuriantly pulling her up his body like she weighed nothing. He relished the way the supple swell of her breasts caressed the hard ridges of abdomen and chest until they were pressed soundly to his chest. He could feel her heart madly pumping in syncopation with his own as her legs instinctually encircled his waist.
And his body erupted in flame.
"Holy shit."
The curse was ground into Bella's mouth like rock candy, sharp and sweet.
As her heels pressed covetously against his tailbone he pitched forward moving them across the floor. She was entranced by an entirely different movement. With each step, his body rubbed against her, a solid point of heat focused right at the center of the ache between her legs.
Oh, God that felt good.
Her hips undulated over the hard ridge of flesh straining at attention over his stomach while she groaned against his teeth. The rhythm was brazen, shameless; excised from inhibition by the heated craving that had blossomed deep within her and demanded satiation.
A tinkling peal across the floor like gumballs made her head jerk to the sound. Her lungs gratefully took the opportunity to yank in neglected oxygen as she glanced at his carved wooden menagerie littering the floor. But Jacob's lips at her neck melted her lids back closed as his hot hard mouth ardently suckled along the line of her jaw. She felt him settle her hips against her cleared desk.
"Too low." His guttural words vibrated in resonance with her pulse and suddenly she was being pulled back up into his arms.
Her hands had been forgotten in overwhelm and now they awoke to the peaks and valleys of his shoulders, fingertips tiptoeing over the flexing play of steel under satin. Hot smooth porcelain nipped into her skin with just enough bite to make her shamelessly moan as she threw her head back. It bonked against… something with a painless thud. But, holy crap, she could care less.
"Jake," she breathed - a prayer and a plea.
"Sorry."
Jacob murmured against the sweet racing pulse up her neck as one hand braced against the wall and he pushed her tiny frame against it.
The way she moved in his arms was driving him crazy.
Sensual, liquid, it was the heated grace of need. She undulated in his arms as she rubbed her crotch over his aching erection while those contrastingly cool hands crept up the taut tendons in his neck to rake across his scalp.
He licked down her throat, greedily siphoning off every last drop of that narcotic taste. Her hands fisted in the longer hairs at the crown of his head, tugging him up boldly and he complied without thought. His mouth pounced on those quivering lips and suckled at her amber honeycomb kisses that drizzled sticky desire down his throat.
Holy fuck, he was burning.
His hands slipped around to his her hips, caressing the satin over silk and then diving under to smoother petal skin. She sucked in his breath - and he released it willingly - in a sharp gasp as his hands cupped the full apricot of her ass and kneaded while his hips instinctually pushed into the apex of that heat.
Again.
Oh, fuck. Another time.
His body moved to a primal percussion that beat with his heart as he ground her into the wall, her legs spreading eagerly in covetous petition for more. Bella broke the kiss as she tipped her head up with his name on her lips, knit from sticky desire.
He nipped at her chin in petition and she graced him again with that solacing mouth as his hips continued to sensuously thrust against her need. She moved with him in concert, like ocean waves against the shore, slow and sumptuous as her unconscious moans leached, lush and warm, into his mouth.
She melted in his hands and bloomed under his demand.
She was his.
Mine.
That simple truth roared through the marrow of his bones and settled in his turbulent heart like liquid silk, filling in that cavernous space that that had been dry and barren and wanting for far too long.
"Need," she whimpered into the hollow of his craving.
He dissolved the petition over his tongue and swallowed it down as he massaged the want from her mouth in long luxurious strokes that mimicked the sultry sway of their bodies together.
But yet…
That single pleading word - gulped down with an appetent greed - settled in his gut. While he suckled her sighs from her lips it slowly, stealthily germinated into a shoot of sanity.
Need.
She needed him.
Crisp and pure, that single sobering truth blossomed deep inside him, flourishing with life and choking out the strangling weeds of lust.
Not like this.
Jacob gasped, drawing the intimate life-breath from her lungs.
He loved her too much for this.
Even while his hands were contemplating the fragile satin membrane between a lowly zipper and where he really wanted to be, his conscience crystallized into protective forbearance.
She was so open, so achingly vulnerable. She'd surrendered her body, her heart, her soul into his hands with nothing but the utmost faith. Of all the lives that had been given into his guardianship, this one was - without a doubt - the most precious of all.
And Jacob knew there was no fucking way he'd both take her innocence and join their souls against her bedroom wall…. with her father snoring down the hall.
The priming rhythm of his pumping hips stuttered as his prurient body rebelled, pinning her more soundly against the wall… but it was only his human body and it was definitely her bedroom wall, and there was no way Jacob, the man, was going to let that fly. Shockingly the wolf was in complete agreement, and suddenly he understood just how right his father had been:
It wasn't who he was - man or beast. He was Alpha, and no matter what hormonal or instinctual demons he fought, he was made to protect.
He would always protect her… even if it was from himself.
As that truth settled, sizzling and sparking like rain over the fires of lust, he slowly surfaced from the kiss, bringing her up from the depths to the soft and tender shallows. He stepped back from the wall, pulling his hands from the intimate quick to rest cherishingly over the satin-clad swells of her hips.
"Jake?" she gasped as she pulled her lips from his while she worriedly sought his eyes. He'd felt her body stiffen the moment Jacob had slammed the lid on Pandora's box.
As he turned them both back into the room, his eyelids opened lazily like he was drunk. He certainly was, but he'd always be just sober enough when it came to her.
"Not like this, Bells," he whispered as his smooth gait carried her toward her bed. Erotic frustration escaped in the way he petulantly kicked one of the wooden carvings (he'd made for her years ago) across the floor and it skittered through the silence.
She drew back further as her hands smoothed down the nape of his neck and her assessing eyes darted over his face in confusion. The soft curve of his lips spoke silent reassurance as he leaned in pressed a smacking kiss to the tip of her nose and he lowered her to the bed.
Eyes wide and her body still humming with want, Bella scooted onto the blankets as she watched Jacob rub his face with his palms.
He groaned, stretching his arms up to the ceiling as the muscles rolled in concert down his abdomen. Desire crackled through Bella's body like summer lightning and she dropped her gaze to her knees, reeling and confused. The mattress bounced heavily - making her clear a few inches - and her head whipped around to see him sprawled out face-down behind her. He was so big now that he took up nearly the entire double bed, his calves hanging down over the end.
He groaned again into the mattress and then pushed himself up to his elbows and craned around to meet her eyes with an apologetic squint.
Bella blinked and turned around, crawling up beside him. Her gaze got caught by the mountainous expanse of his broad back and her fingers thoughtlessly traced up his side. He shivered as chill bumps raced like rain over his skin and he reared up to pull her down beside him.
"I can't take any more, Bells," he chuckled as she settled down beside him on her stomach.
An uncertain smile flirted with her lips.
Jacob blinked at her and settled back on his elbows so their shoulders were touching. "I said we'd talk," he smiled with one corner of his mouth.
"I was thinking you're a pretty damn awesome conversationalist," she sniffed, bumping his shoulder.
His lips fought a gratified smile as he bumped her back. "It's you," whispered, as his eyes washed over her face. "You make me crazy."
"It's kinda mutual," Bella muttered as her gaze fell to the blankets with a blush. Now that that hormonal kamikaze was ebbing, she realized she'd actually felt pitifully inept in Jacob's arms - his hands and body were so sure.
So delectably sure.
She picked at a thread and flicked from her fingers along with her insecurity.
The thread slithered through the air… the insecurity clung like glue. He seemed like he'd done this before… but Bella was too timid to ask. Right now… right this moment when her body and head were still pitching so soundly with overwhelming desire she could barely tell which way was up. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and caught him watching her.
Intensely.
Bella scraped her teeth against the corner of her lip nervously. "Um, so what's the deal with Paul?" she asked lamely, her spinning mind picking out the most innocuous and irrelevant (and safe) detail.
Jacob sniffed, shifting beside her. "I gave him an Alpha Order," he said simply in that new deep voice of his.
"Huh?" Bella turned her face to him with a furrowed brow.
His huge arm was reaching toward the dream catcher hanging at the head of her bed. "Alpha order," he repeated as he plucked it from its little yellow tack. "If I tell one of the wolves to do something in a certain kinda way, they hafta do it."
Bella considered that a moment, while she watched him fiddle with the dream catcher. It looked ridiculously small and delicate in his giant hand. That freakishly huge hand that - even though she could feel the fire behind it - had been so gentle.
So sublimely tender.
Bella shifted and reached out and took the dream catcher from that controlled power. Their skin brushed and heat sparkled up her arm, consuming her nerves like detonating cord. Bella grounded the sensation with an absent brush of her foot against his leg while she laid the handcraft on the bed in front of her.
"So is that what you did to Leah?" she asked quietly as her finger traced the tiny intricate web of rawhide and beads.
"No, I don't use it unless I hafta," he whispered.
She could feel his eyes washing over her profile while she nervously studied the handiwork of his younger years. He'd always been meticulous with his carvings or crafts.
"But you told Paul not to talk to me?" Bella realized her toes were still unconsciously wiggling against the silky hairs on his calf and she bent her knees up behind her butt, crossing her ankles.
Jacob sniffed a laugh. "Believe me, Paul's way fucking better off." His leg bumped into hers again, having followed hers unconsciously.
Bella smiled to herself as her toes again molded to his calf, and she handed him the dream catcher. "Why, Jake?" her eyes finally slipped up to his.
Jacob blinked as he reached up to hang it back on the tack, obviously using the task as a stall.
Bella's feet bonked against his a few times with a not so subtle prompt. "Why?" she repeated.
Jacob rolled his lips as he looked back at her from under his dark straight lashes. " 'Cause the wolf can't stand it if anyone messes with you," he admitted sheepishly. "I can't either."
"Jealous?" Bella arched a brow with a goading grin, as their bent legs absently dueled behind them.
Jacob's face instantly darkened with the challenge.
Bella giggled as she leaned into his shoulder - she'd watched that new hair-trigger macho thing of his, and it was really just too fun to play with. Well, as long as she was touching him… when she wasn't it was kind of scary.
Jacob barked a single laugh at his own expense as he relaxed and leaned into her, turning and placing a smacking kiss on her forehead. "Don't tease the animal, Bells," he murmured.
Bella's smile broadened as she leaned her cheek on his shoulder and her bent legs collapsed against his strong calfs. "You don't have to be jealous," she whispered sincerely, rubbing her nose over that smooth musky skin. She sat back up as the heat started rising in her body. "Plus I can handle ole' Lollypop Lahote."
"Shit." Jacob's deep velvet chuckle vibrated the mattress and did funny things to her stomach. "You shoulda seen your face last night, Bells. Fucking priceless."
She knew exactly what he was talking about - damn wolf-head, pack-mind… whatever it was called. Bella threw herself over on her back and covered her face in her palms at the memory of a very nude - and activated - Paul Lahote.
Jacob continued to laugh softly as he shifted beside her. Bella felt his big warm hand settle down on her stomach.
"Okay, you got me back," she mumbled into her palms.
"Sorry, honey," the words were murmured in penance over his continued bouncing amusement. "But he likes you. Respects you… and I've never seen Paul respect a girl before."
Bella peeked up at him from between her fingers. He was laying on his side smiling down at her with open, unfettered amusement that was reminiscent of days gone by.
Bella decided that in itself was compensation enough for her mortification, so she let her hands slip down from her face to settle over his muscled forearm. The sensation of skin against skin stoked that flickering flame in her belly higher - she tried to ignore it.
"But seriously, you should take that Alpha thing off," Bella sniffed from around her own residual smile.
"Already done," Jacob quipped with a wiggle of his brow. But slowly his face melted back into those hard serious lines. "Not because I wanna, but because it's dangerous."
Bella blinked, her amusement slipping from her lips.
"Bells, everything I do now I gotta do to keep everyone safe," he said quietly, his eyes growing intense as they darted between her own. "There's still some stuff I gotta tell you." He seemed to falter at the edges of that ominous caveat.
Bella bit her lip as her eyes flitted over the hesitation and the angst that deepened the harsh lines of his face.
"Tell me, Jake," she whispered, squeezing that sinewy forearm.
"It's not just me who needs you, Bella," he said quietly as he leaned his head on his hand. The statement seemed cut from an entirely different part of him, and Bella's brow furrowed as she searched his face trying to understand.
"The Pack needs you," he strung the words on an exhale that made his eyes flutter closed in what looked like regret. "This was the worst fucking night of our lives, and you held us together when everyone was falling apart," he hissed through a grimace.
That wasn't right, was it? "Jake-…" she began to contradict him.
"No," his eyes popped back open and silenced her with the yellow flecks of heat.
Bella stiffened and his hand smoothed soothingly over her side.
"You gotta hear this, Bella," he whispered, scooting closer. "There's three parts of me now - man, wolf, Alpha…" His eyes squinted as he searched her face for understanding. "The wolf chose you last week and I chose you a long time ago… but the Alpha chose you tonight. We need you."
Bella's lip popped out from her teeth in surprise.
Jacob picked his head off his fist and that hand came down to brush away a wisp of hair from her forehead.
"What you did with the girls, Brady… with Sammy," he pursed his lips with a little shake of his head. "You held it together and every one of the Pack felt it. We've never had that," he paused. His palm smoothed over the crown of her head - cherishing. Apologetic. "We've always needed it."
Bella expelled a breath of discomfort, as she let one hand fall to the mattress beside her with a thump. The other nervously looped under that bicep and clutched his shoulder - holding on. She could hear in his voice somehow that he didn't want this - that part of him wanted to run away and she didn't understand it. Her heart and head was swirling in an incomprehensible mess.
"So is that why you came tonight?" she asked, her forehead crumpling with disappointment. "Because your Pack needs me?"
His eyes grew soft and aching as he shook his head slowly. "Nooo," he dragged the word out on a breath as he leaned in ghosted his nose over her cheek. "I'm just telling you so you understand if you accept the imprint," he whispered over her skin. "I want you to get all the shit you're signing up for." He pulled back and frowned sadly.
"My dad said you'd been chosen for some kinda reason and that you had your own… I think he said… can o' worms to deal with," Jacob's lips twitched on one side.
Bella sniffed absently as she continued to search his eyes… there was definitely more. Much more. "What was I chosen for, Jacob?"
Jacob's teeth dragged at his lip for a moment. "To be the Alpha's mate," he murmured, his voice seemed to inadvertently deepen as his warm hand squeezed her side.
"Well I kinda pretty much felt like a bull in a china closet, but I'm glad it helped a little," she laughed with a self conscious roll of her eyes, instinctively lightening such an ominous assertion.
"You were awesome, honey," he countered. And it was such a Jacob thing to say, in such a Jacob voice, that Bella suddenly turned her head into his chest with a little grunt of both giddiness and chagrin.
His big body seemed to curve around her as his lips pressed a tender kiss to her jaw.
Squeezing her eyes closed, she drew in a deep, resetting breath of his delectable heat and rolled back onto her back. She felt his fingers playing with the hem of her shirt - his shirt - and heard his heavy sigh.
Her eyes popped back open, cutting over to him. "There's more, isn't there," she said quietly.
Jacob settled his head back on his palm as he nodded soberly.
"Tell me," she whispered again, shifting so she was facing him a little more.
"It's serious, Bells," he breathed. "And you gotta really think about it." His eyes met hers with somberness that sent shivers down her spine.
She nodded once, as her hand covered his on her side.
Jacob drew in a deep breath. "This leech last night? He's a sick motherfucker. Like psycho-sick," he spat hatefully, his entire countenance changing into something fierce and dark like he'd flipped a switch. "I think he's coming after us because I killed his mate. She'd been this close," he picked his head up enough to pinch his fingers together. "… to snatching a kid off the beach last week."
Bella involuntarily shuddered. "Is he the one who killed Harry?"
Jacob shook his head and then settled his cheek back down on his palm. "He'd grabbed him to get to us, but Paul got there in time. Harry really did have a heart attack."
Bella closed her eyes sadly. "Poor Dad," she breathed. "Poor Sue. And Seth and Leah…" she shook her head dolefully back and forth.
"He's fucking with us, Bella," Jacob's voice was nothing but a rasp and Bella's eyes popped back open to a dark scowl. "Really fucking with us. He's looking for ways to make us suffer. Looking for revenge. He's already figured out the Pack mind, and tonight I figured out that it's just a matter of time…"
His deep hard voice shattered like glass on concrete and Bella sucked in a sharp breath as she squeezed his hand.
Jacob had closed his eyes, the muscles jumping in his jaw as his teeth ground in an audible rumble.
"Jake?" she breathed.
Jacob's eyes slowly opened and she reflexively jerked back but his hand stayed locked around her waist. His eyes were smoldering with yellow heat.
It was frightening.
"The imprints." His lips barely moved as that guttural bass escaped from his diaphragm.
Bella's body had gone stiff in his grasp - it felt like his body heat had jacked up another ten degrees. And it was such an odd dichotomy: his body was stretched out on his side, his head still resting in his hand, his face utterly stoic… while those eyes were licked with yellow flame and his heart pounded like thunder.
Her swallow squeaked in her throat as her gaze darted over that dark expression. She realized his breath had gone deep and slow as if he were trying to keep his control. She understood why Emily was so afraid: aside from having seen Sam's loss of control first-hand, the searing power that boiled under that caramel skin was palpable.
But even as his hand firmly clasped her side, his touch was still careful. Gentle. And when they were touching there could be no mistake in Bella's soul that he'd never hurt her, no matter what her mind and human instinct told her.
And she understood his fear: if this vampire was looking for the Pack's Achilles heel and the single most painful thing to bring it down on its knees, that was undoubtedly the imprints. She'd seen the desperation in both Quil and Jared as they'd pulled their mates into their arms, sniffing over their hair and faces with very lupine agitation before drowning them in a kiss that had made her turn her head in embarrassment. She'd seen the power Emily had over Sam and she'd certainly seen what her mere touch did to Jacob.
But what he didn't seem to understand was that their greatest weakness was also their greatest strength.
Drawing in a shaking breath, her hand soothed over the taut tendons in the back of his hand. "I trust you, Jake," she whispered, putting every ounce of faith she had into the heat of her gaze. She picked her head up and pressed her lips to his stoic mouth in a soft kiss, and then slowly settled back to the bed.
His eye blinked rapidly as he looked down at her, each swipe of his lid seeming to sweep away more of that sparking yellow.
"You'll get him before that," she breathed as her impassioned eyes darted between his.
That hand at her side slowly relaxed and then rooted under the hem of the shirt with his fingertips, seeming to draw comfort from the skin to skin. His fingers slowly ghosted back and forth over her stomach, at the same time soothing, settling, turning her on with that calloused gentle heat. Bella's eyes fluttered closed.
"But what about the next one?" Jacob whispered suddenly.
Bella opened her eyes to his intense midnight stare. It was his human fear, not wolvish outrage that was talking now.
"Or the next, Bells?" he sighed quietly. "I mean, I'm gonna make a lot of enemies so if you chose to…" his lips stuttered uncharacteristically. "If you choose to be my … my mate…you're always gonna be in danger too."
Bella licked her lips - just hearing him say that word, sent strange tingling jolts through her stomach. They weren't entirely unpleasant. "Embry said you're scary good," she attempted a little smile.
Jacob closed his eyes with dismissive sniff. "I can never be good enough."
Bella frowned, as she absorbed that expression of self-derision on his face. It wasn't right. No one was perfect… no one should have to be. Jacob had a world resting on those broad shoulders and if he didn't accept some help, it was going to break that strong back.
"Here's what I think," she said firmly - snapping open those eyes with her tone. Bella's gaze narrowed with determination. "You're being stubborn and too hard on yourself. You're looking at all the weakness in this imprint thing… and not using the strength."
It was a bold, flat statement. One that called him on his shit, but also inherently offered absolution.
"I mean you saw what Emily was able to do for Sam, right?" she continued with a raise of her brow. "What makes you think I can't help you like that too?"
She saw his lips press together and complexion darken with what must be that reactive macho-thing he had now. Bella decided to ignore it.
"Jake, I trust you," she stated passionately, as her hand reached up to mold to his athletic cheek. "I trust you and your best is good enough for me. Heck I could walk outside tomorrow and get hit by a bus too."
Jacob literally choked, his eyes widening with overstated worry. From what she knew of Sam and her own observations, she was starting to understand what a handicap that powerful protective instinct must be.
"And I've already decided anyway, and you know I'm probably the only person more stubborn than you are," Bella added with a grin, trying to lighten that stricken expression.
It worked… a little.
With a miniscule sniffing laugh, he turned into her hand, finally letting those hard eyes close as he nuzzled her palm. She stroked his cheek with her thumb as he drew in a cooling breath through her fingers.
With a sigh, Jacob collapsed over her, burying his face in her neck while he breathed deeply. Bella's hand slipped up to his short inky hair and just held him.
She let her eyes close as he gathered her tighter in his arms with a little inadvertent grunt.
"Shhh," she crooned, as she stroked her fingers through his silky hair. "C'mon let me in," she whispered. "Please."
Slowly that cagey tension in his body seemed to melt as he released his delicious weight down incrementally to press her into the bed while he breathed, deep and slow, into the crook of her neck. That same strange soft purring sound rose up in his chest, vibrating against her like the patent sound of warmth.
She sniffed. "You're kinda like a cat." The words leaked over her lips without her permission.
Jacob picked up his head slowly with an expression that was a cross between amusement and disbelief. His expression forced a laugh from her throat.
"A cat?" he bit out with indignation, although his lips hitched up all the same.
Bella giggled as she pulled a shoulder to her ear. "Y'know, with that purr-y thing…"
Jacob's smile evened out as he rolled back over on his side. His hand left her stomach to smooth her hair back from her cheek. "You make my wolf happy," he breathed as eyes flitted over her face like dragonflies.
Bella leaned into his big hand as her teeth pulled at her lip. "Yeah?" she whispered, her eyes capturing his and holding them. "What about you, Jake?"
Jacob's full perfect lips stretched into a beautiful and unfettered smile as he nodded slowly. "Oh, yeah," he breathed, as his big hand settled against her cheek and he lowered his face toward hers.
Bella sucked in an inadvertent breath as his lips brushed over hers, sweet, caring…tender.
So very cherishing and tender.
He lazily massaged her mouth with his, his tongue lapping over her bottom lip. Her body rose to meet him, arching into the kiss, but he held them both in check by a firm grounding hand that slipped down to cup her jaw.
With a soft grunt, he pulled away, the luxurious cling of skin to skin smacking softly in the silence. His face inches away, she breathed his hot moist breath into her body, relishing the way it filled her and then released her exhale into his lung's petition.
"You make me happy," he barely mouthed the words over her skin and into the intimate space between them. "I haven't been happy in a long, long time."
The admission simultaneously broke and bolstered her heart. "Oh, Jake," she whispered, her hand snapping up to cover his on her cheek.
He pulled back, rubbing his nose softly against hers on the way.
With a little juicy sniffle, Bella blinked at the moisture that had sprung to her eyes. Jacob smiled sadly as his finger slipped up to catch a tear from her lashes. "I wanna make you happy too, Bells," he whispered.
"You do," she rasped in a voice that was choked with emotion - and not terribly convincing.
His brow furrowed as his gaze ran over her face in concern.
"Really, you do!" she nearly wailed, the dam pitted against days of overwhelm and fear and confusion finally broke down in an uncontrollable display. She sprang up and threw herself into his chest, clutching him to her as soft, humiliating sobs shook her shoulders.
Jacob rolled over on his back, his heavy arms encircling her with warmth and comfort as she fought the stress leaking out over his chest.
"I've been so freaking w-worried, Jake," she hiccupped miserably. "I've missed you so, so much and… and -…"
"Shh, honey," he crooned, soothing and strong, as his hand stroked her hair. "I know. It's sucked," he whispered.
Bella nodded against him as she tried to get control of herself. She drew in a hitching breath as her hand slithered under his massive arms to wipe at her nose.
"I missed you every day, Bells," he whispered. "Before the imprint… after. Every fucking minute of every fucking day."
Sniffling ungraciously she picked her head up off his chest, slapping at her tears impatiently. She wasn't a crier… or she didn't used to be. Only Jacob brought out these kind of emotions.
Jacob's eyes were trained on her over the plains of his cheek as he brought his hand up wipe a tear away with his thumb.
"Sorry," she rolled her eyes at herself.
Jacob shook his head absently as he continued to watch her with those unreadable eyes. He used to be an open book, but now…
"You're different," Bella sniffled, reaching up to stroke her fingers over that strong stoic jaw.
"Yeah," he sighed, a tired confirmation that didn't even try to deny the obvious. He brought one arm behind his head, as the other hand rubbed soothingly over her shoulder blades.
"I like it," Bella pronounced quietly, settling her chin on her upturned fist on his chest. She gathered herself and attempted her old lame brand of humor. "I mean, you're still a dork… but now you're an older, bigger, scarier dork."
Jacob snorted as his eyes flicked up to the ceiling. There was a little smile on his lips that was familiar - and just what she was looking for.
"But inside you're still the same, Jake," she whispered, letting her heart leach into the words.
His face slipped back to serious as his eyes paced restlessly between hers.
"And I love you," she breathed, settling her hand meaningfully over his heart beside her fist. "I love who you were and who you are. I just wanted you to know that."
His Adam's apple bobbed with his swallow as his hand slipped from around from her shoulder to tuck her hair behind her ear.
"So you really wanna do this thing?" he breathed, his fingers stroking over her cheek while his eyes held hers captive with their intensity.
Bella drew in a deep breath. "Yeah, I do, Jake," she stated simply, surely. As he blinked she raised herself up and placed a bright smacking kiss on his lips.
But as she withdrew, he sat up along with her.
"Thank you" he whispered, slipping both palms up to cage her face as he brought his lips again to hers.
And. He. Kissed. Her. Senseless.
Firm and demanding but sensual, his mouth moved over hers in long luscious strokes that made her body melt in his arms and her toes curl. There was both desperate need and soulful appreciation in the way his lips both gave and took - it was an intimate conversation that was the culmination of their lives to date and could have taken hours but...
Just as her neglected lungs were starting protest, he ended the kiss, pulling her breathless body back down along with his so she was cradled against his side. She pillowed her cheek on his shoulder while their heartbeats cantered on ahead in tandem.
Jacob's arms wrapped around her as he tilted his cheek down to the top of her head.
"I love you, Bella," he whispered into her hair.
"Mmm," she hummed tipping her face up into his neck and breathing deeply of his heady scent. How could he smell so good? Familiar and musky and male and…
"Mine," she murmured into his caramel skin, with no idea where the word had come from, much less why it had appeared on her lips.
But it seemed to be significant because a low growl awoke in his chest. "God, that turns me on," he murmured in a rich sumptuous bass, squeezing her tighter.
It started some kind of crazy chemical reaction in her body and Bella's eyes popped open wide and blinked once in surprise - feeling like somehow she'd suddenly lost control of the situation. Hell she didn't seem to have any control of her body around him. It was a little uncomfortable.
"Are you ready for the rest of this, Bella?" he asked quietly, his voice still strangely dusky and deep.
She nearly choked, in fact she kind of did - a strange strangled squeak escaped her throat.
Jacob sucked in a breath through his teeth and tried to pull back, searching for her eyes, but she pushed her face more into his jaw… humiliated and insecure at the same time.
He quickly stopped pressing and settled back against the pillow, gentling his arms around her. "Bells?" he asked softly. "Talk to me."
She grimaced at herself, because she'd demanded the same thing of him and she hated hypocrites. It just wasn't so easy when it was something that felt so ridiculously out of her depth. She certainly hadn't felt like that half an hour ago when she was shamelessly rubbing herself all over him like some brazen hussy… but that was then. And any shame or uncertainty was melted by those arms.
Those very sure and skillful arms.
Experienced?
Oh, God…
"I'm a virgin," she mumbled quickly into his neck, beyond mortified.
Jacob's deep chuckle strangely soothed her. "Yeah, well, me too," he laughed.
All embarrassment was razed by shock. "What?" her head shot up to scowl at him in disbelief.
Jacob's lips were stretched into a gazillion kilowatt smile. Just that glorious sight melted any residual shame and discomfort.
"Really?" she asked, her own lips curving up irresistibly in resonance. She loved that expression on his face. And it took on an entirely different tenor in the athletic masculine lines of features now. It was delicious.
"Why wouldn't you think I'd wait for you Bells?" he grinned, smoothing her hair back tenderly from her face.
"Well we never really talked about it and guys… y'know," she tipped her head suggestively.
"I mean, I've fooled around a little, but…" he began in macho defense.
"Boobie what's-her-name?" Bella interjected quickly with a flare of her nostrils.
Jacob laughed, effectively fished free from his descent into belligerence. "Bobbi Brennan? I told you she was just about copping a feel. How about Enrique Iglasias?" he pronounced snidely with a theatrical arch of his brow.
"Eric Vasquez," Bella giggled. "I just let him kiss me because he reminded me of you."
"Really?" Jacob looked pleased.
Bella snorted with playful slap against that gorgeous pec as she settled back against his shoulder. A soft sigh escaped her lips as that anxiety fizzled into nothingness.
This felt so comfortable… like the old Jake n' Bells. Even though they'd both changed - and their relationship was teetering on the edges of a profound and permanent transformation - what they'd always had was still intact: friendship.
She'd be lying if she said she wasn't both intimidated and titillated by the almighty and mysterious sex looming on the horizon, but this was Jake. And he'd been right all those years ago: being with him was as easy as breathing.
"You're on the pill, right?" he ventured softly.
Bella's head jerked back up in surprise. "How…?" she gasped thoughtlessly.
One of Jacob's hands slipped from around her back to tap his nose.
Bella blinked at him for a moment. "You can smell that?"
He wrinkled his nose apologetically.
Bella grimaced and fell back into his shoulder - she didn't want to know what else he could smell. She took a moment to gather herself. "Yeah, mom got it for me a long time ago… I just thought…" she quickly let the rest of that thought dissolve into mortification.
"Shh," he soothed, squeezing her while one hand rubbed over her back. "It's just I gotta be sure. Maybe we can get you on depo soon, though?"
"The shot?" she mumbled.
"Yeah, I got the girls on that. Em was on the pill and couldn't remember to take it," he breathed out heavily. "It's part of this curse."
Bella squeezed her eyes shut, embarrassed but trying valiantly to submerge the discomfort in discussing such a thing with him. It helped that he was so calm… clinical about it. Gosh, he had to think about this too?
He let her settle for a while his hand slowly stroked up and down her back. "But are you ready for this, Bella?" he asked again quietly. "We can try to wait…"
Bella drew in a thoughtful breath as she turned her cheek back to rest on his shoulder and slowly stretched her arm over his broad chest. Was she? Could she imagine anyone better to stand beside her when she passed such an important milestone? That answer was a no-brainer.
"I think I'm ready," she breathed. "I mean, I know parts of me are," she muttered wryly.
Jacob sniffed a laugh, but didn't say anything more. He just continued his slow loving strokes down her back and gave her mind space to whirl. He filled the right spaces and left the silence when it was needed. He'd always been good like that.
Bella settled against him, pushing her body against his side. It was only then that she noticed that predawn silence was starting to stir as several lone birds ventured their voices up into the still darkened skies.
"You're dad's waking up," Jacob whispered, as his hand brushed over her cheek. "And I gotta get back."
Sighing, Bella picked her head up and squinted at the clock.
5:03 a.m.
She dropped heavily back onto Jacob's shoulder. "How do you know?" she whined. "His alarm doesn't go off until six."
"His breathing's changing," he murmured, continuing to brush his hands rhythmically over her face, pushing her hair back, tracing her cheek.
Bella released another long heavy breath. She didn't want him to go… and she certainly didn't want to go to school in a few hours.
"Dad's making me go in today," she grumbled petulantly.
"Ouch," Jacob chuckled.
"Tell me about it," Bella sniffled, sitting up enough so that she could see his face. "He thinks it would look bad with that guy's murder on the lake…they're gonna say was an accident to keep people from getting all freaked," she frowned.
Jacob nodded soberly, pressing his lips together as yesterday's events obviously played in his mind's eye.
"And Dad's gotta go to work, so he wants me safe," she continued quickly, trying to pull him past his palpably rising anxiety.
"Now that's a good idea," he smiled softly. "No monsters at school?" he winked, obviously trying to keep things light though she could feel he was slowly starting to be dragged back down into the undertow of all the challenges that invariably lay ahead of him today.
"Well, unless you count this dorky boy who's been following me around," Bella rolled her eyes humorously. She really didn't want to deal with Edward Cullen's neediness today.
Jacob's hand stilled and his face darkened instantly. Oh crap, she'd forgotten about that hair-trigger testosterone.
"Pul-eese, I can handle him," she snorted, rearranging herself in his suddenly stiff arms. "He's just some kinda pasty Abercrombie wanna be."
A low growl percolated under her hands.
"With a shirt!" she teased, trying to lighten him up.
He still looked unconvinced, but suddenly he blinked, his face snapping toward her door.
"Shit," he hissed.
And with a single, head-spinning movement he was vaulting off the bed, somehow extricating himself seamlessly from her arms.
Eyes wide, Bella jerked her head around just in time to see his blurred form dive through her open window as she sat up on her bed in confusion.
Two seconds later, the hinges on her door squeaked.
Bella whipped back around to see her father peeking into the room. With her usual grace, she jerked upright, her hands guiltily straightening her shirt.
Luckily her bleary father didn't seem to notice.
"Uh, sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't know you were up."
"Yeah," Bella rasped, pushing her hair behind her ears nervously. "I couldn't sleep."
Her father grunted noncommittally; he looked like hell himself. "Well, um… I was, uh… just checkin' on yeh," he muttered. " 'Think I'm gonna put on some coffee."
"Okay, Dad," she whispered, heartfelt empathy rising over the guilty adrenaline. "I'll be down in a minute."
"Alright," he nodded loosely, and then pulled closed the door.
Huffing a breath of both relief and sorrow, Bella scrambled off the bed and stumbled toward the window. Leaning on the sill, she looked out over the yard.
"He'll be alright," a low voice soothed below her.
With a gasp, Bella blinked down at Jacob, pulling himself up from where he was hanging from her window by only his fingers on the ledge.
His gaze ran over her face as he leaned into her room for a smacking kiss that magically melted her heartache...just for the moment.
"I can't pick you up today, but I'll get you on Monday," Jacob murmured, pulling back from her lips and seamlessly continuing where they'd left off. "And I'll show Mr. Abercrombie & Bitch what's what."
Bella sniffed a laugh, flicking her eyes up as her both hands came up to his jaw. "I'm yours," she mumbled as she kissed him again. It was the right thing to both to say and do, because his mouth melted against hers longer this time.
"Mmm," he hummed indulgently against her lips.
Bella pulled back, breathless, and her hands smoothed over his cheeks. "Be careful, Jake," she whispered, her eyes darting between his.
"Come by after school?" he asked quietly with a raise of his brow - promising nothing.
"Your dad's?"
"Naw, Sam's… remember how to get there?" he murmured.
"Yeah, I think," she hedged, and then leaned back in for another kiss. This time it was slow and steamy and filled with both worry and longing.
"Ugh," he groaned into her mouth. "You're gonna kill me, Bells."
Bella pulled away with pleased little smile on her lips. She liked that she could make him feel ... like he made her feel. In even in such turbulent times.
A sultry smirk quirked his lips while, in a single lithe movement, he brought his feet up against the house with a soft rasp. "See y'later, honey," he whispered.
And then he pushed off into the air. Like a swimmer from the edge of a pool, his body arched backward in an agile flip that tumbled with mercurial grace to the ground and congealed into a soundless crouch. He looked up at her with lopsided smile that sparkled with boyish pride.
"Show-off," she whispered, not even attempting to hide the awe on her face. His acrobatics were beyond impressive, to be sure, but what was so beautiful was to see him so … free.
He just smiled up at her and then turned on his heel.
Bella locked her elbows and leaned against the sill, watching him jog across the lightening lawn with his powerful liquid gait. For several minutes, she stared at the spot in the woods where he disappeared.
Until a long low howl climbed the sky with the awakening sun.
And in the fledgling dawn, in a beginning that was tainted by endings, in the face of unfathomable uncertainty...
Bella smiled.
'
'
Review if you like.