Chapter 11 – Bleeding Love


Disclaimer: I do not own Jacob Black. End of story.


The next week or so was excruciating. I knew I had every reason to be hurt by what Jacob had done. I had given up everything for Jake and Norah, including divorcing my husband for him. Edward had never cheated on me. But the love I had for Jake was a hundred times what I had felt for Edward. I remembered something Renée had told me long before she had married Phil. Being in love means giving someone the power to break you. But Jacob had promised that he would never hurt me. And in nearly three years, he hadn't.

But, I was hurt. In over a week, I hadn't said much to Jacob, other than anything having to do with Norah or preparing Billy's breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I was three months pregnant and to be honest, I wasn't really paying much attention to the pregnancy. I was too focused on everything else going on. Hardly anyone on the reservation even knew Jacob and I were expecting another baby. I needed an escape... a way to get my head away from everything else. Jacob was out doing something with the pack; he had left a note to me on the refrigerator before leaving that morning. I decided to head over to Sam and Emily's. It had been a while since I had talked to her and I knew Norah would want to see Levi. I got up out of bed and shook my head to clear my thoughts. It was a little after nine in the morning.

I put Norah in her car seat and headed out to the Uley's house down the street. Norah was fast asleep, still in her pajamas. But I didn't care. I just needed someone to talk to.

I pulled up in the driveway and pulled Norah out of the car seat. She barely stirred. I rang the doorbell and Emily answered it, frowning at me.

"Bella, are you okay?" she asked, looking at me with concern.

"I need someone to talk to," I said, frowning.

"Here," she said, reaching for Norah. "I'll put her to sleep in our bedroom."

I nodded, handing Norah over to her. Emily took her back to her bedroom and came back in a minute or so later, looking at me with concern.

"Bella, what's going on?" she asked, searching my face.

"Everything," I said, sitting down on a nearby couch.

"Okay," she said, taking a seat next to me. "Explain."

I took a deep breath before continuing. I didn't want to tell Emily, but I felt like I needed to. I would explode if I held this in any longer.

"Jake slept with Leah," I murmured, my voice barely above a whisper.

Emily's reaction was anything but predictable. She gaped at me for a split second before responding.

"Oh, honey," she said, giving me a hug.

"Leah got him drunk when he went over there when I took Norah to go see Alice. We went shopping in Port Angeles and I was gone all day. You know, that morning when we couldn't find Jake? He was over at Leah's," I said, trying to keep the hysterics out of my voice.

"Leah is manipulative," Emily said. "I love her because she's family, but after everything happened with Sam and his transformation and the imprinting and everything, she just sort of lost it. I can barely hold a conversation with her anymore because of the way she looks at me, like she's expecting me to hurt her or something. I never wanted to hurt Leah, but I really didn't have a choice in the matter."

I nodded in understanding.

"But that doesn't give her an excuse to sleep with my husband," I growled.

"You're right," Emily agreed. "It doesn't."

"There's more," I said, looking down at my knees.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked, uncomprehendingly.

"I told Jacob to make Leah leave," I said, sighing. "I made him give her an Alpha command. I needed to get her out of La Push. She's done nothing for the past three years but threaten our relationship and I just... lost it. She's gone and she won't be coming back."

Emily raised her eyebrows in shock.

"Leah's out of La Push for good?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said.

"But that means that Jacob's pack only has two wolves. I understand why you did what you did, but that's not very conducive to pack safety, especially with that vampire running around. I'm going to speak to Sam and see if he can ask around and find a wolf to join Jacob's pack instead. Maybe Quil or Embry. That's just not good that Jacob's pack is that small... Sam's is rather large anyway."

I nodded. "I guess."

"You can't be holding up too well," Emily said, placing one hand on my knee.

"I'm really not," I said. "Jake and I are only talking when the subject has something to do with Norah or Billy. Other than that, we're just... barely talking at all."

Emily sighed. "That's not good," she said keenly.

"Obviously not," I shrugged. "But I can't just forgive him over this. I can't pretend that he didn't do anything wrong."

"No, you can't," Emily replied. "He did do something wrong. And I'm pretty sure he knows it. Sam said that Jake's seemed a little stressed out lately."

I didn't respond.

"Is everything else okay? With Norah and Billy?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Norah's doing good and Billy's as healthy as a horse as always," I smiled. "Jake and I are expecting another baby."

Emily's jaw dropped.

"Really?" she squealed. "Bella, that's great!"

"During any other time, I'd think it's great, too. Both Jacob and I wanted this baby, but his recent rendezvous with Leah kinda put a damper on the whole affair."

Emily nodded sympathetically.

"How far along are you?" she asked, frowning.

"I'm already 13 weeks," I said. "We hadn't told anybody and things have just been really busy lately."

"You're already three months?" Emily gaped. "You don't look like you're that far along!"

"Yeah, well, it took me a while to show with Norah, too," I answered.

Emily nodded.

"Yeah, I didn't see you much when you were pregnant with Norah. Just at the baby shower and a few other times here and there."

"So have you and Sam decided on a name for baby boy number two?" I asked, changing the subject.

"We've got it narrowed down to three or four names," she said. "But we're hopelessly dead-locked. Sam likes Rylan and Declan. And I like Wyatt and Aden."

I smiled, half laughing. "I guess you're continuing the tradition of interesting names. No William or Joseph in your future?"

"Definitely not," she laughed. "We haven't even gotten to middle names. I keep putting our last name with each one and I think Rylan Uley just sounds weird. And Wyatt Uley does too, to be perfectly honest. So we'll probably settle on Aden or Declan."

"What about Aden Wyatt Uley?" I asked. "That's a good name."

"I do like that," she said, frowning. "I'll suggest that to him. But he's dead set on Declan. I don't even know why. I asked him and he said it just sounded like a good name."

"Just argue that you're the one that has to push the baby out," I teased. "And that means you get final say on names."

Emily giggled. "I should say that. Had you and Jacob talked about names before everything happened recently?"

"Actually yes," I said. "I really like Rowan for a boy. And I think he mentioned liking Lily for a girl."

Emily nodded. "I like that. Rowan Jacob Black."

"So do I," I admitted.

"Lily Isabella is pretty for a girl," Emily offered. "Or maybe Lily Eden."

"To be honest, I haven't really given this pregnancy much thought. I've got a doctor's appointment scheduled for next week, but other than that, I'm just letting things take care of themselves. It's not like I need one more thing to stress out about."

"I understand," Emily said. "But you know that if you need anything at all that I'm here. I might be hormonal and frustrating and fat, but I'm still here."

I couldn't help but laugh. "You are not fat," I disagreed.

"Sure, sure," Emily said, smiling. Her response reminded me of Jacob and my bruised heart gave a painful throb.

She obviously noticed my discomfort and decided to distract me.

"Sam and I have started working on the baby's nursery," she said. "We've pulled out Levi's old crib and bedding. We're going with a sailboat theme. You want to come see?"

"Sure," I said, shrugging.

Emily dragged me down the hall to the empty room down the hall. Sitting against one wall was Levi's old crib. The walls were painted a light blue, with red and white accents. A large white square was against one wall.

"What's that for?" I asked, pointing at it.

"I'm going to paint a big sailboat there. Sam went out and bought some low-fume paints so I can," she grinned.

"Oh, that's awesome," I said, grinning back for her benefit.

"You know, we already had a name picked out for a girl," Emily said, crossing her arms over her belly.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said. "We were going to go with Briony Autumn for a girl. But this baby decided to be a boy instead." She laughed.

"Were you guys hoping for a girl?" I asked.

"It really didn't matter. But that was the one name we could agree upon. Of course, I should have known that it wasn't going to be that easy."

"I know what you mean," I said, sighing. "I picked out Norah's name. After she was born, I just changed her middle name."

"Hey girls," a voice said at the door.

I turned around and saw Sam standing at the door.

"Hey, Sam," I said, smiling at him.

"Bella," he replied, nodding. "You should get home. I'll escort you. The Cullens made contact again this morning, saying that they had seen that the female vampire that was up here a while back is on her way back."

Fear stabbed viciously through my heart. Norah.

"Norah is sleeping in our bedroom," Emily said, almost as if she was reading my thoughts.

"Mommy?" a small voice asked, peering from behind Sam's legs. It was Levi.

"There's Mama's boy," Emily grinned at her son. "Somebody's awake!"

Levi rubbed his eyes blearily with the back of his hands. Sam leaned down and picked him up, handing him to Emily. He went into their bedroom and came back out with Norah, who was yawning. She reached toward me and buried her face into my neck.

"You can drive back. I'll sit in the passenger side seat," Sam said. He looked back over at Emily. "Paul and Brady are all watching the house," he told her.

I leaned in and gave her a one-armed hug. "Thanks for talking to me today," I told her. "You have no idea how much I appreciated it."

"Yeah," Emily said. "Go ahead and get home." I could tell she was nervous; her words nearly tripped over each other.

"Okay," I said, following Sam out to the car.

Jacob and Quil were standing outside the house upon our return, waiting for us.

"Thanks, Sam," Jacob said. "I've sent Embry, Jared, Seth, and Collin down to the perimeter. That should be fine for now."

Sam nodded. "That's fine."

I pulled Norah out of her car seat and headed into the house.

"You realize that I would be much safer if I was at the Cullen's right now?" I asked him.

"You're not going there," Jacob replied.

"Why not?" I asked him. "You didn't seem to miss me much when I was gone last time." It was a low blow and I knew it. I saw the pain flash across Jacob's eyes.

"That is not fair at all," he snapped.

"Well, you fucking Leah behind my back wasn't exactly fair either," I growled. I noticed Quil look over at Jacob in shock.

"You're hurt," Jacob replied. "I know that. But I've since apologized, given a reason for what happened, and you still can't move on!"

"What would you do if I went and had sex with Edward behind your back?" I asked him. "What would you do if I told you that this baby wasn't yours?"

"Baby?" Quil asked. His question went unanswered.

Jacob stumbled backward. The pain had reached a peak.

"It is mine," he choked. "If you had carried the spawn to term, the entire pregnancy would have only lasted three months."

I knew he was right. His term for EJ was something that I'd learned to accept, even if I didn't like it.

"I'm sick of fighting, Bells. I love you. You know that."

"You sure do have a crappy way of showing it," I muttered.

"If I didn't love you, I wouldn't be here right now, protecting you from Irina," he said immediately. "If I didn't love you, I would have chosen the good of the pack over you. But instead, I sent Leah away. What else do I have to do to make this up to you, Bells? I'm lost."

"I don't know," I said. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive you for what you did. And even if I can, I'll never forget about it."

Jacob cursed and walked outside, kicking a pot across the porch. It slammed against the porch railing and shattered. I sighed and picked Norah up and headed into her bedroom. Perhaps I could distract myself by playing with her.

"Mommy?" she asked, reaching for me.

"What, Norah?" I asked her.

"No fighting," she said, shaking her head sternly.

I sighed.


Chapter done. :)
I know... Bella and Jacob are still being stupid and frustrating. :(
Also, I know a lot of you are mad at me right now for the things that happened in the last chapter. However, I hoped that my readers would have a little more faith in me when it comes to how I'm going to have things in the end. The description says that this is a JB story and a JB story it will remain. Things are still being worked out. Every story has its parts where conflict gets heated and the next couple of chapters are going to be like that. However, everything WILL work out in the end. Just have some faith in me.
But anyway, please review! :D
Thanks for reading!!
xoxo