Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
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A/N: concerning questions on a sequel, I'm not sure if I will write it. I want to, don't get me wrong, but I'm a little confused on how to do it. If I did write the sequel, it'd either be a Jacob/Edward/James or a Jacob/Edward James/Seth, and I'm not sure other either pairing as yet so, yeah. Plus, I'll want to read Eclipse before even thinking of writing it…
The Jakeward smut will be in the next (aka last) chapter.
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"That dick!"
Edward sat silently on the front step of the vampiress' home, watching as she paced back and forth violently. Jacob had called her over once they were sure James was long gone and told her to come over. The vampire had been surprised at how easily she'd agreed to come, without asking why or giving a thought as to deny him his order. The vampiress had soon appeared, looking confused and a little worried.
All of those emotions had died away though when she the wolf had told her why he'd called her over.
It'd become anger.
"Why did you let him go, Jake?" Victoria turned to Jacob, looking angry and hurt. "What if something happens to him? What if he gets killed?"
"I'm just as worried about him as you are." Jacob sighed, placing his hands on the vampiress' shoulders. "But do you think James would just stay here and be happy if I'd ordered him to stay here?"
"No." She sighed, shoulders sagging in defeat. "At least you got the puppy to go with him." She made a face. "Not that I think he'll be much of a help. He's a little shrimp, honestly, he's skinnier than me."
Jacob smiled at her, pulling her into a hug.
Victoria's arms went around Jacob and she held on, seeming to draw comfort from him as if she were truly a lower packmate drawing comfort from the Alpha.
Edward couldn't help but be silent as he watched this. So much had changed since his departure, and he knew that it was going to take a lot for him to get used to this change. It was amazing to see how two vampires had bonded so well with Jacob, truly seeing to submit (although James was still somewhat his own boss) to the wolf.
"If he gets himself killed, I'll kill him." Victoria mumbled against Jacob's chest.
The wolf chuckled. "I told him the same thing."
She sighed. "Good. He won't do anything to anger you."
Edward looked down, that ugly feeling churning inside of him at the reminder of the feelings the other vampire had for Jacob.
He suppressed the anger, suppressed every dark feeling.
This wasn't the time.
He'd left and now that he was back he was going to have to become a part of the family Jacob had now---even though two of the four seemed to hate him completely. He didn't blame them though. James had fallen in love with Jacob (which Edward could understand) and Victoria was supporting her brother. It was only elementary that once he returned on the scene that they'd resent him.
But he was a part of Jacob's life, and they were going to have to get used to him, as he would have to get used to them.
"Where's Bell?" Jacob asked. "I tried calling her but it went straight to voicemail."
Victoria pouted, pulling away and sending a little 'I can't stand you' glance in Edward's direction. "His brother and sister arrived today, so she went to go and meet them at the airport."
"Jazz and Alice are back?" Jacob gave a little smile, asking the question to Edward.
He nodded.
Victoria pouted, folding her arms over her chest. "What do we do now, chief?"
"What have I told you about calling me that?" Jacob sighed, turning his attention back on her.
"Never to call you it ever?" Victoria asked in a deceptively angelic voice.
The wolf looked at her in silence before chuckling and shaking his head. "What am I going to do with you, Tor?"
The vampiress just smiled.
And Edward felt a little out of place with the dynamics but refused to back down. He was going to become a part of Jacob's life again, no matter how out of his league he suddenly felt.
Jacob suddenly went stiff, his eyes darkening.
Edward stood immediately, trying to sense whatever it was that Jacob had but couldn't, and from the confusion on Victoria's face she couldn't either.
The wolf turned and then the bushes moved.
And Leah Clearwater emerged, buttoning up the buttons of her jeans and glaring at them.
Jacob relaxed slightly. "Leah."
"Where is he?" The exotically beautiful Native American asked, looking around her as if expecting Seth to be hiding behind a shrub or tree. "I'm going to kill him when I find him."
"Wow, what incentive to convinced him to let you find him." Victoria deadpanned, folding her arms over her chest.
Leah sent her a glare before turning to Jacob and striding up towards him, jabbing her finger angrily at him. "Where's my brother? What have you done with him? And you better tell me the truth buster!"
Jacob's eyes narrowed and a growl reverberated through his throat, escaping his lips in a menacing sound.
Edward's eyes widened at the animalistic stance in his boyfriend. It was as if the wolf had taken over, displeased with the disrespect and attitude of the female.
Leah's eyes widened in surprise at Jacob and she involuntarily took a step backwards before shaking her head and clearing her throat. "Uhm, ah…" She ran her fingers through long, ink-black hair and trying again, this time in a calmer voice. "Sam said---Seth is a part of your pack now?"
The wolf had receded, and Jacob was once more the one in control. "Yes."
"Then so am I." Leah Clearwater announced, but her voice wobbled slightly. "They deliberately waited for me to be gone to ambush Seth, and when I found out what they tried to do I beat the shit out of Paul." She had some bruises and cuts herself, but they weren't of any consequence. "I left the pack, and I want to be a part of yours." She paused. "Like my brother."
"This isn't a little book club or something you can just join out of the blue." Victoria announced, proving to Edward that she wasn't just against him, but wasn't to welcoming to any newcomer.
"I know that." Leah grumbled back moodily. "You're a pack, a family." She folded her arms over her chest. "But it's not like we're strangers. My brother has been helping you and I've helped him help you too. And—and--." She closed her eyes tightly. "I can't go back to the pack. I don't want to. We're supposed to be a family but we're not!"
Edward watched the emotions she tried to suppress and realized that this female had been keeping them bottled for a very long time, and while she hated to be vulnerable she was doing just that right now. She'd turned her back on her pack and was seeking entrance into another that had no true reason to let her join.
"Jacob, I can't---I can't continue being what Sam has made us!" Leah's voice broke and she glared at the ground as she rubbed under her eyes, at the suspicious moisture. "I still have nightmares about Halloween."
Victoria went stiff.
Jacob winced.
Edward frowned, wondering what'd happened on Halloween to get these reactions out of them.
Leah's gaze turned to Victoria. "You once said that you were in our debt, that when we needed a favor to ask it. This is the favor. Let me join!"
Victoria's eyes widened and she shook her head. "I can't help you with that. It's Jake's pack, he's the one who says who can join and who can't."
Leah's gaze was desperate by the time it landed on Jacob. "Jake, please." Her dark gaze lowered. "I have no where else to go."
Edward was silent, wondering what Jacob would do. On one hand the female was desperate, on the other, it could easily be Sam's pack getting back at Jacob by planting their own spy.
Jacob continued to watch her silently, as if weighing the truth of her words.
"I'll perform a blood oath." Leah whispered finally.
And while Edward didn't know what a blood oath was, it made Jacob blink rapidly in surprise, coloring slightly.
"I don't, I don't think you'll have to go so far." The wolf announced. "But I'm not sure whether to trust you or not."
She bit her bottom lip.
"Shift." Jacob suddenly ordered.
Leah looked up in surprise.
"Shift." Came the order again as he pulled his shirt up over his head and began to unbutton his jeans, obviously planning to do the same.
Leah's eyes suddenly lit up with understanding that Victoria and Edward didn't share as she quickly began to pull off her clothes as well, until both young Natives were naked and shifting to their animal forms.
And then, without a backwards glance at the vampires, the wolves took off into the foliage, disappearing from view.
There was a moment's silence before Victoria turned to him, eyes dark and angry. "Look, I don't care if my brother told me not to do anything, but I'm not going to just be silent about this." She took in a deep breath. "Everything was going fine until you showed up! Jake saved and healed my brother, and it was only a matter of time before something happened between them. We were happy." She clenched her fists. "Why did you have to come back?"
"Because, I love him." Edward answered truthfully, sitting back down on the bottom step.
"Then you shouldn't have left him in the first place." She growled.
"I know."
That admission seemed to have surprised Victoria because all the fight left her in a second and she just looked at him in confusion before going to sit down next to him with a defeated sigh. "What is it with you Cullens that you think you can just abandon your friends and then come back and make everything the same as it was before?"
"It will never be the same." Edward responded, kicking at a stone. "We know that."
"Good." She whispered, hugging herself and looking ahead of her.
"It could get better." Edward whispered back, leaning his chin on the top of his knees as he hugged them to his chest.
"You planning on leaving again?" The question was asked without malice.
The bronze-haired vampire even managed a chuckle at that. "No, I won't make that mistake twice."
"Pity." She sighed.
He smiled slightly before it fell. "Your brother, he kissed Jacob before he left."
Victoria went still before turning to look at Edward in surprise, eyes wide. "What? He did? On the mouth? And you saw?"
He nodded.
There was a moment's silence as she just observed him in confusion. "And you didn't attack him?"
"No."
"Why?" Victoria asked, genuinely confused. "If someone else put the move on my man, and I saw it---I'd tear him or her apart. It—it's a part of being a vampire. We're deadly possessive of the ones we love."
"Yes, we are." Edward agreed.
"Then why---why didn't you do something?" Victoria asked.
"I wanted to." Edward admitted to her, eyes still fixed ahead. "But if I hurt James, I'd hurt Jacob…and I don't want to ever hurt him again."
"I---." Victoria looked away, trouble. "I don't know what to make of you, Edward Cullen."
He didn't answer, and they both stayed like that, silent, side by side, waiting on Jacob and Leah to return.
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"And that's all that's happened since you two went AWOL." Bella announced with a grin as they drove towards Forks in her old pickup. She was in a pretty good mood, and it showed. She knew she was grinning like an idiot.
But who could really blame her?
Jazz and Alice were here!
"You killed a vampire?" Alice asked.
"They let you watch hunts?" Jasper asked.
Both sounded completely shocked.
"Yes on both accounts." Bella nodded, extremely proud of herself. "Victoria taught me how to fight so I could better protect myself, and now I've gotten really good, for a human." She grinned at Victoria's catchphrase when it came to complimenting her. "And I wasn't going to let the three of them go and leave me all alone for the weekend, so I convinced them to let me go along and watch the hunt from a safe distance while they did their thing."
There was a moment's silence.
"But a hunt is gruesome for a human to watch." Jasper announced slowly. "I don't think that you---."
"Yes, it was gross and I still feel bad for the bears, but this is all a part of the food chain, and in the end you realize that." Bella announced, taking the corner a little too fast yet doing it safely still. "And it helps me remember that there's a part to being a vampire that isn't wonderful and glamorous."
Alice and Jasper exchanged confused looks.
"I—ever since my birthday I decided that I wanted to be a vampire because I didn't want to age while everyone else remained young." She felt so silly for admitting that to them. "Jacob told me my reasons for wanting to be a vampire were wrong, but I didn't really listen to him or take his words to heart until I started talking to Victoria about it."
Alice leaned her head against Jasper's shoulder.
"I asked her to bite me but she wouldn't, because that's Jake's One Rule, no biting humans." Bella smiled slightly. "And then she told me herself that there are other, darker sides to being a vampire and watching the hunt helped me realize that everyone else was right."
"So, you don't want to be a vampire anymore?" Jasper asked.
"No, I'm not saying that." Bella shook her head. "All I'm saying is that I'm not going to jump into it. If I choose to become like you, it'll be for better reasons than wanting to stay young forever."
Alice smiled. "I think I like Victoria."
Jasper was silent.
Bella grinned at her friends and they continued the rest of the drive in silence.
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Leah pulled on her clothes once more and smiled softly to herself as she headed inside of the house. The vampire Victoria had allowed her to stay in her home with her at least until James and Seth returned, and the female wolf was happy.
She'd been accepted.
Her smile grew as she leaned against the wall, feeling that connection to Jacob even now. It was stronger than when she'd merged with Sam, stronger than anything else she'd done with Sam. That just went to show how strong Jacob truly was.
The wolf didn't want to admit how relieved she was. This was a pack with leeches, but from what she and Seth had witnessed while spying on them, they were more of a pack than Sam's ever had been. And from then Leah had wanted to be a part of them, she hadn't realized that her brother had as well though.
That little sneak.
After shifting she and Jacob had rushed out to nature, to the wolves' natural environment, and he'd probed her mentally, sensing the truth in her connection to Sam and her old pack having been broken.
She'd thrown herself at his feet, stomach upwards, neck bared----the typical sign of canine submission, of begging acceptance of an Alpha.
And then he'd brought his teeth to her neck and pressed down softly before pulling away, accepting her into his pack, her wolf joining his mentally.
Even now, in human form, she could sense him outside as he and his leech lover prepared to leave on his motorcycle.
She pressed her back against the wall and smiled up at the ceiling.
Seth, come back soon. And be safe. Her smile grew. I still have to beat the crap out of you for not telling me what you were up to, joining Jake's pack without me!
Giggling, she pushed away from the wall and went to find Victoria, wondering what the future held for this, the Black Pack.
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Next chapter is the last.
Wow.
Review?