CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

"Will he get better?" Mom asked.

"No. He'll stay like this, or possibly get weaker and die," I said baldly. Wolf groaned and turned his face into the pillow while his father cursed under his breath and then muttered an apology. I was surprised he wasn't raging, but imagined he was trying to control himself in front of my mother.

"I don't really understand how this works, Jacob," Mom sighed. "How can he get so sick from just not seeing someone?"

"When you Imprint...when I Imprinted on Edward, it's like that person is all there is for those few moments; then they become the centre of your world. You can't function without at least seeing them from a distance. When Edward died, I got like this and I knew I would die a slow and painful death eventually."

"I thought you died protecting your home!" Mom exclaimed.

"Well...um...Edward did. I couldn't go on without him so I...put myself in a position where our enemy would take me," I said awkwardly, inwardly cursing.

"Oh, Jacob."

"It was a long time ago and at least it had the end result of me catching up to him eventually in this life. Never mind that; we need to think about Wolf."

"Of course. We can't let him suffer like this."

"Well, there's nothing we can do," I responded, glancing sideways at her and hoping she was imagining me lying there in agony like that.

"There is," she said. "Bring him home with us."

"What about Dad?"

"He's still at work, but I'll deal with him later."

"I don't want this to create problems between you."

"It won't."

"Wolf..." I dropped down next to the bed. "We're taking you back to Neah Bay to see your Imprint. You're gonna be ok soon. Best get you in the shower first though. Come on." I tucked a hand under his shoulders and helped him sit up. "You're going to need some help."

"No!" he gasped and pulled away from me quickly. I groaned and backed away, turning to his father. "You had better do it."

"Yeah." Wolf Senior bent over his son and I steered Mom out of the room.

"Is there something else wrong with him?" she asked.

"Uh..." I thought quickly. "Well, I guess he's uncomfortable about a gay man seeing him undressed. It's a bit more awkward than all the pack being together when we phase."

"Oh! Well, yes, I suppose..."

"We'll wait outside!" I called out to Wolf Senior and Mom and I left the house. I was hugely relieved that my plan had worked, although I felt a touch guilty for being so manipulative. I knew that Dad was going to be furious and it would be Mom who bore the brunt of it.

We waited in the truck until Wolf's father brought him outside, freshly showered and wearing jeans and a shirt. He was pale and thin and barely able to stand and his father lifted him up onto the seat where he slumped against the door as soon as it was closed. I shifted the truck into gear and began to drive us back to my parents' house.

"Where is Chloe?" I asked as we neared the Reservation.

"She's at her friend Mary's house. Claire's at another friend's in the same street. I'm very worried this is going to upset them."

"It needn't; they don't even need to know about the Imprint yet. When we get back, if you go collect the girls, Wolf and I will just sit in the yard or something, like he's visiting with me. They don't have to sit with us; so long as he sees her that's all it'll take. He's going to need some food though."

"I baked this morning," Mom said. "Are you sure this is just...you know, like you said? He'll be as a kind of brother to her?"

"I'm positive. Wolves have been known to Imprint on babies before now. They adopt the role of brother and protector and keep phasing to halt their aging until their Imprint catches up. Wolf will remain sixteen for all intents and purposes until Chloe is older. Obviously there's still a chance she would reject him, but it's not common for that to happen. She'll feel the connection to him eventually. The Cullens used to tell me Edward felt as if he were missing a limb when I wasn't around." I grinned at the memory.

When we pulled up at the house I jumped out of the truck, jogging around to the other side to help Wolf. As I opened the door he practically tumbled into my arms and I carried him around the back of the house to the yard and lowered him into one of the chairs there.

"I'm sorry about this," he said shakily. "What must your mother think of me?"

"She feels sorry that you're suffering, that's all."

"Your Dad'll kill me."

"No, he won't. We'll work it out somehow." I went into the house and fetched a large plate full of the fresh muffins Mom had made and passed one to Wolf. He nibbled half-heartedly at it as Mom set off again in her car to get my sisters.

"What if she hates me?" Wolf asked.

"You mean Chloe? I don't think she will."

"She's so little and delicate and I'm...huge and rough and probably scary to her."

"She'll get used to you," I said firmly.

"She might not."

"Let's just see, ok?"

It was fifteen minutes before Mom returned and Wolf put down the half-eaten muffin and chewed his lip nervously. He was still shivering all over and a narrow damp line had formed down the back of his shirt.

"Jacob!" Claire appeared around the corner of the house at a run and then halted quickly when she saw I wasn't alone; apparently Mom hadn't told them about our visitor. "Oh, hey, Wolf. Are you ok? You look like you've been sick."

"I...uh...I had the flu," he said awkwardly.

"You should eat some of those muffins; Mom's baking is the best."

"Where's Chloe?" I asked.

"She'll be here in a minute, she won't want to run in case she musses her hair or something." Claire wrinkled her nose and dropped down cross-legged on the grass in front of us, rather than sit on a chair. "Can I have one of those?" She indicated the muffins.

"As long as you don't spoil your dinner," I said.

"You sound like Mom." She screwed up her face again and helped herself to one of the muffins. "I bet you don't say that to Edward," she added with a smirk.

Wolf's lips twitched slightly and then his head jerked up and his slouching posture straightened. I didn't have to look around to know that Chloe had appeared and was coming to join us.

"Hey, Jacob," she said and then halted a few feet away, glancing at Wolf. "Mom didn't say you had a friend here."

"You don't mind, do you?" I said. "You met Wolf at the Cullens' grill last week."

"Yes, I remember. Hello, Wolf."

"Hey, Chloe." He had stopped shaking and his face had brightened.

"You dropped your food and turned into a wolf and ran away," she added. "Were you upset about something?"

"Um...I...I suppose I was a little on edge with all those vampires around me," Wolf said with a smile.

"You shouldn't worry about them; they're all lovely," Chloe said. "Especially Aunt Esme. Her cooking's almost as good as Mom's. It's a shame none of them can eat any of it."

I heaved a sigh of relief and leaned back in my chair. She was talking to him, rather less shyly than I would have expected and his entire demeanour had immediately changed. He picked up the half-eaten muffin again and then remembered his manners and asked Chloe if she would like one.

"Oh, no thank you, it'll spoil dinner."

"Speak for yourself," mumbled Claire, her mouth full.

I wondered what, if anything, Wolf would find to talk about, but he did well enough, including Claire in the conversation as well as he asked about their school and friends and what they liked doing. Claire replied more than Chloe did and eventually asked Wolf if he would play football with her. By this time he had eaten most of the muffins on the plate and got up to do so, leaving Chloe sitting with me.

"He's not how I expected him to be," she said.

"What did you expect?"

"I don't know, I suppose he looked bad-tempered and kind of scary last week. I'm surprised he wants to bother talking to me and Claire."

"Wolf's a pretty decent guy," I said. "He's had a tough time lately, but underneath, he's nice. He doesn't have sisters of his own; he probably wishes he had some now he's met you."

"Well, he can share," Chloe smiled. "Remember when Edward first came because his parents didn't want him for Christmas and he was upset? We kind of adopted him. Claire obviously likes Wolf; anybody that will play football with her gets the thumbs up."

"Maybe I'll bring him over more often then and we could all do some things together," I suggested.

"Won't Dad mind? He went weird last week after Wolf ran away. I wondered if it was because he turned into a wolf and Dad thought we'd be scared. We weren't, you know, we were just wondering what happened."

"Dad might take a bit of convincing, but Mom will talk to him," I replied.

"Maybe if we put in a good word for Wolf, that'll help."

Wolf stayed another hour and then called his Dad to collect him, thinking he had better not outstay his welcome and I suspected he didn't want to have to face my Dad just yet. After he left, Mom talked to me, amazed by the almost immediate change in Wolf. Other than looking a little thin, he now appeared to be more or less his usual self, but she was concerned about how regularly he would need to see Chloe in order to avoid suffering again.

"About every two or three days at first," I said. "It gets to the point where even a few hours hurts though. I don't see how we're going to get Dad to agree to this."

"Like I said, I'll talk to him," Mom said. "I'm not particularly over the moon about the fact that Wolf is tied to our little girl, but seeing him like that at his father's house...we'll work something out, somehow." She shuddered suddenly. "I imagined that was you lying there."

I still felt guilty about manipulating Mom in such a way, but at least it had achieved the desired result; actually a much better one than I'd expected. I didn't want to hold my breath about Dad, however, and I went home before he finished work. All I could do was wait to hear from Mom and hope for the best and I filled Edward in on what had happened while I waited, repeatedly glancing at the phone and willing it to ring. Eventually it did, just before nine o'clock.

"Mom?" I answered.

"No, it's Dad."

I waited anxiously to hear what he had to say next, imagining it wasn't going to be anything good. He would have been furious to learn that Mom and I had taken Wolf to the house to see Chloe after he'd been so vehemently against it. However, somehow Mom had managed to work her magic on him. He was very displeased about the impromptu visit and not in the least happy about having to agree to repeats of it, but despite all that, Mom's description of the state of Wolf and insistance that Chloe would begin to suffer too had eventually swayed him. He reluctantly agreed to two visits each week on the condition that either he or Mom were present and preferably either Edward or me as well. Wolf could spend time with me at the house in order to be in Chloe's presence, but on no account where we to take the girls out anywhere or meet with Wolf without one of my parents being home.

I agreed immediately. Two days a week would still be very difficult for Wolf, but it was better than nothing. It was only after this was all discussed that I received the tongue-lashing I'd been expecting. Usually if Dad had something to say he would get it off his chest immediately, but instead he held off, apparently deeming Chloe's situation more important. I had only really felt his anger at me on rare occasions when I'd been growing up, but now he made no attempt to hide how furious he was that I'd used Mom's soft and caring nature to get around her by letting her see what I'd been through myself.

"You're a grown man, Jacob! A married man! This is the type of behaviour I would have expected from a teenager!" he exclaimed.

"I'm sorry," I said. It was something that I'd uttered half a dozen times already during the conversation. "I felt bad about it at the time. Mom understands why I did it..."

"I know she does and so do I, but it doesn't make it any better."

"You're not mad with her, are you? For going behind your back?" I queried.

"Of course not. I'm mad with you, but I'll get over it. I'll say goodnight now, but before I go, this thing with Wolf...this had better not come back to bite me, Jacob. I'm holding you entirely responsible for anything that he may or may not do and like I said, I've only agreed to any of it for Chloe's sake."

"I know," I said meekly. "Thanks, Dad."

As soon as he hung up, I called Wolf to tell him the news. He was hugely relieved and promised to stick to whatever schedule I wanted to work out with my parents. His father had agreed to let him use his truck to drive over to Neah Bay so that none of us would be required to drive him back and forth.

Wednesday was the first day when Wolf came back to Neah Bay. I had driven straight over to my parents' house after I finished with my last training session of the day and ate dinner with them. Then Wolf arrived shortly after, looking extremely nervous. Physically he looked much better than he had at the weekend, but I knew he would be feeling the pain of separation in his chest like he had been punched with a steel fist.

Unusually for Washington, there had been no rain for over a week and my sisters were sitting in the yard working on a summer project for school. After a brief and very awkward chat with Dad during which Wolf looked as if he wanted to turn tail and run, I took him outside to sit near the girls. Chloe was working diligently, writing something in her notebook, while Claire sprawled on the lawn, doodling. I could see she had drawn a picture of a wolf and was in the process of adding a figure standing next to it.

"It's you and Edward," she said with a grin. "What colour wolf are you?"

"Reddish brown. Shouldn't you be working on your school stuff?"

"Ugh, Jacob, it'll get done, I'd rather do it when it rains and we're stuck indoors. I bet you were a real teacher's pet at school, weren't you?"

"Only in Phys Ed." I glanced over at Wolf who was sitting in one of the other chairs, not next to Chloe, but a few feet away. She had put her pen down and was asking him if he had any luck finding a job yet. I was pleased that so far she seemed receptive to him and the next couple of hours passed well enough. Wolf played football with Claire again and asked if she could draw his wolf. Chloe employed him to help pinpoint various cities on a map of the States. I knew he had hated school and with the situations with Marvin Rivers and joining the pack he had missed quite a bit of it, but he seemed to know his geography well enough.

After Wolf left, Dad talked to me and admitted that he had been watching out of the window and had relaxed a little when he observed that Wolf behaved towards both girls in much the same way that Edward and I did and was only surprised that the boy had no siblings of his own.

"What's he doing with his life?" he asked. "Is he intending to go to college?"

"His father wants him to, but he's not keen on the idea and especially not now. He won't be able to leave the area. He's good with his hands and is trying to find work. His Dad told him if he can get a decent occupation he won't force him to go to college."

I was tempted to broach the subject of Wolf taking an apprenticeship with Dad, despite the distance he would have to travel every day, but I held my tongue and just left the idea out there. Maybe Dad would even end up making the suggestion himself if the boy impressed him enough.

A couple more weeks passed and I knew that the pull of the Imprint was strengthening. Wolf did his best to keep it to himself, but Liam called me one Friday to tell me that he was suffering. Wednesday through Sunday was way too long and he was growing worried about his friend, knowing from his own experience with his Imprint on Emma how Wolf would be feeling. I knew well enough myself and Edward and I went to my parents' house early on Sunday morning to see if we could get Dad to agree to more regular visits. I was shocked to find Mom packing up a picnic basket and Dad putting a few things in the truck.

"We can't go today, Wolf comes over on Sundays," Chloe was saying.

"Today is the only day I don't work," Dad said.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"We're taking the girls out on a boat trip and a hike."

"I don't want to go," Chloe pouted. "Can't I stay here?"

"On your own? No," Dad replied.

"I could stay with Jacob. Please."

"It's one day, that's all."

"Dad, it's too long," I said to his retreating back as he went to speak to Mom.

"Why's he doing this? He knows Wolf always comes over on Sundays. If he told us earlier we were going on this trip, Wolf could have come yesterday. I miss him. We miss him," Chloe said tearfully. "He's fun, he's like another big brother."

"Maybe he can come over this evening," I suggested.

"Do you think he'll miss us?" Chloe asked. "I always wonder if he gets bored with us. We're just kids really; wouldn't he rather have friends his own age?"

"I know he'll miss you," I said with a sigh. "He thinks of you as his sisters."

"He can come over for an hour tonight," Dad said as he came back into the room. "You better let him know, Jacob."

"Let's go," I said to Edward. "I'm not calling, I want to see Wolf."

"Do you think he'll be alright?"

"It won't be easy. Four days is way too long as it is."

"Chloe's feeling it too," he told me as we set off in his car. "She doesn't understand why, but she feels sick inside, like there's an empty space in her chest. It's how I feel when we're apart."

"Damnit," I groaned. "I'm going to have to stop wasting time and ask Dad if Wolf can work for him."

"You think he'll go for it?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Edward drove to the Cullens' and then I took his car to continue to La Push, finding Wolf getting into his father's truck ready to drive over to Neah Bay. He looked devastated when I told him he would have to wait until the evening.

"I can't do this," he groaned. "It's fucking killing me. I didn't even want it in the first place. There must be a way."

"I'm sorry, there isn't," I said.

"How can I live like this? A few fucking hours a week! I understand where your Dad's coming from; I mean who would want me hanging around their daughter, even if she was grown up? But I feel like I'm dying in between the times I see her. I know you don't want to hear that about your sister, Jake, but I swear, I don't think of her any different than you do, I..."

"I know that, Wolf, it's alright."

"Are you staying for a while?" he asked. "The other guys are busy; Liam's with Emma and Quil's helping his Gramps with something."

"I'll stay," I nodded and pulled my phone out to text Edward to let him know what I was doing. Just as I was about to return my phone to my pocket, it bleeped with an incoming message and I assumed it was the usual lightning response I received from Edward.

'Where does Wolf live?' It was from Claire. Rather than text, I called her.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"We're coming to see Wolf. We're on the Res bus that goes right through to La Push."

"Oh, God," I groaned. "Dad's going to kill me."

"No he won't, it's not your fault. Chloe won't stop crying; she says she feels sick because Wolf's not here. I don't get it; I mean, he's nice and all, but..."

"Look, I'm going to have to explain a few things to you about that," I said reluctantly. "Where do Mom and Dad think you are?"

"They don't know. Dad went to the bathroom so we sneaked out and ran to the bus. They keep trying to call us, but Chloe turned her phone off and I'm just ignoring it."

"I'll call them," I said, cringing at the thought. Dad would probably be livid, not least because I was going to have to tell the girls about the Imprint. "I'll meet you off the bus when it gets here; how long ago did you set off?"

"About ten minutes."

"It'll be an hour or so then."

"What happened?" Wolf asked anxiously. "Are they alright?"

"They're on the bus coming here. Chloe's feeling the Imprint," I said. "Dad's not going to be happy," As I spoke my phone rang again and it was Dad.

"Have you heard from your sisters?" he demanded.

"Yes, just a minute ago. They're on the bus to La Push." I explained what Claire had said while Dad grumbled and cursed and eventually Mom took the phone from him and came on the line.

"Jacob, just meet them off the bus and make sure they get home safely later, alright." Her voice faded a little as if she'd moved the phone away from her mouth. "No, Tom, this is about Chloe now. If she's feeling it, then it's already gone far enough. I won't see her hurt."

"Give me the phone, Louise."

"Dad?"

"As much as it pains me to say this, that boy's going to have to come over here more often," he said grudgingly.

"Really?" Suddenly I was filled with hope. I knew Dad understood the position, but when it came to the girls, he was so protective I had expected him to hold firm, regardless of how bad Chloe felt.

"You know how much I adore your sisters, Jacob, I don't want to see her in a state like this. I don't like it, not one bit, but it seems I have no choice."

"Wolf would never hurt Chloe," I said.

"Yes, I suppose I'm beginning to see that."

"I have a suggestion."

"Go on," Dad sighed.

"You talked about getting an apprentice; would you consider taking on Wolf? I know the distance is a problem, but maybe we could figure something out." I wracked my brains, wondering if there was somewhere in or near Neah Bay where Wolf could stay during the week.

"He's not staying here! Don't even think about it!"

"I wasn't...I was wondering...Gramps and Uncle Dale are getting to need help quite a bit. How about...if he lodged with them? I mean, he could do some chores, clean up, fetch the groceries...make things easier for them?" I glanced at Wolf and his face was a picture of excitement and hope as he listened to my side of the conversation.

"Hmm," Dad said.

"You were talking about getting someone to help them," I reminded him.

"Well...look, Jacob, I'll think about it, alright? That's all I can give you right now."

"That's good enough," I agreed at once. "Thanks, Dad, for being so understanding."

"I haven't really had much choice, have I?" he said wryly. "I'll see you later."

"What did he say?" Wolf asked eagerly when I hung up.

"He's thinking about it, but if I know Mom, she'll persuade him if he doesn't come around to it himself. Would your Dad mind if this worked out?"

"Hell, no, he'll be glad not to have me moaning and groaning all the time."

"Well, I'll talk to him after I speak to my Dad again," I said.

An hour later we went to meet the bus outside the gas station. Claire and Chloe were at the front of the short line of people waiting to get off and both jumped from the top step in their eagerness. For once they looked almost identical, both dressed in jean shorts and t-shirts, hair tied back in tails. Chloe's red face and puffy eyes gave her away, but her expression changed the minute she joined us and Wolf lit up as if someone had flicked a switch in his head. I heaved a sigh of relief and suggested that we head over the Cullens' for a while so that Edward could be with us too.

Since I was driving Edward's car which could only take one passenger, Wolf brought his father's truck and my sisters rode with him. The short drive gave me the opportunity to try to work out how I was going to tell the girls about the Imprint, but I knew now I had no choice.