X-x-x-x-X
March 27
X-x-x-x-X
For the first time in days, Bella wakes up in her favorite place in the entire world, Jacob's arms. She stays still as she slowly comes to awareness, sighing happily, cocooned in warmth and comfort. She lies on her side, his right arm serving as her pillow, his entire length tucked against her back. His left arm wraps protectively around her middle. She keeps her eyes closed, afraid that if she opens them, this will turn out to be a dream, and he will disappear.
The arm squeezes gently. In his husky bedroom voice, he murmurs, "I missed you, little spoon."
She smiles and reaches her free arm back to his thigh, pulling him even closer. Then she feels his stiffness pressing against her backside. "Good morning, big spoon. Or should I say, wooden spoon?"
He laughs into her hair. "That's a good one. You're the perfect woman, did you know that? Just as funny as you are sexy and smart."
She finally opens her eyes and rolls onto her back. He leans over her, resting his head on his now free arm, careful not to push against her stitches. He peeks down at her with warm, sleepy eyes and a soft smile. She smiles right back at him. "Pretty far from perfect, I'd say."
He brushes her messy hair away from her face. "Perfect for me. And nothing you can say is going to change my mind about that."
She draws him down for a brief, sweet kiss, then releases him. "Hmm. Not too short?"
He traces his fingers along her clavicle. "Easy for me to pick up and carry around."
"I'm the least coordinated person you know."
He grins at her. "No, you're not. One of the elders has a grandbaby who can't walk yet. He's less coordinated than you."
She gives him a fake pout. "Great. How much longer do I have until he surpasses me in dexterity?"
He kisses away her pout. "Oh, six or seven months, I'd guess. But we've been over this already. I love catching you when you fall. Try again."
She narrows her eyes at him. "I can't hold a tune to save my life."
"Thankfully, no one will ever use that criteria to decide if you live or if you die. And if they do, just let me know. I'll come beat them up for you."
"Now you're just being silly," she laughs.
"Blame yourself. You're the one who started listing faults that aren't faults."
"It's evidence that I'm not perfect like you say."
"Yes you are. Like I said, perfect for me." He drops a dozen little kisses on her lips, cheeks, and eyelids.
When he leans back, she looks him up and down, finding not a single flaw anywhere. There is no way that she compares to the male ideal that he embodies. She peeks down at herself, thinking that her breasts are too small. She isn't shallow enough to say this out loud, but Jacob has always been able to read her like a book and sees her staring at herself.
He interrupts her thoughts by lowering his hand to cup her breast gently through her shirt, and she can't help but arch a little into his hand. "Stop that. These are perfect, too."
"They are not," she protests. Her voice is more breathy than she intends.
"Yes. They are. I looked it up."
That statement stops her. "Huh? Looked it up? Where?"
"Where else? Google."
She just blinks at him.
He gives her a little, embarrassed smile. "I'm a teenage boy, what else did you think I'd do with my free time before you started hanging out with me?"
"Uh, porn, I guess. But if that's the standard, then I'm absolutely certain my breasts aren't perfect."
He snorts. "Porn, well, yeah. But that's not what I mean. Those women look ridiculous, not sexy. Their fake boobs don't move right, and they're a weird shape. Plastic surgeons have figured out what the ideal breast shape looks like, but if my internet research is any indication, they suck at actually creating it. Nah, beautiful breasts have to be natural. Perfect breasts look like yours. They're perky." He runs his thumb over her nipple, and her body responds by demonstrating exactly what he means. He bends over to kiss the hardened peak through the cotton. "See? There's this slope that ends in your small, pretty nipples. They're not too small, trust me. A perfect mouthful." He lightly nips at her with his teeth.
She hisses with pleasure and answers, "You seem to have thought about this a lot."
"More than I should admit," he laughs. "Big ones look good for a couple years, but then they get saggy and really funny looking. And really big ones look silly to me, even before they drop. But that's just me. Other guys like 'em that way."
"Why do I think you're thinking of one of your brothers right now?"
"Jared," he immediately answers.
She smacks him on the arm playfully. "Hey. I didn't say I wanted to know."
"Too late," he chuckles. "It's hard to tell since she wears baggy clothes, but Kim is pretty good for motorboating and..."
"Stop!" she interrupts, hiding her face with her hands. "I said I didn't want to know!"
"I'm just teasing you, Bells," he laughs and pulls her hands away.
She examines him critically. "No, you're not. That was totally the truth. Leah told me she's kinky."
"That's, like, the very least kinky thing they do! The other thing he really likes to do with her boobs..."
"Oh my god, shut up!"
"Sorry," he says, but his grin reveals that he is lying.
She feels her cheeks burning, so she tries to redirect the conversation back to her original topic. "You're staring at my skin. Quit it. I'm too pale until I'm too red. There's this," she indicates her flush, "and the slightest hint of sun gives me a ridiculous burn."
He lifts her shirt to expose her navel, palming her stomach with his hot hand and pretending to examine her closely. "That's what sunblock is for, Bells. How did you survive in Phoenix? Sheesh. Plus, your skin is pretty. I love how it shows off your blush so easily."
"That's embarrassing!"
"It's adorable. And I can use it against you."
"No fair," she laughs and runs her fingers through his hair.
He purrs happily in response, tucking his head into her hand like a puppy. "I'll take any advantage I can get. We know you hold all the cards in this relationship."
She snorts, the statement is so absurd. "The big, bad Alpha says I hold the cards in the relationship? I don't think so."
"Who followed whom around like a lost puppy from, like, birth until now, huh?"
"Should I start calling you 'puppy' like Sophia calls Leah?"
He tucks her head against her shoulder. "You can call me whatever you want, baby."
Just then, the alarm on her phone starts to blare. "Ugh. I don't want to go to class."
"Let's trade," he mutters as he reaches over to silence it. "You can run around the woods all day, and I'll go to your classes. I'll put on a long, brown wig and no one will be able to tell that I'm not you."
"Right," she giggles. "We look exactly alike."
"They do say that couples who spend enough time together start to look like each other. Just like people and their pets look alike."
"So in fifty or sixty years we'll be indistinguishable from each other?"
"Yes. I will shrink, you will grow, and we'll meet in the middle and both be six feet tall. I'll fade, you'll get tan. My hair will get wavy and yours will straighten out. We'll wear the same clothes, and no one will be able to tell who's who." He pecks her on the lips while she giggles before rolling out of bed and helping her up. He notices that the pain he expected in his hip at the movement doesn't materialize. "Hey, you're doing a lot better today, aren't you?"
She wiggles her hips experimentally. "Yeah." She is pleasantly surprised. "It must be because you've been holding me all night long. Everything's better since you've been holding me all night long."
He pulls a comfortable looking pair of yoga pants out of her closet. "You wanna wear this today?"
"Those are soft. Yeah."
He helps her get dressed. She doesn't require the assistance, but it is a lot more comfortable than doing it by herself.
His phone alarm rings next. "Shoot. I guess I have to get going soon. Do you mind?" He points in the general direction of the bathroom.
"Sure. Just try not to get caught by my dad."
He disappears, calling behind him, "He's been gone for half an hour, Bells."
When he returns to kiss her goodbye, she is frustrated to realize he is minty fresh. "You did it again!"
"What?" His eyes twinkle at her. "What'd I do?"
"You kissed me," she whines.
"That's, like, the twentieth time I've kissed you this morning."
Her words are muffled since she has her hand clamped over her mouth. "But the other kisses were equal! You know I don't like it when you brush your teeth and then kiss me before I've had a chance to brush mine!"
He wraps her in a hug, and she feels his body shaking against hers with laughter. "You're adorable. And you taste good. Just you without artificial chemicals or flavors or anything."
She protests, "If natural tastes so good, then why did you brush your teeth?"
"Because I'm a gross, smelly guy. Guys stink and need to fix it." Against her own will, she inhales deeply, her nose still buried in his chest. He smells of the rain and the earth and pine needles, pure Jacob, her favorite scent in the world. He laughs harder. "Are you sniffing me?"
"So what if I am?" she mumbles.
"No worries. Go ahead. Just don't do this with other guys, okay? They might get the wrong idea."
"I'll try to restrain myself."
Too soon, the hug ends, and Jacob jumps down the stairs in three bounds and is out the door into the steady rain. He needs to get home to help Billy before his patrol. Bella finishes getting ready, a bounce in her step that had been missing since the last time he spent the night.
While Bella heads to Port Angeles with Leah, Jacob goes home. For once, the wolf waiting behind his house is Quil rather than Jasmine. He invites his cousin inside for breakfast. Billy joins them in the kitchen, complaining loudly and good naturedly about not having enough food in his house to feed two hungry wolves, and about the wet puddles they are leaving on the floor. Jacob pulls a carton of eggs out of his refrigerator and cracks all of them open in a mixing bowl while Billy cuts slices of ham into cubes, and Quil raids their bag of shredded cheese of half its contents before Jacob can top their omelets.
"I take it the night went okay?" Jacob asks.
His mouth full of toast, Quil answers, "Muh uh." He swallows. "She's still asleep. Probably won't wake up 'til afternoon, I'd guess."
"I spent all night thinking I'd wake up to her yowling and accidentally mauling a neighbor, but I didn't, thank god."
"Bella's got to be relieved, huh? Too bad she doesn't have werewolf healing abilities. You'd have been able to give it to her good la... Oof. Hey? What was that for?" Quil rubs the back of his head where Jacob slapped him, and glares at him indignantly until he notices Billy's wry expression.
"Shut up, dumbass!"
Billy snorts. "Son, you're the dumbass if you think I didn't know you slept in Bella's room last night."
Jacob's ears turn red while Quil smirks at him and nods, adding, "Charlie Swan will shoot you in the ass if you knock up his baby girl."
"At least I'm getting s..." Jacob starts to retort before stopping mid sentence and glancing at his father, who is giving him a pointed look.
"Maybe I should let Rosalie Cullen practice her vasectomy skills on you, son. Because if you get Bella pregnant, I will load hollow point bullets in Charlie's rifle."
"Ooh, the explodey kind?" Quil asks.
"I get it! I get it!" Jacob sputters. "Can we stop having this conversation?"
"As a parent, it is my responsibility to knock some sense into you, and my right to embarrass you as much as possible," Billy answers solemnly.
Jacob inhales the rest of his breakfast with a rather childish frown on his face. But he eats so quickly that the humiliation only lasts a minute more. Right after Quil jogs away, still laughing at Jacob, he helps Billy transfer his wheelchair into the back of his pickup. And then he is truly alone for the first time in days. He is a social creature, but sharing his brain space with ten rowdy wolves sometimes makes him want to shut himself inside, preferably with Bella, and not come out again.
He gets fifteen minutes of solitude.
And then he is due for patrol. Jared is signing out to Sam when he arrives.
Kim's been itching for a double date with you and Em for a while now. The girls have been hanging out a lot during all the insanity lately, and she wants to do something nice and normal. I told her maybe we could do it tonight, after your day shift and before my overnight. What do you think?
Yeah, Sam answers automatically. Em wants to do that too. Jacob hears the lack of enthusiasm in his tone, but Jared is happy to be able to make his imprint happy.
Great. I'll tell Kim. The girls can figure out what they want to do.
Okay. See you then.
Jared disappears.
Jacob doesn't ask, knowing Sam isn't one to have a heartfelt discussion about his relationship with one of his brothers. Once upon a time, he would have talked with Leah about his feelings, but those days are long gone. He has never had an open discussion with Emily about any doubts or fears, not since their last argument resulted in the wounds that permanently scarred her face. She expects him to be solid, stoic, and reassuring, and so he is. It isn't a lie, exactly. He is all those things. He is a leader, a protector, and a good man. But every good man has second thoughts about the choices he makes, and Sam's doubts have hit him very suddenly in a very short period of time. And he has absolutely no one to talk to.
Jacob sends wordless sympathetic emotions his way, but says nothing in particular. It would only make them both uncomfortable. And at any rate, when in this form, his conscious layer is all wolf. But Jacob is acutely aware of the man beneath, which makes Sam aware of the man beneath. So unlike most days before Leah started pulling away from the pack, there is a thread of dissatisfaction weaving its way through Sam's thoughts.
The thread pulls taut when Jacob's route brings him close to the Clearwater house, and he sees her toss her messenger bag into her backseat. She wears a black pencil skirt and fitted, long-sleeved white top. Her outfit isn't flashy or overly revealing, but is so entirely unlike the shorts and tank tops or tattered sundresses she wears around the pack that Jacob actually pauses for a few seconds to look at her.
Which means Sam looks at her through Jacob's eyes. He is drawn immediately to the wet drops clinging to her long, long legs, the hair brushing her cheeks, the curve of her waist, the swells of concealed breasts, and her soft mouth. For a split second a flash appears in the pack mind. Leah, perhaps two years less in age, but a lifetime less in sorrow, jumping out of the ocean wearing a simple black and white bikini and into Sam's arms. Cool, full lips against his, her long, dripping hair leaving a tickling path of saltwater trailing down his chest. The sound of pure, bright laughter.
Sam's imprint buries it quickly, but Jacob can't help his own reaction. His thoughts don't come in words, but they both know that that Leah is gone forever, the sweet, warm, kind girl that nearly every boy in La Push had a crush on at one time or another. In her place stands this new, vibrant creature. Biting wit instead of soothing comfort. Deadly strength instead of protective shelter. Burning passion instead of welcoming warmth. Fierce beauty rather than soft loveliness.
And just one word from Sam. Leah.
She drives away, and a tiny piece of Sam goes with her.
Emilyemilyemily! says the imprint as soon as the car is out of sight. I can make her so happy. And underneath, very faintly, Jacob hears, And make Leah so very, very sad.
The thought is gone as soon as it comes. Jacob asks tentatively, Everything okay?
Sam has nearly forgotten Leah again. The fog in his head swirls, and he answers, Yeah. Em wants to go out, like Jared said. She'll have a good time. It'll be good for her. When Kim calls her to figure out what to do, it'll put her in a good mood. She'll get to look forward to it all day long. So it'll be a good day.
Jacob doesn't bother to ask if it will be a good day for Sam.
They run in silence, the only sound the rhythm of their paws and the slight squish of the damp ground. When Sam passes behind Brady's home, he hears Jasmine stirring inside. The sun is directly overhead, although hidden by cloud cover. Jake, you think you ought to...
Yeah. I'll be right there, Jacob sighs. He doesn't want to, not in the least, but she is his responsibility. So much for a peaceful shift.
At least she's not in your brain right now, and you don't have to be in hers either.
I know. It's just been a long couple of weeks.
And another memory escapes from the depths of Sam's mind. Leah phasing in unexpectedly while facing off against Irina, the horrifying realization of just how badly she was hurt, the knowledge that he was miles away from being able to help her, the sheer terror when she disappeared from the pack mind in a blur of pain. And under it all, the worst yet, the knowledge that he himself had hurt her more badly than any vampire ever could.
He is able to remember those days vividly, not only due to the recent timing, but because even if his wolf suppressed the romantic inclinations he had toward her, she is the wolf's sister, and he feared for her safety. And now that he knows his own heart, it is impossible to completely ignore it.
She's fine. Better than fine, Jacob reassures Sam.
She's practically indestructible. If only we didn't keep testing her limits. And so quietly that Jacob almost misses it, Even I couldn't destroy her.
Jacob knows that Sam wants to be alone with his thoughts, so he changes the subject quickly. I guess I should thank Jasmine for giving me some privacy last night, only she might take it the wrong way, and then she'd get pissed and phase in again.
Actually, thank Paul. He's the one who convinced her to give you some space.
Huh. He's full of surprises these days, isn't he? And then, to give Sam the same favor, he phases out a little early. I'll be back. Howl if you need me.
It only takes a few more minutes to arrive at Brady's house. He can see Jasmine through the kitchen window. No one else appears to be home. He phases, suddenly wishing he had a shirt, and knocks on the back door.
Her face lights up as soon as she opens the door. "Jacob! Come on in." She steps aside, eyeing the rain water beading on his skin in the same way Sam just looked at Leah.
He stops himself from scowling at her, but he does ask, "Hey, can I have a towel?" He doesn't know whether she realizes how unnecessary this is for his physical comfort.
"Of course." She rummages in a linen closet and emerges with an old brown bath towel. He dries his hair and wraps it around his shoulders, wishing it was bigger.
"Did you sleep okay?" He stands awkwardly in the middle of the room with none of the ease he has always felt in the Swan house
"Like the dead. You want something to drink?" She peeks in the refrigerator. "We've got Coke, OJ, milk, uh..."
"Juice is good."
He sits at the kitchen while she pours glasses for both of them and digs around in the refrigerator more. "My aunt knew I'd be starving when I woke up, so she left some food. It's some kind of jambalaya. Want some?"
"Sure, sure. I can always eat." Besides that, it will give him something to do besides feel uncomfortable.
She pops a large mixing bowl in the microwave and sits down across from him, opening with, "So that wasn't all just a nightmare, huh?"
"'Fraid not. It gets a little easier, though, once you learn good control."
She frowns, staring intently at her glass of juice. "I am so, so sorry. Is she okay?"
He is glad he won't meet his eyes since he can't keep his frown off his face. "She'll be okay. Sore, you know. And it's better if I can be over there to help her. It hurts her less."
She looks up, startled. "You mean literally?"
He nods. "Literally. If it put my hand on her wound, it hurts less." He is tempted to tell her about the pleasant electric sensation that transfers between their skin whenever they touch, the connection that formed in their dreams after he tricked the Volturi into thinking they were dead. But while he wants her to understand just how tightly he has bound himself to Bella, he also wants to keep these details to himself. It isn't her business just because she imprinted on him.
"That's amazing. Do any of the other wolves do that?"
"No, I don't think so. I'm not sure it's a wolf thing."
"Does it work on other people? Like if your dad hurts himself or something?"
"I don't think so. It's just me and Bella. We're connected."
She looks at him in confusion. She can't stop herself. "Is that why you didn't... why you didn't... Did she block it?" She starts to tremble, and the trembling becomes shaking.
"Hey, hey, relax." He immediately stands and moves to put a hand on her shoulder, and she grasps at it with her other hand, hanging onto him tightly. Now that his own rejected imprint is completely broken, his only discomfort is psychological.
The shuddering slowly stops. "Thanks," she says quietly.
He waits until her grip on his hand relaxes before speaking again. He answers her earlier, unspoken question. "I don't know. My wolf resisted it. I resisted it. I just love her too much for anything to come between us." She looks positively devastated, but he isn't going to lie. She needs to know where he stands. "We really don't know why imprinting happens, or how it happens, or what it's for. There are a lot of theories, but that's all."
Very quietly, she asks, "But imprints are supposed to be mates, right?"
"Usually," he admits. "It must not have always happened that way, though, because we're told that imprinted wolves have to fulfill the needs of their imprints. Look at Paul."
"And Quil told me he's going to try to stop phasing when Claire's still a kid so she doesn't start to get romantic feelings for him."
Jacob's eyes widen, although he isn't completely surprised. "That's good. Real good. He'll always be a part of her life, but it would be much healthier for both of them if it could stay like siblings." Jasmine nods, but she looks conflicted. They both know that what she wants from him isn't a brotherly relationship, although now that they aren't sharing the pack mind, she can at least keep the thought to herself.
Before she can steer the conversation back toward unpleasant territory, the microwave beeps, and she gives him a heaping plateful of her aunt's jambalaya. They eat quickly, making awkward small talk about school and mutual acquaintances. Jacob explains that she should not return to school until she has control over her temper and can be relied upon not to phase with dozens of students around. She tells him that Paul, scheduled to begin patrol in two hours, already offered to work on phasing with her that very afternoon.
They are interrupted by the sound of a couple short barks outside. She looks up in alarm, but he reassures her that it is just an announcement, not an emergency howl. They both head outside. Jacob reassures her that she does not need to phase in yet. Instead, he does, and she follows closely behind him.
The moment he enters the pack mind, he hears Sam welcoming Embry and Seth. They are on their way back to the reservation, and both minds swirl with wordless images and emotions. Jacob's eagle leads the way. It had been watching over them in his stead.
Embry's memory is full of sounds, great and small. Growls, chirps, chitters, snarls, caws, whines, barks, and songs, a cacophony of languages. And Embry understands them all. The ancient brown bear led him from place to place, animal to animal, and stood by as he learned how to listen to each one. He could have stayed in the forest for weeks, months, years, even, listening to the tales the animals have to tell. But his own pack called him home.
Embry speaks. I guess I have to work on my Quileute. I can understand them all, but they can't understand me. I remember a little Makah, but I only know a few words in Quileute.
Jacob asks, Speaking in Makah didn't work? I'm not surprised that English was useless, but I'm a little surprised that Makah was foreign to them. I guess I thought that the speech that mattered was the speech of this land, of this place. And the Makah have been here as long as we have.
Sam answers, I think it's because of the taxilit. I think they serve as a translator, of sorts. I've had the easiest time communicating with animals when my taxilit has been nearby. It's a bit harder if I'm on my own. And our guardians are Quileute spirits, not Makah. Embry, I've been practicing my Quileute. We can do it together.
Do you think our guardians can't understand us when we speak in English? Seth asks, curious.
I'm pretty sure mine is just stubborn, Sam responds dryly. But underneath his words is a different undercurrent of thought. The only other warrior with such fluency, besides himself, is Jacob. But Jacob seems to have innate strengths in every type of skill, and his guide is an eagle, not a bear. All four of them wonder the same thing at the same moment. If Leah were to find her taxilit, would it, like Seth's, be a mountain lion? Would she share Seth's ability? Is their ability connected to their genes?
I suppose if we wanted to know, there are easier ways to find out. There always have been, sighs Sam.
I'd be fooling myself if I said I didn't want to know. Frustration seeps into Embry's tone as he thinks of his mother and absent father. But I want her to tell me. I want her to volunteer the truth, and I don't want to have to drag it out of her. I thought she'd tell me after we told her about us. I mean, it's obvious, right? My father can't be the ex she said he was.
She didn't say anything? Seth asks.
No. She was just so overwhelmed when we told her about us, and scared, too, that something bad was going to happen to me. I didn't want to push it too hard. Plus I figured she'd say something when she had time to absorb it all. But she hasn't. I spent so much time being mad at the wrong guy. Now I don't even know who to be mad at.
Honestly? Jacob sighs. When she still didn't say anything, I thought it raised the odds of it being Quil's dad. I never quite figured out why she'd be protecting Sam's dad. Sorry, man, but it's true. And yeah, I know my dad's a candidate. I just really, really can't see it. Or maybe I just don't want to.
Well, Sam answered, We all thought my dad was the most likely candidate to begin with. Nobody was ever rude enough to say so except Leah, but she was only saying what we all thought. And this kind of makes it seem even more likely.
Right, responds Seth. I mean, there's no question that Jake and Collin are related, and their taxilits are both birds.
I'm going to just flat out ask my mom. She'd just better have a good reason for not telling me before.
Sam cautions, It's only fair that you know once and for all, Embry. But just remember, she might not have been trying to protect my... our dad. She might have been trying to protect herself. He's not the most decent guy.
Yeah. Fuck. Let's talk about something else, Embry grumbles. He and Seth are still about twenty minutes from the reservation. Jacob and Jasmine have reached the border, where Jacob phases out briefly to update her. He points out the a distant speck in the sky, and she soon realizes it is his eagle. It reaches them abnormally quickly and lands on his outstretched arm. The ancient animal blinks placidly at Jasmine, who stares at it in awe. A few minutes later, it flings itself into the sky, and Jacob phases back in.
When he returns to the pack mind, Seth is showing them his new talents. The other wolves watch his memories with no small amount of jealousy.
Dude, why can't that be my power? Embry mutters. They see Seth's spirit flying through the clouds. He soared and dipped over and over, drawing the moisture in them together until they formed fat water droplets, bringing rain. He whirled in spirals until he formed cyclones. He forced the clouds away to create pockets of sunlight and warm weather, then gathered them back together until he formed a stormcloud. In his glee, he agitated his creation until thunder erupted, and with a twist and a dive he slammed into the cloud, forcing a lightning bolt down to the ground.
His brothers were awed, but his taxilit had not been. He earned a yowling, snarling reprimand from the mountain lion pacing in irritation below him. In his careless enthusiasm, he had destroyed an ancient oak tree, setting it on fire, and scattered a dozen small animals. Chagrined, he had immediately set a rain cloud right over the burning tree before the fire could become a conflagration.
To distract his brothers from their laughter at his expense, Seth asked, Jake, do you think you could do that? You seem to have all of the abilities.
Maybe. I was able to control both water and fire last week. I knew about wind before. I guess clouds and weather are basically just water, right?
That's almost all the elements except earth, notes Sam. Maybe you should see if you can do anything to the earth sometime.
Embry adds, Creating a rockslide could be helpful in a fight, depending on what the terrain is. Or wouldn't it be cool if you could split the ground open and make a vamp fall in?
Seth says enthusiastically, Between that and Jake's power over fire, we'd hardly even have to fight a vampire anymore.
Jacob shakes his head. Except I can't do any of that when I'm a wolf. I'd have to sit out of every battle, at least the wolf would, so I could spirit walk.
Who cares about a vampire battle, Embry answers. Just get rid of this rain. I'm sick of the wet. I want a sunny day for once.
Jacob grins. We should clear the clouds this weekend. Let's have a party. Celebrate you guys coming home, Leah healing up.
Our new sister, Sam adds quietly.
Yeah, he admits grudgingly. Her too.
After that, Jacob phases out to tell Jasmine about their planned bonfire Saturday night, explaining that the pack wants to welcome her to their ranks and celebrate Seth and Embry's return. He details their newfound powers to her, and she listens in fascination. Around the time he finishes, Seth and Embry burst into the clearing in human form.
Seth almost tackles Jasmine in an enthusiastic greeting, and she can't help but grin at his exuberance. Seth immediately offers to work with her on phasing whenever she wants to. They decide to do so that very afternoon with Paul after feeding the ravenous Seth. The cousins wander away, chatting animatedly.
After they go, Embry says to Jacob, "So. I go away for a couple days and you let all Hell break loose, huh?"
"Sam told you?"
"He gave us a quick snapshot while you were still inside with Jasmine. Bella okay?"
"You know Bells. She hardly cares about the giant gash in her leg."
"But I'll bet she's worried about you," Embry answers astutely.
"She's got nothing to worry about. I love her," Jacob states firmly.
Embry actually laughs. "No kidding. She can't see into your brain, but we can. It's a good thing, too. She doesn't know how much of an idiot you really are."
"I may be a lovesick fool," Jacob grins, "but at least I know what my woman wants, unlike some other people I know."
"What'd I do now?" Embry asks.
"Dude, you forgot your anniversary."
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't know, I saw it in Jasmine's brain. Julie's all pissed at you because you didn't get her something or take her out or anything last week."
"What the hell was last week?"
"I don't know, you tell me. She's your girlfriend, or she was, anyway," Jacob snickers.
"Shit." Embry frowns. "It's gotta be one of those fake anniversaries. You know, like first kiss or first hug or first time I noticed she cut her hair or some crap."
"First time she dumped your pathetic ass."
"Shut up, dude, and help me figure out what it is! I know it isn't a first date anniversary. That was sometime in December. I still don't know what date it is, but I lucked out. I'd gotten her earrings as a Christmas present, even had it wrapped at the store. I forgot all about it, left it on my desk, and she found it and started squealing that I'd remembered. I didn't know what the fuck she was talking about, but she went on and on about how thoughtful I was and how touched she was that I remembered, so I just faked it until she mentioned the first time I took her out to a restaurant. I still don't know what the actual day is, and I had to get her another Christmas present. Man, I was just getting back in with her after forgetting Valentine's. This blows," he whines.
Jacob laughs at him. "Goodbye, Julie. Hello, right hand."
"Shut up," Embry snaps irritably. "You're so damn lucky. Your girlfriend barely accepts presents for her birthday or Christmas."
"I am lucky." Jacob nods happily. "But Jasmine can probably help you out here."
"Hey, yeah. You're right. Even if she doesn't want to, she's probably no good at shielding her brain yet, is she?"
"The worst," Jacob groans. "I can hardly stand to be phased in with her."
"Pfft. Poor Jacob. Too many hot girls want his ass."
"She doesn't 'want my ass', she fucking imprinted on me, man. It's a total nightmare!"
"But you didn't?"
"I guess I rejected it."
Jacob spends the rest of their walk filling Embry in on the details of what happened while he was gone. When they reach his yard, Jacob returns to finish his patrol, stops at home for a shower and to pick up his father, then heads to Bella's house for dinner. He runs into Leah there. When she hears that Jasmine is awake and spending the evening with Seth, she immediately departs to go find them, saying she wants to talk to her cousin to "dispel all the fuckery you guys must have filled her mind with, then knock some goddamn sense into her". Then Jacob and Billy proceed to make a mess of Bella's kitchen, cooking dinner while she does homework at the table and teases them. By the time Charlie gets home, there are more dishes in the sink than he thought he owned, but a satisfying meal waits on the stove.
He glances at his family, surreptitiously watching the seemingly innocent touches that pass between his daughter and her boyfriend. Neither teenager is so foolish as to do anything inappropriate in front of their fathers. But throughout the meal, their knees nudge together, their fingers keep meeting, and they even playfully elbow each other from time to time. When Charlie clears the table and Billy rolls to the refrigerator for a beer, Bella finally looses a tickling assault on Jacob's ribs. He laughs until he snorts, unable to retaliate for fear of accidentally tugging at her stitches.
"Who's the big, bad wolf now?" she yells.
"Hey, hey," he laughs. "No fair!"
Bella doesn't let up. "Yes it is. You have no other weaknesses. This is my only weapon against you, short of kneeing you where it counts!"
He whoops, "Wait, why? What did I do to deserve this?"
Billy answers for her with a smile. "She's telling you who's boss. Women need to do that every couple of days. Remind you who's in charge."
Jacob finally squirms so much that he falls out of the small kitchen chair, landing in a heap on the floor with a thump, his feet sticking up on the seat of the chair. Bella doesn't hesitate, attacking the most ticklish spots on his body, his soles.
"Aah! No! Make it stop!" he yells.
But then they are all startled by deep, rolling laughter from the backyard. A huge figure throws the back door open with a bang. "You show him who's in charge, little sis!"
"Oh my gosh!" Bella finally releases Jacob's feet to throw her arms around Emmett Cullen. "I missed you so much!"
"Missed you too! Look like you put him in his place, huh?" Jacob pouts at the humiliation of being discovered writhing on the floor by a pair of vampires.
Rosalie appears, smirking, behind her husband, as Emmett sets Bella back on the floor. "You should talk, dear. We both know that I can incapacitate you in five seconds flat."
Emmett waggles his eyebrows at her. "That's only because I like it so much!" he bellows. And then more quietly, he whispers, "But from what I hear, someone else here likes being tied down more than I do."
Rosalie rescues Bella as she blushes bright red. "Don't pay him any mind, Bella. He's got the emotional maturity of a twelve year old. Come on. Let me check your stitches."
While the girls disappear upstairs, Emmett and Jacob update one another. Alice did get a stream of visions of Tanya's future just before leaving. Each of them consisted of her getting on or off a different plane, and she again saw the blonde vampire standing in an old cathedral, but she still had no idea where it was located. Most worrisome of all, her vision of the empty, windowless room whose walls were covered in blood had not changed, nor had she gotten any more information about what it might signify, nor how to prevent it.
Emmett explains, "We're not exactly sure what it means, but Tanya's probably looking for allies. She knows you guys took out Irina while she was on her own, so she knows she can't approach you on her own. She's probably trying to find backup."
Jacob absorbs the information. "Could Alice tell if she was able to recruit any help?"
"Don't know, sorry. Too many variables, I guess. And you know that she can't see anything directly involving your pack, so that makes it even harder."
"Any sign that she's going to try what Victoria did and create her own army?"
"No. She realizes it didn't work the first time. And she's sort of specific about her grudges. She doesn't want a pack of murderous newborns rampaging and killing random humans."
"She just wants to kill us? Great."
Emmett hands over a small suitcase. "This is from Jasper."
"What is it?" Jacob asks.
"Don't know, don't want to know. Can't tell anybody if I've got no clue," he answers, so Jacob doesn't open it in front of him. The other Cullens are long gone for a reason, leaving Emmett and Rosalie without any way to contact them. They hope their ignorance will protect them, but all of them are aware of the risk they are taking by not running. Emmett shrugs it off. "I'm not a pansy, and neither is she. We'll face what comes."
"Are you sure they'll come for you?"
"Yeah. Hard to imagine they wouldn't. But it's almost helpful that Aro can read our memories. All he has to do is touch us and he'll realize we really don't know anything. And we can take Tanya, no problem, if she comes poking around by herself."
"If Aro reads Rose, won't he see how she helped us and punish her for it?"
"We hope it doesn't come to that, but it's worth the risk. Rose has had enough of wasting her years. She wants to live a real life, and she will. I'll make sure she gets to. But I doubt Aro will come all the way here, put himself at risk, just to touch our hands. They could drag us back there if they wanted to, provided we can't fight them off. But I don't think we'll have to. I hope they realize we're not so stupid as to stay behind if we know anything that could give up the rest of the family."
"Sort of a big risk, don't you think?" Jacob asks, skeptically.
"Yeah," Emmett grins. The thought actually seems to please him. "But Alice had visions of us doing fine. She can't stand that she couldn't give us all the details, but fine is fine, right?"
"Just don't get dragged back to Italy, okay? You may not care about Aro finding out about you, but if he sees inside your minds, he'll know all about Bella and the pack. We'll back up Rose, don't get me wrong. She's practically pack herself. But I can't have her letting on that Bella is still alive. They don't know already, do they?"
"Nah. As far as Alice could tell, Irina and Tanya never got close enough to you all to figure out all the details. If they had, Aro would have granted Tanya an audience just to get the information out of her."
"Good. They have to stay in the dark."
With a black grin, Emmett reassures Jacob, "We won't get taken. But if we do, Aro won't get to us while we're still alive to tell him any tales."
Jacob is almost reassured. The girls return, Bella ignorant of the discussion that just took place. While they talk, Jacob retreats into Bella's bedroom and opens the case. In old fashioned, handwritten script, Jasper has written out instructions on thick cardstock. Underneath the card is a new laptop. Apparently, he and Alice will set up a new, secure email account if they ever want to send a message to the pack. Each account will be used only once, and Jasper has software to render the IP addresses untraceable. As such, he will not send any messages directly to the personal accounts of any of the wolves; rather, he had apparently created secure accounts, which the pack is to begin checking regularly on the enclosed computer, which itself is equipped with encryption software. His instructions are clear that they should not use the computer in their homes or at school, or anywhere else they normally go, nor should they attempt to contact the Cullens.
After stashing the computer in Bella's closet for the night, he makes his way back down the stairs. The serious mood that had overtaken him while considering Alice's visions fades as soon as he sees Bella laughing with her friends. Rosalie and Emmett settle into the kitchen chairs while Jacob and Bella do the dishes together. Jacob chooses that moment to get her back for tickling him so mercilessly. He deliberately asks to wash, letting her dry, then soaks her from head to toe in sudsy water, loudly and repeatedly apologizing for his clumsiness before "accidentally" splashing more water on her.
Their fathers are amused from the next room, as is Emmett, until Charlie peeks in to check the state of his floor, finding it thoroughly drenched. But he doesn't care about the linoleum. He stares daggers at Jacob when he realizes the translucent state of his daughter's white shirt.
As soon as he catches sight of the police chief's deep scowl, Jacob starts apologizing profusely while Emmett tries to stifle his laughter at Jacob's humiliation, whispering to Rosalie, "The big, bad wolf is afraid of his father in law."
Then Jacob makes things worse by dabbing at the front of Bella's shirt with a dishtowel in a futile attempt to dry it.
"Get your hands off my baby girl," Charlie snarls, sounding surprisingly like a wolf himself.
Bella is equal parts mortified and appalled when Jacob freezes, his hands plastered awkwardly on her breasts, only two layers of fabric separating them. He squeaks, "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean anything by it!"
Emmett can't contain his uproarious laughter. "It's like watching a live comedy show. Smack him in the nose with a newspaper, Chief Swan! He's a dog, it'll make him back down!"
But Rosalie is the one who gets the last word. Through his mirth, Emmett had been eyeing Bella's chest himself, not very subtly. So when Rosalie drags him out with two fingers pinching his ear, Jacob gets to laugh right back at him.
When Jacob returns later that evening to sneak into Bella's window, he doesn't make it out of the forest. Charlie Swan sits on his back porch, carefully cleaning his hunting rifle, shotgun, and service weapon. Once done, he then methodically adjusts the long distance sight on the rifle. Jacob slinks back home after waiting nearly an hour after Charlie, practicing his hold and stance, aims the barrel of the gun directly at the wolf hidden behind the trees. Jacob is certain that in the moonless night, Charlie cannot actually see him, but he decides not to test the theory. He retreats listening to the howling laughter of Paul and Collin in his mind.
When he gets home, a message awaits him on his phone, and he wishes he had received it just a little sooner. "Charlie's suspicious. Better not come over."
At the same moment, he hears his father's voice from his room. Billy isn't even bothering to whisper, knowing that his son will hear him anyway, and he is laughing hard. "Yeah, Charlie. He just got home. You can put the guns away now. Did you end up sharpening the hunting knives too?" He even raises his voice to make sure Jacob gets the message. "Boy's not coming over tonight, you can bet on it. If he tries to sneak out, I'll put some birdshot in his behind, how 'bout that?" Jacob glares at his father uselessly through the wall.
After a hearty chuckle, Billy adds, "You remember the disaster you got me into trying to sneak into Sarah's house?" By now, Jacob is fairly certain that his father is laughing so hard that he probably has tears streaking down his cheeks. After a pause, he hears, "It absolutely was your fault! If you'd have held up your end of the bargain, I'd never have gotten stuck in the doggy door to begin with!" Then there is another round of uproarious laughter. "Good thing Harry was there. Her father would have killed me if he'd found out. Oh, we're getting karmic payback now, old man." And after another pause, he closes with, "We can't keep them apart forever. But it sure is good fun to try! Better sport than fishing!" Jacob pouts childishly, alone in his room, for the rest of the overheard half-conversation.
But when Billy calls out, "Jake, Charlie says goodnight and sweet dreams," Jacob can't keep the smug smile off his face. Thank goodness Charlie doesn't know what Jacob does to his little girl in their dreams.
X-x-x-x-X
