CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Miley R. Stewart's Point Of View

It was Christmas Eve and I was sitting in the living room in Mam'aws house with the guitar Jacob made me strumming the chords to Jingle Bell Rock as the rest of the family sang along. It was basically just like every other Christmas at Mam'aws house except that Daddy and Jackson weren't here. All the little kids were decorating the tree and talking about everything they wanted Santa to get them for tomorrow.

"Alright, alright, quiet!" Mam'aw called over all the noise and I stopped playing, looking over to her where she was standing with the Angel that had been in the family for generations that always went on top of the tree. "It's time for the Angel." All the kids stopped what they were doing and payed rapt attention. Usually the youngest put the Angel on the tree, in the four Christmas' I'd spent here I'd put the Angel on everytime because I was the youngest out all of my cousins and the littler kids either hadn't been here or were too young to hold the Angel. "I think Miley should do the honors." I looked up, shocked, when she said that, I was by far not the youngest.

"W-what? Why? What about Scrappy Doo?" Scrappy is the three-year-old son of Scooby - I don't know why they chose to name their kids after cartoon characters, so don't even ask. Luanne looked like she wanted to argue as well, this was her Christmas after all.

"No, I agree, you should do it, Miley!" Aunt Maggie nodded and over half of the room chimed in with agreements and Uncle Bobby brought the Angel over to me.

"It's your year, Baby Girl!" Uncle Bobby said and I gulped, that was definately not what Luanne wanted to hear.

I carefully set my guitar down and slowly stood up, hesitantly taking the Angel from Uncle Bobby and making my way over to the tree. The tree was about as tall as Jacob and I had to stand on my tippy toes to reach, but as soon as I placed the centuries-old Angel on top almost everyone cheered and the festivities continued for another hour. At about ten minutes to midnight I excused myself from watching Uncle Earl try and squeeze into his Santa costume and walked slowly out to the cubby house for some privacy. I'd put Jacob's number into my speeddial 1 earlier today, so it was easier to find.

"Jacob Black, Guardian Angel to the most perfect Miley Stewart speaking." Jacob answered the phone almost immediately and I laughed.

"Didn't you know 'Nobody's Perfect'?" I quoted, loving the warm fuzzies that filled me at the sound of his voice.

"Well, there's always an exception to the rule." Jacob replied matter-of-factly and I rolled my eyes. "How was your Christmas Eve, Miss Exception?"

"Fun, eventful, loud... I got to put the Angel on the tree." I answered, I could hear people arguing on Jacob's side of the phone. "The same as every other year. What about my Prince? How was your Christmas Eve?" I asked, absently tracing patterns on the wood floor I was sitting on.

"My cousins came for few days." Jacob said and I could sense something was wrong.

"What's wrong, Baby?" I asked, concerned and he sighed.

"Jayden kept trying to make me go on a double date with him and a couple of girls he met earlier, even when I told him I wasn't interested because I have the most amazing girl ever." Jacob said in a rush and I felt my blood turn to ice in my veins at the thought.

"Oh..." I choked, wincing at the sound of my own voice.

"I didn't give in to him, Miles, I'd never do that to you, I love you!" Jacob quickly tried to comfort me, and I found myself able to breathe properly again. "I was actually ready to rip his head off for suggesting it."

"You didn't hurt him did you?" I asked nervously, I knew that Jacob had really short temper when it came to people talking about our relationship.

"No... But, I really wanted to." Jacob sighed and I glanced at my watch, it was less than a minute till midnight.

"What are you doing now?" I changed the subject and Jacob laughed lightly at my tactics.

"Watching some Christmas movie with Brady." I could hear him shrug and the boy who had answered when I called earlier - his 13-year-old cousin Brady - called out a 'hey'. "What about you?"

"Sitting in my Dad's old cubby house." I looked at my watch again, 10 seconds.

"Sound exciting." Jacob drawled and I giggled.

"You wanna know the reason I called?" I offered and he made a sound of aproval. "Merry Christmas, my sweet perfect Jacob."

"Merry Christmas, Mi's!" Jacob said and I could almost hear his sweet smile that he always reserved just for me.

"I wanted to be the first to tell you." I giggled, wishing more than ever that he was here so I could kiss him.

MILEY + JACOB = MACOB

Miley R. Stewarts Point Of View

I was woken up by something wet and cold licking my cheek and sniffing around my body. I swiped at the thing and pulled the covers over my head, but the thing kept sniffing at me and started climbing on my chest. I frowned and puched the covers off only to come face to snout with the most adorable little furball in history; a white husky-looking, but not a husky puppy. The puppy sat on my stomach and cocked its head at me before barking its cute little puppy bark.

"Hey, boy!" I cooed, sitting up half way and picking his little body up and cuddling it. "What are you doing here? Huh?" The puppy licked the side of my face in reply and I laughed. "Where's your Mommy?" I felt around his neck for a collar and found one with a small silver tag. "Merry Christmas Miley!" I read aloud and smiled, sqeeling slightly. I jumped out of bed with the puppy and ran downstairs with him, this was definately one of the best Christmas presents I had ever gotten. "Someone lose a puppy?" I asked the living room full of people.

"No... The right person found him, Sweet Pea!" Aunt Dolly told me, I'd been in serious amazement the last two days when she and Mam'aw hadn't once faught. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, Aunt Dolly!" I smiled, hugging her with one arm. "What's his name?"

"That's for you to decide." Aunt Dolly said, scratching the little puppy between his ears. I held the puppy so I could look directly into his face ad frowned in thought for a few seconds.

"What's your name, Buddy?" I asked the puppy and he barked again. "Okay, we'll work on it." I laughed, cuddling him close and moving to wish everyone else a merry Christmas.

MILEY + JACOB = MACOB

Jacob E. Black's Point Of View... Sorry for that short bit, I'm not good at writing Christmas', so just imagine up whatever scenario you like.

Well, Christmas started out good; I got a midnight call from Miley, then when I woke up a few hours later we all exchanged gifts and Dad gave me Mom's engagement ring to give to Miley which gave me a great idea for a New Years surprise. After that we started getting everything ready for our anual Christmas camp fire with the Clearwaters that half the reservation usually showed up to at one point or another. As soon as I got there after everyone else Leah grabbed my arm and pulled away, out of hearing shot of everyone else with a sort of scary look on her face.

"I'm not a cougar!" Were the words she said and I felt connfused.

"Okay...?" I shrugged, trying to get out of her strong grip, damn her wolf strength.

"What I'm trying to say is; what the Hell happens when you imprint?" Leah demanded and I felt like laughing, that's what this was about?

"It feels like they're all you can think, all you want to think about, like you were born just to be their other half, like you only live for them and everything up to now was just so you could meet them." I tried to explain as best I could before smirking. "So, who's the lucky guy?" I asked and she reached up to hit over the back of the head.

"Hopefully no-one." I heard Leah mutter as she walked away, back her mother and Seth.

After that things had gone pretty normally until the end when Brady ran off to throw up, he'd been complaining of a fever all day, but I'd been too busy trying to figure out who Leah was talking about to take much notice. When Brady came back he was unusually pale and excused himself for bed saying he didn't feel too good to which Jayden replied by saying he didn't look good either. By now I knew that look that Brady had; the one where you feel so hot you could fry an egg on your forehead, and like your stomach had something big and nasty in it, and like you're about to burst out of your skin at any second.

I felt dread run through me, Brady's only a kid, barely thirteen, there's no way he could be changing, it's just not possible. I jumped up and told my Dad I was going to check on him. When I found him he was curled up in a ball on his bed in the guest room and he looked a little green. Maybe it was just food poisoning or allergies or something? I thought hopefully, but I guess a part of me knew it wasn't. When I got back to my room and spun around and punched the wall with a yell, Brady is just a kid, he shouldn't have to deal with being a werewolf. Almost on cue my new phone rang and I answered immediately.

"Aunt Dolly got me a puppy!" Were the first words Miley said and at the sound of her voice I calmed down considerably, like she had some sort of power over me... Well, she'd always had power over me, it was common knowledge.

"Huh?" I asked, flopping down on my bed and trying to block out Brady's moans, there wasn't anything I could do for him now.

"Aunt Dolly got me a puppy for Christmas." Miley repeated, slower and less loud. "He's the most adorable white german shepherd and he's, like, a month old and the most gorgeous little thing ever."

"What's his name?" I asked, glad to have a distraction.

"I don't know yet, he's a difficult one to name." I could hear her frown and a dog bark in the background. "I know you don't mean to be, but it's true." She cooed to the dog and I smiled, she was great with animals and kids. Maybe she coule help me with Brady. "How was your day?" My wolf hearing picked up the dog sniffing around Miley and walking around on wood, I guessed she was in the cubby house again.

"Kinda boring." I shrugged, absently reaching over to my bedside and picking up the ring box that had Mom's engagement ring in it that would one day be Miley's. "We had a camp fire for dinner and I think Leah thinks she might have imprinted on someone."

"Who?" Miley questioned, curriosity and excitement in her voice.

"I don't know, she wouldn't tell me, she just dragged me off and demanded to know what it feels like when you imprint." I replied honsetly and Miley let out a sound of disaproval. We were both silent for a minute before I decided to tell her about Brady. "I think Brady might be... Changing."

"What?" Miley sounded confused and slightly worried.

"I don't really know anything for sure except that he has a fever and he's sick, but I've just got a feeling, which is a bad thing because he's just a kid, he only turned thirteen in October." I rambled a little, but I didn't care.

"That's what I thought you said." Miley muttered and I heard her throw something against the wall. "He's just a baby, can't they wait for the wolf genes to kick in after at least puberty?"

"And did it have to be today? Some Christmas, he gets to remember it as the day his life was screwed up and he became a werewolf." I groaned and banged my head back against the wall with maybe too much force. "I don't know what to do, Miles."

"I don't know, Jacob, I don't know." Miley sighed, she put the phone on the floor with a small clattering and I guessed she put it on speaker or something. "Is there some way to, like, postpone it or something?"

"If there is I haven't found it yet." I replied, opening and closing the jewellery box repeatedly just so I could be doing something.

"But, there should be something that says they're not allowed to change before, like, a certain age... An age that's way older than thirteen or fifteen, I mean what's next? Twelve, eleven, ten? Brady is practically a baby and babies shouldn't have to deal with vamppires who want to kill him just for what he is." I don't know what would happen if I pointed out that she was fifteen when she phased, but I decided not to risk it. Besides, we were on the same side, neither one of us wanted Brady to phase at such a young age. "Kids should be allowed to be kids."

"I don't know how to tell him, Miles, I don't think he'd understand." I said, running a hand through my hair in frustation.

"He shouldn't have to understand and you shouldn't have to tell him, it's not fair to him to have go through this." I didn't know Miley felt so strongly about this, I thought she liked being a werewolf, but she always had had strong morals, so I guess that's where she got it.

"How long till you come back to me?" I asked, feeling like the second she was in my arms everything would be at least a little bit better.

"Four days, nine hours." Miley replied with a sad sigh. "I love you, Jacob."

"I love you too, Miley!"