I do not own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Hey, guys. Sorry for the delay. My pet passed away last week which has been really hard on me and my grandmother was in the hospital, but she is back at home now. I felt so bad about not updating! Don't worry, this chapter isn't the last, but the end is coming soon. :(

Thanks to all of my reviewers...
Shakilove
The Daughter of Night
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Nina
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xxMadison143xx

Chapter 44
(Haley's POV)
After nearly half an hour of trying to convince Jake that I wasn't going to do anything stupid, I was finally allowed back into the house. It wasn't as if I hadn't tried to sneak around his arm as he continued to berate me, but he was just too big and if he spread his arm out in front of the door, there was no way I could get by.
I walked slowly into the house, Jake's arm around my waist hindering my movements. He wasn't going to let go of me until the night was over, continuing to fear about my safety. It was slightly annoying, but it was nice to know that he cared.
I tried to deviate my path towards the kitchen, but Jake guided me to the living room, sitting down on the couch and pulling me on top of him.
My cheeks flushed red in embarrassment, but Jake just smiled cockily and kissed me, making me really want to punch him in the face.
"Where's Stephanie?" I asked, loud enough for the wolves in the room to hear.
Abruptly, a crash in the kitchen sounded. I tried to pull away from Jake, but he just pulled me tighter to him.
"Jake," I hissed, "let go of me."
He shook his head, ducking his head into my shoulder blades, his entire frame shaking as he laughed.
"Jake, I swear... I will," I trailed off, trying to think of some way to make him let me go.
"Don't say I didn't try to stop you," he chuckled, dropping his iron-tight embrace.
I stood warily as I slowly walked to the kitchen.
I pushed the door open and nearly had to do a double take at what I saw.
My best friend sat on the counter, her legs wrapped around Seth as they kissed fervently. A broken vase lay in shatters on the ground. Emily wasn't going to be happy about that.
Stephanie stopped, apparently noticing that someone had entered the room, and looked at me with wide eyes.
"Seth," she whispered under her breath. He turned ever so slightly and shot me a blinding grin, before attempting to continue where they left off.
"Seth," she said in a less commanding voice, her will weakening, but she was able to push him away. He pouted slightly, but let her stand.
"Well, I'm just gonna' go," I said awkwardly, pushing out of the door as fast as possible. I ran over to Jake as he grinned with mischief.
"You have got to be kidding me. You knew?" I asked in shock. He tapped his left ear twice as if to say 'werewolf hearing, remember?'
"Does she know?" I asked.
"No, but Seth almost told her. We started a pool to see how long it's gonna' take. My guess is a week, but Paul's not even giving him until the rest of the day," he guffawed loudly.
"Hey, that's my friend you're talking about. This could seriously change her life and you're taking bets on when that's gonna' happen!" I shouted angrily.
Jake abruptly sobered, gently pulling me into his arms.
"You're right, okay? It's serious, but it's up to Seth when he tells her, we're just guessing when. It's not our fault," he stated innocently, but by the look on his face in addition to the chuckles that reverberated through the room everyone thought that he had won the disagreement. Well, two could play at this game.
"Where's Em?" I asked suddenly, an evil thought crossing my mind.
"She's actually pulling into the driveway. Apparently she forgot to get some food."
"Okay," I said, smiling as I pulled away from Jake. He looked at me in surprise, but let me go just the same.
I headed towards the front door, pulling it open and shut behind me. Jake needed to learn that I was not going to be his obedient little imprint who bowed down in his glory or whatever.
"Hey Em!" I called.
"Hi, Haley," she said, smiling. I heard the door slam behind me and watched as Sam started to unload the groceries for Emily. It was really sweet, but unnecessary.
"Sam, don't worry about it. I've got it," I said sweetly, smiling at his confused look. He tried to continue, but Emily shooed him away, convincing him that she could handle it with my help.
Sam reluctantly headed back inside. Emily started to unload the groceries before I headed over to her.
"Em, wait. I have a plan," I whispered deviously.

After filling Emily in, she smiled, agreeing whole-heartedly as we got into her car and drove off, away from the wolves who hadn't been fed. I knew Stephanie would be all right because she had Seth, so I didn't need to worry, but I was ready to give them a taste of their own medicine. If Jake was going to mess with me and continue to be a controlling freak, then he wasn't going to have his Thanksgiving meal for a while.
Em and I spent time anywhere and everywhere. We spent some time at the beach, but we couldn't stay for long. The last thing we needed was to have a pack of angry and hungry wolves pick up our scent and come after us. I was sure that they still held up hope, that they would never think that we would just leave them without food to fend for themselves on Thanksgiving, but that was their problem, not ours. We had already gone to a nice sit-down restaurant with home-cooked turkey and I could tell that Emily felt much less stressed out. I was glad to be able to get her away from some of the stress of attempting to feed all of the wolves.
"How long do you think we should leave them waiting?" I asked after the fourth hour, knowing that the most the guys would be able to eat at the house would be a few bowls of coleslaw and some mashed potatoes, seeing as Emily was waiting to start the turkey until after she had gotten home. She had said something about how she didn't trust the wolves to be alone around freshly cooked turkey, so she would wait until she could give it her undivided attention.
"I don't know. I'm afraid that if we wait any longer they'll either come after us or they'll eat us when we get there," she said, giggling. She seemed so free of responsibilities that I didn't want to make her go back, but I could tell from the look in her eyes that she wanted to see Sam and as much as I hated to admit it, I wanted to see Jake too.
"I guess we should head back," I said, sighing. I wasn't ready to deal with Jake's 'wrath.' And by that I meant that it was totally worth it to pull something that he would deem stupid, but I didn't want him to be worried or angry with me. I groaned internally. Great, I was turning into one of those people who freaked out as to how her imprint would react whenever they stood two steps away from their imprint.
We drove back to the house slowly, probably due to how nervous we were, but alas we eventually pulled into the driveway with Sam, Jake and the rest of the wolves, excluding Seth and Leah, standing outside with pure anger on their faces.
I smiled in victory and waved through the windshield as we pulled up, but my stomach was flipping nervously.
We both got out of the car, watching as our imprints stood in stony silence on the porch. They were pissed.
"What's up?" I asked nonchalantly as I climbed the steps and attempted to enter the front door, only to have my way blocked by Jake.
Emily hesitantly walked up the steps, but instead of heading for the door, she walked over to Sam and wrapped her arms around him. He softened his glare. Awesome, it looked like this was up to me.
I tried to come up with a plan, trying to get everyone else off of the porch and decided to go with the direct approach.
"Everyone inside, now," I said in the most authoritative voice that I could, causing a few of the wolves to crack miniature smiles, but unfortunately they stayed put.
"This is how you do it, sweetheart," Jake whispered in my ear, although the endearment was bitter.
"EVERYONE INSIDE, NOW!" Jake roared. The guys whimpered in what could only be compared to a wolf in pain and everyone, including Sam headed inside without a word.
I smiled mischievously and started to head inside as well, but Jake pulled me back outside.
"Yes?" I asked, sweetly, looking up at him with innocent eyes.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? We had no idea where you were!"
"Well why in the hell didn't you come looking then?" I asked angrily.
"We did, but we needed to keep your friend and Kim safe and we couldn't just ask our new wolves to go. Your scents kept crisscrossing and by the time we caught up to one of the spots you had been, you were somewhere else," he said, his eyes portraying his worry.
"You were an ass earlier. I didn't mean to make you worry, but I'm not going to be controlled by you. I will go wherever I want without your approval. I shouldn't have to check in with you when I'm going somewhere, that's not fair to me, and I'm not going to apologize. You have to let me live my life," I stated with conviction.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, only opening them when the slight tremors in his body had faded away.
"I understand what you're saying. I do. You shouldn't have to check in with me, but I have to know that you're okay. You're my imprint and I care about you and I show that by not wanting you to get hurt."
"I know. I get it, but if you want me to be okay, then you can't try to control me. You have to believe that I can take care of myself, otherwise you don't have any faith in me. Even when your entire being is screaming at you that I might be hurt, you need to know that I have lived without you for this long and I have taken care of myself. You need to trust me," I said, cupping my hands around his face.
"I do trust you, but I have to know that you're okay," he pleaded.
"And you will. We spend most of our time together, but sometimes I have to do things alone. I have other friends than the pack and by keeping me by your side every second of every day, I haven't been able to be a good friend. I didn't know how badly the breakup with Seth had affected my best friend because I was too busy with you, so I'm not saying that you can't be protective and overbearing because that's a given, but you have to let me be by myself sometimes. Deal?" I asked, hoping that I had been reasonable in my request.
It took him a moment to respond.
"I can make an effort," he said begrudgingly.
"That's all I ask," I said, smiling at him.

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