Jared POV:

I sauntered into the diner and smiled at Sue as I made my way to a booth towards the back that the guys and I normally sat in. Leah was there helping as well, and I gave her a quick wave. Sue knew about us, knew what we were. Harry Clearwater, her husband, was one of the tribe elders along with Old Quil, Billy Black and Freya Redstone. Whilst they all were from wolf lineage, so far only Jacob had turned. Quil was showing the most signs and would likely be next.

'Your usual Jared?' Sue called to me as I walked past her.

I shook my head, 'Nah, not yet thanks Sue, I'm meant to be meeting someone from school.'

At least, I hoped Kim was still coming. I'd texted her yesterday evening and suggested the diner at 11 but she hadn't replied. I texted again this morning and still no reply.

I was trying not to get too down about our situation, trying to keep faith in the Spirits and their plan for us, as everyone kept telling me, but it was tough. It was getting harder and harder to keep fighting the pull, my body literally ached for her. Being with her yesterday, listening to her speak but not being able to touch her, it was more than my wolf could handle.

She had been so open with me, especially on the beach. She'd laughed at my stupid jokes, told me about how she felt at school, her thoughts about the rez, although I tried to ignore the painful words she was saying, how she felt she wanted to leave and not stay here. Hearing her say she didn't want to be like the Rez girls wasn't unsurprising, but it made me desperate as that was the life she would likely lead with me.

Despite this, I knew she felt the connection to me, she was just fighting it. Her heart rate sped up when she saw me, I could see her blush and hear her breath catch when I caught her staring. I could smell nothing but her scent when she was close, no adrenaline – no fear, she felt safe with me.

And then she'd changed completely around her friends again, around him. It had taken everything in me not to knock the smug look right off his face when Kim told me she didn't want to hang out. The anger I felt towards him was growing rapidly, he didn't deserve to be in the same space as her, let alone touch her.

Seeing him reach for hand, watching his eyes travel across her body, made me feel sick. I was used to being the laid back one, always up for a laugh, I normally left the fighting and arguing to Paul but watching her be near him made me want to explode.

I was going to have to tell her something soon, I couldn't handle being away from her for long periods of time anymore. Watching her dive into the water yesterday was both mesmerizing and terrifying in equal parts. I had never seen anything as sexy as Kim in her white bathing suit, strutting down the beach, my wolf had demanded that we run to her, claim her as ours. But then as quickly as I'd been turned on, I was then petrified when she took longer than normal to resurface. I was almost in the water by the time Embry managed to grab a hold of me.

I had heard her, floating out there, asking me to leave her alone, but I simply couldn't. Even if we were just friends for the rest of our lives, it was better than this. Lies.

After sitting in the booth for about 20 minutes, I felt the familiar tug in my chest that signalled she was near. A few seconds later, she opened the door and walked in, scanning the room. The heat had broken slightly this morning, but she was still in a dress. Another white, floaty concoction - it seemed to hug her curves and illuminate her skin. Small sleeves covered her shoulders this time, which was probably for the best, but it dipped down her chest in a V shape and my eyes were glued to the caramel skin that formed the top of her breasts.

Her long hair was down for once, it hung in loose curls, held back from her face by her sunglasses.

She clocked me and her heart rate sped up, causing mine to do the same. She smiled slightly and walked towards me, scooping her hair over one shoulder and I had to close my eyes for a second. I breathed in through my nose and exhaled slowly. I tried not to think about her scent though it overpowered me, tried not to think about ghosting over the part of her neck which was now exposed, with my lips.

I'd heard Paul and Sam's fascinations with marking their respective Imprints through their disgustingly detailed thoughts and had always found it borderline creepy, but now I got it. The soft skin that joined her neck to her collarbone almost sung to me, it made my animal side go ballistic. My mouth literally watered at the thought of pressing my face in that space, marking her as mine for everyone to see, how she would feel under my hands, whimpering and calling my name.

I tried to shake that thought from my head and swiftly readjusted my shorts which were becoming uncomfortably tight, another effect she had on me just by looking at her.

She cast me a puzzled look as she slid into the booth and deposited her bag on the bench next to her.

'You look in pain.'

Trust me I'm in agony.

'Yeah sorry, just hungry.'

I grinned at her as she looked at me, our eyes connecting again. I heard her breathing change as the bond strengthened. Each time our eyes met it was pulling us closer, begging to be accepted. Hers were light brown, licks of green around the pupil sparkled, it was as if I could see our entire future mapped out in her eyes. They called to me, like a siren. I knew that I would do anything she asked, be anything she wanted, as long as she kept looking at me like that.

She blushed and cleared her throat.

'Shall we order and then crack on?'

I nodded and offered to go up to order, returning to see she had already pulled her notebook out. She really didn't want to just hang out.

I dropped a mug of coffee in front of her and she smiled briefly, 'Thanks.'

'Hey Kim,' I began as she looked up at me again. 'I'm sorry about yesterday on the beach, if I was out of order, or annoyed you.'

She looked down at her mug and then sighed.

'Tokala's just feeling a bit put out I think.' Good.

She continued, 'He thinks that you're taunting him, messing with me to piss him off.'

I paused before replying, 'I'm not messing with you.'

She arched an eyebrow at me, 'But you are trying to piss him off?'

I shrugged and smirked, trying not to be too cocky. 'I'm not playing a game if that's what you're asking. I actually do want to get to know you, I think you're really cool and I just think we'd get on…and I think you feel the same way.'

She narrowed her eyes at me, 'How would you know what I feel?' The wall was going back up.

I grinned at her, 'Just assuming you're not immune to my god-like physique and mad conversational skills.' Fuck, that might be too far.

She stared at me for a second and then I saw a hint of a smile tug at her lips, 'No, it's your humility.'

I laughed, relieved that the tension seemed to have broken for now.

We turned our attention to writing some of the project up when Leah came over with our food. She rolled her eyes at me and muttered, 'I can guess who ordered what,' before dumping several plates in front of me.

Kim's eyes widened as she took in the amount of food as I popped a hash brown into my mouth.

'Fucking hell Jared.'

I choked on said hash brown as she looked at me and began to laugh. Hearing her swear did things to me that made me want to do unmentionable things to her. I couldn't match the dainty, fairy-like girl in beautiful soft dresses, with the words that came out of her mouth, and it was a hot combination.

We finished our food and chatted randomly about school, classes, how we had only 5 weeks left. She seemed careful not to linger on anything too personal today. She changed topics quickly when I asked about her family, her friends. I wanted to say how much I disliked Meda. I couldn't explain why exactly, but something about her annoyed me to my core.

I wasn't a huge fan of Dakota. I ran track with him and didn't know him that well, but he was always arrogant, assumed he was better than everyone else. It seemed strange to me that Kim would pick these types of people to hang around with.

We worked for another couple of hours until we'd finished writing everything out. I'd provided the history to the beach and the town and Kim added in our personal thoughts. It was kind of sad that she didn't know much about the legends, most families attended the Spiritual bonfires, told the stories to their kids, taught us about our ancestors, but it seemed like Kim had never experienced that.

Too soon she was packing up her bag after I'd paid our tab. I had refused the money she tried to give me, explaining that her order of 3 pancakes compared to my mountain of food, was nothing.

She looked at her phone and smiled softly for a second, and I tried to hold back a growl. She better not be reacting like that to a text from him.

'I'm going to head off, I'm meeting Bly for a bit this afternoon. I'll see you at school?'

I nodded, swallowing heavily at the thought of her leaving. I plastered on a grin and replied, 'I'll be the one by your locker.'

She glared at me suddenly, 'Jared, don't you dare. You're causing me enough trouble as it is, just being here today.'

I laughed softly and held my hands up, 'Okay, okay I'll try and resist.'

She looked at me and smiled briefly before turning away. As she reached the door, Paul came tumbling in almost sending her flying. He seemed shocked at her presence and reached out to steady her, before looking over her head at me and winking. I snarled at him in response, 'Don't fucking say anything.' My voice was low, but I knew he would hear.

He started cracking up as he opened the door wide for her, 'See you soon Kimmie!' he called as she brushed past him. She shot him a look and then her eyes met mine, confusion splayed over her face. I shook my head apologetically as she moved away from the door and down the street.

Paul was still chuckling to himself as he dropped himself onto the bench she'd previously been sitting in. 'Convinced her to break up with the douchebag yet?'

I scowled, 'Fuck you.'

He laughed harder and flicked a crumb at me across the table, 'Lighten up lover boy, it'll be your dick she's thinking about soon enough.'

I growled and swung at him across the table, he ducked and I grabbed the sugar shaker to throw at his head when Sue yelled at us, 'Cut it out boys, you'll scare away my customers.'

I settled for a swift kick at Paul's shin under the table before pulling myself from the booth. Paul could be hilarious, he was great company when on your side, but his temper was quick and his tongue sharp and his mind was constantly in the gutter. Poor Jake was already struggling with trying to keep Paul's lewd thoughts about his sister out of his head.

I headed for the treeline and stripped before phasing. Running to Sam's slowly. I volunteered to patrol for the afternoon, needing to get space from Paul and the other wolves. We'd had little activity since I'd phased but the threat was always there. The Cullens attracted their own kind, keen to come and see the life they lived, and most them were not vegetarian.

I had a new sense of alertness when patrolling since Imprinting. Now I had Kim to protect, I could hear further, smell better and run faster. I'd even grown another inch. My entire body was becoming the perfect machine, ready to kill anything that could cause Kim harm.

I was in the woods closer to Second Beach when I picked up her scent a few hours later. That couldn't be right, wasn't she meeting her friend? We were too far from the beach itself for her to be there, she had to be in the trees.

I followed the trail for a few minutes and began to hear her heartbeat too, fast and more irregular than normal. My hackles rose, I didn't smell anything else untoward, but I was in fight mode.

Suddenly I saw a movement through the branches, and she was there. Jogging. I let out a breath, relieved that she was okay and then suddenly furious that she was out here alone. What was she thinking? Vampires aside, the wildlife out here alone could kill an adult.

Before I even registered it, I'd phased, was pulling on my shorts and was running towards her.

'Kim!' I yelled. She didn't turn and just kept jogging down the trail. She had fucking headphones in. I could make out the music blaring as she moved away from me. Alone, jogging in the woods, with headphones on, completely oblivious to her surroundings.

My heart racing I paced towards her, my longer legs easily making up the distance as I grabbed her elbow.

The scream she let out was deafening. I was half expecting one of the pack to materialise and attack me.

'What the actual fuck Jared!'

Her chest was heaving, I took in her tight vest top and jogging shorts. A light sheen of sweat on her skin. She placed a hand over her heart trying to calm the frantic beating and took her headphones out.

'You shouldn't be out here alone,' I managed to get out, forcing my eyes to stay on her face instead of roving over her body.

'Well apparently I'm not alone, as you seem to be stalking me again.' Her eyes were narrow, and her breathing was still coming out in short bursts. I had really scared her. Shit.

I sucked in a breath and pinched the bridge of my nose, 'Kim. Can you please just go home and not be out here.'

'Excuse me? Who are you to tell me what to do? What the hell are you doing yourself?'

I closed my eyes, the only thing I could think of coming out through ground teeth, 'Running.'

She let out a humourless laugh, 'Right. So, you're out here running. Alone. And you felt the need to grab me and scare the shit out of me and yell at me for also running, alone?'

I felt myself getting angrier, 'It's not safe out here for you.'

'For me?' she was incredulous now, 'For me personally or me as in a girl?'

I let out my breath, 'I'm not saying it's not safe because you're a girl, I'm just saying it's not safe.'

She looked at me like I was a total moron. Which I was.

'Well I'm really sorry Jared. I know you're used to the traditional ways of our little town and I know you and your gang think that you can tell the entire Rez what to do, but we're in the 21st fucking century. As shocking as it might seem to you, women can vote now, we're allowed to drink. This woman even swears and goes jogging on her own!'

She thought I was a sexist prick. I swallowed and tried to harden my gaze, I needed to be harsh, to make her realise the danger she was in. I had no idea this was something she did by herself, now I was aware I was never going to be able to rest properly again.

'That's not what I meant Kim. You're alone, running through a dark forest inhabited by wild animals, far away from any other people.'

'And yet, here you are.'

I met her gaze and crossed my arms over my chest. She seemed to only realise that I was half naked at this point and her heart skipped a beat. Her eyes travelled across my torso and back to my face. I tried to supress a smirk and slowly stepped towards her. She stood still, her chest rising and falling with the rate of her breathing, I closed the space between us until we were inches apart.

Electricity tingled in the air, coursing around our bodies and into the earth. Her eyes slowly moved to meet mine as her heart beat ever faster, I could actually hear each chamber pumping. My wolf was clawing at being so close to her, I could smell her sweat mixed in with the scent of her body, sea salt and caramel. She was my drug.

I ghosted my fingers up her arm and she shivered under my touch. I closed them slowly around the top of her shoulder and leaned down so my mouth was by her ear. My head was swimming at being so close to her, every muscle in my body screaming as I resisted the urge to pull her into my chest.

I could feel her trembling as I brushed my lips across her earlobe and whispered as low as I could without growling, 'There are wicked creatures out here who love to prey on young, delicious women. Please, just humour me, and go home.'

I let my lips linger there for a second and then pulled away. Another minute of hearing the blood rush through her neck and I'd have been done for.

She said nothing, just stared at me. Slowly she just nodded and backed away. I watched as she pocketed the headphones this time and let out a breath. I listened to her heart start to return to its normal rate as she slowly jogged away from me. Having her so close to me was incredible, her scent, her body, her eyes. This feeling was terrifying, wonderful, electrifying. She was everything.

I stood rooted to that spot for what felt like hours but might only have been a few minutes. The heat and desire I had felt being so close to her was all-consuming. I caught my breath and followed her to her house making sure she was safely home. I could hear her heart rate hammering away inside as I saw her move past the window, she was pulling her tank top off and was wearing just a sports bra, the skin of her stomach exposed to me for just a second before she was gone again.

Fuck. Kim Conweller you will be the death of me.

Thank you so much for the reviews so far, I'm glad a few people like Kim this way! Please keep reviewing, it really does help keep me motivated!