I was discharged from the hospital an hour later and we made our way home as I was super anxious to see my children and my imprint.
Once we arrived home, Sam and Paul helped me out of the truck and into the house. I saw Jared immediately, sitting in the recliner just finishing up feeding Tala and burping her. I also noticed that Levi was peacefully asleep in his bassinet as we walked into the bedroom.
Jared walked into the bedroom, purposefully not looking at me as he placed Tala into her bassinet and began to walk away.
"Don't you dare leave this room, Jared." It wasn't an alpha order, but he tensed anyways.
"I can't do it, Bella." He whispered, still not looking at me as he continued to walk out the door.
"Sam, go get him. I don't care if you have to order him, I want him here now." I told him and he nodded, walking out the door to follow Jared.
"I'm not going to, Sam. I can't walk in there and see what I've done to her!" I heard Jared yell from the kitchen.
"Yes, you will." I heard Sam order him.
"No, I won't, and that's final. I won't leave, but I'm not going in there. You can't order me to do it. Apparently only she can!"
I felt the worst pang of hurt and rejection in my chest. I'd never heard Jared speak like that to anyone, and it was clear that he was angry at me for ordering him, despite what Paul had told me in the hospital.
"Nothing you say is going to make me phase or go in that room, Sam, nothing! I'll be in the guest room if you need me to help with the twins. I'll keep them overnight while she sleeps."
I heard him say and I felt my heart break completely. How could he do this to me?
"Can't you feel that you're hurting her now by doing this, Jared?!" Sam yelled at him.
"Not nearly as bad as it felt when I bit her, maiming her for life, and then threw her into a tree, Sam. She'll get over it." That wasn't my Jared.
Now I was pissed. 'Get over it?' Was he planning on breaking up with me? Just living in the guest room so that both of us didn't feel debilitating pain? I tried to stand up, but Paul stopped me.
"Don't, Bella. He's mad enough at himself to phase right now. Let him cool down first." Paul told me as I sobbed.
"How can he say that, Paul?" I wailed into his chest. "Does he not love me anymore because I made him do this?"
"He still loves you, B, and he'll always love you. He's just really upset with himself right now." Paul reassured, but I wasn't so sure about that.
"And angry with me for ordering him." I whimpered.
It was two full days filled with the pain of rejection before I was so fed up with his stupid, selfish, self-wallowing that I had to do something.
He'd been staying in the guest room furthest away from our room and only taking the babies when I was asleep and returning them before I woke up. He knew where I was at all times, so he actively avoided the kitchen and communal spaces when I was in them.
I paced in front of Sam and Paul. "That is it. I want him standing in front of me, right now. I don't care if you have to restrain him the entire fucking time, he's not going to avoid me any longer unless he wants me to kick him out. I'm not going to put up with it! He's being a child!" I yelled to them angrily.
It must've accidentally been an order, because Sam and Paul both immediately went to the guest bedroom.
"Oh fuck no! Don't do this Sam, please! I can't do it!" I heard Jared yell before I saw Paul and Sam bring him into the living room, holding his arms behind his back.
I looked him right in the eyes as I ordered him. "You will sit here and not move until I say so."
He gulped defeatedly before sitting on the couch in front of me.
I looked over at Sam and Paul and asked them to please leave so that I could talk to Jared alone. They nodded and left as I stood in front of Jared, who still refused to look in my direction.
"Look at me." I commanded. I could see him trying to resist, but he was forced to do so.
"You must love ordering me to do things I don't want to." He muttered under his breath.
"You know, I was pissed before, but now I'm fucking fuming." I told him.
I knew what he was trying to do now. I'd just figured it out. He was trying to make me mad so that I would push him away.
"But I'm not going to play your game, Jared." I spoke.
"What game, Bella?" He asked with an even tone.
"You're trying to make me mad so that I'll push you away. It's not going to work." I replied, seeing the stony look in his eyes fall as they started to well up with tears. "You're being childish, Jared, and I'm done with it. It's time for you to grow up and deal with it instead of locking yourself in the goddamn guest room and avoiding your own imprint. It's completely and totally selfish."
He let a tear fall down his cheek. "I hurt my own imprint, I could've killed you by throwing you into that tree, Bella, or broken more bones than just your collarbone. I've already scarred you for life."
"How many times in the past two days have I repeatedly said that none of it was your fault. I know you didn't want to hurt me, which is why I ordered you to. It was the only way you could save my life. He would've killed me, and you know that. I don't give a fuck about some scars, Jared. I don't care about Sam's, and I don't care about mine. You honestly did the least possible damage to me that you could've in that situation." I explained to him. "Not to mention, you've bitten me before."
"As a human! I bit you as a giant fucking wolf! It was nearly your entire arm that I could've ripped off!" He yelled back at me.
"But you didn't! The doctor said they were only shallow punctures, Jared. Even your wolf couldn't hurt me nearly as bad as you think you did. My wounds are almost completely healed already. I just want you back with me. It's starting to feel like you want to break up with me. I thought you said the imprint would make you be whatever I need you to be? I need you to be with me. Were you lying?" I questioned him.
"I can't lie to you, Bella. I...I did consider it, but I couldn't go through with it because you're right, I will be whatever you need me to be." Jared told me and I felt like my heart fell right out of my chest.
"You considered leaving me? Leaving our children? All because of something I ordered you to do?" I whispered, unbelieving.
"I didn't want to! I'll never want to. I thought it was the right thing to do at the time! How can you even look at me? How will the children look at me when they eventually find out that I'm the one who caused your scars? I told you I couldn't go through with it though." He replied dejectedly.
"They'll know that it happened while you were saving my life, and I'll be proud to tell them that. You know, Jared Cameron, I'm so disappointed in you. I thought you loved me more than this. I thought the imprint meant more to you than this."
"I do love you more than anything, and the imprint is the most important thing in my life. I thought it was what you would want when you eventually resented it me for it all." He said, still unable to look away from me.
"I won't ever resent you for it, Jared. I love you and that won't ever change, but your attitude over the past few days is completely unacceptable. If you really do love me, then prove it to me, dammit! And don't you ever try to avoid me or especially don't ever consider leaving me again!" I growled at him. "Now get up and come here."
He hesitantly did as I asked and came over to me, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing me to him, being careful of my arm and collarbone.
"Spirits, I've missed you." He cried into my neck opposite of my broken collarbone, breathing in deeply as his forehead rested on my mark.
"I've missed you too, Jared. So much." I cried into him as well. "Don't ever do that to me again and I promise I won't ever order you to hurt me again."
"I promise, I promise. I couldn't ever leave you or the babies. Ever. It about killed me to even think about it." He sobbed into me.
"You'll come back to our room?" I asked him and he nodded. "I also don't ever want to hear you speak to Sam like that again or ignore a direct alpha order, got it?"
"I won't. I was just so angry with myself." He replied.
"I know. Do you understand that I would've died if I hadn't made the call exactly when I did? I wasn't trying to be a martyr, Jared. I was trying to stay alive." I told him.
"I understand that now. My thoughts were just clouded by guilt before." He responded back before hearing one of the babies crying.
"Good. Now come on, they've missed their daytime papa snuggles." I smiled up at him.
He followed me into the bedroom, lifting Levi up and cradled him to his chest.
"And you're on diaper duty for the next week." I told him with a small laugh.
"That's the least punishment you could possibly give me for how stupid I've been acting." He mentioned, grabbing a diaper.
"Oh, that's not all. You also get dishes for a week and you're going to help me change my bandage so that you can see how not bad it is."
He tensed and bit his lip, but eventually nodded.
He finished changing Levi's diaper and laid him back in his bed before standing at the edge of the bed where I was sitting.
I held my arm out to him and he gulped nervously before starting to unwrap the gauze around my upper arm. Right before he saw it, he took a deep breath, then pulled the bandage completely off before looking at it.
The wound itself was almost completely healed, just as I told him. I really didn't even need a bandage anymore.
"See, it's not as bad as you thought." I told him as he ran his fingers over the red puncture wounds that ran in a large oblong type of semi-circle on either side on my arm. "Jared, look at me."
He looked up at me with watery eyes.
"I'm okay." I told him honestly before leaning up and kissing him gently on the lips. "And please don't avoid phasing because of it. You know how much I love your wolf, and I know how much you love your wolf."
"I'll phase, but today I think I just want to stay with you." He told me, leaning down to kiss me sweetly.
"I'd like that. You can help me hold the babies when they need to feed." I told him with a laugh.
"I can do that. Do you need a new bandage?" He asked as he continued to look at my arm.
"No, just leave it off."
True to his word, Jared stayed with me all day, even after Sam and Paul returned.
"Everything okay now?" Sam asked as he saw Jared in the bed, helping me feed Tala.
"Everything's okay." Jared replied to him. And it truly was.
"I love all three of you, so much." I whispered to them.
"We love you too, Bella." They each replied with a kiss.
All of them laid in the bed with me and our children.
Things only improved from there on out.
All of the danger had passed.
We were a family.
We were happy.
We were safe.
Everything was finally on the right path in my life.
A/N- Epilogue is next.
I'm totally ugly crying right now.
