Training against alpha orders wasn't going great. Every time Grace and Jake got a moment alone, he was not apt to try and do it again. But he was her only cooperative alpha to practice with. Jake was getting better at exerting the alpha tone though, even if it did make him cringe.
"Is this like some weird reverse psychology where you feel like giving me orders will push me farther away?" Grace asked as they hung out in the Cullen's backyard. Jake was standing on the other side of the clearing with his hands on his hips, nervously glancing up to the balcony that shot off the living room.
"No, I just don't want to give you alpha orders. Is that so bad? Plus, you'll be able to resist Sam's alpha orders anyway if he does try to give you one like you've done before, right?" Jacob said. Grace bit her lip and shifted from one foot to the other. "What?" he said when he noticed her face.
"Nothing! You're right, I will. I just…" she tried to avoid this topic with him without telling the whole truth.
Just then, Emmett and Jasper rounded the corner coming back fresh from hunting in the hills. Jasper gave them a wary look as Jacob tensed. Jake did the worst around Jasper, but he was pretty comfortable with Emmett. Another idea flashed in her mind.
"You two fighting or something?" Emmett asked, his golden eyes filled with mischief. Jasper looked from Jake to Grace with curiosity. He always seemed to have that look—curious, like he wanted to figure out the situation before he decided to partake.
"Not exactly," Jake said, his eyes still trained on Jasper.
What if… Grace wondered and Jake's eyes immediately snapped to hers.
"No, absolutely not," he said in a low, stern voice. Without looking back at Jacob, Grace strode over toward Jasper. "Grace!" he shouted after her, but she kept going. Jasper tilted his chin down, eyes filling with recognition from her body language. She heard the sound of Jake phasing quickly, a snarl ripping through his throat as he charged toward her.
Grace focused, bringing up a large dome like shield that encompassed her and Jasper who were within feet of each other now. She pushed the dome out and steadied it before Jacob collided with it with a crash.
GRACE! He shouted at her in her mind now.
"You sure this is a good idea?" Jasper asked in an easy drawl. Grace knew the weight of the imprint was kicking Jacob into overdrive but she needed an alpha order. The only idea she'd come up with to protect Bella hinged on it. She pushed the pain rising in her stomach as she felt Jacob call out to her through the imprint and nodded at Jasper, readying herself.
Jasper shot his arm forward, trying to grasp Grace around the throat, but she dodged. Jake was snapping and lunging against the shield but unable to break through. Jasper flickered in front of her, moving too quickly for her eyes to perceive and landed behind her, wrapping a stone-like arm around her neck and pulling her back.
Their commotion had drawn a crowd. Seth and Leah were also on the outskirts of the dome now and Leah was frantically trying to get Jacob to do something.
What the fuck is she doing?
Grace? Seth called out tentatively. Jacob was all snaps and growls now, pushing against the shield.
Grace had slipped from Jasper's grasp, holding his wrist as she went and pulled with exceptional force to toss him toward Emmett. Jasper landed lithely with a grin and shot back toward Grace in one quick movement, bringing his ice cold hand up to her face, holding under her chin and lifting her off her feet. She grimaced, holding around his wrist again and glanced around the dome. Would it hold if she recast? Only one way to find out.
She focused on the ground below her, just a short distance and recast. The shield fell instantly and Jacob, bucking against it crashed into the clearing toward Jasper, all rage. But Grace flickered back in an instant and realizing her mistake, she cast up another shield, encompassing just Jasper and her and slowly pushed it back. Jacob yelped in surprise and then tried to dig in his heels to fight against the push back.
Just fucking give her an alpha order to stop!
Jasper readied himself again. Grace was actually enjoying this. She hadn't been given the chance to spar with the Cullen's and she felt rusty trying to figure out her movements. She leaned into the fight more now, taking advantage of this spontaneous, albeit Jake-stressed moment.
Jasper's arm shot out for her again, but this time she dodged it, surprising herself. She moved quickly behind him trying to loop her arms around his neck, tighten and toss him back, but he moved easily out of her grip. They moved smoothly around one another, like a dance. Grace didn't dare try to recast again, not wanting to risk the shield falling and Jasper becoming lunch. Jacob was pacing back and forth against the shield now, seething. She could feel it coming off of him as he watched her, but she continued.
Jasper at one point, caught her off guard, swiping a hand down at her feet, grabbing an ankle and pulling her up so she landed flat on her back. The wind knocked out of her and Grace let out a stuttered cough before quickly rolling out of the way from Jasper's descending heel to her face. That was close. She thought.
Are you done?! Jacob's angry voice floated toward her.
Nope. She replied, even the voice in her head sounded tired. Jacob growled and snapped.
I've seen enough! Grace. The alpha tone rang through, forcing her to listen. Grace was on the other side of the field facing Jasper and she held a hand up to pause him. He obliged, watching her face and stood stock still. Get. Over. Here. Now.
Grace's eyes went wide and the familiar choke of the alpha call started to drown her. She took a step forward without realizing it and squeezed her eyes shut to concentrate. Come on, come on, you can do this.
Wait, you're fighting the alpha command?! Can she even do that?!
Grace, I don't like this.
Will you two please shut up? Grace said. The bottom of her feet felt like she was standing on fire and the only relief was to take a step forward to cool them off. But she resisted. Arms at her side, fists clenched, she willed every cell in her body to stand still.
Now Grace! Jacob's voice pulsed through her again and she let out an audible gasp, her shield faltering and breaking apart. Jasper looked up around him in curiosity.
You have a choice. Make the choice to say no. Say No. No, no, no, no, no, no. She repeated in her head. But the feeling rushed up through her legs, swirling in her stomach and making her feel sick. Her head started to spin and even when she opened her eyes, she couldn't see. The shield was down now, but Jacob stayed where he was. Grace felt her body move forward and let out a yell of frustration before falling to her knees. Without meaning to, Grace felt tears fall down her face. She held onto the grass in front of her and tried to untether herself from the command that wound tightly around her throat.
Suddenly, a pair of arms were around her though and her vision slowly came back into focus, her breathing returned and the weight of the alpha command lifted. Had she done it? Relief washed over her in that moment before she realized that Jake was in front of her, pulling her to her feet and wrapping his arms tightly around her. She let out a groan of satisfaction, frustration, and relief. Tears still streamed down her cheeks as he leaned down to her ear and whispered:
"What was that?" She could plainly hear the frustration in his voice laced with concern. Grace imperceptibly shook her head, gulping for air against his chest. "No more alpha orders." He said as her stroked her hair. Grace was still trying to catch her breath, holding onto him and trying to capture that familiar feeling of relief.
Later that night, Grace was posted with Leah. Jake, Seth, and Embry were running a wider ring around the perimeter of the Cullen property, while Grace and Leah stayed close by.
"Why are you trying to practice resisting alpha orders?" Leah said suddenly picking tomato out of the sandwich Esme had made them. Grace paused, looked at Leah and then looked up at the grand Cullen estate.
"There was something I wanted to try, when it came time for the fight to happen. Because there will be a fight." She said resigned. Leah simply looked at her waiting for her to continue. "I've been able to resist Sam's alpha orders a handful of times. It was always when someone was in danger or pushing something too far. It felt like a choice to do it. My brain clicked into to place that I couldn't let something happen to the pack and then suddenly, the binding stasis of the order just kind of went away. I was hoping…" Grace paused here and looked at her hands. "I wanted to practice that feeling to see if I could, under duress actively transmit that feeling to members of the pack through our mind link. And maybe, just maybe, it would allow them to make a choice to ignore the alpha order too. But...I couldn't do it."
Leah sat for a long time looking at her and finally she said, "Thank you." Grace startled at this, "For trying, I mean. Alpha orders...especially Sam's were a unique source of pain. I'm so glad Jake doesn't give them." She ate some of her sandwich, considering something and then said with an air of confusion, "Wait, why did you think practicing using Jake's alpha orders would work for this little experiment?"
"What do you mean? He's an alpha, so he could give alpha orders."
"No I mean...It's Jake. He's not just an alpha, he's your imprint. And obeying an alpha order from Jake isn't going to be the same as obeying one from Sam, is it? You want to listen to Jake because you trust him." Leah said all this in one breath. Grace looked up at her, amazed.
"Oh fuck, you're right. Whenever I was trying to fight against his alpha order everything in me felt wrong and I didn't want to fight them."
"Sam's orders are different." Leah said conclusively, nodding her head and digging into a neat tupperware container full of potato salad. Grace sat in stunned silence and couldn't believe she had been so dense. Of course she didn't want to fight against Jake. Sam's orders were always something that held Grace back, left her out of the loop, or ended up endangering more of them. Jake was only ever giving Grace an alpha order either because she asked him to or because he had been genuinely worried about her safety.
However, she still didn't feel great leaving it up to chance that Sam would 1) give an alpha order to attack on the day and 2) that Grace would be able to resist it in the same way and hopefully stop the others. The idea of resisting the order and belaying it to the others was still just theoretical, she had no idea if it would even work how she wanted it to. Her phone beeped.
SMS Text: 10:48p.m.—Jacob
I'm home. You're relieved.
Grace replied, You can say that again.
SMS Text 10:50 p.m.—Jacob
You know what I mean :)
Tell Leah to head home too. The Cullen's agreed to take rounds tonight.
Grace snapped her phone shut and looked over at Leah relaying the message. With a surprised look on her face, Leah nodded appreciatively, said "About time they pulled their weight," and phased to run home.
Grace recast to her cottage and found Jacob in the back room throwing in a load of laundry. He was shirtless, as usual and when he turned to her, he smiled that unforgettable heart aching smile of his.
"Hey, thought I'd start a load, we're running out of clean clothes," he said nonchalantly. Grace nodded, her eyes scanning up his body in appreciation and said,
"Feel like a shower?"
Grace turned on the shower head and let the steam slowly build up in the bathroom, fogging the mirror. She started to remove her clothes, throwing them in the laundry basket outside of the bathroom door and shivered at the cool air colliding with the warm steam. As she stood naked, waiting for the water to warm, goosebumps running up and down her body, she felt a warm body press against her back, lips touching her shoulder. She let her free hand reach back behind her to playfully comb through the thick black mop of hair on Jacob's head. He circled his arms around her bare stomach and she shivered for an entirely different reason this time.
Once they were both safely tucked in the shower, Grace told Jacob about what Leah had said about how she thought resisting the alpha orders didn't work partly because Jacob was her imprint and partly because she didn't want to. Jacob listened to her carefully and then with a small smile said,
'Oh you like me too much to disobey alpha orders?" Grace laughed and smacked a soapy hand on his chest and then gave a small, "Yeah, I guess."
After they showered and were comfortably in bed, Grace wrapped her body up next to Jake's completely in love with the feeling of him there. Just as she was starting to drift off to sleep, she heard Jacob quietly whisper three little words:
"It's my birthday." Grace's eyes shot open and she leaned up, one hand on his chest and the other on the bed. He lifted a hand to play with the tendrils of damp hair falling around her face and looked at her with a smug smile.
"It's your birthday?!" She repeated back, her voice an octave too high. He nodded and let out a soft chuckle. "Oh fuck, I'm the worst girlfriend ever! How did I not know this?!" Grace placed her hand on his cheek and smiled apologetically. "Happy birthday, Jacob." He twisted his head to the side so he could kiss the inside of her palm, giving her a rush of excitement.
"Thank you," he said.
"I can't believe I didn't know. I didn't get you anything...I—" she faltered feeling the absolute worst.
"I can think of something you can gift me," he said gently. His eyes were dark pools swirling with moonlight that shone in above him. Grace gave a soft smile and let her thumb stroke the line of his jaw.
"Oh yeah?" she whispered. He nodded and leaned his face up to hers finally connecting his lips with her gently parted lips. Grace felt a giant wave of joy roll through her body as he brought his broad hand up to the side of her neck. The searing warmth made her gasp. He tasted like summer air, sweet with a sunkissed warmth that made her head buzz. He deepened their kiss, his breath intermingling with hers as they both refused to pull away from one another. Grace felt her entire body tethered, meshed with his and everything in her screamed for more. But she was happy to explore this moment with him. She felt her entire future in this kiss. When they finally paused to look at each other, Grace couldn't wipe the stupid grin off of her face and she was pleased to see that Jake wore a matching one.
"Happy birthday," she said.
"I love you," he replied simply. Tears sprang to her eyes as laughter escaped her. Was it possible for someone to be so ridiculously happy? How did she manage this? How did she deserve someone like him? He kissed the tip of her nose and smoothed her hair back. She was finally able to say,
"I love you too, Jacob. So much." and with that she brought her lips down on his, eager for another taste of sunshine incarnate. He held her so tightly to him that she thought any other feeling would leave her wanting.
The next morning, she woke up in his arms, hair splayed out on the pillow behind her. The sun splashed light over their copper bodies. She leaned up sleepily and planted warm, soft kisses to his parted lips as he still slept. She would never pass up another moment to kiss him. He mumbled a soft good morning, eyes still closed as she whispered she was going downstairs to make breakfast.
The peaceful morning light swathed across her kitchen filled her with expectation and hope. As she put together the fixings for an omelette, Jacob stumbled sleepily down the stairs and came up behind her, leaning down to sprinkle kisses across her shoulder and neck as she continued to chop peppers. When he slipped his hands under the waistband of her pajama bottoms and gingerly stroked the tops of her thighs and traced the line of her hips with his fingertips, she put the knife down and said, "Move in with me."
It felt easy. She turned and looped her arms around his neck as he looked down at her sweetly.
"You want me to move in with you?"
"Absolutely. This is forever for me and you practically live here already. But I want it to be official. I want this to be our home. Our future," she said definitively. Something twinkled in Jacob's eyes as he nodded and pressed a kiss to her lips.
"Done," he said. She loved that about him. The finality, the absolute certainty of his resolve to make her happy, be everything she needed him to be. She squealed with excitement and he let out a laugh leaning down to kiss her again.
"Good god, it's 8 o'clock in the morning, can you guys chill?" Leah said as she padded into the living room. Jacob didn't let this interrupt their kiss though as his mind spun out the daydreams he had suppressed early in their relationship when he would sneak in to sleep in her bed at Charlie's. Memories that he hadn't even had yet sprang to impossible life as certainties now. She was his in every way and nothing could sully that connection. He wrapped his arms tightly around her lower back and lifted her up, not breaking their kiss as Leah made pretend gagging noises in the living room.