AN: Two updates in one week! Yayayay! I'm feeling so into writing again after my little break, and I hope you guys are all enjoying!
Everyone stay safe and happy!
Seth was late home from work on Friday night, and he smiled guiltily at me on my place on the lounge room floor as he kicked off his work boots and beelined for the bathroom to turn on the shower. I think it was the first time he'd missed a welcome home kiss in his haste to get ready for our night out.
I opened my messages with Nessie and Claire and let them know we would be ready to leave in fifteen minutes. Nessie was swinging by to pick us up on the way into Port Angeles, and Claire and Quil were bringing out Embry. They had a car large enough to fit seven regular-sized people, but seeing as the majority of our party were men built like solid brick walls, it was more comfortable to take two cars. And Nessie was adamant about her metabolism being speedy enough to burn off any alcohol she drank to be well enough to drive, if she could stomach the taste to begin with.
Seth was five minutes in the shower, and met me in the entrance to the lounge room with a towel wrapped around his waist. I stood and grinned at him, leaning up to kiss him hungrily, my arms winding themselves around his neck tightly.
"Huh," I pondered curiously as I pulled back to rest on the tall orange heels I'd donned for our night out. "You didn't have to lean down for me to kiss you."
"I like the outfit," he chuckled, squeezing my backside through the jeans I'd chosen to wear. He always complimented my jeans.
"I thought you would," I smiled. "I didn't think these heels were quite tall enough for me to pull off kissing you, though. I usually have to stand on the couch to get close enough to your face for that."
His eyes trailed down my front to the tall shoes and he studied them thoughtfully. "Maybe you're growing."
"Finally hitting puberty," I joked. "If only my hips would catch up."
"There's nothing wrong with your hips," his fingers curled around them, his thumbs threading though my belt loops and he tugged me toward him greedily. "Are Jake and Ness already on their way?"
"Yes," I told him sternly. "No funny stuff, mister. You have to get ready."
"I'm sure we'd have time for a quickie. You didn't wake up this morning."
"Not the way Nessie drives," I giggled. "Go and get ready. I'll pack up my weaving."
We definitely wouldn't have had time. Nessie's sleek black car pulled into our driveway within ten minutes, and she beeped her horn in greeting when I waved as I locked the front door.
"You look nice," she complimented as we slid into the backseat. "I don't think I've seen dark eye makeup on you before."
"I had to watch a YouTube video to figure it out," I admitted with a grin. I didn't need to tell Nessie she looked like a runway model. She was dressed in a tight-fitting black dress and a pair of strappy heels were on her feet despite the drive out to Port Angeles. I suppose her superior reflexes were enough to keep her from worrying about her compromised footing.
Her hair was pulled up in a tight ponytail, straightened and falling sleek down her back, and she'd gone the extra step and put a bit of mascara on. I think it was the first time I'd seen her wearing any makeup at all, and she still looked one hundred times better than me with my full face.
My eyes flicked to Jacob's back, where he was sitting in the passenger seat facing the windshield, and Nessie shook her head in answer to my silent question. He hadn't told her what was eating at him, then. I would have to ask Seth if he knew.
"How's it going, Jake?" Seth chirped cluelessly from the seat beside me.
"Good," Jacob answered shortly, throwing a quick smile over his shoulder. "How are you guys?"
"We're good," I told him honestly. "Seth thinks I'm getting taller."
"I'm sure those heels help," Nessie chuckled as she reversed out of my driveway and started up the road.
We talked about work, our week, the new yoga class I was taking with the girls, and then Jacob, who had been unusually quiet thus far, directed the conversation to what was hanging over our heads.
"Do you think Embry will pick up tonight?"
"Is that his entire plan?" I giggled. The four of us fell into a slightly uncomfortable silence, and Seth felt the need to fill it.
"Pick up, yes." He said decidedly. "He's never had any trouble with that in the past."
"No talking about any potential imprint crap while we're out," Jacob demanded gently. "Collin was on patrol with him today, and he said he was feeling down about it all. I think Quil and Claire getting pregnant has pushed him over the edge."
"It would be hard for him," Nessie reached over and took Jacob's hand gently. "The old trio's split. We're finally together, Claire and Quil are busy with baby stuff. It doesn't help that all the other original guys have settled down and left the pack, and Seth and Leah are caught up with their imprints now."
"I'm not apologizing for that," Seth piped up.
"And you shouldn't," Nessie's chocolate eyes found us in the backseat through the rear vision mirror. "But he's fallen into a strange place beside the newer guys, and I can imagine he'd be feeling a bit weird about it. You can't blame him for wanting to broaden his horizons and find his imprint."
"Should he really be looking for her at bars in Port Angeles on a Friday night, though?" I asked uncomfortably. "I feel like the kind of girls that will be there wouldn't be ready to meet their soul mates and settle down."
"It has a way of changing people, whether they're ready for it or not." Jacob reminded me.
Nessie pulled smoothly into a park on the busy street, too soon for the long drive I'd experienced time and time again, and we could see Claire, Quil and Embry laughing about something from their place outside the bar in question in the distance. I adjusted myself as I was taking my seatbelt off to wedge my phone deep inside the creases of the leather back seat, out of sight of advanced eyes, and followed Seth out of the car, thanking him for holding the door for me.
"Hey," Claire said excitedly when we met with them on the footpath outside. "How was the drive out?"
"Good," Jacob caught Embry's outstretched hand in welcome, and Embry's eyes lingered a little too long on the taller man's face. I narrowed my own eyes as Jacob lifted one of his shoulders in a gentle shrug before letting go of his friend's hand and turning his attention to Quil, who seemed to have missed their subtle exchange.
I immediately turned to Nessie, who was watching me silently, having picked up on what I had. Embry knew what was going on.
"Oh, I think I forgot my phone!" I suddenly said, patting the pockets on my jeans and cramming a hand into the tiny leather handbag hanging against my hip.
"You just had it," Seth argued.
"I must have left it in the car," my eyes were wide as I looked up at him. "Nessie, can I borrow your keys? We'll meet you in there."
Nessie immediately handed me the key ring with thankful eyes, and I pulled my boyfriend back the way we came, looking over my shoulder to watch them disappear inside the bar.
"I didn't see it on the backseat while you were climbing out," Seth told me when we reached the car.
"I hid it," I explained in a whisper so quiet he shouldn't have been able to hear it.
"Why?" he chuckled. I shushed him and bent forward to retrieve my phone from in between the two seats.
His eyes were still focused on my backside when I turned to face him, leaning against the open door. "Nessie is worried about Jacob."
"Why?" he asked again, but his eyebrows pulled together worriedly. "What happened?"
"She said he's been really weird since around your birthday, and she didn't think it would have been something her parents had said to him. She said he's been quiet and not himself, but he's trying to act like nothing is wrong. She wondered if he'd said anything to you guys, but Claire said Quil knew nothing, and that Jacob had sent him home from patrol last time they were on together."
"I don't know," Seth sighed. "Jake's good at controlling himself, so I doubt I would have noticed if there was something eating at him. But he did bail on me last week when we were meant to be on together…he phased in long enough to tell me he was caught up with work stuff, and that I had to do a solo shift."
"Embry knows something." I told him. "They had a moment just before."
"Or you're a woman, and you're looking for things that aren't there," he laughed, wrapping his arms around me and sighing as I rolled my eyes. "Look, I doubt it's something serious, or we'd all know about it. And Nessie knows not to worry about their relationship; he loves her. As much as I love you, and there's not going to be anything that changes that."
"I don't think that's what she's worried about," I insisted. "I think she's completely worrying about the fact that her boyfriend isn't acting himself. She's worried about him, not her, or them."
"I'll find a minute to talk to him tonight." Seth promised me, squeezing me tightly one last time before he let me go to pick up my hand that wasn't holding my phone. "But try to let Nessie know not to worry about it, okay? Jake gets stuck in his head from time to time, but he's always snapped out of it before."
"Okay," I sighed, moving out of the way so he could close the door and following him as he pulled me along to the bar.
Embry was on his feet, turning his head back and forth as he waited in line at the bar when we entered. I smirked at his attempt to catch girl's eyes, and fell into an open seat around the table beside Claire, who was eyeing her lime soda disappointedly as she stabbed at her ice cubes with her paper straw.
"Find your phone?" Nessie asked, taking the keys from Seth's hand with her eyes only on me.
"Yep," I dropped my bag to the floor and sucked on my bottom lip in answer to her unspoken question. She nodded and picked up her glass. "Embry's getting your drinks."
"I'll help him bring them back," Seth pushed himself from the table and made his way to his friend.
"How are the birthday plans coming along?" I asked as a distraction, eyeing Jacob and Nessie across the table.
"Jacob has something planned for Wednesday, so we can celebrate my official birthday together. My family's coming out that day as well, so I'm sure we'll by busy well into the night. And the party planning is coming along well, I think."
"Nessie doesn't have too much say in the actual party," Jacob explained with a small smirk. "Her aunt is having way too much fun with it all, for someone who isn't even in the area. It's going to look way more like a twenty-first than a seventeenth."
"She is going a little overboard," Nessie agreed. "I keep telling her I want it strictly casual, but she just keeps saying it needs to be a special one, and I have to shut up and mind my own business."
"Why does seventeen have to be so special?" Claire asked as she sipped her soda. "I mean, I know your birthdays are usually ten times fancier than anything the rest of us do, but didn't Alice kind of put a stop to all the big over-the-top things when you stopped ageing?"
"Yeah, I'm not sure," Nessie hummed. "I feel like she should have gotten her fill with how intense the parties were up until I turned seven…" she looked to me and twisted her lips. "She would always go overboard, and no one was allowed to get in her way, because they weren't going to have many birthdays to celebrate with me before I stopped growing."
"It's weird she wouldn't wait until you were eighteen, at least. Official adult and all…" I remembered the legal drinking age in the United States was more than I was used to back at home, and corrected myself. "Or twenty-one, at least."
"Hmm, she called after my parents got home from seeing Seth for his birthday and talked my ear off about how perfect everything needed to be. I'm not allowed to be in on the plans, though."
"Let her be," Jacob sighed, wrapping his arm around her and kissing her on the head softly. He avoided her eyes when she looked up at him, and Nessie chewed on her lip.
"What? No jokes about the pixie being a force to be reckoned with, or anything? Are you sure you're feeling okay, Jacob?"
Seth and Embry joined us at the table, and I thanked them for my beer, immediately lifting it to my lips and taking a few long sips.
Jacob was quiet again for the rest of the evening, even after he'd downed enough drinks to cover the table in empty glasses. It was obvious Seth hadn't gotten anything out of Embry, because he made no move to take me aside and tell me anything. I hoped, for Nessie's sake, that Jacob was back to his normal self by her birthday. She didn't need to be worrying about him while everyone else enjoyed her celebration.
Claire decided she'd had enough of sitting at the table while everyone else got louder and louder the more we drank, and she was the first to leave her seat and make her way to the dance floor, dragging a swaying Quil behind her.
"Want to join them? I can slutty dance all over you," I grinned, too close to Seth's face. I was well past feeling in control of myself, but it was difficult not to feel safe with him by my side. I felt, more than heard, the low growl in his chest against the palm of my splayed hand on him, and he just about carried me out of my seat to a spot beside his friends.
Embry decided to forget his little imprint mission after his fifth beer or so, and Nessie and I eyed him from our dancing spot, in the middle of three girls wearing matching headbands. He'd apparently joined some bridal party, and I wondered if he would be making his way back with us tonight. I decided not, from the look of how things were going. I was undecided whether he was going to let two of them down easily and target his favourite, or whether he would be okay with concentrating on all three.
Seth's hold was firm on my hips as I swayed them against him, maybe too provocatively for our public setting, but he seemed to be okay with it. I'd never properly danced with him before, and I added it to my list of things I could hold over him in future. It was fun, to know I was so in control of him when he was so overpowering physically in comparison to me. I turned to face him and slid my fingers just high enough under his t-shirt to scratch at the muscles on his stomach, and I grinned when I felt him growl again.
It was too hot dancing, in such close proximity to my shape-shifter boyfriend, but I wasn't going to sit down again any time soon. Jacob and Seth apparently had enough of the heat after half an hour or so, and excused themselves to get another drink and watch us from a stool at the bar. Nessie immediately grabbed me and we laughed messily as we recreated the dance I'd been doing with Seth only moments ago, our eyes catching those of our wolves, who looked torn between wanting to tear us apart to keep us for themselves, and wanting to watch us dance.
"Who are you?!" I called over the music, giggling hysterically as she ran her hands down my sides and tugged me toward her. I'd never seen Nessie in any way act like this before.
She grinned and shrugged, her eyes flicking to our wolves. "It's funny to watch them. Claire and I used to carry on like this all the time from when she turned sixteen and Quil let her start having a couple of drinks." She lowered herself down my body and flicked her long ponytail over her shoulder. "You can relax, Seth. I'm not going to steal your girl."
Her words were barely loud enough for me to hear her over the music, but when I turned to look at my boyfriend he shook his head and rolled his eyes with a small smile.
I met the guys at their tall round table, panting and sweating like an absolute mess, and thanked Seth for the cold glass of water he held out on my arrival.
"Where is Embry?" I called over the music.
"He took off about ten minutes ago, with a blonde and a brunette. He said not to worry about a drive home, he's going to make his way back on foot tomorrow." Seth called back.
"That boy..." Nessie shook her head and waved out to Claire, who was looking at us all curiously, but didn't seem ready to give up her place on the dance floor. She dragged Quil to us through the packed bodies around them and frowned.
"Are we going home already?"
"You don't have to," Nessie told her. "Embry's taken off, and I think we're getting ready to drive back."
"We should probably get you to bed." Quil told his imprint. "I don't want you having too late a night."
"It's not even midnight yet!" Claire argued. "And dancing is good! Exercise!"
"We can exercise at home," Quil stared at Claire for a little too long, and I bit my lip as Claire's eyes glassed over before she reached for her car keys in her bag strung over her shoulder.
"I guess we're going," Seth chuckled, following Quil to the front door of the bar.
We hung around in front of Claire and Quil's car while she opened the door and attempted to push him into the passenger's seat. "It shouldn't take him more than half an hour to sober up," she said gently, giving him a small smile as he hung his long legs out of the car door.
"I feel fine!" he insisted, and she giggled sarcastically.
"Thank you for such a good night. I really needed this."
"For someone who apparently wasn't interested in coming, it looked like you had fun," Nessie pulled her into a gentle hug and nudged her toward the car. "Get your man to bed. We'll see you this week."
"Yoga on Tuesday?" Claire called over her shoulder.
"See you there!" I said happily.
The car ride back was mostly quiet, apart from my giggles when Seth pulled me to him and smothered my face with messy kisses. It wasn't until I grinned at him and dragged my nails up his thigh that Nessie said my full name like she was chastising a child and the two of us straightened up and made polite conversation until she pulled up outside my house and told us to get inside.
I'd barely closed the door behind us before Seth had me pushed up against the hallway wall, ignoring Juniper and Hugo who came excitedly to greet us. The two dogs eventually got the idea and took themselves back to the lounge to sleep, and I sighed against Seth's mouth.
"It's a shame we don't do more things that require me to wear heels," I murmured against his lips.
"Hmm," he agreed quietly. "I could get used to the added height."
He turned me suddenly, and I gasped at his speed, tilting my head when his lips found my neck and trailed slow and wet kisses from my jaw to my shoulder, pulling my jacket from my arms and dropping it to the floor.
"Are Nessie and Jacob out of earshot?"
"I don't care," he mumbled, his hand climbing under my shirt to squeeze me tightly. He sighed into my neck and broke away just long enough to pull my shirt over my head, unclasping my bra in one quick movement and discarding it against the wooden floor boards with the rest of my clothes.
I reached my hand out behind me and squeezed him through his pants. "Do you want a blow job?"
"I want you to stay exactly where you are," he instructed me quietly. "And you're leaving your shoes on."
"Yes, boss," I giggled in a breath, leaning off the wall long enough for his long fingers to undo the zipper of my jeans and push them down my thighs. They clung on around my knees, and I wondered how I was going to manoeuvre them completely off without stepping out of my heels, but he was stripping my underwear down to join them and finding me with his fingers quicker than my mind would work, and I moaned quietly as his mouth found my neck again.
It was ridiculous, the way I reacted to him. Supernatural soul-mate connection or no, something as simple as his lips against such an innocent part of my skin shouldn't have had such power over me, but I wasn't complaining. I tried my best to figure out undoing his jeans behind me as I leaned my forehead on the wall, and his fingers left me just long enough to help. I heard his belt hit the floor, and in an instant he was sliding into me, both of us sighing at the contact.
"I love you," I choked out, bracing my hands against the wall as he slammed into me over and over, rougher than he normally was.
He moved effortlessly, perhaps spurred on by the fact he didn't need to bend his legs as he normally did, gripping my breast, my hips, my thigh, pulling me against him as my back arched into him and he hit that sweet spot that made me cry out too loudly each time.
"You are so perfect," he grunted into my hair, his fingers squeezing me to the point it was almost painful, but so good at the same time. "I still can't believe you're mine."
"All yours," I groaned, and his hand left me for a split second to come down hard on my backside, making my knees buckle and my insides clench. "Fuck," I gasped, throwing my head back to lean on his shoulder. I had my eyes closed, but I parted my mouth when I felt him reach his neck to capture my lips, and I bit down on him gently, feeling myself come closer and closer with the low growl that suddenly filled his chest and rolled into my mouth.
His hands wrapped around my hips and lifted me from my feet, holding me against him while I pressed back into him with both hands on the wall in front of me. It would have looked awkward had he not been able to support my weight so effortlessly. The new angle we found had my shoulders hunching over my chest, my stomach clenching over and over, and I felt my thighs begin to tremble as my hips rolled automatically, the warm electricity burning from my arms and legs, reaching my centre in a way that left me breathless.
I cried his name as my body went rigid, and he thrust into me several more times before he curled over me, slowly sliding me through his hands until my feet hit the floor and my entire body followed, sinking into a small pile at his feet. His body followed me, and I smiled up at him where he crouched in front of me, my gaze thick with adoration as he turned me to face him and pushed my sweat-dampened hair from my forehead.
"I love you," he told me, as if it was the most important thing in the world.