The Alpha Female

JacobxBella

Rated M

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or the franchise, as it belongs to Steph Meyers

The Alpha Female

Chapter 10

Jacob watched Bella as she ate, silently looking over her features. Her Alpha Female features had started receding by the time he had parked his motorcycle, her canines having receded and her pronounced cheekbones had disappeared. The only thing that was still abnormal about her was her large round, hazel eyes. He honestly missed the chocolate brown that her eyes usually were. But the main thing that he was really bothered by was that Bella hadn't really said much of anything during their time together in the diner. He wanted her to speak, to tell him what had happened to lead her to call him. He didn't want to push her, but he had to remind himself that Bella wasn't fragile anymore, at least not like how she used to be. Physically: no; but emotionally: he was afraid that she still might be. Even so, it didn't hurt to try to make her talk about what had happened while she had been at school. She had only been there about an hour after Leah had dropped her off before she had called him. He figured it had to do with Cullen, but he needed to hear it out of Bella's own mouth.

"Bells," Jacob started, catching her attention. "You said you were going to tell me what happened."

Bella nodded and said took a breath before saying, "Edward happened. As soon as Leah had left he ambushed me, talking about taking me to Carlisle to "cure me"."

"Cure you? Of what?"

"Of being the Alpha Female. He caught me later telling me that he still wanted me to see Carlisle to look over me and get rid of "the Quileute curse" that apparently you and Billy have put on me. I had already told him earlier to leave me alone and to not touch me, but he didn't listen to me and grabbed me twice, burning me in the process."

Jacob could feel himself growing madder the more the brunette spoke. However he kept himself in check and took deep breaths to keep his anger down. He closed his eyes briefly before opening them and looking back at his best friend, waiting for her to continue.

"The first time he burnt me, I had to go to the nurse's office. The second time however, I was…royally pissed and when he grabbed me I just…snapped."

"What do you mean?"

"I slapped him."

Jacob's eyes widened in shock at what Bella said. He looked at her hands that were wrapped around the coffee cup that she had in her hands, reaching over and gently taking the one that wasn't wrapped in bandages off of the cup. Turning her hand palm up he saw that her hand didn't at all looked like it was possibly bruised or hurt. He pressed on it a bit, waiting for the brunette to flinch or hiss in pain, but there was no reaction. Her hand should have been broken, and yet he was holding onto it and it was obvious there was no damage done to the extremity. Looking up at her he asked, "Does your hand hurt?"

Shaking her head Bella answered, "No, it doesn't. I probably would have been surprised by it myself had I not been so mad. Before that I had, uh…" She let out a small laugh. "I actually cursed at him and told him that he could kiss my ass. I broke up with him after that."

The Shifter couldn't help but burst into loud laughter, his brown eyes shining with amusement. His laughter became infectious and Bella laughed along with him, finding the situation to be rather hilarious even though it hadn't been at the time. When they finally calmed down a bit, Jacob couldn't help but ask through his mirth, "You really told him to kiss your ass?"

"My lily white ass, actually," Bella answered, the two of them bursting into laughter once more. For Bella, she couldn't remember laughing this hard in her life, but she knew her face was pink with laughter and her smile was wide on her face. And Jacob couldn't remember a time when Bella had acted this happy, not since they were children actually. It was good to see her being so jovial.

When they had finally calmed down Jacob noticed Bella's eyes had returned back to the chocolate brown that he adored. Smiling he said, "Well, at least you're okay."

Bella nodded and said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Honestly though, I feel great. A huge weight that I didn't even know I was carrying was lifted off my shoulders when I broke up with Edward today. I didn't realize how much I was losing myself when I was with Edward, nor did I realize how controlling of my life he was. Believe it or not, the school nurse and Leah made me realize that our relationship wasn't what I thought it was. Leah asked me to really think about my relationship with Edward and if I really wanted that in the future. And the nurse told me that our relationship paralleled the one that her sister had with her ex-husband. I just really, really thought about everything and realized that I don't want that for myself and I'll never be as okay with everything as I thought I was going to be. I want my life back, not the one Edward accustomed me to. I'm going to be a better person than the one that I am now, and the one I was before Edward. I don't want to be so easily influenced anymore. And…" She took a deep breath before looking Jacob straight in the eye. "…and I think I'm ready to fully embrace being the Alpha Female of the Quileute Pack."

Old Quil couldn't help but smile later that day when Bella told him she was ready to embrace being the Alpha Female. Jacob had dropped her off as she wanted to talk to him and he had listened to her tell him about everything that had happened since informing her of her being the Alpha Female. He had been worried she would try to run from it, but her mind had obviously been changed.

Nodding Old Quil said, "I'm glad that you have decided to give this a chance. I do hope that you take it seriously, though. Being a protector of these lands is a big responsibility, especially for the Alpha. And though young Jacob hasn't embraced wanting to be the true Alpha yet, I'm glad that you are stepping up to start your journey."

Bella nodded and replied, "Yeah, thanks. I want to start training again, but Sue says I shouldn't until my arm heals over from when Paul attacked me."

"Yes, Jacob approached me and Billy about that earlier. He told me that your little training session with Paul turned a bit…deadly. He claims Paul almost killed you, and yet you don't seem as if you were close to death."

"I half-phased and started to really fight Paul back."

Old Quil nodded and took a sip of his tea before he spoke again. "Apparently Paul gave Jacob something to think about and it troubled him. He asked us was it really necessary that you go into all of your training sessions to be ready to fight dirty. Paul had told him that if you were going to be trained by wolves, you needed to learn to fight like one, as well as not be subjected to following fight rules. His argument against Jacob was that Jacob wouldn't be able to protect you all of the time and that if any rogue vampire attacked you, they weren't going to fight fairly. In a way, Paul is right. Enemies won't have any qualms about trying to kill you Bella, just like they won't for the rest of the Pack. Therefore if you need to fight hard and possibly kill, you will need to be ready for it."

The brunette frowned a bit before nodding slowly. Looking up at Old Quil she asked, "Did Anais have to do that?"

"No, but that was because there were no vampires around during the time she was the Alpha Female. It was actually something Ephraim was grateful for. And I'm sure young Jacob would be as well in concerns to you, but that simply isn't the case here." He then gave her a soft smile. "I can already tell that you are starting to become stronger and more confident in yourself, and being around the Pack and your Alpha Female training will help with that. The only thing I worry about is how close to the Cullens you are and what you will do should they come for you later on."

"They won't. I broke up with Edward today."

"Maybe, but will he take the breakup seriously? From what I've been told, your relationship with him was rather…bleak. He doesn't listen to you and does all he can to keep you away from here. Embry has said that you comply with him all of the time."

Bella looked down, knowing that those words were true. She didn't like hearing how she was with Edward, but she knew she needed to hear it and was glad people were telling her. Squaring her shoulders she said, "That is true yes, but I'm starting over and I'm going to become a stronger Bella. I won't let my past with Edward affect my future."

"And if he keeps coming around for you?"

She couldn't answer that question, no matter how much she wanted to. It wasn't like she hadn't thought about the chances of Edward still coming around her. He could be very persistent about her; hell, him disabling her truck to prevent her seeing Jacob proved that. However before she could answer, there was a knock on the door and Jared walked in. He glanced at Bella briefly before turning to Old Quil.

"Old Quil, Billy is calling a meeting with the Council. They want to discuss Jacob again."

Old Quil rolled his eyes, wondering why those old coots couldn't just leave the boy alone. He nodded and stood up with his cane, Jared helping him out of the door. As they left Old Quil turned to Bella and said, "I know you're serious about this Bella, but I hope you will stick with it. I know you tend to run when things get to hard sometimes."

Bella bit her lip as Old Quil left with the assistance of Jared. Jared turned to look at her and beckoned her to leave the old man's house as well. As she followed she couldn't help but wonder exactly how much faith that they had in her. She may have made mistakes and made them question her loyalty, even going as far as to not trust her at all, but she wanted to prove herself to them and show them that she was going to be in this for the long haul. However she knew that actions spoke louder than words, and she needed to make sure her actions spoke loud.