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 24

Jacob smiled from where he was knelt next to Bella's bed, his arms wrapped around her waist and his ear pressed against her abdomen. He could hear his little one's heartbeat with his ear against his love's stomach, the melodic thumping precious music to his ears. Above him Bella smiled sweetly down at him, her heart filled with pure love for the man she called her own. She ran her fingers through his short hair, sitting quietly as he listened to their child nestled safely in her womb.

Though it had only been three weeks since learning she was pregnant, she couldn't imagine herself not being pregnant. She already loved this baby, even with him or her not even being in the world yet. However, she did notice that she was already sporting a small baby bump. It wasn't really noticeable, but she could see it. She knew her baby was growing at a faster rate than usual, but she was only a month and a week along. Then again, Billy had said she'd probably be full term by month six, so maybe this was normal. Well, at least normal for them in the terms of being the Alpha and Alpha Female. She wondered what life would be like with the first child of the Pack around.

"I can't believe that we're really going to have a baby," Jacob whispered, lifting his head to stare at the brunette's shirt covered abdomen. "A little being that is a part of you and me. I'll be it'll have your beautiful eyes."

Blushing slightly Bella replied, "And your wonderful smile."

They smiled at each other before Jacob moved to sit next to Bella on her bed, wrapping her up in his strong arms and holding her. Snuggling into his warmth Bella sighed happily, glad that they were able to have this moment to themselves. They hadn't had time to spend together much with her studying for final exams and preparing for graduation, so she was happy they had this time. Fingers gently carded through her hair, relaxing her as they did. The moment between them was intimate and they hoped that it wouldn't be interrupted. But alas, they were when they heard a bark coming from below her bedroom window.

Frowning Bella asked, "Who is that?"

Jacob didn't answer at first, but as the bark was heard once again he answered, "It's Embry."

Moving from the bed to the window, Jacob opened it and peered outside, looking down at the grey, black spotted colored wolf that was Embry. Seeing him he said, "Embry, go back to the woods before you're seen; we'll be out soon."

Embry seemingly gave a nod and trotted back to the woods and going out of sight. Coming back in from the window Jacob said, "I guess we better see what he wants." He sounded annoyed from their time being interrupted by the youngest member of the Pack.

"It's probably something important," Bella told him soothingly. "Embry wouldn't bother us unless it was."

"Yeah, you're right. It's Quil that doesn't care if he's interrupting or not. He doesn't even have the decency to feel bad about it."

Bella giggled and playfully scolded her boyfriend for speaking about his friend that way before moving to put her shoes on. Once they were on, Jacob jumped out of the window to the ground below, Bella following after him, Jacob easily catching her in his arms. Putting her on her feet, he took her hand in his and they walked towards the woods, spotting Embry lurking in the shadows near the edge. Walking up to him Jacob asked, "What's going on, Embry?"

Embry whined and pawed the ground almost anxiously, the action causing the Alpha couple to become concerned. Jacob quickly stripped himself of his clothes before phasing into the giant russet wolf that he was, needing to communicate with Embry. Bella watched the two of them in concern, noticing how Jacob's hackles seemed to raise and him become irritated at whatever Embry had shared with him. In a soft voice she said, "Jake?"

Jacob turned towards her to look at her before crouching, indicating for her to hop onto his back. Not questioning him, Bella climbed onto Jacob's back and held tightly to his fur as he took off into the woods, Embry right behind him on their way towards La Push. The whole way their Bella couldn't help but wonder what it was that Embry had told Jacob. And furthermore, what could it be that was making a sense of dread settle in her stomach.

Paul grouched and grumbled to himself as he made his way onto First Beach. He had been back on the Reservation and had stopped by his house to shower and get a change of clothes. He had just gotten out of the shower when he heard a very powerful howl fill the night air, the howl belonging to that of the Alpha, the true Alpha. Jacob was obviously calling to all the Pack members and Paul's wolf couldn't help but answer to it, forcing him to answer to Jacob's call and go to him. This would be the first time the Pack would have seen him in weeks and would obviously wonder where the hell he has been. It wasn't any of their business and they didn't need to know. Besides, all would come to light in time. Him and Victoria wanted the same thing after all, and that was Bella gone.

Walking onto the sandy beach, Paul saw the rest of the Pack gathered around a fire, the annoying bitch and baby Alpha standing side by side. As he joined the others Embry casually said, "It's been a while, Paul."

"Where the hell have you been?" Leah asked, seeing no need to be casual or nice to Paul. He had been MIA for a good minute, so much so it was suspicious to her, and she knew the rest of the Pack were probably thinking the same.

Glaring at the she-wolf Paul answered, "None of your damn business."

"Enough," Jacob said. "We're all here for a very important meeting, not to argue."

"Who says you can give the orders around here, Baby Alpha? Last I checked Sam was in charge, not you."

"If you had been around the last few weeks, you would have known about the shift in power when Sam stepped down from being Alpha and let Jacob take over," Quil said glaring at Paul.

Sam wasn't Alpha anymore? Surprised by this information Paul asked, "When was this?"

"Three weeks ago," Sam answered.

"What? Why would you let Jacob be Alpha?"

"For two reasons. Reason one: it is his rightful position in the Pack. You felt the power in his howl earlier when he summoned all of us, otherwise you wouldn't have come."

Paul scoffed and looked off to the side, even though he knew Sam was right. Being Alpha was Jacob's birthright, even if he had rejected it at first. And he had to admit his wolf couldn't resist the call to its true Alpha, even if he himself despised it. Looking back at Sam he asked, "What was the other reason?"

Sam stared at his Pack brother for a moment before answering, "The Alpha Female is pregnant with the Alpha's child."

Shocked brown eyes quickly turned to look at Bella, Paul's eyes flying down to settle on her midsection. Bella, though no longer afraid of Paul, still fidgeted uncomfortably at how intently he was staring at her stomach. He looked to be in absolute disbelief at the news. In fact, he almost had some sort of look of horror on his face, at least she thought so. Why would Paul be horrified at the idea of her and Jacob having a child? What she didn't know was that for Paul, this new information was probably going to throw a wrench in his plans with Victoria to get rid of her.

"Pregnant?" Paul hissed. "You got this crazy whore pregnant, Jake? The fuck is wrong with you?"

Jacob glared at Paul and said threateningly, "Watch what you say about Bella, Lahote. I won't hesitate to kick your ass."

Bella placed a soothing hand on Jacob's arm and said, "Jake, we're not here to fight, remember? It doesn't matter what Paul thinks about my being pregnant. Remember why we're really here."

Jacob took a deep breath before nodding, loosening the fists he hadn't realized that his hands had formed into. Once he was calm, he turned his attention to the rest of the Pack and began to speak. In a strong voice he said, "The reason I have called you all here is to share a piece of disturbing news. Leah and Quil were following the scent of the red-haired leech earlier and came across her, as well as a hoard of newborns. As you all know, newborn vampires are more deadly and dangerous than ones that have lived for years. They just so happened to run into Embry who shared the information with me. The redhead has created an army of newborn leeches with the plans to war against and kill us. Not only us, but Bella included. She plans on wiping out the Pack to get to Bella."

The Pack, sans Jacob, Embry, Quil, and Leah, all looked completely shocked at the news. The leech had created an unstable army to take them out? Jared looked at Leah and asked, "Are you sure?"

Nodding Leah answered, "Yes, Quil and I are very certain of what we heard."

Seth looked anxious as he said, "This isn't good."

"No, it's not," Jacob said. "Which is why we need to start preparing for a battle that is obviously going to be coming soon."

Paul, not wanting to believe what he had heard, shook his head and asked, "Are you really going to believe the testimony of Stooge One and Bitter Bitch? How do we know they aren't lying about what they saw and fabricated the story and possible memory?"

Leah scowled at Paul and asked, "You calling me a liar?"

"Paul, Leah wouldn't lie about this. That, and Quil isn't smart enough to try and fabaricate a fake memory concerning a bunch of newborns," Sam said before looking at Quil saying, "No offense."

"None taken, I guess," Quil replied.

Still not wanting to believe that Victoria had created a newborn army to take out the Pack—possibly him included—he said, "Fine, so maybe they're right. But what if she's only trying to get rid of leech lover here? It has been established that the reason the redhead is still around is to kill her. Why don't we just hand her over and be done with it?"

Jacob snarled at Paul and growled out, "Not over my fucking body."

"It makes sense, doesn't it? She's the reason we're all in the shithole that we're in."

"Paul, we're not just going to hand Bella over," Jared said. "She's our Alpha Female and she's pregnant. She's our Pack sister now and we protect each other. And we're going to protect each other and stand together against this army of vampires the redhead is leading."

Seeing that everyone was against him, Paul shook in anger before spitting out, "I can't believe you all are going to side with the leech lover and her obvious boy toy."

Embry, having held his tongue long enough, frowned at Paul and yelled, "Damn it Paul, it's not about choosing sides! It's about protecting ourselves, each other, and everyone else that we care about! The redhead will be the death of all of us with her army if we don't put our anger and differences aside for the greater good! Stop being an asshole for one minute and look at the bigger picture!"

Bella, though surprised by the normally quiet boy's outburst, focused more on Paul than she did on Embry. Looking at him, she noticed that for some reason, he seemed to be in denial about something. Maybe he was in denial about Victoria's army and planned attack on them. But why would he be in denial about that? He knew as well as they did that she was deadly and would stop at nothing to achieve her goal. She wouldn't be surprised if this army was formed to simply distract the Pack to get to her. Even so, she still couldn't put her finger on why exactly Paul seemed bothered by all of this.

Silently watching him, she watched as Paul seemed to fume and shake violently, Seth and Jared moving away from as his body seemed to blur before he burst into a large bundle of dark silver fur. Paul in his wolf form growled and snarled at them, mainly Jacob and Bella—especially Bella—before turning and quickly taking off towards the woods on the edge of the beach, kicking up sand and quickly dousing the fire they were all standing around.

Watching him run off Leah huffed in annoyance and asked, though not really needing an answer, "What the fuck is his problem?"

"Everything," Jacob said anyway. "Forget about him for the time being. I propose that we begin training starting first thing in the morning until we know for certain when the redhead will strike."

Sam nodded before saying, "We also can't forget about Bella. Though we know she can fight with us now, she is pregnant. There is a risk of her getting hurt and harming the baby."

"Bella won't fight."

"The hell I won't," Bella said, frowning at Jacob.

"It's too dangerous for you now, Bella."

"Jake, it's been dangerous for me since I got involved in the supernatural. Victoria has been a menace since the moment the Cullens killed her mate for me. She's not going to stop until she has me, and I'm not going to hide away from her anymore. I'm meeting her head on and will take care of her myself if I must. I'm done letting her terrorize us and letting my fear of what she'll do or where she's lurking deter me."

Jacob wasn't sure how to respond to Bella's rebuttal, but he just wanted her to understand he just wanted to protect her. But he could already see Bella's stubborn head rearing, and he knew he wouldn't be able to stop her even if he tried. Sighing he said, "Fine, but we're going to have to make some adjustments to your training in order to protect the baby."

Nodding Bella agreed, but also reminded them that she did have to finish school and take exams. Hopefully Victoria wouldn't strike until after she graduated high school. After all, she could only hope. Not only for that, but also that everything would turn out alright in the near future. But with her luck, it was probably bound to flop. She couldn't believe the turn of events. Just when her life was looking up, Victoria found a way to ruin it. Only this time, it would be the last time she would; Bella vowed on that.