So no Wren this chapter, but I feel like this is a nice little Segway into some plot points for later… plus this one has some Cullen(s). Finished this chapter instead of an essay lmaooo
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Jasper did not go out of his way to talk to his family about Wren. It was partially because he didn't have much to say, and partially because at this point, he felt it was none of their business. They were well meaning, but nosey. If he wanted help, he would ask. He'd made that clear, and maybe it was a little ungrateful of him, but there were just some things a man needed to do on his own.
Getting to know Wren was something he needed to do on his own. Besides that, fact, the girl was shy enough as it was. Though she didn't know of his true nature, he was sure having the attention of one vampire was more than enough to set her on edge. The attention of five, though? That would send her for the hills.
Still, some things couldn't be avoided.
Coming home with her scent so strongly clinging to his skin made keeping to himself absolutely impossible, and the moment he stepped through the door he had already prepared himself.
Alice was waiting in the living room when he entered, her excitement filling the area. She was always so overjoyed when she knew he'd been with Wren, and Jasper still didn't know what to think of that.
Even now, just looking at her reminded him of everything he'd lost for someone he hardly even knew. He desperately wanted to reach out and pull her into his arms; to feel her fitting perfectly into his form as she once did. He'd always thought that everything about her, everything she did was perfect.
"So? What happened?" she asked him, at his side in an instant.
He could see every shift of gold in her eyes, her gaze focused solely on him yet still so far away. She'd always been like that; her gift allowing her to gaze far beyond what he could ever imagine. Still, the years had taught him that her habits were only partly due to her visions. Alice had a way of looking through a person, and he often wondered what she had been like when she was human.
"You don't already know?" he said, deciding that teasing her would be easier than letting his mind run wild. Edward was near, after all, and he could do without the pointed looks. The younger vampire knew better than anyone how he felt about Alice, but his opinion was the one Jasper cared for least.
"No Jasper, I wouldn't be asking if I did!" she pouted at him, getting into his personal space.
Her hand came up to tug at the hem of the shirt Wren had lent him, and he watched as she leaned in close and took a deep breathe. He knew she didn't mean any harm, but there was still something about another Vampire so obviously scenting him for Wren that grated at him.
Not wanting to hurt her, Jasper gently untangled her delicate fingers from his shirt and pushed her away. Everything about Alice was delicate, and even knowing she was a vampire didn't keep him from thinking that she was breakable.
Then again, to him, most people were breakable.
"You gotta give me some space, Allie," he told her quietly.
For a moment, she looked as if she was going to continue to argue, but then she got a faraway look in her eyes. He knew that look well and knew that she was looking into the future.
The immediate fear told him all he needed to know, and it seemed it did the same for her as well. She gave him his space, and Jasper did his part by sending a wave of comfort and calm to her. She didn't have to say it for him to know she'd gazed into the possibilities to see what would happen if she continued to do whatever it was that she'd planned to do.
He knew that whatever she saw hadn't been pretty.
It was a dance they'd long since perfected. She pushed his boundaries, he gave her a warning, and she looked to see how far she could get before he broke. It had always reassured him, the idea that she would always know how to handle him.
It was also how he knew she'd never be able to completely shake the fear of him. Edward knew his intimate thoughts, but Alice was the only one who could see the aftermath of what he was truly capable of.
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The moment she felt her emotions settle; Alice basked wholeheartedly in the comfort of Jasper's gift.
Alice experienced the world strongly, every visual like a livewire to her senses even as she bordered on a sort of numbness to the present. This, of course, was a result of her abilities. When one could look into the future there had to be a certain mindset at hand.
Most people thought Alice could look forward and see an immediate outcome, but that wasn't quite true. What Alice saw were possibilities, and she'd come to learn that nothing was more upsetting than a possibility.
At one point, she'd had trouble finding any direction in the vast infinity of time set before her. She'd be sent into visions at random, the images confusing her more than anything. Still, Alice had something that even the chaos of the future couldn't rid her of: Optimism.
The world at its core was a harsh place. People made decisions that could have terrible effects for people they didn't know. The flip side to that, though, was that they could make outstandingly good decisions as well. It was those that Alice chose to focus on. Still, though her mindset served her well and allowed her to stay somewhat sane, she was still just as susceptible to emotions as anyone else.
She'd seen it all.
Pain.
Suffering.
Carnage.
Even if she'd never outright experienced everything the world had to offer, she'd seen it, and sometimes it was nice to know that she had someone on her side who could help her organize the after effects of seeing so much.
That was why all those years ago when she'd looked ahead and seen Jasper, she held on to the vision like a lifeline. Her visions could only tell her so much, but she'd just known that being with him would be one of the best decisions of her life.
She knew his powers, had spent countless hours focusing her abilities on him and soaking up the information. This, of course, meant that she knew what he could do. She knew what Jasper was capable as both Jasper and the God of War, but her optimism had beat down any apprehension. She'd known he was good, and that he'd be good to her.
And he was, truly. Jasper was attentive, kind, and loyal to a fault. She'd expected that, though.
What she hadn't expected was her own reaction to being in such proximity to him. Jasper was lethally attractive in every sense. It was one thing to see something, and another to experience it. So, though she knew he wasn't meant for her in that way, she ate up everything he'd given her.
His love, his attention, she took it all. For a girl who'd been on her own for so long, her past a mystery but the future literally at her fingertips, how could she not? She'd fallen for him hard and fast, and for a while she even forced herself to ignore the thought that it wouldn't last forever, a tiny voice telling her that it absolutely could.
Every so often, though, Jasper did something that broke her out of the daydream she often found herself captured by when it came to him. For all of his good qualities, there was absolutely something dark that lived in him that she couldn't understand.
Jasper struggled with his duality; she knew. Even so, he often exceeded expectations. He fought hard to do the right thing. Alice understood that, at least. As a vampire herself she understood the lure of those baser instincts.
What she didn't understand was why even with all of his progress, all of the effort he put in, and all of the time he spent trying to do good, Jasper still wanted.
He wanted the pain, the violence, and of course the blood. He looked like an angel but he wasn't made to be anyone's saint. It had taken a long time for her to accept that, though she'd realized it from the start.
Alice operated on an energy level that many didn't. She liked to go high speed and high intensity at every task, understanding that there was no point in squandering her joy when it could so easily change. Many people saw her approach to life as a little excessive, though.
She was a force to be reckoned with at times, and while she knew Jasper loved that about her, there was a part of him that sat on edge because of it. Not even he was immune to annoyance, and no matter what he was taught, his first instinct was always, always violence.
Jasper had never hurt her, never even raised a hand against her, but he could. There were times they'd lain together, and he'd gotten a bit too rough, conversations where he'd had to leave before he lost his temper.
Even worse was that if he lost his temper, she would too. Both the best and worst part of being pathokentic was his ability to make people not only feel emotions, but his in particular. Alice wasn't one to fight, but when Jasper wanted to fight, well….
It was a hard situation.
She'd seen the possibilities of that, and while he was always able to stop himself before he killed her, it was scary none the less. Alice had learned early on that even if she was free with who she was, she needed to second guess sometimes when it came to him. Mostly she still did what she wanted, but if there was something she knew might cause a rift between them, she looked before she jumped.
Wren was definitely a rift. It was almost funny, in her opinion, that a girl who was so unassuming could hold so much power in her hands and not even know it.
For a long time Alice had fought with herself over how to feel about Wren. Meeting Jasper had bred a sort of… selfishness in her. Oddly enough, it was that same selfishness that also gave her the power to let go.
It all came down to one thing, really: Wren was absolutely adorable.
Alice loved freely; her affection easily given. Jasper was charismatic, but Alice was a people person. She enjoyed people watching, the act different for her since she could see the futures of the people she focused on. She loved learning little tidbits, the lives of others filling the space left by her missing human memories. Alice also got attached easily, but rarely did she ever let her interest grow into something big enough to hurt her by the inevitable end.
When she'd seen Wren, though, she'd let herself hope. Some subjects where hard for her to see clearly. Over time, she'd learned that this depended heavily on proximity both physically and oddly enough, emotionally. As Wren hadn't even been born yet by the time Alice had first seen her, there was no chance for such closeness. Beyond that, Alice knew that she couldn't interfere with the natural flow of time too badly if it wasn't an emergency.
Still, the small glimpse had been enough. She'd never told Jasper what she'd seen, and he had never asked. Even if he had, he'd have been disappointed. Still, she could remember the image as clearly as she remembered the day she me Jasper.
In her vision, Wren was a young woman. She was seated on a couch, Jasper's arm thrown easily over the small woman's shoulder. Jasper's head was leaned back as Wren talked, his eyes closed. Alice herself was in the vision, but she was seated on the floor between Wren's legs… while Wren continuously ran her hands through Alice's hair. Her features were soft, the entire image slightly out of focus. Still, Alice could feel the contentment. She could feel the love, the bonds shared between Jasper and his mate.
Most importantly, she could feel the love between herself and the other girl, and she craved it. There was just something so right about the whole scene.
It wasn't often that Alice could sense specific feelings from visions, but when she did it usually meant that the particular outcome was firmly set. She couldn't read them as comprehensively as Jasper could, but she could still sense their strength. She had no way of knowing what any of it meant, but she knew that in that future, she was happy.
Really, all Alice had ever wanted was simple, pure happiness. It was there that her selfishness kicked in.
While Alice loved Jasper deeply, she knew very well that they both had Mates. She'd never before been able to clearly see hers, but she just knew that he was out there. It was a feeling, more than anything. She knew, just as she knew Jasper had his perfect half.
From that knowledge came the realization that even if she had Jasper's love, there was more waiting for her. It was selfish, really, but how could she possibly settle for having one person to love when she could have more? It was what drove her to find the Cullen's, knowing the reception she'd receive. The connections, the assuredness that these where her people and she had a place and beings who would care for her and allow her to care for them in turn- it was a heady feeling.
She couldn't remember her past, but she could remember the crippling loneliness. Jasper had given her the first taste of the connections she so coveted, and after that she'd been ravenous. Her family was made up of so many different people, and she loved them all.
Adding Wren to that group of people was so, so tempting, and if it was fate, who was she to say no?
Jasper was the problem, though. She'd been so blinded by her own excitement, she'd failed to see his resistance, and it was driving her nuts.
Every day he interacted with the girl but kept her away from Alice was like a stab to the gut. Now that Wren was in the picture, she gave them space to get to know each other, but it wasn't easy. Jasper still wanted her and he made no effort to hide that… and Alice would be a liar if she said she didn't miss him in her bed.
Still, she knew that if she wanted to bring Wren into her family, she had to let nature take it's course… with a little help from her of course.
"I'll give you space," she told Jasper petulantly, "but only if you tell me why you're wearing her shirt!"
Alice couldn't help but feel her excitement climbing back up. Jasper had warned her off, and while she wouldn't push him past his limits, she still wanted to know how that had happened. She'd been able to see that they would spend time together that day, but she hadn't quite been able to tell everything that would happen.
That was the thing she'd come to realize about Wren: she was an awful decision maker. For Alice, clear visions meant definite decisions and Wren almost always seem to deicide things last minute. Either that, or she changed her mind an awful lot.
While Jasper was usually cagey with his interactions with the human girl, it seemed he knew he wouldn't be getting out of it at that moment.
"The rain caught us and she was nice enough to offer me something dry," he told her, running his fingers through his hair and refusing to make eye contact.
Alice zeroed in on that, hitting him with "Is that all that happened?"
"Yes, Allie, that's all."
She softened at his nickname for her, knowing that it meant he wasn't quite as volatile as he'd been when she'd grabbed at his shirt. She'd forgotten that Carlisle had told her once that when a Vampire found their mate, they could get a little possessive in the period before claiming.
Jasper was already possessive all on his own, so she could imagine that the past few months were doing a number on him.
Before she could continue grilling him for details, another voice echoed loud and proud from the direction of the garage.
"Damn my man, what happened to all that charm?" Emmet teased.
Jasper's eyes rolled immediately, but Alice could only laugh when he said, "What do you know about charm? Your idea of a pickup line starts and ends with flexing."
Emmet's head popped through the doorway and he pointed at Jasper, face serious. "I have the most beautiful woman on the planet as my wife so obviously it works."
Jasper just shook his head, but Alice was able to see the small smile on his face. Emmet was always good at cheering up the blonde.
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Jasper had just decided to follow Emmet out to the garage to see what he and Rosalie were working on - mostly Rose, probably – when Carlisle decided to come out of his study and greet them.
"Making progress, I see," he commented lightly.
Jasper knew that he was, of course, referring to the fact that he was wearing Wren's shirt. It all came back to that.
"Something like that," Jasper responded, not wanting to get into it when he'd just managed to throw off Alice.
Carlisle was less pushy than the seer, though, and he took Jasper's shut down in a stride. So long as Jasper wasn't actively causing their family trouble, the other blonde wouldn't intervene. It was one of the things Jasper appreciated about him. He was a very calming presence at the best of times, and often good at puzzling out problems and making the right decision.
It was for that reason that before he could think better of it, Jasper decided to finally voice the problem that was currently stumping him the most.
"There is something I'd like to ask you about though."
Carlisle raised one pale eyebrow, nodding for Jasper to continue.
Conscious of the fact that everyone could still hear him, but not wanting to wait, Jasper tried to figure out how to voice what he wanted to say, "I've noticed lately that my abilities don't always work well on Wren, and I was wondering if you had ever seen anything similar with other humans."
Jasper knew anything was possible, but between the two of them Carlisle was in more of a position to have experience with such things. His reply made Jasper's blood boil, though.
"What exactly are you trying to make her feel?"
Carlisle's tone didn't change, his doctor's façade an impenetrable mask of impartial calm. Still, Jasper could read between the lines and the insinuation wasn't a nice one.
"Nothing sexual or romantic," he said point blank. Carlisle may have had the tact to not outright accuse him of trying to assault her, but Jasper was going to force him to face the crudeness of his real question anyways.
It was insulting at best. Never in his life had he used his abilities to enthrall another in that way. Besides the fact that he didn't need to, he didn't find any appeal in a partner that had been coerced into wanting him.
"I had to ask," Carlisle tried to placate.
Maybe he had, but it was just another reminder that Carlisle didn't fully trust him either. If he'd had faith that Jasper could control himself, he wouldn't have said it at all. That wasn't an issue he wanted to push, though, so Jasper just stared.
"Well," Carlisle eventually continued, "every human is entirely unique. Just as Alice can't see every single future in the world, there's bound to be some who don't respond to your abilities."
The answer, on the surface, made sense.
But it still didn't satisfy him, because instinct was telling him that there was more to it than that. Jasper always trusted his instincts.
"Are you sure that's all there is to it?"
Instead of answering, Carlisle turned to go back into his study.
"Sorry I can't offer you more right now, "he said, "I have a lot to work on. I'm glad you got to spend some time with her, and everything seems to be going well."
Without a doubt, Jasper knew Carlisle could feel his gaze burning into his back. Jasper knew because he wanted the other man to be uncomfortable. Carlisle had been around for centuries. You don't live that long by being oblivious, and besides that was the fact that Carlisle was a scholar at heart. He collected knowledge like he collected children, it seemed.
This was why, beyond any doubt, Jasper knew that Carlisle had at least some semblance of why Wren was able to resist his gift. The older man knew, and wasn't telling,
And Jasper wanted to make sure that Carlisle knew that the longer he waited to share, the bigger the problem they were going to have.
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Carlisle wyd sir.
Lol for real tho please review! I've never written Alice before and I'm nervous. I wasn't planning on writing any POV other then Wren or Jasper but it just happened, and I'm not sure how I did.