The Jaguar Versus the Wolf
Chapter 20 - I'm Screwed
Orbiting Satellites Book Two, Chapter 20 - Jennifer companion
After a fun breakfast with Nessie (and the dog) I was about to leave to go wander around the forest, or find some other way to occupy my time. I really didn't have any plans yet. It was his day, according to the schedule Renesmee had come up with, which left me with nothing to do.
"Sorry boys," Alice's maniacal voice chimed as she happily skipped up to us. "I'm stealing my niece away for a fun-filled shopping trip today." Renesmee was still upset that Rosalie and Emmett were still among the missing. Since they'd left without a word almost a month ago Alice had been whisking her away every so often with a shopping excursion, as an attempt to cheer her up. I think it did more for Alice than Renesmee.
"What are we buying this time? You already bought me an entirely new wardrobe last time." The fact that she was sick of shopping said a lot.
"We're not shopping for you."
"Jake and Nahuel already have enough..."
"It's not for them either. Or Carlisle, or Esme, or Jasper either. Or Bella and Edward and Rose and Em for that matter." Why was she dragging this out? "It's actually someone I can't see," she said mysteriously. "We'll have to get a bunch of different options."
Renesmee began peppering her with questions about the mysterious guest – who were they, when would they be here, how long were they staying, whether they were a girl or a boy, where were they going to stay, and so on. None of which Alice was able to answer beyond the fact that they would be friendly and in no way a threat. By the way she was smiling it looked like she knew more than she was letting on.
After Renesmee begrudgingly said her goodbyes to us, the dog headed off to the garage. And I, with nothing else to do, my mind began wandering and I started thinking about who this mysterious guest could be. And then it all made sense. I needed to find the dog.
"Could I speak with you?" I asked, directing my question to his legs, the only part of him I could see since the rest was hidden by the car he was under. He huffed and slid out. Great, he already looked annoyed as he leaned against the car. "I thought we should talk about what's going to happen once Renesmee gives birth."
The tool he'd been holding clattered as it landed on the garage's concrete floor and he gasped. "She's pregnant?"
"No. Not yet. At least I don't think she is," I quickly amended. "She hasn't said anything to me, anyway." I assumed he would be one of the first to know when it did happen though. Of course if my assumption was right, about the blank spot in Alice's vision, Renesmee may be in the very early stages. And if I was wrong and she wasn't I doubted she will remain that way for long, not with him sharing her bed every night.
"Oh, O-kaay," he said drawing out the word. He confused me so much sometimes. Right now especially. He's acting like her child would not be the wonderful news that it should be.
I wanted to be the one to father a child with Renesmee, but I doubted that the odds were in my favor since our relationship hadn't progressed that far. She barely let me kiss her, after all. Perhaps this is why, so there would be no confusion over the parentage of her offspring.
"What is it you wanted to ask me exactly?" the dog finally said, while fiddling with some grease covered thing that was sitting on a nearby table instead of looking my way.
"I was just wondering about our living situation. I mean how it is going to work once there is a baby. I don't think things will be able to stay as they are now." A baby will need its own room and I wasn't sure where that would be or what my place in this would be in our pseudo-threesome once the two of them had a child. The dog once said that he had his own room next to Renesmee's, even though it was barely used. They could probably convert that into a nursery. Simple. I guess my real question was what was going to happen to me, when it did, but I was too worried I wouldn't like the answer to ask.
He seemed to think for a second, but then his imprinting drive to do anything to make Renesmee happy once again shocked and astounded me. "We'll have to talk to Nessie, but I'd be okay with the four of us," he was including me? "getting our own house somewhere nearby." He started going on and on about how Renesmee would want to stay close to her parents, and a bunch of other stuff, but I mostly stopped listening after that. The main point was that he seemed to think Renesmee would still want me in her life. The idea of the two of them raising their child together with me just shacked up nearby was unreal, especially when I heard the words "spare bedroom" escape his lips. That was strange to say the least. My imagination started running wild. Everything that it came up with was not exactly pleasant in my opinion. I think he was still talking when I just turned and left, I couldn't listen anymore.
"Yeah, that all sounds… swell," I mumbled as I headed out the door.
"So, it's been almost a year, how's it going between the two of you?"
When Edward suggested a cellular phone I was initially against it. I wasn't going to agree, but Jennifer had one and it made calls like this with her possible. While I didn't get to see her that often, it was nice to be able to talk to her every now and then. It mattered less to me that my other two sisters and father also possessed phones, but I rarely talked to them, if I could help it. I only ever used it when visiting Renesmee and her family, since I mostly kept to the jungle in Brazil and had nowhere to charge the thing there.
Jennifer had just moved passed the pleasantries, and was catching me up with how she and my other sisters were doing, and moved on to a subject I was hoping to avoid. "Are you and the Cullen girl madly in love?"
"Actually, to tell you the truth... It might not work out between the two of us."
"What? How can this be?"
"She's not... I'm not..." I wanted to talk to her, tell her the truth, but I just couldn't. It was embarrassing. I was losing to a dog. "We just want different things I guess."
"Oh," she said after a minute. "We'll you could always mate with a human woman. She could give you the child you so desperately crave." My sister knew me so well. Having a child of my own… it was the only thing that connected me to Joham, though I was not at intense as him. I wasn't intent on procreation, forsaking all else. I also wanted a mate.
"How could I? You know what I've done to all my conquests in the past. She never makes it through the night. Even if I didn't drain them, I'd still break enough bones in the process that..."
"Surely you've gained enough control, being with Renesmee all these months that you could control yourself..."
"We haven't..." I started to admit. Luckily I didn't need to say anything else. Jennifer knew me well enough, she would understand.
"But why?"
"That is a very long story. Too long for a phone call," I told her.
While I hadn't gone into further detail, Jennifer knew I had never kept anything from her before. She knew that if I couldn't tell her now, it was something big. "I'll be there in a day. Wait for my call and you can meet me at the airport," she informed me before hanging up the phone.
Alice's vision... my sister was coming. Renesmee wasn't pregnant. Probably. I wasn't sure how I felt. I should have kept my worries to myself. Still I was happy she was coming.
I picked her up at the airport, like she asked, and on the drive to the Cullens told her all about what was going on between me and Renesmee… and the dog.
We ended up getting into a heated discussion with my sister trying to convince me to leave Renesmee and return home with her. She didn't like the idea of me sharing Renesmee any more than I did.
After a lot of back and forth I sort of got my way. I wasn't leaving and neither was Jennifer… at least not right away. I hadn't convinced my sister, but at least got her to agree to meet Renesmee. Tonight might actually be the perfect opportunity. It was Bella and Edwards welcome home party. They'd finally returned from Isle Esme. If we just stopped in to make an appearance I could introduce them, in a somewhat civilized manner. Hopefully in a room full of Vampires my sister wouldn't say anything too embarrassing or inappropriate. And she might even get to know Renesmee. If she did I was sure Jennifer would like her. If they talked maybe Jennifer would see how amazing Renesmee was, and what a fool I would be to give up on possibly my only chance at happiness, my only chance to mate with someone from my own species, my only possibility to produce an offspring who was a hybrid like myself.
"Renesmee," I called to her as we walked into Carlisle and Esme's house. "Can you join me over here? I have someone I would like you to meet, please."
She began to come over, but I worried for a second that the dog wasn't going to let her. I shouldn't have. Due to the imprinting, she was the one in charge, and stopped him with only a look. He was still her protector though and came with her, most likely alert to the fact that another hybrid was in the room. Jennifer wasn't a threat, but he didn't know that.
"Renesmee and Jacob, may I introduce you to my sister, Jennifer."
"Renesmee, it's nice to meet you," she smiled, but stopped as soon as her eyes fell on the dog, "and Jacob." "Nahuel mentioned he had entered into a... relationship with you. It seems quite unconventional." Like the smile she gave Renesmee her laugh was just as fake.
"Well it works for us," the dog lied. Or maybe he wasn't. The imprinting might make him happy with the way things were, as sick as that seemed.
"For NOW," I snarled.
"How can you-" Bosta! I knew Jennifer was going to try to say something. Even though I asked her not to, to wait and give Renesmee a chance, I knew she was about to launch into an interrogation. I couldn't have that.
"I should introduce you to the rest of the Cullens," I said as I grabbed my sister's arm and led her away before she could get the rest of her potentially damaging sentence out.
Carlisle and Esme were kind and as compassionate as expected; and Jasper, who I knew would sense my sister's innate goodness despite her negative feelings towards my relationship with his niece, did not let me down. And with her mates approval Alice was easily won over. I saved introducing her to Edward and Bella for last. With his mind reading ability I was worried he would be displeased that Jennifer wanted to ruin his daughter's plans.
"Jennifer, it's so nice to finally meet you," Edward said, extending his hand to her, before I even said a word. He didn't look upset, but I noticed that while he smiled at her he looked sad when he was looking in my direction. But only for a moment. The corners of his mouth quickly replaced his frown with a smile.
"Thank you, you have a beautiful home," Jennifer replied.
"This is actually Esme and Carlisle's place," Bella informed her. "We live right next door though. Why don't you come by tomorrow and we can give you a tour."
We continued with the small talk until the dog came over and interrupted us. "Hey Bells, Edward. Mind if I borrow Nahuel for a minute?"
"What do you want?" I probably would have said something nastier but Renesmee was with him and I didn't want to upset her.
"I thought we should talk," he said, "away from everyone. There's a spot in the woods near here that should be fine."
"You're not going to be gone long are you?" Renesmee asked, looking concerned. Honestly I was too, but for a different reason. He didn't like me. I knew that. I didn't like him either. But he was closer to Renesmee than I was. He had her ear. I knew if he wanted or tried to he could easily poison her against me. Things were already not going great between us. Ever since I brought up the question of living arrangements once Renesmee's had a child he's been giving me the deadliest looks. Could he have sweet talked her into getting rid of me? Or perhaps he passed my questions on to her, and now that she thought about it, realized how ludicrous it would be for the four of us to live together. Had she already made her decision and he had his orders; planning on coming back from the woods alone, with a story of some tragic accident I suffered to explain my disappearance to the others?
I knew I could take the dog if needed, but I also knew I would probably get injured in the process and didn't want to spend Jennifer's entire visit recovering.
"Not long. We'll be back before you know it," he told her. We? I looked at Edward for confirmation and he nodded.
As we walked, and walked, and walked, I started thinking Edward had been wrong. What if Rosalie and Emmett had come back and were out here waiting for us so the three of them could ambush me?
When he finally stopped in the middle of a clearing I realized I was right. This was a perfect place for a fight. It gave him the best advantage. It was more than 100 meters wide, void of any trees I could climb to get somewhere he couldn't reach me, or anything I could grab for a weapon.
"Have you changed your mind back there about things? Nessie? Or me? Do you want me gone?" he asked me when he turned around.
"Yes, I want you gone," I admitted. "But it's not like it would be that easy to get rid of you. As if I could just tell you to leave and you would."
"No, I would need to hear it from, Nessie."
"Well then, I guess the two of us are stuck with each other for a while longer."
"You won't regret it; Nessie is going to be so happy to have us both." Yuck! Why did he have to seem so happy about that?
I needed to get out of here. Not caring if the dog had more to say, I risked turning my back on him and ran back to the house.
The party seemed to be breaking up, Alice and Jasper had already returned to their place and Edward and Bella were saying their goodbyes to Carlisle and Esme, making the excuse that they needed to unpack and so forth.
My sister looked tired, so after saying goodnight I showed her Carlisle and Esme's other guestroom before retiring to my own.
Normally I loved that the house was always warm, from the heat being turned up to grow my plants, but not tonight. I was irritated, hot, and sweaty. Before going to bed Jennifer informed me, in some rather unpleasant words, that, although she was too tired to tonight, tomorrow, we would be having another long discussion about Renesmee… and my relationship with her. I needed some air, and threw open my window.
"There you are," I heard Renesmee's sweet voice chime.
"Hey, sweetheart. What's up?" Argh… the dog. Of course she was talking to him. That's why she sounded so happy. I tried using my pillow to cover my ears and drown him out, but it didn't work.
"Where were you and Nahuel just now?"
"I just had to talk to him in private, but we're good. Did you need me?" I added my sheets… and blanket… and stuck my fingers in my ears.
"Mmmm, Jake. I definitely need you." Her voice cooed more sexily than I'd ever heard. "I want you right now. Come on. Let's go to b-" Dashing to the window I slammed it shut before she got out the end of that sentence. I didn't want to hear it or any that might follow after.
Argh!
This was not my night! I tried to sleep, but there were too many things on my mind. I tossed and turned for hours. It was around six o'clock in the morning when I last glanced at the clock. The next thing I knew I was being shaken awake.
"NAHUEL, WAKE UP!" Jennifer's voice rang in my ear.
"Okay, okay. I'm awake. What time is it?" I said while rubbing my eyes.
"Nine. I've been up for hours," she told me. "I figured you got enough sleep and would be ready to talk now."
I wasn't, but there was no avoiding my sister. Despite being raised my Joham, whom I regarded as more mad scientist than loving dad, she had turned out to be one of the sweetest, kindest persons I'd ever met.
"Look, I know it seems weird but..."
"Weird? It's wrong! How can you become mates with her if she's already mated to a werewolf? And where is she, or should I say them?" she asked looking around, knowing full well they weren't in my room.
"I've never slept with her; I told you that over the phone."
"So what's your plan, try to push him out first? You know hybrids are just like Vampires. We mate for life. You aren't going to change her mind about him."
"I know that," I wasn't even going to bother mentioning his imprinting on her.
"So what then?"
"She wants us both." I shrugged. Jennifer didn't seem satisfied by that answer, so I explained further. "Since Renesmee she is already mated to the dog," I growled in disgust, "she gave me a choice. I could either agree to her being with both of us, or it would be just them."
"So you're going to share her? How could you agree to such a thing?"
My nightmare popped up in my head. Dividing her time was a best case scenario. I shook my head to clear out those thoughts.
"I didn't know at first. I thought he was just her protector. It wasn't until the other night I found out the exact extent of their relationship."
"What'd you do? Walk in on them?" she chuckled, but didn't realize how close to the truth she was.
"No," I sighed before telling her exactly how I found out the truth.
"Leave here. Leave her. Come home with me," she said again, once I was done. "Maysun and Selena would love to see you again. And father would be so happy to finally have all of his children with him. You know it's a great source of pain for him that you refuse to live with your family."
"Huilen is my family."
"She has her own mate. You'd only be in the way," she said. "Just like you are here."
"And what am I supposed to do there… sit around and wait for father to start creating more hybrids? He can't make mates for us. And eventually the Volturi would find out he'd broken their new law and come to destroy all of us."
'No," she snipped. "The Volturi were very precise with their words. Vampires are forbidden from impregnating humans to create more hybrids, but they said nothing about you, who are already a hybrid, from doing the same. Like I suggested to you before; find a human to impregnate and then change her."
"Too cold," I said, double-entendre intended. "Renesmee is my only choice. I need to stick with this. Perhaps in time the dog will leave… one way or another."
"Okay, fine," she said, resigning-herself to my decision. "So how do you plan on winning her over and away from the werewolf?"
"I was hoping you could help me with that. I've taken her on romantic date after romantic date, over and over again, yet nothing seems to work. What am I doing wrong?" Damn, I was whining.
"Are you asking me to tell you what women want?" she smirked.
"No, not women. Just this one particular hybrid," I said. My sister then asked me what Renesmee liked and after confirming that I thought we had gone to all of her favorite places, done everything she liked to do, and I'd shown her some of my favorite things (weaving and playing music among other things) Jennifer helped me plan what she deemed as the "perfect date".
"How was it?" she asked when I returned later that night.
"Same as usual," I huffed.
Renesmee didn't seem to into the date but after it was over we actually ended up making out for a while before I took her back home. But just as I was about to take things further, now that I knew the truth about her relationship with Jacob, I just couldn't. His stench repulsed me and the fact that she was covered in it tonight sickened me even more. The same thing had happened during our last date, and the one before that, and the one before that. I was the one to stop things moving forward between us lately.
"Really?" Jennifer was shocked. I would have thought that would have worked. If a guy took me out on that kind of date I would be putty in his hands. Alright, new plan. I'm going to need to observe her if I'm going to be of any help."
So the next afternoon we followed her scent and found her in the garage with the dog. It was Tuesday, their date night, but since Jennifer was here I was going to use her as an excuse to cut into their time.
"NO!" I heard her scream as we got closer. "JAKE STOP! DON'T!"
There was rustling noises and then laughter from the dog. What was going on?
Once I burst through the door I saw Renesmee on the floor with the dog above her. My cause for alarm was misplaced though. They were both laughing and playing; the dog trying to smear an oil covered rag on her face. Judging by the smile on her face she was enjoying it.
"Jake! Ewww!" she screamed again, once he was successful.
"Told you, you would get it if you kept it up," the dog snickered, as he helped her up.
Finally they noticed our presence.
"Nahuel, Jennifer, hi," Renesmee chuckled, before grabbing a clean rag and whipping the oil off of her face, then pulling the dog to her and doing the same for him. Bosta!. The way she looked him in the eyes and the smile that lit up his face, as she wiped the oil from a spot below his eye, that was what I wanted. That was how I wanted her to look at me. "All better," she whispered to him.
"Thanks," he replied, raising her hand that didn't hold the rag, to kiss it.
"What are you guys going here?" she then asked me, but I wasn't in the mood to hang around any longer. The sight of the two of them together like that sickened me.
"I was just going to show Jennifer around and wanted to see if you would join us, but I can see you're busy. We'll leave you."
"You don't have to do that, give us a few minutes to clean up and we'll come with you."
While the idea of spending the day with the dog made me want to vomit, Jennifer looked pleased. It was just what she needed, or at least what she requested – to be able to observe the two of them together to better understand what made them work as a couple.
Over the next four hours as we toured the three houses, surrounding woods, and visited the nearby town Jennifer watched as Renesmee and the dog flirted, hugged, cuddled, held hands, giggled, told jokes that only the two of them got, and a whole host of other things. Practically the only thing they didn't do was openly make out in front of us.
"So, any insights?" I asked Jennifer, when we were done and Renesmee had gone back to her house.
"You're screwed," she simply yet apologetically said with a tilt of her head.
"Gee, thanks," I huffed.
