Things were finally returning to normal. For the first time since I moved to Forks, life was peaceful. Jake and I were back on good terms, and nobody was trying to kill me. Life was perfect. We spent the day with the pack on the beach and when the sun started to hide behind the large trees that bordered the beach, we decided it was time to go.
Jake and I walked hand in hand to his house where I knew I'd find my dad, but what I didn't expect to find, was my dad, making out with my mom on the porch.
"Mom? Dad?" They tore themselves away from each other and stared at me like deer caught in headlights. "What… I… Oh my god!"
"Bells, we were going to tell you, we just…" Charlie said, reaching for Renee's hand.
"We wanted to make sure we weren't just being caught up in the moment." Renee finished.
"And? Are you just caught up or…?"
"We just decided to officially give this another try. I'm moving back in!"
I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to feel. I walked passed them into the house, followed closely by Jake and started making dinner.
"Sorry." He said, as he passed them. "Lots of things to deal with right now. I think she's just overwhelmed."
I could feel Jake's hands on my hips.
"Give them a break, Bells. You gave me one."
"I…" I turned around and saw my parents walk into the room. "I'm sorry. Jake's right. I'm just overwhelmed right now. But I am happy just… you guys are going to go through a honeymoon stage, like all relationships and I just don't want to ruin that for you. I'm going to ask Leah if I can stay in the guest room again."
"Bella, that's not necessary…" My mom started to say but I held up a hand.
"Mom, you and dad have been away from each other for years. The least I can do is let you have some time alone."
Leah and Sam walked in then, holding a bag of store bought rolls.
"Hey, just the person I needed to see." Leah said, placing the rolls onto the table and glancing at my parents who were far too close together.
"Me too actually. Uh as you can see…" I tilted my head towards them. "Would you mind if I moved back in?"
"Oh, not at all. It would actually help me out a lot with some planning. I was just about to ask if you'd be my maid of honor. We set a date!"
"Of course! I'd be honored."
Leah hugged me and Sam clapped Jake on the shoulder.
"As for best man…"
Jake turned to look at him with a smile on his face. "After everything I put you through?"
"You're my brother. No matter what."
"Thank you. Yeah, of course I'll be your best man. This is awesome. So when's the date?"
"June thirteenth, we wanted to make sure everyone was done school for it. We kind of have some big plans."
"Ok so you're going to share these big plans with your bridal party, right?" I asked, my curiosity peaking.
"Yeah. Of course." Leah said, "but not right now. Right now, we just have a nice dinner. Just waiting on the last guest."
"There's someone else coming?" I didn't remember inviting anyone else when I decided to have a small dinner party yesterday. To be fair, I wasn't expecting Jake either despite the fact that he lived here. I'd visited many times over the past few months and Jake was always conveniently elsewhere.
"Why am I always expected to be the third wheel?" Billy asked, walking into the kitchen. I realised then that the porch was a much easier space to hold this many people.
"Better than four wheels, right?" Charlie said, and Billy punched him in the arm.
"Hey! You want me to arrest you for assaulting an officer?"
I shook my head at their childish antics. "So who is the other guest? We're going to need to eat on the porch with this many people."
"I invited her." Billy said, rubbing the back of his neck in the same way Jake always did when nervous. "She started to come around after everything and uh when I no longer needed help, she kept coming around."
"Dad, are you dating somebody? What the fuck is in the air right now?" Jake asked and I was partly glad I was not the only one out of the loop but I was also sad for Jake that his dad never told him.
"Beth. Elizabeth Clearwater. Her son Joey joined the pack during the fight." I glanced to my mom when he said pack and her expression never changed, but she did look over at me.
"Mom?"
"Billy, your father and I all had a long conversation yesterday when they saw that things with Jake were back to normal and don't you worry, you and I will have a long talk tomorrow, but for now, I'd like to just enjoy my day, and meet this Beth I keep hearing about."
Holy crap. She knew. What all did she know?
"I can't believe Aunt Beth finally decided to start dating. Joey's dad really messed her up." Leah said, sadness in her eyes.
"What happened?"
"What happened was Joey's dad fell in with the wrong people. He got into heavy drugs and became addicted and eventually he overdosed and died. His name is brought up every year at the school to explain why kids need to stay away from drugs. Sometimes if there's been some known dealing around the community, Aunt Beth goes to the school and they hold a ceremony and she talks with the kids herself, explaining how bad addiction is. Luckily there aren't very many times we find drugs on our lands. The pack makes sure of that."
"Enough talk of this. How about a happier conversation?" Billy said, asking to change the topic at the same time a beautiful woman, about a whole head shorter than Billy walked in through the open front door.
"I didn't want to interrupt." She smiled at me and nodded her head, "It's nice to finally meet you. Billy talks about you a lot, and so does Joey. A good portion does however have to do with food so I hope you don't mind that my expectations are quite high."
She gave a small giggle, and I knew she was joking. We all laughed at that, and conversations became much more lighthearted.
Beth seemed like the perfect person for Billy. She was an amazing woman and I was glad things seemed to be going so well for everyone. But Jake was right. What was going on in the air? Everyone seemed to be coupled overnight. I knew it was probably just me though. It wasn't overnight for my parents or for Billy and Beth. Sam and Leah had been engaged for months so picking a date didn't seem out of the ordinary. It was all in my head.
After dinner, I went home and despite being alone for months, I missed Jake. I missed his warmth and his smell. I went to bed early. When I woke up, I started packing my things. Maybe mom could use this room for her crafting things. She loved to scrapbook.
It didn't take long to pack my stuff. Some of my things were actually still down at Sam and Leah's. Mostly clothes, lots of books, and some makeup I decided to buy despite never having anywhere to dress up for.
I wanted to talk to Jake, just having him on speakerphone while I packed would make the day go much faster but I had to keep reminding myself that he was in school. When my packing was done, I loaded up the truck and drove down to LA Push.
"Hey, roomie!" I was greeted by Sam as the truck pulled up. Patrols were pretty much non-existent now, usually someone ran the treaty line once a day, and assuming no scents were found, everyone went about their regular business.
"Hey, Sam. Thank you so much for letting me stay here… again."
"If it was up to me, you never would have left, and I know a pack of hungry wolves that would agree."
"Very funny."
"Nah. We love having you around. I mean, we had to draw straws to decide if Leah got you as her Maid of Honor or if I got to ask you to be my Best Man."
"Sam!" Leah called from inside the house. "Just ignore him. Come on, let me show you what I have planned so far. If he wants to torment you, he can bring the boxes in himself."
"Damnit, but it's all so heavy." Sam sighed.
I shook my head and walked with my laptop at my side into their home and followed Leah to the dining table.
"Ok, so here are the colors we chose, and by we I mean me because Sam would marry me naked if I'd allow it."
"I heard that and damn right I would!" Sam yelled from outside. Leah shook her head with a huge smile on her face.
"Again, ignore him. He's been in a really good mood lately and I have no idea why and it's great because I have that carefree Sam back but he also is like ninety percent jokes."
"Noted. So this color scheme, where have I seen this before? Why do these colors stand out?"
"It's our wolves. Black for Sam, Silver for me, burgundy for Jake, this light green for the forest and I did Navy blue for you. Um, Navy blue represents power and authority and importance and I figured that kind of summed up your role to us. Being the imprint of the true alpha, doing everything you've done for us, being everything you've been. You have managed to single-handedly take a group of angry wolves that fought amongst themselves and whip us into shape. We're like a huge family now and I don't know if that would have been possible without you. You may not be the alpha but we all look up to you for guidance."
"Jeez, you're going to make me cry. I had no idea you felt that way."
"We all do." Sam said, placing a few boxes on the floor. "You're our Luna."
"Luna?"
"A term used to describe the Alpha female of a pack, or the Alpha's mate in popular literature. The goddess of the moon." Leah explained.
"Wow, um. Ohh!"
"What is it?" Leah and Sam asked simultaneously.
"I have the perfect name for my bakery. Bella Luna."
"That just rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?" Leah said.
"Speaking of rolls and tongue. I'm starving. You ladies want pizza?" We both nodded and went back to the wedding plans.
Luna… wow, I can't believe they thought of me so highly.
Leah had one other bridesmaid and it was Angela, and Sam asked Paul to be a groomsman. They decided on only two to stand beside them because if they could, the whole pack would be up there. Then they'd barely have any guests. Leah planned on wearing a silver gown with a black rose accent, and Sam and the other men would wear black tuxedos with Silver bow ties. Angela and I would wear matching dresses, mine Navy blue and hers burgundy. I could picture it and it would be beautiful.
We spent hours hanging out and talking about the wedding. I was getting really excited for Leah and Sam.
Around dinner time Jake stopped by and helped me unpack. It was nice having him around again, but I also got used to being without him so when he showed up to help, I was actually really surprised to see him.
"So, I was hoping we could maybe go on another date. That fair is coming back in a couple weeks. They do spring and fall, and I was hoping we could have a repeat. Double date or maybe a group of us go? Like the original pack members and their imprints. I know the pack has grown a lot and I don't want to exclude them but I feel like I have a lot to make up for when it comes to the ones that were there for the fight."
"You're being ridiculous. You have nothing to make up for, but a date would be nice. To have fun, not as an apology."
"Thank you."
"Maybe a bit smaller though. You and me, Angela, Paul, Leah and Sam?"
"Yeah. That sounds good. I'll ask them if they're interested." Jake sat on the edge of the bed and looked to the floor.
"What is it?"
"You aren't going to regret your decision to let me back in, are you? I mean… you see a ton of couples who go through things like cheating and the other person always wonders of the cheater is still doing it, and they're never truly happy."
"Jake, I don't count that as cheating. I'm not even mad at what that Jake almost did because it wasn't you. It wasn't something you'd ever do. I'm mad because you just cut me out and decided for me to stay away. You never took my feelings into consideration. YOU, not that Jake that forgot who I was. You, the one who knew exactly who I was, exactly how that would make me feel and you did it anyways. I already had one relationship like that and it didn't end well, I don't want this one to be the same. Imprint or no imprint, you owe it to me to be honest, always, or this won't work. No more secrets, no more running away."
"I know, and I'm sorry. I was an idiot. You have my word, I won't ever do that again. Thank you for letting me know that you aren't worried about the other things, though I can't imagine having someone, especially someone you love say… that… and you feel safe."
"Because I know YOU that same Jake that would never cheat on me would also never hurt me, not physically anyways." I grabbed Jake's hand and placed it at my throat. "See, no fear. You're my Jake."
Jake's eyes glanced down at his hand on my throat and I could feel his hand, which was loosely lying against my skin, tighten ever so slightly. I didn't know if he was intentionally trying to scare me to see if I meant it or if he was completely unaware of his actions, but if it was the former, it wasn't working. It actually had the opposite affect. It reminded me of Jake's hand at my neck, his thumb gently caressing the hollow spot above my collarbone and I once again felt helpless to my need.
Jake's eyebrows raised as he sensed my growing desire and looked me in the eyes. "Bells?"
I blushed, biting my lip. "What can I say? Honeymoon stage."
"I'm not sure if that ever goes away when you're imprinted." He leaned down and kissed just under my jaw line.
"I'd be okay with that."
"I want to give you more than just sex."
"You do." I smirked, "You give me really GOOD sex." I winked at Jake and he laughed.
"You're so fucking irresistible." He said, shaking his head at me with a huge smile on his face. "Come on. Let's go do something that doesn't involve sex."
"What do you have in mind?" I was curious but also really wanted to just have sex. I could sense that Jake needed to get away though.
"Just, come with me."
Jake led me toward a large field down the street from the store and clinic, there was a sign on the side but it was worn and I couldn't make it out.
"What is this place?"
Jake just smiled and led be past the concrete wall to a small shed-like building.
"Wait here." He said and went inside. When he came back out a few minutes later, he had two guns.
"Jake what are you doing?"
"Relax, they aren't real." He shot it once at a wall made of pallets in the field and the bright red ball that came out burst and splattered paint on the wood.
"Jake, what about my clothes?"
"They use a water based paint that washes out easily. Have for years. That's why you can't see paint everywhere. It washed away with the rain this morning. Come on." He held the other gun out to me and a pair of goggles and I reluctantly took them before he started counting down from twenty When he got to fifteen he gestured toward the field.
"Oh." I took off and hid behind a small structure made of rotten logs. I heard him say ready or not, here I come, and I instantly remembered a time when we played hide and go seek as kids, with his sisters. The memory made me smile until I heard a twig break nearby. My heart raced with the excitement and I peaked my head out from my low point behind the logs.
Jake of course saw me instantly but I pulled my head back behind the logs and took off toward another structure and cocked my gun. When Jake appeared around the logs, I shot him once, right in the middle of the chest from about 50 feet away. The look on his face was worth it.
"Charlie took me to a shooting range over the summer." I yelled to him.
He shook his head but smiled.
We spent the next hour shooting each other. I was definitely a better shot but Jake got a couple good, lucky shots in as well. By the end, we both had paint in our hair, on our clothes and shoes, and our skin.
We returned the guns and walked back to the house.
"Did you two fall into a paint store or something?" Sam asked. Leah was right, he was constantly sarcastic and joking around. It was great though, seeing him so carefree.
"Paintball. We needed something fun to do." Jake explained.
"Because you two haven't been having all kinds of fun already?"
"Oh, shush you." I said and slapped his arm gently enough to not hurt myself.
I grabbed Jake by his hand and pulled him into the bathroom with me.
"I'm going to need help scrubbing this off. So do you. I undressed him as he watched me. The look he gave me wasn't something I could decipher. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"Sorry, I just can't believe how much you've grown these last few months."
My face heated with the blush but I decided to get everything back on light-hearted ground again instead of going down what I'd been up to the past five months.
"Liar. I haven't grown an inch, except when I wear heels."
"You're adorable, Bells."
"Shut up and get in." I said, then slipped my clothes off.
