A/N: Despite my earlier notes that this would just be a collection of random chapters from EPOV in no particular order, I've only been going in order and I've loved every minute of it, so I'm officially rebranding. This will be mid-Eclipse through the end of Breaking Dawn from Edward's perspective. Thanks for reading!

These characters are not mine and all belong to Stephenie Meyer.


Public Displays of Affection (Eclipse)

Shit! No - wha - DAAAMN! Emmett's thoughts were nearly incoherent as Jasper and I fought in the clearing.

I was having so much fun I nearly forgot our large audience of family and wolves. But Emmett's excitement was loud and cut through. As did some chatter among the wolves.

Yeah, Jake, Charlie's right - I think this bloodsucker would kick your ass, Paul taunted.

Shut the fuck up, Paul! Embry said, defending Jacob.

Don't worry about Paul. He's just embarrassed I kick his ass every day of the week, Jacob said, unruffled.

I'll take you right now, fucker, Paul said, his anger flaring at the slight provocation. I didn't want to think about how many times Bella had probably been around this particular wolf with his almost non-existent self control.

Paul, Jake, stop. Sam's order bound them. It was a strange thing to witness. Almost uncomfortable. Like watching a grown adult receive a child's punishment.

Jasper nearly had me in my moment of distraction, but, not realizing I was distracted, he decided to abruptly shift elsewhere, trying to act on instinct alone. His attempt failed - I could see his intent. I had him, I just needed to -

Carlisle cleared his throat loudly and we stepped apart. I wondered how long he'd been trying to get my attention with his thoughts.

As Jasper trained the others, I exerted great effort trying to juggle analysis of Jasper's every decision with my newly discovered fascination of the pack psyche.

I felt Bella lean against me, drawing me out of abstraction and back into the tangible world. I looked down and saw her eyes were closed.

"We're about finished," I whispered.

The pack accepted Jasper's invitation to watch again the next day and we obliged their request for us to stand still as they drew closer to familiarize themselves with our scents.

I watched Bella now as her eyes grew wide. She'd seemed alarmed when I shared the pack would come in their wolf forms. It sounded like her previous run ins with them had not been particularly pleasant. Was it possible she could see the monster in Jacob that she failed to see in me? Though I had never truly made sense of it, my astonishment over Bella's easy acceptance of what I am had worn off long ago. I could only guess at the reasons.

But standing here beside the wolves, was it possible that she might see me as more human than him? Though the worst of my nature was every bit in tact, I had the physical form of a man. Of course she knew the cold, hard touch of my skin, but unlike the wolves, she couldn't see the strange rock like facets that composed it. I could speak to her, laugh, and hold her hand.

Jacob, on the other hand, was undeniably an animal, a monster. He stood huge on four legs covered, like the rest of him, in thick red-brown fur. His teeth, so different than mine, did not disguise their danger.

Compared to the other wolves, he was comfortable in our presence. With the exception of Carlisle, I could sense Jacob still hated us, but he understood very well the protection Bella's friendship offered him.

My eyes were still trained to Bella as I monitored the wolves' thoughts. The pack was close enough now, I guessed, that her human eyes could make them out in the pre-dawn darkness. And, only seconds later, I noticed her freeze. Her lips parted just slightly and her eyes grew round in fear... or was it fascination?

Though he hadn't been looking in her direction and though he hadn't consciously decided to do so, suddenly Jacob looked up to meet her eyes. It was as if the strange pull between them was stronger now. How quickly her weak eyes had found him among the large pack...

Jacob noted her elevated heart beat just as I did. Oh come on, Bella. You're not scared of me?

His muzzle fell open, pulling back over his teeth, but his tongue lolled out to the side. He was trying to be silly so she wouldn't be afraid, but I couldn't imagine the grotesque expression would -

Bella giggled. Her face softened slightly and the corners of her lips turned up. She looked... impressed? ...delighted?

Jacob's face erupted into a monstrous grin. No human would find comfort in that. Only Bella, whose racing heart began to slow.

He left his place in line, making his way in our direction.

I wasn't the only one tuned into Bella and Jacob now. The pack released a collective, exasperated groan, peppered with individual insults and warnings. All of which he ignored.

Generally my family was concerned for me. And tensed for my reaction.

Alice didn't like what she was seeing. She had been fighting for me and Bella longer than I had, so I was unsurprised by her resentment towards Jacob. She saw him as a threat both to me and my happiness as well as to her own. However, I was surprised by her exasperation with Bella.

Rosalie, too, was annoyed with Bella. Strangely enough, she was feeling slightly protective of me. Does she have to flirt with the dog right in front of him?

Flirting? I wondered. No. I didn't think so.

Esme was more tender towards Bella. She felt pity that she couldn't have Jacob as her friend. She truly believed that's all he was to her. But more than that she was concerned for what I would read into this.

Emmett was feeling protective of Bella. He wasn't afraid of the wolves when it came to himself, but Bella, practically his little sister, was a different matter.

Jasper was concerned for Alice who Jacob was passing by at the moment.

Carlisle's thoughts were the worst. He was deeply intrigued by what he saw passing between them. He like me, couldn't understand her lack of fear. Carlisle marveled at the fact that Bella could see Jacob's humanity so quickly. So easily. Enough so that she could be amused with him. I wonder if that won't help her as a newborn.

Yes, Bella saw his humanity. Though he stood there as a ferocious, mutant dog... Though by all objective measures I appeared far more human in this moment...

Her eyes never left him as he crouched down before her on his front legs and dropped his head so that his face was no higher than hers. You know me, Bella, he thought, willing her to accept him. His mind briefly flashed to an unfamiliar dirt road. An image of Paul exploding into a wolf charging right towards Bella. Jacob throwing himself in between. And then another memory. But this place I knew - our meadow. Laurent standing over Bella.

Jacob wanted her to see he was not the monster. Laurent was. Maybe even Paul. But not him.

"Jacob?" She breathed.

He marveled at her voice wrapping around his name like a caress. He was past his worry and relieved now, letting out a deep rumble. His way of laughing, I realized.

She must have realized too, because, in a gesture that stunned the entire clearing, she reached her hand out. I fought hard against the urge to restrain her. Her fingers were trembling as she brought them to the fur on the side of his face.

He was deeply moved, his head instinctively leaning into her hand as his eyes closed. He was... purring. It was hard to name what he was feeling, but it was deep and peaceful, devoid of the anger and jealousy that often accompanied his affection for her. He didn't think of me at all.

The clearing was essentially silent, but my head was buzzing with the thoughts around me.

Through their annoyance, the wolves felt the gravity of his emotion, objectively confirming what I would have been happy to write off as my own biased lens.

But they couldn't tell me what I wanted to know most. Did Bella feel it, too? Was it a shared energy between them - something that somehow penetrated her stubbornly silent mind?

Though his picture of Jacob's... what was it? a pull?... was incomplete next to what I and the wolves saw, Jasper sensed it too. It bothered him, not out of concern for me, but because of the unnaturalness of it. It was strong, whatever it was.

And it was there in Bella, who had just taken a step closer without breaking her touch. Weaker, Jasper decided, and crowded by other emotions. Awe. Joy. Fear, which he felt seeping away.

...not like Claire, but still...

I was startled by Quil's train of thought. As were Jared and Sam. The weight of it, whatever it was, reminded them of the draw they felt towards those they had imprinted on. It was much fainter and not all-consuming as it was for them. But for some reason, here tonight under her touch, there was something eerily similar. An echo of what they knew.

Impossible, Sam thought. He didn't like the peculiar nature of their connection, so much more than just a crush, anymore than Jasper did. It couldn't be categorized or explained by their legends.

Jacob hardly attended to their thoughts, though they didn't seem to surprise him. He was distracted by the pleasure of Bella's hand now pulling through the fur along his neck as she stroked it.

I wanted to rip her away. To end his pleasure. To break the inexplicable energy flowing between them. To separate her fragile form from his deadly mass. To hold her in my arms as a reminder of the reason why I couldn't rip his heart out of his chest this very second.

It was only shock that kept me from doing just that as he suddenly ran his tongue along her face.

The buzz of thoughts in the clearing momentarily vanished before it crescendoed into chaos.

Oh, Jake, one wolf grumbled.

What the fuck is wrong with you, Jacob?

Seriously, are you trying to start a war?

Right in front of her bloodsucker boyfriend...

You know what, I hope he breaks your jaw, Leah thought.

Jacob, Sam thought in warning. But he, like my family, was watching me, noting my wide eyes, which I relaxed in response, and my complete stillness.

"Ew! Gross, Jake!" Bella exclaimed, swatting at him as if he was no more a threat to her than Mike Newton.

He barked a laugh as he dodged her.

Astonishingly, as she wiped away the dog's saliva with her shirt sleeve, she laughed.

My family stared openly at the pair, confused over Bella's reaction. Did she have no fear at all? No awareness of how close his stunt had brought her to his teeth which were so sharp they could tear a vampire limb from limb? What was wrong with her? Was she even sane?

...and what about Edward? Doesn't she she know him at all? How much pain this will cause him? I tried to tune out Alice's thoughts. I didn't want pity. Humiliation was an emotion I'd rarely experienced, but I felt the slightest tug of it in this moment. Alice wasn't helping that.

And then there was the disgust. Rosalie literally shuddered at the thought of the dog's tongue. Emmett wondered if soap would be enough to remove the stench. I hoped so.

Despite the watching crowd, Bella and Jacob were completely absorbed by one another. Entranced within their own private moment. So, I knew the second Bella became aware of her audience. Her cheeks turned pink and then scarlet as she took in all of the riveted eyes, none masking their discomfort at bearing witness to their intimacy. She met my eyes last and I realized I must have done a poor job composing my face because she quickly looked away.

Jacob, who watched what passed between us, barked another laugh. He wasn't ashamed in the slightest. In fact, he was celebrating the tension he'd inspired. Stay on your toes, bloodsucker.

Jacob, for the love of God... Jared really didn't want a fight. He wanted to get home to his Kim.

Sam was watching me again to see if I'd react. He didn't trust me. He hated me, I realized. Not in the generic way most of them seemed to hate us because of what we were. He hated me because of who I was. What I'd done -

Suddenly he slipped and I saw Bella's face. Her skin was ghostly in the blackest night. Her cheek smudged with dirt, leaves in her hair... It was the night I left her. The night he found her.

Just as quickly he regained control - he hadn't intended to show me that - and the image was gone. But it was long enough. Jasper was staring at me, trying to make sense of my sudden crushing pain.

Jacob watched me. He'd shared that memory with me before. Though my face was better controlled this time, he knew what it did to me. What it did to him, too.

Sam didn't want to wait around to see what foolish thing Jacob would do next and he didn't trust himself entirely after his own slip. He had them retreating. They never took their eyes off of us, only turning when they were safely obscured by the trees.

To my great displeasure, Jacob, still at Bella's side, informed Sam he wanted to stick around to discuss strategy. Sam wasn't pleased either, but he didn't object. He was more hesitant to order Jacob around because he was his second, something I'd realized earlier in the night. Sam told Quil and Embry to keep watch, which they did in discomfort at the furthest end of the clearing.

I sighed. Dealing with Jacob in a way that wouldn't push away Bella required an absurd amount of patience. And I didn't know how much more of that I had.

I was mentally exhausted after tuning into what felt like every single thought so I could monitor for danger, gather information, and frankly just indulge in my own curiosity at the strange workings of the wolves' telepathy. Every mind aside from Emmett's and Jacob's had been steeped in tension, which I absorbed second hand adding to my own.

My tension, my jealousy, my unfulfilled violent urges, my pain... the fight to hold myself in perfect, rigid control... that all had me stretched thin, too.

All I wanted was Bella all to myself in the absolute silence I knew I'd have once we were on our way back to Forks.

I wondered doubtfully if Jacob would go away if I just ignored him.

I walked to Bella's side, bringing me closer to him. Contrary to her strange reaction to his wolf form, it brought out heightened animosity in me. The tension was animal and instinctual. He felt it too.

He'd quite enjoyed their little performance earlier, basking in the attention of our two families as they engaged in their acts of affection. So, I enjoyed his pain now as I took her hand, reclaiming what was mine.

"Ready to go?" I asked her.

I need to know where she'll be during the fight. He didn't need to know anything. She was my responsibility and I would keep her safe. Plus, I knew this was going to be a sticky subject with her and now, as she stood here barely conscious, was hardly the time for it.

"I've not quite figured out all the details yet," I said dismissively.

He grumbled. Look, bloodsucker, leave it to me. I know the area well. I can find a safe place to put her during the fight. He was anxious for her, mistaking my dismissiveness for incompetence.

"It's more complicated than that. Don't concern yourself; I'll make sure it's safe," I added, conveying more explicitly that this was really none of his business.

This is just about her safety right now - that's all I care about. Don't play with me. I have a right to know -

"What are you talking about?" Bella demanded.

"Just discussing strategy," I said, borrowing the words he'd told Sam.

Jacob read her face closely before looking back at me to finish his interrupted thought.

- and so does she. Seriously, I don't know what she sees in you. Even if you weren't a filthy bloodsucker, you'd still be a controlling liar, he thought as he bolted for the trees to phase.

"Wait," Bella called, her hand stretched out in front of her. "Why did he leave?" She asked sadly. Did she have to sound so heartbroken?

This night was endlessly taxing.

"He's coming back." He was eager to to reveal my dishonesty. I sighed. "He wants to be able to talk for himself."

She leaned against me, fighting her exhaustion. I would have held her in my arms, but I knew she'd object here in front of everyone.

Jacob loped back to us wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants. We both noted her quickening heart and wondered the same thing.

"Okay, bloodsucker, what's so complicated about it?"

"I have to consider every possibility," I said with perfect calm. "What if someone gets by you?

He snorted at the idea, but decided better safe than sorry. "Okay, so leave her on the reservation. We're making Collin and Brady stay behind anyway. She'll be safe there." There was absolutely no way I would leave her somewhere I couldn't go.

"Are you talking about me?" Bella asked, scowling.

"I just want to know what he plans to do with you during the fight," Jacob explained.

"Do with me?" She replied angrily. He should have known better than to put it that way and now she was already on the defensive. This is exactly why I hadn't wanted to have this conversation with him.

"You can't stay in Forks, Bella," I explained more gently. "They know where to look for you there. What if someone slips by us?"

She grew pale and her heart raced. "Charlie," she gasped.

"He'll be with Billy," Jacob assured her quickly, eager to win points where he could. "If my dad has to commit a murder to get him there, he'll do it. Probably it won't take that much. It's this Saturday, right? There's a game."

"This Saturday?" She asked groggily as she looked up at me. "Well, crap! There goes your graduation present." Jacob's eyes inexplicably flashed to her wrist, but his thoughts didn't reveal why. There was nothing to see other than the thick fabric of her jacket sleeve which she gripped in her fist to protect her hand against the cold.

I laughed. She was so dopey when she was sleepy. Maybe that could help me rationalize some of her earlier reactions. Or, I thought darkly, she's too tired to edit, in which case...

"It's the thought that counts," I reminded her, pushing off my anxious rabbit hole for later. "You can give the tickets to someone else."

Her face lit up. "Angela and Ben. At least that will get them out of town."

Of course she would think of her friends - she was so selfless, but she had enough to worry about.

I touched her cheek. "You can't evacuate everyone," I said gently. "Hiding you is just a precaution. I told you - we'll have no problem now. There won't be enough of them to keep us entertained."

Jacob was glaring at my hand, hating my alien skin against hers. "But what about keeping her in La Push?" He asked brusquely.

"She's been back and forth too much," I said. "She's left trails all over the place. Alice only sees very young vampires coming on the hunt, but obviously someone created them. There is someone more experienced behind this. Whoever he" - I paused, remembering a theory Bella proposed earlier that Victoria was the source of all our troubles - "or she is, this could all be a distraction. Alice will see if he decides to look himself, but we could be very busy at the time that decision is made. Maybe someone is counting on that. I can't leave her somewhere she's been frequently. She has to be hard to find, just in case. It's a very long shot, but I'm not taking chances."

Jacob considered this. It seemed he'd regained some confidence in me.

Unfortunately the cost was Bella, her forehead creasing with concern, now had more to worry over. I patted her arm. "Just being overcautious," I promised.

"So hide her here," Jacob said, gesturing to the deep forest east of us, to the vast expanse of the Olympic Mountains. "There's a million possibilities - places either one of us could be in just a few minutes if there's a need."

I disliked how he equated the two of us as if his status in her life was equal to mine. But I knew he would lay his life down for her in a second, so I tried to suppress my jealousy and focus on what really mattered, her safety.

However, his idea was flawed.

"Her scent is too strong and, combined with mine, especially distinct. Even if I carried her, it would leave a trail. Our trace is all over the range, but in conjunction with Bella's scent, it would catch their attention. We're not sure exactly which path they'll take, because they don't know yet. If they crossed her scent before they found us..."

In that moment, we were of one mind, distressing over the same repulsive image. Our games and schemes for her affection seemed silly in light of this threat.

"You see the difficulties," I said, acknowledging our common understanding.

"There has to be a way to make it work," Jacob muttered. He glared toward the forest, pursing his lips as he ran through possibilities.

Bella swayed on her feet. I swiftly locked my arm around her and held her close. Jacob didn't cringe this time.

"I need to get you home - you're exhausted," I said more for Jacob's benefit than hers. I was no longer trying to brush him off, but I needed to take care of her. "And Charlie will be waking up soon..."

"Wait a sec," Jacob said. "My scent disgusts you, right?" I'll carry her and my scent will cover hers - or at least repel them before they would find hers.

"Hmm, not bad. It's possible. Jasper?" I called.

Jasper and Alice made their way over. Alice was frustrated. My invitation for Jasper to join us wiped clean his future. Jasper was curious, intrigued by the unexpected harmony among our small group.

But, in the short time it took them to join us, the harmony soured. Our relief over a promising solution had united us, but he was a human male, and the idea of holding the girl he loved - the girl he was immensely attracted to - in his arms had his mind speeding down a path I'd witnessed too many times in the past 24 hours. Ah. And that's right, he'd crashed the party, so of course, like every other human male, he was imagining her in that blue outfit that I had hoped he would never see. I made a mental note to rescind my gratitude to Alice.

You tell me when, bloodsucker. Jacob wasn't going to push me too far, outnumbered three to one in his human form.

"Okay, Jacob," I nodded. Better to just get it over with.

Though still uneasy so close to his enemies, Jacob couldn't completely keep the smile off his face as he extended his arms out to Bella.

She looked wary, her easy comfort with him earlier was long gone.

His thoughts were impure.

I took a deep breath to steady myself.

"We're going to see if I can confuse the scent enough to hide your trail," Jacob explained.

Bella looked deeply suspicious over this plan which made me feel a little better.

"You're going to have to let him carry you, Bella," I said, trying to hide my distaste.

You must be really desperate to be going along with this, Alice commented. She gave Jasper a little kick and looked pointedly at me

I immediately felt calmer, but better than that, Jacob was suddenly feeling rather apathetic... or maybe impotent was a better word. I fought back a smile, but Jasper felt my amusement. You're welcome, he thought.

Bella frowned.

No longer buoyed by his excitement, Jacob became quickly impatient. He rolled his eyes and reached down to yank her up into his arms. "Don't be such a baby," he muttered. But suddenly his eyes, just like Bella's, flashed to me. Uh, that permission thing...?

I ignored him, turning to Jasper. "Bella's scent is so much more potent to me - I thought it would be a fairer test if someone else tried."

Jacob, stood there confused by his own reactions, or lack there of, until -

The frickin bloodsucker practically castrated me, Jacob thought, striding away quickly now.

Unfortunately, Jacob was quickly out of range of Jasper's gift while still very much within mine.

They walked silently, but his mind was active. He was fighting, just as he had promised to. Like that day I'd dropped Bella at the line for the werewolf bonfire, he wanted to show her what she was missing, what he could offer that I couldn't. Just as when he'd hugged her at the line that day, he held her tight now in an embrace that would only be shared by intimate partners. Only it wasn't safe for me to hold Bella in that way.

He monitored Bella. She was pouting, arms crossed in front of her. But he noted her elevated heart rate again, wondering...

Stop being stubborn, Bella, he silently commanded. Feel the pressure, the warmth. Can she feel it? That my skin gives. I can give you everything, Bella. Just don't do this. He held her tighter. Can you feel my heart? It's racing in time with yours. Your heart knows. Whatever keeps your bloodsucker out of your head must be keeping me out, too.

Through his desperation, he appreciated her subtle curves and marveled at her face, still so beautiful, he decided, even with the dark circles under her tired eyes. She didn't look so different now than she had the first couple weeks she'd been down to visit him that winter, he thought. He felt a strong urge to care for her, to make her better, just as he had then. His mind drifted back to that house, I didn't know if it was real or imagined, in La Push. I'd seen it in his fantasies before. Our place, he referred to it. His and Bella's.

In his fantasy, he carried her down a hallway into a bedroom with a large bed. He curled up behind her, holding her safely as she slept. He imagined waking to the morning light and watching it illuminate her face, now perfect with rest. The scene morphed and they were in the shower. She playfully ran her hands through his sud spattered hair. His own hands worked the soap into her skin as she giggled - the exact giggle she'd let out in response to his silly face earlier.

I tried to tune him out and focus on Alice and Jasper's thoughts instead. I risked missing some subtle tell flash across Bella's face, but I just didn't have the energy to linger in his mind any longer.

I wasn't as immune to Jacob's arguments as Bella seemed to be. He could give her everything. Warmth, tenderness. He could sleep beside her and hold her tightly and love her without fear. They were both very physical beings. More so than most other humans. It wasn't lust - or at least not only lust - but just a general way of drawing near to the people they loved and cared about. Sometimes too close.

To meet those needs in Bella, I would need to take everything away from her first.

It was a crippling thing to invest every ounce of my being in fighting for the wrong thing, the selfish thing, while always knowing she would be better off with him. Even if he was destined to leave her, to imprint, maybe even then he offered her the better path.

I didn't know how much of me wanted her to choose him.

Jacob and Bella emerged from the trees.

"You can put me down now," she said, agitated.

"I don't want to take a chance of messing up the experiment," Jacob said. His walk slowed and his arms tightened. I didn't trust her balance, tired as she was, so I accepted the cost.

"You are so annoying," Bella muttered.

"Thanks," he said.

Jasper and Alice were suddenly at my side and Jacob didn't hesitate to put her down now, just six feet away.

I was pleased when she walked straight to my side and took my hand without looking back. Her reaction to him in his wolf form had been plenty painful and baffling, but so long a she disregarded him in his human form, what did it really matter? Maybe she just liked dogs more than she'd previously let on, I thought wryly.

Jasper declared the strategy a success.

"And it gave me an idea," he said.

"Which will work," Alice added confidently, as she and I watched it play out.

"Clever," I agreed.

"How do you stand that?" Jacob complained to Bella.

I looked at Bella. "We're - well, you're - going to leave a false trail to the clearing, Bella. The newborns are hunting, your scent will excite them, and they'll come exactly the way we want them to without being careful about it. Alice can already see that this will work. When they catch our scent, they'll split up and try to come at us from two sides. Half will go through the forest, where her vision suddenly disappears."

"Yes!" Jacob hissed. Our eyes met and I couldn't help but smile appreciatively at his eagerness and dedication to the fight. Most importantly, we wanted to end the threat and keep Bella safe. But a strong second was our shared bloodlust.

Bella's eyes quickly darted between us and she frowned. I could guess she wasn't delighted at our common interest.

This would take half the time if Bella was there in the clearing. I bet -

"Not a chance," I said sharply, responding to Jasper's private thought.

"I know, I know," Jasper said quickly. "I didn't even really consider it, not really."

What are you two going on about? Alice asked as she stepped on Jasper's foot.

I knew he would give Alice what she wanted and, had Jacob - always quick to police my dishonesty - not been there, I would have stopped him. This was the last thing I wanted Bella to hear.

"If Bella was actually there in the clearing, it would drive them insane. They wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything but her." Jasper was really considering it. Still. "It would make picking them off truly easy..."

Jasper's voice trailed off as he sensed fury rolling off of me and Jacob. I glared at him as Jacob edged protectively towards Bella, pushing away the instinct to phase. That was something Jacob did with ease now, but I still had to fight the urge to yank her away to safety

"Of course it's too dangerous for her," Jasper said quickly. "It was just an errant thought."

Hardly.

He was looking at Bella out of the corner of his eye. It wouldn't be hard to protect her, he mused to himself, with them that frenzied we could have nearly half the group guarding her alone -

"No," I said severely.

He let the idea go and, after a quick excuse, fled with Alice to a happier emotional climate over by the others.

Jacob stared after him, imagining tearing him to shreds. He was weighing his odds. He didn't underestimate us as much as he used to - the training had corrected that.

I didn't feel much warmer towards Jasper at the moment, but I needed to smooth the waters. Jacob's impression of us would become the pack's impression once he phased.

"Jasper looks at things from a military perspective," I said quietly. "He looks at all the options - it's thoroughness, not callousness."

Jacob snorted. He was picturing Bella at my house - a vulnerable human alone with seven deadly vampires. Much like I'd accurately singled out Paul, Jacob cringed at the thought of Bella beside Jasper. His eyes were sharp enough to easily see Jasper's monstrous scars and he saw that Jasper did not share the same bond to Bella as Alice and I did nor did he posses the gentleness of Carlisle.

It seemed Bella had not shared the story of her last birthday with him and I was grateful, realizing this alliance could not survive that knowledge.

Jacob sized me up, considering the equal fight between Jasper and I earlier in the night. He was wondering if I'd be enough to protect her. Maybe... if he doesn't kill her himself.

I held perfectly still, fighting a reaction. I would never hurt her. The dog had no idea how strong I was. He had no idea how much I'd overcome to hold this spot beside her.

Bella, perceptive as always, seemed to feel the thick tension in the air. Her eyes darted back and forth between us again. Taking in her exhausted face helped me to refocus. I could not afford to be provoked. The alliance was critical to her safety and I wouldn't jeopardize it over pride. Besides, I had committed to being the bigger person. A man, while he was merely a boy.

Ignoring the tension and the fact Jacob was not three feet away from me, I got back to business.

We agreed to meet in the clearing again on Friday and agreed it was best to leave Bella with Seth during the fight. It was surprisingly easy to work with Jacob when our goal was the same - and when he wasn't fantasizing about her or touching her. I could see him somewhat objectively, appreciate his strategic mind, and consider his potential - something I'd realized made Sam uneasy.

"To think it's come to this, though! Trusting werewolves," I said, disgusted, yet amused. If there was a God, he certainly had a sense of humor in creating a scenario where Jacob Black and I were given no choice but to become comrades.

Jacob appreciated my honesty.

"Fighting with vampires instead of against them!" He said, with even greater disgust.

"Well, you still get to fight against some of them," I offered.

Jacob smiled. "That's the reason we're here."


A/N: I'm so grateful for your kind, reviews guys! Hope you enjoyed it!