Leah was, as usual, in a worse mood than me. She walked quickly away as soon as she saw I was following and stiffened her shoulders awkwardly in what seemed like an attempt to stop conversation. I had a hard enough time keeping up with her long, werewolf strength strides without wasting breath on questions but by the time we were in sight of Emily's small cabin I was annoyed enough not to care.
"So, werewolf, huh? Jake seemed surprised."
"I know." Leah gave me a threatening smile, far more terrifying than any look I'd seen on one of the wolves before. "I know everything he thinks. We all do."
I blinked back at her and with that hesitation she was gone, jogging across the lawn and into the house. I heard her calling that we'd arrived as I stumbled across the grass, slippery with cold, but I didn't go inside. I stopped on the porch and wondered how many werewolves I was about to be surrounded by. If Emily was anything to go by, they didn't all like me either.
I'd been carried away by things with Jacob: I trusted Jacob. He seemed pretty ok with me.
I had not considered that the other werewolves would not be as... Well, one of them is f***ing Paul.
Holy s***, f***ing Paul is inside and he has a werewolf's temper.
I walked to the side of the porch and leaned against a wooden rail. Before me was a corner of the wood and I found that this did not help calm me down. I looked down and began picking at the rough wood, tossing splinters into the dirt on the other side of the rail.
It didn't take long for the door to swing open again and I wondered absently what was the worst case scenario as feet approached me from behind.
"Gen? Not hungry?" It was Jared.
"Hey. No, I guess not."
When was the last time I'd seen Jared? Had he been at the beach, maybe? It felt like years and he was about 2 feet taller than I'd pictured him when he appeared at my side and leaned over the rail with me.
"Building up the anticipation?" His smile was friendly. "We've been waiting to... meet you, I guess."
I laughed. "Sure."
"I mean it though. You're one of us now. We want to..."
The door slammed open and I jumped around, pressing my back defensively against the porch rail. It was just Leah again.
"Stop being a baby and come grab a sandwich."
She disappeared again.
"Yeah, or that." Jared laughed.
"What kind of sandwiches?" I peered as though I could see through the windows to find out, but just found myself staring at my own reflection. "And how likely are there any left with your buddies in there?"
"Emily's pretty good at hiding food for guests." Jared said. "But you'll have to go in to find out."
"Cunning strategy. Gen doesn't want to go in? Let's offer her food." My stomach grumbled a bit, requesting politely that I give it something other than sugar and warm sugar water like I had at Billy's. Fine. "Fine."
I stalked to the door and took a breath. I'd known some of these people for years. It would be ok.
I slipped inside.
At first it seemed like no one noticed me. The wolves were all gathered around the table, devouring sandwiches and chips. Embry and Quil were tossing chips at each others' mouths and stopped when they noticed my raised eyebrow, turning instead to toss a couple at me. I wrinkled my face up and raised my arms to defend myself but the chips never hit me. I opened my eyes to see that Jacob had caught the three or four that had made it far enough to possibly hit me and was grinning evilly back at his friends.
"Jake, no." Emily sighed.
"Yeah, Jake, don't make a mess." Embry mocked.
I gave them the same raised eyebrow I'd entered with and then winked at Jacob. "We'll get vengeance later."
"Oh, Gen's vengeance. How will they ever survive?" Leah grumbled.
"Um, are you not remembering the same Gen I do?" Sam asked. "Because I was about to advise them to leave the country."
"Hang on. No. You don't think both of us together could take one puny Swan?" Quil stabbed at the table with a finger as he talked. Embry had gotten distracted by the sandwiches again.
"Not with Black to keep her from anything too evil." Jared agreed. "Though now I'm a bit more worried about how mean you've all been to him."
"Just them?" Jacob wrapped an arm around Gen and she pulled him with her as she moved toward the one empty chair. Jacob's ears had a turned slightly red and he looked slightly embarrassed-what had they been saying to him? "I think you should be a bit worried yourself when I tell her what you said when you-"
"Gen do you want a sandwich?" Emily interrupted, breaking off the stream of arguments that had been about to break out around the table and reminding the wolves yet again that there was food around.
I let Jacob take the last chair and instead leaned against the wall behind him, nibbling on a peanut butter sandwich and sipping some tea Emily found for me. I noticed after a minute or two that Paul was missing and a wave of relief hit. I managed to move away from the wall after that but the adrenaline hadn't quite faded by the time Sam, Leah, and Quil took off to go back to guard duty.
Jacob pulled me into a chair beside him and started exchanging stories of the old days with Embry until he too took off. Emily was off in the kitchen cleaning up and Jared went in to help her. The two of us were left alone.
"You left school." Jake commented. "Is... Are the bloodsuckers back there?"
"You don't know?"
"I can't get too close and the whole town smells like them anyway."
"Visiting my house is going to be like I'm living in a dump, isn't it?" Why do I talk.
Jacob shuddered and I saw the ripple of power go over him. I started to move away but he grabbed my hand and shook his head. "It's fine. I'm getting used to it. And Sam's helped a bit."
"Right."
"It was harder for him. Figuring it out on his own." Jacob glanced at the kitchen door and lowered his voice. "It still…"
"Yeah."
We sat for a minute just looking at each other.
I liked the dark color of his eyes, I realized. And the way his brow furrowed when he thought. And I liked the way he looked at me as though he was thinking similar things.
"Why are you frowning?" Jake asked.
"Why does everyone tease us so much about… us?"
"Probably because we still get embarrassed." He yanked gently on my hand, pulling me around the corner of the table so I ended up in his lap. "Tease Kim and Jared about PDA and they'll just get worse."
"Whereas you are now deathly terrified of Jared or Emily walking in for some dishes?"
"I'm not… deathly afraid of it." Jacob wrapped his arms around me and scowled. "We might not have many other options soon though. Paul thinks he scented Victoria. And something's up in Seattle."
"And the freaking Cullens."
"And the freaking Cullens. So if you don't come down, I won't have much time to see you." Jake raised a hand to touch mine where it rested on his chest and linked our fingers.
"So what you're saying is, I need to skip school more."
He laughed. "I'm saying you should come out to the Rez more."
"So what I'm hearing is, I need to skip school more."
There was a laugh from the kitchen and Jared stuck his head in. "Jake, stop being a bad influence on Gen. She's trouble enough already."
"I didn't do anything!"
"Jake, no, I won't rob a bank with. Stop asking."
"That was your plan!"
Jared gave me a questioning look.
"This was ten years ago." I told him. "Dad stopped my allowance."
Jared rolled his eyes and disappeared through the doorway again.
"So." I frowned at Jake. "If I'm coming down here more."
"Yeah?"
"You should probably 'meet' my dad too."
"Ohhh."
"Yeah."
"I think I'd rather rob that bank."
...
Author's Note:
Hi.
Edit: Wait, I need to say that I wrote a proposal chapter and it's called Ever Ever After. It's tentatively canon.
Ok that's all.
Hi.
