Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer not me.
Author/Note 1: This story is the sequel of Our Dawn 5. For the ones who don't know anything about Our Dawn Series, you can always read Our Dawn 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and Our Dawn Series Specials but if you don't want to bother I have a resume on my profile page. As it would be expected this is a next generation story and as such, it's focused on Jake and Leah's children.
A/Note 2: A huge thank you for everyone who reviewed Our Dawn Series so far.
A/Note 3: I'm not a native English speaker so I'm sorry for my grammar and spelling. Thank you for reading.
Alpha
Book I – The Third
Harrison Black
21. Illegal Love
I never actually thought much about religion. I guess I never really cared if there's a God in Heaven or any other place watching out for us but if there is I'm quite sure he's doing a pretty shitty job.
I believe in things I can see not in a supreme deity that controls our lives. I believe that Nature rules the world. She allows men to take from her what they need and sometimes what they want, but when she gets pissed, she claims as many lives as she wants, indiscriminately.
And I believe people make their own destinies by making choices on their own. I also believe in traditions, tribal legends and the supernatural because I know first-hand that they're real. I'm the living proof of that.
So when I found Father Harold, the priest who had confirmed that my sister had been in his chapel to get married, I didn't see him as a man of God. I saw him as an opportunist bastard who had taken the money of two youngsters and accepted to unite them in a holy matrimony even though by the law Sarah wasn't of age and couldn't get legally married.
"Age is not relevant in the eyes of God." The priest had told me. He got a slap for those words and two more punches for what he said next. And then he fell round on the floor. For a chubby little bastard, he was kind of easy to knock down.
'You really lost it, didn't you?' Will laughed beside me while I was showing him mentally what had happened after leaving the chapel. 'You smacked a priest! That's something I can't compete with you Harry. Dad's going to be so disappointed.' He was happy about my outburst. Because according to my brother I shouldn't be so righteous.
Right now I simply didn't care if Dad was going to lecture me or not for having beat a priest. If he did it wouldn't be for the fact that I had hit a 'holy' man because Dad was closer to Atheism more than he was to the Catholic Church. But Father Harold was a human, and it was our job to protect humans, not to hurt them like I had just did.
'You beat up an innocent person and left him out cold on the floor.' William said enthusiastically. He was really having a kick out of this.
'He was not that innocent.' I tried to defend myself. 'He allowed a minor to get married. And said minor is Dad's little princess so maybe if Dad finds out about what I did, he'll actually thank me for beating the priest. Besides I had no option… he called Sarah a little whore. What else could I do?'
When I punched Father Harold, I was trying to protect my sister's honour. His exacts words had been: "It's not my fault your younger sister was in a hurry to have a guy between her legs. Maybe you should've taught her to be a proper lady instead of a little slut."
He had tried to deny his responsibilities when I accused him of celebrating an illegal marriage: not only he was passing a marriage certificate without checking the groom and the bride's identification papers, but he was also passing marriage certificates to underage people. And in my eyes that was a crime and he had to pay for it. He got what he deserved.
'You know he can call the police and give them your full description, right?' Will recalled.
'He won't. I don't think his little business is legal so he'll keep his mouth shut.'
'What do we do now?'
'We go east. Before passing out, he said they drove east, to Port Angeles.'
I felt William feeling more anxious again.
'You know what follows a wedding, right?'
I knew he wasn't talking about the wedding reception and I shivered a little.
The honeymoon.
I didn't even want to think about what would happen if we caught Jay red-handed in some cheap motel, defiling our sister.
'I will kill him. That's what's going to happen.' Will firmed.
'You need to remain calm. The last thing we need is your power to resurface.'
'I'm not going to keep calm while some bastard bangs my kid sister!'
I probably wouldn't remain calm either. And that was the problem. It was up to me to control William so he wouldn't use his mental power, but if I lost control as well, we'd be in serious trouble.
'I never realized Jay liked Sarah that way.' William thought about when we were kids and back then Jay had never showed any interest in Sarah whatsoever.
'We should have paid more attention.'
'When I have a daughter, I'll lock her up in her bedroom until she's like… thirty or something. Girls this young must be protected.'
'Yeah… against guys like you.' I thought bitterly thinking about what William had done to Rhea eight years ago.
'What the hell is that supposed to mean?'
'I was too subtle? You know exactly what I meant. You're the kind of guy people should protect their daughters from.'
'Thanks a lot for that, Harry.' He sounded hurt. 'It wasn't intentional. I never planned on sleeping with her that night. It just happened.'
'Whatever gets you to sleep at night, Will.'
'Why are you always against me on this subject?'
'Because I don't approve what you did.'
'Is that the only reason?'
I had to control myself in order to hide my true feelings for Rhea.
'That's not how you treat a girl. So, right now you have no morals whatsoever to talk about Jay and Sarah.'
'Fine. Let's just find them and get this over with!'
We were practically halfway to Port Angeles now. The vegetation was becoming scarcer as we approached the small city and the wind was blowing colder as we ran east. We were running along State Route 112, where a few workers were making repairs ever since the last three or four months. There was a detour on kilometer two after passing Joyce and we were about to circle that area when we heard the impact noise of a car hitting.
'Should we check?' William wondered. 'If we stop now we're going to waste some precious time.'
'We better go see what happened. There might someone injured. Maybe someone got distracted missed the signs.' I didn't really want to waste my time but I couldn't just turn away when someone's life could be at stake, besides I had already done wrong beating up a priest, so I didn't need more guilt on my conscience.
We approached the scene carefully, making sure there were no other people on the site. I was merely fifty meters away from the place where the car had hit, when I recognized the license plate.
'It's Isaac.' I announced. William confirmed my suspicions recognizing our car as well and soon we spotted another vehicle. 'That's Jerry's car, isn't it?'
'Yes.' My brother said. 'I'd recognize it anywhere.'
We had worked on that orange sedan for two years, almost every weekend with our father. Jared had asked our dad to build a car from scrap to give to his son on his seventeenth birthday. It was actually me who had suggested that colour.
Slowly we walked past the last trees and we finally saw our brother getting out of the car. He didn't seem to suffer any injuries, which was a relief. In the other car, Sarah was recovering from the impact blow while Jay was trembling from head to toe.
'He's about to phase.' I warned.
'Let's make sure he doesn't ruin Jerry's car.' William said and phased back. I shifted too and together we circled our car and found the extra clothes we had saved on the back seat. A quick glance made me realize the hit hadn't been as violent as I initially thought.
Our silver Ford C-Max Double had one single scrap near the headlight on the left side. Jerry's sedan however would need some remodeling on the driver's side. Isaac had been intelligent enough to hit him on Jay's side, preventing Sarah from getting hurt.
When we got close, Isaac had already pulled Jay out of the car and was pinning him against the orange vehicle.
"You're a freaking idiot! Do you know that?" He yelled to a trembling Jay.
Without hesitation Will pushed Isaac out of his way and punched Jay in the face. Jay stumbled and fell on the pavement. He took one of his hands to his nose using it to clean the blood. Will was unable to hit him again because I put myself between them.
"Stop!" I roared. "This is not the time or place to fight!"
There were cars on road, slowing down as they approached the scene. Fortunately no one seemed keen on interfering in this business. For the people who were passing by it might have seemed we were just a group of teenagers having an argument.
"But Harry…" William started.
"Will, get Sarah out of the car." I ordered. "You…" I turned to Isaac. "See if Jerry's car's still working and Jay… relax, we're just going to talk."
Reluctantly William and Isaac took my orders.
"What the hell were you thinking?" I asked Jay who was calmer now. "You can be charged of kidnapping and coercion of a minor. Do you understand how serious that is?"
"I didn't… I never meant to…" He hesitated. "I love your sister."
To his credit, he did seem to be serious enough when he said he loved Sarah but marrying a seventeen year old girl was hardly a good choice if he wanted to prove his love, especially when he had set everything up without anyone's consent.
"Love doesn't change the fact that she's seventeen years old." I told him. "She can't get married. Have you even thought about our families?"
By that I meant my father and he took the hint.
"Yes. I thought about it. That's why we left La Push." He assured me. "I didn't see any other option for us to be together."
"If you wanted to be together you should've waited another year. You should've done this properly." Isaac said getting out of Jerry's car that wasn't working.
"Tell me something Isaac… How do you do that when you change forms into a giant wolf? How do you do that when your only purpose in life is to chase after creatures that smell like public toilets and drink human blood? How do you do that when you risk your life any day and you can die chasing those creatures?"
Isaac had no reply to that and neither did I.
I don't think a welcome-to-the-pack bonfire will work with Jay. I thought. He was not accepting the truth as all the others before us had done. But in fact, who could blame him?
An average twenty-two year old boy should be worried about college, work, girls, parties, not about killing vampires.
"Oh my God! What did you do to him?" Sarah screeched kneeling to help Jay getting up. "Which one of you did this?" She turned to me and Will who had joined us too and stood behind me.
"Can you please tell me why are you defending this creep?" William asked crossing his arms.
"Because he's my husband." Sarah announced. "You had no right to hit him."
"I had every right." William stated confidently. Sarah frowned and shot him her best death glare.
"Your marriage isn't legal." Isaac whispered. His eyes went to the ground when Sarah looked at him.
"You promised me you wouldn't tell anyone, Boo."
"Why is it that she can call him Boo, and I can't?" Will complained.
"I'm sorry but… I had too. Things changed. You wouldn't understand."
I stepped forward and noticed Sarah was wearing a silver wedding ring that matched one on Jay's finger.
"Why did you do this Sarah?" I asked calmly. "Make us understand."
"I'm in love with Jay and when he told me he wanted to leave La Push on his own I panicked. He said we should break up and follow separate ways… I couldn't let that happen, Harry. I love him too much. That's why I suggested we should get married."
"You're seventeen Sarah, you're not old enough to get married and you can't just leave La Push without talking to Mum and Dad."
"Mum and Dad won't understand. They'll tell me that I'm too young and that we can't be together. They'll force us to be apart."
"And then they're going to ground you for life." Will added in a mocking tone.
"We were going to leave so we could be happy together." Sarah explained ignoring Will's mockery. "Why is that so bad?"
It wasn't bad. Everyone should be happy. But unfortunately for my sister, she had fallen in love with the wrong guy. Jay was a wolf and he couldn't abandon the pack just like that. Dad would never allow it.
"Sarah, I want you to do me a favour." Jay said holding my sister's hand. "Go with your brothers."
We all looked at him dumbfounded.
"No! What are you talking about?"
"They are right. This was a terrible idea. We can't leave our families and our homes like this. It's your senior year and we still have time."
"So we're just going to forget this ever happened?" Sarah was about to cry. "We're married now Jay!"
"I know… but I promise we'll talk about this later at home, okay?"
Sarah's eyes were full of tears and I could see her struggling not to cry in front of us. She didn't want to go home but I guess she was well aware that they didn't have any other option now that they had been caught.
"Come on, Sarah. We have to get going." Isaac pulled her by the other hand and reluctantly she let go of Jay's. I felt bad for doing this to my own sister because it was more than obvious that she was in love with Jay but right now this was our best way to avoid another family crisis.
"You will go back, right?" She asked Jay.
"Of course." He stated but not too convincingly. Fortunately Sarah believed him and went to our car with Isaac.
"Don't talk to anyone about this." I said to Isaac. "And make sure you have a convincing lie if anyone asks you where we are."
"What are you going to do?" Isaac asked me.
"We'll try to fix Jerry's car and have a little chat with Jay. We'll be home soon…" I lowered my voice. "Don't let her out of your sight."
"And don't let dad see the mark on the car." Will added. "I know we can hardly see it but he'll notice."
Isaac nodded and then drove off taking a weeping Sarah with him. She looked back several times to be sure we weren't hurting Jay and then when our car finally disappeared, William exploded.
"You shithead!" He yelled at Jay who simply gazed at us with the most miserable expression I had even seen. "How could you do this? She's just a kid!"
"I'm in love with her." Was his simple answer.
"How long?" Will wanted to know. "For how long have you been banging my sister?"
Jay glared at him.
"I never touched her." He spat. "I said I love her and in my perspective love doesn't necessary mean sex. It's a shame you don't know the difference." His voice was laced with sarcasm and William didn't like it.
"I can still beat you up even if you didn't touch my sister, you know that right?" He threatened.
"You want to beat me up? Go ahead and do it!" Jay challenged.
"Calm down both of you!" I put myself between them. "Arguing and fighting won't solve this mess."
"What's your idea then?" William asked.
"According to Isaac your marriage isn't legal so it can easily be annulled in a registration office." I faced Jay who simply nodded. "We'll wait a few days and then you and Sarah are going to undo this. No one can find out that you took Sarah to a chapel and got married Las Vegas-style. If someone finds out you're dead. Our father will kill you with his bare hands." I paused. "The rest will be easier. You'll go back home, forget about Sarah and about this stupid love adventure, we'll fix Jerry's car for free and you'll have to practice mind blocking with Isaac every day from now on."
William shrugged giving his approval to my plan but Jay kept quiet.
"Look, we're trying to help you out." I said. "We know this might be confusing. We all felt that way in the beginning. We all wanted normal lives too but in a few months you'll get used to it. We don't chase after vampires that often. We have patrols, we go to meetings, we protect our secret but having the wolf gene is not a death sentence."
"And it can get you lots of girls." Will added. "Not that I would need it anyways because I'm incredibly handsome, but girls go crazy when they see a tall well-built tanned guy like me."
Modesty was never William's forte.
"You can let me go." Jay finally said. "I don't think I can be of any use to… your pack. I don't think I can live like you all live."
"You did a good job yesterday. You kept us in contact with Isaac and you didn't quit."
"I only helped because I wanted to see what it was like, but you know what? I didn't like it." He confessed. "I had so many people in my head that I felt nauseous. I was tired after a couple of hours and I had to keep going. I felt the need to chase that vampire and kill it, it was a primal need, something that I never felt and it scared me because I never felt the need to kill. I should be able to stop when I want, but this need to kill didn't allow me to stop until I blacked out from exhaustion."
William and I exchanged a look. We had never felt that way when we started phasing. Because we were the alpha pair's children, we never felt that to be a protector could actually be a bad thing, but for Jay things were different and he didn't feel comfortable knowing he had to kill vampires and would have to be a protector even against his will.
"When I woke up I this morning I was in a strange place with a blind girl who knew nothing about what was going on…" He kept going. "I really don't want to stay here. I don't want to be a wolf. I want to rule my life not having a gene that does it for me. I don't want to kill vampires even if they are bloodsucking monsters. I wish I could live a quiet life with Sarah like we had planned but if that's not possible right now, then I'll wait a few years until it is. But I'll wait far away from La Push and from all of you."
"La Push is where your family is." Will said suddenly. "You were abandoned when you were a kid. First it was your mother who gave you up for adoption and then it was your father who was never really there for you. Do you want to be like them? Leaving your little brother when he needs you the most? Leaving just because you can't handle what you really are?"
Jay clenched his fists while staring at my twin brother. I could tell he was angry.
"Are you calling me a coward?"
"I'm calling you a whiner." William mocked. "Because that's what you are. You complain about everything."
"Well, after all I've been through, I think I have the right to whine whenever I want!"
"Come on... don't get me that shit again… we're not kids anymore." Will complained. "We all know you had a little of bad luck in the past."
"Bad luck!?" Jay spat. "Tell me William did your mother give you up for adoption when you were born? Did she tell you to go away when you met twenty-two years later because if you stayed you'd ruin her life and the life of her family? Do you have a father who used to tell you day in, day out, that you're the biggest mistake of his life?" William and I stared at Jay silently. "I want to be with Sarah but I can't because she's the daughter of the big wolf boss. I want to stay close to my little brother but I can't because I can shift into a hairy monster at any minute. I want to have a quiet life but I can't because I'm supposed to spend the rest of my days running around and killing vampires, risking my own life in the process. So tell me again that I had a 'little of bad luck'!"
It did seem he had gotten the short end of the stick. And we hadn't even spoken about the imprint topic with him yet.
"Do you really want to leave?" I asked him. "For real?"
"Yes. Your parents guaranteed me it was possible to stop phasing and I want to try."
"Okay… if we let you go what will I tell your father and my sister when we go back?" I enquired.
Jay just stood there in complete silence.
xxxxxxxxxxx
I did not have the heart to tell Sarah that Jay had followed their initial plan and had fled La Push leaving her behind. It was a good thing we had found them and were able to bring Sarah back home but I knew Jay's departure would hurt her.
We had fixed Jerry's car so Jay could take it and we had already spoken to Jerry who got really pissed. Apparently there was something Jerry loved more than his new iphone: his car. Since dad owned a car shop we promised him we would ask our father a spare car so he could go to work temporarily until Jay brought back his sedan, even though we had recommended Jay to get rid of the car as soon as possible. An orange sedan was too eye-catching and would easily give away his location.
We gave him a lot more of advice before he left. The most relevant was about how to control his phasing ability. He decided he would stay away from people for now until he was absolutely sure he could control the wolf gene around humans. We also warned him that eventually, the pack would search for him. Rogue wolves were bad for business, especially when they had no experience and were trying to deny their true nature.
William and I knew we should have persuaded Jay to come home with us. We knew Dad and the Council would not understand why we had let him go, but we couldn't force him to live this life. Not after understanding the kind of distress it was causing him.
Plus, this was the best way to make him stay away from our sister.
Mum and Dad had decided that Sarah would not have the party she was meant to have since she was grounded for leaving the reservation and travelling to Austin with Jay without consent but she was still having a party. It would be restricted to family members plus two guests: Callie and Sophia.
When we got home, we had a full house and lots of people coming in and out which allowed us to speak to Isaac in private.
"So, you let him go?" He asked sounding a bit suspicious. "Just like that?"
"Yes." We both answered.
"Why? I mean… when you found me, you were willing to drag me back home if I resisted."
"It's different." I said.
"In what way?" He insisted.
"Jay's not our brother." William highlighted. "You are."
"Dad wanted you back. You're the third child of an alpha. There's no way he would let you stay away from the pack." I added.
"He was going to send me to live with Edward and Bella somewhere…" Isaac recalled. "Because he thought I was a child of the moon." He added.
"Well that doesn't matter anymore. Jay's gone. End of story. Now let's eat some cake and have some fun until the boring part comes." Will sugested.
"What boring part?" Isaac asked.
"The meeting with the Cullens. They'll be here at midnight." I explained.
"What about Sarah? She cried her eyes out when we got home. She'll think you killed Jay or something."
"We didn't kill Jay!" William rolled his eyes, joking. "I wanted to but Mr. Right…" He looked directly at me. "Said we should talk calmly and then he decided it would be better to let him go."
"You agreed to the plan." I said.
"Whatever." Will mumbled. "I'll be near the drink's table if you need me."
"Make sure you stay sober." I warned him. "Tonight's meeting will be important."
"Yes, daddy." He grinned. "Oh… and Isaac… I think EJ is hitting on your girlfriend."
Isaac merely glared at Will but when our brother disappeared amongst the rest of the guests, he glanced over to where Sophia was and reddened when he realized I was watching him.
"Have you told her?" I asked.
"Told who what?"
I sighed. I guess when you're seventeen it's not easy to confide your feelings to someone else. You're always afraid they'll mock you or tell you you're not old enough to fall in love. In that aspect Isaac wasn't different from any other teenager.
"Have you told Sophia that you like her?" I rephrased.
"I don't like her." He stated casually, putting his hands in his pockets.
"You do realize I'll be able to read your mind when we're phased, right?"
Isaac grimaced, not happy to remember that particular aspect of his new life as a wolf.
"Did you confess your feelings to all the girls you liked?" He asked me.
I didn't know what to answer to that. I had only liked two girls so far. I mean I had the normal crushes teenage boys do. When I was seven I used to think I'd marry my teacher. When I was nine I had a crush on a thirteen-year old girl called Christina who was the granddaughter of one of Charlie's police friends, John Montez. After retirement, Granddad Charlie and Granddad Billy used to go on fishing trips almost every weekend in summer with John and other guys. Sometimes Christina went too and that's how we had met. Two years later her parents moved to California and we never saw each other again.
When I was eleven I was a huge fan of Chloë Grace Moretz. Actually I thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world. By the time I was fourteen I had already had crushes on Kate Beckingsale, Rachel Bilson, Emma Stone and the amazing Emilia Clarke of whom I had several posters in my bedroom. The first time I had felt attracted to someone from La Push I ended up losing her for my own brother, and the second time history repeated itself.
Rhea and Gen had been the only girls I had ever liked and I hadn't confessed my feeling to neither. While Rhea ended up leaving to Community College, Gen went to study to Switzerland but not before she had a temporary romance with Will.
"Okay… you have a point. But you should tell her. You'll be sorry if you don't and… at least that way EJ will stop bothering her."
Isaac glanced over to where Sophia was and frowned watching as EJ was putting an arm around her shoulders.
"I'll be right back." He announced walking over to where our cousin was.
I guess the party is about to get started. I thought as I rushed to my younger brother's side.
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