Chapter 9

"Furiae?" His voice rings through my sobs.

I know this voice-better than I know anyone else's. Jacob. That's when I come to realize, with my heart beating so strongly in my chest, that the further away I was from him for the past few months, the more my feelings grew for him. But even with these few months of not seeing him, my memory of him start4ed to fade, all but his voice that rang through my head. Hearing his voice has me choking back a sob, and I swallow hard, a lump stuck in my throat. I am almost afraid of looking back at him, so I keep my eyes forward, watching as the waves come back and forth on the shoreline. It couldn't have been this easy.

"Furiae, is that you?" He asks. I can hear his footsteps on the pebbles as he approaches, and I know I have no choice. I have to look back to see him. All the running, all the jobs I had done, the nights I went starving, and sleeping outside with no shelter. It is time. It is time to see him again.

Hesitantly, I look over my shoulder at him, and just as I do, our eyes meet. My heart bursts in my chest and an overwhelming emotion takes over me. Tears stream down my face, and I am sure I look like a mess.

"Jake?" I whisper.

His chocolate eyes haven't changed, but they widen softly, as if he's seeing something beautiful for the first time. His lips part and the entirety of his body trembles. He's not the same Jacob. His hair is cut short, there is a tattoo on his right arm and he's grown massively in the strength department. His shirtless body exposes all the tight muscles that would have been hidden underneath a shirt. And then—he falls to his knees, his hands falling onto his thighs. We both stare at one another for a few seconds with just the waves washing up on shore.

"Jake?" I break. Slowly, turning on my knees towards hip and wiping away the tears pathetically. It doesn't help with the rain that continues to wet my face. When he doesn't respond, my legs wobble below me as I get up and make my way to him. His eyes watch mine intently, still subtly wide, and his lips still parted. "Are you okay?

"Jacob!" shouts another familiar voice. It was demanding on the day I was taken from Jacob. The leader of the little trio who came into Jacob's room. When I sluggishly look over to him standing on the forest edge with three others surrounding him, I have to bite my tongue to hold back the crude words that want to spill out. They are all tall and very muscular, but not as muscled as Jake, wearing no shirts regardless of the cold rainy day. One of the men is Jared-the only one whose name I know.

"Get away from her!" He commands with his deep voice.

This seems to snap Jacob right out of whatever he was stuck in. His face twists in a sudden rage, and he leaps to his feet so fast I hardly see it coming. He takes the single step he needs to block my path from the man and growls under his breath.

"No." He seethes.

The leader's expression turns to shock, his head snapping back from Jacob's tone. "No? That's a demand!" He barks.

"And I don't have to listen." Jakes glances over his shoulder at me, his eyes softening and a small smile grows on his lips. "I've imprinted."

I look up at him in bewilderment, not knowing what this imprinting thing means.

"You what?" the leader states more than he asks. He looks at the two of us, his expression changing to one I can't quite read. All the other men behind him get closer together, looking at one another for an answer on what do to next. Finally, the leader nods his head to Jake, but his expression screams that he is unhappy.

Jake takes the few steps back so that he's standing next to me. He wraps his arm around my waist and tugs me against his side. My whole body warms up from this little move, but my cheeks heat the most. But when he gestures me forward with a gentle push of his arm against my back, I refuse to move, shaking my head up at him. I don't want to get close to those men, not if I had the choice.

"What's wrong?" He asks softly.

My eyes narrow over at the three I recognize who were in Jacob's bedroom that night. Jared being the only one whose name I can put a face on. I didn't know who the other two were by name. "They are the ones that sent me away-they striped me from your bedside, lugged me out of the house and then took me to Montana where I had no one and nothing."

Jacob's eyes widen once again, but this time in surprise. "I thought…." Jake whispers. He looks between the leader and I, his face full of puzzlement as he tries to figure all this out. "I thought….You left on your own."

I look up at him, confused, and in disbelief he'd think I'd just abandon him.

He slowly turns his head back to the leader, his eyes narrowing. "Is this true, Sam?"

"Jacob," the leader starts, I am guessing this is Sam. "At the time we thought you were going to be a threat to her-and then…"

"I've imprinted on her!" He growls, releasing my waist and taking a foot forward, "If you would have left her alone, I would have imprinted on her! I wouldn't have gone through all the pain and betrayal Bella put me through!"

"It's complicated," Sam says.

"How is it complicated, Sam? Seems perfectly rational to me."

Sam looks at me with suspicion. "She's not human."

Jacob stands still for a brief second, silent, as he takes it in, but his expression is the same. Narrowed eyes and angrily looking over at Sam. "So?"

"So!" Sam exclaims.

"She's clearly not a vampire," Jacob throws his hand out towards me, "She hasn't done anything wrong!"

Sam dwells on this, earning a puzzling expression from the rest of the boys surrounding him. If I am not human, and not vampire, what am I?

I take a step forward next to Jacob. "What am I?"

Sam looks at me.

"What am I? Because I don't know. I lost everything I had before-my memories, any family, any relationships and any truths. I lost. To me, I am human for right now-and yes, for some reason, I expel light from my hands. I have no idea where that shit is coming from, but instead of shunning me, you could be helping me. I could be on your side-whatever side that may be."

Jacob looks down at me, confused, when I mention the light part, but he shakes his head and stands his ground.

Sam's lips part as he thinks, his face softening just a tad so that he doesn't look so angry. "Fine." He sighs. "We shouldn't judge you without knowing you. Even if we could, we couldn't do anything about it." He glances at Jake. "It's our most sacred law."

Sacred law? Now I give off a confused look.

"There is going to be some explaining because I have been hearing words I don't understand all today." I say, crossing my arms against my soaked long-sleeved shirt.

Sam nods, "take her back to your place and tell her what's going on. Since she is your imprint, she needs to know."

Sam and the others turn to head for the forest but before Sam can race off, Jacob chimes in, "Sam, this doesn't fix everything."

Sam doesn't turn back to us, he just nods his head, "I know."

He runs off to catch up with the others, and they disappear into the forest.

Jacob and I stay standing there for a few minutes just staring at where they disappeared. The quietness in between us is comfortable and not awkward like I would expect. He eventually breaks free from the glowering and looks back down at me.

"I am sorry you went through that." Jacob mutters.

"I went through hell…" I mumble, namely to myself, as I listen to the waves collide with the beach. "I lived on the streets, I worked to gain money to get here… And I was chased by a vampire through two states."

"Wait, what?" He turns to me fully, eyes focused on me completely now. "Chased by a vampire?"

"Yeah, he chased me since I got into Idaho. He was a creepy fellow. But when I got to Seattle, Edward came to help me. We were able to kill him."

"Edward? Don't tell me his last name is Cullen."

"It is, why?"

"Because now I have to go thank that leech," Jacob grumbles. He turns towards the forest in the direction of his house and I follow next to him when he starts walking.

"Your father isn't too fond of me."

"Why is that? He didn't have a problem with you before."

We cross the wet forest and onto the main road. I plunder whether I should tell Jacob that his father is one of the reasons I was sent away, but I am not sure I want Jacob angry at his dad. I shrug. He doesn't push the question when I don't answer.

"So, they really left you in Montana? How? Did you fight them?"

"As best as I could, but then this weird light formed around my arms and hands, and blasted Jared and I out of the house. I knocked out after that and woke up in a hospital in Montana all by myself." Lifting my arms, I look over them, twisting and turning them here and there, half expecting the light to show itself again.

"I don't know if I can forgive them after that." Jacob sighs.

"I am sure they were just trying to protect us from each other, as wrong as they did it. Why'd they need to protect me from you, though?" I gently grasp his forearm to stop us from moving. No cars zipped by since we got on the road, and I didn't see any coming either, so I felt safe enough to stop us in the middle of the road.

"You need to know this: I am not what you think I am. You see, our tribe, the Quileute, we're said to be descended of wolves. And whenever vampires come around, a few of us start turning…" He pauses, and takes a deep breath, "We turn into wolves."

"you can turn into a wolf?" I repeat after him, "Like a normal wolf or one of those from the movies that walks on their hind legs?" Shouldn't I be afraid? But then again, I just learned the world is thriving with vampires in it. Why not wolves?

"Normal wolves, but gigantic in size. This doesn't bother you? I was expecting more of a reaction."

"Explains why Emmett called you wolf boy." I change the subject.

"Another leech?"

"Yeah, Edward and Bella took me to their house where their family is. I arrived here at almost two in the morning. We decided to rest up there." I say.

He grabs my hand and gently pulls me off the road and onto the dirt path leading to his house, just as a car zooms by.

"So, this whole imprinting thing, and sacred law, mind explaining that to me?" I ask.

"Imprinting is when us wolves find the person we were meant to be here for. Our soul mate-just stronger. They tie us to their world and give us purpose. And the sacred law states that no other wolf can cause harm to another wolf's imprint."

The heat of a blush starts to build up on my cheeks when I realize what he is saying. If he truly imprinted on me, that means I am meant to be his soulmate?

"And you didn't imprint on Bella?" I awkwardly ask, because if I know anything –those two were close, and he was pretty hung up on her.

"No, didn't you hear me on the beach?" He asks, confused.

"No, no, I heard you-I am just confused." Why would he imprint on me? What if I never came back here? Would he have never imprinted? Was it fate that had us meet each other a few months back? It does explain the strong urge I felt to get back to Jacob after I was sent away.

"What if I never jumped off that cliff?"

"We would have met eventually, that what I'd like to believe."

"Why didn't you imprint on me from the start?"

"Because it only happens after our first phase."

When we reach Jacob's house, Bella's car is still there sitting in the yard, but no one is outside. They all must have gone inside since the rain picked up.

"Bella's here? She's the one that brought you?" Jacob asks. I watch his face carefully when he talks about her. His eyes don't light up anymore when he says her name and doesn't seem overly excited to see her or know that she's here. He seems normal. After if this is just another day, and Bella just happened to show up.

"Yeah. How does that make you feel?" I question with a raised brow.

He glances back at me with his own brow raised and a small smile sporting his lips. "Really? I could care less."

Thank god.