Into the Woods
By: Everleigh Allen
Chapter 21
Jake had a plan.
It was going to work, too.
The plan was to get Bella out of the house, get her alone, and kiss her so the imprinting spell would finally be able to work.
He also wanted to, no… he needed to keep her away from the bloodsuckers.
After all, it was his job!
It's his inherently fabricated duty to protect people from them and he took it very seriously. After all, his grandfather was chief and Alpha; he would continue the legacy.
It was the whole reason he was a werewolf.
Being a dominant Alpha was easy, but he was in need of his imprint, badly.
He watched Sam, Quil, and even little Seth had imprinted females and Jake had his eye on Bella Swan.
Her long brown hair was so beautiful, her large brown eyes, deep and forgiving.
They would need to be, after all, he was kidnapping her and she was going to be pissed off.
She would forgive him, though; he knew that… the imprint just had to take ahold of her first.
After all, if Sam could rip half of his imprint's face, scarring her for life and all is forgiven than a little thing like kidnapping would be cake to get over, right?
All he needed to do was get her away from the pesky vampire coven, especially Edward.
But Jake wasn't thinking clearly.
He was only thinking about himself, which was normal for a teenager; after all, they can be pretty self-absorbed.
The Swan house was dark except for Bella's window so he walked up to the front porch and sat on the chair.
He needed to plan this, perfectly.
First step, get Charlie out of the house.
So, Jake grabbed his phone and started to dial the station. It rang three times before the on-call operator answered.
"Hey, I wanted to place a call about an accident…. Off the 101 heading out of town towards Crescent Lake... looks like a hit and run… no, I am just reporting it… I didn't stop, no…"
Jake hung up the phone when the operator asked for his name and waited.
There was a flicker of lights coming up the street so Jake moved backward, to the side of the house so he wouldn't be seen.
Minutes later, the living room lights popped on and Charlie's muffled complaints could be heard through the window as he ranted about being woken to go into work.
Jake moved deeper into the shadows.
After a moment, Charlie bounded out of the house and turned toward the door to lock it. He then hurried over the landing and down the stairs before getting in his cruiser, starting it up and driving off.
Jake smiled, loving that his plan was actually working. He waited for three minutes before he knocked on the door and then rang the doorbell, trying to think of what he was going to say to the beautiful girl.
Bella opened the door and hissed, seeing Jacob standing there. She was in shock and it wasn't until he saw the door slamming shut that Jake blocked it with his body. He grabbed her, cupping his hand over her mouth to muffle her screams as he pulled her into the woods behind her house.
Step two, interference.
That's what the pack was for. They howled in the distance and Jake smiled, knowing that the Cullen's were on their way back to Bella's house, but by then it would be too late.
He was already 200 feet into the woods trotting with her in his arms, squirming and spouting off profanities and demands.
Jake put her down and she ran, falling several times before she righted herself.
He laughed, watching the silly girl trying to get away.
As if she could. He was a wolf, after all, and he would track her easily.
He let her run, laughing a bit as he saw small glimpses of her ducking behind trees.
Then he smelled it…
Blood.
That was not part of step three.
He pulled off his sweat pants and tied them to his ankle, annoyed that his plan had changed, and heard Bella scream.
She must have seen Jake naked.
Bella turned, terrified that Jake was disrobing. That was a bad, bad thing,
She ran deeper into the woods, sobbing but ignoring her hands that were covered in scratches and bleeding.
She was more pissed off than anything, else.
She cried when she was overly angry.
Jake instantly transformed into a wolf and ran toward Bella in the darkness, loving the way he could see so well at night.
Being nocturnal had its perks.
Bella stopped running, glaring at the wolf and refusing to get too much farther from the house like Jake was expecting.
"Jake Black," she sneered, "I don't know why you took off your clothes but if you lay one hand…. Or, or- paw on me, I swear I will shoot you-"
Jake pranced forward and growled out a warning to make Bella be quiet.
It worked.
She whimpered at the horribleness of the situation and his breath.
He knew the Cullen's had to be close, he could hear the frantic thoughts of Paul, being outnumbered by the Cullen's.
That was also not part of the plan.
Bella stood with a tear streaked face, shaking and cold.
She was also glaring at Jake as he huffed and puffed and nearly blew her over.
He was that close.
His hot, wet, dog breath wafted through the air and over her face in gusts.
Although she was having personal space issues, she refused to be intimidated.
Or breathe… much.
"I'm so pressing charges," She muttered, "I'm going home! It's the middle of the night, in the dark, in the woods! You're such an asshole, Jake Black! I have had enough!"
Jake panted; easily blocking her way from going passed him.
His tongue lolled out the side of his mouth as he watched her rage.
It was funny.
Cute.
Arms flew up and she moved left, he moved with her. She went right and he moved with her.
Left, right, left right, there was no getting around the teen wolf.
Finally when Bella started to run in the other direction again, falling on a rock and crying out in pain as Jake heard a whistling far away in the trees.
The Cullen's were running his way and he needed to get her out of there and onto the reservation… but how?
Bella picked herself up and grabbed a tree as leverage, trying to get up.
Jake growled, annoyed with the girl and with the situation. He should have just grabbed her and kissed her, not wasted precious time drag her through the woods.
He should have just took control and planted on her lips.
But now she's crying and bleeding in the woods, mad at him, and with hungry vampires on the way.
Of course they would smell her blood!
How could he be so stupid?
Jake whined, knowing the gig was up and turned to look at Bella. She was glaring at him.
He phased back and looked at her, beseeching her to understand, and said, "Sorry."
Bella hissed at him in anger, cupping her bleeding hand.
"I am… I'm sorry; I just... wanted to try to make the imprint take. I don't know why you make me so crazy-"
"Just, go."
"Bella,"
"Jake," she smarted back. He was back into being his fifteen year old baby boy shtick.
And very naked.
Jake pouted, nodded his head, and turned away from Bella. She watched as he phased back into a wolf, surrounded by several loud howls before they dispersed into the evergreen trees.
Bella sat on the dense, mossy ground, exhausted.
The tears fell freely onto the forest floor as she fell over, exhausted.
She knew Edward was on her way to her and that gave her a bit of calm to her anxiety.
Being alone in the forest at night was scary, after all.
But what was even scarier was what she saw when she looked down.
She was expecting to see her hand with blood dripping with blood over the soft moss.
That isn't what she saw.
Instead she saw her arm, almost invisible, and looking just like the moss it was lying upon.
Her hand was nearly invisible.
So was her arm.
She looked down to her legs and they were morphing into the dark forest floor.
It was then Bella heard Edward call for her and she answered him with a cry, happy and overwhelmed and wanting to go home.
…
Edward looked down at Bella lying on the forest floor.
He was a mixture of rage and relief; his body collapsing to his knees in gratitude that she was seemingly alright.
Except that she wasn't.
Not really.
Because she was partly invisible and all.
"I am so glad you're here," she sobbed, overwhelmed.
Excited but exhausted.
Her body, molded to his as she wrapped one arm around his legs, the other lay in the moss, still almost invisible.
"It's ok, love," he cooed to her as she closed her eyes. He could tell her body was going into shock and starting to shut down now that she was safe.
"Carlisle?" Edward groaned, turning his head to search for the man that was running up to the scene. But Carlisle stopped short with a gasp.
"What the - uh… what-" Carlisle was at a loss of words before he lowered down to his knees and picked up her limp, unclear hand.
He gasped, watching has her once unseen hand turned back to its normal fleshy pallor but then it suddenly had a little glow to it.
So, he dropped it.
The little bit of light faded.
Carlisle picked it back up and it glowed a little.
It lightened more as he held it longer.
Bella gave a slight moan and smiled.
She murmured, "warm."
Carlisle coughed out a laugh and smiled a bit, since he knew his hands were well, all of him was cold.
Undead.
But Carlisle had been told from time to time and from a few other vampires that he glowed or had a light about him.
Bella's hand was turned so Carlisle could see the blood on her hand. It had dried around the edges, but it was still dripping, but slowly. Seeping into the forest floor and becoming part of the earth.
"Esme," Carlisle called.
Esme stepped up so she would be more visible. When Carlisle saw her he smiled and motioned for her to kneel down and offered Bella's hand toward her.
Esme held her breath, due to the blood, but held Bella's wounded, delicate hand.
Nothing happened.
It just looked like a regular, bleeding hand, but not. The bleeding stopped.
Esme frowned because she was hoping there was something magical that would happen.
"I went around and looked for all the places she was bleeding," Emmett interrupted. "I think you should see this, but then we should go."
"Yes, she's probably freezing." Carlisle sighed.
Edward picked up Bella and followed Emmett.
"See here," he said. There were small drops of blood on some of the leaves, twigs and moss that covered the forest floor. "Her blood is potent, almost visible in the middle of the night. Why is that? Why is it so… red… and why did the moss absorb the blood?"
There was only the mark of what would be the drops but it was bright red as if it was wet, but it was dry.
Edward shrugged and looked at Carlisle who was already looking back him.
"I've never come across anything like it," he supplied softly. What he was really saying was that he hadn't seen anything like it during his time and research in Volterra.
"Her scent affects me, much like a singer, but I've had 18 years to get used to it. I didn't think anything of it."
"So, there's more over here, on the tree."
They walked about fifteen feet away, Bella securely in Edward's arms and saw a bloody spot on the tree, but it too, was stained. The red bloody handprint was absorbed into the bark; as if it was always part of the tree.
"Weird." Edward said and Emmett and Carlisle agreed.
Carlisle sighed. "Let's go back to the house. We can come here tomorrow and check it out with the light of day.
A/N: Stay with me, yeah? Thank you for reading and your reviews. I love to see your thoughts and your outrage. Jake is a necessary evil, yes… but just stick in there.