Jared's POV

I saw red when I heard what Jacob was saying to Bella. The only time I'd been more angry was when I learned of what the leech had done to her. I just couldn't believe he could say those things to her. Jacob knew that Bella was unsure that my feelings were less than genuine. He knew that because he'd seen my thoughts on the matter while we were phased. He knew it and he exploited it to try to come between us. I was going to kick his ass.

I forcefully dragged Jacob out of the house by the arm. I was barely keeping myself from phasing. Oh, I had every intention of phasing, but I wanted to be far away from Bella when that happened.

Jacob yanked his arm free from my grip just as we got off the porch. "Get your hands off of me!"

"Get your ass in the forest and phase! Now!" I ordered using the same voice Sam had used when giving Alpha commands. As Beta, I had the ability to give commands to everyone in the Pack except for Sam. That would change soon. Eventually, Jacob would take Beta because he was actually supposed to be Alpha. He'd chosen not to take over for Sam so he would soon be given my position. For the moment though, I could command him and I had.

Jacob glared at me before heading for the forest. I followed and we both phased right after hitting the forest.

'What the hell is wrong with you?!" I growled angrily.

'What's wrong, Cameron? Can't handle a little competition?' Jacob asked smugly.

I growled and bared my teeth at him. 'Competition? Is that what you call exploiting her insecurities for your own gain? How could you hurt her like that? You claim to care about her and you do this to her?!"

I do care! I care more than you or anyone else! I'm in love with her!" Jacob yelled.

I laughed, but there was no humor in it. 'Love? You don't know what love is, not if you think this is how you treat someone you love. What you did to her just now was cruel! You exploited her low self-esteem and made it worse, all because she told you she didn't love you!"

'Shut up!" Jacob snarled before lunging at me.

I immediately stood up on my hind legs anticipating his attack and showed him away. He flew through the air and fell to the ground several feet away. 'You're pathetic, Jacob. You're nothing but a pathetic little boy who threw a tantrum because he didn't get his away.'

Jacob came after me once more. This time I didn't merely push him back. I lunged at him too and we started wrestling in wolf from in the middle of the forest.

Suddenly we heard the loud, steel voice of our Alpha. 'Enough, both of you!

We both stopped and looked at the night black form of Sam's wolf. I immediately took a step towards my Alpha. 'Is Bella okay?'

'She's upset right now. I'm sure you've gathered that much,' Sam said before glaring over at Jacob.

'Did she believe him?' I asked. If Bella bought anything Jacob said, if he sent her back any further, I was going to mess him up.

'Screw you, Cameron!' Jacob growled at me.

'Enough, Jacob!' Sam said with authority. 'The way you treated that young woman today was inexcusable. You know what she's been through. You saw in Jared's mind how she reacted to the imprint and you saw through mine what the leech did to her. Not to mention that you saw personally how much it hurt her. Using her insecurities to come between her and Jared was cruel."

Jacob let out a whine. It seemed he was finally starting to feel guilty. Good. 'I wasn't trying to hurt her. I just wanted her to see that she belongs with me. She does, Sam. I'm the right guy for him, not him.'

'No, you're not. Bella is Jared's future and he's hers. He imprinted on her. More than that though, they have history. They already loved each other. You need to back off. You are not going to get in the way anymore. You will never use Bella's pain like that again. In fact, you will have limited contact with her for a while. You will not be alone with her and you won't talk to her unless she asks you to. Is that clear?' Sam asked in a hard tone.

'He has to apologize to her,' I said. Jacob had been downright cruel to Bella. She deserved an apology.

'Of course. Jacob, you will apologize and then you will keep your distance as much as possible, only seeing her when she's around the Pack,' Sam said firmly.

'You can't do that!' Jacob yelled.

"I just did. I'd already planned to on her father's orders. This stunt proves just solidifies that. It's clear that Chief Swan was right to want you away from his daughter right now. You will keep your distance as much as possible!' Sam said in his firm Alpha voice.

Jacob whined once more. He knew there was nothing he could do to disobey the order.

'Sam, I'm going to phase back and talk with Bella,' I said.

'Jared, Bella left the house. She said she needed some time to herself. She did say she'd come back though,' Sam said.

'No, I'm not waiting. If it's okay, I'm gonna borrow a pair of your shorts and go find her,' I said. I didn't wanna crowd Bella, but I wasn't going to let her go another minute thinking I was only interested in her because of the imprint.

'Of course,' Sam said.

With that, I took off back towards Sam's.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

After phasing back and getting shorts from Sam's, I went in search of Bella. I found her on the beach sitting close to the water. I immediately went over and sat beside her.

Bella looked over at me and smiled slightly. "Well, you're in one piece. Is Jacob?"

"No damage done unfortunately. Sam broke it up before I could give him the beat down he deserved," I told her.

Bella looked back towards the water. "I can't believe he said that to me. He's supposed to be my friend. How could he hurt me like that? Sam said he said what he did knowing what the words would do to me."

"He did. He thought that if he could come between us, you'd be with him. He knew what he said wasn't true. It wasn't Bella. My love for you didn't just happen because of the imprint. I loved you long before that," I told her.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions and took off like that. I should've listened to you. God, I don't know how I could think it was just the imprint. I listened to what your mother had to say about what you were like after you moved here. Why would I ignore that?" Bella asked mostly herself.

"Because you've been hurt. You may not have loved him, but Cullen's rejection still hurt you. I have to. You have every reason not to trust my feelings for you, no matter what you hear from others," I said.

"But I know the whole truth now. I should've at least listened fully before jumping to conclusions."

"Will you listen now?" I asked.

Bella nodded.

"I can't say that the imprint didn't affect how I felt about you at all, but it didn't make me love you. I already loved you. How I felt for you intensified, something I didn't think was possible, but it didn't create anything that wasn't already there. Honestly, the imprint didn't really matter much to me. Yes, it intensified things and it made me feel an actual physical connection to you, but it didn't matter to me like imprinting on Emily did for Sam. It didn't because I already knew that you were my future. I didn't need some supernatural mark to tell me that," I told her.

"I…I just don't want you to be with me because you have to," Bella said.

"Bella, I've never not wanted to be with you," I said. There wasn't a day since we met that I didn't wanna be with her. Even when we were children I wanted to be with her. Back then it was just as a friend. Now it was more than that. One way or another though, I always knew we belonged in each other's lives.

"I should've listened to you when you tried to explain. I guess I was just really afraid that it wasn't really you who wanted me. I knew you used to, but now… God, Jared, I think something is seriously messed up with me," Bella said tearfully.

I pulled her into my arms and held her tightly. "There's nothing wrong with you, Baby. You've just been hurt so much that you're afraid to trust. I'm part of that and I'm sorry. If you'll let me, I'll do whatever I can to prove how much you mean to me."

Bella pulled away from me after a minute. "I can't be in a relationship with you right now. I know this imprinting thing makes it so that we probably will end up there, but I just can't do it right now."

"I understand," I told her. And I did. I didn't expect Bella to just accept me back as her boyfriend like nothing happened. I would have to earn my way back to that point.

"But I do want what we had back, at least our friendship. Your friendship was always so important to me. I want it again," she said.

"I would love that," I said smiling. It was a step in the right direction, and I meant it. If we never got back together, I wanted to at least have Bella as a friend.

"Good. So we'll start as friends and just see how it goes."

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. You ready to go back?" I asked before standing up and holding my hand up to help her up.

She nodded and took my hand. I pulled her up and we started the walk back to Sam's.