Lunar Incense here! Since there was a two day waiting period until I could post Mortal Love, here's chapter two as well. Enjoy!
Soft fingers stroked my back and a calming melody drifted to my ears. I sighed. Who was this? A woman, I could tell, so certainly not Him. I opened my eyes and glanced up. This person was very beautiful, I noted, with mahogany skin and high, elegant cheekbones. I could see that she long thick scars on one side of her face. As I wondered vaguely how she got them, she looked me in the eye, and seemed pleased that I was awake. She stopped humming and her face broke into a radiant smile.
"Hello, Bella. Are you hungry? I managed to save a plate for you from the boys."
I understood what she said, but made no move to reply. Was I hungry? I didn't know. I didn't care. The silence didn't seem to perturb her in the least. She began stroking my head instead, paying careful attention to my ears, and I realized I was a wolf again.
She pulled a plate of food from somewhere out of my range of vision, and held a biscuit to my nose. I didn't take it. After a few moments, she put the biscuit back down, and murmured kindly,
"Why don't you go back to sleep? I'll be here when you wake."
Still I felt nothing, but I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me again.
The next few days passed in a blur. I mostly stayed in wolf form, except for when Charlie came to collect me. When the others pleaded with me to change back, that he shouldn't know, he couldn't know, and I felt the first stirrings of emotions since my breakdown. Charlie? My dad. Hiding this from him was the least I could do. He didn't deserve a heart attack, and I doubted he could survive one anyway. I complied for his sake, and Emily, the beautiful girl from before, dressed me.
But when Charlie did come, I refused to move. Something about these people made me… want… to stay. I avoided my emotions as much as possible, certain I could not handle them, but the sense of belonging was overwhelming. When he tried to carry me out of the house, I couldn't help but kick and scream and flee to the others. They were my pack now.
Charlie was distraught, but he could see no other alternative. He would be at work most of the time anyway, and could not properly care for me even if he weren't. After work, he visited me when he could, but mostly my days were filled with Sam teaching me the Quileute legends and "How to Be a Werewolf 101," as Jared called it. I absorbed the information, but said nothing to anyone. The only form of communication I maintained was when I shared the one mind of the pack.
Nothing could be kept a secret when in wolf form, but I relished it. Not the sharing, but the simplicity of my wolf self. My mind was still essentially human, but instincts were closer to the surface. How things should be meant nothing. How things were was all that mattered. The future and the past were meaningless as I was, so I could not dwell on Him leaving me even if I had wished to. Instead, I focused on my lessons with the wolves, and Emily.
Sometimes, I think I could not have made it if it were not for her. The others were pack, brothers, but she was like a mother. I had spent my whole life taking care of my mom, as absentminded and childish as she was, so this was a new experience for me.
At first, when I would not eat for days, it was she who opened my jaws and placed food on my tongue to remind me of hunger. When I was filthy and would not move from my bed, it was she who enlisted Sam to place me in a bathtub and it was she who painstakingly washed my fur, and cut it since it was far too long to be comfortable. And, when I finally regained some sense of myself, she was the one I followed around like a lost puppy.
When I finally regained my voice, and began to be human more than wolf, Emily enrolled me in the Quileute school on the reservation. The schoolwork was easy, and I caught up quickly. But despite my progress, I still acted fairly like a zombie when not with my pack, and only spoke when addressed by another, and then only as concisely as possible. My demeanor quickly halted any friendly gestures in their tracks, until I met him. Again, I mean.
When I first saw Jacob Black again, I knew who he was, and that his father was one of Charlie's best friends. I knew that he was the person who had first given me the information on the… Cold Ones. But most importantly, I knew that of all the people who might still become a werewolf, he was the most likely to change. With lycanthropy present on both sides of his family, not to mention his startling growth spurt from the last time I had seen him; it couldn't be too long now.
Automatically, I felt drawn to him, and made pathetic attempts at friendly overtures. Despite their lackluster quality, he seemed inordinately pleased.
"You're… Jacob Black, right?" Though my face was expressionless, he grinned.
"And you're Isabella Swan." I twitched.
"It's Bella."
"Jake." We shook hands, and that was that.
Though he was a year younger than me, I followed him around when I could at school, and with every smile, every small touch, I couldn't help but feel like I was thawing, becoming more human again. Emily had pulled me from drowning in my depression, but Jake resuscitated my essence, what made me Bella. With him around, I felt almost normal, almost like I had before I had moved to Forks. He was my own personal sun.
After a while, I began leaving Emily's house, and spending time in Jake's garage, watching him work on his car. I met his friends, Embry and Quil. No matter what they did, they never quite made me smile like Jake could, but they were pleasant all the same. I was also fairly sure that they both probably had some potential for becoming, which was a pleasant thought. Unlike Sam, I didn't consider lycanthropy a curse, or that we were monsters. We simply were.
Embry changed first, which was a surprise. I had been certain that it would be Jake, but I could wait.
When Jake expressed his dislike of Sam and our pack and fear that Embry had forcefully been initiated into a gang of some sort, I could not calm him. Sam was a good person, but he was not taken to interacting with non-werewolves, and there was no way to really explain that.
When Billy called Sam and told him that Jake was burning up, I was… actually happy. I could not remember a time since my change that I had felt such joy. I was the first to undress in the forest to save my clothes and phased to greet him.
Since I was the smallest of the pack, and was the one closest to him, I was the only one allowed inside Billy's tiny house to properly greet him. (With a little protest from Embry, of course) He was sleeping when I got there, but I sat next to him, and laid my head on his violently shaking back.
Billy, in an effort to protect his belongings, had me (In wolf form) lay him on the rug in the living room and had removed his clothing and placed a blanket over him. I waited patiently and growled soothingly to him as Billy left to give us some privacy. Phasing for the first time was always a sight to behold. One could never guess exactly what hue the fur turned out to be, and I could hear Embry and Jared debating in the back of my mind. I gave the wolfish equivalent of a chuckle as Paul snapped at them to shut up, but I knew he too was excited to have a new brother.
Then, it happened. Rich, reddish-brown fur erupted from his skin as his bone structure changed and he grew. When the trembling grounded to a halt, I could feel a new mind brush against my own, his emotions wild and frantic, and I spoke to him.
Jake? He jumped under my head. It's Bella. Calm down, you're alright.
Bella? What just happened? That felt so strange. He opened his eyes and scrambled away from me. I tried not to feel hurt, since I knew he was surprised and didn't understand.
Jake, look at yourself. He unthinkingly complied and jumped again, before lifting his paws one at a time.
I'm… a dog!? He was panicked now.
Not quite. Come with me. I brushed against him casually, and tried not to be angry when he flinched.
I marched out the open door and looked back to make sure he had followed. He looked unsure, but at my playful growl, he followed me to the tree line, and grew visibly alarmed when the others appeared one by one.
Embry broke ranks and came up to us to sniff noses with him. He sat down on his haunches and gave a content, wolfish grin.
Welcome, Jake, to our werewolf pack!
Jake was panicking because anyone normally would panic in a situation like that. Only Bella didn't because she was in shock and was disassociated from reality at that point. Also, she had already known about vampires, and it wasn't too big of a jump to knowing that werewolves existed and that she was one too. Jake was just a normal kid.
I didn't put in the part about the motorcycles or taking big risks because Bella's more stable in this story, but also is more distanced from her emotions. Naturally, she is very ooc for now. No worries, she'll soon act like the Bella we all know and love with more influence of the pack and Jake. Give it time. I'd also like to make a review-only poll on the main pairing. I like Jacob more, but if everyone wants Edward to be with Bella, and if I like him enough when I get to that point, I may be persuaded otherwise. Until next time!
Lunar Incense