Seeking Redemption

Chapter 2

JPOV

As we ran back to La Push, I started to get a little nervous. I had no idea how they all would react. I didn't think I could handle too much more fighting today. I felt like crap already from all the damage I'd caused so far.

"Jake, dude, what did I tell you! It will work out, one way or another. Whether they like it or not, she is your imprint and wolves will not turn against another wolf's imprint. Period." Seth thought.

"Sure, Sure. But thanks for the pep talk I'm just not sure I believe it though." I thought.

"It WILL." He thought in response.

"Awe! Are you two gonna braid each other's hair after this?" Leah spat. "As sweet as this crap you two are yapping about is, we're almost there. I think you should try to see if Sam is phased and call a meeting."

"Nice Lee-Lee" Seth thought. Only Seth would get a kick out of a burn directed at him.

Ignoring Leah completely I focused on Sam's mind and called out in my head. "Sam? You there?"

Almost immediately he responded. "Jake? What happened? What's wrong?"

That obvious, huh? "We need to have a meeting with both packs and any of the elders you can get together, right away." I said in Alpha baritone.

"Hmmm, I see. Where at?"

"We are heading to my Dad's house. It's as good a place as any." I told him.

"I'll round up who I can and be there with in a half hour" Sam said. As I refocused on my running we all heard Sam's loud howl rip though the air signaling all the wolfs to phase.

We soon reached my Dad's and all three of us phased back at the edge of the woods and walked the rest of the way. As we strolled up to the house I was thinking more about the fact that I didn't even know her name for sure. I knew it was a mouthful though. The only thing I was sure of was that it is Ren-something or other. Hmmmm……..Ren…. Yes, Ren! I will call her Ren! No sense in looking any worse as an imprinter. Ugh! Like I could.

When we reached my house I walked in and called out "DAD"

I heard a shuffle from the kitchen and he called out "kitchen"

Upon entering Seth and Leah flopped down on the couch as I continued on to the kitchen. He was sitting at the small table we have had as long as I remember, reading a newspaper. I sat down in the chair across from him and murmured a "Hey Dad"

He looked up from his paper, eyebrows raised and said, "Jake, and to whom do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

I rolled my eyes. Guess Dad was still bugged about what went down when the pack learned about Bella's pregnancy. Then again it could be because I have been pretty much M.I.A. since the incident as well. "What, a guy can't just visit with his old man?" I shrugged.

"I may be old, but I'm not stupid. I know that look, something's up." He replied. I just furrowed my brows and looked down at the table as he added "Give me some credit son, I did raise you"

Well, he had me there, "Ya Dad, something is up. I've called a meeting of the packs and the elders. They should start showing up soon."

Now it was his turn to furrow his brows, "A meeting? Is there danger coming? Did the Cullens break the treaty and change Bells?" he asked.

"No Dad, no danger, at least not to anyone else. And yes they did change Bells but it was done to save her life and I gave them permission, kinda like a onetime pass." I added the last part a little quieter.

"YOU WHAT?!" he yelled.

I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders and said in my best Alpha tone, "I said I gave them permission. It was the right thing to do; she would have died during child birth regardless. At least this way she is still around and will get to see her daughter grow up. Besides, it's what she wanted, we all knew that."

He chewed on that a moment, then finally asked, "And Charlie? Does he know?"

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and said, "No, but there is time for that and right now I got bigger problems." He raised his eyebrows in question. I sighed and added. "I really don't want to have to keep repeating myself so can you wait until everyone is here? I'll spill everything, promise."

He nodded and with that I got up to go sit outside on the porch and try to gather my thoughts. This was going to be interesting, to say the least and I needed to be focused.

I was sitting for about 15 minutes or so when people started showing up. I asked them to squeeze inside and we would begin when everyone was here. Sam came last with the news that Sue Clearwater, Seth and Leah's mom was working and could not be here. Also, he left Collin and Brady on patrol. They could all be filled in later. Well, here goes nothing I thought as I got up and entered my house.

I walked in the door and looked around. Geez, eight wolves and a couple of humans and this little house looked ready to pop. I closed the door behind me, leaned back and took a deep breath but before I could say a word Paul piped up, "Well what are you waiting for Black? You called this damn meeting, so spit it out so you three can run along, back to being the Bloodsuckers lap dogs!" while wiggling he fingers away in a dismissive manner.

Seth and I narrowed our eyes at him as Leah started growling and Sam looked to him and simply said "Paul" in warning. Paul huffed and leaned his head back against the wall and I shot a look a Leah to chill. She rolled her eyes at me but the growling stopped. She hated the whole deal with the Cullens, in fact the only thing she hated more was being in Sam's pack. More accurately, Sam.

I cleared my throat and began "I called this meeting to let everyone know that Bella has given birth today." I paused and heard a few breaths hitch in waiting to hear what they all wanted to know, "I don't really know the extent of her vampire nature, I mean like, if she wants blood or if she wants.. Ren. The baby, I call her Ren. I did see her eyes and they are a pretty brown" I cleared my throat knowing I was rambling "I mean they are not red like a typical newborn so I think that's good." I stammered out stifling a little smile at the end as I thought of Ren's eyes. Geez I'm a goner.

After a small pause it was Paul who again spoke first "What the fuck Black?! You don't even know shit of any use but it's eye color! What the hell is this meeting for, you think we want a goddamn birth announcement about a stupid LEECH!" he said getting louder by the end. Paul and his damn temper, but that shit was out of line!

I pushed away from the wall balling up my fists to keeps them from shaking, I was so mad. "Shut it Paul! Not It. HER! And her name is Ren! Not stupid leech!" I spat back at him lacing my words with venom, glaring.

Sam took a step forward and raised his hand at Paul in a gesture of silence while never taking his eyes off me. He tilted his head to the side and said "There is obviously much more to the story."

I cast a warning glance around the room and said "Yes, there is."

I stepped back against the door, closed my eyes and took a deep breath to expel some of the tension in the room from my body. I let my breath out slowly, opened my eyes and launched into the story head first. I started with some details about the pregnancy at the end and the reason Bella had to have an emergency c-section. When I got to the part about Edward changing Bella some of them got restless so I held up a finger and told them to let me finish. I paused right at the point where I attacked and took a shaky breath then kept going, slightly quieter. That was my lowest point in life, granted I haven't lived long but mistakes don't get much bigger than that. When I finally told them I imprinted on Ren there were a few "Whats?!" and Quil even spit some of the soda he'd been drinking as I talked, thru his nose. Ass. When I finished with me running here, I looked around the room to see a bunch guys with their mouths hanging open or their faces scrunched up in anger or confusion.

Leah sat on the couch with her arms crossed seeming relaxed with a smug look on her face. After a moment of silence she said "Wow, if I would've known all it took was an imprinting on a bloodsucker to shut you over grown little boys the hell up, I would have lied and used that shit a long time ago!"

Seth chuckled and shoulder bumper her. I made eye contact with her and threw her a grateful smirk. She effectively broke the awful tension in the room while taking the heat off me, even if just for a second.

"Well this changes things. Do you have any clue if the Cullen's are gonna retaliate?" Dad spoke first.

I shrugged, "I dunno Dad, I mean if Edward wanted to he could have probably taken me out when I was lost in freakin imprinting la la land. Also, he didn't have to warn me to run when the other Cullens were coming. I'm sure Emmett would have loved to help rip me to shreds for hurting his mate." I dropped my head and toed the floor, ashamed and added. "I don't understand it, after what I did I deserved to die right there in that living room."

"Man, Jake you .." Seth started but I snapped my head up in his direction and cut him off saying "I tried to kill my fucking imprint dude and until you imprint yourself I don't think you'll really understand how I feel right now." I closed my eyes shaking my head. Damn I was the world's worst imprint in history. That, I was sure of.

I heard a deep sigh and then Sam's voice "I think I can understand where you're coming from, except you didn't actually physically hurt your imprint, I did."

I looked up into Sam's eyes and for the first time I got him. So many things made a lot of sense about him now. I think I finally understood so much more about him not only after this whole imprint fiasco, but after being an Alpha now as well. "Ya but the thing with Emily and you was an accident. I wanted to hurt her." That shit made my chest hurt to say out loud.

"Ya well you may have wanted to, but you didn't. I may not have wanted to, but I did. Same difference. Besides, you didn't imprint until after the fact. You've got to know attacking her would've never crossed your mind if you had already, no matter what you thought she was responsible for, even the death of another." He replied.

I just nodded as I digested that. My Dad decided to speak up saying "Well, let's talk about what we do now. What's done is done." Old Quil just nodded in agreement.

Paul took that as his opportunity to open his big mouth again, "Well if it's a fight they want we can do this! It's 10 us, 8 them and one of them is a newborn and half of them are girls! No problem!"

"No fighting." I said

Leah jumped up shooting daggers at him "Girls? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?! I'm not defending leeches here but did you not see just what us "girls" can do during the newborn battle? Or is your head on permanent vacation up your ass?!"

"Fuck you Leah! Unlike you I was ripping bloodsuckers apart, not trying to play big girl wolf and ending up getting Jake here hurt rescuing my ass!"

As Leah opened her mouth to respond, shaking so hard I was sure she was gonna phase Embry, the voice of reason beat her to the punch "Jesus Christ Paul! Do you ever shut the hell up? Big girl wolf? Really? Come on bro, get better material. Or maybe I should just tell everyone what Rach said you like to "play" if you catch my drift. That will definitely give all of us burn material for months, if not years!" We all looked at Paul and his silence told us all we needed to know. Everybody laughed but Dad and I. I held a look of disgust; I so did not need to know that about my sister. Dad glared at Embry as he concluded "That's what I thought Big Bad Wolf!" then mumbled "sorry Billy" when he caught Dad's face.

He just shook his head saying "Where were we?"

"Planning what we do now" Jared answered "I think that since we have no idea where their heads are at on this, we prepare for anything and make the first move because the best defense is a good offence."

"True, but we should try calling them or something and at least give them a heads up that the last thing we want here is a war. I don't think Jakey here wants to hurt any of his imprints family, well, anymore of her family anyway. Sounds like he already messed up that Rosalie's hot little self though. A real shame."Quil said, shaking his head in mock horror.

"Geez thanks Quil, always lookin out for the ladies huh?" I responded sarcastically.

"You know it bro!" he said coming over to me and patting me on the back "I'm just happy I'm not gonna be the only one around here catching crap for imprinting on a child. Heck, I think you got me beat with the whole, part vampire part human thing. You always did like to do your own thing! Thanks for that." And by this time almost everyone was snickering. Myself included. And that there is why Quil and I have been tight for as long as I can remember. He could talk shit to you and by the time he was through you only liked him more.

That's when Dad groaned loudly rubbing his temples muttering something about "where the heck is Sue" "keeping us focused" and "always joking around" I dunno.

"On a serious note though, I think it would be best if we all go over there and meet because I think it can only help if Edward understands the whole imprint stuff more. Lee-Lee, Jake and I, the three wolves that he has been able to read all the time were not imprinted. I think if the wolves that have, go and keep their imprint at the front of their mind it will help him understand better and if he does he could be our best Ali. Well, him and Jazz."Seth offered.

"No way Edward is gonna be anywhere near Jake's side! The Dr. maybe, but not Edward that's his daughter and if…."

"Hold on Jared I think he might be onto something there, Seth knows the Cullens better than anyone here so go on Seth." Sam said while motioning with his hand to elaborate.

"Okay, well what I was thinking is focusing on the fact that the imprint goes both ways. The key really is the fact that killing Jake kills her, hurting Jake hurts her, even that keeping them apart hurts them both. You know what I mean? As far as Jazz goes he can feel what we do. Like what imprinting feels like to you guys. But it's really important he feels how sorry Jake is."

"I see what you're thinking, appeal to the mind reader and the empath,…" Jared said

"And not the father and the freakin God of War." Embry added dryly.

"Exactly!" Seth responded in triumph.

"Well hot damn boy, I always knew you were a smart one!" Quil said causing Leah to give her little brother the "almost extinct" genuine smile of hers.

"I hope you're right about this shit" Paul grumbled, still pissed about getting punked by Embry.

And with that we launched into a strategic discussion about how to get the best outcome. That being me alive and able to have some part in Ren's life. At this point I'd be willing to agree to anything if I could just see her. The damn pain and tugging in my chest just gets worse as time passes. I actually couldn't believe they were all taking this so well. They seemed to not even care about Bella being changed. I guess an imprint really did change everything. They had my back all the way. For the first time it really sunk in that we were brothers, we were family, not just a pack of wolves. After a lot of going back and forth we decided my Dad would go call Carlisle to set up a meeting and hopefully get some more information.

When he returned he told us the VampDoc said he too realized this was way bigger that just wolfs and vamps not getting along. We set up a meeting in a few days. He wanted to give Bells a chance to wake up and go hunting a couple times before coming near us although the chances were slim that she would be into wolf blood. No humans though, so that left the elders out but they thought two Alphas could handle this. Plus he hoped maybe Blondie would calm down a bit by then, but even I knew we could wait a few decades and she would still want my head on a platter. They asked how I thought Bells might take all this when she comes to. I want to believe she will forgive me, I always said she forgave too easy so it was a possibility. But I don't know how "Newborn Vampire Momma Bella" would take it. She was really protective of the baby while pregnant. So who knows? The fact that Carlisle agreed to no fighting was enough to have me ready to just get it over with. Meet my fate. But I had to wait.

I knew these would be the longest days of my whole existence.

AN: Thank you for reading. I hope I was able to channel my inner teenage/wolf for this chapter! Please let me know what you think! The meeting with the Cullens will be next, with POV'S from some of them to understand where they are coming from. Thank you to Kaitsa… she knows why.

Oh and the "God Of War" reference about Jasper was a little shout out to one of my fav crazy lil fics -A Beautiful University Dream- by frosty1974! Check it out!

~J~

*disclaimer on profile*