Jasper's POV:
When Alice had said suddenly that there was another Seth about to wander into Forks, we had all thought she was crazy. But now that Edward and Bella had brought the guy back... Well I suppose I can't say that she'd ever been wrong about one of her visions before, so we should probably have believed her more when she first told us. Still, looking down at the boy (who had finally stopped growing and shaking) it was a bit unnerving to see the spitting image of Seth.
Speaking of Seth, he and the rest of the pack had come to the house to see this outsider. Everyone except for Jacob who happened to be off with Renesmee trying to finally get her in the mood and get her to return his more physical feelings. Seth was, as usual, chatting up a storm, curious about who this newcomer was and why he had come here. Edward had done his best to answer these questions, probing through the boy's mind and coming up with at least a couple answers to satisfy all of our curiosities. Apparently the boy was named Dominic and was Seth's twin. We could't be sure why, but they had been separated since birth and Dominic had grown up in foster care. Now, he was back and obviously changing before our eyes.
Though he was always kind and generally a pleasure to be around, the tension of the situation combined with the incessant chattering from Seth was beginning to get on my nerves and I decided to exercise a bit of influence over everyone's emotions. I felt around with my mind, brushing against the emotional inputs from everyone in the room and exuding a deep calm that would be sure to put everyone into a better state of mind. Though they could tell what I was doing, everyone immediately responded to my emotional tugging, and were eventually forced into the calm that I exuded. Though the wolves certainly hated to admit it, I could definitely have quite a lot of influence over everyone when I wanted to.
I was pulled out of my thoughts and lost my emotional control over everyone as we all noticed Dominic beginning to stir. Edward had knocked him out pretty well, probably saving him from a rather unpleasant and very rapid development, and this was the first time that I had felt any emotions from him at all. As he began to come to I felt a swirling of confusion and a twinge of fear from Dominic that gradually became stronger and stronger as he fully regained consciousness. Edward shuffled Bella behind him and everyone took a step back.
Dominic moaned a bit and shivered, but then laid perfectly still. He remained like that for what seemed like forever before he suddenly sat straight up and stared wildly around the room. I forced a wave of calm over him, trying to keep him from panicking any further of phasing in such a tight space. Impressively, Dominic just sat there in surprise and obvious fear, embracing the forced-calm and just staring at us. He opened his mouth several times to ask a question, but just closed it again when he couldn't find the words.
"Jasper," Seth began, "Do you think that you could ease him into the emotional state to phase? I think it might be easier if I just explained things mentally." I thought it over, worried that once in wolf-form he might panic and do something rather awful, but eventually decided that Seth was right. "Okay, Dominic," Seth continued, "Just ease into it, you're going to feel a tingle in your stomach and just go with it. It's like your whole body is vibrating and all you have to do is let it go outward." Dominic stared blankly back at Seth. "Um... Just imagine that your core is shaking and picture it extending all the way to your toes and fingertips, it'll all flow naturally, you'll see!"
At that point, Seth took a step back and phased. Apparently that was just too much for Dominic who jumped backwards, panicked at his twin suddenly being replaced with an enormous sandy wolf. In his panic, I could feel his emotions shifting to a primal protection instinct, and I felt the wolf inside of him rising to the surface. Before he even hit the ground, Dominic had begun to phase, and soon the boy had been changed into an equally large pure white wolf.
Obviously not used to having four legs, Dominic wobbled around, still trying to get away, confused and afraid of his new self, tripping over his own paws. I pushed the calm back onto him, keeping a close watch over his emotions and letting Seth talk to him with their wolf communication.
Everything seemed to be going fairly well, their emotions stayed level, and Dominic's emotions gradually shifted from shock to a distinctive curiosity and excitement. Seth was picking up on it too, they were feeding each other with their excitement and they were building off of each other. They really were similar. Edward chuckled, obviously thinking exactly the same thing.
"It's amazing how similar the two of them are, even their minds are very much alike." Edward pointed out, "Still, there is something distinctly different between the two of them; their souls are definitely different, which is probably why their wolves look so different too." I shrugged, it made sense to me, and I supposed that there must be something that would cause them to be so different in appearance (though similar in built, small by werewolf standards, their coloration was strikingly different).
We all shifted our eyes as Seth and Dominic shifted back into their naked human forms, Seth quickly sliding on an extra pair of shorts and tossing a blanket over Dominic (who hadn't prepped an extra set of clothes). He wrapped it tightly around himself, careful to cover as much of himself as he possibly could. We all chuckled at his modesty and he laughed with us, already fitting in and accepting our friendship (much like Seth had).
At that moment there was the thump of two pairs of feet and the sound of the door closing as Jacob and Renesmee came back into the house. I could tell by the vague satisfaction coming off of Jacob that he had gotten something, but very clearly not what he had really wanted (I noted the equivalent of an emotional grimace from Edward who could see all of it in his mind. Seth smiled and turned to Dominic to say, "Oh! Get excited! You're going to get to meet the alpha that I was talking about earlier!" He gestured to Jacob, who walked into the room smiling and with an arm around Renesmee, and happily pronounced, "This is Jacob!"
Before the words had left his mouth, I heard both Edward and myself gasp in unison, completely blown out of the water by the emotions and thoughts emanating from Dominic. Edward could hear the softest whisperings of his mind as everything within him spoke in unison that he was in love with Jacob, that he had imprinted on Jacob, and that Jacob was not only the only thing, but his everything.
Edward managed to hide most of his surprise, but there was no hiding what I had seen. Thoughts of love are definitely powerful, but the emotions of that feeling are so complex and strong that there is no stopping them. I could feel everything that Dominic felt, all of the devotion the love the confusion and the elation of just being in the same room as the man that was, by his reckoning, perfect in every way. Dominic was, for a moment, on cloud nine and in his elation he stumbled toward Jacob with a huge grin on his boyish face.
"Hehe, kinda small aren't you? Just like Seth." Laughed Jacob, to which Dominic nodded emphatically, "Well, I'm Jacob and this is my imprint, Renesmee." At the word imprint, Dominic froze. His face gradually started moving again, his expression cycling quickly between surprise and confusion and blankness again and again for several seconds. The whole time, he simply exuded an aura of growing despair that peaked when Jacob kissed Renesmee on the cheek to emphasize his affection for her.
Feeling all of Dominic's despair and fearing what he would do or say, I let out wave after wave of calm and soothing to try and keep him from phasing or lashing out at Renesmee. As it turned out, though, my efforts were wasted because he couldn't even stand up, never mind make any move to attack her. Dominic crumpled on the floor as though he had been hit by an electric shock. He lay there on the ground with wide, unblinking eyes as we all stared in confusion. My soothing was clearly having no effect on him since tears were beginning to stream from his eyes. Edward, seeing all of his thoughts looked at me meaningfully and I took the hint. I stopped my waves of soothing and began projecting every feeling of exhaustion that I could. I hoped that this would pair with the general emotional overload of the situation and his tiredness from having walked here to just put him right to sleep.
Fortunately, it all worked out and Dominic closed his eyes and entered a state more like a faint than sleep. Operating at vampire speed, all of this tense situation had been played out in just a few moments, though everyone was still quite confused and concerned for Dominic's well being.
"You know, he's probably just exhausted from everything that's gone on today." Edward began delicately, "Perhaps we should just put the poor little guy sleep it all off and rest until he has the strength to deal with all this." I nodded my agreement and went to carry him to bed but Jacob beat me to it, scooping Dominic up in his muscular arms and protesting cheerfully.
"Don't worry about it, guys, I'll just bring him up to Nessie and my room," Jacob said, "After all, it is sorta my job as alpha to make sure that everyone in the pack is alright. Plus," he said, looking right at Renesmee with an unsatisfied scowl, "It's not as though we'll be needing the bed tonight." Renesmee snorted a bit and gave him a withering look.
"It's true, Jacob, everyone is going for a hunt tonight. We'll be back tomorrow night, though, and you can tell us all about little Dominic." Renesmee stated with an acerbic bite to her voice. I could sense the tension and tell that something about an alpha and his cravings was pushing up against the instinct of being imprinted on someone. Though we could all tell that Jacob loved Renesmee very much, it was also clear that there was a bit of tension and unsatisfied desires between them.
Jacob sighed and carried the much smaller Dominic upstairs like an infant wrapped in a blanket (with Seth following at his heels like the excited puppy that he had always been). We vampires shook our heads at the strange situation before stepping out the door for a good long hunt. Edward and I hung back a bit and as he passed by on our way out I said, "Well this should be interesting." I ran up ahead, quickly gaining on Alice to give her a quick kiss on the back of the neck, quite inspired by witnessing Dominic's imprinting. She giggled at my eagerness and ran playfully ahead. I ran happily after her, putting the new boy in the back of my mind, knowing that no one (even Alice) could read a werewolf's future, and forgot all about Dominic and Jacob for the time being as I chased after my love, eager to sneak another kiss.
I know, I know, another boring background chapter, but I swear that I'm almost done with that type of thing! I fully intend for the next chapter to move closer toward the steaminess and the romance that we have all been hoping for! Also, I think that I may get around to talking a little bit about what Seth has been up to lately (spoiler alert: he has an imprint as well!), which should be interesting for all you Seth fans out there!
As always, review if you could, it helps a lot, especially since I hope to be moving past background things into more of the other stuff that people generally like more, so it would be really helpful to hear what you guys would like to see so that I could maybe get some inspiration with my writing! Anyway, as always, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!