Loving Jacob was so easy, so natural that I didn't have to think about being with him; it was like I was caught in his gravitational pull. The only thing that kept me from his side was Charlie. Still, half of the time I was with Jake, he was down at the reservation too, chatting away with Billy. Both of our dads were fine with us being together, and I could tell that they were glad that I had gotten over Edward.
Even though I would never show it of course, at night time, when Jake wasn't by my side, keeping me warm and safe, sometimes the faintest echo of the hole would etch across my heart.
I was sitting on the couch, absent-mindedly tracing imaginary patterns onto the warm, russet coloured skin of Jacob's hand, when a horrible look crossed his face. It looked as if he was about to be sick. "Jake?" "Jake are you alright?" I asked cautiously. "I'm fine I just..." He didn't finish the sentence, having already run to the bathroom.
I heard Billy call out from the other room "Bells, maybe you should go home, whatever it is that Jake's got, I don't think you want it!" I could hear the sound of retching from the bathroom, and felt inclined to agree. I left a note for Jacob, telling him that I loved him, that he should feel better soon, and that I would be over the second he called me. Then I got in my truck, and drove home.
*******
It had been days now, and I still hadn't heard from Jacob. Every time I called, Billy had told me that he was too sick to ring me back, and that he'd tell me when he was ready to see me again. I was fretting majorly, but something in the back of my mind told me that I should keep my distance. I knew that whatever it was that was wrong with Jacob, it was bad: there was hardly any physical need strong enough to keep him away from me.
About another week had passed, and Jacob had finally come around to my house. He wasn't just tall now, he was MASSIVE. "Jake!" I yelled as he ducked his head to fit through the front door. I ran into his arms and kissed him on the cheek, and it felt as though he had been sitting directly next to a fire for a very long period of time by the temperature of his skin.
He grimaced, a very unusual thing for usually happy Jacob to do in my presence. "Listen, Bella, I have something very, very important to tell you, and you have to take me seriously, do you understand?" There was no joking tone to his voice, no playful light in his eye, so I nodded minutely.
"Okay, well, you remember the stories that I told you, that time down at the beach?" I nodded again, forcing myself not to think about Edward. "They're not myths, they're true- I told you about our descending from wolves, didn't I?" "Jake, where are you going with this?" I demanded. He shook his head, not in disagreement, but as though he was trying to clear it."Well, you see, I haven't been sick, I've been... changing." "How?" I asked, and then he had told me the truth about werewolves.