"Cannonball!" Paul yelled as he dove off the edge of the cliff.
I shook my head and grinned at his antics. I had noticed the wolves were playful when they were in a good mood. I walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down. I saw Leah in the ocean looking up and she smiled. She was so beautiful, and pride swelled in my chest at the thought that she was mine.
"She's a nice piece of ass, isn't she?" Cain said as he stood next to me.
"What?" I said and turned to look at him with my eyes narrowed. I didn't like the sound of his voice, and the way he looked at Leah certainly didn't escape my notice.
He must have sensed the tension that was emanating from me, but he grinned as if he was enjoying my irritation.
"Hey now. Don't get upset. You wouldn't be the first one that she's fooled. Sam was first, now it's your turn. With the way she was pressed up against me after you dove off the cliff, I'm expecting to be next when you're done with her. I don't mind thirds, especially with a horny bitch like her."
I lunged for Cain's throat, but in a flash, Sam was standing between us, holding me back. I snarled in Sam's face, and Cain laughed.
"Stop right now Jensen. You don't want to make enemies of us. You are outnumbered here. Calm down" Sam said quietly.
It took a moment for his words to register, but I eventually relaxed my stance. I was still angry, but I knew Sam's words were true.
"Is it true Sam? Were you and Leah together?"
He hesitated, then said, "Yes, but that was a long time ago, and I'm in love with Emily now."
I let his words flow over me and I felt defeated and angry. He said he was in love with Emily now, which in my mind meant he had been in love with Leah at one time. Knowing Leah, she had been in love with Sam too. Was that the reason for her tension when she noticed the group cliff diving earlier? Could she still be in love with Sam? Was that why she suggested we cliff dive? It was her idea after all. Was she using me to make Sam jealous, much like I used Tanya to make Leah jealous? The questions in my mind were growing with a life of their own, almost like a cancer, and the only answers that came to me held a sickening truth.
The scenario that defeated and angered me, however, was the one scenario I believed to be the most likely. Leah was like Tanya. She had an unrequited love for Sam, and was using me as a distraction. Much like Tanya had an unrequited love for Edward and she used me to fill Edward's place. The difference was I wasn't in love with Tanya.
We all turned our heads at the sound of Leah approaching. I could see in her face that she noticed the tension emanating from me. I tried with everything I had to remember that she wanted to be with me. That what Cain said, and what Sam confirmed didn't matter. Unfortunately, I was still insecure in our relationship to shake off their words. When Leah's steps began to falter, I walked the rest of the way to her.
"We need to talk. Now" I said, then I turned to gather my clothes and strode off towards the beach.
Once I reached the beach, I stared out at the ocean. It was high tide, and I could see a storm brewing in the distance. I took a deep breath hoping the briny air would cleanse my mind from the poison infecting it. However, the simple truth was that the wolves, Jacob's pack as well as Sam's pack, knew Leah better than I did. This truth haunted me. I was not of their kind. I was the newcomer. Suddenly I recalled the little clues Leah had been giving me. Sam was the reason she cried after the first time we had sex. She must have dreamt about Sam afterwards, and then cried again in her sleep. I recalled the brief look of mutiny that crossed her face the first time I declared that she was mine. It all added up. I shook my head and laughed humorously at the realization that Sam, Cain, and Paul saw me as Leah's fool. Did all the wolves view me that way, including Leah?
I heard Leah's approach, but I remained quiet as she stood next to me.
"Is it true? Were you in Cain's arms after I jumped off the cliff?" I asked bitterly.
"It wasn't like that Jensen. He grabbed me from behind. You of all people should know that appearances aren't always what they seem" she stated with a low growl.
Yes, I knew that, but it was also my experience that women were fickle creatures. After all, Tanya was able to sleep with me even though she was in love with Edward. Again, the thought that Leah was using me to make Sam jealous came to mind, and I clenched my jaw.
"I want to hear a yes or no answer for this question. I don't want to hear details or explanations. Were you in love with Sam?"
I heard the erratic pace of her heart. She remained silent a second too long for my taste, so I finally glanced down at her. She didn't look me in the eye. Her eyes were directed somewhere in the vicinity of my chest. Then she stiffly nodded her head.
"Are you still in love with him?" I asked willing her to look me in the eye.
"No!" she exclaimed, however, her voice broke, and I looked away from her as my worst fears were confirmed by her denial.
We stayed quiet for a long time, each caught up in our own turbulent thoughts. My despair mingled with my anger. I breathed deeply and her scent almost distracted me from my thoughts. I needed to get away from her, otherwise her proximity and scent would prove me as the fool I knew she was making me out to be. I turned abruptly and walked away from her with stiff strides.
"Where do you think you're going!?!" she yelled.
"I need to think. I've respected your privacy, Leah, you respect mine."
I watched Alice and Edward practically fly around the roof top of the Cullen Mansion as they hung decorations. Bella, Jacob, and Esme were in the kitchen preparing food. I almost laughed thinking about the scene I had walked into just a few moments ago when I entered the kitchen. Bella and Jacob were arguing about what kind of cake Renesmee should have, while Esme watched them patiently. It was silly to me why Bella would care so much about the cake when she couldn't eat it herself. I walked out of the kitchen when I realized there really wasn't anything I could do to help there.
"Alice! Edward! Do you guys need help?"
Alice stopped and said, "Jensen, can you help Rosalie with the game booths & rides? I have a feeling that Emmett and Jasper are wrestling instead of helping, and Rosalie is doing everything herself."
"Sure. I'll go around back."
"Thanks Jensen!"
I smiled wryly as I walked to the back of the house. Leave it to Alice to build an entire carnival for a kid's birthday. It will probably be the most talked about party for years to come. The excitement in the air was a palpable thing, that I couldn't help but feel a flicker of it myself.
It had been a week since Leah and I had gone cliff diving. It had been one long week, since we last talked. Needless to say, I had a lot of time to think. I decided that if Leah wanted to play this game with me, I will oblige her. However, now that I knew all the players in the game, we would be playing by my rules. She fell back to the routine of shadowing me when she was on patrol, but she also avoided me. That was fine with me. I wasn't ready yet to confront her.
"Hey Rosalie, Alice said you might need my help" I said as I spotted Rosalie hammering away on the game booth she was working on. She stopped when she heard my voice and looked up at me.
"Yeah, thanks Jensen. Could you finish the ferris wheel?"
"Sure" I said, and shook my head in amusement when I saw Emmett and Jasper wrestling a few feet away just as Alice had predicted.
I got to work, and found myself actually looking forward to the party.
The party was a success as expected. It still amazed me how the people of Forks did not realize that there was something different about Renesmee and the rest of the Cullens. It must have been midnight, but the carnival was still in full swing. Alice had cleared out the furniture in the great room, so the adults would be able to dance. I stood with Jasper and Edward at one side of the room, watching the dance floor. I didn't know where Alice and Bella were, but I was very conscious of where Leah was.
Naturally, Jacob's pack was at the party. Jacob was with Renesmee, enjoying the carnival with her. The rest of Jacob's pack stood together at the other side of the room from where I stood with Edward and Jasper, but Leah didn't stand with them. Instead she was on the dance floor, dancing. This proved to me that I really didn't know Leah at all. I would never have believed she would be dancing at a party, much less a party at the Cullens'. She danced with her eyes closed and her body swayed in time with the music. You could tell by her expression that she was in her own world. She was wearing a little black dress that hugged her curves like a second skin. The dress would have been modest on anyone else but Leah. On Leah, the dress conveyed pure sex. I wanted to snatch her up and rip the dress off her, but at the same time I wanted to kill every man in the room that looked at her with lust in their eyes.
I watched her as she moved sensuously in time with the beat of the song. I knew she would dance beautifully. As if she could feel the heat of my gaze as I stared at her, she opened her eyes and looked at me. We stared at each other for what seemed like forever, and I knew she could see the longing in my eyes. I decided that no matter what had happened in the past, she was still mine. I made my way toward her, weaving around the people who were dancing. She kept her eyes on me and continued to dance. When I made it to her, I wrapped my arm around her waist. She finally stood still, and then as if making a decision of her own, she laid her head on my chest and started swaying her body against mine. Her body fit against my body like a missing puzzle piece, and I started to sway with her. Her heart beat in time to the beat of the song, and we started picking up the pace of our dance. Our bodies melded together as if we were making love. It felt like there was no one else in the room except for us. For just this moment, everything that was said between us, all the obstacles that stood in the way of our relationship, disappeared. She was mine, and I was hers.
Eventually the song ended, and reality intruded. We stopped dancing, and she raised her head to look into my eyes.
"Let's get out of here" I said.
Suddenly, her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. "Yeah, let's get out of here" she said with a trace of bitterness. Apparently she was angry with me.
I took her hand and exited the house, leading the way to my cabin. Her anger fueled something inside me. I felt the anger that I held at bay overwhelm me, and the need to dominate her was relentless. It was time to show her who she belonged to, and it was about time she started playing by my rules.