CHAPTER TWELVE

I finally dragged myself away from Jacob with great reluctance just before ten and ran home. We'd ordered some Chinese takeout, eaten in the house and then returned to the workshop for the evening where more kissing had quickly led to us jacking each other off; twice. I should have been exhausted, but I was pumped with energy and excitement and doubted I would sleep a wink. I did my best not to grin like an idiot when I walked into the house, but it was impossible not to give something away.

"What's with you?" Sam asked idly as I went into the kitchen to get myself a glass of water.

"What do you mean?" I forced myself to look more serious, but I caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror by the back door - Emily had mirrors in every room - and noticed I was flushed and my eyes gleaming.

"Hmm...maybe I don't want to know." Sam grinned at me. "Keep yourself free tomorrow; now we've actually got enough guys to call ourselves a pack, we're going to have regular days for just us. There's a council meeting tomorrow night too; you can come with us. You'll learn more about our history."

"The whole day?" I frowned. "But..." I couldn't imagine getting through a whole day without seeing Jacob. It would surely kill me. I felt an immediate emptiness in my chest as I looked up at the clock and discovered it was thirty-three hours until I would be going to catch the bus for school on Monday.

"Starting at noon," Sam said.

"Ok." I relaxed slightly. "What am I going to tell Jacob we're doing?"

"Anything you like. Family stuff."

"I don't see why we can't tell him what's going on," I said. "You said it's his destiny; it's not like we'd be telling someone who's not going to end up phasing."

"No, Paul. It's not the way it's done," he said firmly.

I went to bed a few minutes later, my happy mood spoiled by irritation. I hated the fact that I had to keep this secret from Jacob and it bugged me even more that I couldn't spend the whole of Sunday with him either. I grabbed my phone and sent him a text message.

'Just got into bed - wish you were here.'

'Me too. Today was amazing.'

I grinned as I read his answer and my annoyance vanished in a second. I sent another message and we carried on a conversation for maybe half an hour before it came to an end. I almost said one more thing to him and then changed my mind.

'I love you.'

I even typed it, my heart hammering as if it meant to jump out of my chest. Then I thought, 'What if it's too much? What if he freaks out? What if he doesn't answer? Then I'll feel like a dick and worry about seeing him tomorrow. Anyway, I don't want to say it in a text message.'

I deleted it, one letter at a time and typed instead, 'See you tomorrow. x'

It took me a while to get to sleep. I kept wishing Jacob was with me, sleeping in my arms and wondered if I could somehow get Sam to agree to him staying over. I didn't really think he would say no, but I imagined actually asking him would be pretty embarrassing.

Eventually I fell asleep and when I woke and glanced at the clock, I was horrified to find it was already almost ten. I catapulted out of bed and ran into the bathroom to shower, cursing under my breath as I scrubbed myself at top speed and dragged on some clothes without even bothering to dry off properly. I barely had any time to see Jacob before I would have to leave him and spend the afternoon and evening bored out of my skull with Sam and Jared. I rushed to the door and shoved my feet into my boots.

"Twelve o'clock, Paul!" Sam called from the kitchen.

"Yeah!"

I flew out of the house and sprinted over to Jacob's. The workshop door was open and I found him in there working on the bike. He stood up and wiped his hands on a rag as I raced in.

"Something after you?" he grinned.

"Just couldn't wait to get here." I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a kiss. "I meant to be earlier, but I only just woke up," I said.

"Me too. Still, we got all day." He pressed himself against me and kissed my neck. Damnit.

"That's just it, we don't," I said with a sigh. "Sam wants me home today; some family Sunday thing. I'm sorry." I hugged him tighter.

"It's ok. I guess it's cool that he wants you to join in with stuff. Better than having family that hits you."

"Yeah, there is that." I hadn't thought of it that way, but it didn't change the fact that I resented not being able to tell Jacob what I was really doing.

We spent the hour and a half that I had working on the bike together. It was starting to look like a bike, rather than a heap of junk and much as I'd teased Jacob about his liking for scrap metal, I was actually pretty impressed.

"Are you going to sell it when it's done or keep it?" I asked him.

"Keep it," he said. "Couple more months I'll even be able to ride it on the road."

"I hope you're going to teach me to ride it."

"Sure," he grinned.

"Maybe I'll even get my own for you to fix up," I said.

I hadn't considered getting a bike before, but it would be cheaper to buy and to run than a car and certainly more fun. I dragged myself away from him ten minutes before noon and ran home. It was going to be a very long day.

That actually wasn't the case. Sam took Jared and me out in his truck to the woods and once there, we all phased and ran together, Sam telling us about the threat of vampires, that there had been no sightings as yet, but when there were, we would patrol more regularly, often at night during the week. Until then Sundays would be practise runs as we were eventually joined by other shifters. Time flew by as we raced through the woods and I found my only problem was keeping my thoughts to subjects I didn't mind Sam and Jared hearing. Once or twice I found myself thinking about Jacob; kissing him, taking his clothes off, touching him. I was quickly mortified when Jared's voice came into my head.

'Jesus, Paul, put a lid on it!'

'Sorry.'

I shoved Jacob to the back of my mind and forced him to stay there until in the late afternoon we returned to the truck and phased back. As Sam drove us back to the house, I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket to send Jacob a text and discovered he had sent me one almost two hours before.

'I miss you. x.'

"Shit," I muttered.

"What's up?" Jared asked.

"Nothing." I began tapping out a message.

'Sorry, battery died. Miss you too. Can't stop thinking about you. x.'

I pressed 'send' and sat back in the seat with a sigh. I hated lying to him and I was starting to have that horrible empty feeling inside me that descended the minute I was apart from him for too long.

"Missing Jacob?" Jared taunted.

"Yes!" I snapped. My phoned beeped and I looked at it again.

'Maybe you could come over after you finish family stuff?'

I grinned. 'Might be late.'

'Will wait up. Dad is out tonight.'

"The meeting tonight - how long does it last?" I asked.

"A few hours. Might be a little longer than usual tonight - it's the first one for both you and Jared. Should be done by ten."

"So can I extend my curfew a bit?"

"It's school tomorrow," Sam reminded me.

"Oh, come on. Please?"

Jared smirked. "I feel your pain."

"Fuck off," I muttered.

"Eleven. Not a minute after," said Sam.

'See you soon. x,' I texted.

When we got back to the house, Emily was just finishing a meal for us. Sam went and stood behind her in the kitchen, kissing her neck while she dished out food onto the plates.

"Steak for three hungry wolves," she said with a smile.

After we ate, Sam drove us off to the meeting. A number of people were already there seated around a fire and I immediately spotted Billy with Harry Clearwater.

"Oh, shit," I said under my breath. It hadn't occurred to me that Billy would be there, which was stupid really, given who he was. He looked up and nodded at me and I went over to him.

"Paul. Glad to see you here."

"Hello, Billy."

"Sit down," he instructed and I dropped onto a section of tree trunk next to his wheelchair. I guessed my demeanour must have told him I was fed up. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Not really. I hate this. I hate lying to him. Jacob," I blurted out miserably.

"It won't be for long. He'll join you soon enough," Billy said.

I felt even worse, that I was sitting there talking to Jacob's Dad, while he waited at home thinking I was having some kind of family get together with Sam and Emily.

The meeting turned out to be pretty interesting. Billy talked about the history of the Quileute tribe; how we had always had magic in our blood, making us transform into spirit warriors - the shape-shifters. Many generations back, they came across a vampire for the first time, discovering he had slaughtered some of the tribe. Humans were powerless against the creature, but the wolves' sharp teeth and claws were able to tear through the vampire's hard cold flesh and kill it. The creature's mate came to take her vengeance out on the Quileute village, killing many more of the tribe until with the help of the chief's third wife who distracted the female vampire with her blood by sacrificing herself, the one remaining shape-shifter - the chief - was able to overpower and kill the monster.

Since then, vampires returned every few generations and whenever the threat was sensed, the gene would make itself known in the descendents of that long-ago chief, these now being the Uley family, the Ateara family and the Blacks. I learned that Jared's great grandmother was a cousin of Jacob's great grandfather and of course I was distantly related to the Uley family.

"The Clearwaters also have a link to this," Billy explained, glancing at Harry Clearwater who sat the other side of him. "Sue was a Uley before she married Harry. So it's likely that Seth with eventually shift."

I hated to admit it, but I'd actually enjoyed myself and found the day fascinating, although I still felt sad and guilty that Jacob wasn't part of it. As the meeting came to an end, Harry wheeled Billy over to his truck to take him home and I excused myself to Sam and sprinted off. I made it to Jacob's house before Billy did and knocked briefly before letting myself in. It was nine forty-five so I still had an hour. Jacob appeared in the hall a second after I stepped in the door.

"My Dad's not back yet, but he normally gets in around ten," he said. "He goes to these council meetings every so often, with the tribe leaders. He says they sit around a campfire talking about our history and stuff like that."

"Sounds interesting," I said, feeling like a complete shit.

"Yeah, I guess. Dad says he'll take me along one day. So what have you been doing?"

"Uh...just hanging out. Emily cooked dinner. I'd rather have been with you."

I slid my arms around him and hugged him. I felt awful and I didn't know how I would be able to carry on like this until he shifted. Even then, when he did join us he'd find out I'd been lying to him and he'd be hurt, probably mad. I held him tighter, my face pressed into his neck and just breathed in the scent of him. The sound of a truck pulling up outside indicated the arrival of Harry and Billy and I let go of him reluctantly.

"Let's go in my room. If we leave the light off and stay quiet my Dad'll just think I'm asleep."

Jacob led the way into his room and we closed the door and lay on his bed in the darkness. I slid my arms around him again and he snuggled close to me, one hand resting on my chest, his breath warm on my neck. We heard the door open and Billy's chair rolling into the hallway.

"Thanks, Harry. I'll see you," he said and then the door closed again. A moment later Billy's voice came softly through the bedroom door. "Jacob? You up?"

Jacob didn't answer and a few minutes later we heard Billy's bedroom door open and close and then various sounds of him getting ready for bed.

"Aren't you supposed to be home by ten?" Jacob whispered suddenly.

"I got an extra hour." I brushed my lips against his and he kissed me back warmly. I immediately deepened it and in a moment I began to get hard. I slid my hand down his back to his butt and pulled him tighter against me, discovering that he was just as aroused as I was. I began to undo the buttons of his shirt, stroking my hand over his chest beneath it and feeling his heart thumping rapidly. I wanted to touch him and be touched so badly that I ached, but I was a little too aware of Billy in his room the other side of the bathroom. Still, if we didn't roll about and make the bed creak...

"Can you be quiet?" I whispered.

"Yes."

I lowered my hand and unfastened his jeans quickly. He drew away from me slightly and wriggled out of them, dropping them off the edge of the bed, then lay down again carefully. Those damned sexy jersey shorts he wore hid nothing as usual and I rubbed my hand over the outside of them, feeling his erection twitching impatiently underneath. I pulled the shorts down a few inches and grasped it, sliding my hand up and down slowly. Jacob moaned and I grimaced.

"Sshh," I breathed in his ear.

He bit his lip and held on tight to my neck as I continued, moving my hand faster, making him tremble and gasp. It didn't take long for him to come and he groaned again, the sound muffled this time as he pressed his face against my chest. I sniggered quietly.

"Remind me to bring a gag next time," I said softly.

Jacob snorted with laughter. "I'd like to see if you can be any quieter."

"Well, don't waste any time finding out," I prompted.

My balls ached and my dick was trapped uncomfortably in my jeans. I unfastened them and it slid out of the opening in my boxers at once. I closed my eyes as Jacob wrapped his hand around it. I could feel him shifting his position on the bed as he began stroking me and then suddenly I felt his hair brushing the lower part of my stomach, a second before his lips touched the head of my dick.

"Shit!" I hissed.

"Sshh!" Jacob responded. I felt his breath on my shaft and I shivered.

"You're not playing fair," I whispered.

Jacob just chuckled and slid his tongue down my length and back up again, following it with his hand. It was a torturous few minutes as he teased me with lips, tongue and fingers, but didn't actually suck me. It was all I could do not to writhe about, let alone keep quiet. I warned him when I was about to come, in case he didn't want a taste of me and then sank my teeth into a corner of the pillow in an effort not to make too much noise. Jacob lay back down beside me and moved his hand faster, making me spurt all over the front of my t-shirt and despite the pillow, my groan was way too loud.

"Damn you!" I muttered, gasping for breath. I pulled his hand off me and turned my face into his hair. "Just you wait."

"Don't forget the gag next time," Jacob said softly. "For yourself."

We went on teasing each other for a few more minutes, then just kissed and cuddled until Jacob's clock showed ten forty-five and I pulled away from him grudgingly. Rather than open his door and then the front door, which would have made too much noise, he opened the bedroom window and I lowered myself carefully out into the yard. I leaned back in to give him one last kiss and then jogged home.