CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jacob left early in the morning and went home to get his school stuff and catch the bus. We spent several minutes kissing outside the door before he dragged himself away and when I stepped back into the house, Sam was rolling his eyes and grinning.

"If only you could see yourselves," he teased.

"Shut up," I grunted, laughing none the less.

I spent all of that day working with Sam. He had arranged for a tutor to start coming to the house for three hours each week day, starting the following Monday and in the meantime told me he would show me the ropes of his business and teach me to make some basic things, but in my spare time I would have to catch up on all the homework I hadn't done for school. I did as I was told and even determinedly wrote a fifteen hundred word history essay, much as I loathed it.

That week I think Sam could probably have asked me to do just about anything and I would have done it. I felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted off my shoulders now that I was no longer hiding anything from Jacob. I spent every evening with him at Billy's house or in the workshop except for Friday when he came to ours. Then after he left to go home, Sam told me to bring him over on Saturday morning. Jared and Embry had also been invited and Sam intended to tell Jacob about the pack.

I arrived at Billy's house at eight on Saturday, unable to wait a minute longer. Sam didn't expect me back until ten, so we went to the workshop and filled in the time by tearing off each other's clothes and fucking vigorously on the couch, just as we had every night that week apart from Friday. I couldn't get enough of him and he was just as eager.

Jacob had already taken a shower that morning, but he went back into the house for a quick clean up while I stayed outside and rinsed myself in the rain barrel. It was ice cold and deliciously refreshing on my hot sweaty skin. We set off for Sam's at nine-thirty, holding hands as we usually did when we walked around La Push. Most people we knew on the reservation seemed to have got used to seeing us and didn't turn a hair.

As we walked along the main road in the direction of Sam's, suddenly a truck pulled up close by and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I gripped Jacob's hand tighter and stopped walking.

"It's my Dad," I told him.

I don't know why I still felt nervous. I was as big as him now, probably bigger and certainly a lot stronger, but still he managed to intimidate me. He jumped out of the truck and stood a few feet in front of me.

"Paul."

"Hello, Dad," I said through my teeth.

"I want to talk to you."

"Go on."

"On your own." He shot a look of contempt at Jacob.

"Anything you have to say, you can say in front of Jacob," I said, clenching my fists and then forcing my right hand to relax as I felt Jacob flinch and realised I was crushing his fingers.

Dad glowered for a moment and I wondered if he remembered Jacob's name from me yelling it in my sleep. After a moment he seemed to force himself to adopt a slightly more pleasant expression.

"I wanted to let you know I'm leaving," he said. "I'm going back to Tacoma."

"When?" I asked.

"Today. There's really nothing for me here. I thought things might have been different."

"So did I," I said. "You can't force someone to change by beating them into it."

"Yeah, well I realise that. I'm not proud of the way I've treated you, Paul. I always wondered if you would have been better off with your mother, but I guess I didn't want to lose my kid. In the end I did anyway. You obviously settled in here a lot better than I did."

"Yeah," I said.

"Look, I'm going back to the old house. If you ever want anything, you can give me a call; it'll be the same number."

"Thanks." I was surprised that he offered and more surprised still that he had nothing to say about me walking around in broad daylight holding hands with a guy.

"I'll be off then. Take care of yourself." He got back in the truck and a moment later he was gone.

I thought I would have been glad to see the back of him and in a way I was, but I was also filled with sorrow that we'd had such a lousy relationship for most of my life. It seemed like a terrible waste when I compared it to the way Jacob and Billy were with each other. I could barely remember anything good happening; only Dad drinking and hitting Mom and then me after she left. Rage boiled up inside me suddenly and I let go of Jacob's hand quickly.

"Keep away from me," I said, backing off.

"But..." He took a step towards me.

"Don't! Stay where you are!"

Damnit, I was losing it. Now would be a good time to learn some control. I was standing in the street opposite a row of houses with Jacob right beside me. I moved further away from him and forced myself not to think about my Dad and everything he had done to me. Instead I looked at Jacob, standing there with a worried expression on his face and I thought about how much I loved him, how happy I was when I was with him.

Gradually the heat in me began to subside. I breathed deep and leaned back against the fence bordering the road. After another minute or two it was clear I wasn't going to phase and I relaxed. I was improving after all.

"Are you ok?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah."

He came towards me and I slid my arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"You're upset about your Dad leaving?"

"No, I'm upset that we never got on and that he'll never really accept me. It just seems like a waste."

"I thought you were going to...you know...phase."

"Yeah, so did I. Apparently I have better control than I thought." I pushed myself away from the fence, keeping one arm around Jacob's neck as we continued in the direction of Sam's.

Jared and Embry were already there when we arrived, sitting at the picnic table behind the house drinking coffee with Sam. We joined them and Emily brought two more hot drinks out for us while everybody made small talk, Embry commenting that he was jealous as hell that I didn't have to go to school any more.

"I'm not just sat on my ass. I'm still taking my exams and I'll probably do better than you; I'm getting a private tutor. Plus I'm working with Sam part time and earning money," I gloated.

"Oh, what? You get in trouble at school and end up being rewarded? I can just imagine what would happen if that was me. My Mom would ground me until I'm thirty if she didn't kill me first," Embry grumbled.

We taunted each other a while longer until Sam interrupted and everyone fell silent. He started by talking about our ancestors and then went on to speak directly to Jacob, telling him about the rest of us. He said the same thing he had to me, which was that he'd read his Dad's book about the shape-shifters and always wondered if it was true.

When Sam went on to tell him about us and that he would shortly be joining us, he looked shocked and dismayed and asked a number of questions about phasing. Everyone listened while Sam talked and then explained that the new pack would be needed in the not too distant future with the expected arrival of vampires in Washington.

"Jacob, there's something else," Sam said then. The rest of us looked at him expectantly. I guessed what he was going to say before he continued.

"Your great-grandfather was Alpha of his pack. It's meant that you follow in his footsteps."

Jacob's face paled. "But you're Alpha," he said.

"I stepped in because I was the first to shift, but it's only temporary. Once you phase, you'll take over."

Jacob gulped. "I don't want it," he said quietly.

"It's your destiny," Sam told him.

"I don't care. I don't want this. I don't even want to be a shifter, but I guess I can't escape from that. But I'm no leader; I won't be Alpha." He got up from the table. "Keep it, Sam. You seem to be doing a pretty good job of it." He turned away then and began to run off in the direction of the beach.

I got up at once, but Sam rose too and his voice halted me.

"How much did you tell him?"

"Um..." I felt my face flushing. He had seen right through us.

"Paul, I'm not a fool," Sam said.

"It was only on Monday after all that shit happened at school. I told him the legends were true, that I already phased and he would follow. And I told him I Imprinted. That's it," I confessed.

Sam sighed heavily, but then to my surprise he reached out and gave my shoulder a squeeze.

"I guess you were in a pretty impossible position," he said.

"Yeah, he started thinking I didn't want to be with him."

"Well, it's done now and at least he knows everything." He looked over his shoulder in the direction Jacob had gone. "You better get after him, hadn't you?"

"What about the Alpha role?" I asked. "Can he really turn it down?"

"If that's what he wants. I can't force him into it. I'll just carry on with things the way they are." He smiled suddenly. "It'll certainly make things easier for you."

I remembered what he said about us possibly fighting for the upper hand if Jacob took over as Alpha while I was the dominant partner in the relationship and I felt relieved.

I set off in the direction Jacob had gone, sprinting to try and catch up with him. I didn't see him until I reached the sand and there I found him sitting on that same rock where I had met him. I walked over to him.

"Is Sam going to try and force me to lead the pack?" he asked.

"No. If you really don't want it, he'll stay Alpha."

"I don't. Like I said to him, I'm no leader. I don't want the responsibility either."

I sat down on the rock behind him now, one leg either side of him, and wrapped my arms around him. He leaned against me and turned his head to kiss my cheek.

"I thought of something else," he said. "If I was Alpha, wouldn't it fuck things up between us?"

"Maybe. Sam thought we might fight for control."

"Well, that's the best reason yet for me to leave it to Sam," Jacob said with a smile. "I like things the way they are."

"Me too." I teased his ear with the tip of my tongue. "I love you."

We stayed on the beach for another hour or so and then walked back to Jacob's. He suggested trying out the bike now that it was running and he wheeled it out of the workshop. It started on the second attempt and we spent a couple of hours riding it around the outside of the house and workshop. Jacob taught me how to ride and after a while he climbed on the back and held tight around my waist as I rode along the cliff path, turned off alongside Sam's house and then tore up and down the meadow.

We ate with Billy that evening and then spent a few hours in the workshop, taking a lot more time over each other than we had all week. The last few times we had been together, we had pounced on each other almost desperately as if we didn't have much time left, but now we teased and tasted and stroked and nibbled and finished by screwing slowly, clinging to each other. I tore myself away from him very reluctantly to go home and then spent an hour having a text conversation with him after I got into bed.

On Sunday, I spent most of the day with the pack. At least I could now tell Jacob it was a pack meeting rather than make up something about family get togethers and then feel like shit about it. He would have been invited to join us from the beginning, except for the fact that Embry phased. We had known it was coming, but didn't expect such a sudden transformation.

I woke in the early hours of the morning when I heard whining outside the house and both Sam and I jumped out of bed, dragging ourselves sleepily to the door. Sam opened it to find a bedraggled looking grey wolf outside, crouching on the porch in the pouring rain, eyes wide and terrified. We quickly shed our shorts, stepped outside and phased.

"Embry," Sam's voice said. "What happened?"

It wasn't Embry's voice we heard, but a projection of thoughts, almost like part of a movie. Everyone knew Embry had been after this girl, Marie, for quite a while. She lived close to Jared and Embry had become completely obsessed with her, even though he had only actually spoken to her a few times. On Saturday evening he had finally plucked up the courage to go to her house to ask her on a date. She answered the door herself and smiled, seemingly pleased to see him, but when he asked her out, she giggled and said she was busy. A moment later a guy appeared at the door, wrapping his arms around her from behind, sneering at Embry, making him feel stupid. Marie just laughed and the pair of them closed the door in his face.

He strode away, hurt and humiliated, deciding to just go home and hide away rather than come and talk to us or Quil. Moments later he was a wolf and even though he expected it, the sudden shock had scared the hell out of him. He had been running around all night in the rain, unable to go home and not wanting to come to Sam's and wake everyone up.

"Jesus, Embry," Sam groaned. "We're brothers - I don't just mean you and me, I mean all of us, the pack. If one of us needs something, the others are here twenty-four-seven. Don't ever suffer alone, for any reason."

"The first time this happened to me, I was freaked out too," I said. "It was the middle of the night; my Dad hit me..."

"What did you do?" Embry asked. "I mean, to make him go for you in the middle of the night."

"I had a nightmare, I was yelling out Jacob's name. My Dad hates me being gay more than anything else. I phased in my room, had to jump out the window before I was tempted to attack my Dad. I ran to the woods at first and then came here. I howled and Sam and Jared came to me in seconds."

The three of us spent some time wandering about in the woods, continuing to talk to Embry until he was calm again; then we took him back to the house and all phased back. He didn't seem to have any trouble with that part and Sam let us into the house to get some clothes. I gave Embry a pair of my cut-offs along with a belt as he was much thinner than both me and Sam. It was already around lunch time and Emily made us some sandwiches while we sat around talking. Embry seemed much happier about the situation and even laughed at himself for getting so hooked on a girl that had no interest in him.

Jared arrived while we were in the middle of lunch and helped himself to a sandwich. Sam quickly filled him in on Embry's transformation and then suggested I call Jacob and ask him to join us.

"Seriously?" I knew my face lit up like a beacon and Jared and Embry smirked at me.

"He's part of this now, even though he hasn't shifted yet," Sam said. "From the look of him, it won't be long before he does."

I grabbed my cellphone and called him at once. He rode over on the bike and after a while we all went down to the beach. Sam and Jared dived into the sea and after a brief hesitation, Embry joined them. I stayed on the sand with Jacob, ignoring them taunting me from the water.

"How long do you think it'll be before I shift?" Jacob asked me.

"I don't know. It seems like some kind of stressful event started if off for the rest of us," I said. "Embry told you what happened last night with him and you know about me. Jared got in a fight with some kid right before he shifted the first time and with Sam it was similar. He used to go out with Leah Clearwater and they had a fight. He didn't even know what he was so when he suddenly turned into a wolf it scared the hell out of him. He ran away and hid in the woods for two weeks."

"Shit," Jacob said.

"Like Sam said yesterday though, muscle growth is only the first sign. When you start running around outdoors in just a t-shirt like the rest of us, with a temperature of a hundred and eight, then you'll know it won't be long."

"Right now, I can't even imagine that." Jacob shivered and pulled his jacket tighter around him.

"I'll just have to keep you warm until then," I grinned, wrapping my arms around him.

We stayed that way until the others emerged from the sea, teasing us, and then returned to Sam's house for the rest of the day. Jared and Embry eventually left in the late evening, but Jacob stayed over again. I only wished he could stay over permanently - I hated letting him out of my sight for a minute.