Author: Amy

Wow, has it been a while! I'm so sorry for the terrible delay with updating this chapter. The past few months have been hectic for me and I've kept both you readers and Hannah waiting. Anyway, without further a do, I present the next chapter :)

Chapter Eight - Jacob's POV

I'd never really understood what it felt like to kiss someone you truly cared about. Since Bella, my attitude towards love had taken a downer and buried me in a hole of misery. She'd ripped my heart out and crushed it right in front of me. But staring into the eyes of the person you were destined to be with was different than any kind of emotion I'd ever felt. My stomach felt like it was on a rollercoaster, flipping and churning at the thought of what was to come.

With her lips only a few inches from mine, it was difficult to tell whether my doubts where all just a misunderstanding or whether they really were genuine alerts. My head was telling me to hurry the hell up and kiss her while my heart was telling me that it should be happening some other way, with flowers and a soppy movie. As the distance between us grew closer my doubts were confirmed and I pulled away, exasperated.

"It's not supposed to be like this," I explained, watching with remorse as her expression turned from curious to rejected. "I'm sorry it's just..."

"Maybe I should go," she said, pulling the strap of her bag over her shoulder as she got to her feet. "This was obviously a mistake."

"No, please don't. It wasn't a mistake."

She turned to me, clearly irritated. "Then why did you push me away?"

Stumbling for words, I tried to think of a suitable way to phrase my answer. I didn't want to push her away just as much as I didn't want to hurt her, but kissing her now just didn't feel right which means it mustn't be right if kissing your soul mate felt wrong. I couldn't tell her that though.

"I just feel like this should be happening differently. It should be happy and right, but knowing your still with Damien...it's not."

"Look," she sighed, "I'm sorry if I came on to you too quickly. I didn't mean for it to go that far but...you're so much nicer than Damien. You're not moody and persistent and...you don't force me around," she said, mumbling the last part. As if realising her mistake, she quickly pulled herself together and scurried away from me.

"Hey, wait a second." I pulled her to a stop. "What do you mean by he 'forces' you around?" When she didn't answer me I placed my hands firmly on her shoulders and looked her square in the eyes. "Annie, what is he doing to you?"

"Nothing!" she snapped, "He's doing nothing, okay? Just leave me alone." I watched as she brushed past me, arms swooping angrily by her sides. She was blatantly keeping something from me.

The next day I planned to confront Damien. It probably wasn't the smartest idea but I couldn't just sit back and watch his cunning smirk as he slung his arm over Annie's shoulder. She walked with him down the corridor like a pet on a leash, always by his side, assisting him whenever he expected her too. She didn't have a life around him. He was all about show with no meaning and I couldn't let him do that to Annie.

"What did you do to her?" I yelled, storming into the boys changing rooms where Damien was busy buttoning up his shirt. Too bad he's slow. Ignoring all of the curious looks I got from the other guys, I used all of my strength to pin him against the lockers and force the words right out of his mouth. "Tell me," I growled. "What did you do to her?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he spat.

"The hell you don't! You're pushing her around like a puppet you moron. What kinda sick guy treats a girl like that?"

"Hey, c'mon guys break it up," Kyle interfered. He used to be one of Damien's friends till he discovered what a jerk he is.

"Shut up, Kyle," Damien said as I took a step back, assuring Kyle that there was no need to get involved. Kyle stopped in his tracks but he didn't move back to his usual spot at the end of the benches. "Why do you care so much?" Damien questioned. "She's my girlfriend."

"Maybe you should ask her about that since she was this close to kissing me yesterday." I brought my hand up to his face using my finger and thumb to emphasise the distance between me and Annie.

"Why, you dirty little..." I knew that would tick him off. Damien lunged at me, his arm raised ready to punch me. I caught his hand quickly as Kyle pushed himself between us.

"I think you should leave, Jacob," he told me, motioning towards the door.

"Yeah whatever." I dropped Damien's wrist carelessly and eyed him menacingly.

"Go," Kyle warned me. I stared at him. He seemed genuinely concerned about the dispute between us and was clearly willing to stop a fight whatever the risk. I guess I had to respect him for that. With one last glance at Damien, I turned on my heel and left the changing rooms.

"Dude, what was up with you and Damien earlier?" Embry asked as he jogged up to my motorcycle. "I heard about what happened in the changing rooms before."

"Oh great, now Annie's going to know," I muttered, starting up the engine. "I wish people would just keep their mouths shut sometimes."

Embry looked taken aback by my attitude towards the situation. It wasn't that I was angry with him for asking, although that's probably what it seemed like to him, but if he knew then everyone else knew, including Annie. She wasn't going to be impressed when she found out that I'd confronted Damien.

"Well, hello to you too Mr Grumpy."

"Sorry," I sighed. "He just makes me so angry."

"Whatever man, the guy's a dick," Embry said, climbing aboard my motorcycle. I'd been giving him a ride to and from school for the past two weeks. Sure he could phase and get home just as easily but Sam was too uptight about risking our chances of getting caught. He wanted us to be as human as possible whenever we could, with the exception of patrol of course. That was one hell of a job, especially now that there had been traces of vampire scents lately. The pack had been on alert for almost the whole summer with the scent coming and going every couple days. Nobody knew whether it was just one of the Cullen's come back to bite us in the ass with their sick animal diets or whether it was some serious people-eater on the hunt. That was the only problem – they all smelt the same.

The pack weren't overly bothered by the issue, though. If the imposter was looking for trouble it would have acted by now, but with vampires you could never just assume anything.

Just as Embry was hitching his leg over the back seat a familiar voice had me turning in the direction of the school building. Annie was stomping towards me, angrily clutching her bag to her back.

"Looks like it's your funeral," Embry muttered.

"What the hell were you thinking?" she yelled, completely ignoring the fact that Embry was sat behind me listening in on the conversation.

"Look, I'm sorry Annie. I didn't mean to-"

"Didn't mean to?" she fumed. "You had no right to get involved with us! What goes on between me and Damien is none of your business."

"Oh really? Is that why you were on the verge of almost making out with me yesterday, huh? You didn't seem to care about what went on between the two of you then."

"That is not the point."

"That is completely the point!" I bit, trying to keep myself from yelling back at her. I didn't want to get angry at Annie. "You can't just pull something like that on me and then try to pretend that it never happened. I know he's not right for you, Annie."

"Is that so?" She folded her arms in determination. "You can't just go around getting involved in other people's relationships and inflicting harm on other people either."

I snorted. "I didn't hit him if that's what you mean."

"Uh...sorry to interrupt," Embry said, "But I kinda have stuff to do."

"Yeah, just a sec," I told him.

Annie just stared at me. "You didn't?"

"No, I'm not that stupid. And besides, I wouldn't waste my time on him."

"Well that's not what Damien's been telling everyone. Apparently, you're an abusive idiot who can't keep his hands to his self. Obviously meaning..."

"Us," I nodded.

"Uh hello?" Embry spoke up.

"Alright man, we're going." I turned to Annie. "I'm sorry about what happened before. I didn't mean for it to affect you but I hate to see him using you like that."

"He's not using me," she said stubbornly.

"Pfft, open your eyes, Annie." I gave her a knowing look before shifting my bike into gear and speeding off out of the parking lot.

"Well, that was fun," Embry yelled over the rage of the engine. "Remind me to bring popcorn next time."

"Shut up," I snapped.

After I dropped Embry off, I made some quick errands to restock the fridge, applied some well needed attention to my homework which hardly ever got done (I guess that's what the irritation does to me) and spent the rest of the night in front of the TV watching some cowboy crap with my dad. I hardly ever just sat down and did normal stuff like this. Usually I was out running after vampires somewhere or living like a werewolf.

"This is nice," Billy said, patting the arm of his wheelchair. "We hardly ever sit down and watch TV together."

"Nah, I guess not," I replied.

"You fancy some pizza? Actually," he laughed, "That was a stupid question. Go fetch the pizza." I just shrugged and marched into the kitchen. "Say, what's bothering you?" he asked when I returned.

"Just school," I sighed, offering him the plate of pizza. He took a slice then settled back into his chair.

"Just school? You sure there aint no girl involved?"

I stared bluntly at him. How did he always know what was bothering me? "Alright, so there's a girl. Her name's Annie."

"Annie – that's nice. Sounds cute." He nodded his approval of the name. "So what about this Annie?" He asked when I didn't say anything more. I slouched in my seat and took bite out of the pizza.

"She's with the most arrogant guy at school, can't see that he's taking advantage of her and...She also happens to be my imprint." Billy's nodding along to my explanation stopped as soon as I said the last word. He whipped his head around so fast, all interest of the TV suddenly disappearing.

"You sure about that?"

"No doubt about it. She's definitely the one."

"How do you know?"

"I don't," I shrugged. "It's just one of those things. Instinctive, you know?"

"Yeah, I think I know," Billy agreed. "I was like that with your mother. She was one heck of a woman. Made great cookies, but I never could stand her obsession for cleaning. She was always on her feet, never took a day to relax."

My dad smiled at the thought. He didn't talk about mom often. It was usually his thing to keep his memories of her stashed away somewhere deep in his mind...or in his heart. So it came as shock to me when he mentioned her.

"You look so much like your mother," he continued. "You have the same eyes and the same nose. Your sisters got her attitude." He smiled again, and I had to admit that these memories made me smile too. Imagining my mom was always hard for me since I'd never really gotten to know her that well. I depended on my dad's memories to remember what little I had of her.

Silence fell upon us then. But it was a comfortable silence as we both sat, comforted by the aura of my mother. I hadn't realised it but the small yet cosy little house we lived in contained my mom in every aspect; the walls, the carpet, the photos, the decorations. She basically designed the whole thing and made it her own to share with my dad. I couldn't imagine having it any different.

The silence was soon broken by a loud knock at the door. Billy looked at me, then at the door. "Who could that be at this hour?"

"I don't know." The knock sounded again, this time more urgent than the last. I frowned. "I'll get it."

"Whoever it is, it must be important," Billy called after me, resuming his attention to the TV. I could sense that he was watching me form the corner of his eye though.

When I reached the door, I tried to plaster the scariest look on my face (only to show my disaprovement of them calling so late) and wrenched the door open to reveal a very cold, very wet (I never noticed that it had rained) woman who I recognised to be Annie's maid. She looked to be in her later forties (maybe early fifties) and was wrapped in a head scarf with an umbrella clutched tightly to her chest.

"Sonia," I exclaimed, the scariness draining from my face. "Come in before you freeze." I moved aside to let her pass and closed the door quietly behind me.

"Ah, who's this?" Billy asked.

"This is Sonia, Annie's maid," I told him.

"I'm sorry to barge in so late," Sonia apologized, "But I have some urgent news about Annie." I was instantly interested. "She came home in a rather hectic condition this afternoon but she would not tell me what the problem was. She went straight to her room and I assumed that it was just something that happened in school."

"Oh, well is there something wrong?" I asked her, eager to get straight to the point. If something had happened to Annie then I wanted to know immediately.

Sonia sighed and gazed at the floor. "Damien called an hour after she arrived home. I insisted that he wait at the door whilst I informed Annie that he was there, but he did none other than push straight passed me and dragged Annie out by the arms."

"He did what?" I yelled, rising to my feet.

"Jacob," Billy warned me. "Calm down. I'm sorry Sonia, you were saying?"

"Right," she nodded. "He dragged her out by the arms, told me he was taking her to his house to meet his parents and drove off. I tried to stop him. I never liked him and I didn't trust him. But I wasn't strong enough to defend the two us against him if ever he tried to do anything reckless."

"So where is she now?" I asked.

"I don't know. They never came back. That's why I came here to tell you. I knew that you were close to her so I thought that you would be the best person to tell. Oh, what do I do Jacob? If Annie's father finds out he's going to be so mad."

"Don't worry, I think I know where to find him."

Dun dun dun! I hoped you liked it, and I hope Hannah that I gave you a good ending to follow on from ;)