Chapter 18 wolf biology 101

Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer- this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute which, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.

Thanks to BanSidhe for betaing.

Paul dropped Jake at the medical centre and left him. Partly because he had other things to do and Charles was busy, and partly because he thought Jake was much stronger and able to look after himself; more so than the others did.

Charles eventually got away from his other patients and x-rayed the leg. "It looks pretty good, how does it feel?"

"Hard to say, I don't think I've broken this many bones before but I will promise to stay off it as much as possible."

"I will leave it wrapped and braced for one more day just to make sure."

"I really need a shower," Jake begged.

Charles laughed. "I will unwrap it now. You can have a shower here provided that you keep the weight off it and then I will re-brace it."

He continued, "You know, with all that happened and the discovery about the pack therapy for more rapid healing, I have been thinking about injuries and healing. We need to do some experiments on phasing. I mean your whole body transforms when you phase, so if you could phase with a broken bone would it be instantly healed?"

"I don't know. So whose arm will we break?" asked Jacob, "I mean who is going to nominate themselves for that experiment."

Charles laughed, "You may be right. Perhaps it will have to wait for the next non-threatening injury. You for example, couldn't have phased after your run-in with the newborn because you were unconscious and then you were in so much pain. I don't believe you could have concentrated enough to pull it off."

"True," Jake thought for a minute. "But I passed out phased and the broken bones were still there human. Does that mean it might work the other way; that we could heal injuries obtained whilst human, simply by phasing?"

"Maybe. It seems logical to me."

"Most of our injuries are obtained whilst in wolf form though. Pity you weren't here when Paul and I had a fight once. I hurt him rather badly; made his face into hamburger meat, even broke his arm."

Charles looked curious.

"Bella." Jake said; it was enough to tell him what or who the fight was over.

"And Paul won the girl?"

Jacob laughed. "Don't sound so incredulous. He had metaphysics on his side. She had already imprinted on him, but I didn't know that. Truth be told, he didn't even fight me. He won Bella, he didn't win the fight."

"No I suppose not, otherwise he would be the alpha."

"Fuck I didn't even think about that! I mean he would have had every reason to fight me hard enough, to keep his imprint. He might actually have taken me out, if he was fighting for her." Jake made a thinking noise. "Sometimes that guy is way smarter than anyone gives him credit for, you know."

"I understand that he held it together when you got injured and Leah lost it," Charles put in.

"Yeah she did lose it a bit. But that is the first time ever and she had been through a pretty rough couple of weeks. I won't hold that against her. She's still my beta."

"Maybe so, but she should be your alpha female. She cannot be that and the beta; it's one or the other. A different male should be your beta male."

There was silence for a minute and then Jake spoke. "Charles did you have much to do with female shifters? Did your tribe have any?"

"We had a couple. Why do you ask?"

"Remember we spoke about Leah thinking she is less female because she doesn't menstruate. She feels like she has gone through menopause at 20." He rubbed at his hair, he was embarrassed. "Fuck I hate talking about this female stuff."

"As far as we knew it was not unusual for female shifters to have the same physiological issues that Leah is facing," Charles said.

"Does that mean she could never have children?"

"Oh no, far from it. It just means that her body is not ready. She is probably behaving more like a wolf does and less like a human in the physiological way."

"I don't understand."

"She may not be interested in reproduction until she has a mate and then she will probably be like a wolf and go into heat."

"What does that mean? I mean, I know what it means, but how would it work?"

"A human female ovulates every month and has no obvious 'heat' period. A wolf female goes into oestrus or ovulates for only five to seven days sometime between January and April; more likely between February and March. Usually only the alpha pair mates and then they stay away from the rest of the pack during that time to decrease issues with other males fighting over her."

"How will she know it is happening? I mean that she is in heat. Fuck, this is weird."

"She will smell good to all the male wolves and they will start to harass and sniff her."

"Some of them already do that."

"She will be closer and more affectionate with her mate." He gave Jake a searching look. "I'm not saying she should be your female but if she is, then you need to think about this stuff and be prepared."

Jake rubbed his hand through his hair again. "Fuck I HATE this stuff. Girl stuff and girl wolf stuff. Why can't we just be normal and choose people in something approaching a normal fashion. None of the imprints have to deal with this shit, but because she is our only female… it's just not fair," he said in frustration. "She's got enough crap to deal with…"

Charles looked uncomfortable as well. "I can't imagine that any of this makes her life easier."

"Oh Jesus, tell me Seth won't think she smells good too…"

"I honestly don't know the answer to that one. I sure hope not."

"And what if it affects the imprinted males? That could be a clusterfuck of spectacular proportions. What if Sam….? NO… no way; I cannot let this happen." Jake looked vehement.

"Unfortunately Jake; it's nothing to do with you, unless you are her mate. But it is only a week or two a year. Maybe she could just go away at that time."

"But if that is her only chance to breed, that's not fair either."

"Look Jake, I know you are trying to be a good Alpha here, but you are way too many steps ahead of yourself. First off; she doesn't even have a mate yet." Charles looked tentative, "and if that mate is you, then you are aware of the issues and can keep an eye out for them. If you don't mind me saying so, Leah has a large part in all of this as well. She has never asked me any of this stuff."

"But she may, once she gets herself together and thinks about it all. Plus you are relatively new to the tribe and it takes her a long time to trust people."

"And we will deal with it then." He patted Jacob on the shoulder. "Go have a shower and I will re-bind that leg. First things first, eh?"

A shower was heaven, Jake thought. The person who invented the hot water system was seriously underrated in the lists of best inventors of all time. Never even knew their name, but he thanked them profusely, whoever they were.

When he had dried off, Charles braced and rebound his leg.

"Another twelve hours; maybe a day tops, and then it can come off," Charles assured him.

He lent him some crutches and Jake headed for home. He knew his dad was still away and he would try and do some mechanical work and some stuff around the house. Well, as much as he could, being a cripple and all.

Leah headed home after work. She had served a document; done the fingerprinting desk and beaten up a jerk. It wasn't a bad day really.

The guys at work now considered her one of 'the boys'; not a girl at all and that worked fine for her.

She sat watching TV with Paul and felt like something was missing. It took her a while to realize that it was Jacob; she missed him. She begged off more TV saying she was tired and needed to go to bed early. Paul and Bella both wished her good night.

She lay on the bed and tossed and turned. She had a shower and crawled into the bed. She caught a scent; it was Jake. Bella hadn't changed the sheets and the bed still smelt like him. She found herself edging over to 'his' side and pressing her face into the mattress and the pillow to catch every last trace of him.

Oh, this was fucked up! She really needed to work this out.

She lay there and tried to think it through. She tried to find the calmness that she had found during the vision quest. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She'd thought that she would make a list:

He was the alpha male.

She was the alpha female. Well, she was the only female.

He was very attractive to her.

He was very attracted to her. At least she thought he was. He had kind of flirted with her and he had almost admitted he wanted to fuck her; he denied it later, but he had kind of said it.

She was very attracted to him. She couldn't stay away from him in the bed. It wasn't just his word either, there was photographic proof.

She inhaled. And he smelt really good. God,did he smell good.

She needed to talk to him; really talk.

She needed to tell him what she had seen in her quest; the wolf family.

She was so nervous. If she admitted to him that she was interested, then she was holding her poor battered heart out again and desperately hoping no one stomped on it this time.

She knew he had gone home and she knew his dad was still away. They had discussed it over the kitchen table. She had the day off tomorrow so she decided to go over there and talk to him. That would work.

What was she going to say? I want a promotion? Let me be your alpha female? Maybe they could be together but not together? Partners but not…you know. Oh…. This was insane! She threw herself back onto the bed with a groan.

Tomorrow. She would go talk to him tomorrow. What was the worst that could happen?

FF_2154210_ - 2/12/2010 03:32:00 AM