Hey, everybody. Sorry, I know it's been a while since I last updated. I've just been going through a lot lately. I've been busy with work and that's exhausted me, and then my grandmother recently passed away and my entire family's having issues with that. So, anyway, there's a VERY important author's note at the end of this chapter, and I need you ALL to review and tell me what you think and your opinion about my updating habits. Thanks a bunch! ^_^ Enjoy!

The Flower Called Azalea

8. Second Chance

Jake POV

I couldn't believe it. Embry had been right all along. I had been in love with Azalea since the beginning, I was just too blind to see it. She made me happy and whenever I wasn't with her or near her, part of me felt empty.

Well one thing was for sure. I wasn't going to let her get away from me twice. So I did what I didn't have the nerve to do last time. I went after her.

I lost myself in thoughts of Azalea and myself as I walked to her house and before I knew what had happened, I was there, standing at the front door, knocking erratically.

Nobody opened the door. Screw it, I thought and tried the doorknob, but it was locked.

"Damn it!" I yelled, letting my frustrations out, and began knocking with more fervor than before. Finally after twenty agonizing minutes of endless knocking, the door creaked open a tiny bit, and Azalea looked as if she was about to slam it in my face. Before she could do that, I put my hand on the door and slowly pushed it open, staring into my mate's eyes the whole time.

She looked so sad and heartbroken and like she'd just spent the last hour crying her eyes out. It killed me to know that I did that to her.

"What do you want?" she whispered.

"A second chance," I answered. She looked ready to protest so I cut her off before she could. "I know that I messed up-multiple times-but I really miss you, Z. And I really need to talk to you. Please. I'm begging you to just let me… talk."

Azalea seemed reluctant, but she finally agreed, and we sat on the couch. Me on one side and her pressed up against the other armrest. I felt the need to hold her and comfort her because she was hurting, but I knew she wouldn't let me, so I squashed that urge and kept my hands to myself and began to speak.

"Z…. Over the past few months-with you avoiding me and staying out of my life-I felt like something was missing, but I couldn't figure it out. I mean, I knew that I missed you, Embry, and Quil, but I thought that was it. I didn't realize the magnitude of how much I missed just you. I didn't understand it until Embry and Quil started talking to me again and I still felt like there was part of me missing. And then when Bella went back to that leech…. Anyway… you take up such a huge part of my heart that I couldn't honestly expect the emptiness to just go away. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't.

"And then after you just left me standing there on the beach, I felt it again. So on my way over here, I thought about it. A lot. Believe me, I had this whole internal monologue thing going on and it wouldn't leave me alone. But I realized that… Embry was right. I knew that I always loved you, but I thought that it was just a familial love. It's not. It never has been.

"When we were kids, I saw you as my best friend's cute sister and one of my best friends. And I had the pleasure of getting to watch you grow up. With every day that passed, I became more familiar with you, and my feelings for you grew. When we were in our preteen years, you were a pretty girl that I thought about all the time. I had thoughts that I know I shouldn't have. I always tried to squash those by telling myself that I grew up with you and that you were like a sister. It rarely ever worked, though. And then it seemed like I just woke up one morning after our sixteenth birthdays and noticed that you were no longer a little girl that I thought was cute, or a twelve year old that I thought was pretty. You were a gorgeous, beautiful young woman. Just the thought of any other guy ever touching you or dating you made my blood boil. I tried to pass that off as being protective, and I fooled myself for a while.

"But when I saw you with Sam that day a little over two months ago, I didn't even realize that it was you." She looked curiously at me, but still warily. "I mean, I knew that you were beautiful, but what really made my mind spin was that you were… well, for lack of better word, sexy," I smiled a little bit and looked at her.

"Is there a point that you're trying to make here?" she asked.

"Azalea, the point is… it's that I love you. It's not just because of the imprint like you think. It might have taken me this long to realize it, but it's always been there."

She looked away toward the television and didn't say anything for a long time. It was beginning to worry me.

"Z?" I tried gently. She still said nothing. Damn. Silence speaks louder than words. "Okay," I murmured. "I'll leave you alone. I just couldn't do that without you hearing the truth." I stood up and began walking to the door. Right as I reached it, I felt soft, feminine-but still strong-hands pull me to a stop and turn me around.

Before I could say anything, a pair of soft, sweet lips came crashing onto mine. I groaned as the sheer taste of her awoke a more… animalistic side of me, and I pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. She licked my lips, asking for entrance, which I gladly granted, and her tongue probed my mouth. We wrestled for dominance as she jumped up to my height and wrapped her legs around my waist so I could move us back to the couch easier.

We reached the couch in a few seconds, but it felt like forever, and I began to lay her back on the cushions, our lips never breaking. Before we could get to the point where we were laying down, me on top of her, she broke the kiss, shook her head and smirked at me.

Azalea POV

I smirked and pushed him off me, successfully making him land with a thud on the floor. He looked up at me in confusion and I grinned a second before lunging at him, instigating a wrestling match like old times. Except this time, we were much stronger. I obviously caught him by surprise because he didn't put up a fight for the first few seconds. But when I had him pinned, his eyes turned mischievous and his lips formed a sexy smirk.

Before I knew it, we were rolling around on the floor, play-fighting and trying to pin each other down. We kept at it for what felt like eternity, but was probably only about twenty minutes, and he finally pinned me down, holding my arms above my head and straddling me.

"I win," he grinned.

I pouted at him. "But what if I want to be on top?" I whined.

He looked shocked for a moment, causing him to loosen his grip, giving me my escape. His expression quickly changed, but his grip didn't. "You want to be-"

I cut him off by swiftly rolling us over so that I took over his position. He looked up at me in surprise as I pinned his arms over his head and straddled him. I leaned down to him as if I were about to kiss him. "Hah. I win," I said and grinned proudly as I sat back up.

He glared at me, making my smile grow. "That wasn't very nice."

I shrugged. "Who ever said I was nice?"

He grinned at me and replied, "Well… you've got a point there…"

I scoffed and smacked his chest playfully dragging out his glorious laughter, which in turn caused me to grin. "Okay, you can shut up now," I said. When he didn't, I cut him off with my lips and his laughter quickly ceased.

I was planning on it just being a quick kiss to shut him up, but it quickly grew into more. As soon as my lips touched his, he broke his arms free and brought them to rest on my waist for a moment before wrapping them around me and pulling me closer to him. I moaned when his tongue met mine and I could feel his... growing excitement against my center causing a surge of heat to shoot through my body and pool at the juncture of my thighs.

Jake POV

I groaned. Not only could I feel the heat of her arousal, but I could smell it, too. My senses were heightened when it came to her, and dulled when it came to everything else. She broke away to breathe, and I moved my mouth to her neck, not able to get enough of her.

"If this is what I get when you win, then I'll lose every time," I hummed and she giggled breathlessly. Giggled. Azalea Call does not giggle. And the fact that I was able to get that from her sent another wave of heat to my groin, making my hardness more than a little painful.

I fully intended to make this continue in her bedroom, but before I could do anything, she jumped off me and was in the kitchen.

"You hungry?" she asked innocently.

"Hey! What was-" I followed her into the kitchen, ready to spontaneously combust, and I was cut off by the door opening.

"Hey, Em!" she called, and I was suddenly glad that she had jumped off me when she did. I took a seat at the table as she started getting ingredients for something out.

"Hey, Z," he called back. "Whatcha making?" he asked as he walked into the kitchen. He didn't see me.

"Chocolate chip cookies," she replied with a smile.

"Yum," he grinned and kissed his sister on the cheek before turning to the table where he finally saw me.

His eyes widened and then he addressed Azalea without taking his eyes off me. "Z? So I'm guessing you and Jake made up?"

"Yup."

She played it off nonchalantly, but I'm sure my expression gave it away.

His eyes turned murderous. "Oh my god! You imprinted on my sister!" he roared and started for me. However, before he could really move, Azalea was between the two of us, blocking his way.

"Embry!" she shouted and gave him a glare I'm glad I couldn't see. The man visibly shrunk back.

I made a mental note to myself. Never get her angry with you. Well… again.

"Okay, don't mess with females and their mates. Got it," Embry muttered to himself.

Azalea relaxed and went back to making her cookie dough. Embry then turned to me with a calmer expression and spoke rationally.

"Seriously, dude?"

"Why are you so angry? You were the one who was trying to convince me that I was in love with her, anyway. Which I was, so thanks," I said.

He looked at me as if I'd grown another head. "You broke her heart. Forgive me for not being more understanding of your wolfish qualities after seeing my sister broken for three months."

I flinched. "It's not gonna happen again," I muttered.

"Yeah, it better not," he growled.

"Boys," Azalea sighed and walked over to us. She looked at Embry. "Look. I get it, and thank you for looking out for me, but I'm a big girl. You don't have to be the one to rescue me all the time," she said and hugged him.

He exhaled and hugged her back. "I guess I just still see you as that little girl that would always have me come to save her when she was in trouble. Or when you would be wrestling with Jake," he said looking directly at me.

She pulled back and smiled a bit at him. "Yeah, well… I can hold my own pretty well against him, now."

"You could hold your own against him before," he said and we all laughed, knowing it was true. She may not have been the strongest, but she had ways of making me lose.

I chose then to cut in. "Embry, you don't have to worry about me hurting her. It won't ever happen again," I promised.

He studied me for a moment and then nodded at the sincerity he must have seen in my eyes. "Good. I know she's in good hands."

So the brother found out, and I still had all limbs intact. Time to tell the rest of the pack. That could be a little more dangerous….

"Z, listen. Sam needs me again, so I probably won't be back until late. Save me some of those cookies," Embry said.

"Will do," she replied and continued adding stuff to the dough.

Embry kissed her cheek and walked out the door.

"So we're alone again," I said playfully and waggled my eyebrows.

She just laughed and said, "Jake, seriously. I want to get these cookies made."

"Alright, alright, I'm not stopping you," I replied. "I'm just going to be right here while you bake," I said and came up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and started kissing her neck.

"Jake," she giggled. There it was again. I mentally grinned at the fact that only I had ever been able to make her giggle. "That's not helping."

"It's helping me," I smirked and continued my assault on her neck.

She finally accepted that I wasn't going to stop, so she just worked on the cookies and let me do as I pleased. She put a pan of cookies in the oven and just stood there with her head resting on my shoulder and me still kissing her.

Z must have gotten fed up with it because she turned her head and captured my lips with hers. This kiss was different. It wasn't urgent or lustful in any way. It was slow, sensual, still passionate, but it was loving. We broke apart and she kept her eyes closed for a moment before opening them to smile at me. I returned it and was leaning in to kiss her again when the oven's timer went off and she pulled out of my arms to get the hot pan.

"Jake, go watch TV or something. I'll be in there in a few minutes," she said and I complied.

As soon as I sat down, I felt a vibrating sensation come from my pocket. I grabbed my phone and answered, completely content.

"Hello?" I smiled.

"Hey, Jake. Can I come over? Everyone's gone and I'm a bit lonely."

My eyes bugged and I froze. How could I possibly have forgotten?

Bella.

^_^ Yay! So I updated again! Okay. The very IMPORTANT thing I want you ALL to review and tell me is this: Would you guys prefer that I update more often, but with shorter chapters? Or that I update probably more like once a week possibly two weeks with a longer chapter? Please tell me, this is very important! I don't want to disappoint you guys as my readers because I love you all so much, and your reviews mean the world to me, but I'm also getting busier, so it's one or the other.