So, as it happens, last night someone favourited this fic and I realised that I never released any of the epilogues that I'd written! In a few weeks, it will have been three years (holy shit) since I clicked the little tick box to say that this little chapter of my writing was complete. I know that I'm not a well-known author and that my work is average at best, but I would still like to thank everyone who's clicked to read this little child of mine, it has truly meant so very much to me over the years, I just hope that this little snippet is enough.
So thank you, truly, all of you. Obviously feel free to tell me where I could have done more etc, but please enjoy!
We can't afford to lose this one.
I sprint harder and faster than I ever have before, pushing myself beyond my limits. It's no use though. I won't make it in time. This will be the third one we've lost this month. I snarl at myself as I skid around a corner, tripping over something hard before forcing myself back to me feet and shooting off again.
Christ, maybe if it wasn't only me doing the work around here then we'd catch a fucking break every once in a while, but no. Jacob and his guys are relaxing while I'm out here running myself raw. Assholes.
Granted, not only am I faster, stronger and more cunning that my target, but when you're racing around your house trying to find someone else's kid? Well, it's fucking tough.
"Joshua!" I whisper-yell.
If Sam and Emily would stop leaving their fucking kid with us then things would be fine, but no, because River's great with kids and all the kids miss you, River! and fuck, it's exhausting. Sure, it's cool being the favourite, but I'm not seventeen anymore.
It's been eleven years since Carly's tattoo, the shock of my natural hair colour and Jacob's and my declaration of love. So yeah, I'm a twenty nine year old werewolf searching her own damn home for the kid of one of my best friends and I only have five minutes before Emily gets here to collect him since we're all going out for a meal.
In said eleven years, well, things have changed. Jacob and I are a lot more... affectionate, shall I say? Yeah, I guess that's the word.
"Joshua Uley, don't make me have to call your-"
"Looking for something?"
I spin, wide eyed and ready to kick someone in the balls. I stop, however, as I notice the small child hanging from the hands of the beast himself, giggling as he's held upside down by nothing but his feet. "Emily would kill us both if she saw you doing that." I state, crossing my arms over my chest and raising a brow.
Grinning, he shrugs. "No one's going to tell her." He informs me, lifting the small child to eye level. "You're not gonna tell Mommy about this, right, buddy?"
Joshua shakes his head, short black curls bouncing back and forth as his laughter rings through the house.
He slowly lowers the child to the floor, telling him to get started on packing his things up. The little boy scurries off happily at his words.
"That kid fucking adores you." I grumble, annoyed. "I've been looking for half a fucking hour." I add, reaching out and softly punching his hard chest. All he does is grin at me. Well, he proceeds to raise a suggestive brow at me, his grin becoming a smirk, both of which heat my insides surprisingly quickly. "What?" I demand, because fuck, he can't be thinking about that.
He saunters over to me, his hands immediately on my hips as he pushes me backwards until my back hits the fridge door with a particularly loud thud. I make to protest but he cuts me off by simply pressing his lips to mine. I melt against him.
I can't help it. I'm pathetic.
His tongue worms its way into my mouth as he picks me up again and drops me on the work surface, ripping a moan from me like a whore. Every stroke, ever probe, every caress, it all feels too much. Too much but not enough, because I want more. I want him. I want everything.
It's only when his huge hands pop the button on my jeans that my eyes pop open and I push him away. "Jacob, Joshua's in the house." I remind him, but he's having none of it, stalking back over and lifting me in his arms, dropping my on the counter all over again and pulling my legs apart so he can stand between them. I refuse to meet his lips with my own when he leans in, but that doesn't deter him as he simply begins his assault on my neck. He nips and places long, heavy kisses on my neck until I'm panting with my head thrown back against the shelves behind me, my hips moving in the unspoken rythm we seem to have picked up.
Before I know what's happening there's a quick yank and my jeans are only up to my knees. I fall back, bracing my hands against the work surface as a particularly breathy moan finds its way from me, my chest heaving.
"What are you doing?"
I scream, falling off the side and onto the floor.
Jacob, with his erection only hidden behind shorts, turns and presses his entire front against the wall in order to hide his arousal.
"What are you doing?" Joshua demands, repeating his question with an innocent face.
Standing and pulling my pants up, I punch Jacob in the shoulder. "Aunt River got too fat for her jeans, buddy. I was helping her pull them up." Jacob states, earning a glare from me.
"But Aunty River is thin." Joshua counters, gaining my immediate smile his way. He grins back at me.
"Hello!" Comes the loud boom of Emily.
"Mommy!" Joshua explodes, running to the door at full force as Emily and Sam come through it. "Uncle Jacob called Aunty River fat 'cause her jeans are too small." He grins up at his mother and father. Sam swings him up into his arms with a grin and a raised brow towards me.
Jacob still has himself pressed against the wall.
"Why don't we go into the living room." I suggest, nodding to Jacob. "Give him a moment."
Emily and Sam nod, a brief moment of understanding crossing both their faces.
I wait for them both to leave before I turn to Jacob. "Babe," I whisper, placing a hand on his shoulder. He turns obediently, his face bright red with a blush. Winking seductively, I place a finger over my lips, motioning for his to stay quiet. He watches my hand with intent concentration as I place it delicately over the rather large bulge in his shorts, leaning up and leaving a soft kiss on his waiting lips.
One of his hands grabs for the back on my thigh while the other slinks around to wrap around my shoulders as he forces me back into the work surfaces. I let him this time, wrapping a let around his perfect ass so I can grind out crotches together, feeling him harden considerably more. "River," He pants, both hands shooting to unbutton my jeans for the second time.
I take the opportunity to unbutton his cut offs and push them off his hips. As soon as they're down I grab him where it really counts. He stifles a groan into my neck as I stroke my hand along his length, sucking his earlobe into my mouth at the same time.
Just as my jeans come down to my thighs, I pull away. I duck under his arms, pull my pants back up and wink.
"Love you, babe." I tell him, smirking. "Come when you're ready." I add suggestively as I beeline through to the living room and take a seat across from a smirking Sam.
"That was cruel." He tells me, smiling despite it.
I shrug as Joshua ploughs over to me and jumps on my lap. I cover his ears as I speak. "Your son walked in on him trying to undress me in my own kitchen." I state, defending myself.
Sam simply shrugs. "It's your time of the month." He reasons as if that makes it better that his son almost witnessed Jacob's bare ass.
I can't help be glare. "I could have sworn we agreed that no liked hearing it that way." I grumble petulantly. "It makes it sound like a period. In fact, it's not me that gets-" I cover Joshua's ears again. "-crazy horny. Why can't we call it Jacob's time of the month?" Joshua grins up at me when I take my hands off his head, so I stick my tongue out at him with a wink.
Everyone had expected Jacob and I to be the first with a kid given that we're the alpha pair, but neither of us age as long as there's a supernatural force nearby, which both of us just so happen to be, so we both agreed that age isn't a factor. The only person who really matters age wise is Billy as we both know that he's dying for more grand kids. Plus, let's be fair, Jacob and I would have fucking gorgeous kids.
"I prefer that idea too." Emily states, smirking at Sam. He glares playfully my way, making me shrug innocently back.
It's true that it's "my" time of the month, though not in the way that you'd think. Sure, I do have that time of the month, but there's a time in a woman's cycle when she's almost super fertile, and boy can the wolves smell it. Apparently the smell becomes clearer to him when they've had sex with their mate for the first time, making it almost unbearably steamy for imprint and wolf. The fact that my sense of smell is just as keen as Jacob's doesn't help things since all he wants to do is bury his face in me but I don't want to smell it on him for the next few days. He sees it as a badge of honour or something, but I see it almost like hanging bloodied sheets from the window after losing your virginity.
Jacob appears a minute later, sliding onto the couch beside me with a glare and a barely hidden smile. "You're evil, woman." He tells me, clearly not caring for our company as he places a hand on my thigh and leans back into the couch. Emily and Sam carry the conversation, pretending not to notice every time Jacob's hand flexes on my thigh and I swat him in response.
"Alright," Sam announces, standing. "I think we'll flee now so you guys can get it all out of your systems before dinner." He strides over and takes Joshua from me, throwing a wink Jacob's way. Jacob simply grips my thigh a little tighter. I don't swat him this time.
Sam and Emily leave just as quickly as they came, a single shout from Emily about desert being the only sound to cover the growl emitting from Jacob.
"Calm down, oh mighty alpha." I tell him, leaning against his shoulder with a playful roll of my eyes. I look up at him to see his own eyes already looking down at me. Although he's incredibly horny, there's still that look of absolute adoration in his eyes that stopped me from running again all those years ago. The same look that finally drew me into his bed. The look that finally drew confession after teary confession out of me as I told him everything about myself that he didn't know.
I find myself suddenly amazed by exactly how far we've come together. I used to be a whiny little brat that didn't trust anyone and he used to be head over heels in love with my cousin, now we're both two of the most respected people on the Res, we're happily living in the married life that came about from a tiny ceremony with literally no more than fifty people to see us married, living in a home that the pack literally built with their own hands.
Later that day, we join the pack, the elders and the families down at First Beach, claiming it as our own for the night. With us, Jacob and I bring cookies, brownies, ice cream sandwiches and a few vegan alternatives for Embry's lactose intolerant, vegetarian imprint. Naturally, we're welcomed with huge hugs from all and even find that the Cullens come to join us at some point. Since fighting with them against the Volturi, no wolf can find a reason to hate yellow eyes, and no vamp can find a reason to complain about the wolf stink. We're living in a happy medium where there's no longer a treaty line and we even hunt and patrol together sometimes.
I guess we really have all come a long way.
Over the course of the evening, we get many laughs over Jacob's protective nature, especially so when he goes as far as to plaster himself against my back while I talk with Bella and Carly who both now sport golden eyes.
Carly was turned two years ago when she had a hard, aggressive case of breast cancer. It came on so damn suddenly that none of us even smelled the sickness on her until she was too far along. In the end, it was Esme who saved my dying sister as she lay on her deathbed, having become enormously close to the human who had needed so much love after all that she had endured. That was actually the day that we said to hell with the treaty line. I raised the issue myself with the council and had the backing of the entire pack, even the newer pups who still gagged when they came within a mile of the Cullens.
For most of the night, Jacob stayed glued to my hip, just as the other wolves did with their own imprints. Everyone who was there understood though, since we opted to make it law that a wolf could tell his or her family what they were. We tried to make that pack an easier thing to transition into, even putting Rachel into the school as principal to deal with wolf related absences, but still, there was nothing that could be said about how much a life changed when a new pup phased.
By the time all the food was eaten and the bonfire was lit, Jacob and I were sat in the very middle of the pack, across the fire from Billy who was talking animatedly with Charlie and Emmett about football.
I couldn't help it, I had to intervene. But not about football.
Clearing my throat, I stood and flicked a nail against my glass to make a sound. I got everyone's attentions pretty quickly, especially when Jacob then chose to effectively bark. Always made me chuckle.
"You all know who I am." I started, smiling as I got a few hoots from the older members of the pack. "Look, I'm going to keep it brief, let everyone get back to partying. It's just, as someone who came here, to Forks, from San Francisco, nearly twelve years ago and fell head over heels in love, I feel like I need to say something about how we've all changed."
"For the better!" Billy chuckled, raising his beer with a grin. He was definitely tipsy, good.
A few of us laughed with him for a minute, but feeling Jacob's curious eyes burning into me and his hand, hot on my thigh, I carried on. "When I first came here, I think I was unintentionally on the other side. I was doing what I thought was right for someone who I thought was a friend. You all made me realise, one by one, that I didn't want to live that way anymore. I wanted to really live, I didn't want to just scrape by. So thank you, to each and every one of you, for opening your homes to me as well as your hearts. I love you all; you're all my family.
"I hope that you can all come together with Jacob and me in welcoming a new member to the La Push pack."
And then there was silence. The calm before the storm.
"Well, fuck me!" Paul yelled excitedly, seemingly snapping Jacob from his stupor.
Sheer terror and love on his face, my wolf stood and gathered me up in his arms, picking me almost a foot off the floor and kissing me so deeply that I worried one of us would choke, or maybe just that we'd get too into it and have sex on Carly's lap. I couldn't help but laugh when we came apart and Jacob's eyes were full of tears. "Really?" He asked me, unable to stop looking between my face and stomach.
Grinning, I took his hand as he placed me back on my feet and placed it on my stomach. "Really." I couldn't help the enormous grin that engulfed my entire face, laughing even more when Jacob fell to his knees without a single care as to who was around. My stomach was still flat, but that didn't stop him from laying both hands on it and releasing a shaky sigh.
"What?" The sob, of course, came from Billy.
Billy!
Looking across the fire with tears now streaming down my happy face, I couldn't help but pull Jacob to his feet and drag him around the fire. He followed me happily enough, clearly not having taken it all in yet. "How long have you known?" Billy asked me, the tears of a proud man wetting his cheeks.
Wiping my eyes, I shrugged. "I peed on a stick last month. A few more over the last few days."
"That's why the house smelled like pee." Jacob stated lightly, looking at me with nothing but pure love. Laughing, I nodded and drew myself into his side, looking up and kissing the stubble on his jaw.
Later that year, we welcomed Ephraim Nathanial Black into our worlds at a healthy nine pounds, the first ever hybrid of our species. He came out screaming with a full head of wispy black hair and equally black eyes that neither of us were worried about.
In our most vulnerable moment of me lying on my back with my legs wide apart, screaming and pushing out our own little watermelon, Jacob allowed Carlisle and Esme to aid in the delivery and Carly to be by my side, holding my hand and letting me curse her out more than once. I even told Jacob that sex was never occurring again, though when he fainted it wasn't as if it mattered what I said.
Our son was a happy, healthy baby who, honestly, made our dark world seem that little bit brighter. After all, wasn't that all we'd ever been fighting for?
Well, here we are, at a close. Are there any initial thoughts and/or feelings? I'll be honest I finished this particular epilogue this morning literally minutes before posting it here because the other versions I had saved just didn't feel right anymore. Of course, I'm open to criticism, though I'd much prefer that you be nice to me. Either way, please review!
Also, if I may be so cheeky, please feel free to check out my other work and even hit me with prompts if you feel I could live up to expectations. I currently have 180 active files being written, so that is honestly why everything takes me so long to write, but I'll be sure to start posting those so I don't just look like I ignored this fic for the past three years.
Have an amazing day!