All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer

Jacob POV

CHAPTER SEVEN – The Funeral

I woke up on the morning of Harry's funeral in a shitty mood; I hated feeling depressed. There was so much shit going on at once what with Harry, the new phasings, the leech after Bella, and something I had seen in Paul's mind yesterday while we were phased. I didn't even want to think about that right now. We all just needed to get today out of the way to say goodbye to Harry properly, then we could deal with everything else.

Luckily for me when I had got out of the shower, the delicious smell of Bella's pancakes drifted to my nose, instantly improving my mood. I smiled. Anything to do with Bells made me smile.

I made my way down the hallway to the kitchen in just my towel, beads of water still rolling down my body but I didn't care; I was starving. I turned the corner to the kitchen and was greeted by a wonderful sight: Bella bending over getting something out of the oven. Every time I saw Bella in the kitchen I couldn't help but let my mind wander, and the familiar images seeped into my brain now. Bella cooking pancakes for our kids. That was my favourite.

I approached her quietly and waited for her to straighten up before I walked up behind her, wanting to embrace her from behind and rest my chin on her head. I loved our height difference when it came to things like that. Unfortunately she chose that moment to turn around. She jumped a little when she saw me, but then that smile that she saved for only me lit up her face and I couldn't help but grin back.

Her eyes began to wander then, as she realised my state of undress. Her gaze lingered on my chest for a second too long, and I grinned wider. Was that lust I could make out in her sparkling brown eyes? I sure hope so.

"Like what you see?" I asked, wiggling my eyebrows and rubbing my hand down my torso. That broke her out of her spell. Now she'll blush. Yep, how did I guess? God, she's so beautiful.

"Shut up, mutt" she said sarcastically as she turned away, and I snorted.

"Not very friendly" I laughed, finally giving into my need to touch her and walking over to pull her into a hug.

She rolled her eyes at me but hugged me back, like she always did. She couldn't resist me, I knew that only too well, but I didn't want to push her into anything. After our talk on the beach the other night I had big plans for us. As long as Paul didn't get in the way. That would have to be sorted out as soon as possible.

She pulled out of the hug and turned to pile my plate high with pancakes, covered with syrup. Just how I liked them. Then again, I think I'd like anything Bella put in front of me.

We sat at the table to eat, and her expression turned serious. "You ready for today?"

"Yeah. It's gonna be tough though. Harry was like an uncle to me."

"I know. I'm there for you though, you know?"

I nodded and gave her a grateful smile, grabbing her hand from across the table. How could anyone not love this girl? She was perfect. God only knows why I hadn't imprinted on her. Yet.

We finished breakfast and got dressed for the funeral, then waited for our dads and my sister to get here. Dad had been at Sue's all night with Charlie, and Rachel had come back from college for the funeral. Harry meant a lot to us, so I was glad that at least one of my sisters had made the effort to come home and say goodbye. It was great to finally get to see Rachel again, but she was coming home for the worst reason possible. Would be nice if they'd actually visit us for good things once in a while.

Bella held my hand through the whole ceremony, keeping me strong. The only thing that annoyed me was the way Paul kept glancing over at her. We were definitely going to have to have words today, it couldn't go on any longer.

That evening we were at the beach, where a bonfire was being thrown in Harry's honour. Dad, Charlie and Sue were sitting by the fire with sad expressions, and even Quil was reserved with his jokes. I was sitting with Bella, keeping her warm when she turned to me.

"I'm going to go and speak to Charlie for a bit, I've not really seen much of him lately. What with Harry dying so young, it makes you worry doesn't it?"

"Yeah" I agreed, glancing at dad. "Go on, I'll go talk to the guys for a bit." She kissed me on the cheek before heading off to the other side of the fire to sit with her dad. I saw my opportunity to speak to Paul, so after spotting him over by the sea I approached him. He turned to see who was coming towards him, and a worried expression covered his face.

"This is Harry's funeral so I'm not going to cause a scene, but what the fuck is going on with you?" I whisper shouted to him, not wanting to draw attention to us.

"What do you mean?" he asked, acting clueless. I could see on his face though that he was far from clueless.

"Do you really want me to spell it out for you?" He made no attempt to reply so I pressed on. "You've been acting weird for ages now, hiding stuff in your head when you're phased. Then you suddenly started being nice to Bella when all I used to hear you say was how much you hated the 'leech lover'. And then yesterday when you phased in you were thinking about kissing her!" He still said nothing. "Explain. Now."

"Look, Jake, I really don't know what's going on. You're right, I hated her. Then all of a sudden I just… started having feelings for her. I'm really sorry man, I know what she means to you, but I seriously think I'm in love with her. I was gonna tell her today."

My hands started to tremble as I thought of Paul with Bells, my Bells, and I was about to punch him in his face when someone called my name. I turned to see Rachel heading down the beach towards us. When I turned back to tell Paul we would continue this later, I noticed his expression and couldn't hold in the rage I suddenly felt.

He was staring at Rachel, at my sister, and I knew that look. I had seen that look twice before through the pack mind. Paul had imprinted.

"Are you fucking serious?" I spat at him, too quiet for Rachel to hear. "You tell me you're in love with the love of my life, then you fucking imprint on my sister?"

Paul didn't respond; he was too busy staring at Rachel. I felt like pummelling his face in, but thought better of it. Later.

"What's up, Rach?" I asked, using every inch of self-control I had to make my voice calm.

"Just seeing if you're going to come home with us. The Swans are coming to ours to watch a film or something, I've had enough with all the sadness now." She was speaking to me, but looking at Paul with an odd expression on her face. "Hi, Paul." She said, then leaned her head so he couldn't see her face. "What's up with him?"

I turned back to Paul and he was still standing there with that dumb, dreamy expression on his face. I shoved him, probably a bit too roughly, and he shook himself out of it a little. "Um, hi Rachel. How are you?"

"I'm at a funeral, what do you think?" she snapped, looking at him like he was retarded. I couldn't help but laugh as she pulled me back up the beach, away from him. If Paul was going to imprint on one of my sisters, I was glad it was Rach. Unlike Becca, she didn't take any shit. She definitely wasn't going to make it easy for him.

"He's changed" she said when we were far enough away from him. "Did he get dropped on his head or something? He's grown a freaky amount too, but then again you have as well. You must have grown a foot since I last saw you." She said, stopping and looking up at me.

"Probably" I nodded. She hadn't seen me since I was 14, so I probably had grown a foot thanks to the werewolf growth spurt.

"How tall are you now?"

"6 feet 7 last time I checked."

She shook her head. "Freaky. Must be a Quileute thing."

"Yeah, must be." I agreed, laughing a little. No doubt she'd know exactly what it was soon enough.

We walked over to the rest of the family, and I was including Bells and Charlie in my family. Bella would be my wife one day imprint or not, I knew it better than I knew anything. Rachel let go of her grip on my arm, so I walked over to Bells and placed her under my arm, smiling down and kissing the top of her head. She fit there so perfectly, why wouldn't I imprint? Surely I was better for Bella than Paul was for my sister?

Bells must have felt my tension as we walked back to my house, because she slowed her pace a little so that we dropped behind the others. I looked down at her and found that she was watching me closely.

"What happened?"

She knew me too well, just like I could read her she always knew when my mood changed.

"It's nothing, just Paul… he imprinted on Rachel. Just now."

She gasped in shock. "Does she know?"

"Not yet. Thinks there's something wrong with Paul's head." I laughed, remembering the look on both their faces. "No doubt Sam will call a pack meeting to tell her tomorrow when they've all realised what's happened."

She went quiet for a while, deep in thought. When she looked back at me to say something, I was expecting it to be about Paul.

"Why do you think you haven't imprinted on me, Jake?"

I sighed, not wanting to have this conversation yet even though it was unavoidable. "I honestly don't know Bells. I've thought about it a lot. I thought at first it was because of Edward, but I don't know now. Maybe I'm just not supposed to imprint." I shrugged. Either way, I didn't care as long as I could be with Bella for the rest of my life.

"Or you haven't met her yet." She said quietly. I stopped abruptly, pulling her to a stop too and taking her face in my hands. She looked like she was about to cry.

"Listen to me, Bella Swan. You are the only girl I will ever love. I know it, the pack knows it, the tribe knows it. The Gods know it, but for some reason I haven't imprinted. Honestly Bella, I don't care that you're not my imprint. I love you, imprint or not, and I always will. Even if you had stayed with the- with Edward and become one of them, I would still have loved you forever. I only see you Bella, that's how it's always been."

The tears streamed down her face as I finished my speech, and I wiped them away with my thumbs. I started to straighten up to carry on walking, but she grabbed my face and pulled me closer. Standing on her tiptoes, she crushed her lips onto mine, wiping my mind free of all thought as I revelled in the feel of her. The kiss was fierce and passionate, completely different to how I had ever imagined our first kiss would be. I held the back of her head with one hand and rubbed the small of her back with the other, while her hands rubbed up and down on my chest. Typical that the one day I have to wear a shirt, Bella decides to rub me like that.

She pulled away from me then, breathing quickly and staring deeply into my eyes. I stared back with the same intensity, and a huge grin broke across both our faces. She looked like she wanted to kiss me again but I knew it wasn't the right time, so I picked her up and held her flush against my body.

"Later, I promise." I told her, before carrying her the rest of the way home.