Hi,
Sorry the update took so long, I had exams and the last two essays of the year to hand in but now I'm on holiday and could get back to the writing bug so here you go! Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter go to The all mighty powerfulM, vriend, Grumpy DelSan 13 Astilbe, Rose, melodia, Dottyanne, and Mandy may, your reviews have all kept me motivated to keep writing even when I know I should be studying. Thank you for the encouragement. I appreciate your thoughts and comments very much so when you're done reading please do type a quick note and hit the review button, getting them in my inbox makes my day and keeps the muse happy.
This story is Beta'd by SeptemberSkies without whom it would rougher than rough and there is a good chance it would also be a lot more confusing. Thank you for your time, effort and words of encouragement!
Lastly, the same disclaimer from the introduction still applies.
Happy reading (and reviewing)
Chapter 6
(BPOV)
"You've been quiet." Alice said as she watched me stuff the books from my locker into my bag. I knew I'd been quiet but I didn't know how to talk to her about what was going through my head. I'd had plenty of time to think over the last few days and the conclusions I kept coming to made me feel like I was going crazy. Maybe I was, but it was those conclusions that made me go speak with Jacob at lunch and those same conclusions that made me want to go to the bonfire just to please him even though the idea of being alone and surrounded by so many wolves scared me half to death.
There was more to the whole protection thing than he had explained. He had heard a scream that had only happened in a dream, he always seemed to appear when I got emotional or worried, I seemed to have an almost perpetual headache or felt a cold that I couldn't seem to shake unless he was nearby and I always knew when he was. I felt a current I couldn't explain away as static electricity when my knee touched his leg and that contact had settled the nerves that had been building on my way over to the table but I hadn't expected an invitation to a Pack function nor a desire to attend.
"I have a lot on my mind." I responded, feeling Jacob's eyes on me as he walked past, Leah frowning beside him. Alice followed my gaze as my eyes trailed after his retreating form and smiled as she shook her head.
"Anything to do with a six foot five werewolf?" She asked as I closed my locker door. I sighed and slumped against it.
"Would you accept no as an answer?" I asked.
"I think I know you better than that." She tutted at me, frowning to herself for a moment as she concentrated on the direction Jacob had gone in.
"They invited me to a bonfire on the reservation tonight. It'll mostly be the wolves I guess, and the council, but Jacob said his dad, Billy, will be there and he was friends with the Swans." I shrugged and shouldered my bag, scuffing the toe of my Chucks off the linoleum floor.
"You want to go." She stated, her tone too neutral to be comforting, and I felt myself cringe. It felt like I was betraying my family if I admitted that I did, but I wasn't good at lying at the best of times.
"I did." I said carefully.
"But?" Truths without proper explanation had never been good enough for my sister.
"My family isn't welcome and they are all strangers even if they did know the Swans. It's not like you guys are exactly fans of each other either and I don't want it to seem like I'm not completely committed to my family." I explained as I pushed off the lockers and we started down the hallway.
"We know you love us Bella, you don't have to prove that by not making other friends, even if they aren't the most pleasant smelling of friends." My sister wrapped an arm around my waist and leaned her head against my shoulder, still smiling at me.
"What?" I asked, not understanding what she meant.
"Never mind. Would you go if you didn't have to go alone?" She asked.
"Probably. If Mom and Dad don't mind." I affirmed, laughing. "It's hard to find people who do well with our brand of weird. It's even harder when their brand of weird doesn't mix with our brand of weird." I paused as I looked up and saw Jacob watching us from the doorway. "Hi." I breathed, feeling the beginning of another awkward conversation coming on as he looked at Alice, the lines around his eyes tightening slightly but his reactions were getting less severe, at least outwardly.
"Hi." He replied. I couldn't help the smile that crossed my lips as his eyes traced my face any more than the heat that rose to my cheeks.
"Can she bring a friend?" Alice's voice said from next to me almost startling me out of the reverie that I seemed to fall into every time those dark eyes looked at me so intently.
"The population of Forks doesn't know any more about us then they do about you." Jacob said carefully before looking at me again. "I just wanted to let you know that there is absolutely no pressure Bella, Leah is rash and impulsive and there will be other opportunities to meet old friends of your father's when there aren't a Pack of crazy guys running around."
"What if her friend already knew about us and was well acquainted with weird?" Alice asked again before I was able to answer him and turn down the invitation using the out he was graciously giving me.
"Alice!" I hissed at her. "There is no one in a thousand mile radius that's human and fits that bill."
"Can you just let the mutt answer?" She pursed her lips and gave me a pointed look. My mouth snapped shut with a click of my teeth but I didn't stop glaring at her. "Well?" She turned back to him and he looked confused, eyebrows pulled together as he watched our exchange.
"Well, I guess that would probably be fine." He said searching my face like I could give him answers to questions that I didn't have the answers for. Alice clapped her hands together, laughing and making me jump.
"She'll be there. Just after dark right?" Her tawny eyes were sparkling as she spun me around in a circle. "Can I have your truck keys?"
"Alice?" I looked at her absolutely bewildered as I fished them out of my pocket but didn't hand them over to her.
"You can tell me how much you love me later. For now, Zachery's waiting for you outside and I'm sure that with a little persuasion you won't have to go to the bonfire alone." I threw my arms around her neck and hugged her tightly, depositing my keys in her hand with a grin before impulsively hugging Jacob too. He was a warm mass of muscle that seemed to instinctively mold around me until I twirled away from him. "I'll see you tonight." I beamed at him and then flew out the door and down the stairs into the parking lot.
Sure enough as promised, Zachery Stuart was leaning up against his black Ford Explorer with a wide grin on his deeply tanned face. Emerald green eyes took me in from under an untidy mop of mahogany brown hair that threatened to fall into them at any moment. He was a lanky twenty-one year old who looked like he had been trying too hard to become a dark haired version of David Beckham. He stood tall just in time to catch me when I launched myself at him, his arms wrapping around my middle as he swung me in a wide circle before setting me down on my feet.
"Bella!" He exclaimed laughing loudly.
"I thought you were going to Burning Man." I tried to glare at him but I couldn't help smiling. "I haven't heard from you for two months and haven't seen you in six. I was starting to think you were gone forever!" I chided him with a weak slap to his shoulder.
"I got a better offer than setting up camp on the Playa." He pulled my bag from my shoulder and in the process tugged me close enough to wrap an arm around me and hug me again. "I got myself front row tickets to Bella's journey of self-discovery and Carlisle helped me get into U Dub." He opened the back door of his SUV and deposited my bag inside before opening the passenger side with a flourish.
"But you were going to go to UCLA." I raised my eyebrows at him.
"Yeah well, it was strongly hinted to me by a certain little clairvoyant that I was needed more here." He said seriously. "Come to the beach with me."
"I-" I couldn't help my hesitation. The closest beach was on Quileute territory and suddenly I found that I was nervous.
"Hesitance?" He looked around us and then paused. "Doesn't have anything to do with a rather large and pissed off looking teenage boy glaring at us from the school steps does it?" I instantly turned my head, my smile disappearing and worry creeping up through my stomach as I found Jacob's form. He was looking at us, watching the interaction between Zach and I closely but I was sure the expression on his face wasn't one of anger but instead of hurt, the kind of hurt that tried to push the air out of your lungs and wouldn't let it back in. We looked at each other for a long moment as I absorbed the emotion I could see until Zach's hand on my shoulder brought me out of my contemplation. I lifted a hand, my lips curling up into a smile that I hoped would ease some of the hurt that was written all over Jacob's face but instead of a smile in return his expression went completely blank. I took a deep breath and turned back to Zach.
"The beach is kinda his territory." I explained.
"Territory? What have you gotten yourself mixed up in that you can't go to the beach?" He looked at me and then looked up over my head at where I knew Jacob must still be standing, a frown on his face.
"No, I can go to the beach you can go to the beach it's the rest of the family." I gave him a little push to pull his attention away from Jacob and slid into the passenger seat. He shut the door and hurried to the driver's seat.
"He knows about the family?" I just nodded in response as he started the car. "You have a lot of explaining to do, Darlin'." He shook his head as we headed out of the parking lot and started the drive to the beach.
First beach was quiet but then, unlike the summer months when it was reportedly packed with the local population, it was cool and overcast. There was a gentle breeze that made me want to pull the light jacket I had a little tighter around my body and the ocean looked less than inviting. I shivered a little and took a deep breath as my stupid headache throbbed in response to the wind hitting my face. Zach must have noticed because an arm reached around my shoulders and tugged me closer to his body as we walked down the path that would take us onto the sand.
"I know you needed a break from all the vampire crap, but I really hated it when you went totally MIA on me." I said as I played with the zipper on his jacket pocket.
"I'm sorry." He said simply. "What's going on here? Alice seemed to think that me being nearby was important for your sanity."
"I can't tell you everything. You know how supernatural circles work, but it seems that Dad moved us right into a supernatural epicenter." I shook my head.
"And?" Zach gave me a scrutinizing look.
"And there is this guy…" I felt my face heat up incriminatingly and I groaned inwardly. There were times I really hated my body's default blush setting.
"The one that looked like he wanted to eviscerate me?" There was a seriousness laced in the teasing tone he was using.
"His name is Jacob and I think evisceration might be taking it a little far, after all you are human. His people hate my family, they protect humans from vampires and he took one look at me and decided that I was his to protect." I chewed on the inside of my lip for a moment.
"His?" There was no more teasing just seriousness.
"Yeah, but it's more complicated than that, I think, Zach but you're going to think I'm insane."
"More then I already do?" He winked, making a real effort to keep things light and me talking. I pinched his side making him jump a half step away from me before shooting him a glare that I hoped conveyed how serious this situation really was. "Okay, okay, okay." He put his hands up in surrender. "Hit me with the insane."
"I have absolutely no evidence that makes any sense but I always seem to know where he is and he appears the minute my emotions get the better of me. I had this nightmare and he showed up with half a dozen of his buddies claiming that he had heard me scream but I hadn't screamed except for in the stupid dream and I get these headaches all the time when he isn't around and when he is they miraculously seem to disappear but I don't know if any of it is because of him. I mean, he's cute and smells good and pays me attention and the only reason he is probably even paying me any attention is because he feels he has to protect me from my family and my bio-parents were all tight with his dad and other members of his tribe and..." It seemed like the minute I started talking about all the jumbled up thoughts in my head they just came spilling out of my mouth like verbal vomit.
"Woah there." Zach cut me off, pulling me around to face him where we stood in the middle of the beach. "Like a physical connection?"
"I dunno, it's like a piece of string that connects me directly to him and hurts when it's stretched too tight and makes me so aware of him, like I sort of know where he is, I-I can't explain it properly." I looked down at my feet.
"You're like a magnet for supernatural shit." He took a deep breath, I could tell by the tone of voice that he was trying to be rational. "Have you asked him about it?"
"No." I shook head. "It's hard to feel that it's okay to get to know him or anyone else when they are so hostile toward my family. He did invite me to a bonfire they are having tonight though, maybe we can talk to him about it there."
"We?" He didn't sound like he was impressed with the word.
"Go with me Zach?" I smiled at him sheepishly.
"Damn it Bella, I left because I wanted a break from the vampire scene, now you're dropping me in the middle of more supernatural shit." He sighed and I knew that I had him on the fence. Zach's indoctrination into the supernatural had been violent and destructive and as much as we had each other's backs since the pressure had been too much and here I was asking him to get back in up to his neck.
"Zach," I looked up and gave him as close as I could to Alice's perfectly perfected puppy dog eyes. He just raised an eyebrow and sighed in a way that was much too theatric. I had him! "Please?"
"Do I at least get to know what kind of creature I'm dealing with this time?" He asked. I shook my head and he shook his in return as he threw an arm around my shoulder again. "God, you owe me one."
"More than you know." I agreed but couldn't stop the smile. Today was a good day, Zach was here to visit and I was going to get some answers.
(JPOV)
Jesus, what's up your ass? Leah was snippy.
Back off Leah! I snapped at her. I wanted to go and explain to Sam that my imprint was bringing some human male that was in on the Cullen secret to one of the bonfires and why so that it was over and done with.
Here I thought you'd be in a better mood and thanking me for my intervention. She just wouldn't let up so instead I threw the memories of my conversation with Bella and the Pixie at her and then with a bitterness and jealousy that I didn't like the taste of I let her see through my eyes what it was like when she ran into the arms of another man.
Damn, she knows how to pick men. It was not the comment that I needed from Leah and it didn't help when she started closely examining the memory. She appreciated the way he dressed that accentuated his broad shoulders that tapered down to a narrow waist and hips, apparently he had beautiful eyes that were only helped by his dark hair and naturally olive skin and as far as Leah was concerned the tattoos she was sure she saw peeking out from the ends of the jacket he was wearing over his t-shirt added to the appeal. I lunged to the side, my teeth snapping on air but she stumbled as she laughed at me.
Serves you right. I said satisfied with karma's dealings.
You're an idiot Black. You seem to forget she's your imprint, there is no way she's in love with anyone else, it doesn't work that way for the imprintee. She bumped my hip with her shoulder before cutting behind me and veering slightly in a new direction that would have us taking a track toward First Beach. Stop being a sulky bastard and come on.
After a moment's deliberation I gave in with a sigh. Leah was right, I wasn't going to have a moment's peace in my own head until I had seen her, and with her on Quileute land there wasn't a better opportunity. None of the imprints had been in a current relationship before the imprint; they had no physical or emotional attachments that had rendered the imprint moot, why would Bella be any different? But then, what as of yet was normal about our imprint?
She wasn't Quileute, she wasn't even Native American, not that it mattered to me but the 'Council members were already grumbling to my father about it and they hadn't even met her yet. Despite having been born in Forks, she hadn't lived here since she was a child and she had no personal ties with the tribe, top that off with the fact she was living with vampires, considered them as much family as the human parents that had given her life, made my situation unlike anything the other imprinted wolves had gone through.
Could you get any more angsty? Grow a set and start acting like a man. Leah snapped. You want her, go fucking do something about it.
Got your imprint on Quileute land? Quil's voice was a little too enthusiastic.
With another man, now he's all paranoid and bitchy. Leah extrapolated. I snapped at her heels, she just laughed at me and kept easily out of the way of my teeth. Quil barked back his own laughter as he headed in our direction to join us and Tristan and Nathan's presences disappeared from the Pack mind.
Can't believe Sam let you and the twins patrol together, that's like leaving the goon squad in charge. I barked. I fucking hated the Pack mind and having so many others in my head made me even more pissed off.
Fiercest goon squad on the planet. Quil's mind was full of laughter. His laughter died away when we reached a spot where the trees gave a perfect view of the beach.
There was my Bella, throwing rocks into the surf as she talked animatedly with her male companion. She had tied her hair into a messy knot on the top of her head and while she looked happier than I had ever seen her in a while, she looked cold and tired somehow. She stopped mid-sentence, her body stiffening as her head turned and her eyes started searching the tree line.
God she's boring. Leah laid down and rested her head on her front legs, her eyes closing just enough to make it look like she wasn't watching me. I shot her a look she ignored with an inner eye roll before focusing my own superior hearing, courtesy of my wolf, on the pair.
"What?" Zachery gave her a strange look as Quil appeared next to Leah and I. Unlike Leah who was entirely too relaxed, he was prepared to interfere if I decided to actually follow the instinct that was urging me to get rid of the competition by any means necessary.
"I think he's here." She replied; her eyes coming to rest in my direction
"You're starting to make me think you really are crazy." He said but he was frowning, the look on his face saying that he was taking her far more seriously than his words implied as he cast his eyes over her head in the same direction that she was focusing on.
"I told you, none of it makes sense. You're the one who always said that the supernatural can take its toll on you. You only lasted two years before you disappeared; I've been in the middle of it almost all my life, maybe I've finally cracked." There was a touch of genuine pain in her voice and she looked miserable.
"We can always find out…" He took a step or two toward where the three of us were observing them. "Come out, come out wherever you are," he called, a mischievous expression on his face that I didn't like much. She did not look impressed.
You wanted to know if anything was going on between them, now's your chance. Leah gave me a mental nudged from where she was laying without bothering to open her eyes and actually look at me, but I didn't move, I just stood there looking at them.
"Helloooooo! Anybody out there?" He called again, laughter in his voice.
"Stop, you're just being stupid." I watched her sigh and then tug on his arm as she turned away from the spot where we were and tried to get him to walk away with her.
"Okay, I give. Maybe you have cracked." He shrugged the look on his face still playful but I didn't like his words. I tensed, all the muscles in my body honed in on my target. I didn't like that Bella thought she was going crazy but for him to say those words to her was out of the question.
"Probably." She shrugged again and he frowned suddenly as he reached out, a hand cupping her shoulder as she wrapped her arms around her middle and pulling her off balance so that her other shoulder collided with his ribcage.
"Maybe I should turn down U Dub and head down to UCLA as per the original plan, take you with me. Carlisle offered to let you go with me six months ago, I'm sure he'll let you now, you can get away from the crazy for a while. The real world is very different from the one you're used to living in."
My heart skipped a beat in my chest and suddenly I felt sick. What if she wanted to go away with him? Somewhere like California would be safe for her, her family wouldn't be able to live there or any other vampires for that matter, it was too sunny.
You seriously going to do nothing? Leah was scornful.
If it was my girl I would have a thing or two to say about someone taking her anywhere. Quil offered his two cents.
Especially someone that good looking. Leah added through a yawn and I gritted my teeth ignoring them.
I couldn't take it anymore, not the mental goading from Leah or the apparently very close friend of Bella's trying to take her away; I phased and reached for the shorts I had tied around my ankle. I carefully calculated the distance between me and her, eight, ten, maybe a dozen strides at most would be all it would take for me to cover the space between us. Less than fifteen seconds and I could have her in my arms safely away from the man that was causing a bubble of stress in her chest. I took a step forward before my focus was yanked out of my own mind.
"No!" It was an exclamation that burst from her lips, her eyes got wide and I felt a flutter of panic that I had felt from her before but in her own kitchen and in the halls of Forks High. Was the thought of leaving always the reason? Had she contemplated it before? Did she want to leave? I knew that it wasn't that simple anymore, I had to think about what was right for her, my desires and happiness seemed to pale in comparison to her's, and if California would make her happy then she should be in California.
"You might like it. It's sunny and warm most of the time." He was starting to guide her away, back toward the main parking area near the beach.
"All I ever wanted was to be able to have my family and the sun and heat and now I suddenly can't stand the idea of leaving cold, rainy Forks. I guess I am crazy, this just proves it." She had stopped and leveled with him. I pressed the palm of my hand into the trunk of the tree closest to me and ordered my feet not to move. My muscle trembled, my body and mind at war with each other yet again. Isabella Swan might be my imprint but she didn't know that and I hadn't earned the right yet to interfere in her personal life.
"I was only joking about the crazy, you brought it up, I didn't think you actually believed you could be." He looked bewildered as he tugged her forward and she fell into step beside him.
"Then what is wrong with me Zach?" She cried.
"Nothing." He replied sincerely. "Unless you count not wanting to live where it's hot and sunny. We all change as we grow up, stop wanting some things and find that we want things we never wanted before. It's part of the human experience. " The corner of her mouth twitched and the panic slowly dissipated as I leaned up against the nearest tree watching her walk away with him.
"I missed you Zach." She said.
"Missed you too kid." He replied softly and I turned away from them. Quil growled softly as he looked at me and Leah snorted as she stood up and shook lightly.
"Don't look at me like that, it's complicated." I said, not bothering to phase again as I started walking away from the shore and in the direction that would eventually take us to Sam and Emily's place. I still had to break it to Sam that I had agreed to Bella bringing an outsider to one of the bonfires.
It didn't take us long to get to Emily's cottage, Leah stopped before she stepped out of the woods, her ears laid back against her skull and her body tense. I understood, she didn't go to Emily's house, not even when she first phased had she step onto the property and she wasn't about to now. She sniffed suddenly and growled. I looked through the kitchen window and saw her brother, Seth hovering near the kitchen door. Quil bumped my leg with his tail in his own version of farewell before turned back to the forest and patrol.
"I'll get him Leah." I said touching her shoulder before walking through Emily's yard, up the porch steps and into the kitchen.
"Jake." Seth greeted me with a smile as he stuffed the last mouthful of a muffin in his mouth. I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard. He grimaced.
"Your sister is waiting for you outside." I indicated with my head that he should get moving sooner rather than later.
"I was just saying hi Jake." He sounded torn and my heart went out to Emily a little as a sad sigh escaped her lips.
"You don't have to justify it to me Seth, you do however know the agreement that was made when you phased. You're not supposed to be here unless you're on Pack business." I ruffled his hair with a soft smile. "Go." He looked quickly over at his cousin before nodding to me and heading out of the door. "Hey Em." I turned and smiled at Sam's imprint, her face was red and her eyes glassy and it was my turn to give a sad sigh.
"Jake." She sounded choked. "I lost my family because of this too you know." Her voice was soft as I walked to the breakfast bar she was stood behind and placed my hand over the one she had resting on the countertop and squeezed it lightly.
"She lost her lover, her best friend, her father and her future; add insult to injury she has to share a mind with Sam while she puts her life on the line daily. Let her keep her family Em." I said softly. There was so much pain and suffering all because of a cruel trick of genetics. Leah was hurting but she wasn't the only one that had been hurt in the situation. Emily had lost an extended family she had been close to, she had been hurt and had to be relocated, her future was now tied, like the rest of us, to a strip of land barely two miles squared and the territory that surrounded it. We had all lost a lot, wolves and imprints, when vampires started trolling the area again, and we were still losing. I released her hand as Sam walked through the back door. She gave her fiancé a sad smile before leaving us alone in the kitchen. "Sam." I nodded.
"Everything okay Jake?" Sam was frowning as he looked in the direction that Emily had gone before pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"If you mean Emily, Seth was here when I got here. Leah saw him, so don't expect Sue to ignore it this time." I explained the scene he had walked into.
"I'll take care of it." He nodded with a sigh. "What brings you around? Bella okay?"
"Except that she's starting to think she's going insane, she's fine. Leah invited her to the bonfire tonight." I said.
"She agreed to come?" He looked shocked and I couldn't blame him.
"With a friend." I grimaced.
"Vampires can't come to La Push!" He barked, glaring at me.
"Not a vampire, come on Sam, she's not that stupid and neither am I!" I snapped back at him. "He's a human. He knows about the Cullens. They seem... close." The word tasted bad in my mouth.
"This is a Pack thing Jacob." Sam was pissed.
"She is Pack and she needs to get to know us Sam, you've said so yourself and there is no way she's going to feel comfortable coming to the res alone knowing we're purposed to kill her family and others like them. She's been orphaned once; you think she wants that again?" I glared at him. Since the imprint things had changed between Sam and me, he was no longer as much of a mentor that I looked up to and had become more of an annoyance; we had ceased agreeing on more than either of us cared to admit. Something was going to have to give and I was sure that this time, it wasn't going to be me.