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Chapter 8 - Hunter
Bright, early morning sunshine poured through the oversized hospital window. Dust motes danced through the air, mocking the severe sterility of the cramped, white room. The buzz of nurses changing shifts and the soft beep of a heart monitor stirred Bella from sleep.
She had been dreaming again. Jacob. He had come to her in the night. This time they walked along the shores of Rialto. The black sand felt warm beneath her toes and the whispering spring breeze was cool upon her cheeks. Jacob grinned at her like a schoolboy, shifting into the wolf before her very eyes. The rich red hues of his fur shimmered in the afternoon light. Large brown eyes- human eyes- begged her to follow while he chased the rolicking waves.
The dream was peaceful.
Bella was home.
With painful awareness of where she was, Bella turned her head- muscles stiff and protesting in pain- to see her father still snoring softly in bed. Creeping on tiptoe over the cold tile floor into the oversized bathroom, she flicked on the light, flinching when the buzzing fluorescent hit her eyes.
Bella glanced at her reflection. I look like the wrath of god. Her mouth felt like she'd chewed cotton. Beneath her eyes, dark bags puffed out from a night of weeping at her father's bedside. Ten minutes later, teeth brushed, face washed and hair pulled back, Bella crept back out into the still room, pulled shut the blinds and stretched out on the cramped sofa to drift away. Little did she know that just a few miles up the road, a young man with dark hair was doing the same.
Jacob Black had been certain of two things for many years. There was one woman in the world that he loved. There would never be another who could take her place. The second being that vampires had destroyed their first chance at happiness. For that sin alone, every abomination that crossed his path paid the price.
Absolution by fire.
Six years ago Bella Swan left Washington and all of its ghosts behind. The pain in his chest gripped him hard that day. An ever increasing mark that burned and swelled with each passing week. Since then, life became an endless litany of waking, shifting, eating and working; punctuated with angry outbursts and bouts of extreme melancholy.
One day he took to the woods, a simple goal in mind. Roam the forests, cut ties with humanity and become immersed in the wolf.
The wolf protested.
Man was warrior and warrior was man. There was no discernible line drawn between the two. One often overtook the other demanding and taking rather than asking. For weeks Jacob Black wandered through the trees, cloaked in heavy fur, baiting and destroying any vampires that dared cross his path. It was during this time that the spirit of the wolf residing deep within his soul strengthened. Undistracted by the trivial pursuits of man, Jacob honed his skills.
The forest was an ever changing world, unfettered by human emotion. Observation of the animals which scuttled across the thick undergrowth of moss and fern warned when danger was approaching. The beating wings of a hundred birds foretold of the changing seasons, just as electric charges or shifts in the air cautioned and alerted wildlife to mother nature's impending wrath .
Through study, Jacob learned to discern the scents of various blood drinkers. The young, newly turned had an odor of humanity that still clung amid the smell of fresh decay. Older vampires stank of rotting flesh and musty clothing. But the ultimate conquest, the less often found trail of an ancient, was cloaked with the smell of muddy earth, the scent of congealed blood clinging lightly to their marble skin. It was those vampires which had stolen more lives than they could count; committed more acts of violence than any long human memory could recall.
The latter of the three was often careless, set in a deep rooted belief that nothing and nobody could destroy them. It was with great pleasure that Jacob relieved them of that fact. On the opposite side of spectrum, while newborns were strong, they were incredibly stupid. Overcome by the glitter and heightened senses of their new life, they stumbled through the woods like clumsy children.
It was the second type of vampire which possessed real skill. Time had allowed them to adjust to their supernatural existence and hone their skills. Those vampires were cautious, intelligent and evasive. Jacob travelled far beyond the boundaries of La Push to observe the various gifts they often possessed. Bella had once spoken of the otherworldly abilities the Cullen family possessed. Spurred on by this fact, he made it his business to not just know, but understand how those gifts could be turned against them in a fight to the advantage of the pack.
It was in this way that Jacob Black had changed from light-hearted boy, shape shifting wolf and spirit warrior to something more.
Jacob Black had become a hunter.
It seemed that with every stroke of destruction, each clamp of his jaws and scrape of claws, the pain of Bella's prolonged absence would lessen, only to redouble when the cloying stench of venom hung thick in the air. It was a tangible reminder of that awful night when it leached from her arm, purging the girl he loved from the demons which haunted her.
The natural pull he had always felt for Bella had intensified that day. Something had changed. It had never occurred to anyone but Jacob that the infatuation with the bird-like girl was more than that of a typical schoolboy crush. In his world, it was the love a man would feel for a woman.
In the years since she had departed the warmth of his bed for the wider world, the ache he felt deep in his soul had intensified. Hunting, concentrating on the sights and sounds of nature, was but a brief reprieve in those first few months of her six-year long absence.
As time went on, Jacob became more dominant, feral even. The wolf inside of him was uneasy. Tensions escalated between he and Sam, until one day the indisputable right of his birth rose up inside of him, exploding outwardly like an erupting volcano.
In a flash of claw and fur, Jacob Black became Alpha of the wolfpack.
From that day forward, the magic that flowed through the veins of the warriors imbued their spirits with new found strength. It seemed as if a golden web tied their hearts and minds together; each fed off of the other's individual capabilities so that they moved as one. In short, the pack had become lethal.
Through all of this one simple fact remained, staring Jacob in the face each time he looked into the bathroom mirror.
Hunting gave his life purpose. Bella Swan gave it meaning.
Postcards came infrequently from her. These small bits of communication were almost more than he could bear. Bella's scent lingered on the paper, permeating the inside of the mailbox with the sweet goodness of strawberries and mint. Each one sent his wolf into an unmitigated tailspin.
It was at those times that his body would shake out of control, threatening to unleash the tightly held restraint Jacob exercised on the wolf within.
There was an urgency deep within his soul. A desire, a want, a craving to have her return home and to him. This was not simply the wish of an old friend or desperate need to see if what they once, albeit ever so briefly, had was no more than a dream. It was an absolute certainty that Bella Swan belonged by his side, rightful mate of the Alpha, imprint be damned.
As the years passed, the wolf became more unsettled. Day stretched into night. Sleep became almost non-existent, life turned dull and black. The animal felt a keen desire to protect his mate just as the man wished to protect the girl he cherished with all his heart.
In Jacob's eyes, Bella was a delicate sparrow, tipped from the warm confines of her bracken nest. The soft, downy feathers of her wings clipped by beings that ingratiated themselves into human life without care or worry about consequence. They caged her freedom, muting the song that once trilled so brightly from pink lips and peaceful breast. For Jacob Black recalled the little girl who once laughed along with the rolicking ocean waves and darted amid the giant sycamore trees.
Somewhere in the middle of the third year that she was gone, Jacob had roamed the forests aimlessly, alone with the solitude of his thoughts for company. It occurred to him that perhaps he should seek out Old Quil for wisdom. Surely the medicine man could explain what others had failed to do. Maybe, just maybe there was some nasty smelling root that could free him from this awful pain.
It was on a rainy afternoon that fall when Jacob Black showed up on the wise man's porch, dripping wet and muddy from running through the thicket.
Thin, buttery light slanted through the open doorway. A hundred smells assaulted Jacob's sensitive nose. Old Quil seemed unaffected by his presence there. He simply stood aside, welcoming Jacob in and gesturing that he should sit down to rest.
The medicine man went about his business as if Jacob were no more than a mere decoration, rather than the visiting son of the Chief, divine protector to the Quileute tribe.
The cabin itself was small, constructed with the wood of towering trees felled long ago by their people. It was one of the few longhouses that still stood on the reservation. Most had been abandoned for more modern comforts, left to rot and fertilize the earth from whence it came. Now mossy logs marked the places their ancestors had lived and loved, celebrated and grieved.
Stepping into the house was like entering a forgotten world. It was sparse, only furnished with what was needed. Electricity and water had been run to the place and even though the home had been partitioned into a few cramped rooms, there was an air of the past that lingered within its walls.
Humming a tune through dry, cracked, aged lips that had long since withered like a grape left unplucked from the vine, old Quil gathered root and herb from the long shelves lined with clear glass mason jars topped with rusty lids. Placing them into a scarred wooden cup, he poured water from a kettle over them to steep into a bitter tea.
"I've been expecting you." The old man seated himself across from the warrior, as though his presence there were a commonplace occurrence. "I am surprised you didn't come sooner."
Jacob eyed him warily.
"I might be old, but my eyes can still see. There is an absence in your life. It hurts, some days almost violently, cutting off the oxygen you breath."
Exhaling slowly, Jacob squeezed shut his eyes only to see Bella's face flash before him. The pain in breast flared once again. "It feels... it feels like a stone on my chest. A weight that I just can't shake."
Old Quil smiled in understanding and placed the steaming before him. "Drink," he urged. "Go on, it won't hurt you."
What seemed like only moments later, the insatiable urge to sleep befell Jacob Black and before long, his thick, dark lashes fluttered closed.
The ground rushed beneath his feet. Cool night air caressed his heated cheeks. Jacob was unsure of where he was going, his soul guiding him far from the familiar waters and lush green tapestry of the forest. Stars shone brightly in the sky, the golden autumn moon illuminating the journey.
The landscape beneath him changed swiftly into shades of beige and rust. Grains of sand blew with the wind, tickling his face and toes. Without thought or warning his direction shifted, dropping ever lower only to find himself standing before a single window.
The sensitive ears of the wolf heard a heartbeat fluttering softly behind the glass. A sound Jacob had not heard in too many long years. The same rhythm which had often rocked him to sleep beneath the moonlight, his body curled into the dew-soaked grass.
Jacob smiled to himself, recalling the first time he had climbed through her bedroom window. He picked up a handful of pebbles from the neat landscaping that adorned the edges of the house and one by one tossed them lightly against the window.
Illuminated by the glowing fairy lights which had always hung above her bed, the image of an angel appeared behind the glass. Soft brown curls, tousled and tangled, eyes dreamy with slumber and pink lips that whispered his name into the silent night.
"Jacob?"
A small laugh escaped, along with the words he had repeated many times before. "Move out of the way. I'm coming up."
Then quite suddenly, Jacob held her in his arms. The ache inside gone, replaced by wonderment and joy. The softness of her skin, the sweet smell of strawberries that clung to her hair, the slow steady rhythm of her breathing lulled Jacob into a sense of comfort.
Tears shimmered in the corners of her eyes when Bella finally hazarded a glance up at him "Are you really here? Is this just a dream?"
"I... I don't know, exactly." Jacob couldn't put his thoughts into words. In truth, he really was not sure what had happened. Though he'd heard the stories growing up, it seemed quite improbable that his spirit had actually left his body to visit the woman he loved. "Does it matter?"
"No. All that matters is that we're here now. I've missed you, Jacob. You have no idea how much."
Jacob kissed her forehead gently, just the smallest flutter of a butterfly's wings. "I missed you too. More than you'll ever know."
"How long can you stay?" she asked, her small arms gripping his waist tightly as if afraid to let him go.
A part of Jacob's heart cracked, the momentary wave of joy he initially felt sliding into the deep abyss of reality. "I really don't know. If this is just a dream then I suppose until one of us wakes up."
"Mmmm..." she hummed, pressing her soft lips to his warm, naked chest. "Then let's make the most of it."
They laughed that night, talking into the wee hours of the morning, never stopping until the first haze of shimmering light crept over the horizon. Both lay side by side in her bed, bodies wrapped around each other comfortably with unabashed affection, much like they had done so many times before. Often, their lips found each others, hands skimming over tender flesh, loving each other the best way they knew how.
Their time together was coming to a close when Jacob hovered over her, kissing her lips hungrily while sliding his hands beneath the thin cotton fabric of her shirt. Lust and desire beat through his veins with unexpected force. The wolf needed her to remember. The man wanted her to understand.
No matter what happened, no matter where she was, Bella was loved. Bella belonged to them.
In her eyes Jacob found that same desire. The same urgency to claim each other once more before they were pulled apart by the breaking dawn.
When he slipped inside of her, the warmth of her body encasing him tightly, Jacob knew he would never love another, never crave another woman's touch, never want anyone but her.
The two made love slowly, fighting against that shifting tide of night and day until both collapsed into each others sides breathing hard and heavy with sleep.
Knowing they could no longer fight the impending dawn, the two gave themselves over willingly to the peacefulness of sleep. Just before Jacob's eyes fluttered closed, he kissed her gently one last time and whispered softly in her ear. "Don't forget me, Bells." There was a longing in his voice, the quiet desperation of a boy, shy and afraid that made her heart stop.
"I won't," she assured him. "I never could."
In the blink of an eye, Jacob was soaring through the air once more, ripped away from the other half of his bleeding soul.
Waking on the small sofa in Old Quil's home was not what Jacob Black had in mind when he traversed to the cabin on the edge of the woods the night before. Yet there was a sense of calm that pervaded now. A peace of sorts that had settled over his heart and mind during the night.
When his eyes opened to the new day, Old Quil was smiling, as if he knew a secret Jacob did not. In his hand was a mason jar, clouded with age, its lid rusty and dented. Inside it held more herb and root, the nasty concoction that he had drunk the night before.
"You will grow stronger. It will make it better until she returns," he explained, indicating the tea mixture.
"I'm not sure she's coming back," was Jacob's reluctant reply.
The wise man said no more, but rose from the chair in which he was seated and began going about his day.
Jacob stayed only a little longer, turning over the events of the night in his mind. There were a thousand questions he wanted to ask, but Old Quil did not seem as if he wanted to answer them. It wasn't until Jacob's hand was on the door handle that the medicine man said anything more.
"You must not do it often," he warned. "The strength lies within you. One day you will have no need of the medicine to travel. It is a gift from the spirits to those who possess a will of mind and might of our people."
Jacob walked away that day with a new memory to sustain him. Bella's sweet scent clung to him, the smoothness of her hands still lingering on his skin. He thought at first that perhaps it was all he needed, all that was required...and for a time, the wolf was quiet. The restlessness he had felt quelled by the experience.
As the weeks wore on, he found himself growing restless again. Jacob began to brew the tea, downing the glass as if it were a shot of whiskey. It was the only way to survive.
The years stretched out before him and Jacob became cautious with the precious hoard of root, rationing it carefully as if he were a survivor on a mountainside with little to sustain him. Finally, it was gone. Jacob beat on Old Quil's door, begging for more but it fell upon deaf ears.
He tore through the forest, enraged and screaming out in agony. That day he chanced upon a fresh trail. The cloying scent of vampire burning his nostrils and renewing the anger that welled up inside of him.
He found the abomination at a wayside, enticing its victim with supernatural charm. The wolf unleashed, diving between the two, frightening the misguided human into a near convulsive state. The vampire hissed, leaping onto his back, tearing at his fur, trying to gain the advantage of muscle and might.
Jacob shook with rage, flinging the creature into a tree. The hard wood of the oak split with a deafening crack, while the vampire stared at him wide-eyed with shock and fright. "What are you?" it asked.
Though it could not hear Jacob Black's thoughts, the answer was clear. Death.
That night he stormed into his too small room and passed out in anger on his childhood bed. There was nothing left in the jar. The preciously hoarded tea gone and with it the one thing he needed most. Jacob slammed it on the rickety kitchen table, shattering the glass into pieces.
The longing to see Bella, to feel her calming presence was overwhelming.
Jacob was surprised when he found himself floating through the air without the aid of the tea. This time when he arrived at her window, Jacob did not laugh or throw pebbles at the glass. Instead he leapt inside, stalking her as if she were nothing but prey.
That was the first time he took her roughly, fucking her hard and fast the way the wolf and man wanted, instead of slow and gentle the way the boy inside usually did.
Bella liked it.
What's more, Jacob knew it. It was written all over her face. The haze of lust in her eyes, the heaving breath of her body, the heady scent of lust. It was in the cries of ecstasy and moans of desire that fell from her lips. Bella pushed back at him with every stroke, demanding he give her more.
She welcomed the wolf.
In the morning, he woke to find Billy sitting at the kitchen table, the broken mason jar in his hands. Until then, his father had not known. It was a secret Jacob kept for himself alone.
"Son..."
"No." It was all he would say. There was nothing that would stop him now. Nothing anyone could say, no warning they could give. This was his power. His gift.
"We should talk about this. There are more things you should know. Things that Old Quil can teach you. It's dangerous to spirit walk if you can't control it."
"Control it?" Jacob was incredulous. "There is no controlling it," he snapped, sneering at his father's wisdom and then walked out the door into the waiting forest. It was a new day and there were vampires to kill.
Time went on. The relationship with his father became strained. The pack grew in both strength and size. Jacob worked hard, built a life for himself, purchased a house and threw himself into the repairs. The new home came with a new garage, but this one did not hold greasy car parts or oily rags. Instead it was a workshop, filled with cedar and leather. Jacob became an artist, reserving a place in his life to create when he didn't roam the woods on a mission to destroy.
When it all became too much, he found solace in the spirit walks. Then one day, it was no longer enough.
Jacob was quickly losing control.
The dreams were no longer the same. In the beginning they had been sweet. Now it seemed that whatever emotions he was feeling carried over into them. That was the crux.
Jacob was feral.
Deep within his soul the spirit of the wolf had grabbed a toehold. The fine filament that bound the two together had worn thin, threatening to snap at the slightest provocation. The man inside of him constantly fought for control, yet he knew that there was only one thing in this life that would bring them peace.
Bella needed to return.
Billy tried many times to intervene, confront his son over the erratic behavior. There were things he needed to know. Things that he must learn. Jacob stonewalled him.
Something was going on, Billy Black was sure of it. He needed to understand, to get to the bottom of what had happened to Jacob. It was with that goal in mind that he set out one day to visit the Medicine Man, seeking answers for the questions that plagued his mind.
What he found out was nearly as disturbing as his son's behavior. There was no remedy for it save one. Isabella Swan had to come home. Further, the magic that was bestowed on him was not what Billy originally believed it to be. This was not just an inherent gift that Jacob possessed. Old Quil had found a text one day. Its pages dusty and yellowed with age. The ancient language of their people scribed into incantations that his eyes had never seen before. They spoke of the wolf, of love and power. The strength to draw a woman to him, regardless of her own wants or desires.
Power Jacob possessed.
Both Billy and Old Quil believed that Bella Swan was supposed to be the imprint to Jacob's wolf. The why or how that kept it from happening was still a mystery to them, although Billy had his suspicions. Each and every one of them began and ended with a vampire.
One thing was clear to them both. Bella needed to return. She alone would be Jacob's salvation.
Billy prayed it would happen before his son was fully consumed by the wolf.
The day Charlie was shot, his heart became riddled with guilt. Though his oldest and dearest friend was suffering, it meant that surely Bella would rush to be by his side. Years of secrets had been threatening to spill from his lips for months now. The needs of his son quickly taking precedence over the thinly veiled concealment of pack life.
What Billy did not understand was that Charlie already knew.
That very night, just as Billy glanced at the image on Bella's phone, Leah Clearwater was phasing for the first time in many years with the pack.
Leah was cautious, trying not to allow the images of the life she led in Seattle leach into the minds of her brothers. Thinking that nobody had noticed her presence on the reservation, Leah was hopeful that she would be alone to get re-acquainted with the sights and smells of her youth. What Leah was unaware of was that the moment she crossed the treaty line, the pack sensed their sister had returned and took to the woods to wait and welcome her home.
The second she phased, a new power flooded through Leah, making it impossible to hide her thoughts or emotions. Everything she had ever felt, every caress or touch, each memory she had ever possessed became theirs.
Jacob scanned her mind, sorting through all the images of her life in the past six years, skating over her own conquests to find what he had missed the most. It hit him like a ton of bricks. Smelling Bella's fear, feeling her arousal, seeing the sexual encounter that Leah haplessly stumbled upon one night. A man, not fit to speak to his mate, let alone touch her, was fucking her brazenly on a soft beige couch.
The wolf was outraged.
Jacob went ballistic.
Then it hit him. The scent of his mate clinging to Leah's silver fur. IS SHE HERE?
The ire in him sent Leah to her knees. Wildly he searched her thoughts, finding the answer to his question in them. In a flash he was gone, chasing through the trees, toppling saplings and crushing green ferns in his wake.
Billy's eyes went wide when his son tore through the house, naked and dripping with sweat. Before he could blink, Jacob was dressed and back out the door while Billy called to him futilely. "Jacob! Stop! There's something you need to know!"
He was already on his way, when his father's shouts carried on the breeze. "Jake! Bella met someone!"
It did not deter him.
Jacob raced down the winding road with one destination in mind. He knew where she would be; even if he didn't the pull would have surely led him there.
As he roared into the parking lot, the stone that weighed on his chest began to lessen, quelling the wolf that lay within. As the warrior receded, the man, the boy who loved her began to emerge.
Jacob was an impressive figure, clad in black denim, the soft cotton of his shirt soaked with rain. Rivulets of water streamed down the leather jacket he wore, dripping from the strands of his raven hair.
All trace of her scent had been wiped away with the storm. A gentle rain now fell, washing the world and him, clean of transgression. Sitting there in the parking lot, straddled on his bike, he begged the gods for a glimpse of her. A silhouette framed in light.
Hands gripping the handlebars tightly, Jacob did not notice the small woman who peered out into the rain, wondering who the man was that looked so lost outside.
So... I know, still no reunion, but we're getting closer. Did this chapter give you some of the answers you wanted about Jacob? I know it probably raised more questions. Can Jacob come back from this? What is going on with him?
Reviews are always appreciated!