Last time... I wanted his puppies.

Chapter 7

I'd only met this extraordinary man yesterday. I had happily given him my first kiss and then merely an hour later, my virginity. I had been propelled into the word of imprinting and all of its glories. Then this morning brutally heaved back into the agony of our separation. And now I was planning to carry his offspring. Assuming I could reproduce, that is. Grandfather believed it was likely.

I had shocked myself. I had turned into one of those girls that I had privately mocked and derided. I had just realized that I was one of those girls who fell in love at first sight and then instantly started formulating an image of the life with the receiver of said affections would be like. A big white dress, a house with a picket fence, two point five children and a dog. At least we had the dog component taken into account already. I had shocked myself, because I was all those things that I had previously held contempt for. I didn't care now though, it felt too right, too natural. I assumed however, that Jacob would. He would care about my sudden declaration and I assumed he would care in a negative way.

But my words didn't have the presumed effect on his expression. There was no evidence of fear from my over commitment on his face. There was instead a curious look in Jacobs's eyes; a far off expression with a hint of a smile. His gaze fixed to mine and he brushed a loving hand over my hair.

"Is that something you'd like?" His eyes darted away and then back to mine in nervousness. "Would you like to carry my puppies one day?" He bit his lip between his teeth as he waited my answer. I could hear his heart rate increase slightly.

I smiled, wetting my lips as I nodded silently, "I suppose, technically they'd be called cubs, but yes… I would… lots of them." There was absolutely no rationality to my announcement. The basic instincts within me had been awakened and with it, my primitive need to reproduce. Specifically and abundantly, with Jacob.

He beamed at my declaration, his tanned skin lighting up from within. I thought, not for the first time since we had met, how his smile transformed a striking man into one of deific magnificence.

Laughing his deep gravely chuckle, he picked me up, spinning me around. "You don't know how happy that makes the wolf Ness. He's fucking howling inside my head."

I laughed at his exuberance, letting the sheer joy that was radiating off my mate glow within me as well.

.

After several revolutions of spinning in my mates arms, he placed me solidly back on two feet, and he stepped back. He held me by the shoulders at arm's length, "Ness," he started, his eyes vehemently searching across my features, "will you come back to La Push with me? Like, now. Or in the next few days?" he asked, swallowing nervously but with the conviction of man who knew his own heart.

"Do you mean for a visit, or to live?"

"Which ever you want. I just want you to meet my father…" then he paused, his eyes searching upwards and over my left shoulder into the forest behind, "and my sister, I suppose. And the rest of my pack. They're all desperate to meet you in person, and smell you," he added, shifting as he lowered his lips to the angle of my jaw, kissing lightly on my heated skin. "Embry and Seth kept on going on and on about how good you smell." He kissed my neck once more, inhaling deeply. A low guttural purr emanating from his lips as I felt his lips smile against the crescent mark on my throat, "I'd have to agree."

I chuckled, shaking my head as I felt my face heat up, my nipples standing to attention as his lips brushed over the mark, my skin erupting in goose bumps at his touch.

"You are the Alpha's mate now, Ness," he whispered, his breath hot against the shell of my ear. "You're pretty much the most important person to the pack, to the entire tribe for that matter. You're definitely the most important person in my life." His voice was smoky as he pulled his hips against the curve of my stomach. The bulge of his fullness dragged over my skin. My body responded immediately, my hips twitching forward as I pressed closer. "You're my imprint, we're two halves of a whole, Nessie. I want you to be with me always. I don't ever want to go through what we just went through ever again."

He paused, leaning his shoulders back to look into my eyes, but with his hips still touching mine. He licked his lips, preparing himself. His eyes were slightly glassy, sincerity and passion penetrated his gaze. "I want you to come home with me," he'd entreated. "I want you to see it as your home too, Ness. We can build a home together."

As I listened to his heart-felt invitation, I smiled at my inner thoughts. The image I'd concocted of La Push sent a restful ease through me. I had never felt such a sense of perfection before. It had been as if all of my childhood, those last few years, they had been merely been a preparation to this. A life with Jacob. With his love. Surrounded by his essence.

The loving bond with in my chest pulsed. It was if the connection to my mate had been yet again strengthened and bolstered.

In the very deepest recesses of my soul I felt the rightness settle within me. I understood then, that the choice I'd just made was a turning point in my life. The previous path had simply been the training ground. This life with Jacob, it was the journey. One I was proud to take.

My hand reached up and wrapped around his jaw, cupping lovingly over this defined angle as I looked back into his deep and soulful eyes. The only place I ever want to be is by your side. I would very much like to live in your home, Jacob. In your house. With you… And eventually our puppies, I smirked.

He beamed that gloriously transforming smile. It seemed his entirety was alight and radiating his joy. "It'd be our house," he smiled, his fingertip tracing over the line of my brow and down the crest of my cheek, "and our bed."

I let my body melt into his, my thigh pressing against his, my breasts pressing into his chest. Of course it would be our house… and bed. I hadn't been sure of the point during this whirlwind romance that it had happened, but at some point, I had ceased thinking as an "I", and was now thinking as a "we". We truly had become two halves of a whole. One ill-fated and thankfully, temporary separation had proved as much. Jacob was ingrained in my life. He had imprinted onto my soul. I lifted up on to my tippy toes, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. Our home, I communicated as our lips had touched, I quite like the sound of that.

We both smiled as we pulled away, full of the joyful endorphins of new love. "We can go today if you like? Or tomorrow," I had added aloud. I wanted to see this place my mate was so deeply connected to. I had always be a studious person, even as a young child I had been exceptionally inquisitive, and had a thirst for knowledge. My budding and yet absolute relationship with Jacob was no different. I wanted to know more. More about his pack, his family, his home; I wanted to know more about him.

His arms wrapped around me as his hands smoothed over the curve of my hips, "Don't you have classes?"

I shrugged, resting my head on his shoulder as we stood, face to face in the pine forest, our feet shuffling as we rocked back and forth in a stationary kind of dance. "School can wait," I said, bunching my hair up and pulling it over one shoulder, "I have an eternity to study."

There was a snapping sound behind us, a branch unnaturally cracking in the forest below us. A warning of an approach that I was positive was in no way accidental. Our heads turned as both my ghostly pale parents emerged up the embankment with the other two tanned men several feet behind.

"You have an eternity to play house and make puppies also Renesmee," father said, his agitated hands combing through his hair as the group had approached further.

.

I felt the instantaneous ire rise as I realized our private moment had been broadcast to the supernatural ears in the valley. Embry and Seth were both grinning. I took there grins as an approval to our declarations and plans. Mother had an uneasy, and yet happy look to her golden eyes, the inner fight between the human she had been and the vampire she was now was raging war behind her beautiful marble like face. My father left no doubt to his feeling on the matter. Disapproval.

Jacob and I parted infinitesimally as we turned, our sides had remained aligned as we both stood facing daddy, our arms still wrapped around the other's waist. I noted with a distracting sense of pleasure just how well we fitted together. My shoulder had nestled easily under his arm as he pulled me to him. Like two pieces of a puzzle, we fit together. We fit together in lots of other ways too. The memory of how Jacob's turgid shaft had fit so well inside of me flashed through my mind. My heart and my breathing accelerated at the recollection. Yes, I wanted to carry Jacobs's children one day, I thought once again, and I was looking forward to the frequent practice.

"Renesmee, listen to yourself," my father berated, his eyes boring into me, "you're distracted and unfocused. In a matter of one day," he said as one of his fingers had lifted up to reinforce his words, "you're a love sick fool consumed by your basic instincts. Are you truly willing to throw all your study away? I don't know what's gotten into you." He waved his hands, gesturing madly towards me, "This girl I'm hearing isn't my Renesmee. Have you lost all sense of logic, child?"

Augh, he didn't understand. It had been the same argument only with a different subject matter each time. For eighteen months, my father and I had butted heads. I would push for more freedom and autonomy in regard to my own life. And Father would pull back, his over protective condescension exasperating me no end. "Would you get out of my head, dad" I shouted, stamping my foot on the gravelly hillside like a sullen child. "Mom," I whined, my voice adenoidal and embarrassing in front of my mate. "Please. Shield me."

"No," Jacob said, his voice orotund and sure, "Bella, don't."

.

.

I didn't know what this shield thing Bella had going on actually meant, but it seemed she could block the sparkly ass from hearing people's thoughts.

Nessie turned to me, a look of betrayal across her beautiful features. I reached a hand up, softly caressing down the side of her cheek, relishing in the smoothness and perfection of my imprints skin. "I think the problem is that he needs to hear it, Ness. Maybe you've been blocking him out too much. He still sees you as a child." My finger had traced down the line of her jaw, down to the join of her shoulder and neck. I traced over the two semi-circles of teeth marks I'd made and re-made several times over.

I could see the vamp's eyes zeroed in on Nessie's shoulder. His eyes had focused on the mark my fingers had gently mapped out. It was totally chauvinistic, and immature, but I couldn't help the little swell of smugness that bloomed within the love and lust I'd felt when I stroked the claiming mark. She was mine.

"She is still a child," Edward seethed, "she's seven years old and she's not property to be owned," his hand pulverized a branch that he'd been holding on to. He'd stood taller, squaring his shoulder as his eyes had narrowed and he stared calculatingly and coldly at me.

"And anyway, dog," he smirked back, "she can do better than her mother's off casts." His hand lifted up slowly then and he flicked some of the wood dust in my direction as a show of contempt. Like a fucking school boy. I lifted my hand up at supernatural speed to stop the light spray of chip before it hit me.

The wolf bristled under my skin, his fury was barely contained at the direct insult to him and by association, his mate. The wolf wanted to launch at his face and tear the cold one into obscurity. He'd been raging and pulling at his tether. My body had shook as I held back the phase, I refused to let the wolf's instincts win. I could fantasize, but I could never actually destroy Edward Cullen; I could never do that to my mate.

Instead, me— the man in control— smirked at the lanky old sparkly ass, hoping he was reading my mind. He could declare ownership all he liked. It was me she was clinging to. It was my scent that permeated her skin. It was my mark she wore. She was mine.

Ness nestled back into my side, he chin resting on my chest as she looked up at me. With her hand in mine, I felt the love and certainty between our bond pulse and reaffirm as she sent me a feeling of encouragement. My heated gaze softened and shifted down to Nessie's. Her glassy eyes shimmered in the midday light filtering through the leaves of the canopy. You're not off-casts Jake. You're my mate and my protector. My wolf. Mine.

She reached up pressing her lips briefly to mine. The contact was all the reassurance I'd needed to pull back tight on the fighting wolf within.

.

With my arm still around Renesmee, my eyes had locked back with Edward's. Knowing he was listening I recalled a life time of memories and heartbreak. Many of which starred, front and center, his wife and him. Then my memories flashed to last night. To the overwhelming scent of my imprint. The moment I'd met her eyes. The pure love and devotion I felt for his daughter. I recalled my initial thoughts on her age, and then her desperate pleas for my acceptance before I could pull away. There was a physical need, sure. But the adoration and love was second to none. She was my gravity; my reason for existing. There weren't words for the devotion. I recalled the feeling as best as I could for him to see and experience though my mind's eye.

The bond was undeniable. The love was pure. I'd felt it to my very core.

She was mine. And I was hers.

I knew this was the true and undeniable facts. And I knew, from the look in the leech's eyes that he'd heard me. He knew it too.

I let the wolf and the man be placated by that knowledge. I let myself relax and Ness settled further against me, her breasts pressing softly against my ribs. If needed, I'd physically fight for her. But only if necessary.

Eddie knew he'd been arguing a losing battle academically. And he knew that he was outnumbered physically. My wolves had seen the truth of our imprint. Even if they didn't agree— which they did— I knew they would follow me automatically anyway. Shit, even Bella had made a hushed gasp at Edward's cutting remarks. He'd pissed everyone off.

.

I could feel Nessie start trembling in my arms. She wasn't quaking with fear or anything as meek as that though. My mate was fierce, she was worthy of her new title of alpha's mate. Ness was vibrating in rage. With his stupid comments he'd managed to insult not only me, but his wife and only child too. Edward never knew when to shut the hell up.

My wolves were pissed off too. Seth released a quiet growl and Emb tapped him on the chest as he leaned forward, an irritated scow on his face, directed at my father.

"You're still an ass, Edward. You always have been and by the looks of things, you all ways will be. I'd pick Jake over you as the better man any day. Let the two of them figure things out without interference, why don't you. I know she's young, but any fool can see she ain't no child. And I don't just mean physically."

My Beta was lucky he'd been defending my mate, because a comment like that could have earned him a set of canines around the throat. Embry tapped a pointed finger to his temple a few times, "but mentally and emotionally. I only had to have a two minute conversation with her to see she was an adult. When was the last time you actually talked to her, Edward, and not at her?"

The old man had bristled. His back stiffened and his jaw clenched as if in pain. His dead ass wasn't in pain though, he just didn't like to be wrong. And he'd begun to see just how wrong he was.

Because he was wrong; dead wrong. Ness had her own mind, and was more than capable of making her own choices, and she'd chosen me. But I knew that ganging up on him wasn't gunna solve anything. I didn't want him putting out any ultimatums or anything. I didn't want Edward making Ness choose between him and me. Because I knew she'd choose me and it would have broken her heart to do it. The wolf would never let her be hurt like that.

I didn't want to fight him either. I knew no good would come of it. The diplomatic alpha in me wanted to state a case and let diplomacy take the reins. "Edward, don't just take my word for it, listen to her mind," I said, stepping forward as I'd tucked Ness behind me. "Look at her honestly. She's not a child. From what she's told me, she stopped being a child months ago."

Winding a hand around his arm, Bella had looked up at him. "He's right Edward. Whether we like it or not, our baby's grown up." I looked at Bella, really looking at her for the first time since she'd appeared in Nessie's kitchen earlier this morning. The changes in my old friend were startling. Gone was the awkward clumsy girl I'd once known. This sparkly Bella was poised, and confident and not as afraid to tell the Douchward what she was thinking. She'd grown in to her new lease on life— that's using the term loosely though.

I could see the pained expression on Eddie's face. His fingers pinching his brow like I'd remembered him doing all those years ago. There was a silence around the tense circle of frenemies. My wolves were taking my lead and waiting for Eddie to speak. Bella knew him well enough to give the over protective fool a moment to think too. Ness though, she'd had a gut-full of her father.

.

"Augh," Ness's hiss pierced the air. A nearby bird took flight out of the thin canopy. "I can't believe we're even discussing this. Like it actually has anything to do with you!" she said to her seventeen slash one hundred and twenty something year old dad. That must be a mind fuck some times.

"It's my life dad! It's my choice. Yes, I value your opinion, normally. But you're not objective about this dad. Is it because it's Jake I'm in love with? Is it because he's a wolf? Or would you be like this if Nahuel and I suddenly decided to become more than friends? Would you be so insistent if it was his scent or his mark you discovered on me instead?"

I didn't know who this Nahuel fella was, but the still somewhat antsy wolf sensed a rival and rose to the surface. My body started to tremble against the phase and I pulled Ness protectively closer in response to this vague threat. Her closeness eased the tremor a little and her scent somewhat appeased the animal inside me. But he still wasn't happy. The wolf was a literal beast. It didn't understand hypothetical ideas. The man had to fight the animal from bursting out of my skin, but the man would still kill anyone who even looked at her in a physical way. She was mine.

She moved to my side and pressed herself against me, her warm fingers lightly touched my forearm as a flash of a native South American guy running and hunting beside her flickered inside my mind's eye. The emotion of brotherly love radiated from her. Only you, she mentally added.

Just that little piece of reassurance had my wolf standing down, circling a few times and curling around the contentment of our imprint.

.

"How did you do that?" Edward had asked, his head tilting in fascination.

Ness stood up taller, ready for more of a fight, "do what?"

"His wolf was ready to kill at just the mention of another male near you. You showed him a flash of a scene and two words of reassurance and he's placated? I don't understand how you can know him so well in only a day, Renesmee? Has it really only been a day?" he asked as his brows had pulled together.

I'd felt Nessie relax next to me as her pretty smile had softened towards her father.

"Yes daddy it's only been a day. It's the imprint. Can't you see we're perfect for each other? My soul knows his. And I know his mind like it's my own."

Our bond pulsed in warmth once again. My heart, soul, and entirety had filled up with the contentment of that perfect woman in my arms. She was beautiful, and smart, and loving. She balanced the wolf and the alpha's dominance. She would make a treasured addition to the pack. She had the caring and loving nature to be the perfect alpha's mate. The spirits had chosen correctly.

I knew that for all her riled-up anger and general animosity, my imprint loved her father. And I knew she wanted to keep a relationship with him and her mom. She'd just needed him to be open and receptive enough to really listen to her. She'd needed her dad to be open to her mind, to her thoughts, to her feelings; her true, and deep feelings. Not only her feelings for me but her desire to grow up, to spread her wings and become her own self.

I'd realized them then, that I would be whatever the imprint wanted me to be. It wasn't just the issue of my relationship with Ness that she'd need me for. Whether or not she knew it, she'd needed me to be a mediator between her and her father on all aspects of her life. So a mediator is what I'd become.

.

Nessie's eyes filled, a single tear escaping and trickling down her cheek as she stared intently at her father. Their eyes had locked as she telepathically exchanged months of pent-up ideas and aspirations. I could feel her love pulse as she showed him what we had found in each other. Our other half. Our soul mate. An Imprint.

A few minutes pasted by and Edward looked at me, his breath pausing as, for once, the mind reader was lost for words. "You're right. I can feel it," he said as he'd pressed his fist to his gut. He'd had a look of awe and incredulity about him. Like he was finally understanding and yet couldn't believe that something so intense could exist.

It did.

That was how much I loved her.

He turned to look at Bella, "you were right, Love. I should have trusted that she knows her own self. There's no separating them. It's very much like the bond we have. Only it's instantaneous and more visceral" he breathed. "She can feel him."

.

.

My parents were locked in one of their statuesque, comatose, staring competitions they occasionally fell into when one, or both of them, discovered a profound concept.

My father had presently discovered that I had grown up. Even in human terms my growth had been rapid. However for a vampire who simply had to blink and miss a decade, my growth has been almost instantaneous. Certainly my maturity into adulthood had been abrupt, even from my viewpoint.

It took great difficulty for vampires to change. And I believed, that in that moment, my father had changed the very nature in which he saw me.

I was no longer daddy's little girl.

With my father still staring into nothingness, my mother had turned to me. Smiling, she'd stepped closer, her arms held out wide. I felt Jacob release his hand from where he had held me around the waist. His silent urge sanctioning me forward and into my mother's awaiting arms.

I truly disliked discourse within my family unit. The past year had been tumultuous, all culminating in one rash and under thought argument. But the argument had not only been won, it had been sanctioned. Not yet in so many words, but mother's embrace had started the process and I knew my father would give Jacob and I his blessing... after he'd had a moment—or two— to process. I was going to be given the freedom I desperately wanted and deserved.

Many times during my life father had put his foot down, so to speak, on matters of my upbringing and hobbies. He'd not allowed me to hunt the great white shark with Uncle Emmett and Uncle Jasper when we had traveled to the western side of Australia during my fifth year of life. Too dangerous, he'd said, my lung capacity was extraordinary but not infallible. It had taken years of begging and ultimately, my development into adolescence for him to finally allow me to be schooled in the public eye. And even then it had been with four chaperones.

Although with grievances and many a complaint, I had allowed my father's decrees to stand. However, on the matter of my freedom of choice, and my choice of love and mate, I was steadfast. This topic had been far too important to let my father dominate the outcome. And my doggedness had finally payed off.

.

"I still don't understand what the hell is going on?" Embry's surly voice lifted my attention from the cool, yet somehow still warm, embrace of my mother.

"Don't you get anything?" Seth teased in exasperation. "She's been fighting with her dad for ages, not just about dating but about being a grown up in general. He doesn't like heaps of the things she does and fucking Jake last night was just the icing on the cherry flavored, finger licking cake."

"Seth!" mother scolded as a tanned fist reached out and punched him in the jaw, sending Seth sprawling on to the ground.

The next thing I'd known, Jake was atop of the smaller wolf, pinning him to the ground as his bulging arms struck his face to the beat of his gritted words. "Don't you– ever say— such foul—mouth— things— about my imprint— ever— again, you hear me Clearwater?" he said, pulling the semi-conscious man up by the collar of his shirt and letting his head thump back onto the gravel beneath.

.

I'd never see such violence in my life. I'd seen my uncles, and Aunt Rose for that matter, wrestle and jostle, unleashing their supernatural power. But they'd never bled. And they were practically incapable of being hurt. I did recall a time, however where Jasper had taken a good hold of my Uncle Em and Rosalie had taken exception to it. She'd sprung into the melee, twisting Uncle Jasper's free arm back until it had come off from his body. It had been a horrific thing for me to see. I'd been almost three at the time. Aunt Rose had received quite the berating from my father, mother and grandmother. But there'd been no blood, and Aunty Alice simply helped him reattach it with some venom. Within minutes my eldest uncle was as good as new. No harm no fowl, apparently. I'd never expected to see such viciousness from my mate though. Seth had seemed to partially heal between each hit. The blood would congeal before once more gushing out of his nose and mouth with each additional blow.

.

"Jacob!" mother yelled, moving with supernatural speed to pull my incensed mate off his pack brother. I simply stood there, unresponsive like my statue-like father, as both Embry and mom pulled the two men apart.

As disturbing as his sudden outburst of violence was, the instinctual being within me was aroused and flattered. It was a curious dichotomy of sensations. After his show of strength and dominance the fear had acted to enflame the lust. I wanted his strength around me, atop of me, in me. It was an animalistic need.

I recalled my initial thoughts as I had met Jacob last light at the fraternity party. Thoughts that he would do nicely for my first kiss. How little had I known just how nicely he would do? I'd had no idea just how alpha and prime the man truly was. I didn't want to fight my attraction to him, I'd have been fighting a losing battle if I had. He was the pinnacle of all that was male, and he was mine.

With a heaving chest, Jacob had righted himself, stepping back from his bloodied friend and shouldered my mother and Embry off of him.

"Fuck bro!" Seth had sat up from the gravel and spat put a bright red lob of blood from his mouth. "I was only fucking joking."

"Well, it wasn't fucking funny." Jake said, feigning a nonchalance about his attack. I assumed the wolves were all physical beings, used to physical attacks and prompt recoveries. But I could feel Jacob's discomfit at his loss of control none the less. "You'll heal," he added over his shoulder.

Jake rubbed his knuckles, and took a single over-sized stride towards me. "Sorry Ness," he'd whispered as his arms engulfed me in a warm and in intense embrace. He then proceeded to breathe in against my hair, his quivering muscles palpably relaxing at my scent.

.

.

It was too much. It had finally all been too much. Holding in my rage as a vampire had physically threatened me, the pain and threat of losing my mate, then the hot-blooded foreplay in the forest followed by the superhuman restraint needed to hold off our physical rendezvous had pushed my restraint to the limit. And it had all been within breathing distance of leaches. I felt I'd done well to hold on so tight to the wolf. I knew Ness thought as much, but finally, as I'd allowed myself to relax and I'd loosened my grip, the beast had sprung free.

The wolf needed an outlet, so he attacked. Seth was already the closest to my fist and then he'd gone and said the wrong thing to seal the deal. I saw red. My fists squeezed hard and hit even harder. The wolf needed someone to be his punching bag. The man understood that Seth was being punished for nothing more than a foul-mouth misdemeanor but I'd lost control over the beast. Clearwater was a convenient target; the wolf knew that he'd heal and that it wouldn't start an all-out war, or upset my mate… much.

The wolf wouldn't tolerate any male taking about her, pack or not. Seth's mouth had really gotten dirty over the past few years. All the wolves had potty mouths, truth be told. It was often their undoing. And it had been Seth's too. I slammed my fist in to his face, over and over again. The submissive wolf was never going to speak like that about my mate ever again. She was finger liking good, but my brother didn't know it as a fact. I had never fucked Renesmee either. It had always been love… and it always would be.

That's assuming that there was ever going to be another time. She was probably too scared of me now.

Fuck.

The realization hit me hard, harder than I'd been belting in to Seth. With one last punch and an aggressive dismissal, I pushed the wolf down and let the Alpha take control of my body, primarily my fist.

I let Bella and Embry pull me back. But the vicious wolf didn't like the cold ones touch, he didn't care that they belonged to my mate's mother, or that she'd once been one of my greatest friends. I sharply shook their hands off of me.

Inside I was panicked and irritated with myself; I've not lost control like that for years. The wolf and the man had such strong retractions to anything involving Ness. I was finally getting that I had to find new middle ground with my imprint in the equation. After I'd taken over Alpha from Sam all those years ago — in all honestly it had been a battle that I'd won—it took a few weeks for the pack to figure out what my wolf would and wouldn't tolerate. The game play had totally changed. It seemed that it had changed once again. A 2.0 book had been published. I was going to have to learn the new play book.

Embry and Bella let go of me once they'd realized I was back in control of my wolf. But the beast didn't want to show weakness in front of the leeches, or his mate. Like an asshole, I tossed Seth a few indifferent words, telling him he'd be okay and not in any way apologizing for the unprovoked beat down. The human in me was pissed at the wolf's obsession with saving face.

Irritated at my lack of control, I stepped towards Nessie, my saving grace. As Emb had put it earlier, my redeemer. Before I pulled Ness into my chest, ever the protector, my eyes flicked over to Edward who was finally thawing and taking in the scene before him.

"Sorry Ness," I mumbled, a poor apology for such a hideous display of unrestraint. Just as things were sorting themselves out, I fucking had to go and overreact. Right in front of my imprint I'd beaten the shit out of my brother. Just because he couldn't rein in his foul mouth. I'd hated that I'd let her see that uncontrolled side of me. I pulled her closer still as I'd breathed in her scent of perfection.

I had been expecting her to stiffen up at my touch, or even worse to pull away. But she didn't. Instead she leaned into me, scenting me in reply and pressing her lips to my chest. Her forehead lent directly to my breast bone and the heat and zap of her touch completely took the bite out the last of the wolf's bark. The wolf let the man be in charge of mating at least, most of the time. My dick woke up as she rubbed her hip against my crouch and her own scent of arousal wafted to my tongue.

Nessie placed both of her palms either side of my face, directing me to look at her. "Don't apologize to me Jacob. It's Seth's nose you broke seven times." Her gaze was soft, not overly criticizing, but understanding and sympathetic. My god she was perfect.

I held Ness, my hands fanning over the small of her back and her round backside as I'd turned to Seth. He'd taken off his shirt and was wiping the last bits of blood off his chin, the cuts and swelling to his lips had already all but healed. "Sorry dude," I shrugged, giving him a light hearted smile. "You know how it is. You can't trash talk about imprints."

"I know, I had it coming." Seth shrugged good-naturedly.

"The wolf was at his wit's end. I feel much better now though, if that's any consolation," I added, smirking at my old friend and a guy I considered as my brother long before we'd become great, big, hairy animals.

"Not really," Seth smirked as he used his fingers to wiggling a human canine tooth that was still a little loose. "But you've got to admit, Emrby is an idiot."

"I am not!" Emb grumbled as he smacked Seth on the back of the head. The wolves were all rough and physical beings. It's just how we did things. "I just find it hard to understand what's going on with all the mind reading shit."

Edward stepped forward, finally engaging in our little group again. He stood next to Bella, his arm draping around her shoulder as he looked at Embry. "I have to agree with you there, Embry," he smiled.

My friend had immediately stiffened, his mistrust in the vamp well enforced and ingrained. "What would you know about it Ed. You're the only reason we all got into this mess in the first place."

Edward tapped his forehead, winking, his tension and general uptightness weirdly gone. It was freaky how different this new Edward, who had reanimated after minutes of being a goddam statue, was. "I know everything, if I listen properly that is. And you're no idiot, you're just a man who likes the information laid out in front in him in black and white. Jake here, certainly thinks your intelligent enough. You wouldn't be his Second if you didn't have some skills. Don't doubt yourself so much young man."

.

.

Who was this man, and what had he done with my father? He had not spoken pleasantly, in any way, to the wolves since he had arrived this morning, yet here he was suddenly handing out compliments and words of encouragement.

Mother wrapped her arm around daddy, incapable of shedding the tears brimming in her eyes. Perhaps this was the kind hearted man she'd fallen in love with as a human girl. This was the man I had many fond memories of at any rate. It had only been the last few months while my father and I had been constantly bickering that my perception of him had been altered.

"I think we all have some apologies to make," mother said as her eyes had shifted away from my father's and over to Jacob's. She met him with a penitent regard. There was silence along the hillside apart from a few hesitant Chicago calls of a valley quail nearby and the roar of the passing traffic back down towards the motorway as we'd all waited.

My mother unnecessarily cleared her throat before biting on her lower lip in a way I'd never seen her do before. It seemed to mollify Jacob, his breath leaving him in a small puff of reminiscence.

"I'm sorry Jake," she said, her voice breaking as years of pent up regret flowed from her frozen soul. "Sorry for all the heartache. Sorry for leaving the way I did. Sorry for being a crappy friend."

Jake was silent as his finger had still absently grazed up and down the length of my arm. He seemingly gained comfort and restraint from the unconscious touch.

There was echoing seconds of silence as Jacob seemed to mull over mother's apology. Had it been too little, too late? He stroked down my arm one last time before his warm over sized hands held me firmly, as if to remind himself that I was still there. I leaned in to him, my back pressing into his chest and abdomen. You don't have to choose between us Jake. You have my support whatever you do. You can let her be your friend once more or she can remain your enemy. I'll still love you no matter which way you go. But I'll still love her too.

He bent down, pressing long and gentle kiss on to the crown of my head before righting himself, and squaring his shoulders.

.

He paused once more. His face a mask of impassiveness. I could feel his examination of the situation. He wanted his old friend to understand him without the emotional cues.

"So you had a kid," he stated, his voice devoid of any emotion.

Mother paused for a moment, evaluating, before a striking smile spread across her face. "And you've fallen in love with her I hear?"

"I have." Our bond pulsed with his declaration.

"And you want her to follow you back home?"

"I do."

Mom shifted on her foot, a very human posture, even for her. "What if I say you can't?"

"Then I'd say that's too bad, because she can make her own choices."

She raised a brow, sending my mate a final challenge of words. "And what if I said congratulations?"

"Then I'd say…" Jake paused, sucking in a long breath, "I'd say… thanks Bells."

Mothers face lit up like a part of her had finally been revived. I even saw a twitch of a smile across daddy's face too.

"I've missed you Jake," she puffed out, her voice was brittle as her face began to contort into tearless sobs.

"Same here Bells, same here," he nodded.

Mother stepped forward, her arms wide in a tacit gesture of embrace. "Can I?"

I gave Jacob a little push, encouraging him as daddy nodded in approval as well; the possessive seventeen year old from only an hour ago was gone.

But Jake hadn't moved, his hand still firmly held on to my arm. It was like I was his tether to the earth. I gave him the strength that he needed.

It seemed we both had that ability to the other. He was my strength as well. My soul and my spirit. But even so, it seemed he wasn't eager to touch my mother and her cold vampiric skin.

Jacob let an unsure sigh escape him. I could feel his inner battle with the wolf. Eventually the man won out though and he'd answered, "Sure," shrugging from across the four foot gap between them.

Mom rushed towards us at the first sign of his acquiescence. She threw her arms around both of us simultaneously and I felt Jacob stiffen somewhat. He patted her awkwardly on the back as she sobbed against his shoulder. "Don't cry Bells, you got everything you wanted, right?"

"Not everything," she sniffled.

.

So what did you all think? Let me know in a review. I missed them last chapter.

Thanks Aretee for you beta-ing. You're the best-est.

Happy Wednesday folks!

Marina