7. The Friendship Alteration

Bella POV

With Jake gone I was alone in the house with Billy. Though he was now aware that I knew about the wolf secret what I couldn't understand was why Jacob didn't hate me for being in league with vampires and why he had been okay with my pregnancy, even Billy seemed okay with both. Billy would only tell me to wait for Jacob and that he would explain everything when he returned.

I had changed into the clothes Jacob had given me and placed mine soaked ones on a small chair. It was nice to be warm and dry again, my hands drifting to my belly. Other than the firmness, it felt clod but I could not tell if had been because of me or because of the natural coldness the baby could have inherited.

"It's okay," I said aloud to it. Now that Billy knew I felt comfortable talking to the baby. "You'll warm up soon."

I took a blanket from Jacob's bed and wrapped it around myself.

My cell then rang and I answered.

"Bells," said Charlie, "Just checking in, you okay? Where are you?"

"I'm fine dad, I'm with Jacob."

"Wow Billy actually allowed you to see him?"

"Sort of; Jake's feeling a bit better. Guess you can't argue with ancient medicine."

"Yeah I guess not. Never could understand that part. You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah I'm doing good. I'm gonna hang out here for a while."

"Sure stay as long as you want. It puts me at ease knowing you're there instead of wandering off somewhere."

"Thanks dad, I'll see you later."

I hung up the phone and stood in the room for a second. What was I going to tell Charlie? I was all ready starting to show which I wasn't sure was a good thing or a bad thing. There wasn't exactly a 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' book for vampire babies.

I closed my eyes and sighed. Jacob was right, the last thing I needed right now was stress but I couldn't stop my mind from racing: he was gone, Jacob was off trying to convince Sam that my baby was not a thread and now there was Charlie to worry about and how he would react if or when he found out I was pregnant.

"He doesn't know does he," Billy said taking me out of my thoughts. I opened my eyes to see him sitting near the doorway. With his hand he indicated to my belly. "Charlie doesn't know you're pregnant."

Billy's tone of voice matched Jacob's in that it held the sense, not of shame and disappointment but of wonder and a hint of pride when he used the word pregnant.

"Um, no, he doesn't know. He thinks I'm just putting on weight from excessive eating but I don't think he suspects it."

"Well that's good. You've still got time to tell him."

I smiled slightly and moved past Billy and toward the living room where the fire was still burning, taking a seat on the couch.

"Do I?" I asked knowing he would follow me. "I'm all ready showing. I don't even know if I'll have a normal pregnancy."

"You're right, you don't know. None of us do but we'll be with you to help you through this."

I looked at Billy. Nothing was making sense. Jacob had said that the cold ones were the enemies of the Quileute's so what had changed?

"Billy can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Why do you care? I mean you weren't exactly too pleased when I was dating…" I swallowed and forced the name out, "Edward. I mean don't you hate vampires, doesn't everyone seem to around here?"

For a couple of minutes Billy remained silent.

"We do but when it comes to the Cullen's we have a treaty and now you fall into that treaty because you're carrying their offspring. I can't explain anymore than that. You'll have to wait for Jacob. He should be the one to tell you. I don't know what's going to happen with him or with Sam but Bella don't consider yourself without a home here. It's as much your home now as it is Jacob's. I mean that."

I nodded and smiled, "Thank you Billy."

And so we continued to wait, both of us content in the silent.

The stillness was broken when we heard the front door open.

"How did things go with Sam, son," Billy was the first to ask.

Jacob looked at his father and then at me, his eyes drifting to my pouch. What was his deal? He wasn't one of those sick perv's who got off on pregnancy was he?

"You and the baby okay," he asked looking at me now.

"We're fine," I replied. "Jake, what's going on?"

"Things with Sam got pretty heated. We can't stay here anymore."

"What do you mean you can't stay here," asked Billy.

"I left Sam's pack," he answered as if nothing serious had just happened.

"You did what," Billy said.

If he could stand I'm sure he would have by how angry he was.

"Two Alpha's can't occupy the same territory."

Billy took a deep breath. Gone was the anger, replaced by an elder's satisfaction.

"You claimed your inheritance," said Billy.

"Sam didn't leave me much choice," Jacob said. "He was ready to kill Bella and the baby."

I still had no idea what was going on. The only thing I did now was that maybe things would have been better had I not come at all.

"Jake, if this is because of me-,"

He turned to face me and took my hands in his. They felt so warm. It was like the sun was coming from him.

"It is because of you," he said. He reached down and placed his hand on my belly, "And because of her. Bella, you coming today was the best thing you could have done."

"You still haven't explained what's going on," I said to him, "or why you're obsessed with my baby."

He looked at Billy and then back at me.

"I promise I'll explain everything. I'll tell you all about the histories and anything else you want to know but I can't do that here."

I shook my head, "Okay then we'll do it somewhere else. You can come to my house unless you have some kind of special wolf clubhouse or something."

"I can't exactly go there anymore," he said. He saw the look I was giving him. "It's Emily and Sam's place, they're kind of engaged. The guys and I hung out there."

"And now you can't because Sam says so," I asked confused how Sam could cut off his own brother even if they weren't directly blood related.

"Sort of. Simple version: two Alpha's can't live in the same area, there's too much testosterone so it would get out of hand. We would literally and even figuratively kill each other if we weren't careful."

"Oh."

"I'm gonna go pack a few things and then we'll head out."

I nodded as Jacob headed for his bedroom. It didn't take long.

"Are you sure Charlie won't mind," Jake asked when we arrived at the house.

"I think he'll just be happy I've started living again."

"What changed your mind," he asked as we went around the house turning on the lights.

My hands instinctively held my baby. Ever since I'd had my moment in the upstairs bathroom I knew that my pain had to be put to the wayside. If I was going to do this…mom thing… I had to put the baby first and deal with my baggage later.

Mom thing.

It was weird to apply the word mom to my life's title. Having given up any notion of ever getting pregnant, I had imagined that Edward and I would at least adopt but not for a few hundred years at least.

Saying his name was still painful but at least now, accepting my new role, the pain wasn't the thing holding me down. Instead it was my baby holding me up.

Jacob smiled as I held my small bump.

"Guess she has that effect on people," he said his eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree.

"Okay what's with your interest in my being pregnant? Please tell me you're not one of those sick idiots who has an un-healthy fascination with it."

"No nothing like that."

"Then what?"

Jacob took a deep breath. "Okay what I'm about to tell you, it's a wolf thing."

"What's a wolf thing?"

"Some of us go through this change called imprinting- it's like the world shifts. Our souls recognize our better half, the person we're destined to be with."

My fists were getting tense. The person they were destined to be with? That meant- NO! I was half right, Jake was a pervert.

"My baby hasn't even been born yet!" I yelled at him.

Jacob waved his hands in defense like a white flag. "No it's not like that. I'll be whatever she needs me to be: a friend, a brother, an uncle, a guardian. And with Edward out of the picture I'll be a father if that's what she needs. He'll if she wants a dog as a pet I can be that too. There's nothing romantic about how I feel toward her I swear. It's strictly platonic you have to believe that."

This was beginning to be too much.

"You said Sam and Emily were engaged. Did he- imprint?"

"Yeah. That was kind of messy."

So in eighteen years, my baby, assuming it was the girl Jacob believed it to be, would fall in love with a wolf and my current best friend. And if that were true did that mean Jacob was immortal too, assuming she inherited her father's immortality?

I couldn't bring myself to ask, not yet and also because with the thought of the people I loved living an immortal life and mine was still on a human track. In 60 more years I would be old and wrinkled and they would live on as if time didn't exist for them. Was that what my fate came down to?

"I can't deal with this right now with you near me," I said to him.

"Oh so you want me to leave?"

"No, stay. You don't exactly have a home to go back to. I'll just go upstairs but don't think it's the baby who wants you to stay. Your souls may be connected or whatever but she's still a growing fetus."

"No I know that."

The front door opened and in walked Embry as if nothing. Jacob must have invited him which could only mean that he too had left Sam's pack so he couldn't be home either.

"Hey Bella," he said to me.

I didn't reply, instead I just made my way upstairs.

"You told her about the imprinting thing didn't you," I could hear him say to Jacob.

I sat in my room for an hour and in that time had composed an e-mail to an old friend.

Alice,

Things are changing. Fast. I wish you were here to help me. I wish you all were. Nothing is normal anymore. Maybe I'm just a magnet for those kinds of situations. I wish I could talk to you. Something happened. Something I have to tell you. Tell Edward. I need your help, Alice. I need him. I need my… family.

I looked at the e-mail I had composed and had the option of deleting or sending. My box was full of return to sender e-mails. Reluctantly I pressed send anyways at the same time there was a knock at my door.

"Go away Jacob." I could hear the door open. "Jake-," I turned to see that it wasn't Jacob but Embry.

"Hey," he said coming further into my room. "Jake figured you still wouldn't want to talk to him."

"So he sent you? So you're following him now that you can't follow Sam?"

"He didn't send me. I offered. Jake doesn't exactly give orders. I don't think he wants to take away my free will which is a lot better than Sam. At least with me here there's less of a chance of you deciding to punch me and then break your hand."

"I'd break my hand?"

"Our muscles are pretty much like rock but I'm sure you know how that feels."

I swallowed. Rather than continue with this subject I took a different route.

"So you really left Sam's pack too?"

"Yeah that was interesting. Jake's been my boy since we were kids. I wasn't about to let him go off alone. And at least now the numbers are slightly better- three in their pack, two in ours."

"And you're okay hanging out with the vampire girl?"

"Well it wouldn't have been my first choice but I do follow him so if he's with you then that's where I'll be too."

And he was going to be with me. As long as I had what he needed he wasn't going anywhere.

I placed my hands on my pouch, one on top, one cradling underneath. I suddenly felt like a human incubator. Jacob would have no use for me when the baby was born. I was being used and it made me a little sick.

"This imprinting thing is hard to get used to, isn't it," Embry asked.

"That's an understatement. How could he do this?"

"It's not something we can control."

"I haven't even held my baby yet. I only found out I was pregnant a week ago. And now he thinks he owns her!"

"No of course not. Bella it's like- it's like God. A devotion that runs so deep that you can't put it into word because of how omnipresent it is. Some people they believe in God, they worship God, they even love God. Some even do his will- go to the South America to feed the hungry or cloth the sick. People act however God tells them to act. If God wants them to be part of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program then they become a big brother or a sister. That's how it is for us. The imprints aren't God but that's how best I can describe what some of us go through."

I sat silent for a moment. That helped a little.

"Bella, you're not just a baby carrier. You still matter to him. You're still his best friend. You're just as important to hm. He knows you're the baby's mother. He knows that you still have a final authority on how she's raised and all that stuff. He's not taking her away from you Bella."

"Doesn't seem that way."

"I know. It's different from an outsider's point of view but if you saw it through the pack mind-," Embry saw the look I was giving him. There was still a lot about the werewolf thing that I did not know. "It's another wolf thing. When we're in wolf form we can hear each other's thoughts. If you could see it from our point of view you'd see that Jake's intentions are nothing but pure. He just wants the baby to be safe and happy. He all ready sees himself like a father to her."

"He's not her father."

"Right, poor choice of words. No one can replace Edward. What I meant was-,"

"I know what you meant."

Jacob wasn't replacing Edward. Embry had meant more like an uncle or a godfather.

"How am I supposed to be okay with this?"

"By letting Jake be what he needs to be to her and by letting him be the best friend you need since the Cullen's aren't here to help."

"Has anything like this ever happened before? Not just the imprinting but has a wolf ever imprinted on-,"

"On a child before, much less an unborn one," Embry asked finishing my question. "No never but then no one's ever imprinted on a hybrid before either and there haven't been two separate packs either so what do the legends really know?"

I looked at Embry, amazed by his complete honesty. While I still may not have felt comfortable with the whole imprinting thing, I could better understand it. I was glad that it was Embry who had explained things. Had it been Jacob I probably would have been too furious to even listen.

After a few minutes of momentary silence we headed downstairs.

Jacob immediately stood up from his place on the couch.

"Are you okay," he asked as he came toward me.

"Not sure yet," I replied. "Listen if this is gonna happen, if you're really gonna be a part of my life in this crazed-wolf kind of way we've got to set some ground rules."

"Okay sure whatever you want."

"Anything, really?"

"Yeah. She's in there," Jacob said motioning to my belly, "but she hasn't been born yet so I know I have to listen to you first."

"Okay then first don't treat me like a factory baby maker or those chicken baby warmers we see in the first grade okay? You're my best friend, I think I deserve better than that."

"You're not a breeder, I know that and whatever else has changed you're still my best friend Bella. What else?"

"Don't touch my stomach unless I give you permission. And lastly, if you're getting too possessive or controlling I'll let you know. Think you can handle that?"

"I know I can," Jake said with a smile.

"Good. Now let's get something to eat, I'm starving."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Embry said heading to the kitchen.