AN: I am so thrilled and honored to report that "Jagged Edges Heal" won Fandom Choice Awards in both categories that it was nominated in. It got 3rd place in the "Best Non-Canon Story" category and 1st place in the "Best Love Scene" voting! Thank you to everyone who nominated/voted.
Mei-fa chan: Thanks. Glad you liked the last chapter, and hope you enjoy this one, too.
Guest: You're not the only one who really likes Paul in this story. He's turned into quite the scene-stealer. I hope this came soon enough. It's a really important chapter and that meant spending some extra time to make sure that everything was 'just right'.
Guest2: Thanks.
The all mighty and powerfulM: Thanks, I'm glad you love this story. Sorry that this update took a while. This part of the story is important, and most of this chapter gave me fits for a while.
AN: Sorry this took so long. As usual, Jake didn't make it easy on me to pull all his stuff together. Plus, I got really busy and that didn't leave me time or a clear head to untangle all the writer's block. Just an FYI that Jake's section of this chapter will have quite a few snippets of content from earlier chapter. Our errant wolf has a lot of hard thinking to do just now, and that involves recalling the things that other people have said to him lately that he ignored or brushed aside. Hope you enjoy this chapter. I'd love to know what you think of Jacob's reality-check.
Many thanks to mc7575 and Feebes for giving me suggestions and reading drafts of this chapter. You both were huge helps here.
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Jacob POV
I found myself on the beach, my feet having automatically carried me to the massive driftwood that I'd come to consider Bella's and my spot. But there's no 'our spot' anymore, because there's no 'us', I reminded myself bitterly. Sam said I should just accept this whole imprint and be happy for Bella and Embry-but I can't. It makes me furious to know that she isn't mine, and that I have to watch her with him. It isn't fair! I'd had all these dreams for Bells and me, and then Embry had sneaked in when I hadn't been there and stole my spot.
Well, this driftwood had been my spot on the beach before, so it would just have to become that again. Back resting against the wind- and water-smoothed side of the outcropping, I stared out at the waves. How the hell had everything turned upside-down, inside-out, and whatever else?
Anger boiled up inside me again and I had to fight the wolf back down. Someone was sure to be on patrol right now, and I knew they'd jump to tattle on me to Sam if I phased instead of thinking about stuff like I was supposed to do today. Well, that and drink whatever the hell it was that Quil's grandpa had given me. But first there was a prayer he wanted me to say. Looking down at the piece of paper he'd given me, I read through the words.
Oh, Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me. I am small and weak, I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock. I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy- myself. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when my life fades, as the fading sunset, my Spirit may come to you without shame.
It seemed hokey to me, and I scoffed at it. But I still said the words, though probably not with anything approaching the sincerity that Old Quil would have wanted. It felt a bit like when I'd told Bella the tribal stories; I'd known it was against all the rules to share them with an outsider, but she'd been interested—which had stoked my ego-and I hadn't believed that any of them were anything other than tall tales, so I'd done it. With a fatalistic shrug, I twisted off the cap of the bottle that he'd had given me.
"Here goes nothing," and I tipped the contents into my mouth. As soon as the foul-smelling liquid hit my tongue, my stomach wanted to hurl. Somehow, though, I choked the contents down. Instantly, I was in the middle of some psychedelic swirl of colors as the world twisted away from me.
"Jacob Ephraim Black." The resounding voice made my head twist around in an attempt to find its source.
"Who are you?" I called out.
"Can you not guess?"
"Taha Aki?"
"Yes."
I blinked and looked up to see an unfamiliar man standing beside me. He was even taller than I was, his body strong and powerful, and his hair long and braided. He was wearing old-fashioned tribal clothing, the kind that nobody wore today outside of a ceremonial occasion.
"Taha Aki," my head bowed in almost involuntary respect. The power emanating from this man was palpable.
"Jacob," he replied. "Why are you here?"
"Because my life is a mess," my tone wasn't the politest one, but it was the best that I could manage.
"And why is that?" he began walking along the beach, gesturing for me to accompany him. Before I registered it, my body had already risen up from its slouched position against the driftwood and automatically began following him.
I opened my mouth to answer the question, but shut it abruptly. Telling this powerful chief that my life had been shredded to hell and back because of the inheritance he'd passed down to me probably wouldn't go over well at all-but somehow, I didn't really care. Finally, "My life is totally screwed up now! I turned into a giant wolf a few weeks ago, none of my clothes fit, I've got to obey Sam Uley's orders, had to abandon one of my best friends-and then he went and stole the girl I love away from me."
"Did she love you in return?"
My throat closed up, choking off my automatic, "Of course she did." But I couldn't say that-not with Embry having imprinted on her—and that on top of what Bella herself had said. "He's my boyfriend, I love him, and we both wanted this."
Taha Aki was clearly waiting for me to answer.
"Apparently not. But she could have if I hadn't been ordered to stay away from her for weeks."
"And who did that?"
"Sam Uley. On an Alpha power trip."
"You were a new wolf then?"
"Yes."
"Why did he order you not to see the girl?"
"He said I didn't have enough control!"
"Did you?"
Yet again, I couldn't deny the truth. "Not in the beginning, but it didn't take me that long to get it. But by then she was mad at me and wouldn't let me explain."
"Did you see the girl eventually?"
"Yeah-but by then Embry had already gotten there."
"How did you respond?"
"I was furious! Sam had promised that she was meant for me, and Embry stole her away."
"Did he? By your own words, she did not love you, and so was free to give her love as she wished. If this Embry proved himself worthy, then he was rewarded by the spirits with the love of a fine woman."
"But what made him more worthy than me? I'm full Quileute, descended from the last Alpha. Embry's only half-Quileute. Why did he imprint on her and I didn't?"
"Embry is a Protector?"
I gave a jerky nod.
"If he was blessed with the spirit of Q'wati, then he must have a pure heart and have done good deeds. Such a gift is not given without reason, regardless of lineage. He is of my blood, just as you are—and just as all others who have taken up the mantle of their spirit wolves have been. And if he is such a man to be worthy of becoming a Protector of this tribe, then he must also be worthy of a good and strong mate to love and support him."
Bella was good—I couldn't deny that. But it made me jealous as all hell that it was Embry and not me that she was going to focus that generosity and caring upon for the rest of her life.
"Take heed, Jacob Black. Go much farther on the path your feet are treading, and great pain and suffering will follow, just as others have suffered before you from listening to Raven's trickery."
"What do you mean?"
"Watch and see."
The world around me rippled and changed.
You will stay away from Bella!
Whimper. A grey-black head lowering in helpless fury at an order than could not be contravened.
Empty brown eyes. Ice white skin.
Thin, skin and bones.
Wind whipping through limp brown hair. Feet moving and a figure unseeingly approaching a cliff's edge.
NO! Bells, stop! NO!
My words went unheard.
"Why didn't you want me to be happy, Jake? I love you, Embry. Always. I'm sorry."
Step. Fall. No scream. Splash. Pounding waves and an insurmountable undertow. Silence. Peace.
A father's guttural screams of grief as his daughter's mangled form is pulled from the surf. "Why did she do it? Why did my baby girl jump?"
Sallow, once-tanned skin. Dead black eyes.
"Would I really have been so bad for Bella? I was better than Cullen-I wasn't a vampire, after all."
Madness. A challenge made that can't be won—and we both know it. A desperate suicidal move. Feint. Block. Charge. Teeth clamping down through gray-black fur. A wolf falling to the forest floor, unmoving. Howls of pain at a brother lost.
A mother's devastation at seeing her son's limp form. "How could you? Did my son deserve to die just for falling in love?"
I walked with a slow and halting gait through the rows of tombstones in the tribal cemetery until I reached my goal: a double headstone bearing the names 'Embry Joseph Call' and 'Isabella Marie Swan' and their dates of birth and death. At the bottom was the phrase, "Death cannot stop true love."
"I'm sorry," I spoke to the stone and to the air. "I was wrong. I cheated all of us, but especially the two of you, out of life." And I knew the words were true. No wedding ring had ever graced my hand. My life had been one lived alone, filled with loneliness and regret. It had been an empty existence, one devoid of forgiveness—because no one had had the right to grant it.
The nightmarish vision faded away, and I was back on the beach with Taha Aki. I fell to my knees and helplessly vomited the contents of my stomach—and maybe my entire stomach itself—onto the sand. This was like a horror movie version of "A Christmas Carol." At least Ebenezer Scrooge hadn't been a murderer. Taha Aki seemed to be telling me that I was on my way to becoming that terrible thing.
"This is what could happen-what will happen. Is this what you want, Jacob Black? Do you wish pain, suffering, and death to your friends? To their parents? Do you wish the suffering that other in your tribe have experienced to be visited upon yet another generation?"
"No! I don't want any of that!"
"Then why do you continue to try to fight what the spirits have decreed? Embry Call and Bella Swan are now bound together-nothing and no-one can undo that, save death. You feel you have been cheated? That a precious gift has been stolen from you?"
Well, damn, he'd picked up on my thoughts earlier in spite of my efforts.
"You desired without understanding. Yes, perhaps you and she would have been content together, and even happy, but deep down, there would always have been a note of dissatisfaction, a lack of something that could not be named, but only felt. You were denied an imprinting on this woman, because she was meant for your brother wolf. But there will be a woman for you, Jacob Black, if you prove yourself worthy of her, if you show that you are a man who is willing and able to accept such a responsibility and honor. Only you can decide if you will be that man. Decide. Let go of the spirit of Bayaq that has taken up residence in your heart and seek out Q'wati instead."
"How do I do that? How do I let go of all this anger? How do I keep them from dying?"
"You spoke words before, ones that summoned me to you. But you did not speak them with the right intent. Do so again, with sincerity, and heed the lessons that are presented to you."
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It was beyond disorienting to open my eyes and realize that I was still sitting on the beach in La Push and not on another planet. But the fact that I was in the real world again was confirmed by the almost instantaneous arrival of a blinding headache and churning stomach. I immediately squeezed my eyes shut again and tried to compel my guts to be still. Despite the fact that it was a warm summer day, a fine layer of icy sweat coated my skin. My eyes opened back up in a squint that gradually relaxed. I hadn't been able to keep them closed too long—I'd started seeing repeats of Bella's and Embry's deaths.
Staring out at the swirling ocean water, the waves breaking in small whitecaps near the shore, my breathing deepened and slowed. Gradually, I started to feel better; even though I hadn't actually vomited, my abs ached as if I had. Being confronted with my however-many-times-great-grandfather—and having a conversation with him, no less—had really shaken me, as had what I'd seen and heard. What was I supposed to do now? I couldn't answer that right now, but I wanted-needed-to. Sam had sent me out here to think, and thinking was what I would have to do.
So I did as he'd told me to and repeated Old Quil's prayer, with sincerity this time. The sounds of the surf and the birds overhead faded away, just as the view before me vanished as my eyelids drifted closed. In the quiet stillness voices began to echo in my head, almost like they did in the pack mind.
"Jacob Black, if you're planning on saying anything like you did last night, about how it wasn't your fault, or you didn't want to do it, or how I have to forgive you, then please, save your breath and me the irritation. My answer is the same now as then: it was, you did, and I don't. All you're proving is that you still don't understand and that nothing has changed." Bella's tone was furious, even as she still stubbornly refused to look up at me.
"Embry took Bella away."
"I think you did that yourself, Jake. I'm not saying that Sam's orders didn't contribute, but there was a lot that you could have handled better than you did."
"Like...?"
"You were seeing red pretty much anytime you talked to Bella. Nobody likes it when someone else gets in their face, and..."
And?
"Well, hasn't she kept saying that she didn't think you had the right to be mad at her? Hold on a sec-If you'd been furious about why she was pissed off at you, then that would have been one thing, but you were telling her she didn't have any reason to be angry at all. And let's face it, she did have a reason. She got abandoned by someone else in her life, and then when you were able to even try explaining, you just seemed to expect that she'd forgive you automatically. She didn't-doesn't-know what we know, so she wasn't working from the same place that you were."
"So if I'd let her get everything out, and then started to explain the reasons why...?"
"She probably wouldn't have been so mad at you. It wouldn't have changed anything, though. You still wouldn't have imprinted on her."
I hated to admit it, but Quil had had a point. I had been assuming that Bella would just forgive me without question, the way she always did with people. But this time had been different: she'd demanded explanations before even considering forgiveness, and I'd been insisting on forgiveness to clear the air before I explained anything. Had I been wrong? Had Bella? I was starting to realize that both of us had been right in how we thought. The problem was that we'd been working at cross-purposes the entire time, both of us getting more and more frustrated each time that the other didn't understand. Maybe a lot of this could have been prevented if one of us had been willing to be the bigger person and step back. I'd assumed that it would be Bella, like usual; I couldn't really blame her now for having gotten a backbone and refusing to be the one to give in for once.
"First, you tell me, Bella: what made you make the choice to start dating one of my best friends when you knew-you had to know-how I felt about you, how I've always felt about you?"
"It's not about you, Jake. He liked me, I liked him; he asked me, I said yes. Just like practically every other couple on the planet who decide to start dating."
"So, what, it never meant anything? The connection we've always had?"
"You've been one of my best friends for a long time, Jake, but that's all you've ever been to me," Bella kept her gaze focused on the hands folded in her lap. "I'm thankful for how much you helped me this summer, and Quil, too. Embry just helped me more, and differently."
"How is it different?" I cried out. Bella finally looked upward then, meeting my eyes at last. I held my breath in anticipation of the gravity-altering shift of imprinting...only nothing happened beyond Bella's furious brown eyes boring into me.
"I don't know how it's different, just that it is. It's not that one of you is better than the other, just that I feel that Embry is the right one for me."
Compelled to watch a slideshow of our interactions, I was made to see that while Bella had been happy to see me and grateful for the things I'd done for her, she hadn't treated me any differently than she had Quil. Embry, though...right from the first day they'd met, he'd had some connection with her that I was only now seeing. The rescue, the eating contest... It was a hard thing to swallow: that I hadn't been wrong for Bella, just that Embry had been more right.
"I might be the bastard technically, but you're the one who's acting like it, Jacob," Embry snarled, focusing on him and ignoring the others. "What the hell gives you the right to come over here-after weeks of ignoring me-and say something like that?"
"If it does turn out that Embry is my brother, then I'll welcome him gladly. Just as I'll expect anyone else to do if it ends up that they share that bond with him. The truth will come out—there's no logical reason why Tiffany would be so determined to keep Embry's paternity a secret if she doesn't know exactly who the man was. And I want you to think about that for just a minute, Jacob. Embry phased as a half-Quileute. I believe that Jared is right in what he said last night: this probably happened because Embry's connection to Taha Aki's line is a strong one—very likely because he's tied to the last wolf-pack in this tribe. That means that any of our fathers, plus a few other important men in the tribe, are the only reasonable candidates. So, if it isn't my dad or a brother of Harry or Sue Clearwater, then the man has been here the whole time and watched his son grow up without being claimed. Paul's dad has already sworn it wasn't him, but only time will tell about the others. How do you think your friend will feel when he finds out who it was? How would you feel?"
Sam fell silent and allowed me to do that thinking. I didn't have to imagine how either Embry or I would feel; I knew: anger, hurt, and rejection. Against my will, I began to feel shame and regret for the things I'd said.
And I still felt that shame. I'd known Embry practically from the time that we were born. Even if he hadn't said it more than a few times, I'd seen the looks he'd given my dad and Quil's and others: regret and envy for what we had that he didn't. I'd always known it bothered him at least subconsciously that he didn't even have a name for who it had been. And to now know that it had been someone local, maybe even someone who was still here today? For damn sure I'd chosen to use the worst weapon against him that I possibly could last night-and like Sam had said, it was only thanks to Bella that Embry hadn't torn me a new one over it.
"We are a pack of six wolves, and we have to be able to get along and work together. Whether you like it or not-and I get that you don't like it-you are going to have to accept how things are now, just like you did when you phased, when your sisters left, when your mom died..."
"And what do I have to accept now?"
"Embry is part of this pack. I will not have my wolves fighting one another instead of our enemies. I don't want to have to keep laying Alpha orders on you, Jacob—but if that's the only thing that will keep the peace around here, I will do it. Doing and saying the things you have recently…cannot keep happening. Embry can no more help having an absent father than I can, or Quil. I would like for you to remember that you're almost an adult, and that you and Embry have been friends for most of your lives. You used to be a mature, responsible, and good person; be that person again."
"He took Bella away—"
"She was never yours to lose, Jacob. Bella is not your imprint. Nor was she your girlfriend."
"Then whose imprint is she? You said she'd be part of this."
"Embry imprinted on Bella last night."
"Why? Why him? Why not me?"
"Why didn't I imprint on Leah? Why did our great-grandfathers make a treaty with the Cullens instead of fighting them? I don't know, Jake. I wish I had the answers to everything, but I don't."
"Too bad you didn't figure that out back at the beginning of all this!"
"And I'll have to live with that, Jacob. If I could go back and change that first night's conversation between us, I'd do it. I deeply regret that I spoke without thinking and gave you that hope that wasn't meant to be."
"So, what? I'm just supposed to be happy for them now?"
"That would be the right and mature thing to do, Jake. This imprinting is a fact... Yes, Jake, it would be really nice for both Embry and for Bella if you can be accepting of this and even be happy for them. I haven't stopped caring about Leah, even though I don't have the right to after I broke her heart by imprinting. But I can be happy that she's getting the chance now to pursue her dreams, even though I'm not part of it anymore. Bella is still your friend, and I would hope that you could be pleased that she's found someone who will never break her heart the way that Cullen leech did, that she will always be cared for to the fullest extent that Embry can offer."
Did I want Bella to hurt? No, absolutely not! I'd seen what damage that leech had done when he abandoned her, and then-like Quil had said-I'd done almost the same thing, even if I hadn't wanted to. And the vision I'd just had of both Embry and Bella dying because of me forcing them apart echoed in my mind again. Could I be grateful-happy might be too much of a stretch-that Embry had been there for Bella when I'd disappeared and kept her from going under again, had made her feel safe and loved, and able to love again? Did I have a choice? No matter how I felt about it, Embry had imprinted on Bella. And what the spirits had tied together, only death could separate.
"I'm Alpha. When I give an order, you have to obey it."
"For now."
"What was that? Jake?"
"I mean that you're only Alpha until I step up. Then the job's mine and I make the rules."
"And you really think you're ready for that, Jacob? You're ready to take me on and fight me for the title? When I've been Alpha for two years, and you haven't been a wolf for much over two weeks?"
"What?"
"Just what it sounds like. The only way you're stepping up to Alpha is if you fight me for it. Because, let me tell you, pup: there's no way in hell that I'm just going to roll over and bare my throat to an immature child like the one you're showing yourself to be. You'll only get the title over my cold-or at least bleeding-corpse. So, stand down."
I knew I couldn't beat Sam—hell, I hadn't even been able to best Embry. But if I was honest about it, I couldn't blame Sam for that mess—I hadn't had any thoughts about becoming Alpha before my dad proclaimed it to be my destiny. Why had he done that? Old Quil's words echoed again: "It is natural for parents to have dreams for their children. That is easy. It is much harder to let those dreams go, to accept that they will not happen. It was not Billy's destiny to become a wolf or Alpha."
"And my dad? Did he want this for me?"
"Did he want you to phase? No. But once it was clear that you would, he may well have hoped that you would rise to Ephraim's role eventually."
Had my dad's certainty been such an ego-boost to me that I wouldn't always be at the bottom of the pack, that common sense had been obliterated? And had I really been willing to use that power—if I'd gained it—to punish Embry for having sex with Bella? Was that being her best friend?
"What were you to Bella? How did she feel about you?"
"Best friends. She called me her 'sun' sometimes, 'cause I was so cheerful all the time." I almost couldn't remember being that person, like it had been in someone else's lifetime.
"Perhaps that's what she needs you to be, rather than a life-mate.
That wasn't what I'd wanted for us, but the past few weeks had been exercises in proving that what I wanted wasn't what I was going to get. If I was forced to choose between "friend" and "nothing" where Bella was concerned, wasn't friend better?
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Even though I'd spent almost the whole afternoon sitting, I felt exhausted. Soul-searching wasn't an easy thing to do. I dragged myself home and into the shower. As I watched the sand and dirt wash away down the drain, I wished that all my burdens could do the same.
Dad and I still weren't talking-or looking at each other if we could help it. Sam still hadn't lifted his order against me talking about stuff with my dad—and I didn't want to anyway. The last thing I wanted right now was for my dad to take a strip off me, too, or tell me how disappointed he was in me. So we ate an early dinner in silence, other than him telling me that a council meeting had been scheduled for tonight. The phone rang just as I set the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink.
"Jacob, I would really appreciate it if you could go over and give Kim a lift to the council meeting. Jared's on patrol and won't be there. Kim wants to come but isn't up to driving herself over."
"My dad-"
"I'll pick him up. I need to run something by him before the meeting anyway," Sam said.
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Bella POV
I couldn't decide if my movie idea had been a good one or a bad one. It was good in the sense that Embry couldn't put the couch to a use that would horrify my dad, but bad in the sense that Embry couldn't put the couch to use the way part of me wanted him to. My mind might know that I needed time to recover from our sexual explorations of the past couple days, but my body was trying to convince me that it wasn't so important after all. Well, my body...and Embry. If I hadn't heard this morning about the enhanced senses that the wolf gave him, I would have thought that Embry didn't know what his seemingly unconscious touches were doing to me. However, I knew that he did know just how much I was being affected. Fortunately for me, Jessica and Angela weren't so gifted and weren't picking up on it.
My eyes were fixed on the TV screen, but my mind was paying no attention at all to whatever movie the others had chosen. I used the time to get lost inside my head and think through everything I'd learned in the last day. The supernatural stuff I quickly dismissed. It didn't matter to me one bit that Embry could now turn into a wolf, any more than I'd objected to Edward and his family being vegetarian vampires.
I wasn't thrilled that Embry and I were going to be forced to spend time around Jake again. Everyone else seemed to have managed the transition from just human to werewolf without turning into a bitter jerk-everyone but Jake. It was hard to believe that he'd been so bad off right after phasing that just the idea that I was meant to be his had been the only thing that kept him from going crazy. I nearly shuddered at the thought that I could have been forced to shift from Embry to Jake by some mystical s-tuff whether or not I would have wanted it. I'd come to realize over this summer that my interest in Edward had been partly compelled by him. "Everything about me is designed to draw you in," he'd mentioned once; well, it would have been no different here, if I'd been pulled to Jacob when I wasn't interested in him romantically. Well, Embry had imprinted on me, so I didn't have to worry about Jake in that sense now. But there was plenty else about him that I was still concerned over. The things Jake had been saying to me and to Embry...it was like a complete stranger had taken over our friend's body. How in the world could either Embry or I be expected to spend time around him with how he was acting?
Something else that had me worked up was realizing that some man here had probably watched Embry grow up but hadn't been responsible or decent enough to claim him as a son. My heart had clenched earlier today to see—feel—how hurt and upset Embry was over this. I didn't think it was just the fact that he now knew his dad was—or at least had been—local that was responsible, but that his mom still wasn't telling him a name. I could understand Tiffany wanting to protect her son; after all, I felt exactly the same way. But one of the things I hated most was someone thinking that the best way to protect me was to keep me in ignorance, so I was totally on Embry's side when it came to his right to know who the other half of his genes came from, however painful the initial revelation might be.
I was also bothered—perhaps more than I wanted to admit—at the whole pack mind-sharing thing. What Embry and I had shared yesterday had been wonderful and incredible—and not meant for anyone else to know, let alone view. To know that the other guys in the pack had seen what we'd done—had seen me—I wasn't sure how to put that aside and ignore it the way the other girls had apparently learned to do. It didn't seem like I was going to have any other choice, though; either I got used to the voyeuristic aspects of the pack mind, or else I'd be going cold-turkey on a sex moratorium-and that was ludicrously impossible. Now that I knew with firsthand knowledge just what all the fuss about sex was, I knew it was something Embry and I would be doing again—and likely often. I'd just have to come up with something to stop any of the probable teasing or suggestive comments in their tracks. Hmm…
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Embry POV
It was probably a good thing that Bella had invited her friends over to watch a movie with us. If she hadn't...we'd probably have spent the afternoon in her bedroom, in her bed. And while that idea completely appealed to me, I couldn't forget what she had said about needing recovery time. The last thing I wanted was to hurt her in any way, and so I'd just have to keep my libido in check. Yet despite my vow, my hands kept wandering where they shouldn't. Sneaky though I tried to be, I couldn't keep from getting spotted forever. Bella's involuntary twitches finally caught Jessica's attention. I got a knowing look, raised eyebrow, and a smirk from her-but she didn't say anything out loud. She didn't have to, though-I had a pretty good idea what it would be: something along the lines of the "Bella sure as hell better be taking advantage of that," that she'd said back in the store. I delivered a sly glance and my own smirk then returned my attention to the movie.
The girls left after the movie, and Bella headed to the kitchen to start fixing dinner. "We'll have time to eat before the council meeting, right?"
Checking the clock, I nodded in agreement. "Yeah."
As always, Bella's cooking was amazing. With my new appetite, I had to really force myself to leave enough food in the pan so that there would be something left for Charlie's dinner. I wanted to keep on his good side, and making sure he still got to eat some of Bella's cooking was high on the list of ways to do that.
On our way back to La Push, Bella asked, "What is the meeting going to be about?"
"No idea. All that the message said was where to go and when. Logically, though, part of it is probably going to be about us. Guess we'll find out when we get there." A glance over at my imprint showed that her fingers were twisting together from nerves. "Hey, don't worry. I mean, it can't be too bad, right?" Even though I'd said that, Bella wasn't the only one to take a deep breath once we arrived at our destination.
"I'm here, no matter what," she told me. I had to lean over and kiss her after that declaration. I meant it to be a light one, but the best of intentions... A thump on the roof of Bella's car broke us apart.
"Come on, lovebirds," Paul jibed. He just smirked when I gave him an irritated glare for his interruption. "The council meeting will start soon, and there're people you ought to meet first."
"Raincheck?" I asked Bella, leaning over to snag another kiss.
"Raincheck," she agreed. With that, I reluctantly let her go and got out of the car. The council meeting hadn't even started yet, and I was already ready for it to be over.
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AN: Information on Q'wati (also spelled K'wati, and other ways) the Transformer, and Bayaq/Bayak, the trickster Raven of Quileute legends, can be found at: .
Native American Prayer: .
"Death cannot stop true love" is a quote from the movie The Princess Bride.