Five hours later at 1, Jacob woke up, coming down the stairs and rubbing his eyes. "I didn't mean to sleep for so long."

"You needed it."

"Do we still have pizza?"

"I do. You don't. You can take the mushrooms and olives off it you want and I'll eat them."

"Yeah, that works, I guess." I turned back to the TV, watching, you guessed it, Storage Wars. "Why do you like this so much?"

"I don't know. Did you heat that up?" I asked, eyeing the pizza he had, pulling the mushrooms and olives off.

"No, cold pizza is breakfast pizza."

"You're disgusting," I commented, shoving the rejected toppings into my mouth.

"Think about what you just ate and then come talk to me."

"It's not my fault you don't like fun guys."

"Fun guys?"

"Yeah. Mushrooms. Fungi. Fun guys." He got the joke then, rolling his eyes and making overdramatic gagging noises, stopping when I started punching his arm.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry. It was a cute joke."

"I don't want it to be cute. I want it to be funny."

"Well, I'm sorry, but you're going to need to try a little harder," Jacob told me, leaning over to kiss my nose gently. I blushed, flopping on the sofa and covering my face with a pillow. "Oh, look at you, hiding from the big bad wolf," Jacob yelled. I could hear him licking the pizza sauce off his fingers which wasn't a good sign because that meant he'd be going to get ready to attack me or something.

I proved myself right (rather, jinxed myself) when I felt his hands on my feet, pulling me down the sofa and grabbing the pillow, hurling it across the room and jumping on top of me, suddenly straddling me and mercilessly tickling me, laughing at my screams.

The next week passed in similar fashion, we'd fall asleep on the sofa, he'd carry me upstairs, when he got back I'd send him to sleep. The time while he was resting was used to work on articles and cleaning and stuff and by the time he came back down I'd be finished with that I needed. We'd do whatever until the sun started to set (sometime in there he'd go for another patrol) and then we'd go on a run through the woods together because it was safer with Jacob.

Before I knew it, it was the night of the bonfire. The entire day was meant to be spent at the beach, but because Jacob had a patrol so early and wanted to rest we went a little later than everyone else, only showing up around 11. Everything was in full swing by then.

I'd worn a bathing suit, a one piece with lace around my stomach, the only shaded parts being what actually looks like a bikini. I threw a pair of Daisy dukes on over that and grabbed a cardigan because I knew it'd get colder, deciding just to shrug that overtop. While I had been putting towels into our bag Jacob came over and shoved SPF 100 in as well, merely grinning at me when I turned to glare at him. I grabbed my sunglasses and slipped my flip flops on before heading downstairs and making Jacob carry the food to the truck. I'd made pasta salad, potato salad, cookies and cupcakes, and bought quite a few family sized bags of chips. The portions I'd made were unlike anything I'd made in my life knowing it was for a pack of hungry shifters and their mates. It probably wouldn't be the last time I'd have to cook like this.

I grabbed my keys from Jacob's hand, going to make sure the front door was locked before I went back and climbed into the driver's side of the truck. Jacob pouted the entire way down to La Push, but it was a bitching I was used to at this point, so when we pulled up to the beach I leaned over and kissed his cheek gently, getting out and basically slamming the door behind me.

When we approached the group on the beach a bunch of guys came out of the water, shaking themselves off like literal dogs and coming over to us. "Is this her?" The one boy asked, he seemed significantly younger than the rest of them. Jacob nodded in response and the kid grinned.

"I'm Seth Clearwater," he told me, extending his hand out for a shake which I was happy to oblige to, "I'd hug you but I'm all wet and Jacob would probably kill me."

"Yeah, maybe," Jacob tried to joke, but grabbed the belt loop of my shorts and pulled me closer to him, earning an immediate glare from yours truly.

I met the rest of the pack and their imprints, Rachel, Jacob's sister, being the imprint to Paul, a taller guy that liked to test people. He seemed alright, but I noticed he pushed a lot of the other guys buttons. "I think I'm going to go swimming," I told Jacob, but he shook his head. "What?"

He said nothing, just reached into the bag and grabbed to sunscreen to which I quickly unfastened the button on my shorts, yanked the zipper down and let it fall to the ground, stepping out of my shoes and dropping my cardigan on the ground as I ran towards the ocean, Jacob screaming from behind me, his heavy footsteps sounding as they hit the wet sand behind me.

I pulled the hair tie from my hair as I went, finally making it to the ocean and jumping in, wading until I got to a spot that was up to my chest. The guys laughed from around us as Jacob stood on the beach, glaring at me, the suntan lotion in his hand. "You're going to burn." Jacob shouted to me. I shook my head. "You're Irish and Scottish."

"And Italian, you fuck!" I yelled back, holding my breath to duck under the water, coming back up and smoothing my wet hair back.

"Just come out here and dry off so I can spray you and then you can go back in."

"I don't need suntan lotion."

"I mean, you're pretty pale, Anja," Paul remarked from the water, not far from me.

"I'm not going to burn."

"Babe, you're already pink and we've only been out here for 15 minutes. Please just come and let me put this on." I glared at Jacob, letting out a shriek of surprise when Seth, who I hadn't noticed, came up from behind me, grabbing around my waist and throwing me over his shoulder.

"This isn't fair!" I shouted, thrashing around. "I'm being ganged up on. Sam! Help!" I yelled, reaching for the Alpha who had just shown up.

"What's going on?" Sam shouted, looking between Seth and I and Jacob.

"She's refusing to put on sunscreen, Sam. We're just making sure she doesn't burn," Jacob explained. Sam turned his glare to Seth who nodded his head in agreement. Sam rolled his eyes in response.

"You're on your own, Anja. I'm sorry to say, but you do look pink, and it's not my place to get between you and him over something like that."

"Sam!" He just laughed at me and shrugged his shoulders while Seth let me down in front of Jacob who wrapped my body in a beach towel and put his arms around me, barricading me in.

"Anja, do you want to help set the food up?" Emily asked me, noticing my pouting. I nodded then, throwing the towel over Jacob's head and going to help her. We'd set up a couple giant blankets in the sand, the food on top to make a nice picnic type of setting. The guys came in from the water quickly, but Emily yelled at them, telling them that imprints got first pick and made them wait to get their food until we had ours. I laid out one of Jacob and I's towels and moved to sit, but Jacob stopped me, sitting down on my towel and grinning up at me. I grumbled, going to get the other towel but he tugged me gently down onto his lap, sitting his food next to him to eat off of, stealing food from my plate when he felt like it, earning a smack each time. Not like it bothered him.

After we ate Jacob went to spray me down with sunscreen but Quil tackled him to the ground the same time Embry threw me over his shoulder and ran off with me. I pulled myself up, one hand on Embry's opposite shoulder, my other arm fist pumping the air. "I win! I win!" I screamed at Jacob.

"Quil, you lunk, knock it the fuck off!" I heard Jacob yelled to his friend, the two of them wrestling around on the sand.

"Sorry, Jake, but those cupcakes were great. I don't want to do anything to endanger her not making them for us anymore."

"You idiot!" Jacob howled as I laughed, Embry taking me to the top of the cliffs.

"It's safe here." Embry assured me, setting me down and letting me get a good look of the horizon.

"Wow."

"Yeah, La Push is known for views like this. It's too bad the rest of the reservation is kind of sucky." I glanced over at him and he shrugged. "It's an Indian Reservation. Shady shit happens here."

"You mean like teenage boys that look like they're on anabolic steroids shifting into gigantic wolves?"

"Something like that," Embry gave me a cheeky grin and his head whipped to the side when Jared, Paul, and Quil came up the cliff steps, each of them holding their hands up in defense.

"We've heard both sides arguments," Paul defended, "We've sided with Team Embry and Anja because those were not only fucking amazing cupcakes, but that was easily the best potato salad I've had in my life."

"So you pledge your allegiance to Anja? Over your own brothers?" The four boys in front of me nodded. "Good, we have to formulate a plan. I say if they come close we pelt them with pinecones."

"Great idea."

"Good, now go get pinecones," I grinned at them, pointing to the trees.

"Are you going to help?"

"Obviously." The five of us grabbed the pinecones, talking and devising a plan as we went.

We were too engrossed in our conversation to notice fucking Seth and Colin creeping through the woods. They jumped out, each a can of suntan lotion and sprayed me from the front of the back, the boys on my team pelting them with pinecones as I fell the the ground, my attackers running away. "I've...I've been hit…" I gasped dramatically when Embry ran over and grabbed my hand.

"What do we do? Should we call an ambulance?"

"No...no...it's no use," I coughed, starting to close my eyes.

"Wait, no! Anja!"

"Make them...pay..b-boys."

With that I shut my eyes, my head slumping to the side when Embry let out a scream, winking at me when I opened my one eye to peek, the four boys running off through the woods after Colin and Seth.

After they left Jacob stepped out of the woods, clutching his stomach, doubled over with silent laughter, gasping for air. I joined in, my hair sprawled out on the grass under me. Jacob regained his composure, coming over to help me up. "Truce?" He asked me, wrapping his arms around my waist as I looked out on the horizon.

"Eh...I don't know if my subjects would be okay with that," I responded, turning to find Jacob dangerously close to me. Like, fucking centimeters.

"Maybe we'll just have to unite our causes," he whispered, glancing down at my lips. Oh fuck me, this was happening.

"Couldn't hurt to try."

But no. We couldn't.

We tore apart abruptly when we heard whoops and hollers, only to find the boys were back, Embry and Quil holding Seth and Paul and Jared holding Colin.

"I brought her back to life with a kiss," Jacob remarked cheekily, making them laugh.

"Should we still do it?" Embry asked Paul.

"I think so," and with that the boys through Colin and Seth off the cliff and into the water under us, jumping in after them. I turned to look at Jacob who gave me a devilish look. I shouted curse words at him and went to run but he grabbed me, his hand under my butt and he held me against his side like a mother would with her child, running and jumping off the cliff as I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck, the two of us going into the cold water together.

Jacob pulled me up for air with him, the two of us spitting water out of of mouths and I reached up, clearing my face of any hair to find Jacob and I in the same close situation and minutes earlier. You know, because he hurled the both of us off a fucking cliff. And with that he closed the distance, pressing his lips to mine softly as his hands came up to cup my face, the callouses on his fingers tickling the soft skin of my cheeks. My entire body felt like it was electric, my head pulled back so we could reach each other. We pulled apart, breathless, Jacob grinning at me as the two of us pulled apart, going to swim back to shore.

"That was the most fun we'd had in a long time, Anja." Embry told me once we'd reached the rocks, holding a hand out to lift me out of the water. "Thanks."

"Of course, nobody here had as much fun as Jacob did," Paul remarked, nudging him with his elbow.

"She's my fucking girlfriend, I should hope not," The guys laughed, shaking off and going to run back to where everyone was set up on the blankets, Leah sitting on her own and doing her best to ignore Sam and Emily to were cuddling up to one another. I instantly felt bad for her.

"That was nice," I told Jacob. "We should do that more often."

"The war?"

"Hm, no, the kissing." Jacob just laughed.

"They'll be plenty more of that, I promise."

This chapter makes me so happy! But it isn't beta'd so if it's full or errors - I'm sorry.

I always do my best to edit things so it's not as much work for Maya (my beta) but I still am human so sometimes I mess up.

On a completely unrelated note I'm absolutely thrilled with how much positive feedback I'm getting on the story. I honestly cannot thank you all enough.

See you guys next week!(: