Moonlight in Forks

Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.

Chief Jacob

The whole pack was in the clearing now. They paced restlessly, waiting for direction from their Alpha. A whole hour had passed since Seth had informed them that his sister had run off without a word and wasn't coming.

Sam remained at the head of the group, refusing to let anyone leave. He was still convinced that Leah would have a change of heart-the only other one remotely thinking the same thing was Seth-but even his hope waned as more time passed and there was no sign of his sister.

"I am not wasting my time hanging around here any longer, Sam. Not when I can be in Forks looking after Bella." Jacob said impatiently. "We gave Leah a chance to explain herself and she chose to run off instead."

"You will stay right where you are." Sam instructed sternly. "No one is to leave until I say so." There was a challenge in his voice that no one dared disobey. It wasn't a direct Alpha command, but his point was made.

The whole pack could feel his disappointment in Leah bleeding through the mind link, he seemed unable to hide his feelings, which was unusual for him. His anxiety continued to build with each passing minute. He was worried that she had come to some harm. He just wouldn't let himself believe that the she-wolf would disobey him. He kept giving her the benefit of the doubt, getting defensive whenever one of the others dared to question him about it.

"How much longer do you expect us to wait?" Jacob demanded again. Unlike the others, he wasn't afraid to verbally express his annoyance.

"Jake." Quil nudged him in the side. "Just be patient."

"I've been patient enough!" Jacob turned on his friend-the compulsion to follow Sam's orders like a puppet on a string, was diminishing. He felt he could just walk off if he wanted, but he knew if he did, it would cause dissension within the pack.

"I'm sure she'll come." Seth whined. He was next to Colin and Brady. The two younger wolves gravitated to him whenever they were phased, all being of similar age. They were like a mini-pack all of their own.

"I don't think she is, Seth." Embry whispered. He felt sorry for the youngster too, however he agreed with Jacob, he believed they were wasting their time waiting around.

"Quiet!" Sam ordered.

Instantly silence fell. Jacob resisted. He knew it was petty, but he was tiring of Sam's obsession with Leah. He was with Emily now. It was time he stopped allowing his guilt to influence his decisions when it came to the she-wolf. It was one of the reasons that Leah got away with the things she did. She knew she could manipulate Sam into getting her own way, because he still felt so bad that he had broken her heart.

There was a good reason for the Alpha's authority. Even a pack as strong as theirs wasn't much of a force without a leader. They had to move together, to think together, in order to be effective. And that required the body to have a head.

But right now, that head was not in the game. Sam was wrong. There was nothing anyone could do. Leah had made her choice. The rest of them needed to band together and move on.

Jacob continued to resist Sam's order, secretly hoping that once the Alpha wolf felt him pulling away, that he would change his mind and release them. He knew he could push it; no one could dispute the Alpha's decision-except for him.

He hadn't earned anything. But there were things that had been born in him, things that he had left unclaimed.

Jacob hadn't wanted to lead the pack. He didn't really want to do it now. He didn't want the responsibility for all their fates resting on his shoulders. He always thought that Sam, being the oldest, would be better than he could ever be.

But recent events were showing Uley's lack of leadership. He was wrong to keep them all here. He was wrong to force his will on the true Alpha. Jacob had not been born to kneel to him.

The thought, the will, was unintentional, the bonds fell off his body the second he secretly embraced his birthright.

Jacob could feel it gathering in him, both a freedom and also a strange, hollow power. Hollow because an Alpha's power came from his pack, and he had no pack. For a second, loneliness overwhelmed him.

He had no pack now.

Or to be precise, he had no pack… yet.

There was no going back. He had mentally broken away. His brothers sensed it. They all stopped milling about, looking first at Sam, then back at him. Confusion was rampant amongst them.

It was now or never, Jacob decided, as he walked over to where Sam stood, with Paul and Jared flanking him on either side. His stance was straight and true, and he seemed to tower over the black wolf suddenly, like he had grown inches in the space of a few seconds. Sam turned at the sound of his advance, his coal black eyes narrowed.

"It's over." Jacob stated coolly.

Sam heard it right away; heard the choice Jacob had made in the sound of the Alpha's voice in his thoughts. He jumped back half a step with a shocked yelp.

"Jacob, what have you done?"

"What I should have done from the beginning. I won't follow you anymore, Sam."

The big, black wolf stared at him, stunned. "You would…you would break up the pack over something like this?"

"I had no choice. You can't be objective anymore. You are letting your heart rule your head when it comes to handling Leah. You're allowing her to ride roughshod over everyone, and it's having a negative impact on all of us. The pack needs to be a cohesive unit, but with you at the helm we are all over the place."

"This isn't about Leah." Sam snarled at him. "This is about Bella. She may have chosen you, but she is not your imprint, Jacob. Yet you continue to put her needs above everyone, you continue to let your life revolve only around her."

Jacob sucked in a big gulp of air, trying to stem the tide of his anger. He knew Sam was clutching at straws, trying to defend an impregnable position that had no foundation anymore. "And Leah isn't yours." He retorted. "Yet you still put her needs above everyone else's. You're going to destroy the pack over her, Sam. No matter what the outcome today, you would still have defended her place within the pack."

"Whether you like it or not, Jacob, she is and always will be part of the pack." Sam growled.

"I know what you've decided, Sam. But you can't decide for me, not anymore."

"Jacob-you cannot turn your back on your brothers, on your tribe, on me."

Jacob heard the double echo of Sam's Alpha command, but it was weightless this time. It no longer applied to him. Sam clenched his jaw, trying to force Jacob to respond to his words.

Jacob stared into his furious eyes. "Ephraim Black's son was not born to follow Levi Uley's."

"Is this it, then, Jacob Black?" Sam's hackles rose and his muzzle pulled back from his teeth. Paul and Jared snarled and bristled at his sides. "Even if you defeat me, the pack will never follow you!"

Jacob stayed calm, his eyes no longer showing any animosity or hostility toward the enraged black wolf. "Defeat you? I'm not going to fight you, Sam."

"Then what's your plan? I'm not stepping aside so that you can go off and destroy everything we've built here."

"I'm not telling you to step aside."

"Oh ho, so you are going to order them to follow you." Sam sneered.

"I'll never take anyone's will away from them."

Sam's tail whipped back and forth as he recoiled from the judgement in Jacob's words. Then he took a step forward so that they were toe to toe, his exposed teeth inches from Jacob's. It was only then that Sam seemed to realize that Jacob was taller than him.

"There cannot be more than one Alpha. The pack has chosen me. Will you rip us apart tonight? Will you turn on your brothers? Or will you end this insanity and joins us again?"

Every word Sam spoke was layered with command, but it couldn't touch Jacob. Alpha blood ran undiluted through his veins. He could see why there was never more than one Alpha male in a pack. His body was already responding to the challenge. He could feel the instinct to defend his claim rising within. The primitive core of his wolf-self tensed for the battle of supremacy.

Jacob fought hard to suppress that reaction. He would not fall into a pointless, destructive fight with Sam. He was his brother still, even though he was rejecting his authority.

"I'm choosing to go my own way. Whoever wants to follow me will do so of their own free will."

Sam shrank back a little as he felt the weight of the Alpha in Jacob's tone. It affected him more than it touched Jacob. Because Jacob had been born to lead him.

Jacob said no more, just simply turned his back on the black wolf, and a chorus of agitated howls tore into the air around him. Digging his nails into the earth, he raced away from the uproar he had caused, knowing that at least some of the pack would follow him.

He hadn't gone far when Embry's voice appeared in his head. "I'm with you, bro."

The howling faded into the distance as Jacob and Embry ran side by side.

"Wait for me." Came another breathless voice, followed by two more.

"And me!"

"Don't forget about me!"

To Jacob's astonishment Seth broke through the trees, followed by Brady and Colin. He had thought that the young shifters would stay with Sam-especially Seth-considering how he felt about his sister.

"Can you slow down?" Seth panted. "My legs aren't as long as yours."

"Seth! What do you think you're doing? Go back."

Seth didn't answer, but Jacob could feel his determination as he kept on right beside him. He could see through the young shifter's eyes, just as Seth could see through his. For him the situation with his sister was bleak, but there was an undercurrent of understanding intertwined with that.

"I'm not joking, Seth. If you think by joining me that I'll change my mind about what your sister did – "

"No, Jake, I wouldn't do that." The gangly wolf snorted. "I've got your back. I think you're right what you said about Sam. I've always thought that a lot of my sister's problems stem from his inability to let her really move on. So, I've decided its time I did."

"Oh, let him stay, Jake." Embry piped up. "And the kids, too." He added before Jacob could protest about Brady and Colin as well.

It was only after Embry spoke that it suddenly occurred to Jacob that all the ones that had followed him were the unimprinted males in the pack. The others, like Paul and Jared, even Quil, had stayed with Sam. He wondered what this signified.

"So, what's the order boss?" Seth asked.

Seth's question brought Jacob up short. He skidded to a halt, his nails gouging a furrow in the soft mud underneath his paws.

"I'm not ordering anyone to do anything."

"I think it kinda comes with the territory, Jake." Embry pointed out. He plopped down on his haunches beside Jacob, looking at him expectantly. "Also, have you noticed how awfully quiet it is without the others voices?"

Jacob blinked. His tail swished nervously as he realized what Embry was thinking underneath the words. It wasn't quiet in one sense. Howls still filled the air, far away in the clearing.

"They haven't phased back." Seth said.

Jacob knew that. Sam and the others would be on red alert now. They would be using the mind link to see all sides clearly. But he couldn't hear what they were thinking. He could only hear Embry, Seth and the two youngsters.

"Looks to be like separate packs can't be linked." Embry mused, picking up on the stray thoughts in Jacob's head.

"I guess there was no reason for our fathers to know that before." Jacob replied thoughtfully. "There was no reason for two separate packs before. Never enough wolves for two. Wow, it really is so much quieter. Sort of eerie. But a nice kind of eerie."

"That's because we don't have to listen to Lahote's incessant complaining." Embry joked.

"Or Jared's obsessive thoughts about Kim." Brady added.

"Yeah."

"I bet it was easier, like this, for Ephraim and Quil and Levi." Seth said. "Less babble and all that with fewer voices."

"You would know all about babbling." Embry laughed.

"Stop teasing him, Em."

"Yes, sir."

"Stop that!"

"Yes, boss."

"Stop calling me boss or sir." Jacob snapped.

"YES, CHIEF." The others all sang together.

"Gah, you're all just trying to provoke me into issuing an Alpha command." Jacob complained.

"You're gonna have to bite the bullet some time, bro." Embry said easily.

And then suddenly a new voice joined the group, one none of them expected to hear, or wanted to, except for Seth.

"Morning boys." Leah announced sarcastically, taking them all off guard.

A/N-thanks for reading!