Chapter 9 - Jared

The next morning when I woke up, I turned over and looked at my clock. 4:30. Time to get up. The one thing that we'd all agreed on was since we'd phased we'd all developed natural alarm clocks. I took once last glance at Bella before climbing out of bed. She looked so peaceful. I hoped that she was sleeping as good as I'd slept. Despite how late we'd gone to bed, it still had been the best night's sleep that I'd had since before my first phase. I quietly made my way out of the bedroom, down the stairs and out the front door. As soon as I was down the porch steps, I shed my shorts tossing them next to the porch and I phased.

I heard Sam greet me. "Morning Jared." Sam said.

"Morning. How's things looking?" I asked him.

"Quiet. I did a couple loops around the Cullen's place. There closing up the house. I don't think they'll be around much longer. I caught one of them say that the Doc and his mate were on their way back." He said.

"Be better when their gone." I said.

"I agree. How was your night?" He asked me.

"It was good." I told him, showing him the memory of Bella and I curled up on the couch.

"That was fast." He said.

"Don't I know it. And it's not like anything happened. The most we've done is cuddle, hold hands and kiss cheeks." I told him.

"Just remember to go at her pace." He told me.

"I know. We decided that for right now we're just friends. I don't want to push her into a relationship especially since she just got out of one with Cullen. I don't know how long it will last with us being just friends, but I'm enjoying every second of it." I told him honestly.

"As you should. I'm heading home. Run two laps and if it's still quiet, head home. Spend time with your girl. She'll have to go home tonight." Sam said.

"Thanks." I said, before he phased out.

I did as he said and I started running. Despite the fact that none of us really wanted to be wolves, I enjoyed it. I loved the feeling of being a wolf. During my first pass, I heard arguing coming from the Cullen house. I didn't think much about it. It wasn't any of our business what went on between any of them…so long as they weren't breaking the Treaty and they left my Bella alone. Soon they would be gone and we wouldn't have to deal with them.

I made my way up towards Forks, doing a sweep by the police station and then Bella's house. I wanted to make sure that there weren't any new scents near her place. The only one I found was Cullen's and I could tell that it was a couple days old. Probably from when Bella broke up with him.

By the time that I made it back to La Push, I decided to make another sweep by the Cullen's place. See if I could pick up and of the conversation. I made sure to stay within the trees so that Cullen wouldn't be able to hear my thoughts. Thank the spirits that Bella had given us that information. It had definitely served us well. My ears perked up when I heard Bella's name.

"Edward, you can't do this!" I heard the Pixie say.

"Alice, it's done. I never wanted to change her. But then you had to go and tell Aro that you'd had a vision where she was one of us. You almost sealed her fate. Did you think about that?" Cullen told her.

"But Edward"

"No Alice. She doesn't belong with us. She belongs with THEM." He said.

"No. I don't believe that. I truly believe that she's supposed to be with us. But that won't happen now because Carlisle made a deal and you're the one that has to suffer the consequences. 50 years, Edward. You're gonna be stuck in that place for 50 years." She said. What place? I shook my head at the thought. I'd heard enough. I decided to head home.

I turned around and started running for my house. When I got to my yard, I phased out and slipped my shorts back on. Making my way into the house, it was quiet. I headed upstairs and decided to take a shower in the hall bathroom so I didn't wake Bella up. I wanted her to sleep as long as possible.

After my shower, I made my way back into my bedroom. Bella had turned over. Now she was laying in the middle of my bed, curled up with my pillow, no doubt using it for my scent. I stood there in the doorway for a minute just watching her sleep. Even though it had only been a day, I still couldn't believe that she was my soulmate. She'd been through so much already. She shifted again so I took that opportunity to climb back into bed. Once I laid down, she immediately snuggled into my side, almost instinctual. I wrapped my arm around her and closed my eyes, drifting off back to sleep.

When I woke up again, it was to something tickling my face. When I opened my it was to Bella making featherlight touches in my face. I turned my head to look at her. "Morning." I said.

She smiled at me. "Morning. How was patrol?" She asked me.

I pulled her into my side more. "Quiet. How'd you sleep?" I asked her.

She laid her head on my chest. "I think that was the best that I've ever slept." She said.

"Me too." I told her. "What do you wanna do today?" I asked.

"I have to go see Uncle Quil for a bit. Billy said that he had a job for me, so I need to go talk to him about it." She told me.

"Sounds good. I can drop you off there and then I can go check on Jacob. He should be about healed." I told her.

"That's good." She said.

Shortly after that, we got up and got ready for the day. She made us a quick breakfast before we headed over to Old Quil's. I told her that I'd see her at Sam's later. I kissed the side of her head before I headed over to Billy's house. It didn't take long for Billy to open the door after I knocked. I talked with Billy for a minute before making my way to Jacob's room. I walked in and he was sitting up in his bed. "Hey man." He said.

"Hey. You look a lot better." I told him. Bella would be relieved.

"I feel a lot better. Sue came by earlier. Took out the Morphine and said that I'm healing really good. Should be fully healed by tonight." He told me.

"That's good. How's Bell?" He asked me.

I smiled. "She's good. She stayed with me last night and everything was perfect." I said.

"I don't need to hear that shit man." Jacob said.

"It's not like that. Everything is just perfect." I told him.

"You look happy." He said.

"I am." I told him.

Later that afternoon, Sam and I were sitting on his couch when Bella came running through the door. We both snapped our heads over to her. "What?" I asked her.

"Carlisle's back. He wants to meet." She said, breathing hard.

I looked at Sam and he nodded. "So let's go meet him." I said and she nodded.

"I'll get the pack." Sam said as we stood up and the three of us made our way outside.