Chapter 35 - Jacob

The morning after the ceremony, I woke up and something felt different. It was almost as if my wolf had settled some. It was strange. Almost as if my wolf knew that we needed to know who the Omega was in order to settle. I got up and got dressed for the day before I made my way into the kitchen to get some coffee. Dad was sitting at the kitchen table with Rachel drinking coffee when I walked in. "Morning." I said.

"Morning." Rachel said.

"Morning son. How was the ceremony last night?" He asked me.

I poured myself a cup of coffee and went to sit across from him. "It was…interesting. But the strange part is that I woke up this morning and for some reason my wolf seems…settled. At least a little bit." I told him.

"You think it has to do with the ceremony?" He asked me.

I shrugged. "Not sure. But I'm not complaining. Did you hear about Bella's fainting spell yesterday?" I asked him. I thought he would find it interesting.

"I heard a little about it. Something about she went to the in-between." Dad said.

I nodded. "Yeah. She talked with Ephraim." I told him.

He looked shocked. "As in…" He trailed off.

I nodded. "Yep. One in the same." I said.

"Big deal. So she talked to him. Big deal. The fact is, Bella's been a part of this family whether she's blood related or not for our entire lives. We're not going to treat her any different just because she had a conversation with Ephraim." Rachel said, standing up and walking to the sink.

"Your sister's right. Do we know what Ephraim said to her?" Dad asked.

"The only thing that Bella mentioned was that he explained last night's ceremony to her. I feel like there's more that she didn't say, but nobody wanted to pressure her about it. I feel like she might have told Jared though." I said.

Dad nodded. "Makes sense. She is his imprint. They can't exactly lie to each other. I don't think they'd want to even if they could." Dad said.

"Exactly. Look, I gotta go but there are changes being made. Bella's been stretching herself too thin. Emily, Kim and I are gonna be helping her out. Emily will be by with food later. Meals for you to freeze and then hot food twice a week. Per Bella's orders. I'll be by a couple times a week to clean for you." Rachel said as she leaned down to kiss Dad's cheek.

Once I heard Rachel leave out the front door, I turned back to Dad. "What all has Bella been doing?" Dad asked me.

I shrugged. "I don't know much. I know that she's been feeding you and Charlie. Cleaning for you and Charlie. Helping Emily with Pack gatherings. Working for Old Quil. Taking care of hers and Jared's house. Then I think I heard somewhere that she's been taking care of the younger wolves too." I told him.

"That's a lot." Dad said.

"Yeah. Then on top of it, the girls are starting a business. Until we found out that she was the Omega, that's why we thought she was so exhausted…because of everything that she was doing." I said.

"Makes sense. I'll have a talk with her when they return." Dad said.

I looked at him surprised. "Their gone?" I asked him.

Dad nodded. "Yeah, she and Jared took off for a couple of days." He told me.

"Does Sam know?" I asked.

"I assume so." He told me. The only thing I could do was nod.

When I left the house, I headed over to Sam's. I needed to talk to him. I was about to knock when Leah opened the door. When she turned around to look at me, I felt like I'd had the wind knocked out of me. It was just like I'd heard the others describe it. I felt my entire world shift. Gravity no longer centered me. Leah was the center of my universe now. When I snapped back to reality, I saw the shocked look on Leah's face. "Did you?" She asked me. I nodded.

"You?" I asked. She nodded. Wow, a double imprint. "Now what?" I asked her.

"No idea." She said.

We heard Emily in the kitchen. She came to the front door. "What's going on?" She asked us.

"Where's Sam?" I asked her.

"He had patrol this morning. Then he was going with Quil to pick up something for Bella from a friend of hers. Why?" Emily said.

"Leah and I just imprinted on each other." I told her.

She gasped. "Maybe you guys should wait here for Sam." She suggested.

Leah and I both nodded. "Maybe your right." Leah said and I followed her into the living room.

Leah and I both sat on the couch to wait for Sam. Emily made us some of her calming tea that she tended to give us wolves when we were upset. We both sat there drinking our tea while we waited on Sam.

It was another hour before Sam and Quil walked through the front door. He looked at Leah and I. "What's up?" He asked us.

I saw Quil standing beside him. "Quil, go home." I said. He looked at me confused and I slightly glared at him before he nodded and ran out the door. "Leah and I imprinted on each other." I told him.

I couldn't tell you the order that everything happened. Leah looked down at the floor and started crying. Sam fell back into his recliner. Emily…I wasn't sure what Emily was doing.

"You're sure?" Sam asked after a long silence.

"I don't know about Leah, but from my side it was exactly like you, Jared and Paul described it." I told him.

He nodded. "Lee?" He said getting her attention. She looked up at him and nodded. "Are you okay?" He asked her. I growled low at him. How dare he ask my imprint if she was okay? Like I'd hurt her.

She nodded again. "I'm okay. It's strange. Like I remember the heartache I had when you imprinted on Emily. I remember being angry about it. But now…it's like I finally understand everything." She said. She turned to look at me. "I'm not upset." She told me. I nodded. "I understand and accept everything." She told me.

I could feel the imprint shift. I could feel that she was at peace.

"I guess today really is a new day." Sam said.

Leah and I both looked at him. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Bella had asked Quil and I to go pick up some furniture for Bella from her friend Angela. When she answered the door, Quil imprinted on her. We're gonna wait till Jared and Bella get back before we have another bonfire." Sam told us.

"That was why I originally came over. Where'd they go?" I asked him.

"I can't tell you." Sam said.

"What? Why? I'm her best friend." I said. I could feel myself getting upset. Leah reached over and touched my arm, trying to calm me down.

"I know Jacob. But, Jared wants Bella to relax so he's asked me not to tell anyone where they are unless it's an emergency. They'll be back in a couple of days." Sam told us.

"Well she definitely deserves it." Leah said.

"That she does." Emily said coming out of the kitchen with some cookies. "Now, I want to do something for Bella." Emily said.

"Like what?" I asked.

"I'm not sure yet. But I'm sure something will come to me. She does so much for others, we should do something for her." Emily said.

"She's always so selfless." Leah said.

"That she is." Sam added.