Jasper felt Alice's emotions take a dive a few hours later as they watched Bella and Jacob drive away. He pulled her in for a hug and sent her some reassurance.
"It's gonna be okay."
Alice heaved a heavy sigh. "I know. I just wish all this was easier. You both deserve to be happy and loved."
"And we are," he reassured her gently.
Alice knew he was right. While Bella had wobbled a bit just after Edward had broken up with her, she'd never completely fallen apart. Her life was more full now than when the Cullens were in Forks, and she was happy - when she wasn't looking backwards rather than ahead - but Alice still wished she could just snap her fingers and make fate work faster. She'd seen how happy the two of them were going to be together and she wanted that for them now.
But she knew better than anyone that fate worked in fate's time and no one else's.
She also couldn't deny that Bella having a chance to grow up some wasn't a bad thing. The Bella they'd first met a year ago was quieter and more shy, and she didn't have much of a sense of who she truly was.
While Edward was very much an eternal seventeen-year old boy, Jasper had been a grown, responsible adult for years before he was turned. He hadn't risen to the rank of Major strictly because he was charismatic. He was intelligent and had a strategic mind, and he literally had hundreds of lives in his hands when he was still human.
Then when he was changed, he'd commanded armies as a vampire, too, second only to his sire.
Jasper had been in a position of authority and responsibility for a century and a half. Peter and Charlotte still considered him their coven leader even when he wasn't with them.
Although Jasper would never love her with anything less than his whole being, the Bella Swan of a year ago was honestly probably a better fit for a boy like Edward, while the Bella Swan she was becoming would be a perfect fit for a man like Jasper.
So yes, giving his human mate a chance to grow and mature wasn't a bad thing. And Bella was happy for the most part.
Still, Alice wouldn't mind fate unfolding just a little bit faster, thank you very much.
The next day, Bella and Jacob went back to the Cullen's to work on their bikes, as was their routine on Sundays. They were both looking forward to it a little more than usual, though, because Jasper and Alice were still in town.
When they got out of Bella's truck in the driveway, they were surprised to smell food cooking. Walking around to the back of the house, Jacob couldn't help but laugh when he saw Jasper in front of a grill containing far too many steaks and burgers for just him and Bella.
"Changing diets again, Jasper?" the wolf called out.
Jasper looked up and smiled at the pair. "Not likely, I think once is quite enough for me. And this smells awful and probably tastes just as disgusting. Even worse than animal blood."
Bella laughed and went to greet Jasper with a hug, while Jacob was distracted from his curiosity at that statement by Alice coming out of the house with a wide tray piled high with huge bowls.
"Hi guys!" she greeted them with a beaming smile.
"What's all this?" Bella asked.
"We thought maybe you'd like to invite the pack over for a barbecue," Jasper explained. "We haven't seen any of them since the bonfire and it's supposed to be pretty warm today, so it's a good day to get together outside."
"Jas and I have been experimenting with human food and I think this is all edible," Alice added.
Bella met Alice at the table set up on the deck to give her a hug, and looked over the bowls she'd set down. They were packed to the brim with mashed potatoes, coleslaw, potato salad, and a green salad. "You made all this?" she asked, a little too incredulously for the pixie's liking.
"Hey! I can cook… mostly. I got the potato salad and coleslaw at a deli in Port Angeles," she admitted. "But I did make the mashed potatoes and chop the vegetables for the salad."
"It looks great, Ali. Thank you," Bella smiled, giving her best friend a soft smile.
Jacob walked into the trees to strip off and phase, which was an easier way to speak to more of the pack then making a bunch of phone calls. Paul, Embry, and Leah were on patrol - just because there was no active threat in the area didn't mean they would let their guard down - and the three were a little shocked at the invite. They'd smelled Alice and Jasper's scent in the woods so they knew the pair were in the area, but they certainly weren't expecting an invitation to a party.
Nevertheless, the wolves genuinely liked the pixie and the soldier - even Paul, who would rather cut his tongue out than admit that out loud - so the three said they'd make their way over to the Cullen's after seeing if the other three wolves wanted to join them.
Alice called out to Jacob and let him know that she'd stopped at a Target to buy the wolves some clothes so she wouldn't be subjected to a bunch of teenagers sitting around her table half-naked.
Jacob rolled his big wolfie eyes and passed the message on before phasing back to human and getting redressed.
As it turned out, Jared and Quil had other obligations but Sam agreed to join them.
An hour later, the five wolves, two vampires, and one human were sitting around the table on the Cullen's deck, chatting away easily and getting caught up on each other's lives since they'd last seen each other.
Jasper felt eyes on him and a spike of curiosity, and glanced over to see Jacob looking at him with a thoughtful expression.
"Earlier, you said something about animal blood being disgusting. What did you mean?" Jake asked.
The other wolves looked at Jasper in surprise and paused their own conversations to listen.
"I meant just that. Animal blood is pretty disgusting, especially compared to human blood. It's consistency is kind of watered down from the thickness of human blood and it has a slight sourness to it, whereas human blood tastes sweeter," he explained, eyeing the wolves carefully as he talked about their natural food source. "It tastes… dirtier, I suppose, and I mean that in a literal sense. There's a hint of dirt and mud to it."
"It's not nearly as satisfying either," Alice added. "I started this life only knowing about our traditional diet. After I had my first vision about the Cullens and the way they lived, the change was… difficult. It took me the better part of a decade before I had enough control over my thirst that I felt confident I could fully integrate myself in the human world without worrying about slipping. It's sort of like you guys seeing all the food on this table and then being handed a plate of tofu to eat instead. It satiates our hunger, but never really satisfies it, if that makes sense. The temptation of human blood is always there and it takes a lot of self-control to not give in. Animal blood does the job, but that's about it."
Bella couldn't help but smile at the tofu analogy she'd first heard from Edward when he'd initially told her about his family.
What Alice didn't say - not wanting the wolves to lose any faith in them - was that they always felt a certain level of thirst. The burn in their throats wasn't extinguished when they hunted animals, it was merely muted.
Jasper could feel the surprise coming from the wolves. None of the pack had ever considered that the 'vegetarian' vamps had to work so hard at keeping to the animal diet, or that they were missing out on anything. To them, blood was blood.
"Not that I'm encouraging you to eat humans, because I'm not, but why stick to animals then?" Leah cut in.
"Just because we were turned into this doesn't make us all uncontrollable monsters. While there are many vampires like James and Victoria, who take pleasure in the hunt, many others have a set of morals that guide them in their feeding habits. Nearly all stay away from children, and many feed the way Peter and Charlotte do, by choosing humans who prey on other humans. And like Alice said, the animal diet takes a considerable amount of self-control but it is possible," Jasper explained.
"For me, there was an extra incentive," he added a moment later. "Because of my gift, killing any sentient beings - other vampires or humans - was emotionally painful. The weight of all that despair and anger and hopelessness felt like a dirty film clinging to me all the time. Feeding from animals means I'm not constantly being bombarded with those negative emotions. And I may not be able to bring back any of the humans I killed in the past, but I can sure try my damnedest to never take another human life."
Jasper felt the pride Bella was silently sending him, along with her affection, and Jasper smiled wider, letting her feel his gratitude that she had never judged him.
Bella shot him a quick wink as Alice hopped up from the table, wanting to move the group away from such a heavy topic.
"Dessert?"
"Yes!" all the shifters shouted and Alice couldn't help but laugh, a little astonished by the amount of food the wolves could consume. She made three trips into the house, filling the table with various kinds of cakes and pies, and urged the wolves to dig in.
"Baking now too, Alice?" Bella asked as her best friend sat down beside her.
"I actually did try to make a cake but it was a disaster. Jas picked all this up at the bakery."
"Well, thank you. For all of it. It was very kind of you both," Bella said as she reached over to squeeze Alice's hand.
The wolves all echoed her, and going by her emotions, if Alice could blush, Jasper didn't doubt her cheeks would be bright pink.
"Oh hush," she waved them off. "Jasper did most of the hard work. You couldn't get me to stand that close to an open flame for anyone."
"I call bullshit, Tink," Jacob interjected. "If someone you loved was freezing I have a feeling you'd rip off your own arm and burn it if it meant they'd stay warm."
"No way! I may love my friends and family, but I'm not that selfless," Alice disagreed, but was still touched by his words. "Plus it would burn too quickly to do any good," she added with a shrug.
"You were willing to put yourself in danger by approaching the wolves about working together to protect your best friend," Sam pointed out.
Bella couldn't keep herself from laughing at that. "It's cute that you think any of you would've had a chance to get to Alice before Jasper had you all crying on the ground," she said, eyes twinkling with amusement.
Most of the wolves looked at Jasper, who had a smirk on his face as he shrugged. "It's true. None of y'all would've gotten within ten feet of Ali if you'd come at her in anger."
When they all looked at him skeptically, Jacob merely rolled his eyes. "With his gift, assholes. Crying on the ground with his gift. Although, honestly, I don't doubt he could take all of us out if we were threatening Alice or Bella."
"I'd do whatever I had to in order to keep them safe," Jasper agreed softly. "I'd do the same for any of my family. For any of you, too," he added. And damn, the fondness and affection that slammed into Jasper from all sides nearly made him flinch. "Rein it in, y'all. A little goes a long way," he laughed.
"I actually forget sometimes that you're an empath," Leah admitted. "What's it like?"
Jasper thought on it a moment before answering. "When I first woke up, it was really disorienting. It took me a long time to untangle which emotions were mine and what I was feeling from those around me. It was actually my sire who figured out I had a gift in the first place. She noticed that my mood tended to be… contagious, I guess is the best way to put it. I had virtually no control over it in the beginning," he explained. "Now I can tell which emotions are foreign, and am only affected if someone near me feels something extremely intensely. And unless I'm feeling something particularly overwhelming, I don't project by accident anymore."
"Can you show me what it feels like?" Leah asked. The other wolves quickly chimed in that they wanted to feel it, too.
Jasper nodded and a few seconds later the wolves all relaxed in their chairs as a wave of calm swept over them, which was followed a few seconds later by the warmth of affection and then the… fullness of gratitude. It was like their whole bodies had been filled with gentle sunshine. After another few moments, they were filled with feelings of pride before it slowly faded, leaving them with just their own emotions.
"What did you show them?" Bella asked curiously.
"I shared my own feelings for them. My affection and feelings of friendship, my gratitude for not only helping us keep you safe but for accepting both Alice and I as easily as they did. And then the pride I felt as I watched them work as a pack to take down Victoria."
Bella could see that the pack was surprised at what he'd admitted. They'd soon learn that was just the way Jasper was made. Some men might not always feel comfortable talking about their feelings, but Jasper's entire world was colored by emotions and he spoke of them as easily and fluently as any language.
"Thank you," Paul said quietly, shocking everyone.
"Uh, you might need to tone down the warm fuzzies, Major. You broke Paul," Jacob said with a smile, quickly ducking out of the way when Paul lobbed a fork at his head.
As the rest of the table burst into laughter, Alice was content to sit back and watch the scene in front of her with a smile.
Maybe fate worked at just the right speed.
The journey of helping all her loved ones find their happily-ever-afters was just as fulfilling as knowing what their futures held. She wouldn't want to miss this for the world.