A Chat Between the Vamps and Wolves

Upon getting confirmation that the redhead was, in fact, gunning for Bella, Sam and Paul got up and trotted into the trees, where they phased back to human and quickly pulled on sweatpants. They came and sat on either side of Jake, keeping their eyes on the two vampires, alert to any hint of even the slightest threat. Paul had a scowl on his face, his mistrust and anger crashing over Jasper. There seemed to be a well of aggression inside the boy, just waiting for an excuse to attack.

Jasper merely rolled his eyes. He was over 160-years old… this kid wasn't the first ignorant hothead he'd had to deal with. Granted, he was the first who exploded into a dire wolf, but eh, semantics.

The five of them sat in the clearing, vampires on one side of the invisible boundary, wolves on the other, and talked for hours, exchanging information and ideas. It took a lot of patience on Jasper and Alice's part, but they kept calm, knowing that working with the wolves gave them the best odds of keeping Bella safe. They were also aware that Bella considered Jacob to be one of her best friends, so by default, the boy was important to both Alice and Jasper. They calmly answered every question the wolves asked, even going into their pasts and how they'd been turned. The only thing they held back was that Bella was Jasper's mate. Alice knew it wasn't time yet for that to become common knowledge.

Through it all, Jasper carefully monitored everyone's emotions. When Alice explained about her origins, that she had no knowledge of her human life, or even who changed her or why, he felt the slightest bit of sympathy from Jacob and Sam. When she confided that a vision of Jasper was the first thing she saw after she woke, that her visions of him are how she came to understand what she was, the three wolves glanced at him with curiosity. Alice was a genuinely happy, kind-hearted soul and it didn't take too long for the wolves to see this for themselves. Paul kept a sneer on his face, but Jasper had the advantage of knowing his emotions and knew Paul was thawing towards her a bit.

It was more difficult when it came to Jasper's own past. The wolves had no knowledge of the Southern Wars, so Jasper had to begin by explaining why vampires in the south had fought each other for territory. He wasn't bothered by the disgust he felt from the wolves - he found the whole thing pretty disgusting himself now. But at the time, it was all he knew. He explained that his sire had lied to him, to all of them, telling them it was war across the world for all vampires. That was all there was in their second life and that fighting in her army was far better than unknowingly straying into another's territory and being killed for it.

When he described his gift - the ability to feel and manipulate the emotions of those around him - he found that he didn't need to explain to the wolves what that environment did to him. He felt stirrings of pity for him as they considered the curse his gift must have felt like to him back then. Even Paul surprised him by softening the slightest bit.

When he told the wolves about Peter and Charlotte, and the torture he'd endured on helping them escape, that was when he felt the first significant emotional shift from all three wolves. It was pretty hard to hate someone who was willing to risk life and limb - quite literally in Jasper's case - to keep those they love safe.

As distasteful as some of Jasper's history was, Jacob couldn't help but feel respect for the vampire in front of him. He knew from Bella that she saw Jasper as one of the strongest in the Cullen family. The others had the benefit of coming into this life knowing they could feed off animals, and with a kind and loving sire in Carlisle. Jasper didn't have that gentle beginning. He'd had to fight for it. He'd been reborn into a war zone, constantly battered by every vicious, dark emotion. It was a nightmare Jacob couldn't begin to imagine. It was the very definition of kill or be killed. And he lived that way for nearly a century.

Yet as soon as Peter came back for Jasper, as soon as he learned there was another way to live, that the vampire world was not one long, continuous violent struggle, he'd left his sire and her army without a second's hesitation.

Jacob further accepted that this battle-scarred vampire deserved his respect when he learned that once Jasper met Alice in 1948 and she explained the animal diet to him - something that he'd never considered a possibility - he had changed his diet with a huge sense of relief. Away from the chaotic environment and constant backlash of emotions swirling around him in the army, the emotions of his prey hit him far harder than they ever had. He was finally living a life of relative peace, so the fear, terror, and despair he felt from the humans as he fed after he left the south was especially jarring and painful, taking a huge toll on his emotional well-being.

It may not have been the easiest transition to make, and he slipped up quite a bit in those first few years, but Jacob felt only sympathy and respect for the man. Changing such an intrinsic part of his nature after a hundred years was bound to be difficult. Especially knowing that the tribe's legends said a vampire's nature was fixed and incapable of change. Jacob couldn't say with any kind of honesty that he would've fared any better.

Jacob Black had faith in Bella Swan, so he decided to put his faith and trust in two of the vampires who had earned her friendship and loyalty. With that decision made, he glanced at his pack mates before locking eyes with the two vampires sitting patiently in front of him.

"We'll work with you. How do we keep Bella safe?"

A/N: I'm so pleasantly surprised, y'all! I did not expect anyone to read this. I was writing as an escape from the stress in my life and posted it out of nothing more than curiosity. It's so nice to see that there are people out there who find it worth giving it a try. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you! I've had a smile on my face all day.

These first few chapters are going to mostly be flashbacks that briefly explain how we got to the present time, just after Bella, Edward, and Alice returned from Volterra. Not everything is going to be clear straightaway, but hopefully it's not too confusing. Feel free to PM me with any questions.

Also, here's a question for anyone reading: Because my story has changed from canon, aside from the eventual Jasper/Bella, like the fact that the nomad situation was handled differently and the wolves aren't a bunch of stubborn racist dicks, should I add AU to the story's summary? Honestly, I still don't understand some of this.

Anyway... thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

Take care, M. x