A/N: So this chapter is a little harsh on Bella, but I'm going to have her grow up a bit through the course of the story, and in order to do that, she needs to see that some of her actions aren't so cool and people won't always give her a pass on her questionable behavior. This chapter is where that process begins.

Sending you my gratitude for giving this story a chance, and for taking the time to leave feedback:)

Beginnings

Jasper certainly hadn't expected to see his mate naked before they'd even exchanged a single word. But even though he'd immediately averted his eyes and quickly whispered to his family to do the same, every inch of Leah Clearwater - at least the front half of her - was now permanently embedded in his brain.

Jasper pushed the tantalizing image to the back of his mind, not wanting Edward to get an eyeful of his mate.

So far the first meeting was going better than he'd hoped. Leah didn't find him repellent and if her banter was anything to go by, her personality seemed like it would mesh perfectly with his and his siblings. Not Edward, obviously. His sense of humor had always been limited, mostly just finding mean-spirited amusement in the thoughts of people he considered beneath him. The sanctimonious ass.

What was it Bella saw in him?

The only fly in the ointment so far seemed to be Sam Uley. If his emotions before he ran off were anything to go by, he was going to be a problem. The hatred and rage in him was a little staggering, and he had a possessive attachment to Jasper's wolf.

Jasper internally rolled his eyes at himself a little bit - like 'Jasper's wolf' didn't sound at all possessive. He'd have to watch that, he had no desire to see his mate as just an extension of himself, like she was his property. That was strictly Edward's domain.

Feeling a blast of mostly negative emotions, Jasper turned to see Edward and Bella staring at him and Leah. Bella's wide, shocked eyes were looking at Jasper's arm around her shoulders, while Edward's were looking at Leah's nearly-naked bottom half in distaste.

Please, Jasper mentally scoffed. Leah was fucking hot and Edward knew it. He was just pissed his mate didn't look that good half-naked. Not that Edward would know, the virginal prude barely kissed Bella chastely. Jasper supposed that could be the source of the distaste - a whole lot more than Leah's ankles were on display, so he was probably scandalized.

"She's your mate?" Edward asked incredulously.

While Leah just rolled her eyes, Jasper got pissed. Edward's emotions were a tangled mess of disgust, angry disbelief, and irritation.

"She's your mate?" Jasper echoed, raising an eyebrow as he looked pointedly at Bella. If Edward thought Jasper was the one with a questionable mate, he was delusional. He thought Bella might possibly have a decent personality locked somewhere inside her, but so far, aside from a huge stubborn streak and an obsessive fixation on the telepath before she'd even met him, he'd seen no evidence of it. When Edward let out a low growl at his thoughts, Jasper just grinned at him. There wasn't a single thing intimidating about Edward Cullen.

Jacob Black trotted over to Bella and Edward tried to pull her behind him, but Bella fought against his hold. "He's my friend, Edward," she snapped.

"It doesn't matter," Edward snapped back. "It's too dangerous."

"She's been around the wolves for months and been perfectly safe," Emmett sighed in exasperation as Bella tried to step around her overbearing mate.

"Perfectly safe?" Edward scoffed. "Paul phased with Bella standing right in front of him."

Leah's indignation and anger shot up at that and she gave him a hard glare. "And did she tell you why?"

Edward scowled but kept his mouth shut

Esme looked between Leah and Edward. "Why?" she asked cautiously.

"Keep in mind Paul didn't know Bella personally. He knew who she was from Jacob's obsessive thoughts, but he'd never met her," Leah said, turning her glare on the human. "So yes, he got pissed and phased because she stormed up to a few of the members of the pack and started yelling at Sam - a complete fucking stranger - and shoving him, and when Paul laughed, she slapped him across the face."

Jasper flinched a little at the emotions from his family that followed that little nugget of information. That must've been the reason for Bella's fear and shame the day before when Alice mentioned Seth and Paul.

"Is that true, Bella?" Esme asked hesitantly.

Bella crossed her arms a little defensively but she stayed silent, not denying it.

Rosalie turned and walked away from her in disgust, and Emmett gave Bella a sad sort of frown and followed his wife. Esme just nodded, her lips pressed together in a tight line of disappointment.

The Cullen family as a whole wasn't very tolerant of needless violence, especially unprovoked violence from anger or fits of temper, as two of their members had been irreparably harmed by violence in their past lives - Esme had been trapped in an abusive marriage, and Rosalie's human life had come to a violent end at the hands of the man who was supposed to love her.

Both had been slightly skittish around Jasper on his initial arrival with Alice in 1950, as it was impossible to see the scars that marred his skin and not know there was violence in his past, and he'd made sure to use care in all his actions until they were more comfortable around him - he never got too close or moved too fast or spoke too loudly. He also offered up his history in the hopes that it would alleviate some of their worries. Yes, he'd been in one of the southern covens, even held a position of authority, but he'd been lied to by his creator and thought that was all there was to his second life. Just a never-ending cycle of war. As soon as he'd learned that a more peaceful life was possible for him, he'd walked away from the south without a moment's hesitation.

Both women had softened towards him much sooner than he'd anticipated, and Esme especially came to envelop him in her particular brand of unconditional love pretty soon after he'd arrived. After his sire, a black-hearted woman named Maria, tracked him down in Calgary mere months after he and Alice finally found the Cullens, Rosalie and Esme both dropped their guard completely. They'd escaped that visit without a physical confrontation, but it had been more than apparent to both women that Jasper would have defended them to the death if it came to it. And with his past, there probably wasn't anyone outside Volterra who could protect them better than Jasper.

Both woman had repeatedly made the case that Jasper, too, had been irreparably harmed by violence after meeting his creator. Maria was an astonishingly cruel woman who found increasingly painful ways to punish Jasper when he displeased her. The seventy-five years he spent leading her army were absolute misery, Jasper readily admitted that. And he'd definitely been made to suffer physical and mental torment often in those years, most notably when Maria learned he'd let Peter and Charlotte escape instead of killing them.

But Jasper didn't really see it the same way Esme and Rose did. And it had nothing to do with him being a man. If he was left with lasting trauma specifically from Maria's actions, he wouldn't have been at all ashamed to admit it. But the only significant effect from his time in the south was that he didn't trust quite so easily and he tended to be more vigilant than was typical for vamps. He was always aware of what exits were where and who was around him. To Jasper's mind, those were due to spending nearly eight decades in a war zone, rather than spending seventy-five years with an abusive sire.

So while self-defense, and even the defense of someone else who isn't capable of defending themselves, was perfectly understandable and acceptable, people who used violence when it wasn't called for made more than one Cullen uncomfortable.

Jasper couldn't honestly say he was one of them - although that changed if the violence was aimed at one of his loved ones - but he also didn't tend to use violence if it wasn't called for. If it was, he wouldn't hesitate in the slightest, and his family had all accepted that about him long ago. He thought it even had a little to do with how much trust Esme and Rose had in him. If there was even the slightest whisper of a threat in their direction, Jasper would defend them however necessary. Which, of course, led Carlisle and Emmett to have a high level of trust in him also. He was more than capable of keeping their mates safe if they couldn't for whatever reason.

Jasper was jolted out of his thoughts by his mate leaning her hot body against his and gently squeezing his hand, and he shook his head with a little laugh. So much for that hyper-vigilance.

He frowned in dismay as he looked around the clearing because damn, the mood had taken a sharp downward turn awfully quick.

"You okay?" Leah whispered, having noticed her imprint had been lost in his thoughts.

"Yeah," he nodded, giving her his best smile. "The mood's a killer, but the company's mostly great."

"Jasper-level charm, huh?" she laughed.

Jasper honestly wasn't sure if Jacob was trying to lighten the noticeably heavier mood, or if he was just ridiculously unaware of how inappropriate he was, but the wolf took advantage of the telepath's distraction at the way his family was reacting to his mate's behavior to walk closer to Bella and lick her face.

"Jake!" Bella laughed, wiping her cheek like the kid had made some hilarious joke.

Jacob made a barking sound that Jasper thought might be laughter, but every other being in the clearing - aside from Bella - looked at him in some combination of astonishment and disgust. And Jasper didn't miss the fierce flare of hurt in Edward. He didn't often agree with his 'brother' about anything, but if some other guy had licked his mate, especially one who believed himself to be in love with her, and she just laughed about it? Yeah, Jasper would probably be pretty hurt, too.

"You do realize that's Jacob, right?" Leah asked Bella, her nose scrunched up in disgust. "He may look like an overgrown puppy, but that is, in fact, Jacob Black that you just allowed to lick your face. If he'd done that as a human, would you be laughing like that?"

"I… No... But…" Bella stuttered as her cheeks turned a flaming shade of red.

"He's taking advantage of the fact that you think his wolf is adorable to do things he could never get away with as a human," Paul added, shooting a disapproving frown at Jacob, who growled at him. "Oh shut up, Jake, you know I'm right. Bella wouldn't let you lick her as a human - at least I hope she wouldn't - so you're doing it as a wolf so you can score some points hurting her vamp boyfriend you're so jealous of."

"Jesus, the three of you deserve each other," Leah sighed as she looked at Edward, Bella, and Jacob. She shook her head a little and looked up at her imprint. "Fight training?"

"Yes, thank you," Jasper laughed, glad for the distraction from the toxic mess that was the lopsided love-triangle in front of him. "Bella, you may want to move to the edge of the clearing," he said when he saw she was standing a little too close to everyone.

"But she gets to stay?" Bella asked petulantly, gesturing to Leah.

Jasper closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. "We're teaching the wolves to fight. It's the whole reason we're here."

"Yeah, I get that," Bella snapped. "But that doesn't explain why she can stay by your side when I can't stay by Edward's."

Everyone gave her a weird look until they realized that she didn't know Leah was a wolf.

Leah shook her head, completely fed up. "First of all, there's nothing that says you can't stay by Edward's side, you just have to stay at his side over there where you won't accidentally get trampled," she said, pointing to the edge of the clearing. "Secondly, I'm a participant in the training because I'm a wolf, Bella."

Bella's eyes went comically wide. "What? You're a…" she trailed off with a huff. "Great, so now I'm the only human?"

"Of course not," Paul said with an amused smile. "There are humans on every corner. They're all over the place."

Jasper felt a bright flare of jealousy and envy from Bella that didn't entirely make sense to him, along with a little insecurity. Or maybe inferiority was a better descriptor. Did she not like being an 'ordinary' human? She'd be changing soon enough, they were already at the end of March and graduation was in June, so it was only a matter of months. Was she so eager to throw away her human life - not to mention her mother and father - that waiting a few months was such a heavy cross to bear?

Jasper pushed it from his mind. Bella Swan was not his problem.

"Okay, what do y'all want to start with?" he asked the wolves.

"I think Leah and Jacob should do the tracking exercise Seth and I did yesterday," Paul answered. "Learning to fight is important, obviously, but it won't mean anything if we can't catch up to Victoria. She eludes us every time."

"Leah, Jacob, you good with that?" Jasper asked. When both nodded their agreement, he turned to his family. "Who wants to lay a couple trails?"

"Me!" Alice and Emmett shouted at the same time, looking exactly like the siblings they were, both bouncing on their toes in excitement. Alice and Emmett were the two in the family who took the most joy in being a vamp, reveling in all their supernatural skills.

"Alright. Five miles?" Jasper laughed. Both nodded eagerly, so Jasper waved an arm towards the forest. "Two minute head start. Have at it."

Most everyone laughed as the two bounded into the trees, laughing as they went.

Jasper looked at Jacob and Leah. "Leah, since you're currently the only one with the power of speech, who do you want to track?"

Leah thought on it a moment. From what she'd observed so far, she thought Emmett would be more straightforward in his approach, while tiny Alice would put more thought into making it a challenge. Given Victoria's tendency to elude them…

"Wait, since some of you vamps have extra tricks, could Victoria have one too?" she asked. "Like an escape artist or something?"

"You think her ability to keep the pack from catching her might be a gift?" Rosalie asked curiously.

Leah shrugged. "I'm not sure, it's just a thought. There have been a few times the wolves thought they had her, I've seen it in their memories, but she always gets away at the last minute."

Jasper frowned a little at that. If Victoria had the gift of evasion, their lives just got infinitely more difficult. "So maybe instead of straight tracking, we should change it a little. Y'all should definitely still have the skills to follow a trail, but maybe we should try an actual chase. Alice is probably the vamp in the family closest to an 'escape artist' because of how she uses the forest. She's constantly going from the ground to the trees, and backtracking and looping around," he said a little hesitantly. Even though these wolves were mostly friendly, the thought of beings who had the ability to do them actual harm chasing Alice down made him uneasy. He was less worried about Seth, Paul, and Leah, but Jacob had a lot of hostility towards the Cullens.

Esme was just as uneasy as Jasper. She knew every member of her family inside and out, and after seventy years, she could read Jasper almost as well as Alice could. She didn't miss the way his eyes quickly darted to Jacob Black, and knew something in the boy's emotions was making him hesitate. "Since Alice and Emmett have already started this exercise, why don't we go ahead with straight tracking first?" she suggested. "After that, we can reassess the best way to move forward."

"Yeah, let's do that," Jasper nodded, grateful Esme understood his hesitation. "Leah, who do you want to track?"

"Alice," Leah answered immediately. If the pixie's approach was the closest to Victoria's, that's who Leah wanted to work with.

Jasper looked at his watch. "Forty-five seconds."

Leah nodded, and after only a brief hesitation, she leaned in and kissed her imprint's cheek before running towards the trees to phase.

Jasper's smile was so wide that he was sure he looked like a lunatic, and going by the huff of laughter from Rosalie, she agreed. He watched Leah go, and his eyes went a little wide when he saw her pull his sweatshirt over her head just as she ducked behind a tree.

Aaaand now the back half of his mate's naked body was permanently embedded in Jasper's brain.

After most of her body was hidden from view, he was able to see just the edge of her arm as she neatly folded his sweatshirt and carefully set it on the ground. She honestly could've shredded it and ground it into the dirt and Jasper wouldn't have cared in the slightest, but he smiled at the considerate gesture. He couldn't wait to have some time alone with her so they could get started on the whole 'getting to know you' process.

Maybe he should ask her on a date? Jasper had never actually been on a date before. He'd never had the chance as a human - he'd gone from working his family's farm from dawn until dusk straight into war - and after he was changed, there was nothing about his life related to romance in a human sense. He'd had more than one lover in the eighty-five years between his change and meeting Alice, one of whom he'd loved above all others, but 'dating' wasn't a thing he'd done before.

Jasper's phone buzzed with a text and he rolled his eyes as he pulled it out of his pocket.

I've researched human dating because I'm awesome (and bored). She likes to read as much as you do - bookstore and coffee?

And another.

You're welcome.

And another.

I'm glad you proved me wrong. Congratulations on meeting her.

And another.

She's got a hot body, huh?

And another.

Temperature hot, asshole. No need to get huffy.

Jasper laughed, because he had gotten a little huffy. Peter knew him from the top of his head all the way down to his toes.

Thanks, Peter. Next time you destroy something meaningful to Char I'll take the blame.

Peter texted back almost before Jasper hit send.

I know.

Jasper laughed as he tucked his phone away. His life sure would be a much darker place without Peter in it.

Leah walked out of the trees and Jasper took a moment to look at her wolf. She was on the smaller side, definitely smaller than Paul and Jacob, and her fur was a silvery shade of gray. Her coloring was similar to Paul, just a bit lighter. Given her size, he thought she might be the fastest in her pack. She'd undoubtedly be the most agile, without the added bulk of the larger wolves. Alice would probably be the best one to train her, as she was the smallest and most agile in the family. She was also a phenomenal fighter who would train Leah well.

Jasper shook off his thoughts and looked at his watch. "Y'all ready? And... go."

He watched Leah and Jacob tear out of the clearing and nodded in satisfaction. She was fast.

Those still in the clearing started working on some self-defense moves. Rosalie had suggested that they start off training in their human forms so they had a basic self-defense framework to build on as wolves, so they started there. It wasn't long, maybe five minutes, when Jasper felt Alice and Leah's emotional signatures approaching and smiled that both were enjoying themselves. There was a sense of satisfaction in Alice that made him think Leah was as gifted at tracking as her brother was.

"First one to Jasper!" Alice shouted with a laugh as she came tearing into view, Leah hot on her heels.

Jasper laughed and started running around the field in a zigzag pattern to make it harder for either to reach him, but eventually Alice anticipated his next move and took a running leap, landing on his back with an exultant cheer. "I win!"

Jasper skidded to a stop and laughed as he set her on her feet. "It went well?" he asked as Leah came to a stop beside him.

Leah nodded as Alice answered. "She's phenomenal! Just like Seth but more nimble."

Jasper smiled at the wolf, sorta tempted to pet the fur on her head but not wanting to overstep. Leah made a little snorting sound that could've been a huff or a laugh, and pressed her side against his legs, so Jasper settled on just putting his hand on top of her head. "Wanna go human again for some self-defense?"

Leah nodded again and loped into the trees to phase.

"Her pride in herself is soaring right now," Jasper whispered with a smile.

Alice nodded, pleased to hear that. "Seth said the others tended to downplay their abilities, with Leah being a girl and both being on the smaller side. But with her natural speed and agility, she could easily become the most valuable wolf in the pack."

"I'm not sure I'm fit to do any kind of training as a human," Leah said as she ran over in Jasper's sweatshirt. "One wrong move and you'll all see my ass again. And thanks, Alice. You really think so?"

"I do," Alice nodded. "You're fast, and because of your size you have more freedom of movement. With some proper training, you could absolutely be a force to be reckoned with. And all on your own, too. I know you guys are pretty much built to fight as a group, but I'm absolutely confident that you could be a formidable opponent one-on-one also."

Leah stared into the trees a moment before looking at the two vamps. "I'm not gonna get all emotional, because that's not really my thing, but thank you," she said quietly. "With the exception of my brother, my mom, and Paul, you two are the first to have any faith in my ability."

Jasper tipped his head a little in confusion. "You're a protector, Leah. Just like all the other wolves. If fate saw fit to make you a protector, it wasn't an accident. If you couldn't do this, I highly doubt you would have become a wolf at all."

Seth and Paul walked over and each threw an arm around Leah's shoulders. "Maybe you'll believe it now that someone else tells you?" Seth asked. "I know you think the three of us are biased because we love you, but that's not it. We have faith in you because you're strong and brave and only slightly bitchy."

Leah laughed as she rested her head on her brother's shoulder. "Just slightly, huh? I must be slipping."

"Nah, you're bitchy enough to make life interesting, but not so bitchy that you make it miserable," Paul said with a smile.

Emmett came bounding out of the trees then, with Jacob about thirty yards behind him. "That was fun, what's next?"

"How'd it go?" Jasper asked.

"Eh," Emmett shrugged. "He did alright. Not great, not awful. He found me, but it took him longer than it should've. And before you ask, no, I didn't make it too challenging."

Jasper smiled, because that was exactly what he was about to ask. "Okay, so it's something to work on," he said, watching Jacob trot over to where Bella was sitting with Edward. "Although I get the idea he's not all that interested in gaining skills so much as he is in gaining Bella's time and attention."

"That's the only reason he came," Paul nodded. "Leah, Seth, and I were the only ones in the pack who thought this could be helpful. The other wolves think they've got all the skills they need."

"Just having teeth and claws capable of piercing our skin doesn't mean you're prepared to fight a vamp," Alice pointed out.

"Y'all have the pack telepathy, so anything you see, the rest of the pack can see it later?" Jasper asked.

"Or if one of us was in wolf form now, anyone else in wolf form would see what we see," Leah answered.

Jasper looked at Alice with a smile. "Wanna give them a show?"

Alice laughed and nodded. "It'll have to be a straight fight, my gift is too unreliable with all the wolves around."

Feeling their confusion, Jasper looked at Leah, Seth, and Paul. "Alice is the best fighter in the family. We're gonna show the wolves what a real vampire fight looks like so they understand why we're offering to train you. Alice is skilled at using her visions to—"

"Visions?" Leah cut in. "Is that your future-seeing thing?"

"How do you know about that?" Alice asked curiously.

"It had to be from Bella," Jasper answered when Leah hesitated slightly. "You knew about my gift, or at least knew the basics, enough to recognize what was happening when I was trying to calm the situation with Sam down."

"Yeah, before Seth and I first phased, she told the pack that Edward could read minds, and that there was a vamp who could control emotions and one who could see the future, but that it wasn't set in stone or something."

Alice frowned a little at that. She and Jasper didn't advertise their gifts on purpose, and she'd always cautioned Jasper to downplay his. To her mind, of the three gifts in their coven, Jasper's was the most powerful.

Edward could only read the current, surface thought in someone's mind, which was easy enough to work around. The family kept their thoughts hidden all the time. Aro Volturi's telepathy was far more powerful. Alice's gift of foresight wasn't entirely reliable because of how much the future shifted. Her visions were decision-based, which meant what she saw wasn't set in stone. Peter's gift of knowledge was virtually always correct. Jasper meeting Leah before the June meeting Peter told him about was the very first time she'd ever known Peter's information to be inaccurate, and she'd been seeing Peter's gift in action for over seven decades.

So yes, Alice and Edward had useful gifts, but there were more powerful and more reliable versions out in the world.

But Jasper's gift? Carlisle had only ever heard of one other empath in his three and a half centuries as a vamp, and she needed touch to read emotions. He'd never heard of another with the gift of pathokinesis, which was the active part of Jasper's gift, the part that allowed him to manipulate emotions. It was the reason Maria had kept him alive for seventy-five years. She knew the value of her most effective weapon.

Jasper felt Alice's turmoil and wrapped an arm around her. "It's fine," he assured her as he tucked her against his side. "I highly doubt she did it maliciously, she just didn't think through the consequences."

"I'm sorry," Leah said quietly. "I didn't mean to upset you."

Alice smiled at the wolf. "You didn't. I just don't like Jasper's gift being disclosed like that without his permission. He'll tell you his history when you guys have some privacy and you'll understand why."

Leah looked up at her new imprint in concern. "Is this a thing we need to worry about?"

Jasper laughed as he took her hand. "Are you or one of the other wolves in your pack planning on trying to sell me to the highest bidder?"

"No, of course not!"

"Uh, speak for yourself, Lee," Paul scoffed. "Some of us need money for college."

"You do know that if you're not smart enough to get in to college, you don't actually need college tuition, right?" Leah snarked.

"Brat," Paul laughed.

Seth smiled and looked at Alice and Jasper. "It's probably best to nip this in the bud, these two could happily insult each other for hours and never get bored with it."

"It's true, it's one of our favorite pastimes," Leah laughed as she shrugged.

"Alright, show us what you can do," Seth said over his shoulder as he grabbed Leah and Paul's hands and started towing them to the edge of the field.

The rest of the vamps followed behind them, Esme, Emmett, and Rose smiling at the three wolves. Since Jacob was already in wolf form, Leah, Seth, and Paul opted to stay human as they settled on the grass to see what a real vampire fight looked like, and what skills they could learn from Leah's brand-new imprint and the tiny little pixie with a bright smile.