Chapter Notes: Woot woot – an update! Finally right? I was computer-less this last week and the BIL's weding, and you know – life excuses. Hopefully you'll forgive me after this chapter!

Big, huge thanks to the AMAZING Leelator, the Queen of dialogue tags. Her careful editing takes so much time and she makes amazing suggestions. I am so lucky she's willing to read my wacky story!

So here's our next chap – Jake has a theory about Bella, but needs proof to convince Sam and the council.

Chapter 18 – Legends

I was anxious. How in the hell was I going to get sweet, caring Bella to boss Embry around? It was an impossible mission, and I wasn't nearly smart enough to figure it out. Clearly I was in over my head. Sam seemed eager to take a backseat to me on the task. He claimed that it was my "interpretation" of the scroll, so it was up to me to get Bella to use an Alpha command on Embry. Since the only timeline I had was my own desire to tell Bella about my wolf side, I figured if it didn't work when she came over, I could always try again later.

Bella arrived about an hour after lunch, and I was disappointed that she reeked of vamp again. Seriously—couldn't they leave her alone for a day? Stupid, stinky parasites.

As soon as she got out of her truck, I was there and gently pressed my lips to hers. As usual, the second I touched Bella, I got carried away. I hoisted her up so her legs wrapped around my waist and backed Bells up against the cab of the truck. I pushed my body tightly against hers and slowly kissed my way from her collarbone to her jaw line. The least I could do was cover their scent with my own.

Bella moaned when my touch became more intimate. She turned her head to the side allowing me more access to her neck. My tongue gently grazed the outer shell of her ear, and she shivered in response. "Wow, if I knew that's how I'd be greeted, I'd have come sooner." Her lips eagerly met mine, and I could feel her smile through her kisses.

"Some people are chillin' at the beach. Wanna join?" I asked. It was my best effort to get Bella within chatting distance on Embry. She gave me a sweet smile and a nod as I took her hand, and we headed down to First Beach. I hoped inspiration would hit when we got there, but instead of inspiration, I got a pigskin to the head. Or more precisely, Paul saw Bella and me approaching and launched a football at my face.

He was such a douche.

The pickup game seemed to consist of a mix of wolf pack and regular rez kids. I saw Quil laughing at something Embry said. It was a relief to see them hanging out again. When I caught Sam's eye, I raised an inquiring eyebrow.

"I thought it would be a good idea to practise discipline. We can't just cut off everyone we know and expect it to go unnoticed," he said at a volume that only the wolves would hear, and then he grinned. "Plus, we can still tackle each other at full strength. It helps to take the edge off."

"So, Black, you in?" Paul called out. I looked down at Bella and smiled.

"What do you say, Bells? Wanna play some football?"

"Are you joking?" She started to giggle. "I feel bad for whatever team I'd be on."

"We'll take that as a yes!" Quil ran over with Embry and threw Bella over his shoulder. She screamed at him to put her down, but I could hear her peals of laughter as she was being carried away from me. I started to go after her, but Embry stopped me.

"Sorry, bro. If you want to get to her, you're going to have to cross the line of scrimmage." Em winked at me and shot back towards his team. Normally, I would have ended both of them, but it seemed like a good opportunity for Bella and Embry to interact and see if my theory might be proved right. Jared's imprint, Kim, was also playing, so I didn't think that Bells would be in too much trouble. Embry snapped the ball to Jared who slowly backed away from Kim as she tried to tackle him. Bella ran towards me and tried to take me down, which I happily allowed. I looked up to see Kim on Jared's back as he jogged past the makeshift goals.

My girl threw her arms up in the air and yelled, "Touchdown!"

"You know, Bells, that was an illegal tackle. I didn't have the ball." I slid my hand up her thighs to her tiny waist. She smiled and leaned towards my ear.

"I don't hear any complaints about where you ended up." Her voice was husky as her hair slid along my body. She lifted herself up while her hand not-so-accidently grazed my dick in the process. Between her words and her actions, I had a semi. Before I could respond to her boldness, she rejoined her team. I told my body to behave before anyone noticed what was going on.

All of us were having a nice afternoon hanging with friends and playing ball when Paul started running his fat mouth.

"Hey, little white girl, when you're done slumming with Jacob, I'll let you tackle me in the sand. I bet I can show you a better time than he does." He leered at her from across the beach.

"Excuse me?" Bella's face turned bright red as she gaped at him.

"Just ignore him," Embry said and tried to comfort her by putting his arm around her as if to shield her from Paul's verbal assault. I stood up to kick Paul's ass, but before I reached him, Bella walked over to confront him.

"I asked you a question." Bella was using her "pissed" voice while Paul stood there and laughed in her face. Bells was so sweet and caring it was rare when that tone entered her voice. But I knew that she was like a mama bear; no one messed with Bella's cubs. Too late, I realized the shitstorm that was about to hit. Bella in a protective fury, crazy-ass Paul, and me with a raging inner wolf were all about to go head to head—and no one saw it coming but me."

"I said, when you're done slumming with Jacob, I can show you a better time." Paul then proceeded to pump his hips in Bella's direction and made a spanking motion with his hand. Sam drug his fingers across his face, clearly embarrassed by McDouchey's display and moved towards him, but Bella's words shocked everyone into perfect stillness.

"Listen to me, Neanderthal, if you ever insinuate that I'm 'slumming' with Jacob, or that he's in any way inferior to you again, I'll make you wish you were never born." Her voice sounded strange; it was deeper and carried more weight. As she spoke, the sun broke through the clouds, and the wind picked up, swirling her hair. It created a halo effect that made her appear ethereal. Something weird was going on, and it was fucking spooky. "You may think it's okay to talk down to people, but I'll be damned if you disrespect my boyfriend in front of me. I can tolerate a lot of things, but ignorance and bigotry are where I draw the line. I never want to hear another word out of your mouth unless it's an apology."

Then, just as quickly as it came on, her anger was over. The wind died down, and she was sweet Bella again. "Let's go for a walk along the beach, Jake." She reached for my hand and pulled me past Quil and Embry who stood dumbfounded. Other than Bella and me, the only thing moving on the beach was everyone's eyes watching us leave.

She swung my arm as she walked like she didn't have a care in the world or hadn't just given a verbal beat down someone literally twice her size. I was trying to figure out how to speak when I heard her giggling.

"Holy crow, I have no idea where that came from!" She laughed. "Sam looked like a fish gasping for air." I'd barely noticed Sam as I'd been completely captivated by Bella.

"Bells, that was amazing."

"I'm kind of embarrassed," she said. "My temper usually isn't that short, and I'm much better at controlling it, especially around people I don't know. I was just so furious that he would imply that being with you was 'slumming'. I know there are racial tensions with the tribe and some of the townsfolk. I just never imagined encountering it with your friends. Forgive me?" She looked up at me and her expression was so sweet that I was blown away. How on earth had I snagged such an incredibly caring, beautiful girl?

"There's nothing to forgive. I'm honored that you'd defend me like that. Not a lot of people would." I bent down and kissed her forehead.

"Still, I'm ashamed of my behavior. Maybe I should go back and apologize." She began to turn around when I stopped her.

"No fucking way! That's the hottest thing I've seen. Paul's an ass! He deserves a kick in the teeth. In fact, I'm sure everyone would like you to take him down a notch or two more often." I couldn't believe she was sorry about it.

"Still, the others must think I was rude, or stepped out of line ... being an outsider and all."

"Are you serious, Bells? Trust me, no one thinks badly of you.

In fact, I bet they think you're even more awesome since I took you here. And believe me, Quil already thought you were plenty awesome.

"Since you brought me here."

"Huh?"

"The correct phrase is you take something away. You bring something here."

I looked at her totally confused, and then she winked at me. My girlfriend was such a hot nerd.

As soon as Bella's taillights hit the main road outside La Push, Sam was at my house, and he seemed very restless.

"Paul can't talk, Jake," Sam blurted out.

I'd spent a blissful afternoon with Bella on the beach, so I didn't really register what Sam said. "Huh?"

"He can't talk—out loud, that is. He can curse a bloody streak in wolf form." Sam actually smiled a bit as he spoke. "After you left and everyone recovered, Paul opened his mouth to say what I'm sure he thought was a witty comeback, but nothing came out. After he tried again, he started shaking, and I swear he turned purple he was so pissed. Embry helped me get him away from everyone else while Jared made some joke to cover for us leaving. Paul wolfed out just as we hit the tree line, and it took about five minutes before I could hear anything other than him swearing every word known to man and a few he must have made up. You ever hear of "Bum-ho-cli-tard?"

"What? Bum-ho-what? Paul can't talk? Why?" I was still processing that lippy Paul couldn't get two words out. "Just give him an Alpha order to quit messing around."

"Don't you think I tried that, Jake? But he can already speak when he's phased so the Alpha order was useless. I tried giving it to him when he shifted back, but it didn't work." He paused and caught my eyes in a dead serious gaze. "I thought your theory was far-fetched, but, at this point, it's the only thing that makes sense to me. By the way, Embry thinks it's awesome that Bella can boss Paul around. You can guess how Paul feels about it. I don't think he'll be taking human form anytime soon."

His words caught me by surprise.

"Wait, you think Paul can't talk because of Bella? Holy shit She said 'I never want to hear another word out of your mouth unless it's an apology.' This is amazing! I was right!" I danced around like a lunatic alternating between awkward b-boy moves and prissy ballerina leaps.

"Hmm. We need more information, Jake. The reference is so vague and doesn't really explain much. Also, although as we may regret it, we need to get Paul's voice back."

"You sure about that?" I snorted. "Okay, I'll read it again and maybe ask the old man for some info. You can handle the angry wolf-hulk. Seems obvious to me that he needs to apologize to Bella, but I say we wait until after Halloween to tell him."

"Yeah, like that's gonna go over well." He rolled his eyes. "I'd better tell Emily not to expect me for dinner. Last time I didn't give her a heads up, she withheld brownies for a week. A week! Good luck, Jake." He ran off towards Emily's house mumbling about how women ruled the world.

"Dad, I need your help," I called out from my room after rereading the damn parchment for the thirty- fourth time. I needed more information, and no matter how many times I look at the stupid thing, it only mentioned an Alpha wolf and his mate who was the Alpha female and not an imprint.

"Well, it's nice to feel useful. What can I do for you, son?" Billy wheeled into my room looking smug.

"It's this scroll, Dad. I think it has what I need, but it's so short and vague. Is there some other reference?" I waved my hand at the papers littered across my room.

"I don't think so, Jake. These were written from memory after the originals were lost in the Great Fire. Our ancestors did their best to write everything they could remember, but only so much can be recalled from fireside telling." Billy scratched his head absentmindedly. "You should speak with Sue. She's the most knowledgeable about our history." He backed out of my room and wheeled himself towards the kitchen. "And don't worry. She knows about the wolves, so you don't need to come up with some convoluted story about why you're suddenly taking an interest in obscure legends." I could hear him chuckling from my room.

I hadn't thought of that. It would seem weird for me to start asking questions about old wolf stories out of the blue.

I ran to the Clearwater home hoping that I could catch Sue alone. I knocked on the door and was nearly bowled over by Leah on her way out, a pretty impressive feat for a girl. She nodded briefly at me before putting on her earphones and running off.

I called out as I knocked on the partially open door. Sue's head popped into view as I peeked into their house. She motioned for me to join her.

"C'mon in, Jake. I've been expecting you."

I was a little surprised at her statement.

"You were?"

She laughed at my expression.

"Jake, honey, even without all that wolf telepathy, you should know that there are no secrets in the pack. My husband's an elder. Sam told Emily, and Emily told me." She gave me an understanding smile. It was weird to be talking about wolf stuff to someone who didn't turn into a dog or related to someone who did. "And it's a good thing she and I have regular chats about the wolves. I did some research and found something very interesting." She sat on the couch and patted the spot next to her.

"You did? How? My dad said that all the history was lost." I sat down on the couch, confused.

"Yes, hun. Many of our scrolls were burned. But we're not the only recorders of our history." She looked at me expectantly, and I just stared back at her bewildered. Sue sighed, obviously disappointed in my obtuseness. "Back in the time of Taha Aki and the generations that followed, the Quileute Spirit Warriors not only protected us from the Cold Ones, but also from rival tribes seeking to take our land. Of course, their stories are painted in a different light than ours, but can provide an alternate point of view to many of the same events throughout history."

"Emily's mom!" I cried out, having finally put it together. "She's your sister, right? She was able to access information on the Makah's history?"

"Yes, Jake. She called for a chat when Emily was here last and was able to e-mail me a copy of their legend. In fact, in this instance, theirs had much more detail than ours. The story spoke of a Quileute—a Great Spirit Warrior who fell in love with a striking paleface that the Makah believed to be a powerful enchantress. They thought she ensnared the Chief using Dark Magic and commanded his warriors as if they were her own. The Chief had many options for wives, but chose to marry the witch instead, claiming that no one could compare to her beauty. It was rumored that the pull of her magic was stronger than that of the Great Spirit and that even the Raven did not play tricks on her. The Makah dared not speak any evils against the outsider for fear that she would send the Spirit Warriors after them as an act of vengeance. Her vast power drew the attention of many wicked demons, and the Spirit Warriors defended her with their lives. So immense was the Makah's dread of the sorceress they enacted treaties with the Quileute in hopes that her magic would protect them as well." Sue paused to drink some water and hesitated before she continued.

"Do you know what they called her?" I shook my head no, but obviously the question was rhetorical.

"They called her the Toop-kooh Kwar-less, Jake." Sue gave me a significant look. "That loosely translates into Black Swan."

"Get the fuck out." I clapped my hand over my mouth when I realised who I was talking to. "I'm sorry, Sue. I'm just ... I..." I couldn't form a complete thought, let alone a sentence to apologize to Sue. It had to mean something. There were too many similarities. The question was whether Sam and the council thought it was close enough for me to reveal tribal secrets to Bella—like the fact I morph into a horse-sized wolf.

"Thank you, Sue. Thank you so much for telling me this." I swept her up into a big hug and shot out the door before she had a chance to recover from my excited outburst.

I ran to the edge of the woods so I could shift and see how things were going with Sam and Paul. I would need Sam's help to convince the Elders to let Bella in on the secret. They would have to see the whole thing with Paul as proof. As I felt my mind join the pack's, I sensed they were on their way to Bella's house.

"Nice work, Sam." I was always up for a reason to visit Bella.

"What, no 'Way to go, Paul'? I'm the one that got voice raped." Paul's tone was an odd mix of surly and sanctimonious.

"You got what you deserved, shit-head. Besides, she didn't do it on purpose."

"Whatever, this is my last resort. If this doesn't work, you two are going to have a super-pissed wolf to deal with."

"And that's different from every day how?" Sam agilely jumped out of the way of Paul's lunge.

As I ran to catch up to them, I replayed my conversation with Sue.

"Black Swan? Really?" Sam was silent while he contemplated the meaning of the name in addition to everything else.

"Whatever, man. I don't care what her name is, was, or will be. I just want this bullshit to be over. I gotta be able to talk when I'm not a wolf. That shit is just wrong."

I caught up with them at the Fork's city limit, and we made our way towards the tree line in the Swans' backyard. Sam and I ran a quick perimeter to ensure the leech hadn't been making any more house calls to Bella's window.

We phased and quickly threw on the shorts and t-shirts we'd been wearing earlier in the day.

"Okay, Paul. I'm going to take some pity on you and explain to Bella why you're here. All you have to do is apologize and hopefully that'll fix it." Paul's eyebrows rose up to his hairline as he gave me a speculative look. "Gimme a break, dude. We're flying by the seat of our pants here. I have no idea if this will actually work, or if it does, what that means." He rolled his eyes at me and shrugged his shoulder as he motioned me forward with his chin. Even Sam seemed amused by his inability to speak, even though Paul's facial expressions spoke volumes.

I jumped up to the front door and rang the bell, while Sam and Paul hung out behind me on the steps. I could tell it was Bella coming by the sound of her soft footsteps.

As soon as she saw me, Bella smiled.

"What are you doing here?" She leaned in to give me a hug, her hair still wet from her shower, and then I was hit full on by Bella's essence. For the first time since I had been changed, I smelled her clean, undiluted, vamp free scent.

I stood there, unable to say anything as I lost complete control of my body. The wolf was trying to get out, to get closer to its mate. He was taking over, becoming stronger, more powerful, and I couldn't stop it. There was an authoritative shift inside me, and I knew that somehow I just became Alpha.

Sam must have felt the change, too, because he ran faster than he should have in front of Bells and pushed me down the steps, placing himself between her and me. My wolf didn't like that, but the last part of me that was still human recognized that Sam was trying to protect her because I was phasing ... on Bella's front porch.

End Notes:

My apologies that my Makah isn't all that authentic. I believe the word I used is actually crane or duck – I couldn't find the word for swan. If anyone knows it, I'll happily change it – no offense was meant by my inability to write Makah. So...thoughts? Jake's wolf certainly seems to like Bella, council be damned!