Start Living Now

Author’s Note: This Chapter is in Jacob’s P.O.V.

Today started off like any other day. I woke up, took a shower, ate a ton of food, and headed over to Sam and Emily’s place. Sam and Emily were busy going over wedding plans, or rather, Emily was talking nonstop, and Sam was pretending to listen. I don’t know why Emily was making such a big deal out of the wedding plans; they wouldn’t actually get married for another two months!

As soon as I walked in the door, Sam practically ran over to me.

“Jake, she’s driving me crazy! She keeps going on about flowers and china and seating charts! I can’t even Phase to tell the pack what their patrol schedule is today.”

“Well, don’t look at me! I don’t know anything about floral patterns or china charts-”

“Seating charts.”

“Whatever. Can’t you just ask Alice and Esme to help her? They’re into that kind of stuff.”

“I would, but Alice always gets a headache whenever she’s around here, and I don’t want Emily over there alone. I get that things are fine between us and the Cullens now, but-”

“Sam?! Where’d you go?! We still haven’t figured out what music we want at the ceremony! SAM!”

I couldn’t help but snicker as Sam rolled his eyes in frustration.

“I’m coming, Em! Jacob just dropped by to do a favor for me!”

“Wait, what? Favor? Sam-”

“Listen, Jake. I normally wouldn’t ask you to, I mean, you’ve got your part of the pack to look after, but I can’t be with the pack now. Can you just let them know that Embry and Collin have the northern border, and Jared and Quil have the beach area? The rest can just run the perimeter, and switch with the others when they need a break.”

“I guess…What about Paul?”

“Paul and I were supposed to have the southern border, but since I can’t-”

“Yeah, yeah I get it. I’ll run the stupid border with Paul.”

“Really? Thanks man. I owe you one.”

“I’ll remember that.”

After I gave the pack their assignments, I Phased and ran to meet Paul near the border that divided the reservation and the Cullen’s place. I didn’t get why Sam had so many of his pack out on patrol; nothing ever happened around Forks anymore. Ever since the showdown between us, the Cullen’s, and all their vampire friends, things have been pretty quiet around here. But Sam has been kinda paranoid about bloodsuckers coming around here ever since. Even if it’s been like, I don’t know, two years?

Two years can change people. After all of the extra bloodsuckers left, things had improved between the two packs from the reservation. We figured out that once you switch from one pack to another like Seth and Leah did, it’s hard to switch back. And there can’t be two Alpha Males in one pack; that’s common sense. You’d think with all the wildlife documentaries out there, we’d have figured that out sooner. And since Sam and I really didn’t want to fight to see who better deserved the Alpha title, we just decided to make the best of the situation, and let the two packs work side by side. It’s worked out pretty good, so far.

The pack as a whole also made a new treaty with the Cullens. The new treaty has a lot of the same principles as the old one; they can’t hunt humans, or bite a human and turn them. Now the members of the Cullen family can cross our border as long as they don’t hunt on our lands, and let us know in advanced. In exchange, we won’t reveal what they are, and we won’t openly attack one of them without reason. That’s worked out pretty well so far. Anyway, the only Cullens that come over to the res are Bella and Nessie, which is fine with me. Besides, the pack didn’t want to jeopardize the treaty anyway, on account that Nessie was my imprint.

Bella hasn’t changed a bit. I mean, sure she’s a vampire now, and she’s not klutzy and she’s ten times more beautiful, but she’s still the same ol’ Bella. Still insanely in love with that bloodsucker, Edward. Renesmee has changed a lot. Even though she’s only three, if you want to be technical, she looks like she’s at least sixteen-seventeen. And I turned nineteen not too long ago, so it’s all good.

I couldn’t be happier with Nessie. We spend a lot of time together. That is, until that vampire Alice and Jasper found, Nahuel, shows up for a visit. The only reason why I bother remembering his name is because whenever he shows up, Nessie practically ditches me in order to spend time with him. She’s happy, which makes me happy, but she’s my imprint after all. And I really wouldn’t mind if she was happy with me instead of him. That’s what I tell myself anyway; it’s not like I’ll just stand by, and watch a bloodsucker take her away.

I met Paul near the borderline. After hearing him rant for a few minutes on how I was late, we set off. We checked the southeastern part of the border. Nothing. We checked a little north of that. Nothing. We checked the northern part of the southern border. Nothing.

I was beginning to die of boredom. So I checked in on the others. None of them had found anything either. No surprise there.

We were running the southwestern part of the border, when Paul stopped running. I heard his thoughts inside my head.

“Hey Jake, you smell that?” He walked around; sniffing everything his huge nose could get a hold of.

I took a deep sniff. The air smelled the same, but whenever the wind blew, I couldn’t help but smell something different, something that had a familiar scent, but with a twist.

“It smells different, but the same.” Another sniff. “Whatis that smell?! Smells like…cinnamon?”

“Calm down, Paul, we’re not too far from Old Man Wilson’s place. His grandson must be visiting; his wife makes those pies whenever their grandson visits. That’s probably what you smell.”

At least, that’s what I hoped he smelled. I didn’t want the rest of the pack to find out, and go on a wild goose chase.

“Hey Jake, what’s up with Paul? Should we join you guys, and track down whatever has that scent?”

Too late. Embry’s thoughts filled my head, along with some of the other pack members. This was the last thing I needed.

“No, Embry. Paul and I will follow the scent. Don’t worry about it. You’ll know if we need you.”

Thoughts of disappointment entered my head. I understood why; this was the first taste of excitement the pack’s had in two years. Of course everybody wanted to be involved.

“Ok, Jake. See ya later.”

Paul and I continued to follow the scent. It got stronger and stronger the closer we got to Old Man Jenkins’ house. And it was a really good scent, too. It smelled a lot like us, but like I said, it had a twist to it. The scent was woodsy, but had a hint of spice to it, like cinnamon. It reminded me of Leah. She smelled a lot like the other guys in the pack, but her scent had a spicy twist to it too.

We were close to Old Man Jenkins House. We decided to head west towards the coast, so that our scents would get mingled with the sea, and would therefore keep anything from sniffing us out. The scent was strong now. And I had finally figured out what it was that produced that smell, but Paul said it aloud before I did.

“I got it! It’s a werewolf-er-shapeshifter- whatever the hell we are! It’s one of us!"

“Yeah. It’s one of us! But it’s not from our pack. I think it’s a female; it smells kinda like Leah.”

We both took a big sniff. Oh yeah, it was definitely female. No male werewolf/Shapeshifter/whatever-the-hell-we-were could smell as good as that. Paul thought so too.

“Oh yeah, it’s a girl!” Paul’s tail was wagging with excitement. “And she’s not from our pack! You know what that means!”

Yeah I did. It meant there were others out there. Others that were like us. And they probably weren’t that far away from us, because if that female was anything like the wolves of our pack, she wouldn’t stray far from her home.

“Ok, so what should we do? Keep following her or get Sam and the rest of the pack?”

“Forget about Sam and the others for now. You’re an Alpha too, ya know. We don’t need to alert him right away. Let’s catch her, and bring her back to the res so we can find out about her and her pack! She’s trespassing anyway; we have to hunt her down!”

Paul could barely stand still. He was hopping about, hardly able to stand still.

“Wait a minute Paul, we can’t just-”

“Too slow! I’m goin’ after her!” Paul took off, heading straight towards Old Man Jenkins’ house, where the girl was headed. Paul knew Jenkins was senile, and if he saw Paul, he wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut. But Paul didn’t know that Jenkins had a gun, and would go trigger happy if he saw a dog that was the size of a bear.

“Paul! Stop!” I ran after him as fast as I could; he was at least two miles ahead of me. I could run that distance in no time, but there’s no stopping Paul whenever he gets to chase something.

By then, the girl had figured out she was being followed. I saw her take off. Damn, she could run fast! But something was wrong with her. She’d stumble, and limp every so often. I figured she broke her tail, or maybe even a leg. She was bloody, maybe she had gotten into a fight with another animal? But all the same, she kept running.

The girl and Paul were well on Old Man Jenkins’ property. Paul was gaining on her. I was close behind, and I was about to grab Paul and stop him when-

BANG!

The clear sound of a gunshot ran through the air. It made me, Paul, and the girl pause. That meant, that Old Jenkins saw one of us, and was about to go trigger happy. The she-wolf tried to head off towards the stream, staying away from the town, but Paul cut her off. She was trapped between me, Paul, and crazy Old Man Jenkins.

Or so I thought.

BANG!

The she-wolf froze and started looking around for a safe hiding place, her body close to the ground.

“Jesse! Watch out! It’s a bear! Or a wolf! Get down!” Old Man Jenkins’ hoarse voice could be heard a short way off, the sound of him cocking his shotgun close behind.

“Isn’t ‘Jesse’ the name of Old Man Jenkins’ grandson?”

Honestly, Paul is really hopeless sometimes.

“Hey I heard that!”

“Sorry. Well, you are! Yeah, that’s his grandson.”

BANG!

A bullet whizzed past my head.

“Watch out! Don’t let him shoot you!” Paul stayed clear of Old Man Jenkins’ aim, and continued to follow the she-wolf, who was well into our border by now. Hopefully nobody else from the pack would go after her.

"Jacob!” Leah’s conscious entered my head. “What’s going on? There’s another she-wolf in our territory. We’re gonna hunt her down. Are you ok? Seth heard gunshots not too long ago. We’re coming to help you.”

“No Leah. Stay out of this. Leave the she-wolf alone. Paul and I have everything under control! Don’t come here!”

Leah sighed. “Fine, but if it gets anymore more dangerous, we’re coming for you.”
Her thoughts faded away, allowing me to concentrate.

I looked for Paul and the girl. Old Man Jenkins ran to his truck and went after them. I sniffed them out. They were close to the Cullen’s place. Renesmee! I couldn’t let her get in the way, and be hurt. I sped up, keeping my eyes peeled for any sign of Paul or the girl. I was close to the forest near the Cullen’s place when I saw them.

Paul and the she-wolf were going at it. A full-blown fight between wolf and wolf. And from the looks of it, Paul was losing. Badly. The girl was pretty messed up too, but she looked in much better shape than Paul. I was close enough to jump in and take Paul’s place. I crouched down, preparing to spring. I loosened up to jump when the worst happened.

Old Man Jenkins’ truck came out of nowhere. His grandson was in the passenger seat, shotgun at the ready. Jenkins sped up, and the side of his truck clipped Paul’s shoulder, sending him flying.

“Shit. Leah! Leah, get Embry and Seth! NOW!” I felt Leah’s thoughts, and saw her running towards Embry and Seth’s patrol area.

I ran towards Paul and the girl. I couldn’t let Jenkins kill either one of them. I jumped on the bed of Old Man Jenkins’ truck, and was about to grab the gun out of Jesse’s hand, who was aiming for the she-wolf. I had my mouth around the barrel of the gun. Jesse screamed, but he was still aiming for the girl.

BANG!

Oh no.