The Peace Keeper

As promised, I met Jake at La Push the next day at one o' clock sharp. He was waiting for me, outside his house. Jake waved as I pulled up in my Ferrari.

Standing beside him were Quil and Embry, whom quickly scurried off after I stopped the car. They both had rather large grins on their faces.

Opening my door, I greeted Jacob with a simple, "Hello," accompanied with an unmasked smile.

"Hey Emma," Jake murmured back, his eyes glazed over in an amorous look. It took all I had to not return the look like some retarded person in love.

In love...? In love?! What the hell! I just met this guy...I can't be in love with him!!

"I'm glad you could make it," Jake's husky voice tore me from my metal tirade. "I bet you had better things to do..."

"Not at all," I replied dismissively. "I just got here two days ago; haven't had any time to make plans yet."

A light chuckle, "And your family's not mad that you're spending so much time out of the house?"

My mouth fell into a tight smile, "Nope not at all."

"That's good."

We stood together in a moment of silence.

"So," I began, "What do you have planed for us, Mr. Black?"

"Well, Miss Emma," Jake held out an arm in a very gentlemanly fashion, I linked it with one of my own, "I believe we should start with a pleasant beach-side stroll."

"Lead the way." I grinned.

~~~

Jake and I strolled along, idly chatting with one another pleasantly. I was surprised on how quickly we clicked with each other, as if we've know one another for all our lives.

That's probably why I like him so much. Why I can trust him so easily. We're just alike, and go well together. Everyone has that one friend, the one where they were meant to be with. Right? Everyone has that friend, yeah...

But with Jake, it goes above and beyond friendship...above and beyond your normal relationship.

The time I've spent with Jake has been completely exhilarating! Every moment of it. Our simple conversations, the small pieces of silence in between, even just the rhythm of our footfalls.

Does everyone have that? Is this as normal as I think it is?

"Here, just up this path." Jake lead me to a dirt trail going from the edge of the beach, and up a hill, around the boarder of the think forest. "I wanna show you something."

"What? Whatcha gonna show me?" I questioned, looking up into his brown eyes.

Jake just smiled a doggish grin, "It's a surprise."

"OK, then..." I paused, then brought up a new conversation topic, "So, when is the next full moon?"

Jake gave me an incredulous look. "Not for another two weeks, I think. Why are you asking me?"

I laughed a bit, "Cause, you're a werewolf. You guys change on the full moon, duh!"

Jake stopped his walking, I stopped too, "What do you mean?" He asked.

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" I looked around in confusion. "All werewolves have their transformations on the full moon."

"My pack doesn't." Jake replied, wide-eyed. "We can transform whenever we want to."

Now, my eyes widened. "For real? Dude, that's awesome! No other wolf I know can do that," I looked at him in utter disbelief, "But your entire pack can?"

"We thought everyone like us could." Jake continued walking now.

"They can't!" I exclaimed. "I have this one friend, Vlad. His pack is up in Russia, one of the last one's left in Europe. Now, he loves to transform, like most wolves," Jake nodded in agreement, "He once told me, he prefers running as a wolf to sex. I can't wait to tell him this," I laughed at my friend's expense, "He'll be so jealous."

"So, you know a lot of other werewolves, then?" Jake inquired.

I nodded, "I know pretty much all the major packs in Europe and Asia, which isn't hard cause there's only about five of them. I only know a handful of American packs, and one Australian one, but that's it."

"So you know a lot about my kind, right?" Jake stopped walking, and grabbed my hand.

"I guess so," I lingered with my breath in the air, "Where are we, Jake?"

Jake smiled, "This is the southern most cliff in La Push. We mostly use it for cliff diving, but it also gives a prefect view of the sunset."

I looked towards the horizon. It was true, what he said. The view was amazing. Only my peripheral vision was cut off by the curve of the beach and forest. Strait ahead was nothing but the ocean, which was glowing with beautiful colors cast by the fading rays of sunlight. The flawless clouds did nothing to prevent my sight, as purples, pink, and oranges bounced off their fluff.

"Wow," Was all I could gasp.

"Emma," Jake whispered, standing very close. He still held my right hand, and had stealthily stolen my left while I was looking towards the west. He continued when my attention left the sun and focused on him. "I brought you here to tell you something. Something important."

"Tell me anything," I responded immediately.

"Emma-Kate, I think I imprinted on you." Jake grinned. "The moment I saw you, I fell for you, you're my everything...My world, my gravity."

My face fell to a blank stare. Imprinting? That's what this is?

Well, that won't work! I'm a peacekeeper! A completely biased being. Imprinting is practically illegal for an active peacekeeper like myself...

"I can't do this," I whispered quietly, looking at my Chuck-clad feet instead of Jacob's eyes.

"What?" He questioned, though he obviously heard me.

"I'm sorry Jake, I just can't." I shook my head, as my throat closed up, even though I didn't know why. "I'm a peacekeeper. I'm sorry...I'm sorry, but I can't acknowledge this."

"Why not?" Jake questioned, obviously disappointed and poignant...but not angry in the least.

"We have to be neutral, all of us. The Peacekeepers can't be on one side or another."

"You don't have to choose a side!" Jake murmured, grasping my hands tighter. "I don't expect anything--"

I interrupted him, "Jake," Finally, I gathered enough courage to look back up into his eyes. My own were filled with tears, though I'm not even sure why. It usually took so much more for me to cry, so I held them back the best I could. "For me to acknowledge this would set an unbalance. Bad things happen when a peacekeeper chooses a side...and you might get hurt." I drew in a shuddering breath, "To have that on my conscience... would be unbearable."

Jacob was silent for a long time. The seconds ticked by tortuously. Finally, after a few hour-like minutes, he spoke. "I understand..."

I took a step back, releasing my small hands from his large ones. "I'm sor--"

My apology was cut off when a giant creature burst through the forest trees. A large dark brown wolf stood tall, staring at Jake with the most human-like eyes one would ever see on an animal.

"That's Quil," Jake confirmed. "Something must be up." Tight lipped, he turned to me. It broke my heart when that loving and admiring look was still in his eyes. "Stay here, I'll be back to show you the way home as soon as I can."

Without another word, Jake transformed, tremors consuming his body. His skin sprouted rust-colored fur, and his bones molded and shaped into his werewolf form. I only saw him still for a second as he looked back at me before darting along with Quil, back into the dense forest.

I inhaled deeply, attempting to recover from the scenario that had just taken place. I'm surprised I didn't realize we had imprinted earlier. I just thought I had a weird attraction. Jake is impossibly handsome, as most werewolves are. Even in wolf form, he was beautiful. I noticed he was quite large, for his kind, and very fast--

My mulling was shaken from my mind when a swift blur caught the corner of my eye. The blur dashed through the forest, at first I thought I had imagined it...Until I saw it again a moment later. The blur dashed through the trees effortlessly. In a fraction of a second, the blur ran strait by me, missing me by about three feet to my right. I had been facing the forest with my back to the cliff side behind me.

"What the hell was that?" I asked myself, unable to really comprehend what just happened.

Not even a heartbeat after the words left my mouth, another blur ran by me.

But this time, the blurr was too close and moving far to fast.

The force the figure had was enough to propel me into the air...

...and strait off La Push's highest cliff.