Capture My Heart

Violet.

"What the hell did I do last night?" Poppy grumbled, rubbing at her ankle and cussing with every other breath. I laughed at her expression and shrugged while eating my breakfast at the same time.

Jacob was talking to Jeremy, but he kept shooting me glances and smiles that made me feel so good inside.

"I wouldn't know," I murmured quietly to her. She gave me a sad look and then played with her newly inherited shirt "So...I guess that means I wasn't just imaging you and Jacob running off together yesterday," she mumbled, and smiled sheepishly.

I said nothing, torn between being nice and not. Jacob was mine, a fact that was only even more true now, and I refused to share him.

Falling in love with him had been the last thing I wanted to happen, but now that we were free I had nothing really to hold me back. Jacob didn't mind how damaged I was.

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised," Poppy murmured and pain was evident in her features, she slowly got up and hobbled away.

I never really expected any different she thought on her way towards Joana and Jerome's hut they were sharing with a big family of seven.

She didn't look back and I had no clue whether she wanted me to hear that thought or not. If she did, then she probably would've been pleased to know that she'd made me feel guilty.

If she didn't, then I guess that she would probably still feel pretty good about it. I sighed, and ran my hands through my hair before someone fell down beside me.

"What's wrong?" Jacob asked, worriedly, touching softly at the corner of my mouth, where a frown had formed.

"Poppy kind of got to me," I mumbled. Jake nodded in understanding and then his arms were around me.

"She'll come around eventually Vi...she loves both of us. So she'll be happy to see that we're happy, right?" he said, smiling, and it was hard not to see things his way when he said it like that.

I smiled faintly and nodded. He leaned in to kiss me but I turned so he kissed my cheek.

"What?" he asked, worried again. I blushed and looked around. "Jake...half our...pack is here," I muttered, using pack to sum up what we were as best I could.

He gave me an odd look. "So? They'll see how we are eventually." Jacob said slowly, and then sighed at the look that had formed on my face before he'd even finished. He smiled just slightly.

"Fine, fine." He suddenly dropped me completely and backed away. "I'll play nice in front of them...but no promises when i get you alone," he smirked and then walked off, leaving me gaping behind him.

Jacob.

It did me a lot of good to see that Violet had shaken the prison experience enough to be bashful. She had never been so sweet and cute before.
Especially since the nicer she was, the more I got to be with her without worry. I wasn’t a nuisance. She enjoyed my company.

As we sat in Maura living room with the kids, I could help but feel hopeful that things were all going to be better now.

I mean, of course the memories wouldn’t ever go away, or the scars…and we all needed to discuss as a group what we were going to do about the wolves left behind. Some of everyone else's or even my own pack could've been back there, starving and getting killed off.

And even before we had that talk, we had to contact the folks back home. Maura was out right now trying to find someone with a decent home phone since barely anyone in this village had one, and the computer she had in here was busted after some power lines went down that provided service to this area she was in.

It was all very complex, and there were a million what-ifs, but despite all that I couldn’t help but feel optimistic as long as I was far away from that place and those leeches.

"Jake," Jeremy nodded, passing me with Beck who said nothing. He'd had enough of me, and I really couldn’t blame him. Id acted way less civil when someone had the girl I was after.

Not that I was interested in Poppy, she was the one who had a thing for me, but it was all the same to him.

I wondered, as I so often did, if it would mean anything to him if he realized that I'd never be able to care for Poppy in that way because of the way Violet and I both felt about each other.

Well...at least the way I think that we both felt. It was impossible to know what Vi was thinking with everything that had gone on.

Her kissing me last night and acting all shy this morning might just have been as far as our relationship was going to go.

Maybe there was more than just show involved in why she hadn’t let me kiss her this morning.

Shaking my head I tried to push my thoughts away and focus on where I was going, stopping dead in my tracks when I realized I had changed course and was going towards the place from last night.

With a sigh I turned around and marched back the way I'd come from. Along the way, Maura's son Kauldi found me, knowing only my name but not letting that stop the flow of words that would've been nonsense even if I’d spoken Portuguese because he was just a baby still.

I scooped him up in my arms and headed back to Maura, to the pack, to my Violet, who smiled when she saw that I'd come back, and brought the munchkin.

She took him from me, cooing something in Portuguese while he laughed and my palms rested on her shoulders.

Poppy and the rest were nowhere to be found, so I didn’t bother hiding the affection my touch and look had as they rested on Violet.

I wondered if some years into the future she would be like this with my child. Caring for them the way she had for everyone we’d met since being imprisoned. Protecting them the way the last generation hadn’t been able to.

“What are you thinking about?” Violet whispered, tilting her head back to stare up at me. I smiled and pecked her temple.

“Like you don’t already know,” I whispered to her as Kauldi stilled in her arms, listening to us. Violet smiled, unaffected. “Tell me anyways,” she chuckled.

“The future,” I summed up, suddenly embarrassed at the thoughts I’d been wrapped up in. How would Violet take that I wanted children…when we’d just barely gotten together…just barely escaped…

Hell, Violet didn’t even remember what came before all this, who was to say that she had the same wants that I did.

For all I knew, what she wanted out of our relationship was to know who she was – something that only I was good for, like bearing my children was something only she was good for, being my imprint and all.

Violet knew there was more to my thoughts, both the ones she’d asked about and the ones that were flashing through my mind now, but she made no comments.

Kauldi balanced on her hip, Violet walked into Maura’s and handed him over, me following like the lost puppy that I knew I actually was, but the villagers had no idea of.

If they did they’d surely have me and my whole pack hunted, or at the very least banished from their village. Not that I could blame them.

Thank goodness we were set to have the mandatory talk about all the things that lurked in my mind in only a few hours after the phone calls were made.

XxX

I was, against my wishes making a call first.

We had tracked down some old make cell phone, from the richest person in town, a woman in her thirties.

Away from prying ears and I held the phone awkwardly, nervously. What would whoever answered think, about my being gone for so long?

We were currently, as a pack, in the “rich” woman’s house.

I was actually surprised - rich meant something completely different. Rich here meant u had a two story home, and a decent bathroom.

I was grateful though. And even more grateful that she didn’t mind us making long distance calls.

We had debated on who should get to alert their loved ones, but it was decided that I was pretty much one of the only ones with people left to call.

I mean, Poppy could check up on her pack, but she was convinced that they’d been taken and brought here after figuring out that not only Alphas were brought in. I think she was afraid to call and find out what was left, but I knew it would be worse not knowing and so she was calling after me.

Sitting, a frown plastered on her face on De’Andre’s lap, her foot that wasn’t injured bounced up and down with anxiety.

I gave her a reassuring smile before taking in a deep breath. Violet’s face was bitter and angry, a look I’d seen a million times back in the days before the kidnappings.

But I knew that it’d pass because she wasn’t really angry. She was sad that she didn’t have any family left to call, and that if she had some she hadn’t told me about to protect them, she didn’t remember.

Squeezing her hand without anyone noticing. I tried to recall whose number I knew by heart, and who would be best to get into contact with.

I was choosing between my dad and Emily, who would both be desperate to know what had become of me…well actually what had become of Sam in Emily’s case, when my fingers automatically dialed the first.

Wringing my hands nervously, the phone rang, although the reception on the phone wasn’t awesome, being a werewolf it made no difference.

“Hello?” a gruff tired voice answered around the sixth ring…it wasn’t my father’s.

I choked on my nerves for a second, never actually believing that I would’ve gotten an answer to this call I was making.

“Paul,” I mumbled, breathlessly.

I heard his confusion. “Who’s this?” he muttered, most likely checking the caller ID and coming up blank. I wondered if I sounded different or if he was just surprised to see me.

“It’s Jacob,” I replied.

There was a long pause on the other end. I swallowed loudly and tried to keep my expression under control so that Violet and the others wouldn’t worry about me. Besides, I didn’t want to make Poppy any more nervous about her call than she already was.

“Jake…you were calling for your dad,” Paul managed to say, barely. For half a second I feared that something bad had happened but I realized that Paul was just torn up about my going missing so he had messed up his words.

“He’s at Charlie’s right now but he asked me and Emily over for when he gets back – he gets real lonely without you.”

I grimaced, thinking of all that my dad must’ve been through since I was taken. “Where are you Jake? Are you with Sam? Emily has been cationic since he left. She’s absolutely devastated. But she keeps her head, and hangs out with Billy for the kid’s sake.”

It was as I’d suspected that Sam and Emily’s separation had left her broken, but not that there was a child involved. “What kid?”

“Emily found out she was pregnant a little after Sam left. He’s only a few months’ now but she looks just like Sam...In a good way.” Paul had never sounded so sad and vulnerable, and I knew that he was waiting for me to tell him some good news, but I had none for him.

“I haven’t seen him since we were taken. He was dropped off somewhere different from where they took me.”

“Which was where?”

“Some ‘camp’ straight out of a nightmare…I only barely just escaped with these other wolves I met…in the middle of the rain forest.”

“You’re in South America?” Paul exclaimed, pissed.

“Yeah, and I have no clue how I’m supposed to get home, but I want to find Sam first.”

Heads shot up, listening in. Some people grinned at knowing that I wanted my friend back, knowing that I’d help them find theirs, but others cringed away from the thought of going back to hell.

“I still need to figure everything out. I wanted to call and see what was happening, tell you I was okay, but mostly I had to ask - Paul…was anyone else taken after me and Sam?”

Paul seemed relieved, “No, but it’s been crazy without you, both with killing the vampires who come through since we don’t have an Alpha, and explaining to the town people where you disappeared to. There’s been talk…as usual. Other than that though everyone misses you like crazy.”

I sighed in relief too while Violet gave me a subtle nudge to let me know I had better get off the phone now.

I frowned at her and told Paul the same. “I’m sorry…about everything. Tell my dad I’m okay will you? And that I love him?”

“You have to go?” Paul shouted in my ear, shocked.

“Yeah, I’m not the only one who has family members to check after. Paul was quiet, not saying goodbye.

“Will you call again?” he asked, and I sighed knowing that it wasn’t really an option. One call was pushing it, and we still needed to have that mandatory talk about what the game plan was regarding those we’d left behind.

“I don’t think so…I’ll try.” I offered, knowing it was the best I could do for him.

“Okay then, bye Jake.” Paul said and I knew that wasn’t what he meant. There were a million hidden messages that I understood from that goodbye. A million warnings and worries that Paul would never say out loud.

“Take care of yourself, Paul, and my dad and the rest too,” I mumbled, and hung up.

Not meeting the many eyes I could feel on my face, I tossed Poppy the phone. Immediately everyone was tuned on her while she was bristling and uncomfortable.

Except my Violet of course, who rubbed my arm and kissed my bicep, knowing just how hard the call had hit me, and how I would be suffering for a while.

XxX

Poppy got a hold of someone too, a cousin, although I didn’t understand most of what went on, I did understand the agony on Poppy’s face.

Things hadn’t been so easy on her family. More had been taken than she predicted. 8 out of 13 of her wolves were in camps somewhere, probably dead since the killings continued with days away from the full moon.

She hung up after a shorter time than I did, not wasting time on the formalities of conversation, just getting the facts and ending her suffering.

Her eyes met everyone’s in the room, and I could see the determination behind them that was no doubt about to start the conversation regarding those back in the camps.

“We can’t leave them.” Poppy said simply, the ferocity behind those four words hanging in the air while she continued on against the protests in the house. Jumping to her feet and wincing as her hurt one made contact with the ground, Poppy screamed over the chaos that had suddenly ensued prior to her statement.

“We can’t let them get away with this!” she shrieked.

And she was right, as usual.