Breathing

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Annabelle asked Jacob when they arrived at the reservation. She hadn't been there in so long - yet, somehow it felt like home. "I am the vampire girl, remember?"

Quickly, the pack poured out of the house, all four of them shirtless. "Hey, look who's back!"

"Quil, you too?" Annabelle asked.

"Yep." He smiled. "Finally made the pack."

"I'm glad you're here, Annabelle. Maybe we can get a break from Jake's obsessive inner monologue."

"I wish she would call!"

"I wish she wouldn't call!"

"Maybe I should call her!"

"Maybe I should call her and hang up!"

The four wolves mocked and joked. "All right, you can shut up now." Jacob grinned awkwardly. A girl with dark, short hair and russet skin walked out - looking very angry. "Annabelle, this is Leah Clearwater. Harry's daughter."

"Hey," Annabelle said quietly. "I'm really sorry about your father--"

"If you're here to torture Jacob some more, feel free to leave." Leah snapped before taking off into the woods.

"Fun, isn't she?" Jacob smiled at her.

Annabelle went to speak, but a voice reached her ears. "Annabelle," Emily smiled, walking outiside with Sam to join them. "I was wondering when we would see you again." They embraced quickly.

"Sam, we good?" Jacob asked.

"We're good." He replied. "She wont be getting through our line any time soon."

All the guys cheered before running off, Annabelle smiled at them.

-

"When did Leah join the pack?" Annabelle asked as Jacob rolled a motorcycle over to the garage.

Jacob sighed, "Around when her dad died, her brother - Seth - also fased." He added, "He was only fifteen, one of the youngest we've had. Sam keeps him at home studying, but he hates it." He sighed again. "Wish it was Leah who'd stay home."

Annabelle playfully hit his arm, making him chuckle. "Don't be such guy."

"No, it's not a chick thing." Jacob's grinned faded. "It's a.. triangle thing. We all have to live the Leah/Sam/Emily pain-fest. Wolf telepathy, remember?"

"Sam wanted Emily instead of Leah?"

Jacob nodded. "Sam hates himself for hurting Leah. But Emily.. was the one."

"Yeah," Annabelle spoke, "I guess it sort of choses you, sometimes."

Jacob stared at her for a moment before continuing. "Sam imprinted on Emily." They had reached the garage now.

"What's that?" Annabelle asked, curiosity in her eyes. "Imprinting?"

Jacob rolled the bike into the garage and rested it on it's stand before picking up a tool as Annabelle watched him, waiting. He placed his arms on the bike and shifted his weight onto it before he began speaking. "Imprinting on someone is like... -- like when you see her, everything changes." Jacob never took his eyes away from her's. "All of a sudden it's not gravity holding you to the planet. It's her. Nothing else matters. You would do anything - be anything - for her."

Annabelle was speechless for a moment. She had no idea what to say, or what to think. But she just had to know one thing, "Have you.. imprinted on someone?"

Jacob swallowed, thoughts running through his mind. She was already slipping through his fingers, he couldn't lose her again. Not because of an aspect of what he shifted to. "No." He lied through his teeth, looking away.

Annabelle didn't know whether to feel relief or pain. "So, for now, you're still you.."

He smiled a little, looking back up. "And you're still you."

She nodded, pausing before adding, "Until graduation."

"Graduation?" Jacob hissed.

"Jake, you knew this was going to happen."

"Not in a month!" Jacob's voice rose to a yell. "I mean, not before you've - you've even lived!" He felt the anger fill his body, and he had no idea what to do. "Or before I could--" Jacob stopped himself short, hurling the tool he was holding into the wall, making Annabelle flinch. He was pacing and moved towards her. "For a second - just a second I thought -- but he's got his hooks in you so deep." Jacob spat like the words were venom.

She shook her head. "I decided this. Not him."

"Annabelle, they're not even alive!" Jacob yelled. "It makes me sick!" She just looked at him as he walked away from her. "Better you be really dead then one of them." He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth.

Her jaw dropped, she followed him. "I can't believe you said that." She could barely hear her own voice. She looked at him, and she just wanted to cry because of the look of hurt and regret on his face.

"Annabelle, please," He begged in a whisper. "I'm sorry." And he was. He was sorry for hurting her. For losing her. For leaving her. He was sorry because he fell in love with her at the most inconvenient time possible. And he was sorry because he was a werewolf and she was a human and because she had fallen in love with a vampire. Whilst he stared at her, looking deep into her eyes as if he could see her soul, he could only think one thing,

Beauty and the Beast.