Lost, Then Found

Jacob’s P.O.V.

Thanks to Kim I had Bella’s wedding on the brain. Thankfully no one was on patrol with me; I’ve tortured them enough with thoughts of her.

The big “celebration” was just days away which had me thinking about her more and more. I thought I was getting better at letting her go, but I guess it was just masked by worrying about Jared and Kim while they were gone. Now that they’re back, so are my feelings for Bella. As much as I hated the whole idea of imprinting I almost wished I would.

One minute I’m pining over Bella, the next it’s like my wish had been granted. I never thought there would ever be a woman out there that would make me forget about my feelings for Bella, but there she was. No more than 15 feet away from me was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She was shaped perfectly, had brown hair that only fell to her shoulders, and the naturally tanned skin that matched mine perfectly. Her lavender scent both drove me crazy and calmed me at the same time.

I was stuck in a trance making me unaware of my feet moving until a twig snapped beneath me. Her head shot in my direction and her beautiful brown eyes grew wide with fear, and that’s when I was taken from cloud 9 and sent crashing back down on earth. As she backed away from me she lost her footing and fell back. My automatic reaction sent me phasing back to my human form, and racing to her side. As I took her in my arms both her and I shook as our bodies touched. Her eyes shot open, and she gasped as she focused in on me.

Kim’s P.O.V.

“So you’re a wolf?” I finally asked breaking the silence after I let our earlier conversation set in.

“Yeah.” He whispered back, not even making eye contact with me. He almost looked like he was ashamed of it.

“Jared, what’s wrong?” I asked as I slid under his arm.

“I just want to protect you from all this and I can’t. I’m almost as much of a monster as the leeches.”

“Are you kidding me Jared? You are a hero. You may not be superman, but you’re definitely a hero. You protect your people from monsters, how could you even compare yourself to them?”

“This doesn’t have to do with them. I’m talking about what we’re capable of doing. You’ve seen Emily’s face. Sam lost it for a split second and Emily was standing a little too close. I can’t let something like that happen to you.”

“That’s what you’re so worried about? You’re scared that you’re going to hurt me?” It all made sense, the reason why he kept yelling for me to get away from him that day in the hospital. “Is that why you acted strange in the hospital?”

“Yes.” He whispered as his gaze returned to the fire.

“You didn’t hurt me though. I don’t believe you would hurt me. I don’t believe you can hurt me.”

“I would never intentionally hurt you, but sometimes I lose control of the wolf, which is why if that ever happens again I need you to get away from me.”

“But Jared…”

“NO! Please, just do it. If you love me, you’ll do it.”

“Ok Jared.” I agreed in defeat.

Everything went silent except for the slapping of the waves against the rocks and the howling of the wind every now and then when it would pick up. I just found out my boyfriend is a werewolf, and I wasn’t the least bit scared or surprised. I wanted to know everything about him.

“Do you mind talking about it? I’m sorry, I’m just really interested, it’s not every day you find out your boyfriend is a wolf.”

He laughed for the first time since this whole conversation kicked off. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything, but you can start with how many… um… are there.. like you?”

“As of right now there are ten of us?”

My jaw dropped and my eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head. Jared chuckled when he noticed my reaction. “There’s so many.” I replied shocked.

“You scared yet?” He replied with a grin on his face.

“No.” I whispered.

“There presence is what brings it out. We feel the threat in our blood, as Billy would say. As their number grows, so does ours.” He continued.

“Is Edward and his family the coven from the legend?” I asked, but something told me I already knew the answer.

“Yes. The treaty is still intact, which mean unfortunately we can’t kill them. That shouldn’t be too much longer though.” He replied with a devilish smile.

“What do you mean by that?”

“The treaty says basically their off limits unless they bite a human. Bella wanting to become one of them changes things.”

“As creepy as it is, she’s just marrying the guy. How would that be breaking the treaty?”

“You misunderstood; I said she wants to become one of them, meaning she wants to be a leech.”

“What? Why would she want that?”

“Don’t know, and don’t care. The only thing I care about is getting rid of them as soon as his teeth graze her skin. Just hope Jacob can keep his emotions in check long enough to get the job done.”

“Wait, what? Jacob’s a wolf too? Back it up, so who are all the wolves?

“You’ve met them all. The pack consists of Sam, Jacob, Me, Paul, Embry, Quil, Seth, Leah, Collin, and Brady. Sam is the alpha and your boy Jacob is his beta.”

“Beta?”

“Yeah, second in command, even though he being Ephraim Black’s great grandson gives him the birth right to be Alpha.”

“So then why is Sam Alpha?”

“Sam was the first to phase. When Jacob finally did he let Sam keep the Alpha position.”

“Why?”

“Ask him.”

“Ok. So you said Leah is a wolf too? What about Emily and Rachel, are they.. you know?”

“No, they are… um… they are the imprints.” He finally said.

Imprints? I knew this word. Where did I hear it before? Then it came back to me, Bella saying it when she learned me and Jared weren’t together.

“What is imprinting?” He sucked in a breath but did not answer. After everything we just talked about, him being a wolf, vampires being real, what else could there be that he felt the need to hide from me?

“Really Jared, you’re going to clamp up now? You already told me about the wolves and the vampires, whatever it is can’t be any worse than that.” I stated hoping I was right.

He sighed. “An imprint is what we call our mates. It happens after we’ve phased. When we see her we know right away she’s the one, we have no doubt in our mind about that. You might describe it as love at first sight, and in a way it’s kind of like that, but our connection is so much stronger. The elders told us it was rare, but it’s not looking that way anymore. Sam. Paul, Quil, and I have all imprinted.”

“You’ve imprinted…” I started to ask, but then it clicked. “On me?” I finished. My heart almost jumped out of my chest at the thought.

“Yeah.” He whispered just loud enough for me to hear. I was beyond happy until I noticed Jared. His whole mood change brought me down from my high and knocked me flat on my ass.

“You’re not happy that I’m your imprint?” I asked holding back the tears.

“Are you serious? I love you Kim…”

“Only because you were forced to by the imprint thing.” I shot back cutting him off.

“No Kim! I believe there’s a soul mate out there for everyone. You are mine and I think we would have found our way to each other even if I wasn’t a wolf and able to imprint.”

He looked so passionate and sincere when he said it, but then what is his explanation of why he looked the way he did?

“Then why did you look sad when you confirmed that I was your imprint?”

“Because this is it for me, I will love you forever. If you decide one day that you want to explore your options you have that choice. I didn’t want to tell you because as much as it would hurt for me to see you with anyone else but me, I wanted you to have those options. I didn’t want you to feel like you were stuck with me.” He replied with a pained look.

“I’ve loved you since the first moment I laid eyes on you Jared. I was just scared because I didn’t know why I was falling in love with a complete stranger.” This explains a lot.

Finally a smile appeared on his face before grabbing me by the back of the head and crashing his lips into mine. To say this “excited “ me was a huge understatement.

“We really…shouldn’t… do this… right here.” He said in between kisses.”

“You…started…it.” I reminded him.

“Yes, but… you want it… so badly. My wolf… is making… it hard… for me… to say no.”

The kissing stopped as I moved back slightly. Jared didn’t seem alarmed though. His hand gently rubbed my back leaving that prickly feeling where ever his hand made contact.

“How do you know if I want this?” I asked attempting to hide how much I wish he would take me right here.

That cocky smile I remembered from the first day we met returned to his face after such a long absence. I missed it, that cocky side of him grew on me, I found it sexy. “So you’re saying you don’t want this?” He said as his tongue trailed down the length of my neck. Damn and I thought I was wet before.

“I didn’t say tthat iiI didn’t want it. I just aaasked how you knew?”

He chuckled as his hand slid from my back to my leg. I bit my bottom lip instinctively. “For one, you’re not objecting to any of this.” He said before sucking on my neck, while still rubbing my thighs. This man knew exactly where and how to touch me to drive me crazy.

I was so caught in the moment that I would have missed what he said if his mouth wouldn’t have brushed against my ear as he whispered it. “I can smell you Kim.” Was what he whispered as his hand began rubbing between my legs.