Never Is a Promise

Masa had simultaneously been both more withdrawn than usual and more lively than usual. It was a strange transformation, and every one of her friends had gone on normally as if it happened all the time. Jacob, however, felt cheated out of his imprint. Rosemary was sucking up all of Masa's time (and affection), and Jacob did not like that at all.

They spend all of their free time together, walking, talking, eating, whispering about who knows what in French. Sometimes Jacob suspects that they are talking about him, but he could never be entirely sure, and so he tries to write it off as paranoia, which it was, probably.

Maybe.

Having Rosemary around showed a whole different side to Masa that Jacob had never imagined existed, though. She seemed more...soft. As if a gaussian blur had surrounded her form. She also seemed more protective? Rose was her little sister, she looked old enough to take care of herself, and yet Masa spent a large amount of time trying to isolate her away from others. Based off her past comments about her sister, Jacob assumed that she was protecting others at first, but upon looking at the way she cradled her head in her lap, he began thinking otherwise. At first it made him uncomfortable, up until Marc explained to him that family relations were different in other cultures, and that speakers of romantic languages often are more affectionate to friends and family than non-romantic language speaking people. This both relieved and annoyed Jacob. Wasn't he a friend? Why wasn't Masa more affectionate to him? Was he just another disposable 'friend' like all the others?

"Have you actually talked to her about your feelings? Your intentions?" Seth asks him one day as they meandered through the forest.

"No," Jacob says, "I shouldn't have to."

"An imprint doesn't equal a mind reader." Seth treads cautiously, "She might have no idea."

Jacob clenches his fist at the thought.

-

At the blue house, Masa's group and Rosemary were chatting about something Jacob didn't care to care about. He was told by Marc that Masa was upstairs in her room (the attic), and that's where he was going. Finally, a moment alone with his imprint, after so many hours taken away...

The room is plain, without decoration, only a few photo frames on a wooden dresser next to the attic window. Masa is slouching on the headboard, knees drawn up, as she reads what appears to be a letter.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you to knock?"

Jacob ignores this.

He sits down at the foot of the bed, admiring the sunlight on her face, glancing at the black and white photo on the dresser of a happy couple, "I want you to meet my friends."

Masa does not look up from her letter, "You have friends?" This did not come out in a rude manner, but rather genuine. "You spend all your damn time following me around, I was beginning to think you were a loner."

She shifts her position so that she's sitting up straight, and her red cotton jacket slips and gives Jacob a view of a white, sheer, oh-so-transparent chemise. He blushes and tries not to stare. Masa doesn't seem to notice.

"—We're having a bonfire next week," Jacob reaches for her hand, which had fallen at her side when she sat up, "You should come." He carefully made sure to leave out Rosemary, though he was sure Paul could distract her should that fail.

Masa pulls her hand away to fold away the letter laying on her lap, "Whatever, fine." Tucking it out of sight in the drawer in her bedside table, Jacob spots more envelopes and paper in there.

His curiosity gets the better of him.

"I didn't think you were the type to write letters," he takes his hand back, setting it in his lap, "you're always on that phone of yours."

"I'm not the type to write letters," Masa fumbles around her jacket pockets for a carton of cigarettes, then the lighter, "Those are from my Father."

Jacob perks up, "All of them?"

A wave of her hand, a dismissal, "Some from my mother, but most are from him." she finds her lighter and begins to smoke, "He likes to pretend he cares."

In a moment of boldness, and perhaps foolishness, Jacob reaches over and takes the cigarette away from Masa's lips, "These things will kill you, you kno—"

"Shut the fuck up."

She swipes it back, harshly, looking like she had just refrained from hitting him, "What the fuck do you know, you're just a damn kid." She runs her fingers through her hair, "God you're still only fucking sixteen. What the fuck are you doing wasting your life with a crowd of hopeless twenty year olds?"

It was the most Jacob had heard Masa say. This splurge of sudden emotion gave raise to goosebumps on his skin, and made his heart sink. He had upset her. That was not his job.

She curls back up again, and Jacob wants nothing more than to swoop in and embrace her, "I'm sorry," he starts, "Shit, I'm sorry."

"You're just a fucking kid," she repeats, whispering almost harshly, mostly to herself, as she places her forehead in the palm of her hand, "go talk with kids your age, ride a fucking bike, spray paint an alleyway, live your life!" Her fingers clutch tightly at her hair, "At you age, I was fucking up with other teenagers," she drifts off, muttering words that Jacob could not understand.

"It's just," Jacob barley catches her words, "nobody's ever stayed this long."

They sit in silence until Rosemary waltzes into the room and into Masa's arms, and suddenly, it's as if Masa hadn't just blown up in his face, and she returns to being the calm and cool girl he's in absolute love with.

-

"Tonight?" It comes out louder than he wanted.

Masa doesn't even spare him a glance, "They never have been well organised."

"Tonight's the bonfire!"

"It'll be done before then, if you're worried." She applies a ghastly shade of powder to her face, and moves to add on rogue, "I just want to get this over with."

Jacob begins to pace. Well, pace as much as he can in the small white bathroom, "Do they even have a stage?"

"All the world's a stage." she quotes, "They're setting up lights out back. The real thing too--Source Fours and Scoops and all."

He pauses, in the middle of finding another thing to protest about when he noticed her reflection in the mirror. Masa looked a little like a clown. A cute one, to be sure, despite her hair being tucked into a wig cap.

"Is it...Are you supposed to look like that?" his tone is playful, but hers is anything but.

"You have to apply stage makeup like this, otherwise the lights will wash your face out." Fake eyelashes are applied, and Jacob hardly recognises his imprint. "It'll look normal on stage."

Jacob opens his mouth but is interrupted by an equally made-up Rose trotting into the room. She smiles sweetly at them both before asking Masa to help her with something. She leaves without saying goodbye to Jacob, as if she had forgotten he was there.

"Hey," the red-headed woman, Ava, peaks her head into the bathroom, "don't worry about being late to your thing, we should be done by nine at the worst." She smiles, and Jacob returns it, despite not feeling all that happy or assured. He had everything planned for tonight. Showing her around the reservation and meeting his pack and Bella, sharing food and stories...Masa was not spontaneous, but her "friends" sure were...Why tonight of all nights?

-

If there was ever any doubt that his imprint was beautiful, it was gone now.

The woman on stage is nothing like the woman he knew beforehand. She is open, loud, even desperate. And Jacob loves it.

In his eyes, she even outshines Rose, who is equally as big on stage alongside her sister. Yes, they were right in saying that Rose was made for the spotlight, but they were wrong when they stated that Masa was meant to blend in the crowd. Surely they saw that now, right?

Sure, maybe her voice wasn't as classically trained as Rosemary's, but the raw emotion placed into it more than made up for it. Jacob had half a mind to critique Masa's friends' choice on making her Roxie rather than Velma...He wouldn't have minded seeing her in some of her numbers. His teenage hormones aside, he is glad he got to witness this side of his beloved that he wouldn't have otherwise seen if he had convinced her to ditch the musical. Surely this is a sign of newfound trust in him. Having her let him see her like this...Yes, that is what this is, definitely.

The curtain falls, and he finds Masa cleaning off her makeup next to a hose in a grassy area. Her clothes are slightly wet and see-through and he offers his jacket to her like a gentleman, which she takes, much to his surprise (and delight).

"Are you ready to go?" He beams, not being able to hide his excitement.

"Hm?" she looks up at him before nodding, "Oh, right. Let me just wait for Rose--"

Jacob doesn't let his heart sink; Paul can distract Rose. Everything will be alright.

He notices her hair, cut short up to her chin, and asks her about it.

"My hair was too long to fit comfortably under the wig." she sniffs and Jacob worries slightly about her catching a cold, "I needed a change, anyways."

He leans in, catching the moment before it's gone, and whispers in her ear, "You look good as a blonde." Time freezes for him, and he indulges in the strands of hair tickling his cheek and the scent of her sweat and perfume.

There is no reply from her save for an amused grunt. He counts it as a victory, and counts the weeks before he will be allowed to be that close to her again, and then closer.

-

The ride is quiet, and there are no whisperings in French this time because Rose is not in the car. He had asked Masa about this, and she had replied that Rosemary would find her way on her own. Rather than question this statement, he rejoiced in having just a few precious minutes alone with her.

He steals glances at her every few seconds, wondering what she's thinking about as she stares out the car window, chin on the back of her hand. She is wearing a cream cardigan sweater with wooden buttons that Jacob has never seen before. He asks her if it's new and Masa only shrugs.

They arrive at 9:02, and he introduces her to his pack mates and family and Bella, and Masa is uncomfortable at all the attention, he can tell.

Bella is the most polite, second to none but maybe Seth and Emily, but Jacob senses that Masa prefers the company of the former two, because something about Emily (her scar, no doubt) leaves her feeling uneasy.

At eleven at night, or maybe two in the morning, they are walking through the forest, and though Jacob knows he has nothing to worry about, he wonders why Masa looks so calm, because it's pitch black out here, with only the slightest streams of moonbeams coming through the trees.

He asks her why she isn't afraid.

"There are worse things in the woods than wolves." and they are silent for the rest of the night, even when he drives her back to the blue house.

-

It's September, and the grey skies rolling in from the north remind him of his imprint's eyes.

He sits besides Marc at the blue house, and steals glances at Masa (as he always does), who is sitting on the chair perpendicular to the sofa where he is. She is fiddling around on her phone looking serious and a little bit frustrated. Jacob knows it's about Rose. While she worries about her sister, her friends are talking about their high school days, and he tries to loose himself in their conversation.

"—No, but Mr. Schrader was hot." Ava says as-a-matter-of-factly

"Ew! Gross!" Maria sticks her tongue out, "Way too old! Mr. Walker was the real looker."

"All you bitches are crazy," Daisy states, "Mrs. Paige was the only teacher worth fucking."

Antony agreed, raising his beer bottle, "Fuck yeah, Mrs. Paige!"

"You're all disgusting."

Masa's voice, jagged like broken glass, cuts through the conversation.

"It's just kink talking Masa, it's harmless—"

"Bullshit!" She leans forward in her seat, no longer slumping, "It's fucking pedophilia, don't act like it isn't. If it was a normal thirty or forty year old man with a sixteen year old girl, you would all want him arrested, but you're blinded by your stupid fetishes."

The group had shrunken down, though Marc looks as if he had expected this at any moment, and he looks on at Masa, listening to every work she says, "It's psychologically wrong, the teenager isn't emotionally or mentally mature enough to be with an adult, and it's the fucking adult's responsibility to keep away from the teenager. Why do you think statutory rape is real?"

She gets up, hugging her coat tighter to her form, "I'm leaving."

Jacob watches her go, stunned, before getting up himself and following after her.

Well fuck.

If she felt this strongly about age gaps, then their relationship...Was it all platonic? Is she playing with him? Or...Or is she willing to wait for him? Is that what she's doing?

When he catches up to her, she is furiously lighting a cigarette. She says nothing to him, but when her cigarette is finally lit, she breathes out and calms down. They stay silent for what feels like hours.

"...When I was sixteen, I had an affair with an older man."

He does not respond, and she goes on,

"He was...is a friend of my parents." Her voice sounds strange to Jacob; not angry, sad, or hurt, just full of regret, perhaps. "Four years later, Rose had him too." She adds on, almost as an afterthought.

Jacob does not know what to say, and Masa breathes out sharply, something that sounds like a small laugh, "When he found out I was my father's daughter, he freaked out." She sniffs, and this time, Jacob is almost sure that she's about to cry, though she doesn't look it, "Though, not for the reason you might think."

Jacob does not know what to think.

"It was even worse after he was with Rose, he avoided our parents like the plague." Masa smirks as if she had shared a secret joke, "As loose and open as my father is about love and sexual freedom, this man knew that if he found out, he would kill him again."

Jacob does not know what to feel, and he is almost sure that the last word out of Masa's mouth was imagined. At least, he hopes it was, "...Why didn't he know before? I mean, about who you were." He hopes he's not overstepping his boundaries, and he almost sighs in relief when Masa responds.

"Rose and I are my parent's best kept secret." Another bitter chuckle, and he decides to try to drive his questions away from her parents.

"...Why did you do it."

"Because I was sixteen, and thought I had it all figured out. I was legal, and I thought I had the emotional maturity to sleep with him. But I was wrong." She throws her cigarette at the ground and puts it out with her foot, "He wasn't that exciting anyways; he was a poet trying to be an intellectual, just like my parents told me, and just like I told Rose." Masa laughs quietly again, though it is not bitter like before. "You should have seen him...He was like putty in my hands."

She pushes her short hair behind her ears, showing off a pair of blue studs that Jacob has never seen before, "You would have thought it was his first time in Paris the way he was lost...I hardly did anything, I just stood there in my coat, lighting up my cigarettes, and having them fall to the ground one by one...He looked at me and in me, saw my father and mother, probably, and then I asked him if he had a lighter and I let him light my cigarette."

Silence blankets over them for a moment.

"...I'm sorry."

His breath hitched, "...What?"

She rubs her eyes with the ball of her hand, "I'm the adult. I should have pushed you away."

-

Jacob is quiet as they go back inside. He walks Masa up to her room in the attic, and sits on her bed with her. He glances at her side table, and curiosity gets the best of him, "Who are they?"

Masa turns to see where he is gesturing towards the happy couple in the black and white photo.

"My parents."

They are young. That is the first thing that enters Jacob's mind. The second thing is their clothing: perfect replicas of what was worn in the 1930s. He hopes to God that they are simply at a themed party, despite the photo itself looking old and of bad quality, because so far, everything is pointing to his imprint's parents being bloodsuckers.

He leaves without another word, but says goodnight, even thought it is only eight.

-

It's been three days since Masa's confession. Jacob hasn't had time to see her, or rather, she has been slipping through his fingers.

He is at home, working on a car, wiping some grease from his cheek when he hears the doors to the garage open up. Turning his head, he expects to see Seth, and hopes to see Masa.

It is Rose.

He rises so fast, he hits his head on the roof of the hood, and if he wasn't a shifter it might have hurt, but he still would have been distracted from the pain thanks to this unexpected visit.

Rosemary is dressed elegantly and modestly, wearing a deep maroon velvet dress that reminds him of bo peep. It makes him feel dirty and inadequate, and he finds himself wishing that she had come earlier or later.

She clears her throat, "I must say, I am impressed that you have...stuck around this long with Masa." she pauses, looking around the garage, "Considering you two aren't sleeping together."

Jacob feels sick.

He feels dizzy when she walks over to him, fluttering her finger over his skin, raising goosebumps, "Usually men who are head over heels for my sister are soon swayed away by myself."

Jacob tries not to let her get to him, but oh she is so good at getting under his skin.

"And after that, they leave us."

He snaps.

He yells at her, gets angry.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you here? Why do you ruin your sister's relationships with others?"

"Because she belongs to me."

He finds himself speechless and dumbfounded as Rose turns on her heels to leave. At the door, Embry enters, having heard him yelling surely, and rushes to his side. Jacob hadn't realised he was on his knees.

-

Jacob doesn't tell Masa about Rose, but now that she's confronted him, he notes that the way the two hold each other is too close for comfort. There's a desperation in Roses's touches, and it bothers him. It bothers him so much.

He decides to tell Masa about himself. His pack, His secret. To tell her about how he has imprinted on her and how much he loves her.

Into the woods near his home, he leads her. Practically dragging her, he takes her, and on her part, she does not complain, only fusses and curses when she is scratched by a branch. They reach a clearing, a meadow in the springtime, and he stops, turning to look at her.

God she is beautiful.

Swallowing his nervousness, his fear, he tells her not to be afraid.

"That would be the red flag telling me that I should be afraid."

He laughs, but it is only slightly forced; this was serious, and as much as he loved her dry wit, he needed her to understand that she would not be harmed.

"I've been...I've been hiding something."

"No way." She pulls away the cigarette at her lips, glancing at his bag of clothes, "You got a bomb in there?"

"Masa, please."

There must have been something in his voice then, because immediately, her demeanor changes. She is serious and standing at attention. Good.

"I...I know how you feel about the supernatural." He gulps, "And about...about things that "shouldn't exist.""

She tilts her head at him, but continues to be silent.

He takes a deep breath.

"I am one of those things."

The woods grow silent.

"Show me."

It's a command. A solid command, and he is more than happy to obey. He shifts before her, tearing his clothes and growing to the monstrous-sized wolf he is. When he is done, he looks at her, fearful of her reaction. Of her rejection. Of her fear.

If she is surprised, then she does not show it. She does not say anything to him, but she sighs and runs her hand through his fur, almost petting him. He eagerly leans into her touch, and when he does, she mutters and whispers in French under her breath. It irritates him, and he shifts back.

"Say something!" He's close to yelling, and his imprint looks at him, unfazed at his nakedness.

"This explains a lot."

It is not what he wanted her to say, but it is better than what he was afraid she would say.

"Get dressed before you catch a cold."

He blushes, and reaches into his bag to dress as Masa turns away out of courtesy, though Jacob wishes she would look. When he is done, he takes her hands and marvels and soars that she let her hands be held.

"There's more."

Masa looks at him straight in the eyes, and Jacob wants to kiss her. Kiss her so badly, but he knows that if he does, she would slap him, and though it wouldn't hurt him physically, it would bruise his heart to know he had upset Masa.

"There's...there's this thing we shapeshifters have," he gulps, and he feels his heart pounding a mile a minute, "it's basically to ensure that the gene gets passed on, we...we imprint on people." he licks his lips and tries to gauge a reaction from masa, but all he gets is perfect neutrality, "When we do this, we feel an instant attraction to them." he smiles, smiles wide, "It's like finding our soulmate."

Masa is silent. Silent for a long time, and it scares Jacob.

"You're disgusting."

He stops breathing.

"Don't touch me."

She pulls away from him, and all at once his world is crashing down, and he reaches for her and grabs her arm roughly...More rough than he needs to.

"Get away from me!"

"Masa," he says her name with desperation, with plea, "Masa, I love you!"

"Liar!"

She manages to tug her arm away somehow, "I should have known...I should have know better," she looks about to break, and it's the most vulnerable he's seen her and he wants nothing more than to hold her in his arms, "That's the reason you've stayed this long! You don't like me, your stupid fucking genes like my genes!" Her voice is rising and her face is twisted into something painful and...ugly.

"I should have known...That fucking scar on that woman's face--"

"It was an accident, he lost his tempe--"

"HE ALMOST KILLED HIS WIFE! HIS SO CALLED LOVE-OF-HIS-LIFE!" she cuts him off, pointing at him accusingly as if he had a part in the mutilating of Emily's face, "Where I come from, when a man hits wife, it's abuse!"

And Jacob shakes his head, he shakes it because Masa does not understand, "No, you don't understand."

"Don't fucking tell me what I do and don't understand!" it's the angriest he's ever seen a person, and he almost feels afraid, "And that fucking pedophile with the kid?? The kid that he loves so much, that's what that it, isn't it? This imprinting shit."

"It's innocent, he loves her!"

"Bullshit!" she huffs, "You know what your freak cult is doing to that girl? They're raising her in an environment where they're conditioning her to love someone and end up with someone, that's fucking child abuse, and don't tell me it isn't, because I've seen it! You think because of his 'innocent' love, that she won't date other boys as a teenager? You think that because of his 'innocent' love, he won't desire her when she develops and turns sixteen? You think that he won't fuck her the first chance he'll get when he can't be arrested for it regardless of her maturity?" Tears prick at her eyes, and she looks frustrated at herself for crying. "You...This is not about love, it has nothing to do with that...If you had met another girl with the same capability to carry on your fucking trait, it would have been her. It would have been her. Don't give me this soulmate bullshit, it's just natural selection, you're a fucking animal."

Had it been any other woman, he would have grown angry and retaliated, but as it was, he finds himself powerless in the light of her wrath.

"I thought you cared."

This statement hurts him the most.

"No wonder Rose hasn't fucked you yet."

This statement surprises him, and he finds his voice again, "You...You know?"

She scoffs, as if he had questioned her intelligence, "Of course I know! She's done this for years, and she'll continue doing it until we die." She wipes the tears from her eyes, "Rose and I share a fate you cannot understand...Will never understand." Masa balls up her hands into fists at her side, "Our existence is lonely and ephemeral. We shouldn't be alive."

Jacob feels the terrible stabbing burn at the back of his throat that tells him he is about to cry.