Unpredictable
Title: Unpredictable
Pairing: Jacob/Angela
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4,085
Summary: Some things happen when you least expect them to - especially falling in love.
A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELYSSA, (anythingbutgrey), you crazy, wonderful, Jacob-loving girl :D Thank you apresmoi for the super-speedy beta - you rock.
It rained the day of Bella's wedding.
Jacob thought this was appropriate - he felt like his heart was being torn out of his chest. Something should go wrong on this otherwise perfect day for the otherwise perfect couple.
No, he thought to himself, she wasn't perfect yet, but he cut that train of thought off abruptly - thinking of her with a vampire's skin, bright red eyes, and a thirst for blood... that was too much to bear.
Jacob had agreed to come to the wedding, but had yet to actually step foot into the reception. One look at Bella in her wedding dress in Edward's arms, and he'd almost been completely undone. And yet, as he stood alone in his spot across the Cullen's front yard under the cover of the trees, he couldn't look away.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?"
Jacob looked over, and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the sun which had suddenly appeared through the clouds, but it wasn't just his eyes - it was his entire world shifting, bending, molding itself around this person, this creature who'd stepped into the sunlight and turned his world completely upside down. He hadn't meant to imprint at Bella's wedding, but then, wasn't that the point?
The girl blinked at him, a look of confusion on her face, and he smiled for the first time in days. "Yes. Yes she is."
-
A knock at the door at ten o’clock in the morning woke him up, and the last person Jacob expected to see when he threw the front door open wide was Bella Cullen and the girl he'd been dreaming about for the past three days.
"Bella," he said, but his eyes were immediately drawn to her friend. "What are you doing here?"
"I needed to - I didn't see you at the wedding and -" She kept throwing glances at the girl, like she couldn't say what she needed to say in front of her friend.
Jacob's eyes hardened. "And you wanted to say goodbye," he said, voice cold as ice.
The girl was looking from one to the other, confusion evident on her beautiful face.
"It's just for a while," she said, voice barely above a whisper.
Jacob leaned forward to whisper in her ear, and the girl turned her eyes away. "You know better than anyone that is far from the truth." He stood up straight again, and his face softened as he gestured to the girl. "Who's your friend?"
"Oh! Angela, this is Jacob. Jacob Black this is Angela.... Weber..." Bella's voice trailed off as she took a good, hard, stare at the look on Jacob's face as he stared at her friend.
"Nice to finally meet you, Jacob," Angela said, her voice soft.
Jacob smiled. "Hello, Angela."
Bella's eyes were wide. "Oh." Jacob knew, right then, she understood what had happened.
Angela gestured behind her, "You know, I could wait in the car if you two need to talk."
"There's nothing for us to talk about." Jacob took a step forward as if to hug Bella, then thought better of it. He shook his head. "Goodbye, Bells," he whispered, before shutting the door softly on both of them.
-
The ride back to the Cullen's house was eerily quiet. Bella had her face pressed up against the glass. She was staring out the window at the rain falling, but Angela could tell she wasn't watching the rain at all. There was something - rather, someone else on her mind. This was not the face of a newlywed.
When Bella had called and asked if she could give her a lift to her friend's house, Angela hadn't asked questions (although she was curious) both because it wasn’t in her nature to pry, and because she’d just been happy to get out of the house and away from the phone and the almost constant fighting with Ben. Bella had offered some information - Edward's family and Jacob's family did not get along, and while the rift between them had begun to mend, Edward didn't want to test the waters just yet.
That and Jacob and Edward weren't exactly the best of friends. Angela thought of the absolutely devastated look on Jacob's face as he watched Bella dance with Edward from the shadows - she was pretty sure she knew why. Something had compelled her to approach him that day, to say something, anything, just to make sure he was all right. The sight of his smile had made her feel warm and happy and she couldn't help but smile in return.
Bella turned to her slowly and took a deep breath, as if what she was about to say took courage. "I think you should be… friends with Jacob.”
“What?” Angela glanced at Bella out of the corner of her eye, still trying to watch the road and look at her friend at the same time. Bella was still staring out her window, head turned away from Angela so she could not see her expression.
Bella turned around and Angela did not understand the look in her eyes - resigned, sad, and determined. “I mean...” She sighed. “I think you should get to know him better. You two seem to get on well.”
“Bella, I’ve barely spoken a full sentence to him.”
“Angela,” she hesitated, struggling to find the right words. “I know Jacob and I know you. You’re both my friends.” Her voice broke on the word “friends.” Angela didn’t understand why.
They’d arrived at Edward’s house and Bella was fidgeting in her seat. She cleared her throat. “Will you just trust me on this?” She asked. Clearly, this was something she was adamant about.
Angela let out a breath, ruffling the hair around her face. “Fine. I trust you, Bella.”
Bella smiled, her face registering obvious relief. “Thanks, Angela. I promise, you won’t regret it.”
-
Angela wasn’t sure what she was doing standing outside of Jacob Black’s front door for the second time in less than a week. Maybe she was taking Bella’s advice - even if she didn’t quite understand her friend’s strange behavior. Maybe she just needed someone to talk to after yet another clash with Ben.
Or maybe, her mind argued with her, you’re a little bit attracted to him and you liked Bella’s idea more than you would care to admit.
She frowned, telling the voice in the back of her mind to shut up.
She was about to turn around - spineless to the end, she thought with a sigh - and walk away when the front door opened to reveal Jacob and two boys she didn’t recognize, both very tall (What did they feed the kids around here? Growth hormones?) and broad and equally surprised to see her. She was shocked that the two of them seemed to know who she was even though she’d never seen them before. Had Jacob talked about her?
“Angela,” Jacob said, sounding surprised but pleased to see her standing there. The two boys smirked knowingly, as if sharing some inside joke she was not in on yet was the butt of.
“Is this a bad time? I would have called, but I don’t have your number and Bella wasn’t picking up.” The sound of Bella’s name made Jacob wince before he could catch himself. Angela noticed the way he tried to hide his reaction.
“She wouldn’t,” one of the boys mumbled.
The other hit him in the back of his head. “Shut it, Embry.”
Embry rolled his eyes. “Jake, we’ll leave you alone.” Angela might have been mistaken, but he could have been leering at her. “Nice to meet you, Angela.”
Angela only nodded as the two boys walked around her and out into the rain.
“You know,” she said turning back to Jacob and wringing her hands in the bottom of her jacket. “If I’m intruding-“
“No,” Jacob cut her off quickly. “You’re not.”
“But…your friends…”
He rolled his eyes. “Ignore them. I do.” He smiled and his face lit up like the sun. Angela couldn’t help but smile in return.
-
They spent the day doing absolutely nothing and Jacob couldn’t remember a time he had been happier sitting on his living room couch and just talking to someone. (That was a lie. He could. He chose not to.) He didn’t mind that Angela did most of the talking if that meant he got to hear her voice.
She told him about her family, her twin brothers and her father’s ministry. She explained her thoughts about her fights with her boyfriend, how she wanted to make things work but she didn’t know how much longer she could hold on to something that obviously just wasn’t working anymore.
She asked him questions, too, about Billy and his friends and even a hesitant question or two about Bella that made him wonder just how much she knew about how he’d felt for her.
He tiptoed around the more difficult questions. Angela was perceptive, dangerously so. She’d caught his wince and Embry’s seemingly out-of-place jibe at Bella’s expense.
“My family and the Cullens have never gotten along. Embry just doesn’t like Edward.” Little white lies and half-truths. He almost cringed, fighting back the urge to tell her everything. Not yet. Soon.
“Oh.” There was a frown on her pretty face and Jacob wanted to smack himself for being the person who put it there. She didn’t pry - she simply shrugged and accepted his explanation without question.
To say he was relieved would be an understatement.
-
When Sam came through his front door, the last thing Jacob expected him to say was, “Angela is missing.”
The words made Jacob’s insides freeze, and everything came to a screeching halt.
The past four weeks had been bliss, almost perfection - almost only because Jacob still hadn’t told Angela the truth, and Angela still hadn’t broken up with her boyfriend. He’d seen them together, just once, outside of her house when he’d gone to pick her up. They’d been arguing over something. When he’d gotten closer, he realized they’d been fighting over him. Ben insisted they’d been getting to close, that something had to be going on. Angela retorted that nothing was going on, and that he was only seeing what he wanted to see because he was jealous she’d made a friend who was a guy and wasn’t him.
Ben left with the slam of his door, gunning his car down the road. Angela had been left in tears.
Jacob had been left trying to convince himself not to go after Ben for making someone as beautiful and perfect as his Angela cry.
The words, “Angela is missing,” were like a shock to his system, and Jacob had to remind himself to breathe so he could ask Sam, “How? When?”
“Just this afternoon. Apparently, she went to meet Ben but never came home.” Jacob’s hands clenched into tight fists, his arms thrumming with the need to change.
“Easy, Jacob,” Sam said, placing a hand on his arm.
Jacob closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he spoke, his eyes were still closed. “How did you find all this out?”
“Charlie called me - asked if I would be willing to help with the search party since…” He paused.
“Since you helped find Bella when she was lost in the woods.” Jacob opened his eyes. “You can talk about her, Sam. I’m not going to run off again.”
“I know." Sam held the front door open. "Quil and Embry are already out looking for her. We should get out there.” He grinned. “We’ll find her a lot faster than any human ever would.”
“She doesn’t know about us, Sam,” Jacob said, pulling his shirt over his head and joining him at the door. “I don’t want to scare her away before I’ve even had the chance to tell her anything.”
“If you want to find her, it’s a risk you’re going to have to take.”
Sam’s form rippled and he stood on all fours in front of Jacob, throwing a look over his shoulder.
Jacob sighed, letting himself shift, then took off like a shot towards the trees.
-
This was such a bad idea. Quite possibly the worst idea she’d ever had.
Angela had never been much of a nature girl. She liked the idea of nature - she’d always thought that Forks was, quite possibly, the most beautiful place in the world to live - but stick her in the middle of the woods with nothing but a tent and a backpack of supplies and she was worse off than Jessica Stanley. Ben always poked fun of her the few times they went camping with his family.
Ben… she swiped at the traitorous tears falling down her cheeks angrily. Thinking of him made her feel like a fool. She had seen this break-up coming from a mile away. She shouldn’t have been surprised. She was glad it was finally over, but seeing him with another girl after he’d accused her of doing God only knew what with Jacob… that made her angry. That hurt more than the break-up itself.
Why she’d had the bright idea to walk through the woods to clear her head, she’d never know. What she did know was that she was lost, her cell phone had no signal, the sun had set, and she was freezing. At least it wasn’t raining.
Shivering, Angela huddled in her jacket and curled up under a tree. She wouldn’t get anywhere but more lost if she kept walking. Maybe if she stopped, someone would find her.
She didn’t know how long she lay there with her eyes closed but at some point, she heard a branch crack. Like something was coming closer. Her eyes snapped open.
Directly in front of her, something was crouched down low behind a bush. She couldn’t see much - until it moved. Then she froze, stifling her scream in the back of her throat.
“It” was a wolf - but it wasn’t like any wolf she’d ever seen. He - assuming it was a he - was huge, larger than even the tallest greyhound she’d encountered. She was terrified. Yet, he approached her slowly, as if he was trying not to scare her anymore than he already had - but that didn’t make any sense and Angela closed her eyes. Then -
“Angela!”
Angela’s heart leapt in her throat. She recognized that voice.
The wolf let out a short bark then turned and fled. Maybe it was true what they said and they really were more scared of you than you were of them.
“Angela!”
Jacob called again and Angela finally found her voice to respond.
“I’m here!”
A pinprick of light became a beacon and Angela stood up as a shirtless but very welcome Jacob came running through the trees and swept her up in his arms, hugging her tightly.
“God, Angela, I was so worried,” he said gruffly, burying his face in her hair. Her heart skipped a beat. What a time for her emotions to make an appearance.
“I’m fine, really,” she said, fighting the sudden and highly irrational urge to kiss him. His face was just so close. She’d never had to look up at a boy before.
Instead, she rolled her eyes and ignored the butterflies doing somersaults in her stomach. “I just took a walk to let off some steam and got lost. I was stupid to walk through the woods.”
“You could never be stupid, Angie.” Angela had always hated that nickname with a fierce passion, but something about the way Jacob said it made her knees weak. She swallowed, unable to answer, feeling more and more idiotic by the second.
“Come on,” Jacob said, tugging on her hand. “Let’s get you somewhere warm.”
It wasn’t until she was in his car, snuggled into his side and halfway to his house that she realized he’d said somewhere warm - not home - and she realized that she didn’t care.
-
Jacob ran a hand through Angela’s hair and smiled as she sighed, moving closer to him.
He’d lost her today. Maybe not in the sense that most people usually used that phrase, but the thought that he could lose her, without her ever knowing how he felt, without her ever knowing the truth about him…he shuddered. He wanted to tell her what he was. He wanted Angela, his soul mate, the other half of him, to accept him. Wasn’t that the purpose of imprinting, after all?
Jacob stopped the car on the side of the road and Angela sat up with a frown, looking out the windshield into the night. “Why are we stopping?”
Jacob hesitated, but ploughed forward. If he was going to do this, he would do this right. No more waiting.
“Angela, I have to tell you something. Something big and important. Something that might scare you.”
Angela smiled in that way that made his heart stutter. “You could never scare me.”
“Yes, I could.” Her smile fell and she simply looked pensive, curious. Jacob walked over to her side of the car and he could feel her gaze burning into him, watching his every move. “Let me show you.”
Jacob pulled her towards the tree line and Angela almost stopped in her tracks. He could see the internal struggle in her head - stay or go. “Jacob,” she hesitated. “I’ve had enough scares for one night. If you’re fooling around-“
“I’m not,” he said firmly, squeezing her hand. “I swear. This is just one of those things you have to see to believe.”
Both of them were silent for a while. When they reached a break in the trees where the moon shone through and Jacob knew that Angela would have enough light to see, he dropped her hand and turned to her.
“Angela, do you know any of the tribal legends?”
Angela bit her lip. She looked somewhat embarrassed. Jacob fought the urge to grin. “Not really.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard of werewolves - everyone has.”
“Honestly, Jacob Black,” Angela snapped and Jacob could tell she’d finally reached her breaking point. “If you’ve dragged me out here just to play games with me-“
“No.” Jacob gently took her face in his hands. Angela froze and stared at him. “No games. I promise.” Then, he released her and walked away.
“Where are you going?” she called after him and he chuckled.
“I’ll be right back! Hopefully you’ll still be there,” he mumbled.
When Angela was out of sight, Jacob slipped out of his shorts and let the change slip over him. At once, the thoughts of his pack brothers thundered across his mind. He shut them all out. He was on a mission - and this mission was important.
Slowly, Jacob loped through the trees, and Angela gasped, hand flying up to her mouth as he came into view. When she took a step back, he halted and moved his head down, trying to let her know that she was safe. That he would never hurt her.
Eventually, Angela was able to gasp out, “Werewolves.”
Jacob nodded once.
Angela slowly lowered her hand from her mouth. “I thought you were… I mean I was expecting you to… I think I need to sit.” She sat down hard on the ground and he cautiously approached her again. This time, she let him, eyeing him furtively.
“I never would have thought that…” She shook her head.
Jacob sat down and placed his head in her lap and Angela jumped, startled, then laughed at herself, before slowly reaching out a hand and running her fingers through his fur. He closed his eyes, letting a rumbling come from deep in his throat. Angela sighed.
Then, she smiled. “Jacob… not that I mind this - because I don’t - but I have some questions, and…well, I’d like for you to be able to answer them. Do you think you could change back now?”
Jacob laughed, standing and running back towards the trees, but not before reaching up and licking Angela from chin to forehead.
“Yech! Jacob! Was that necessary?”
-
Jacob is a werewolf. Angela repeated this to herself about a hundred times in the minute Jacob was gone, trying to convince herself she wasn’t crazy.
But there he was again, two legs, two arms, and all human, when just sixty seconds ago, he’d been covered in fur and had his head in her lap. And he’d licked her.
Jacob sat down next to her, hands clasped in his lap. “So, what do you want to know?”
“Is everything too tall an order?” She wanted to know everything, not just because this was one of the most amazing and incredible things she had ever seen in her life, but because this was Jacob.
He laughed. “Not at all.”
She tried something she thought was at least somewhat innocuous first. “Why did you cringe when I brought up Bella that first day I was at your house?”
So much for innocuous - Jacob cringed yet again. “You are much too perceptive, Angie.” Her heart fluttered. “Werewolves aren’t the only mystical being that actually exists. Vampires do, too. They’re our natural enemies.”
“But what does that have to do with-“ Angela paused, thinking to herself for a moment. “The Cullens.”
Jacob looked absolutely shocked. “How did you figure that out so quickly?”
She grinned. “Perceptive. That and it explains their strange behavior.”
“Well, what you haven’t figured out is that Edward was planning on changing Bella into one of them - that’s probably the reason you couldn’t reach her when you tried to call.”
Angela’s eyes widened. She tried to imagine her friend as a vampire, drinking blood and living forever - the vision was impossible, and she shook her head clear of the image, even though this did explain Bella’s strange behavior that day in her car. However, this still did not explain her odd advice - even if Angela was glad for it now.
Jacob sighed. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to tell you all of this, Angela. I’ve fought with myself for weeks over it.”
“You’ve only known me for a month,” Angela said, touching her shoulder to his, trying to lighten the mood.
“That’s just it,” Jacob said softly, glancing down at his lap. “I’ve wanted to tell you since…” He took a deep breath. “Since that first day you came to visit me alone.”
Angela’s breath quickened. “Jacob… you’d barely known me for a week then.”
“I know.” He took her hand in his and stared down at their joined fingers. His skin was always so warm. “Angela… at Bella’s wedding… when you came to talk to me… when I looked at you for the first time… it was like everything stopped. My entire world stopped, and changed and suddenly shifted itself… around you.”
Angela’s heart was beating faster than it ever had in her life - she was sure of it. “What…”
“It’s called imprinting. It’s how werewolves find…their soul mates.”
Jacob was still staring down at their hands, and she wasn’t sure how to react to his announcement. He’d just told her that she was his soul mate; that it had been, for lack of better term, love at first sight. How was she supposed to react to that?
The rational part of her brain was telling her that this was all an elaborate hoax that she would regret believing in about ten seconds.
She ignored the rational part of her brain.
Angela leaned forward and crushed her mouth to Jacob’s, closing her eyes and letting herself sink into the feel of him. Jacob wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her closer to him. She felt so hot, like her skin might burst into flames, and she couldn’t tell if that was because of his hand on her neck or just because this was Jacob.
Eventually, she pulled away a fraction, leaning her forehead against his.
“That wasn’t quite the reaction I was expecting,” Jacob said with a smile, breathing heavily, “But I’ll take it.”
"I can be unpredictable, too," she said, and as he leaned forward to kiss her again, she proved her point by pulling away and standing with a grin.
Jacob grabbed her around her waist, and she laughed. "Come on," he said, kissing her neck and making her pulse jump, "I'll take you home."
Who would have thought, Angela reflected as Jacob took her hand and led her back through the woods - Bella was right.
Pairing: Jacob/Angela
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4,085
Summary: Some things happen when you least expect them to - especially falling in love.
A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELYSSA, (anythingbutgrey), you crazy, wonderful, Jacob-loving girl :D Thank you apresmoi for the super-speedy beta - you rock.
It rained the day of Bella's wedding.
Jacob thought this was appropriate - he felt like his heart was being torn out of his chest. Something should go wrong on this otherwise perfect day for the otherwise perfect couple.
No, he thought to himself, she wasn't perfect yet, but he cut that train of thought off abruptly - thinking of her with a vampire's skin, bright red eyes, and a thirst for blood... that was too much to bear.
Jacob had agreed to come to the wedding, but had yet to actually step foot into the reception. One look at Bella in her wedding dress in Edward's arms, and he'd almost been completely undone. And yet, as he stood alone in his spot across the Cullen's front yard under the cover of the trees, he couldn't look away.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?"
Jacob looked over, and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the sun which had suddenly appeared through the clouds, but it wasn't just his eyes - it was his entire world shifting, bending, molding itself around this person, this creature who'd stepped into the sunlight and turned his world completely upside down. He hadn't meant to imprint at Bella's wedding, but then, wasn't that the point?
The girl blinked at him, a look of confusion on her face, and he smiled for the first time in days. "Yes. Yes she is."
-
A knock at the door at ten o’clock in the morning woke him up, and the last person Jacob expected to see when he threw the front door open wide was Bella Cullen and the girl he'd been dreaming about for the past three days.
"Bella," he said, but his eyes were immediately drawn to her friend. "What are you doing here?"
"I needed to - I didn't see you at the wedding and -" She kept throwing glances at the girl, like she couldn't say what she needed to say in front of her friend.
Jacob's eyes hardened. "And you wanted to say goodbye," he said, voice cold as ice.
The girl was looking from one to the other, confusion evident on her beautiful face.
"It's just for a while," she said, voice barely above a whisper.
Jacob leaned forward to whisper in her ear, and the girl turned her eyes away. "You know better than anyone that is far from the truth." He stood up straight again, and his face softened as he gestured to the girl. "Who's your friend?"
"Oh! Angela, this is Jacob. Jacob Black this is Angela.... Weber..." Bella's voice trailed off as she took a good, hard, stare at the look on Jacob's face as he stared at her friend.
"Nice to finally meet you, Jacob," Angela said, her voice soft.
Jacob smiled. "Hello, Angela."
Bella's eyes were wide. "Oh." Jacob knew, right then, she understood what had happened.
Angela gestured behind her, "You know, I could wait in the car if you two need to talk."
"There's nothing for us to talk about." Jacob took a step forward as if to hug Bella, then thought better of it. He shook his head. "Goodbye, Bells," he whispered, before shutting the door softly on both of them.
-
The ride back to the Cullen's house was eerily quiet. Bella had her face pressed up against the glass. She was staring out the window at the rain falling, but Angela could tell she wasn't watching the rain at all. There was something - rather, someone else on her mind. This was not the face of a newlywed.
When Bella had called and asked if she could give her a lift to her friend's house, Angela hadn't asked questions (although she was curious) both because it wasn’t in her nature to pry, and because she’d just been happy to get out of the house and away from the phone and the almost constant fighting with Ben. Bella had offered some information - Edward's family and Jacob's family did not get along, and while the rift between them had begun to mend, Edward didn't want to test the waters just yet.
That and Jacob and Edward weren't exactly the best of friends. Angela thought of the absolutely devastated look on Jacob's face as he watched Bella dance with Edward from the shadows - she was pretty sure she knew why. Something had compelled her to approach him that day, to say something, anything, just to make sure he was all right. The sight of his smile had made her feel warm and happy and she couldn't help but smile in return.
Bella turned to her slowly and took a deep breath, as if what she was about to say took courage. "I think you should be… friends with Jacob.”
“What?” Angela glanced at Bella out of the corner of her eye, still trying to watch the road and look at her friend at the same time. Bella was still staring out her window, head turned away from Angela so she could not see her expression.
Bella turned around and Angela did not understand the look in her eyes - resigned, sad, and determined. “I mean...” She sighed. “I think you should get to know him better. You two seem to get on well.”
“Bella, I’ve barely spoken a full sentence to him.”
“Angela,” she hesitated, struggling to find the right words. “I know Jacob and I know you. You’re both my friends.” Her voice broke on the word “friends.” Angela didn’t understand why.
They’d arrived at Edward’s house and Bella was fidgeting in her seat. She cleared her throat. “Will you just trust me on this?” She asked. Clearly, this was something she was adamant about.
Angela let out a breath, ruffling the hair around her face. “Fine. I trust you, Bella.”
Bella smiled, her face registering obvious relief. “Thanks, Angela. I promise, you won’t regret it.”
-
Angela wasn’t sure what she was doing standing outside of Jacob Black’s front door for the second time in less than a week. Maybe she was taking Bella’s advice - even if she didn’t quite understand her friend’s strange behavior. Maybe she just needed someone to talk to after yet another clash with Ben.
Or maybe, her mind argued with her, you’re a little bit attracted to him and you liked Bella’s idea more than you would care to admit.
She frowned, telling the voice in the back of her mind to shut up.
She was about to turn around - spineless to the end, she thought with a sigh - and walk away when the front door opened to reveal Jacob and two boys she didn’t recognize, both very tall (What did they feed the kids around here? Growth hormones?) and broad and equally surprised to see her. She was shocked that the two of them seemed to know who she was even though she’d never seen them before. Had Jacob talked about her?
“Angela,” Jacob said, sounding surprised but pleased to see her standing there. The two boys smirked knowingly, as if sharing some inside joke she was not in on yet was the butt of.
“Is this a bad time? I would have called, but I don’t have your number and Bella wasn’t picking up.” The sound of Bella’s name made Jacob wince before he could catch himself. Angela noticed the way he tried to hide his reaction.
“She wouldn’t,” one of the boys mumbled.
The other hit him in the back of his head. “Shut it, Embry.”
Embry rolled his eyes. “Jake, we’ll leave you alone.” Angela might have been mistaken, but he could have been leering at her. “Nice to meet you, Angela.”
Angela only nodded as the two boys walked around her and out into the rain.
“You know,” she said turning back to Jacob and wringing her hands in the bottom of her jacket. “If I’m intruding-“
“No,” Jacob cut her off quickly. “You’re not.”
“But…your friends…”
He rolled his eyes. “Ignore them. I do.” He smiled and his face lit up like the sun. Angela couldn’t help but smile in return.
-
They spent the day doing absolutely nothing and Jacob couldn’t remember a time he had been happier sitting on his living room couch and just talking to someone. (That was a lie. He could. He chose not to.) He didn’t mind that Angela did most of the talking if that meant he got to hear her voice.
She told him about her family, her twin brothers and her father’s ministry. She explained her thoughts about her fights with her boyfriend, how she wanted to make things work but she didn’t know how much longer she could hold on to something that obviously just wasn’t working anymore.
She asked him questions, too, about Billy and his friends and even a hesitant question or two about Bella that made him wonder just how much she knew about how he’d felt for her.
He tiptoed around the more difficult questions. Angela was perceptive, dangerously so. She’d caught his wince and Embry’s seemingly out-of-place jibe at Bella’s expense.
“My family and the Cullens have never gotten along. Embry just doesn’t like Edward.” Little white lies and half-truths. He almost cringed, fighting back the urge to tell her everything. Not yet. Soon.
“Oh.” There was a frown on her pretty face and Jacob wanted to smack himself for being the person who put it there. She didn’t pry - she simply shrugged and accepted his explanation without question.
To say he was relieved would be an understatement.
-
When Sam came through his front door, the last thing Jacob expected him to say was, “Angela is missing.”
The words made Jacob’s insides freeze, and everything came to a screeching halt.
The past four weeks had been bliss, almost perfection - almost only because Jacob still hadn’t told Angela the truth, and Angela still hadn’t broken up with her boyfriend. He’d seen them together, just once, outside of her house when he’d gone to pick her up. They’d been arguing over something. When he’d gotten closer, he realized they’d been fighting over him. Ben insisted they’d been getting to close, that something had to be going on. Angela retorted that nothing was going on, and that he was only seeing what he wanted to see because he was jealous she’d made a friend who was a guy and wasn’t him.
Ben left with the slam of his door, gunning his car down the road. Angela had been left in tears.
Jacob had been left trying to convince himself not to go after Ben for making someone as beautiful and perfect as his Angela cry.
The words, “Angela is missing,” were like a shock to his system, and Jacob had to remind himself to breathe so he could ask Sam, “How? When?”
“Just this afternoon. Apparently, she went to meet Ben but never came home.” Jacob’s hands clenched into tight fists, his arms thrumming with the need to change.
“Easy, Jacob,” Sam said, placing a hand on his arm.
Jacob closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he spoke, his eyes were still closed. “How did you find all this out?”
“Charlie called me - asked if I would be willing to help with the search party since…” He paused.
“Since you helped find Bella when she was lost in the woods.” Jacob opened his eyes. “You can talk about her, Sam. I’m not going to run off again.”
“I know." Sam held the front door open. "Quil and Embry are already out looking for her. We should get out there.” He grinned. “We’ll find her a lot faster than any human ever would.”
“She doesn’t know about us, Sam,” Jacob said, pulling his shirt over his head and joining him at the door. “I don’t want to scare her away before I’ve even had the chance to tell her anything.”
“If you want to find her, it’s a risk you’re going to have to take.”
Sam’s form rippled and he stood on all fours in front of Jacob, throwing a look over his shoulder.
Jacob sighed, letting himself shift, then took off like a shot towards the trees.
-
This was such a bad idea. Quite possibly the worst idea she’d ever had.
Angela had never been much of a nature girl. She liked the idea of nature - she’d always thought that Forks was, quite possibly, the most beautiful place in the world to live - but stick her in the middle of the woods with nothing but a tent and a backpack of supplies and she was worse off than Jessica Stanley. Ben always poked fun of her the few times they went camping with his family.
Ben… she swiped at the traitorous tears falling down her cheeks angrily. Thinking of him made her feel like a fool. She had seen this break-up coming from a mile away. She shouldn’t have been surprised. She was glad it was finally over, but seeing him with another girl after he’d accused her of doing God only knew what with Jacob… that made her angry. That hurt more than the break-up itself.
Why she’d had the bright idea to walk through the woods to clear her head, she’d never know. What she did know was that she was lost, her cell phone had no signal, the sun had set, and she was freezing. At least it wasn’t raining.
Shivering, Angela huddled in her jacket and curled up under a tree. She wouldn’t get anywhere but more lost if she kept walking. Maybe if she stopped, someone would find her.
She didn’t know how long she lay there with her eyes closed but at some point, she heard a branch crack. Like something was coming closer. Her eyes snapped open.
Directly in front of her, something was crouched down low behind a bush. She couldn’t see much - until it moved. Then she froze, stifling her scream in the back of her throat.
“It” was a wolf - but it wasn’t like any wolf she’d ever seen. He - assuming it was a he - was huge, larger than even the tallest greyhound she’d encountered. She was terrified. Yet, he approached her slowly, as if he was trying not to scare her anymore than he already had - but that didn’t make any sense and Angela closed her eyes. Then -
“Angela!”
Angela’s heart leapt in her throat. She recognized that voice.
The wolf let out a short bark then turned and fled. Maybe it was true what they said and they really were more scared of you than you were of them.
“Angela!”
Jacob called again and Angela finally found her voice to respond.
“I’m here!”
A pinprick of light became a beacon and Angela stood up as a shirtless but very welcome Jacob came running through the trees and swept her up in his arms, hugging her tightly.
“God, Angela, I was so worried,” he said gruffly, burying his face in her hair. Her heart skipped a beat. What a time for her emotions to make an appearance.
“I’m fine, really,” she said, fighting the sudden and highly irrational urge to kiss him. His face was just so close. She’d never had to look up at a boy before.
Instead, she rolled her eyes and ignored the butterflies doing somersaults in her stomach. “I just took a walk to let off some steam and got lost. I was stupid to walk through the woods.”
“You could never be stupid, Angie.” Angela had always hated that nickname with a fierce passion, but something about the way Jacob said it made her knees weak. She swallowed, unable to answer, feeling more and more idiotic by the second.
“Come on,” Jacob said, tugging on her hand. “Let’s get you somewhere warm.”
It wasn’t until she was in his car, snuggled into his side and halfway to his house that she realized he’d said somewhere warm - not home - and she realized that she didn’t care.
-
Jacob ran a hand through Angela’s hair and smiled as she sighed, moving closer to him.
He’d lost her today. Maybe not in the sense that most people usually used that phrase, but the thought that he could lose her, without her ever knowing how he felt, without her ever knowing the truth about him…he shuddered. He wanted to tell her what he was. He wanted Angela, his soul mate, the other half of him, to accept him. Wasn’t that the purpose of imprinting, after all?
Jacob stopped the car on the side of the road and Angela sat up with a frown, looking out the windshield into the night. “Why are we stopping?”
Jacob hesitated, but ploughed forward. If he was going to do this, he would do this right. No more waiting.
“Angela, I have to tell you something. Something big and important. Something that might scare you.”
Angela smiled in that way that made his heart stutter. “You could never scare me.”
“Yes, I could.” Her smile fell and she simply looked pensive, curious. Jacob walked over to her side of the car and he could feel her gaze burning into him, watching his every move. “Let me show you.”
Jacob pulled her towards the tree line and Angela almost stopped in her tracks. He could see the internal struggle in her head - stay or go. “Jacob,” she hesitated. “I’ve had enough scares for one night. If you’re fooling around-“
“I’m not,” he said firmly, squeezing her hand. “I swear. This is just one of those things you have to see to believe.”
Both of them were silent for a while. When they reached a break in the trees where the moon shone through and Jacob knew that Angela would have enough light to see, he dropped her hand and turned to her.
“Angela, do you know any of the tribal legends?”
Angela bit her lip. She looked somewhat embarrassed. Jacob fought the urge to grin. “Not really.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard of werewolves - everyone has.”
“Honestly, Jacob Black,” Angela snapped and Jacob could tell she’d finally reached her breaking point. “If you’ve dragged me out here just to play games with me-“
“No.” Jacob gently took her face in his hands. Angela froze and stared at him. “No games. I promise.” Then, he released her and walked away.
“Where are you going?” she called after him and he chuckled.
“I’ll be right back! Hopefully you’ll still be there,” he mumbled.
When Angela was out of sight, Jacob slipped out of his shorts and let the change slip over him. At once, the thoughts of his pack brothers thundered across his mind. He shut them all out. He was on a mission - and this mission was important.
Slowly, Jacob loped through the trees, and Angela gasped, hand flying up to her mouth as he came into view. When she took a step back, he halted and moved his head down, trying to let her know that she was safe. That he would never hurt her.
Eventually, Angela was able to gasp out, “Werewolves.”
Jacob nodded once.
Angela slowly lowered her hand from her mouth. “I thought you were… I mean I was expecting you to… I think I need to sit.” She sat down hard on the ground and he cautiously approached her again. This time, she let him, eyeing him furtively.
“I never would have thought that…” She shook her head.
Jacob sat down and placed his head in her lap and Angela jumped, startled, then laughed at herself, before slowly reaching out a hand and running her fingers through his fur. He closed his eyes, letting a rumbling come from deep in his throat. Angela sighed.
Then, she smiled. “Jacob… not that I mind this - because I don’t - but I have some questions, and…well, I’d like for you to be able to answer them. Do you think you could change back now?”
Jacob laughed, standing and running back towards the trees, but not before reaching up and licking Angela from chin to forehead.
“Yech! Jacob! Was that necessary?”
-
Jacob is a werewolf. Angela repeated this to herself about a hundred times in the minute Jacob was gone, trying to convince herself she wasn’t crazy.
But there he was again, two legs, two arms, and all human, when just sixty seconds ago, he’d been covered in fur and had his head in her lap. And he’d licked her.
Jacob sat down next to her, hands clasped in his lap. “So, what do you want to know?”
“Is everything too tall an order?” She wanted to know everything, not just because this was one of the most amazing and incredible things she had ever seen in her life, but because this was Jacob.
He laughed. “Not at all.”
She tried something she thought was at least somewhat innocuous first. “Why did you cringe when I brought up Bella that first day I was at your house?”
So much for innocuous - Jacob cringed yet again. “You are much too perceptive, Angie.” Her heart fluttered. “Werewolves aren’t the only mystical being that actually exists. Vampires do, too. They’re our natural enemies.”
“But what does that have to do with-“ Angela paused, thinking to herself for a moment. “The Cullens.”
Jacob looked absolutely shocked. “How did you figure that out so quickly?”
She grinned. “Perceptive. That and it explains their strange behavior.”
“Well, what you haven’t figured out is that Edward was planning on changing Bella into one of them - that’s probably the reason you couldn’t reach her when you tried to call.”
Angela’s eyes widened. She tried to imagine her friend as a vampire, drinking blood and living forever - the vision was impossible, and she shook her head clear of the image, even though this did explain Bella’s strange behavior that day in her car. However, this still did not explain her odd advice - even if Angela was glad for it now.
Jacob sighed. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to tell you all of this, Angela. I’ve fought with myself for weeks over it.”
“You’ve only known me for a month,” Angela said, touching her shoulder to his, trying to lighten the mood.
“That’s just it,” Jacob said softly, glancing down at his lap. “I’ve wanted to tell you since…” He took a deep breath. “Since that first day you came to visit me alone.”
Angela’s breath quickened. “Jacob… you’d barely known me for a week then.”
“I know.” He took her hand in his and stared down at their joined fingers. His skin was always so warm. “Angela… at Bella’s wedding… when you came to talk to me… when I looked at you for the first time… it was like everything stopped. My entire world stopped, and changed and suddenly shifted itself… around you.”
Angela’s heart was beating faster than it ever had in her life - she was sure of it. “What…”
“It’s called imprinting. It’s how werewolves find…their soul mates.”
Jacob was still staring down at their hands, and she wasn’t sure how to react to his announcement. He’d just told her that she was his soul mate; that it had been, for lack of better term, love at first sight. How was she supposed to react to that?
The rational part of her brain was telling her that this was all an elaborate hoax that she would regret believing in about ten seconds.
She ignored the rational part of her brain.
Angela leaned forward and crushed her mouth to Jacob’s, closing her eyes and letting herself sink into the feel of him. Jacob wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her closer to him. She felt so hot, like her skin might burst into flames, and she couldn’t tell if that was because of his hand on her neck or just because this was Jacob.
Eventually, she pulled away a fraction, leaning her forehead against his.
“That wasn’t quite the reaction I was expecting,” Jacob said with a smile, breathing heavily, “But I’ll take it.”
"I can be unpredictable, too," she said, and as he leaned forward to kiss her again, she proved her point by pulling away and standing with a grin.
Jacob grabbed her around her waist, and she laughed. "Come on," he said, kissing her neck and making her pulse jump, "I'll take you home."
Who would have thought, Angela reflected as Jacob took her hand and led her back through the woods - Bella was right.