Jacob woke what couldn't have been much more than two hours later to the sound of the pack howling in the distance. His eyes sprang open and he lightly shook Bella awake. "Bells?" He said quietly. "Bells wake up. I have to go."

She woke groggily and climbed off of his chest, "What? What time is it?"

"I don't know but its important or they wouldn't be calling me right now. I have to go." He lightly lifted her off of him and crawled out from under her. "I'll be back when I can."

He hesitated before kissing her, not wanting to press his already excellent luck. She pressed her lips firmly to his, "Be careful with… whatever."

He nodded and turned, running out the front door and into the tree line. He pulled off his shorts and tied them around his ankle before phasing. The shift came naturally, something that hadn't happened before he imprinted. Another reason he believed that the imprints were there to keep them grounded, to encourage the connection between man and animal.

Where have you been? We've been calling you for ten minutes. Sam growled in his head.

He didn't have to answer, images of the day flashed through his head, starting with Bella telling him that she wanted to make things work and ending with them sleeping on the couch together, their kiss on repeat somewhere in between. None of that mattered though. Because the second he phased he saw what was happening through the packs eyes and he took off like the pissed off werewolf that he was.

Bloodsucker passed onto our land. He was stalking one of our people when Paul picked up the scent. Jared filled him in. They were pursuing, but not fast enough, he was going to get away into Forks. Luckily Jake was already there.

Jake don't take him on alone. Paul thought at him. You've never taken on a cold one before. You don't know what they're capable of.

Images of the scar on Bellas arm flashed through his mind. He might not know the story behind it but he knew a bloodsucker bite when he saw it. How she hadn't gotten turned he didn't know but he was thankful. He felt a collective growl build among the pack. No one liked the thought of an imprint getting bitten by a vampire. It was a downright horrible thought.

None of them liked the thought of anyone getting bitten by a vampire.

Sam hadn't ordered him not to go after the vampire alone though and they would get to him fast enough regardless so he picked up speed in the direction the vampire had been headed in when the pack had lost sight of him. He could tell from Pauls thoughts that he was angry with him for not listening, though more worried for his safety than anything else.

Sam wasn't protesting at all. He believed in Jake. He was the future alpha of the pack. He was built to take on blood suckers like this. He was built to do this. Pick up the scent Jake. You can do it. You have to find him before he hits the main town.

Jake jumped across a highway that was luckily empty and as he did he hit the scent. Perfect. Well, not perfect, the smell fried his nostrils, like sickly sweet like bleach only stronger and worse. Like everything horrible he had ever smelled mixed up into one. He wanted to hold his breath but instead he breathed it in deep and turned to run in the direction that made the smell the strongest.

He pushed himself, picking up speed until he could see the vampire ahead of him. Pale skin and brown hair, he was wearing a white shirt that was so crisp Jakes sharp eyes could see it folding with his movements and a pair of jeans. He looked like the average teenager. If it wasn't for his horrible scent and his inhuman speed, you would have thought he was just another student who attended Forks high school with Bella.

He was close now, just a few feet behind the vampire, and he looked nervous, glancing over his shoulder at Jake to see how much ground he was gaining on him. That was his fatal mistake. He slowed down just enough for Jake to pounce. He jumped, digging his claws into the vampires back and taking him down. The bloodsucker hissed at him and used all of his strength to send Jacob flying into a tree a few feet away, he bounced back up; always resilient. He snarled, showing his teeth as they circled each other.

Keep him distracted Sam said We're almost there.

Jacob pounced again, ripping his teeth into the bloodsuckers arm. He severed it, and sent if flying off into the woods. Does that count as a distraction?

No now he's going to put himself back together and he's angry. Jared said in his head, his mind flashed to an image of the first vampire they'd fought, piecing itself back together, fingers slowly inching the hand back to the rest of the arm, the arm back to the torso, the torso back to the head and so on. Jake stared at the fire in the blood suckers eyes as he gazed at the monstrously sized wolf standing in front of him.

"Judah will kill you."

Who the hell is Judah? Jake asked in his head. For once noting that having a mind reader around would come in handy. I really hope he's talking about himself in the third person and he doesn't have any friends.

Jake pounced again but this time the vampire was faster and he dogged out of the way, disappearing into the woods and reappearing a moment later with his arm reattached to his body. There went that plan. Just as Jake was starting to really doubt his plan to take on the vampire alone without ever having faced one before, the rest of the pack bursted through the tree line, surrounding him in all directions. Judah is gonna be disappointed. Jake thought. As he pounced on the vampire who was to busy looking at all of the wolves and trying to decide how to escape to notice him. Jake sunk his teeth into his neck and ripped off his head. The vampire let out a sickening scream and the sound of his head coming off was like nothing he had ever heard before. Like metal on metal only worse. Like nails on a chalkboard times infinity. But some instinctual part of him enjoyed it.

The rest of the pack went after him too, grabbing a foot, an arm, a leg, chunks of his torso. He was never going to stalk prey on their land again. Whoever Judah was, was going to get that message.

When he was thoroughly dismembered, they phased back to their human forms and pulled on their shorts. Jake held his ribs where he'd hit the tree, he'd been thrown against that tree hard enough to kill any normal human and he'd already healed to the point of minor bruising. "Good job Jake," Sam said. "You okay?"

He nodded and dropped his hand, "Yeah, just a little sore. It'll be gone in half an hour."

Sam nodded. "Maybe less." He turned to the rest of the pack, "Okay boys, lets gather up the pieces, Emily and Kim are cooking dinner. Don't want to be late."

Jake joined the rest of the pack as they picked up the pieces of what had previously been a vampire that either weirdly talked in the third person and was named Judah or has a friend named Judah who would probably come for them in the near future. He really hoped it was the first option.

Once all of the pieces were stacked in a pile, Sam handed Jake a box of matches. "You took off the head, you do the honors."

"Really?" Jake asked as he took the box of matches. Sam nodded. He slid the match along the side of the box and watch as it burst into flame. Then he dropped it onto the pile of stony blood sucker parts. They went up in flame like thats what they were designed to do. He supposed they were. It was probably a design flaw on their part but a definite advantage on theirs.

"Okay lets head out." Sam said, "And hey Jake, Bella's welcome to come to dinner tonight if you want to bring her. I believe Emily made hamburgers."

Jake smiled at him. Sam was a pretty cool guy. "I'll ask her. She doesn't want to be official yet so I don't know what that means for stuff like that. I don't want to push her to much, you know."

"Yeah, but you should still ask. Maybe she'd appreciate it. I hear from your dad that she has to cook for Charlie every night. Maybe she'd like a break once in a while."

Jake thought about this for a second and had to admit that this sounded like a feasible idea. "I'll ask. No promises that she'll say yes though."

"Got it, brother." Sam said, then he ran off into the trees and disappeared with the rest of the pack and Jake was alone with the burning vampire.

Bella sat on the couch staring at her phone for a solid half an hour waiting to hear from Jake before she realized that he wouldn't go home, he would come here, and there was no way whatever was happening would be over that quickly. She decided to call Charlie to check on him.

The phone rang three times before he picked up. Finally he did. "Hey, Bella, whats wrong?"

"Nothing, Dad. I just wanted to make sure you were okay." She said. "I hadn't herd from you all day and I just wanted to check in."

He was clearly confused because she rarely checked in unless there was some mysterious anomaly going on in forks like strange animal sitings or inhuman attacks. Instead she was just checking up out of nowhere. "I'm fine, Bella. Just working on some paperwork. What have you been up to all day?"

"Hanging out with Jacob."

There was a slight pause, "You and Jake are friends again?"

"We never really stopped being friends, dad, we were just busy for a while."

"You were definitely not busy, Bella." He said, then in the typical Charlie fashion deciding to avoid any talk of emotion and other serious matters that teenage girls would get involved in, "I guess you're right."

"Always am dad."

The line went silent for a moment and then, "Listen Bella, I've gotta get back to work. And I'm going to go out to get dinner at the diner with Billy tonight so don't worry about cooking for me tonight."

"Okay dad. See you later." She said and they hung up the phone, twirled the phone in her hand. Forty five minutes. It had only been forty-five minutes since he left. How was she supposed to kill time now that she couldn't even cook dinner? She dropped her phone on the end table and headed up the stairs to her bedroom, deciding that she would try to focus on a good book. She didn't have many here. She hadn't been to the book store in Seattle in forever and she had already finished the three books she'd gotten last time she'd been there. She'd spent fifteen minutes perusing her shelves and just picked up the a book that she decided she was okay with rereading when there was a knock on her window.

She spun around to find Jake standing in the tree branches on the opposite side of the glass. She raced over to the window and unlatched it, swinging it open just as he jumped through it with a smile on his face. "You should leave it open when you're expecting me. Its easier than hanging from the limbs."

"Last time I left my window open a vampire let himself into my room and watched me sleep, which I'm now realizing is not exactly normal, especially when you barely know each other at the time." She said, so I'm going to keep the window closed until you knock and I make sure its you out there."

Jacob set his jaw. He was beginning to hate this guy more and more. As if him being a blood sucker wasn't enough, he had to be a creep to match. Not that they weren't all creeps, but he had an extra level of creep factor in Jakes mind that Bella seemed to not take seriously at all. In fact, judging by the small laugh she gave when she said it, she found it funny.

Jake shook his head, trying to clear the thoughts from his mind. Focus, Black he told himself hating the way any mention of Edward made his blood boil and it seemed to not bother her at all now. Which was a vast improvement of the way things had been just two weeks ago.

"So how late is your dad working?" He asked her, twirling her desk chair around and sitting down in it.

She scrunched her eyebrows together, "Uh… why?"

"I was just wondering if you had to cook him dinner." Jake said explaining in a rush, realizing that maybe he should have just lead with that because when half naked and alone asking when the parents will be home might not have the best connotations.

She shook her head, "No, he's going out to the diner with your dad tonight."

Jake silently thanked his father and smiled at Bella, "Thats awesome," He said, "Because Emily and Kim made hamburgers tonight to celebrate a successful hunt-"

"As successful hunt?" She cut him off, "What does that mean?"

Jake paused. He hadn't really meant to say that. At least not like that. And definitely not before she agreed to go to the dinner. "The pack tracked a vampire through tribal land. He wasn't like the Cullen's Bella. He was stalking a girl on La Push. He was going to kill her. So we took him out."

She looked a little bit upset and part of Jake wanted to rip the Cullen's a new one for brainwashing her into thinking all vampires were good and deserved to live. But then she did something that he didn't expect. She ducked down and wrapped her arms around him. "You could have gotten hurt. Vampires like that are dangerous."

"Bella all vampires are dangerous. Some are just good at hiding it." Jake said quietly. "And I'm not going to get hurt, You've seen me. I'm made to take them out. It's in my blood."

"Then why do I see bruises?" She asked, pointing to his torso where there was a line the with of the tree trunk (essentially the majority of his torso) covered in light bruising.

He smiled at her as he pushed her back which almost physically pained him to do, "If I didn't heal at superhuman speed, I would be dead from internal bleeding right now. But I do, so I don't even feel it. I'm basically invincible by your standards. I might not be able to put myself back together like those marble assholes can but I'm pretty tough in my own ways." He placed her hand over his bruise and said, "This was a thousand times worse when it happened forty five minutes ago. Now you can barely see it. They can throw me around like a rag doll. I'll just get right back up and come back for more."

"Thats what I'm afraid of." Bella said quietly, lacing her fingers with his.

Jake rolled his eyes, "Now like I was saying, Emily and Kim are making dinner. I think its hamburgers. They're not as good of cooks as you are but they're still pretty close. So I was thinking maybe we could go hang out with the pack for awhile if, you know, you're cool with that?"

Bella backed up a few steps, "I don't know, I don't get the feeling that they like me very much."

"You're my imprint. They're literally incapable of disliking you." Jake reassured her. Pauls little blow ups had ended the first time they phased together and he got a glimpse of how much he loved her. It was game over then. Now the whole pack was dedicated to her.

She stared at him for a moment, then dropped down and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. It was nothing crazy, just there and then gone, but it was enough to calm the wolf inside of him that screamed for him to be closer closer closer to her all the time no matter how close they were.

"What was that for?" He asked, looking up into her chocolate eyes.

She smiled at him, trapping him between her arms in the chair. "I'm glad you're okay Jake."

"So will you go with me to dinner?"

Bella sighed a long suffering sigh like she couldn't believe that he really had such a one track mind. He couldn't believe it either. All he could think about right now though was getting his imprint to the pack where she would be safely protected by his brothers on the reservation. "Yes," She said, "I'll go to dinner with you."

They pulled up to Sam and Emily's house in Bella's truck forty minutes later. When they walked in the door Jared was giving Kim a play by play of the chase.

"So then Jake phases in and he's still like half asleep. He's Determined that he's going to catch this vampire before it gets to Forks. So he goes after it and sure as shit he rips his arm of and this guy gets so mad!"

Bella turns to look at Jake, "You took down the vampire alone?"

Jake shook his head, "No, I had help. Otherwise he wouldn't be so excited to tell this story."

"So this guy goes all, 'Judah will kill you!' And Jake is like 'Sucks bro' and pounces again and then this guy throws him against a tree and runs off to find his arm."

Kim and Emily both stop laughing to look over at Jake, they give him a once over to make sure he's still in once piece before turning back to their previous task of placing all of the food on the table as they listen to Jared's story. "Then this dude comes back with his arm reattached and comes after Jake and right as Jake is about to go after him again we all get there. Then Jake just goes for it and rips his freaking head off."

It was a pretty short version and they left out the part where the vampire was stalking a girl on the reservation. They made it sound more funny than dangerous. Jake could tell from the look on Bella's face that she knew though. She knew how dangerous these vampires were even if Jared sugar coated the story for her. She'd been attacked before. "Who is Judah?" Emily asked as she set the last of three plates piled high with hamburgers on the table.

"We don't know," Sam answered her, "Jake was hoping that he was just a weird guy who talked about himself in the third person." He placed five bags of hamburger buns on the table. "I don't think we're that lucky."

"Honestly I don't either," Jake said. "I was just being an optimist." He took Bella's hand reassuringly and pulled her further into the room. The house was nice. Sam had bought it after he opened up the construction company that he used to employ the older pack members. It had three bedrooms and two bathrooms, they wanted to make sure the pack had a place to crash if they were ever hurt or just didn't have anywhere else to go. Sam, being the alpha always felt that he had to protect everyone in his pack.

It was a log cabin type, with exposed wood beams on all the walls. The dining room was huge with a large table to fit the whole pack and all of the imprints with room to grow. All in all it was the exact type of house that Jacob wanted to buy for he and Bella some day. He pulled Bella into the dining room and encouraged her into a seat across from where Kim had just sat down. He took a seat next to her and smiled at her as she looked nervously around the room.

"So, Bella." Emily said, "What do you like to do in your free time?" She paused when she got a strange look from Sam, "What, I want to get to know her. I already knew Kim. I've only heard of Bella."

"And not good things," Bella added. When there was only silence she added, "Just addressing the elephant in the room." With a flush in her cheeks she answered Emilys question. "I like to cook and read. Mostly I work on homework. I was trying to get a scholarship but thats mostly gone now so the chances of me going anywhere accept the community college are slim. I'm thinking about getting a job at the diner to pay my way through school."

"That sounds like a good plan," Emily said, her hand resting over Sams. He intertwined their fingers and it was just then that Bella realized that hers and Jacobs finger were still interlocked. "You're a senior right? Like Jake?"

"Yeah. I graduate in May." She answered, wishing that someone else would become the center of attention. She never liked answering questions about herself.

Kim piped up now, "Hey, do you like to garden?"

"I never really had much of a chance. Nothing grows in Arizona. But I've always thought it looked interesting." She answered. She saw Jake and Jared smile at each other and wondered what kind of plan they had worked up.

"Well, you see we're planting a garden out back Thursday afternoon. You know, to cut the cost of feeding all these wolves over here. I was wondering if you wanted to come join us." She directed her attention to Jake. "An extra set of hands would help and Jake has patrol so its not like we would be keeping you apart or anything."

Bella thought about it for a second. "If Emily is okay with it… It is her garden."

"Of course I'm okay with it," She enthused, a smile on her face, crinkling her eyes around her scar. Bella didn't have to ask what the scar was from. She knew it was from a wolf. She did wonder how it happened though. She made a mental note to ask Jake later. "You're always welcome, Bella."

"Then of course I'll come," She said and as everyone dug into the hamburgers, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, and fruit salad on the table the flush finally faded from Bella's cheeks. She let go of Jacobs hand and began to make her plate, slowly, though Jacob moved to help her do it with more speed before the men took all of the food when he realized that she was hesitating before jumping into the hoard of russet skinned hands grabbing for food.

She thanked him as she sat back in her chair and laughed as she told him when to stop. She imagined that he would have just kept piling food on her plate until it was enough for him if she hadn't pushed his hand away. With everyone talking and laughing and even including Bella in it, it looked and felt like a family. Like an episode of full house where they were just missing the theme song music playing over them. Only they were a family of werewolves and their imprints and their job was to hunt vampires.

She realized that for the first time she was glad that Edward had left her. She wanted this. She wanted to be with Jake. She turned to him with a smile on her face and he shook his head confused, "Whats up?"

She stared at him for a second, then looked around the room, taking everything in before looking back at him, "I'm just really happy. It's been a long time since I've been really happy."

AN: Please review and let me know what you think!