Sooooooo amazing! I am sooo glad to be posting this chapter! Almost done guys! Thanks KenoshaChick!
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It wouldn't take a genius to realize what all the howling had been about. Jacob was out in the woods. He saw us. He must not have liked what he saw, so much so that he lost control and burst into wolf form while he was essentially still banned from phasing. Now, the wolves would know everything. My parents found Sasha and me only a few seconds after we heard the initial scream. It wasn't required of me to explain what happened. Sasha and I were in the woods, alone, with an ex-boyfriend howling in pain. The math did itself. The four of us went on a search for Jacob throughout our property and the reservation, but we didn't find him. My mother called Seth and he said Jake was out of reach. I couldn't help thinking he may have just been out of our reach. The wolves believed in solidarity like that. I learned this wasn't the first time Jake had done something like this. It was becoming more and more likely the only thing my family was meant to inflict on him was torture.
My mother was devastated. I didn't even want to think about what the pack thought of me. There was absolutely no one in my life left to hurt. Despite all the guilt I felt, the thing I wondered about most was what Jake had been doing out there in the first place. Was he going to fight for me? Was he going to ask to be friends? Was he going to tell me off once and for all? One thing I knew, I would rather have him hating me for the rest of my life if I knew he was safe than to have him love me from an unknown distance.
In spite of our worry, time passed. Jacob didn't return and inevitably, things slowly wound back to be relatively normal. As my parents were already well-aware, even when the most terrible thing one can imagine happens, time doesn't stop. We filled our time much the same way we did before I left. Most hours of the day were spent reading, talking, going for drives, that sort of thing. Nights were spent listening to music or playing midnight baseball games. At the same time, things were decidedly tense. My mother was basically giving me the silent treatment. She didn't say much in my presence beyond the usual pleasantries. I also had yet to apologize, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I simply didn't feel that I was wrong. No one else stepped in to break the tension either. I concluded that my father must have instructed that our argument was to remain between mother and daughter. I appreciated that and let my father know this from time to time.
What made the situation just that much worse was how terribly my parents were handling the transition of my relationship with Sasha. I would argue that we were being respectful. We only held hands or sat together on the sofa when in the presence of others, and that was basically all the time. My aunts and uncles were supportive and sweet, but it was also obvious new rules were set up behind my back. Whenever Sasha and I had a moment to ourselves it would be interrupted by someone. I found it incredibly annoying, even worse than when I was constantly babysat before I ran away. What happened to all the pride they had felt in my accomplishments? What happened to trusting my decisions? Apparently, when it came to the first boyfriend, any amount of trust was tossed out the window.
The only reason I didn't tell them all to get out of our hair was because Sasha insisted I keep my mouth shut. Not that those were his exact words; he was much more eloquent than that. He claimed that with time they would trust us. Thank God for his patience because about three weeks after Jacob's disappearance, Sasha and I finally found ourselves alone in the cottage for the first time. That was the night I discovered my favorite part of this new relationship. I hoped my parents would notice how innocent it was, if only to assuage their worry somewhat. I wore a comfy pair of pajamas, which were really just a t-shirt and shorts, snuggled up against him and fell asleep as we read The Portable Dorothy Parker. I just couldn't stand to read a romantic drama at the moment, even if they were Sasha's favorite. It made me regret how we spent nearly all our time in Romania, only because had I been a little less dense we could have been doing this much sooner.
