Wolf Haven

Four

But he didn’t die. A week later he was weak from thirst, hunger and the impossibility to find a decent position to sleep in, but he was still alive. The huge wolf had dozed off most of the previous two days, though, waking up only when the wind brought the horribly sweet stench of the blood sucker that was still roaming the forest to him. Jake wondered why he hadn’t come for him yet, too weak to even think that he must have been downwind from it. At that point, the wolf would have gladly welcome death, even if it was at the hands of the enemy.

Jake didn’t remember falling asleep, but had to assume he must have dozed off again, lulled by those morose thoughts, because the most amazing smell of rabbit, lavender and something else he couldn’t name woke him up. His big canine eyes opened wondering if the hallucinations had already started, as he could see a human figure approaching. At first, he thought it must be the hunter who had placed the trap, but it didn’t smell like grease, tobacco and gunpowder like the trap itself faintly did, so he blinked a couple of times, trying to clear his blurry vision.

Before Jake could really focus, he smelled a delicate feminine scent behind the promising rabbit smell that until then had had all of his attention, and the whole world seemed to change before his eyes. He felt a sudden joy that came from nowhere and couldn’t be compared with anything else he had felt before. It was like being euphoric and completely at peace with the world at the same time. For no logic reason, he was happy and knew that everything was going to be all right.

In the middle of the rainy forest, she looked like a nymph, all magical and out of an ancient myth. She was looking at him from a few yards away. It was a very pale girl around his age, with grey eyes and a dark mane of curls that cascaded down to her waist. A beige woven skirt went down to her ankles and a brown poncho covered most of her torso gracefully. He didn’t expect to see that kind of clothes so far from the Reservation so the idea of a hallucination seemed more likely than ever.

From the neck down, she could have been the frailest Quileute woman, just as drenched as he was, but she was obviously not one of his people. And yet, her movements around him were slow and delicate, like those of one who communes with nature. It was the strangest mix he had ever seen, though every little detail combined harmonically to make her even more perfect an apparition. Even the two braids that framed the sides and back of her head like a crown held together with a wooden lily brooch, favoured her. Jake wondered if such perfection could really exist in reality and suddenly didn’t understand how he could have ever noticed anyone else.

Her sweet grey eyes were fixed on him, but she didn’t look scared. There was wonder in them, as well as what can only be described as scientific curiosity and a good dose of pity. He severely dislike being pitied, but, in that moment the proud Quileute teen couldn’t care less about that. Pity was a feeling and as long as she felt something for him —anything, really—, he would be happy. It made no sense, but he felt pulled to her with a force that can only be described as gravity.

It was as if she had given his existence a whole new meaning and Jake instinctively thought of Sam: he felt he would become anything in the world for that girl, anything she needed him to be. He had an overwhelming need to become everything to her as she already was to him, even though he had never laid eyes on her before in his life. It was as if every moment he had ever lived had lead to that one instant. Bella, his Dad, his people; nothing else seemed to matter to Jake anymore. Even with a broken bone and a growling stomach, he could stay there and look at her forever.

The wounded animal looked back at her in silence, not daring to move in fear that might scare her off. After all, she did look tiny compared to the huge furry thing he was. There was a more than fair chance such a beauty didn’t think a huge scrappy half-starved wolf was the centre of her universe as she now was of his. Then Jacob smelled it again, strong and so sweet it hurt his nose. His every sense got alert and his body tensed ready to attack, to defend her to death if necessary.   

For days he had prayed for a way out of that hell and there she was: his ticket back to freedom. Yet, he didn’t long for freedom anymore. All he wanted was to make her happy and that usually involved the person to be alive. The only thing Jake could think about at the time was finding a way to make her leave and find a safe place. He wanted to yell, to tell her to go back home because there was a terrible monster nearby, a danger he was in no condition of defending her from, a predator that could smell her from so far away it was probably on its way already.