Bonded

Chapter 7

I pushed Jacob forward once again until we were both sitting up. He frowned at me. "What's wrong?"

"It's time," I said. "We need to talk about this now."

He raised his eyebrows and looked off to the side. "Well, I just assumed that we wouldn't be seeing other people right now. I mean, I thought it was pretty obvi—"

"Not that, Black." I cut him off with an incredulous smile. "I mean, now that the Bond is done. We need to talk about the future of the pack. We've spent a lot of time doing the fun part, but we need to know now how we're going to work together, if we're going to make this work."

I slid out of bed and grabbed some clothes from my dresser. Maybe if I was clothed, maybe he wouldn't want to jump me. I threw on a sports bra, a black t-shirt and floral sleeping shorts. I reached down to grab his gym shorts and threw them on the bed. "I've been thinking about that, actually," Jacob said, slipping on his shorts.

"When?" I asked, confused. We had been in bed for four days. There's no way he was thinking about it during sex...unless he was. Boy, that'd be a blow to my ego. I started picking up the garbage from the floor.

He chuckled. "Mostly while you were sleeping. I've been on such a high; I couldn't sleep much." Jacob stood in front of me, silently asking me to stop cleaning. I placed a few empty water bottles on my vanity and looked at him. "I think, if this whole experience has taught me anything, it's that we need to be training more and team building." I nodded as he spoke. "You and I need to be a united front, which I think is most important."

"I agree," I mumbled, as I resumed cleaning up.

"The only thing I haven't thought of is where we can have trainings. It's not enough to just be winging it. Don't get me wrong, tearing leeches apart is fun, but..."

"But we need to be prepared for anything vampires throw at us. I get it." I said, throwing my dirty clothes into my laundry basket. "However, I think it's also important for us to still be able to relax. We don't want to overwork them."

He looked so serious. Jacob was usually such a silly, fun spirit, but he had a serious side that hardly ever came out. His full lips were set in a line and his eyes darted around as he actually considered the future of the pack. "I think so too. We need to be spending time together as a family."

"Well, there's Sunday brunch," I pointed out, waving a brush I picked up off the floor in his direction. Sunday brunch was a tradition that our parents had come up with when we were kids. It started out with just my parents, Billy, Old Quil, and Embry's mom, Tiff. They thought it was a great way for us to spend time together and solidify our relationship with each other. As we made friends with more people, our group for brunch grew. At first, it was once a month because that was the only time their schedules could fit it. Then it stopped for a while because their schedules started to get busier. After the first round of boys phased after Sam, he and Emily thought it would be a good idea to bring it back. I never went to Sam and Emily's brunch; I felt like they had bastardized the idea and I just wasn't interested in watching them play house.

Now that Jacob and I were Alphas, we would be taking it over. It was going to be interesting, to say the least. "Of course, brunch." Jacob said, nodding.

"And bonfires." I said, clearing my vanity of my thrown bras and underwear.

"Yeah, but...we need something bigger. I mean, all we do is go to pack meetings, go to work, and go home. I mean, yeah, sometimes we go out, but I don't know. Where's our space for us to just hang out?"

"I don't know, sweetie." I murmured, moving toward my bed to strip my sheets. "It feels like you're describing a playhouse."

He hummed and walked to my closet to grab a new pair of sheets. He helped me to wrap the fitted sheet around my mattress. He was still thinking about it. A little wrinkle between his eyebrows formed as he pushed them together. Jacob plopped on my bed after he saw that the sheet was on the bed. I swatted at his behind and he stood up, still thinking. I continued to make my bed and watch as the cogs turned in his head. "I don't know," he finally grumbled. He shook his head. "I feel ready though, you know? Like I'm pumped."