Defective - Jacob Black {1}

Chapter 49: Hunt

Jacob's POV

"Morning, boys." Leah greeted us.

"You think you guys got another hour in you?" I asked them both. I wanted to stick to my original plan and see if the pack had been adventurous and come closer to the Cullen land again.

"Sure thing." Jesse said, shaking out his fur and stretching before trotting round the eastern side of the perimeter line to join me.

"Definitely." Leah agreed.

"Let's make the deep run," I said directing it at Jesse and Leah, letting my mind run over the plan so that they could see. "Seth, take the perimeter." I tried not to think about it as it would offend Seth, but I needed the fastest members to help me just in case we ran into anything. Plus one of us needed to stay back to inform the Cullens if anything went wrong.

"Gotcha." Seth broke into an easy jog.

"Off on another vampire errand," Leah grumbled.

"You got a problem with that?" Jesse said with an edge to his tone, Leah had been making remarks about the Cullens throughout their shift. He'd had enough.

"Of course not. I just love to coddle those darling leeches."

"Good. Let's see how fast we can run." I ignored her last comment, not wanting to rise to her.

"Okay, I'm definitely up for that." That shut her up.

Leah was on the far western rim of the perimeter. Rather than cut close to the Cullens' house, she stuck to the circle as she raced around to meet Jesse and I. We sprinted off straight east, knowing that even with the head start, she'd be passing us soon enough.

"Nose to the ground, Leah. This isn't a race, it's a reconnaissance mission."

"I can do both and still kick your butts." She said sassily.

I gave her that one. "I know."

She laughed.

We took a winding path through the eastern mountains. It was a familiar route. We'd run these mountains when the vampires had left a year ago, making it part of our patrol route to better protect the people here. Then we'd pulled back the lines when the Cullens returned. This was their treaty land after all.

But that fact would probably mean nothing to Sam now. The treaty was dead. The question today was how thin he was willing to spread his force. Was he looking for stray Cullens to poach on their land or not? Had Paul spoken the truth or taken advantage of the silence between us?

We got deeper and deeper into the mountains without finding any trace of the pack. Fading vampire trails were everywhere, but the scents were familiar now. I was breathing them in all day long.

I found a heavy, somewhat recent concentration on one particular trail - all of them coming and going here except for Edward. Some reason for gathering that must have been forgotten when Edward brought his dying pregnant wife home. I gritted my teeth. Whatever it was, it had nothing to do with me.

Leah didn't push herself past Jesse and I, though she could have now. We were paying more attention to each new scent than we were to the speed contest. She kept to my left side, running with us rather than racing against us.

"We're getting pretty far out here," she commented.

"Yeah. If Sam was hunting strays, we should have crossed his trail by now." I acknowledged.

"Makes more sense right now for him to bunker down in La Push," Jesse thought. "He knows we're giving the Cullens four extra sets of eyes and ears. He's not going to be able to surprise them."