10:00 AM
Jacob's POV
I never thought in a million years that I would imprint on someone. I don't know why, but I never considered a life where I could be with anyone else besides Bella, even now. For years I have still stupidly held out hope and prayed that maybe she would change her mind about me, leave Edward and then give me a chance.
Now all of a sudden she has a sister in Forks, a sister whom I've imprinted on. It's an involuntary thing, an impulse and feeling that none of us are able to prevent or control. That was demonstrated with Emily, Sam and Leah. Plus, if I could have chose, I wouldn't be in this mess.
I have no clue what she felt in that moment, but for me, it's almost as if the world stopped spinning for just a moment; the only two people who existed were her and I. Our eyes locked, my heart almost beat out of my chest and I had the sudden urge to be as close to her as the physical world would allow me to be. There was barely any conversation after I pulled myself out of my daze.. and then ran out of the door like a child.
It literally pained me to leave the room after I had locked eyes with my soulmate for life, but fear took over my body at the sudden prospect that I now truly do have a reason to keep going, a reason to actually exist. The only reason. Emily chased after me and stopped when I finally made it past Sam, but once I hit the edge of the woods I phased and there was no way she could have caught me then.
I felt awful leaving Delphine (which I only learned her name from listening to Seth's inner monologue) behind in such a moment, but God, I had to get away. That's Bella's sister. Her eighteen year old sister in her senior year of high school. She doesn't know anything about who or what I am. How could she accept the fact that she's destined to be in love with a guy who's not only older than her, but a guy who was once madly in love with her older sibling?
I assume that could be uncomfortable for anyone. Hours went by and I dreaded returning back to the reservation so I went to the next best place, the La Push beach.
I go out there to think quite often, especially when the pack radio won't stop in my head. It's like constantly listening to a station that plays terrible music but the dial is broken so you're stuck with it forever.
Somehow the water out there brings me peace.. serenity.
Being apart of this pack isn't necessarily what I thought my life was going to be like before I phased for the very first time. But now that I think about it, I'm not sure that I had a lot of things keeping me stable at the time, so the pack was kind of a blessing.
The longer I stayed out, the more my heart began to ache. It's hard to explain. It's almost like a dull throbbing in my chest that I can't soothe.
When I had walked in that door and made eye contact with her, I could immediately smell her. A strawberry mixed with lavender, a perfect combination. An intoxicating smell seeping into my subconscious, bringing me closer but further from reality at the same time.
Delphine's brunette hair gently framed her face in the most delicate way and definitely fit the natural shape of her face nicely. The problem is that she looks like she could be Bella's twin, which makes me feel worse. Am I only attracted to Delphine because I was attracted to Bella first? Are either of those things connected in some way?
Maybe I never imprinted on Bella because she was with Edward and she could never be with me. Maybe I imprinted on Delphine because she is basically Bella except for the fact she doesn't have some creepy blood sucking boyfriend shooting eye daggers at me every time I'm around.
Her eyes are different though. Her hazel doe eyes felt like they were pulling me in, like I was attached to thick chains that were dragging me into the grey pools that were framed by lightly feathered eyelashes. It's against my will, but I know there's no way around this.
Delphine and I are soulmates. I've already imprinted on her, there's nothing I can do now. Sure, she has the opportunity to reject me. Every person whose been imprinted on has that option, but it hurts like hell, not just emotionally. Physically it feels like a million bee stings at once until you die, which is a long time if you're someone like me.. longer than I'm okay with. Emotionally it feels like you've been thrown off a cliff of despair and you have no choice but to grin and bear it, hoping the pain doesn't bring you to death or near suicide.. or so I've heard. I would deal with it for her though, I never want anyone to feel like they have no choice with me.
At this point, the best thing I can do is provide her a friendship, protection and my unconditional devotion. I hope I haven't ruined any chance to build that with her after acting like a complete asshole.
I have no idea who this girl is but when I laid my eyes on her it set my heart, mind, soul, all aflame. I've never felt a sensation so strong, and even after the hundreds of stories I've heard; nothing could have prepared me for such a profound experience.
Seeing her for the first time made me feel like all of the events in my life flashed before my eyes. Visions of the future, visions of my past and everything in between. My complete and utter existence was laid before me like it was a scrapbook to look through.
I wanted to go to her.
I can't quite explain what it really was, but it's like she was a magnet and I was a sheet of metal. I wanted nothing more than to engulf her in a hug and never let her go. It felt like I got the wind knocked out of me in the best way possible.
Of course I wanted to say something. I didn't necessarily want to run away - sometimes people do things before they actually have time to process things; which is my problem more often than not.
I think back on the time I kissed Bella, and she punched me in the face; thus fracturing her hand. Sadly enough, that was our first kiss and was only one of the two we ever had.
My heart lurched at the mention of her name.
Bella is the one I will have to face - The one I'm truly worried about. I've never been able to predict how my words may affect her, and I've never been the best at explaining myself.
Back before she even married or gave birth to Renesmée, I explained to her what imprinting was. I described it as it wasn't gravity keeping the imprinter grounded anymore, it's the girl.
She hardly understood it then, though. Bella tried to explain that the reason she couldn't love both Edward and I was because she couldn't imprint like me, but I quickly explained to her it's not a decision. It just happens. I'm not sure she was fully convinced, though.
Since then we haven't discussed it any further, not that there's ever been a reason to.
Who knows how she'll take the news.
•
"You did what?!" Bella shouts at me and rushes towards me; only taking seconds due to her vampire enhanced speed.
I feel a force knock me to the ground, landing on my back. "Agh!" I growl at her as a natural response.
"Bella!" Edward shouts and rushes towards his wife and I to try and pull her away from me. He knows he can't control her but I think it's mainly to keep me from being torn to shreds.
Oddly enough the strange one, Alice, quickly speaks up to advocate for me. "It's not like he can control it, Bella! Give him a chance to speak before you tear his head off!" Shout out to Alice, I guess. I silent thank her and turn my gaze back to the woman in question.
Bella backs away from me slowly, Edward standing closely behind her. I push up off the ground, rub my injured back and try to gain my thoughts quick enough to begin trying to explain. I internally beg Edward to help me out here, knowing that he'll be reading my thoughts anyways.
Bella's chest rises and falls violently.
"What? You couldn't have me so you go after my innocent sister? She's eighteen, Jacob!" She shouts aggressively. Ouch. I shudder at her tone, shocked at this side of Bella that I've never seen before. "I don't give a shit if you can't control it, that means she can't either. That means that the first great love of her life will be forced upon here, can't you see how awful that would be for her?" Bella's tone smoothly descended from anger into sadness.
"Bella, I promise if I could change it I would. She has every right to still deny this and I would never force her into something she wouldn't want to do. Imprinting doesn't create feelings that will never be there." Even though Bella and I have talked about imprinting in the past, I never really gave her the full details about it.
The patriarch of the Cullen family steps in.
"We all know you better than that Jacob. We know you would never hurt Delphine, but you have to understand this is a lot for Bella to process." For some reason his words didn't soothe me, they only seemed to cause anger to erupt in my chest.
"Jacob, don't." Edward warned, reading my thoughts. I hate that he does that but now that we've had a better understanding of each other, sometimes it's easier than talking out loud.
"Jacob don't what?" Bella becomes angry again almost immediately from Edward's words, knowing that he is able to hear every thought of mine. He knows I want to put her in her place and question her real motives and why she's so angry.
"Bella please just leave it alone," Edward begged while keeping his composure. "It's nothing you want to hear." He's absolutely right. If I said what I was really thinking she would be even angrier than before.
"No, I want to know!" The woman I once loved raises her voice, stepping closer to me. "Say what you want to say."
"I'm wondering why you even give a shit," I admit in a monotone voice. "I didn't even know you had a sister until Seth found out. It makes me wonder if you ever really cared about her, why was she such a big secret?" I looked to my left, staring out into the woods. "I know you don't give a shit about me so it couldn't possibly be that."
With an angry huff, Bella turns around and stomps in the direction of the house. Edward followed on her heels, along with Carlisle and Esme.
"Good going, dog breath." Rosalie remarks and takes Emmett's hand in the opposite direction while Alice and Jasper come down the front steps to join me.
"She feels hurt and betrayed, I pieced that together before she had a chance to block me out." Jasper informed me with his southern accent. Alice nodded in agreement but I'm still on the defense.
"Bella can be hurt and betrayed all she wants, but the fact is that it's really convenient that now she's concerned about me or even Delphine. If anything I'd say we're probably the two people that she hasn't even wasted a though on in God knows how long," I spoke, my emotions getting the better of me. "She has got to get her priorities straight."
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