Jacob POV
Sam can’t you make him quit phasing until he quits moping? He’s driving the rest of us fucking crazy.
Quiet Leah.
Jake, bro, you gotta let her go.
Fuck off Quil.
Jacob- take whatever time you need. You know we hurt with you.
That was the problem, Jacob thought irritably, he couldn’t keep his grief to himself when he was in wolf mode. And, as bitchily as she thought it, Leah was right. He was driving his pack crazy with his misery.
Life had been so perfect only a month ago. Bella was his best friend, she was becoming a member of the pack, and Jacob thought that he could clearly see a future between the two of them.
And then Edward fucking Cullen pulled some desperate Romeo stunt and Bella went rushing off to save him.
It went without saying that the two of them had been even more desperately in love ever since.
And Jacob was back to being a lone wolf.
Which was fine.
He had his pack, his tribe, his dad. He didn’t need Bella Swan.
And he told himself that probably a dozen times a day.
But as he walked up to his house, he couldn’t resist sending a remorseful look at the pair of motorcycles sitting beside his garage. He hadn’t rode his since his faux-breakup with Bella and he didn’t plan on it anytime soon.
“Hey Dad, what’s for dinner?”
Jacob pulled up short when he saw a man sitting at the dining table with his dad. He was tall, not nearly as tall as Jacob, but tall enough. His long black hair was pulled back in a neat little ponytail and his eyes were a shade of grey that sparkled happily in the light.
“Aha!” the man cried. He leapt to his feet and offered Jacob a hand. “You must be Jacob?”
Jacob was bemused, but he politely shook hands with the man who didn’t even flinch at his overly heated skin. Though, he did give him a peculiar look. Which was fine, because Jacob was giving him a peculiar look as well. Jacob assumed he was a friend of his fathers, maybe even a distant relative if the high cheekbones, straight nose, white smile, and long black hair was to be trusted; but Jacob didn’t know his dad had any relatives or friends so young, or so... so cool. The man had on a pair of jeans that looked ‘artfully destroyed’, which meant they probably cost a fortune, and a black t-shirt on with a band logo. He wore a pair of boots that Jacob would give his left hand to own as well. Overall, the stranger already had his approval.
“Sirius,” the man smiled, sitting back down at the table beside Jacob’s dad. “I’m Sirius Black. Long-lost cousin thrice removed, or some nonsense.”
“Your parents named you serious?” Jacob asked only a little rudely.
“Sirius,” Sirius corrected him. “Like the Dog Star. Wait until you meet my husband, his parents named him Remus Lupin, which roughly translates to Wolf McWolfy.”
Jacob’s Dad chuckled, but Jacob shifted uncomfortably from the spot on the wall he was leaning against.
“Where are you from?” he asked, swiftly changing the subject away from wolves. “You don’t sound like you’re from around here.”
“Well I am now,” Sirius beamed. “I grew up in London, I lived there my entire life. But my husband, my goddaughter, and myself just moved close by. I knew Billy here-“ he clapped Jacob’s Dad on the shoulder merrily, “-might still be hanging around and I thought it was time to get to know my cousin.”
“Uh... cool,” Jacob said slowly. He couldn’t imagine why someone would move from London to anywhere near their tiny reservation, but his Dad looked happy, so that was good enough for him. “I’m gonna go...” Jacob trailed off as he tried to think of an excuse to dip out of the reunion, luckily his Dad came to his rescue (sort of).
“Why don’t you go see if you can find Harriette and I’ll get dinner going? Sirius’ goddaughter?” His dad added on at Jacob’s blank look. “She went down to the beach about an hour ago.”
“Alone?” Jacob asked sharply. His Dad knew there were rogue leeches sniffing around, the pack had shifted their priorities to covering the borders from the red head that kept dancing around them. Billy knew that, the pack consulted with the tribe almost daily on the (nonexistent) updates. It wasn’t safe for one random kid to be playing on the beach by themselves right now.
“Rem is a little under the weather,” Sirius said with a small frown. “But Harry’s fine, she can take care of herself.”
Jacob scowled at his Dad as he kicked off the wall, the old man knew better. He resigned himself to fetch the kid, make sure she wasn’t leech lunch at least, then maybe he’d go mooch a meal of Jared. It’s not like he didn’t owe Jacob a hell of a lot of IOU’s for dinners.
Jacob nearly smacked himself in the head when he hit the sand, he hadn’t even thought to ask what this kid looked like. Luck must have struck twice though, because the beach didn’t look very busy even with the bright July sun warming the waves.
Jacob walked down the beach, waving half-heartedly at the people who recognize Billy Black’s son and called his name. He walked along the edge of the water, soaking his last pair of tennis shoes as he went, his eyes peeled for any kid he didn’t recognize or who was alone.
He slowed down drastically and nearly forgot all about Sirius’ goddaughter when he got closer to an absolute babe standing alone in the water. She was only about ten feet past the beach line, but the water was practically up to her knees. She had her jeans rolled up to mid-thigh and Jacob was drooling. Because as great as those exposed legs were, she just got better the further north his eyes traveled. She was thin, but in a toned sort of way, curves in all the right places, with long black hair pulled up in a messy bun. And she was laughing, a pure musical sound, as the waves lapped up on her, soaking her pants and her white long sleeved shirt. Jacob couldn’t see her face, but he was kind of desperate to know if it was as good looking as the rest of her was.
“Don’t drown,” he called casually, hoping to get her attention, his mission put on a temporary back burner.
And then forgotten altogether when she turned around.
Because-
Snip. Snip. Snip.
Everything that had ever made Jacob Jacob was cut away.
His family.
Snip.
His pack.
Snip.
His love for cars and hatred of vampires.
Snip.
Jacob was close to floating away as he stared at the greenest eyes he had ever seen. The only thing keeping him from disappearing altogether was her.
Her.
This girl wasn’t just gorgeous, though she was certainly that, but she was the only thing that carried any real meaning in his life.
The center of the galaxy. The point where every star in the sky rotated around was right there. Right where she was standing.
Her.
Jacob only experienced imprinting through some of the pack members experiences, but nobody told him how intense it was. How utterly perfect it would be.
“I could kill you in ten seconds flat.”
How the moment could be completely ruined the moment she opened her mouth.
“Uh...” Jacob blinked as he struggled to piece together what those perfectly red lips just said. “Sorry, what?”
“I said I could kill you in ten seconds flat,” she repeated. Her big green eyes narrowed as she scrutinized him. “Maybe only eight. Walk away weirdo.”
Jacob felt incredibly caught off-guard.
“Wait- why are you killing me?” he asked bemused. He wasn’t even going to address the weirdo bit, he probably did look odd in just his cutoff shorts and soaking wet sneakers to this absolute goddess of perfection.
The girl turned to face him fully, and ugh, her shirt was absolutely clinging to every single curve of her body. Jacob desperately tried to keep his eyes on hers, but he was a teenage boy, he couldn’t help that she was wearing a soaking wet white shirt that clung to her tanned skin and was showing so much skin. She put her hands on her hips and glared viciously at him. Somehow the look only enhanced her beauty.
“If you think you’re going to kidnap me or some other mad scheme, I’ll have you know that people a lot stronger than you have tried and I’m very hard to kidnap.”
“What?” Jacob felt his wolf twitch in anger, who had tried to kidnap her? Was it a joke? “I’m not kidnapping you.”
“Piss off then,” she quipped. “Quit staring like a weirdo.”
As Jacob was unraveling the fact that he had actually probably been staring like a weirdo, her colorful language in the same accent as Sirius clicked in his mind.
“Are you Harriette?”
The girl tapped her hip, her eyes still narrowed distrustfully. “Depends on who’s asking.”
Jacob chuckled just a little at her attitude and then stepped out closer to her in the water. “Jacob Black,” he offered her his hand (please grab my hand and never let go), “Sirius and Billy sent me to find you.”
“Oh. Oooh,” Harriette smiled and Jesus fucking Christ how much more perfect could this girl be? Her smile was incredible. Her teeth were all almost perfectly straight, aside from one adorably crooked bottom tooth, and it was like the sunlight itself was powering the light behind her smile. “Harriette Potter, my friends call me Harry.” She gripped Jacob’s hand for a brief second (much too briefly) and didn’t even seem to notice the obvious temperature difference.
“Harry,” Jacob said her name slowly, liking the way it felt on his tongue.
“I didn’t say you could call me that, I said my friends do,” Harriette said, her eyes were sparkling with laughter as Jacob realized she had probably said her friends call her Harry just to get the chance to admonish him for saying it. “But I’m starved and your Dad promised to feed me, so let’s go Jacob Black.”
Fuck.
If he liked the way her name tasted in his mouth, it was nothing to how much he liked hearing his come from hers.
An idle part in the back of his mind wondered how it would sound if she was screaming it.
“Are you coming?”
Jacob pulled himself from his own quickly devolving fantasy and saw that Harriette was already back on the sand, a black pair of boots in her hand as she rolled her eyes at him. Jacob practically sprinted up to her, his eyes crinkling with the goofy smile he knew was plastered on his face.
“I can carry those,” he offered once it was clear that Harriette was planning on walking back up to his place without her boots on.
“Orrrr not,” Harriette said. “I’m sure I can carry my shoes myself, thanks.”
You are blowing it, he scolded himself. Be cool. This is only the sole reason for your existence here.
“How old are you?” he blurted out.
Good one.
“Seventeen,” Harriette said. Her lips twisted up in to a smirk that Jacob desperately wished he knew the reason for. “But I’ll be eighteen next week. What about you Mr Tall Dark and Creepy?”
“Creepy?” Jacob laughed since he was mostly sure she was teasing him. “I turn eighteen in January.”
“Seventeen then,” Harriette drawled, her accent driving Jacob absolutely wild. “You don’t look seventeen.”
“I’m tall,” Jacob shrugged. He knew he looked roughly mid-twenties, and would forever unless he decided to give up his phasing, but that usually helped him in most cases.
“Yes you are,” Harriette let her eyes slowly travel from his torso up to his head. Jacob thought maybe she lingered on his torso a little bit, which sent eager chills through his body. There was no way she couldn’t find him at least a little attractive, they were literally made for each other. Pre-destined soulmates if the tribal stories were to be believed.
Which Jacob had doubted right up until he very obviously imprinted on this goddess.
Neither of them said anything as they approached his house, Harriette hummed a soft little tune as she walked that Jacob let wash over him like the greatest symphony.
He felt a moment of panic when she walked through the front door though, he didn’t want to have to sit through dinner and share her with the others. Even if ‘the others’ were his Dad and her godfather. But Harriette was already happily setting her shoes carefully inside the doorway and plopping down at the kitchen table.
“The beach is lovely,” she smiled at his Dad. “My old school had a lake, but I’ve never been to the ocean before, it’s much prettier.”
“Where’d you go to school at?” Jacob asked quickly. His Dad raised an eyebrow at him, curious at his sons expression, and Sirius narrowed his eyes, wary about the look in Jacob’s eyes when he looked at Harriette.
“Er, Scotland,” Harriette said with a quick glance at her godfather. “Private school, very posh and very boring.”
Sirius laughed, draping an easy arm over Harriette’s shoulders. “Very boring,” he agreed with a wink. Jacob tried not to feel irritated at the arm and the wink but... but he was irritated. He wanted to put his arm over her shoulder and wink at her.
“Jacob, why don’t you go put a shirt on and come sit for dinner?” His Dad gave him a pointed look.
“Yeah Jacob,” Sirius’ smile was a little less friendly now, “Why don’t you go put on a shirt?”
“Shirt, yeah, I’ll be right back,” he said to Harriette. He rushed to his room so quickly that he nearly tripped over a chair, causing a giggle to come from the kitchen. Jacob snagged the first shirt he saw, well, the first shirt he saw that passed a quick sniff test. He put on a spray of his cologne for good measure though before hurrying back to the kitchen.
He quickly sat himself across from Harriette, giving her a charming smile to make up for his earlier clumsiness.
“So Jacob,” Sirius said his name like a challenge, “Billy says you’re a mechanic?”
“Aspiring,” Jacob corrected him with a polite smile. It wouldn’t be good to piss off Harriette’s godfather. “Do you know much about cars?”
“Oh Sirius is more of a motorcycle person,” Harriette cut in. “You should see the one he’s got now, it’s positively magical.”
“I bet it is,” Jacob murmured with a much dopier smile than he had before.
“Those are yours outside then?” Sirius caught his attention again and from the way his lips were thinning, Jacob wasn’t going about making a very good impression.
“Yep, built them myself,” he said proudly. Bella had technically helped by buying the parts, but he rebuilt them alone. “One belongs to a friend of mine, but the red ones mine.”
Billy raised his brows at the easy way Jacob described Charlie’s daughter. He looked thoughtfully between his son and Harriette, the sole focus of Jacob’s attention right now, and his lips twitched as he was struck with a sudden thought. Surely not.
“Well, Bella helped, didn’t she?” Billy asked, testing his theory as he brought up the currently taboo’d name. “My friend Charlie’s daughter,” he explained to Sirius, “Nice girl.”
A comment that would have gotten some sort of negative reaction from Jacob just this morning only got a mere flip of his hand and a humble shrug.
“Bella got the bikes and bought the parts,” Jacob said, “but I built them.”
Which settled the matter for Billy.
“Do you know how to drive then?” Harriette asked, her eyes sparkling with some sort of mischief. “Because Sirius reckons I’m too young to drive a motorcycle, which is mad, right Jake?”
“Right,” Jacob agreed immediately, his eyes glued to her lips as he said his name. “I can teach you.”
“Yeaaaah, let’s go with not,” Sirius said. “We’d rather Harriette not be on motorcycles with boys still in high school.”
“Not even your own cousin Siri?” Harriette pouted her lips (ugh) up at Sirius. “If you can’t trust Jake here, who can you trust?”
“Nobody,” Sirius said shortly.
“Wait-“ Jacob just had a horrifying thought, “We aren’t related, are we?”
Harriette said no almost as quickly as Sirius said yes.
“Harry’s my goddaughter,” Sirius practically growled. “My best mates daughter.”
“But not really related of course,” Harriette grinned. “I’ve lived with Sirius since I was fifteen, but we don’t share any blood.”
And then, because Jacob thought maybe this girl was trying to actually kill him, she winked.
“How are you liking the area Harriette?” His dad asked, coming to Jacob’s rescue once more.
“Oh it’s great,” Harriette smiled prettily. “The woods around our house are so peaceful. And Remus says Forks has a hiking trail that leads up to the mountains, we’re going to go check it out soon.”
Jacob was about to ask if she wanted to go this weekend, with him, when her full statement processed through his mind.
“Forks? You moved to Forks?”
“We did,” Sirius said. Harriette cocked her head to the side at Jacob’s abrupt change in tone.
Of course. Of fucking course. Why wouldn’t his imprint move to a town full of bloodsucking leeches? It didn’t matter if they were ‘good vampires’, as if such a thing existed, or not. Leeches were leeches in his book.
“You know, La Push has a great high school, I’m sure we could get an exception for Harriette to finish up school if you’d like?” Jacob’s Dad told Sirius, his eyes solemn as he recognized the same danger his son did. “She’d be in the same grade as Jacob here.”
“Thanks Billy,” Sirius nodded at Jacob’s Dad before stretching out over the back of his chair, “but I think Harry’ll do fine at Forks. Right Harry?”
“Of course,” Harriette had an innocent little smile and she folded her hands on the table. “What possible mischief could I manage in one little high school?”
Sirius and Billy both roared with laughter, her mischievous twinkle not matching her innocent statement, but Jacob was still processing that she would be going to high school with the damn leeches.
He was absolutely going to have to talk to them soon apparently. Make sure they knew that the penalty for harming a wolfs imprint was death, no matter the circumstances.
The four of them enjoyed an easy meal together, apparently Harriette ‘adored’ Billy’s cooking and ‘truly despised’ cooking herself. Sirius chatted about his plans to open his own garage, a childhood dream of his. Billy tried to makeup for Jacob’s lovesick expression by keeping a steady flow of conversation going. Jacob just stared, thanking every ancestor he had for gifting him with such an incredibly soulmate, and listened to every word she said as if it were the most precious noise he’d ever heard.
“Hey Billy, thanks for dinner,” Sirius said, he stifled a yawn as he pat his stomach. “Best fish I’ve ever had.”
“You guys should come back this weekend,” Jacob offered, his eyes holding Harriette’s green ones. “If you aren’t busy?”
“Great idea,” Billy smiled at Sirius, unsuccessfully trying to distract him from Jacob’s obvious infatuation. “Bring Remus along, we can grill up some steaks.”
“We’d love to,” Harriette answered Billy before giving Sirius a sly and crooked grin. “Right Siri?”
“Absolutely,” Sirius said through his teeth. “Sounds great.”
Jacob positively beamed, pleased to have found a way to see her again so quickly. He was already making plans for when she came back. Next time he’d get to know her even more... maybe ask for a date... possibly get a haircut before she arrived... buy some shirts that fit a little nicer.
He walked the two of them to the door after they finished solidifying Sunday dinner.
“It was nice meeting you, Jacob Black,” Harriette said. She stuck out her hand and Jacob wiped the cheeky smirk off her face when he raised hers to his mouth.
“It was nice meeting you, Harriette Potter,” his eyes were smoldering in to hers as he brushed a light kiss on her knuckles, finally drawing a faint blush on her face.
Proof she wasn’t unaffected by him.
Harriette waved at Billy once more before she quickly scrambled outside, the warmth from her blush following behind her. Jacob let out a tiny groan as he saw her swing a leg over a motorcycle he hadn’t noticed on the curb when he came home earlier. Harriette looked like the very image of sin on that bike with her bare legs, boots, and low cut shirt. He hadn’t even noticed Sirius was still lingering in the doorway until a ‘friendly’ clap of his shoulder caught his attention.
Sirius squinted at Jacob and leaned closer, his hand tightening on his shoulder and his merry eyes being overtaken with suspicion. “I don’t like you,” he said shortly. “Not at all.”
Jacob nodded, his eyes still trained on where Harriette had climbed on the back of Sirius’ motorcycle. He could just imagine her on the back of his bike, clinging to his waist, her breath heavy on the back of his neck.
His fantasy was shutdown quickly as Sirius stalked outside and snapped the door behind him.
Jacob just stood there for a moment, wondering why he hadn’t thought to ask her for her number. He could have chatted with her all week. Sunday was eons away.
“Alright there son?” Billy asked, grinning at his sons back from his spot in his chair.
“Dad, do you have any idea who that is?”
“I’ve got a pretty decent guess,” Billy chuckled.
“Your future daughter in law,” Jacob sighed. “Mrs Jacob Black.”
Billy’s laughter followed Jacob clear out to the yard, where he quickly sprinted to the trees to phase. He needed to go talk to the Cullen’s and he sure as hell wasn’t showing up in vamp territory as a human.
Of course, his pack could never be happy. First they complained this afternoon about his moping over Bella (Why had he ever cared who she wound up with? She was all wrong for him), and now they were complaining about the torrent of thoughts and images coming from Jacob’s all too brief evening with Harriette.
You are disgusting, Leah grumbled.
Jacob just shook it off, some people just couldn’t be pleased.