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The prompt, from FatedFeathers: I want Jake and Amanda from MQSTB, and something inspired by this: "I want you to lead me / Take me somewhere / Don't want to live / In a dream one more day" from "In Flames" by Takida
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It’s another wedding. Well, not really. It’s an anniversary party (Sam and Emily’s), but it’s up on the Makah reservation as opposed to the Quileute reservation and that means it’s different, right?
Jacob snorts, but very softly, as he builds a pyramid out of a shredded paper napkin. He might know he’s nuts but he doesn’t necessarily want to advertise the fact to a bunch of people he barely knows, and a few who know him all too well. He’s only eighteen. That’s a little young to be giving in to insanity.
Emily makes the rounds, one hand on her belly—she’s just at the stage where she looks definitely pregnant but not huge, and it’s clearer than ever that Sam can’t keep his eyes off her. Of course, they’re imprinted, so maybe it doesn’t really count.
Jacob sort of hates imprinting; well, actually he hates it a lot. Mostly because he has to worry about it all the time. He’s never done more than have a casual dating relationship with a girl because he thinks, what if…? And then he feels guilty. And after that they end up breaking it off.
He knows Bells still worries about him, and wonders if maybe she ruined his life when Paul imprinted on her. He can’t think of a good way to reassure her without making it seem like he’s been pining over her. He hasn’t. The imprint won’t allow it, even now, two years later, but it’s as if he hasn’t been able to really focus on any girl since then, almost as though his heart, in spite of the involuntary redirection, needed the same amount of time to recover from his dreams about her that it would have if she’d broken his heart. Even though she never did, because the imprint wouldn’t allow that, either.
Emily’s laughter catches his attention—he loves her laugh, the way he used to love Rebecca’s laugh, back when he still got to hear it in person—and he turns his head with a half-smile to see what amused her this time.
It feels like the earth swoops out from under his feet, even though he’s sitting at a table.
For a confused instant, he wonders if this is it, if he actually has imprinted, even though according to Old Quil it should be impossible for the true Alpha to imprint. Old Quil also said that imprinting was rare, and now more than half the pack has done it, so those old legends are likely bullshit. But then he realizes, no, he hasn’t experienced a severing of all his loyalties and a new center of gravity.
He just really, really wants this girl.
She’s tall—I’d only have to lean down a little to kiss her—and boasts a generous figure, and has eyelashes like Emily’s and Leah’s, long feather-dusters that curl up at the tips and sweep enchantingly across her cheeks when she looks down.
“Who’s that?” he blurts, still staring and trying not to be too obvious about it.
Seth, who’s sitting at the same table, looks up. “That’s Emily’s cousin Amanda. She's not related to our side of the family, but we know her from when we were all kids. She’s been at college for a while now, but I guess she came down for the weekend or whatever.”
“How old is she?” Jake doesn’t actually care, but he’s gripping the edge of his chair now to force himself not to just stalk through the guests and grab her. For the first time in forever, it feels like his body’s actually in sync with his head… and his cock.
“Twenty? Twenty-one? Somewhere in there.”
“Okay.” Fuck it. He’s already halfway through the room before he realizes he’s left his seat.
“Oh, hi, Jacob,” Emily says, surprised. Usually at these sorts of things he just hangs out with his pack brothers. “Have you met Amanda? Amanda, this is Jacob Black. He’s a friend of Sam’s. Jacob, this is Amanda Foster, my cousin.”
Amanda sticks out her hand first with a wide, friendly smile. Her teeth are beautiful, straight and white against the dark pink of her lips. “It’s nice to meet you, Jacob.”
“Nice to meet you too.” When their palms brush, a spark of electricity jumps up his arm to his heart. He watches as her eyes dilate and gooseflesh appears on her skin. Cool.
They stare at each other, still holding hands, for so long that Emily clears her throat and says with a hint of amusement, “I need to tell Sam… something. Excuse me.”
Jacob and Amanda murmur their goodbyes to her. As soon as she turns away, Amanda tilts her head and observes, “I’ve never seen you around here.”
“I spend most of my time on the La Push rez,” he explains, leaving the part about protecting it from sparkly leeches unspoken. All of a sudden, he remembers how to flirt. “I didn’t know I could have been spending my time with you instead or I would have come up sooner.”
“Well.” She steps closer and lowers her pleasantly throaty voice. “I’ll let you use that excuse just this once. But don’t let it happen again.”
He can feel her skin radiating heat into his, and times like these, it’s nice to be a werewolf, because he can be absolutely certain that she wants him just as painfully as he wants her.
“Can we go somewhere?” she asks abruptly, and her heartbeat accelerates even more. Jacob watches in fascination as she swallows. There’s something unbearably sensual about the action, maybe because he knows he’s the one who’s making her salivate. “This place is kind of crowded.”
“Lead the way,” he accedes, and follows her out the side door, heedless of his brothers’ wondering stares.