The Consequences {Jacob Black}

Chapter CXXV

Camping. I mean, could there be a better activity for a girl like me? I hated makeup; I hated having to get dressed up. I hated having to try to impress people. Which was what made this so great. Jake knew everything about me; he'd seen every part of me. There was no reason for me to try and look nice when it was just Jake around. That night, he'd cooked hot dogs over a fire. Since it was Jake cooking I doubted there would be vegetables for the next couple of days. But what could you expect from the boy? He was good at cooking meat and that was what he stuck to.

I stripped down to spandex shorts and a tank top in the cab of truck while Jake was setting up sleeping bags and cooking dinner... at eleven at night. "Aren't we going to be a little warm with sleeping bags? I mean, it's not like it's snowing this time," I teased. He laughed at me, shaking his head like I was being the silliest person on earth.

"I just wanted to make sure that you would be comfortable. The bed of the truck isn't exactly padded and comfy for sleeping on," he chuckled.

"Oh," I said like I was speaking to a little kid, "it's so cute that you think that we're sleeping tonight."

Jake's brown eyes turned dark as he realized what I was saying. His mouth tweaked up in a signature smirk. I just laughed. "Keep your pants on, wolf man. We've got to eat and do dishes and all that jazz," I giggled.

"You suck the fun out of everything," he growled, twirling the dogs on the grill so that they weren't burning on one side. "And if I wasn't so hungry, I would be yelling at you about that."

"If you weren't so hungry, we wouldn't have to cook or do dishes tonight," I pointed out. He groaned and let his head hang back so that it looked almost dismembered from his body. I bit my lip in the way that he had once told me that he loved and watched him flop down into the grass next to the fire pit. "Don't burn yourself, Jake," I reprimanded, slamming the door of the car closed and scrambling up into the bed, sinking back into the pillows that he brought with us.

"Like it would hurt," he chuckled.

"Okay, Superman. Hurry up on the food," I said, rolling on my side and letting my eyes drift closed. I could hear the birds and squirrels yelling at each other in the night's darkness. The fire was crackling and popping, providing just a little bit of warmth for me. So I relaxed, forgetting that I had vampires coming after me, more vampires coming to pretend to be witnesses, Nessie and Dad sitting at home. The list could go on and on. So I forgot everything and drifted off.

"I thought we weren't sleeping tonight," a deep voice rumbled in my ear, warmth settling over me like a blanket. I rolled over and collided with a warm wall that I recognized as human even in my sleep. Not just human; Jake.

"Sorry," I muttered, puffing air over his chest. He chuckled deeply, the sound vibrating beneath his ribs and shaking me with his laughter. "I'll wake up," I groaned mistakenly. I didn't want to moan like that; it just came out. Jake laughed again.

"Go to sleep, Annie-girl," he whispered in my ear, pulling me against his chest. "We're here for four days." I rested my cheek on his chest and held him as tightly as he was holding me. The night air was circling around us, swelling and turning chillier by the moment. But I wasn't cold. I had Jake holding me tight.

I could feel something tickling my thigh, but I didn't want to move just yet. I wrapped my hand around the soft, down blanket underneath me and pulled myself closer to the warmth in front of me. I blinked lightly, opened my eyes to see nothing but russet skin. Jake. I closed my eyes and rolled over again, waiting for Billy to call for us or for Nessie to come in. The hand on my thigh traveled up to my waist. I sighed and opened my eyes, prepared for another day.

But all I could see was metal. My brain was fuzzy, trying to figure out what I where I was. A thick leg wedged in between my legs, warmth shooting up my body. "We're camping," he whispered into my ear. I know that some of the girls said that it was the imprint that made Jake understand me so well. But he had been this way before he was a wolf. He was always the one who understood me, who could reply to the things that I was thinking before I even knew how to voice them. "Remember?"

"Mm-hmm," I hummed. Jake flipped me over in his favorite way. "Why did you choose camping for our get away?"

"You complaining?"

"Just curious," I replied.

"We used to love to set up the tents in our backyards and go 'camping,'"he explained. "I like to remember the days when we were little; back before our lives exploded."

"You've said that before," I recalled. "I just don't always understand it, though. I mean, you don't like the way that our lives work now?" I know that it was stupid; it had always been me and Jake against the world. Our entire lives, from before his mother died, it was always just him and me. But the reality was that he had been forced into a relationship with me because of the imprint.

I had made peace with imprinting ages ago. I know that Jake and I would have eventually ended up together. There was no fighting that. But we might not have progressed the way that we did if Jake hadn't turned into a wolf. He probably would have ended up with my sister for a while. Jake quickly realized what was wrong with Bella when his heart was telling him that he should be with me. But if it hadn't been for that, I highly doubt that Jake would have seen the true side of my sister so quickly.

So then, when he said things about wanting out lives to be more like what they were all those years ago, I start wondering if Jake doesn't want the life that he has. I know that it's rough. It sure as hell ain't easy to be a wolf and an imprint. It isn't fun to have a sister who was turned into a vampire and had a monster spawn baby. I was fighting to keep myself afloat most days. But I loved Jake and, no matter how tough it got, I loved our lives. It was kind of hard to watch him questioning the decisions that we had made together.

Jake pulled me close into his chest and laughed at me. "I love the way that our lives work right now. I love that I get to have you all to myself without anyone else in our way. I love that I can have a claim on you that is stronger than anything natural." He kissed my nose and pulled me even tighter. I thought I was going to jump him right then and there. "I love you, Ryanne. I'm grateful for all the things that the imprinting and the wolves have brought for me because they made sure that I got my head out of my ass. I got to see you in a different way than I ever had before, Rye."

"So then why do we always talk about the old days, Jake?"

"It's nice to remember what things were like, Annie," I whispered. "Those were the days that things were kind of perfect. I mean, don't get me wrong: I love waking up with you in my arms every morning and getting to love you. But when we little and, uh... And Mom was alive, things were great," he admitted. His eyes misted over as he fought his anger and bitterness and sadness. There were so many things that he missed out on with his mother, so many things that she didn't get to see.

"You know, she would have been happy that you finally got your head out of your ass," I quoted. "And that we ended up together," I added. I leaned down at kissed him deeply. "Do you remember all the times that she used to hint that we were going to get together?" I laughed. He smiled and nodded.

"She used to tell me that I was going to have to wake up one day and realize that Ryanne Lee Swan was not one of the boys," he chucked.

"Well, it looks like she was wrong about some things," I replied. Jake laughed in his own way while his eyes darkened with lust.

"You have a few things that would argue otherwise," he replied. His hands traveled up my shirt, tingling my skin with every little caress.

It was probably a good thing we were in the middle of no where.