The Consequences {Jacob Black}

Chapter CXXXIII

"We're going," Jake announced after we'd been home for a little while. He had disappeared into our room for a little while, but I didn't really think anything of it. He probably just wanted to get dressed or needed some time to think. In the meantime, I had spent a few moments with my dad. He was upset that I hadn't told him the complete truth in the beginning. All he kept saying was that he could have helped me from the beginning, could have nipped Bella's behavior in the bud. I don't think that people realized that it wasn't behavior. It wasn't like Bella was acting out of character. This was who she was.

Jake had come out of our room, a duffle bag over his shoulder. "Where are you two going?" Dad asked. He had given up on restraining us. Jake had explained the imprint bond, which Dad had taken surprisingly well. He was kind of on the same page with Billy now. He understood why Billy didn't fight when Jake and I crawled into bed together. I was fairly certain that neither of our dads knew about what happened from time to time. But one could never know for sure. With my luck, Sarah was probably sitting up in Heaven telling Billy about everything.

"Yeah, Jake, where we going?" I asked. He didn't ever take me away unless he wanted to do things that our father shouldn't know about. He glared at me, knowing that I was baiting him.

"Somewhere," he said secretly, glowering at me. "I told my dad where we were going, Charlie," he addressed Dad now. He growled at me under his breath, his lips mashed together in a tight line.

"Careful or your face might get stuck like that," I warned in a barely audible whisper, moving forward and grabbing the bag from his shoulder. "And I like your face a little too much to let that happen," I added. Before I could move away, his arm wound around my waist and tugged me into his chest. He dropped a whisper soft kiss on my forehead. "We should get going," I said, desire surging through my body. He nodded at me and took a step away.

Jake and I bid the rest of the family goodbye. It was hard to think that we had only been home for two days and I already needed a break. God, I was getting weak. Jake led me to the forest line, where he pulled the duffle from my shoulder. He stripped down at phased, the sight of it never getting old to me. I loved watching him phase, the explosion to wolf incredible. He growled when I was sitting there and watching him pant a little. If there wasn't immediate danger, he always sat there and recuperated. I couldn't imagine how taxing it was to transition from human to wolf.

He leaned over after a little while and licked my cheek, slobber lingering on my face from temple to chin. "Gross," I said, rubbing my cheek with the back of my hand. He knelt down on the ground and jerked his muzzle towards the trees behind him. I kept the duffle on my shoulder and clambered up the rocks beside him, slowly dropping down on his back. I didn't want to hurt him. He waited until I had our bag settled between his shoulder blades to start a gentle trot. I didn't know where we going, only that we were moving slow. I didn't really have anything to hold onto with the cumbersome bag sitting in front of me.

The trees thinned after an hour of trotting, Frank's shining in the distance. Jake dropped to the ground a few hundred feet away and waited for me to slid off. I untied his shorts and kept them in my hand, waiting until he was shoving himself up from the dirt to ask, "What are we doing here?"

"You should change; I told him you'd come ready," Jake answered. I hated that he always felt the need to surprise me. I really hated them. I sighed and started peeling my shirt off and opening the duffle bag. My competition shorts were sitting on top of a deep purple sports bra, my purple tape and black MMA gloves sitting underneath them. "Hurry up," he said.

I tried to ignore the fact that I was getting naked in the middle of the forest. Of course, Jake's staring wasn't really helping me. "Can I help you?" I asked when I pulled the piece of spandex over my boobs.

"Not yet," Jake replied with a dangerous smile. "You have something to do first," he explained. He took the duffle as I taped my knuckles by sheer memory. It had been a few days since I had gone to the gym, but I was still working out. Not as much or as hard as I would like to, but I was still in decent shape. Jake handed me my gloves with a light smile. What was he on about?

I pulled my gloves over my knuckles and strapped them solid. "Are you going to tell me what I'm doing?" I asked as I stepped over the threshold of the gym entry.

"Frank is hosting a female fight tonight; I registered you." I stopped and stared at him. He always had a problem with me fighting. Even before the imprint and the wolf shit, he didn't like my addiction to fighting. It worried him whenever I go into the ring with another person. "What?"

"You registered me for a fight? Like a legitimate fight?" I asked him suspiciously.

"Yes."

"Why?" I hadn't meant the words to come out as rudely as they had. I was just so confused. It made no sense that he was supporting this, that he had signed me up for this. Jake's smile was tenderness itself. He stepped up to my chest, gripping my hands and pulling them up to his shoulders. His hands fell down to my hips.

"Annie, you deserve a little happiness. I don't like watching you fight, but I know that you are so much happier after you win. And let's face it, you're going to in," he said. I smiled at him a little. "Frank told me about it the other day that you were thinking about getting back into comp. I figured that this was a good place to start."

Did the boy ever thing about himself? Like ever? Or was every thought that he had about how to shock me a little more? About how to make me feel more cherished every single day? I didn't know what to say to thank him. The problem is that the two words never really seemed to be enough. "I love you," I whispered in response. I pressed my lips to his in a chaste kiss, pulling away before he could make things go a little farther.

The fight that Frank was hosting was set up in a tournament style. I hugged Frank and Leah, forcing myself to ignore Nate. He was playing ref tonight; I couldn't put him in a situation where his reputation would be at risk. There were only twelve girls though. The world of female MMA was small. It had been growing in the last few years, but it was still small. Twelve girls from as far as California were here to fight.

I cleared my first two fights fights easily, struggled through the next two and finally made my way to the final fight. Frank didn't look at all surprised that I was standing in front of him. He always joked that my training regiment was so intense, I could stop for two months and still be in better shape than most of the girls that I would go up against.

The girl was a little taller than me, but her muscles were leaner. She would have speed, not strength. Straight after the bell rang, her fist connected with my jaw. My head snapped back but I could hear Jake screaming ringside, "You got this baby!" It gave me enough of a reason to fight harder. Jake would never see me lose. Ever.

I barreled straight for her abdomen. I had a usual strategy of wearing out my opponents and picking their ankles to take the down. But I was stronger than this girl. She went down with a heavy thud. I felt her ankles wrap around my waist in an effort to get control again, but I was already winning. I had points for the takedown and each blow that I landed was harder and harder. I watched with satisfaction as her head collided with the mat, bouncing.

Nate's arm wrapped around my waist the second her realized that the girl was out. Pugilism wasn't about beating someone for me. It was always a sport. It was more than just fighting. But there was always something satisfying about watching someone's eyes roll back in their head and knowing that you won. I was announced with no great thing. I made an effort to be humble every time that I had to go up and get a belt or an award or anything and today was no different.

Except that when I got out of the ring, Jake's arms wrapped around my sweat-dripping form. "I love you, baby girl," he said into my ear. My energy was flagging, the fight finally wearing on me. "Come on, we got a hotel to check in to."

Everything seemed to be moving so quickly. I was exhausted. The fights had all gone so quickly, everyone anxious to get it all over with and find out who would win. Jake phased and ran me to the hotel, but I was asleep before I remembered getting to the hotel, my lost thought being that I had actually won the tournament.