The Grey Wolf [TWILIGHT/LEGACIES]

8

The grey wolf bowed its head in shame, afraid to look at anyone. How did the vampire stranger in front of her know what it was thinking about?

And then the animal realized - the Cullen clan had vampires with abilities. Hope hadn't have been surprised. At the same time, how could she not? She didn't remember the last time she had encountered a vampire from different species with interesting abilities.

The wolf was terrified to look up, not even wanting to meet Renesmee's eyes. Instead, it wanted to run away back in the woods. But if it ran, where would it go? It seemed to have finally found a shelter after being on its own for far too long.

The hybrid immediately understood what was going on. Her family was making the animal feel intimidated. Renesmee hated it when they did that. They had done it to her in the past and she refused to allow them to behave like that in front of Hope as well. The last thing Renesmee wanted was to have her family make Hope leave forever. The hybrid felt as if the grey wolf was the only best thing in her life. If the animal left, then life would go back to its monotonous rhythm.

Hope snuggled closer to Renesmee, nuzzling her nose into the hybrid's warm, rosy cheek.

"It's okay, Hope," the hybrid soothed the wolf by stroking its fur. Anyone could see how the animal would immediately calm down at Renesmee's touch. The Cullen family was beginning to understand the bond the wolf and their hybrid girl had developed for such a short amount of time.

And then Renesmee turned to her family to scold them: "You shouldn't push her to shift back to her human form if she doesn't want to! Her body - her choice!"

The family agreed with her and for the rest of the meeting, nobody mentioned Hope's name anymore. Secretly, both the animal and the hybrid were glad that they were no longer the centre of the attention, especially Hope. For the past few months, she had grown used to the feeling of being forgotten. It wasn't so bad. She had more freedom now, especially if she stuck to being in her wolf form.

At night, Renesmee was outside under the tree with Hope. Both of them were getting ready to sleep. As Renesmee was putting the blanket on top of the grey wolf, a voice boomed from the back porch:

"Why are you out there in the cold? Come inside!", Jacob insisted.

At first, both the wolf and the hybrid thought it was a joke. How come Jacob, the shapeshifter who used to be so possessive over his imprint, now seemed to give her more freedom?

It was all thanks to a talk with Seth.

"The beast began treating Belle with respect and love and that's how he won her heart!", he reminded his pack leader of the story of Beauty and The Beast, a classic from everyone's childhood.

Jacob thought Seth's words made sense. If he tried allowing his imprint more independence, perhaps she would begin to respect him more.

For the first time in years, Renesmee slept with a smile on her face as Hope was cuddled on the bed next to her. Jacob would have to suck it up and sleep on the sofa. As long as it made his imprint happy, it would be fine.