Collide ➳Jacob Black [Book 3]

5.0

Late that night Kate heard the front door open and saw Bella round the corner and come into the kitchen. Without even waiting for Kate to run back to her room Bella marched right up to her.

"Why didn't you tell me Jacob imprinted on you?" Bella demanded.

The spoon with the ice cream on it was half way to her mouth before Kate let it fall back into the container.

"I don't remember being on speaking terms ever since you clearly told me that Edward was more important to you than me. And after months of not speaking to me theres no 'hey how was your day, Kate' or 'do you have any homework, Kate' theres only pissed off words of how I kept the details of my love life private" she said calmly once again scooping ice cream into her mouth.

Bella shook her head, "You could have told me! Hell, you could have told me before then! Now Jacob has some sort of wolfy claim on you."

"First of all, Jacob doesn't own me. Second of all, we love each other and we did long before he became a werewolf. And lastly, I don't think you should throw stones in a glass house there, Bella. At least my boyfriend isn't constantly fighting the urge to kill me and he doesn't want to make me 'undead' to live happily after-death with him."

There was a knock on the door but the look that Bella gave Kate told her that it wasn't over. Kate simply didn't care but continued to scoop ice cream into her mouth. She looked past Bella to see Edward at the door.

"Do you know how worried I've been?" Edward asked Bella.

Bella shrugged, "I was perfectly safe."

"I almost broke the treaty to make sure you were fine."

From the kitchen Kate laughed, "Possessive boyfriend alert."

Bella looked back at Kate with a glare before turning back to Edward, "Did you know Jacob imprinted on Kate?"

Edward nodded slowly, "I thought everyone... something's wrong"

Edward pushed his way past Bella and rushed up the stairs to where their rooms where. Kate cried out in protest and rushed up the stairs to follow him. She stood in the doorway as he entered her room and looked around.

"Edward, you have two seconds to get out of here before I send your head back to your family," Kate sighed almost tired with Edward's crazy behavior.

"Shut up, Kate. Someone's been here," he snapped at her before going over to Bella's room.

She followed him, "Wait, hold on! You can't just say someone's been here and then not explain."

"There was a vampire here. I can smell him over your dog's stench. We need to get you and Bella to my family."

Bella came through the door finally, "What's wrong."

"Apparently someone is still trying to kill you and by proxy, me," Kate said slowly

It only took Edward and Bella an hour to convince Kate to step foot inside the Cullen's house again. She hated every second of it and felt like she was going to vomit. She refused to sit down and stood in the corner as far away from the vampires as she could while they spoke about the intruder.

"Who was it? Someone we know," Carlisle asked.

Edward shook his head, "A stranger. I didn't recognize his scent."

"A nomad passing through?" Esme offered.

Kate answered, "No. One of your kind wouldn't have stopped to let Charlie live. This was planned. They knew Bella was away from the house somewhere and they knew I was with Jessica. It wasn't a coincidence."

"Kate's right. Charlie would be dead by now if it was a nomad," Rosalie added.

Jasper and Emmett came into the room after tracking the trail of the scent.

"The scent disappeared about five miles south of Bella's house," Jasper reported.

"Someone's orchestrating this," Carlisle said finally.

"Victoria?" Bella asked.

Alice shook her head, "I would have seen her decide."

"It has to be the Volturi," Edward said finally.

"I don't think it's the Volturi. I've been watching Aro's decisions too."

"So we keep looking," Emmett said finally.

Carlisle agreed, "We'll also take shifts keeping Bella and Kate safe at their house."

Kate stepped further into the room, "Not that I'm not touched to be finally included in the people you deem worthy of protection, I am... but that's insane. I can more than protect Bella and myself or do you forget the months that you were all gone? Besides even though you're vampires, you have limits. You can't protect Bella, protect Charlie, and search for the intruder and Victoria. Oh and let's not forget to mention, have garden parties with Bambi and Thumper."

Edward's head snapped up to her as he read her thoughts, "No."

Kate scoffed, "It's not like you have any choice in the matter, Edward."

Before he could say another word in protest, Kate strode out of the house and called Jacob.

"What's up?" he answered after the third ring.

Kate stared sheepishly at her shoes, "Are you outside?"

"No? Why?"

"You might want to get outside."

"Kate..."

"Jacob just do it you're not going to like this."

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It took practically all night for Jacob to calm down enough to shift back into his human form. The problem only got worse when he told the rest of the pack what had happened. Paul and Embry shifted immediately in anger further fueling Jacob's anger. By the time that they had all calmed down enough, they were all on board with having a momentary truce with the Cullens. Kate was sure that if her life wasn't in danger, they wouldn't have been so keen on the idea.

The vampire clan and the wolf pack were to take turns running patrol around the boarders of the area as well as internally at Kate and Bella's house. Jacob took this one step further insisting that Kate move in with him and Billy for the time being but Kate had a fit and put her foot down. She wasn't going to move out of her house and she didn't think Charlie would be happy with the idea either. So a compromise was struck that Jacob would spend the night with Kate by sneaking through her window at night.

Kate almost laughed at the irony of her sister having Edward next door but the look on Jacob's face when she did made her stop immediately. This was now a question of his imprint's safety and Jacob would kill anyone that stood in his way of protecting Kate. She knew that she should argue that she could take care of herself but the thought of having Jacob sleeping right next to her was too good of an idea to pass up.

The next morning, Jacob came over to get the scent so that the rest of the pack could pick up on it. He was mostly silent as he surveyed Kate's room. She could tell that even now he was having trouble keeping it together but she threatened him within an inch of his life about phasing in her home. Bella and Edward were waiting outside for him to be finished.

"Whoever it was, he left his stink behind. It'll be hard to miss when we cross it again. We'll handle it from here," Jacob told Edward.

"We don't need you to handle anything," Edward snapped.

Jacob stood closer to Kate, "I could care less what you need."

Kate rolled her eyes and hauled Jacob away from Edward and shoved her towards her Jeep.

"In, now! We're going to the beach," she told him as she tried to drive away from their problems.