Moving Forward - J. Black

xix.

EDITED

"That sound is awful." Eliza winced as she and Bree returned from a hunt to hear Bella scraping her heels against the wooden deck. "She just has to break them in." Alice glared at the blonde's comment, before smiling bashfully at Bella. "I've been breaking them in for three days." Bella deadpanned as she looked at Alice with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "Can't she just go barefoot?" Eliza proposed, not seeing the need for heels that weren't even going to be visible. "No!" Alice immediately shut the idea down when she noticed how eager Bella was at the thought. "Absolutely not." Alice glared at Eliza for even suggesting it. "I'm just thinking it's a little much, you know?" Bella tried to reason with Alice, causing Eliza to shake her head as she and Bree stepped into the home.

"The dress, the shoes, all of this." Bella pointed to the wedding décor being set up around them. "No, it's exactly enough. Tomorrow will be perfect." Alice argued before turning and stopping Eliza from entering the house. "Where do you think your going?" Alice realized that Eliza was trying to get out of wedding preparations. "To train my beautiful baby vampire on how to not eat Bella's father." Eliza mused as she winked at Bella. Bella and Bree tried not to laugh at the disapproving and annoyed look Alice gave the blonde. "Fine." Alice finally gave up on trying to control everyone and everything and the two females closed the door.

"I thought you said that my control was good?" Bree furrowed her eyebrows at Eliza's words even though she was sure that Eliza was just using her as an excuse. "It is, but Alice is being overbearing and I will take any excuse I can to get out of being one of her minions." Eliza confirmed Bree's suspicion with a wide smile on her face. "Have you heard from Jake?" Bree changed the subject, worried about her mentor's mate. "Nope, so get ready to be my date." Eliza let out a sigh as she suddenly remembered that she had been missing the shifter. "Hasn't it been like 2 weeks?" Bree thought over the last month. Eliza only responded with a faint hum as she thought about how the shifter had completely disappeared after receiving Bella and Edward's wedding invitation.

Eliza and Jacob had grown closer following the couple of months after they decided to take their bond to a romantic level. Eliza was sitting on the shifter's bed, waiting for him to get off his patrolling shift, a small white envelope in her hand. The envelope was previously in her back pocket, basically burning in a hole in it while she paced. The sound of her pacing had traveled through the house and she eventually sat down to avoid annoying Billy.

"Hey." Jacob Black entered the back door, smiling widely at his imprint. "Hi." Eliza smiled, dropping the letter on the bed to stand up. "I didn't know you were coming by today." Jacob wrapped the vampire in his arms, enjoying the scent of his imprint. "I wasn't but I figured we should talk about Bella and Edward." Eliza pulled away from the hug with a hesitant look on her face. "You want to talk about Bella and Edward?" Jacob looked at the blonde confused and she responded by turning and grabbing the envelope from his bed. "What's this?" Jacob questioned as he took the envelope and flipped it around in his hand.

"Open it." Eliza directed the shifter as she bit her lip. Jacob looked at the blonde wearily before tearing the seal and pulling out the wedding invitation. "They picked a wedding date?" Jacob scanned the lightly decorated paper and glanced up at Eliza. "Not just a wedding date." Eliza pursed her lips and Jacob soon realized what she meant. "So what? They get married, go on a honeymoon and claim Bella was killed in some freak accident?" Jacob scoffed at the idea of Bella becoming a vampire. "What about Charlie? I mean she can't really be-" Jacob stopped his angry rant when he notice the solemn look on Eliza's face. "No, he can't do that to Charlie-he cant!" Jacob's anger grew as he thought about how devastated Charlie was going to be when Bella faked her death.

"Jake." Eliza took a step forward to try and calm the shifter. "Don't." Jacob shook his head as he took his own step away. "I don't want to hurt you." Jacob continued to shake his head as he felt his control slipping. "I-I got to get out of here." Jacob quickly moved for the door, desperately trying not to shift while close to Eliza. "Jake!" Eliza yelled out as she followed the shifter out the door, but Jacob had already shifted. The invitation had fallen out of the shifter's hand and into a muddy puddle, as the shifter's brown wolf gave his imprint one small glance before taking off into the tree line.