Aria

4

Shit. Shit shit shit shit. I SWORE I would never love again after Jesse. I looked up at Jacob, fighting the tears from pooling in my eyes.
"Jacob I...I can't" I said. His eyes were so full of hope, so full of love when he looked at me. I couldn't do it. I can't do it, not again. I can't fall in love again. 
"Aria..." his hand was coming towards my face, cupping my cheek, wiping the tears that I barely realized had fallen.
"I just can't." I said, running, tears streaming down my face. I registered Jacob's voice, calling after me as I reached the tree line, but I didn't stop.

Jacob POV
"Can I talk to you?" I asked her, and she nodded. I led her out of the house, and we walked in silence along a dirt path down to the beach.
"What's up?" She asked, voice soft and angelic. I didn't really know where to start. How do you tell someone that you're a werewolf and you imprinted on them?
"So...as you probably figured out , I'm a werewolf." I said.
"The politically correct term for your species is wolf shifter. Actual werewolves are a different sub species of lycanthrope." She said. How did she know that?
"Right. Anyways, we do this thing called imprinting." I said, trying to ease her into it.
"What's imprinting?" She asked, voice becoming slightly paniked.
"Imprinting is like...like when you see her. Everything changes. All of the sudden it's not gravity holding you to the planet, it's her. Nothing else matters." I paused, taking a breath and looking her in the eye. "You would do anything for her."
"Sounds like you know the feeling." She said.
"I just discovered it. Aria..."
"No." She cut me off, looking at the waves as they crashed onto the shore.
"I imprinted. On you." I finished. She looked up at me, tears pooling in her beautiful blue eyes.
"Jacob I...I can't." She said. Her eyes were so full of pain and sadness, I just wanted to make it all go away.
"Aria..."I said, instinctively cupping her face with my hand and wiping away her tears.
"I just can't." She said, running away, tears streaming down her face.
"Aria!" I called, watching her as she disappeared into the tree line.

"What happened? Where's Aria?" Bella asked as I walked alone into the house.
"I...I told her that I imprinted on her." I said.
"That's like a mate thing for wolves?" Bella asked, and I nodded silently.
"She ran away." I said, and Bella sighed, grabbing her phone and dialing a number that I assumed was Aria's.
"Shit." She said, walking out towards her truck when the phone went to voicemail.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Home." She said.
"We have to find Aria!" I cried.
"If I know my sister, she's curled up in a ball in her tree house."
"Let me come with you." I  begged.
"It's best if I go alone." She said.
"Bella, what happened?" I asked.
"She's been through a lot, Jake." She said, starting the truck and pulling out onto the main road. I did the only thing I could think of. I shifted and followed, staying hidden in the trees as I raced to the Swan's house. I saw the tree house, Bella walking very carefully over the rope bridge leading to it from the attic. I heard soft sobs coming from it, and my heart broke to know that it was Aria who was crying.

Aria POV
"Hey." I heard Bella's soft voice, looking up to see her crouching beside me.
"Hey." I croaked, voice hoarse from crying for so long.
"Jake told me what happened." She said, a soft smile forming on her lips. 
"And you think it's great news." I said.
"I think that if you opened yourself up to love you could be really happy with him." She said. I sniffed, glancing at a photo booth strip that I had hung on the wall of the tree house. It was taken before the Titan War, and Jesse and I had left camp to go to a carnival. We were so full of love and hope, both thinking that we would make it. I did. He didn't.
"It still hurts." I said, and Bella glanced at the photo strip. "I tried to save him."
"I know." She said, unsure of how to comfort me. "But it's been almost two years."
"He didn't deserve it." I said, tears streaming down my face.
"It's not your fault." Bella said. "I know it hurts, but you can't keep blaming yourself for something you couldn't stop." I nodded slowly. Logically, I knew that there was no way I could have saved Jesse. But a part of me believed that if I had gotten there sooner, if I had been a better healer, he would be here right now, holding me. 
"Why did you freak out on Jake?" Bella asked.
"After Jesse, I promised myself I would never fall in love again." I said. "When Jake told me I was his imprint, the way he looked at me, with such deep, unwavering love, it's the same way Jesse looked at me." I said.
"You loved Jesse." Bella said, and I nodded. Together we walked back into the house, and that night I went to bed early.

I stared, shocked, as four kids brought Jesse into the infirmary on a stretcher. He had a poisoned javelin embedded into his chest, blood seeping around the wound.
"Aria." He croaked, his voice hoarse.
"Jesse." I cried, tears streaming down my face.
"Don't cry." He said, reaching up instinctively to wipe the tears from my face, but wincing in pain.
"We're gonna heal you, you're gonna be okay." I said, trying to convince myself more than him, as I grabbed his hand. He coughed, deep blood spattering my scrubs. The experienced healers took him in the back, and two hours later, one of them came out, shaking his head.
I woke up, a silent scream forming in my throat.
"Jesse." I muttered, heading into the bathroom to wash my face. I sighed, looking at the clock. 2:30 am. It would be a long, restless night.

I woke up at 8 the next morning, having somehow managed to fall back asleep at some point. I headed into the bathroom and took a long, hot shower, trying to clear my head of my dreams last night. I still wasn't quite sure how I felt about Jacob imprinting on me, and I knew I would have to do some research on wolf shifters. I sighed, turning off the water and heading downstairs to the kitchen where I saw my dad talking to Jacob over a cup of coffee. 
"You slept late today." My dad said, as I had a habit of getting up early.
"Bad dream, it took me a while to get back to sleep." I said, crossing the kitchen to pour myself a cup of coffee.
"Jesse again?" My dad asked, and my nod was enough of an answer for him to drop it. Dad and Bella somewhat understood the amount of pain talking about Jesse brought me. In dad's case, I knew that Apollo was constantly trying to get Zeus to allow him to be with my father. In Bella's case, Edward had left thinking that was what was best for both of them, but I knew that he would eventually return for her. But Jesse was never coming back, and I had to live with the fact that I failed to save him. 
"We're gonna heal you. You're gonna be okay." My own voice rang in my ears, and I had to close my eyes to stop the tears from falling.
"Jacob here came to ask for my permission to date you." Dad said, and my eyes widened comically. "I said that he needed your permission before mine." Jacob looked at me expectantly, dark eyes so full of hope that I almost didn't know what to say. 
"You don't have to say yes right away." Jacob said, and I was almost mad that he had tried to go and ask my dad before he asked me.
"I need some time." I said, and he nodded solemnly, looking like a hurt puppy.

Jacob left shortly after, and I spent the rest of the morning training before finally deciding to IM Chiron and ask him about wolf shifter imprints.
"Why do you want to learn about wolf shifter imprints?" Chiron asked me, brow furrowed in thought as he ran a hand over his beard.
"My dad lives near the Quileute reservation, and they have a pack of wolf shifters that are designated to protect the people. One of them, Jacob Black, imprinted on me and I need to know exactly what that entails."
I watched as Chiron pulled a large book from the shelf behind him, flipping to a page somewhere in the middle.
"The imprinter and the imprintee are known to be perfect matches, though the reason for imprinting is unknown. What happens when the imprinter is rejected is unknown, though it is said to be virtually impossible. The bond grows stronger over time, and after a while it is said that both imprinter and imprintee will feel unspeakable pain when separated from each other." Chrion's words left me speechless. Jacob was my soulmate, and I would have to accept that.
"I know that you said you would never love again, but he would have wanted you to be happy." I nodded, a silent tear slipping down my face, and ended the iris message.