Wolves Can't Climb Trees

Summary: His eyes studied my face like he was watching me piece a puzzle together. I felt my resolve waver, I knew that what was coming would make me regret my very existence. We were mortal enemies, meant to rend each other to shreds. There was nothing cute to say, no quips or sarcasm that I could throw at him.

Then, he touched me and I broke down.

There were so many things that didn't make sense to me. How Bella could be in love with that monster, for one. The second was how I would live without Bella Swan by my side. Then, the third: why people called us a love "triangle." At that time, I thought it was more of an angle- I loved Bella, Bella loved Edward. Two legs without a third to make it a triangle.

That was, until Edward appeared at my window. His scent hit my nose, and I almost gagged. He smelled too sweet, too ripe. Like he hadn't showered in a hundred years- maybe two- I didn't know how old he was, nor did I care. I hated him.

He had stolen Bella from me, and I hated him. My eyes opened and locked with his own, a molten gold that made me sick. He had eaten; he smelled of blood. It only added to my anger and hatred.

He slipped my window up, his eyes still locked on mine. I stared back defiantly, asserting my dominance. A crooked smile quirked his lips and I could see the tip of his fang. It was like he was enjoying the staring match, just waiting for me to look away. Maybe vampires don't need to blink like they don't need to breathe. Maybe it's just when they don't need to see that they don't need to blink, my mind reasoned.

He chuckled and slipped through the window, allowing it to gently close behind him.

"A secret I shall keep dear to my heart." He mocked me, putting a hand over the center of his chest and looking at me like it was the most ironic thing he could possibly have come up with. It was disconcerting, being in the room with someone and only hearing my own heart beating.

"Like my girlfriend?" I asked him, narrowing my eyes and subconsciously lifting my upper lip from my teeth. Primal urges ran deep, and I wanted nothing more than to rip his head off with my fangs.

"Jacob, we both know that you are not the one she wants." He murmured, pacing closer and summoning the gall to take a seat on the foot of my bed. "We also know that you won't kill me- you are much too attached for that." I huffed and retracted my feet, sitting cross-legged with my hands tucked away in my lap so that I wouldn't be tempted to attack him.

"Yeah, she'd never let me live it down." The ultimate way to lose Bella was to kill Edward. She would exorcise me from her life and never let me explain myself. With him out of the way, she would be free of his influence, and we could live together happily. I wanted Bella to be mine and hated Edward for having her instead.

"That's not what I mean." He said softly. If my hearing hadn't been so keen, I wouldn't have caught it. I swallowed, sensing what was coming, seeing the impact coming toward me as I prepared for the crash.

"What do you mean?" I guess I knew then. I'd known somewhere deep in my mind, before he even said it how I'd felt. It was like gravity was shifting. I wanted to be everything for him, to him, about him. I wanted him to look at me like I forced myself to look at Bella. I loved her before I even saw him. I wanted her, not him.

His eyes studied my face like he was watching me piece a puzzle together. I felt my resolve waver, I knew that what was coming would make me regret my very existence. We were mortal enemies, meant to rend each other to shreds. There was nothing cute to say, no quips or sarcasm that I could throw at him.

Then, he touched me and I broke down. All the barriers that I had erected between us, all the hate that I had forced to build and the emotions that I told myself were his fault. It all broke down, and I felt whole for the first time. It was like I had always had a piece missing, and then it just clicked.

He clicked into me, left his bruises on my skin and I crawled back into my room the next morning feeling sullied, like I had when I first realized what had passed. Imprinting on a vampire was so wrong. But everything just felt too right for me to do anything about it.

He still smells too sweet, but I bury my face into his chest and allow him to hold me close anyway. It's hard keeping him from the pack, but if I keep him to the back, out of sight and out of mind, throw my hatred for him forward whenever he comes up in conversation, then the pack won't notice the sickening need I have for him. The fact that my skin is crawling from where he touched me the previous night is easily mistaken for an aversion to anything having to do with him. Ours is a sick relationship, but the cure for it is too hung up on him to spare a thought, and he allows it.

He allows her to love him so that she won't love me and take me from him. If she doesn't love me, then I can only turn my passion to him because he is the only one who will accept it. He can warp the most pure of hates into the most vile of loves. I want him desperately, and I hate myself for it.