"How was your lesson today?"
Alice was surprised when she heard Vincent ask, the man was next to her.
[ Where's Jacob? Didn't he promise to come back, why did Vincent go back instead? ]
Vincent pulled up a chair and sat down next to Alice. "I heard you learned how to read and write to know the history of Eden. Did you find any difficulty?"
"Oh, not, really." Alice looked down at the book in her hand.
"I can also… teach you." Vincent raised his hands and folded them onto the table.
[ Uh? Teach me… you are the big bad wolf who once intended to kill me? ]
What is this all of the sudden? Alice's ears suddenly feel itchy, Vincent's words seem to rush in her ear but Alice puts up a barrier. She wishes she didn't hear it at all.
"Thank you. I've been pretty good thanks to Jacob."
Alice glanced at Vincent's movement, for some reason that man's hand was not symmetrical with his body as if he was trying to get closer. Alice was quite confident calling it that because if she moved even a little their arms would touch.
If there was a chance Alice wanted to shift and get away from Vincent. But Vincent grabbed the book from Alice's hands, making sure Alice's attention was only on him. He made another odd offer, he said, "then, let me test you."
As a result Alice almost jumped from her seat.
"Uh, I don't think I'm ready for the test yet. I still need to study a little more, I will study in my room." Her reaction was faster than Vincent had expected. Alice took several books in her arms and ran away as fast as she could.
Vincent's hand wasn't fast enough to reach Alice and ended up hanging in the air. His mouth was open, the words of seduction hadn't even left his lips and now Alice was out of sight.
Vincent was completely ignored. His heart throbbed in pain. It had never happened in his life, not even when he realized Renésmee was the woman he was meant to be. Vincent easily subdues Renésmee and makes her his woman.
Aside from the problems of Renésmee's unique bloodline as a half-vampire, the only difficulty Vincent has to face is Jacob meddling. Even now, that one man would probably act as his hindrance again.
…
Talk about Jacob who suddenly disappears and not coming back to find Alice. Here's the story: Bella appeared while she was still talking to Vincent. The woman came to Vincent to ask permission to meet his father.
Bella was not the typical dutiful daughter, after separating from her father's pack—the Richards—she had no reason to keep seeing her father from time to time. Every year they would only meet on the day of the Alpha Battle in late fall.
For some reason Jacob miraculously offers to take Bella to the Pack Richards residence.
Of course Vincent happily gave him permission and encouraged Bella to go with Jacob even though she didn't need Jacob to escort her. With Jacob gone it meant that Alice would be studying alone in the library. The situation couldn't be more favorable.
Because the Pack Richards residence is in the Seth valley neighborhood. Bella and Jacob went there running in their wolf forms. Ordinary people might see them as a pair of couple wolves because of their identical silver-gray fur color.
"You don't have to take me this far." Bella said after she turned back into her human form.
"I also need to talk to your father." Jacob also followed Bella in human form.
Bella didn't know how to get rid of Jacob. He had no reason to be nice to her. Especially after their argument at the last dinner. Apart from that they never exchanged more than twenty words.
Most importantly, Bella didn't want to explain herself to the people in her father's pack when they saw her coming with Jacob.
Since they were currently standing in front of the Pack Richards main residence, Jacob decided to explain himself. "To be frank, you came here to ask about Vincent's imprint, right? Your father is a good example isn't he? He was probably one of the few werewolves who managed to survive after losing their partner. He's a great man."
"Is that so… Then what have you got to do with it?"
"I also want to hear the explanation. I'm not Renésmee's official partner but we're also attached by the imprint. Didn't you say that this empty feeling I feel is strange? I wonder if there is an explanation for that and…
You had seen it too… The imprint on Vincent's hand, it moved to his left. As if he had never done a mating with Renesmee."
That was the main reason Jacob made the sudden decision to go with Bella. He had argued a little with Vincent about the imprint mark before Bella's arrival. Jacob barely knew and only noticed the imprint mark today. Vincent said he didn't know why the sign moved. Vincent just admitted that he felt as down and empty as Jacob felt. But Jacob couldn't believe it was that simple.
And Bella was actually reluctant to accept Jacob's excuses, but she would be happy to see how Jacob's face changed when he heard her father's explanation. Maybe she could get a good show so she let Jacob escort her.
The guard at the Richards Pack main residence immediately recognized Bella and opened the door for her. It might not be as big as Gregory Castle—the Main Castle of the Werewolf faction—but it was big enough because of the large number of members of Richards Pack.
Bella and Jacob were ushered into the meeting room where they had to wait for Argus Richards—Bella's father. If Bella had come alone she would have barged into her father's room and gotten an answer right away.
Jacob's presence was completely unexpected. Even Argus himself frowned at the sight of Jacob coming with his daughter for a rare visit.
"Oh, Bella, my dear. What made you suddenly visit like this girl?"
Agus hugged his daughter while stealing glances at Jacob. Argus knew the unique case that happened to Jacob so the first thing he saw from Jacob was the imprint on his hand.
Argus checked the imprint on Jacob's left hand while thinking how sad it was. The sign was useless, really pointless. If Jacob hadn't had the mark yet, he might have wished Bella had appeared in Jacob's vision.
This young man was quite promising but he had bad luck, thought Argus.