『 chapter xxxii: OPERATION WOLF PRINCESS. 』

JUNE AWOKE ON THE MORNING OF HER FIRST official Mender training with a heavy heart. While she also was a rare magical being, she was also, a teenage girl with responsibilities and a life outside being heralded as some almighty wolf princess over a pack of shape shifters. Which meant, that as her dad had to officially go back to work from his short-lived paternity leave, her mother also had to return to her job as the new principal for the elementary school down at the Reservation. And since it was a Saturday and June was off, but Bella was working, it left little and amiable Willie Swan in the care of his second oldest sister. She dressed herself up in her normal 'straight out of the eighties' attire that took some inspiration from the bohemian chic era as well — which meant a floral pattern off the shoulder-shirt with some light colored high waisted jeans and her incredibly long hair that was turning darker each day, losing the blonde tint and changing to honey brown.

           Daphne knocked on her door as she passed the hall, pushing the already opened entryway. She smiled at Willie who was on June's bed, playing with his rattle and pacifying his baby gums with the toy. "I've got my orientation today, new principal, sweetheart so I might be late." She says with a frown. "Are you sure you're fine with taking Willie?"

"Grandma will be there," June assures as she stocks her brothers diaper bag with all its essentials. "She'll watch him while Sue and Harry and Billy talk to me and stuff. But I'll be there every moment I can."

Daphne, little unnerved with another child being near Iris was understandable—she didn't want a death prophecy pinned on her new golden child. Daphne, looking beautiful in a simple dress and heels, pinned her earrings in as she nodded to June. Blowing a kiss to her daughter and rushing to press kisses on her son's infant chubby face before leaving once she heard his air of giggles ring out. Daphne was obviously hesitant about leaving Willie — she hasn't been apart from him for a day since he was born. But time flies by quickly and duty calls. Literally.

Daphne goes to her, "If you feel for any moment that it isn't what you want to do, you leave, got it?" Her mother says firmly, rubbing her arm. "They can deal with the vampire problem on their own, it's what they're made for."

June just smiles to her mother. She can't possibly understand how much the pack needs her daughter. And June won't chide her for it, "And it's what I'm made for, too." She reminds softly. "Without them, there's no need for me."

"Still," Her mom reasons. She looks down at her watch and sighs heavily. Daphne smiles at her. "You have a choice, Juniper. I don't want you to think for one second that you don't, alright? This is your life ... I don't want you wasting your time on putting yourself even closer to danger—"

"Mom," June interjects with a soft but stern word. "I'll be alright. When aren't I? Operation Wolf Princess is fully underway. But maybe I should change it to Operation Hogwarts? That way I'll be riding a broom in no time and winning the Quidditch cup in no time. I wish Gryffindor's crest would change from lion to wolf ..."

"Okay, okay," Daphne chuckles at her daughters words, eyes crinkling in fondness. "You're a Mender for the wolves, June, not a witch." She reminds as she heads for the door and stops short, poking her head back in to say, "And please, we both know you're such a Hufflepuff." Then she's gone down the stairs.

"I'll take it!" June cheerily calls back after her, hearing a laugh and then the front door open and close.

          June turns to Willie, who's still on her bed, supported by a mound of pillows he surprisingly hasn't wiggled out from. Her baby brother's wide azure eyes meet hers and he burps after a second. June laughs. "Okay, baby bro, time to get you ready." She says as she goes to him and changed him from his pajama onesie to a brown shirt and some toddler khakis and his little boots that were a miniature of Charlie's when he goes hunting. "Ahhh! You're a handsome boy, baby bro."

Willie cooed as she picked him up, the doorbell suddenly ringing and June knew for a fact that it was Jacob — he said he'd pick her up and take her to her first training session the night before when it was all arranged. Willie tucked his head on June's shoulder as she went down the stairs, holding him in one arm while she opened the door with her free hand. Jacob stood at the door with his smile wide, arms crossed but he let them down when he caught sight of his girlfriend holding her baby brother. Willie, June learned, was a people's child — so she called it. Sure her brother was quiet and never really cried, but he absolutely was like his older sister when it came to being around people. He thrived, he flourished, no one could look away. The current moment was a prime example; Willie turned at the sound of another shiny new person and clapped his hands together in excitement, coping away.

June kissed his chubby cheek, "Yes, it's Jacob, your favorite bro," She told him in an attempt to calm his excitement. She looked at Jacob rolling her eyes, "I swear he idolizes you already. Close the door and can you hold him? I need to get his diaper bag and stuff."

   Jacob nodded, but leaned in and snaked his large hand on her waist, pulling her in for a kiss. June sighed in content, her nerves were wild and it took her lips on Jacob's to calm her completely. "Thanks, wolfman." She mumbled in the kiss, pulling away and handing Willie to Jacob.

"Hey, big man," Jacob chimes to Willie. Her brother went into Jacob's arms willingly, clapping and babbling incoherent words that her boyfriend nodded to regardless if he knew what Willie was talking about. "Oh, you're getting heavy."

June rushes back upstairs and grabbed her bag and Willie's — shutting off all the lights, turning off the heater, she went back downstairs. Upon reaching the end, the scene before her eyes was too adorable to not want to squeal at. June watched as Jacob had Willie above him and blew on his stomach, holding him securely, making the infant giggle in delight as he brought him back down. Willie wrapped his tiny arms around Jacob's neck, cuddling up to him, Jacob smiling his grand smile as he patted the baby's back fondly. The scene made June hold onto the railing of staircase for support. Don't think about it, she told herself Don't even think about it, don't do that to yourself, to him— the thought was so betraying. Terrifying. Real. Jacob had this thing about him that screamed home and love and life. If only she could; if only she could imagine Willie with darker skin and silkier hair. With brighter blue eyes and the heart of a wolf. Like the little boy from her dreams ... buts it's a thought too tempting to divulge in, to caress, to want. June wishes that it could be a reality, to be a mom as kind as Daphne and as loving as Sue and as wise as Iris. June wants so many things.

June cleared her throat and Jacob turned to her, her smile was enough to convince him she was fine. "You can put him the carseat," She points to the contraption near the couch. Jacob does so and June goes over to strap Willie in, despite his whines of protests and his arms outstretched in an attempt to say he wants to be carried, "Oh shush, you little cutie, it's just for bit. Then the whole Rez can carry you."

Willie eventually calms when his pacifier is put in his mouth and Jacob picks up the carseat with ease as June has the bags as they head out the door. Jacob puts Willie in the middle of them in his dads truck, making sure the seatbelt is locked in, June watching how at ease Jacob is as if he's done this countless times. In reality, it's only been five times but she wondered if any other guy would've picked paternal instincts as quickly as Jacob did.

"It's just gonna be my dad and Harry and Sue," Jacob tells her as he drives in the direction of the Rez. He stretches over to hold her hand. He squeezes it assuringly. "Old Quil will be there later but it's just them for now."

June nods softly, nervously, "I'm stressed," She admits to him. "Plus, I've probably cried about three times today."

"It's eleven o'clock."

"Exactly!"

Jacob glances at her, worry casting over his features before it settles into assurance. "You're gonna do great, ocean eyes." He says with confidence, his smile is infectious. "They'll be learning more from you — you're one in a million."

"Which is why I'm stressing," June groans.

"Don't think about it then," Jacob says easily, and she has have a mind to roll her eyes at his optimism.

"What if I mess up?" June groans. "Oh my god, babe, I'm gonna be the worst Mender is history—"

"June," Jacob interjects. He glances over to her again and softens. "We don't have to go."

She pauses; her eyes widen as she looks at him. "What?"

"I'll tell Sam I can't patrol today, simple." Jacob says easily. He rubs circles on her hand with his thumb. "We'll spend the day together. You, Willie and me. I don't want you going through with anything if you have doubts—"

"It's not doubt," June murmurs, still looking at him in that way that makes his heart race. He's giving me a choice? Her thoughts race, "You'd do that for me?"

Jacob lets out a small laugh, like what she's saying is obvious. His eyes crinkle in fondness when he says, "Ocean eyes, I'd do anything for you. You should know that by now."

There it is again. That moment of nearness. A moment given to her that could enable her to be some normal sixteen year old girl; one whom could spend the day with her boyfriend and her baby brother. But she's not normal, and life has never been what June wants it to be. So she smiles genuinely, because Jacob's made her so happy, letting her know that she's got a choice. She just itches to be with him, near him, every day — as far as codependency goes, she knows it's high up there. But June doesn't like to think of it that way much, because Bella was the same with Edward. And that was love that they had.

"Have I told you how much I'm glad you're mine?" She speaks firmly, her eyes on him.

Jacob's face reddened, "It doesn't hurt to hear it more than once." He smiles.

"Well I am," June says tenderly. "And I really appreciate you offering to spend the day with us, but I can't putting this training off. Victoria's out there — if you're all out there risking your lives because of problems I've created, the least I can do is use this power I got to help."

Jacob parks as they pull into the Iris Uley's house. He turns off the ignition and turns to her, "June, when will you get it? I don't have anything else to live for besides your happiness, your safety," He tells her and shakes his head when she opens her lips to object. "I know, I know, it's not normal, I should live my life according to me, yes, you've given me this lecture before. But we're not normal. Everything I am, is for you. Understand? You don't need to do anything. I don't care if your the only Mender we got, if you're our greatest commodity; you're my June. I need to know this is what you want."

June held onto his words. Everything I am is for you. It was clear where Jacob's loyalty was; as much as he had been more at ease in shifting and coming to terms with his future, or was more obvious it didn't hold a candle to the loyalty he had to June. He'd sooner tell the pack and the elders to fuck off if it meant that June didn't want to come into her duty as a Mender.

"I'm sure," June tells him with a soft smile. She looks out the window and sees that Billy and Harry wait by the porch with Iris and Sue. "It's what I want. I mean it."

Jacob searches her face, but when he doesn't find what he fears, he relaxes. He leans over Willie's car seat and pulls her into a kiss. June doesn't want to pull away, all her nerves melt away the second his warm lips move against hers. She pulls away, because she remembers Billy's probably looking at them and her grandma and Harry and Sue. Jacob grins in the kiss and she chuckles, muttering, only my wolf.

             June unbuckles a squirming Willie from his car seat restraints and her baby brother coos from joy of being picked up, "Yes, we're here, you can be a happy baby now." Jacob opens the door for them.

They began walking towards her grandmas porch, June bouncing Willie in her arms as she peppered his cute cheeks. June saw how Jacob grinned a grin at the sight that looked distant, almost wishful. The ache in her heart sprang again. He was a teenager though, a boy at that, what teenage boy thought that babies were interesting? They walked up the steps and were greeted by the group there.

"Son," Billy acknowledged Jacob with a clap on his back. He turns his attention to his son's imprint, "Good to see you here, June."

Willie tucked his head in the crook of June's neck, She presses a kiss to his temple. "Glad to be here," She responds firmly. "When do we start?"

Billy and Harry and looked to Sue, who placed a soft hand on June's arm, her large brown eyes just as. "Iris has allowed us to use the backyard for the time being, I've got some things set up already — herbs and whatnot from the books, did you get a chance to read them?"

"Every single one," June responds truthfully.

"Alright then," Sue says cheerily, gesturing everyone inside.

"I guess that's my cue," Jacob speaks up, nodding a goodbye to his father who is wheeled inside by Harry. He glances to June. "I've got patrol duty."

"Oh, okay," June deflates a little at the thought of him leaving by then asks, "You're gonna come back, right?" She goes forward towards him as he looks into her eyes, being a porch step lower but eye to eye.

Willie reaches out to touch Jacob, the wolf grins at the baby and he takes Willie's tiny hand as he nods to his imprint. "Of course, I'll tell Sam I have to leave my shift early. Embry will take it for me, he won't mind." Jacob says easily. He presses a kiss to Junes lips again. "You're gonna kick ass, beautiful. I know it."

Joy blooming in her delicate features, June beams as she leans her forehead on his. "You be careful, alright?"

"Always am." Jacob responds with a wink. He tickles Willie's stomach and the baby giggles. "See you later, big guy." Then he goes down the steps, looking back once more at her before he jogs off into the forest behind them.

         June stares off for a moment before she sighs. Iris comes up beside her, gesturing for Willie to go into her arms. Iris holds her infant grandson to her and places a soft hand on the shoulder of her teenage granddaughter, "He'll be fine, my girl."

June can only hope. She hears Sue chime her name at the door, "June? You ready?"

Iris and June share a look.

Firmly, she calls back, "I am."

•—•—•—•

A WHOLE AFTERNOON LATER, JUNE FELT LIKE SHE might be able to do some serious damage or serious healing to whomever needed it. Sue wasn't downplaying when she said she had a setup ready for her training — June felt like some kind of Jedi saying that but judging from the way she made her grandma Iris's garden come to life, she wouldn't doubt that she had the force with her. June spent the entire day being cultured, prepped, and taking part in a history that she always tried to stay away from. June wasn't ashamed of the native blood she had in her, she was just unsure how to embrace it, seeing as she wasn't full blooded. In the most respectful way possible, she didn't want to make their issues her issues, because even if they were happening to her people, they weren't happening to her. Just because she was some supernatural force, she was also human, she too had to face the harsh reality of what being a Quileute really was. Her whole life she had never been called a Quileute girl; June was always just the chief's daughter or Sam Uley's cousin or June the cheerleader. Even if it was only half of who she was, she never made it a deal to feel proud about the blood running through her veins. She doubted a very many people could go back and tell someone where they came from. The grounds she walked on were the same grounds her ancestors walked upon.

                 Sue and Harry and Billy got her aware of the issues indigenous people like them still go through; June was awakened to the discrimination she never fully faced head on due to the lighter tone of her skin. But they assured her that Native blood was Native blood. Her spirit was woven in the fabric of the earth. But people chose to push their spirits into reservations and claim land that had the bones of her ancestors buried beneath it as theirs.

Sue holds up a small green leaf, standing in front of June. Like a switch goes on in her mind, click, she knows, "That's sage." June says confidently.

The Clearwater matriarch nods with approval, picking up another flower like plant and and nodding, "And this?"

"Echinacea!" June clapped her hands when Sue nodded again. "Oh my god, if only I was this smart in math. I've never known anything about these plants, Sue. Why do I know their names?"

Sue smiled fondly, "Mender's are experts in the healing arts, it's their very essence. They're knowledgeable in all things medicinal, herbs and things you couldn't possibly know without years of learning." She says quickly.

"So what I'm hearing is that I could get a PhD?"

"If it's what you want," Sue chuckles, her lovely face coming alive. "You'd be good if not better than any doctor there."

June smiles to herself. As they situate the herbs again, June feels a small guilt rising in her chest, when she asks, "How's Leah been, by the way?" She couldn't help but ask. "Harry and the others say it's best I keep my distance ... spending all my time here, with the pack, with Sam, it's not the simplest of things."

There's a somberness that falls over Sue's features, she sighs heavily as she stacks the books in front of her, "Leah isn't angry with you, June." She assures. "For all she knows, you're not even here. She thinks you're just busy again, with work or cheer. You're everything to her ..."

"And I don't want to betray her," June supplies. "But t feels that way every moment I let myself enjoy Jacob and the pack. They're sorta all my family now. But Leah ... she means more to me than anything of that. I don't want to be the other person who lets her down."

"My Leah's tough," Sue says with a smile. "If the day ever does come that she finds out you're here, or with Sam and the rest of them, all I can say is just assure you're not gonna forget her."

"I'd never." June vowed.

Harry comes in and asks how's everything going; with satisfied answers from his wife, he smiles. Iris holds Willie as she comes and gives June some water, Willie trying to grab her cup as she laughs. Then Billy asked to have a walk with her while Sue got more things ready. June agreed, and thanked him for letting her know about all he told her.

"Better to have you aware," Billy tells her with a smile as he pushes himself beside her as they walk the grounds of the Reservation. "It'll be your children's issues one day, too."

                    June wants to correct him and say, Oh, I'll never have children—But she remembers this is her boyfriends father. Jacob's imprinted on her. Billy, for all scenarios in his mind, believes them set for life and expects this powerful girl to give him grandchildren with eyes as blue as hers and a spirit as fierce as his son's. A future he expects to be as solid as the commandments set in stone.

So June just nods, "I never thought about it that way." She says as she looks at the trees. "I just didn't want to seem ... presumptuous, I guess, like I was trying to be something I'm not."

"Juniper," Billy says fondly. "You may be from Forks because of your dad, but your mother's blood runs deeper than most Quileute's do. You're a direct line to the spirit chiefs — Uley blood, Capote blood, and even some of the Ateara blood from your grandfathers side."

"But what does that make me?" June asks nervously, looking at him with anxious eyes. "A Quileute girl, a half Quileute girl?"

"There's no way to be half native," Billy smiles at her. "You hear people from a Forks saying around here, oh, my great-grandfather was Quileute. Wouldn't that make them Quileute as well? You see, it's all about what you choose to be, who you're proud to call yourself."

                        June thought of it for a moment. She might've been annoyed at time with the people on the Rez, the way a small town can't keep a secret, a small Native American Reservation was even worse. But June didn't shun anything else. She was proud to be Quileute.

"Our bloodline is very lucky to have you," Billy says suddenly, moving his wheelchair next to her. "You've brought a great honor on my ancestors."

June feels choked up, "I don't know if I'm that big a deal."

"You don't see yourself the way we do," Billy comments knowingly, his dark eyes on her. "I've always had a hunch of the power you'd have. The way you seemed to summon masses to your side. It only amplified when the Cullen's came back a few years ago. Then Sam phased, then I knew Jacob would too, and he'd have to take the rank as alpha."

"He never did tell me why he turned it down," June mumbles lowly.

Billy sighs, in that way that says a father is just a perplexed with his son as his girlfriend is. "Jacob's always been my boy, June, you know. After my Sarah passed ... he was the only reminder that she was still here somehow." Billy stops in his place and they stare at the scenery of the woods, the openness and tranquility. "Rachel and Rebecca, they helped as much as they could. But the pain was too much for them to bear, I knew they'd go on the moment they'd get the chance. But Jacob, I knew I could count on him to stay, to take pride in our people, even if he dismissed the legends as nothing but tall tales. The truth is Jacob believes in them too much, think of himself as unworthy in some way—"

"He's not unworthy," June interrupts, enraged by the thought of Jacob even thinking of himself like that. Did he not know how much he helped her? He made her want to stay alive, he made her change her entire view about dying. "He's the stupidest boy alive if he thinks that; does he not even know how much he means to me— everyone?"

"I agree," Billy smiles at her with his knowing kind of way. He nods up to her, "Jacob turning down being alpha is his way of showing his humility, lord knows how much of it he has."

"I'm glad you're proud of him, Billy," June says honestly, turning to him with watery eyes. "He's ... He's never put himself before anyone. People listen to him, they respect him, they love him, how could they not? He'd make a great alpha, I know it."

"Please convince him of that," Billy says with hopefulness.

"I'll try," June promises, but doesn't want to set anything in stone. She doesn't know if it's what her boyfriend even wants to be? Just then a thought comes to her head. "Billy? I know I'm his imprint, but, is there any variable that decides who gets put together? I'm the luckiest girl to have someone like him but ... I can't help but think sometimes, what if I was like Sam?"

"In what way?" Billy asks.

"In the way that he left Leah," She winced. "What if Jared or Paul or Embry might've imprinted on me? What then?"

Billy's face casts a shadow, as if he expected this question to come sooner or later, "Old Quil has a theory; that imprinted pairs are put together based on what children they could make, how strong their shared bloodline would be." June stiffens at that part. "As for any of the other males imprinting on you, it's unlikely."

"How?" June presses.

"For starters Mender's have always been the imprint of an Alpha," Billy says factually. "Taha Aki's Third Wife, Melanie Capote, and now you. Jacob was born for the role. Just because he doesn't take it doesn't mean he isn't an alpha."

            "So I would've ended up with Jacob, regardless?" June says with a wistful tone in her words that is hard to miss. He nods with a smile. "Do you think that because, Melanie didn't do her duty and have children with Ephraim ... the spirits might've, I don't know, gave our families a second chance?" June theorized.

"I think that's the exact reason," Billy nods. "You and Jacob were meant for each other just as much as Jared and his girl and Embry and Lyanna ... and Sam and Emily."

"But imprints," June began, hoping she wasn't being too obvious. "They can be ... they can be platonic, right? They don't have to be romantic, do they?"

Billy shook his head, "Levi Uley was documented to have lead his imprint to her husband in her wedding," He informed. "Imprints don't have to be romantic. Sure you've got the spirit ceremony and all but that's only if they choose to be mates which most have been said to choose to be, the eternal commitment is sometimes too good to give up. But some, like I said, there are instances where they have chosen to go the guardian route, to be the brother, the friend."

June let's those words sink. They can choose. Which meant that Sam did have choice, more importantly, Emily had a choice in what she wanted Sam to be for her. She could've had him as the protective big brother and still let Leah and Sam go on. The revelation sickened her more than it comforted her.

Maybe there was hope for Jacob after all? Maybe— but her dreams were shattered by the next words Billy spoke, "Except for the extreme case where the imprint is to die, then the wolf will surely follow them."

"But why?" June asks frantically, the composes herself. She clears her throat. "You said they could just be friends, why would they kill themselves—"

"You misunderstood, June," Billy says sadly. "Imprints can choose what they want their wolf to be for them. But the wolf won't ever see anyone else besides whom they imprinted on — even if it is platonic. It's a wolfs life mission to protect their imprint. Humans kill themselves when their brothers die, when their mothers, fathers, pass on. It's no different."

"I get it now." June nods, giving Billy a small smile.

"Come on," Billy says after a moment, patting her hand softly. "I'm sure Sue wants to have you back by now. She's more excited than any of us are. She'll have you working on some more things, trainings never done."

June agrees, following Billy as they make it back towards Iris's backyard. All the while, June wonders when she'll have a day that all hope that lives inside her isn't completely smashed. She couldn't let Jacob die with her. She'd have to find a way ... somehow. She was a freaking Mended. There had to something ... she'd find out.

          June couldn't let Jacob die for the sake of saying she'd never lose him.

note: merry christmas eve everyone!!! this is unedited, like always, and a little gift :) it's probably boring but it has some fluff so I thought why not ?? love you all and thank you for your extreme support on this book !!!!! 💕💕💕💕💕💕