Even imprinting — that sacred, involuntary bond the wolves spoke about with reverence — always sounded more like a punishment than a gift. The way Sam walked around like his soul lived and died with Emily’s every breath? It looked like chains. Golden, pretty chains, but still chains.
And Jacob had always hated chains.
Until the day he saw her.
She wasn’t new. In fact, she was the opposite of new. She'd gone to school with him. Lived on the rez. Been around. But she was always... separate. Above the noise. The kind of girl who walked the halls of school with her head held high, books hugged to her chest, eyes focused like she saw the future and had no time for the present.
Sierra Tahoma.
Beautiful, yeah. That was obvious. But it wasn’t just her face. It was the way she carried herself. Like she didn’t need anyone. Not in a cold way, just… completely whole. She didn’t chase boys. Didn’t giggle in the cafeteria. She read during lunch and aced every test without trying. She was the kind of girl that made guys feel small — not because she tried to, but because she was just that put-together. Out of their league without even meaning to be.
And Jacob?
He noticed her, sure. But he’d been too wrapped up in Bella to really see her. Too busy chasing someone who would never pick him.
Until Bella did the unthinkable.
Until she chose him. Edward.
Jacob was broken. Quiet. Angry. Strung so tight he was snapping at everyone. Even Embry had started giving him space. He spent hours running through the woods in wolf form, trying to run away from the ache inside him, from the ghost of a girl who had never truly been his.
Then, one afternoon, it happened.
He’d been walking back from the beach after a long patrol. Shirt slung over his shoulder. Sand clinging to his feet. The sun was low, stretching golden fingers across the water.
And there she was.
Sierra. Sitting on a large rock near the shoreline, her knees pulled to her chest, hair whipped gently by the wind. She was reading — because of course she was, and didn’t even look up.
And Jacob froze.
It hit him like a punch to the chest. A sudden gravitational shift. The world tilted and corrected itself around her.
The imprint.
A thousand things hit him at once: the certainty that she was his, that her happiness meant more than his own, that he’d protect her with every cell in his body, that she mattered — more than anyone ever had.
He wanted to run.
He didn’t want this.
Not again. Not so soon. Not when he was still bleeding over Bella.
So he told himself something dangerous.
She doesn’t have to be my girlfriend. I’ll be her friend. That’s all. I can handle that.
It started small. Friendly waves when he passed her in town. A casual “Hey” at the store. Nothing pushy.
Sierra didn’t act impressed. Or flustered. She met him with calm, steady eyes. Like she saw through whatever act he thought he was pulling.
It intrigued him.
No, it enchanted him.
He learned she liked peppermint tea and poetry and the kind of music that didn’t play on the radio. That she took care of her grandmother on the weekends and once helped rebuild a neighbor’s roof even though she hated heights. That she didn’t date because no one had ever felt worth it. Because most guys got intimidated or tried to turn conversations into competitions.
But Jacob didn’t. He listened. Really listened. He didn’t try to outsmart her or impress her.
He just was there.
And she let him in.
Weeks passed. Then months.
Jacob told himself he was fine. That he could stay in the safe zone of friendship.
But the more time he spent with Sierra, the harder it became to breathe when she wasn’t around. Her laughter haunted him like a melody he couldn’t forget. Her voice was home. Her silences were peaceful, not awkward.
She made him feel like more. Like he wasn’t just a wolf or a boy left behind.
She asked hard questions. Challenged him. Pushed him to think. To grow.
And one night, while sitting on her porch under a sky smeared with stars, she leaned her head on his shoulder without a word.
He didn’t move.
Didn’t breathe.
Didn’t dare think too hard about the way his heartbeat changed its rhythm to match hers.
Then, one morning, Embry asked the question Jacob had been trying not to answer.
“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”
Jacob looked up from the car he was working on and froze. Grease on his hands. Sweat on his brow. And no good lie ready.
Embry raised a brow. “You think because you didn’t mean to, it doesn’t count?”
Jacob exhaled slowly, leaning back against the hood. “I didn’t want this.”
Embry shrugged. “Yeah, well. Want’s got nothing to do with it.”
Sierra figured it out before he said it.
Of course she did.
She always knew when he was lying, even to himself.
“I thought we were just friends,” she said one day, her voice soft but not angry.
“We were,” he said, eyes on the lake in front of them. “But I think I crossed that line the day I started memorizing the way you say my name.”
She turned toward him slowly. “And now?”
He looked at her. Really looked at her. “Now I think... I’d still rather be your friend than lose you. But yeah. I’m in love with you.”
Silence stretched between them, heavy with possibility.
Sierra didn’t speak for a long moment. Then: “Good.”
Jacob blinked. “Good?”
She smiled — small and rare and real. “Because I think I’ve been falling for you, too.”
It was nothing like he’d imagined love would be. It wasn’t consuming or painful like it had been with Bella. It wasn’t a storm.
It was gravity.
Steady. Unshakable. Pulling him home over and over again.
Harmful representation still portrays in midnight sun like there was a line where Edward says I don’t eat like a savage when he’s referring to Jacob who’s native which is a racial slur Edward also says he wants to kill this defenseless tribe which is disgusting because the series does the tribe no justice and the series hurt them
I agree 100% Smeyer did both a good and terrible job writing for Edward. She completely turned a (I believe) a good character into a bigot.
And to move on from that I am going to post this here.
Its a project for the Quileute Tribe, which any or all Twilight should donate too to help out this amazing culture/tribe of people.
From reading their website, this project is mainly for the relocation of their tribal school out of the tsunami zone that covers a percentage of their lands.
PLEASE I have already donated $10 but you don't have to donate that much(or little) anything should help.
PLEASE LIKE AND REPOST SO THIS CAN REACH ALL CORNERS OF THE FANDOM.
