The Cullens had all arrived early and Jasper and Emmet were warming up as Edward pulled up in the Jeep with Bella. The two getting out just in time to see Jasper launch Emmet across the clearing.
"Again!" Emmet demanded, standing up and beginning to make his way back over. As Edward and Bella made their way over to everyone else though, the vampires and Maya all heard the sound of the approaching wolves and gathered together. They all turned to face the woods just as the pack came into view moving as one.
"They don't trust us enough to be in their human forms" Edward said, stating the obvious.
"They came. That's what matters" Carlisle reassured him.
There was a tense silence as the wolves all moved out of the trees that was broken by Maya yelling; "Puppy!" and throwing herself at the closest wolf.
The wolf, who just so happened to be Quil, was almost knocked over as she jumped on him and buried her fingers in his fur. Jasper let out a possessive growl at the sight of his mate hugging one of the wolves, while the rest of the Cullens looked on in shock.
"Darlin' get off the wolf" Jasper ordered, worried about her being surrounded by them. Logically he knew that they were friends and would not hurt her, but it did not stop him from worrying.
Maya glanced up at him from the wolf, but made no other move to let him go. "Why?"
"Because Jas is jealous" Emmet said with a huge grin on his face. Jasper sent him a glare at that, but did not deny it.
"Well then its his own fault" Maya told him, returning her attention to petting the wolf.
"Oh yeah?" Emmet questioned, loving this situation and hoping it would provide with new things to tease his brother about.
"Yes, he won't let me get a dog. Which means that I must get what puppy cuddles I can when ever I can."
Jasper groaned at that, "I let you keep the cat."
Maya gasped, "Jasper! That is our son! You can't talk about him like that!" Jasper rolled his eyes at her antics while the rest of the Cullens and some of the wolves chuckled.
"Don't worry Maya, he's just jealous that you prefer to snuggle with Lucky more than him" Emmet declared, making Jasper once again shoot him a glare.
"Oh dear" Maya detached herself from the wolf and made her way over to Jasper and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Is my Jasper feeling neglected?" she teased, looking up at him with an exaggerated pout.
He bent down so that his mouth was even with her ear, "and if I am?" he whispered.
"Well then I will just have to find a way to make it up to you." Maya grinned and sent him a wink, causing Emmet to once again burst into laughter as Rosalie and Alice grinned at the pair.
Carlisle shook his head at the antics of his children before focusing back on their original topic. "Edward, will you translate?" he asked, bringing everyone else back to the topic at hand and stepping towards the wolves.
"Welcome. Jasper has experience with newborns. He'll teach us how to defeat them." Maya grabbed Jasper's hand as Carlisle said that, knowing this training was going to be bringing back a lot of memories for him.
"They want to know how the newborns differ from us" Edward asked for them.
"They are a great deal stronger than us because their own human blood still lingers in their tissues. Our kind is never more physically powerful than in our first several months of this life" Carlisle explained before glancing over at Jasper and giving him a nod as he backed up.
"Carlisle's right" Jasper agreed, moving forward so he was now between the two groups. "That's why they are created. A newborn army doesn't need thousands like a human army, but no human army could stand against them." The wolves all shifted and growled as they took in this knowledge.
"Now the two most important things to remember are, one never let them get their arms around you, they will crush you instantly. And two ... never go the obvious kill. They will be expecting that, and you will lose. Emmet!" Jasper turned away from the group then, moving into position, Emmet opposite him. "Don't hold back" he warned.
"Not in my nature" Emmet grinned. Maya moved over towards Alice and Rosalie as the boys got into position, bouncing on the balls of her feet, excited for her chance to fight. While she may not enjoy it like Felix, Demetri and Emmet did, she was curious to see how she would do against Jasper; a man who had probably as much skill as her uncle and brothers did.
Jasper and Emmet began. Emmet charging forward straight away and Jasper taking the hit, dirt flying up as Emmet pushed him back before throwing him over his shoulder. Jasper landed on his feet and was up, almost too fast to comprehend. They both charged forward then, Jasper dodging Emmet's attacks and putting him on his back with a comment of "never lose focus."
The training continued from there, everyone going up against a combination of Jasper and each other, with Jasper providing tips and correcting mistakes. As much as his past obviously pained him, Maya had to admit that he looked to be in his element here, giving orders and taking command. She also had to admit that he looked very good while doing it and she felt a wave of desire at the sight. Jasper looked up at her sending her a wink and she merely grinned at him and shrugged, not at all shy or embarrassed at being caught.
She refocused though when Edward and Carlisle moved into position. They charged each other the minute they began, Carlisle trying to take down Edward with a slide and Edward jumping over him. They both locked arms and grappled after that, blocking and exchanging hits.
Maya could tell that Edward was using his gift to try and read Carlisle, but they were still pretty evenly matched from what she could see. Just then, Edward managed to put Carlisle on his back, turning to look at Jasper with a smile on his face and Maya frowned at his carelessness. The first rule her uncle ever taught her was to never turn away from a fight until she was sure the danger was gone.
"One more thing" Jasper said as he approached, and Carlisle sprang up behind Edward to knock him down, "never turn your back on your enemy" he finished with an eye roll at Edwards overconfidence. Maya laughed outright at this and Bella shot her a glare.
After that it was Maya's turn and she squared up against Jasper. Unlike everyone else, she had not worn workout clothes but a wrap dress that she could easily tug off so she did not have to worry about ruining her clothes when she shifted. As she slipped off the straps she allowed her body to change to that of a cat about the same size as the wolves. Alice came over and grabbed her dress for her as she crouched down, ready for Jasper to tell her to begin.
"You ready Darlin'?" He asked, also getting into position. At her nod, he called out "begin" and she raced at him.
At the last second, she used her hind legs and flexibility to jump over him, twisting as she did so, so that she was facing his back and immediately leapt for his exposed back. Jasper managed to twist out of her way at the last second, backing off and much more wary of her now. She had told them that she trained with the Volturi, but he hadn't really taken her seriously till now. Yes, he knew she had to have some skills to have survived against James, but he honestly had not considered that they had taught her how to fight offensively with how protective they all were.
He grinned at her, adjusting his footing. "Well, you certainly know more about this then I thought Darlin'. If I had known I wouldn't have gone so easy on you."
With that he charged at her, swiping at her feet and attempting to trip her up as she dodged. She used her extra flexibility and the fact that she had four legs to avoid his arms while simultaneously moving around him, attempting to unbalance him or get him to over reach and provide an opening.
Jasper found himself growing more impressed with each move. It was obvious that her family had taught her well and she had learned from her fight with James. Instead of charging in, like she had with the Tracker, she stayed back after her first strike failed and focused on learning how he moved.
After a few more seconds of the two dodging one another, she finally found an opening. Jasper, in an attempt to follow her with his eyes got one foot crossed over the other in a turn. she took that as her chance and darted in, going straight for his throat in an attack that would take his head off if this were a real fight.
Unfortunately, she had not counted on him purposefully unbalancing to lure her in and as she got close, he wrapped his arms around her torso, intending to give a light squeeze to signal her loss.
However she had some tricks of her own. Just before he could get a hold of her, she shrank down to the size of a house cat, dropped to the ground and darted between his feet, regrowing to the size of the wolves. Pouncing at him, her intent was to get her front paws on his back to force him to the ground so she could get her teeth on either side of his neck.
Shockingly though even with the element of surprise this only partially worked. He recovered faster than she imagined and twisted at the last second. Instead of getting him to land on his front, he landed on his back with both arms up and on her neck in position to snap it.
They both stayed like that for a moment, his hands on her neck and her teeth at his throat, as both their minds caught up to what had happened.
Maya had no idea how he had managed to turn the tables on her like he had. While Jasper was stunned at the speed of her shifting. He had known that she could change size, but he had no idea that it could be that quick or that she could use it in battle to her advantage.
Eventually she got off him and backed away so that he could sit up. Though she was disappointed that she had not managed to win, she was not too upset. She had known that her winning was a stretch. She just didn't have the experience that he had.
Jasper picked up on her disappointment as she made her way over to Alice to retrieve her cloths so she could change back. He also noticed, as Maya disappeared behind a tree to change, that everyone else in the clearing was feeling varying degrees of shock. Apparently nobody else had realized she had that much skill as a fighter either.
"So? Where did I mess up?" She demanded, heading over towards him the moment she was dressed.
"You didn't" he told her truthfully, ignoring Bella's scoff of disbelief. "The only thing that kept you from winning was my experience that allowed me to react fast enough. Against a newborn or someone with less training that would have worked."
Jasper truly was impressed and immensely relieved at her skill. Knowing that if she was this good the chances of her getting seriously hurt in the battle would be smaller.
He also wouldn't deny that seeing her in action had turned him on. To know that his girl could fight like that and still chose to submit to him in bed was a very addicting thought.
Maya however, was oblivious to his thoughts, too focused on her new strategy. "I really thought I had you though" she groaned. "Uncle Caius and I worked hard to come up with that last time I visited. I told him about my fight with James and how he was a better fighter than me. We both decided that I needed a trick that would allow me to get them to lower their guard enough to give me an opening."
"You planning on fighting a lot of experienced fighters?" Jasper asked, worried.
"No. But you never know what might happen. Which is why I am glad that I got the chance to test it out against you instead of in a real battle" Maya said with a shrug.
"Well, I think you can consider this a success" Emmet said coming over to sling an arm around her. "Although I personally think that he went easy on you as he didn't want to hurt his girl. Otherwise, you never would have even gotten that close to beating him."
Maya stuck her tongue out at him. "Your just upset that I came closer to beating him than you did."
"Am not" Emmet denied.
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Too!"
"Not!"
"Children! If we could focus, please" Esme asked, wanting to stop them before it turned into a wrestling match as it sometimes did.
They both apologized to her and everybody got back to work, Alice stepping up to go next. During the fight she used her abilities to see what Jasper was going to do and avoid it, dodging and even cartwheeling out of his way. But it didn't last long, Jasper eventually got a hold of her and thinking it over reached up to ruffle her hair. Only to find she had vanished. He turned, looking around for her right as she jumped down off the tree to land on him, ruffling his hair instead.
Maya laughed at that, holding up her hand for a high-five as Alice came over to her.
Training went on for little longer after that, but soon enough the wolves had to head off on patrol and the Cullens began to pack up to head home.
As they did, Maya got into a small contest with Emmet. They were pushing and shoving each other, trying to see if the "small kitty" could knock over the "big bear man".
Jasper rolled his eyes at them before he turned to make his way over to the Jeep to locate Maya's water bottle. Which she had carelessly tossed in the back at some point.
As he passed by where Bella was sitting, she took the opportunity to talk to him.
"Jasper?" he stopped to look at her. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do to help?" She didn't really want to put herself in danger and only offered because she knew Edward wouldn't actually let her be at any risk.
"Well, your presence alone, your scent, will distract the newborns. Their hunting instinct will take over and drive them crazy." And hopefully one of them will get you Jasper thought idly. He knew it would never happen with Edward involved, but that didn't stop him from hoping.
"Good. I'm glad."
Jasper nodded, hoping the conversation was done. He moved to grab Maya's water bottle to bring it to her wanting to move away from Bella as soon as possible.
"Hey. How do you know so much about this?" Bella had been wondering for a while now. Jasper had always seemed the most mysterious to her, with the way he rarely talked. But every time she tried to get more information, he either didn't answer or someone interrupted.
Jasper sighed, knowing Bella would just keep asking but tried to brush her off anyways, saying "I didn't have quite the same upbringing as my adopted siblings" and showing her his scars.
"Those bites are like mine." She slid off the Jeep to get a closer look, rolling up her sleeve to compare them.
"Battle scars. All the training the Confederate army gave me was useless against the newborns. Still, I never lost a fight." As he watched Bella examine them, he thought back to what Maya had told him.
Before her they had simply been a reminder of his past and a warning that he was dangerous to other vampires. Maya had taught him to accept them for the marks of victory they were. Not just against the vampires he fought, but against the fight to not lose himself and become a complete monster. But that did not mean that he wanted to talk about it with Bella. So he turned to walk away again.
She followed however, choosing to ignore his obvious attempts to end the conversation and get away from her. He sighed as she continued to ask questions about things that were none of her business.
"Hey. This happened during the Civil War?" She had thought that Edward was the second oldest, but apparently Jasper was older than him, which intrigued her.
"I was the youngest Major in the Texas Calverley, all without ever having seen any real battle."
"Until?"
"Till I met a certain immortal. Maria" He growled the name in distaste as he remembered his past.
"I was riding back to Galveston after evacuating a column of women and children when I saw them. I immediately offered them my aid." He went on to explain what had happened and how he had been changed and woken up in a barn three days later.
"Maria was creating an army?" Bella interrupted.
"They were very common in the South. There were constant brutal battles for territory. Maria won them all. She was smart, careful, and she had me. I was her second in command, my ability to control emotions served her well. I trained her newborns. An endless occupation since she never let them live beyond their first year. It was my job to dispose of them. I could feel everything they felt. ... I thought what Maria and I had was love. But I was her puppet. She pulled the strings. I didn't know there was another way, till I found Alice. Now she'd seen me coming of course. Saw a future where we could be part of a family and I could meet my mate. She led me to the Cullens and eventually I met Maya; my mate and the light of my life."
"You're my everything too, you know" Maya said as she came up behind him.
Jasper smiled down at her and leaned forward to catch her lips in a gentle kiss, allowing thoughts of his past to fade away for the moment. Bella watching them with disgust and jealously swirling through her.