Selcouth • J. Hale ✓

xxxiii.

This is just a filler chapter before we jump into Eclipse.

chapter thirty-three.

Jasper spent the next month trying to win back Karina's trust and Karina couldn't deny that indeed, Jasper had managed to do so.

However, if you knew Karina then you knew that she was afraid. Afraid that he would just up and leave again because of something someone said to him regarding her safety. If Edward had managed to manipulate him away the first time, could someone do it again?

Karina didn't know how to voice this to Jasper, how to explain why she wasn't relenting and just crumbling into his arms like she so yearned too. All Karina knew was that she was too afraid to find out if someone else's thoughts and opinions were enough to make Jasper leave her again.

To keep her mind off of it all, she split her time evenly. Some days she was with Jasper and other days she was attending bonfires with the pack and even bringing William along who seemed to love the stories that were shared. Despite Jasper's worries, he soon learned that Karina had bonded with the pack enough that he was a little more at ease with each visit that she made across the treaty line.

She no longer looked sick, the color had returned to her skin, and she no longer looked sickly ill. However, she was still have her coughing fits and the only people who knew were the pack. She didn't want to worry anyone and especially not Jasper and Karina trusted them to keep the thoughts out of their heads if they ever came around Edward.

While they weren't as frequent as before, they were still very concerning as each one seemed to pain Karina more and more. At some point, she was going to have to tell Jasper and complete the change, but she was holding back because of the fear that rested deep within her.

Karina worried about her mother more than usual as the woman seemed to throw herself into her work after her breakup with Charlie. It seemed to get even worse when word got around that Sue Clearwater and Charlie were getting close with one another.

William and Karina were closer than ever, the 12-year-old was a spitting image of a young Andrew Baxter, and he took pride in that comment. He often joked around with Karina about taking over the company and Karina wondered if he was being serious.

About the business, Karina had managed to pass down ownership to her cousin Damien, who was honored to continue on her father's legacy. All Karina made him promise and legally sign as well, was that if William ever so wished it, he could inherit what was rightfully his.

Karina didn't know what William had in store for his future, but he was already so smart and talented that she left the idea of taking over the business still on the table for him to decide.

Speaking of relationships, in the span of a month, Karina managed to get close to Leah. They both blamed themselves for the death of their father's and often related better with each other than they did with others. However, Karina didn't take sides and Leah was forced to accept that Karina was both her friend and Emily's.

Though that didn't stop the she-wolf from torturing Sam and the pack with her thoughts, though Karina often put a block on Leah's mind as punishment which everyone found amusing.

When it came to Karina's abilities, she had snuck into Carlisle's library whenever they all went hunting and read up on them. She had learned that she had a rare ability that Carlisle had only seen once, and it got the vampire killed when they refused to join the Volturi.

Karina did not want to end up like that.

Karina took photos of Carlisle's books before leaving no trace of her behind and returning to the pack. When she wasn't with Jasper or her family, she was working on her abilities.

When April hit, Karina had learned to project blasts of energy of her psionic (psychic) and telekinetic energy. She learned that if she so wished it, that said energy could hit, push or pull, and blow away her targets and if she pushed hard enough, she could potentially exert enough force to destroy them.

Karina learned that she could create a force field that took whatever shape she so desired. She could even wrap it around herself to protect her and even protect someone else.

There was also her ability to manipulate people mentally, something she enjoyed doing when it came to messing with the pack. Still, Karina learned to perfect the ability, as she practiced on Sam mostly, and learned to manipulate not only memories but thoughts, actions, emotions, and senses at will, as well as to induce sleep or pain and create illusions without any difficulty.

Things were still rocky in the life of Karina Baxter, but she was pushing forward.