Jacob Black

Jacob Black is a shape-shifter or "werewolf" of the Quileute tribe, former Beta of the Uley pack, and Alpha of his own. In Twilight, he is fifteen years old, and in New Moon, he phases into a wolf for the first time at the age of sixteen. In Breaking Dawn, he imprints on the hybrid baby named Renesmee Cullen, the daughter of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan.

On Stephenie Meyer's official website, Jacob was originally just a device to inform Bella about the "Cold Ones." However, both she and her editor liked Jacob so much that they decided to give him a larger role in the sequels to Twilight, making him a main character in New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. He forms a deep bond with Bella in the sequels, and tries to fight against Edward for her love, until she realizes that her love for Edward is stronger and chooses him over Jacob. Jacob subsequently imprints on Bella and Edward's daughter, Renesmee, thus freeing himself from his heartbreak and triangular issues with Bella and Edward. His Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined counterpart is Julie Black.

He is portrayed by Taylor Lautner in the movie adaptations.

Early life
"We used to make mud-pies when we were little."

- Jacob, to Bella.

Jacob Black was born to Billy and Sarah Black. Throughout childhood and adolescence, Jacob's two best friends were Embry Call and Quil Ateara V. All three attended school on the La Push reservation. During childhood, he and his sisters, Rachel and Rebecca were sometimes acquainted with Charlie Swan's daughter, Bella, though they never became real friends and Bella remained mostly in California and Phoenix.

When he was 9 years old, his mother Sarah died in a tragic car crash, although he recovered from the pain better than his sisters did, thanks in part to his sisters, Rachel and Rebecca, filling the role of mother for him as much as they were able. Rebecca married a man named Solomon Finau and moved to Hawaii, while Rachel moved away to attend Washington State university as soon as finished high school. Since his sisters were away, he became his father's only company at home, especially after he became wheel-chair bound due to diabetes. However, he did not resent taking care of his dad; in fact, he enjoyed his father's company, though he refused to believe in his family legends and traditions.

When the Cullens first moved to Forks, Jacob did not understand his father's aversion. After awhile, he began tuning out most of what his father said.

Twilight
"Well, there are lots of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood—supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive like Noah and the ark. Another legend claims that we descended from wolves—and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them. Then there are the stories about the cold ones."

- Jacob telling Bella about his tribe's stories.

Jacob has a small but very important role in Twilight. Jacob is a long-time close family friend of Bella due to both of their fathers, Billy and Charlie being best friends. He meets Bella for the first time after she moved back to Forks when she and some of her schoolmates spent a day on First Beach, where Jacob and his friends encountered them. After Bella flirts with him (as a way to extract information from him about the Cullens), he introduces the idea of Edward and his family being vampires by telling her the Quileute legends on the topic. Bella feels guilty for using him this way, but finds him easy to talk to and very friendly. After Bella and Edward began dating, Billy takes Jacob to Bella to advise her against it, without, however, telling her why. She already knows. He is later seen crashing Forks High's prom under his father's orders to reiterate the same warning.

In the movie adaptation, Jacob first shows up to bring Bella her new truck and give her tips on how to drive it. However, in the beach scene he doesn't actually tell her what Edward is. In turn, she is forced to do her own digging to get the answer she wants. He later comes to Bella's house with his dad to watch baseball with Charlie.

New Moon
"I know how you're unhappy a lot. And, maybe it doesn't help anything, but I wanted you to know that I'm always here. I won't ever let you down. I promise that you can always count on me."

- Jacob to Bella

Months after Edward and his family leave Forks in New Moon, Bella becomes very close to Jacob, who comforts her during her hardship by trying to cheer her up by engaging in various different activities including motor-bike riding. Jacob helps her to become somewhat happy and normal again, though she still deeply misses Edward. New Moon reveals that Jacob is one of an ancient line of Quileute werewolves. They are the mortal enemies of all vampires, including the Cullen family. At first, Jacob thinks all this is a bunch of superstition, and he becomes frightened and disturbed by the influence a young man on the reservation, Sam Uley, has on some of the Quileute youth, especially after his best friend, Embry Call, joined them and cut contact with his other friends. After Jacob went through an unexpected transformation into a werewolf, it is revealed that Sam, the pack's leader, was the first to make the transformation in several generations. He'd gone though his own hardships during the change, including a rather bloody incident with his fiancée, Emily Young.

As werewolves are short-tempered, highly violent, and likely to explode into wolf form when angered, Jacob is initially forbade by Sam to see Bella in order to protect her from him. One week later, she visits him at his home, and he tells her off, saying that he now knows about the Cullens being vampires. He and his new friends patrol the forest, searching for vampires that have been killing hikers in the area. Jacob and the pack save Bella from the vampire Laurent (from Twilight), who was trying to kill her. Before the over-sized wolves chase him off, Laurent tells Bella that Victoria (also from Twilight) wants revenge on Edward for killing her mate, James, by killing his and make him experience the same pain that she felt, i.e. Bella.

Sometime later, Jacob unexpectedly shows up at Bella's bedroom window and apologizes for their recent fight and his avoidance of her. When she asks him what is happening with him, he claims that he can't tell her, but leaves her a clue to what he and the rest of Sam's group is. Bella remembers the stories Jacob told her on First Beach, about the Quileutes being descended from wolves. The next day, she confirms that Jacob is a werewolf. She later confronts him, assuming his pack is behind the recent murders in the forest. Jacob convinces her that their job is to protect humans from vampires, and they would never intentionally harm anyone. He also tells her that Laurent is dead, and together, they figure out that a certain red-headed vampire terrorizing the werewolves and hikers in the forest is actually Victoria. But when Jacob calls his pack to give them the news, they are angered about it. Paul, one of the pack members, loses his temper, phases into his wolf form and tries to attack her. Jacob quickly phases in turn and mauls Paul, chasing him into the woods.

Afterwards, Jacob and his pack assign themselves to protecting Forks, Bella and Charlie from Victoria while hunting her. She and Charlie spend a vast majority of their time in La Push during spring break. Jacob and Bella renew their friendship, and he tells her what it's like to be a werewolf. Sometime later, still in grief over losing Edward, she tries to "contact" him by engaging in a dare-devil activity and goes cliff-diving. She nearly drowns before Jacob is able to her pull her out of the water.

Upon returning to the Blacks' home, Bella and Jacob learn that Charlie and Billy's friend Harry Clearwater has died of a heart attack; a quick succession of events later that evening and the next day pry Bella and Jacob apart. Jacob drives Bella home, only to discover that Alice has inexplicably turned up there; he recoils from her presence and flees to La Push to regroup. He returns to the Swans' home the next day to apologize to Bella; they nearly kiss when the phone interrupts them. When Jacob answers, he mistakes Edward's voice for Carlisle's, and, refusing to surrender much information, tells the caller that Chief Swan was attending a funeral. Having received cryptic information, Edward assumes the funeral is for Bella, thinking she had committed suicide. Grief-stricken, he departs in order to meet with the Volturi, and Bella and Alice rush to try to stop him. Jacob is deeply hurt and disgusted by Bella's choice, Edward's return, and Bella's willingness to go back to him and become a vampire, but reluctantly agrees to protect her father in case Victoria shows up. However, their job ended when the Cullens move back to town.

In the epilogue of New Moon, sometime after the Cullens returned, Jacob turns in Bella's motorcycle to make Charlie ground her in an attempt to prevent her from seeing Edward, though he doesn't know that she is already grounded for leaving without explanation. He also reminds Edward of the Quileute-Cullen treaty, which forbids the Cullen family from biting any humans. This means that if a member of the Cullen family turned Bella into a vampire, the treaty would be broken and the werewolves would start a war with them. Jacob is upset by the whole conversation, though Bella manages to calm him down before he can try to attack Edward and before she and Edward leave. However, when Bella turns to look at Jacob one last time, she sees that he is suffering in heart-wrenching emotional pain and that he is heartbroken.

Eclipse
"The clouds I can handle. But I can't fight with an eclipse."

- Jacob to Bella

Eclipse begins with Jacob still trying to keep a safe distance from Bella, who desperately tries to communicate with him. He is not comfortable with the idea of Bella associating herself with a vampire, making him to almost lose control with anger and hatred.

The book starts with Bella receiving and reading the note from Jacob. He has a hard time expressing himself in it, as she reads through many unfinished sentences that end up being crossed out. The last comment in the note is not crossed out, and shows that even though he misses spending time with her, he is still angry about their situation.

Later on, however, his affection for Bella grows even stronger. He's enraged that she will become a vampire after graduation, which is only a few weeks away. Horrified by the news, he makes it his goal to save Bella's human life no matter what. Bella feels bad that she's spending all her time with Edward and she sneaks off to visit Jacob. He invites her to a Quileute council meeting, and she accepts. They spend the night together and listen to tribe legends, believed to be real by the Quileute. When Edward realizes that he has been too overprotective, he encourages Bella to visit him on a regular basis. On one of the later visits, Jacob tells Bella that he loves her, and kisses her, thinking that she loves him back and is reciprocating his affections. Bella, outraged by this, punches him in the jaw and breaks her hand. Jacob brings Bella home and Edward threatens him that if he ever kisses Bella or forces against her will without her consent again, he'll break his jaw for her. But Edward also claims that he would allow it to happen if she wanted to kiss him.

A while later, at a graduation party held at the Cullens' house that Jacob decides to attend, he gives her a charm bracelet with a carving of a wolf on it as a graduation present. While there, he learns that Victoria has amassed a newborn vampire army to attack Bella. Jacob and the pack eagerly agrees on joining forces with the Cullens and learning how to fight these newborn vampires, who are significantly stronger than the Cullens. Their original plan was to have Seth Clearwater watch over Bella in a remote mountain place while the Cullens and the rest of the werewolf pack fought off the vampires. Bella, however, wanted Edward with her. Edward agreed as long as Jacob would carry her to the place in the mountains so that her scent would be disguised by his "stench". They followed through with the plan, and Jacob carried Bella to the mountain hideaway. While waiting for the battle to be over, Edward, Bella, and Jacob set up camp. A blizzard blows through the camp, and Bella begins to freeze. Jacob comes in the tent and stays in Bella's sleeping bag to warm her up with his abnormal body heat, much to Edward's chagrin.

During the night, Jacob asks Edward about his relationship with Bella and what it felt like to lose her. They bond and temporarily set aside their hatred for each other.

In the morning, Bella wakes up and Jacob leaves the tent. Bella and Edward then start discussing their marriage plans. Jacob overhears their conversation and runs away, upset. Upon Bella's request, Edward brings him back and leaves them alone to talk. As they talk, Jacob tells Bella that he's going to kill himself because she doesn't love him. Bella begs him not to do so and offers to kiss him if he promises to come back, and Jacob agrees. At first, Bella is hesitant and starts to resist, but she soon finds herself kissing him back passionately and realizes that she is in love with Jacob after all. Jacob then leaves to battle, promising that he will try and not get himself killed, but gets injured trying to save Leah Clearwater from a newborn vampire. The newborn mangled all the bones on the right side of Jacob, before being destroyed by Sam. Carlisle patches him up and a worried Bella visits him later. Jacob is shocked to hear that Edward didn't get angry at Bella for kissing him. They talk and she tells him that, although she loves and cares about Jacob deeply, she still has chosen Edward. While heartbroken over her choice and deeply hurt that he couldn't save her despite his best efforts, Jacob doesn't show it, and reluctantly agrees to stop trying to separate them. Jacob reminds Bella that he will always be there for her whenever she needs him.

The epilogue is written from Jacob's point of view. Jacob and Leah are sitting at the edge of a cliff, with Jacob thinking about how difficult it will be when Bella is turned into a vampire, which to him isn't much different from dying. Leah tells him to get over her, and Jacob angrily tells Leah to leave him alone. At home, he finds that Edward has sent him an invitation to the wedding. Enclosed there is a note saying that he is not obliged to attend, but that, if Edward was in Jacob's shoes, he would want a choice. Edward thanks Jacob for everything. Unable to endure his human emotions any longer, he phases into a wolf, and runs away. Jacob runs as fast as his legs can carry him. The rest of the wolves try to talk to him, but Sam tells them to leave Jacob alone.

Breaking Dawn
"If you think that imprinting could ever make sense of this insanity… Do you really think that just because I might someday imprint on some stranger it would make this right? Tell me what the point was then, Bella! What was the point of me loving you? What was the point of you loving him? When you die, how is that ever right again? What’s the point to all the pain? Mine, yours, his! You’ll kill him, too, not that I care about that. So what was the point of your twisted love story, in the end? If there is any sense, please show me, Bella, because I don’t see it."

- Jacob on imprinting

In Breaking Dawn, Jacob is mentioned to have been gone for almost two months now, and is trying to live the rest of his life as a wolf so he doesn't have to deal with the pain he is in. Jacob is first seen at Bella's wedding, having decided to attend despite his pain. He apologizes to Bella and tells her that he only wants her to be happy. However, he becomes violent towards Edward when he finds out about their plans to make love while Bella is still human, and has to be restrained by Seth and Sam. During Bella and Edward's honeymoon, Jacob, rage-filled, imagines the different outcomes of the honeymoon.

Jacob is the narrator in Book 2 of Breaking Dawn. When Bella returns from the honeymoon, Jacob believes that she has been turned and demands the pack attack the Cullens. Sam refuses to do so, and Jacob goes on a solo mission, leaving his own home in the process. He finds out that she is pregnant, and sees that she is bruised where her child has kicked. He talks with Edward, who doesn't want the baby because it is killing Bella, but cannot do anything because Rosalie Hale guards Bella, upon Bella's request. Rosalie's choice influences Emmett, Esme and Carlisle and so Edward cannot force Bella to have an abortion. Desperate, Edward asks Jacob to offer Bella to get pregnant with him, resulting in a much healthier pregnancy than the current one. Jacob is sickened but tempted, and agrees to try to persuade Bella to abort. He also promises Edward that he'll kill him if Bella dies.

Jacob informs Sam and the pack of Bella's pregnancy. The pack plans on killing Bella and the baby because they see the unborn baby as a threat, which is however protected by the Cullens. Jacob still loves Bella, and rebels against Sam's authority as Alpha. He embraces his Alpha heritage and breaks away from the pack. Seth and Leah Clearwater join him patrolling the Cullens' territory, and preventing Sam's pack from attacking.

While running patrols, Leah requests to stay in Jacob's pack after Renesmee's birth. Though taken back by the idea, Jacob agrees to think about it. Leah admits to Jacob that she understands Rosalie and Bella, and that, if their positions were switched around, they would do the same for each other. Jacob is enraged by this and is lead into an awkward conversation about Leah being menopausal and her love for Sam. Jacob ends the conversation to check up on Bella.

A few days later, Edward hears the baby's mind for the first time, and he loves the unborn baby as it already loves Bella, leaving Jacob feeling betrayed and mad. Edward hears this and gives the keys of his Aston Martin Vanquish to Jacob, so that Jacob might get away from them. Jacob desperately drives out to look for his soul mate, someone who he may imprint on, so that he would forget his love for Bella. His search ends up fruitless.

Jacob comes back and learns that the baby is trying not to hurt Bella anymore. Edward asks Jacob, as heir to the chief, Ephraim Black, for permission to change her into a vampire after the birth of the child. Feeling empty inside, Jacob agrees.

When Bella goes into a horrifically painful labor, Jacob kicks out Rosalie, who'd lost her control and performs CPR on Bella while Edward delivers the baby, who is a girl and Bella names her "Renesmee". Seconds after that, Bella's heart stops and Edward bites her to turn her into a vampire. Jacob feels completely empty by her death and intends to kill Renesmee for revenge, but instead imprints on her when he sees her. This also cures him of his heart break over Bella rejecting him. He nicknames her Nessie, because her real name is a mouthful, and this irritates Bella, since it refers to the Loch Ness Monster and catches on. Jacob is extremely close to Renesmee, goes hunting with her, and for Christmas he braids her a bracelet that is the Quileute version of a promise ring. Jacob has a strong desire to protect her and to keep her happy and safe. It is likely that his feelings will eventually turn into romantic and sexual interests when she is older. It is hard for him to be separated from her, so he visits every day and almost never leaves the Cullen house. However, he states that once Renesmee's growing slows down, he will go back to school. Finally, Sam's pack stops trying to attack the Cullens, since the most important of the werewolf laws that one cannot kill the object of another wolf's imprinting, due to the damage it would cause to the wolf in question. It is also stated that Jacob's close friends, Quil and Embry, who stayed with Sam when Jacob went his separate way, also have joined Jacob's pack after Renesmee's birth.

When Irina comes to Forks and mistakes Renesmee for an immortal child, she reports to the Volturi. Knowing that they need help to stand against the Volturi and that Renesmee is in the center of the danger, Jacob reluctantly tolerates the Cullens' vampire friends during their stay, all of whom have agreed to witness for the Cullens. He also sends his troops to run with Sam's pack for the time being. On Christmas Day, he gives Renesmee a hand-knitted bracelet, which is his tribe's version of promise ring, as a present.

Days before the Volturi arrive, Bella plans for Jacob to run away with Renesmee to Rio de Janeiro, so that they may be saved from the upcoming slaughter. She has passports forged for the two of them, with Jacob as "Jacob Wolfe", and Renesmee as "Vanessa Wolfe". Jacob shares a tearful goodbye with Bella and Edward when their confrontation with the Volturi coven is about to turn violent. However, the situation is drastically neutralized when Alice and Jasper bring another vampire hybrid named Nahuel to prove to the Volturi that Renesmee isn't an immortal child nor a threat to the vampire world. After the Volturi shamefully left, Bella is overjoyed and calls Renesmee, "Nessie" for the first time.

In the movie, Alice has a vision of the upcoming battle: in it, Jacob is escaping through the forest with Renesmee while being chased by Santiago, a powerful guard of the Volturi. His running slows a tad when he hears Seth's death in Leah's mind, and the guard nearly jumps down on them when he snaps out of it and kills the guard to make their escape. After the confrontation ended peacefully, with the only casualty being Irina, Alice has a vision of Jacob and Renesmee in the future: they are in love and living happily with their families. Edward tells him he is glad that Renesmee will have him in the future, but is still not ready to grip the idea of being his future father-in-law.

At the end of Breaking Dawn, he, along with other wolves, hears from Edward and Aro that they are not really werewolves, but are rather shape-shifters who can turn into wolves, correcting the mistaken belief that had been accepted in their tribe. After the Volturi's "trial", Jacob jokes that life will be "boring now," which Edward remarks that he fervently hopes so. Unbeknownst to him, Bella and Edward suspect that he will have to compete for Renesmee's affection with Nahuel, but they decide to postpone their worries until the time comes.

Physical appearance
"He looked fourteen maybe fifteen, and had long, glossy black hair pulled back with a rubber band at the nape of his neck. His skin was beautiful, silky and russet-colored; his eyes were dark, set deep above the high planes of his cheekbones. he still had just a hint of childish roundness left around his chin. Altogether, a very pretty face."

- Bella on seeing Jacob for the first time

Growing from 5'10 to 6'7 within one year, Jacob is the tallest character in the series, towering over Alice by nearly three feet and describing her as about the size of one of his arms. Bella notes that he would surely hit his head upon the beams of her new cottage. He is of Native American descent and in Twilight had a lanky build and wore his long hair in a ponytail. Though he looked too tall for his age, he had a hint of childish roundedness to his chin.

Around the time when he started to phase, his body grew tremendously thick, toned and muscular, similar to that of a serious bodybuilder, though balanced by his tremendous height so he doesn't look out of proportion. In New Moon, upon discovering his shape-shifter powers and joining the Quileute pack, he crops his long black hair short. Later he grows it out to chin length in Eclipse because he thinks Bella prefers it longer. He cuts it short again in Breaking Dawn. Jacob is also said to be extremely handsome, with dark good looks, raven-black hair, russet skin (which Bella was rather jealous of at times) and deep-set twinkling dark brown eyes; Bella once described him as "sort of beautiful".

Wolf form
"The wolf closest to me, the reddish brown one, turned its head slightly at the sound of my gasp. The wolf's eyes were dark, nearly black. It gazed at me for a fraction of second, the deep eyes seeming too intelligent for a wild animal. As it stared at me, I suddenly thought of Jacob…"

- Bella on seeing Jacob in wolf form for the first time.

As a wolf, Jacob is about 10 feet in length, has russet brown fur, dark intelligent eyes, and is very swift. He was also the second fastest and the second largest in Sam's pack. He later grows to be the largest and strongest, but Leah Clearwater is still faster than him. Sam acknowledged him as the pack's strongest fighter. Bella is still amazed that Jacob did not take the role of Alpha in Sam's pack, though he eventually creates his own pack after Sam decided to kill Bella to prevent Renesmee from being born.

Personality and traits
Jacob's personality changes throughout the books as he matures. In Twilight, he seems very friendly though shy and slightly sheepish around Bella, easily succumbing to her flirtations and worrying about how the Quileute legends will affect her perception of him. However, in New Moon Jacob goes from being his old, happy self to being sullen and temperamental. This is because he has now phased and is experiencing life in wolf form. In New Moon, his cheerful attitude is what attracts Bella and make her feel better.

He is one of two who dislike being wolf the most and wants nothing more than to be rid of his magical inheritance, but learns to adapt to the idea. When he first joined the pack, Sam wanted him to lead it, but he refused and gave the responsibility to him instead.

In Eclipse, he becomes a lot more confident that Bella is really for him - so much that he makes her realize that she does love him after all through means of trickery. He also seems to be somewhat rebellious, since he encourages Bella to sneak out to visit him and they ditch school so they could spend some time alone, even though just as friends. In Breaking Dawn, his personality changes yet again, to slightly violent and pessimistic, as he feels like Bella is going to die due to her unnatural pregnancy. He is ready to kill her baby daughter, Renesmee, until he imprints on her. After this and Bella's successful transformation into a vampire, he returns to his cheerful personality as he no longer feels the pain of Bella's rejection.

During free time, he enjoys rebuilding automotive vehicles, hanging out with his friends, and playing with Renesmee. He also has an interest in watching action movies and commenting on bloody scenes.

Generally, Jacob is very friendly, playful, carefree and caring towards the people around him. He would go to any extent to protect those he loves most, most obvious in Breaking Dawn when he disbands from his pack and sacrifices everything to protect Bella. He is also shown to be somewhat sarcastic, slightly obnoxious and slightly childish, and has a hot-headed temper due to his wolf side and highly dislikes the scent of vampires. He was also very hostile toward Edward, even before he phased, only because they were both in love with Bella, but they eventually come to terms with each other. After embracing his right as an Alpha and imprinting on Renesmee in Breaking Dawn, he begins to take the responsibilities of leading his renegade pack more seriously.

Like everyone else in his tribe, he had a prejudice against the Cullens and other vampires, viewing them as nothing more than blood-sucking monsters, but eventually warmed up to the Cullens and came to see them as something more than vampires.

Wolf abilities
Jacob can phase in and out of wolf form. With practice and skill, one can morph faster and with more efficiency, with Jacob being the one exception, being able to phase in mid-jump, while it takes the rest of the pack several seconds to phase. Though phasing can be controlled, anger can easily cause the individual to phase by accident.
 * Phasing

Jacob has a powerful regenerative healing factor. This allows him to heal at an abnormal rate, faster than any human being can. The extent of this regeneration is very powerful, to the point that Jacob comments that even a bullet through his temple wouldn't be enough to kill him. Small cuts and minor injuries heal within seconds while larger, more damaging injuries, such as broken bones, blood loss, and vampire venom infection seem to heal within minutes.
 * Regeneration

Only works within the pack, and when in wolf form. Jacob can speak with other members of his pack telepathically and hear their thoughts. Though this is more than useful while hunting and tracking, there is no privacy left in the pack because of this ability. It can be described as both a gift and a burden. Their thoughts are open even when they try to hide them. After Jacob formed a pack of his own, he was able to communicate those within his pack and Sam, the Alpha of his previous wolf pack, if he chooses to and can select the thoughts that he wants to share. Edward can access the thoughts of his entire pack when one member is present. Also, because his Alpha wolf mind is linked with his pack, Bella can protect him and his fellow wolves with her shield solely by shielding him. This implies that in wolf form, they may all be vulnerable to mind-based powers if Jacob falls victim to one.
 * Telepathy

Jacob has superhuman strength in both wolf and human form, though he is at his peak only while in wolf form. This has been displayed numerous times, as how Jacob was able to carry Bella 9 miles through a thick forest with ease. In wolf form, he possesses supernatural speed, capable of running over 100 miles per hour. In human form he is notably faster than any human being, but still not nearly as fast as he is in his wolf form. Before phasing, the human form will build up their muscles naturally and will be ready for the first time they phase. Jacob is known as the physically strongest in both packs, though not as fast as Leah. In battle, he is very capable of handling his opponents. Jacob also has greater endurance than a human, most famously seen when Bella struck Jacob in the jaw with all of her strength, and ended up badly breaking her hand while Jacob, who wasn't even remotely hurt, couldn't tell that she was trying to hurt him until she started screaming. Jacob also mentioned in Breaking Dawn that it would take a van moving at high speed to break his bones.
 * Natural enhancements

They cannot start aging until a solid period of time without phasing goes by. It is unknown the exact length of time, only it would be very difficult because phasing is instinctual, along with the fact that vampires often come through Washington and the wolves are needed whenever vampires are close.
 * Delayed aging

Shape-shifters have a constant body temperature of about 110° degrees to withstand severe cold weather. This high body heat also allows them to survive in very hot weather, making it hard for their bodies to overheat. This high body temperature is very useful in combat, as it makes it extremely hard for vampires to harm them because they are extremely sensitive to heat. In Breaking Dawn, after Bella becomes a vampire, she describes Jacob's skin as like touching an open fire and unbearable to touch. This temperature also prevents frequent illness, by killing any potential pathogens they come into contact with before they can become ill. Jacobs mentions this ability to be beneficial. Shape-shifters cannot go to the hospital when they are running a temperature that should indicate them as dead.
 * High body temperature

Jacob's true power as Alpha comes from his pack, which grants him total control over it: therefore he can force his followers to obey his orders against their will. Jacob never uses his voice to force his teammates to do something against their will, though he has the power and it is even stronger than Sam's voice.
 * Alpha voice

Shape-shifers can involuntarily imprint, a method of finding a soul mate. When a werewolf imprints, it seems as if time stops and gravity doesn't hold them to Earth, anymore. They are instead held by the person they have imprinted on. A werewolf cannot control the outcome of imprinting. For example, Jacob tried unsuccessfully to force himself to imprint on Bella. If an imprintee dies, the shape-shifter might go insane or kill himself.
 * Imprinting

Etymology
Jacob is the name of one of Stephenie Meyer's brothers. According to The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, Jacob is named after one of his ancestors.

Trivia
In the original sequel to Twilight, Forever Dawn, Jacob and Bella are not close as Edward never left Bella. Despite this, Jacob still imprints on Renesmee Cullen—though it is a few weeks later rather than immediately after her birth. Also, Jacob dies somewhere along the way in the book, though his death is not very significant because he was not made out to be a major character in Forever Dawn.