Bella Swan and Jacob Black

"Bella actually falls in love with Jacob in New Moon. It's understandable why this fact didn't occur to her: Bella had fallen in love only one other time, and it was a very sudden, dramatic, sweep-you-off-your-feet, change-your-world, magical, passionate, all-consuming thing. She didn't recognize the much more subtle falling-in-love she experienced with Jacob. She was only aware that she preferred being with him over everyone else, that he was constantly on her mind, and that his happiness was essential to her own. She also enjoyed being physically close to him in a way that she didn't with her other friends. But it took her a while to add up all the pieces."

- Stephenie Meyer's answer to a fan's question.

Bella Swan and Jacob Black's relationship is complicated because Jacob, a shape-shifter, is in love with Bella although she is romantically involved with Edward Cullen, a vampire. This relationship eventually became a deep family-like bond between Bella and Jacob, after Jacob imprinted on her daughter, Renesmee.

In the movies, Bella is portrayed by Kristen Stewart and Jacob by Taylor Lautner.

Bella Swan
Bella Swan's parents divorced when she was three months old, and Renée took Bella with her to Riverside, California before moving to Phoenix, Arizona when she was five.

She did not fit in very well at school, never having many friends, and spent a lot of time with her mother. She briefly took ballet. Bella has visited Forks in her past to spend time with Charlie every summer. During these occasions, she also spent time with Rachel, Rebecca, and Jacob Black, the children of Charlie's friend Billy Black. She stopped visiting Forks at the age of fourteen. This was when she put her foot down, and Charlie went to California for two weeks every summer instead. Bella took care of her mom.

By the time Bella was seventeen, her mom remarried with a minor league baseball player named Phil Dwyer. Phil traveled often due to his profession, and Bella noticed how much her mother wanted to follow him in his travels. To make it easier for them, Bella moved back to her birth town of Forks to live with her father.

Jacob Black
Jacob Black was born to Billy and Sarah Black. Unfortunately, his mother Sarah died in a tragic car crash when he was nine years old, although Jacob never speaks of it. He has two older sisters, Rachel and Rebecca Black. Rebecca moved to Hawaii and eventually married a surfer named Solomon Finau, while Rachel had been off to college. Jacob grew up with his two best friends, Embry Call and Quil Ateara V, and spent the majority of his life living with his father on La Push.

Like many teenagers of his generation, the Quileutes have passed their knowledge and traditions to them, but none of them took it seriously. Jacob was totally unaware of his true power until it awakened in New Moon.

Twilight
"... I really liked Jacob. He was someone I could easily be friends with."

- Bella's thoughts on Jacob.

In Twilight, Bella only encounters Jacob four times after she moved back to Forks.

She first meets him on First Beach on La Push where she successfully flirts with him to gather information about the Quileute tribe's legends regarding vampires. He tells her what he knows about the Cold Ones and how the story relates to the Cullen family. Though her flirt was a trick to gather information, she expresses a liking in Jacob and feels guilty for tricking him.

The second time, Jacob and Billy visit Bella's house again. While Billy and Charlie prepare to enjoy a baseball match, Bella and Jacob hang out.

The third time, Jacob visits Bella with his father. Billy warns Bella about Edward Cullen while sending Jacob away to get a picture of Rebecca from the truck (which wasn't even there).

The fourth time, Billy sends Jacob to Forks High School on prom night to try and persuade her to break up with Edward, quoting, "We'll be watching you." Jacob crashes the prom and dances with Bella before Edward takes over again, much to his dismay.

Their relationship changes greatly after this novel.

Jacob first appears in the movie adaptation of Twilight with his father to deliver Bella's Chevy pick-up truck and teaches her how to handle it.

New Moon
"It's just that, 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. Wow, that does sound corny. But you know that, right? That I would never, ever hurt you?"

- Jacob promising Bella.

Bella and Jacob cease to meet since prom night. Months after Edward leaves Forks, Bella comes to find Jacob and persuades him to help her rebuild two dead motorcycles to experience adrenaline rushes in order to hear Edward's voice in her mind, but as they spend more time together he starts to open up and about his feelings for her, and Bella is torn by her own feelings to both Edward and Jacob. After Jacob phases, he is prohibited by Sam Uley from seeing Bella, saying that he could hurt her. When Laurent attempts to kill Bella at the meadow, Jacob appears in wolf form with his pack and run off to kill him.

Bella visits Jacob after one week of solitude. He furiously orders her away after learning from the tribe that she has known about the Cullens being vampires. One night, Jacob visits her at her house and gives her clues to help her figure out what he has become. She eventually discovers that he is now a "werewolf". The next morning, she visits him and they finally tell each other everything. It turns out that Victoria has come to kill Bella, given Edward killed her mate, James. Jacob tells this to Sam and they prepare a hunting troop for Victoria. Also, Jacob was ordered not to be close to Bella because it wasn't safe for her.

After a while, she jumps off a cliff to hear Edward's voice again but ends up almost drowning, if not being killed by Victoria first, but Jacob pulls her out before she could seal her fate, keeping Victoria at bay with his "repulsive, wet dog smell" and herself from drowning. When Alice Cullen unexpectedly returns to Forks because she'd "seen" Bella jump, Jacob tries to take Bella to safety, but she refuses and walks away. Two days later, a sullen Jacob appears at her house and shares a brief conversation with them separately before they receive a call from Edward. Jacob takes the call and tells him that Charlie is at a funeral, which leads him to believe it is Bella's. Alice has a vision of his suicidal desire and she and Bella rush off to stop him. Jacob promises to protect Charlie while she is gone, but, knowing that she will be heading to the Volturi's headquarters to find Edward, pleads her to stay. She refuses, and he is deeply hurt by her decision.

At the end of the story, a lovesick Jacob is forced to stay away when Edward returns to Forks with his family and reconciles with Bella. Jacob turns in her motorcycle to Charlie to make him ground her, not knowing that she is already grounded for leaving without his permission.

Eclipse
"I'm exactly right for you, Bella. It would have been effortless for us - comfortable, easy as breathing. I was the natural path your life would have taken... If the world was the way it was supposed to be, if there were no monsters and no magic..."

- Jacob telling Bella how it would have been.

Their relationship wavers again in Eclipse. For weeks, Jacob continuously stays from a distance while Bella tries to contact him. After Emmett and Paul almost have a fight hunting Victoria, Jacob visits Bella and Edward at school to warn them. Jacob struggles to keep away from Edward but be with Bella, and even tries to convince Bella to choose him instead of Edward. This leads to a big argument between them, and Jacob decides to tolerate the Cullens to see Bella more often.

He forces a kiss on her, which Bella is outraged by and punches him for it, but breaks her hand instead. They soon make up however, though Jacob continues to fight for her, a bit more carefully this time. He makes her a bracelet for graduation present, much to her pleasure. It's a wooden, carved wolf charm. When the Cullens discover an army of newborn vampires coming for Bella, Jacob volunteers to help, willingly putting aside his still-roaming issues for the time being. When he learns that Bella and Edward are engaged, he is enraged and pretends to sacrifice himself to make Bella willingly offer a kiss, which is the only thing keeping him from killing himself. As Bella is kissing Jacob, she realizes that she's in love with him after all. Edward learns about this kiss while it goes on because "Jacob's thoughts are very loud".

Despite Bella realizing her feelings for Jacob, she still chooses Edward over him, and he is broken to the bottom of his heart. Bella is saddened as well, as she cries for having to reject him, with Edward comforting her all night. After a while, Edward sends Jacob a wedding invitation, prompting him to run into the woods and live as a wolf to escape the pain he's in.

Breaking Dawn
"Bella, things are different with us now, but you'll always be my best friend, and I'll always love you, Bella. But I'll love you the right way now, there's finally a balance. We both have people we can't live without."

- Jacob talking to Bella as they leave behind their previous relationship issues.

For two months, Jacob has gone missing since Eclipse. He reappears at Bella and Edward's wedding, and asks to dance with the bride, trying to cope with her choice until she tells him of her honeymoon plans. He gets violent to the idea, and Seth and Sam are forced to restrain him.

Edward impregnates Bella on their honeymoon and they return to Forks earlier than planned. Jacob believes that she has already turned at this point and engages a solo attack against everyone's advice until he learns of Bella's pregnancy. Edward is worried that Bella will die and offers to "pimp her out" by letting Jacob sleep with her to give her a child who won't kill her slowly. Jacob finds this intriguing, but refuses in the end. He also promises to kill Edward if Bella doesn't pull through, which Edward gladly agrees to. When Sam finally plans an unprovoked attack against the Cullens to prevent Bella's child from being born, a wavering Jacob breaks from the pack to protect her. During the pregnancy, he and Bella feel strongly drawn to each other in ways they've never felt before. Every day, Jacob would visit her and be by her side, even with a broken heart.

When her daughter Renesmee is born in a labour that nearly kills Bella, Jacob tries to kill the baby, but instead imprints on her, thus freeing him of his depression over Bella's rejection. Bella becomes furious when she first finds out about the imprinting, and even more so when she hears that he nicknamed her daughter after the Loch Ness Monster, but learns to cope with it over time. By telling Bella's father that his daughter had "changed" a little bit and introducing him to the supernatural world, he manages to keep the Cullens from leaving. Since Charlie is the main reason she wanted to leave, Bella realizes that she owes Jacob a favor.

When they find out that the Volturi are coming to destroy their family, Bella has legal documents forged for both Jacob and Renesmee to help them escape, trusting her daughter in his care and accepting wholeheartedly his imprinting on her.

When the confrontation is about to turn into a battle, Bella hands Renesmee to Jacob, saying their goodbyes. Jacob, though no longer in love with Bella, gives her a tearful hug. Bella also reveals that he will always be her best friend. The situation resolves peacefully when Alice and Jasper bring back prominent witnesses to stop the Volturi.

By the end of Breaking Dawn, Jacob and Bella are finally able to put their issues behind them and become best friends once again. He continues to think of her as a friend rather than a vampire, which she deeply appreciates.