The day Bella left me has always been permanently etched into my memory. The filthy bloodsucker impregnated her with another parasite, and the entire family fled Forks without a trace. I first considered suicide, but knew that I would get nowhere with it. Billy would most likely become depressed, and it would only allow me to stare at Bella—wherever she was—living her happy, pleasant life without me. After a year passed and she never returned, wrote, nor called me, I gave up hope on her return, and attempted to concentrate on school. I graduated, and still living at home, tried to focus solely on the pack. When I was twenty-one, and still lonely, Leah came to me and proposed an idea; an idea which would change both of our very lives as we know them

I remember the day as if it were yesterday. I was laying face down on the couch, sulking in my self misery and depression over Bella. I seemed to have relapsed; I had gone almost one year without so much as thinking about her, but Sam and Emily ruined it.

Sam and Emily finally got married, and had their first child, a baby girl. They named her Isabelle, in honor of Leah's grandmother. I exploded. Literally, into my wolf form. How dare he have the audacity to name her that! One letter away from Isabella. I had myself convinced that he intentionally did it, and that he was trying to drive me insane. I nearly ripped out his throat.

Leah calmed me down enough and brought me back into the house. Normally, I wouldn't have allowed her to touch me; Leah and I never had gotten along, and we practically loathed each other. Recently, however, she seems to have become more… humane…and less sarcastic.

"Jake, stop. Look at me. Everything is going to be fine just breathe." She had her hands on my shoulders and was staring me straight in the eyes.

"Why do you care, Leah? No one here cares about me; I might as well just feed myself to a bloodsucker. I thought I was going to be okay, but I'm not. Sam has driven me over the edge."

"I doubt he did it on purpose. He wasn't thinking."

"Leah, he knew what he was doing. He is the one who found her in the forest for God's sake. HE KNEW HOW CLOSE THEIR NAMES ARE!" I roared.

"Jake, STOP!" Her voice was full of authority, and I shut up. I continued to glare at her, however.

"Look, there's something I've been needing to talk to you about." She confessed, pulling up a chair and sitting across from me. We were in my tiny bedroom, and both of us barely fit into it.

"In case you haven't noticed, now is not the best time."

"I don't want to wait any longer. I've been thinking about this for over a year, Jake, and I have to tell you. Now."

I hesitated a moment, and stared at her. Leah and I had never once—really—had a heart-to-heart conversation. The most we have talked was when discussing hunting tactics, and even then we rarely agreed on anything.

"Fine…"

"Jake… I want… I want you to marry me." I expected her to look at the floor and blush, but she stared right at me; her eyes boring into mine. It was intimidating.

"Ha, you're funny, Lee. Now c'mon, really, what did you want to talk about?"

"I'm not joking, Jake. Too many years have we both been alone, rejected and thrown aside from the people we loved, and had once loved us back. Neither of us has imprinted, and we are
already twenty-one. I am not going to die alone, Jake, and neither is my bloodline. Neither of us has much of a choice. Rachel doesn't carry the gene, and if you want to keep the wolf pack alive, then this is the only way."

She was right. I had no other way to keep my bloodline alive, and I couldn't wait any longer to find out what might happen if I waited. The answer was sitting before me, and I knew I couldn't say no. I swallowed the lump in my throat
before replying with,

"Okay."