Chapter 1

In the late morning of a cold January day, Jacob Black stood at his window, daydreaming. His thoughts were mixed and mangled, but still, he always had the same thing on his mind – Renesmee. Three years had passed since her death, and it still seemed so incredibly unfair that she had had to die. He could remember every moment spent with her clearly – walking hand in hand through meadows, laughing together as they toasted marshmallows, getting lost in her beautiful green eyes. And then – it stopped. She met a normal, yet totally unexpected, mortal human death. Everyone had been devastated, but Jacob was just lost. She couldn't die. Not after he had imprinted on her, making her his entire world. The snowstorm outside blurred through his watery eyes.

"Jake?" Jacob turned, and found Seth Clearwater standing behind him, resembling a raccoon with the heavy dark bags under his eyes.

"Hey man," Jacob muttered in a hardly dynamic voice. Seth and his sister, Leah, had been living with Jacob and his father since they had evacuated their old home – it had been the unfortunate victim of a tornado just months before.

"Is their anything for breakfast? I could use a good dose of greasy, fatty and filling."

Jacob smirked. His friend's constant humor seemed to be one of the few good things in his life. "There's a bag of Teddy Grahams and some Laffy Taffy in the cupboard. I'm guessing that both are Leah's though, so don't tell her I ate some."

Seth rolled his eyes, but flung open the cupboard anyway. "We haven't been able to get groceries for days, damn snowstorm! How are we supposed to live off of Teddy Grahams? And do you think we can open a window?"

"Not unless you want Billy to find snow all over the floor." Though the storm affected the werewolves' food intake, it did not affect their warmth in the slightest, and they were each shirtless as usual. Though Seth's semidefined abs didn't even compare to Jacob's, they were still enough to make any girl swoon.

"You gotta admit though Jake," Seth said through a mouth full of Teddy Grahams, "All this snow is a huge drag! I was supposed to go see Suzanne today and everything."

Jacob raised an eyebrow curiously. "Suzanne?"

"Yeah. She's this girl I'm…seeing…" Before Seth had remembered the consequences such words bore on his friend, they were out of his mouth. A crestfallen look appeared on Jacob's face.

"Dude, I'm sorry! I completely forgot, I shouldn't have even said anything …"

"Forget it," Jacob said quickly. "It's no a big deal, she's your girlfriend, it's nothing to do with me."

"Yeah. But cheer up. I'm sure you'll find someone new someday."

"Sure," Jacob said flatly, knowing full well he wouldn't. Seth had never imprinted, so he couldn't possibly understand what Jacob had gone through. The love, the devotion – and the complete and utter heartbreak.

"I'm not going to be able to function with such little food," Seth complained. "Jake, would you mind if I went down to the pantry and looked for more?"

"Knock yourself out," he answered immediately. Truth be told, Jacob wanted to be alone at the moment.

"Great! I'll be back in a bit," Seth exclaimed, rushing out of the room and downstairs.

Trying to get his mind off things, Jacob picked up a newspaper on the table and began to skim through it. Each headline seemed exactly the same – mild car accidents, weather forecasts, and vegetarian cooking recipes. All dull and dreary, just like his mood.

Thunk! Jacob's head snapped up, his heart beating fast. He knew the noise had come from outside, but it somehow didn't sound…in place. After taking a minute to convince himself that it was just snow