Author's note: heeey guys! first fanfic, hope you enjoy! and yes, i'm aware that the girls don't feel the immediate attraction that the wolves do when they imprint, i just added her reaction to make the story move along more nicely. all of the twilight brilliance ,of course, belongs to shephanie meyer, and not me...mumblesthough i'd steal edward if i could...

I turned my gaze to the moon as I sifted effortlessly through the trees of the forest

I turned my gaze to the moon as I sifted effortlessly through the trees of the forest. It was just a dully glowing sliver tonight. Back in La Push, some of my brothers were running too, and like always, I tried hard to block their thoughts from my mind. No distance I'd put between us yet has broken the connection, but I'll be damned if I was going to stop trying. At least, for the most part, they'd all given up on trying to talk to me. Well, everyone but Seth that is. Always checking up on me for her. As much as he tried, Seth couldn't completely hide the reason for his constant curiosity about where I was.

I started to trot, trying to concentrate on the sound of the cracking leaves under my paws, the chirps of the thousands of crickets surrounding me, the feel of the breeze ruffling my fur, anything to get those voices to fade into the background. I wondered if this is how the bloodsucker feels all of the time. All of these voices in your head you can't get rid of.

I was suddenly overcome by such a fierce anger at the thought of that parasite that I spun and latched my teeth into a nearby tree, ripping it out by the roots. I wished fiercely it was his throat I could rip out like that. Or his dead, disgusting heart. Anything that would cause him as much pain as he's caused me.

Not a bad idea, Jake, Paul's thought echoed with savage approval, why don't you get your ass back home so we can help you with that?

I felt a snarl rumble through my chest, and I began to run.

I don't even know why you're bothering Paul, Leah's thought snapped venomously, he's not coming back. He's still too busy sulking about the filthy bloodsucker's little pet.

I pushed myself to run faster. How in the world Sam could have ever loved her was a complete mystery me. She pissed me off to no end.

Just let it go already Jake. Leah snarled. Bella's married to that mosquito, get over it.

Paul's presence vanished then. I wasn't the only one who couldn't stand Leah's ranting.

Don't call Edward that. Seth's thought came quietly. Leah ignored him.

A jagged bolt of pain ripped at my chest at the mention of her name. Another growl escaped me, louder and more furious than the last. I tore another tree from the ground.

The whole point to making my permanent change was so that I wouldn't feel this pain anymore! But it was still there, gutting me from the inside out! God damn that filthy, disgusting, horrible, leech!

The parasite family isn't even here anymore. Left a few days after the wedding and took her with them. Leah continued, trying her hardest to rub my last nerve raw. I pushed myself faster still, hoping that by some miracle I could run out of their hearing range.

With any luck at all, the little traitor's been sucked dry by now…but I can only hope.

Leah! Seth protested hotly.

What!? She spat at her younger brother. She deserves it!

She does not! And Edward would never hurt her, none of the Cullens would!

An image was forced into my head from Leah. An image that's haunted me before, back when she first told me what that leech planned on doing to her…what that leech had probably already done to her…

It was an image, a fuzzy one but an image nonetheless, of her, lying on the ground motionlessly. Her skin even paler than it was now. Her brown eyes staring blankly and unseeingly into space, a jagged, crescent-shaped slit in her throat. Leah was enjoying herself.

Cut it OUT Leah! Seth commanded.

I couldn't take it anymore. They where all driving me insane. I forced myself to come to a halt, to calm down enough to morph back into my human shape. I felt my body shake and shrink, and I hastily bent to grab the boxers and jeans secured to my leg by a black band, yanking them on. I stood still and enjoyed the silence and security of my human mind. But I knew I wouldn't be enjoying it for long. I knew the pain was coming, and sure enough, it came. It was always worse in human form. When I was a wolf it was, fractionally, less concentrated. If I thought hard enough, I could even forget about it sometimes.

I now understood fully why she used to have to tightly hold herself when he left. It felt as though my organs were bruised and splintering into tiny pieces. It felt as though I needed to clutch at my sides to hold them all in one piece. God I was pathetic.

It was then, bent over and hugging myself, that I noticed where I was. I'd ended up just outside the fringe of forest trees, and was standing in someone's vast backyard. The windows of the large house in the distance glowed a bright yellow. I'd morphed right in some stranger's backyard. In full view. I knew I should have been more concerned about this, but at the moment, I really couldn't have cared less. I'm willing to bet that no one saw me, and even if they did, who in the hell would believe them anyway?

The sound of quiet footfalls stopped me dead. I tensed and looked up to see what, or who, was approaching me.

And as soon as my eyes met the stranger, the whole world stopped.

And there was only her.

I've lost my mind! There's no other explanation for what I've just seen through my kitchen window. A wolf. An impossibly huge wolf, walking out of the woods. And as if that couldn't get any weirder, the wolf morphs into a human man! Morphs-into-a-man! I was having trouble even thinking that phrase to myself.

But, the very weirdest part of all wasn't even the werewolf. It was the unexplainable pull towards him I felt as soon as I glimpsed his black form in the dim moonlight. My mind screamed warnings at me as I quietly made my way through the big house, careful not to alert my parents, and slipped out the patio door. I was going to go meet this man- this supposed werewolf- in the middle of the night, alone. Every single thing about this situation pointed towards life-threatening.

Though there was something, something strong, overriding the logic pumping frantically through my mind. Something that told me I needed to go to him. That no harm would befall me if I did. And that something, my instinct I suddenly realized, carried me towards the man, blocking out all of my fear.

She came towards me hesitantly, her eyes wide with bewilderment. It was clear that she had seen me change. But I still didn't care. She stopped a few feet before me, looking up into my eyes.

"Judging by the look on your face, I'm guessing I've been busted, huh?" I asked her, unable to keep a small smile from tugging at my lips.

Her eyes grew wider at my easy acknowledgement about the fact that I was a giant wolf.

"What are you?" she asked me in a hushed voice.

She was beautiful. And she was absolutely nothing like Bella. How easy it was to think her name now. I felt no pain. None at all. Only love, coursing fast and overwhelmingly strong through my veins.

She was perfection. Small and thin, with the most angelic, dark olive toned face. She stared at me through big green eyes, her bangs from her short, loosely curled jet black hair falling into them. Her full, pink lips parted slightly as she surveyed me in bafflement.

I no longer felt only the echo of the feelings Sam had for Emily. I was now experiencing all of those feelings in full force for myself, as I looked down at this complete stranger.

He was breathtaking. Tall and muscular, and obviously older than my 17 years. Smooth russet colored skin covered his bare torso, a color I've never seen before as a complexion. I had to grab fistfuls of my skirt to keep my hands from reaching out to stroke it.

His face was just as ruggedly beautiful. Locks of glossy black hair fell into his deep-set black eyes, which gazed at me with the absolute most tenderness I've ever seen. I couldn't believe he was staring at me like that. I was certainly nothing special. So why was he looking at me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered?

"Aren't you scared?" I asked her gently, forcing myself not to reach out to her.

"No." She responded in her light, musical voice. She frowned, seeming immensely confused by her own response. "I know I should be…but for some reason…I'm not. I feel like my instinct is telling me I need to be with you. Like I'm being magnetically drawn to you or something." Becoming more confused by her own words, her frown became more pronounced, and I hated to see it there. I never wanted to see anything but happiness on that face.

I smiled, and, unable to restrain myself, reached out to untangle her small hands from the flowy white cotton of her long skirt, and wrapped them in both of mine. "I feel drawn to you, too." Man was that an understatement.

My stomach flipped tremendously when he held my hands in his big, abnormally warm ones. His thumbs traced circles on my skin, and he continued to look at me with more gentleness than I ever thought possible. I could feel my insides melting and turning to mush. I've never once been in love in my entire life, but right now I was surer than ever that I was in love with this stranger.

Wait. What?

There was no way I could love him. It wasn't possible. I didn't even know his name! Didn't even know if he was human! But there was no lying to myself. I felt it; deep in the center of my core I felt it. I didn't care what he was. Despite the fact that it made absolutely no sense at all, I was in love with this man.

I could feel heat rising in my cheeks upon discovering this, and I became ultra-aware of my hands still tenderly wrapped in his.

"I'm Livia Stone," I told him softly.

"Jacob Black," I answered.

Livia looked down at our hands.

"So…" she started, looking up at me, "you can…turn… into… a wolf?"

Again, her expression questioned her own sanity.

I laughed quietly and nodded. "Pretty freaky, huh?"

"Very," she agreed, bemused. "So do you know why I feel like this? Are you casting some sort of love spell on me with your weird wolf-powers?" she joked. But I could hear true curiosity behind her tone.

That only made me laugh again.

"Nope, not quite." I looked her full in the eyes, "I'm your soul-mate."

That threw her for a moment.

"Soul-mate?" she whispered.

I nodded. "Yep. Soul-mate."

"Huh…" was all she responded with, her delicate, angled eyebrows pulling together as she averted her gaze once again down to our hands.

Without letting go of her hand, I moved mine under her chin and lifted her face up to look at me.

"Are you alright?" I asked her, worried about what she was thinking. "You seem scared. Or worried. You can tell me, Livia, you can tell me anything."

I was neither scared nor worried. I was just overwhelmed. One minute I'm making myself a sandwich, and the next, I'm suddenly and impossibly in love with a werewolf who tells me I'm his soul-mate. What has happened to the world? To logic and science? This is the stuff that happens to people in movies and books. Not to me. And most defiantly not in real life. Out here, in the real, sane world. There is no way at all this could be happening right now. But the thing is…I believed every word of what he told me. It was that gut feeling, that instinct, telling me to. It had been right before, why wouldn't it be now?

I gave him a small smile, my heart leaping when he smiled in response.

"Give me some credit here, Jacob. All crazy and impossible things considered, I think I'm handling all of this pretty well."

"You are actually," I commended, smiling and lifting one of my hands to stroke her soft cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into my palm.

"You're so warm," she whispered, slowly stepping closer to me and pressing herself lightly against my chest. Just as slowly, she laid the cheek I wasn't holding against my chest as well.

My heart pounded ferociously, and her lips upturned slightly as she heard its tempo increase. I lifted my other hand and placed it against her other cheek, gently pulling her face up. Her eyes opened to look at me.

Slowly, so I wouldn't startle her, I lowered my face to hers, and touched our lips together.

My blood boiled in my veins, electricity sparked through my system, and all of my intended gentleness was gone. I took her waist and pulled her to me, and her arms locked themselves around my neck out lips moved passionately. This kiss, this passion, this feeling, was nothing compared to when I had kissed Bella. Nothing.

After what seemed like too short a time, we both broke apart to catch our breaths. I still held her to my bare chest tight.

She smiled up at me, and I smiled down at her, leaning my forehead against hers.

"I love you Livia." I whispered.

She beamed and let out a quiet laugh, shaking her head slightly in disbelief. "Can you believe, and after only five minutes, that I love you back?"

"Of course I can," I chuckled, my happyness uncontainable, "we're made for eachother."

She sighed and nestled her face against my chest, winding her arms around my lower back. I felt her small body shake with laughter.

"What?"

She looked up at me, "This is, by far, the strangest thing I have ever experienced."

I smiled widely down at her, down at my little savior, my life, my world, my love.

"Better get used to it honey. It only gets stranger." I told her before I pressed my lips gently to hers once more.