The cool ngiht air swam around my ankles, and I pulled my ratty old bathrobe tighter around my body. My last night at Charlie's without wanting to kill him, I thought to myself, turning around to face my house. My eyes fell on Charlie's bedroom window, his curtains rustling slightly in the wind. The lights were out, but I know he wouldn't be sleeping at all tonight, but rather lying awake in bed and worrying about my wedding tomorrow and my future with Edward.

A tinge of guilt washed over me as I remembered Charlie's face just after Edward and I told him our plans: Right after the wedding reception, we were to go straight up to our new home in Alaska. We left out the part about snacking on freshly-killed rabbits and polar bears while fighting the deadly urge to eat humans. For the time being, we reasoned, no one had any need to know about my future as a vampire.

A twig cracked in the nearby trees, making me jump. "Edward?" I whispered, desperately hoping my voice wouldn't carry into Charlie's bedroom. "You there?" I heard a grunt and the sound of cloth rubbing against skin, and then my breath caught in my chest as a huge teenaged boy's silhouette emerged from the trees.

"Jacob?" I whispered, squinting through the darkness to make sure it was him. There was, after all, an entire clan of seven-foot-tall teenaged boys in the area.

For a couple seconds, his big, deep breath was the only thing that filled the silence. Finally, Jacob's deep voice came. "Hi, Bella."

I sighed loudly at the sound of his voice, remembering all the times it had comforted me in the past. "Hi."

Another few seconds in silence. "So you're leaving for Alaska tomorrow?"

I bit my lip, thanking whatever supernatural force was out there that I couldn't see Jacob's face. "Yes."

"And that's when…" His voice trailed off, but I didn't need to hear the end of his question to know what he was thinking. When you'll become a bloodsucker? When I'll truly begin to loath you?

"Yes, Jacob. That's when." Another few seconds of silence. "So how is everyone?" It was about the weirdest question I could ask, considering we both knew I was destined to live in fear of his brothers, but it felt like some sort of obligation. The past remained, after all; once upon a time, his brothers had been my friends.

"Christ, Bella," the werewolf groaned, his silhouette rubbing his face in his hands. "You're not supposed to care about 'how everyone is.' You're making it so hard for all of us to leave you."

I bit my lip, looking down at my hands. Of course all of the werewolves were going to try to "leave me," as Jacob put it. I was leaving them. Still, it had never occurred to me that they would actually want to leave me.

"Why are you here?" I asked, making a point of twisting my voice into a sort of coldness.

Jacob let out a big sigh. "To remind you…" He paused, but I knew what was coming anyway. "To remind you that it's still not too late to change you're mind about becoming a vampire. I'd—We'd—fight those bloodsuckers off if they had a problem with you backing out." I smiled sadly at the menace in his voice.

"None of them would have a problem with it, Jacob. They all would be happy if I decided to live my life as a human. Edward especially." I paused, straightening my bathrobe. "But you probably already know this."

Silence.

"I should go," Jacob said, and I couldn't help making note of the betrayal and sadness in his voice. Before I could respond, though, he was gone.