"Bella!" Billy grinned as he swung his wheelchair round the top of the ramp that led from his front door down to the earthy ground Charlie had parked his cruiser on.

"Look how grown up you are. I almost didn't recognise you." Billy wheeled himself across to Charlie and I as we climbed out of the car.

"Almost too grown up," Charlie grumbled as he walked round from his side of the car, stuffing his hands in his pockets and wearing his usual frown. "She was only 12 just a minute ago." I smiled at his comment. It had been nearly 8 years since I had last visited Charlie in Forks, the last summer I spent staying with him before Phil had got a job offer on the other side of the country, and me and mom had followed. Despite all the time that had passed he still considered me his little girl. I turned my head towards Billy and smiled at him as I bent down to give him a kiss on the cheek.

Billy's strong, rough hands gripped my shoulders as I bent down and he whispered gruffly in my ear, "It's good to see you, Bella. Charlie hasn't shut up about you moving back here since he found out two months ago."

"I can hear you, you know?" Charlie piped up from behind me and I giggled. Only two minutes back on the reservation and I already felt at home. The Quileute reservation was about seven miles outside of Forks, and I had spent most of my childhood summers here, making mud pies, playing on the beach and having bonfires with the other families from the reservation.

"Is Jacob here?" The memories reminded me of my childhood best friend Jacob, Billy's son. I hadn't seen him since I was last here.

"He's off with some of the boys – they do odd jobs for the families here. DIY and stuff like that. He promised he'd be back in time for the bonfire tonight." I had only arrived back in Forks that morning and Charlie had informed that we had been invited to a 'welcome back' bonfire that night on the reservation.

"Come on inside, we can grab a beer before heading down to the beach." Charlie and I followed Billy into his small, wooden house. It looked exactly the same as I remembered. Splintered, brown door with a crooked doorknob leading into a hallway painted in a warm red colour. At the end of the hallway we walked into the familiar living room with two wicker couches covered with cushions and throws, the old coffee table stained and loved throughout the years and the photos covering every surface you could see. My eyes were drawn to one on the side table near me of Jacob and I on the beach when we were about seven. We both had sand in our hair and it looked like we were laughing at the person taking the photo.

Charlie had followed Billy through the archway at the back of the living room into the small kitchen at the back of the house where I could hear them laughing and beers being opened. I started to move through but turned around as I heard the front door open. My eyes met with Jacob's deep russet ones and his mouth stretched into the widest grin I had ever seen.

"Bells!" He strode towards me faster than I though was humanly possible, covering the long hallway in about four steps before I was lifted off the ground and swung around in his arms.

"Jacob put me down!" I laughed as he hugged me tight. He set me back on my feet but his hands didn't leave me hips as he grinned down at me.

"It's so good that you're back," Jacob squeezed my hips. "Everyone is so excited to see you." His hand left my hips and he grabbed my hand and began to tow me into the kitchen.

"You remember Leah? And Seth? They will both be there tonight. And Leah's boyfriend Jared. And the whole pack." I frowned at that word. Was that a new way to say group or something?

"The pack?" Jacob glanced back at me as we reached the kitchen. I could've sworn his jaw clenched slightly and his eyes shifted quickly away from mine.

"You know. Just a group of us from the reservation." The awkward moment passed and he dropped my hand to shake Charlie's hand.

The next few minutes were spent catching up before it was time to head down to the beach to the bonfire. Jacob grabbed my hand again as we left the house.

"Don't worry," he said, smiling down at me. "I'll introduce you to everyone you don't know. Everyone here is pretty chill." We walked down the wooden walkway that led from the main part of the reservation to the beach. I could see a crowd had already gathered and the bonfire was growing high.

The minute we stepped onto the beach we were surrounded my familiar faces, and I was greeted with kisses and hugs from old friends. Among all the familiar faces there were some new ones too, and I was introduced to them all. I met all of Jacob's friends – or his "pack" has he called them. Most of them were guys with the exception of Leah, who I played with when I was younger, and a girl called Emily. The guys were all well above 6 foot with huge muscles straining underneath their shirts. The two girls were also really tall with toned arms and legs. The people on the reservation sure did seem to work out a lot. I felt tiny in my 5 ft 4 body. I wasn't a big girl, but I wasn't skinny either. I had curves and my skin was more soft than toned in some areas.

We grabbed some drinks and went to sit on one of the long logs surrounding the fire. I sat and chatted with Emily and Leah for a while before another group of people arrived. They were all slightly older, and I remember they were known as the elders on the reservation. There was a lot of tradition still in this village and the elders formed the council of the reservation. I watched as they came towards the rest of us and noticed another, much younger man behind them.

He walked in strides even longer than Jacob's and had his head down, with his hands stuffed in his pockets. My gaze travelled up from his brown boots, up his wide legs covered in jeans, over his broad chest and shoulders under a flannel shirt to the back of his head. His hair was dark brown, almost black. He grabbed a beer from the cool box and turned away to sit on a log on the other side of the fire and speak to someone before I could get a glance at his face.

"That's Sam, Quil's son." Emily leant over and whispered in my ear. Quil was the lead elder of the council on the reservation. I looked at her and she smiled slightly at me. "He's the oldest of us, nearly 28. All the guys use him as a mentor."

"A mentor for what?" I asked. Emily looked at me for a long second then opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it and looked away when she caught the eye of Jared.

I looked back over at Sam quickly as he turned around to speak to someone else. If I thought the boys had big muscles, they were nothing compared to Sam. He must have been at least 6 ft 4 as well, meaning that he was probably over a foot taller than me.

I was pulled from my musings by Jared suggesting we switch seats. "Stop keeping Bella all to yourself – we want to talk to her too!" People stood up around me and I laughed as two of the boys pushed each other to get the seat next to me.

Jared won the fight for the seat and landed next to me with a heavy thump. I leant back laughing, trying to stop my beer from tipping. My gaze travelled over the bonfire to Sam once again and it was then that he looked up from his conversation and met my gaze.

His eyes were dark brown with swirls of caramel in them and his eyes widened as they met mine. All the noise surrounding me faded into nothing. It was as if nothing and no one else existed in the world except from us two. My gaze was stuck on him, my eyes unable to look away as he held my gaze with a ferocity burning in his eyes. My hand twitched in my lap, suddenly feeling empty. It was as if my body was fighting against my mind, pushing me to go to him, to feel him, to let him hold me. I felt the ground shift beneath me and it was like my entire universe stopped. My body felt weightless on the log, like I would only feel again when I was by his side. His brows lowered over his eyes as his gaze stayed steady on me. I felt like his eyes were staring right into my soul.

Jacob's loud laugh broke through my connection with Sam, jolting me back into the real world. I managed to tear my eyes away from him, looking at Jacob who had said something to me. As I met Jacob's eyes he frowned as his gaze flicked between me and the other side of the bonfire. The noise of everyone else at the bonfire that had shattered through my trance faded away to nothing as everyone became silent.

"Er… everything okay?" I recognized the sound of Charlie's voice, clearly confused at the sudden quiet and looked over at him. He was standing on the side with Billy, who was looking at me with wide eyes. I quickly looked around to see that everyone around the bonfire looked shocked.

I heard a loud noise from the other side of the fire, shattering the silence. I snapped my head back to look at Sam and was surprised to see that the almost growl like sound had come from him. My eyes landed on his arms that were being held back by one of the elders and two of the other reservation boys. His muscles strained against them and quivered as they held him back. My eyes travelled up his arms and over his broad, hard chest to his face where his gaze was set on me. My mind began to swirl again and I became lost in his eyes as I met his gaze. It wasn't until I felt Jacob's hand on my upper arm pulling me back that I realised I had stood up off the log and taken a few steps towards him on the other side of the fire. When Jacob's hand touched mine Sam almost roared and a commotion happened around me. Sam started to shake violently, the noises coming from his throat getting louder by the minute. His eyes went black and feral, staying intently on me, and his lips pulled back over his teeth. Despite the connection I felt with him I felt scared as I watched him have some kind of episode. Quil shouted something to the boys and they all moved to the other side of the fire at an almost inhuman speed. Sam was hauled back and away by the three men who were holding him as well as four others who joined in. I heard Billy behind me shouting for Charlie to follow him. Jacob's arms wrapped around my waist and he yanked me up and into his arms causing my breath to catch before swinging round and striding back towards his house. I could still hear Sam behind me growling and thrashing against the men holding him. Jacob began muttering angrily under his breath and his strides were fast and aggressive.

A dull pain began in the centre of my chest and the further we went from the bonfire, the bigger it grew. Jacob's arms were tight around me and I struggled to breathe at the feel of walking away from the one thing my body seemed to now be programmed to. It was as if my body was pulling me back. Jacob seemed to sense that I was losing it because he quickly lowered me to my feet and turned me around to face him. He knelt down to my level and gripped the top of my arms.

"Hey, hey. You're okay. It's okay. It's okay…" I could barely hear him over my harsh breathing. All I could feel was the pain in my chest. I tried to pull out of Jacob's grip and get back to the bonfire but his hold tightened on me.

"Bella, no. No. It's not safe, not yet. I'm so sorry, Bella." My eyes travelled to meet his.

"What do you mean?" I breathed. His eyes looked at me with concern in them as his hands rubbed up and down my arms.

"I didn't want this to happen to you, Bella." He whispered. "I'm sorry that you've been dragged into this. Sam... he's a good guy." Nothing made sense. I had never felt less in control of my body before. My mind and my body felt separate, my body pulling me in one direction – to Sam. What did he do to me? Why did I feel the need to be near him, to touch him?

During my thoughts I didn't notice Jacob straighten up and swing me up into his arms again while striding into his house with me. The pain in my chest was growing by the minute and I felt tears well up in my eyes. He gently placed me on his bed in his tiny box room at the side of the house, and I curled up on one side, hugging my middle to try and get the pain to stop. Jacob crawled onto the bed with me and wrapped his arms around me.

"It will be okay, Bella," he whispered. "I promise."

My mind was a wreck, my confusion over what had happened had exhausted me. Despite the ever growing pain in my breathing and the strange urge to run to Sam, a man I barely even knew, my body gave up and sank into unconsciousness.