Time for chapter 3, dears.

It took another deer and one elk before I felt completely sated, and I returned to the meeting spot so that Jacob and Embry would know that I was done hunting for now. My stomach felt almost uncomfortably full, as though there was an excess of liquid sloshing around in my stomach, but I hoped it would keep me sated longer if I gorged myself now.

As I sat in our meeting place, I pondered the lives I'd just taken. People ate meat all the time, I rationalized. I had only killed to feed myself – not for sport – and had not wasted a drop of my preys' lifeblood. I had done what I needed to survive, and that was that.

Embry arrived first, coming to a stop and keeping his distance from me, obviously disturbed by the blood on my clothes. I could hear Jacob pulling on the cotton sweatpants nearby, and knew he'd be joining soon. I waited tensely, keeping my eyes on my feet, which were flat against the ground. Nervously, I bit my lip and shuffled my feet in the dirt, drawing patterns with the toes of my old converse

"Done?" Jacob asked needlessly when he arrived, smiling tensely at me. I looked up and smiled sadly, knowing I looked a mess. He frowned, murmuring, "we can't take you to the others like that." He turned to Embry. "Will you run to the chief's and grab some clothes for her? You can use the tree in the back – it'll take you right to her window."

Idly, I wondered how Jacob knew that particular bit of information. Did he make a habit of climbing through my window?

Embry took off at a run, and Jacob sat across from me, looking at me intently. I kept my eyes on my shoes.

"You still look like you," he said suddenly, making me look up in surprise, meeting his dark, nearly black gaze. "You even act like yourself, mostly. I didn't expect that. It's…nice."

I blinked. "Is it…unusual?" Though I knew there was some animosity between the wolves and vampires, like myself, I wasn't sure what, exactly, the pack knew about my kind. Were vampires really that normal of an occurrence for none of these strange boys to be put off?

Jacob tensed then, obviously wishing he hadn't said as much. "We don't have a lot of experience with…young vampires, so we're sort of going by what we've heard, which is that newborns are unstable and unpredictable." He gave me a sad sort of smirk. "I pretty much expected you to fly off the handle when you first saw Sam."

"Glad I could impress," I muttered, earning a quiet chuckle. "Sam?"

Jacob nodded. "The black wolf you saw earlier."

"Oh." I hesitated before speaking again. "And all of those wolves were…"

"Werewolves."

"Right."

The silence that grew between us then was somewhat tense, and I let out a huff of hair before looking up at the sky. I knew that exactly four hours had past since I'd woken up – and knowing this was perhaps one of the strangest sensations I'd felt yet – so it was now late afternoon, but the sun still shone in the sky. "So much for full moon," I murmured quietly, unsure if Jacob would catch my words.

He did, and with a laugh, he retaliated. "So much for burned by the sun, Dracula," he said teasingly, earning a quick, loud, unfiltered laugh from me, which made both of us smile widely. It felt good to laugh.

I shuffled my feet uncomfortably again, drawing squiggles and random shapes in the dirt once more. I wondered how long it would take Embry to bring my clothes, and I idly found myself wondering what kind of clothes he would bring. Judging by what I was wearing now – a simple plaid, three-quarter sleeve blouse with worn jeans and shoes that had been worn beyond belief – I couldn't imagine I was a very high-maintenance person, and the wolves didn't strike me as terribly fancy, given that they seemed to have a tendency to run around in low-riding sweatpants, so I knew that whatever Embry brought me, it would probably be more comfortable than stylish, which seemed perfectly fine in my book. I wondered if anyone else lived in the house where he'd be fetching clothing from, and the question made me frown to myself. What had I left behind?

Jacob saw my expression and raised his eyebrows. "What?"

I pursed my lips keeping my gaze lowered. "I'm just thinking…" I trailed off, swiping my tongue over my lips and catching a few leftover drops of blood that clung to my skin. The feeling soothed my throat.

"Thinking?" Jacob pressed. "Thinking about…"

My teeth tug into the flesh of my bottom lip, and it felt…off…like a razor trying to slice through a rock. It didn't escape my notice that Jacob's eyes lingered just a little too long. "Thinking about…what I might have left behind. Or, you know…who I might have left behind."

Jacob straightened rather quickly, raking his hands through his dark hair, his gaze dropping to the ground. "Oh," he murmured. "That."

"Yeah. That."

Jacob sighed heavily, his shoulders drooping. If he'd been close to me, it was logical to assume he was close to any family I might have had, meaning that if someone was feeling the pain of my supposed death, he would know. "Your dad."

My dad. My father. Somewhere not far from here, my father was either grieving my death or thinking that I had gone missing and was desperately hoping for my return, something I knew could never happen. My father would never see me again. I felt a sting in my eyes that was unfamiliar and dry, and I understood that the venom was pooling in my eyes in the place of tears. I was crying as best a vampire could.

Jacob, apparently sensing my distress, stood and took careful steps towards me, carefully reaching out until his palm touched my shoulder in a comforting gesture. His touch seared at my skin through the thin cotton of my shirt, but I revelled in the comfort offered by another. "Charlie'll be alright," he said, somewhat awkwardly, giving me a few more pats on the shoulder before withdrawing his hand and sitting no more than a foot away from me. "He's tough."

Charlie. My father's name was Charlie. Charlie would never see his little girl again.

Just as I was about to ask Jacob what Charlie was like, Embry returned, my clothing clutched between his jaws. It smelled like me, strangely, but more…potent. More human. I could imagine I would have been terribly hard to be around for any of my kind before my transformation. But the smell was only barely masked by the dreadful wet-dog scent that no doubt came from Embry, but I was grateful all the same. He placed the clothing on the ground and backed away, obviously not wanting to get as close as Jacob was managing.

"Thank you, Embry," I said quietly, waiting until he'd stopped backing away before standing slowly, so as not to startle anyone. I moved forward and picked up the clothes that had been dropped, shaking off the dirt and bits of leaves that clung to the material, then marched into the thickly wooded area, searching for some cover.

Once I was certain they couldn't see me anymore, I quickly stripped out of the blood-soaked blouse and jeans and pulled on the clean set that Embry had brought me – a simple blue shirt and a pair of dark-wash jeans – then folded the soiled items I'd been wearing and brought them back to the two wolves.

Jacob has phased back into a wolf, his pants held between his teeth. At my reappearance, Embry sprung to his feet, and the two of them took off, leaving me to follow.


They seemed completely sure about where we were going. I, on the other hand, remained woefully uninformed. There was a brief feeling of bitterness that burned in my core – here I was, a newborn vampire (apparently) left alone, without my memories, forced to place my trust in human/wolves that I didn't even know, who didn't seem to like or trust me (for good reason, I supposed). The injustice was maddening.

When we stopped running, I took in my surroundings, curious as to where the wolves had led me. We stood in front of massive, faded white house that boasted large French doors, perfectly proportioned windows, and an elegant porch that wrapped around the first floor, giving the almost uncomfortably perfect house a sort of homey allure that made me curious. The one called Sam had called this the Cullen house. Who were the Cullens? Would I be meeting them today? Were they werewolves too? I took a deep breath and found the area devoid of any signs of human life. I could feel the wolves' eyes on me as I took in each detail carefully, though I wasn't sure why they watched me so closely.

I looked to the wolves, scolding myself mentally for having allowed myself to be distracted by the large house and ignoring the potential threat. I couldn't imagine any reason for them to allow me to hunt and then hurt me, so I decided ignored the instinct that told me to be wary of the wolves.

Sam, it seemed, was back in his human shape, surrounded by two other humans whose names I didn't know. Behind and surrounding them, three more wolves watched my arrival carefully, distrust evident on their lupine faces. Cautiously, I held out Jacob's pants to the large, russet wolf who looked back at me, smiling when he gave me a wolfish, wolf grin, his lips pulling back in a nonthreatening fashion. He took the cotton from my hands and trotted off, the picture of ease.

"Was your hunt successful, Bella?" Sam asked, his voice low and nonthreatening, though the underlying tension was not hidden by his apparent ease.

"Yes," I said quietly, "thank you for sending Jacob and Embry." Embry had rejoined the other pack members, saying relatively close to Sam.

One of the wolves growled at my answer, and I looked at him with wide eyes. He wasn't anywhere near as large as Jacob or Sam had been, but he was still intimidating. His fur was dark silver and stood on edge along his spine. His eyes were dark as he watched me, shaking with anger.

"Calm down, Paul," Sam ordered, and the growling stopped, but I could still see the anger in the strange, hostile creature.

"Yeah, Paul. She killed some elk and some deer. Nothing you haven't done before," Jacob said lightly, trotting back towards us in his human form, running his hands through his short-cropped hair and shooting me a smile before going to stand near Sam, though he stayed closer to me than any of the others.

"I'm sure you have questions, Bella. We'll answer them to the best of our abilities, if you promise to do the same." Sam spoke again. I nodded my assent, though I couldn't imagine there would be much I would be able to answer, with my memory the way it seemed determine to stay. "Do you remember what happened before your change?" He started with an easy question.

I shook my head. "No," I answered honestly. "I can only remember waking up in the forest and being like this." I swallowed thickly and asked a question of my own. "Jacob mentioned my…my father?"

All the wolves and Sam tensed. "What about him?"

"I just wondered…is he…alright?"

Sam looked at me seriously for a long moment, taking me in and, I imagined, evaluating my emotional state. "Charlie is…distraught, but hopeful. You've been missing three full days and he hopes to be able to find you soon." He seemed hesitant to continue.

"But he won't," I whispered. "He can't. I can't be anywhere near him."

"Yes," Sam acknowledged bluntly, though not unkindly. "For his safety and the safety of the town, you cannot go back."

"I understand," I murmured, looking down at my shoes and feeling the dry sobs rise up in my chest again.

"Good."

I swallowed and took a breath before asking my next question. "And...the vampire who...who changed me?"

Sam frowned. "We haven't seen him in these parts before. It's possible he was just a nomad, passing through, who caught your scent in the woods and attacked." Something told me that Sam didn't quite believe his own words, though I had no idea why that might be.

There was a stretch of silence, and I looked at the gorgeous, enormous house once more. "Where are we?" I asked, wondering if this was the house of one of the werewolves. No other explanation for why we were meeting in this particular yard seemed to make sense, though I couldn't detect any old traces of any of the wolves' unique stench permeating the area. They didn't come here often, if at all. So why were we meeting here?

"This house belongs to some vampires who previously lived in this area," Sam said, somewhat evasively. "They left many months ago." He paused for a moment before continuing. "We are the guardians of our tribe, Bella, and we take our jobs very seriously. The transformations only happen for us when a threat to our tribe is near."

"Like vampires."

"Exactly like vampires," Sam confirmed. "They are our natural enemy, our prey. No vampire will ever step foot on the reservation, near our families, and our protection extends to the people of Forks."

I took in this information, looking at the house and at the wolves. "So what does that mean for me?"

"We had a…treaty, of sorts, with the vampire coven who lived here. They would not harm or bite any humans and would not enter the reservation, and we would not reveal their true nature to the citizens of Forks." Sam stopped then, scrutinizing me intensely. "We are willing to extend this treaty to you. If you do not harm any humans, you will be allowed to live in peace. Jacob has indicated that he is willing to stay with you, to make sure you adjust to your new life well and to keep the humans safe from you."

I wondered if there was really any choice here, regardless of how Sam presented it to me. I hardly thought that the wolves would allow me to leave when I posed such a risk to humans. At least this way, I was offered some companionship and a chance to learn to better myself, to curb my craving for blood. Perhaps eventually I would be controlled enough to be allowed near humans.

I smiled gratefully at Jacob, who was grinning at me good-naturedly. "Thanks, Jacob."

"Sure, Bells."

I turned my attention back to Sam. "Sam, these vampires you mentioned…" I paused when the beasts behind Sam growled angrily at the mention of their supposed enemies. "Is there any chance they're coming back?"

"Not if they know what's good for them," one of the men next to Sam said, flexing his impressive biceps.

"Cool it, Jared," Sam ordered, holding up his hand in the universal motion for enough, and the one call Jared quieted, but smirked. "Why do you want to know about the vampires, Bella?"

"It's just," I bit my lip, "if there are other vampires, and they're…you know…" I gestured unsurely, and Sam cocked his head, indicating that I should continue. "…the way they are…wouldn't it be better to leave me with them? I know that you guys are being kind but this is sort of against what you…stand for…right?" I didn't want to blow off their kindness, or act as if their choice to care for me meant nothing, or disregard the sacrifice they were making for me, but shouldn't they want to pawn me off on the nearing coven of passing vampires?

Sam gave me a little smile. "It's…kind of you…and, from what I hear from Jacob, very typical of you to not want to be a burden. But no, Bella. They're not coming back."

And there were are.

I should have clarified: this story follows the events of Laurent's attack on Bella in New Moon, had he managed to bite her. I will be amending the story summary so that this is clear.

Thanks to TwilightWallflower, Matthias L. Stormcrow, viola1701e, and jansails for your comments! Please remember to review and let me know what you thought of this chapter.

If you need a good fic to read while you wait for your favourites to update, check out Birthday Wishes by Edward's Eternal.

Cheers!