Disclaimer: The obvious plus I also don't own the excerpt from New Moon that's also intermingled in this chapter. This is also my longest chapter so far. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

My heart nearly jumped right out of my chest as I gasped lightly in surprise. He always had a way of appearing when I least expected him to. I sat up on the bed as I tried to calm my frantic heart.

I looked at him to see if I could judge his reaction but he already had the stony face back, not letting me see any of the emotion that had colored his face a second ago. I knew that he knew that Jake had just left. He could probably smell Jake everywhere. I sighed deeply as I waited for him to say something. Something like, "Do you realize how often you're putting your life in danger?" or "I can't believe you Bella!" and as I waited for him to say something, I got more and more antsy.

He hadn't moved an inch and he seemed to be thinking. I wished he would just scold me and get it over with. I was exhausted and today seemed to escalate into an unreal dream state. I half thought I was hallucinating and knew I needed to sleep. I looked at him expectantly as he looked back.

It seemed like we were both waiting for the other to say something. It was like a stand off but he had the unfair advantage of a lifetime of patience whereas I was silently screaming in my head for him to say something. This was one of those moments where I wished I wasn't the one exception to his special gift.

"It's funny." He said quietly, scaring my heart into hyper drive once more. I waited for him to go on but he seemed to be looking at my hair. I touched it self-consciously and wondered what cryptic thing he would say now.

"What's funny?" I whispered, almost too softly. He had heard me though. He always seemed to hear me.

He reached over and held a loose strand of hair in his hand, examining it while turning it this way and that. I was completely lost but I waited for him to give me some hint as to what he was thinking.

He tucked the loose strand into my bun and kept staring at my hair but then his eyes traveled down to my obviously curious face. He sighed lightly and closed his eyes.

"It's funny how you look like you've just recently showered but you smell rather repulsive…almost doglike." He enunciated, clearly making his point that he didn't approve of Jake being here.

"Ha. Yeah. Funny story." As I said this, his eyes snapped open and a curious look came across his face but it was quickly replaced with one of irritation. "Ok. Maybe not so funny." I said delicately as he sighed and shook his head in frustration.

"Bella, how many times have I told you that there's always a risk when you're around werewolves. Especially young ones. Weren't you with me at the meadow today when he almost attacked us? Or were you not seeing the same thing I was? I don't understand your constant need to put yourself in harms way." He pinched the bridge of his nose and I felt my eyes getting hot with ugly tears. Oh no.

"You're mad." I looked down and hoped the tears would go back to where they came from. This was just all too much for one day.

He opened his eyes slowly and looked at me for what seemed a lifetime before he reached over and stroked my cheek. I was still looking away but he would have none of that. He tilted my face towards his, forcing me to look at him squarely. I closed my eyes as the tears that had threatened to fall retreated.

He slowly leaned towards me and kissed both my lids before finally kissing my mouth gently, putting the slightest amount of force behind his lips. Before I could push his limits, he pulled away and waited until I opened my eyes to look at him.

"Not at you, love. Never at you." As I felt the truth behind his words, I suddenly felt the weariness that had begun to slowly creep up on me. I reached to my lamp to turn off the light and suddenly, we were surrounded in darkness.

"Sleepy? That's probably a good idea. You've had an…eventful day." He had wanted to say something else, probably along the lines of hectic but he couldn't. He was still Edward after all.

As I settled under the covers, I could almost feel the curiosity radiating from him in waves. I snuggled closer to him and could feel the cold of his body, even through the thick cover. I could feel him looking at me and I sighed gently.

"Jake and I had an…interesting talk. He seems different. Changed. You remember the blond wolf with him at the meadow? Well, it seems her name is Faye and she's Jake's…girlfriend." I finished heavily, still shocked at the idea myself.

"Interesting indeed. So that's why she was so protective of him and vice versa. I see now. That makes sense." He said certainly. He had a knack for saying the most confusing things sometimes.

"Care to elaborate?" I nudged him with my shoulder, hoping to bring him out of his thoughts and back to the present.

"It's just, at the meadow, the thoughts that they were thinking about each other were so strong. It was like they were pulled to each other. Remember those polarized rocks that we studied in biology last year?" I nodded my head as he waited for me to remember the experiment we had done with magnets.

"They were like that, with each other. It's like one couldn't live without the other. I have to say it was almost as strong as how I feel about you." I looked at him and knew he meant every word.

"As I do about you." I said back to him with the same conviction in my voice. He looked at me as that crooked smile crept back onto his face and he lightly stroked my face with the back of his hand.

I thought about what he'd just said, about the pull between Jake and Faye. I started thinking back to a time that seemed so far away. I thought about what Jake had said to me that one day on the beach.

"Imprinting?" I repeated the unfamiliar word. "No. What's that mean?"

"It's one of those bizarre things we have to deal with. It doesn't happen to everyone. In fact, it's the rare exception, ties we all used to think were legends. He'd heard of imprinting, but he never dreamed…"

"What is it?" I prodded.

Jacob's eyes strayed to the ocean. "Sam did love Leah. But when he saw Emily, that didn't matter anymore. Sometimes…we don't exactly know why…we find our mates that way." His eyes flashed back to me, his face reddening. "I mean…our soul mates."

Then later in my kitchen, Edward had said something about imprinting after he had read the thoughts of the pack.

"The imprinting compulsion is one of the strangest things I've ever witnessed in my life, and I've seen some strange things." He shook his head wonderingly. "The way Sam is tied to his Emily is impossible to describe—or I should say her Sam. Sam really had no choice. It reminds me of A Midsummer Night's Dream with all the chaos caused by the fairies' love spells…like magic." He smiled. "It's very nearly as strong as the way I feel about you."

I turned more towards Edward as I understood and a gasp tore from my lips. He looked worried.

"Bella?" He whispered and I put up a finger to have a moment to think this through.

"So," I said finally, "you're saying that they…imprinted on each other?" He was looking at me intently to judge my reaction to this strange piece of news. I honestly didn't know how to react. I was happy for Jake but then again that strong a bond is extreme. Sam had accidentally mauled Emily's face but she loved him anyway. If the imprinting business hadn't mixed into their lives, Sam might still be with Leah and then Leah might not have been so bitter.

I looked back at Edward, separating myself from my thoughts and waited for him to say something.

"Well,…yes. Actually, no." He said hesitantly.

"Way to be cryptic Edward. What do you mean?" I poked his arm and looked at him with an irritated look splayed on my face.

He sighed and I could tell he seemed…awkward…to be the one telling me this. I wondered what he was thinking.

"Just go to sleep Bella. You're tired. I'll tell you in the morning. Besides, I'm not sure it's mine to tell." He looked down and twirled a strand of my hair in his hand and looked away.

"Edward. You're worrying me. What is it?" I pulled myself up on my elbows and looked him clear in the eye.

He looked back at me then he gently but firmly pushed me back down on the bed and tucked the covers around me. I huffed in annoyance. Why couldn't he just spit it out?!

Then as I glared at him, I tiny smile split across his face and he started humming my lullaby. I kept glaring at him but before I knew it, my eyes were closing.

"You're cheating," I mumbled sleepily as I settled even deeper into the covers. Sleep was about to take me over when I heard him chuckle gently.

"No, love, just buying some time." I didn't hear anything else as sleep enveloped me.

Wow I wrote 9 chapters all revolving around 1 day. Whoo. Thanks to those who reviewed. I checked my stats and 1000 people have read my spin but only 13 have reviwed...strange isn't it. Anyway so imprinting huh? Strange indeedy. Oh I told my friend that she should read my spin and she hmmed and mmmed as she read and when she was done she looked at me and said "Ok. Where's the rest?" and I told her I have a bit of writers block and thats when she started cracking up. She looked at me in between the cracking up and clearly said "Oh honey, you're not a writer. How can you have writers block?" So thats when I picked up my jaw which had dropped to the floor while she was laughing. Kind of discouraging but what does she know. Heh...so reviews please. Till next time. XOXO Also, I was listening to Come Home by Lifehouse as I wrote this chapter.