A bug crawled over my shoe. I was supposed to be listening in on all the excitement, but fighting this bug with the tip of my shoelace became my whole world.

We'd been here for hours. Four years of history class and I had no idea there were so many different ways to wage war. And yet somehow, Jasper still had more to share. At first, it was fascinating. So much so, it distracted me from my self-pity. I mean, I certainly found less reason to feel sorry for myself when I cottoned on that Jasper was speaking from extremely personal experience. I'd never heard his story, not like Esme's or Carlisle's or... I felt guilty. If they died, I wouldn't have known half of them. And as the sun started dipping lower into the canopy, all the war stories did was remind me how much I would not be part of this battle. I would be of no help at all.

At last, they started wrapping up for the day.

As Jasper led the wolves through one final technique, I felt him approach. I brushed the bug away.

"What do you want?"

Edward sighed like he was tired of my attitude. Like he had a right to be tired of my attitude! I refused to meet his gaze as he spoke.

"It must have taken a lot of convincing to get them to agree to this. And judging by a few..." His pause baited me and I stole an upward glance. He was looking at the wolves. "Colorful remarks, I take it it's you who's responsible for that. I wanted to thank you. On behalf of my family."

"I didn't do it for you," I muttered as I gazed across the clearing at Jacob.

It was hardly my doing at all. What it really boiled down to was the alpha. Sam was a considerate, clear-headed leader who was deeply proud of his heritage but not himself. Ego didn't play a part in his decisions. It had been easy enough to reason with him. If they'd let the Cullens go to Seattle alone and die, they and everyone at the res would soon be caught between a coven of raging newborns and an ancient family of vampires, with no allies left to help them. If someone like Paul had been alpha, it would've been an impossible task to get him to see the big picture. I did very little really.

"He's quite taken with you," Edward said and I knew he was following my gaze.

"I know."

"And you?" He questioned, earning a sharp glare. He raised his hands like he meant no harm. "I only ask for his sake. I've heard it's quite painful being a rebound."

"Don't flatter yourself." I rose and began storming away. Of course, he followed me.

"So he knows, then? Where the information came from? Which Cullen you went to dinner with?"

I stopped dead. Just having him near me had me seething. But I was filled with a new confidence as I turned to shoot him down. "Yeah, he does. Notice how I'm still alive? Funny, the mention of your name didn't send him flying into a vicious rage." (In truth, Jake had been hideously angry for days but that was beside the point.) "Now, is that because you could be wrong about something for once? Maybe the wolves don't pose as much threat to human life as say, a wholesome group of vampires gathered round for a birthday treat? Or is it because you are not the threat you think you are? I've told him everything. We don't keep secrets from each other."

My smile was smug. Edward didn't seem phased at all.

"Did you tell him you left your window open half the night?"

Anger raged through me fuelled by pure, sickening humiliation. My cheeks burned red and I felt my tear ducts prickle. My eyes threatened to twitch with the building pressure. He knew? As if I wasn't embarrassed enough, he knew!? I screamed inside my head but kept as cool as I could on the outside. I wouldn't let him win this. One mistake shouldn't cost me everything.

"See, that's what I love about Jacob. He doesn't spy on me. He doesn't lie to me or trick me into things. Partly because he doesn't have to but mostly because he's a good man."

"Is that a fact?"

Seemingly nothing would break Edward's cocky resolve. I was this close to playing the card that at least Jacob could touch me - and did, often - without ripping my throat out, when speak of the devil, Jake appeared at my side.

The wolf lowered its head to nuzzle my neck. I glanced over at the clearing quickly emptying of bodies.

"Looks like we're done here," I said as we left Edward standing alone.

"Hey!" Embry was naked as the day he was born. Right in front of me.

"I'm sorry!" I blushed, wide-eyed. I almost tripped over my feet turning back around but now Jacob was human again... Heat coursed through me at the sight of him. It was rude to stare. Oh, gosh, so incredibly rude. But I couldn't tear my eyes away from his body. I'd never seen him naked before. Finally, we locked eyes. I saw the same desire that gnawed at the pit of my stomach reflected back at me. My skin tingled all over, feeling delightfully exposed, like I was as naked as he was.

"I was trying to give you some privacy."

Jake chuckled as he slipped into his jeans. "Yeah, no such thing in the pack."

"Used to be easier before Leah showed up," Embry called out from behind me in a lighthearted tone. Now dressed, he was quick to make his exit.

"A lot of things were easier," Jacob muttered, mostly to himself.

At that moment, Edward made his presence known. Jacob noticed him first and groaned. I hadn't heard him walk through the underbrush and instinctively folded my arms over my chest, still feeling exposed and unsure how much of that almost-private moment he'd witnessed.

"Can we help you?" Jacob asked in the most rhetorical tone I'd ever heard.

"I'm not sure I'm the one who needs help," Edward's dark eyes shifted between us. "I want Bella to be happy. As it stands, I'm not convinced what you two have will fulfill that purpose."

My jaw dropped at his presumptuousness and Jacob let out a bitter laugh.

"Somehow I don't think we'll be taking relationship advice from the bloodsucking virgin," Jake threw at him and I cringed. I shouldn't have told him that. I thought it would stay between us! But then, Edward probably thought the same when he confided in me.

Still, he had that unshakeable confidence from before. It made me nervous. Like he knew something we didn't. Like one of my own embarrassing secrets would soon be laid bare.

"I'm just showing concern for the woman I love."

My heart swelled at his words as if to spite me. Just when I needed it, when the pain would remind me to hate him, the hole in my chest was gone? What kind of backward logic was this?

"You don't love her, you're obsessed." Jake spat before taking a lighter tone. "And you know, I actually feel kind of sorry for you. Wanting someone you can't have, forever."

Edward caught my gaze and my heart stopped. Heat rippled through my body and gathered between my legs because I felt him not looking at me but into me. "At least I know I'll never want anyone else."

And then his eyes slid back to Jacob, and there was a poisonous second meaning to his words. I turned to Jake.

"What does he mean?"

Jacob was staring daggers at Edward. His nostrils flared and his mouth was a tight line. He trembled, but he was in control. "Nothing," he said through clenched teeth. "He means nothing."

I frowned, lost, and looked back and forth between them. Did they really think I wouldn't catch that there was something going on?

"Jake, tell me," I urged.

"Yes, Jacob," Edward chimed in. "Tell her."

"You," I threw him a pointed glare. "Stay out of this. Jake," I put both hands around his arm and might have tugged like a child begging for sweets. "Talk to me."

He didn't respond. After all the chaos of the past few weeks, we were finally starting to act like ourselves again. He couldn't do this now. He couldn't shut me out. I'll never want anyone else, Edward had said. So, there was someone else? My heart sank and bile rose up my throat at the thought.

"Are you… cheating on me?"

"No!" Jacob protested and finally turned to me. My question seemed to snap him back to reality and some of his anger melted away as he looked at me. He was my Jake again. Thank God. Gently, he ran his hands through my hair. "No, of course not."

"What, then?" I was fast losing patience. I couldn't deal with being kept in the dark, especially with everything going on.

Still, he wouldn't answer. He tugged at my wrists and tried to guide me away from the vampire haunting us.

"Please, come on. Don't let him do this to us."

"He's not the one doing it."

"It's not important," he claimed but I could see it in his eyes as plainly as if it were words on a page. He was lying to me.

"No," I denied what I saw. "No! You can't lie to me or you're just like him."

It was a cheap shot because I knew he was still there and I hoped it hit. Jacob turned his face up to the clouds, let out a heavy sigh then bowed his head. It was a long, weighted silence before he spoke again.

"Sam imprinted on Emily," he spoke in monotone. "That's why he broke up with Leah."

Im-what? Wait. Why was he talking about Sam? How was that relevant? I thought back. Had Emily mentioned anything? I went over everything I'd learned since Leah joined the pack to try and get my head round what he was telling me. I came up blank.

"So, what? He just stopped loving her?"

"No, he still loves her…" Jake's voice was low voice, eyes fixed on the ground. "He just loves Emily more."

"Because he imprinted?" Feel free to start making sense any time, Jake. "What even is that?"

And then he gave me the worst possible answer:

"It's a wolf thing."

The penny, at last, dropped.

"You mean it could happen to you."

"Yeah," he was almost inaudible, defeated.

My breath caught in my throat as I tried to process what this meant for us. Heck, what it meant at all! I thought about Leah and Sam. Sam... He was already engaged to Emily by the time Jake first phased. Which meant he knew about this the whole time. For two months, we'd been sitting on this time bomb and he never thought to tell me? All the memories of our relationship started to change hue and I clutched the hair at my temples, wanting desperately to keep us the way we'd been in my head. I didn't know who to turn to. I looked back and forth between these two men who had their claws and fangs in my heart, fighting over it like a slab of carrion to devour. His eyes were on the ground like he was minding his own business but I knew Edward well enough to catch the hint of that smug grin.

"If anyone asks," my voice shook. "I'm not speaking to either of you."

With all the balance I could muster on the uneven soil, I marched away.