8.

APOV

Thankfully, Carlisle took charge before the whole family started bombarding me with the hundreds of questions written all over their faces. "Let's move this downstairs and Alice can explain this to us from the beginning." We all followed Carlisle to the living room and thankfully Jasper was able to calm me down enough to talk to them by the time we were all seated.

"Okay Alice, what do you think prompted this vision of Bella all of a sudden?" Carlisle would start that way, I groaned internally. But Bella's safety was at stake so I had to come clean. I told them everything. I told them I'd been checking up on Bella since we left, news that Rosalie was thrilled to hear, no doubt. She'd never been fond of Bella and my "spying" was obviously little help in that regard.

I explained how she had quickly deteriorated after Edward left her. I told them about the depression, the weight loss and Charlie's threats to have her committed. I opted to leave out the part about Jasper's and my interference in that situation.

I could see the worry on Esme's face. She was so happy when Edward found Bella and had taken an immediate liking to her. No, not just a liking, it was more than that. She had already started considering Bella as a daughter. Leaving her had broken Esme's heart, again. Poor Esme. She'd lived and died with a broken heart and it seemed that she was doomed to having it broken over and over for all of time.

Carlisle put his arm around her pulling her close to him in an effort to comfort her as I continued. I went on to tell them about her friendship with Jacob Black. I said that I'd been able to sense how Black was falling for Bella but that she still seemed to be holding back. It had crushed me to watch as Bella was coming close to moving on. I still believed that this was all just temporary. I believed that Edward would eventually come to his senses and come back to Bella, and to us. I wanted her back almost as much as I knew Edward did, wherever he was.

Finally, I told them of my last vision of Bella at La Push confronting Jacob and of Sam's transformation. It was obvious Jacob Black was a werewolf as well. We all knew of the La Push werewolves. Carlisle was there during the meeting with the elders of the Quileute tribe all those years ago and had actually petitioned the tribe for the treaty that was in place to this day. They agreed not to reveal our secret as long as we agreed to continue our "vegetarian" lifestyle and stay off of the reservation. However, none of us were aware that there remained an active pack on the reservation. Not only had Bella befriended the newest member of the pack, she'd unknowingly put herself in the middle of a conflict that had raged for centuries. Vampires and werewolves were mortal enemies.

"Stupid human girl!" Rosalie could contain her resentment no longer. "Only Bella would fall in love with a vampire and then befriend a werewolf. She does have a death wish." Then she turned on me. "Alice, what do you expect us to do? Start a war with the La Push werewolves over some little girl? You shouldn't be watching her anyway. We moved away because of her. Edward left her and then he left us." She was really angry. I had expected Carlisle to step in, but instead it was Esme.

"Rosalie, that's enough." Esme spoke calmly and quietly but Rosalie obeyed. It didn't stop her seething looks though. "Alice, I wish you would have shared with us sooner. Bella's life has been spiraling out of control since Edward left. We all knew it was a mistake and we've all been waiting for Edward to realize that and return. But it's obvious we can't wait for him any longer." She looked over to Carlisle then, "What's the plan?"

BPOV

There was no way I could sleep. I don't even know why I laid in bed. Everything was twisted. I stared at the ceiling and struggled to make sense out of the whole thing. 'I'm sure you could figure all of this out for yourself', Jake's words kept rolling around in my head. Part of me was ready to just sink back down into my depression. First I lost Edward and now I was losing Jake. What had I done to deserve all of this? And how much more was I expected to take before I did lose all will to go on? It wasn't as if I had much will left in me anyway. But Jake had helped all of that. Jake had offered me an alternative to my depression and a way to exist without Edward. It wasn't the life I wanted or that I would have chosen, but at least it was a life. And it made Charlie so happy to see us together. I'd hurt Charlie so badly by my behavior it was nice to see him smiling after all I'd put him through. I couldn't put him through that all over again.

I sighed heavily and turned over. The alarm clock was staring me in the face. It read 2:30 a.m. I sighed again and rolled back over to stare at the ceiling once again. I needed to push my feelings aside and think about this logically. I started by analyzing all of the things that didn't make sense. And not just the most recent events, I tried to search back further. I thought back to the night that Jake and Billy had come over for dinner. It had been awhile since I'd seen him last and it wasn't much of a surprise that he'd changed quite a bit. In fact, he'd changed a lot. Jake was two years younger than me. And even though he'd always been taller, the way he'd filled out all of sudden was alarming. He wasn't built like any 16 year old boys that I knew. On the contrary, he seemed more like he was 19 or 20.

And it wasn't just physically that he'd matured, it was emotionally as well. I'd always sensed that Jake had a little crush on me. But lately that crush had begun to turn into something more. A longing had appeared on his face when he looked at me. And that night at the tide pools it wasn't just a kiss he'd been seeking. He wanted confirmation from me that his feelings were being returned. When I couldn't return the kiss with the same affection that he was giving and when I admitted to still having feelings for Edward, he'd turned so cold. He was hurt, obviously, but there was something deeper. It almost seemed like anger that seemed to resonate inside him, but not quite on the surface.

Then I thought about confronting him in front of Billy's house. He'd run up from the beach, soaking wet with no shirt. But when I touched him, his skin was hot. Almost as though he had a fever. And why was he with Sam? He'd just been confessing to me the way he felt Sam was manipulating some of his friends on the reservation. He spoke about Sam with such dislike. And now he was with him. And Quill and Embry too. I couldn't make sense of it. He'd said he'd been wrong about Sam. He'd said Sam was only trying to protect the reservation and that it was dangerous for me to be there.

Why all of a sudden was it dangerous for me to be on the reservation? The questions were screaming inside my head. And then I knew. It wasn't dangerous for me to be on the reservation. It was dangerous for me to be near Jake. I didn't have to ask the question why, I already knew. That night, at First Beach……

"Do you like scary stories?" he asked ominously. "I love them," I enthused, making an effort to smolder at him.

"Do you know any of our old stories, about where we came from – the Quileutes, I mean?" he began.

"Not really," I admitted.

"Well, there are lots of legends, some of them claiming to date back to the Flood – supposedly, the ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tops of the tallest trees on the mountain to survive like Noah and the ark." He smiled, to show me how little stock he put in the histories. "Another legend claims that we descended from wolves – and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them.

"Then there are the stories about the cold ones." His voice dropped a little lower.

"The cold ones?" I asked, not faking my intrigue now.

"Yes. There are stories of the cold ones as old as the wolf legends, and some much more recent. According to legend, my own great-grandfather knew some of them. He was the one who made the treaty that kept them off our land." He rolled his eyes.

"Your great-grandfather?" I encouraged.

"He was a tribal elder, like my father. You see, the cold ones are the natural enemies of the wolf – well, not the wolf, really, but the wolves that turn into men, like our ancestors. You would call them werewolves."

Oh my. The truth hit me like a ton of bricks. I sat up in my bed, practically hyperventilating at the realization of the situation. And then I remembered the worst part, as if it could really get any worse.

"Werewolves have enemies?"

"Only one."