A/N: I honestly shouldn't be allowed to write for people, when I can't keep to any sort of schedule what-so-ever. I do apologise. *sad face*

Bella's POV

I sighed, scrubbing my hand across about my forehead in resignation. This was not good, not in any means. Just looking at Charlie's face, I could tell that he has spoken to Jake and wasn't getting the response he had expected.

"What's going on?" Charlie just shrugged and looked down at the table, as though waiting for me to chaste him for meddling. We were most definitely going to be having words when Jake left.

"Charlie and I had the most interesting conversation today, Bella." I narrowed my eyes at Jake. Oh, so he was going to act petulant about this then.

"Oh?" Charlie shrunk into his seat at the cold note in my voice, knowing full well that I was not happy.

"Would you give us some privacy, Charlie?" I nodded my consent and he all but scuttled out of the kitchen and I'm pretty sure that he clicked the front door shut. Coward.

I leaned my hip against the counter and stared, unblinkingly at Jake. He'd been running his hands through his hair, a sure sign of distress. His shoulders were tight, as was his jaw. Clearly, whatever had happened between him and Charlie had stressed him and left him tense. His eyes were guarded but I could see the hint of betrayal and anger hiding in the dark depths. It cut to the bone that he felt that way.

"What's going on Jake?" his breath hissed out and he once again ran his hands through his hair. He pushed his chair back, the legs scraping and squealing on the old linoleum. I winced at the high sound but quickly focused on Jake as he started pacing.

"What did you say to Charlie? The other night, when you walked through the forest," he paused and glared at me. "On your own."

I shifted uncomfortably. I could guess where he was headed with this.

"I told him that I'd seen you fighting." I looked down at my feet, a lick of the fear I'd felt at that time and my heart sped up a little.

"I told him that you were good." I looked up at him, catching his eye and holding it.

"I told him that it scared me." He flinched from the fear that crept into my voice. I gripped the counter, hearing in my head the distant sound of fists colliding with hard flesh.

"But you didn't tell him about Paul." His voice was cold and it took a moment for what he'd actually said to register. Was this all because of the fact that I'd told Charlie that I'd seen Jake fight?

"Is that what this is about Black?!" I was infuriated! Was he seriously blaming me for his jealous insecurities? This was ridiculous, what else was I supposed to do?

"Come on Bella! Just because you're his imprint, suddenly you're ratting me in to your old man, but leaving him completely out of it! How is that fair? I thought we were best friends! How could you rat me out but let that piece of shit get out of the ear lashing I got?! He all but kidnaped you! But no! His precious imprint couldn't inform her father of what had actually happened, could she? No! I just don't get it? You said you weren't ready for a relationship, but suddenly because you find out that ass is your soul-mate because of Taka Ali, you just waltz right on in?! What the Hell is that about?" his chest was heaving and his hands were shaking, but I paid that no attention.

I was frozen at the word 'imprint'. It was what Paul had said I was, accidentally sure, but he'd said it none-the-less. Did being an imprint mean being a soul-mate? Was that what Jake was insinuating? I stared at him with wide eyes, horrified at his implications.

Jakes horror-filled eyes stared right back at me. He obviously hadn't meant to let that slip, yet in his anger he'd told me more than Paul had and maybe more than I was really prepared to hear.

"Bells…" I shook my head frantically, holding my hand out in front of me to ward him off. I couldn't bear for him to come any closer.

"I thi-ink you should leave." My voice shook but I didn't really care, I just needed space. Regret quickly cut over his face, but he nodded and left via the backdoor. When I could no longer see him, I slowly slid to the floor, cover my face with shaking hands.

This was not a simple case of Jake and Paul being in a gang. No, this was something infinitely more dangerous. Soul-mates. What on earth would possess them to come out with something so…so ludicrous? It had to be something to do with them being tribal boys, right? I mean, they have legends and stories. I've heard about them, when I first moved here Charlie mention it in passing, but he hadn't spent any time focussed on it, and at the time I was grateful. Now, however, I wasted no time in picking myself up off the floor and running up to my room, all else forgotten as I desperately lunged for the computer in the corner. Booting itself took some time, so I decided to go ahead and find my diary, which I hadn't bothered with.

It was part of me 'rehabilitation' into society again. I was supposed to write in the diary, keeping a record of my emotions and my adaptation into a foreign life. I had steadily refused to see a therapist, and Charlie had agreed, and this was the solution. Suffice to say that I had written absolutely nothing in it and had denied all knowledge of where it had 'disappeared' to. I may have been dumped into a new life and have everything be strange and unfamiliar, but I was still me. In the privacy of my mind I would always be me, no matter what was done to change how I was perceived, and writing in a diary for 'therapeutic means of release' was not something I was ever going to embrace.

However, the scrolls of blank, empty pages of paper were going to be disfigured by my need to figure this out. I solved things better when I could understand in my own way what information I had. Triumphantly holding the worn leather-bound book in my hands, I turned to the computer, seeing it had finally gotten its act together and was now willing to co-operate with me.

I sat over an hour later, just blankly staring at all the scribbles on various sheets of paper. I had found a surprising amount of information about the tribal legends on the internet and what I'd found hadn't boosted my confidence in the slightest. The spirit warriors that descend from wolves, their imprints and their laws. It was obvious to me now that Jake and Paul were both shifters. How could they be anything else? They had the ridiculous height and the fever high temperature that could fry an egg. They had muscles that most people wouldn't have even heard of, the irate tempers and split attitude changes.

It was…enlightening. I grimaced.

However, what really made my stomach roll was learning of their enemies, the 'Cold Ones'. Or, the vampires. I felt nauseous just thinking about it. They were pale white, with marble hard skin and lightning fast reflexes. They had red eyes and instead of saliva they had 'venom'. This venom was what enabled them to paralyse their victims, by using the venom to make the victim feel like they were burning alive. It was also how one was changed into a vampire. If the heart was still beating, three days' worth of burning would turn a person into a murdering monster with no scruples.

I'd seen it happen.

Running for the bathroom, I just made it in time to empty the contents of my stomach into the toilet bowl. Sweat had beaded on my brow and I swiped it away impatiently. Paul had known what they were. It was why he'd kept asking about what I'd noticed. They were nomads that had decided that my family provided the perfect opportunity to elevate their boredom.

Heaving again, my head started to spin. Grabbing hold of the rim of the bathtub, I forced myself into an upright position. I was not going to faint. This was nothing compared to things I'd been subjected to.

However, what I was going to do about Paul was still a mystery. He wasn't human, and that was – uncomfortable – for me in the least. I was completely helpless to his superhuman persona and physical attributes. He was violent and vicious, and nothing short of a monster. And yet, the person I knew, or was becoming to know, was all those things as well as caring, kind, sweet and funny. He was also sarcastic, jealous and possessive, all traits that I had so far admired.

The confliction gnawed at me as I stood to rinse my mouth out. Should I continue to go down the road that we were so obviously headed, or should I count my life as a big enough prize and get the Hell out of dodge?

I jumped with a mini scream as the front door slammed against the jam. My heart thumps wildly as another realisation hit me like a freight train. Edward was a vampire. Holy shit, that's why he had always reminded me of them. But he had honey gold eyes, which must mean he was one of the vampires the wolves had made a treaty with, one of the vegetarians.

"Little girl?!" the relief that poured through me with those two little words was combated with the wave of nausea at the confirmation of who had shouted them. Bending back over the toilet, I evicted the last of me breakfast.

Before I'd finished I felt hot hands pulling back my hair and rubbing soothing circles on my back. My traitorous body began to relax and ease with his hands on me, but my mind was not so easily shut out. I was both repulsed and morbidly fascinated by my physical reaction to his touch and blamed the imprint. Rationally I knew that I wouldn't react this way had it been Jake that had found me in such a compromising position as the one I found myself in now.

"Easy little girl. Slowly." I pulled away from him as soon as I could, without either falling or throwing up again. His scowling face comes into view along with his defensive stance. It immediately triggers my fight or flight instincts and at the moment I was running on scared.

"Don't get your panties in a twist, lassie, and your imprints fine!" the words were hissed out between clenched teeth before I'd even thought about them. His eyes flashed dangerously and fear trickled through my blood, and I saw him discretely sniff. God it was all too much for me to handle.

"Get out of my way, please" it was tacked on at the end in an attempt not to anger him further, but he had clearly seen through my attempt at pushing him away to create space.

"Hell no. now, we are going to go into your room and have a nice little chat, you understand. Now move." He pushed me through the door before him, keeping his hands on my waist the entire time, guiding me to where he wanted me to be. Going into my room, however, I felt him freeze, and glanced back to see his eyes trained on the computer screen and the diary. He knew.

"Definitely talking." It was muttered so low that I felt it vibrate across every pore of by body. Shaking out of his hold I slammed the book closed and flicked off the monitor to the computer, denying him any access to what I'd been doing.

We stood glaring at each other from opposite ends of the room, both battling internal debates on what to do next. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to hit him, scream at him, hug him or ignore him.

Studying the man before me, I recalled the way he'd been with me at the side of the road. Compassionate. Caring. Attentive. He'd been an ass and a complete jerk at times too. He'd also been domineering, high-handed, scary and violent. But never once had he attempted to hurt me. That was what made my decision.

"I was tortured by a vampire." He jerked, unexpectedly. His eyes darted back to the computer and the book before coming to rest on my prone form once again. He nodded slowly.

"You're a shifter, descended from wolves." Again he nodded, this time a hint of a smile gracing his lips. He was obviously proud of his heritage, and who could blame him?

"You kill vampires." Any sign of a smile vanished. Again, though, he nodded. I tilted my head in the direction of the book and he slowly stepped over to it, leafing through all the notes and gibberish. He stopped at the last two pages, his eyes taking in every detain of the sketches drawn there.

"They promised they'd be coming for me, when I didn't just roll over and die I mean. They swore that they would find me and they will. I know they will. But from what I can gather, even for vampires they're special. You need to be careful when they get here, Paul." I cut myself off before I could do something embarrassing like admit that I was worried about his safety. Not human, remember?

"You drew these?" he looked at me curiously and I nodded, my cheeks coloring. Admittedly they were more than just sketches. They were fully detailed images of those monsters faces. Each and every fibre of those two had been seared into my brain, and for once I was semi grateful for it.

He gazed at the drawings a minute more before lying them to the side. An awkward silence fell between us. He knew that I knew and he knew that knew a lot.

"I reckon it's why they haven't healed." He raised a brow at me, not understanding my seemingly random outburst.

"My scars I mean. I think because of them healing with the venom inside that they couldn't be healed." He growled, long and low and it hung in the air between us. Goosebumps littered my body both in fear and reassurance.

"I won't let them hurt you." I nodded watching his heartbeat throb in the vein of his neck as he reined in his temper.

"You're mine, little girl, and I refuse to share." It should have frightened me, the intensity in which his words came across but instead it made me feel safe.

Safe.

I all but flung myself across the room and into his surprised arms, but he caught me securely and hugged me to him, sniffing my neck and nuzzling my hair. I squeezed him as tight as I could, trusting in his judgement to keep me safe.

"MINE, little girl." I smiled as the words tore out of his throat, reverberating in my chest cavity.

"My wolf."

A/N: There we go *smiles* Quite a heaving/deep chapter I think so perhaps something more light-hearted next time. Originally, I had planned on Paul blurting out what an imprint was when he found Jake trying to kiss Bella, but it just didn't work out that. But I think her finding out on her own adds a little…something...don't you? *cheekily grins* bye my lovelies xx