A/N: Wow, okay so I am fail and fell asleep watching movies last night instead of posting this chapter that my wonderful beta Isabella worked so very hard on! Alright,so this chapter, like most, is dedicated to my wonderful, awesome, beautiful Isabella. I couould not as for a better Sister, Friend, Beta.

Thank you to all those that have given me all the reviews so far, please keep them coming! they are the mana of life!

As always I own nothing butthe dirty dirty things that I make these characters do to amuse me!

Love love,

Juliet

Chapter 11

Previously on Sweet Animosity . . . . .

I shrugged, knowing that if it were that bad there was no doubt I would hear about it when I got home. I had to really work on concentrate today. I had only been half joking about studying before they kicked me out of school. I have been falling behind for about a month now. Wow- it has only been two days since Paul and I reunited and I accepted the imprint.

Fuck, think straight, Bella! I sighed, opening my books to a few chapters behind the current lesson so that I could review anything I might have missed. A shadow blocked my light and my high instantly dissipated. What inconsiderate fucker had the nerve to..."Hello." . . . . .

"Hello," I said smiling. I didn't find it so creepy anymore running into Edward all the time, it just seemed to happen that way. After last night, I was really glad to have found someone outside of the pack to talk to, less of the drama and more of my normal routine, trying to pass psychology stuff. Edward was easy to talk to, even when he didn't say anything his honey eyes always seemed to tell me what was on his mind. For some odd reason though I always felt as if he walked out of some book, like a fairytale where he was the handsome prince charming who was off to rescue a fair maiden from the highest room in the tallest tower. It was in the way he spoke and even in the he dressed, business casual Really? We were in college, shouldn't he have on ripped jeans and an old t-shirt that smelled like his bedroom floor or something? Not perfectly styled hair, pressed light blue shirt, tan slacks, and loafers. Who wears loafers besides old men and teachers trying to look wise beyond their years. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm stalking you," he said smoothly, grinning as he took the seat across from me.

"Well then, you're doing a really shitty job," I said laughing.

"But I have been showing up everywhere you seem to be. Is that not a good stalking job?" he asked, feigning hurt.

I laughed louder then I should have, earning a shush from a nearby studier. "Yeah, but you always come and talk to me," I joked in a lower tone. "You are supposed to be silent and hidden, coveting from afar."

His eyes were bright with laughter as he grinned at me. "Well it just so happens I am not on stalking duty today. I am here studying for my mid-term today. It seemed rather silly to drive all the way to the university just to view the same books they have here in Forks, so here I am," I nodded. I looked down at my own books, inwardly groaning at all the work I had to do. Edward seemed to have read my mind, glancing towards my book with a little frown. He reached his hand over to my book to look at the cover and then carefully opened it back to the page I was on. "We used this book my sophomore year if you need help I would more than happy to study with you."

I grinned at him, truly touched by his offer. "That would be pretty decent of you, Edward. Thank you, but I wouldn't want to distract you from your own mid-term studying," I said, trying to sound gracious but I honestly wanted Edward around. When you have a study partner it seems to be less of a chore.

"I am pretty confident that I'll pass the mid-terms with ease, like I've taken them many times before." I smiled and gestured with my hand to the seat across from me for him to sit. Gracefully he walked over and sat down, taking the book that sat in front of me. He briefly glanced at the page the book was turned to and then back up at me, "Are you ready?"

I grinned, slightly blushing as if the comment were in some way dirty. "Ready?"

Six hours, twenty minutes, one large pizza and four different psychology books, one of which we weren't even required to read, and I was now fairly confident that I was going to pass the year without any problems. I received a few texts throughout the day from Paul and then one from Jake, both saying that everything was fine, but that Leah had an accident in the woods. Paul said that it was nothing to worry about, but I thought that maybe I should go see her after I was done with the library.

I finished texting Paul and looked up to see Edward staring at me again. It should have been a bit unsettling the way he was always staring at me, but honestly it was sort of flattering. We had just spent the day talking about all kinds of things, joking and teasing. We were instantly best friends. It was like I had known him all my life, not just three short days. The past three days, everything in my world as I knew it had changed.

"Isabella?" he said when our eyes met again, causing me to blush a little despite myself.

For some odd reason I felt panic grip me with the tone he used to say my name. Almost like today had been way too easy and here came the doom I had been mentally preparing myself for. "Yes Edward?"

"I would like you ask you something," he simply replied, his eyes searching mine, as if checking my readiness for what he was about to say.

I tried to smile easily, but I felt that he seen right through it. "Anything."

"Why are you so scared?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

I laughed, mostly at myself for getting caught. "That was not your question."

"No, but such dread filled your features that I was compelled to ask what you could have possibly thought I was going to ask?"He smiled reassuringly at me and I thought for a moment.

"Well," I said after moments of contemplating. "You see, there isn't much that doesn't scare me to answer you honestly, for fear of losing my new friend or you thinking that I was crazy," I answered.

He nodded his head, seeming to understand, but really not having a clue. "So, me asking you to dinner in a non-friendly way. . ."

"Won't happen," I said smiling a little. He even took me turning him down smoothly. "I wouldn't call what Paul and I have a relationship just yet, but I am definitely taken..." I laughed a little. "In more ways than one."

He grinned, throwing his hands up in surrender. "Alright, no need to rub salt in the wound."

"Oh, Edward I didn't mean to-" he put his hand up to stop me, still grinning.

"It's fine, really. This Paul is a very lucky man and maybe I'll just stand back and be the doting friend, patiently awaiting his first his downfall," he smiled, almost to himself as if he had just made a joke.

"It might be a long wait, Edward," I said, a little too seriously. "Surely there are women standing in line just to have the chance to go out with you."

He smiled a bit sadly. "You are correct, however, I have found that you seem to . . .call to me. I am happy when I am around you and I find myself quickly becoming addicted to that feeling," he admitted quietly. Well no need to make this awkward or anything, fuck!

I opened my mouth to respond, but he held up a hand once again. "I would rather not hear the pity in your voice," he stood up gathering his things and then looked down. I was almost positive there was a stupid expression plastered on my face. "Do not fear, Isabella. My casual feelings will not change . I am still a . . .friend."

His phone buzzed on the table and he looked at it with a little smile. " Speaking of friends, I have one waiting outside for me. Bree is an impatient person, so I should spare myself the wrath of her intolerance to tardiness."

"Bree?" I asked full of curiosity. I tried to only sound a bit curious, but it came out almost jealous, even to my own ears.

"A very old friend," he simply replied and then shrugged a little. "She is having a bit of a lifestyle makeover and it has been a little hard for her, so I am her . . . Sponsor so to speak. Sorta like a carnivore learning to become a vegetarian."

I shuddered a little from the thought of his metaphor, but for some reason it made him smile.

"Until next time, my lady Isabella," I watched him walk away, feeling a little confused.

I climbed into my truck about an hour later. I had tried to work my confusion out with a caramel macchiato from Starbucks. It didn't seem to work though, I was still as confused as ever. Not only was I confused, I now had this nagging feeling that I was being watched, which was annoyingly stupid because I was driving to LaPush. The only feet that would have been able to keep up with me were wolf feet, not that my truck went very fast, but no humans could have. Since when did I start diagnosing my fears like this? Maybe I filled my head with too much psychology from all the studying today and was now rationalizing this irrational feeling. I took a deep breath, keeping my eyes forward, just trying to concentrate on getting to Billy's house and lying down. Sleep had been few and far between staying at Paul's, not that I was complaining, but becoming an insomniac nympho wasn't worth my school tuition.

I pulled up to Billy's house feeling as if I had been gone for years instead of just a day and a half. I sighed, dragging myself out of the truck. I felt every inch of the past few days events throughout my body. Fuck, I was tired. I slugged my way into the house, holding the door gently so that it didn't slam, and then tip-toed my way across the house on the way to my room. As I passed the living room I heard the clearing of a throat that could only be one person. I turned to see Billy attempting to look stern, but there was an amused smirk across his face.

"Bella," he said simply. Billy was a man of few words, but he got his point across pretty quickly with just a glance.

I had the enough decency to look shamed and nodded as if he had made a life changing point. "I know Billy, I'm sorry. I'll call again before I go rogue," I promised.

"There is way too much going on right now for you to be wondering around by yourself," he said, his eyes glancing quickly to the side and then back at me. For the first time, I noticed Sam sitting on the couch. Billy was obviously dulling out his punishment, which by the look on Sam's face, was to help with whatever was bugging Sam. Sneaky cripple, I gonna have to roll him off to his room.

"Hey Sam, how is it going?" I said lightly, glaring at Billy quickly before walking further into the room.

"Bella is the closest person to Jake and can also provide a woman's wisdom," Billy said behind me. Nice, thanks for subtle pawn off Billy.

I smiled kindly and heard Billy wheel away before Sam even looked in my direction. He looked like shit. He had bags under his bloodshot eyes, looked even more tired then I felt and had a two day old stubble. I leaned in close to him and put my hand on his shoulder. "Do you want to go talk outside?" I suggested, knowing that whatever had happened, was bad enough that he would want to vent a little. The loud, screaming, punching trees kind of venting. I really didn't want to pick up the mess from him 'venting' in the house. He nodded, looking at me with dull eyes.

He followed me outside where I was going to stop out by the garage to talk, but he kept walking. I followed closely behind him. We walked deep into the woods after almost an hour, not saying a word. We just left each other to our own thoughts and demons.

Sam suddenly spun around, facing me with his hands in tight balls that hung at his sides, and his frame shaking a little. "What the fuck does he have that I don't?" he shouted back at me. I was confused, but I shrugged not knowing what had happened other then there being a woman and Jake somehow being involved. Fuck, I sure hope Jake didn't do anything stupid with Emily. "Why would nature choose him over me? We already LOVED each other, why did it have to be a child like him?"

"Sam," I said, calmer then I felt as the Alpha wolf stood across from me. Mr. Fucking Composed was shaking with rage and I was an hour's walk into the woods alone with him. What a fucking genius Bella, a real fucking genius. "Tell me what has happened and maybe I could help somehow..."

"Jake!" he spat the name as if it were the nastiest word he could think of. "Jacob Fucking Black! That Fucking CHILD imprinted on Leah! MY LEAH!"

I held my hands up in surrender, taking a small step backwards. Away from a sudden explosion of temper from Sam."Whoa, whoa, whoa! Back the fuck up. Jake did what?"

Sam looked at me like I was the stupidest person in the world and actually I felt like the stupidest person on earth. Really, how come I didn't know about them? Seriously, I mean did this just happen? How long had he been hiding this? "He… Is... Fucking... My... Leah!" He said each word slowly with a pause in between each word, as if he were speaking to a slow witted child. It wasn't far from accurate.

This scene was suddenly a bit too familiar, with the exception of a very different wolf, only I felt like the irrational hot head now. Although I had many face-offs between Paul and in the past, being here alone with a very pissed off Sam was a hell of a lot scarier. I suddenly became very angry with Sam. That is what I did when I got scared, I got bitchy. Stupid, stupid Bella "You know what, Sam? You are the biggest fucking asshole ever! You know that Jake actually felt BAD for you when he found out what had happened with you and Leah. She used to say really shitty things about you and JAKE would always defend you. He imprinted Sam, now tell me please, because trust me I would REALLY like to know, how can you control something like that?"

Sam slowly stalked forward, his shaking body now vibrating. "What? No one asked me if I WANTED to give Leah up, I loved her!" He growled at me. "What the fuck does HE have that I don't? Who the fuck are you anyways, thinking you can make assumptions on my life? Like you know me, half-breed?"

"Really? Half-breed? Couldn't you have at least tried to think of something a little more original?" I spat, no longer caring about my own self preservation. "I mean seriously, that is nothing more than a pet name by now. You know maybe you should stop and think about the fact that no one asked if Jake WANTED to imprint on Leah you selfish hypocritical bastard!" I backed up so that I didn't have to look so far up at him, but he kept stalking forward. I should have stopped, I should have shut my fucking mouth and turned and walked away. Fighting with Paul so much made me cocky, much too sure of my capabilities to defend myself. Although I never really did have to seriously defend myself from Paul, and more often than not I ended up breaking my hand or something, but that was beside the point. "You know what the most important thing you said to me was, out of all the spewing bullshit from your mouth? You said, 'I LOVED her.' Loved! Not love, you loved her. I do believe, without a shadow of a doubt that you did indeed love her, but Sam... You don't love her any more, you love Emily."

He was dangerously close to phasing. I could almost feel it in the air. "Don't bring her into this!" He growled.

"WHY? Maybe someone should because you seem to have forgotten about her!" I yelled back. "You want to know what Jake has that you don't? Compassion, understanding and a level head. Apparently, you are lacking all three right now. Quite frankly, if you can't see that Jake and Leah are perfect for each other and that no one else but Emily should matter to you right now, well then you don't deserve any of them!"

I heard the growl, more animal then man and my eyes widened as my back hit a tree. I couldn't back up any further, I was stuck and Sam was going to phase. Emily's scars flashed into the fore front of my memories. Paul, who would probably die at the loss of me due to his imprint or worse, he would live and try and kill Sam. I closed my eyes waiting, silently praying that it would all just happen quickly without much pain. Regret for everything I wasn't able to do in my short life assaulted me. Living life to the fullest, getting married, having kids, and accepting something that mother nature had pretty much made idiot proof. Paul, I loved him and I never told him.

I felt the air around me start to hum and shift and suddenly I was abruptly shoved to the side, slamming hard into a fallen tree on the ground. Pain ripped through my shoulder and hip making me cry out. The pain in my head was worse, making everything fuzzy and dim. I slowly tried to stand looking up to see a silver wolf viciously attacking a larger black one. Paul.

"Paul!" I screamed, sending more waves of pain through my head.

PPOV

I ran through the woods, knowing that something was wrong. I waited for Bella to call me when she got home like she said she would. I got impatient and called Billy. He told me that Bella had gone for a walk with Sam so that he could get a woman prospective on the whole Jake and Leah situation. The anxiety that ripped through me was just too much to ignore. Sam was in a unmanageable mood earlier and I wouldn't be so naive as to assume it had passed so quickly.

I first ran over to Billy's, then followed Bella's scent into the woods. Fuck how far did they walk? I heard a distant yelling and picked up speed. I ran faster than I had ever ran before towards the noise. As I reached them Bella was the one yelling at Sam, all but up against a tree. Sam, oh my god! Sam was going to phase. I could see that he was only seconds from doing just that. He would kill her only being inches away from her like that. Emily had been a good 5 feet away and she was in the hospital for months. Bella must have been aware of it too, she started to back up, but her back hit the tree. Anger, panic and then acceptance all flashed through her face within seconds. Well fuck that! I refused to accept it!

I jumped at her, knocking her to the side into a fallen tree. I would rather her get a few bruises then being shred to ribbons. He only missed her by seconds, his sharp claws digging into to my hind end making me yelp. I spun around, lunging at him, screaming at him in my mind.

'YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER!' I attacked him out of blind rage. Alpha or not, he was going to kill my imprint and I was going to fucking kill him.

'Oh my God, Paul! I am so sorry!' Sam was dodging my advances, not striking back, apologizing over and over again. Nothing stopped me, nothing would have brought her back if he had killed her. The too close call was too much for me to take. 'Paul, please, I don't know what had just come over me, I am so sorry!' I continued to attack him, never getting more than a nip in, until my anger had weaned itself to a slight simmer.

'Get yourself together, Sam.' I said coldly, finally stilling my movements. I looked at Bella, she had blood dripping down her head and was calling my name and using one arm to drag herself to me. I looked back at Sam and saw the sadness in his eyes. I knew he felt bad, but I couldn't bring myself to feel bad or forgive him. 'If you had...Go, please before I lose my temper again.' Sam started to turn and run away. 'Maybe you should think about handing over Jake's birthright to this pack.' I said cruelly, not caring about the remorseful howl that had followed.

I phased, running to Bella's side and picking her up into my arms. She had lost consciousness and was lying limply in my grasp with her breathing deep and even. The emotional pounding I just took in those brief seconds was what brought me to my knees, weeping over Bella with relief and love. I sat on the ground, crossing my legs and sitting her in my lap, her head still cradled in my arms. "Bella. Oh god I thought I was going to lose you!" I rocked her in my arms, thankful that she wasn't awake to hear my moment of weakness. I couldn't see myself as her protector if I was weeping over her, naked in the woods. More like creepy then protective, but I could help it. "Bella I will never let anything happen to you again, I promise!"

I looked down at her, sweeping a stray hair from her face, and wiping my own tears from her face. "I love you." I whispered to her, the empty yet deafening silence, surrounded by nature. "I love you."

N/A: Thank you so much for all the faves and what not, Show me some review lovin!