I woke up the next morning feeling utterly disgusting, I felt better physically than I had in almost two weeks, but emotionally... I felt torn. On the one hand, I had my vampires who, though they had abandoned me, I felt more and more attached to. On the other, and had Jacob and his pack whose warm friendship was something I'd been missing out on for too long. What was worst, though, was that I knew I'd been so caught up in my paranormal difficulties that I'd been denying my normal friends.

I decided that, ribs or not – and really my ribs weren't as bad as everyone seemed to think – I would begin school again tomorrow. Hopefully my friends hadn't given up on me yet. There was only so much rejection I could take in a year without breaking.

Of course things had gotten easier now that Edward had gotten back and I knew what was going on with Jacob. Or... had they? Did I actually feel any less alone being forced to choose between the two than I did having neither?

"Penny for your thoughts?" Alice chirped from my open window.

I jumped. "Don't you knock?" I asked.

"Not when I can avoid it," she replied with a smile. "I might break a nail."

"One of yours? Not likely."

"Well, you're probably right." She shrugged and hopped through the window, landing lightly on the balls of her feet. "I hope I wasn't interrupting anything."

"No. I was just thinking."

"About what?"

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "Just... everything. I'm going back to school tomorrow."

"I know," she said with a smirk.

I grinned. "Of course you do. I forgot."

"I also know that Angela is almost certainly going to say yes to your proposal for a sleep over tonight. Or at least, she would is you didn't have to adjust the date till tomorrow night when she's having a family dinner, because you'll be busy tonight. At least, I assume you'll want to join us at the field."

I shook my head and smiled. "Alice, are you sure you don't read minds?"

"Yes, I'm sure. That's Edward."

I winced, though I wasn't sure if it was because I didn't want to think about him or if it was because I didn't want to admit how much I really did want to think about him. "Yes, I want to be at the field. Will you do me a favour and tell me when Angela will be available?"

"She's going to be busy for a while. Her grandmother is coming up from Los Angeles for a few days and since she just got diagnosed with ovarian cancer and she's been given months to live so she's trying to get as much time with her family before then."

"That... sucks."

"Yeah. She's not too upset about it, though, because she's wiccan of over sixty years and a firm believer in reincarnation – still, she's not too pleased about the form death seems to be taking."

"Well," I said after a moment, "that was unexpected."

"When you've lived as long as I have, it becomes expected that everyone will have at least one quirk that would sound unexpected if you didn't expect it."

I blinked. "I think you lost me."

She giggled. "I'm not surprised."

"Okay," I said after a moment, "If everyone has one quirk -"

"At least," The small vampire interjected.

"Then what's mine?"

She raised her eyebrows and asked, "Aside from your association with things that go bump in the night?"

I rolled my eyes. "That doesn't count. Aside from that."

With a smile, she said, "I don't know. I haven't figured it out yet, but don't worry. I will eventually."

It was true, tough, I supposed. It wasn't like everyone was this involved with the vampires – after all, unless the vampires were as strict about their diet as mine, it wasn't a position you could hold for very long, safely – and the only wolves I knew of were the ones here in Forks. Of course, I had gotten the impression that many of the Quileutes – the elders at least – were very involved with the wolves. The vampires, the werewolves, next thing I knew Angela would turn out to be a witch.

How had it all started? Was it just the eerie feeling I'd gotten from the Cullens on my first day here? Jessica had said she felt something similar and yet she wasn't lying in bed with an arm in a cast, waiting for an army of vampires to attack and trying to choose between a vampire and a werewolf. Or maybe she was, since I was so out of it that world war three could probably have started around me without my noticing, or at least it felt that way. I should call her or something – tomorrow. I'd do it tomorrow. Just like the army of vampires.

Gah! How had my life gotten so complicated? Just a year ago my biggest worry was being away from my mom and getting submerged into a town where I knew somewhere between one and three people. Now...

I wondered how things would have been different if I had just refused to talk to Edward, or parked in a different spot, or agreed not to push things, or not talked to Jake that day, or not gotten caught by the creeps in Port Angeles, or backed out when he'd given me the chance in the glade... And I could drown myself in What Ifs and it still wouldn't change the present. I'd had so many opportunities to step down, to get out of this, but by the time I realized that I wanted to get out, it was too late.

But did I really want out? Did I want not to have Alice or Jasper or Jacob or Edward? No, I decided. I didn't want it not to have happened, I just wanted it not to be so complicated now. Of course, I'd be wishing life were less complicated even if I were just dealing with the normal stresses of teenage.

And Jacob was younger than I was – younger than I'd been when this all started. He seemed to be taking the whole thing fairly well but I hadn't really gotten to talk to him – the real him that had fixed up the bikes and taken me to the movies – since the night the Change had begun. I could tell it was still there though, buried beneath his new strength and his anger. I just hadn't been able to get him to relax enough around me.

I should visit him, as long as Sam hadn't thrown him out to do patrols. I should go today. I'd be damned if I was going to sit in bed all day, doctors orders or not. Besides, I was sure Alice wouldn't turn me in. relatively sure, anyway.

Alice had pulled out a book and started reading when I turned to her and said, "Alice, I'm going to visit Jake today."

She shuddered, and then she explained, "You have no idea how odd it feels not knowing what people are going to say before hand."

"Somehow, I'm not very sympathetic," I replied dryly.

She huffed and folded her arms in a perfectly Alice-like pout. "No body appreciates me. Edward would understand."

I flinched from the name – a reaction that I'm sure she noticed even if she didn't draw attention to it. "Don't tell Carlisle though. He doesn't want me doing anything strenuous."

She frowned at me. "Just what do you expect to be doing?"

"Oh, nothing big, but I think he'll be happier if he thinks I sat around all day 'healing'."

"Alright," she agreed, "But I won't lie to him if he asks and if you actually hurt yourself there'll be no hiding it so be careful."

"Come on, Alice, I'm not that bad!"

"Well, no. But you do have something of a nose for trouble and you're not exactly in tip-top shape. So, just be careful, but have fun."

My eyes widened. "What? No spiel about how dangerous it is all alone with the werewolves?"

She laughed, a high, musical sound, and said, "No, that's Edward, remember. The tall, pale guy with yellow eyes and red hair?"

I laughed, too. "Of course. Now I remember."

After a moment Alice asked, "Do you want help down the stairs?"

"No!" I said, a little too sharply. "Sorry. I just need to be able to do this by myself. It's just a few cracked ribs that are already seventy-five percent better. If I'm going anywhere today, I'd better be able to at least get down the stairs by myself."

"It's okay. I understand perfectly. I'll just... find something to do."

I opened my mouth to say something but before I could speak, she said, "Don't worry, Bella. I can find something to do without Edward or Carlisle. Maybe I'll go shopping." She gave me one of her pixie-like smiles and then leapt out the window.

As much as she did that, I'd have thought that I would have gotten used to it by now but I still tensed when ever she did. Sometimes, I thought she did it just to unnerve me. It didn't seem like the most practical way out of my room, but then again, I wasn't a vampire.

I shuddered and, placing a firm hand on the stair rail, I made my way slowly down the stairs.

The drive to Jacob's house was longer than it usually was because it was hard to manipulate the controls with only one working arm, but I did get there. No one was home when I knocked on the door, but I had pretty much expected that. Jake hadn't been home the last few times I'd been here either.

I stopped by the beach but I didn't see them there either. They had been there almost every time before that I was looking for them – and thanks to Jasper, I finally realized why – but they weren't there now. It was pure coincidence that I spotted the flash of silver through the trees on the side of the road. On a whim, I wheeled around and followed it.

I was surprised that it stayed so close to the road since we weren't supposed to have wolves and doubtless they would want to attract as little attention as possible, but I was glad. I wouldn't be able to find Jacob if the wolf had stayed in the heart of the forest. As it was, there were a few times when I was sure that I'd lost him, but he kept reappearing at the corner of my eye.

I followed until the pavement turned to gravel road, and then the gravel turned into mud and eventually the trail ended in thick forest. I looked around but I didn't see anything. Then I stepped out of the car but there was nothing but the wind in the trees and the soft bird song through the forest. Hesitantly I asked the air, "Is any one there?"

There was a rustle in the trees a few metres away. No one answered.

I was beginning to wonder if perhaps this had not been the best idea but before I could climb into my truck, I heard a branch snap beneath someone's foot.

I spun, my breathing quick and my heart pounding in my ears.

"Geez, Bella. Calm down," said Jacob with a wide smile – the smile that I hadn't seen on his face since before he became a werewolf.

"Jake, I swear, if you scare me like that again, I will freaking kill you!" I told him, doubling over and trying to get my wind back. "Why didn't you answer me?"

"Relax! You hardly gave us time to change." Only when he said that did I notice the five Quileutes boys spread around the trail, Quil among them, wearing jeans and little else.

"So this is The Pack," I said, tucking my cold hands into the pockets of my jeans.

"Yeah. Speaking of which... How did you find us?"

I glanced around the group, trying to pick out the wolf that I had followed but I couldn't guess. "I followed someone – a gray wolf."

As one, the eyes of the group turned to the shortest – who was still a full four inches taller than I.

"Quil!"

"Quil, you idiot!"

"What'd I do?"

"He's a newbie! Give him some slack!"

"I was able to get to the meetings without being spotted even in my first week."

"Seriously, Quil, were you running beside the highway?"

"Am I not supposed to do that?"

"Hey, Sam, are you sure this kid's a wolf and not a cow or something?"

I listened to their banter, a smile slowly spreading across my face. I couldn't help it. Eventually, I said, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Naw," Embry assured me, "It's just meetings."

"We don't really need to get together but it's just more natural to meet in person than it is to..." Quil trailed off, hunching over slightly as all the eyes of the pack turned back to glare at him.

Too curious for my own good, as always, I asked, "What did he mean?"

Sam sighed. "We didn't just decide to declare ourselves pack because we have the same differences. The bond is much deeper than that. Though there is still very much to learn about pack magic, we are able to communicate with each other in wolf form even more effectively than we can as humans."

"So... you can read each other's minds?" I asked.

"Not exactly," said Jared. "At least, I wouldn't put it that way. It's more like there is just one mind with six different voices. It usually only works when we go wolf, but even in man-form, you can feel strong emotion."

"That's so cool," I murmured. "The only pseudo-telepath I've met before was Edward."

"What?" asked Jacob sharply and I realized that no one had told the wolves about the vampires' special powers.

"Edward can read minds. He can only listen, though; he can't project like you guys can."

"That might have been a good thing to tell us yesterday," said Jared.

"I didn't think of it! And it's not like you told us about your mind reading thingy."

"Are there any other vampires with superpowers that you think we should know about?" Sam asked.

"Just the Cullens. Jasper can control emotions and Alice can see the future."

"So how come they were so surprised that you were alive?"

"Alice can't see the wolves for some reason. I don't know why since she can see everything else and Edward seems able to read your minds -"

"I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life!" Paul objected. "That whole 'destiny' crap is bull and you expect me to believe that some leech is gonna tell me what's gonna happen?"

I flinched back against my truck. Paul scared my. He was even bigger than Emmett and he had a lot more animosity towards me. Though I was fairly sure he wouldn't, I knew he could easily kill me and that was not good for my peace of mind. "Her visions change," I explained nervously. "She only sees what a person is going to do as long as they intend to do it."

Paul shook his head and shoved his hands firmly into the pockets of his jeans.

"Does this Victoria have any powers?" Sam asked. Always business.

"Not that I know of," I said. "But if she really does have an army of vampires, there's a possibility that at least one will be gifted."

"Gifted how?" asked Embry. Quil was remaining meekly silent.

"I don't know. The Cullens' aren't really dangerous but he mentioned that a friend of theirs down in Alaska has some kind of powerful attack. Really it could be anything."

"Great," said Sam. "We can't really prepare for that."

"Maybe their powers won't work on you – I mean Alice's don't."

"We can't count on it. You said yourself that your other vampire's powers worked."

"But they'll be newborns," I said, trying to convince myself as much as the others. I need to believe that we had a chance. "Maybe they won't be able to use their powers right away."

"Even so, it's too much of a risk. We have to expect the worst."

I pursed my lips. The situation was seeming more and more hopeless by the second. Even our thirteen fighters would be over matched by the newborns by the time it came to the confrontation. Our only hope would be to fight better than they did.

On top of everything else, I was unsure of where I fit in all of this. I wasn't a wolf, I wasn't a vampire, and a human really had no place in all this nonsense, but I was stuck here.

"She shouldn't be here," Paul said suddenly, echoing my thoughts. "This is pack business."

"It's her business,too," Jake replied firmly, with a touch of something else. At first I thought it to be anger but after a moment I realized that Jake was feeling territorial. I wasn't sure whether to be flattered or terrified.

"We aren't supposed to involve the humans," Paul, growled, taking a step in towards Jacob.

I was scared, sure that this would turn into a fight, but Jacob just held his eyes, staring him down. I don't know how he did it, since Paul was taller than he was and twice as broad, but there wasn't a trace of fear in Jacob's expression and after a moment, Paul looked away, clearly backing down.

"We're pretty much done here, anyway," Sam said, stepping between them.

"That was quick," I muttered.

Given the werewolves' hearing I was fairly sure that all of them heard me but only Jacob responded. "Like I said, as wolves we're a hive mind so, even though we are rarely all wolf at once since we work in shifts, there is not a lot of information that needs to be exchanged."

"So what's going to happen now?" I asked.

"Probably we'll send out another shift, unless Sam tells us to do something different. Hey, Sam, what's the plan?"

He frowned and then said. "Paul, Jared, Quil, spread out and run the circuit. Embry, change to wolf and meat me at Emily's – I need someone there to tell me the instant we find something."

"And me?" Jake asked?

After a moment Sam answered, "Take Bella to Emily's. She looks like she needs something to eat."

Looking back awkwardly at me, the wolves disappeared into the forest once more.

"What's their problem?" I asked, insulted and confused by the odd glances thrown my way as they left.

Jacob chuckled. "We're shape shifters, so as you can expect, nudity is just something we have to deal with. Especially since we're all guys, we don't worry to much about clothes. You being here is forcing them to a higher level of modesty."

"Oh," I said, not sure what to make of that.

"We should probably get going," Jake pointed out after a moment. "We don't want to keep Sam and everyone waiting."

I frowned as I climbed into the truck. "I knew you guys were fast but I didn't expect you to be faster than a car. What kind of speeds can you get up to?"

Jake laughed again. "We're not actually that fast unless we're really pushing it. On the other hand, wolves can make their own way through the forests whereas the cars have to stick to the road. Turn here."

Relieved to have Jacob back, I talked with him for the whole drive. Unfortunately, it was much shorter than I would have liked. Of course, anything would have seemed to short after the weeks that I had spent away from him.

After a few minutes of driving, I pulled up in front of a sweet little house with a small but very well tended garden in the front of it. The base of the house was stone with earth red walls and windows on either side of the door. It was a two story house with a quaint balcony with only enough space four two or three people to sit comfortably.

All in all it was a small house but even from the outside I could tell that it was very well maintained. The garden that wrapped around the side of the house was beautifully laid out and the plants were all healthy without a weed in the area. The doors and windows of the house were all bright and clean and in the window to the right of the entrance, I could see a stained glass hanging of a howling wolf.

I smiled as I approached the door, enjoying the homey feel of the house. The feeling was continued on the inside. The first thing I noticed upon entering was the mouthwatering smell of freshly baked bread. I couldn't tell where the smell was coming from for it seemed to fill the entire house.

To the left of the hallway for shoes and coats, there was a living room containing two armchairs, a sofa, a wooden coffee table, and a glowing brick fair place. Through the living room there were two doors. One opened into a narrow staircase that led to the upstairs rooms. The other was a wide doorway through which was a kitchen where a small dark woman was hurrying about, mixing, and kneading, and scrubbing.

She was plump and womanly with iron gray hairs beginning to show through the Quileute black. Her hair, which was still quite long despite the gray, was pulled back into a neat bun behind her head. She wore a flour-covered apron atop a simple shirt and pants but her feet were bare.

I assumed that this was Emily.

Sam was also in the kitchen, working beside her to keep the counters clean of dishes and scrubbing when things needed to be cleaned.

At first I thought that he hadn;t noticed Jacob and I enter but then, kissing emily on the cheek, he said, "This is Bella, love, Jacob's friend."

She turned to me and gave me a warm brought smile. It was clear to me that she was one of those rare people who felt the urge to make everyone feel happy and welcome. I had to admit she was very good at it.

I smiled in return, but froze midway as a finally saw her full face.

She was very beautiful. Her eyes were dark and warm beneath elegantly arched brows. Her skin was a rich caramel, as yet untouched by age. Her lips were full and dark, and stretched into a perfectly shaped smile.

But this was not what had caught my attention. Three ragged scars stretched across the right side of her face, twisting it into a mockery of the beauty on the left side. The puckered scars pulled at the corner of her eye and the corner of her mouth, giving her smile a lopsided look. I shuddered at the thought of the wounds fresh and bleeding and what might have caused them.

Emily's smile took on a sad edge and I was sure she knew what I was looking at. It was almost certainly the first thing anyone noticed upon meeting her. "It's very nice to meet you, Bella," she said, not letting it get in the way of hospitality. "I hope you like cinnamon buns. Sam said you would be hungry and I know the boys usually like them."

"Sure," I replied. "Cinnamon buns are great."

"Perfect," she told me, still smiling. "I expect they'll be out in a few minutes." she turned back to the counter and began her work once more.

I almost jumped as Embry walked into the room. Intellectually I knew it was nothing out of the ordinary – or in any case, it was no less ordinary than the wolves in general or the vampires – but I wasn't accustomed to oversized wolves simply walking into the kitchen. He seemed to notice my reaction and as if to prove how utterly harmless he was, he stuck his tongue out and panted, just as a normal dog would do, before walking up to me and jumping up to put his forepaws on the table near my seat.

"Embry Alan Call," Emily said without turning around, "get your paws off the table."

he came pack down onto all four paws and then walked closer to me and placed his large, canine head in my lap. Hesitantly I began petting him and scratching him behind the ears, just as I would for a normal dog.

Beside me, Jacob growled and Embry jumped back, hunching.

"Relax, Jake," I said, surprised and confused by his reaction. I was more surprised when he did. Embry didn't come back, though. Instead he wondered back into the living room and curled up in front of the fire place. "Look, you scared him away."

Jacob shrugged and looked away.

I decided I should change the subject. I lowered my voice until it was hardly more than a whisper. "What happened to Emily?"

"You mean the..." Jacob dragged three fingers across the right side of his face, mimicking the pattern of Emily's scars.

I nodded.

"See how close together they are?" he asked. "That's from wolf claws."

I frowned. "Whose?"

He looked pointedly at Sam.

"But, why?"

Jacob shrugged, "When he first changed, he was the only wolf. There was no one to help him learn control. Even when you do have help it can be pretty da... darn hard. I don't know much about it but I guess he just... lost control."

"But he looks like he really loves her. How could he hurt her?"

"I almost hurt you," Jake muttered,

I rolled my eyes. "That's not what I mean."

We were silent for a long moment and then I asked, "How old is Emily?"

"I'm not sure. Somewhere in her mid thirties I think. Why?"

"She looks a lot older than Sam."

"She is."

My forehead wrinkled. "It's just odd. Most people tend to stick to partners that are within their age group."

Jake chuckled. "It's not like he had much of a choice."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's another wolf thing. No one is one hundred percent sure why it happens, aside from finding someone who could carry on the wolf gene, but occasionally a wolf will... imprint on a person. It's almost like love at first sight but infinitely more powerful and it isn't something that really diminishes over time."

"And Sam... imprinted on Emily."

"Yeah. They're getting married in a few months."

A timer went off and Emily opened the oven and pulled out a tray with six large cinnamon buns on it. She poured icing over them and then transferred them to a plate and brought them to the table. "Dig in," she told us.

I was barely halfway through my first bun and Jacob was reaching for his third when Embry ran back into the room, barking and howling. In an instant, Jake jumped to his feet and phased.

It was not the way I had expected it would be, with the human bones and muscles slowly shifting and stretching to a wolves body. Instead, it was like Jake had collapsed in upon himself, changing from human to wolf in the space of a breath.

Sam was only a moment behind him, pausing to kiss Emily gently, before he, too, phased and followed his wolves out of the house.