It's 4am and Bella can't sleep. Every time she closes her eyes she sees pale skin, red eyes and amber hair. Flying for her throat. The only safe thing to do is to stay awake, keep the light on and pull the purple duvet cover up to her chin. She's been up and down all night: to the kitchen to make toast and hot milk with honey; to the bathroom to sit, head in hands and feel sick; to watch bad re-runs on TV until her eyelids start to droop. But every time she's allowed herself to relax and sleep to beckon its little finger, she's jerked upright imagining that Victoria is coming for her.

A tree branch scrapes against her window. Wind howls and shakes snow from the grey marbled sky. The plumbing gurgles mysteriously. Bella contemplates waking Charlie. Anything except for being alone right now. Then again, what would she say? Hey, Dad. You know the Cullens? They're vampires, and because I've been hanging out with Edward Cullen and Jake (who is a wolf, by the way) I've made some other bad vampires interested enough in me to want to kill me. Finding it a bit hard to sleep right now.

Bella turns for the hundredth time, face down on the pillow, every muscle in her body tense.

The long night does give her time to think, though:

Why am I, of all people, drawn into these strange and dangerous worlds?

What can I possibly do to save a vampire?

Am I not normal?

Does Jake still love me?

And as the night goes on and the world turns in its sleep, Bella tries to piece things together. She thinks about who she is, what she has to offer and most of all what she needs. The conclusions she finds are both humbling and hopeful.

Then she hears her window slide open.

She doesn't move.

There is someone in her room.

Bella is immobile, while her mind races ahead to the conclusion.

She's here. I'm going to die. Oh God, what if she doesn't settle for me? What if she gets Charlie too?

A warm hand touches her back.

"Bella? Are you awake?"

She gasps and flings herself over, reaches up and holds onto the figure leaning over her bed. She's shaking so hard she can barely speak his name.

"Jake."

"Honey. Hey..."

His voice is so instantly soothing that there's no room for thought, she just pulls him down onto the bed with her, seeks his mouth in the dark. Jacob kisses her once, hesitantly, then sighs the sigh of reprieve.

"Just stay. Whatever you came to say, leave it till morning. I want you here with me." Bella can't even see his face, it's so dark, but she would know that body anywhere. She feels him nod, can picture the stupid expression on his face, then she's insistently kissing him, grasping the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling his firm body down onto hers.

He sighs, wraps her legs around him, and no further words are needed. He is home. For a moment each of them feels nothing but the perfection of togetherness. Her lightness like a ballerina partners his strength – he holds her easily and gently; two butterflies dancing in summer air. His heat warms her cold, his breath merges with her own. They can hear each other heartbeats hammering through their rib cages.

Jacob flips over so that he's on his back and she's lying on top of him. Wearing flannel pyjamas. How Bella. Only she could make flannel sexy. And it is, because she has bare skin at her neck which demands to be kissed, and an elasticated waistband to slip his hand under and caress. Not once does she ask him to stop or slow down, and part of his conscious human brain is screaming Moron, she'll eat you alive in the morning if you don't speak to her now and yet he's gone beyond reasoning, beyond rational thought.

Nothing has ever felt so right as him and Bella, in this moment.

For her part, Bella is in absolute accord, as clothes are shimmied out of and thrown and discarded on her bedroom floor. She finds herself tracing her fingers from the throbbing muscle at the side of Jacob's neck to a small hollow on his shoulder, then down the hard inclines of his chest and onto his stomach (which makes him groan) then making small circles lower and lower down his side. She finds a small place on his hipbone that is soft and kissable, and from then on she is utterly lost.

Somehow it's all too easy for them to join together, moving gently at first. Jacob worries that it's too much – he's too much – for her. She's so little. After the initial pressure and gasp though, Bella finds her way, becomes more insistent, lapping her body against his and feeling a hundred strange new sensations. So this is what it is like. None of the books she has read, films she has seen, or conversations she has had could ever have prepared Bella for this moment. As Jacob moves inside her, she feels that nothing in the world could ever be better than this feeling, with the person she loves.

Bella finds herself breathing quietly, drifting into a place of sleep, lying on Jacob's chest as he strokes her back. He kisses her naked shoulder, watches as the winter sun starts to climb slowly from the dark of night into the morning. Jacob hears Charlie stir, but still he doesn't move, as if cocooned from all outside eyes. He wills Charlie to walk past Bella's bedroom and leave them undisturbed, and so he does. Jacob waits until he hears the cruiser pull out from the front of the house and then whispers in Bella's ear.

"Baby…wake up."

Bella opens one sleepy eye and smiles at him. "No. I'm having a really good dream. About a wolf, who climbed through my bedroom window and ravished me."

"Makes you sounds like Little Red Riding Hood." Jacob snorts. "Just remember what happened to the wolf in that story."

Bella opens her eyes fully, sits bolt upright. "Charlie! Is he-"

"Gone to work, yes." Jacob turns on his side and lets her sink back down on the bed. It's really time they talked.

"Well, that was unexpected," Bella peers at him from under her lashes. She's coloring a little on the cheeks. Bit late for that.

"Which part?" Jacob teases.

"How did you get in my window? God, I was so scared. I thought it was-"

"No – we wouldn't let that happen. We've been watching the house for days now and there's been no sign of her."

Bella is looking into space now, seeing things there that Jacob cannot. Jacob takes her chin in his hand, turns her face gently to meet his eyes.

"Bells, I wouldn't let her touch you. You know that."

"I know…Jake." Bella pauses, as if unsure of herself. Listen…I know about, the imprint."

"Yes. I know you do."

Bella sits up, freeing her top half from bedcovers that are never going to cover two people, let alone one of them his size. He tries not to look at her breasts. Fails miserably. Focus, idiot.

"Hold on, how can you know that?"

"I was there in the cemetery when you met with Edward. I was guarding you. I'm sorry I should have let you know I was there."

"Yes, you should!"

"You've no idea, Bella…" Jake's voice softens. "How I felt when I saw you crying. Sam had alpha ordered me not to interfere unless you were in danger. But I wanted to be there. To be the one who told you about the imprint. Not him." Jacob's voice turns to bitterness.

"It doesn't matter," Bella says softly, her hand moving to his chest, placing it over his human heart.

"What?"

"I've had time to think about it, not having slept for most of the night. The imprint. It doesn't matter. Can I tell whether we would have loved each other without it? I can. Because you are right for me, Jacob Black. In every single way that matters. Perhaps whatever this imprint is, it knew that we were right for each other even more than we did. So there."

"So there?" Jacob is speechless.

"I am yours, if you'll have me." Bella smiles coyly.

"I think, Bells. I just did."

Then Jacob folds her in his arms again and in the dawn light gleaming from the reflections of snow from outside he begins to explore her body like a newfound territory: every curve is a landscape, his hands mapping each crevice that needs to be kissed, and claimed.

"It's so nice to see you in the daylight" he admits. "Last night was pretty…intense." He looks carefully at Bella, trying to gauge her reaction.

Bella takes him by the ears and looks into his dark eyes. "Last night was the best night of my whole life, Jacob Black."

Then she sits up and smiles widely.

"And now…we make pancakes!"

...

After a breakfast of bacon rolls, scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes, Jacob and Bella crash on the couch. Bella licks the maple syrup from her fingers and sighs contentedly.

"I have a Biology test today at school, but you know what? For the first time in my life I really couldn't care less."

"Careful. You don't want your school record to end up as screwed up as mine."

Bella rolls her eyes. "That's different, wolf boy." Jacob lays his head on her lap and she runs her fingers rhythmically through his black hair. He hums contentedly.

"The real world seems even further away than normal." Bella comments.

Jacob snorts. "The real world, huh, Bells? The one where you are the she-warrior of the vampires?" His voice turns a little bitter and he shakes his head. "Those idiot Cullens. Thinking they can use you like that. You were right to tell him where to go."

"I've been thinking about that actually."

"Oh?"

Bella smells determined, Jacob realizes.

"I don't think Edward is exactly right, but there might be something to what Alice has seen in the future."

"Bella, come on…"

"No, I mean it. Think about it, just for a minute, okay? Alice said that there was a danger the wolves and vampires would fight each other. She also said that I would be the one to protect the Cullens from being destroyed. What if that is one and the same thing?"

Jacob is frowning. "Alright, enlighten me."

"Maybe I'm meant to stop you guys fighting. Maybe I'm not a protector, exactly, but more of a peacemaker. I was awake half the night thinking of this…"

"Oh yeah, which half?" Jacob teases, running a finger down her side until she blushes.

"I'm serious! Jake, do you think that it's possible? That I'm meant to be a go-between?"

"The only thing you are meant to be is a beautiful teenage girl. With a wolf boyfriend," he adds cheekily. Then seeing her expression he grimaces. "You are not going to let this go are you?"

"Probably not."

"Then I'd better do what I can to distract you in the meantime…"

And the look in Jacob Black's eyes is pure hunger.