Disclaimer: Don't own Twilight. Ms Meyer would probably hate me for what I've done with her toys. Ah well.

A/N: Apologies for the delay. I've been sitting on this for a while, wondering if it was ready for posting. It wasn't until I got a few messages, asking me where the next chapter was that I decided I should just post it. :)

Thanks to all who have reviewed, and I hope everyone enjoys this one.

Jake made tea while Leah made polite inquiries into Diana's flight. The woman made sure to point out that her capture was the result of exhaustion and not any kind of superiority on Jake's part. Leah stifled her natural responses, and allowed the elder woman her protests. Marianne and Daniel took seats on either side of their mother, wearing indulgent expressions. Rachel, Emily and Kim had wandered off- Rachel saying something about food that Jake had only half-heard. The Pack were patrolling, seeking out any other Crow people that Diana hoped to hide from him.

"We have a lot of questions, but first I need to know where the half-breeds are." Jake announced, depositing the tea on the table with no ceremony. Leah had set out mugs and milk and neither wolf was prepared to pour. Diana met his gaze steadily.

"I'll make a few calls in a moment and find out. I believe we have several days, however, before they become a threat to us here. Of course, that doesn't save the people they are going to kill between now and then." There seemed to be an edge of disdain in her voice that Jake didn't like the sound of. But he didn't bother correcting her- after all, he'd hit her with a rock and locked her in a box. He could take a few snide remarks.

"Where were they, last time you heard?" She took a moment, pouring her tea in what was obviously an attempt to gain control back over the situation. Jake held back his growl. Leah held back a giggle.

"As of yesterday evening, they were approaching California. I estimate we have a few days." She took a sip and even smiled patronizingly.

"And you think they're coming here? After us or the Cullens?" After Nessie, more like.

"I can only guess that they are coming here to visit the Cullen child. Why? Does it make a difference?" Yes. It really did.

"Well, for one, if they're coming after the Quileute people and they're currently in California, then yeah- it makes a difference. There's a Quileute reservation in Northern California and, as far as I am aware, they know S.F.A about vamps." Diana had the grace to blush. "But you're right. It's unlikely they're after us. They're either coming to visit or coming to take Ness." Jake met Leah's eyes. "The Cullen's would have told us if they were expecting visitors." And by expecting, Jake meant if Alice had seen them coming. That was what was really worrying- Alice should have been able to see these guys, right? Either she had seen something and the Cullen's hadn't said anything or she hadn't, and the Cullens knew nothing. He couldn't help but wonder what the half-breeds could be using as a way to dodge Alice's visions. He knew that Nahuel had spent weeks with Alice and Jasper- did he know her well enough to know how her power worked? He hoped not. Maybe she just hadn't been looking. It was a sad day when his best hope was that Alice was being inattentive. Having said that… he knew she was upset over the pain she'd caused when she'd announced he was dead. Maybe she doubted herself, now?

"You are correct. The Quileute people in California do not appear to share your gifts. We assume-" Leah cut her off.

"We don't care why. We don't need to know why. We have bigger things to worry about. I'll put the call out- double up patrols until they get here. We should spread out, widen the patrols; extend into Forks, at least." She glanced sideways at Jake. "Are we still doing that thing this evening, or should we bring it forward?" Jake blinked, once, before realizing what she meant.

"We shouldn't change it. We have plenty to keep us busy between now and then. Can you get Sue, and Old Quil? They should be here for this." He paused. "Actually- we should go to your place. I'll get Rachel and meet you there?" Leah nodded, standing up.

"Anything else, boss?" There was a note of teasing in her voice that only Jake would recognize.

"Not right now, wench." She pushed past him, grinning, and out the back door. Several minutes later, they heard her bark from the woods. Jake glared at Daniel when the Crow grinned and the smaller man wilted a little.

"We need to move to Lee's place- the rest of the council will meet us there." Diana narrowed her eyes, gazing at him intently.

"Is this because you don't want your sister to discover the truth of the legends? Because you don't trust her?" Jacob's glare snapped to her, then, pinning her in place with it's fierceness. She refused to wilt as her son had done, but she did move backward slightly.

"I trust Becca. Of course I trust Becca. But she has a life that has nothing to do with any of this, and I will do whatever it takes to let her keep that." There was a definite threat in his words but to his surprise Diana grinned, and stood up.

"As it should be. Let's get going. I've wanted to meet Sue Clearwater for two decades, now."

A shiver, just a tiny one, crept down Jake's spine at the idea of those particular women meeting and, God forbid, being friends.

Unfortunately for Jake, he was unerringly correct. Sue and Diana were, within ten minutes of meeting, chatting with friendly ease. Charlie wasn't there- thankfully- and Daniel and Marianne removed themselves to the porch where they were instructed to watch for the wolves. Jake was seated in the living room with his sister, watching as the two elder women bonded over recipes and shifter children- Rachel, it seemed, was at least as amused by it all as he was, which was something. At least it proved he wasn't insane. Sort of.

"Leah'll be here in five minutes and then we can get started." He announced. Sue glanced at him in question, but he ignored her.

"You can be so accurate with your mate bond already? So soon?" Diana hmm'ed. "Impressive." Jake blinked; and then balked completely at the stare Sue Clearwater leveled at him.

"You have mate-bonded my daughter and didn't see fit to tell me?" Her voice was like ice and, beside him, Jake could feel Rachel shaking with silent laughter.

"Uh… yes?" Sue's faced turned an interesting shade of purple and Jake could sense and epic Clearwater bitching-out coming. "In my defense- she totally made the first move." That was a complete lie. He didn't care. The purple receded, just a bit. Sue swung her glare onto Diana.

"What does this mean? Is my daughter married to this child?" Jake couldn't even pretend to be offended- he was just relieved to have her attention off him. Diana spared him a glance and a grin.

"Something like that, I suppose, although it's much less formal and much more lasting." Her grin widened. "A mate-bond cannot be broken, after all." She noticed Jake pale (he'd known that, but hearing it out loud? Scary as fuck) and continued, her smile growing even larger. "They aren't all that common, really- mate-bonds are only for the 'Alpha pair' as you call it; the leaders of the pack. Everyone else has to make do with regular relationships."

"Really? Everyone else?" Rachel prodded. Diana nodded, oblivious, and Rachel shared a glance with Sue. What the hell was imprinting then? Something exclusive to the wolves at La Push alone?

"Don't feel left out, sweetie. The mate-bond exists for a reason- to protect the people. We need strong, united leadership in order to be effective. That means that the best pair to do that will be matched together. We don't know if they love each other because of the bond, or if they bond because they love each other." Diana made a face, "No-one wants to know, I think. It's more romantic that way. Your love is just as special, even if it's not pre-destined."

Rachel, unable to stop herself, burst into raucous laughter, gripping her brother's arm tightly in one hand- had he not been wolf, it might have even hurt.

"Jake, this chick can't help us. At all." She gasped the words out, and he would have worried if she didn't look so genuinely amused. He wasn't sure how much of the amusement was due to the use of the word chick though. His sister was odd, sometimes. "We may all be Native- but we are nothing like those Crows."

That was surprisingly not a helpful revelation. He'd known, of course, that they were different- Diana was aging, for one. That was a dead giveaway that there was something going on. And, despite the image she might be trying to present, Diana knew very, very little about what they were actually like. His father had, it seemed, made damned sure she never found out. He was beginning to understand why. She was kind of patronizing and her kids were annoying. All the same… she'd come to warn them. That counted for something, he knew. They were the same, sort of. They just had different reasons; different jobs to do. He'd leave it to Sue and Quil to figure out everything else after that- he didn't care. Not right then, anyway. Not when there was a coven of murderous half-vampires on their way to Forks.

His revelation of complete disinterest didn't stop Diana from looking shocked and glaring at Rachel as she laughed. Sue was shaking her head, upset at the commotion, and even Marianne and Daniel ducked back inside to see what was happening. Rachel had quietened- giggling to herself now, instead of outright guffaws. Jake held his hand on her shoulder, ready to push her out of the way if the Crow sitting opposite decided to lunge. What? It could happen. She'd been locked in a crate and laughed at- that would drive even the most sensible of people to do crazy shit.

"I don't understand what is so funny, young lady." Her tone was brim full of condescension, enough that even Sue paused in her tutting to glance sideways at the other woman.

"I'm sure there's a lot of shit you don't understand." Leah Clearwater, his love, his life: his saviour. She waltzed into the house, Old Quil following close behind her. "Hey Ma. Quil, this is Diana, Crow shifter- Diana, this is Quil. He's our longest-serving Council member." And then she flopped onto the floor beside Rachel, not even asking why the other woman's face was red and she was short of breath.

"Okay. Let's get this started, so we can get back to the fact that my only daughter has been mate-bonded and didn't tell me."

Leah paled. Considerably.

All in all, it was a very uncomfortable afternoon. The Crow people had little other news of the half-breeds, or little they chose to share, anyway; Sue was incensed at Leah and Jacob's news and Quil did his best to keep up, but he really wasn't sure what they were talking about half the time. Add to that Rachel's fits of giggles and the twins generally being really annoying, and Jake was in no mood to face the bloodsuckers when they finally finished.

He counted it as a victory when he stood up to leave; to meet Carlisle, that Diana didn't insist on attending with him. He made a note to keep an eye on the skies as he made his way over- and to have Paul do the same in La Push.

"I think we're done here, for now. I need to get home and head over to the Cullen's." He reached out a hand for Leah and dragged her into standing position. "Rachel, can you remind Paul that he'd better be keeping an eye out for crows?" He ignored the protests from the Crow leader. "Sorry Diana, you know how it goes- we can never be too careful."

He left La Push happily, with Leah running ahead of him, somewhere over to his left. The background chatter of the boys' talking on patrol faded as he concentrated solely on running, focusing completely on the ground in front of him. It was the only way he knew for sure to stop his thoughts leaking out- and it worked, mostly, unless they spoke to him directly. Leah, who had always had far better control of the thoughts she shared, filled them all in on what had happened. Paul, Jared, Sam and Quil all reacted the same way when Leah replayed Rachel's spazz-out: they laughed, too. The very idea that their imprints were anything other than destiny, or fate, or ordained by the spirits or whatever, was enough to entertain them for the afternoon. How else could it be explained? Biology? That theory worked up until no-one imprinted on Becca Black, or on Claire's newly born sister, or Claire's mother for that matter. Jake let their laughter wash over him, his eyes focused on the ground, intent on the pounding of his heartbeat in his ears. Imprinting wasn't something he wanted to think about- even though he'd apparently gone a step further with Leah already. But that just made his head hurt. He was only eighteen. Should he really be thinking about marriage?

Unfortunately for him, that thought slipped out and Leah heard it- growling at him in her mind and from a few metres ahead.

Too late now, Jake. You stepped up. Live with it. She didn't sound genuinely angry, and he felt a wave of affection for her- which she noted and unfortunately, so did everyone else. It seemed their nervousness around him had dispersed- they had no qualms about laughing at him, teasing and making jokes about how whipped he was, right up until he reached the treeline by the Cullen house. He ignored them all, focused on his goal, and left it to Leah to handle- something she did exceptionally well.

Listen to Paul. He snapped out, phasing to human before they could respond. Leah followed, seconds later. He didn't watch her dress- he had enough to think about without trying to clear his mind of her naked body. He pulled on his cut offs and shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the images that had invaded it with just the thought of her. It was very… distracting.

"You ready Lee?" His voice felt out of place; unnatural after running as wolf, even if only for a few minutes. That was something else that was new since Sam had stepped aside- speech was an effort, now, especially in those few minutes after phasing. Guarding his mind in wolf form was easier; threading through the others minds and picking out their thoughts was easier; his focus was greater, his concentration sharper. The Jacob he had been a week before would not have captured a crow in a crate, knowing it was a person. The Jacob of a week ago would not have spoken to the Elder of the Crow tribe as he had; or to the Cullen coven as he had done the last time he had been here with Leah.

The Jacob of a week ago- jeez, had it really been only a week? - would have left the planning to Carlisle and Sam about the half-vampires.

Leah broke him from his thoughts, walking to him and pushing her body close to him, pressing her nose into his neck and breathing deep.

"Come on. We have a job to do." She led him by the land, tugging him along when he stopped to scan the skies or breathe in the scents on the wind. She didn't say anything- she didn't have to. She already knew what he was thinking; what he was going through. Her own changes had been less extreme- she had calmed down; mellowed out, a little, with the loss of her anger toward Sam. She felt comfortable in her own skin for the first time in years. She dragged him onward, trusting that the boys would patrol against the Crows and that any sighting or smell of the half-breeds would be brought straight to them, regardless of the Cullens. She didn't bother knocking when she reached the front door- they would already know she was here.

To say she was surprised to find them all there would be an understatement. Carlisle and Esme were standing by the fireplace. Bella, Nessie and Alice were seated together on the massive white sofa. The three boys- Jasper, Edward and Emmett lined the rear wall of the living room- the glass wall, facing out onto the woods. Rosalie was perched by the piano. It was odd, seeing them all there. Seeing Jasper and Emmett placed so clearly on either side of Edward, and Rosalie and Alice placed between him and Bella- all designed, she supposed, to stop him if he decided to try something. Her responding grin was wolfish, and aimed directly at him.

Maybe that was one other change, she supposed. She was more wolf now, sometimes, as a human that she had been before, as a wolf. Edward, if he could, paled a little.

"Carlisle. I thought this was going to be a quiet meeting." There was no humour in Jake's voice. None at all.

The eldest Vampire conceded the point with a nod, but gestured to Alice.

"Alice told me that we all needed to be here. I trust her judgment." That comment wasn't for his benefit- it was for the tiny psychic's. He'd been right. She had doubted herself.

"Okay." His eyes swept the room, again, meeting each gaze before landing back on Carlisle. "If the mind-leech moves, I will kill him." Edward's eyes dropped to the floor, and a flash of pain crossed his face. Neither wolf could bring themselves to care, although Bella looked pained. Nessie, curled in her mother's arms, appeared alarmed but said nothing.

"The renegotiation goes like this- if any one of you ever harms another human, your lives are forfeit. The only exception is for if you are protecting Nessie, or another innocent human. That's it- no other excuses." Jacob pinned Jasper with his glare. "Do you understand, Jasper? I don't mean Forks. I don't mean in my lifetime. I mean, ever." It was a promise he could make, now, with the Crow nation tucked in his back pocket. Jasper, who must have felt hard done by in being singled out, simply nodded. "Nessie is the only half-vampire we will tolerate, unless others emerge that are vegetarian like her. Any Vampire we meet with red eyes will be destroyed." Carlisle nodded, slowly. "We will be expanding our patrols to Forks, and north as far as we need to. We won't interrupt your hunting." Jake shot Leah a glance and raised an eyebrow. She nodded, once, in agreement. "And in return, you only have to ask for our help if you need it. Anytime." Rosalie's eyes widened and Bella whimpered a little. They hadn't been expecting that. At all. Alice, however, grinned.

"Thank you, Jacob!" Her voice was like music, even to his ears. "I knew there was a reason I trusted you." He graced her with a small smile.

"Are we agreed?" One by one, they nodded. Carlisle, who had been taking notes, handed a copy of the terms to Jake. He didn't read them- just pushed them into his pocket.

"Excellent. Now, with that out of the way, we have news." Leah took a few steps and hopped up onto the lid of the piano, not far from Rosalie. Jacob stayed where he was, in the doorway, doing an excellent statue impression. "Your friend Nahuel is on his way here, probably for Nessie, and he's brought his coven with him- three half-breeds like him and his aunt. They're carving a bloody path across the country." She grinned again and licked her lips, allowing the news to sink in.

"It's likely that they will all be killed as soon as we catch their scent. The only question is… did you know they were coming?" Alice looked shocked- her face the picture of disbelief.

"I haven't seen anything! I would know if they were coming! I would. I would see that!" Leah raised an eyebrow as the tiny Vampire stuttered and spluttered to herself, before she closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate.

"How do you know they're coming?" Bella asked, her grip on her daughter tightening.

"We know. Isn't that enough?" The one thing that Diana had insisted on was that her presence- and the existence of her people at all- be kept from the Vampires. It was a fair trade, in Jake's mind. The Crow people had spent generations following the movements of vampires across the continent. Their advantage was in their invisibility. He wouldn't be the one to take that from them. "Edward, can you read my thoughts, now?" The leech shook his head- no.

"Your mind is like molasses, now. The thoughts are there, but they're hidden behind a wave of protection that I can't get through." Good. It was about time he had his mind to himself. Well, sort of.

On the couch, Alice gasped suddenly.

"I see them, now. They're… they're moving quickly but... I can't tell when they'll get here. Within a week, I think." She paused, taking an unnecessary breath. "He's using his knowledge of my gift to dodge me- concentrating only on the next few minutes; the next hour, all the time. They have no plan in mind, nothing concrete but…I think you were right. He's coming for Ness."

"Well, he can't have her. She's a child." Bella's disapproval was clear, even though she had quite liked Nahuel when she had met him last. Nessie, unusually, stayed quiet too.

"We can't kill him, can we? I mean… he's half human, too. He could be Nessie's only chance for-" Rosalie cut herself off, not willing to say the words aloud. Both Bella and Edward shot her nasty glares regardless. Leah laughed.

"Ness is a baby, Rosalie. And if her only option for love is gonna be a mass murderer who shows no sign of remorse, then perhaps she'll be better off as a spinster?" Nessie looked up, meeting Leah's eyes, and nodded once.

"I believe that Leah is correct. Having seen what it means to die and be dead, forever, I have no wish to have any kind of relationship with him. I am not like him, nor his sisters. They were created in pain and hatred and fear. I was not." Jacob allowed himself a moment of pride in her before he spoke.

"Besides that, you have agreed already- they're not vegetarian, so they will not be spared." Bella looked uneasy- a frown marring her perfect features.

"You had us agree to that before you mentioned that they're on their way, Jake. That's hardly fair! Everyone deserves a chance to change." She sounded disappointed in him. "When did you become so manipulative?"

He didn't answer her, sharing a glance that spoke volumes with Leah, instead. Bella, who had never liked being ignored, repeated herself loudly, standing up and dropping her daughter onto Alice's knee.

"We can't allow you to murder them, Jake, not without proof that they have been killing! You have to give them a chance to be different! To be like us!" A week ago, it would have stung to not be included in Bella's us.

"I am going to do what I have to do to protect my people, Bella. You can disagree with my methods, but the time when your whining or even your opinion would change my mind has passed. These creatures are murderers. They have destroyed the lives of families across the continent on their way to indoctrinate your daughter. They will find their deaths here, on the Olympic peninsula. And if you stand in my way, then so will you." She was visibly shaken.

"Jake- this isn't right! You know this isn't right! They can be different; they can change and be different. You have to at least give them that chance!" She was still so innocent; so naïve, even as a monster.

"No Bella. I don't." He met Carlisle's gaze once more. "Call me if you learn anything new. At least two of the boys will be in the woods surrounding the house at all times."

And he left. Leah watched him stalk off and she slid slowly off the piano. Bella was still standing, shell shocked, in the centre of the room. No-one else dared speak, and Emmett continued to hold Edward back. Bella wasn't talking to him, still, so she would not appreciate the comfort he wanted to offer.

"I hate to be the one to break it to you, Bella, but your coven? That's the exception, not the rule. I really thought you would have learned that by now?" With a cheerful wave to Carlisle and Esme, Leah left.

The Vampires watched her go in silence, all except Alice, who was sitting with her eyes scrunched up and a look of intense concentration on her face. Edward, watching what she was seeing, was also distracted.

"What are we going to do? We can't just let them be killed." Bella's voice was anguished; had she still been human, she would likely be in tears.

"Mother, Leah is correct. If these creatures are killing people, despite knowing that there is another way, then the Wolves at La Push have no choice but to extinguish them."

Bella made a noise, halfway between a sigh and a sob.

"But they're like you, Renesmee. They're the only other people like you in the world, maybe." The little girl stared up at her mother from her aunt's lap.

"That doesn't mean they should be allowed to live. Jacob has allowed me to live, despite the terrible thing I did to him. He has allowed father to live, despite knowing about it all this time. He has allowed us to stay here and cling to the life that vibrates around him, when he has every right to demand we leave." The child looked older, far older, than her years.

"But we should give them a chance, at least. They could be good- could become good, like Jasper did. Like all of us." Silence followed her words- wasn't she right? They had all been given a chance to be good. Except for Bella, they all had human blood on their hands- they'd all killed humans. Carlisle, for all his goodness, had sentenced four of them to eternal life as monsters.

"I don't know what it is you see when you look at Jacob anymore, Bella, but he's not the same boy you toyed with for years. He's not the same boy your daughter manipulated. He walked in here, to a coven of eight of his mortal enemies and promised to kill us all if we disobeyed his terms." Rosalie stood up, running one hand through her hair and glancing around at her family. "The choice to give them a chance isn't ours to make. It's his, and he has already made it."

"That's not true Rosalie- he's my best friend; I know him. Jacob won't do this- he won't. He won't just sentence them to death without giving them a chance to be better." She sounded confident, her voice clear and strong. Rosalie didn't respond as she'd hoped though- the blonde laughed, instead, loudly.

"Clearly, Bells, you're delusional. Jacob Black is not your best friend. You haven't spoken to him properly since the day you died, and you haven't even noticed. Think about it- when was the last time you had a proper conversation with him?" Bella couldn't answer; she couldn't remember. Her heart ached. Rosalie pressed on, regardless on the hurt that flashed across her sister-in-law's face. "I think it's time we all accepted that we're not the top of the food chain around here anymore- we're here at their mercy." She paused, biting her lower lip and taking an unnecessary breath. "And that's exactly the way it should be." Emmett, Carlisle and Esme murmured their agreement. Bella shot them all glares, and Jasper raised an eyebrow.

"You're telling me you think that the wolves are better than us?" Bella scoffed. "Pull the other one Rosalie- you hate them. You've always hated them. You call them dogs and mock them to their faces!" Rosalie laughed again, but it was bitter and sad.

"You don't get it Bella. Give it fifty years and maybe you'll understand then- we're damned. We don't change. We're a parasite on humanity. Of course they're better than us- they're designed to stop us; to kill the parasites. They're the defenders that the earth itself has given to the world to protect her. And somehow, they've seen past everything that we are, and allowed us to live even after we broke their treaty." She sounded almost as if she didn't believe it, somehow. "I won't speak for the rest of you, but I would never have done that, so yeah, I think they're better than us. More important than us."

"But… it's Jacob. He's… Jacob. He's funny and easy and friendly but-" She cut herself off, almost appalled by what she'd been about to say.

"But what, Bella? But he's never going to leave the reservation? He's not going to graduate at the top of his class? Is he not smart enough for you? Rich enough?" If she'd been Jake's friend, like she'd claimed, she wouldn't have been surprised that Emmett jumped in to defend him, too. She'd have known that, of all of the Cullen vampires, Emmett was the closest one to what Jacob would call friend. "Rose is right. We're not the ones in control here, not anymore. And that's the way it should be. We're not top dog anymore." His words got a laugh from Rosalie and a grin from Jasper- his aim, in part.

Edward, who had been listening intently, moved forward to take Nessie from Alice's arms as the psychic's grip loosened. She shook her head, violently, and trembled a little.

"What's wrong? What's happening to her?" Jasper, for once, sounded panicked.

"She's fine- she's just… she found Nahuel, by concentrating on the people that he has hurt most recently. The dogs were right- they're carving a path across the continent, and they plan on lying to us about it when they get here. Nahuel knows how Alice's gift works, so he has been focusing on the torture he has planned for Jacob. Torture and death- to get Jacob out of Nessie's life. He doesn't know yet that the imprint was false." The vampire paused, clutching his daughter closer to his chest. "He decided that he needed to remove him before Nessie got too old; too attached." Nessie's eyes filled with tears at the idea- it had hurt enough to lose her connection to Jacob, she didn't want to lose him again. "There's more but they keep changing their plans; changing their route, deliberately to confuse Alice's vision."

He fell silent as Alice's eyes opened. If she could have, she would be crying.

"We can't let Nahuel get to Nessie. We can't. Something is different- he's changed. Last year… last year he was normal; he was okay. But he's not okay anymore. He's like a black hole of rage and hatred and he's going to kill anything that gets between him and Ness." She swallowed hard, her face a mask of pain. "I never want to see into him again. Please don't make me." Jasper swept her up in his arms, cradling her to his chest and whispering comforting words in her ear.

Her revelations effectively squashed Bella's objections, and the coven's decision was made- they'd be standing with the wolves against their former ally, and doing what they could to protect their youngest.

It would have been nice, in hindsight, if one of them had thought to warn Jacob about just how much Nahuel wanted to see him hurt.

A/N: Questions? Comments? The Cullens are a little OOC, I think- any thoughts on that would be welcomed. :)