Disclaimer: I do not own any characters you recognize, the ones you don't are mine.

Chapter 14:

Heartaches and Remembrance

My stomach was in knots when Torrance shut the door behind her, and I walked over to the bed with my bag. I felt a sense of relief after what her father had said, and the fact that he might have known what was going on with Ayden, but for the first time I was nervous to be around Edward. I was both scared and ashamed at the secret feelings I was having, knowing that Jacob was back at home fighting for my life. Edward kept his place at the door, and his expression wasn't comforting. I sat down on the bed and put my head in my hands.

"Please tell me what you're thinking, it kills me that I can't see it," He said.

"I don't know; there's a lot going on right now. I'm thankful to Torrance's father, but so far he hasn't said anything, I just wish I knew what was happening already."

"Well that's why you brought me," he said and my head shot up to see him give me a little smirk. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"How bad is it?"

"It's bad, he believes that Ayden has imprinted on you." He choked out like the words themselves were going to make him throw up.

"That can't be right, Jacob says that imprinting is a good thing, how they find their soul mates. How does that explain his violence and hatred for me?" I said as I shook my head, I came here for answers, but it seemed that they knew as little as we did.

"Of course Jacob would say that," He said sitting down on the couch.

"Hey!" I said quickly, I was in no mood for him to bash my boyfriend.

"Sorry," he proclaimed sarcastically, "Look, I have feeling Jacob didn't really tell you everything about imprinting. It's tricky and animalistic, from what I got from Torrance's dad Ayden did imprint on you but doesn't know how to handle it. Jacob had an example with Sam and Emily on how to deal with the feelings, but Ayden's pack has never experienced this aspect of wolf life because they always are fighting and protecting there lands. It also didn't help that you were already imprinted on by someone else, and you smell like vampires to him. He's confused, he feels very passionate towards you, but all those distractions are making it passionate hatred instead of love."

"So why would someone like that imprint on me to begin with, how could I be his soul mate? I'm everything he hates rolled up in one person." My head was spinning and I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"I don't think anyone really knows how or why this happens, it's instinct and body chemistry, the problem is that imprinting doesn't go away. When someone imprints on you, you feel the same way they do; that you found the one person you're supposed to be with for the rest of your life. You obviously don't feel like that with Ayden, so maybe that's a factor in his aggression. He's also competing with Jacob, and what he did to you in the woods was him trying to claim you over Jacob, it's just like what you see on national geographic with any animal." He got up off of the couch and came over to the bed, I hadn't realized it at the time but when I looked over to the vanity to my right the person who looked back at me was stark white. He sat down at the edge and faced me, "Are you ok?"

"I don't think so," I was just so overwhelmed, if Ayden's imprinting could turn so wrong, what was stopping Jacob from becoming Ayden?

"What do you need, tell me how I can make this better for you," His eyes seemed worried but his voice was soothing. His hand reached out and touched my cheek, though his body was frigidly cold, his touch sent a wave of warmth through my entire body. I looked up at him and his gaze pierced through me, and I started to get the familiar feeling again. I couldn't speak, couldn't say no; his face was just inches from mine and coming closer. I could feel the philia kicking in because my will power to was fading fast.

His lips touched mine, gentle but unwavering and I felt his body move closer to me. The hand that was on my face moved down my neck and rested in the back; his intensity was pulling me in, but my heart was breaking every moment our lips stayed in contact. As our lips moved in unison I felt numbness come back to me and I closed my eyes and let myself go to that frightening place, in seconds I was surrounded by chipping paint and the hanging light bulb that would allow me to see my attacker. My body went cold and motionless, this was the only way I could get myself to deny Edward, I wasn't strong enough, but my fear was.

He felt the changes in my body and pulled away but kept his eyes on me. I felt ashamed of myself for having to go to that place to stop myself, but I just couldn't do that to Jacob and I simply didn't have the will power to say no. His face looked confused and I realized he didn't know where I just went in my head. His pulling away left a hole in my stomach and I started to feel angry with him, my head was glad it was over, but my body yearned for his touch.

"What's wrong Bella," Edward said not moving any further away from him.

"Don't ever do that to me again," I said through gritted teeth.

"I'm…" His face immediately changed from concern to anger, "I'm not sorry, you want this Bella, I can tell."

"No, I don't want this, my body does but my brain and my heart belong to Jacob," I said this slowly and methodically so he understood my full meaning.

"Bella, you still love me, I know you do. I can feel it, and so can the others around us," His voice was pleading and it was breaking my heart. He reached out and took my hand in his and it made it really hard to remember why I didn't want Edward anymore.

"You may be able to read people's minds, but you can't read mine, so you must believe me when I tell you that I've made my choice. I do still love you and I won't deny that, but I don't trust my feelings around you, who knows if they're even mine. I love Jacob and every time we touch I know that its real." His hand was still on mine and I had no desire to pull it away, my body was slowly catching up to my mind and I knew the temptation was gone.

"But he imprinted on you, that's still some mythical thing controlling your feelings," his tone was a little edgy, but what he said was true.

"You're right, and you're wrong. When you left me Jacob filled that void and pieced me back together, that's when I started to fall in love with him; it was after he turned that the feeling got stronger." I was defending myself, but I knew what he was saying had a smidgen of truth.

We sat there silent for awhile with nothing else to debate about. His face grew increasingly morose, but eventually he got up and went over to the couch. I got under the covers and prepared for sleep.

"I love you Bella," He said as my eyes were closing, letting my exhaustion take over.

"I love you too Edward," I heard myself say as I drifted off into unconsciousness.

I woke up drowsy and a little delirious, but in an instant I realized where I was and what had happened yesterday. I looked around and saw Edward at the foot of the bed on the floor, resting his back against the bed.

"Sleep well," he said coldly.

"Not really, I had some weird dreams," I responded back semi expecting his reaction.

"Yea I heard."

"What did you hear?"

"Don't worry, I think Jacob is ok, we would have gotten a call if anything happened," He said and stood up.

"Edward…" I pleaded, but I couldn't find the words to comfort him.

"Just don't ok," he walked out of the room.

I got dressed and made my way downstairs where I was met by Edward, Torrance, her dad, and a woman I didn't recognize. Her brown skin practically glowed; she was slender and tall, and seemingly flawless. Beautiful was the only word that kept repeating over and over in my mind. Her midnight black hair hung halfway down her back but moved with the fluidity of water as she got up from the kitchen table and made her way over to me.

"Bella, I'm Grace. I'm pleased to meet you; I just wish it was under better circumstances." Her voice was soothing and had a motherly tone to it. I nodded still in awe of this majestic creature before me, she motioned to the table and we both sat down as Torrance poured me coffee in the mug that was already at the table waiting for me.

"So Edward already told me that he informed you of Steward's idea of what going on. An interesting gift this one has," she said looking over at Edward.

"He told me last night, I'm still a little apprehensive about it. I just don't understand why someone like him would even remotely want me?" I said confused, "There has to be another reason."

"Well we find out new things about the wolf's abilities every generation, it could very well be something we haven't discovered yet, but for right now this is the only thing that makes sense to us."

"So what do we do, I mean from what I know of imprinting, it doesn't ever go away," I said worried that the answer would be having to leave forks or Jacob.

"Well it's impossible to break that bond, and he's already shown that he cannot handle what is happening to him… I'm sorry, you must forgive me, this is really had for me to say. It seems that killing my son is the only way to make you safe." Her wise and kind face turned troubled, and her eyes started to well up.

Shock overtook once again, "Your son?"

"Ayden is my son, yes. I'm sorry that I wasn't the mother he needed to make him the proper man he needs to be right now," Tears were falling freely from her face, but her expression was calm.

"I'm so sorry, there has to be another way," I said feeling responsible and guilty. I was the reason her son would have to die, and she seemed ok with that, she was just sitting there at the table looking at me; the person who caused her son to go crazy and have to be put down.

"Well before we decide anything, the council has to be informed and pass judgment." Torrance's father, who I knew as Steward, said. He stood from the table over to Grace with sympathetic eyes.

"When do we have to be at The Circle," Torrance spoke up looking up at her father.

"The council is coming to us."Steward put his hand on Torrance's shoulder which smoothed out Torrance's stupefied expression.

The elders were all coming over so that Edward would stay in one place and not be chauffeured all around town. Even though the council was informed of his special diet and was showing no signs of violence, they still were very intimidated since their protectors were not present; they also didn't want any of this getting out to the rest of the rez, so being seem talking to a vampire was out of the question. While we waited for them to arrive, Torrance and steward were rushing around the house, cleaning, cooking, and setting up the kitchen for them. Grace was in the living room, on the couch staring out of the window. She said she was going to be the look out, but I knew she just couldn't face anyone. Edward and me were also in the living room, and though I was pacing around with butterflies in my stomach, I made sure that my path went no where near Edward; who was standing like a still photograph in one of those Abercrombie and Fitch magazines. His expression was completely unreadable, his arms were crossed which made him look angry, but his face showed indifference. Though I caught a glimmer of sadness when I caught his once, but we both looked away too fast for me to be sure.

I was turning into my 7th or 8th lap around the living room when I felt an icy strong grip on my shoulder that made me stop mid stride. I turned on my toes and was facing Edward's unyielding gaze, "she needs to talk to you Bella," He said slightly looking over his shoulder in Grace's direction.

"I can't, I feel horrible about all this," I couldn't meet his eyes, I didn't know how this was going to end, and I hated Ayden with every fiber of my being; but seeing Grace looking out of the window, waiting for the council of her tribe to decide whether her son was going to die… it tore my insides up like tissue paper going through an industrial paper shredder.

"She has something she really needs to share with you, she just feels too responsible about the whole thing to approach you."

"How could she be responsible for any of this?" I asked.

"Just go talk to her, please?" He said and walked away.

I looked over to Grace who was still staring out of the window resting her head on her hands. I took a few seconds to huff and puff and build up my courage to get over to her. When I reached the couch I didn't know whether to sit or stay standing, but she looked at me and her eyes were tormented. My knees gave out and before I knew it was on the couch.

"Edward said there was something you wanted to tell me," I squeaked out as soft as a mouse.

She gave a little smile and looked past me to Edward who stood against the wall behind me, "How do you deal with that one, knowing you're every thought. I mean the wolves can do it, but only in wolf form, I can't imagine what it's like having someone in my head all the time."

"He can't read my mind," I said with a slight smirk.

"Oh well isn't that interesting, that's probably why he loves you so much." She examined my face for my expression to change, when it didn't she looked puzzled for a moment, "Man I thought that would have been a nice segue into what I needed to tell you." Now my face was puzzled and she gave out a quick giggle before she pulled down the collar of her shirt and showed me two little white scars that matched the one I had gotten from James. Her expression showed me that mine was the right one, the one she had been expecting in the first place. "I'd like to say it was a big mistake, but that would simply be a lie."

"That looks like…"

"Vampire bites, yep." She nodded her head, "I was just like you once, Bella. I married Ayden's father very young, right out of high school. Boys in our tribe go through the change a lot earlier than what I hear from the tribe in your town, there is always immediate threat here that as soon as the boy goes through puberty they immediately go furry. I had known for awhile what he was and what he was protecting all of us from and I fell for him the first time I laid eyes on him," She was looking at something I couldn't see, spinning fast into the reality of her memories.

"He imprinted on you…" I said not fully getting where this was going.

She gave a little smirk, "That's how he proposed to me, he got down on one knee and said 'I already know we're going to be together forever, why not just sign a paper and make it official,' he was never the romantic type."

"But how could Ayden not know what imprinting is if his own parents…"

"He didn't get to see us together in that way," She said cutting me off. "One night, when Ayden was about seven, a nomad came to town and killed a hiker up the mountain. Russ, Ayden's father, was the alpha and started running security runs and attack ops four sometimes five times a day. This went on for weeks, he was always tired and seemed bitter about being out smarted. Somehow this vampire found out who was hunting him so diligently and came to our house in the middle of the night to end the whole thing." Grace's face grew sad, "Russ wasn't home at the time, he was out in the forest somewhere, and so when the vampire came in he was shocked to find little old me and a seven year old boy."

"Did he hurt you?" I was trying to sound comforting, but it came out like a child hearing a scary bedtime story. I was embarrassed and shut up immediately.

"It was the strangest thing, he saw me there, with Ayden sleeping on my lap, and didn't strike. He knew I couldn't do anything, I was completely defenseless, but something about me holding my son spun his head around and he just couldn't do it. At least not right then… he put their little vampire love curse on me and I ended up putting Ayden to bed and followed him into the backyard, where told me something was different about me. He said there was something in my blood that called to him like no one else on the planet, and then he told me that he was going to kill me. He flew at me and bit me hard right here," She showed me her scar once more. "Mid bite I guess he caught himself and instead of gulping down my blood, he was spitting it out, which i found out later, he was getting all of the poison out." I started having flashbacks of James' attack, I looked back over at Edward again, and he was staring very intently back at me, probably remembering the same instance as I was.

"After he was done I was lying there on the cold ground and going unconscious. I saw his face which had tears streaming down all over and he told me he was sorry, said that he once had a little boy and a wife and couldn't imagine taking me away from my husband." She said once again looking out of the window. "He left me there and Russ found me like that when he got home, I remember waking up and immediately looking around the room, almost in a panic. Russ thought I was scared and tried to comfort me, but I was searching the room to find him, I wanted to be with the vampire that attacked me. I don't know what it was, but my head was fuzzy and I felt a burning sensation in my stomach that yearned to hear his voice again." She looked back over to me; I met her gaze and was hanging on her every word. "I left my family to be with him Bella, I left my loving husband and seven year old child to be with the enemy of my people."

"Why?" I asked.

She shook her head in uncertainty, "Anyone here would tell you it was the philia and I didn't really have a choice, and that might have been part of it, or even the majority, but it wasn't all of it. He found me as I was running through the woods two days into my insane search and told me to stop looking for him. I was so amazed that he took the time to find me again and that he as there in front of me that I began to cry and plead with him to take me with him wherever he wanted to go." Her sadness started to fade into a calm, collected smile. "We traveled around the world for years, and I loved him. He never hurt me and whenever he would get the urge to he went out and satisfied his hunger. That became a problem for me after awhile; most people think that if a vampire marks you, you're his forever. The truth is, most people don't live long enough for the philia to wear off. It took about 5 years, but I started seeing the flaws both in his character and our relationship. In the end I left because I didn't like the thought of him killing people just to be able to be around me. I knew he would have done it anyway, but I felt responsible and ashamed. I came home and found Russ had been killed a year before and Ayden was living with family who didn't appreciate a blood whore coming to claim her son who was just starting to go through the change. He was also next in line to become alpha; in the end Ayden chose to come and live with me. It wasn't until after I got us a house and we were all settled in that I found out the only reason he did this was because he wanted to find out vampire weaknesses and how to kill them more efficiently. His relatives had told him why I left and his bitterness was unmatched, he was cold and angry, he never let me explain, though what would I have really said to him. There was no excuse for what I did." Her head dropped down and broke our eye contact, "I only tell you this Bella so that some part of you can see where Ayden gets this impassioned malice from, and I wanted to apologize to you for it."

"Grace this isn't your fault," I said and grabbed her hand.

"I know it is, and I know I have to come to terms with that and the fate I have created for my son, but I need you to know my story Bella, and I need you to follow your heart and not make the same mistakes I did." This confused me; she left her husband for a vampire, then left him to be with her son, I had neither of those things. Who was she telling me to choose?

"I don't understand."

"You will, a time will come when you will have to make a choice," She was looking over at Edward.

"But I've already made my choice," I said confused with the anger I was starting to feel in my core.

She looked out of the window again and her eyes got wider, "They're here," She got up off of the couch and started for the kitchen. She stopped and turned back around and faced me, "Just keep in mind, the only reason I left Aro was because he killed people," She looked over at Edward, "You don't really have that problem with this one."

She continued into the kitchen without another word, I really should be used to being shocked every minute of every day… but did she just say Aro?

Sorry for the cliff hanger but it was getting a little long, please let me know what you think. Oh and keep reading the characters are in for one wild ride. (Thank you all for reading this far, and for leaving such awesome comments, I appreciate more than I can say)