A/N: Thank you all for your lovely reviews last week. Most of you love Paul and his typically crude comments. He's so much fun to write.

So I finally got to meet my Beta, Egratia this week. We had dinner and she liked the kangaroo jerky I made for her.

It's crazy how this site can link people from around the world like that. We started out simply by reviewing and then PM-ing each other. chatting through PM's most days. And then she asked me to beta'ed her first lemon, and it all snowballed from there. Messages, emails, Facebook, Skype and delicious care packages from across the Pacific.

Yes, we're each others Beta reader's, but were so much more than our love for the twilight kingdom; we're friends off the screen too.

You don't have much time to read this week Les, but I hope you get to see this note. You too Sarah, all the way over in NYC.

This is the last chapter folks, I hope you all feel as satisfied at the end of this journey as our hero's seem to be.

Chapter 20- Taking the long way home.

I woke hot and sweaty, in the middle of a pile of werewolf. I was the most comfortable I'd ever been in my life.

My hair was stuck to my damp forehead. My cheeks were hot to touch. I could feel the heat radiating from all sides. I didn't have a blanket or a sheet, I had living and breathing fur over my feet and legs as my covers. Each one of them was touching me, just a slight brush or touch. But physically, the pack was connected, and I was in the center.

Embry was lying across my left foot. Jared was laying on his back, his legs sticking up awkwardly in the air as his tail rested across my right ankle. Sam was a little further away, by my head. The soft pad of his back paw was pressed against my elbow. Paul had wiggled his way up during the night, closer to my legs, and was now squeezed between Sam and Jared and curled up by my knees. All the while, Jake was snuggled up behind me. His warm breath blew over my head as his front leg wrapped around my shoulder. The protection and sense of family was pulsing between all six of us. I'd never felt so safe and sheltered in all my life. The circuit of energy flowed through us a whole.

As a pack they were connected in body, spirit and mind.

.

I opened my eyes to the dawning sun as it streamed through the front window. The sky was a pinkish blue with long wisps of clouds stretching across. It was a perfect morning.

I felt Jake's wolf stir behind me. He snuffled in a quiet breath, sniffing at my hair and down the side of my throat. His nose was refreshingly cool against my heated skin. Then I felt the air shift and the hairs on my arm raised as the fur gave way to the smooth soft tan of his skin. His muscled arm wrapped further around my chest, a strong hand now pulling across my stomach in place of the paw.

"Morning, Beautiful," he whispered. The length of his naked body pressed behind me. I could feel his morning pleasure as it rose.

I lulled my head back and tucked under his chin as I wiggled my bottom into his erection. "Morning."

"You survived your first night with the pack."

I closed my eyes as he raised up and kissed me softly behind the ear.

As I opened my eyes, it was to a wolf-Paul watching us. He and I shared a look, he sent a silent thank you to me for including him last night. I smiled gently at him. It seemed to me that the man had never really known the simple kindness of a mother, or a sister for that matter. Instinctively I knew this was now the role I had to play in my life as Jake's other half, as the Alpha's mate. I had to be mother and sister to these man-boys. The Ying to Jacob's Yang. Someone they could talk to without fear of judgment or retribution. They put on a brave-faced bravado, but the honest truth was that they probably all needed therapy after the trauma they'd had to endure. They'd killed and destroyed sentient beings that looked an awful lot like people. I knew certified therapy was never going to happen. I hoped my open door and the comradery the pack had would be enough.

I made it my personal goal to make sure that Paul Lahote, at least, learn the platonic tenderness and benevolence of a woman's touch— without the need to try and get into her pants. He needed to learn that girls were good for more than one thing. I had a sneaking suspicion though, that the overly sexualized mind of the grey wolf didn't see my gender in any other way other than carnally.

Jake's hand wondered over my shirt and he groped my breast, unaware we hand an audience. I watched as Paul's beholden gaze transformed into a grin, that couldn't be called anything less than wolfish. The smirk swam across his face as he watched his leader privately embrace his mate… me.

I turned to look at Jake over my shoulder as I stilled his wandering hand. "Yes. I did. The whole pack." My eyes flicked to Paul and then back to Jake's deep, soulful brown. "With every one included."

I could see the human alpha meet the eye of the wolf over my shoulder. Jake's eyes narrowed as he followed Paul's line of sight… to my right breast. Then I saw the flicker of pardon as Paul shifted his gaze well away from me. They came to an understanding.

I was totally out of bounds. Jake didn't share- even with his eye. And Paul's loose mouth was forgiven, but not forgotten.

I was learning quickly that that Alpha's mate had some pull among the ranks. But the buck still stopped with the Chief.

…

…

…

I came out of the bathroom, my hair wrapped in a towel. I hated to wash Jake's scent of my skin, but I'd been so sticky and sweaty after being surrounded by the pack all night, I'd had to shower.

The boys were all seated around the kitchen table, spooning their second and third bowls of cereal. Sam was looking at Jake, his spoon pointed towards him as he spoke. "Your father's been worried about you, Jacob." He looked to me as I opened the fridge, his spoon now pointing to me, "and so has yours Bella."

"I'll call them, we'll talk," Jake placated. "But I can't go back yet, Sam. I just need a little while longer; so does Bells."

Sam looked at Jake with a solid stare that, up until yesterday, would have had Jacob lowering his eyes and yielding. Yesterday… when Sam was still the Alpha. But he wasn't any more… Jacob Black was now. "Your people need you too, Jake."

Jake shifted, his chair scraped on the floor as he stood. "You think I don't know that Sam?" Jake keept his tone quiet, making his authority and earnestness all the more palpable. He paced over to the sink putting his bowl down with a clink. "I know what my people need, it's been drilled into me since the day I was born. I've watched my father lead and serve the tribe for my entire life. I know."

Jake held out his glass and I topped it up with the juice bottle in my hand. Then he handed it to me in silent offering. I closed the fridge door and quietly took the tumbler. I wrapped my fingers around the wet, cool glass as I stood pressed to Jacobs's side. His arm wound around my waist and I felt some of the tension ebb from his body at my closeness. We balanced each other.

Jake took a long, deep breath against my temple, centering himself. "But what about me, Sam?" he continued. "What about what I want and need... Hey? And not just me, but all of us, the whole pack. No one seems to give a flying fuck what we need?"

"It's not about what the individual wants Jacob, it's about the pack collectively."

"That's bullshit, Sam. Bullshit." I felt his hand grip harder at my side. "The pack is a team but it's still made up of individuals. What's the point of five, worn out, over worked, over wrought, resentful human beings making up the team. We all need a break. I know I do. And I've heard it in all our minds. We all do. The threat's over. We can at least give ourselves a few days off. That's all I'm saying."

"You know he's right" Jared added, tipping the bowl to his lips and slurping up the dregs of milk. "I'd really like to take Kim out on a real date. One that's not interrupted by patrol, or limited to the boundaries of La Push. I want to go to the movies with my girlfriend, Sam. I don't think that's too much to ask for a high school sophomore."

"It's not," Jake interrupted, his tone firm and commanding. "That's why it's not even up for debate." He sliced his hand through the air with a gesture of finality. "I'm not coming back with you guys today. We'll come back when we're ready. And that's not gunna be today. You've all got the next three days off. Do what you like," his eyes traveled over to Paul, "or who you like."

Sam slouched back in his chair. His shoulders rose and then fell with a resigned sigh. "The council aren't gunna like it."

"The council aren't pack," Jake clipped.

He pulled me closer, his hand warm as it wrapped around my shoulder in a silent gesture that included me in the family. I was pack. "I'll deal with them eventually. But they're not a part of my pack. They're wise and they're wonderful advisers. But they don't get to tell us how we protect our people anymore." His hands dropped from my arm as he thumped his own chest. "That's my job."

He stepped over to his brothers, all sitting around the little wooden table. He braced his hands on the tabletop, his arms were locked and strong as he looked each wolf in the eye. "And I say, you've done your fair share of protecting over the past few months. The redhead is ash. The mind reader is gone, for now. The tribe is safe from any imminent threat… And you all deserve a long-weekend, at the very least."

Jake moved his hand onto Sam's shoulder then lowered himself to the former leader's eye level. "Go home Sam, go back to Emily. Bella and I will be home soon enough. I just need a little more time with my mate before we're separated by miles of forest, hours of school, and real life once again."

I was a statue, absorbed by the way Jacob seemed to carry himself now. I was attracted to the surety in which he spoke and the leadership he exuded. His authority was attractive on such a base level. I felt my body react to his dominance with a fresh burst of wetness between my legs as my heart swelled with pride and love. Maybe we never had to go back to Forks. The thought was appealing… traveling anywhere we wanted to by day, making camp when it pleased us, and making love all through the night. This time we could enjoy it without the pressure of obscurity and the fear of the undead.

Like he'd heard my thoughts, or maybe he'd smelt them, Jake turned to meet my eye over his shoulder. He smiled softly, mouthing I love you. I smiled back, biting my lip as I brought the juice to my mouth and winked happily at him.

Embry looked over to me as I held the glass, then back to Jake; several times, back and forth. "How are you going to cope with her back at chief Swan's house? This… you're not gunna be able to—"

"I'll manage."

Jared lifted his eyebrows, skepticism lining his face, "Jake, if Kim lived outside the reservation I would have been AWOL throwing rocks at her window every night to let me in."

"Then that's what I'll do."

Paul scoffed, "You're honestly telling us you're gunna go sneaking into the Chief of Police's house to snuggle with his daughter? D'you like the taste of lead, Black? Because if Chief Swan finds you in her room in the middle of the night your ass is gunna be full of slugs."

"Then we'll tell him."

A flutter swooped through my heart at what Jake was saying. I hadn't realized how much it had been bothering me until the solution was put forward. I'd been lying to Charlie about so much this last year or so. And it hadn't been sitting well. I felt the volumes of lies and secrets lift from my shoulders at Jake's decree that we could tell him. I wasn't going to have to lie to my dad any more.

No more lies.

"What?!" Sam yelled, sitting upright. "You can't share the Tribe's secrets to an outsider!"

"Yes, I can. It's my secret to keep or to tell, not the tribe's. I'm sick of this secret, need to know, shit. We do more damage not telling the people closest to us than by just being honest. I'm gunna tell Charlie. And anyway, he's not an outsider, he's Bella's father and my dad's closest friend.

"My mate," he said, taking me by the hand as I stepped closer to his side, "is pack. And she and I will be together for the rest of our lives. And pack is family… and that makes Charlie family. He has a right to know."

I linked my hand through Jake's fingers, silently giving him the support to be the leader he so naturally was.

As I stood by Jacob's side, a deep sense of belonging washed through my bones and permeated my very nature. I loved this man, and I'd never felt such a humbling and yet all-consuming love than from being declared a permanent part of his life. We wouldn't be in any rush. But I was never going to be anywhere than by his side.

Jake stood taller and he looked towards his best friend as he continued his argument. "Just like your mom Emb, and yours too, Jared, tell your folks when you get home." I felt the heat in Jake's palm increase as the resolution of such a decision bolstered him and gave him the confidence for more self-confidence still. "And I'm gunna tell Quil, too. We're not going to be thrust into this world without support and a little heads-up anymore. I saw him in your mind Emb, he's gunna blow any day now."

"He is. He's so angry at us Jake. It's been shit keeping this a secret."

"I know Emb. I know. No more secrets."

I felt the shift in the group as they all considered and then subscribed with all of Jake's new avowals. There'd be no more secrets. The Quileute warriors would have their identities back. They had been born, not as spirit warriors, but as boys with their whole life ahead of them, without restrictions of boundary and duty. Jake was giving them back that freedom.

They would have a chance of reaching all the goals they had in life before they'd been thrown into the terrifying life of the supernatural. They didn't have to reach any further than their own homes on the shores of the Pacific Northwest if they didn't want to. But they now had the choice. And that had been what had broken Jake when he'd first found his wolf. The choice to make his own journey in life and not be bound by his birthright.

The air settled around us like a warm zephyr off the ocean. Each wolf collectively relaxed, their shoulders dropped very slightly and the tense, almost permanent, readiness for attack finally receded from their bodies.

I felt the caress of respite wash between both Jake and my joined hands as my body and his relaxed in unity. The pack was harmonized and in sync with their new and true leader.

Quietly, I ducked under Jake's arm. I pressed my cheek to his chest and wrapped my arms around his middle. I felt the love pulse between us. "No more secrets."

….

"Bye" Jake called, waving a broad arm at the wolves as they set off down into the forest. His arm dropped around my waist as I sunk into his side.

"I thought they were never gunna leave," he sighed happily as he turned me and tucked a finger under my chin. He lifted my head, lowering his lips to mine.

"It's no secret," I smiled, "but I want remind you just how much I love you."

He kissed me gently, his lips were soft and warm, as they leisurely pressed. "And just how much would that be?"

"Come on," I whispered, smiling and biting my lip. I held his hand, tugging him as I walked backwards up the front stairs. With our eyes still locked in a loving, heated gaze, we walked back inside and over to the freshly made bed. I lifted my shirt over my head and slowly lowered down the cargos I'd put on earlier. I knelt on the bed, in nothing but a light pink set, as Jacob's eyes raked over my body. I felt the goose bumps rise all over. I reached behind, unclasping my bra and letting my breasts fall free. I dropped to the ground, my knees making a soft wooden thud as I looked up at him along the length of his body.

"I love you this much."

…

…

We'd found ourselves traveling through Navaho country and then further south to the bustle and sunshine of Southern California. I'd had no desire to go back to the dry heat of Phoenix. My home and my heart belonged now, to the luscious greens of the Washington old growth forests. But we were both looking forward to the golden beaches the OC, where we were headed.

"Okay, okay, okay. I got one." I looked over to Jake as we speed across the I-15. "Who would win in a fight between Judge Judy and Betty White?"

"Aw, that's a good one, Bells," he nodded, indicating as we turned towards the Beach Cities exit. "I think, definitely Judge Judy. She's got that hammer thing, and her attitude. She's like a pit ball."

I held up the king size candy bar we got at the gas station back in Victorville and opened it for us to share. "But what if Betty White had a Snickers? Then she'd turn into like, a really strong football player and could tackle her!"

I stooped forward to the radio controls, tuning in a station I'd just seen advertised on a billboard as I continued my persuasive on our hypothetical battle game. "And then Judge Judy would get all caught up in her robes and stuff and she'd down for the count." I turned the volume up, as I sat back, smiling broadly. "Finally! Some decent music!"

There'd been limited choices driving through the desert, to say the least.

He looked over to me from the driver side, smiling. His eyes were bright and shining as he straight with teeth pulled back in a smile that made my tummy flutter.

"What?" I asked, taking a medium bite of the candy bar, and handing the rest over to him.

"Nothing." He took the chocolate and bit into to it as he refocused back on the road. His eyes flicked back to me a few more times as I quietly sung along to Billy Joel. That same smile still pulled handsomely across his lips. "I love you, that's all."

…

After a blissful week of camping and celebrating the confirmation that I wasn't, in-fact, knocked up as I went surfing on the crimson wave, then actually trying to surf in the clear blue waters of Doheny State beach, we took our time making up for lost time after the crimson wave receded - and I mean making up for lost time a lot.

We took a few days to make our way up to Yosemite. Jake and I stopped for the night whenever the mood struck us. I was getting used to this life of freedom and free love.

It was a Tuesday that we finally arrived in the National Park, a little over a week since Jake and his pack, with the help of the Cullen's had finally put an end to Victoria. It was so liberating to be able to just be two semi-normal kids on a getaway. We no longer had that ever looming threat of decimation and torture looming over our heads. Putting aside the occasional ant's in Jake's pants, thought it seemed much better now that he had the assurity of being Alpha, we were no different from another other touring couple we'd crossed paths with. Only I had a supper strong, super intuitive lover by my side. We were exploring and traveling with no scheduled, no serious agenda and no need to remain obscure; though privacy did have it's benefits. Jake and I were enjoying the sunshine. Enjoying the fresh air. Enjoying each others bodies.

We decided to park our van at a campgrounds in the Yosemite Valley trek through the woods to our secluded campsite for the night.

We hiked with Jake leading the way, just off the tail and along the Merced River and up to the granite bounders of Liberty Cap. I had my rucksack packed with a micro tent we'd bought in Fresno, food to feed an army of forty, and the innate knowledge and the trust of the shape shifter as my guide. Sometimes we'd walk hand in hand as he'd help me step over uneven terrain, and other times I rode Jake wolf-back, holding tight as he bounded over rocks and small creeks and up almost vertical inclines that I'd have had no hope of making on two feet.

We didn't have a map, instead Jake found his own way off the track. We rode past the falls and the rapids that had been carved out by the sheer force and volume of the winter melts. Such natural violence that somehow left behind a rugged and stunningly beautiful landscape. We rode through thick, pine forests and upwards to an unmarked summit meadow. The towering, ancient trees made me nostalgic of the giant forests of the Pacific Northwest. I felt like we would step over a rise and see the beaches of La Push on the horizon. The Californian forest smelled earthy and green but it wasn't quite the same as the salty, cedar scent that was quintessentially La Push.

I wondered if Jake felt the nostalgic stirrings from being in this forest. His wolf seemed very at home up there; the wolf seemed at home anywhere were nature was supreme.

I followed Jake through the vaguely familiar forest. Even if he didn't really know where we were going, I trusted in his magically innate sense of direction. And he proved me right as we arrived and set up camp at a wonderfully secluded clearing that overlooked the Valley.

We shared a perfect night, exploring the wilderness in the moonlight and then exploring each other to the sound track of the sounds of the forest.

.

Jake woke me before dawn on the Wednesday, gently shaking my shoulder. "Bells, wake up. I want you to see this."

"Mmhm?" I moaned, my voice was rough from sleep. I sat up in the darkness as the thin sheet fell in a crumpled heap at my waist. "What?" I yawned. "It's not even morning yet."

In the dim light I could see the white of Jake's eyes as they raked over my naked torso. He groaned in frustrated appreciation before remembering why he was awake at such and early hour and turned around. "That's why I woke you up. I want you to see the sunrise." He unzipped the tent flap and crawled back outside. I looked up as his head popped back in and he looked me over one more time. He smirked, and wiggled his eye browns at me. "And then we're fucking."

"Oh, how romantic," I chuckled. I knew what he meant though... he looked magnificent in the retreating moonlight.

A small breeze flapped the tent fly open and cold air rushed in. I felt the chill as it hit my skin and my nipples hardened at the freshened air. I'd been so comfortable and warm from lying curled up in the arms of my own person sun inside our tiny tent.

Jake, still naked as the day he was born, stood up outside the tent. "Don't worry baby, I can do romance and risqué, both at the same time," he winked. He turned around to look out over the horizon and then back to me still inside the tent. "Come on Bells," he waved as he walked over to edge of the cliff, "or we'll miss it."

Fumbling around in the dark, I watched his perfect ass walk away in the pre-dawn light. I stumbled over the bedrolls, searching on my hands and knees until I found my way outside. The air was even colder as I stepped outside. I ducked back into the tent and dragged the disarrayed sleeping bag with me as I tiptoed, bare foot, on the cold grass over to where Jake was now sitting.

Jake pulled me on to his very naked but thankfully warm lap and wrapped the unzipped sleeping bag around me. "Look at it Bella." He nodded out to the breaking dawn. "It's amazing."

Making a concerted effort to ignore the hard phallus pressing against my back for just a few minutes, I looked up as the first hint of light lifted over the horizon behind us. It painted the rock face a brilliant pink. There were purple shadows squiggling down in the crevices and clefts in the rock across the valley.

I leaned into Jake's warm chest, reaching behind and combing my fingers through his hair as we sat and watched the sun rise. "It's so beautiful." I gushed. "It's amazing how nature can be so calm and serene here and yet so destructive and turbulent just a few miles down in the river."

"It's just like us, you're the beauty that calms and balances my turmoil." He kissed behind my ear and his hand wove under the covers and found the still hard nipple.

I felt the ignition of my insides. My body reacted instantly to Jacob's knowing touch. I moaned as he kissed his way down my shoulder, closing my eyes and letting the sensations envelope me. He lifted me, turning me around his lap so I was facing him. His mark was now easily in his sight. He ducked his head nipping at it before sitting up straighter and pressing his lips to mine.

We kissed as the sun rose over the mountain. Our bodies were awash in glowing pinks and vermillion oranges. My skin was alive at his touch. On the mountain side, on the bluff cliff face, Jacob lay me down on the spread out sleeping bag and worshiped every inch of my skin until, like Icarus, I combusted as I few too close to the sun. My sun.

…

We spent the rest of the week driving around Lake Tahoe, exploring and generally being lazy and horny. We found new ways to love one another in the confines of the Aerostar. Generally we'd stop not long after lunch, and with the radio playing in the background, we'd reaffirmed our feelings for each other… over and over again. It was an easy itinerary to follow.

We'd received a healthy and anonymous deposit into my back account while we'd been in Yosemite. But there was no real mystery on who it was from, only the finer details were a mystery, such as which one of the yellow eyed vampires had sent it. I wondered if Alice had finally seen me in her visions and known we'd needed a little top up. As amazing as the road was, it was still long and itinerant. It was nice to consider the indulgence of a real bed and four walls. The running water was a bonus too.

At first Jake had been a little put-out from the unrequested donation. As over the top as it was, he'd accepted the cabin, but that was supposed to be last of it. He didn't want anything more from the Cullen's. I couldn't blame him. I wanted there sense of ownership of me making choices for me to be finished too. But we were tired, and sometimes a little sore from the sleeping arrangements so with the lure of a little splurge of luxury and two whole nights in a proper bed in a room of our own, we'd both succumbed.

It was Reno that we decided to spend the weekend. We used the money to pay for beautiful suite overlooking a lake.

We explored the city a little, following the river as it wound through the city center. We enjoyed the spa in the bathroom of the suite we'd checked into. It turned out be Jake's favorite part of our mini-break for our big-break.

We splurged with a late checkout and made the most of our extended time in the king size bed. One. Last. time...

Twice.

Rejuvenated from out little stop, we left Reno late Monday morning. We set out ready for another new week of just Jake and me, and our freedom on the road to nowhere.

It was my turn to drive and Jake was leaning against the passenger door, his feet up on the dash. He really did have huge feet. Everything about that man was in proportion. Including his love for me; and for life.

He had his arm out the window and was weaving his hand in waves against the wind as the air buffered through the car, sending my hair around in a whirlwind. It was a cool April morning, but one where you could feel the heat of the day that was yet to come. It was going to be another hot and dry day in the northern Nevada desert. As we drove westbound, I contemplated the dry and brown landscape. I missed the forest. And as strange as it was to say, I missed the almost perpetual rain of home.

.

We stopped for lunch, in a little town on the cross roads of the interstate and the highway.

We were squished into one side of a booth at the local Taco Bell. We were happily sitting close, with my leg draped over Jake's knee and his arm around my neck as we ate one handed.

"I wish they did enchiladas here," I said, spearing a piece of chicken off my salad bowl. "You know, I've been told I make a mean enchilada."

I smiled inwardly, I used to make a lot of good stuff to eat. I'd been a little limited since we'd been on the road. As much as I loved cooking simply— on a gas fire, in the middle of nature— there were times that I missed the convenience of an actual kitchen. Like a fridge and an oven. I couldn't make decent enchiladas on a butane burner.

Jake popped a chip in his mouth, nodding. "Yeah. I heard about you making Charlie branch out from his traditional cuisine," Jake laughed as he remembered. "I was home the next day when he came over, raving about how good they were to my dad. Dad was so pissy, mumbling how even if his daughters were home they'd probably burn the packet just getting one out of the freezer."

He tipped the packet of his extra side of chips to me, silently offering me some. "You'll have to make it for me someday, when we're near an oven."

I nodded, crunching on the tortilla chip. "It's a date."

.

I'd long finished my power salad and Jake was on the eleventh of his twelve taco supreme pack and only just, now, looked to be slowing.

"You're really going to eat a dozen tacos?" I queried, raising a brow as I picked at the sprinkling of cheese that had fallen onto the wrapper.

His mouth was full as he answered, picking up that last DLT. "You want a bite."

"No you have it. It's just, I still can't get over how much you eat sometimes."

Jake shrugged, biting into the crispy shell. A blob of sour cream fell out and he wiped it up with his finger. I watched as he placed it in his mouth and slowly sucked the creamy sauce off, completely unaware of my ogling. "It's a damn expensive metabolism, I'll tell you now. I don't really know how Sam and Emily have any money left the way we all hung out at their place. I think we need a Taco-Bell in La Push, the pack alone would keep it afloat."

He'd been talking about the pack a lot lately; just little comments and anecdotes but I could tell they were on his mind.

I shifted sideways in the booth, towards the window. His hand slid down my back and settled on my thigh as I rested my ankle on his knees. I brought the last of our Baja blast freeze up to my lips slurping at the nearly completely melted drink. "Did you talk to them this morning on your run?"

Jake had woken up relaxed but still somehow a little jittery. I could tell that even though the man was completely contented, and the wolf was happy to be by my side day in day out, there was still something missing. So, at my urging, Jake had left me to re-pack our now shared bags while he made his way back to the Nevada edges of the Tahoe forest to stretch his paws.

I handed Jake the drink and he lifted the lid, tipping back the last few clumps of limy slurry. "Embry was there," he said, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. "He told his mom yesterday."

"How did she take it?"

"Surprisingly well. Once Emb called Paul over to phase so he wouldn't have to leave her alone while he demonstrated, she made them both a pot roast and let them both drink whisky with her while she processed it all and did the twenty questions thing."

He scrunched up his last wrapper, adding it to the mountain of paper on the tray. "It's going to be so much easier for him now. I do wish I'd been able to help him though. He must have been desperate if he asked Paul to help. And Emb ran into Quill at the store again, they had a huge fight. I saw it from Embry's memories, Ateara's getting huge."

Jake looked down at our twisted fingers, playing with the ring I wore on my thumb as he silently got lost in thought.

I figured I knew the direction of his thoughts. "Do you want to go home Jake?"

He shrugged again, pulling me back closer, this time onto his lap. "I want to be with you, Bells. And if you need more time away from it all… just me and you, then that's what I want too."

I didn't know what I wanted. At the thought of home a thousand images would flash thought my brain. Charlie, school, my room, Jake's garage, First Beach. But the memory of Forks also conjured up images of him or more so the feeling that I now had about that part of my life… and they weren't positive.

Although I knew, I just knew, that I was over Edward. I wasn't so sure I was over all the hurt and messed up self-esteem I'd had when he'd left. I felt good. In fact, I felt fantastic by Jacob's side. But a part of me was worried what would happen when the honeymoon was over. I didn't doubt my love for Jake, but I did have reservations about my ability to be this happy in a town that held so many sad feelings for me.

It humbled my heart to think that Jake would stay by my side, away from his home just to be with me. Surly I loved Jake equally as much to risk finding out just how happy I could be back in the real world, with a stunningly handsome and devoted man as my other half.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him down for a kiss, "I really love you. You know that?"

.

Jake took up the wheel after lunch. The radio had been blaring and he'd been tapping out the beat on the steering wheel when he came to a stop at a junction.

His toned, long arm reached out and turned down the volume and he pivoted slightly in his seat towards me. "Which way Bells? Left or Right?"

Left was the way we'd just come and right was deeper into the heat of Nevada. But straight ahead was north, towards the boarder of Oregon and eventually Washington.

It was time.

Time for me to find the gumption to face my, most likely, unfounded fears. To take my life back and to live happily, with the assuredness of a love that superseded anything I'd known before. Both physically and emotionally.

The love of a man and the love of a mate.

My hand reached over to Jacob's and I squeezed it tight. It was warm and dry and fitted around mine perfectly. Like two halves of a whole.

"Let's go straight ahead, Jake. Let's go home."

~:The End:~

Whew... It's done... The story's over.

Thank you for sticking with me and for all the wonderful comments and reviews you've all sent me.

I've been working on an Epilogue. It's being beta'ed. But my wonderful friend and Beta is here in Australia visiting me, with out her laptop. So you'll all have to wait a few more weeks for it.

I have some plans to make a series of out-take snippets, too. Stuff like the wolf's conversation when Paul was in "time-out" and the battle that we completely missed. If you have any other ideas of what you'd like to read, then please let me know.

Thanks for joining me.

May the light with in me honor the light with in you.

Namaste, Marina.