Oh, hello there! Excuses and apologies for taking my sweet ass time to post. Definitely not because I haven't wanted to though. Did you think I gave up on you?

Ok, so the last chapter I posted was actually an APOV to fill in some blank spaces, so since it's been about 4011 years since you read the chapter before that, I took the very last excerpt from the chapter previous, but if you need more of a refresher, (or another nice dose of lemonade) head on back to 23. Otherwise, I hope that you forgive me, and know that all comments, ideas, epiphanies, whatever you got, are all welcome.

MSB

We laid there, taking our time coming back to ourselves. My body suddenly felt very heavy and tired.

"Bella, you shouldn't have…"

"Shut up Black, I'm fine, see." I slurred through my exhaustion, but he jerked his face up.

"Wait a minute." He jumped up and turned on the light."

"Damn it, Black!" I said, quickly covering my eyes. "Warn a girl will you?"

"Bella, seriously, look!" He was borderline freaking out.

"What?" I squinted, not knowing what I was supposed to be looking at.

"Your neck."

"What?" I asked reaching back. I brushed against the bite mark, which was sensitive, not to pain, but just sensitive in a weird way.

"There's no blood." He said seriously.

"Good! That means I don't have to change the sheets." I threw the covers off me to get up to go to the bathroom, but he grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Bella! What I mean, is it's already healed." I turned to face him.

"It healed fast last time though, what's the big deal?"

"Not this fast. This is werewolf fast."

The next morning, Jake left out early to go talk to Sam about the night before, which I was less than thrilled about. Having them know about every little thing in our lives, including the intimate details, was getting old, fast.

"Hey Swan, you in here?" Leah yelled, walking through the front door.

"Where else would I be?" I said, rolling my eyes. She walked into the kitchen, and I handed her a cup of coffee.

"Just thought I'd come hang out." She said as she sat down at the table.

"You mean you actually came up for air long enough to come see me?" I smirked at her.

"Yeah, well from what I've seen in Jake's head, I'm not the only nympho around here." She laughed back. I cringed at the implication.

"If it makes you feel any better, he does try to hide it from us." She said at my obvious discomfort.

"Anyway, what are you doing today?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I was going to see if you wanted to go for a run."

"Maybe later. I need to go by the house and check on everything. I need to get the mail, and check the machine to see if mom's called."

"She'd just call your cell if she couldn't get you at home, wouldn't she?"

"I didn't give her my number."

"Why? I didn't think she called often enough to be annoying."

"She doesn't, but can you imagine what she would be like if she knew I could get text messages now?"

"Um, you could text on your old phone too."

"She didn't know that though."

She laughed and rolled her eyes. We continued talking while I ate my cereal.

The carefree feel of the morning reminded me of when we had all planned to go off to college together. The plan was for us to join Rachel once we graduated high school, though we'd never be able to catch up with her in her classes, since she was always taking more classes than she had to. The two of us just didn't have that kind of drive.

"Oh, that reminds me, have you talked to Rachel lately?" I asked her.

"No." She scrunched her forehead, staring at her mug. "Now that I think about it, I don't think I've talked to her since Christmas. I know I've had a lot going on, but I don't think I've even got an email from her. I'm pretty sure I sent her a few, but never got anything back. I guess I just assumed she was busy"

"Yeah, me too." I said thoughtfully. It was pretty strange, even though we didn't talk on the phone a whole lot, we at least tried to email every couple weeks or so, just to touch base, but it had been a few months. To be fair, Leah and I had both had some pretty serious stuff that we had been dealing with, but we still should have realized we hadn't talked to her by now.

"You think she's just busy?" Leah asked. I shrugged my shoulders, and went to go get my phone.

"Let's find out." I said, sitting back down at the table, and putting it on speakerphone.

''The number you've reached has been changed, disconnected, or is no longer in service. Please check the number and try your call again.'

Leah and I sat staring at each other for a beat.

"Looks like we're heading to Seattle." She said with a grim look on her face. I nodded, refusing to entertain thoughts regarding worst-case scenarios. I stood silently to go get ready.

"I do need to swing by the house first." I said as we got into my car.

The ride was quiet. Neither one of us wanted to think about Rachel, but at the same time unable to think of anything else. I would think if something bad had happened, Billy would have been contacted, unless she was some Jane Doe in the hospital. But now that I know about other things in the world, who knows.

"Maybe we should call Paul and Jake." She offered as I unlocked the door to the house and stepped in.

"I don't know, maybe. I would just be afraid Jake would start freaking out or-"

I was cut off by Leah grabbing me and pushing me behind her back, pinning me between her and the door. She was facing the top of the stairs growling.

"Something's here. I can smell it." She said through clenched teeth.

"Are you sure it isn't just leftover from them being here before? Jake said he could smell them from when they were here before." She relaxed a bit, but still didn't release me.

"I don't know about that, all I know is that I smell it." She said, sniffing the air again.

"Well, we aren't doing any good here, let's go up and check it out."

She whipped her head to the side to look at me out of her peripheral.

"Stay here Swan. Don't move." She said, before running quickly up the stairs. I stood silently waiting, until I heard her voice call out the all clear. I exhaled the breath I had been holding and trudged up the stairs.

"I told you it was an old scent." I told her. She turned from where she was standing to face me, and had a weird look on her face.

"What? What's wrong? I asked as I walked up to her, but looking into my room answered that question.

Empty.

The whole room was empty. All the furniture, the pictures, every little thing that I had was gone.

"Bells? Where's your stuff?" She asked quietly.

I slowly shook my head from side to side, trying to shut my gaping mouth. I stepped in with Leah right behind me, our footsteps echoing on the hardwood floor. I heard her sniff a couple times and growl.

"Geez, it really does stink in here!" I said, covering my nose and mouth. It was a weird, but uncomfortable smell, like something musty and rotten. It mostly smelled like a rat or something had crawled in the wall and died, which was logical since no one had been living there to scare the rodents away. What was really weird though, there was also a strange sweet smell mixed with it, but definitely not a good sweet. The only way I could describe it would be rotten doughnuts or something.

"The smell is strongest in here, and it's all over the place." Leah said looking around.

"He stole my stuff?" I asked incredulously.

"Wow, he really does have this whole stalking thing down, doesn't he?" She said with a snarl. She walked over to the closet. "All your clothes are gone too."

"Well Jake brought most all my clothes over a couple weeks after we got back from Seattle. He didn't want me to have a reason to come back here for awhile." I just stood in the middle of the room dumfounded. I heard Leah start snickering. I looked over at her, convinced she had lost her mind.

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just trying to picture this psycho with some shrine to you built in his house, using all your stuff."

"Gotta be honest, sounds more creepy than funny to me." I said trying not to smile, but her laughter was contagious.

"Like this guy, this vampire is so obsessed, I'm picturing him praying to your bed and dresser with candles lit."

At that, I actually laughed at the thought of him doing that. I mean, he's obviously crazy, so it was all within the realm of possibility.

"I bet he's completely recreated your room, he's got this entire room set up with all of your stuff, so it's like he can go in there anytime, and it's like he's with you."

I froze with a gasp when she said that.

That was the dream.

I started shaking, and sunk down to my knees as I realized that what she was saying was true, that's exactly what he had done. Or was doing.

Leah must have realized something was wrong because she was instantly by my side trying to talk to me and calm me down, but I couldn't get anything out. I was reliving my dreams in vivid color. I remembered the room. I remembered seeing the broken Bella that was completely submissive to that fucked up psychopath.

Completely. Submissive.

I clenched my eyes shut, and thought of the only thing that could deliver me from this hell.

The only thing I believed in to keep me safe.

Jacob.

JPOV

I felt her fear hit me hard, and I growled. I could tell Paul was getting something too.

'Where are they?'

'Close. They didn't stay on the rez.' He replied, and we went off shooting through the woods towards where Paul could feel Leah.

Out of nowhere, I realized I could hear her voice in my head. She wasn't screaming for help, she was just chanting my name over and over.

'Can you hear that?' I asked Paul.

'Hear what?'

'Bella. I can hear her!'

'You're crazy, I don't hear anything, and if you were hearing it, I would at least hear it in your head, and I'm not.'

I shook my head, figuring he was right, but I realized as we ran closer, it got clearer, and a little louder, like I was getting close. I realized we were coming up on Bella's house and growled.

'Why did she bring her here?'

'Don't blame this on Leah, you know how stubborn Bella is.'

'She could have stopped her.'

'Right. Just like could have?'

Before I had time to answer, he let out a ferocious growl, and ripped off another way.

'Paul! What?'

'Vampire!'

I took off after him, but then caught the scent myself.

'Wait, it's not who we're looking for, that's the two that was helping us.'

'Yeah, but they're heading toward the house too.'

We got to the treeline and phased just as we saw the other two leeches break through and head toward the house, beating us just by seconds. I found blondie and Leah hovered around Bella. She was sitting in the middle of her room, her empty room, her arms wrapped around her knees, which were pulled up against her chest, and she was rocking slightly back and forth with her eyes clenched shut tightly.

She was chanting my name softly.

I pushed everyone aside and kneeled down in front of her. As soon as I did, her eyes popped open and she pulled me tightly to her, burying her face into my neck. I whispered softly to her until her breathing finally evened out.

"What happened?" I growled, looking up at Leah, which earned a glare from Paul.

"What do you think? Look around, idiot! What's wrong with this picture?" She snapped back.

"Leah." Paul hissed, trying to keep the situation calm.

"Sorry." She huffed at him, then turned back to me. "We came by here because she said she needed to check on the place. We came up here, and everything was gone. You can smell it up here, something took her stuff."

"But why?" Paul asked to no one in particular.

"Comfort." Emmett sneered. "He's wanting to make sure she's comfortable during her stay."

Bella gripped me tighter at the mention of that, while growls erupted throughout the room.

"So he's ready to make his move." Rosalie said quietly.

It wasn't a question.

"Come on, let's get her back to the rez." I said standing, pulling Bella up with me.

"Wait! Crap, I nearly forgot, Bells and I were actually on our way to Seattle, we were just stopping by here."

"Why?" I growled out, pulling Bella into my side. All the way to Seattle without saying anything?

"Calm down Black, it was for good reason. When was the last time you talked to Rachel?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't really talk to her that much, just when she's in town."

"Well me and Bells talk to her at least once every couple weeks, and we realized we haven't heard from her in months. We tried calling, and her phone is cut off."

"I'm pretty sure this situation takes precedent over Rachel not calling you lately! Besides, she's a big girl, I'm sure she's fine-"

"Really? Think about it! Angela was Bells' best friend, and she's gone. The thing can't get to me and you, who else is there?"

A red hot blaze of fire and anger shot through me. I may have not been as close to Rachel as Bella and Leah were, but just the thought of someone messing with my sister made me nearly as furious as it would if it were Bella instead.

"Leah, you and Paul go check it out. Take Bella's car, I need to get her back to the rez, but call me when you get there. If you can't find her, call me and I'll be up there as soon as I can."

I turned to face Emmett and blondie.

"You two come with me, we're going back to the rez."

"Oh, Jake, one more thing." Leah said quietly. "Bells said it smelled bad up here."

"Well, it does, it smells like death up here."

She looked at me hard.

"What?" I asked impatiently.

"Dude, think about it." Paul whispered. "Is that something she should be able to smell?"

And then it hit me.

Oh crap.

"Alright, you two, go." I motioned to Paul and Leah, then turned to the two vamps. "And you two come with me. We need to figure out what the hell is going on."

"Stop!" Bella said firmly, backing away from me. "We all need to go to Seattle. If something bad has happened to Rachel, the more people there to check it out, the better."

"No way." I said stepping forward. "You're getting back on the rez until-"

"Until what? Until he decides that some imaginary boundary line means nothing, and he starts attacking us at home? Or are we waiting until I lose my fucking mind from cabin fever?"

I stopped because she was right. We were just running in place, not getting anywhere, and completely dependent on his next move.

"Will you just shut the hell up?" Leah jumped in, and we all stopped to stare at her. "Why don't you calm the hell down, I'm so sick of hearing you bitch and moan all the time!"

She glanced over at me quickly and winked.

What the hell?

I clenched my jaw tightly. She was purposely provoking Bella, but I couldn't figure out why.

"What do you want us to do, dangle you out there on a meat hook? What do you expect from us?" She continued.

"Shut up Leah." Bella grounded out through her gritted teeth. She was livid, her teeth and fists clenched, her eyes staring wildly at Leah, and she was breathing faster. I glanced at Paul, and he somehow looked both concerned and entertained.

"You're just a breakable little doll that we have to keep protected." She said patronizingly. I had just opened my mouth to stop her before she went too far.

"Just a fragile little white girl."

Too late.

I felt a spike of rage explode from Bella before she roared loudly, making even me jump, and launched herself at Leah, sending them crashing through the upstairs window to the ground below. Paul and I followed quickly, both jumping out the broken window after them.

I just knew I would see Bella bloody and broken on the ground, but that was not what we found at all.

Bella and Leah were having an all out brawl, and it looked like Bella was winning. Mostly because Leah looked like she was going to laugh at any minute.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" She yelled at her, as she tried to dodge punches and kicks. I stood there stunned, not really knowing what to do. My protective side was wanting to pull Bella out, but then again, she really wasn't getting hurt, she was the one doing all the fighting. In fact, my alpha was itching to get Leah away from the perceived threat, but yet the 'threat' was my mate.

"That's enough!" Paul yelled, and went to rip Bella away from Leah. I immediately moved forward, but Bella got to him first, landing a swift kick against his chest, sending him flying back several yards. He jumped up, running back to attack Bella, but was stopped by Rosalie.

I stepped forward to break up the melee between the two girls, but Bella was incredibly strong, and as much as I hate to admit it, Emmett had to help me.

"Bella, calm down!" Emmett said, holding her back against him. I pulled Leah back away from Bella, eyeing Emmett closely as Bella slowed her breathing. She seemed to be calm, but she was still staring daggers at Leah.

"Bells, I'm sorry, I just had to give you a little push." Leah said with a chuckle and a smile, which only served to ignite Bella's fury again, and she fought against Emmett's hold to get at Leah.

"What the hell were you thinking?" I asked Leah angrily.

She shoved me away, turned to face a very feral Bella, and smiled.

"I was trying to get her to phase."