Disclaimer: All Twilight characters are the exclusive property of Stephenie Meyer.

I am looking for a precious second pair of eyes - aka a Beta reader - for this story. Please PM if interested!

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These events take place a few months before Bella's wedding. Jacob, still deeply in love with her, is about to have an encounter that could well overturn the balance...

How will Bella react when she discovers that her " private sun " brightens the life of another?

Prologue

Jacob put the metal rod in place and leaned over the hood of his car, as if he was examining the engine. Only, his gaze remained empty. Truth was, he didn't give a shit that his car had suddenly stopped moving a few minutes earlier. The problem probably came from the battery, and he knew he would fix it with a snap of his fingers. No, Jacob's real problem lay elsewhere, within a feminine, sweet voice, a voice he cherished more than anything else in the world. "Jacob…Please."

Jacob gritted his teeth. "Jacob, please". Damn it. More than the words, it was the unsaid, the underlying meaning behind that drove him insane. Please, Jacob, stop being stubborn. Please, don't try to convince me to choose you over him, because I won't. Please, Jacob, let me love my vampire; let me marry my arrogant, narcissistic, bloodsucking bastard.

His jaw tightened so hard that his teeth made an actual grinding sound.

Bella Swan, his childhood mate, his best friend, the woman of his life didn't want him. She was going to marry someone else. As always, Jacob felt his heart leaped violently at that thought. The pain was damn real, physical, brutal. Turning his back, he placed his forehead on the nearest tree trunk. The pain, the absence of her, the frustration, the burning jealousy, he knew of all it. Hell, he had gotten used to it. But the feeling he was now experiencing was, however, utterly new: despair. The certainty, absolute and implacable, that Bella would never be his.

Not an hour earlier, he had gone to see her at her home, in the little house she lived in with her father, Charlie Swan. Once again, he had laid himself bare for her. Once more, he had bared his heart out, and had told her how much he loved her, how she was the most precious thing in his life. His voice unsteady and made hoarse by the force of the emotions flowing through him, he had tried to make her see, make her understand that all she had to do was say one word. Just one word, and he would throw his whole life aside to devote himself to one thing: her. Her happiness. Her safety. Anything, as long as he was there to watch her have it.

Jacob raised a somewhat trembling fist, and threw a furious punch into the trunk of the tree which made a dry cracking sound.

By way of an answer, she had only looked at him with her big eyes - those damn eyes, he loved those eyes so much - and had told him that her choice was made and that her life now belonged to...

Jacob took a deep breath and forced himself to set his mind on something else. Thinking about that bloodsucking bastard was always a bad idea. Always.

Instead, he focused on the burning in his chest, trying to make it disappear by the sheer force of his thought. But his thought - fucking traitor - kept coming back to her, over and over again. Damn it! He simply loved her too much. He loved her, for a variety of reasons that he couldn't fully understand himself. All he had to do was think of her and he immediately felt this pressing, irresistible urge to be by her side and hold her tight against his chest. All he had to do was remember her shy but warm smile, her big brown eyes, her clear, almost childlike laughter as they spent time together…

Jacob raised his head up and intently stared up in the sky. He blinked furiously, forcing himself to swallow back the tears that had suddenly filled his eyes and were now threatening to stream down his cheeks. Oh hell no. That, was absolutely out of the question. He already felt pathetic enough as it was.

"Well. I am pretty sure this is the first time I've ever seen a man looking that upset over a car. I mean, you must know it can be fixed, don't you?"

Even though the words were spoken in a quiet voice, Jacob started violently, furious at himself. If anyone of the pack ever learned that he had been so distracted - so vulnerable - that he hadn't even heard a person getting that close, they would give him Hell. As they should.

He laid eyes upon the owner of the soft voice. Her dark eyes were fixed on him, full of laughter.

Wait a minute. Was she laughing… at him?

Jacob opened his mouth to reply, but the girl beat him to it. She walked towards his car and putting both hands on either side, leaned over the engine.

"Your car suddenly stopped working, it seems. Let me see… Yeah. I'll bet you anything that the alternator belt br... no, wait. " She leaned in closer.

Jacob stared at her, speechless. Was that girl really explaining how and why his car broke down? To him ? That was almost funny. Under other circumstances, he would probably have laughed his head off. Too bad he was not at all in the mood.

Without paying him the slightest bit of attention, the girl let out a small squeak of appreciation.

"Golf 7 GTI, huh? Pretty thing. Bi-turbo engine, TSI injection." She nodded appreciatively. "I don't know who did it, but whoever replaced the original engine with this one did a great job. And there is no way the belt is already used up, everything's far too neat for that. However..."

She pulled a pocketknife out of the small bag hanging over her shoulder and, under Jacob's stunned gaze, took out a small pair of pliers. " The screws on your battery came loose, that's probably our problem. I'll take care of it now, but it will be only temporary. As soon as you get home, finish the job with a clamp plier, all right?"

Jacob was listening but he didn't utter a single word, impressed in spite of himself and somewhat irritated too. Who the hell was that girl?

Putting the metal rod back in place, she closed the hood with a firm gesture, and turned back to him, with a big dimpled smile on a face that was both stunning and infuriatingly smug.

"All done, big guy. Want to give it a try? "

For the first time, Jacob looked attentively at the girl in front of him.

She was young, probably his age, and tall, maybe even more than Leah. Her lower body was molded into a worn-out pair of jeans, and she wore a little black leather jacket over a white tank top. A pair of old sneakers gave her overall appearance a casual, relaxed look.

The colour of her eyes was… striking. The darkest shade of blue he'd ever seen, deep as a starless night, and yet strangely bright. Those remarkable irises, set in two almond-shaped eyes fringed with long black eyelashes were riveted on him, unmoving. A straight nose, a mouth with lips a bit too full - currently stretched into a dazzling grin. Her hair was raven black, the long locks sweeping across the small of her back.

Beautiful, definitively. Obviously skilled in mechanics, no doubt about that. And unquestionably, utterly, cocky.

Jacob lifted an eyebrow, and the same question popped in his mind one more time.

Who the hell was that girl?