Hello, Beauties and Handsomes!

There is an important Author's Note at the end so please be sure to check that out!

Reviewers:

inuyashademons14 - Welcome back! Let me know how you like this chapter!

GraceEllingson - Hope this chapter does your expectations justice :)

FreeSpiritSeeker - Thanks!

SusanCullen - That's awesome for you to say! Thanks very much!

Mira Black-Snape - Thanks!

Kat Smith - IKR?! Well, glad about the pups!

M - Lol! Hope you like this chapter!

Remember when I said I was going to get in trouble for going into the woods alone with Bella?

Yeah…I was wrong.

I was very, very wrong.

Because I didn't just get in trouble; in the sense that no one scolded me. They summoned me to their territories and abused me, demeaned me, humiliated me.

Yeah, they scolded me in front of their covens and pack.

Surprisingly the first was Stephen.

He arrived on our doorstep bright and sunny in the morning and made me sit in the living room while he yelled at me.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he started.

"I don't think it's going to matter much if I say Bella and I are fine, is it?" I asked.

He swelled. He literally swelled as he glared at me. "Tulika, you saw the wolves! I know you're going to downplay this that's why I asked Bella for the full story." He said.

"I'm sure she exaggerated." I said lightly.

"Better that than taking your life lightly," he said.

"I'm not taking my life lightly; at least now that I saw Victoria -,"

Stephen's eyes suddenly widened and I stopped, realizing that of course, he didn't know about that.

He sank down into the armchair. "She's here?" he whispered. "Yeah, the wolves saved me, Steph. We should trust them, really." "I do trust them. It's just - remember what the books said about their tempers? If they chased Victoria off, think how easy it would've been for them to turn on you."

"They know us. They won't hurt me."

"You can't know that for sure."

"You sound like Edward."

Stephen groaned, rubbing his hands over his face.

"You know I don't like being compared to a fictional character."

We stared at each other for a while before he stood up and went up to see Bella.

So, that went well.

The tirade from Stephen was relatively easier to go through than what The Cullens threw at me.

I think it might've went better if Carlisle hadn't been in the house on his day off; unconsciously listening to every word Alice and Edward tossed over my head.

"Do you know how afraid I was?" Alice asked when we were alone in her room.

I squinted suspiciously at her. She wouldn't have dragged me inside if she was going to be the only one chastising me. "You told Edward, didn't you?" "I had to! I mean, he was sitting right in front of me when you vanished and he…kind of saw it," She muttered.

I sighed.

"How much trouble am I in?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"Alice, do you see me visiting La Push today?" I asked suddenly.

Her eyes lifted up to me.

"Tulika; Edward is going to lift the whole house up on his head if you ask him to go to the Reservation. He's been very nice about this but even his patience can stretch only so long." She tried to console me.

I bristled immediately and that was when Edward Cullen decided to show up.

"You saw Victoria and the wolves in the woods?" he asked, first thing.

"Hi, Edward, it's nice to see you too," I mumbled.

"Don't," he said, lifting one finger at me, "How many times, Tulika? You are not to put yourself in danger if you can help it! You can help it but you aren't!" he said, loud enough for me to flinch.

"I wasn't going into the woods on my merry way to commit suicide, Edward! Bella and I were on the safe track. She just…she caught me off guard." I said.

"You do realize what might have happened if the Pack hadn't been on your trail?" he asked.

I nodded, and then peaked up hopefully at him.

"Does this mean I can go visit Jacob?" I asked, in a small voice.

His nostrils flared.

"No, and also, no, you are not coercing me into agreeing to this – this ridiculous idea! The wolves are dangerous! Grasp that, Tulika," he said.

"Jacob isn't dangerous." I said.

"Maybe Jacob isn't – but his wolf might be if he isn't in control."

"They've been in control! They haven't hurt any human beings, that's Victoria!" I said, glowering at him. Why was he being like this?

He took a controlled step towards me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Alice carefully slip out of the room.

"There are boundaries to every legend, Tulika. Your books may or may not have made that clear but I need you to understand this. My family's truce with the wolves has lasted for generations out of respect for that boundary. This…cooperation with them against Victoria is in common interest – out of affection for you and Stephen. Don't think for a second that their nature to destroy us has vanished. We might be humane enough towards each other in our sane moments but in a fight we won't blink before destroying each other."

I glared at him.

Why was he being like this? He was fine with Jacob during Prom. He was fine with everything during the time I'd come back. Was it about that? Was this really fear of losing me or was I just another stupid burden for him to protect out of the so called goodness of his heart?

Was I just another Bella to him – weak and seemingly stupid to push and boss around?

I knew he could hear my thoughts. At that moment, I just didn't care.

"If that is so," I began, my voice cold and quiet, "What is the difference between you and him?"

I stood and grabbed my bag, ignoring him when he tried to open his mouth to speak. Opening the door to Alice's room, I walked out, slamming it shut after me.

That had been a day ago and I still wasn't ready to speak to him. Now he had taken off for a hunting trip with Alice and Emmett and had not bothered to talk to me either so…why should I?

"Are you and Edward fighting?" Bella asked her voice calm and quiet.

I blinked and glanced at her. She was reading the label of the milk carton intently, vital sign that she was trying to talk about girl feelings with me. She always hid away when talking feelings, like Charlie. Like father, like daughter; guess that phrase was true for them.

I was about to deny it then sighed. "Yes," I said, averting my own eyes when she turned her innocent big brown eyes on me.

My eyes, I thought bitterly would never look that innocent, that childlike. My eyes always held some shadow behind them. The shadow of being hunted by a manic author thirsting for me and my best friend's blood, the worry for the people I loved, the continuous vampire danger around me. I was pretty sure if Twilight had gone the way it should have I would be in my bed, not knowing Stephen, reading about Bella moping about. If she had been with Edward, my eyes would've been the innocent ones…

"Why are you fighting?" she asked.

"He's being stupid." I said immediately. "Is he…?" she asked. I stared at her. "You don't think so?" I asked severely. "It's just…something Stephen said…I think he's just being a little possessive." She muttered.

Of course, Bella Swan would think anything Edward Cullen did was the right thing to do.

"Bella, I think I'm going to walk home. Tell Stephen to just leave me," I said.

Bella and Stephen had needed to do some grocery shopping and since I was under close scrutiny by Stephen he'd dragged me along. I was pretty sure he was going to be mad – again – at me for ditching them, but I needed to be far, far away from 'Edward is always right' Bella.

On my way towards the exit, I grabbed an extra large pack of chocolate chip cookies. Yeah, I binge ate when I was upset, so what…? I was pretty sure a lot of girls did it here.

I trudged towards the checkout counter and tapped my foot against the metal barrier of the counter.

"That's a lot of sugar you got there."

I turned with half a mind to scoff at whoever had decided to color my chocolate goodness in negativity and stopped.

Tall, russet-skinned and deep black hair chopped close to the head. He arched an eyebrow at the bag in my hand and smiled, his eyes serene and confident, unlike the thoughtful and suspicious look he'd worn when I'd first set eyes on him. He was also dressed casually in jeans, a black t-shirt and beach sandals. The last time I'd seen him he had been in the Pack's patent, shirtless and cut off wearing state.

"We haven't officially met." He said, stretching out a hand, his arm tan and corded with muscles, "I am Sam Utley."

I reached out and grasped the hand, my palm dwarfed by his. "Tulika Mukherjee," I said.

He gestured to the cashier and I hastily handed him a couple bills for my purchase then watched as he paid for his own. It was a long thin stick of bread and another bag of some vegetables. He motioned for me to carry on out as he followed.

"I hope this is not a contingency plan." I said when we were in the parking of the market. He shot me a puzzled look. "You know, the whole keep an eye thingy that Billy seems to have enforced on you." I raised my fingers to make quotes in the air. He paused then let out a low chuckle making me raise my eyebrows in surprise.

Sam Utley did not seem like the person who laughed…maybe when he was comfortable…or with Emily. I didn't expect him to be joyfully giggling next to me.

"Billy seems to have quite a soft spot for you. I suppose you remind him a little of Rebecca." He murmured.

"Rebecca…oh, Jacob's sister, right?" I asked.

He nodded, his eyes thoughtful again as he cradled his purchases under his arm.

"She doesn't have the gene, does she?" I asked. "No, neither does Rachel; it's really rare for a girl to get the wolf gene. It's mostly passed onto the first born son. For a girl to run as wolf is an occurrence that happens maybe once in a few years."

Like Leah, I thought, I always sympathized with her tale. She had been ditched on both sides of fate after all.

"By the way, thank you for what you guys did in the woods; that was really cool." I mumbled.

He smiled again.

"We are supposed to keep an eye on you, aren't we? Normally, we just thought you'd stick with the Cullens so we could patrol the forests but when we caught your scent in the clearing we had to check it. Good thing we did, the female leach would've taken you with her if we hadn't stepped in." he said.

I was surprised that he would call Edward's family by their names but when it came to Victoria it was back to leach. Guess they weren't as discriminating as they had been described to be – both in book and whatever forms of alternate reality this was. That was one more point I had over Edward's biased arguments.

So there; I thought with vindictive satisfaction.

"Yeah, that's true…so, is anyone in La Push mad at me for crossing any boundaries you guys may have?" I asked, rephrasing Edward's words from our fight.

"Not really, they aren't mad per se, Jacob was very concerned for a while. Wanted to check on you and Bella but we kept him from you. I didn't want him to alarm the Swans." He explained in return to my questioning gaze.

I bit my lip, contemplating my situation. Stephen was sure to look for me when I didn't come home and he would go first thing to Edward. Both the men were against my going to the reservation. For Edward it was some twisted form of protectiveness and Stephen had his own concerns. Ah what the hell, I thought finally.

"I want to see the Pack." I said bluntly.

He looked at me.

"I mean, I have never officially been to Jake's house and it's been ages since I've seen them and the rest of you. I know this kind of seems weird and that you don't really know me or anything but if Billy has told you anything about I and Stephen then you know I actually do know about you guys. Ok, so maybe it's only been a day since I've seen you all but that didn't count. I want to see you as humans. You're not obligated or anything but I would really appreciate it." I said in one breath and Sam raised an eyebrow.

Was I the only one in this universe who couldn't do that?

Sam stared at me for a bit before shrugging.

"I suppose I could take you to Jacob's house. Billy and he would like it."

He moved towards the side of a rust colored truck and nodded at me.

I grinned, rushing towards the passenger side, elated by the thought of being able to see the goofy werewolves.

Alright that's that!

AUTHOR'S NOTE

First of, thanks for all the readers out there and I love you all! Your encouragement has really made me emotional over this story. TBH, there wouldn't have been a book if it wasn't for you guys.

Second, I really want to know how all you feel about where this book is going. I need to know because it's important if I'm going to make another sequel for this series. If you guys want this series to continue into another book, please let me know by review or PM.

Third, if there is ANYTHING at all that you guys don't like (characterisation, plotting, seasoning) let me know too.

Thanks, you guys are awesome!

Please Review!