The motorcycles didn't need to be hidden farther than just being in the garage. Natalia felt giddy at the prospect of learning all about this fascinating beast. She tried to keep a good balance between Bella's school friends and Jacob, but he easily won over.

Jacob was just so warm. His energy reminded her of her children, his eagerness reminded her of Hjoromir, his size reminded her of Gorr, his compassion reminded her of Valgus. He was everyone she missed so dearly from home all wrapped into one. So he ended up getting most of Natalia's free time as they fixed the bikes together.

She asked many questions, having no knowledge of the dwarven looking mechanics of the machines of this world and Jacob was happy to answer every one. They chatted amicably about all manner of things. Jacob happily caught her up on his sophomore year, telling her about his classes and his two best friends.

"Quil and Embry?" Natalia interrupted. They sounded like names she might hear back home and knew that meant they were strange for this world. "Those are unusual names."

"Quil is a hand-me-down name. Embry is some soap opera star I think. I can't say anything though. They fight dirty if you start on their names, they'll tag-team you."

"Jacob?" A voice in the distance called out.

"Is that Billy?"

"Nope," Jacob popped the p. "Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear." He muttered.

"Jake? Are you out here?" The voice was closer now.

"Yeah." Jacob called back and then sighed.

They weren't waiting long before two boys waltz into the garage with a familiarity that spoke of how often they had been there. One was taller, almost as tall as Jacob, and slender. His sleek black hair hung down to his chin. The other was burly, his shirt straining over his muscles. He had his hair buzzed close to his head.

Both boys stopped short when they saw Natalia. The slender one glanced swiftly back and forth between Natalia and Jacob while the brawny one had a slow smile spreading across his face.

"Hey guys," Jacob greeted half-heartedly.

"Hey Jake," they both said back, still eyeing Natalia.

"Bella this is Quil and Embry, guys this is Bella." Jacob said.

The brawny one stepped forward, extending his hand, "Quil Ateara."

His handshake was firm and he held Bella's gaze in what she assumed was meant to be a smouldering look. She just found it amusing.

"Nice to meet you, Quil."

The slender one stayed back opting to wave. "Hi Bella, I'm Embry, Embry Call, but you probably figured that out already." he shoved his hand into the pocket of his jeans.

"Nice to meet you too." Natalia said.

"So what are you guys doing?" Quil asked, still looking at Natalia.

"Bella and I are fixing up these bikes." Whatever fascination the boys had with Natalia melted at the word bikes. They immediately rushed over and drilled Jacob with heaps of educated questions. Natalia was at a point where she could follow some of the conversation and listened intently to their drabble.

Unfortunately it was getting late and Natalia needed to get home before Charlie came looking for her. She made her goodbyes quickly and slipped out of the garage with the promise of parts shopping the next day. She felt melancholy on her way home and all throughout the evening. Jacob was shaping up to be a good friend. A really close good friend and he didn't even know half the story. What happens if Bella suddenly comes back and he loses the friend he thought he had with no explanation?

That guilt was momentarily lifted the next day as they dug through scrap at the dump. Ankle deep in mud sorting through garbage, Natalia was having a blast just shooting the shit and mucking about.

"I'm doing all the talking." Jacob said after he finished a rather thrilling tale about Quil trying to ask out a senior's steady girlfriend. "It's your turn now what's going on in Forks."

How Natalia wished she could just jump into a story about bandit hunting with Gorr, or that time Hjoromir managed to get banned from an entire town for being so overbearing in his need to help yet so underskilled. But alas she had to settle for telling him that there was nothing of note in Forks.

"Your friends are much more exciting than mine, I like your stories about Quil."

"He likes you too."

"He's too young for me by a mile," Natalia tried to laugh off.

"He's not that much younger," Jacob countered. "He's only a year and a few months."

If only he knew just how much younger they truly were. "Think about how much faster girls mature than guys. You'd have to start counting that in dog years. That'd make me what, like, twelve years older?"

That comment worked to keep the conversation light as they argued over how to measure someone's mental age. Natalia somehow lost ten years for height, two more for not knowing how to change a tire, and gained one for Bella's bookkeeping at a young age. In the end Natalia was 23 and Jacob was thirty somehow.

The conversation was not put to rest however. Jacob began to get more bold as he taught Natalia how to ride the finished motorcycles. Always trying to steal arm touches and hugs and holds from behind whenever he could no matter how many times Natalia turned him down to his face. He always said he'd wait for her.

As their friendship strengthened and Jacob's crush grew with it, so too did Natalia's guilt grow. It grew and grew until it threatened to swallow her whole and Jacob was beginning to notice. Natalia did her best to conceal what she was feeling for the sake of their day riding. She was excited for the adrenaline, desperate to feel some after so long without.

Jacob loaded the bikes easily into the back of Bella's truck and they were off to where Jacob was instructing her. They drove out of town. Weaving around the dense mass of trees until they broke through to a stunning view of the Pacific. Natalia drove slower as they got closer to the cliff edge so she could take in the view.

It was out in front of them, on an outcropping of cliffs that she saw them. Natalia slammed the break as she watched a figure jump gracefully off the edge and into the murky cold below.

"They're cliff diving Bella." Jacob supplied as Natalia watched transfixed.

What a rush that would be. Forget the bikes, she wanted to cliff dive.

"We have to go sometime." Natalia couldn't suppress her giddiness.

"Sure sure, but not from there. Sam and his gang are just showing off. The rest of us jump from lower down." He pointed towards a jut out halfway down the cliff.

"Fine, at least for the first time."

"You're weird sometimes you know that?"

"So who were those guys?" Natalia asked as they headed onto the road again.

Jacob explained the La Push gang. A bunch of beefed up hall monitors who call themselves protectors and have the council on their side. The more Jacob talked about them, the more enraged he got. His fists balled tight and sweat on his brow. He really hated those guys it seemed. They sounded young to be from the myths but the strange way they were acting checked out.

"You missed the turn." Natalia did a wide U-turn and got them onto a deserted dirt path.

When they got out Natalia turned to face Jacob. "What's really bothering you? About the Sam thing I mean." Jacob grimaced but didn't seem angry. He started kicking at the dirt and then against the tire of the truck again and again.

He sighed. "It's just… the way they treat me, it creeps me out. The council is supposed to be all equal, but if there was a leader it'd be my dad. I've never been able to figure out why his opinion mattered so much more. Something to do with his father's father being chief. My great grandpa, Ephraim Black, was sort of the last chief we had, and they still listen to Billy, maybe because of that." He paused. "But I'm just like everyone else. Nobody treats me special… until now."

"Sam treats you special?"

"Yeah." His foot kept tapping. "He looks at me like, like he's waiting for something. Waiting for me. I hate it."

"You don't have to join anything." Natalia wasn't sure that was true but he was upset she needed to say something.

"Yeah." He kept tapping his foot.

"What?"

He frowned at the ground. His eyebrows pulled up with worry instead of down with anger.

"Embry's been avoiding me and Quil lately." He paused again. "He missed a week of school and was never home when we tried to see him. Then all of a sudden he's following Sam like some kind of cult puppy." His tapping increased with his frustration.

"They bugged him even more than they bug me. He didn't want anything to do with them. Neither did Paul before he was pulled in somehow. I don't know what it means, I can't figure it out and I feel like I have to because Embry's my friend and Sam's looking at me funny and…" He trailed off.

Natalia threw one arm around Jacob's waist. "It'll be okay Jake, we'll figure something out." She tried to placate.

"Thanks Bella." Jake turned towards the bikes "So are we gonna ride or what."

The riding was fun and smooth. The speed was exhilarating and Natalia never wanted it to end. However it had to and as soon as it did the guilt creeped back in. The talk about Sam and his (probably) pack had made her feel worse about hiding things from Jake. It was showing much too prominently on her face to hide it.

"What's up?"

"It's really nothing."

"Doesn't seem like nothing."

Natalia was tired of hiding this from everyone. And at the rate he's growing if the Quileute legends are true then who cares if he knows about a bit more magic, right? It was with this logic that she parked the car off a side road and explained everything she could.

"Look, some secrets aren't mine to share so if I can't explain something you have to promise to drop it alright?"

"Sure, sure, but what's all of this about."

"It's crazy, totally nuts alright so i'm going to show you something to hopefully make you believe and then explain everything alright?"

"Bella, are you okay?"

"I'm fine just, ugh, let me show you." She summoned an ice spike in her hand and Jacob was stunned into silence.

"I'm not Bella, I haven't been Bella since Edward broke up with her in the woods."

She went on to explain how she woke up stuck in this body with a lifetime of memories that aren't hers and no magic. She explained the countless nights she trained until she could use her powers again. She explained her true age and some of her life she was missing back home.

She took a calming breath after her ramblings. "Any questions"

Jacob just stared at her for a while as it all sank in. "Why me?"

She wasn't sure if she could tell him the whole truth. She didn't know if she would be overstepping any boundaries by telling him this. She opted for a half-truth instead.

"You've become a really good friend to me, you remind me of many of my friends back home. I felt like you deserved the truth, especially if Bella comes back as suddenly as I ended up here. I honestly don't know if we'll get a chance at goodbye."

"Well," Jacob paused. "I guess we'll have to live every visit like it's our last together. And sorry for getting so touchy about the age thing. I get it now."

Natalia's heart was fit to burst. She was so elated at Jacob's easy understanding of everything. They made new plans since they were done with the motorcycles. The next big project. Finding the perfect place to show Jacob just what her powers could do without being found out. Natalia remembered the meadow Bella and Edward would frequent and decided that would be the perfect spot.

They began their search for the meadow with a map sprawled out on Jacob's living room floor. For a full 20 minutes he drew a complicated web across the section of the map they were going to travel. Natalia chatted amicably with Billy, who didn't seem to mind their hiking trip at all. Natalia was surprised given the recent fuss about bear sightings. Then again if her hunch was true surely the chief of the tribe would be in on the legends.

"Maybe we'll see the super bear," Jacob joked as he worked.

Billy laughed, "maybe you should take a jar of honey with you just in case."

They all chuckled. "Hope you're fast Bella, one little jar isn't going to keep a hungry bear occupied for long."

"I only have to be faster than you."

"Good luck with that!"

Their good spirits kept up, brightening the cloudy day as they trekked through the brush. Jacob whistled a cheerful tune as they went, over gnarled roots and under low branches. Days turned to weeks as they trekked slowly, making their way through the grid.

Usually it was jovial, Natalia would share stories of home and point out differences between these woods and the wilds of Valenwood. In return Jacob would share stories of school and his friends. Unfortunately those got more and more tense.

"Embry's still not back to normal?"

Jacob just shook his head, his hand clenching and unclenching.

"Sam?"

He looked away, usually he'd make some kind of joke or brush off statement and they'd go back to lighter topics. But today was different. There was something in the air and Natalia could almost taste it. Jacob remained tense the whole way home.

He didn't call when he got home. And when Natalia tried to call she just got excuses from Billy. Then she tried to visit. Billy answered and claimed mono but Natalia was only half listening. She could feel a presence from Jacob's room deep in her beast spirit. A type of presence she hadn't felt in a long time. Another hunter was close. Not quite the presence given off by disciples of Hircine but close, so very close to the wolves she was used too. Her hunch was confirmed.

The new dilemma was getting close enough to explain that she knew what he was. On all sides she was blocked. She couldn't get close enough for long enough to tell him that his secret was safe with her. Billy told her he was sick, Jacob tried to tell her their friendship was over before running to his pack. It was the most frustrating thing Natalia had been through. If these children would just listen, but no.

It was taking too long. Natalia only had so much patience and not much to do without Jacob so she decided to hike without him. If she found the meadow she could practise her shouts anyway.

Birds chirped and cawed, insects buzzed noisily overhead. The day was cloudy but dry. All in all a beautiful day for Forks. Beautiful for Skyrim too. Natalia let her mind wander as she trekked, almost able to pretend she was home as she marched on. She wasn't even looking for the meadow yet when she literally stumbled into it.

Winter had killed the flowers and grass from Bella's memory but the shape was the same unnatural circle. She stepped out and looked about, readying a shout when she felt eyes on her. Turning to the north, a figure emerged from the brush.

"Laurent?" Natalia said, surprised.

He had been one of James' coven though he hadn't been involved in the hunt for Bella. According to her memories he was supposed to be in Alaska attempting the animal diet, yet his eyes were as shining red as ever.

"Bella?"

"You remember."

He grinned. "I didn't expect to see you here." He strolled closer with a bemused expression.

He probably assumed he was going to get a snack out of her today. Good. Natalia's heart soared at the prospect of a hunt no matter how quickly it would be over.

"Isn't it the other way around? I do live here. I thought you'd gone to Alaska."

"You're right," he agreed. "I did go to Alaska. Still I didn't expect… When I found the Cullen place empty, I thought they'd moved on."

"They did move on." Natalia answered honestly, hoping the conversation would stall him enough to pull just a little more satisfaction from his impending death.

"Hmm, I'm surprised they left you behind. Weren't you a sort of pet of theirs?"

"Something like that." She answered wryly.

"Do they visit often?"

"Now and again." Natalia stalled. "The time seems longer to me I'm sure."

"Hmm," He began to stalk closer.

"I'll tell Carlisle you stopped by, he'll be sorry he missed your visit. How are things working out in Denali? Carlisle said you were staying with Tanya?" A part of Natalia hoped she wouldn't have to needlessly kill him. Perhaps he'll simply be on his way after a quick chat and he wouldn't try to eat her. This Natalia doubted very much though.

The question made him pause. "I like Tanya very much," he mused. "And her sister Irina even more… I've never stayed in one place for so long before. I enjoy the advantages, the novelty of it. But, the restrictions are difficult… I'm surprised any of them can keep it up for long." He smiled at Natalia. "Sometimes I cheat."

Poor thing just signed his death certificate. Well there's a price to pay attempting to eat the wrong person. "Jasper has problems with that too."

"Is that why they moved?"

"No, he's more careful at home."

"As am I."

"Did Victoria ever find you?" Natalia wanted information before he died. If anyone would want to hunt Bella it would be her.

"Yes," he took a step forward. "I actually came here as a favour to her." He made a face. "She won't be happy about this."

"About what?"

He smiled innocently. "About me killing you. She wanted to save that for herself. She's rather put out with you."

"Me?" She asked, hoping he was a villain who loved the sound of his own voice.

She was in luck. "I know," he shook his head and chuckled. "It seems backwards to me too. But James was her mate and Edward killed him. She thought it more appropriate to kill you than Edward-Fair turnabout, mate for a mate. She asked me to get the lay of the land for her, so to speak. I didn't imagine you would be so easy to get to. So maybe her plan was flawed-apparently it wouldn't be the revenge she imagined, since you must not mean very much to him if he left you here unprotected. I suppose she'll be angry all the same."

"Why not wait for her?"

He sported a mischievous grin. "Well you've caught me at a bad time, Bella. I didn't come to this place on Victoria's mission-I was hunting. I'm quite thirsty and you do smell simply mouthwatering."

He was only a couple steps away now, stopping to savour her scent carried by the breeze. "Mouthwatering." He repeated as Natalia readied a conjured sword.

His head whipped to the left and his eyes widened as Natalia moved to attack. She could feel the presence of a pack when she cut Laurents head clean from his shoulders. She leaned down to pick up his head as she cast a fireball at his body.

"What a shame, if you had just tried a little harder to stick to animals you would have lived to see tomorrow." She tossed his head onto the burning body before turning towards her audience. She had gotten a small hunt and the attention of Jacob and his new pack. The day was looking up.

They approached slowly. Wary of her as they could sense the beast within her. Their wolves recognised her age and authority which confused them as it didn't match up at all with what she looked like. Jacob unwittingly thought of the memory he had been trying to hide from the pack when Natalia first told him everything and it all made sense. Sam phased with this information.

"Natalia."

"Sam."

The two alphas stared each other down. Sam's wolf was all too ready to bow to Natalia but Sam wasn't yet. Jacob phased and ran to the trees to put shorts on before coming back out.

"Come on Sam, she's on our side. Look at how she took down the leech." Jacob chimed in.

Sam sighed, he didn't like it but he trusted his wolf and his future alpha.

"Come, we'll take you to Emily's"

Jacob phased back into a wolf and leaned down for her to get on. The run made Natalia feel almost like she was running with her own pack back home. Filled with melancholy they arrived in record time.

"Don't stare." Jacob whispered to Natalia before they headed inside.