JACOB'S POV

What was I doing? I was making out with a girl I barely knew. But Ali seemed nice. She was pretty too. What was I so worried about? And since she was friends with Emily's cousin (whatever her name was…Nikki, maybe?), I bet she would be back again someday. That was good, I wouldn't be brokenhearted. I didn't want to end up like Bella.

We broke away after about 10 seconds. Ali caught her breath, and so did I. She managed a smile. "That was nice," she mused.

I grinned. "Will you be back tomorrow?"

"Of course," she promised.

We just stared at each other for a while. It was kind of an awkward silence, but it was still nice. Though she seemed to be trying to avoid silences.

"I better go." There was a reluctant edge in her voice. "They're probably wondering where I went off to."

I sighed. "Oh, right. Well, good night."

She stood up and walked out, shooting one last smile at me.

ALI'S POV

I fought the urge to skip around and sing I kissed Jacob Black! I kissed Jacob Black! I had a jittery feeling in my body, as if I wanted to go and scream and jump around. That was what girls did in movies, anyway. I tried to keep calm as I walked through the night.

I remembered my way back to Emily's, if I just retraced my steps, which wasn't that hard. I rang the doorbell. It was Nicole.

"There you are! Where did you go?" she whispered as she stood aside and let me in.

"Ali! You're just in time for dinner!" Emily pulled out a chair for me. It was an empty seat next to Olivia. Nicole took the vacant seat on the other side of me.

"Where did you go?" she repeated. I pretended not to hear her as I scooped up a big helping of spaghetti. Nicole seemed annoyed with me, though I couldn't say I didn't blame her. I guess I had been acting a little grumpy after Embry had imprinted on me, and then I had just walked out like that. But if I told her I made out with Jacob Black, she would be furious with me. No one ever rejected someone who imprinted on her, according to the books. But I didn't want to lie to Nicole, though. What should I say? I decided to ignore her when she talked about it – it was the best idea I had.

"Where's Sam?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

Emily bit her lip. "He's out with some…friends." Oh. His werewolf pack. Of course Emily would try to hide it from us. But Embry would probably break the news to the pack that he had imprinted, and I would soon have to be told about werewolves. Ugh, why me? I thought. Why can't it be someone hotter?

"Like who?" Olivia pried, probably trying to get Emily to tell us. Of course we all knew about werewolves and vampires. But the actual werewolves and vampires didn't know that. We needed to act innocent until we were told straight-out.

"Just some of his close friends on the reservation," Emily insisted. "Sometimes they just go for a boy's night out."

Nicole was pushing her spaghetti around with her fork. "Uh huh." She seemed to have given up on asking me what had happened.

I didn't think Emily heard Nicole's sarcastic comment when her cell phone vibrated.

"Hello? Oh, hi Sam….oh really? Well should she come over right now? Okay….I see….well she is her friend….you're right. Okay, I'll drive all of them over. Bye." She snapped her phone shut.

"After you girls are finished with dinner I'm driving over to the bonfire. It's time you get to know some of Sam's pa – I mean friends."

We all quickly dug into our food, eager to go over. It was hard to keep pretending to be oblivious all the time, and I was excited to finally be in on it. We all jumped into Emily's sedan, then she drove straight towards the beach.

NICOLE'S POV

Ali was hiding something from Olivia and me, and I knew it. I decided not to even ask, though. What was the point? She obviously was trying to avoid the subject. But I vowed to myself I would find out soon enough.

We were driven to a cliff that hung over the ocean. It was just like in Eclipse, when Jacob took Bella to the bonfire and she first heard the legend of how the werewolves had come to be. Was this Eclipse? I couldn't be sure. If Jacob and Bella were there, then it would be likely that it was Eclipse. I would just have to wait and see.

This wasn't La Push as I remembered it. In my world, there were no werewolves or imprinting or anything. No shirtless, tanned, and muscular boys tromping around the forest in search of vampires. Sure, there were legends, but no one actually believed them, because they knew werewolves weren't real. Because of this, I didn't even get to see my actual cousin. Because of this, my cousin was Emily. I didn't love Emily like a cousin at all. I still couldn't think of her as a cousin.

In the distance, I spotted the warm glow of the bonfire; I knew we were there now.

Emily parked and led out us out to the fire. She took a seat next to Sam, wrapping her arms around him. I shyly sat down next to her. I felt all the eyes of the pack staring at me.

Jacob wasn't there. Neither was Quil, Leah, or Seth. That meant we were in either Twilight of New Moon. But Embry was there, and he was gazing at Ali, who was deliberately letting her eyes wander away from his face. Did Embry imprint before or after Jacob? Did his time of changing differ because we showed up? I really needed to reread the books to refresh my memory, though I knew that wasn't an option. I couldn't buy it in this world.

Sam took a deep breath. "Welcome, girls. We are joined here today because we have something to share with you about our tribe." After his little introduction, he started into the story about the spirit warriors. To be honest, I had skipped this part in the book after starting onto it. I decided to play along this time.

When he was done he said, "It still holds true today…" He explained about the wolves and how they were here to hunt down vampires. I pretended to act appalled. They bought it. Maybe I should be an actress someday, I though to myself.

"There's also something called imprinting," Sam informed us. "It's like love at first sight. I imprinted on your cousin Emily, Nicole – " he paused to grin at Emily, who happily smiled back, " – and Embry Call claims he imprinted on Ali.

"That's why we have told you the truth. Once one of the pack has imprinted on an outsider, we must tell them the truth. Then they can decide whether or not they will accept the one who has imprinted on them." Everyone's eyes bored into her. Sure, Ali loved to be the center of attention, but I bet this had to be awkward.

"Well?" Embry piped up after a long silence. He sounded a little impatient. "Do you accept me?"

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