Despite her best intentions, Bella found herself standing in a clearing in the middle of the woods, watching as Quil and Embry, who had ordained themselves captains in Paul and Jared's absence, chose teams. She couldn't understand why all the supernatural people in her life insisted that she participate in organized sports with them, despite her obvious flaws.

As though sensing that fun was being had without them, Paul and Jared had returned as soon as first pick had been tossed for, seeming as calm as if no fight had even happened. Embry won the toss and immediately chose Jacob, and Quil in turn chose Paul, leaving just Seth, Jared, and Leah up for grabs. Jared went to Embry's team, and Seth to Quil's, and Bella felt badly as they all seemed to silently hesitate, fighting with their eyes about who would have to take Leah.

"It doesn't matter," she spoke up before anyone could say anything. "We're uneven. I don't feel like playing anyway."

"No way," Seth said, tossing a glare at the others. "Come on, Leah, be on our team."

She smiled briefly at him. "It's fine," she said. "I want to go for a run."

"Sam's out running," Jacob said, clearing his throat a little as afterthought, as though saying that had made him uncomfortable.

Leah hesitated, obviously trying to decide on a lesser of two evils. For a moment Bella wondered why she didn't just go back to Emily's to help with dinner, but then she belatedly realized that that was obviously out. Leah seemed unable to decide which torture she wanted to subject herself to.

"Hey," Bella called to her, breaking the tense silence, and eight pairs of eyes swiveled towards her. "Um… you can help me ref," she offered.

Leah looked like she'd swallowed something disgusting. Her eyes flickered to the boys, then back to Bella, and finally she let out a long, frustrated sigh. "Fine," she said, crossing the grass to Bella's side. "Do you even know how to call penalties in football?"

"Yeah," Bella answered, trying to keep her voice even and not be offended. "My dad has subjected me to a lot of football games in my life. I think I understand the rules well enough."

"Okay," she said, passing her eyes up Bella's body and finishing with such a look of irritation that Bella squirmed under her gaze.

"I was just trying to be nice, you know," she said as they boys scattered, deciding on their positions and readying for the first play.

"Yeah?" Leah said, jerking the football from Bella's hands. "Well I don't need your pity or your help." She trotted over to roughly the middle of the field. "Captains!" she called, and Embry and Quil both hurried to where she stood. Leah pulled a quarter on her pocket and flipped it; this time Quil won the toss, and Leah set the ball down square in the middle of the field, keeping her thumb on the tip on turning her face as Quil took a running start and kicked the ball hard. As it sailed through the air, Leah returned to Bella's side. "Why don't you ref Jacob's team and I'll keep an eye on Seth's?" she suggested. "You stare at him all day anyway." Without waiting for a response, she turned her attention pointedly on the game.

Bella tried not to be offended, but it was hard. Still, she stopped short of actually starting a fight with Leah. She knew the girl could rip her to shreds if she wanted to, or even accidentally, and Bella didn't trust her at all. So instead she did as Leah had asked, and paid attention to Jacob's team, calling their fouls when she saw them and screaming her support when they scored. Jacob's team won, and by the end of it, she found herself in the company of six smelly, sweating teenage boys. Secretly she wondered how they didn't pass out, given that their bodies normally functioned at 108.9° without any physical activity.

"We've still got a half-hour till dinner," Jared said as they walked home, in human form mostly for Bella's benefit. "Let's go cliff-diving."

Jacob and Bella exchanged a glance as he slipped his hand into hers. "Maybe we'll sit this one out," he said with a small smile in her direction.

"Thanks," she said, remembering with a shudder how her last brush with adventure over the side of the cliff had ended. They fell back, following the others who, despite an hour and a half of rough-and-tumble football that had gotten downright scary at times, seemed to still be full of energy.

When they reached the cliffs, Bella had to laugh as one by one the boys showed off, doing somersaults and fake death scenes over the side of the rocks before splashing into the churning surf below. Even Leah participated, swandiving over the edge of the cliff with surprising grace.

"Did you tell her about all the female werewolves up north?" Bella couldn't resist asking.

"Not in so many words," Jacob answered.

"Did she freak?"

He let out a long sigh. "I thought it would make her happy, but I think it gave her the opposite reaction. Now she feels tortured and unspecial."

"Sorry," she said sympathetically.

He shrugged. "With Leah, you can't really win." He looked at her and smiled, leaning down a little to touch his lips to hers in a gentle kiss. "We should head back to Emily's," he said. "The others will catch up with us."

She smiled at him and together they turned back. Walking through the fragrant, quiet woods hand-in-hand with Jacob, Bella felt nothing but contentment. Her life seemed so simple now, and happy.

Every element on Emily's stove was in use bubbling various pots of delicious-smelling things, but Emily herself was nowhere to be found when they first arrived there. Jacob immediately broke free of Bella's hand and hurried to the stove, grabbing a big spoon. Bella giggled as she watched him pause for a moment, trying to decide what to taste first.

As though on cue, Emily appeared on the ladder-style staircase that led up to the loft bedroom she and Sam shared, and in a sharp voice she said, "Jacob Black, you get away from that stove." He hesitated, as though trying to calculate whether it was worth it to ignore her, but Emily took advantage of his indecision and hurried over there, nudging him with her hip. It barely moved him, but he laughed good-naturedly and handed the spoon over, heaving a feigned sigh of frustration before returning to Bella's side.

"It smells delicious," Bella called over to the older girl. "Can I help with anything?"

"Yeah, you can make sure your boyfriend keeps his hands to himself," Emily answered with a smirk. "We'll eat as soon as-" Her sentence was interrupted by a few yips and whoops from the approaching boys outside, and she revised it, "Okay, we'll eat now."

"What about Sam?" Jacob asked.

"What about me?" Sam's unmistakable deep voice called from the staircase, a towel in his hand as he dried his short cap of dark brown hair.

"Perfect," Emily said. "You're out of the shower, your brothers are here. I love it when things go on schedule." She started carting pots to the counter, which Bella quickly jumped in to help her with, being extremely careful not to spill anything as Emily stacked a bunch of plates and a handful of cutlery onto the counter. In the meantime, everybody else lined up, and Bella soon witnessed the ritual she was now fairly used to, that of eight hungry werewolves warring for plates and forks and serving spoons. As usual, she and Emily hung back waiting, never as hungry as the others.

Eventually, they all got food, and found themselves places to sit, not only around Emily's small table but also on the couches and the floor. Jacob saved Bella the seat next to him on one couch and she slid into it with her plate, much less full than everyone else's save Emily's, finding herself where she usually ended up- between Jacob and Seth. Embry and Quil occupied the other couch and Paul had plunked himself on the floor by their feet. Sam, Emily, and Jared took seats at the table, while Leah sat on the arm of the couch next to her brother.

For a while there was very little talking, as the wolf pack devoured what was in front of them. Bella had never known such a hungry group of people in her life; it seemed like they were literally never full. Jacob had told her that Emily received a stipend from the tribal council just for feeding them, and Bella could believe it. She couldn't imagine the girl's grocery bill, with how much the pack was always at her house.

Bella liked to people-watch, and she had to admit that that was one of the best things about hanging out with this particular group. Everyone was very comfortable with one another and there certainly wasn't a lot of bashfulness, so she got to by a fly on the wall of the pack dynamics. She was especially fascinated with how Emily behaved with all of them, particularly when Sam wasn't around.

The first time Bella had noticed it, it had confused and embarrassed her, because she could plainly see that the boys were all flirting with Emily, and what was more, she was flirting back. But at the same time, she kept them all at arms length, as though toeing a very fine line between what was acceptable and what wasn't. At first Bella read the situation wrong and commented to Jacob that Emily seemed to have a wandering eye, but Jacob had said that that wasn't it at all- with a blush he had explained that, because they all shared Sam's thoughts and memories, and therefore shared his intense love for Emily, they all often felt not only romantically but sexually attracted to her.

"Imagine how weird it is for us… you feel like you know someone so intimately that you've never met before you changed, never touched… but you could almost swear you had," Jacob had explained. "That's what we all deal with, on a daily basis. Em likes the attention… but she has a pretty hard job, keeping everyone in check."

Once Bella had thought about it like that, she'd noticed that what Jacob had said was true. Emily was constantly on the offensive in terms of her boundaries, particularly when Sam was gone and the other boys didn't feel as motivated to behave. But the girl was so good at heading off potentially inappropriate moments that it came off as a game. Maybe it was, in a way, but it must have been a bit odd for Emily to have seven people witness her most private moments second-hand… especially when two of them were her cousins. But, like Jacob, everyone seemed to have a strict code of ethics about discussing the things that came up through their link, and Bella had yet to witness anyone mention anything that could embarrass Emily.

She certainly didn't envy the strange situation the other girl had found herself in. Though she realized her own predicament wasn't that different now- she wondered if Jacob had to deflect sexual comments and feelings from his brothers about her. She tried not to think about it; at least none of them had made any kind of move on her.

"Sam, you missed a great football game," Embry said when his hunger had died down enough that he could breathe. "We won, of course."

"You cheated," Seth protested good-naturedly.

"Did not," Jared retorted. "Besides, Jacob was like a handicap, staring at Bella for half the game instead of keeping his eyes on the ball."

"Yeah," Paul agreed, despite the fact that he hadn't even been on Jacob's team. "You should have played, Bella. It would have been fun."

She shook her head. "No way," she said. "You have no idea how much I suck at sports."

"I think we can guess," Leah piped up.

"Yeah, come on Jake, you're giving Bella special treatment just because she's your wife!" Seth said, grinning. There was a momentary pause, and then everyone burst out laughing.

Bella's face flamed and she glared daggers at Jacob, which only made everyone laugh harder. It wasn't a cruel laughter, but she felt humiliated. She buried her face in Jacob's shoulder, and a moment later the laughter tapered off, so she suspected that he'd given everyone a glare to silence them.

"Sorry," he said gently, pressing a kiss to Bella's hair. "I tried not to."

"I thought you guys didn't talk about link stuff," she hissed back.

"Bella's right," Emily said sternly. "You guys can't give her a hard time because of something you shouldn't even know about. That was a special moment for them- a private moment."

"Yeah, private and hilarious!" Jared crowed, and a few of them started laughing again, though much less loudly and quieting down much sooner.

Sam was the first to clean his plate, and he soon stood and went back to the kitchen for seconds. Bella watched as he piled his plate high with more food than she could have eaten in a first helping, let alone a second. Then, suddenly, he set down the plate and reached for something else, lines of worry creasing his forehead.

"Emily," he said gently, but with enough presence that everyone turned to look. "Is this from today's paper?" He held up a newspaper article that had been carefully cut out. The headline read 'Police Fear Serial Killer as Missing Persons Cases Triple.'

"Yeah," Emily answered, sounding both sad and worried. "I cut it out this morning."

Sam returned to the table, his food forgotten, and read the article. Bella felt a sick feeling rising in her stomach, that familiar feeling of fear that she tried to convince herself was absent from her life with Jacob. But she knew that wasn't true. Victoria was dead, but there was still something else going on- something truly serious. She knew from Jacob that Sam was keeping track of the news, though they couldn't yet be sure it had anything to do with vampires.

"Sam?" Jacob asked tensely.

"It's the same," he answered. "No indication of what might be happening, but there is definitely something going on down there. Something big."

Bella watched everyone exchange tense glances. She knew it was frustrating for them, to feel compelled to destroy vampires, suspecting that they had something to do with what was happening down there, but being powerless to do anything about it unless the problem migrated north. But they had no choice- even one giant wolf prowling the streets of Seattle was sure to be spotted, let alone eight. At least here they had the protection of the forest.

"Jacob," she said softly, turning his attention back to her. "If this has to do with vampires, maybe you should talk to…" She trailed off as she realized everyone's attention was focused on her.

"What, you want us to ask those ticks for advice?" Leah asked sarcastically, narrowing her eyes.

"No way," Paul said. "Did you know your little vampire friends were straying onto our land? We were within our rights to kill them, you know."

"Come on," Seth said. "They're not so bad…" He trailed off, quieting down immediately as he received a few sharp looks from the others.

Bella swallowed, realizing she should have brought this topic up in private with Jacob, who would have at least considered the idea before squashing it outright.

"Okay, no ganging up on Bella," Emily spoke up, trying to lighten the mood. "She's just trying to help."

Taking Emily's cue, Sam said, "We appreciate it, Bella… but our hands are tied. We'll just have to take a wait and see approach." Everyone shifted uncomfortably, clearly not liking this plan, but also not being able to argue with Sam's decision. Still, no one challenged him, and gradually the stressful mood passed.

Bella and Emily were still nibbling at their plates even after every one of the boys and Leah had cleared their own and gone for seconds. Emily smiled at Bella as she was left momentarily alone on the couch and took the opportunity to snag Seth's vacated seat, putting her arm around Bella and giving her a squeeze.

"It's unbelievable how much they can eat," Bella remarked.

"You're telling me?" Emily answered with a warm smirk in the direction of the pack. "If they didn't volunteer to take shifts driving down to Costco in Seattle every Saturday I'd never let them through the front door."

"Well, you'd probably still let Sam through," she teased.

Emily giggled and glanced at Sam, and Bella could plainly see the love in the other girl's eyes, a fond softening of her expression as she gazed at him before turning her attention back to Bella. "Sorry about all that awkwardness before," she said. "That's why I was going to show the article to Sam after you all left."

"It's okay," Bella answered. "I should keep my nose out of things."

Emily just shrugged, then she smiled conspiratorially. "So. We have to talk about this village you and Jake were in," she said.

Bella was surprised. "Hasn't Sam filled you in?"

"He filled me in on the need-to-know version of Jacob's experience, but I'm way too curious to settle for that," Emily said with a wave of her hand. "I want your version and I want details."

"Um, okay," Bella answered, smiling a little. Emily was certainly never shy about making demands; she wondered how much that had to do with having someone like Sam basically at her beck and call, excited to please her in any way possible.

"But not now," Emily added. "Too many people around to give their two cents. You should come over sometime and we'll have a girls' day in. We'll paint our nails and do facials or something and you can tell me all about it."

"Careful," Leah's wry voice came suddenly from next to them, making Bella jump a little. "With Em, innocent nail painting will turn into skinny-dipping in no time."

Emily stood up and let her cousin resume her seat on the arm of the couch, mouthing a quick 'call me later' to Bella before retreating back to the table. Bella smiled at Leah, but she didn't return it, instead digging into her plate. Seth and Jacob soon returned and reclaimed their seats on either side of her, but Bella still felt a bit awkward about the whole thing.

That night when Jacob was dropping her off at home she asked, more casually than she felt, "Does Leah hate me?"

He hesitated, and that said a lot. But then he answered, "No."

"Oh, okay. That's really convincing, Jake," she teased.

Jacob let out a sigh. "She doesn't hate you. She doesn't really hate anyone. She's just not friendly, and she's really torn up about Abi's village and there being other girl werewolves and everything. I heard Em asking you about it."

"Yeah," Bella answered. "I get it, really. It's fine."

"She doesn't hate you," he assured her.

Bella leaned over and kissed him, and then they said goodnight and she went inside. She really didn't care what anyone thought of her, and she wasn't going to be nice to someone who wasn't nice to her. She put Leah out of her mind and instead started daydreaming about Jacob, wondering what his next romantic gesture might be. She loved his unpredictability, and she knew whatever came next was bound to be a big surprise. The thought of that put a smile on her face as she crawled into bed, pulling her purple comforter up to her chin and letting her eyelids slowly flutter closed.