La Push had never felt so far away and as the narrow corridor of trees whipped past, Bella tried to formulate some kind of plan of action, something more substantial than her current one, which simply read 'find Embry'.

The trees thinned slightly and as she steered the truck down through familiar streets, her head jolting back and forth as she tried to keep herself alive, while searching frenetically through the dark forestry. She slowed to take a sharp corner and when she felt the backend step out slightly, it sent a wave of irritation through her rather than fear.

"Come on you stupid thing." She snarled out, mentally chastising the old rickety vehicle for the first time since Charlie had presented it to her with apprehensive eyes.

Luckily for both her sanity and the trucks potential to drive another day, the trees finally gave way to a few small houses. Bella knew she should slow down, but her foot didn't lift from the accelerator as she roared on to Embry's dated home.

Leaving the truck running, she worked her way through a few silent prayers while running haphazardly across his overgrown yard to the dark and unfriendly front door. Trying to convince herself that Embry could have fallen asleep and that was why not a single light seemed to be lit, she banged ferociously on the worn red painted door, not caring about common etiquette or form. She didn't even care if she summoned the whole neighborhood, if only Embry would come to the door, his eyes heavy with sleep.

Banging as hard as her fist would allow, she shouted his name for good measure, but nothing happened, nothing other than a few curtains twitching from across the street.

Looking around herself in a slow circle, she paused with her eyes in the direction of Jake's house. It was the next logical step and as she sped back to her idling truck, she convinced herself that it was probably both of them playing a trick on her, intoxicating her with fear to titillate, filling a few hours of an otherwise boring day with a little shadenfreude.

At least someone was home at Jake's place, and though she was tempted to bang on the front door and alert Billy to his son's cruel humor, she walked swiftly to his little garage, certain she would find them both there.

Pulling back the slice of tin, she already knew it wasn't right. There was no laughter or sound of metal clashing against metal. There was only the dead silence of man and the bellowing sounds of nature as the wind whistled around her body.

There was little hope left in her as she approached the Black's front door.

With a knock that was full of tense energy, she could already feel the dread take back over as she recalled the shrill sounds of pain, which for whatever reason, she was now sure had emanated from Embry.

"Bella? Are you okay?" Billy asked uneasily when he opened up his door to find her biting her lip something rotten on his doorstep. Her eyes were wild and as she tried to compose herself into something resembling her normal self, she had to gulp back the threat of frustrated tears.

"Umm, is Embry here by any chance?" She asked, picking a piece of rust from the screen door with her fingernail. It seemed to take forever for Billy to actually respond and when he did, it was exactly as she had expected.

"No kiddo, I haven't seen him all day. Jake just popped to the store; you can come in and wait for him if you'd like." Billy rolled his wheelchair back slightly and she looked over his shoulder into the orange glowing warmth he was offering, but instead of accepting as she should, she shook her head.

"Thanks, but I really need to find him. How long ago did Jake leave?" She was only asking because she really didn't want to waste her time looking through the undergrowth along the way if she could help it.

"Oh, 'bout five minutes now. You should catch him there without trouble." Billy replied and while it looked like he wanted to say more, she didn't wait to find out. In her haste she didn't remember to thank him, nor did she apologize for intruding on his night.

Bella had only been to the local store once before, but from one end of La Push to the other, nothing took more than ten minutes, so it wasn't hard to find once again. The neon lights blazed in the atramentous sky and while she was sure they were meant to be welcoming, she didn't feel anything warm or inviting as she stepped across the potholed parking lot.

A little tinny bell declared her arrival and as her eyes scanned over the low shelves for Jake, she found her hopes dashed. Striding with purpose to the checkout area, she waited with growing unease as a small man chatted amiably about the weather with a very pissed off looking Leah Clearwater. Bella tried to remember if she'd known Leah worked here, but didn't linger on the thought for long as the man bid her goodbye and stepped out of the way.

"Isabella Swan, you shouldn't be here." Leah said dismissively, the lack of emotion in her voice lending itself to Bella's already tidal moods.

"Yeah and I promise tomorrow I will be all over that 'don't come around her anymore' stuff, but right now I really need to find Jake." She wasn't sure why exactly she'd said Jake over Embry, but Leah didn't seem interested enough to care.

"I haven't seen him and you should really get out of here, Sam's gonna be here soon." Leah looked pointedly at the door as if that would make her words carry far more credence.

"I get it, I really do. But Leah, I know Jake is on his way here and if that's the case, then I need to wait until he gets here." Bella insisted, hoping she was doing a convincing job of acting nonchalant.

"Fine doll, on your head be it." Leah said, raising her hands in submission. Bella wondered if she should say anything further in her defense, but Leah buried her concerns when she started to leaf through a magazine absently. She watched the still monotony of the girl for a few moments, but as headlights flashed in an arc through the dull glass of the small windows, she rushed to the door.

What she found there left her taking hesitant steps backwards, because not only was Sam stalking purposefully in her direction, but he was glaring clear through her as he did so.

"Leah, go in the back." He ordered the moment he was close enough for Leah to hear and when Bella turned, expecting some sort of protest from the girl, she only caught her lithe back retreating through a hastily hung wall of bright yellow beads.

"What're you doing here?" He demanded, standing so close that she had to crane her neck to see his face. What she found there made her wish she hadn't bothered, as his cold, soulless eyes forced a sliver of fear into her heart.

"I'm looking for Jake. Billy said I could catch him here." She admitted, omitting the truth when something instinctual told her it was the right thing to do.

"Why are you looking for him?" Sam demanded, his whole body pressing down on hers with gargantuan intimidation.

Taking a very slow step backward, she felt a little relief when he allowed the small distance. She didn't think she could answer his question without actually giving herself away, so she simply shrugged, angering him further with what he saw as defiance.

"Answer me Bella." He growled and as he stepped forward, she found herself shuffling back, their positions somehow becoming reversed in her attempted dance to get away. She now had a clear view of the back room where Sam's fiancée was ensconced and as she peered back into the darkness, she felt sure that Leah was watching them, allowing this to go on without doing a single thing to intervene.

"Bella. I'm going to give you one more chance." He loomed forward and as she backed up into a wall of pasta and rice, she knew there was nowhere left to go. His anger was almost palpable and she felt like a weakened animal, caught in the grasp of something most definitely standing on a higher wrung of the food chain.

A little flash of color caught her eye and she lifted her eyes to the jostling yellow beads. Leah was still half hidden in the shadows but she could just make out a pleading look on her face, something Bella decided very quickly was meant solely for herself.

"I got a weird phone call…" She started, listening to Leah's imploring eyes. Her words were quickly cut off by the now angelic bell, and with Sam distracted, she shuffled just a little further away from him.

"What's going on?" She heard a deep voice ask and without anything further she felt the weight of Sam's presence depart from her skin. Watching unfathomably, she couldn't believe the way he casually strode over to Leah as if he hadn't just been menacing her with his bulk.

"Come here." Came a different demand and when Bella looked up to find Paul with a heavy scowl on his face, she all but ran to his side, finding his intimidation far preferable in the present state of affairs.

When she was close enough, he wrapped his hand angrily around hers and tugged her outside, pulling her into the tree line with a stride that she couldn't match without upping her pace to a resistant jog.

"What happened?" He asked when he finally stopped moving, placing her against a tree where he then proceeded to sandwich her with his own taut body. She knew there was something very dominant about the position and while it was very similar to what Sam had done, it invoked a completely opposing instinct.

Letting her eyes meet his, she begged him to understand, to see that she wasn't here just to test some stupid decree.

"I got a weird phone call and it freaked me out." She started hesitantly and when she didn't continue fast enough, he gesticulated angrily for her to go on. "My friend thought maybe it was an animal being killed and someone calling me by accident, but when I called Embry a few minutes later, I heard the same thing again. I came here to find him, to make sure he's okay. But I couldn't find him, and then Billy told me that Jake was on his way here. Anyway, Sam showed up and wanted to know why I was here, what I was doing." The words gushed out all over him and just saying them, she felt that surge of panic take over once again.

"Embry's fine. I just saw him two minutes ago down on River Street walking home…" He responded instantly.

There was an assurance in his voice, a confidence that she didn't even think to question. The relief she felt was immediate and so when he pressed his body up against hers with more purpose, everything else flew away, every worry and fear she had carried with her for the past hour or so, was replaced by an uncontrollable need.

Just as she thought he was going to kiss her, he lowered his head to her neck, drawing her deeply in to his lungs. Pulling back, she watched his eyes flicker all over her body, angrily looking for something she couldn't see. "Who was this friend of yours? The one you were with earlier?"

Bella's forehead creased down and she began to worry away at the bark of the tree pressing into her thighs. "It was Alice Cullen; she just came over to watch a movie, to keep me company until Charlie got home." She couldn't find the reason within herself for why she felt like she needed to justify this to him; she just did.

Lowering his head once more, he ran his nose from the base of her ear all the way down to where her skin disappeared behind a fabric shield.

She was holding her breath as he circled back up her body and then suddenly he was upon her. His lips found hers so quickly and so ferociously that she felt her head slam back against the tree. The power of him seemed to almost possess her and when he lifted her body, she wrapped her legs around his hips with a gentle throaty moan. He was dangerous and the desperation she felt around him flooded her body with a recklessness that she had never wanted to entertain before.

As he moved from her lips to the sensitive flesh of her throat, she felt his hands paw at the hem of her shirt, exposing more and more of her flesh to the bitter night. There was no moment when she felt the need to stop him and as he ground himself into her soul, she could feel herself twisting up inside, losing herself to him.

His nimble fingers had all but removed her shirt in seconds and as he thread his palm down over her skin, he brushed from the tip of her neck all the way down her body, leaving behind a ripple of warmth. She'd never felt so intoxicated before and as his tongue demanded her attention, she felt him push aside the cotton of her bra, her nipples tingling against the chill of the air and the heat of his hand. She thought she just might faint in his touch as she convulsed beneath him, the exquisite unknown pleasure of his attention driving her wild for more.

"Bella? What the fuck?" A voice yelled, slamming her back into reality.

Her memories finally aligned with her mind and she quickly established that the voice belonged to Jacob. Paul lifted his head just in time for her to see as her friend stepped out from the darkness, his eyes frosty as they took in her compromised position. Her head whiplashed forward from the intrusion and as awareness trickled back into her blood stream, she caught a look of pure loathing on Paul's face, a look that triggered something archaic in her system as she twisted her neck to the side.

a/n: I can't believe how quickly Sunday came... I've made a few last minute edits/additions to this chapter, so although my lovely beta Twiticulate has caste her wondeful eye over the majority of what you read, as always all errors are mine!

To all you readers, thank you so much for the love you've shown this fic... the next chapter will be with you on Wednesday. x

p.s. I promise the last chap of What About Love? is on the way. Endings has always been the hardest for me, but it's coming soon... I swear!