The rain soaked easily through her clothes, weighing down her efforts to escape the man who she knew no longer had the ability to follow. She'd only learnt his name a few days prior, but it chanted in her head like the rhythm of his swinging body had echoed through the trees.

Her feet fell in sync with the name looping endlessly through her mind, his eyes permeating through the pain she was enduring to keep herself going. In her mind, Bella was running to keep herself alive. He hadn't chosen that death for himself, she knew as clearly as she knew her own name. Someone had hung him from that tree, and it was more than possible whoever that someone was, was still watching her.

She had little time to really think beyond those thoughts when she heard twigs snapping angrily behind her, announcing an imminent arrival. The feeling of being chased left her already pulsating heart skipping through a cadence of rocketing beats, and though she tried to keep her focus on not running into any trees, she couldn't help but turn, instinct forcing her to find her pursuer.

It was too late, he was already upon her. His inhuman gifts gave him the advantage as he twisted around her body, lifting her from her own feet and she finally let go, succumbing herself to fate as she closed her eyes. Fear replaced all the life in her veins as the world slipped by with a speed that her mind couldn't fathom.

His body felt hard and unforgiving under the cold patter of water which was still falling unabated all around and for a weak moment she sunk down, allowing herself to just be, to just exist in the embrace of the man who she knew would take her life. Bella didn't know her enemy and as the energy that had previously kept her going beyond her boundaries slipped away, she forced her mind to remain focused, to not fade away to black.

She opened her eyes and then closed them almost immediately. The dark reflections of trees were whipping by at an inhuman pace and a wave of nausea rolled through her stomach as the image replayed in her mind, mixed in with those eyes that were now ingrained deep into her soul. She was tired and scared, a combination which didn't serve her any great purpose, her mind still too wild to fully conceptualize anything even remotely resembling a plan to escape.

A strange thought filtered down passed the waves of panic; at least she wasn't alone anymore. The man gripping firmly around her body had a direction and purpose, something she'd lacked since stepping out of the light, so at least she wasn't destined to die wandering around the woods, just as her father had obviously feared. The thought cheered her a little, and with the clarity from experiencing something other than boundless waves of anxiety, she opened her mouth to speak, believing once his feet finally rested, her heart wouldn't be too far behind.

"Please don't kill me." She whispered, the words too low to pick out in the rush of the moment, but he heard them clearly, his hands grasping her just a little firmer in response.

Deciding perhaps he'd reached whatever destination he had in mind, she felt her body slow and then the cold and the rain became something else, something warm and tingly on her tired, torn skin. She didn't dare open her eyes, so when he deposited her gently on the ground, she immediately coiled up into a ball, her arms wrapping her body in a wet, tangled embrace.

"Stop crying." He commanded, growling out between footsteps as he walked away, the creak of floorboards clutching her interest, but not enough to draw her out. Hearing him approach again, she shuddered, hunkering even further into herself. She wanted to tell him that he was wrong, that it wasn't her at all, but as the rain continued to fall down her frozen cheeks, she realized she was wrong once again, and he was right.

"Open your eyes." He requested, his voice gruff, but not mean. She was certain that she recognized the tones and undulations, and welcoming the thought of him, Bella opened her eyes to find Paul staring at her, concern bringing a dark look to his deep eyes.

Staring openly at one another, Bella couldn't help her body from lurching back as he moved closer, reality thawing out the memories of the evening. "You asked me to meet you… you asked me to meet you so I could find him." She accused, her voice cracking slightly as she understood finally what everyone had been trying to tell her, that he really was dangerous.

Paul didn't answer. Instead he reached his hand out, his fingers brushing the tears from her rosy cheeks, not even attempting to hide the confusion in his eyes when she pulled back from his touch. Need pushed him on and before she could verbally protest, he was lifting her body clean from the ground, his strength astounding her when she had so little of her own left.

"Shhh." He mumbled low in her ear, rocking her in his arms. A new wave of frustrated tears fell, not from the vision of the swinging man, nor from the tension of the night finally exploding, but from the knowledge that even though he was dangerous, she couldn't stop her body from melting clean into his.

Bella fought against herself, pushing back the calm that he invoked, pushing to feel anything other than the numb acceptance that he brought her peace. "Please… just don't. I can't." She begged, pleading for Paul to share his strength and release her, unable to pull away from him emotionally or physically on her own.

But he wouldn't let go. He couldn't let go until she was no longer oozing fear from her pores, driving him insane with an irrepressible need to protect what was his.

Eventually she stilled in his arms, her fight all but gone from her system as her breaths came with an ever increasing distance between each one. He thought for a moment she was asleep, but when he rose to his feet, intending to lay her down in one of the bedrooms, she rustled in his arms once again, clawing at his skin as the world descended once again.

Catching him unaware, she scampered from his arms, flinging herself across the room with wild eyes, her hands held high, asking silently for a little space.

"Why did you do it? Why did you want me to see him?" She whimpered, before her whole body slumped down against a wall, shivering as her wet clothes pressed down uncomfortably on her skin.

"What do you mean? I didn't want you to see anything." He replied slowly, fighting himself to allow a distance between them, her emotions pouring through him.

"The note, you left me the note asking to meet you… to meet you out on the trail." She half shouted, patience abandoned.

"I didn't leave you anything. I was with Jacob when I felt you going crazy… and what do you mean see him?"

The question and the honesty in his eyes brought on a whole new wave of terror. Not only had she been wandering wildly in the very place where a young girl had been murdered, but it seemed she had been doing so under false pretenses. Not only that, but now she had to relive the moment, to explain to Paul what exactly she'd seen.

Her eyes darted around the room, finally seeing beyond the allure of his proximity to know that she'd been here before, not only that but she'd been here recently. "This is the cabin they brought me to." She mumbled, and when Paul nodded apprehensively to her meek words, she wondered how he knew.

Taking a deep shuddery breath, she dropped her hands, no longer holding him back. Seeing her intention he was all over her in a second, his body wrapping around her, not only offering comfort, but trying to still the instinctually need to fight whatever wrong had been done to her.

"You need to tell me what happened. From the beginning." He stated calmly, finding the balance she brought to his mind a little disconcerting.

"I can't." She mumbled back, her head buried deep where his broad shoulders met his neck, the warmth of him lulling her into a numbed state.

"I need to know what happened." He continued, a little frustrated that he didn't already have the answers; that he couldn't be out there already solving whatever this was.

Too much had happened for her to feel anything akin to her usual passive humiliation at her choices, and so when she managed to align everything that had occurred in such a few hours, she began without even a hint of blush on her cheeks. "Jake told me about the imprint thing, and he told me you were in Sam's pack. He told me not to interfere and I promised I wouldn't…"

Paul interrupted with a deep knowing. "…But you did anyway."

The understanding in his voice gave her confidence to continue, and so she nodded her head into his neck, happy that on some level he wasn't angry for her foolishness. "I came out to see if I could talk to you. I knew if I called you, Jake would know what I'd done, but if I just happened to be around… Anyway, I was down at the beach and someone left a note on my car. It was signed from you, but obviously…" Trailing off once again, Bella couldn't believe she'd acted so recklessly. "…anyway, it said to meet you out at the trail, and so I did. Only you weren't there, so I kept walking, thinking, well, I don't know what I was thinking."

"But who's he? You said I wanted you to see him?" Paul asked, but the conclusions running through his mind had taken him down the wrong path, a very dangerous road to be led down.

"I'll fucking kill him." Paul growled, throwing her aside a little carelessly as he rolled to his feet and began prowling back and forth in the small cabin. "I knew I should have just fucking listened to them, but fuck…" He yelled, before punching a hole clear through from the living room to the kitchen. Dust and wood splintered throughout the room and Bella jolted back into her corner, burying her head as she tried not to let fear overcome her once again.

"Shit!" He exclaimed, seeing what he'd done and the reaction it was invoking from his already fragile imprint. He simply didn't know how to deal with all this, and though everyone had told him the imprint was sacred, he was yet to understand anything on a level that hadn't been manipulated by Sam. They hadn't lied about the balance shit, he thought, but then again he'd pushed her away, pushed himself away and apparently that wasn't what his wolf had in mind when he chose her.

"You need to tell me, right now, what the fuck Sam did to you? Did he touch you?" Paul wanted to balance himself down low, to show her what little threat he actually posed to her, but he knew that his temper was on a knife point and the words she was about to offer might actually send him over the edge and endanger her.

"Sam didn't… I mean, Sam didn't do anything." Just saying the words she was almost certain they weren't true in any strict sense.

"Bullshit. He didn't freak you the fuck out over nothing. I'm not in his pack anymore; you don't need to feel like you're protecting me from him." Paul urged, knowing just how manipulative his former pack leader could be.

"It's not… I mean… it wasn't Sam." Bella paused as tears began to trickle down her cheeks, her breaths coming in loud ugly gulps.

"Who the fuck was it then? You need to tell me."

He was pushing her too hard and too fast, the intensity spilling over into what she'd seen, rushing the memory from her lips before she could find the right way to form the words with the necessary sensitivity.

"It was Jared." She said, and before she could go on, he was shaking, his whole body trembling with a power he obviously could no longer contain.

"I'll fucking kill him, if he laid one finger on you… I'll fucking kill him."

The threat brought new tears and with them his shaking seemed to intensify. Her emotions were simply too much for him to take and while he'd promised himself that no matter what, he wouldn't leave, he knew he was no longer capable of keeping her safe.

Seeing him walk to the door, listening to the threat fall from his lips, she finally whispered what she'd been unable to voice.

"You can't kill him, because he's already dead."

The whole cabin seemed to still, the dust motes froze in the air and the only things left flowing were the tears on her face and the anger and agony filling his veins. The whole moment expanded and as the breath she was holding in her lungs became too much, he turned to her, his eyes heavy with remorse.

"Tell Jacob I'm sorry."

Then he was gone.

The door flapped wildly behind him and as she scrambled to her feet, she didn't have any thoughts beyond her need to follow him, to bring him back from whatever foolish intentions he had. She was barely a foot out in the rain when a howl with such pained intensity brought her to her knees. It was also the catalyst that brought about her new reality; the one where once again she was alone.

a/n: A wonderful help to my beta Twiticulate who is simply amazing and puts up with my disorganized self.

To all you readers, thank you for the amazing response to the last chapter... you really did bring me a whole bunch of happiness and I know I've been terrible at responding to reviews of late, but I'm barely getting the chaps out to you in time, so I hope you can forgive me! A lot of you seemed to guess it wasn't Paul who wrote the note, but I don't think one person guessed it was Jared... or maybe you just didn't think I could be that cruel...

Anyway, I've rambled on enough, I'll see you all again on Wednesday... with love. xxx