"This wasn't supposed to happen… This wasn't the way it was meant to go."

Bella strained to hear the words coming frantically from Edward's mouth as he paced the floor, his body moving so fast that if she watched him for any expanse of time, her head began to feel a little woozy.

Since she'd opened her mouth and expelled the pure magnitude of her emotions, he had discarded her roughly in the corner of the room, directly opposite of where Leah's mangled body still lay. Bella tried not to let her eyes linger on the misshaped frame of her friend, hoping Edward would hold his distraction for just a little longer.

At first it was just a flutter of her eyelashes, something Bella couldn't actually decide whether she'd really seen or not; but then it was a little flicker of her fingers, a twitch so small that she knew if Edward hadn't been focused on her during that very millisecond, he was likely to have missed it; and she wanted to keep it that way.

Bella looked up and caught the tail end of Edward mumbling something about Alice and the future, but she couldn't quite catch what it was, and she was almost certain it would be a terrible idea to ask him to repeat himself.

Just as he twirled around once again, ready to pace back away from her, a sudden movement caught her eye, followed by a low, pained groan.

"Leah?" Bella cried, and without thought she scrambled forward, only to find a heavy hand easily holding her back.

"Edward, let me go! She needs help."

However Edward didn't relent, and instead of allowing her forward, he pushed her back into her own corner.

"No, if you go over there and get her blood on you, I can't be held accountable for my actions." His tone had softened slightly and Bella raised her angry eyes to catch the desperate look he was offering her. Nodding her head reluctantly, she sat back, trying to think of any way to save herself and Leah.

It took minutes of watching Leah writhe in pain to clear her head sufficiently to think, but nothing of any use came to mind. Frustrated by her own incompetence, she settled on simply appealing to his better nature.

"Edward, you need to leave, to let me help Leah. Jacob said you weren't bad, that you don't hurt people, but you're hurting Leah. If you don't let me help her, then she might die, and I don't think the pack will care whether you drained her blood or threw her against a wall; dead is dead to them."

He stopped pacing and turned to her, his expression unreadable as he stared with unblinking eyes. It was eerie to see him with his pretenses dropped, and while the speed he possessed was surprising, the true lack of life behind his eyes was chilling.

"She won't die." Edward spoke plainly, but Bella doubted he could be sure.

"You don't know that Edward; you can't." Calling his bluff, she lifted herself up onto her knees, moving with determined patience. She stood slowly from her knees, and as she forced her eyes to look beyond him, she took her first step and then another. She was almost the whole way across the room when he tired of her game and pulled her back angrily, depositing her in the corner once again. It was only when she looked up to find him gone, to find Leah gone too, that she realized the situation might be a lot more precarious than she'd accounted for.

Fighting back tears, she rose again and this time she decided that without a fight, she wouldn't be going anywhere. She was so determined that she didn't hear him coming, didn't feel the air distort as he stood mere inches from her body.

His hands were firm, but they were careful this time as he lifted her into the air, carrying her ungraciously to the little bathroom from which they'd only just departed.

Lying in the bottom of the tub, her eyes wide with fright, was Leah. Cold water was cascading down on her body and as the water twisting down into the earth turned from a deep red to a muted pink, Bella felt Edward release her once again.

Rushing down to her side, Bella helped lift her body into an upright position and after gentle hands had run over her skin, she was fairly certain that Leah was nursing a broken arm, a deep gash to her leg and little more than a few burgeoning bruises and scrapes. The physical manifestations of Edward's strength and anger were intimidating, and as he lingered behind her in the doorway, Bella couldn't help pressing herself as far from him as she could manage.

"They'll be here soon, you know, and when they get here they're going to rip you to shreds." Leah winced through her words and Bella laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder, trying to diffuse some of her anger and let her body heal.

"Edward, I really think it would be a good idea for you to leave now. We won't even tell them that you were here." Bella knew his name would probably be the first word out of her mouth if Paul ever showed up, but he didn't need to know that.

Edward just sighed dramatically and when he spoke this time it was with a hard, callous edge to his tone. "Isabella, I think I've put up with this for longer than has been necessary. In time you will come to see that I was right in coming here, and that I'm right in taking you away now." And with that he ripped her away from Leah.

They were moving so fast that she couldn't catch any sharp form to anything, so she was speechless when he ground to an abrupt halt right by the front door, his taut body holding far more tension than normal, even for him.

"They're here." He said with an eerie calm, and were it not for the frown pulling down his forehead into minute creases, she would have almost said he was pleased to have been discovered.

Bella waited and waited, staring at the front door with an expectation that ebbed and flowed, growing to a crescendo only to be thwarted when time passed and she found herself still very much trapped with Edward.

Turning to her captor, Bella looked for the reason why he seemed so at peace, so calm when the storm was already rattling against the window panes.

"They can smell her blood; they know if they attack too hastily, I will hurt you." Edward remained focused on the door as he spoke, and while she wondered how he'd known her thoughts, the only thing she was lingering on were the words he'd spoken. He hadn't said could, or might, he had definitely said 'will'. Stepping back, she looked to where she'd left Leah, briefly pausing on the darkening stain where her body had landed.

"What do you want?" She asked, finding a sliver of courage as she turned from the door, giving him her full attention.

"I want for everything to go how it should have gone; I want it to go back to how it was meant to be." He said firmly, and Bella decided if he was willing to speak, now was the time to press on.

"And how was it meant to be, Edward? I mean, you don't go risking your life running into a den of wolves unless it's important." She wasn't sure actually what the rules where in the Vampire kingdom on when how vapidly lives were thrown around, but the hypothesis seemed the same.

"You weren't meant to be with them at all. If only we hadn't left, it would have certainly been different."

Bella didn't quite understand, but she was beginning to glimmer with an unpleasant awareness, that whatever had drawn him to this place seemed to revolve around her.

"You mean last year? When your family moved here and then left again so quickly?" Bella asked, hoping to keep him talking and gather more time for the forces outside to formulate some sort of master plan.

"Yes. She knew it was you the moment she saw you, but she didn't know what you would do to me, how crazy you would make me, how out of control." Edward spoke with a forlorn solemnity, but it failed to evoke any sympathy in Bella.

"Edward you're kinda confusing me. Who's 'she?' And what did 'she' know?" Bella took one step forward, pushing her muscles to narrow the gap against her better judgment, offering the illusion of a confidante.

"Alice. She's sees things, and one of those things she saw was you; you and me together." Edward looked at her openly, inviting her to accept or approve of his advances, but Bella felt nothing other than the instinctual need to be anywhere other than this close to him. Seeing her resistance, he sighed. "I know you think they have your best interests at heart, Bella, but they're wild. I know you think they could never hurt you, but they killed one of their own, not only that but they did so in a brutal manner. I spent months watching you, acclimatizing myself just so I could be closer to you, so I would never hurt you."

Bella was shaking her head as he spoke, willing him to stop as she arrived at the conclusion that she'd heard more than enough.

"Please… just don't." She shouted. "You think this is protecting me? I told you that I want to be here and you try to drag me away! You tell me that they mean me harm, but it's you who's held me so tight that my skin still burns!" Throwing her hands in the air, she pivoted on the spot, and though her heart was threatening to take flight, she turned her back on him and walked away.

It was that statement that pushed Paul to the point where he could take no more, sending him crashing through the barriers of Jacob's mind with a force that the baby Alpha couldn't have predicted or prevented. He broke down the door, sending shards of wood flying dangerously around the room. He almost gagged on the thick billow of air that was coated in an acrid, sickly scent.

A crash of shattering glass sounded from the rear of the house and tasting the lure of the hunt it took every morsel of self-control he had not to phase immediately into a predator, to discard his imprint and one of his oldest friends to maim and destroy. But this wasn't a random nomadic leech that he could hunt for days and never see again; no, he knew where this one lived and he would be paying him a visit very soon.

Following his nose, he rushed through the small cabin to the dark little bathroom that oozed distractedly with fear and blood. He tried to focus on the girl who was still bleeding in the bathtub. After all, she was his Alpha's imprint and definitely worthy of his attention, but he couldn't help his eyes roaming all over Bella's body, searching her for the signs of the Leech's touch.

Bella knew what he was doing as his eyes darted all over her, and without words she stepped into his body, placing her petite hand on his jaw, forcing his eyes to hers. "He bruised me, nothing more. I promise you can inspect me all you want later, but right now, you need to get Leah help."

Her words shook him back into action and while he kneeled down to look over the broken girl, he couldn't help the low warning growl that spread from his gut when Bella moved too far from his side. He'd nearly lost her, or at least that was how he'd seen it. It was all too easy to morph her body, to replace one with the other and it would be his imprint bleeding in a bathtub. It didn't help that he'd heard every word the leech had said either, and it was simply too important to dismiss the knowledge that one of the Cullens had staked a claim on something that was his.

"I need to talk to you."

Nodding his head, Paul saw the intent in Leah's eyes and then watched as they flickered meaningfully to Bella. But it didn't matter; if she had something to say that couldn't be overheard it would simply have to wait. The past had been nipping at their heels for too long now, and if it had finally caught up to them, he wasn't going to hide; he was going to face it head on.

a/n: Thanks to my beta Twiticulate, who makes all my chaps pretty for all you lovely readers...

Well, this one was a day late... sorry about that folks, I was worried for a moment there that it might be much worse. I'm aiming for Sunday again, so hopefully I'll see you then. xxx