When I got there, I was suddenly very glad I fed before I got back, because nothing could have shocked me more than what I saw ahead of me.

I gawked at the figure standing before me as he was doing the same.

A werewolf.

A werewolf had somehow got into our empty house that we owned. Both our eyes were wide as we stared into each others, wondering what the other would do. He was only wearing torn jeans, a common thing for a wolf like him. And he stank, also a common thing.

I stepped to the left and so did he. He stepped to the right and so did I.

We were waiting in silence for something to happen. I had to break it.

"Who the hell are you, mutt?" I tried to sound angry but it just came out in dreary strings of words.

"I could ask you the same thing, leach." To my surprise, his voice was just as lifeless as mine, with the attempt to sound strong. I tried searching his mind. Why? Why? Why? Why? The words were repeated over and over again.

My eyes narrowed, as did his. He was tall, like most werewolves and he looked about seventeen, like me, but his eyes showed more hurt than a boy of his age would have had. More than a werewolf would have had.

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"Why are you here?" He echoed.

"Because I left the love of my life so she could be safe. She jumped off a cliff, hit her head. When I came back to beg for forgiveness she couldn't remember who I was so I stayed out of her life. I now live here, trying to remember the only time I was happy in my pitiful existence." I had just summed up everything that had happened in a year in a few sentences to a werewolf. It felt so much longer than that. Like decades, centuries without her.

I sank to the floor.

As did he.

I was shocked. I, a foe, had just dropped to the floor in defeat and he joins me? No, this was not a normal dog.

"Why are you here?" I repeated, mumbling in the dark.

"I imprinted. She didn't want me." It was simple. A lot simpler than mine but I didn't understand at all.

"Imprinted?"

He eyed me cautiously before he started speaking. "When a wolf, like me, finds his true mate, we know instantly. We'll do anything for them, if they asked us to kill ourselves we would. She didn't want me. She told me she didn't want me and that I should leave, so I did because that's what she wanted. I'd hurt myself a thousand times before I'd ever hurt a hair on her head."

"So, we know where we're both coming from." I mumbled, knowing that we were on equal grounds. He nodded glumly. If Jasper was here he'd be having seizures. Our depression was reflected in each other.

There was a long silence.

"What was she?"

"Sorry?"

"What was she? A vampire?"

"Human…"

I shut my eyes, feeling my heart try and tear it's way up my throat, to try and get back to her. I felt the dry tears and fought them back. No need to be weak in front of an enemy, even if we were both in the same boat.

"How… How does that work?" He was asking about how I could stand to be near her and not rip out her throat. Just thinking about it made me want to vomit. I had been denying the monster inside me for so long I didn't need to think about it. As if I could ever do that to her.

"First off, I hunt animals, so don't get all protective over this town." He shrugged like it was nothing. I eyed him carefully. "Secondly, I can read minds, just to warn you. It's like a gift." Again, he didn't seem to care. "I come from a town called Forks in Washington, America. Before I met her I was living my life, only knowing the familial love that I felt for my brothers and sisters in my adoptive family. I never believed… I never believed I could find anyone like her, or love her the way I do."

And with that I told a total stranger the story of how I met her, and I realised how I wouldn't say her name out loud or even in my head for the fear of what it would do to my dead heart. I felt such a relief to retell the story. Hearing it out loud, telling it to another. It made me feel strong again. Somehow, telling a werewolf my deepest, darkest feelings made me feel better.

I watched how involved he was getting in the story, like he depended on my every word. When I was done it looked like I had given some new life to him. He seemed much more awake than me, more lively. A lot more lively.

"I'll…I'll never look at a vampire in the same way..." I didn't miss the way he didn'tsay leech or bloodsucker.

Then he began his story. "Mine's a lot simpler than yours, despite what you might think. I come from a town where there are- well, I should say were no mythical creatures, such as yourself and I before what happened. In my town, people come and go like that." He clicked his fingers. "No one stays for long and even if they do something will drive them away. My family were the only long term residents that would ever bother to stay put. We'd lived there for generations, never moving, never having the need to.

"One day, a new family moved in. They were small, only consisting of a couple and a friend. We gave them the usual welcome, explaining about the town and how we'd be happy to help them move in. They all looked amazingly beautiful and I found myself drawn to the woman as my sister found herself drawn to one of the men. The woman was quite tall, pale and had long red hair. Her other half was a lot taller than her, and he looked plain but all the same handsome. The friend was just a little smaller than him but was easily the most attractive towards my sister. They explained how they were only staying for a short amount of time then moving on somewhere else. We didn't think anything of it at the time but if we knew what they were we'd send them packing as fast as they came." That was interesting. I hadn't thought about where James's coven had been to before.

"I had a normal life. I had a girlfriend, I was going to College, working up to University to be a doctor and then they came. Everything changed then. I was the first to phase. It was the single most terrifying thing I've ever had to experience. I started to shake uncontrollably, tremors shot up and down my body and my flesh started ripping away from my body, pushing strong muscle in its place. Before I knew it I was on all fours and had a tail." Another grim smile formed on his face but his eyes stayed empty from emotion. I saw flashes of a memory. Confusion as he tried to work out what was going on, why he had suddenly sprouted a tail.

"Eventually, others came. We were a small pack, just me and three other boys. It was enough though, to defend the whole town. There's a forest that surrounds the town, so we could easily hide in there. However, as a human, the wolf instincts are a lot harder to hide. We naturally eat a lot, very hard to hide at the dinner table and I often had to turn at night to hunt so I was full, as were the others. Then there was the body temperature. I won't say much but that was an unnecessary trip to hospital.

"Then we started to smellthem…It was horrible, like drowning in treacle. No offence."

"None taken. You smell just as bad." I gestured with my head, a small smirk creeping onto my lips.

"Well, we started to smell the group and we knew, instinctively that they were not to be trusted. We went to confront them, tell them they were not welcome in a town like this. We went to their home but they had left, only leaving a note that said that they new of us and had moved on to somewhere else." I saw another memory. Hands holding a sheet of paper where the words 'We refuse to stay where dogs play' were written in an elegant script. "By that time my other friends had already imprinted on someone. I felt strangely left out though I knew I had to wait for 'the one' as they're known.

"Then I saw her. We were on a hunting trip, just out looking for food. She'd just moved into town, ironically the one the coven moved out of. She…" I could tell this was painful for him so I didn't press him to tell me, even though I was the one getting so involved. I could see her in his mind. She had long, gold, flowing hair that had ringlets forming every now and then. She was in a summer dress. "She was so beautiful and even from afar I could feel the electricity trying to pull us together. She had moved from London and had a true London accent. She moved with grace and elegance. Without thinking I found myself phasing, practically running towards her, totally naked." I felt my eyes widen. "I had to stop myself before I ruined it all. Thanks to the pack I did, only just.

"We went around properly introducing the family to the new-comers, explaining who was who, the standard routine but I felt the same force pulling me towards her. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her, hold her close. Claim her has my own. Then I saw her partner. The tremors returned and I had to quickly excuse myself before I turned then and then in front of her. I ended up howling up at the moon, very cliché I know. My mother then told me to watch out for wolves when I was in the woods. If only she knew…

"Each day I saw her. Each day I had to see her wrapped in his arms." He was beginning to shake again, but then it stopped. "Sorry, it's just thinking about that can get my angry." I nodded in understanding and he continued. "So, I would see her everyday. I would want to take her as my own, and despite him we were getting along perfectly fine. Getting close as we should and as I wanted, and I hoped she would too. One day her boyfriend was out and we were spending time together, we were really good friends. I'd already told her about the pack. I was the alpha, so I could tell who ever I liked about our secret. She was fine with it, she'd seen me phase and she'd been around the pack a lot of times. I was having a hard time stopping just kissing her and then I couldn't take it. I kissed her. She pulled away." He winced. "I told her I loved her, I told her I needed her. She-she didn't want me back. She told me she was in love with her boyfriend. She told me to leave." He looked away, grimacing in pain.

Was it possible that a wolf could love someone as much as I loved her?

"What did you do?" I urged him on.

"I-I did what she asked. Left. Here I am…"

"You just gave up. Just like that?" I couldn't believe this. How could he just give up like that?

I started pacing around the room, fuelled by some sort of anger. He looked up at me half disbelieving and half thinking I was crazy. I didn't guess, I could tell.

"Y-yes," he stuttered.

"Why didn't you fight for her? Just because she's taken now doesn't mean she will be forever, hell, I should know! Even now, while she's with him you still have some small chance!"

He just stared at me. His thoughts were calculating his chances and then he shook his head.

"No? What do you mean no?! You'll never love someone else like her! You can't just give up on her because she doesn't know what she wants!"

He stood in a quick, fluid movement, his large form shaking. "Have you even bothered to hear yourself? Listen to yourself! Telling me not to give up when you've done just the same. You left her, you left without even thinking she would get her memory back! What if she has? What if she's remembered everything you've ever said, all the times you've spent with her. What if she's in just as much pain as you?!"

I stood, awe-struck. The thought had never crossed my mind once that she could ever remember me, let alone love me.

"That's what I thought." The shaking stopped and he turned away walk over to the window. It was dawn.

"If you don't mind my question, what was the loud noise that I heard?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Oh, I may have knocked a large oak over in my angry depression."

I just nodded, and remembered how Esme had liked a large oak tree around here.

I asked, wanting to change the subject. "Aren't you hungry?"

"No," he said out loud. Yes…I heard in his head.

I sighed and tapped my head. "Mind-reader, remember? There's a fish and chip shop in the village or just phase."

He frowned slightly and left me alone with my thoughts.

Could she really still remember me? Would she love me if she could? What if she couldn't remember me and I came back for nothing? What would I do then? Would I leave again? Could I leave again?

My mind was a mess and I needed to do something about it.

And before I knew it the werewolf was back. Oddly enough his scent wasn't as strong as before.

"I think I'll sleep now, because, unlike you, I need to do that." His voice wasn't jeering, it was teasing. Perhaps I had made a friend. I had just told the very best part of my life to a stranger, and in turn, he told me his. I think that counted for something.

I left him in the hall, because we hadn't moved since we both sunk to the floor, and turned up the stairs and made for my room. Her jumper lay where I left it on my sofa. I clutched it, inhaling deeply though her scent had left it long ago. What was I going to do?

It was obvious something had changed within me. I wasn't the same depressed person I was yesterday, nor was I the same before her.It was odd. I was in a peculiar stance where I had no idea what to do in my life. Never before had I felt like this.

I still missed her immensely, yes, with all my heart but I could feel something else in my emotions. Was it hope? Could it possible be true that she remembered me? Loved me back? I frowned into her jumper. But even if she did remember me, could she ever forgive me for leaving her in the first place? Could she forgive me at all? Could I forgive myself for doing that to her? Would I ever get my Bella back?

I clutched my chest, expecting pain.

It didn't come.

I'd said her name in my head and I didn't feel the sobs breaking my chest. I didn't feel my heart trying to wrench its way up my throat to escape. I felt it staying in place, waiting, anticipating what would happen next.

My heart knew my decision before my mind knew it.

I fled down the stairs, still holding her jumper. The werewolf was already up and he stood.

"What's your name, friend?" I asked him, knowing from his thoughts he was waiting for the next time he would see his love, just like me.

"Jack Thomas. Yours?"

"Edward Cullen. We'll meet here again in half a year's time."

"Yes, of course. Good luck with…"

"Bella," I felt an adrenaline rush as I said her name aloud. "And good luck with…"

"Imogen," I saw his chest swell as he did the same. "Go fast, I'm sure you'll get there before me." He said with a smirk.

"Thank you. Just talking helped me realise."

"Exactly the same here."

And with that I left a werewolf in my home and made my way to my love.

Bella…


A/N: WHOOP! I have my own werewolf!

I'm so crazy... I guess I now match Bella and that wasn't even intended...

Annnnyyyway, I had real fun with this chapter and again, it's one of those things where everything from school to no electricity gets in the way. We've got building work going on and it got to the point where everything is wired wrong and I'm using two extension cords... My friends say if I can't become something science-y I should be an electrician. I told them that was total and utter ship. Note how I said ship and not a bad word. If I said that I would possibly have to bump my ratings up. I doubt I'd actually do that though...
-shifty eyes-

I'm kidding, I love you guys. I live for your reviews. What did you think of this chapter? I needed to get Edward out of the stance somehow and I thought werewolf!... But what does Bella have in store for her, I hear you cry? Well, I'M NOT TELLING, but I can promise it's good!
I'm so very mean to Bella!

Emma