Thank you for all the reviews for the last chapter, it was great to have so many.

Thanks to my betas Angelz111 and Whitlocked for their help with this chapter,

I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 22

Nessie PoV

I spent the drive home deep in thought. I should have known that Jake's seemingly easy acceptance at finding me in a compromising situation with Nahuel was too good to be true. Our reunion had seemed perfect, but then this morning he'd seemed a little off and I'd known that it was too soon to think that everything was back on track between us. He'd confirmed it with words and I guess I could understand his doubt in me after my behaviour with Nahuel.

I sighed deeply as I thought of Nahuel. Poor Nahuel. It hadn't been an easy few days for him, either. We'd both come to terms with our mutual attraction. We'd succumbed to it and we'd fought it; though never at the same time. We'd dealt with it, and then came the bombshell that found us in each others' arms at the worst possible moment. Would things have gone further, I wondered, if Jake hadn't walked in right then. I'd like to think that they wouldn't have; that I'd have had a moment of clarity and managed to resist whatever pull it was that I felt toward Nahuel, but ikn that moment I had wanted to give in. I'd felt so deeply hurt about Jake and my mom that I couldn't even stop to find out the details, I just pushed my finger down hard on the destruct button and refused to think about the fallout from my behaviour.

I wondered what Nahuel thought of me now that he'd had chance to cool down and it had become obvious that I hadn't followed him. Had he really ever expected me to? He knew all about my relationship with Jake, he had to know that there was every chance that we'd be trying to work our way through what had happened.

All I'd been looking for was to make a new friend and what had I achieved? I'd managed to create a fractured relationship with my soul mate and destroyed any chance of friendship with one of the only people in the world that were the same as me. I knew that regardless of what Nahuel thought of me now, there was no way that we could ever be friends. Jake would never allow it and I really didn't expect him to. If the situation were reversed, I knew that I'd feel exactly the same way.

Rosalie turned to glance at me yet again; she'd been checking on me every few minutes since we left the house. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the leather headrest. I knew it wouldn't stop her checking on me, but at least I didn't have to see her doing it, she was making me feel worse with her constant scrutiny.

Gradually, the gentle purr of the powerful engine lulled me into a sleep.

****

"Ah, man, it's going to hit the fan now!"

I was woken by Emmett's words and guffaw as the car slowed. Groggily, I lifted my head and forced my eyes open to see what he was talking about. Standing in front of my grandparent's house watching us draw to a halt, was Nahuel. His feet were planted firmly, slightly apart, and he stood tall, looking straight at us with his arms folded in front of his chest.

I instantly felt wide awake as a surge of nervous energy coursed quickly through my veins. I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned quickly in my seat to look for Jake. I found him at the same time as he noticed Nahuel and watched as he turned the throttle and roared quickly past us, braking at the last moment and leaping gracefully from the bike as it slid to the ground only six feet from where Nahuel still stood.

I fumbled blindly for the door handle, panicking now at what was unfolding. Finally, my fingers found it and I had the door open in an instant, jumping quickly out and running over to where Jake stood towering above Nahuel. I slipped in front of Jake. They were standing so close that I was sandwiched between the two of them, my back touching Jake's chest and feeling the vibrations of his anger.

"Nahuel, this isn't a good idea, you need to leave. Now!" I hissed at him. He finally moved his steely gaze from Jake's face and looked at me. His eyes softened as he looked at me and I felt…nothing but fondness. No jolts, no electricity. I wondered if the spell of our attraction had been broken or if it was just that my bond with Jake was stronger and making me immune to whatever connection I'd felt to Nahuel before. "Please," I begged him, desperately trying to avoid the confrontation that was sadly, probably now inevitable.

I saw his arm begin to move, and knew instinctively that he was going to touch me. I looked at him and widened my eyes meaningfully, adding an almost imperceptible single shake of my head to warn him not to. I knew for a fact that Jake wasn't going to need much of an excuse to fly at him, touching me would definitely do it.

"Jake?" I turned my head and raised it to look at Jake. "Do you think I could have a minute with Nahuel? Alone?"

The instant the words left my lips, his eyes flew down to meet mine and I knew this request had been a mistake. He looked incredulous, hurt, and angry all within a split second. I swallowed deeply and silently cursed myself for my cruel misjudgement again. I wondered how I'd ever thought that I knew and understood Jake so completely. Everything had always gone so well between us because we prided ourselves on our closeness and understanding of each other. For some reason however, since Nahuel arrived, everything seemed to have tilted slightly and tipped us off balance. At times I'd felt as though I barely knew Jake at all, and looking back, I'd made bad decision after bad decision. I felt like crying but knew that the situation here was too serious now to start getting emotional so I fought to keep the tears at bay.

Jake glared at me for a moment, and then he stepped back, taking hold of my upper arm to pull me to him. He bent to speak to me like a child and I had to fight harder to hold back the hot, salty tears that filled my eyes.

"Nessie, what the hell are you doing? Don't you ever learn?" His voice was increasing in volume and angry tone as he spoke to me, his large hand still wrapped tightly around my arm, shaking me slightly for emphasis as he spoke. "I can't believe—"

"I'm sorry, Jake, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," I whispered as the tears began to run down my cheeks.

"HEY!"

I'd forgotten that Nahuel was there for a moment, but suddenly he was shouting at Jake. "Let go of her!"

Jake's head flew up and his eyes narrowed as he eyed Nahuel.

"With pleasure," he growled, and suddenly he released his grip on my arm. I watched as he pulled off his beloved leather jacket, throwing it to the ground before he yanked his t-shirt off over his head. As always, I was momentarily stunned by his beauty, his russet skin taut across his well defined and sculpted muscles.

Nahuel scoffed at his actions.

"Yeah, that's right, go wolf. You afraid of a fair fight, dog?"

Jake froze for a second, his muscles twitching expectantly, and then he flew at the smaller figure. I fully expected him to phase despite Nahuel's taunts, but to my relief when he slammed into him he was still in his human form. Nahuel recovered quickly from the impact and somehow managed to get out from under Jake and back on his feet. Jake was up a split second after and threw a fast punch that landed on Nahuel's jaw. On a human, it would have shattered the bone and sent them flying to the floor with the force of it, but Nahuel merely staggered back a little and shook his head to clear it from the impact.

They were fairly evenly matched with Jake human. Both of them were far stronger than normal humans and Nahuel's earlier taunt had been a clever move on his part, as in wolf form Jake would have easily over-powered him. This way it could go either way. Unless…a small voice whispered somewhere in the back of my mind. Unless Nahuel bit Jake.

I panicked. Turning away from the fighting I spun around, searching desperately as I wondered where Rose and Emmett had gone. I longed for somebody to step in and stop the fight; the thought of Jake being poisoned by Nahuel's bite had me stricken.

My aunt and uncle appeared in the doorway of the house then with my grandparents and Seth.

"Somebody stop them!" I yelled frantically at them. "Please!"

Everybody seemed frozen to the spot. I turned back to see Nahuel kick out to swipe one of Jake's legs from under him causing him to fall backwards onto the ground. His rich brown skin was glistening with sweat and his muscles were bulging from the exertion of the fight. As he lay half propped up on his elbows, I noticed that his body had grass and smears of mud on it. This obviously wasn't the first time Nahuel had managed to knock him to the ground. I watched as the whole thing seemed to happen in slow motion. Jake's breathing was heavy, his chest heaving with each breath. I could see Nahuel's face from where I stood and could tell that he was working entirely on his instincts now, which was dangerous for Jake. His lips were pulled back in a snarl, showing his venom covered teeth as his body crouched, ready to spring.

I raced forward and made a grab for Nahuel. I missed, but managed to grasp a handful of fabric from his shirt in my hand as he leapt forward. He was too strong for the material to hold him back, and there was a tearing sound as the shirt ripped away from his body. He still landed on Jake, but my grab had been enough to distract him long enough to allow Jake to collect himself. He was ready when Nahuel landed and held his hands out, propelling him away again as he made contact. Jake was on his feet quickly, grunting as he made for Nahuel, and then they were wrestling, moving so quickly, that now they were both shirtless it was difficult at times to tell them apart as they tumbled, a ball of brown, glistening skin and flying fists. Only every so often would the sunlight catch them and make Nahuel's skin shimmer gently, differentiating it from Jake's.

I became aware of the sound of a car approaching and looked up as my dad's car came to a stop outside the house. He and my mom climbed from the car and began to make their way quickly over to me. I noticed at the same time some other movement around my Dad's car, but was distracted by the others, who had finally begun to move off the porch and toward us. Looking quickly back to Jake and Nahuel, I noticed that Nahuel seemed to be doing a little better than Jake. Although Jake was fighting back, he seemed to end up under Nahuel more than Nahuel ended up under him.

I felt distraught by the scene in front of me. I was guilty certainly, because without my involvement with Nahuel, things would never have got like this between the two men. It was difficult seeing two people who I cared for fighting like this, but I knew for certain now that if had I to choose then it would be Jake every time. My body was filled with physical aches deep inside each time I saw Nahuel hurt him, and while I didn't like to see Nahuel hurt by Jake, it was a different feeling altogether; more like the concern you'd feel for a friend.

As I watched them, I saw Nahuel pin Jake down again and lean down to whisper something to him. Although my hearing was exceptional, it was still too quiet for me to hear. It had obviously hit a nerve with Jake though, because Nahuel was suddenly flying back through the air. I watched with increasing horror as I realised what was happening, and before I could even speak, Jake had gone and there in his place was the huge russet wolf, its lips curled in a snarl and a spine-chilling growl coming from its mouth. As Jake stalked toward Nahue,l I froze to the spot, unable to move or speak. I was surprised when three figures suddenly flew past me and planted themselves defiantly in front of Nahuel. As I looked I took in the three beautiful dark haired, dark skinned women, all different but with certain similarities, both to each other and to Nahuel. I realised that these must be his sisters.

I breathed a sigh of relief that at last someone had done something about the situation, surely Jake would phase back now and everybody could calm down. After a moment though I realised with horror that Jake hadn't stopped at all, he was still moving toward the spot where Nahuel and his sisters stood, the growl continuing.

Then three things happened simultaneously. Jake crouched, ready to pounce, I screamed, and a smaller, but still huge sand-colored wolf bounded past me. I sank to the ground and covered my eyes, unable to believe that Seth would join in with this potential carnage and unwilling to watch it happen. And then there were two sets of growls and snarls filling the air and I felt gentle arms around me, pulling me toward the body that they belonged to. I had started to give in to them when I suddenly realised who they belonged to and I pulled away again. I opened my eyes and looked up at my mom. Being this close to her knowing that Jake had been in love with her and she'd kept it from me made me feel torn. I'd missed her and longed to hug her, but the thought of the huge secret that now sat firmly wedged between us made me feel a little ill if I was absolutely honest with myself. I had no chance to think about it further though, because the snarls increased in volume and ferocity. My head turned toward the sound involuntarily. I was shocked by the scene before me.

The sandy wolf wasn't standing shoulder to shoulder with the russet wolf as I'd expected him to be. They were standing muzzle to muzzle.

A/N Please review, it helps me to write faster!