I stepped off the plane and entered the gloomy, overcast city that was Port Angeles. The other departing passengers milled around, looking for their loved ones and picking up luggage. I felt removed from them - the normal people.

I scowled at the word. Until a month ago, I was one of them. Now, though, due to my terrible talent for attracting all things dangerous, I was working for a mythical creature. I just loved my life sometimes.

There was no definitive reason as to why Black had been near that teenage hangout in the first place. I didn't believe his 'I was meeting someone' line for a second. But, nevertheless, he was there, and I had been grateful for it.

The school I attended in Phoenix was full of preppy snobs who were incapable of thinking of anyone besides themselves. I couldn't blame them; I was sure that if my mother and I had more money, then I would have the same qualities. At least, that's what I told myself, day after day, when they laughed at my stumbles and awkwardness. So, when I was invited to a party at The Emerald, I jumped at the chance to prove to my classmates as well as myself that I was worth their time.

Thinking back, the invitation reminded me of every teen movie prank that I had ever seen. But, I had gone - as stupid as it sounds - and I still regretted it.

When I'd first arrived, the 'popular girls' surrounded me to keep up the charade. They chattered about each other's outfits and who was expected to show. I'd desperately tried to keep up with them, but I'd had to settle for nodding and smiling a lot as they'd ushered me inside.

The Emerald was more of a classy underage club than anything else. Reneé would have had a fit if she'd have known I'd ever gone there. I'd told her I was going to the public library after school that day, and she'd believed me. My lack of a social life meant that I spent many hours reading by myself. Despite all that, I'd only felt a little nervous as I walked into the flashing lights and blaring hip-hop music that spilled out onto the street.

The night had gone amazingly well, all things considered, until AJ Braeson arrived with some of his buddies. Once the star quarterback of the football team, 'The Hammer' was almost as much of an outcast as I was. Not that that meant we got along. I was proud to say that I had never had the misfortune of holding a conversation with him. After the loss of both his parents in a freak car accident, AJ had turned to breaking-and-entering and as many drugs as he could get his inheritance-filled hands on to forget his troubles. The rest of the school refused to dirty their reputations with him, and I'm sure their parents made sure that his name was never mentioned. His sudden appearance at the party was the beginning of the end for my quiet life.

The guys that AJ had arrived with were not members of the elite society in the city. As if to make his transformation more complete, he'd found some gang member wannabees to shadow him and make him feel more important.

They'd had the desired effect that night. A dead silence fell as the ex-jock and his cronies swaggered through the open doorway. I turned from the circle of girls who hadn't been completely ignoring me and stared at AJ in amazement along with everyone else.

"Why'sss everyone's suh quiet, dude?" he had slurred. It was obvious he had been drinking.

Aaron Dickins, the head of the popular group and 'The Hammer's' replacement on the field, had finally stepped forward.

"What are you doing here, AJ? This party's invite-only, man."

"Don't talk tuh me like that, 'kay? We can be hur if we want. We ain't gonna do nothin'." The four huge boys behind him pushed their way into the room. Not one of them was under six-foot or 230 pounds.

Aaron had faltered at the sight of AJ's friends.

"Al-alright. But we were about to wind down soon anyway." It'd been obvious that he was trying to get his Ashley out of the situation.

AJ had nodded stupidly and swayed over to an empty table, too close to my group for comfort. Several guys drifted over to claim their girlfriends, and I had found myself sitting at a suddenly empty table and wishing that I could just disappear into the floor.

Slowly, the noise level had risen, not quite to the volume it had been before the gate crashing, but loud enough to relax the tense atmosphere.

Deciding that I'd pushed my social luck for long enough, I'd risen from my chair, leaving my virgin drink on the table behind me. My light jacket was perfectly suited to the warm Arizona night but I pulled it closer to me for comfort. I hadn't realized how late it had gotten. The sun had long since disappeared over the horizon and the pale white moon shown weakly down on the street as I'd hurried home. I remembered wishing I had a cell phone so that I could call Reneé and ask her to pick me up in her car. I'd gone far enough from the club by then to make up some excuse for my obvious distance from the library. However, I didn't have enough friends to make owning a cellular phone necessary or even reasonable, so I had sighed and resigned myself to the long walk home.

I only had a few more turns left between me and a hot, relaxing shower when I'd heard it. Footsteps - several pairs of footsteps - were following me. Resisting the urge to turn around and look, I had tried to speed up my own feet, for once not thinking about falling flat on my face.

I would've had to have been an idiot not to realize who was stalking me, but I still jumped at the sound of AJ's deep, slurred voice.

"Slow down, hun!" he had called. I can still remember the sound of the guffaws his words produced from his personal gang. "We only wanna talk . . . sorta."

With my mind completely blank from panic, I'd broken into a crazed run. I had shut my eyes at the same time, because I'd known it was only a matter of time before I fell or the men caught up to me without help from my clumsy legs'. That was why I hadn't understood why the lumbering footfalls stopped all of a sudden.

Taken by surprise, I had opened my eyes - and tripped over a crack in the sidewalk simultaneously. There were loud noises behind me. Scuffling and rips, and even sluggish yells and growls. My mind had refused to work correctly. Of course, I couldn't have been hearing growls.

I'd rolled over cautiously, and what I had seen haunted me to this day. There was some kind of huge animal, at least the size of a large cart-horse, and it was attacking my would-be rapists. It could only have been half a minute since I had fallen, but I had clearly seen a limb, torn free of its proper place on a human body. Although the moonlight had been dim, I'd been able to make out a confused tangle of people, herded together by a large red-brown animal that was the source of the growling I had heard.

Trying not to vomit, I had averted my gaze from the sickening sight in front of me. The beast had continued its killing spree, judging by the screams and popping sounds that I hadn't wanted to examine too closely.

Finally, silence had descended upon the street once more. I had focused on controlling my breathing. I had been able to smell the blood that spilled from AJ and his friends, and it had made my head spin. I hadn't realized that the animal had approached me until I had almost collapsed from the intensity of the rust-and-salt smell.

I'd stopped breathing, staring into the wolf's - I'd finally determined what it was - eyes. It had stared back at me.

After an immeasurable moment, I had struggled to get upright. I'd been sitting on the sidewalk for only God knows how long, and my mother was sure to be worried.

Seeing that I meant to leave, the wolf had growled and blocked my path with its body. I'd frozen. My savior had turned into my captor.

"Okay," I'd said. "Um, thank you. But I need to leave now."

I remembered how silly I felt talking to an animal as if he could've understood me, but I'd just seen it rip apart five full-grown men in the middle of a major city, so I thought allowances could be made.

My stuttered explanation wasn't wasted, however, as the wolf had shaken its head at me. A very clear 'no'.

"Huh. Okay," I had agreed, not wanting to upset it. And I had stayed and watched as the wolf disappeared and reappeared as a Native American man. And I had listened to his half-explanation and agreed to his terms of silence. I had also agreed to pay him back for his help someday. He would keep in touch with me to make sure I kept my promises. But I never dreamed that I would have to go this far to keep them.

"Bella!"

My father's voice jolted me out of my recollection of that night's events.

"Over here, Ch-Dad," I called back. I wasn't supposed to call him Charlie to his face.

I waved to the slightly balding man dressed in a police officer's uniform across the crowded terminal. He spotted me and made his way over, carrying my luggage that he had obviously picked up while waiting for my plane to unload its passengers.

"Hi, Bells," he greeted as he pulled me into an awkward one-armed hug.

"Hey, Dad. How've you been?"

"Excited," he admitted. "I don't know what made you decide to call me up all of the sudden, but I'm happy to spend more time with my favorite daughter."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the ancient joke.

"I'm your only daughter," I said, forcing a smile for Charlie's sake.

He chuckled at his own cleverness. I couldn't blame him for his lack of good humor. It was obvious that he was trying hard to connect to his teenage daughter, whom he hadn't seen in years.

We made our way out of the airport and towards the police cruiser. I wasn't looking forward to traveling around in that. All things considered, though, 'uncool' transportation was going to be the least of my worries.