A/N:

My story wouldn't be nearly as good without the help of my friend and beta, ms_ambrosia. I am running out of adjectives to describe how awesome she is! I wrote this chapter in the wee hours of the morning and as expected, when I sent it to her to look over it had many more errors than is typical for me. So she really deserves praise this week.

Thank you to all the new readers who have been faithfully leaving reviews for each chapter. I so appreciate your thoughts and questions!

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns everything Twilight. I've simply twisted the story around for my own amusement.

I awoke the next morning alone. My sheets were tightly twisted around my body, my arm pinned painfully under my torso. I writhed ineffectively against the cotton fabric, suffering under the panicked delusion that I was savagely bound. For a fleeting moment I recalled a fragment of my dream: vicious hands tugging at my skin, roughly yanking my arms. Something rough in texture was wrapped around my wrists, squeezing until the painful tingling turned into numbness. I remembered being pinned into a corner, rough concrete slammed against my back; the only thing visible in the darkness were three sets of hungry, red eyes.

I lay in my bed as several minutes ticked by, trying to push the feeling of terror from my memory. And yet at the same time, I fought to hold onto the haunting warning of my subconscious. I grasped onto the residual images from the dream, determined to find some kind of meaning in all the physical torture.

I finally wrestled my arm free from its confinement, wincing at the lifeless feeling of it, as if it was no longer connected to my body. I used all the effort I could summon so early in the morning to shake it violently in the air, sending intense fiery needles shooting down my veins. I spared a moment to think of how ridiculous I must have looked, my arm spasming, inanely slapping at the air. Thankfully it wasn't long before I eventually felt the blood resume its languid flow and my arm flopped back down to my side.

As I propped myself up to lean against the headboard, the images from my dream faded almost instantly from my consciousness. Only a dull throbbing lingered behind my eyes, but I was getting used to suffering from perpetual headaches. Whether I had a hangover or not, I couldn't say. I was simply heavy and achy, worn down by the revelations of the night.

I glanced to the window, not surprised to see that the sliver of sky that peeked through was brooding and grey. The weather fit my mood perfectly. I was hot under the blankets that were still tangled around my ankles. I struggled with the covers, pushing them off with my feet. The cool air enfolded me, whispering across my sweat-dampened skin, sucking the heat from my body.

Even after a scalding hot shower, I couldn't shake the chill that had consumed me, creeping its way down into my very bones. I dressed in dark jeans and a thick navy sweater, but nothing seemed to stave off the cold.

I floated through the house with my shoulders tensed, a sense of trepidation hanging over my every move and thought. I longed for Bella and the comfort I knew she'd give me. I felt empty without her thoughts swirling through my mind, no matter how dark or frightening they sometimes were.

I shuffled around the kitchen, scavenging for coffee when Emmett appeared in the doorway looking hung over and cranky. He met my gaze for an instant and I knew he was silently questioning if it was all real. I nodded and his eyes widened before he cocked his head to the side, smirked and nodded back.

I poured us both a bowl of cereal and we sat side by side at the breakfast bar, slurping heaping spoonfuls in relative silence. I was scooping up the last bit of crumbs from my bowl when Emmett finally composed his thoughts into a question.

"So it really happened?" he asked with uncharacteristic levity.

"Yep," I answered, standing and grabbing our bowls to rinse them in the sink.

"I thought of some other questions this morning...um, should I ask you or Bella?"

"What kind of questions?" I asked hesitantly, hoping it was something easy to answer.

"Um, well, how did it happen to her? I mean, can she accidentally do it to you?" he whispered, turning to look over his shoulder to make sure we were alone.

"Uh, maybe Bella can answer that one for you. I mean…I think," I hedged, his question forcing me to realize that I didn't really comprehend the complete process. I was again reminded that there was still much that I wanted and needed to know about Bella. "I don't think she could do it by accident, Em, I mean…I'm not sure," I added truthfully. I hadn't really even considered that possibility before.

What if she did turn me accidentally? I trusted her not to attack me, but what if, in the heat of the moment, it just happened? What kind of future could we have if I continued to be human? Maybe that is what I wanted – to be like her – to have an immortal life with her. I knew that I would never love any other as much as I loved her. She completed me. She owned my heart, my mind; my human life was meaningless without my Bella.

"So I can't tell Rosie, right?" Emmett asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

"No, Em, please!" I begged.

"Okay, okay. I was just checking again. You know this is a pretty big secret, Edward. I mean, are you sure that you're safe man?" he asked with real concern.

"She would never do anything to hurt me," I asserted, wishing that I could tell him more, that I could tell him how I knew with such certainty. But I had no idea how to explain that I could read Bella's mind. Finding out that she was a vampire was certainly crazy enough without telling him about the mental connection that we shared. I was still trying to comprehend whatever it was that bound us together. I wasn't yet ready to give Emmett that knowledge.

"Yeah well, I wish I didn't feel so shitty this morning so that I could wrap my brain around all this fucking insanity. How the hell are you dealing with all this? I mean this is some heavy shit to keep secret."

"What secret?" Alice asked, bounding into the room.

"Um…well…Edward was just telling me about…" stuttered Emmett. I knew that in his current state he wouldn't be able to deflect Alice's questioning.

"Alice, you do know the definition of a secret, right?" I asked sarcastically, running my fingers nervously through my hair.

"Ooh, does this have something to do with the accident? With Bella?" she asked pointedly and I inwardly cringed, knowing that she was much too close to the truth. This was one time when I wished her intuition wasn't quite so accurate.

"Alice, please just drop it," I asked.

"Yeah, it's no big deal anyway," Emmett added, trying to be of some use.

Her eyes shifted back and forth between us as if she could read something from our faces. "Okay, for now I'll let it go. But you know I can't stand not knowing a good secret!" she exclaimed while scooping grounds into the filter. We all sat quietly while we waited for the coffee to finish brewing, Emmett leaning forward onto the counter, his head on his arm. I stared hopefully at the coffeepot, studying the black liquid slowly expanding in the glass carafe. I looked over at Emmett who seemed to be falling back asleep and fought the urge to do the same.

"Where are Mom and Dad?" I asked no one in particular. Emmett grunted in response while Alice cut a grapefruit in half, gesturing with the knife while responding.

"Mom is reading the paper in the living room. She told me she needed some space today. I think she's a little freaked about last night still. And dad went into the hospital about an hour ago to check on Tyler," she explained while sprinkling a generous amount of sugar onto the pink flesh of the fruit.

"Oh shit," Emmett grumbled, wiping drool from the edge of his mouth and lifting his head from his arms. "I should go check on Tyler too. I'm such a shitty friend. Guh. Is that coffee ready yet?" He glanced at the coffeepot questioningly and then stood up with a jolt, swaying on his feet unsteadily. "Never mind…I'm grabbing a Red Bull." He stumbled to the refrigerator, roughly whipping the door open. He bent down to gape inside, his hand hanging on the handle as if he might fall otherwise.

"Got one," he said with a smile of triumph, slamming the refrigerator door closed and heading out of the kitchen. "See you guys later," he called as he retreated.

My eyes fell to Alice's pink fuzzy slippers as she walked over, two coffee cups in her hand, and climbed up into Emmett's abandoned stool next to me. She grasped the bigger mug in her small hands; I could tell from a quick glance that it was filled with her usual cream and sugar. She slid the other mug across the countertop. I peered down through the steam into the rich untainted black coffee, smiling at her in gratitude.

"Thanks," I mumbled, but when I looked up to see the inquisitive expression on her face, I instantly felt on edge. I knew that she wasn't going to let me leave the kitchen without giving her some sort of morsel to chew on.

"Come on, Edward, what's the secret? I can't believe you told Emmett something and not me!" She thrust out her lower lip in a pout and bumped her shoulder against mine affectionately. "You know I can keep a secret better than Emmett. If this has something to do with Bella, I could help you. Please," she whined.

"It's nothing, Alice," I reiterated, hoping she would drop it, though unlikely.

"I just know this is about Bella. I can see the way you look at each other. She's different. I know she is. And she's almost as good at Scrabble as Mom. I'm so glad that she wasn't here when Tyler crashed…she might have been hurt." She rambled and I didn't interrupt, allowing her to speculate and draw her own conclusions. She kept talking about the night before, recalling all that was said and her impressions of how it went.

I sipped my coffee and began to tune her out, wondering again where Bella was and what she was doing. The liquid eased down my throat, momentarily deceiving me with the impression of warmth.

Alice continued to talk about her plans for the future while wresting tiny bites from her defiant grapefruit. I drowned her out, my own thoughts taking precedence in my mind. My ears perked each time she mentioned Bella's name, and I listened for a few moments to her wildly implausible ideas. I had an especially hard time imagining my sexy, dark angel running through the mall like a giddy school girl, trying on shoes in a department store or gossiping over lunch in the food court.

But when Alice began to talk about having a picnic down by the river the following weekend, I sat up and listened interestedly. I saw Bella and me taking a walk down by the riverbed, hand in hand. We could climb the small boulders that ran along the side of the water, lie in the sun and kiss. I knew that the sun might be a problem so we would have to make sure that the weather was just right – lots of clouds and shade.

"That sounds like fun," I blurted, interrupting her long winded digression.

"Really? It's going to be so much fun! I'll ask her at school on Monday!" Alice said, hopping up and taking her bowl to the sink.

I got up and refilled my coffee cup while she washed out some of the dishes and put them on the dish rack.

"I'm going to go play some piano," I said to her and she nodded, smiling, as I headed out of the kitchen. I realized that I was lucky this time, evading her questions. But I also knew that Alice wouldn't stop pestering me, watching me and Bella until she figured it all out. I wondered if I was fighting with fire with the whole picnic idea. I sat down at the piano and cracked my knuckles, rolling my shoulders first forward and then backward to loosen up my muscles and I decided that it didn't matter. Being with Bella was always risky, dangerous even, but I wanted her and needed her in my life.

Everything we did together had to be well thought out and the picnic was no exception. There was always a probability that everything would be revealed, that something dire could happen, but having her be part of my life was worth it.

My fingers anxiously twitched when they got close to the piano, as if impatient to caress the cool ivory. As soon as they slid down to find their place, my hands disconnected from my brain, weaving out a pattern that was so intrinsic to my being that I didn't have to consider the notes before they rang out in the air around me. I didn't need to look or to concentrate on the motions. I closed my eyes and just felt the sounds pour from me as naturally and as essential as breathing.

I imagined that the music was a siren's call for Bella, luring her to me. I almost felt Bella sidling up next to me on the hard bench, fueling my creativity, inspiring each heart wrenching note. At one point I felt hands on my shoulders, lightly squeezing, and I turned my head thinking I would see that my music was actually successful in drawing Bella to me. Instead, my mother's face slowly came into focus, her expression a mixture of equal parts love and concern.

"We're headed out to meet your father at the hospital and then we're going to dinner. Did you want to come?" she asked. I could tell by the furrow in her brow that she hadn't wanted to disturb my playing. She, of all people, knew that the piano was not just my creative outlet, but it was my way of working out all the chaos of my mind and my heart.

"I think I'll stay, thanks," I answered, swiveling my body back to my instrument. I didn't hear her slip from the room nor did I hear the car drive away. I could only hear the heavy notes that echoed in the hollow spaces of my mind, a reflection of the emptiness there – an emptiness I could barely tolerate anymore.

I played for hours until the inevitable stiffness forced me to twist my fingers away from the keys. I spun around backwards on the bench so that the temptation to continue didn't pull me back despite my body's protests.

My eyes adjusted as I stood and walked to the living room. It was early evening, but the house was nearly dark, the storm outside blanketing the sky in dark, angry clouds. A jolt of powerful lightening struck nearby, illuminating the world before me in a shockingly brilliant light. Thunder rumbled overhead, the sky belting out its own form of nature's music.

The house felt abandoned, as empty as my soul. I was overcome with a feeling of loneliness and a desire to see Bella. I impulsively grabbed my keys and my leather jacket, heading out the door. I drove through the rain and hail to Bella's house, the windshield wipers barely able to keep the rain from obscuring my vision.

As I turned into her neighborhood I felt the familiar vibration tugging at the edges of my mind. And then her voice was there, clear and resonant, piercing the calm. There was a frantic, jagged edge to her words and thoughts that momentarily blinded me. The car swerved dangerously, just barely avoiding a collision with a rusted metal mailbox before my tire slammed into the curb hard and my vision returned.

…why aren't you listening to me? I have to do this...I need to know.

Her words were forced, passionate, and filled with frustration. There was anger in each syllable and a ferociousness that almost frightened me. But instead of turning around I slammed my foot down on the gas petal, turning the corner onto her street, desperate to get to her.

The sporadic streetlights cast wide circles of light on the ground, highlighting the swollen raindrops like scraps of glitter falling into nothingness. I came to a squealing stop across the street from her house, my mind and body at all times acutely aware that I was getting closer to my other half. I flung myself from the car and marched through the rain purposefully toward her house, words screaming in my mind like daggers. Protection…danger…your help…his family…please.

I grabbed the handrail at the bottom of the stair rail when I saw them standing in the shadows on the side of the house. I moved quietly forward, astounded at the sight before me, but unable to react. Bella stood with one hand on her hip, the other was gesturing wildly as she talked, the rain pounding her relentlessly. She didn't seem to notice or care that her clothes were soaked through, sodden and clinging to her taut body.

Jacob Black faced her as she spoke, his long arms relaxed at his sides. He was completely naked and entirely unselfconscious. My primal instinct was to run to them and dive at him with my fists. I wanted to punish him for being so shameless, his body taunting me with its sculpted perfection. My blood raged and I felt all my muscles tense uncomfortably. My utter shock made me powerless to do what my body urged me to do. So I wiped the rain water from my eyes and continued to watch them with guilty interest.

After standing in my spot for a few minutes, I realized that Bella hardly seemed to notice Jacob's nakedness. It was an incredibly odd sight. His massive form dwarfed her, but even from a distance I could sense her power, her strength as being equal to his. She clearly wasn't intimidated. At one point she even reached up and shoved him in the shoulder.

Come on Jacob, she thought pleadingly. He simply took a step backwards and nodded.

I found that I couldn't resist examining the angles and curves of his body. His lean, lithe muscles were so ideally formed that he almost appeared unreal, a statue of an exotic, pagan god. And yet, there was something in his posture - an alertness so feral, so animalistic - that revealed him to be more than a mere man. My mind knew that he wasn't a threat to me, Bella was mine and I was hers. But my heart still ached at the sight of him. When Bella eventually saw me naked, how could I compare with Jacob's inhuman perfection?

I felt as though my self confidence and all my beliefs in myself were being tested, challenged by expectations that were unreachable. I released a guttural groan with the realization and instantly made my presence known to the two surprised supernatural creatures.

Bella's eyes flashed in my direction and then back to Jacob as he growled viciously, his body rippling. His head craned back and he yelped sharply as if in pain. His flesh vibrated as his muscles stretched and waves of hair burst from his pores. Though terrified, I couldn't tear my eyes away as I tried to watch each phase of his transformation. But within seconds he was on four paws, his mouth full of sharp wolf teeth snarling at me, the fur on his back standing on end like an angry cat.

In a flash Bella was between us, standing in front of me, her hand reaching back to rest possessively on my chest. "It's Edward, Jacob. It's Edward," she explained. Jacob continued to snarl at me and I worried for a moment whether or not Bella could calm him or even defend me if he attacked. The adrenaline shot through my body like a rocket and each moment seemed crisp, intense, with all my senses heightened.

Jacob didn't back away like I'd hoped but craned his neck back and howled into the darkness. The rain was still hammering the earth relentlessly, providing a constant backdrop of sound, and muffling the loud thrashing of my heart. Bella shoved me backwards into the house as I was altered to a new sound – a powerful pounding, like drumming steadily growing in volume. The ground began to shake and I reached backward to steady myself against the house.

Bella crouched defensively and I looked down at her worriedly. When I raised my eyes, my breath caught in my throat – Jacob was flanked by at least a half dozen other massive wolves. They snarled, gnashing their teeth, their paws scraping muddy holes in the grass. Their heads were all turned the same direction, their luminous pupils glowing menacingly, as their eyes fixed on one thing, their prey – me.

End Notes:

Thanks again for reading! What do you think about my naked Jacob? I loved imagining that scene! Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts!!!