Disclaimer: (I wish)

i apologize in advance. this will be one of those lovely cliffhanger chapters
please don't sue
actually i don't think you can? or at least not for it being a cliffhanger
whatever...i'm babbling

CHAPTER THIRTY

Seth

A few seconds had passed after Jacob ran after Seth. Now it was just me and Mike in the garage and I was still in awe from the spectacle. My eyes wouldn't move from Mikes position. What had just happened was certainly a twist that I hadn't expected. Seth and Mike? It just didn't add up. Then I gave up on reasoning and ran towards the house, leaving Mike alone. When I got up to the door I could already hear the yelling.

"What are you talking about Seth!", Leah screamed. That was when I noticed the circle of spectators around Seth. Each seeming equally as surprised as I was. Both Quil and Embry, I could tell were suppressing laughs.

"I told you already!", Seth screamed back.

"You were kissing him", Jake pointed out.

"I was not!"

By now both Billy and Charlie were listening with turned heads from the living room. Billy seemed like he was holding back a smile. Leah's face was now one of masked anger with a mix of utter disbelief, and Charlie didn't have a clue about what was going on.

"Did you imprint on him or something?", Quil asked.

"No, I didn't imprint on him!", Seth yelled.

"Then what's going on?", Embry questioned with a smile. By now Seth's eye's were wide as bowling balls.

"He imprinted on me!", Seth answered with a shriek. Jacob broke out in laugh.

"Well that was unexpected!", Jacob let out. "How'd it happen?"

"He attacked me!", Seth blurted. It was obvious that he was getting uncomfortable.

"How?", Quil pushed.

"With his lips!", Seth shouted. Jacob gave him a knowing look. It was becoming evident that he knew something that I didn't.

"Seth, he was chained down", Jacob reasoned.

Hearing that sent crimson to his cheeks. After a few seconds passed it was apparent that he didn't know what to say. For a moment everyone just looked at him as if there was nothing more to be said. Then he just blurted it out.

"Well it's not like I'm gay or anything!"

With that both Embry and Jacob started laughing so hard that they were now holding their sides. Quil didn't seem to know how to take the most recent discovery as he just continued to stare in disbelief. Leah had already stormed out of the room.

"I don't even like boys", Seth muttered. "Stop laughing!", he pointed towards Jacob and Embry.

It was then that I finally put two and two together. Seth had been acting sort of weird lately and in all truthfulness I hadn't been paying much attention to him or anyone else for that matter for the past couple of weeks. A vague memory of Seth coming in from the garage about two weeks ago and acting beyond odd caught up with me. At the time I had thought he'd just gotten in a fight with Mike, but now I could see that something else was clearly going on. It was clear now that this was probably not the first time they had kissed. This had been going on for quite some time. Seth had been going through something all by himself that he shouldn't have had to. His friends should have been there. I should have been there. Instantly I felt guilt wash over me. It wasn't like we were so close that we talked about that sort of stuff anyway, but I still felt bad for not being able to see what had been in front of me all along. After my realization I noticed the look that Seth was giving me as his circle of bystanders continued to laugh. He was confused, lost and embarrassed.

I barged through the circle and took his hand, ready to lead him out of his humiliation.

"Come on Seth, lets get out of here", I motioned. It looked as if a wave of relief had washed over him as I said this. He whispered a thanks and grasped my hand as we exited the kitchen.

Embry laughed again. "Hey Bella, I don't think you're Seth's type!", he yelled as we went through the door.

From outside there was still the muffled laughs from the house in the background. I turned to Seth and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"What?", he defensively asked.

"This wasn't the fist time that Mike ki-"

"I didn't kiss him", he mumbled. "He attacked me"

I decided to let him believe this for the moment as I continued.

"Okay", I reasoned. "This isn't the first time that Mike 'attacked' you, is it?"

Seth's cheeks turned a scarlet brown as he shook his head.

"No"

"Do you want me to go punch him?"

Seth seemed surprised to hear this. Actually I was too. I'd never thought that this would have effected me so much, but seeing Seth in so much confusion just didn't seem fair. And Mike had been getting on my nerves lately.

"No!", he almost shrieked. I arched my eyebrow again in question.

"Do you like Mike, Seth?"

Again Seth seemed as if he was lost for words. I couldn't blame him. It was a rather confusing situation. He looked to the ground and started to talk over himself.

"I don't know", he whispered. Then he looked back up at me. "No", he finally stated. He looked to the ground, shrugged his shoulders and sent his hands to his hair and pulled at it. "I don't think so"

"It's either yes or no Seth", I interrupted.

"Can't it be both?"

"Seth", I pointed out. "You either want to kiss him again or you don't. Easy as that"

"Then definitely not!", he declared.

Just then the house door opened and Jacob came out. He strolled up to us and smiled.

"And how are you ladies doing?", he joked.

Seth sent him a look of disgust. I couldn't help myself with my response to his joke.

"I vaguely remember you", I pointed at Jacob. "Saying something about how you liked Quil". Jacob's grin dropped as he heard what I was saying. "How you couldn't keep your eyes off of him"

Jacob quickly walked up closer to me and pointed his finger in the air.

"That was a joke!"

Seth started laughing as a large grin took over his face.

"You said that!", he laughed. Jacob turned to him just as Quil and Embry decided to join the conversation.

"No!"

"Don't lie Jacob", I smirked. "Tell Quil all about how you like to watch him"

With that Quil made a face of confusion and looked back and forth from me to Jacob.

"What?", he questioned with an edge of hysteria in his voice.

"She'd joking", Jake informed.

This resulted with Embry throwing his hands up in the air and walking away from the conversation.

"I don't want to know!", he stated as he walked back towards the house. Jacob looked back to Quil.

"It was just a joke"

Then everything was back to normal. I was laughing, Seth was laughing and only Jacob was holding a face of disbelief.

"You guys are messed up. I'm outta here", he said with a bit of annoyance. "I'll see you guys later". And he headed out towards the woods.

"Where's he going", I asked Quil.

"Oh, Sam just wanted us to do some scouting tonight. Jake's taking the first shift"

Then Quil took a step closer to me just as we were about to head back inside.

"You were joking right?", he mercifully questioned.

I smiled and walked inside. I'd let him figure that one out on his own. Jacob should have thought twice before he decided to poke fun at Seth.

As soon as I got through the door I was met with two pairs of staring eyes. Charlie and Billy were both pointed in my direction. Billy's face was one of worry, while Charlie's was raising an eyebrow in wonder of what just happened. Billy motioned for me to come sit with them.

"Why don't you come on over Bell", he asked. I followed his instruction and made my way to the couch. "I told Charlie that you'd explain everything to him". Then Billy sent me a look that told me the exact opposite of what he'd just said. Apparently he was going to expect me to come up with some sort of excuse for what had happened. Great, I huffed in self defeat. Here it goes.

"What do you want to know?", I asked.

Charlie looked at me quizzically for a second then looked out towards the garage.

"There isn't a horse out there is there?"

I smiled and shook my head no. I didn't think he bought that story when he first heard it anyway. Seth isn't known for his lying genus. Clearly.

"Do I want to know Bells?", he asked.

And this was the question. The one that would let him into my world and take him out of his. Did I really want to do that to him? Destroy what he knows? He'd gone through at lot in the past month and this probably wouldn't help him any. Plus with the Nomad pack and the threat of a fight, it was safer if he didn't know. The less people involved the better.

"Probably not", I answered. In all truthfulness it was the truth. He nodded his head in agreement and looked back at the TV.

"Don't you want to know about what just happened?", I asked. I mean, wouldn't he want to know? He was there for it. He must be in the least bit curious as to why everyone was so built up over Seth's choice in kissing partners.

"God no", he laughed. "Why would I want to know that?"

"Oh, I guess it's not important", I settled. He raised his eyebrow again.

"Is it important?"

I thought it over for a second, but decided that it would just be better not to tell him. If he wasn't eager to know, then I wasn't going to be eager to tell.

"Not as important as dinner", I stated.

And that was where I left it. Billy joined Charlie in his attention to the TV screen and I got up and walked to the kitchen. It was my night to cook.

…

When Jake got back from scouting he quickly made his way over to the various pots I was cooking in. He pulled a lid off one and sniffed deeply.

"Mmmm", he breathed.

I turned around and re-covered the pot.

"It's not done", I told him.

"I don't care. I like my spaghetti undercooked", he smiled.

I gave him a look of amazement and scrunched up my nose.

"That's sick Jake"

"I'm just kidding Bells", he laughed. Then he placed his hands along my waist and turned me to face him. "Kiss me", he demanded.

"Not until you clean up", I joked. "You smell like a dog"

He held on tighter and whispered along my ear.

"That's because I am a dog", he smiled. Then he wisped me around and planted a kiss on my shoulder. At the same time he backed up into the handle of the sauce pot and knocked it over. Red splashed along the floor tiles and dripped down the oven. Jake looked up from the mess and gave me an apologetic stare.

"Nice Jacob", I stated as I bent down with some paper towels. "What are we going to have with the noodles now?"

He bent down with me and started mopping up the sauce with the towels.

"You should have let me kiss you"

I dropped my jaw in shock. Did he just blame this on me?

"Jacob you are one-"

My smart combat was instantly interrupted with the kitchen door flying wide open and a distraught Embry rushing towards us. Jacob quickly stood up and acknowledged his worried expression.

"What is it?", Jake questioned.

"It's Sam", Embry solemnly stated. "Something's happened"

…

"Tell me exactly what happened", Jacob demanded as we walked across the grass.

"I don't know", Embry answered. "We just found him out in the woods"

We continued to march our way through the grass and entered the clearing of the woods. It was starting to get dark out and the wind held our breaths in the cold air. I looked over at Jacob as he started to take up speed. His face was of total control. It didn't seem like anything could intrude on what he was thinking about now. And whatever it was, it was serious. A few seconds later Quil stepped up to us out from behind a tree.

"He's over here", he informed Jacob.

Jacob let him take the lead and followed him to another clearing just a few feet away. It was dark out, but I could still make out that what was lying in a heap along the dying grass was Sam. But it didn't look like him, this was a bloody and mangled version of the pack leader. Jacob stopped in his tracks and huffed out a breath of warm air that scurried up in the fall sky.

"Shit", he growled.

And that was all he said. It was all he needed to say. It was clear that there was no other words to explain what this meant. Even I knew what this would mean. The nomads were here.