Hi, guys! See? This time I updated sooner, right? Spring break! Wahoo! Normally, I would draw and write the whole time, but IB has given me 2 projects and homework assignments to do first! Wish me luck! I have eight days left, so pray I'm not too lazy to do it that way I can spend seven or six of those days updating chapters!

Anyway, ya'll know I love you, but I must admit, I'm starting to miss one of my favorite reviewers. Baby Green Eyes, are you alive? Have you abandoned me? I miss your twitching! LOL

I do not own Twilight or any of its original characters, they belong to Stephenie Meyer. I only own Amber. That's good enough, I guess.

Oh, yeah! REVIEWS! PLEASE!

-L-

Bella

The moment Amber said his name, I snapped. I didn't even wait long enough to hear what Jake had said in reply to her assumption before I made my way down the hills in our way.

The seven of us had been surrounding their home for the past hour, listening in on their conversation without being detected. I'd used my power to cover all of our scents and movements as I dug my nails into the bark of a tree. I had been so anxious that whole time. What if it really wasn't my Jake? How would I react? And what of Amber? Were they together?

All the questions kept piling over each other until they became a nonsensical buzzing that all but drove me insane. I don't remember it, but the look on Alice's face meant I had expressed my frustration aloud. Was it a scream? I felt tears stream down my cheek as I heard my second cry.

"JAKE!" The sound was broken and high pitched. My legs moved involuntarily toward the house, no longer satisfied with our stand-by position. Before I could even take three strides forward, Jasper and Rose were shoving me down to the ground. My face was in the dirt by the time I had even realized they were covering my mouth with open palms. In those brief moments, I forgot they were my family. I threw them off of me as easily as I toss a crumpled piece of paper. I was horrified at what I'd done when I saw Jasper pulling out a twig that had shoved into his belly from the fall. What terrified me more than this was that even after, my thoughts were solely of Jake. Where the hell had he been all this time? Why didn't I know?

"JACOB BLACK!" I bellowed as I stood up. I hadn't taken but another step forward when I was halted by Alice, Esme, Emmett and Carlisle. I felt the tension between Amber and Jake, which made this drawback all the worse. I was about to pull away from their grasps when I saw Edward. His expression was morphed in a pain I couldn't identify. It was enough to have made my heart stop, if only Laurent hadn't done that favor already.

I shrank back from him, suddenly ashamed. I felt a knot stuck in my throat as he blinked and recovered his features. He turned his face away from me and the gesture hurt more than I ever thought it could. I tried to defy my family's grip to go to him, but he seemed so distant and my family wasn't letting go as easily. I started to rebel against their hold like a wild animal being caged when I heard tranquil voice.

"Hey, Bells." We all froze, our bodies tense. Turning my face away from Edward, I saw the calm expression on Jake's face. He acted as if we'd seen each other just yesterday. Slowly, the hands that had refrained my movement let go. They surrounded me, shielding me from this recently discovered creature. Their protectiveness of me drew more invisible tears at what I'd done to them.

He walked briskly over to us and turned to get a glimpse of Edward, then turned away. I eyed Edward from the edge of my view. His lips were in a hard line, and though the anguish was still in his eyes, he also looked taken aback, overwhelmed with disbelief. As Jake approached us with ease, Edward made his way toward the front of my shield. Jake stopped a few feet away from us.

"So…how's life?" he joked. My eyes grew wide, incredulous. Edward made a deep growl from the pit of his stomach.

"What are you?" he asked, his words sounding like venom. Jake smirked at the tone behind the words while holding back Amber, who took the blow harder than he did. Her fists clenched and for a moment, I thought I imagined her eye color changing. Edward should have directed the question to her.

"If I told you I'm afraid I'd have to kill you." Jake replied. Now I was starting to get frustrated. "Jake, please be serious. What…what happened to you?" I asked. Jake gazed at me, his eyes accusing of something I didn't quite understand. Then it hit me. He must think that…

"Jake, I can assure you…this was hardly planned. I'm not…I mean I am, but…Edward wasn't the one to change me." I said. Edward looked at me questioningly, Jake shocked that I could have figured it out. I was surprised as well though, since for some reason I wasn't able to enter his mind. I actually had figured it out. "Am I supposed to believe that lie, Bells?" he replied.

"It's not a lie!" I cried, "I…I had gone searching for that meadow I'd told you about." My voice got softer as I recounted the story in more detail than I had in years. I didn't even give this much information to Alice. Certainly not to Edward. "The one that we couldn't find together, remember?" Jake nodded. I was glad to see he was at least paying attention.

"Well, I went looking for it again…alone, which was a stupid thing to do, but, it's not like anyone could have stopped it. Not any mortal, anyway." I was getting off track, but now that I thought about it, being killed by an animal was…rather pathetic for a vampire. "I found the meadow. Unfortunately, there was another vampire there. Ridiculously, I was ecstatic to find something familiar to what I lost and so, I stayed and then…there was no getting away. Laurent…he had his fun with me: flung me around like a rag doll until I was so weak, I should have been dead." I looked up at Jake, at his incredulous eyes and his shaking fists. My eyes darted to Amber, who was listening closely to this event. Scared of what his eyes would say, I turned to face Edward. His eyes were closed and his eyebrows were furrowed, pained and discontent. I closed my eyes as I continued. "He changed me there. Wouldn't let me go for the three days that I was changing. He was…entertaining himself by mocking my every thrash and echoing every scream that I made. When it was almost over, I felt like I was going into my final sleep. The last thing I saw was him cackling as he walked away. When I woke up later, he was gone. I found out a couple of years later that he had been killed by a pack of-"I started, but Jake cut in.

"Wolves." He said, disgustedly as he began to pace himself, shaking a lot more than before. Amber stared into space morosely, as did Edward. I tried to lighten the moment. "It's ironic, huh? That a vampire could be killed by something not even one-fourth of his strength."

Carlisle gazed seriously at Jake. "They weren't just wolves, were they?" he stated. It was more of a fact than a question. Edward made a deep moan as he fell to his knees. "God, don't say it, Black." He pleaded. Jake gawked at him as did I.

"Why not? You make it sound like a crime! It's not my fault we go through that change. We sensed a threat and it turned out two leeches-one that we killed as a pack and another that killed any human speck of me. But don't you worry, Cullen. I killed that red-haired wench. Tracked her all the way to Japan to do the deed." Jake spat. I didn't understand what was going on around me. Why was everyone so fixated on wolves if he just said he was changed by Victoria? Amber stood by him stroking his back for him to calm himself. Why was she so careful to keep him from getting angered?

"Why would Victoria want you?" I asked, though it seemed like a stupid question.

"Funny thing is, Bella, she didn't want me, she wanted you. When she found out you were dead, I was simply stress relief. She should have finished the job and killed me, but my pack felt the danger and she took off."

His words were like knives, stabbing me as I came to understand that I should have been killed twice. Now that I recalled, I'm sure Laurent had said she wanted to avenge her…lover. That's right. She wanted me dead.

"Jake, I…" I looked up but before I could even catch a glimpse of him, Edward made a deadly cry as he pounced on me protectively, wrapping me in a cage. The rest of my family stood guard like a shield while I saw Amber crouch down instinctively, like this moment had happened before. Then I saw it. A massive creature with wolf like features roaring in some sort of pain. It moved its russet body toward the forest but before it took off, it gazed at me with pitch black eyes that seemed to know every fiber of my being. I understood the obsession now. My Jake…he was…a wolf.