He wants to see us—to talk, Carlisle thought at Edward.

Knowing who, Edward gave a low growl in reply, one that only Bella did not hear.

They were seated around the table, trying not to make Bella feel self-conscious about being the only one eating. So far, they'd been doing well, but she didn't miss Edward's sudden stillness beside her.

He turned, smiling at her, their hands still linked. She smiled back, and to his great relief, actually took a bite of food, letting her attention drift back to her conversation with Alice.

The thought of Sam Uley, so near her, made his skin crawl.

"Did he say anything else?" Edward asked.

No, Carlisle responded silently.

"When?" Edward asked, voice still too quiet for human ears, keeping his hand loose in Bella's, rubbing his thumb over her fingers.

Tonight, Carlisle thought, showing him where, in the woods beyond the house. He'll be coming alone.

Alone? A show of trust, Edward mused.

Or repentance.

Bella would be asleep by then. He could slip away, and be back in seconds if she woke. The idea didn't sit well with him—them being apart—but he wanted to hear, first hand, what the wolves had found.

"I'll come," Edward said subaudibly, stealing a glance at Bella.

Carlisle nodded, just enough for Edward to catch it.

It wasn't long after Bella was asleep, that he heard Carlisle's summons. He's here, his mind called out.

"Just us," Edward reminded the family, "everyone else stays near Bella."

Esme and Rose sat just inside the bedroom, silent and still as statues, with Jasper, Emmett and Alice positioned around the house.

In the small clearing, Edward and Carlisle looked at each other in surprise. Sam had arrived, alone, as promised, but in human form.

He stood, uneasily, some distance from them.

"Thank you," he said, "for agreeing to meet."

Carlisle nodded, but said nothing.

"Jacob has admitted what he's done," he began, but his thoughts ran ahead of him, and Edward snarled out a response. "You let him get away?!"

Sam closed his eyes, nodding, glancing down. He abandoned his words, showing Edward, instead, what had transpired.

Edward flinched, revulsion growing, seeing what they had. He would have paled, if it had been physically possible. As it was, his stomach curdled at the images flickering through Sam's mind.

"How did he leave the pack?" Edward asked, hearing their conclusions.

"I don't know," Sam said, running through the many theories they'd discussed.

Of course, Edward thought. He was Ephraim Black's heir.

"Edward?" Carlisle asked.

Edward turned to him, explaining near silently, and at speeds incomprehensible to Sam, what had transpired.

"The council met," Sam said, interrupting their tête-à-tête. "Their conclusion was that we have wronged Bella, and by extension, you."

Edward only growled at this obvious, and gross understatement.

Sam continued on, "Jacob showed us your intention with Bella." His visual interpretation of this reflected his own genetic prejudices, and Edward snorted at the dramatic overplay. As if he would be so vile—violent, or traumatize his wife in turning her.

"We will not consider it a violation of the treaty, for you to do so," Sam said, "in recognition of the crime Jacob has committed."

Edward exploded.

"YOU THINK THAT OFFERS RESTITUTION?" he bellowed. "HE RAPED HER!"

Carlisle raised his hand. A wordless enjoining to silence.

I know, he thought at his son. He knows too.

He waited, letting Edward calm himself.

"Jacob is a danger," Carlisle said, "to our family. I would argue to you, as well. His actions considered."

Sam watched him shrewdly, waiting.

Carlisle spoke again, voice level and even. "He cannot escape consequence."

This statement hung, heavier for Sam, in their midst.

Bella stirred, murmuring something soft—his name?— and Edward's attention flickered. He would need to leave, and soon.

"He is beyond human justice," Carlisle continued. "And you yourself doubt your capacity to confine or control him."

Sam swallowed, nodding reluctantly.

"Unless he returns to seek his own remedy, we hunt him to destroy him," Carlisle said, this too, cold and level.

Sam closed his eyes, and Edward heard, with pained clarity, the distraught voices that had been heard at their council meeting.

Billy's was foremost. He'd denied every possibility of it, until each and every one of the pack had spoken, sharing in horrific detail, what they had witnessed in their joined minds. All the faces that ran the circle were paler by the end of the telling, and many wet with grief, at so much wrong. With shame.

Jacob's father had sat in silence after that, his muteness from shock, or guilt, Edward couldn't tell.

The thought of Billy led next to Charlie, in Sam's mind, and Edward flicked his eyes back up to the man in front of him.

"You told Charlie?" he asked, more as prompt to memory, than a real question.

"He thinks Jacob fled by car," Edward said to Carlisle, "And the vehicle in question?" he asked, turning back to Sam.

"Dumped in Wenatche," Sam answered. Easy enough to fake a human trail for those who cared to follow it.

Like Charlie.

Not that he had any formal means to investigate. No report of a missing person had been made. No crime reported.

Just his daughter, raped, Sam thought bitterly, with pity and chagrin.

"I can't speak for the council," Sam said, "but I will take your proposal to them."

"Do," Carlisle said cooly. "And Sam," he added, "keep to your side of the line. I wouldn't want anyone in our family to be confused—or feel threatened—by the unannounced presence of a wolf."

Sam nodded, and in a remarkable show of faith, turned his back on them, walking away into the dark screen of the forest, shifting to his other self, as they returned to the house.