I should have thought about how my impulsive reaction would affect Leah.

Shocked back to the moment, I immediately realized Leah had stopped pacing because of the rattling, subsiding growl that shook the floor, then began to fade.

"Don't!" Emily pushed me away and ran towards her cousin, who was already halfway through the opposite door, but froze when Leah turned to face her. Animosity rolled of off Leah like a dense fog; Jacob crossed his arms, his gaze focused on the women in front of him. I knew he wouldn't let Leah hurt Emily, for both of their sakes, and at the moment Leah appeared calm, if furious. She took in a deep breath while she stared down at her cousin.

"You did trade with me," she growled. "That's the whole problem." I saw Emily's shoulders fall and stopped myself from walking towards her again.

"It wasn't like that," Emily gasped. She steadied herself, spreading her small feet slightly further apart, and looked back up at Leah defiantly. "You know it wasn't like that."

"Actually, I don't," Leah snapped. It seemed they hadn't spoken about what had happened, and her words crackled wickedly in the air. "And you don't know anything about what being me now is like, Emily—you got the best part of my life. Trust me, you don't want the rest." Her expression was abruptly cold.

"Leah, you don't understand—"

"—What?" Leah leaned further in, her eyes blanking, nostrils wide. "Maybe you don't understand, Emily—"

I knew something awful was going to happen just before it did. Emily looked at Jake for just a split second, and I saw his sturdy expression falter just as she opened her mouth.

"No!" I screamed, rushing forward. Sam told Emily about Jacob's imprint. In a misguided attempt to reunite with her cousin, Emily was going to tell her that Sam wasn't as strong as Jake—that no one but the true alpha was spared the pull of imprinting. I grabbed her arm and spun her towards me, my voice still echoing in the room. Even though I cared very deeply for both women and wanted them to be friends again, I knew this wasn't the way. I knew it would destroy Leah, not help her understand, and I couldn't let Emily tell her. Not this way.

But it was too late. Leah's nostrils quivered, the adrenaline pumping through the air setting her wolf side aflame. A slight tremor in her hands made me pull Emily away and walk deliberately towards Jake while Leah stared after us.

"What is it, Bella?" Her tone was low, monotone. Jacob began to move forward but she put her hand up and spoke in a voice with ancient echoes. "Stay there, Jacob." She'd pulled rank on him, and because he'd rejoined the pack, he had no choice but to obey. Ripples flew across his skin like a nest of snakes had hatched inside of him.

"This is the worst possible time to talk about this, Leah," I whispered, and I hoped she appreciated that this was true. We were in my father's house, facing horrible challenges and dark possibilities at every turn; it was no time to rip the pack apart. Emily didn't know her cousin any more, and she hadn't been privy to her feelings in years. She couldn't have known how raw this wound still was.

"There's no time like the present," Leah said in her dead voice. Her head lowered on her neck as she walked towards me, eyes unblinking. When her head cocked to the side I knew Leah was moving with her wolf and I involuntarily stepped back, pulling a reluctant Emily with me. A blurry body suddenly blocked Leah from view; Jake was fighting against the alpha command. If he and Leah phased—if they fought--Emily and I would die. We had to get out of there.

I grabbed her tiny hand and dragged Emily towards the back door, her feet pulling on the floor. I was using all of my strength before I realized what was happening.

She was fighting me. She wanted to stay.

"Leah!" She screamed, desperately trying to rip her hand away. "Leah—my face! My face!" Her words literally shocked me, and I froze, gaping. She quickly yanked her hand free and scrambled back across the floor to the two blurring hulks. "I traded my face Leah!" Emily fell over her own feet, and the sound of her frail, human body hitting the floor brought me back to my senses. I rushed over to her as she wriggled to look up at her cousin, the scar tissue almost too painful to look at; when her back arched I could see the purple ruin where it ran under her hairline and all the way down her chest. No tears could fall from her devastated eye. The two wolves were anxiously trembling, Emily on the floor in front of them, the image of supplication.

"When he came to me—I told him no. I said no, Leah, I called him horrible names and I told him he wasn't good enough for you—and he agreed, Leah, he said it was true, I was right—" She didn't bother to stand, and her tears reached her mouth, making her gasp. "But he couldn't leave me alone. I could see it on his face, and he frightened me—I told him no, Leah." She inhaled, one of her hands sliding in the growing puddle. I realized the wolves were no longer shaking, and saw Jacob lean down to help Emily when Leah's hand flew up again. Instead, she crouched low and brought her own face near her cousin's.

"What happened when you told him no, Emily?" I knew she'd seen it in Sam's mind. Why was she asking now?

"He got upset," Emily whispered, a wet sound. "He got upset, and there was no one to help him—you know what his dad is like, Leah, he was all alone—"

"What. Happened." Leah's expression was fine and brutal.

"He phased," Emily whispered back. "And then…what I needed changed."

"You needed him because he disabled you—"

"No!" Emily sounded horrified. "I needed help, because…I could only see out of one eye, I couldn't use my left hand for the first couple months….Leah, no one would ever love me again." She looked imploringly, desperately at her cousin. "I didn't choose him, Leah. I didn't take him." Another tear hit the floor. "I never wanted to hurt you—can you see how it happened? There was no one else, Leah, after all the cards and the flowers—I was going to spend my life alone with this face."

"The face that he gave you," Leah whispered.

"I know," Emily nodded. "We're both trapped, Leah. He didn't want to want me in the first place, and now we will be together forever. Because of this."

Leah stood and turned her back. When I leaned over to help pull Emily up, she didn't stop Jacob from using his strong hands to steady us. "If he wasn't what you needed to begin with…" Leah faced towards the street, the front door open in the other room and late afternoon light dancing across the floor to where she stood in the kitchen. I felt the tension return as soon as Emily sighed. "Why couldn't he leave you alone, if that was what you really wanted from him? Isn't that the opposite of the way this shit is supposed to work?" She turned towards us once more. Emily looked at Jake and I, and I hoped that my expression told her enough to keep us out of it.

"Because…" She awkwardly began, looking at her hands for a minute. I found myself praying, praying to anything, please Emily don't, not when we're almost safe…I almost threw up when I heard Leah finish her sentence.

"Because not everyone can be Jake," she finished the thought. I grabbed Emily's hand, then whipped my head towards the back door when a new voice entered the room.

"That's right, Leah." Sam filled up the entire doorway, his expression dark. "Not everyone can be Jacob."