Hi,

Sorry the update took so long, finals start for me in just two short weeks so I have been super focused on studying. Yeah! Exams! (Insert plenty of sarcasm)

Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter go to The all mighty powerful M, Twisted Musalih vriend, Grumpy DelSan 13, Astilbe, Rose, melodia, and Mandy may, your reviews have all kept me motivated to keep writing even when I know I should be studying. Thank you for the encouragement. I appreciate your thoughts and comments very much so when you're done reading please do type a quick note and hit the review button, getting them in my inbox makes my day and keeps the muse happy.

This story is Beta'd by SeptemberSkies without whom it would rougher than rough and there is a good chance it would also be a lot more confusing. Thank you for your time, effort and words of encouragement!

Lastly, the same disclaimer from the introduction still applies.

Happy reading (and hopefully reviewing)

Chapter 7

(BPOV)

"Alice, it's a bonfire, not a beauty pageant." I complained as she pulled her make-up bag out and opened it on the bed next to where she had sat me.

"Just give in already, she's not going to stop until she's happy anyway." Zach said from where he was laying on my bedroom floor, throwing a baseball in the air and catching it over and over again. I threw my hairbrush in his direction and smiled with satisfaction when he grunted as it hit him and the ball clattered to the ground.

"It's not like I want to stand out." I turned to Alice but she looked slightly distracted as she dug around in her make-up bag while downstairs heavy footsteps could be heard followed by raised voices.

"Do you want her to get hurt, Carlisle?" Jasper's voice was sharp and clear from below us and I paused. There had been tension in the house since Zach and I got back from the beach and I had asked my parents for permission to go to the bonfire. They had agreed after setting a curfew and finding out that Zach was going to go with and stay with me there. Rosalie had left, her car pealing out of the driveway and Jasper and Emmett had started an argument with my parents that apparently wasn't finished yet while Alice had shepherded Zach and I upstairs.

"They are young and reckless and we have no idea how much control they have over themselves. I'm not okay with risking her life like that." Emmett's protest joined our brother's.

"You are already going to stand out, Bella." Zach admonished, as he reached for his baseball again like there wasn't an argument raging downstairs. I felt slightly queasy and couldn't help but wonder again if this was such a good idea if half of the family seemed so dead set against it.

"If you would like to carry on this discussion I suggest that we take it out of this house." Carlisle's voice was insistent and I was comforted slightly by his trademark calm. A moment later the front door opened and closed and I knew that they had left.

"And besides," Alice said focusing on me again. "I've already let you wear your quota of flannel for the month; you are not a cowgirl Bella, so tonight you're going to make an effort so they don't start to think you aren't being looked after properly." Alice started pouting.

"Do you think I shouldn't go?" I asked her.

"I think that at some point we are going to have to start letting you make your own decisions. Do I wish we could go with you too?" She looked at me thoughtfully, none of the petulance left. "Yes, but you aren't going alone and so far all that boy has tried to do is protect you, even against his own leader. Now if you want to go, stop protesting and let me get to work, you might just be ready before it gets too late."

With a sigh I shook my head and gave up fighting, it just wasn't worth the headache, Alice was too much like a dog with a bone and I needed the time to think. It didn't take my sister long to do a make-up that was surprisingly light and natural looking despite the amount of products she used, and fix my hair into a fishtail braid. She allowed a pair of dark jeans and a pair of charcoal grey Ugg boots, I was sure she meant to replace the pair I had had for the last two years and refused to get rid of, and a light long sleeved dark blue V-necked shirt that was comfortable as well as pretty.

"Here." She finally passed me a dark grey blazer. "So you don't freeze."

"You actually made me look like me." I smiled at her as Zach walked back into my room, a jacket of his own thrown over one arm, his long sleeves rolled up to his elbows, showing off part of the recently completed sleeve of tattoos that I knew covered his left arm from shoulder to wrist.

"Of course I did, you're just a little bit more refined." Alice smiled at me before turning to Zach. "Why you insist on so many tattoos I really don't know." She scolded him as he leaned against my doorjamb.

"Not getting into this with you again Alice." Zach was calm and I had to stop myself from looking at his arm and the recently inked scene depicted on it. I wasn't sure I was ready to look at Zach's personal version of hell yet, especially not when I knew that he believed that we both would end up there someday. "Ready to go little Swan?"

"Yeah." I nodded, smiling at him as I followed him out of my room. My parents were hovering by the bottom of the staircase with Emmett who looked unhappy; Jasper apparently had chosen to stay away. Esme gave me a soothing smile as I pulled my truck keys out of my jeans pockets. I paused as I looked between the three of them. "Dad?" I settled on my father's typically calm expression.

"Emmett isn't a fan of the bonfire, ignore him. Have fun, don't let Zach get into any trouble and don't hesitate to call if you need anything, we can be there very quickly." He pulled me in for a quick hug.

"I resent that comment Dr. C. I'm a responsible adult!" Zach protested and Emmett snorted as he patted his arm on the way past. "I've got this Emmett, I'm pretty sure we've been through worse than a bonfire and cookout." His comment was made nonchalantly enough that it could have been causal, but I knew he was serious.

He was right, even with the addition of a group of giant wolves in the mix we were still only going to a bonfire. A chill ran up my spine and I paused, looking over at Emmett and Zach again. A new bundle of nerves joined the existing ones in my stomach as my father released me from his embrace. What if Emmett and Jasper were right and I was walking us into a bad situation? Was I so wrong to want to trust Jacob the way that every fiber in my being was telling me that I should, that I needed to? Then I reminded myself that I had already made my decision, the only way I was going to get the answers to the questions I had was to go to that bonfire. Why was I second guessing myself now?

"I've got my cellphone. I'll communicate." I set my jaw and tapped into the stubborn side that I was always told I had as I walked into the parking garage after Zach, trying to ignore the frown on Emmett's face as I got into and started up my truck.

The drive to La Push didn't take long, I had a rough idea from Jasper where the Treaty lines were and I couldn't stop myself from tensing as the truck drove over the invisible boundary. It was like I still expected something bad to happen, or to feel the tingling recognition of an ancient spell despite the fact that I had felt nothing to give me that impression on our way to the beach earlier that afternoon. I cursed my own overactive imagination, the truck didn't suddenly have engine troubles, the road in front of us wasn't all of a sudden covered in an ominous fog and the howl of ghost wolves didn't give away our location to the night air. I let out the breath I was holding and shrugged at Zach who was giving me a curious look. I shook my head; he didn't even want to know what was going through my mind.

I knew that the Quileute reservation wasn't large but it did look well looked after. The houses that we passed were modest and well-worn but solid, they were one or two story buildings all painted red on the outside with black tile roofing and white washed porches. The houses were neither close together or far apart and most weren't more than a five minute drive from the beach where the bonfire was being held. I pulled into the parking lot, next to a black F-150 that was a good number of years older than my own. There were only a couple of other vehicles there, an orangey red 50s Chevy pick-up, some sort of suburban and a little four door Honda.

I wiped sweaty hands on the front of my jeans after I had turned off the engine and shoved the key into my blazer pocket. Part of me wanted to turn the truck back on and get out of this place as fast as I possibly could but a larger part of me was focused on seeing Jacob again. I froze for a moment as I processed my own thoughts, yes, it would be interesting to find out more about my biological family but if I was honest, I couldn't wait to see the tall Quileute again with the bright smile that contradicted the seriousness that was always present behind his eyes. I couldn't stop thinking about what it had felt like to be secure in his arms, the way that my fears and nerves seemed to evaporate when he was around. I needed to know why!

"We can go anytime you want kid." Zach's voice was soothing as he opened his door and jumped out. I nodded and followed suit as he opened the back door and grabbed one of the cases of soda we had brought, I grabbed the other case of soda and locked the truck. He bumped my hip with his gently before we moved off toward the pillar of flames that stood on the edge of the sand surrounded by a small group of people.

It didn't take them long to pause and turn almost as one to look at us. There were a number of families all centered around one or more of the nine massive figures of the men that I assumed made up the Quileute wolf pack. I froze a hundred yards out from the fire as dark eyes moved between Zach and I, I gritted my teeth and found myself squaring off my shoulders under their scrutiny. They turned into giant wolves, who were they to judge me or the company I chose? After all, I had been invited.

"Where would ya'll like the drinks?" Zach lifted the case of sodas to just above waist height as he used his head to indicate that I follow him as he plowed like a bull in a china shop toward the people assessing us. No one said anything; instead they just stared at us. I tensed, looking for Jacob before looking around our observers. No Jacob. Okay, I was ready to leave.

"Bella!" Jacob's shout instantly relaxed my shoulders as he jogged out of the night from the far side of the bonfire around to greet us, his hand reaching out and taking the case of sodas from me, his fingers taking a moment to brush against mine and I shivered as he smiled at me, the tension in my body evaporating.

"You're here." I said unable to stop the words falling from my mouth as I realized how stupid they sounded.

"Yeah, I'm here." He replied softly, the expression on his face tender like he didn't think they were as stupid as I knew they were.

"What's going on, man?" Zach's voice snapped me out of my tunnel vision and Jacob out of whatever spell he had fallen under. He took a step away from me, and I took another deep breath. As he turned and looked at Zach, I could see him assess him quickly, the muscles in his shoulders and neck tensing slightly. Zach was smiling that slow grin of his that was half greeting, half assessment, the same as his words.

"Jacob Black." He said, holding out his right hand toward him.

"Zach Stuart." Zach took Jacob's offered hand and firmly shook it. "Until recently, Bella's only human friend." He defined his relationship with me in a simple phrase as he looked at me affectionately and winked. I couldn't help but smile fondly at him; he was defusing the situation in typical direct Zachery fashion. 'Be nice' I mouthed to him before he looked back at Jacob. "Things usually this tense around here?"

"Just lately." Jacob was honest as he led us to where a number of long rectangular tables had been set up. Laid out on them was a feast of typical picnic foods. There was potato and macaroni salads, a number of different coleslaws, there were vegetable salads and mountains and mountains of yet to be cooked burgers, hotdogs and ribs next to where a set of tall, well-built identical twins were grilling at a couple of smoking barbeques.

"Hey, it's vampire girl!" One of them turned and flashed me a grin that wasn't as friendly as it was meant to look.

"And friend?" The other finished, there was question in their voices as they frowned at Zach and then at Jacob. I stiffened and took a step back, my thoughts stumbling back toward the truck that I had left behind in the parking lot and what a monumentally bad idea this had been. Leah and Jacob by proxy may have invited me but as far as they were concerned, I was on the wrong side and human or not they did not want me here.

"One more word Tristan and I swear..." Jacob snapped, as he put the case of soda on a table that already had a bunch of drinks on it harder than was probably necessary, his words a clear warning. Tristan's jaw tightened as the two men shared a look and then doubled over as his brother threw an elbow into his gut, his eyes staying fixed on the ground as he straightened.

"He's just tired Jake, Sam's been running him hard with you guys back in school, he didn't mean anything by it." The brother nodded once as I felt heat from Jacob's hand on the back of my arm as he steered me away from the tables and led me to a cluster of middle aged men and a single woman closer to the bonfire. I let him after I looked over and saw Zach easily keeping stride next to us his eyes thoughtfully assessing the different people around us as conversation slowly started to pick up again.

"You know what," Zach paused and I stopped turning toward him, aware of the fact that Jacob turned in perfect time with me. "I'm going to grab a drink. You want something darlin'?" He asked me as he cast a glance back over his shoulder at the twins who were arguing over the barbeque. He was going back whether I wanted him to or not.

"Yeah, sure, a coke or something, but no trouble, remember." I nodded, watching him walk back over to the table for a moment before turning back to Jacob; he was looking between Zach and me frowning. "You okay?" I asked him tentatively.

"'Darlin'?" He asked, focusing his whole attention on me again. I knew that there were half a dozen other questions attached to it. Part of me wanted to explain everything, to blurt out the weird relationship that I had with my only true human friend who was living and breathing and not supernatural, but part of me hesitated. So much of our story wasn't something that Zach or I really talked about with each other, let alone anyone else.

"Yeah, and kid, cupcake, sugar, and every now and then when he is feeling reminiscent, rye." I nodded my head and couldn't help but smile. "He's a good person, a great friend. He's just a little weird." I said with a shrug. It was enough; the tension in Jacob's shoulders released, his face relaxed and his worry seemed to dissipate a little.

"I get the others but Rye?" He asked as we joined the group he was leading me toward.

"Long story." I shook my head unable to stop the blush the crept to my face as the four men and one woman stopped talking and looked at Jacob and I with a seriousness I hadn't been expecting. My eyes were instinctively drawn down to the man seated in a wheelchair in the center of their circle. Like the other men, his long black hair was shot through with grey and bound at the nape of his neck with a leather cord but unlike the others there was an encouraging smile on his face as he looked back at me.

"You're home." His voice was deep and there was a fissure in it made of intense emotions that made me uncomfortable. Instinctively I moved a step to the side, only for the length of my leg to connect with Jacob's and his hand to settle on my lower back in an effort to steady me. I moved just enough for a sliver of space to appear between us but found that standing there, facing this man and his companions, didn't seem quite so nerve-wracking with Jacob's fingers splayed across my spine.

"Bella, this is my dad, Billy." He said, his eyes stayed glued on me as I looked up at him and then back at his father. I could see the similarity in the line of his nose and jaw, the shape of his face but his lips and eyes didn't match his father's.

"Jacob said that you knew my father." I said, leaning into the pressure of Jacob's hand. I could feel each individual digit as it pressed into yielding muscle, spreading heat through my blazer, to my skin and into my abdomen.

"He was my best friend, a loyal and dependable man. I knew your mother too, she was in the year below us in high school, she was a head turner, high strung and adventurous." He was looking at me in a way that made me wonder if he was inspecting my soul the way that his son seemed able to do. "Let me introduce you to the rest of the tribal council." Billy motioned to the men and woman that were with him. Quil Ateara Sr. appeared to be the oldest of the group but his eyes were sharp and as disapproving as Tristan's had been earlier. Kevin Littlesea and Thomas Uley nodded to me, their faces set and serious, but Sue Clearwater was smiling, a look that made the lines at the sides of her mouth and eyes crinkle, making me think she smiled often.

"How are you a Cullen?" Quil Sr sucked on his teeth as he looked me up and down.

"They adopted me when I was three." I explained.

"Right after the car accident?" Billy's eyebrows had folded in on themselves. I nodded.

"Did you know me before they died?" I asked him after a moment of silence during which his intense gaze never left my face, suddenly I found that I wanted to find a connection to this place that was deeper than just that my parents had once lived here. Had I had a life here too? Had people known me? Had I known them? I didn't take the time to pause and wonder where the questions had come from or why now after so many years I suddenly had questions that had never seemed important before.

"Of course I knew you, a lot of us here did. I held you in my arms when you were only hours old, watched you grow up those first three years of your life. Watched you play with Jacob and my girls, sometimes Sue's Leah as well. You are my goddaughter; I remember when your father placed you in my arms at your christening and made it official. I'm sorry that we couldn't find you after the car accident but you had already been adopted by a family and the record had been sealed, if we had known who..." He explained, his voice petering out, I was sure not to cause offence and I suddenly felt a smattering of grief that I hadn't felt for years, not since Carlisle and Esme had first explained to me why I was so different from the rest of my family.

"We knew each other?" My eyes found Jacob's face and the turbulence in my stomach calmed a little. Was that what I was feeling? Was I so comfortable around him because part of me knew that we had known each other once? Had I recognized him? What else didn't I know?

"You and Jake were inseparable when you were little. We've got pictures of the two of you sleeping in the same crib as infants, making mud-pies in the back yard as two year olds." Billy Black was smiling encouragingly at me but his eyes betrayed a level of emotion that was uncomfortable to witness.

"Laying it on a little thick aren't you old man?" Jacob was frowning as he looked at his father. I frowned at him. "Don't know how I feel about this new emotional Billy." There was a touch of concern under words that could easily be construed as harsh and as I tried to remember the events that Billy was talking about, tried to picture Jacob as a child, I was almost choked by guilt and sorrow.

"I'm sorry. If you guys could just excuse me a minute." I stuttered slightly, cursing my own tongue for not working as I put a hand out, pushing off of Jacob's side and spinning away from all the eyes looking at me. I wrapped both arms around my middle as I started to walk purposefully toward the other end of the beach and into the darkness that would be far more effective at hiding my frustration and confusion then the light that so clearly showed every emotion that ran across my face.

"Hey kid," Zach who was on his way back to where we were stood, three sodas in his hands, called after me as I marched away. "Bella!"

"I'm fine, just give me a minute." I called back to him, clearing my throat to push the words out. I didn't turn my head to look at him, I couldn't, it would be the end of me and I would end up on my way home before I ever got to the bottom of my own feelings let alone what was going on around me.

I walked along the beach as purposefully as I could, doing my best to ignore the eyes of the people that I passed or stumble as the sand moved unpredictably under the soles of my shoes. Concentrating on where I put my feet gave my mind focus again, I knew that I couldn't afford to fall in front of these people so I kept my head down until I was well out of sight and the light from the three quarter moon was stronger than the light coming from the bonfire. I let myself sit down on an old driftwood log that had long ago been stripped of all bark and sighed.

What had I expected? I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my heels on the log as I wrapped my arms around my legs and placed my chin on the tops of my knees. Why did these people care so much about me? I was just Bella Swan, a seventeen year old girl who had spent her life ducking under the radar. What had changed now? Why did it matter to me so much that I was seen, not necessarily by everyone but by one boy? Why did I suddenly want to cry over a life I had hardly ever thought about?

Come on, Swan, pull it together! I chided myself as I tried to pull timed and even breaths into my lungs and then out again. My eyes refused to stop watering and I swiped at them, for a moment wishing that tears weren't an option for me the way that they weren't for my family. I swiped at one cheek, annoyed with myself when my fingers came back moist.

And then he was there.

If I was totally honest, I knew that he was coming, that he would follow me. I could just feel it, the way that I had been sure that he was at the beach earlier and the way that I knew when he arrived at school during the day. I didn't need to look at him to be aware of how he moved, the way that his shoulders relaxed slightly as he sat next to me yet I had his full, undivided attention. The breeze shifted slightly, finding a way through the fabric of my blazer to move across my skin and I shivered.

Jacob moved closer to me, his hip coming into contact with mine, my shoulder touching his side so that I could feel the rhythm of his breathing and then his hand touched my back again. Breathing became easier as his hand moved gently from my lower back up to the base of my neck and back again and the chill seemed to disappear.

"I don't know what I thought I was going to find here tonight, but I wasn't expecting to find out I used to have an actual life here." I didn't like how small and gloomy my voice sounded. He didn't say anything, I wasn't sure that I wanted him to and I found I was glad when his hand didn't falter on its path. I had to remind myself that while I was leaning ever so slightly into his side it perhaps, wasn't the best move to allow myself to get any closer even though it was all I wanted to do. I didn't understand why Emmitt and Jasper were so insistent that Jacob was a danger to me, their conviction was in direct conflict with the way he was touching me, how he looked at me… "I was only three years old Jacob, I don't remember them, my parents I mean. Or anyone else, not you or Leah or your dad or your sisters or any of those people who were looking at me and expecting… I don't know what."

"No one is expecting anything." He said softly.

"Everyone expects something, and even if he didn't expect it your dad was hoping that because he remembers me that I'd remember him. My parents were real people with real needs and wants and hopes for the future and in a heartbeat they were gone and so were our lives here and I don't remember them, I never really grieved what was lost because I never thought that I had left anything behind when my new life began, or that I would be any different than who I was always meant to be. But I did, and I am." I stopped talking to force air back into my lungs. It felt like it was important that he know all of this, that he understood even if I didn't really understand myself. A tear rolled part way down my cheek before I swiped it away.

"Their death wasn't your fault." Jacob's voice held conviction and I couldn't stop a strangled laugh from leaving my throat, it was the kind of laugh that was panicked, self-deprecating and humorless. If only he knew the truth, if any of them knew the truth... I shuddered at the thought. I didn't choose for them to die but they died because of me.

"It wasn't their fault." I shook my head definitively. It wasn't, it was mine but I couldn't seem to say the words out loud. Those words were too loaded, they were condemning and could start a war in which I would lose everything. "But it's not just that. I should already know you. All of this weird, whatever it is, that's driving me insane." I motioned between the two of us as I turned my head to look at him properly for the first time since he had sat down next to me. "It shouldn't be weird. It should just be normal."

"Trust me, even if we had grown up together, nothing about what's going on would be considered normal." He snorted and I couldn't stop the frown that appeared on my lips as I flinched away from him, the contact that had been so comforting only moments before felt like it was too much. I felt like I had been slapped. He didn't know what I was talking about. The headaches, the cold, the way that my heart fluttered in my chest and my gut told me where he was, was all a product of my imagination. The evidence of a stupid school girl crush and I had let it run away ahead of me unchecked into a strange sort of fantasy.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, turning my head as far from him as I could and tried not to sniffle as I pushed back irrational tears.

"Bella, honey, no." He moved off of the log and maneuvered himself so that he was kneeling in front of me and for the first time we were eye to eye. His dark eyes were filled with concern and remorse and I knew that I had to look a mess. The breeze hadn't been kind to my hair, my nose and ears tended to get red when I was emotional and I knew that I was losing the battle against the tears. He reached up and cupped my face with both of his hands. His skin was warm, calloused, rough and gentile at the same time. I couldn't help myself, my hands settled around his wrists, reaching up and touching the back of his hand, following the lines of veins and tendons. "None of this is your fault; it's a wolf thing Bella, that thing in your chest making you feel like you're insane, that makes none of this normal."

"You were at the beach today." I said softly, I needed him to tell me the truth; I needed to know what was real and what wasn't. He nodded slowly, wiping away a tear that dripped down my cheek with the pad of his thumb. "You didn't come out. You didn't say anything." I didn't understand why he wouldn't tell me.

"I couldn't, there are rules and I have to follow them." He responded.

"Oh." I didn't push for more information, I had grown up in a family where sometimes it was better not to ask too many questions, in case the answers you got weren't the ones that you wanted. I sighed, was my life and all the people that were in it going to be shrouded in secrecy?

"What you were feeling, is a connection between you and I. I can feel you; I know where you are, if you're upset or hurt or if you're okay. There is more to it and it's complicated, doubly so because of your family and what I am, but none of that is your fault. You have a lot of options, plenty of choices that you can make and I swear that I'll make sure you have every chance to make each and every one of them." His words had run from his mouth the way that mine had earlier and I wondered if he was as nervous around me as I was him. Was it important to him that I listened that way that I had needed him to? Was whatever was going on a two way street, driving him just as crazy as it was me?

"What's more? What's more complicated? Why can't you just tell me? I've spent the last few days thinking there was something wrong with me." I breathed.

"No, honey, there's nothing wrong with you. You're perfect." He leaned forward and pressed his forehead firmly against mine. My eyes fluttered closed and his breath fanned across my face from partially parted lips. Warmth and comfort radiated from him and I wanted to curl myself up in the security that his very presence seemed to offer. He groaned like it actually hurt him as he pulled away from me and a sigh of my own escaped my lips as his hands dropped away from my face and I felt the loss like a physical blow.

"Jacob." I said his name before moving forward, my arms wrapping around his neck as I buried my face in the crook of his neck, my nose brushing against the warm ridge of his collarbone as his arms wrapped around my body and held me close.

I sighed, my contentment joining his, and for a moment I didn't care about anything else in the world but the fact that I was in his arms and I was safe from the world. One of his hands moved to cup the back of my neck and he pulled back just enough so that he was looking at me again. I felt the heat of a blush spread across my cheeks, I had never launched myself at anyone before and suddenly I was mortified or I would have been if his fingers hadn't been busy mapping my face. The look on his face was reverent as he traced my cheekbones and down my jaw, I closed my eyes with a sigh and moved into the pressure of his fingers. His skin against mine felt too good for me to care anymore.

His breath fanned across my face once before lips that were smooth and soft, pressed against mine. I moved into him, my heart picking up until I was sure that he would be able to feel it trying to pound its way out of my chest. Our mouths moved together like they had a lifetime of practice as my fingers seemed to move of their own accord traveling up the back of his neck to tangle in the hair at the base of his skull as my other hand gripped his shoulder as if I would fall forever if I wasn't holding onto him. He just pulled me closer before his mouth released mine and I gasped in air. My heart beat refused to slow, my nerve endings felt like they were on fire but I was content, completely and truly at ease for the first time in days.

I didn't release him even as he tilted my head deliberately and gently from one side to the other pressing feather-light kisses to each cheek and then my forehead. I couldn't help but sigh again as he pulled me to my feet and then into him, our bodies flush with one another and I was both trapped, secure and free at once as I pressed my cheek into his chest and I let go of my death grip on his shoulder in favor of placing my hand over his heart, a smile spreading unbidden across my face as the muscles I touched tightened and relaxed under my fingers. I had power here too, not just him. One of his hand reached up and smoothed down the wild strands of hair that were moving in front of my eyes before his pressed his lips to my forehead again.

"You just kissed me." The statement was part shock part gentle sigh but my voice didn't waver.

"You okay, Bella?" He asked, there was more to the question he was asking, like he was asking permission after the fact. I just nodded, knowing that he could feel the movement as I relaxed against him, tilting my head up so that I could see the expression on his face. He was just watching me, letting me look at him, letting me catch my breath and slow my heart rate again. I barely knew him and yet this felt right, was right… "We should go back before your friend freaks out and thinks I've drug you off to kill you." There was a touch of humor behind the words but it felt like someone had poured a bucket of ice cold water over my head.

"Zach!" I breathed his name, my heart rate doubling and my eyes widening as I pushed away from him, half walking and half jogging along the sand a few steps before a crippling pain in my chest stopped in my tracks. I put a closed fist over my sternum and rubbed, this pain was different, not my own and not unlike the discomfort that I had felt in the parking lot at the school earlier that day. I whipped around instantly searching his face for his eyes. "It's not like that. Emmett and Jasper were worried and he promised Emmett and I don't want him getting himself hurt trying to find me or worse calling them thinking I'm in danger and everything going wrong." My words were hasty, garbled but I couldn't seem to ignore his distress.

"Go." He nodded, his face set and serious as he shoved a hand in his pocket and walked toward me. I just pulled my lower lip into my mouth and waited, trying to urge him to walk a little faster until he was next to me. I set the pace, moving as fast as I could without breaking out of a walk and he walked next to me, his steps far more measured and less harried but the anxiety in my chest relaxing ever so slightly.

"You managed to pluck up enough courage to actually come." Leah appeared out of the trees, half smiling half sneering at me as she smoothed a t-shirt down over her abdomen.

"You invited me, so I came." I shrugged at her, before reaching out and putting my hand on the other girl's arm. "We were friends when we were three; there is no reason we shouldn't be now." Leah gapped at me open mouthed and recoiled from my hand like it was a red hot brand just as we made it back within clear sight of the bonfire.

"Jesus Bella," Zack looked over at me before rushing away from where he was stood with the tribal council and scooping me into his arms. I squeezed him tightly as he set me back on my feet, his eyes flickering over my shoulders and face as if looking for any damage.

"I'm fine Zach, just got a little overloaded." I patted his shoulder as his eyes finally left my face to look over my head at where Jacob and Leah stood his jaw set. His expression was initially calculating and then his eyes softened and his lips parted just enough to allow a hastily sucked in breath, his arm that he had left slung around my waist slackened and then fell away. An extra change seemed to come alive in the air and it seemed as if every wolf in the vicinity stopped and turned as a unit to look in our direction, including the coal black, fiery eyes of Sam Uley.

"Leah." I heard Jacob hiss from behind me as I turned and looked at them. Whatever was happening was not good, instinct was telling me that I needed to move, to do something, to get to Jacob but he seemed to have his hands full with Leah. One of his hands had encircled her upper arm as she took a faltering step forward and almost stumbled.

"I didn't know Jake." She whimpered and I cringed as Sam's voice telling everyone to move out of his way could be heard like a whip crack from the other side of the bonfire.

"Leah, pull it together now!" Jacob snapped at her, setting her on her feet again before his eyes focused on me and then over my shoulder. I looked around only to see the menacing form of the Quileute Alpha moving in our direction as his pack flanked him one at a time each looking concerned and slightly nervous. The expression on Sam's face was menacing, his eyes were hooded beneath heavy brows and his face was set in stone and the same fear of him that I had felt when he had been in my home froze me to the spot. "Bella!" Jacob's voice was sharp.

"I didn't know it was like this." Leah whispered again but Jacob left her standing there, one hand reaching out as he moved toward me and I turned to meet him. I paused, turning and looking back at Zach who seemed frozen in place just staring at Leah. What was wrong with him?

"Leah now!" Jacob snapped again as he reached my side, his hand surrounding my arm and stopping me from moving back the way I had come. Thankfully, Leah seemed to snap back into herself, she ran forward, her hand encircling one of Zach's wrists before tugging him back a good twenty feet behind where Jacob and I were standing. He followed, his eyes casting over his shoulder both at me and then at Sam as if the part of him that had promised Emmett to look after me was having a hard time working out what the next best move was going to be.

"Jacob?" My voice sounded uncertain but I was glad that the fear I was feeling wasn't obvious as I reached out and touched his back. He was solid and tense under my fingers but he was between me and his leader, I was safe.

"Just stay back, it's going to be fine." He took two more steps forward and I found my feet following him, my hand unwilling to give up its place on his back. I was safest if I was with him even if that meant being only a step behind him as he went toe to toe with Sam Uley.

"Jacob." Sam's voice was deadly quiet and calm, the way my father got when he was really angry. "Why didn't you tell me? She was with you today, you knew and you choose not to tell me? Where the hell do you get off?" I looked over my shoulder at Zach and Leah, she was stood a few feet in front of him her body visibly trembling. Zach just looked like he was in shock.

"It didn't happen this afternoon Sam. I didn't know. They just met. They didn't look at each other once this afternoon, not face to face." Jacob's voice snapped my eyes back to Sam, I didn't even look back at Leah as I heard a snarl rip free from her throat that was less than human. I gripped Jacob's t-shirt harder and I found myself wishing that I could make my feet move just a little to the right so that I was directly behind him and out of Sam's view.

"Sam, enough." A woman called from near where the elders had turned to watch him and a tremor run through his body as she spoke. "Sam!"

"You need to move Jacob!" His voice was steel and I shuddered, where I felt safe with Jacob, Sam frightened me on an almost irrational level. I prayed that Jacob didn't move, if he did I didn't know if I would be able to stop Sam from closing in on Zach the way that I had stopped him advancing in my yard. How could I have judged this situation so badly?

"No. You both need space. If you won't do right by her then I won't let you hurt her more." Jacob's voice never faltered and I drew confidence from it despite the way that the rest of the Pack were fidgeting as they looked between the two men, their muscles twitching, jaws pressed tightly together and hands trembling. It seemed as if no one was comfortable and no one knew what to do next. "Come on Sam, they're Pack now, let's go to our imprints and deal with the rest of this as a Pack, in the morning once everyone has settled."

"Fine. You get to explain it to them. The Pack are yours until Monday morning. Not one of you is to step foot near Emily's house unless there is a goddamned emergency. You and Leah and her imprint," Sam spat the word like it tasted of acid as he looked past Jacob and I to where Leah was stood with Zach. I pressed my hand tighter against his back and my legs finally moved enough that I was out of his too heated gaze. "Sunday 1 o'clock at the house." He moved a step away, the Pack parting down the middle, before stopping and turning around again. "And Jacob, think twice before you stand in my way again." I gasped as Jacob threw a hand back, his arm encircling my body as Sam's fist flashed out and connected with his jaw.