Hi,

Sorry the update took so long (again), finals are done but I had shoulder reconstructive surgery the weekend after they finished so I've been struggling while typing one handed.

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 8

(JPOV)

I had prepared myself to defend, to make sure that whatever Sam was about to do didn't affect Bella, but I wasn't prepared for the level of rage that hit me like a kick to the teeth as the thin skin of my lips split beneath his fist and he turned his back on me. I saw red as I tasted my own blood, my body trembled in time with the breaths that I was sucking in through teeth I was surprised I still had as Sam tucked Emily's neat little body under one arm and headed toward the parking lot.

I wanted to do more than stand on the sand and seethe. I wanted to phase and mow him down and claim the right to decide how the Pack, my Pack, was dealt with but there were too many reasons that I couldn't. Bella's hand was still pressed tightly against my lower back and to phase would mean causing her physical harm. She was so close to me in that moment and her wellbeing was paramount as well as the physical safety of the dozen and a half humans that were gathered with us at the bonfire, so instead I did my best to stomp on the rage trying to turn me into a giant wolf.

As the red haze subsided, the first thing I became aware of was Bella removing her hand from my back and stepping away from me - removing the anchor that was holding me firmly in place and leaving me feeling bereft. The second was the snarls of a stressed wolf and agitated voices coming from behind me and then the sound of Sam's truck doors opening and slamming shut.

"What the fuck is going on?" Zach's voice held a level of agitation that bordered on aggression.

"Bella, you need to stand still now." Leah's brother, Seth, said from the tree line, his voice calm but deadly serious.

"Zach, this is no weirder than when you found out about my family. It'll be okay, I promise, just take it easy." Bella was ignoring Seth and Leah and was slowly walking toward Zack as I turned and took in the situation at a glance.

The anger from Sam had caused Leah to phase and she was pacing restlessly back and forward between us and her brother and Zach, her eyes never leaving the direction of the parking lot. Sam's truck hadn't left yet so neither had the threat she felt he posed. In his sister's distress, Seth had left patrol, had phased back to human and was standing just out of the tree line trying to communicate with Bella while she was trying to communicate with Zach. The situation had disaster written all over it!

"What have you gotten yourself into, Bella?" Zach snapped at her and I bristled, taking offence for her when she just smiled compassionately at him. Sam's truck fired up and Leah's eyes snapped to Bella who had managed to inch her way to within six feet of Leah's position and her lips curled back showing off strong white teeth. Zach was taking his agitation out on her and now that Sam was gone, Leah was taking it to mean that Bella was the next threat that needed to be dealt with and she was far too close to Leah's teeth for my liking.

"It's alright Zach." Bella was trying to sooth him.

"Did you learn nothing from Carly? Clearly she should have chosen to fucking haunt you!" He snapped at her and her smile wavered and then disappeared.

"Leah, pull it together. Now! Bella, give her a little space." I grabbed a hold of my anger and tugged it back under control, I couldn't let it govern me but I could use it. I strode quickly toward them, placing myself in a position to take back some control over the situation. I needed to be in a position that was close to Bella who wasn't afraid to put a hand out that brushed my side and kept me purposefully at arm's length, farther than I wanted to be from her but in clearly where she needed me to be.

"You need to back away from her and we're going to leave." Zach snapped at me, an arm reaching forward, his hand beckoning for Bella. Leah whined as she looked over her shoulder at her imprint.

"I think we're in deeper than that and this is the only place we're going to get answers to what is really going on." Bella was trying to reason with him as her fingers dragged lightly down my side before falling away so that he could see the space that was left between us.

"Bella." I said her name, resisting the urge to move closer to her, my heart thumping a little quicker in my chest. I understood Leah's anxiety. Zach was glaring at me as he thrust one hand in his coat pocket.

"Bella, don't make me call Emmett." He pulled his phone out of the pocket and Bella's eyes grew wide, her face drained of all color. Her heart rate picked up its pace and a fear close to panic was thrumming through her veins in time with her heartbeat. The threat frightened her beyond the situation she was already in.

"Please Zach, don't!" She begged him.

"Well if you're not going to listen to me then you can bloody well listen to him!" He snapped.

"Alright, we'll go, just don't call him!" She cried taking a step forward.

"That's enough!" Sue Clearwater had peeled away from the rest of the council, the Pack parting like the Red Sea before her. "Leah, go home! Jared, make sure that everything gets cleaned up, Jacob will be back when he can. Paul, Embry, finish the barbeque and then start serving up. The rest of you, go back to your imprints and families. Jacob will go over patrol shifts for the weekend after Isabella and Zachery go home." She walked past the grey wolf that was her daughter and plucked the phone out of Zach's hand, in a way that only a mother could get away with. "I think that you should both come with Billy and I back to my home. Once you've heard what it is we have to say I will give you your phone back and then you can choose to leave if that is what you want to do."

For a moment I thought that Zach was going to refuse Sue. Leah was frozen looking at him and her mother, Seth was tense looking at Leah before he looked up at me. I gave a jerk of my head and he turned back to the woods and his patrol as Paul and Embry left for the unmanned barbeques. Zach looked hard at Leah before looking back at Bella.

"Please Zach. We need answers." Her voice was soft but insistent, a tremor still running through it.

"Half an hour." Zach conceded and moved purposefully but cautiously past Leah and her mother, straight to Bella. The panic faded as she reached out and laced her fingers through his. I stiffened and tried to suppress the feral growl that threatened to rise from my toes in a warning for him to remove his hands from places they weren't welcome, namely anywhere near my imprint.

Bella didn't know what they were doing to me and neither did her friend; they played by different rules than we did and in all of her interactions with those close to her that I had witnessed, Bella had sought out or initiated physical contact. I gritted my teeth and did my best to push my jealousy to the back of my mind. They would need each other, they hadn't grown up with the legends and stories the way that the rest of us had and I wouldn't be the one to deny either of them the support they needed.

"Do you mind driving Bella?" She shook her head as I shoved my hands deep into my pants pockets and turned away from her toward the fire. My father gave me a sympathetic look. I hadn't planned on going against Sam and telling the full story until Bella was more comfortable around me, around the rest of the Pack. I hadn't lied to her; I wanted her to have choices that the council didn't feel belonged to her anymore. But things weren't going the way that I had carefully planned, in fact it seemed that all of my best laid plans led everyone on the path to hell and I was already there burning alive. "Jared will you make sure that Sue's car makes it back to her house tonight?"

"Sure thing Jake." He nodded once.

"Brady, go switch out with Seth, send him home. Quil, I know you've already been out a lot today but I need you to take the next patrol with Brady and Colin, Tristan can run double duty with you as well. Nathan is to go home; they can function without each other tonight." Brady pulled his t-shirt over his head and tossed it to his mother before moving purposefully toward the trees. Quil nodded even though I could see a groan behind his eyes. I needed eyes that I trusted implicitly with the patrols and knew that Embry would be the only one of the Pack who would be able to suffer Leah and I tonight. If my luck was anything to go by, Quil and the pups wouldn't have to run long before I was able to take over. "Embry, Leah and I will take over after we get Bella and Zach home. Paul, fill Rachel in when she gets back from work. I'll speak with the rest of you in the morning, seven am my house."

When I turned back to her, Bella was still stood frozen, her hand clasped firmly in Zach's as he looked at every person near him like they were a threat. Sue had started pushing my father toward the parking lot and the rest of the Pack were dispersing as tense and speculative chatter started up around the bonfire again. I wondered sometimes if Sam realized the effect that his often-times volatile nature had not only on those closest to him but on the Pack and those connected to it.

"You okay, Bella?" Her eyes were impossibly wide as she looked at me and I ached to take her into my arms and find the words to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. She was safe with me, I wouldn't let any harm come to her. Instead I jammed my hands into my pockets as she nodded.

"Ready to go?" She took her eyes off of me and looked up at Zach, he nodded distractedly but then he looked like he was seeing danger all around him.

The drive to Sue's house was quiet and tense. Zach kept sending suspicious and unhappy glances in my direction, Bella was stiff as a board in her seat, eyes focused on the road so hard that a crease had formed between her eyebrows and her knuckles and turned white as she gripped the steering wheel. Her emotions were giving me whiplash as they jumped and spun and changed so fast that they were practically unintelligible. It was like trying to make sense out of white noise.

"Next right and it's the first house on the corner." My voice broke the silence. An argument that had very nearly caused me to launch Zach across the parking lot between him and Bella meant that instead of following Sue, I had ended up giving directions. They hadn't said a word to each other since but Zach's fingers were casually curled around the inside of her elbow and she hadn't tried to pull away from him.

Sue's house was one of the larger houses on the Res, but then both her and her late husband, Harry, had worked hard for what they had. Now there was just Sue and her two children; Harry passed from a heart attack the very night that Leah had phased in the family's living room. To this day Leah blamed herself for her father's death, probably always would. Leah was pacing the shadows alongside her house, her eyes glowing as they reflected off of the headlights of the truck.

Bella put the truck in park and turned off the engine. I slipped out of the door and walked around to the front, trying to ignore the look being shared by the pair in the front seat. Leah walked toward me, eyes fixed on the truck and ears moving like antenna trying to catch any sound. For a split second she stilled next to me, her body pressed against my side before she walked a circle around me. We may not have been actual wolves but some lupine traits seemed to have translated including the need for greeting and comfort through touch. I put a hand on the top of her shoulder as the truck doors opened and closed and the two imprints stepped out.

Bella's soft eyes looked cautiously over Leah but carefully and skillfully managed to avoid her eyes before they traveled up to meet mine. She was anxious and a little afraid, I didn't need our connection to see it either, it was in the set of her jaw, the tightness around her mouth and eyes. Leah growled. I gripped the scruff of her neck tightly and Zach was suddenly in between us and Bella cutting her out of my line of sight and challenging my control again.

This night was going to be the end of me; I was going to end up a wolf for a solid week if I kept having to push down the rage thrumming through my veins.

"Come on inside. I have water boiling for hot drinks." Sue said from the porch. "Leah, Sam is not coming here and he will not hurt Zach. I have left you clothes by the backdoor."

"She's doesn't trust him not to show up." Seth came around from behind the house. "Just let her come in as is." He said to his mother before he focused his attention on me. "Tristan and Nathan are goading her." She growled again, this time a low rumble made of displeasure at her brother's revelation.

"Leah, look at me." I commanded. Her body stiffened but she turned her head, her eyes narrow and angry. "You twins better knock it off now or not only will you spend your weekend running but you will do so bleeding." I released her eyes. "Seth go inside, you too Leah and the sooner you phase back the better, I won't let anything happen to anyone. Zach I would like a moment to speak with Bella alone."

"Over my dead-" Zach's voice was venom until Bella cut him off.

"Go inside Zach, no one is going to get hurt." Unlike her friend, her voice was soft and soothing, showing none of the anxiety that was still thudding in her chest even as her fear seemed to dissipate as Leah moved into the house after her mother and brother. Leah's wolf frightened her as much as Sam had even though she hadn't been frightened of Leah before; so long as we were human she seemed to handle the situation better. I tucked that little piece of information away for later, knowing it could come to be important.

"If you need me," he grimaced after a tense moment but complied, leaving his place in front of her for the entrance to the house.

"I know." She responded to him before setting her eyes on me again. "You're angry and worried." It wasn't a question, it was a statement that she waited to make until we were alone and yet again, I was amazed by the depth of the imprint.

"A little of both." I acknowledged, I closed the distance between us and reached for her hand. "This wasn't how I planned for this to happen." I felt it was important that she somehow understood that as my thumb brushed against the soft skin on the back of her hand. Her fingers tightened around mine in response.

"What's happening to us is happening to them isn't it?" She asked her teeth worrying her lip in a way that I was quickly recognizing as a habit when she was thinking hard.

"Yes, Bella." I nodded.

"The 'more' you were talking about on the beach; it's what your dad and Sue are going to tell us." Again I nodded. "Why did you want to wait to tell me if they're insisting that we need to know now?"

"I wanted to get to know you. I wanted you to get to know me. I didn't want that process colored with fear or obligation." I explained. "Things have changed, we don't have that option now but no matter what it sounds like in there, I didn't lie to you before. You have plenty of options, many choices, and they are yours to make; I'll make sure of it."

"I don't understand." Now she was worried and again I wanted to kick myself.

"You will." With effort I dropped her hand and motioned toward the house. She nodded, a frown still on her face. She followed me up the stairs and her fingertips deliberately brushed my side as she walked through the door I held open for her, she even waited for me and then followed me into the living room.

Sue and Seth had taken the loveseat; Zach was perched on one end of the three seater couch, as far from Leah as he could get, and Leah was laying on the ground next to the other end of the couch. Her head was resting on her paws, her eyes at half-mast making her appear more relaxed then she was, every muscle in her body was strung tight like she was ready to attack. I took the seat closest to her and nudged her with my boot; she just raised an eyebrow at me. Bella looked between Zach and I, frowned for a moment before sitting on the floor between us.

"So what the hell is going on?" Zach's voice was cold and he was bouncing one heel off the floor. He had a temper and it looked like he was at the end of his fuse. Bella reached out and placed a hand on his knee, stilling him. He put a hand over hers and squeezed as she gave him one of those looks that clearly held a whole conversation behind it.

"As you witnessed tonight, Quileute are descended from wolves." My father said calmly and Leah snorted from her place on the floor.

"Leah!" We both snapped at the same time.

"Hold your peace or phase and speak your mind." I snapped at her, she lifted her head and turned cold eyes on me. "I mean it Leah." I held her eyes until she looked away, her head tilting to the side exposing just enough of her throat to be an act of submission instead of dismissal.

"So ya'll are fucking werewolves!" Zach was back to snapping again. The whole room was charged and it was so much worse in a confined space.

"That's not what he said, and according to Dad they're shape-shifters, werewolves are very different." Bella said calmly, I looked over at her and frowned. What exactly had Carlisle told her?

"Fuck Bella! Did Carly teach you nothing? First you just had to find out more about vampires, now fucking werewolves and shape-shifters. You're not just a supernatural magnet, you're a girl with a death wish and you're determined to drag me deeper into hell with you." Zach raked a hand through his hair as he turned a heated gaze on Bella.

"Zach, what happened to Carly wasn't my fault any more than it was yours and this is nothing like what happened that night." She just looked up at him from where she was sat but a chill was running down my spine. Who the fuck was Carly and what had happened?

"Really? Cause this is starting to feel exactly like it." He snapped. I curled my fingers into my palms, my nails biting into my skin. This conversation was starting to degrade the same way their conversation had earlier in the parking lot. I wanted to punch him, I wanted to wipe the angry look he was directing at my imprint off his face but Bella looked anything but afraid of him and at the end of the day he was an imprint too and unlike Sam, I wasn't too blinded by my own pain to see that.

"It's not! If you will settle down you'll understand that." She gave him a pointed look. "Now cut the melodrama! Do you want answers or not?" There was an unexpected note of steel in her voice and despite my own confusion over the parts of their conversation that I couldn't understand, I couldn't help but feel proud of her.

"I swear Bella." His jaw was clenched but he didn't say another word, just looked blankly at my father.

"We are not werewolves Mr. Stuart; we are decedents of spirit warriors who joined their spirits with the spirits of wolves." My father's voice was steady and patient, like he was addressing a particularity impatient child. "In the time that was before time where the Great Spirit Q'waeti walked these lands creating the first people he came across two wolves…"

My father told the legends of the Quileute people, he told of the first spirit chief Kaheleha and the spirit warriors, he told of Taha Aki and the joining of man and wolf with all the skill and finesse of a natural born storyteller. Even the highly agitated Zach seemed to settle under the influence of my father's voice and as he settled so did Leah. With a shudder she stood and moved slowly and cautiously up the stairs. As he spoke Bella's shoulder had gotten heavier against my leg, one armed hooking around my calf, her eyes serious and a frown on her face as dad started to explain about the cold ones.

It was during the tale of the third wife that Leah returned looking miserable and exhausted in a pair of jean shorts and a button down shirt. She looked at us all warily but my father never stopped talking as she took her seat again, using me as a shield between her and her imprint. She looked across at him and then at Bella before focusing on my father with single-minded determination while he finished his story.

"Not all vampires are the same." Bella said softly through gritted teeth.

"Which is why my father agreed to the terms of the Treaty and signed the document with Dr. Cullen all those years ago. I believe that even you would admit that Dr. Cullen and his coven are the exception, not the rule." Dad was serious.

"Family." She snapped in return.

"Pardon?" It was Sue who spoke.

"We aren't a coven. We're a family, same as you and your family or any other." She was clear. Leah and Zach snorted in unison and Bella glared between them before settling on her friend. Unlike Leah he had half a smile on his face. I wanted to reach out and rub her shoulder, let her know that I was there, that she wasn't alone but I stopped myself. Did I think that it was possible for vampires to form a cohesive family just like humans? If it wasn't for Bella sitting in front of me, would I even consider it a possibility? I wanted to be there for her to support her but how could I do that when I wasn't sure that I believed what she did? "What?" She challenged him.

"Don't know how Alice and Esme would look in black on broomsticks but Rosalie is a born witch." With those words the tension between the pair broke and they smiled at their shared joke. "What's the Treaty?" The smile was still on his face but his voice was once again serious.

"The Treaty is like a peace agreement between the Cullens and our people. The terms of peace are extensive but they boil down to land and hunting agreements. They break these agreements, turn, drink from or drain a human and there will be war." I explained trying to be clinical and not sound disapproving for Bella's sake. At the end of the day, the Cullens were vampires, as much as I wanted to trust them for her piece of mind I just couldn't.

"So if I had called Emmett, who is already convinced that your life is in immeasurable danger, and he had come here?" Zach was frowning as he looked at us.

"You could very well have been stuck with a friend that hated you until I could legally be rid of you." She answered.

"I didn't know Darlin', I'm sorry." He was sincere. She shrugged at him in a way that made me unsure if he was actually off the hook.

"Now that we know the background, what is an imprint?" She turned back to my father. The groan from Leah was not only audible but miserable as her body trembled next to mine. I understood how she was feeling as the same thing in my gut clenched. I wasn't sure if it was nerves or dread but it made me feel more than a little sick.

"Imprinting." Dad nodded, looking at Leah and I and I knew what he was thinking. He was pausing for long enough to give us the chance to take over speaking if we wanted to but it seemed that Leah and I felt the same way, he was better at these kinds of things than we were. I just couldn't shake the feeling that it shouldn't have been like this, imprints had always been inducted with a sense of celebration not overwhelming doom.

"Yes, what is imprinting?" She asked again clearly.

"Imprinting is meant to be a gift from the spirits. In trade for their service the spirits created imprints, women and apparently men who are a perfect match for one of our warriors. It's a partnership connection that is created the first time a warrior looks upon their life partner." My father was doing his best to choose his words; the expression on his face said it all. This was not that way that this normally played out and the way things were happening did not make him happy.

"Life partner?" Zach's voice was as cold as the shiver that ran down my spine as Bella froze and the emotions that had been coming at me all night in varying forms disappeared, like she had turned to stone.

"It's the Quileute equivalent to soul mates." Sue answered him as the kitchen door opened and closed and two sets of footsteps stomped into the living room.

"Soul mates?" Bella's voice was a trembling whisper as Rachel burst into the room wild eyed, Paul practically stepping all over her heels as she stopped and looked at all of us. I sat up a little straighter and glared past my sister at her imprint. Paul gave a barely perceivable shrug with one shoulder, Rachel hadn't been there when we left and apparently felt it her duty to be with me when she found out what happened, she always had a ridiculous sense of protectiveness when it came to Rebecca and I.

"Bella?" I looked down at her, the prevailing emotional nothingness I was getting from her suddenly unbearable, as I reached out with a hand to touch her shoulder. She looked up at me and all I felt was fear as she flinched to the side, her upper body connecting with Zach's leg stopping her sudden sideways movement. His hand reached down as if he wasn't even thinking about it as he steadied her.

I could almost see the thoughts running through her head, watched her try and put together the different pieces of the puzzle that had been her life the last number of days. I watched her look at me like she was trying to work out who I really was and what that meant to her. I watched her struggle to know what to do and over it all, all I could feel was a deep and fathomless helplessness. It almost felt worse than the nothingness and fear.

"I-." She said, looking between me and Sue and my dad almost like we had cornered her. Zach wasn't doing anything at all, just sitting staring at his hand on her shoulder. For the first time in years I felt every one of my seventeen years and knew how many years I was lacking, there was no way that she was ready for this any more than I was and yet it was the reality that we were both facing. "You said I had choices." She turned jumpy eyes on me only to blink quickly and look away to a spot on the floor near my foot.

"You do." I said.

"Jacob!" Rachel snapped.

"Rach, just because they aren't Quileute doesn't mean that they don't get to know what you and every other imprint is always allowed to know. Don't ask me to take choices away from her that you were given." I said doing my best to keep too much emotion out of my voice. Emotion seemed to be my enemy in this situation.

"And what am I supposed to do? What is your Pack going to do when the rightful Alpha is destroyed by his own imprint? You'd seriously just let her walk away?" She snapped at me. Censorship and timing had never been Rachel's strong point. I felt the tremors of rage start again in the pit of my stomach and did my best to control the trembling in my hands.

"I'm not trying to destroy anyone." Bella's voice was soft; a tremor ran through it making it crack at the end. Her breathing was coming more quickly then was natural and she was back to chewing on her lower lip again.

"Reject the imprint and you might." Rachel glared at her.

"Rachel!" I was glad to hear my voice joined by my father's and Sue's but it was my orders that Paul shockingly enough listened to. "Paul, take her home. Sister or not, I can't stand to look at her." I took deep breaths trying as best as I could to still the tremors running through my body but all of the other emotions that I had been so sure of minutes before were eclipsed by rage and it wasn't just my own, Bella was pissed off too as well as overwhelmed, afraid and vulnerable. Paul smoothly turned Rachel and firmly wrapped an arm around her waist, dragging her back toward the kitchen despite her trying to dig her heels in.

"I'm not one of your fucking Pack, Jacob Ephraim Black, I swear to god when you get home I'm-" her voice suddenly cut off and the pair disappeared into the kitchen and out into the night. All the while I reminded myself to breathe, that phasing this close to too many regular human beings would only end in someone being hurt and I won't be able to live with myself if that someone was Bella.

"Jacob?" I turned back to her slowly as she said my name. Her hands were closed into tiny fists that were held tightly to her sides as she looked at me with such conflict that I didn't know what she wanted anymore. I resisted the urge to reach out and touch her, to try and offer her some sort of comfort, to try and find some comfort of my own in her. "What did she mean about destroying you?"

"What my daughter was trying to say is that we don't know what would happen. An imprint has never been rejected before in remembered history." Dad was calm as if he was sure that he had control of the situation and I was glad that at least one of us was calm. I clenched my jaw tightly but found that I couldn't look directly at her; it was easier just to look vaguely in her direction.

"So imprints aren't permanent? We can decide against it? You could change your mind?" Zach asked, his fingers tightening on her shoulder in a way that I was sure was meant to be reassuring but just looked painful. She looked over her shoulder at him before her eyes snapped back to me.

"Yes, you can choose not to accept an imprint. It's a gift and a curse after all depending on what side you're standing on." Leah's voice was shaky with none of the bite that I had become accustomed to hearing. "The imprinter will be whatever it is the imprintee wants them to be, friend, lover, and protector, whatever, but the imprintee needs to make that decision. You can choose to reject the imprint; even if we wanted to, we couldn't stop you because we will move heaven and earth to make you happy no matter what the personal consequences are. You are all that matters now."

"That's fucked up!" Zach's statement was loud and brash but it seemed to pull Bella out of her thoughts. She whipped round to look at him sharply.

"Zach!" She snapped.

"What? You don't think this is fucked up?" He frowned at her, he was getting agitated again, I could see it crawling under his skin in much the same way that made it so easy to identify when one of the kids was getting ready to phase for the first time.

"It's not that I don't think it's… a difficult situation." She looked like she was struggling to express herself but at least she wasn't projecting fear at me anymore. "I think we need to, I mean we don't know enough, that is…" She inserted her thumb nail in-between her teeth and worried at it for a moment as the two friends regarded each other. She sighed. "You're right, it is." She settled finally.

"I think that this has been a lot to take in, perhaps too much for one night." Sue was standing, the expression on her face sympathetic and I was sure it wasn't just her daughter's pain that she was sympathetic to. "I think everyone needs time to rest and process." Zach had moved to his feet as she was speaking and offered a hand to Bella. She took it and allowed him to haul her to her feet alongside him. Sue reached out a hand and offered him the cellphone she had taken from him earlier.

"Some space is probably best." He said in answer to her.

"It's not that easy." Bella looked at me as if she was trying to read my thoughts. It was then that I realized that I was standing too, Leah beside me and both of us focused intently on both of them.

"Am I correct in assuming that you are staying with Bella while you are here?" Sue asked him as his fingers gripped his phone again.

"Yeah." Zach nodded.

"Well you are more than welcome here whenever you would like." Sue was serious. He just nodded again.

"Bella?" I took a step forward and then paused.

"Jacob?" There was a catch in her voice that sounded surprisingly like hope. My heart grabbed onto it like a life line and for the first time since Leah's imprint threw the evening into chaos I felt like I was floating instead of drowning.

"Can I come see you tomorrow?" I asked her trying to keep my desperation from transmitting through my voice or the connection we seemed to share.

"At my house?" She looked confused and who could blame her, we spoke about her adoptive family as our enemies, we felt that they were our enemies and a danger to her, I was sure the last thing she expected me to do was suggest being anywhere near them.

"Or anywhere you want." I amended.

"I'll call you in the morning. We'll work things out then." Bella offered me a shaky sort of smile before looking at Zach. "Call Emmett, ask him and Jaz to meet us at the Treaty line."

A minute later and they were gone. I looked at Leah, she looked tired and deflated but I knew that neither of us would be getting any rest any time soon. Seth stood up and moved toward us, he was a compassionate creature and his desire to comfort his sister was written in his every move but I stopped him with a shake of my head, it wasn't going to help.

"Come relieve Leah at six am." I said, glaring in Sue's direction as she opened her mouth to protest, for which one of her children I wasn't sure but I could bet it was Leah. "She's not going to sleep tonight, the best I can do for her is to let her run the line closest to the Cullen house, it makes it a little easier." I addressed her before turning back to her daughter. "Leah, tell Quil to phase out and send Embry out to meet us, Tristan and Nathan are to do a boundary run of Forks. I'll be with you once I get my dad home." Leah nodded and slipped out the door.

This was going to be one fucking long night!