It took all of Grace's strength not to drive down to the rez once she and Bella got back to the truck.

"What the hell was that?" Bella said surprised. Grace focused her eyes on the road. "Hey are you okay?" Bella was softer this time.

"Are you and Jake dating?"

"What?" Bella said, taken aback.

Grace didn't say anything and just kept her eyes focused on the road. That wasn't the question she had meant to ask. She just couldn't stop thinking about how hot Jacob's skin was and how quickly she needed to get home to call Sam. Jerking the wheel, she pulled them off on the side of the road. Bella lurched forward to steady herself with the dashboard.

"I need to borrow your phone." Grace turned to Bella and held her hand out.

"Okay." Bella said, her voice drew up at the end in question, "Grace what is going on?"

Bella handed her phone over and Grace punched in Sam's number.

It rang twice before he answered. "Hello?"

"Sam. It's Jake."

"Is he-"

"Yes, he's on his way back now. You might want to intercept."

"Was he hot to the touch?"

"Sam." Grace pleaded. She was losing her composure a little bit.

"Okay. We'll get him, don't worry." He hung up.

She handed the phone back to Bella and put a hand over her eyes to try and stop the tears. But it wasn't any use, something in her collapsed and she curled her body over the steering wheel and let out an immense rush of sobs. Her back heaved as she gasped for breath and felt a breaking in her like one she'd only ever experienced once before. Bella hurriedly scooted over the bench seat of the truck and wrapped her arms around Grace. Bewildered, she stroked her cousin's hair and tried to calm her down.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay Grace. He'll come back." Bella whispered into her hair.

Grace knew he would come back, he would just come back different, changed. In her time spent training with Sam, Paul, and Jared she saw and heard the turmoil, pain, and confusion they put their bodies and minds through. While it ran through their blood, Sam had made it clear: this wasn't a choice, it was a necessity.

Paul had been less forthcoming about it. He had finally found a useful outlet for his anger, pushing it in the ground and howling it out around him in a chase of scrap. But in his quieter moments, when Grace would sit next to him after a particularly grueling day, he would wrap his arm around her shoulder and give her a small sad smile and say, "At least we've got us."

Jared was a light, joking and keeping Grace up on her feet. But some days when he showed up at Emily's or they went to pick him up from home, he would look disappointed, his face would look redder than usual and he'd pull Grace or Emily into a tight, wordless hug before Sam commanded him to follow. To which he'd swallow hard and follow suit.

And when Quil had recently phased, Sam did him the kindness of letting him choose when he could make it to trainings and when he could not. Mostly he could not-still focusing on school, figuring out his new form, and coming to grips with the fact that he was a protector of his family and tribe in ways he never knew before. Sam would pull him in for light rounds, not wanting to dip him in too far too fast like he had with Jared and Paul in his immense loneliness.

But for all that pain came the joy of binding to one another. Grace could see how at home they felt together and around her. How safe and loved that their brotherhood kept them. She would protect that at all costs.

But now that Jacob was a part of this, Grace knew something would fundamentally change, not just in him but in everyone. A part of her wished for the short time she had spent with him laughing and studying for school, and the moment he kissed her head on the doorstep like he'd done it his whole life.

"Let me drive." Bella said calmly, shifting Grace out of the way. The whole ride home, Grace rested her head on the cool glass of the window and resolved to go to the rez first thing tomorrow morning.

When Grace woke early right as the first light was creeping over the horizon. She shimmied into some dark wash jeans, a black tank top and a large, loose green cable knit sweater. She shoved her socked feet into her boots and pulled her wavey tangled hair up into a loose ponytail. At the bottom of the stairs, she layered her blue raincoat under her puffy black winter jacket. The fog was not yet clearing as she dashed out the door and into the truck with only one thought in her mind.

Jacob.

The 15 minute drive to the reservation was excruciating. She vowed to buy a cell phone this weekend so she could stay in contact with the pack. As she crossed the line into the reservation, a shiver ran down her. She felt warmth flood into her feet and a tingling sensation started to bloom in the back of her head, signaling a change had happened.

She pulled into the familiar drive of Emily and Sam's place as the fog started to burn off. She jogged to the front door and knocked a handful of times before pressing it open and hurtling in. Emily was stumbling down the steps of her and Sam's bedroom, clearly woken from sleep.

"Is Sam here?" Grace, wired, asked.

"No, he hasn't been home yet, come sit, I'll make us some coffee," she yawned.

"It's Jacob," Grace said again, echoing her sentiment from last night. Emily nodded nonchalant.

"Sam said he might be phasing soon. He could feel it," Emily was clattering in the kitchen like it was any other morning.

"What? He knew?!" She had told Sam how rocked she had felt about the potential of him phasing and he could feel her tension when it came to conversations of Jake. The pack seemed invested in him for some reason. But he had never alluded to any feeling he had had about Jacob phasing soon in their recent trainings. Emily looked at Grace confused, and then realized she had spilled something that maybe she wasn't at liberty to share.

"I'm sure they'll be back soon Grace, come sit." Emily pleaded. But Grace was already out the door and down into the truck. She gunned it toward Jacob's house knowing full well he probably wouldn't be there.

When she pulled up, her mind took her back to when a long-haired Jacob came jogging around the side of the house, happy to see her. But now, the yard was quiet and the area surrounding it seemed void of those memories.

When she knocked on the door, trying to wait patiently for Billy to open the door, she couldn't help her eyes from scanning the tree line.

By now, Sam must have sensed she was here. If they were still in their wolf forms, which she suspected they were by the familiar pull in her belly, she knew that Sam would have felt her as soon as she crossed onto the reservation.

Billy swung open the door and wheeled over the threshold with a smile on his face.

"Wasn't expecting you to be here." he said, pleased.

"Did Jake come home last night?" Grace forgoed with the pleasantries. Her mind was a one-track record at the moment playing the same name over in her head: Jacob, Jacob, where is Jacob?

"Nooooo," Billy replied, still pleased. It irked Grace. Of course he'd be pleased. Jake was fulfilling a destiny that Billy hadn't or ever needed to. She could see the pride swelling in him.

"Okay." Grace gave a curt nod and turned back to her truck, then thought better of it and turned toward the tree line. She should have done this first thing, but a small part in her was hoping against hope that he had returned, safe and sound, without phasing.

"I'm sure he's alright, Grace! Sam's got him." Billy called after her. She gave a terse wave and pushed into the embrace of the trees. When she walked deep enough that she couldn't see the clearing of Jacob's home behind her, she stopped and closed her eyes taking a deep breath.

The earth beneath her feet felt mangled and overturned. She tried to tune into her higher sense, focused her breath on locating the familiar padding of Sam, Jared, or Paul through the forest floor. The forest intensified in sound around her as she went searching, eyes closed, feet planted. Directly in front of her, she could clearly see the outline, almost glow of Sam's prints. Flanking close behind were Jared and Paul's, less pronounced but definitely there.

Grace took a tentative, physical step forward and when she looked down, she could see sprinkles of light spilling out around her feet. That's new.

She opened her eyes and travelled further into the forest, keeping her ears tuned in for any sign of them. As she got deeper, the brush and fern growing thick under foot, she stopped again to make sure she was headed in the right direction. This time when she closed her eyes, a bright path skirted forward from unfamiliar pads. However, though they were new to her, they were brighter than either Sam, Jared, or Paul's. The track was illuminated as if by bright glowing light underneath and shimmered in a deep gold. She knew who this was without having to feel it.

And then, a familiar sensation, a breaking apart and coming together that she had not initiated. It was a call. She recast and without even knowing where she was going, she appeared in a small clearing. When she opened her eyes, the human forms of Sam, Jared, Paul, and Quil stood off to the right and somewhat behind her. Her eyes locked on Sam, breathless for a moment and then she felt a gaze pulling her forward.

When she looked ahead, standing clear and tall in the patch of moss and dirt was Jacob. His chest exposed, she saw every line of his skin and his sinewy muscles heaved with exhaustion. His hair was sheared short to match the rest of the pack, but his warmth and presence radiated out from him. He stood firmly on the ground, fists clenched, but though he was obviously new to this and had had a rough night, Grace felt nothing but pure resolute power, confidence, and surety pulsing from him.

When their eyes locked, Grace couldn't breathe for a moment. That rising rumbling that she had felt when she first encountered Edward crescendoed around her. Waves crashing against each other, pushing and pulling out to sea.

A huge ripple puddled out from her feet and pulsed quickly out across the forest floor like a radar signal. Her return to Jake's call. Behind her, she heard Jared exclaim "What the hell was that?!"

Jacob was looking at her so fiercely with such wanton recognition. The pull in her belly intensified in a way she had never felt before. The world was around her but ended with Jacob. And she made a choice. She sprinted toward him and crashed into his arms.

He let out a groaning "Oh," as he wrapped his arms tightly around her as if something in him was satiated when she was pressed against him. Her head only came up to his shoulder and he bowed his head to bury his face in her hair.

All too quickly, a realization swept through the both of them—I know this person and this person knows me, now and before and beyond. Two kindred spirits that had always been intertwined by destiny but had recently come back together. Grace had never felt such pleasure and sureness rippling through her entire being than she did right now. And as a welcomed confirmation, Jake whispered in her ear between heavy labored breaths:

"It's you."