Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight, I just enjoy borrowing her characters for a while.

AN: Thank you for the overwhelming response to the last chapter. I'm so grateful that so many of you have forgiven my long absence. I'll try and be better at updating from now on.

Thank you to my sister for checking this chapter over for me. I have made changes since then so any mistakes are mine.

Grab Onto

I was too distracted.

Practising hunting and fighting with Bella had always been a lot of fun, but now it had taken on a much darker tone. When the threat to Bella was nameless and faceless, I hadn't been especially worried. I was confident that either she or I could easily handle the bastard who had changed her but now I was starting to see Victoria in the shadows and the threat seemed so much more real. I knew Bella had the skills she needed to defeat Victoria physically. I'd made sure of it and Bella was a dedicated student and a fast learner but I now realised it might not be enough. I'd underestimated the psychological advantage Victoria had over Bella. Bella had known it though and I understood better now how her fear of Victoria was so difficult for her to shake.

Bella had wanted to change the way we trained. She was tired of being hunted by me and decided it was her turn for a change but I was uncharacteristically anxious having her out of my sight. She was either especially good at silently stalking me or especially bad at it and very far away. If she was very far away, she was vulnerable to Victoria and maybe that was the opportunity Victoria had been waiting for all this time.

I was concentrating so hard on listening for noises that weren't in sync with the heartbeats of the surrounding wildlife that I was taken by surprise by the wolves' sudden proximity. Three huge wolves that had unmistakably zeroed in on me and were padding in my direction with unhurried confidence. Wolves should be inconsequential to vampires but every instinct I had was screaming that these wolves were a formidable threat. I would normally feel the thrill of the upcoming fight and not even consider backing away, but if I fought them, the noise would bring Bella to investigate. I wanted to protect her even if it meant swallowing my pride and running to draw them away from her. The problem with that plan was that she was too good at evading detection and I still didn't know where she was so I could inadvertently lead them straight to her.

I stood my ground. Made sure that they knew I wasn't intimated by them without being overtly aggressive. Maybe they would back down. I met the eye of the wolf in the centre and he did hesitate. I could tell he wasn't afraid of me but something had made him rethink attacking me and the others followed his lead. We were stuck in a standoff. Neither they nor I seemed to want to engage or back down so we simply stood appraising each other while the seconds ticked away.

Suddenly Bella was there. She didn't hesitate to throw herself between me and the wolves and I desperately wanted to grab her away from them, but was concerned such a sudden move would trigger them to attack. Bella didn't spare a backwards glance at me but faced the wolves head on.

"We are no threat to you or any humans in the vicinity. There's no need for you to attack us." She told them in a calm voice.

I could honestly say that it never even occurred to me to negotiate with them. It didn't seem to be particularly effective as they broke into growls, but the tone of those growls was odd. I couldn't understand the subtext. I was beside her now, ready to defend her but she grabbed my arm and squeezed it and I knew she wanted a chance to make them listen to her. It seemed very unlikely they would but it couldn't hurt anything to let her try and as I had no idea how to diffuse this situation and Bella seemed to think she did, I would trust her judgement and let her take the lead. Unless they attacked her and if that happened I thought our chances of survival would be good. Three of them, two of us. Bella was an excellent fighter, as was I.

"Please, Embry," Bella said, her voice soft and urgent. "I need you to trust me now. You can see Garrett doesn't feed on humans from the colour of his eyes. I have never hurt a human…my eyes are only red from my own blood in my system as I'm relatively newly turned."

I wouldn't undermine Bella by letting my confusion show. Did she know what these things were? Was Embry a name? Its name?

I gaped in amazement as the lead wolf morphed into a naked man. It was unbelievable but undeniable. He was not even slightly embarrassed by his nudity as he casually pulled on shorts which appeared to have been tied to his leg. Now my attention was drawn to them, I noticed similar bundles on the hind legs of the other two wolves. Were they all shifters? I knew they weren't werewolves as I had fought werewolves before and they were an entirely different species. Were there any creatures that were actually mythical or did very legend and fable have originate from reality?

"We thought you were dead, Bella," the wolf man said, his voice gruff.

"I am dead, Embry," Bella replied. "My skin is cold and my heart no longer beats but I'm also still me. I would never hurt you, or anybody else."

"Victoria did this?" he asked, "or was it them?" his tone becoming harsh on the second part of the question.

"It was Victoria," Bella confirmed and the man's face lost its anger, replaced by what looked like regret.

"I'm sorry we couldn't save you, Bella" he told her.

"It was never your job to do that," she assured him.

"Yes, it was," Embry retorted adamantly.

Suddenly a new wolf burst out of the trees to our left. He was barrelling towards us at incredible speed, two other wolves in the far distance behind him. I was furious with myself for letting down my guard and not anticipating an ambush as I leapt to intercept it and protect Bella. I realised I'd mistaken his intention as soon as I started to move but it was too late to change my trajectory. Simultaneously as I had reacted, he had begun his transition into human. As we crashed together, I become entangled with a very naked, solidly built man. In our shared haste to get away from each other we were both a hindrance to our mutual goal and we seemed to become impossibly more tangled somehow. We writhed on the floor for what seemed like a very long time. He absolutely stank and I had parts of him rubbing against me in the most unthinkable way. It took all of my self-control not to rip his limbs off with my teeth in order to free myself. It was Bella who helped us apart. The man pulled on his own shorts, his face a furious red as I'm sure mine would have been too, if it still had the ability.

A strangled huff came from the direction of the original wolves and I looked at them and saw Embry attempting to contain his laughter.

"Just say it!" the new comer growled at him, not taking his eyes off me or Bella.

"You are supposed to be happily imprinted, Jake!" Embry said with poorly suppressed mirth. "What would Leanne say if she had seen that little display?"

"And now you can shut up," Jake ordered him, still looking embarrassed and Embry instantly complied but there was still laughter dancing in his eyes.

"You imprinted Jake?" Bella sounded elated. "Congratulations!" She looked like she wanted to hug him but was afraid of his reaction. He had no such concerns and pulled her into a fierce hug as had obviously been his intention from the start. I resisted the urge to tug Bella away from him, immensely relieved that at least he was no longer completely naked. The hug was brief and I got the impression that Jake was trying to assure himself that Bella was real. He stepped back. The remnants of his furious embarrassment gone and his face lit up as he answered Bella's question.

"Her name is Leanne and is…amazing, perfect. Really, I don't have the words I need to describe her." His happiness was so pure, like sunlight blazing from him and it somehow made you feel some of his joy. It made it very difficult to dislike him as much as I really wanted to. "But what about you? I can't believe we found you. I'm so happy that you're alive, Bella!"

"I was just explaining to Embry that I'm not," Bella whispered

"That is just semantics. You're still here and that's what's important." Jake's tone was that of someone explaining the blatantly obvious to the incurably stupid. He let out a frustrated sigh. "We need to start this whole thing from the beginning. I heard what you said to Embry but I want to know everything." His gaze snapped to me and all I could sense from him was curiosity.

"Garrett," Bella pulled me close to her. "I'd like you to meet my best friend, Jake. Standing over there is Embry and either side of him are Leah and Paul. I don't recognise who arrived behind Jake," she sounded apologetic that she didn't know them, but rushed to continue. "Everyone, this is Garrett. He's my…" she faltered, trying to find the right word to describe our relationship. It took her a moment to compose herself and I wanted to help her but the only word I could think of was mate and I didn't want to announce that to a pack of wolves before I'd even told Bella that was how I felt. Bella flashed me an apprehensive glance before finishing, "He's everything."

As I was reeling from that introduction, the implications of how Bella described me poured through my mind. She had described me as everything. Could that mean her feelings for me were much deeper than I'd realised? Why hadn't she told me that? It finally occurred to me that I'd never put into words how my feelings for her had changed. In the first few days we were together, I told her I'd travelled with females before but eventually moved on, never feeling any deep emotional attachment. There was no comparison between those past relationships and what I felt for Bella, but I'd never actually told her that outright. I hoped I had showed her how I felt with every intention, action and caress and that she'd understood the depth of my feelings but I hadn't wanted to pressure her or scare her away. I'd wanted to give her time to heal and adjust to her new life but it was suddenly obvious to me what an idiot I was and that she might actually doubt how much I loved her. I was so caught up in wanting to whisk her away and make sure she understood how I was feeling that I was barely aware that Jake was telling Bella the wolves she didn't recognise were Seth and Quil.

"But Seth's just a kid!" she exclaimed, which earned her a growl from one of them, although it held no menace at all. They disappeared into the woods and came back in their human forms, but Paul and Leah remained in their wolf forms, vigilantly distrustful still.

Watching Bella talk to them all, I realised I might have misunderstood so much about why Bella had been so often sad. She was so happy to see them, expressing how relived she was they hadn't rejected her, despite her being the enemy now. She seemed especially close to Jake and Quil, but also on friendly terms with Embry and fond of Seth. Since she had told me about the Cullens, I'd been assuming her sorrow was all about Edward, but it was obvious now that her grief had never been that simple. She had lost everything when Victoria changed her and my jealously of her feelings for Edward had made me focus on that and not appreciate the bigger picture. She had missed these people too and likely other friends and family as well.

"Why on earth didn't you come home to us?" Jake asked. "We were frantic when you disappeared. Your scent trail just ended at the cliff face. We thought you had drowned. We searched the water and the shore for days hoping to find you alive and for weeks hoping to find you at all. We had no idea then that Victoria had taken you. There was no trace of her on our land. How did she get to you?"

"She came at me from the water," Bella replied. It…, She…., It was bad, Jake but there was nothing you could have done. After she changed me, I didn't think I'd be welcome anymore," Bella sounded so deeply sad and Jake reached forward and squeezed her hand.

"We would have tried to help you," he said.

"I wasn't really thinking at all at first. All I cared about was trying not to hurt anybody. I was so dangerous. I assumed you would put me out of my misery."

"Never! I would never have allowed it!" Bella seemed to sag in relief at that statement from him. Like a huge weight had been lifted from her. "Also, I didn't want to lead Victoria back to you and Charlie. She told me when she changed me that if she ever came across me and I wasn't alone that she would kill me and anyone I was with," she shot me a guilty look as she said this and I wanted to howl my frustration! Why hadn't I ever talked to her about this? How had I not realised one of the reasons she was holding back from me was her misplaced guilt that she was putting me at risk just by being with me?

A strangled look crossed Jake's face and I decided this boy should never ever play poker. He wore his heart on his sleeve and his emotions were way too easy to read.

"What is it?" I asked him. Jake ignored me, regarding Bella with wide eyes implied he had bad news for her and he didn't want to deliver it.

"Victoria has been a bit of an issue for us," Embry answered me grimly.

AN: Thanks for reading.I would love to know what you think.