*Author's note – this chapter is pretty much from the book. There are some direct excerpts and dialog, but that is just to maintain the original storyline and to help refresh memories of what all happens during the time when Jacob and Bella aren't talking. It is severely summarized but I promise, there's a reason for all of this.*

Bella

It's now been a month since Jacob and I almost kissed. At first I texted, called, and went to his house and nothing. Not even a note. Baseball season hasn't started for the year, so Billy hasn't really had any reason to come to the house. But every time I went to the reservation, he would tell me that Jake wasn't around. After a while I realized that Jacob was blowing me off.

A couple weeks after the almost kiss, I got tired of waiting around for Jacob, so I decided to go find the meadow where Edward and I used to hang out. When I got there, the meadow looked like it had been burned. But that wasn't the most shocking part. The most shocking part was that I saw Laurent standing in the field. After a bit of conversation, I got the feeling that he was wanting to kill me. And that's when the wolves showed up. The thing is that shocked me the most, was that one of the wolves, a large russet wolf, stopped and looked at me as if it knew me.

One day, I went over, and Billy told me that Jake had mono so it was probably best that I didn't come around for a while. The next time I saw Jacob from afar, he seemed taller, more muscular, and he had cut off all of his hair. I saw Quil one time, while I was driving down the road, on the reservation, and he told me that he had been sticking pretty close to Sam lately. This really surprised me since the last time that we had seen Sam up on the Cliff, he had called Sam and his followers, a cult. Last I had heard, he wanted nothing to do with them. But according to Quil, he was now one of those followers.

Later that night, I was in my room when a noise had me running to the window where I saw Jacob standing on the ground below. I opened my window and somehow, he scaled the tree and the side of my house to come in:

"Get out!" I hissed, putting as much venom into the whisper as I could.

"No," he protested. "I came to apologize.

"I don't accept!"

I tried to shove him back out the window – after all, if this was a dream, it wouldn't really hurt him. It was useless though. I didn't budge him an inch. I dropped my hands quickly, and stepped away from him.

He wasn't wearing a shirt, though the air blowing in the window was cold enough to make me shiver, and it made me uncomfortable to have my hands on his bare chest. His skin was burning hot, like his head had been last time I touched him. Like he was still sick with the fever.

He didn't look sick. He looked huge. He leaned over me, so big that he blacked out the window, tongue-tied by my furious reaction.

Suddenly it was more than I could handle- it felt as if all of my sleepless nights were crashing down on me en masse. I was so brutally tired that I thought I might collapse right there on the floor. I swayed unsteadily, and struggled to keep my eyes open.

"Bella?" Jacob whispered anxiously. He caught my elbow as I swayed again, and steered me back to the bed. My legs gave out when I reached the edge, and I plopped into a limp heap on the mattress.

"Hey, are you okay?" Jacob asked, worry creasing his forehead.

I looked up at him, the tears not yet dried on my cheeks. "Why in the world would I be okay Jacob?"

Anguish replaced some of the bitterness in his face. "Right," he agreed, and took a deep breath. "Crap. Well… I- I'm so sorry, Bella." The apology was sincere, no doubt about it, though there was still and angry twist to his features.

"Why did you come here? I don't want apologies from you, Jake."

"I know," he whispered. "But I couldn't leave things the way I did. That was horrible. I'm sorry."

I shook my head wearily. "I don't understand anything."

"I know. I want to explain-" He broke off suddenly, his mouth open, almost like something had cur off his air. Then he sucked in a deep breath. "But I can't explain," he said, still angry. "I wish I could."

"Why? Why can't you? What's wrong?"

He exhaled heavily, and I realized he'd been holding his breath. "I can't do it," he muttered, frustrated.

"Do what?"

He ignored my question. "Look, Bella, haven't you ever had a secret you couldn't tell anyone? something you felt like you had to keep from Charlie, from your mom… Something you won't even talk about with me? Not even now?"

I felt my eyes tighten, I didn't answer his question, though I knew he would take that as a confirmation.

"Can you understand that I might have the same kind of… situation? Sometimes loyalty gets in the way of what you want to do. Sometimes it's not you secret to tell."

So, I couldn't argue with that. He was exactly right- I had a secret that wasn't mine to tell, yet a secret I felt bound to protect. A secret that, suddenly, he seemed to know all about.

I still didn't know how it applied to him, or Sam, or Billy. What was it to them, now that the Cullens were gone?

"I don't know why you came here, Jacob, if you were just going to give me riddles instead of answers."

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "This is so frustrating."

We looked at each other for a long moment in the dark room, both our faces hopeless.

"The part that kills me," he said abruptly, "is that you already know. I already told you everything!"

"What are you talking about?"

He sucked in a startled breath, and then leaned toward me, his face shifting from hopelessness to blazing intensity in a second. He stared fiercely into my eyes, and his voice was fast and eager.

"Remember the first day we met- on the beach in La Push?"

"Of course I do."

"Tell me about it."

"You asked about my truck. We talked about the Rabbit."

"Keep going."

We went for a walk down on the beach…You told me scary stories… Quileute legends."

He closed his eyes and opened them again. "Yes." The word was tense, fervent, like he was on the edge of something vital. He spoke slowly, making each word distinct.

"Do you remember what I said? Think hard."

Yes, I remember."

"Do you remember all the stor-" He couldn't finish the question.

"All the stories," I breathed.

He nodded mutely.

My head churned. Only one story really mattered. I knew he'd begun with others, but I couldn't remember the details.

Jacob groaned and jumped off the bed "You know this. You know this."

"Jake? Jake, please, I'm exhausted. I'm no good at this right now. Maybe in the morning…"

"Maybe it will come to you. I guess I understand why you only remember the one story."

I wondered how he knew about it. Why did he decide to believe, why now?

"The way you can't talk about it is the same way I can't. You can't imagine how tightly I am bound… It would really help if you could figure this out on your own, Bella. Put some honest effort into it."

I could see the pain, frustration and desperation on his face, "I'll try."

"And I'll try to see you soon. I know they'll try to talk me out of that too. But promise you'll come and see me as soon as you figure it out?" Something occurred to him just then, something that made his hands shake. "It you… if you want to."

"Why wouldn't I want to see you?"

"Oh, I can think of a reason. Look, I really need to go. Could you do something for me?"

I just nodded.

"At least call me- if you don't want to see me again. Let me know if it's like that."

"That won't happen-"

"Just… let me know."

With that, he stood and headed for the window. I told him not to be an idiot, to use the door. Charlie wouldn't catch him, so he headed for the door. But before he left, he pulled me close to him and said, "I need you to understand. I won't lose you, Bella. Not for this."

And he was gone.

The next day, I had a nightmare about what had happened in the meadow, the stories Jacob had told me… everything… and when I woke up the next morning, I knew. I knew Jacob- my Jacob- was a werewolf.