The phone rang in my ear only once before Alice picked up.

"You had better not have lied to Esme because if you end up on the battlefield and get hurt-" Alice said, forgoing a polite greeting.

I was on edge. Esme's tea had actually helped me sleep, weirdly enough. But my sleep was riddled with dreams—dreams of vampires with cloaks finding me in the meadow and Paul trying to guard me by himself. He shoved me out of the way, and the vampires fell on his wolf body like hyenas on a carcass.

It was all making me paranoid.

It didn't help that I'd also woken to texts from Kim.

Kim: I'm not finding anything. Are you sure the vampire told you everything about her vision? I'm starting to get worried.

And a rare text from Jared.

Jared: Whatever favor you asked from Kim isn't worth it. She's freaked out. She won't talk to me about it. Is something going on?

I'd had to call Alice.

I paced my bedroom again, sure to keep my voice down just in case Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bob walked by my door.

"What? No, I'm not going to do anything stupid with the newborns," I said in a low voice. "I need more information about your vision. You said that in your vision I was just there one moment and gone the next. What does that mean? Was I doing anything in that moment?"

Alice let out an unnecessary sigh.

"Cammy, visions change all of the time. I can tell you that this particular vision has changed multiple times, and that is probably because I told you about it. Knowing you, you're probably making and discarding plans until you land on the right one and that's going to change what I see," she said.

I nodded and brought my fingernail up to my mouth to bite on the ends.

"Okay, right. And?"

I waited.

"I don't know how you leave exactly. All I see is Jasper and I trying to figure out what's happened to you," her voice trailed off. I heard someone calling for her attention in the background. Impatience made me irritated while I waited for her attention again. "I'm not always right. One of those holes has to do with someone's indecision. Another has to do with werewolves."

I felt my brow furrow. None of this was making sense.

"Am I not asking the right questions?" I asked her.

"All I am saying is that nothing is ever certain. I could very well be wrong," Alice said.

I grit my teeth.

"Yes, but this story is on rails, and I'm running out of time," I said, rubbing my forehead in my irritation. I was trying not to sound or be as panicked as I was. "Can you tell me when this is supposed to happen?"

"I'm not entirely sure. The last time I looked for your outcome could see there was still snow on the ground. Weather is one of those things that cannot change regardless of anyone's decision in my vision. It's June, Cammy, and this storm is a freak weather phenomenon so its not going to happen again. Its going to be soon."

She sounded so certain.

What if I couldn't stop this?

I swallowed.

"You can't look out for Paul, can you?" I had to ask. "I don't know what a werewolf will do if his imprint just up and disappears. I mean, he tried to unimprint me back in New Moon. It was driving him, and me, a little crazy. What if we have to live without each other?"

"I don't think the wolves would let us look out for him," Alice said. I fidgeted where I stood in my room. "We have to focus on the battle for now. That will happen first. I'm sure of it."

"When are the newborns due to arrive?" I asked.

*How much time do I have left?*

Alice paused for a moment.

"I'm very surprised you don't know. Cammy, that's going to happen in two days."

Two days.

I hadn't even really been paying attention that close attention to the book, not that I'd been needed. The wolves and the Cullens really did have everything under control. This was a fight that the pack and the family were going to win so totally that Bella needed to know almost nothing about it—at least as far as I knew.

That left me to see the only thing that was worth my concentration.

I saw Jasper coming in through my bedroom window out of the corner of my eye, his face looking concerned.

I spoke as if he wasn't there.

"Just tell me one thing," I said. "When you say that I'm going to be gone... are you certain that it doesn't mean... dead?"

"Of course not," Jasper said in time with his wife on the phone. He stepped toward me. "Cammy, we wouldn't be so involved with the newborns if your life was on the line."

"Then what does 'being gone' mean?" I asked them both.

Jasper let out a long sigh. His hand flashed out to take the phone from me, and he spoke into it.

"I'll speak with her. Finish hunting, please. You've been pushing yourself too hard with these visions," Jasper ordered, unusually bossy. He was quiet while Alice said something back to him. His shoulders relaxed. He said goodbye and then handed me back my phone. He set his hands on his hips and leveled me with a look.

"I put two tickets for your aunt and uncle in your mailbox. If anyone asks, they've won a very convenient contest that you signed them up for. It will give them an overnight trip to Portland for a jazz concert," he reported. He arched a blonde brow, his golden gaze searching. "I could feel your anxiety from out there."

I ran a hand through my hair.

"I just..." I began. "I don't know what's going to happen to him."

I didn't need to say more, but Jasper let me continue anyway.

"I've got people in the tribe trying to figure out if there's some way to stop me from leaving, but they have no idea why I'm here, let alone why I would end up back inexplicably gone," I complained.

Jasper nodded thoughtfully.

"I don't see how they would. None of us know why your world suddenly changed for you one day. It is not as though I knew of you before the books started," he said.

I shrugged and sat on the edge of my bed.

"I didn't even live in Washington before then. I arrived around the same time Bella did," I said.

"Which was convenient," Jasper remarked.

I blinked, again thinking about what Carlisle had said about my being sent here. Knowing what I knew about Carlisle, I assumed he met that God had somehow sent me here to help Edward. The timing was too convenient, my being here just in time to see the books' beginning to the end of Eclipse.

But I couldn't explain that either.

"I'm getting texts from the tribe. They're worried for him. I'm worried for him. The point of my making sure that the books happened how they were supposed to was to ensure everyone got out alive. What if my being here has done nothing but put Paul in danger?"

Jasper didn't respond to that.

He just sat where he usually did at the corner of the room, across from my bed.

"There is no way to break his tie to you?"

I shook my head.

"You know how he feels about me. Is he going to be okay?" I asked.

Jasper didn't answer that one either. I felt my jaw clench reflexively, my heart rate starting to pick up when it inexplicably calmed began to calm itself the moment Jasper appeared beside me and set a hand on my shoulder.

I met his golden eyes.

"Am I going to be okay?" I asked in a much smaller voice.

Jasper sighed.

"You're a capable woman, Cammy. You've taken care of yourself in extreme situations time and time again. I know you will survive losing him if you must," he said.

And what about Paul?

"What would you do if you lost Alice?" I asked.

Jasper removed his hand from my shoulder as if he was afraid that I might catch whatever caused that brief expression of pain on his face through our contact.

I nodded.

"That's why I'm worried," I said.

"Nothing has happened yet," he said. That wasn't at all comforting, but I wasn't getting the same answers from everyone. There was nothing that I could do, nothing that could prepare me for this inevitable end.

"Thank you for the concert tickets. Having my family out of town does give me one less thing to worry about," I said.

"We're all here if you need us, Cammy. Just say the word," Jasper said.

Time just kept ticking by.

It wouldn't stop.

I tried to keep up with the timeline in Eclipse to remind myself of where everyone was and when, but it was getting harder and harder to concentrate beyond my own worry. I was helpless to do anything but text back and forth with Kim and Emily, and neither one had learned anything new about werewolves learning imprints.

And another day went by, one where Bella and Edward got officially engaged. I'd taken a small break from my own research to keep up, to make sure I wasn't missing anything crucial. Instead I read about Bella not-so-subtly begging Edward for sex and winced.

It was one thing to read about when everyone involved was fictional, but Edward was a guy I saw occasionally in school. It was more than a little weird to read about all of that and then get a text from him later that day, telling me that he had made things official with Bella and casually mentioning that he hoped I could make it to the wedding.

The wedding.

I was going to miss that too, wasn't I?

"Cammy?" Aunt Debbie poked her head in my bedroom door, and I looked up from my phone. "Honey, you want some lunch?"

Lunch?

I'd woken from a power nap at six in the morning after following a lead Kim had thought of regardingt a legend her uncle had told her once. It was another dead end, so I'd decided to take a break. Was it already afternoon again?

I was losing track of time. Hell, I was still wearing the same thing from yesterday. When was the last time I'd eaten anything? I scooted from my bed, Eclipse in hand, as I realized that Aunt Debbie's eyes were filled with concern. She was usually pretty hands-off, trusting me to take care of myself.

I must really be a mess if she was intervening.

"Sure."

I sat down at the table, and the conversation quickly turned to Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bob's convenient contest winnings. They were leaving that night, which meant that Bella and Edward were in the field, spreading Bella's scent for the newborns to follow in the mountains.

The storm was going to hit tonight.

"They sure as hell didn't give us a lot of notice," Uncle Bob complained about the contest. When I saw the advertisement in the mailbox, I was surprised by how legitimate it looked, having been printed on stiff glossy paper and even included in the local phone number to confirm their winnings.

Aunt Debbie had done so on speakerphone, and I'd nearly laughed when I had recognized the answering voice as Emmett's. He seemed to know that I could hear him because he definitely hammed it up, exaggerating his voice inflection like a radio host.

"I haven't gotten the mail in a few days, and that advertisement was at the bottom of the stack," Aunt Debbie replied. "I'm sure it'd been sitting in the mailbox for a while."

I pushed my food around on my plate while they talked, but I was only half listening.

Aunt Debbie reached over and touched my free hand to get my attention.

"Are you sure that you don't want to go?."

I was so lost in my own thoughts that for one brief moment I wasn't sure if she was talking about the books or the fight with the newborns. A half second later I realized that she was actually talking about the jazz concert in Portland.

"Positive. Jazz isn't really my thing," I said.

"It might be a good excuse to get out of town. It's going to snow," Uncle Bob said.

"No way. That storm should just be up in the mountains. Not way down here on the coast," Aunt Debbie argued. They bantered playfully with each other, like they always did. Sometimes I caught Aunt Debbie looking over at me, and it reminded me of my mom, that knowing way that she could just look at me and know that something was off.

"You'll be okay here? Even if it does snow?"

I had to be. I planned to stay inside and do more research with the books. I'd read every word just about eight hundred times now, but I wasn't ready to give up. Even if it had never taken me this long before to find an answer, but I had always managed to find a solution to every Twilight problem before.

*This isn't a Twilight problem. This is a you and Paul problem. You've never been good at solving those on your own.*

I quickly shook away my own nagging worries and pasted a smile.

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

Dinner came and went, again moving way too quickly.

If my calculations with the time line were correct then Jacob had already taken Bella to the campsite where she and Edward would hunker down to weather the storm and wait for everyone to eliminate the newborns. It was unusually cold, but it was only raining for the moment. Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bob had left, reminding me of where all the emergency supplies were and to make use of the fireplace if the heat went out.

Such a weird thing to have to worry about in the middle of June.

Then I was alone, listening to the wind start to howl against the window panes. It startled me when I felt a sudden burst of air and then looked over to see Paul coming in through my window.

I smiled with relief.

He gave me an exaggerated look of surprise.

"Good god. You're actually going to miss this fight," he said as he stepped inside and shut the window. "I've been waiting for you to pop up from out of nowhere and declare that we can't kill the vampires without you."

I ignored his playful jab at my history of shenanigans.

"You know my aunt and uncle aren't home, right? You can use the front door," I said, reveling in the normalcy of being with him. Seeing him was a breath of fresh air, a reminder that my world actually hadn't turned over on its head just yet. His breathtaking smile soothed my worry, which didn't go unnoticed by Paul.

"Where's the fun in that? We all come in through the window," Paul asked.

He settled in beside me in bed. I tilted my head at him. He greeted me with a kiss, his mood genuinely cheerful and excited. I knew him well. He was probably just as excited for some sanctioned vampire extermination as the rest of the wolves.

"Would you believe me if I said that Jasper actually came to me and asked me to check on you?"

I frowned, stunned that Jasper would approach Paul to have any kind of conversation, let alone a civil conversation. It was also strange that he actually called Jasper by his name. Was it possible that the Cullens and the werewolves actually were getting used to seeing each other as people, maybe even allies?

"He said that you were feeling antsy," he said. Paul must be paraphrasing for my benefit. He leaned back on his hands, grinning like a kid waiting for Christmas morning.

Paul's gaze searched my face.

"It's weird to think that they might actually care about you," Paul said. "He said something about you being under a lot of pressure and that you might feel better if you see me."

I pressed my lips tight.

"He's right," I said. I blinked, my heart kicking into high gear. "Wait. You can't be here. You're supposed to be at the battle. Paul, I'm pretty sure you're going to be there. I guess Bella doesn't know for sure, but you've got to help with the battle-"

I flipped Eclipse toward the end of the book, effectively losing my place in Jacob's talk with Bella about Quil imprinting on Claire.

Paul put his hand over mine.

"That's tomorrow morning, Cam. Don't worry. I'll be there. I'm just checking up on you," he said gently. Paul shook his head. "You're still not sleeping. Are you?"

I looked at the clock. It was one thirty-two in the morning.

I shrugged.

"Should I stay?"

Yes. Please god yes. Stay here and tell me everything is going to be okay again.

I shook my head.

"Go with the pack. I've got some reading to do," I said, closing Eclipse shut. He nodded, but only after letting out a defeated sigh that I knew meant that he wasn't comfortable leaving me here alone.

"I'm fine," I reassured him.

"Liar," Paul snorted. "Is there any way I can convince you to go to La Push while this is all going on?"

I shook my head.

Jasper was right. The pressure was mounting and I knew how I looked. If I went to La Push, where Colin and Brady were going to be on guard, then I was going to be distracted trying to put on a brave face. Kim and Emily had been doing their own research about imprints as well, calling cousins and great-uncles out of state to try and collect all the legends they could. Even Old Quil was on the case. He wasn't much of a texter, but Kim was keeping me updated.

There was no luck there either.

The most relevant story about what happened to a werewolf that lost their imprint was the third wife story, which wasn't at all comforting. The story itself said that the chief, Taha Aki, lost his wife to the vampire and never changed back from a wolf, that he wandered away forever, never to be heard from again.

I stared at Paul.

"Can I ask a question?"

Paul shrugged.

"Sure."

"What does a werewolf do without his imprint?" I asked.

Paul stiffened.

"What? Like... what do I do when you're not around?"

"No, I mean," I asked. If worse came to worse and I suddenly... wasn't around anymore, what would you do?" Asking was a mistake. Paul's expression dropped into a stonily serious expression. The wind howled outside, and I could hear the pitter-patter of rain start to grow heavier.

"Gone?"

I put on a smile.

"I mean... yeah. I was um..." I started and quickly came up with a lie. "I was reading New Moon, and I got to the part where Edward ran off and tried to go kill himself, and I just found myself wondering about it. You wouldn't... You wouldn't do anything like that. Would you? I mean, especially if it wasn't like I was dead."

Paul stared at me for a long moment.

"Why are you asking me this?"

I shrugged.

"It's stupid. Don't worry about it," I said, looking away while I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. He caught my chin and made me look at him, his brows raised in, asking an insistent question.

"I'm not going to die," I told him. "I even asked Alice just recently. She says she sees me after the battle, safe and sound."

Sort of.

"Are you sure?"

No.

"Yes," I told him and leveled him with my own look. "Are you okay?"

Paul nodded too quickly.

"Yeah," he said. The hand holding my chin started to vibrate.

He released my chin and stood from my bed, looking everywhere but me as he started to pace. Even having this conversation was stressing him out. I watched him carefully, the way he was clearly agitated. I thought about all of the times Paul had just burst into a wolf and run off into the woods. That wolf was always at the surface, threatening to take over.

Of everyone in the pack, Paul was the most likely to lose that battle with his own wolf.

They talked a lot about spirits in that story of the third wife, of them leaving their bodies in search of something. Losing yourself because of a loved one was an ongoing theme in this book, in this world.

"Are you sure?" I asked again.

Paul nodded.

"I think I should head back. We're going to patrol the area just in case the vampires send out a scout or something," Paul responded. He rolled his shoulders, his eyes flicking to the window. "Are you sure I can't talk you into going to La Push?"

I gave him an apologetic look and shrugged a shoulder.

"I've got a lot to do here," I said.

The air in the room was tense with the lies we were telling to comfort the other. Neither of us were okay, but Paul's body was shuddering, a sure sign that I'd upset him with even the idea of never seeing him again. Some truth was in order.

"I'm going to keep my promise. I'm not going to look for trouble. I'm going to sit here and read like a good girl," I told him and tried to smile. "I want a full report about the battle when you get back. I'm sure they tone down all of the stories they tell Bella. I don't think she's a fan of the violence."

Paul didn't look at me. He just faced the window, shifting his weight slowly from foot to foot in his old gym shorts.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," he said. I leaned over to watch him through the window. He moved too quickly for the motion-sensor light to catch. I just barely caught sight of his tail disappearing over the backyard fence, but the remnants of his shorts were left in tatters in the wet grass and mud.

And the rain turned to hail.

Hello everyone!

Quick note from the author here. I've heard that has been not-so-great about sending out story alerts and stuff. So just in case, I do let people know about my updates on my Instagram and in the Facebook group. I've got links in my profile. Feel free to follow either if you want, or not. No pressure.

Also:

The next couple of chapters will deal with the "Breaking Dawn problem." It's going to start getting intense, and yes, I'm going to take some (more) creative liberties. If you're wondering why there's been so (very much) stalling from me, this is why. Forgive me.

Glitch