Aurora Borealis

by Star-Of-Radiance

Bella's 'perfect slice of forever' slowly unravels, piece by piece. Months after the confrontation during Breaking Dawn, all the devastating consequences of crimes, both forgotten and overlooked, reveal themselves, and the criminal trials and sentencing of Edward Cullen and the Volturi unfold- along with its equally devastating aftermath. Think carefully before you choose to act...

16. The Revelations of Evolution Bella VII

To Jen: Thank you so much! I was a Creative Writing student, but sadly didn't pick it up as my Major. I wish I did, though. It's sad- if you're going to write Fantasy, in the very least impart some good morals or some strong messages which you feel necessary. Even George R.R Martin tries to tell us, using fiction, that reality and real history isn't split into idealistic views of Black-and-White, Good vs. Evil.

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"There are no secrets that time does not reveal."

Jean Racine

Bella

"WHAT?!" Came the collective shout from across the other inhabitants of the room.

Gabrielle sighed, grimacing as she rubbed a hand over her face. Tiredness was etched on every line of her breathtakingly beautiful features.

"It's largely the truth." She confessed. "Dhampyr… well, you know now that some vampire species are able to breed and produce offspring, right?"

Everyone nodded, even Leah who looked like she still had a hard time in believing everything, even though, judging by the look on her face, she did. Sue simply looked startled.

"But not your particular species." Gabrielle said, flatly, arching an eyebrow at us for confirmation.

Slowly, hesitantly, we nodded.

"That is because, for the most part, your species are not biologically designed with procreation in mind by evolution, but by infecting humans." Gabrielle patiently explained. "You are all frozen in time, am I correct? Frozen at whatever stage of your life or development was when you transformed?"

Again, everyone nodded.

"Now, this is mostly true, but not entirely. I strongly suspect that part of the reason as to why your species are not as magically powerful as other vampires, let alone wizards, is because most of the innate magic is used to semi-freeze and arm you all for defensive purposes." Gabrielle continued. "It's mostly used on that, yet none of you are all frozen completely. As has been proven your males are still able to sire children, although not to the extent as human males, I strongly suspect. If you were all frozen, it wouldn't have been at all possible.

"While most obvious is the fact that women's bodies need to change in order to bear children- the menstrual cycle, the even bigger changes needed to accommodate a growing child, et cetera- you probably believe that men don't need to change from birth to death to produce offspring. But in fact, a man's sperm is produced by a type of cell division called Meiosis. While your transformation is enough to ensure that your females cannot have children, while it greatly reduces men's fertility rates, it is still possible for them."

Carlisle nodded his brow furrowing. "I knew that Edward was still capable of Meiosis, but I admit I was at a loss for how and why." He said slowly.

"Maybe that's probably because you studied things the Muggle- No-Maj- way." Gabrielle suggested. "I studied both the non-magical and magical ways of healing and science. By putting them together did I have an even-better understanding of everything and everyone's individual biology." Carlisle nodded mutely his blue eyes wide with agreement.

I blinked in shock. How could I not have realised this? Especially as I had taken biology?

"Magic tends to bend a lot of rules, but not as many as you think. They don't break them, either. There are still set rules. The Laws of Balance, for one: I published that theory myself. And this includes for vampires: for example, the first Law of Balance says that the more physically strong and invulnerable that you are, the less magically-powerful you will be. Another law is about reproduction: the vampire species that reproduce via breeding tend to do so because not everyone infected by their venom is capable of surviving the transformation process itself. Most of them die, rather than being changed. But no matter how excruciating or unpleasant, how many humans have died for real after being merely bitten by your species, if not drained completely?"

We all looked at each other. Carlisle and Esme both gave each other dark glances and shook their heads at Gabrielle. "None." Carlisle answered.

"Balance." Gabrielle responded. "It's much easier for humans to transform into your species due to the fact that you depend solely on reproducing via infection. But even then, because they are still immortal they do not have that many children. The successful birth of every pure-born child in the species is a cause for celebration, particularly within the coven where they were born into and where they lived." Gabrielle sighed. "They also have laws that require anyone to seek official authorisation before changing a human, due to the risks of transmitting the virus to a human and, quite concerning, the risks of exposure, particularly if no one is properly prepared to train and hone the instincts and powers of a newly-turned vampire or fledgling."

Both Jasper and Carlisle grimaced.

"But how can you tell if every human doesn't even survive being bitten by one of us," Emmett interjected. "Most of our kind can't resist the lure of human blood- it's too hard. Even for the more experienced ones…" he grimaced.

"Have you ever heard of a human dying after they were bitten while also not being drained by one of your species?" The question was met with silence.

Carlisle shook his head. "No, but I believe that the point Emmett was trying to make was that those of our kind who have tasted human blood cannot resist it for the most part. It takes considerable time and effort to learn how to resist even the scent."

"Yes, but it's still possible to resist," Gabrielle pointed.

"In any case, I believe that that all this is largely due to two reasons: the first being that this is nature's way of controlling your population and making sure there aren't too many human-consuming vampires- who are immortal no less- that run rampant- and it makes sense if your venom ensures the victim's survival if their blood isn't drained first." Carlisle grimaced, nodding. "Nature will always find ways to control and evenly distribute the size of a population, so it would be harder for you to resist, certainly more so than the other species whose venom alone is likely to kill, even without draining their victim of blood.

"The second reason is that you have only just started consuming blood and blood products supplied by wizards and the vampires of the Confederation; the more you consume it, the easier it is to resist the lure of human blood, even if it still tempts you. Furthermore, due to the reasons above for the necessities of official authorisation to turn a human, as well a necessity to keep the population numbers under control, the species of the Confederation's laws on transforming humans include, for example, the number of humans that are permitted be transformed in a year, and the type of individuals who are selected for transformation having to meet certain criteria and be of peak physical and mental health, as well as no ties remaining to their human community. All this is not simply because most humans won't survive the effects of the virus which will overwhelm their bodies and cause them to go into shock, but because none of them are stupid enough to let the numbers get out of control especially without making the adequate arrangements for proper training, guidance and ease of adjustment to this new life, especially if a human was reluctant to be transformed to begin with. Even a single vampire can cause a lot of chaos like…" she sighed, waving her hand around the room. "The situation we are in. If the Volturi had taken steps to ensure that you are all part of the Vampire Confederation, what are the chances that the majority of your species would still require to prey upon humans, especially with an easier- and apparently better-tasting food source? If they had been able to curb or at least control their thirst for human blood and knew about the existence of the wider supernatural world and are able to get along with, not just other species of their own kind, but other peoples of different races…" Gabrielle shook her head. "Do you think you would have had any of the messes that your species found itself facing over the course of hundreds of years? The ones that required the Volturi to step in and take things under control purely by the use of violence?"

Carlisle, Jasper and every vampire in the room grimaced, remembering both the Plague of the Immortal Children and the Southern Wars. Jasper had told us of a record number of covens who tore each other to pieces and made so many newborns for their armies that they nearly endangered the secret. Would the vampires of the Confederation have handled things better?

Unfortunately, as much as we hated to admit, if the Death Dealers' take-down of the Volturi were any indication, even if they did have some wizards' assistance beforehand, I knew that it wouldn't have been much of an issue.

"But back on topic," Gabrielle said, waving a hand. "The reason I mention this in the first place is because the few Dhampyr who have the least issues with biological reproduction are sired by the few vampire species which are capable of breeding, on the part of both genders. Yes, it may still be possible for Renesmee to biologically have children-" everyone perked up at that "-but not to the extent that Jacob's species needs in order to reproduce. She is unlikely to have that many, and even then it would have to be a true stroke of luck, more than anything, for her to conceive."

I grimaced. Luck, it seemed, being that which I took for granted for the past two years of my life, was just the thing we had been running out of these days.

"Of course, mathematical equations and the precise timing would be of the utmost importance." Gabrielle continued. "I know that Dhampyr physically grow quickly. My main concern for you having a potential mate so soon is because one's physical growth and one's emotional growth are not necessarily at the same level," Her eyes softened as she looked at my very young daughter, who was actually nine months old, three months shy of her first birthday.

"And you would need that time and space and nurturing your own sense of self-confidence and awareness for you to emotionally grow," Gabrielle insisted, again making me wince. The precise things which I had lacked in my own upbringing had been sorely needed when faced with Edward, Jacob, deciding between humanity and immortality, and romance in general.

No point in having straight-As and taking care of the housework if I didn't know how to start thinking and acting like an adult instead of a teenager or worse, a small child. I cringed at the amount of childish temper tantrums I'd thrown: first when I cried when Edward took me to the prom (although he still should've known better than to ignore my wishes), and then again when I dramatically declared my love like a child who had watched too many romantic dramas and that I would rather die than be with Mike Newton or anyone else other than him in the car after the disaster that was my eighteenth birthday, and again when Renée came to Forks and she and Charlie tried to make me go to Jacksonville after Edward had left, and don't get me started when it came to Jacob and Edward!

I felt mortified looking back. All those times, the time when Jacob revealed that he wasn't physically aging any more than Edward, leading Jacob on because I didn't want him to abandon me and I couldn't choose between him and Edward- or at least, I didn't want to… I was a selfish child. I wondered, would I have been different if I'd been as cherished half as much as my daughter was? Because for all that we smothered her and kept her prisoner, we'd adored and paid complete attention to her. And in the end, for all our flaws, Nessie was not emotionally neglected as I was. She may have stood up to us, but that wasn't because she thought so little of herself that she flew into the arms of people, the way I did with Edward and then Jacob, who then praised her to the skies only to make her feel incompetent and foolish without their input- or interference (though they certainly made her feel guilty whenever she tried standing up for herself). She may have grown up with me, Edward and Jacob, but she'd had Rosalie, Esme, Carlisle, Charlie, Sue, Emmett, Jasper and now, as it turned out, Leah and, most likely, Seth.

"But when it comes to your physical growth," Gabrielle was still saying. "That's what causes me concern. I know that Dhampyr typically grow faster than human children, and certainly more than vampire children," That puzzled us. How fast- or slow- did vampire children grow? "But I don't know how precisely fast you grow. According to your grandparents you are at least under two years of age."

"Actually," Emmett coughed, dryly. "She's nine months old."

Gabrielle was silent, shock radiating from her every- flawless- angle. "She's younger than Albus and Rose?!"

"Who are Albus and Rose?" Rosalie questioned.

"Harry's son Albus, and Ron and Hermione's daughter Rose," she said, by means of explanation. The Cullens, bar Renesmee, all understood. "They're both ten months of age."

Gabrielle sighed. "If this is the case, then this is worse than I thought. If you can reproduce- and you would need to if you are truly fated to mate with Jacob- although I am doubtful about that fact- then you would have to find the right time-slot- and fast." She insisted. "I suspect that you will reach maturity in less than ten years- between the ages seven to eight at the very least, I suspect."

Everyone nodded. "That's what Nahuel said," I said slowly, dread creeping into my gut.

Gabrielle flinched. "Seven to eight…" she cringed. "This isn't going to be mentally and emotionally healthy for her, and you know it. She would only be alive for seven to eight years before moving straight from her father's house and into Jacob's." We all flinched.

"But in fact, this is also going to turn out to be physically unhealthy for her too." Gabrielle stated. "Because once she reaches that age, she is going to stay in that state, if not for forever, then certainly for a large majority of her very long but not immortal life." She stressed, looking right at me.

It was then that it slammed into me: after all those months since my daughter's birth up until the New Year, of worrying just how long she had to live due to her fast growth… now while we knew that she would live for over a hundred years at least, she wouldn't have forever. Not like me.

Horror filled me. But before it could completely overwhelm me, Gabrielle continued. "So if Renesmee wishes to have children- and if she is going to have to mate soon with Jacob- since his species, I strongly believe, will also require results sooner rather than later- then she will have to be younger than seven or eight years old when she gives birth." Horror struck us. I could see Esme's face frozen with it; I could see Carlisle's newly-blue eyes widen with shock and disbelief. Dismay, anguish and sorrow in Rosalie's and Emmett who also looked appalled. Jasper looked the same way, too shocked to respond. And Alice was pale, paler than vampires normally were. Sue too was pale, too stricken and horrified to speak. Leah looked like she wanted to throw up.

And me… I was sure I was no better. I felt faint. I was sickened. I gripped Renesmee's hand, but my grip was strangely feeble, even for a vampire.

"But you still can't truly be an adult in the physical sense of the word either by the time you give birth because then you would be frozen, your body unable to adapt to conceive, carry and give birth to a human or humanoid child." Gabrielle continued, her eyes growing grimmer by the second as she looked at Renesmee with sympathy. "By then it would be too late. And your body temperature is higher than a human's, yes?" Swallowing, Renesmee nodded. "And your metabolism and growth too? How long before your body becomes uninhabitable for even a fast-growing werewolf offspring?"

Thunder clashed out in the distance. I realised belatedly that it had been raining. But the storm was a minor detail, nothing compared to the shock and horror of the reality which confronted us, of what would most likely be my daughter's future.

"And then there's the fact that as a Loup-Garou werewolf- not even a Lycanthrope werewolf who mostly pass their genes down via infection- and a Dhampir whose parent-species of vampire do not typically reproduce biologically... It's just not possible," Gabrielle confessed. "I've taken DNA samples from all manner of species and beings of different races. Of course, I had their permission and I always destroy the samples, just in case I... make an experiment, unintentionally no less, that can't be controlled. The last thing I want is to create something like a Minotaur or a genuine Frankenstein's monster." Gabrielle shuddered. Emmett snorted. "This includes not only DNA from any kind, even the vampire species that are completely sterile, including DNA extracted from the venom of your species and cleansed from all traces of venom so the venom itself doesn't interfere with the process. I also took sperm and egg samples from all different species of vampires who could produce them- even the ones that are least likely to reproduce- and werewolves of both kinds: Loup-Garou and Lycanthrope, and all species from both. I tested them to see if they could produce zygotes together, which if left to their own devices and implanted within uteri would develop into embryos and foetuses- and of course, infants. And I have done it even with Dhampyr- Dhampyr whose immortal parent came from various different vampire species... I tested them with sperm or egg samples from werewolves, of both kinds, or even DNA from other sources."

She paused. Slowly, Gabrielle turned towards us. "It didn't work." She said, flatly, point-blank. "It never worked for any species of vampire, Dhampyr or werewolves of both kinds. While some species of vampires and Dhampyr are able to reproduce, same as a few species of Dhampyr with humans, for vampires and werewolves, or even Dhampyr and werewolves... if the sperm and eggs didn't repel each other, then the zygotes quickly died before I could even destroy them, much less develop into embryos."

A shocked, stunned and even horrified silence filled the entire room. I felt cold, from my head to my toes. Even as a vampire. No one could speak. We probably could hear a pin drop.

"This included DNA from all sources and all sorts of information that I had received from the Dhampir Nahuel and his sisters before coming here," Gabrielle said quietly. Her beautiful eyes were filled with pity as she looked at my daughter. "All four siblings gave me their individual DNA samples. I tested them on Loup-Garou and Lycanthrope DNA. Both kinds either repelled, as if magnetically, or fought what I had extracted from the four Dhampyr and completely destroyed each other. That's because werewolves and vampires, even half-vampires like yourself, are each other's natural anathema. You don't find their blood appealing, do you?" She asked, looking at me and gesturing towards the Wolves.

I shook my head. "No."

"We seem to repel each other's scent too," Carlisle admitted. Leah nodded. "That's true. We seem to find their scent naturally repulsive and they feel the same way about us."

Gabrielle nodded. "It's not always as extreme for the other, more older species of vampires and werewolves, but that only shows how far down the road of evolution both your species are. There is no possibility whatsoever of merging, even with human genes, which Renesmee would have inherited from Bella."

My whole body grew cold as I absorbed this. I shivered.

"So, even if you can carry a child to full term, you would have a better chance of reproducing with a human, or even a vampire of any species, even the less fertile ones although not the completely sterile ones. It simply is not genetically possible for you to have a child with any werewolf, whether lycanthrope or Loup-Garou like Jacob. And there's the fact that your... likely future difficulties in conceiving, carrying and giving birth to any man's baby due to your rapid growth and other complicated factors about your body, will make it even more difficult for a Loup-Garou or half-Loup-Garou child to be carried safely to term. So therefore, according to the logic as to why Wolves feel the Pull or imprint, in order to find the best chances of mating and reproduction, it is, sadly, impossible for you to be the mother of Jacob's offspring, even if you decide to marry him in the end." Gabrielle said softly, looking at Renesmee in gentle sympathy. "Therefore, by all the cultural, biological, mental and emotional laws of all Wolf-kind and humankind, it is impossible for you to be his eventual and true mate. Loup-Garoux also tend to reproduce quite a bit, especially once their gene is active and running. It's necessary for them. They do not have the same safety in numbers as humans do. That's why many of them tend to have multiple babies at once, twins, triplets, even quadruplets, although rarely more than that." She shook her head. "Families of five aren't uncommon, especially in the past. They need to reproduce- and fast. That's why they feel the Pull."

Gabrielle sighed. "So, all of that, apart from the fact that you are underage, and this isn't a mutual Pull or Draw, is the reason why Jacob feeling the Pull towards you doesn't make any sense. It doesn't fit in a Loup-Garou's evolutionary pattern, no matter the slight differences between each species."

"Evolution…" Carlisle trailed off. "That's it! Evolution!"

Everyone stared at him. He sounded like he had Eureka moment.

"It's evolutionary," he breathed, excitedly. "When we first met Ephraim and his pack they were smaller than the Wolves of today."

Sue's eyes widened and she gasped. "So… we are already evolving," Leah breathed. Her eyes held some kind of remembrance as well as understanding.

Gabrielle's eyes narrowed, thoughtfully. "How many members in the pack back then?"

Sue shook her head. "Nowhere near as many: there were three members to begin with. There were three at first. Eventually, they reached six members, but then skipped two generations."

Gabrielle stared. "Excuse me?" She whispered, seemingly both stunned and horrified.

Sue and Leah both nodded. "Ephraim, Billy's grandfather and Jacob's great-grandfather was the pack Alpha of that generation. Levi Uley was his second- that's Sam's great-grandfather who was his-" she cleared her throat and looked wryly at Leah "-his Beta, as you can call it," Gabrielle nodded, completely following this. "Then Quil Ateara the Second; he's Old Quil's father and Quil's great-grandfather- he was third in the pack."

"Just three…" Gabrielle whispered, eyes staring at a distance. "And no females…" she shook her head. She seemed to be aghast. Gabrielle then looked straight back at Sue and Leah. "You said it skipped two generations?" When the two of them nodded, she whispered, "But how?"

"We weren't there," it was Carlisle who answered. When Gabrielle looked confused, Sue explained.

"It seems the magic triggers whenever a Cold One arrives," she explained. "The Cullens came to live here, but they leave before the rest of the population realises they're not aging." Carlisle nodded. "When they first came, Ephraim negotiated the treaty with them that allowed them to stay so long as they didn't harm or bite the humans, didn't interfere with the lives of the humans, trespassed into their homes or into Quileute territory."

The Cullens winced.

"And how many Wolves in total now?" Gabrielle pressed, her violet-blue eyes were trying to hide the alarm, but not quite succeeding due to the urgency within them.

Sue and Leah looked at each other. "We split into two packs," Leah confessed. "One with Sam, the other with Jacob as Alphas. They have twelve members in Sam's pack by now. Jacob- it was just me and Seth with him to begin with, but then Quil and Embry joined in and now we have five more people."

"So in total, there are now more Loup-Garoux from your tribe than ever before," Gabrielle murmured "so much so that the original pack has split into two. What about previous packs, before Ephraim Black's?"

Once again, Sue and Leah looked at each other. "I'm afraid, it's hard to tell," Sue confessed. "We'll have to look back at the records. But it sometimes skips a generation, because without vampires…" she trailed off.

"The gene doesn't activate?" Gabrielle murmured. "That's- wait, you say you are the first female to phase?" Leah nodded. "And there have- so far- been no others?"

Everyone nodded. Gabrielle looked, first at Sue and Leah, then at Carlisle. "What are physical the differences between the Wolves of Ephraim Black's pack and the ones of today?"

"They're bigger," came the unanimous reply of the Clearwaters. "Much bigger," Carlisle agreed. "Jacob's generation are the size of barnyard horses in their Wolf forms." Gabrielle's lovely eyes popped in disbelief.

"Not me, though." Leah confessed. "I'm smaller than the others."

"You're still in the middle of evolving." She murmured. "Evolving not merely to just have more members, but the first female." She looked at Leah. "So at some point…" she trailed off meaningfully.

Leah got the message. "You mean there are going to be other female Wolves like me?" She gasped in shock and disbelief. Sue also gasped. My eyes bugged.

"It's more than likely." Gabrielle nodded. "And then at some point, you will have no need for the vampires' presence in order to phase. Your gene triggers, activating at the presence of a known- or ancient- enemy, something that has been ingrained deep within your DNA because-" she looked right into Leah's eyes. "You are protectors of your tribe, the self-appointed guardians, just as the Nunnehi people are for the Cherokee. You can ask Adsila for more information about that, if you like. She's three-quarters Cherokee, half-Narragansett and one-eighth Nunnehi. The Nunnehi part comes from her Cherokee side. They're closely intertwined and there have been intermarriages between them."

That did sound fascinating, but Gabrielle gave us little time to absorb the facts. "But at the same time, you are evolving into a species separate from the humans of your tribe. You act as guardians, but you stand apart. I have no doubt that you will always be Quileutes; that you will always be a part of the tribe in their eyes and in yours. It's in your lifeblood and your soul. But you're also moving apart from the humans in your tribe. As guardians, like the Nunnehi to the Cherokee, you stand apart. You have become Homo Lupus, Loup-Garou, in order to better protect them. And the reason you have more Wolves- and that, I'm guessing you have imprinted more than your ancestors had done in the past-" Sue and Leah nodded "-as well as the reason why now a female has phased when none has ever done before, is because you are breaking apart from the Homo Sapiens majority to become your own species, independent of the need for regular humans to reproduce to continue the population."

Leah's and Sue's eyes were the size of dinner platters, and I was sure the rest of us were no better. Carlisle was nodding, looking frustrated and infuriated with himself as he'd never seen this before until now.

"The vampires are your ancient enemy in general, even if you've made a treaty with them, something within your DNA will recognise their presence as such, the innate magic." Gabrielle insisted. "It happens with wizards too- one boy grew up in a non-magical household after his parents died. He lived with his aunt and uncle, and their son, his cousin. The aunt and uncle hated him, and they hated magic. But the magical gene lay dormant within the aunt and should have passed onto her son. But when I examined them for study, I discovered that, upon contact with the uncle's DNA- a man so conservative, traditionalist and- well, I hate to be judgmental, but he really was a terrible boor and bigot in all manner of ways- it practically killed it. The cousin is now grown, has a better relationship with his wizard relatives, and is now married with children of his own. But none of his children- the uncle's grandchildren- possess the magical gene. It died upon contact with what they perceive would be such a hostile individual and according to the boy who is now grown, even though his cousin is better, his aunt, uncle and the uncle's sister were absolutely terrible in every way." Esme's eyes grew grim.

"I think the magic in the gene sensed that its presence it was time, and it felt it was necessary to evolve as quickly as possible, hence you being the first female to phase and the males' gigantic sizes." Gabrielle shrugged. "But in your case, at some point, it won't be necessary to have the Cullens or any other vampire around to phase. Already you have more members, and now you've evolved enough to have at least one female." She nodded to Leah. "At some point you won't even need the humans to reproduce with either: as your own separate species you will do things on your own. Perhaps you can still have children who are fully Loup-Garou if somebody marries a human in the future, but for now… if the members of both packs imprint upon only ordinary humans so far-" both Sue and Leah nodded, mutely. "-then this means that they are merely in the stage of expanding the gene pool to have more diversity for the benefit of future generations." Carlisle nodded, wide-eyed. "Judging by this fact and the fact that previous packs in the past have not been so numerous, your evolution into a separate species of Loup-Garou, separate from the humans of your tribe means that you have only started to become Loup-Garou- hereditary werewolves- fairly recently. And if I am correct, every Loup-Garou werewolf in your tribe descends from one common ancestor."

"Taha Aki," Sue breathed.

"And I bet he first phased far less than a thousand years before any of you were born." Gabrielle stated. "Centuries are nothing in the ongoing cycle of evolution. If judging from everything we've seen and deduced thus far is correct, he can't be that far above from you in the family tree."

Everyone nodded. Taha Aki, the first Quileute Wolf, might have lived for hundreds of years before, but judging from what I could remember when learning about the basics of evolution, Gabrielle was right: centuries were not enough time for our bodies or those of our descendants to evolve and adapt to new environments. I remembered reading that all humans originated from Africa, and that included the early Homo Sapiens species, who eventually adapted to their various environments and became the Paleo-Indians, prehistoric Europeans, Asians and Pacific Islanders that we all know today.

And Taha Aki had seen the arrival of a Cold One for the first time. The pair that preyed upon the Makah girls and attacked the tribe, costing the third wife and the majority of Taha Aki's sons their lives, must've come with the early settlers, seeking more prey and safer places to hide from the ever-increasing scrutiny and threat- or nuisance- of exposure and the Volturi's strict censure.

"The other Loup-Garou species are not so recent." Gabrielle stated. "They are all in different stages of their evolution- some species are slower to evolve than others, while some are faster- but the other packs believed in one of either two theories: the first one is that they are descended from a prehistoric breed of canine which absorbed protean matter from a meteorite that enabled them to shape-shift into humans-" Carlisle's eyes lit up in fascination and awe "-and the second theory is that their most ancient ancestors were a group of human hunter-gatherers who were blessed by a moon goddess, although which goddess remains a mystery, depending on where they all originate from and their various mythologies. Most of the Loup-Garoux of their species believe the second story and the other species generally tend to follow suit. Whatever their real origins, they tend to be in the far-distant past, so far that there were no written records, or even a comprehensive oral history yet, at least ones that haven't likely been embellished and modified over time."

We all sat in silence, absorbing everything she had just said. I looked at Leah. Was all this true? Was Leah- and Sam, and Jacob, Seth, Quil, Embry- all those Wolves that we knew- were they really evolving into a separate species from humanity?

'Homo Lupus,' Gabrielle had said. 'Not Homo Sapiens, Leah.'

A different evolutionary branch in the making, separate from humanity. If Sam and Jacob's Wolves were much bigger than the Wolves of Ephraim's generation, and there were more of them, more members imprinting, and the first female Wolf, then it all made sense.

"And this would make it even harder, if it's not already outright impossible, for Renesmee to have even one child with Jacob, even without her physical difficulties in conceiving." Gabrielle warned. "Being a relatively newly emerged and evolved species of Loup-Garou- especially counting the fact that Renesmee's parent-species are also younger than the others- it's far too likely for sperm and egg from both Jacob and Renesmee, once she is mature enough to produce them-" we grimaced but made no sound "- would either repel one another, as opposed to merging, or outright die before they can develop into embryos." She shook her head.

"Humans, yes. Pure humans, certainly. You see humans are a highly adaptable race in many ways; their physiology, mentality, your society... The human genome is incredibly elastic and adaptable. Selection pressures and environmental changes only require a few millennia to reshape their bodies to adapt to any new environment." Gabrielle explained. "So, while it is possible for Dhampyr- at least the ones I've met and studied- to reproduce biologically with humans, even though it's more challenging, reproducing with a werewolf, whether a Lycanthrope or a Loup-Garou..." She shook her head.

"No, it won't serve any purpose. Not even the beneficial traits of vampires, even your species' specific traits like hardened skin, would do much good. Loup-Garou are capable of killing vampires, and my suspicion is that your species-" she looked at Sue and Leah "-are capable of breaking the skin and killing your species-" she looked at us. "Plus, they already have a faster healing mechanism. Not to mention supernatural speed, strength, and senses." Gabrielle shook her head again. "It would bring them no benefit whatsoever to reproduce with a Dhampir if they even can, so it is highly unlikely, evolved as the Quileute Wolves are or can become, for them to be able to develop the ability to reproduce with Renesmee or another Dhampir."

Gabrielle sighed. "Similar Loup-Garou and Renesmee's Dhampyr may be, in the cases of your high body temperatures and fast-paced metabolism and physical growth, but not enough for both kinds to meet and merge into one. Humans, yes. Homo Sapiens. But not Homo Lupus." She looked at the two Clearwaters. "Not your kind. You're different. Even though your parents had never phased, and your species can interbreed with humans and have due to the need to expand the gene pool since you already have one common ancestor..." for some reason, at the corner of my eye, I saw Sue freeze.

Leah gaped, but then shook her head. "This is crazy," but her voice sounded weak. "How- how can… If we're not Homo Sapiens and we're evolving into our own separate species-" Gabrielle and, to few people's surprise, Carlisle both nodded "-then why have I not imprinted on any of the males in either of the packs? Why has no one imprinted on me? I was with Sam for years before either of us phased!"

"Because the gene pool needs to grow and expand in order to provide diversity for future generations to have a healthy population," Carlisle murmured, eyes misted with understanding. "And if you're all descended from one common ancestor that isn't as far away from your current generation in the family tree then it may still be too close-"

"Closely related." Sue breathed. Her eyes were wide with shock and something else: realisation. Then, to everybody's surprise, Sue moaned and clapped her hand to her forehead. "Leah, I'm so sorry."

Leah stared at her mother. "What?"

Sue groaned and covered her face with her hands. We watched, bewildered as she moaned and shook her head repeatedly. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She slammed both hands to her face.

"What?" Leah stared. "Mom, what's wrong with you? What's going on?" She was aghast.

Leah was almost freaking out- if she wasn't already there yet. It was understandable. But none of us could understand Sue's reaction.

We might regret it once we found out the reason.

"Leah…" Sue moaned. Then, she dropped her hands. Her face was embarrassed, chagrined, full of self-loathing or anger, but not at her daughter or any of us. "You're related- you and Sam." She moaned. Everyone's jaws dropped.

"My maiden name is Uley."

At this point, no one reacted. Until…

"Holy Shit!" Someone shouted. We jumped. It wasn't one of us.

Gabrielle withdrew her wand and pointed it at the front door. It flew open. Standing there, drenched in rain, were three stunned and startled figures: Seth, Quil and Embry.

---

Leah stared at the three figures.

"How long have you two been standing there for?" Sue whispered, stunned.

"Um..." Seth and Embry looked at each other. Quil was pale- very pale. I suspected that he'd been here long enough to hear about the other Wolf species, and Gabrielle's explanation on their evolutionary patterns- and imprinting.

And this included everything that Gabrielle said about the Pull, how it only pointed to potential mates- and Jacob and Renesmee's possibility in being a compatible couple, biologically and personality-wise- being incredibly unlikely.

And he figured out that she could've been referring to him and Claire in the future, even though Claire was a regular human.

Alice groaned. "How did we not see you there or coming? Any of us?"

"I think we may have been too distracted." Gabrielle said dryly. She cast a glance at Leah. "And having the scent of one werewolf already present along with the vampires' may help mask things- along with the rain."

Everyone grimaced, agreeing.

"What are you guys doing here?" Leah demanded. "Seriously, is there no privacy?"

Seth and Embry winced. Quil looked like he was in too much shock. His face was pinched and pale. He looked worse than he had when I first saw him and drove him home in my truck when Jacob refused to see me and I still thought he was in a cult or a gang.

"Jacob sent us," Seth said, glancing apologetically between his mother and his sister. "He... he didn't take it well that Renesmee was going to be in some meeting that Leah and Mom were invited to, but not him."

I scowled. Of course he didn't.

Seth held out his hands. "Look- I'm sorry- we all are- but Alpha's orders, right?"

Gabrielle sighed, placing her forehead into her hand. "Well, that's one way to tell the rest of them." She muttered.

Leah groaned and put her face in her hands. "How could you- how could you not tell me this?!" She demanded, rounding on her mother. "You let me go out with my- my cousin-" Leah looked and sounded sick when she mentioned the word. Seth, Embry and even Quil grimaced. "-for years and never once told me that you came from the same family as him?" Her voice raised to a shout.

Sue stared. "You never knew?"

"You never called yourself anything other than Sue Clearwater since before I was born!" Leah shot back. A flush rose on her cheeks. She looked beyond embarrassed. Sue and Seth were the same. Embry looked incredibly uncomfortable. "And you barely talked to any of the Uleys that I remember- least of all Joshua and Allison, Sam's parents!"

Sue sighed. "I didn't get along with my family, I don't dislike Allison and I respect her, but the two of us have never been particularly close. And I disliked Joshua- and I despised him after what he did, walking out on his wife and kids just like that." I stared.

I heard Jacob mention that Sam's father hadn't been there much for his kids, being a strong possible contender for the identity of Embry's biological father. But I hadn't heard the details.

"I wasn't really close to anyone else." Sue admitted. "Not from them. I didn't have a happy childhood and I couldn't wait to get out of home. So I changed my name to Clearwater as soon as I married your father."

Many of the Cullens looked away, embarrassed. Gabrielle looked the same way. A lovely rosy hue was on her cheeks.

"But you could've told me if I was related to Sam!" Leah insisted, furiously. "You know, before we both started going out and made plans to go to college and maybe, you know, get married and raise a family one day-" her face reddened. Seth, Quil and Embry all looked away, embarrassed. "Even then I would've liked to know if my future kids could face any potential defects someday, if they might be special-needs!" She fumed.

Sue opened her mouth, then closed it, sighing. She rubbed a hand over her face. Her face too was red.

"I think it may be possible that your mother didn't realise that you were that closely related," Carlisle suggested meekly. When all eyes shot to him, and then looked to Sue for confirmation, she nodded, hand still covering her face. "It wasn't that uncommon back in the day, even a few decades before, for even first cousins to get married."

"They're not first cousins," Sue mumbled, but we heard her clearly. "Second cousins, maybe. Or third. Not enough for me and Harry to be concerned back then."

"Clearly," Gabrielle said gently. "It may still have been too much for a growing population with future generations that require diversity in the gene pool in order to be healthy. Perhaps it wasn't as close for regular humans if the two of them had been purely human then married and had children, but for a magical species whose genes can sporadically go dormant and then activate between generations..." she shook her head.

"Especially if Leah inherited the gene from both parents," Carlisle murmured, blue eyes wide. "If both your parents were descended from Taha Aki, your one common ancestor who lived only centuries ago, and Sue is also related to Sam..." Gabrielle nodded. Leah and Sue both shrunk back in their seats. Seth and Embry appeared to cringe for all that was holy. Quil's face was pale with horror and shock.

"You need stability in order to develop continuity. And you already have one common ancestor, if what you said was true." Gabrielle nodded to Sue. "It may have been too much for the gene pool to take. It needs to not only diversify but expand before any of Sam and Leah's descendants could ever get together to make healthy offspring."

"Ugh!" Leah covered her reddened face with her hands and slumped forwards, shaking her head. Sue's sheepish face was a rosy hue.

"Are the two of you still together?" Gabrielle wondered.

Fervently, all the Quileutes in the house shook their heads. Even Quil did so, although his face was still pale.

"Thank God," Leah moaned, her voice muffled by her hands. Seth also looked sheepish and relieved at that statement, his face red.

"Are either of you with anyone present? You mentioned that you haven't imprinted on any of the male Wolves- how about the humans?"

Leah shook her head, her face still covered. She moaned again.

"And has Sam imprinted?" Gabrielle pressed.

Everyone nodded. "He's with Emily," Seth explained. "Our cousin."

Gabrielle stared. "Not from your side of the family." She said this to Sue. It wasn't a question, though she sought confirmation.

The Clearwaters all shook their heads. "No," Sue admitted. "Although Emily's father is related to Martha, Ephraim's wife and Billy's grandmother, I don't think that Sam and Emily themselves are."

Gabrielle's eyes widened with some realisation.

"Are the two of you... similar?" Gabrielle asked Leah. Her eyes widened. "You and your cousin?"

"We were close." Leah's voice was still muffled. It didn't look like she was able to get over her embarrassment any time soon. I couldn't blame her.

If that were me, I thought I wouldn't leave my room for weeks, if not months or years. Or ever.

"Similar in appearance?" Gabrielle persisted. "Personality? Tastes? Likes and dislikes?"

Sue stared. Carlisle gasped. "You can't possibly-" Sue began. Leah, Seth, Quil and Embry all gasped. Emmett's jaw dropped and his eyes bugged. The rest of the Cullens looked shocked. I felt the same. It was as if the world around us had frozen.

"Sam couldn't imprint on Leah," Carlisle murmured, his eyes wide with sudden understanding "because of their close genetic ties. So he- or rather, his innate biological instincts- went for someone else- someone close enough to Leah, appearance-wise, personality-wise, even genetically-speaking, someone close enough to be her without being related to him."

Bar Gabrielle, everyone else gasped in shock. I couldn't speak. I couldn't comprehend it...

Sam and Emily were only a couple because Sam was with Leah in the first place?!

"It's true," Gabrielle murmured. "It's the only feasible explanation. You two were happy together? You were close?" Leah groaned and, still not uncovering her hands, nodded reluctantly, almost shamefully.

"And you planned on marrying and having children together..." Gabrielle murmured, violet-blue eyes wide. "But you couldn't. And neither of you knew that, much less, why."

Sue groaned and covered her face again. Seth clapped a hand to his forehead.

Quil's face was pinched when he first spoke. "So, what? Emily's the substitute for Leah? Or the replacement?" He looked horrified; anguished, for Emily, Sam and Leah's sakes, but also because of the implications of what this could mean for his and Claire's relationship, especially in the future.

Gabrielle's lovely face darkened. "It seems that your sense of Pull- the innate biological instinct to mate and produce offspring- is not as refined and evolved as the other species'." She said grimly.

She stood and walked over to the window. She waved her wand and the door closed itself. Another wave and the water pooling at the boys' feet dried up. She then said something, pointing her wand at the three boys and a wind blew from the tip of her wand, like a fan or a blow-dryer. Suddenly, the three previously-soaked Wolves were all dry.

Embry blew a strand of hair from his face. "Thanks." Seth echoed the same thing. Gabrielle simply nodded.

"Your cousin Emily is a potential mate for Sam," Gabrielle stated. "I cannot stress that enough: they may end up happily together in the end, or they may not and eventually part ways. It is entirely up to them to make things work. Just as any other couple, human or Loup-Garou." She looked at me. "Or vampire.

"I have studied the magic of the sentient soul," Gabrielle explained. She turned back to face us. "And sentient beings, no matter their race, kind or species, are not too different from each other. Whether you are human or Loup-Garou... Even vampires. Some of you may believe that you are soulless, the bodies of dead whose spirits have gone to the hereafter. But that is not the case.

"If I were to kill someone right now, their spirits would leave their bodies, but it would remain unharmed." She said firmly. "Because souls are not damaged by the same things as humans are. If anything happens to the body, the soul would typically remain intact. It can be harmed, damaged even, but it usually takes great psychological and emotional damage for it to do so. And in some cases-" her beautiful face darkened again. "-it takes you literally sacrificing your soul for material gain- including immortality."

I shivered. I didn't know what this meant, but somehow... I feared that this was going to hit closer to home, like all the rest.

"Some dark wizards have done so in the past," Gabrielle confessed. "In the last decade, in 1998, our kind recently finished a war against an enemy who did just that: he wanted to achieve immortality without sacrificing any of his power, unlike with your species, or even the other vampires', because even they do not have quite the same range and depth of capabilities as wizards do. So he decided to split his soul, and store it into containers known as Horcruxes. Voldemort-" for the first time, I was truly alarmed by the look on Gabrielle's preternaturally beautiful face. It was disgust, pure and simple. "And there was only one way to split the soul: murder."

Everyone shivered, and not due to the cold.

"The enchantments needed to prepare a Horcrux are some of the darkest, most dangerous and most truly disgusting in all of existence." Gabrielle stated. She nearly spat those words out. "But it is murder- the cold-blooded killing of any sentient creature- that truly does the deed. And once the sacrifice has been performed, the ritual must be completed without a moment's doubt or hesitation."

Everyone looked sick. Even the vampires. Human sacrifice, I thought, shivering, was as low as it got.

But, wait- murder? Cold-blooded killing? Of any sentient creature?

"There is only one way to restore such a soul," Gabrielle explained. "And that is if they feel remorse. Only then is it possible for the maimed spirit to be remade into something whole. Something resembling that of a human, as it once was."

Everyone relaxed slightly; so did I. I remembered what Edward had said about his 'rebellious phase' how many people he'd killed, criminals. He felt that they deserved it and that he was protecting their potential victims, and maybe he had, but now that I thought about it, the reason why he was so ashamed was because... it had torn apart his soul... his soul whom he had previously believed was already lost. After all, they stood no chance. And while they were criminals, they never saw him coming. He felt they deserved it.

Edward was truly very judgmental. But at least he felt remorse in the end.

"So... if someone were to become a vampire their soul..." I trailed off. Gabrielle nodded.

"Their souls would remain intact." She confirmed. Everyone's shoulders sagged. "It is what comes afterwards that may give us concern."

I grimaced, but I knew at least Edward- and the Denalis- all felt remorse. Their souls had been restored, no matter how much Edward bemoaned that he was a monster.

"However, due to what I now call the Laws of Balance, Voldemort's actions came at a cost." Gabrielle explained. "Instead of making him invincible and ensuring that he would still exist, if simply in spirit after death, splitting apart one's soul and storing them in Horcruxes meant that the soul-shards were entirely dependent upon their individual containers. Unlike souls which are whole and reside within their bodies, if the container is destroyed, then the individual in question could be killed. And that was precisely what happened to Voldemort- oh, and because Voldemort, unlike previous dark wizards and witches, split his soul multiple times, it became increasingly fragile and unstable. His appearance; once that of a very handsome young man, became increasingly grotesque and inhuman, resembling the lack of humanity within. He looked more like a pale-skinned skeleton crossed with a snake, and had red eyes with slit pupils according to eye-witness observers."

Everyone looked somewhere between horrified and disturbed. I was truly too repulsed and frightened to imagine such a- a person even existing. Gabrielle nodded. "However, the reason I mention all this is because, based on all that I have studied, souls... when it comes to love, romantic love in particular... it's complicated. No soul comes into being in a living body, destined to meet another. As such, there is no possible way for any sentient being- a person with an advanced mind and soul of their own- to determine who is their perfect match instantaneously. It doesn't happen like that, especially for more than one person. Even with an innate biological instinct that drives them towards certain individuals whom they can be with, there is still no soul-magic or soul-rituals, nor any magic in nature, such as a Loup-Garou's biological instincts, that are able to tie individuals together forever on the first meeting, not even the Pull or imprinting for your species. And this is why:

"It takes more than finding 'the one' as you may call it to acquire or even find a soulmate. Even if this Emily, and Renesmee, would truly end up being the soulmates of the ones who imprinted, it would be only part of the journey to begin with. Soulmates- true soulmates- are those that build their relationship, who understand one another, who grow both individually and together and grow and develop their bond after their first meeting and don't immediately take for granted that the other person is their other half." Quil looked anguished. "Who feel equal amounts of respect and love for one another, even subconsciously in a patriarchal or matriarchal society, and hold the same level of respect and trust for each other, along with loyalty and love. And they love, admire and respect the other more than they would even if they had placed the other person on a metaphorical pedestal and worshipped or slaved themselves for them."

I flinched, feeling as if I'd been struck.

"Voldemort scorned love. He was entirely loveless. He had never known love throughout his life: his witch mother was brutally abused by her father and brother and sought escape from her horrible reality via her infatuation to a handsome Muggle- or No-Maj- named Tom Riddle. And she achieved her dreams as soon as her father and brother were sent to prison for their crimes, by what would be called illegal means in today's magical society: a love potion." Gabrielle shook her head. "She either stopped the dosage or it had expired. Either way, he left her and she died soon after, though not before giving birth to and leaving her child in the hands of a non-magical orphanage." Esme, Rosalie, Sue and I winced.

"And that's something else I wish to speak about. Because, using love potions as an example, they do not truly create love. Like soul-magic, even the ones created by nature ingrained within our DNA and biological instincts, it is impossible for them to create true love. Nothing short and easy can determine what is true love and what isn't even without any form of magic in the equation. At best, things like love potions or your imprinting- the Pull- can create a strong and severe infatuation with the one who gives it. Using love potions as an example, drinking a dose will make the person feel as if everything was right in the world, as if nothing could go wrong, so long as they are with whom they believe to be their one true love." Gabrielle shook her head. Quil looked horror-struck. There were no other words to describe it.

"But it is not enough. It will never be enough. Infatuation... does not determine true love. It doesn't even last forever. Passion, like all fires, will burn. It will feel like it has consumed you completely from your head to your toes, certainly to your heart, until it feels like it can take no more. But, like all fires, it will always burn out, eventually." She looked grim. "If one doesn't build, grow, work on that relationship..." Gabrielle shook her head. "If it doesn't have steady foundations to begin with in the first place, then it is doomed. Make no mistake. And how can Renesmee be Jacob's one true love? It doesn't even have to be love at first sight, or even imprinting- although having 'the pull' instinct within you certainly helps things along-" the Quileutes all winced. "-but equal amounts of respect and care... ask yourselves, why does Jacob even love Renesmee in the first place? What personal qualities did she have that led him to claim her as his soulmate?"

"The imprinting," Jasper managed, his voice strained.

"That was what happened- it just triggered-" We all remembered that Renesmee was a newborn baby when Jacob had imprinted.

"Well then, what triggered the imprinting in the first place?" Gabrielle insisted. Her eyes pressed us for answers. She suddenly looked toward me. "You mentioned that Jacob was infatuated with you."

My mouth was dry. "Yeah," I managed, barely. My voice sounded- and felt- hoarse and weak.

"Yet for some reason, he did not imprint on you," Gabrielle murmured, slowly. "The question is, was this merely due to your romantic relationship with Edward... or was it something else? It cannot be biological incompatibility. Unless the Quileutes do not successfully produce Loup-Garou offspring with non-Quileute humans..." she trailed off, looking at Sue.

Sue swallowed, pressing her lips together. She still looked embarrassed, but also sickened. "No," she admitted. "Old Quil-" she looked at the anguish-stricken face of Quil. I felt sorry for him, but I was still in shock. "Quil's grandfather... his grandmother is Molly Swan, Charlie's aunt."

I started. I had never known that.

"A relation of theirs?" Gabrielle turned to me and my daughter, asking for confirmation. Sue nodded. "Bella's grandfather's sister."

I started. Apart from Charlie, I'd never known any relatives on my dad's side. Both my grandparents died before I could remember them. So Old Quil was... my grand-uncle? I blinked in shock. I'd never known that. Charlie had never told me. I didn't even know his parents- my grandparents' names.

I barely knew Charlie at all. And he barely knew me. Still, we'd known each other more than I'd known Edward. I swallowed.

So that made Quil, what? My second cousin? My eyes turned towards him. I could see Quil himself come slightly out of his stupour, blinking and staring at me and Nessie, as did the others. Nessie did the same with him, seeing him in a new light.

"So the previous two generations did not phase, much less imprint, although that may be due to the absence of an ancient enemy that easily triggers the gene," Gabrielle murmured. "But otherwise, there is no clear evidence that it has affected anything in any way."

All the Quileutes in the house shook their heads. "No." Sue agreed.

"Then it may have been possible genetically and biologically for Jacob to have imprinted on you," Gabrielle pointed to me "rather than your daughter. In fact, it certainly would have made more sense. If you had known him as a human, and you were still capable of producing offspring then- well, why didn't he? You certainly would have had a better chance of continuing the next generation of Wolves as a human than a Dhampir. And I am correct in assuming that your cousin Emily is fully human?"

Everyone nodded. Gabrielle nodded, grimly. "My thoughts precisely. And they're not related on that side of the family. So it would have made more sense for Jacob to imprint on you. Especially as he was severely infatuated at the time. What of you? What of your feelings towards him?"

I swallowed. This was hard. "I... I thought I was in love with him," I confessed, feeling chagrined. "Briefly. But I knew that I would always choose Edward in the end.

"It might be a case of your differing personalities," Gabrielle suggested. "How well did you and Jacob know one another? How long have you known each other for?" She asked gently.

I sighed, shaking my head to clear myself of the shock. "Um... we first met in 2005. January, I believe."

Sue blinked. "I thought you would've seen each other before then. You used to come for two weeks every summer to spend time with your dad. "

I winced, more in shame than anything. "I didn't remember Jacob very well. I think he was a kid at that time- we barely saw each other. He might've been busy playing with the other kids. I saw Rachel and Rebecca more often, his sisters," I explained to Gabrielle. "We were too shy to be friends with each other, but we were friendly enough. Our dads always pushed us together so they could go fishing or do whatever."

Gabrielle nodded, thoughtful. "You mentioned that you met him in January, after you and Edward had first met and gotten interested in each other. And then after Edward had left... did you ever try to contact or befriend him before you and Edward had broken up?"

Startled, I shook my head. Instantly, I felt ashamed. It sounded like I had been using Jacob as a substitute or a means to fill the void after Edward had left.

"So you weren't interested in even making friends with or getting to know him until after your boyfriend had left. And you certainly had no intention of ever being with him, even casually, when you flirted with him the first time you both met. You were just using him, even then; you admitted as such. And then when Edward had left... you sought Jacob to fill in the void that Edward had left, but... am I correct that you never once ever even seriously considered much less decided about entering into a romantic relationship with Jacob even though you were growing closer?" Gabrielle said slowly.

Shame filled me; even more than before, especially now that Gabrielle was smart enough to connect the dots that I hadn't even when I'd been living in that moment. It made so much sense now: it did sound as if I was using Jacob as a substitute- which, to my horror, I realised I truly had been. Horror, shock and pure and utter shame and guilt spread through my veins; I had been so distraught, so crazed with desperation due to the effects of abandonment and longing after being dumped by Edward, that I had been desperate not to be alone- and for an adrenaline rush so I could hallucinate about him, I remembered with horror and shame in all manner of ways. Because I had been stupid, so stupid and so desperate in fact, that I'd gone crazy just longing to hear or imagine the sound of Edward's voice, or so I imagined, that I took an interest in Jacob's hobby in building motorbikes, just as I went for the joyride with the biker in Port Angeles. Afterwards, when Jacob had shown signs of losing interest in me, after he phased and started hanging out with Sam's pack, I'd been so desperate not to be alone, not to feel alone and abandoned again... that I'd become crazier. I'd pushed back, fought for him, whatever the cost, and refused to let go. Even after Edward had come back. And I'd never liked motorbikes before or since. I'd never even been near one, especially after Edward had come back. I didn't want or need to because I didn't feel the need to hallucinate like a damned lunatic to imagine his voice! And that was precisely why and what I had used to get closer to Jacob: his motorbikes.

At Jacob's cost. My throat felt thick. My eyes stung and blurred as if with tears. I'd costed him his happiness. I'd led him on without ever intending to be with him... I'd fanned the flames of his own infatuation with me, especially by showing I was taking an interest with him and his private hobby, and therefore I must've had some special connection to him, I thought, and he probably thought the same. Even though I really hadn't cared all that much for it. I certainly never touched a motorbike since Edward had returned. Yet I distinctly remembered us holding hands and practically sitting in the same seat when Charlie, Harry, Sue, Seth and Leah came over for dinner at Billy's. I recalled Quil and Embry cheering as I giggled, leaving the garage after promising to see Jacob again... what was that if it wasn't an indication of romantic interests? Strong enough to be something serious?

And after that, after Jacob had told and introduced me to the pack? I'd met Emily. I observed how she cooked and treated the pack as if they were family; brothers, she'd called them. She acted as a mother-figure, a surrogate sister, even.

She'd seemed mature, ready to settle down with Sam, and it looked like it. And it settled in me that Jacob then started to get even more serious in thinking that he may have a future with me... he'd even told me about private things like Sam, Leah and Emily's story, and Quil imprinting on Claire, Emily's two-year-old niece. Even Kim's crush on Jared before he phased and imprinted.

"Bella?" Gabrielle's concerned voice broke through my thoughts. My lips trembled. I felt like I was going to cry.

God, what sort of person was I? How could I not have known what I was doing back then? And I thought myself mature enough to be married?! To have a life-long- no, an eternal commitment?! To be a mother?

I truly was an idiot. A self-absorbed, cowardly idiot and a pushover. I'd known that for some time, but I didn't comprehend just how stupid and weak and callous I'd been until my daughter had been imprinted by a man who'd been infatuated with me. Who, I thought chillingly, believed himself in love with me but by all indication- including his own- he hadn't been. Jacob had merely been infatuated with me. He hadn't truly known me, any more than I knew Edward.

He thought I liked motorbikes, just as he did- only my interest started after the stint in Port Angeles and ended after Edward had returned. I knew neither Edward nor Charlie would agree, and I felt stupid just remembering the time I spent crashing into a tree, getting myself injured in the process, only to go for more: all to have an adrenaline rush that would enable me to hallucinate and envision Edward again. I shook my head. He saw how I cooked, how I was around the house, how I looked after Charlie- and he imagined I was like Emily; I would fit right in with the pack and their imprints.

"Jacob didn't know me very well," my voice was soft, almost whispery even. I felt number by the second, too much in shock and horrified by what I had done and the idea that I may have potentially trapped my daughter into a future and a relationship which may not even have any basis to begin with- let alone end happily. "I didn't know him all that well, either. I knew him less than Edward- and we'd only dated for eleven months, discounting the time he went away, before we got married."

Everyone sat in silence.

Suddenly, Gabrielle spoke. "No." She agreed. "He didn't. And it seemed like you didn't know him very well, either." I winced. "Did Jacob wish to imprint? On you or anyone else?"

It was Leah who answered. "Yeah." She shared uneasy glances with her brother. "Yeah, he... he wasn't in a good state."

Gabrielle frowned, thoughtfully. "Your... relationship with Edward must have impacted upon him greatly. Not to mention your impending transition into not only marriage with him, but vampirism. You had already started to go out and became infatuated with Edward upon his first phasing, and your friendship- and the resulting but brief infatuation you had- with Jacob may have been a substitute or a subconscious means of reliance and filling the void. You simply could not let go of him, even once Edward had returned, due to your feelings of guilt at the thought of hurting someone who had been there for you when Edward had abandoned you."

I winced. "You had no intention even when Edward was gone of ever entering a romantic relationship with him." I winced deeper. It felt like a whip's lash. "Then, when Edward returned you had already made up your mind to become a vampire and to be with him forever. At no point in time, even during your brief infatuation with Jacob, were you ever ready for and willing to start a relationship with him, am I correct?"

My answering flinch told her all that she needed to know. "So it wouldn't have been possible and the gene sensed it," Gabrielle murmured. "And if he was so angry and upset about it- even more so about you choosing Edward over him- he naturally wouldn't have been happy that you were not only choosing to be with Edward, but to become a vampire. Until he imprinted upon your daughter, I suspect that he had no plans to even make contact with you after your transformation, and that you were finally willing to let him go, seeing this was for his own good." I winced again.

"I take it that Jacob did not take to your transition into a vampire very well?"

Seth shuddered. "Yeah, you didn't see him then," he muttered. "You can't imagine... when he heard that Bella had returned from her honeymoon and that she had some tropical disease, he immediately assumed that it was a cover-up for her transforming into a vampire. He wanted to attack." His eyes met mine. I jolted in shock. As if I hadn't had any more shocks recently. "He tried to persuade us, goaded us into trying to attack." Beside him, Embry nodded mutely, his eyes on mine. I could see it was nothing short of the truth.

"Sam disagreed; he told us to wait to see if any of the Cullens had actually broken the treaty. I supported him," he took a deep breath. Now his eyes met mine. "In fact, I told Jacob that he wasn't ready for this- to kill you. Jacob said, 'she wouldn't be Bella anymore.'" I flinched, feeling as I'd been struck- in a different manner. "He wanted us to attack- revenge for you transforming- and your choices." My jaw dropped, so did everybody else, except for Leah. Her dark eyes were solemn. Gabrielle remained composed, absorbing this new information.

"I told him he wasn't ready and that when the time came, I knew he couldn't bring himself to kill you, no matter what he said, no matter what he tried to convince himself- and any of us. Instead, what was he going to do? Get one of the rest of us to do it for him, and then hold a grudge against the other person for the rest of his life?" Seth shook his head.

"Jacob tried to convince me otherwise, but he hesitated. I could see that he didn't believe it, anymore than we did. He knew he couldn't do it. So I told him he wasn't ready for that sort of thing, for the consequences of what he wanted to do, and he tried to attack me." Sue and I gasped. "But Sam stopped him."

"And afterwards..." Gabrielle trailed.

"Afterwards, he went here and found out that Bella was pregnant with Nessie," it was Embry who spoke up "he ran over and showed us the truth, and Sam panicked. We feared it would be a repeat of the newborn army that came in June." He flinched. "So on Sam's orders, we got ready to attack." Nessie's face was emotionless, but I knew she felt betrayed; I could see it in her eyes. Her face paled. All the blood drained from her cheeks. She started to shake.

I gathered her into my arms. I pulled her closer. Everyone shot her worried glances, with the exception of Gabrielle who not only looked concerned, but... thoughtful. The rest of us knew: Jacob had wanted her dead. And so did Edward. Her two greatest protectors, the men she once trusted above all others, since she was born. I saw her breath quicken and began to quake. I pressed her firmly to my side, swallowing as I did. Esme and Rosalie immediately came closer to her. The Cullens all flocked towards her. Leah, Seth, Embry and even a pale and shaking Quil, shot her looks of concern and pity- and shame.

"But Jacob broke away and decided to go all lone wolf on his own," Seth admitted. "Only I followed him, with Leah soon after. Embry was kept on close watch and Quil..." he hesitantly glanced at Quil who also winced. "Had someone he needed to stay behind for; he couldn't leave at that stage. Jacob and I warned the Cullens, kept a guard to prevent Sam and the others from coming. Jacob admitted to himself that he was worried that should Bella be killed, or transform into a vampire, he wouldn't listen to anyone: he would go crazy and kill every Cullen even though he knew they weren't to blame. At least not all of them," Seth amended.

"I told him I would remind him, but he said he knew that I would; the question was whether he would listen," Seth admitted. "Whether he would even want to listen. Because... Jacob wasn't in his right state of mind, we both saw it then. Even he admitted it."

Gabrielle nodded. "Mental health issues aren't the peak of what is true madness," she stated slowly "but it can still be dangerous. Was he ever at risk of self-harm?"

"Not during the pregnancy," I found myself arguing. Everyone turned towards me. "During the battle with the newborns, I tried to keep him with me, away from the battle. But then Edward made certain that he 'accidentally' found out about our engagement." My voice coloured with anger. I could see Nessie and the others, except Gabrielle, staring; anger was not something they'd usually associate with me when speaking about Edward. I still felt furious about that- or rather, furious about the fact that Edward emotionally manipulated me to not even feel upset about it.

Or perhaps upset at him. Because I knew it had been intentional. And he had gone too far.

I took a deep breath. "Jacob... when Jacob heard he threatened to go to rush into the battle and do something drastic. I was afraid that he would hurt himself. I was terrified; so Jake..." I swallowed, hard. I couldn't meet my daughter's eyes. "He threatened to go into battle if I didn't..."

Seth's eyes widened, remembering. "You kissed him," he said softly. "I remember."

I swallowed again and looked down. My eyes stung. Shame filled every cell in my body. I didn't look at Renesmee- I couldn't.

I took another deep breath. "Afterwards he... he taunted me and said, 'C'mon, you can do better than that, Bells.'" I flinched violently.

"So you kissed him again." Gabrielle murmured. "Both times you kissed him he blackmailed you into kissing him?"

My eyes shot up. Everyone turned, horrified at what Gabrielle had just said. Blackmailed? He didn't... Jacob... he couldn't have... right?

But in our hearts, we knew there was no other way to describe this.

"Had Jacob ever kissed you before or after this incident?" Gabrielle said, voice gentle.

I nodded, mutely. Then I gathered what little courage I had along with the remainder of my voice. "Yeah... when he... before that he kissed me even though I didn't want him to. He held me in place and kissed me, even though I tried to protest." I heard Sue's breath hitch in sharply. "He held me down and I couldn't move- he was much stronger than me, as a human. When he finished, I... tried to punch him." I chuckled weakly. I still couldn't meet anyone's eyes. "It didn't work. My hand broke, as a matter of fact; there was a fissure in my right knuckle."

Carlisle nodded when Gabrielle turned towards him to confirm this story.

Gabrielle sighed. "Bella..." her voice was quiet but clear. "That wasn't your fault."

My eyes shot up to her in disbelief. I could feel Renesmee freeze at this new information. "Both times, in fact." Gabrielle pointed. "The first time he forced a kiss on you- I am not an expert on non-magical law, including that of the United States', but I am fairly certain that what Jacob did then was illegal. In fact, it can be even considered assault."

As I gaped, Sue spoke: "It's true."

"And after that, the second and third times... you may have kissed him of your own volition but regardless of that, and of your feelings... I can honestly say that he emotionally blackmailed you," Gabrielle continued. "He knew you would be frightened- he knew that you were afraid for his safety. For his very life, that's why you tried to keep him away from the battle, for as long as possible." I gasped as I realised.

"He played with you. He used your guilt in putting things off so he wouldn't get hurt or feel like he was being played... he played with your fears of abandonment, after you started to develop issues after Edward left you, and he used your guilt because you didn't want to hurt him or break his heart, or even to lose him as a friend. But was that really friendship?" Gabrielle asked softly. "For either of you?"

I couldn't speak. "And lastly he played with your fears by threatening self-harm using the invading army," Gabrielle said sadly. She shook her head. "He used your panic, your desperation, in order to get another kiss- two more, as a matter of fact- threatening to do something in order to either get himself killed or injured. Something which could deal permanent and irreparable harm to your own psyche and your conscience afterwards. If Jacob had been killed then, would you ever forgive yourself? Would this have affected you for the rest of your life as a human or a vampire?"

Slowly, my eyes wide, I nodded. I bit my lip.

"And he knew this," Gabrielle warned "so he did it. He used and played with your feelings. And I suspect that you already know this, judging by the look on your face."

I winced. She was right; I had been angry at Jacob, looking back. I had just been so riddled with guilt at the time, that I didn't even think about it. In fact, I may still feel guilty.

Gabrielle sighed. "I cannot deny that what you did was wrong, leading him on in a fruitless chase, getting his hopes up only to have them dashed," she said, making me wince. "But I also cannot deny that what Jacob did was even worse." I turned shocked eyes towards her.

"Because you... at least this was no assault on your part. And judging by your guilt and shame, and the look on your face, you did not lead Jacob on intentionally... but he intentionally played with your head and your feelings. He used your feelings of turmoil and guilt to try and get you to stay with him and abandon your plans of immortality with Edward. This was intentional and he committed outright physical assault."

I bit my lip. I was half-expecting my vampire teeth to break through my skin and draw blood.

"Jacob didn't mean-" Gabrielle shook her head, cutting off Embry's defence. "It doesn't matter what Jacob had intended. He intended to kiss her, for one, and he actively and intentionally held her down, forcing her to stay in place and unable to fight him off or flee from his unwanted and invasive touch." Everyone except Gabrielle and Sue gasped. "That is assault. And that should have and could have gotten him arrested in the non-magical world alone.

"Even though he knew she already had a boyfriend at the time. It doesn't even matter whether or not he disapproved of her then-boyfriend, kissing someone who already doesn't even want to be kissed in the first place- of her own free will no less- and forcing them to stay in place by holding them down, unable to escape... to do that, especially to someone considered a friend is the height of disrespect and disregard for one's feelings and personal rights."

No one was able to speak. "If he cared for you, Bella, genuinely cared for and respected you he would never have forced himself onto you." Gabrielle stated flatly. My jaw dropped as I heard the phrase Gabrielle used. I wasn't the only one. Embry and Seth were gaping, Leah was pale and Quil, his face still pinched and pale, took a step backwards. The Cullens all stared, aghast in disbelief. Sue sighed and covered her face with her hands. Out of everyone present, only Sue seemed to be expecting this.

"He should never have touched you in any way against your will and without your consent." Gabrielle insisted. As everyone, with the exception of Sue, reeled.

"If that is not assault... look it up." Gabrielle shook her head. "Read online or ask a police officer or a lawyer."

"It's true," Sue spoke. "Even Charlie admits it. He regrets that he didn't arrest Jacob at the time- even more now than even after he came back to his senses and realised he just congratulated your assaulter. He was so blinded by his hatred of Edward he didn't think anyone could be worse than him. But Charlie admitted that if he had been out patrolling and he saw someone else force a kiss like that on the streets- it doesn't even matter if it was Jacob or Bella- he would arrest the person who'd forced a kiss. Class A felony, he called it. He's ashamed and completely full of regret that he even congratulated and cheered Jacob on. That's why he's banned Jacob from his house."

Everyone stared. I couldn't believe it. Charlie... Charlie had banned Jacob from his house?

"He wasn't easy with Jacob's interest- or obsession with Renesmee," Sue explained, seeing the look on my face. "And he remembers what happened with you both... he doesn't know about the imprint, but he strongly suspected that Jake may have... an unhealthy obsession with Renesmee. That he may be grooming him to be your replacement... or substitute. Especially having had a quick turnaround in regards to his own feelings about you being with Edward, and this is the daughter you had together, who was still very young." Sue winced.

"Like Emily with Leah to Sam?" I breathed. My head snapped back to Gabrielle. "Is that what you're trying to tell us?"

"Jacob was not in love with you," Gabrielle stated flatly. "Not truly. If he truly loved you, he would have respected and cared for you. He wouldn't have deliberately played with your inner turmoils and used your guilt like that." I flinched. It was as if she was referencing both... no, I couldn't think about that.

I didn't want to. I wasn't that strong. Not yet.

"And you were not truly in love with him," Gabrielle continued, grimly. "Neither of you were. At best, what you felt was an infatuation, a desperate passion." I felt like I'd been slapped, "because he helped, or tried to fill the hole in your life when Edward abruptly abandoned you in a traumatic and harsh manner." I grimaced.

"Were you physically attracted to Jacob?" I swallowed, then nodded, mutely. "But you did not even think to initiate contact, even after you flirted, and after your boyfriend left. You had zero intentions of ever being with him- at any point in time." I winced. "Or even just to be his friend until after Edward was out of the picture- you wouldn't have thought about him otherwise." More wincing. "You were desperate and feared to go through abandonment again. You craved emotional connection after Edward not only broke your heart, but emotionally and psychologically manipulated you into thinking that he no longer wished to be with you, and that your relationship together did him more harm than good."

I winced. She hit it right on the bull's eye.

"So you reacted because you were emotionally and psychologically damaged. Your breakup- in the woods, no less- was traumatic. And that, in large part, I believe, was the reason that your reaction was so extreme, not merely heartbreak. You didn't merely search for a new partner after your breakup- you wanted a distraction. And more than anything you wanted Edward- specifically- back. There was no room for Jacob in your life, not in the way he wanted or the one you even thought he could be: a true friend." I flinched.

"And since Edward gas-lit you, you became increasingly dependent upon his validation to build you up, and increasingly desperate after he shot you down or gave any indication that he did not wish to be with you, even if it was simply due to not wishing to turn you into a vampire and lose your human life." Gabrielle explained "that's why you sought Jacob and clung to him, fearing that he would leave you too: you didn't think you were good enough for anybody to love. That's why you also became dependent: first upon Edward, and then once he had left- in such a harsh, abrupt and traumatic manner-" the adult Cullens all looked anguished "-you subconsciously sought out Jacob- and you feared losing him the same way, being abruptly abandoned by him, hence your determination and your upset about him keeping secrets and spending time with Sam's 'gang' or 'cult' without you. And you became just as dependent upon Jacob as you had with Edward."

I wanted to shrink, to disappear into nothing. I felt so ashamed, so guilty and so embarrassed. She summed up my feelings and my way of thinking in ways that even I couldn't- or maybe that was because I didn't want to. I finally had come face to face with the reasons as to why I became so desperate, so selfish. Why I was such a big coward. And that I was; there was no escaping or denying it.

"You already had a poor self-esteem and sense of self-confidence before you met either of them," Gabrielle murmured. "Being around the two of them- especially as a regular human, as clumsy as you had proclaimed yourself to be and also physically aging no less-" my wince deepened "-would have exacerbated your own feelings of inferiority and your need to have the two of them approve and look highly upon you- at the price of being increasingly desperate not to lose either of them in any way, nor even to earn their mere disapproval. You feared losing them; so much so that you didn't want to upset them, even slightly. You had become increasingly dependent on both Edward and Jacob, and you continued to be as time went by. Even though you fully intended to choose Edward, even at the risk of hurting Jacob, you never told him-" I flinched again "-because you feared hurting or even disappointing him, as you had become, not only attached, but dependent upon him. Even after he kissed you forcibly and you tried to retaliate, you could never remain angry with him, because you didn't want to lose or even hurt him." I shrunk down towards my seat.

"What Edward said to you when he took you to the middle of the woods..." Gabrielle shook her head. "I don't know his exact words, but my guess is that it destroyed the already-fragile remnants of your self-esteem."

I flinched. "He was so desperate for you to not remain attached to him that he didn't try to speak to you- as someone else I knew did." Gabrielle shook her head. "Did you know that during the Second Wizarding War, a certain someone who ended up being the highest on the enemy's list of targets, had a girlfriend? After the war ended and Voldemort was defeated, he married her. But when the war was about to reach its peak, he broke up with her. But unlike Edward, he and his girlfriend actually sat down and discussed his reasons and his plans- without going into detail as that would've put her at risk- with one another. He didn't simply wish to hurt her- even at the risk of her following him. He wished to discuss his reasons first and why they should stop seeing each other, at least for the time being. And she would accept it on his terms, because, as much as she didn't care about the risk to herself, she cared about him and his overall well-being that she didn't want him to get distracted about his own survival as he was so high on the enemy's target list." Esme and Emmett looked alarmed. Jasper was grim. Alice turned away.

"Because until every single one of their enemies were destroyed or brought to justice, there was no safe place, not for him, and not for anyone he cared about. Already in the past, Voldemort had used the people he loved and cared for to lure him into traps. He had even used the girl herself, although she wasn't his girlfriend back then, but his friend's sister. Imagine if Voldemort had known that they were now romantically involved: he would've stopped at nothing and certainly would've thought nothing about capturing and using her as bait again. And it wasn't just about her safety or his fears for her and her family; she didn't want him to be trapped, much less for herself to be used against him."

Everyone shuddered. I felt like I'd been stabbed. Gabrielle pursed her lips. "So you see, what Edward did wasn't just completely unnecessary; it was amoral. It doesn't matter if he had a good reason: the road to hell is paved with good intentions, have any of you ever heard that saying?" Emmett, Embry and Seth grimaced, nodding. "And he left you in the woods no less, which was already a risk to begin with not only to your mental and emotional health, even if he didn't know exactly what would happen afterwards, but your actual physical safety. If you had caught hypothermia or died of exposure in those woods, it wouldn't have mattered if Edward only ever had the best of intentions in keeping you safe from his world. And someone with as much experience in years as him should have known that, especially since his father is a doctor and he spent a lot of time in high school and college." Unfortunately, no one could disagree.

"I'm certain that Jacob also didn't mean to psychologically and emotionally damage you any more than Edward did. But look at what happened." She shook her head. "You are in an emotional and psychological mess. I won't say that you didn't play your part in this, but unlike theirs- including Jacob's forced kiss which was assault and Edward's actions which were also criminal- your mistakes were that of a teenage girl. None of them are criminal actions which could see you in jail, including in the non-magical world. But Jacob's and Edward's actions could have seen either of them in prison- and it has, as a matter of fact, for Edward at least. All the things, the stalking and trespassing included, has been added to the list of charges against him." Gabrielle reminded us grimly.

Gabrielle looked grim. "You have all indicated that Jacob's was not a healthy mind before and during the imprint. Do you truly believe that having another shot at a future romance would instantly heal him completely?"

Now that she said it, it certainly made me feel more like an idiot than I already was. I could see everyone else thinking the same thing.

"Quite a turnaround, if that's the case, even for beings of magic. Or would things become worse?" Gabrielle questioned. "Your father has banned Jacob from his house whenever Renesmee comes along." She looked straight at me. "It's obvious that- despite not knowing what is truly happening between them- he fears a repeat of what Jacob did to you with Renesmee. He regrets not being harder on Jacob for your sake and protection, but he could at least protect your daughter, his granddaughter."

I reeled back. It felt like a slap to the face. I could tell the Wolves all felt the same way. Charlie felt so badly that he had failed to protect me that he was desperately trying to protect Renesmee. He had told me that he felt like a failure as a father. Like Gran, he was determined not to fail with his granddaughter.

I looked down. My eyes stung and blurred. I couldn't believe it.

It felt like a slap in the face.

"That's not all," Seth whispered. He sounded reluctant.

Everyone's heads snapped to his direction.

Seth took a few deep breaths. His eyes closed. His hands were shaking, trembling.

"Seth," Leah looked and sounded concerned. "What is it?"

"What happened?" Sue whispered, eyes worried.

Seth took a deep breath. He looked at the others.

"I saw... in Jacob's mind... he tried to hide it, but I saw the moment he imprinted," the words came rushing out of his mouth.

Gabrielle looked at him in understanding. "You don't wish to betray your Alpha by spilling his secrets. I understand," she said, nodding. "But if this potentially puts Renesmee in harm's way- emotional and psychological harm as well as physical harm- the way Jacob did when he forced that kiss on Bella- then we have to know. For her sake- her safety."

Seth winced.

"Yeah, Seth." Quil surprised us with his words. His shoulders slumped, and he shook. "Tell them. They need to know." He whispered. Quil closed his eyes. Embry threw him a worried look.

"Seth," his mother spoke. Her voice was soft, her face was gentle. "Just be honest with us. It'll do less harm if you do."

Seth took a deep breath. He seemed to steel himself. His shoulders squared and I could see the guilt on his face, but not regret. He would not regret telling me.

"When Renesmee was born and Edward injected you with his venom... there was a moment when your heart seemed to stop," Seth explained, looking at me. "He thought you were dead. That all hope was lost. So he wondered downstairs, came across Rosalie holding the baby." I heard Rosalie's breath hitch- as did Esme's.

Seth flinched. He took another deep breath. "Go on, Seth," Leah said quietly, eyes full of sorrow as she looked at her little brother. I felt a moment of regret and pity for him: Seth was carrying a heavy burden and he was forced to betray his Alpha- to spill his secret and do what Jacob would not want him to do- for Nessie's sake. For her safety and her happiness. For her future.

It was more than what I ever did. In that moment, I determined that I would always be grateful towards Seth. I remembered how when I met him for the first time at Billy's house, Seth seemed to hang on Jacob's every word. He worshipped him.

And he had chosen to do the right thing. Just as he did when he stood up to Jacob when the latter wanted to attack. And again, this time to Sam when he wanted to attack.

"Jacob saw Rosalie holding the baby and... his mind had gone... he tried to keep it from me, but he panics sometimes." Seth admitted. "He fears losing Renesmee... he's afraid of what you, Edward and Charlie would do if you guys ever find out the truth. He's terrified that you would take her away and never let him see her again."

"What?" I whispered through lips, cold even for a vampire. "Seth... what did Jacob do?"

Seth looked sick, with guilt and shame, for both Jacob and... us. "It wasn't what Jacob did, but what he was about to do."

I couldn't breathe.

Seth swallowed. "Jacob was going to kill Renesmee. He was about to pounce when Rosalie held her into the air, and he looked into her eyes. He saw it was yours- she had your eyes."

---

It's official canon: Quil's grandmother, Old Quil's wife, is named Molly Swan, and considering that it's an uncommon surname (no matter how popular for main characters in film and TV), I assume that this is because she and Charlie were related. So this would have made Quil and Bella cousins, to some degree.

Since the vampires of the Underworld franchise exist in this fic, and there have been hybrids (and a tri-blood hybrid) in their canon, Chapter 21 explains how and why that was still possible yet why Gabrielle's claims about vampire-human hybrids being unable to have children with any kind of werewolf is also true.

Sue's maiden name is Uley, according to Stephenie Meyer, or at least a source approved by her. I don't know how closely Sue and her children are related to Sam, but Sam and Leah are related. And, as Bella herself realised in Eclipse, every Wolf in both packs are all descended from Taha Aki, the one common ancestor, and this also includes both Sue and Harry's families, Leah's parents. While Emily may be related to Martha Young, Ephraim Black's wife and Billy's grandmother, it's not certain if Emily and Sam themselves are directly related. So it might be risking things if Sam and Leah got together while their species needed to evolve and expand the gene pool- they needed more variety for evolution. And they are evolving; Sam and Jacob's generation are bigger than Ephraim's, and there are more Wolves phasing and imprints happening. It can't just be the presence of vampires because Taha Aki and his older sons, from the first two wives and the eldest son of the third, had phased before they encountered the Cold Man and the Cold Woman and established vampires as their natural enemies. And Leah phasing likely means not that she has an overdose of testosterone, a disorder, or even that she's intersex- she's just the first female to phase, and as she first phased off-screen/off-page in New Moon, which took place in 2006, same as Eclipse and the vast majority of Breaking Dawn, then she would have been in her first year as a werewolf, and still too young to biologically reproduce (see the chapter after the next for details).

The Quileute Wolves are running well down the road of evolution, and even Sam believed, according to Jacob and Leah when they discussed things in Breaking Dawn, that the reason Wolves imprint is to procreate an even-better generation of future Wolves than they had previously. The Elders believed it too- that's why their generation was so huge compared to their grandfathers' and why Sam never imagined he'd imprint, according to Jacob in Eclipse: because in the past few Wolves ever did: yet now, Sam, Jared, Paul, Quil and now Jacob all have; that's up to five and counting in their current generation. Their numbers have also swelled, and it can't merely be because of the presence of vampires, though it's an easy trigger as the magic within their DNA recognises them as ancient enemies. Taha Aki and his older sons first phased before the Cold Man and the Cold Woman arrived near them. So while their double biological relation, via both Sue and Taha Aki, would have been too much for Leah and Sam to have healthy offspring together, and Leah has not been happy to be anywhere near the other Wolves who know all her private, personal details (and pass it on to total strangers like Jacob did with Bella- who was not his imprint nor even part of the tribe). So it makes sense that neither she nor any of the other Wolves have ever imprinted on each other. She doesn't like being with them; in Breaking Dawn she seized the excuse and defected just to get away from Sam and his pack (even though she still had Jacob and the Cullens to tolerate, it was better than hanging around Sam and Emily).