THERE IS A LEVEL OF TRUST AND SECRECY BETWEEN THE QUILEUTE'S that was hard for me to understand. The first two people to arrive upon our dismal trek back toward town were Quil and Leah.

I know, shocking right? Try being there in that moment... awkward...

As Jacob was running through the vast woods, the pair of them spotted our movements and met us halfway in the break between the forest and the meandering dirt road that surrounded it. Although it didn't take them very long to notice that something was wrong with me, the mystifying irony of the whole situation had not escaped me as I grunted loudly to myself while they inched themselves closer to us.

"What happened?" Quil asked, reaching toward the tattered t-shirt upon my neck. As he began peeling it backwards to unveil the extent of my profoundly saturated wound, the pair of them gagged at the sight of it. My injury must have been more awful than I had imagined. A part of me wanted to take a look for myself, but I willed my eyes to focus elsewhere. I was still too terrified to fully comprehend the extent of the damage.

"Nothing happened," Jacob shadily replied,shoveling the bloodied up material back to its place along my neckline and then sustained his position of watchfully staring down at me as if I was his prized possession that no one else could touch.

Unlike our friends that were just now discovering his suspicious actions, I understood that Jake was still visibly in a world of distress with the prospect of my gash within his reach and that any mention of it made him recoil further into a place of denial. But they were clearly dumbfounded by his rebelling retort seeing as though I was bleeding profusely and unable to walk on my own two feet.

"Dude, that doesn't look like nothing." Quil shouted back in panic. "Did one of the vamps finally get to her?"

"If they did this, there'll be hell to pay!" Leah started grinding her teeth as she attempted to whiff out the scent of a wintry bloodsucker upon the cloth to no avail.

I tossed my head backwards trying to drown out the sound of their conversation and Leah's meddling nose that was still dancing around my body in search of a significant odor separate from ours. Allowing the loose pieces of raindrops to caress my forehead from a forthcoming storm, approaching at the cusp of the woods in the greater Puget Sound, I imagined that the tiny light gloss of drops were the feeling of Edward's wet lips upon my skin which helped comfort me through the aching pain as it started to emit itself like the dull edge of a sharp blade within the gruesome hole in my flesh. I tried to remain as calm as I could, but then I forcibly let out a blood curdling scream as the fabric shifted again, and the blood started to spill out more intensely along my neck.

"Are we just going to stand here and talk about it? Or are you guys going to help me?" Jacob squeezed my body even tighter against his own as Leah reached out to hold my hand to reassure me that everything was going to be okay.

I didn't want to doubt her optimism, but the amount of blood that I had recently lost was a palpable reminder that I was now walking the fine lines between life and death. And the latter was becoming even more apparent as my predetermined fate while I continued to writhe in pain in Jacob's solid, muscular arms.

Today had started out to be a seemingly normal day. The sun was shining its lustrous rays through the image of silken clouds.

But were there any hidden indicators from mother earth that could have steered me far away from this situation? And if there were, would I have even stopped to listen and obey her words?

My instincts told me straight away that something was wrong with Jacob as we spoke in seclusion just moments before. I was frustrated that my dying thoughts had somehow shifted from the splendor and loveliness of my darling Edward's face, to the overbearing feelings of guilt that now occupied my mind at the thought of Jake.

The steps that I had taken today by answering the telephone, agreeing to meet up without full details about our forthcoming encounter, were all these things somehow foreshadowing my ability to allow myself to be victimized in such a ghastly way by someone that I had called my friend?

I started wailing even louder at the thought which caused my rescuer's to quickly react and scamper toward safety.

****

While I continued to scream, they hurriedly called out for help as our small group stumbled through the wet dark. It started to pour even more heavily, causing me to seize from the imminent cold beads of precipitation upon my skin while the wild sobs bellowed out of my mouth like a loud siren, draining me of any remaining energy.

I'm not sure how much further our voyage was before I was eventually whisked into someone's home that I had never been to prior to this terrifying incident.

Thankfully, Jacob's father was within earshot, talking with a fellow neighbor on Sue Clearwater's porch when he noticed our small gang running into the worried man's house. And he made a beeline in our direction.

The strange shelter immediately warmed me, as there was a fire roaring to life in the room as we entered. And for the first time, I didn't care about my appearance or the fact that I was an uninvited guest. All I cared about was surviving and seeing my beautiful Edward once more.

While Billy cautiously wheeled himself through the open entrance, Leah looked at me asking who had bit me forcibly and left me in such a terrible state of shock. I continued to seethe in pain while I was placed on the width of a large wooden table; and they started scrounging around the dwelling for some warm water, gauze and clean utensils, like I was a patient they were readying for a quick operation. I coughed up blood trying to say the name Jacob in response to Leah's inquiry, only to find my damaged wolf counterpart peering over me, asking me to not say a word.

"I didn't see him..." I hurriedly stammered the words as another wall of blood started to trickle out from the garishly large wound at the edge of my throat. Even as I said these things, I could tell that both Quil and Billy Black had their suspicions as Quil stared over at Jake with a look full of accusation and mistrust.

"Jacob, how about you take a break for awhile?" Billy inched his way forward. Grabbing hold of his son's forearm, he attempted to lead Jacob in the opposite direction of the table. I hadn't spent much time in his presence, but I knew that Billy Black was a rational man with great instincts, and I was relieved to know that he was around as a defender against my current plight.

"But, she needs me." Jacob replied, leaning toward me and returning to his original position without a second thought. I stirred with his approaching movements as if I was terrified by his advances.The room grew quiet when I started to scream out in panic again. My screaming was like a strange glitch, an unwelcome entity that had somehow attached itself to me following my present trauma. The ghost was still wailing through my inflexible form while my hands gripped my throat and I gasped for air.

"Jacob, you've done your part. How about you go wash yourself up and we'll take it from here." I could tell that Billy was getting irritated by the lack of help I'd received thus far. Gauging my response again as I slowly regained a normal rhythm of breathing; Leah pressed a large cloth onto my wound trying to rid me of any potential infections.

"We all know that you're a tough chick, Bella.But, this stuff right here is probably going to hurt like hell." Crap, just what I needed...more pain. "However,you have a lot of puss starting to seep out around the sides of your wound so it's necessary that I put it on you as soon as possible." I churned away from her as she was talking, not wanting her to touch me. "We really need to clean it as best we can." She warned me before dowsing the cloth in an aromatic ointment that felt immediately felt like a wall of hot flames as she pressed it upon my fragile skin. I yelped even more intensely with the addition of its fragrant membrane against my flesh prior to pouring over in a vomiting spectacle of twitching limbs and sunken in eyes. I felt like I was knocking on death's door. The pain was excruciating.

****

The proof of the brutal violence that I had endured was evident through the collapsed elements of tissue and bone fragments that were protruding through my skin. The fractured pieces snapped and crackled loudly while they all cautioned me to contort my head from left to right so they could get a better depiction of the damage, still plainly unaware of how they should approach fixing my injury.

While they watched my expression, I grimaced at the sound. And my eyes started watering again. Not so much so from the pain that I was experiencing but I was growing to become increasingly more irritated with the feelings of being useless and overwhelmed by the state of my worn-out body.

"Please, try to relax." The weary elder without a name, the owner of this makeshift hospital cautioned me as I started to tremble upon the firm table in which I was laying. His glassy eyes were speckled with age spots and fine lines. But within the tight seams throughout his old face, a majestically youthful boy was staring back at me. And I felt peace in his existence.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't even get your name." I whispered in his direction feeling a bit embarrassed by the remnants of my unsettled stomach that I had just released on his perfectly polished dining room floor. Was this an angel in my midst? I was so anemic that I allowed myself to believe this because it comforted me in a way that the other encompassing bodies were unable to.

"My name is Sterling, dear. But all of my Quileute brothers and sisters call me Gray because of my noticeably gray hairs." He raised his cane to tap himself softly on his head before he playfully winked at me. And I felt further calmed by his dry humor and warm reaction.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Gray. I'm sorry that it couldn't have been under different circumstances."

He smiled back at me in response before gently pinching my cheek. The subtle action of his fingers against my skin reminded me of when I was a little girl and how my Grandfather used to pinch my cheeks when he'd say hello. My Grandfather wasn't much of a talker, but his actions spoke louder than words. And I knew that he loved me just the same without muttering it to me during passing. I felt the desire to tell him this, but before I could reply, Gray hobbled out of the way to allow the others to intermingle with me and my waning body.

"Yes Bella, please be still." Billy wheeled himself in my direction as I was swept away from my place of comfort and continued to convulse against the thick wood.

"I'm sorry Billy, but I can't control it." I bit my lip as my body sustained its eerie rumble and a strange humming sound reverberated within the table as it started to swivel a few inches from the force.

My eyebrows tightened as I fought the urge to fight and dismount from the cold timber slab. It was difficult to embrace the torment as I was greeted by a new state of panic. I now fought the urge to breathe and swallow the wall of saliva that was enveloping itself around my hot tongue and I tasted the intense flavor of copper in my mouth.

As Billy continued to talk to me, frighteningly my whole throat filled up with blood, sending a wave of warm liquid into my chest cavity and I began choking and gasping for air.

****

I think that I stopped breathing for awhile...

Because when I came to there was a solid bruise in the middle of my chest. I couldn't tell if it was from urgent hands trying to revive me, but it felt like someone had taken a mallet to my heart while I was resting.

I felt as though I was from another planet, neither from heaven nor from earth. I just simply existed in the silence, fighting to survive as my body materialized into something frightening and feral.

My skin was no longer as pallid as it had once been; my all-encompassing flesh was now embellished with a soft glow and enclosed with firm skin.

The rigid and hollow hole that had previously been enshrined with dying flesh and cracked bones within my neck was now rejuvenated and healing at a rate beyond all rationality. As the pieces cinched themselves closer together I could breathe more easily; the vivid gurgle turning into a soft buzz, later on turning into an effortless breathing pattern. And the deep bruise disappeared from my chest like it had never graced my torso.

I softly coughed as my eyes sprung further open and I could make out lines and silhouettes that I couldn't see before. The whites were even more vibrant against my striking russet irises as I continued to gaze at my surroundings.

"Hello?" I whispered, uncertain if I was alone in this peculiar place. As I ascended upon the table I heard the sleek bones within my back creak, causing a perfect arch and straight spinal column which stabilized my movements as I continued to look around. "Hello?" I called out again as my hair tickled my shoulder and I noticed that it was growing. The places where there had once been split ends and careless snarls were surprisingly morphed into sleek and shiny tresses; I immediately ran to the closest mirror to marvel at my changing appearance.

I never thought that I was attractive by all means before this moment, but as I gazed into that full-length mirror all I could think about was how sexy and outstandingly beautiful I was.

If only Edward could see me now...

I thought those words to myself until I was startled by an unexpected scream approaching from the doorway.

"What's wrong Leah?" Jacob hollered as I met eyes with Leah Clearwater.

"It's Bella, and you won't believe it...But she's alive!"

It seemed as though they were all off mourning my passing outside as they all entered in the room one by one with tear-stained cheeks and a look of shock upon their faces.

"I don't know what happened...but I feel amazing."I said to the encompassing faces that were now joining me in marveling at my change in appearance.

"Dad, have you ever seen anything like this before?" Jacob whispered into his father Billy's ear while Leah and I played with my effervescent locks in the near distance.

"I've heard of something happening like this before in Quileute legends, but I didn't believe it to be true..." Billy gaped at me from his wheelchair; it was like he'd seen a ghost.

"Pop, what's going on?" Jake grew eager for his father's waning response as he too stared at me dumbfounded and a little on edge.

"A werewolf, Jacob..." Billy whispered again as he started wheeling himself closer to me and the others. Breathing in my new mutt scent, "I think that somehow, Bella's become a werewolf."